New insights on consciousness and self-reflection via temporal feedback.

This is a companion article to:

Many of the terms used here that may be unfamiliar are explained in the “Superluminal” series of articles listed above ↑. Some concepts presented in this article may be dismissed by theorists. I pay as little attention to these scientists as they pay to me, because my focus is on experimental and experiential results, rather than theoretical debates. Trying to debate evanescent waves with a neurologist is like trying to discuss fine art with a goldfish—everyone’s swimming in different waters!

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The WETCOW theory (Weakly-EvanescenT COrtical Waves) proposes a novel link between superluminal evanescent waves—quantum phenomena observed in experiments like the Nimtz Effect—and the emergence of self-reflection, qualia, and consciousness. Here’s a distilled overview of its conceptual pillars:

1. Superluminal Evanescent Waves & the Nimtz Effect:
   • These waves, studied in quantum tunneling experiments (e.g., the Bose double-prism setup), exhibit apparent faster-than-light propagation. While classical information is superluminally transmitted!, evanescent modes also enable energy transfer across barriers, with phase velocities exceeding c.
   • The “Nimtz Effect” suggests such waves could create transient, nonlocal correlations in spacetime, theorized here as a “backchannel to the past.” Each reflection or tunneling event might retroject a fractional signal, enabling systems to “look back” temporally.
2. Consciousness as a Temporal Mirror:
   • Self-reflection—a hallmark of consciousness—is framed as a process where the brain leverages superluminal evanescent modes to create a feedback loop. The “leading edge of consciousness” is proposed to reside in an evanescent wavefront, allowing qualia (subjective experience) to arise not from the past but as a prospective phenomenon.
   • This challenges classical models where consciousness lags behind neural activity. Instead, qualia might emerge at the boundary of future possibilities, with evanescent waves enabling retrocausal self-interrogation (“Why did I choose this?”).
3. Neurobiological Correlates:
   • Cortical waves (“COWs” in the acronym) or brainwaves could host such effects. Structures like the eyes (metaphorized as “mirrors to the soul”) or layered neural tissues might act as waveguides, amplifying evanescent modes.
   • The mirror self-recognition test—a marker of self-awareness in some species—is speculated to depend on these dynamics, potentially extending to animals like cows.
4. Quantum Biology & Temporal Instability:
   • Radioactive decay in the body (e.g., potassium-40) and endogenous electromagnetic fields (photons) introduce quantum stochasticity. Unstable elements might enhance sensitivity to retrocausal effects, aligning with lab use of quantum random number generators.
   • Wave-particle duality underscores the theory’s rejection of purely classical or wave-only models (e.g., critiques of Jim Beichler’s magnetic wave cosmos).
5. Paradoxes and Implications:
   • If consciousness’s “now” integrates a faint echo of the future via superluminal backchannels, it blurs linear causality. This aligns with Libet-style experiments, where unconscious neural activity precedes conscious intent, yet here the “delay” is reframed as a bidirectional temporal process.

In summary, WETCOW posits that consciousness arises from a quantum-choreographed interplay of superluminal evanescent waves, enabling self-reflection through subtle temporal feedback—a dance between the brain’s electromagnetic fabric and the edge of spacetime itself. 🌌🐄

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A “brainwave” is an electromagnetic wave

The “evanescent” waves are very weak, and extend only for a very small distance from their point of origin. Real-world experiments have indicated that they travel faster than light and do transmit information (Günther Nimtz). Here is a video originally aired on the BBC in which Prof. Nimtz explains his findings:

According to Einstein’s theory of special relativity, anything that travels faster than light travels back in time. The Lorentz transformations show that this would also lead to causality violations. Here are the calculations on the Lorentz transformations:

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A train of thought experiment

We’re literally going to take the Vulcan Express. https://www.vulkan-express.de/en/ Einstein liked to do thought experiments to illustrate his reasoning to himself and others. I found a way to do this, too, for the faster-than-light brainwave theory.

We are boarding the train at the station. Our cabins are comfortable and old-fashioned. A ticket collector comes along and snips our tickets. As we are leaning back, the locomotive fires up steam, and the wheels slowly begin to turn.

Despite being told not to, we lean out of the window and feel the wind in our hair. The locomotive approaches a tunnel and sounds a horn. It is five to twelve. As soon as we are in the tunnel, it gets dark. We have a steampunk style of mechanical clock that is driven by a solar motor, but there’s no light. We can’t see the time on the clock anyways, because it is dark.

We’re sitting in the dark for a while, and then the tunnel ends. I look at the clock, and the time is the same as when we entered the tunnel, five to twelve. But we are 2 kilometers further down the train track.

So, how does this explain faster-than-light locomotion?
Does this explain quantum tunneling?

Time stopped. This metaphor works at least for this aspect.

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Self-Reflection as a Function of Superluminal Thought 🐄

Paradoxically, the following seven-year-old article about superluminal thought mentions “COWS,” which could be an acronym for “cortical waves” or brainwaves, about five years BEFORE the introduction of the WETCOW theory. Superluminal evanescent waves facilitate self-reflection, which is essential for the experience of qualia and consciousness. However, what if qualia do not occur in the past but instead in the future? The leading edge of consciousness, represented by qualia, aligns with the evanescent wave, which can look back and reflect on its actions (perhaps relating to action potential?).

If you were to ask why I suddenly included COWS in an article about superluminal consciousness in 2018, I must confess that the image of a cow (🐄) unexpectedly appeared in my mind.

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The above text is a commentary and rephrasing of the following article from 2018 (Facebook archive):

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March 7, 2018
This level of functioning is called superluminal thought.

Certain theories predict a backchannel to the past to be able to self-reflect and develop a sense of qualia, self-awareness, and consciousness.

It is enabled by the Nimtz Effekt, a quantum tunnel process that enables a superluminal signal transmission over very short distances, respectively, time.

The effect is described in the Bose prism experiment, as total reflection in a double prism.

The total effect in the new theory is that each time a reflection occurs, a tiny part of information is totally reflected by a fraction of a wave into the past.

Nimtz also demonstrated the effect on waveguides and perspex sheets, but this was not well documented in the official news coverage.

Nimtz described the behavior of evanescent modes.

Simply translated, this means the behavior of waves in very short time periods.

A possible structure in the brain?

Such as enabling self-reflection.

When we look at a mirror, we see a reflection and begin to realize it is us.

Lots of literature has been written about this unique feature, shared not by many species (but there definitely are).

Maybe cows, too.

It is one sign of consciousness.

There are others, hence.

The eyes may have a structure for this.

They are also called the mirror to the soul.

Before a thought reaches our consciousness, areas in our brain have already decided on a course of action. We are literally living in the past, consciously, by a fraction of a second.

The more unstable an element, the more pronounced it is to this effect. For this reason, quantum random number generators are in use in laboratory settings.

There are always atoms decaying in our body.

When this happens, radioactivity in the form of electromagnetic waves is released. (But that is not the only process by which electromagnetic waves are generated in our body.)

So we talk about electromagnetic waves, which are bundles of energy called photons. Photons are everywhere.

Here we have the wave/particle duality.

A theory of the cosmos cannot be exclusively based on a wave model of magnetic waves. (In response to Jim Beichler)