Spirituality requires consciousness because one needs to be aware, and to be self-aware, in order to apprehend spirituality of any kind. But is there more to the relationship? Some make the extravagant claim that human consciousness is somehow connected directly to a ‘cosmic consciousness’. Can this make sense? If so, what would it mean? Stuart Hameroff is an American anesthesiologist and professor at the University of Arizona known for his studies of consciousness and his controversial contention that consciousness originates from quantum states in neural microtubules. He is the lead organizer of the Science of Consciousness conference.

In part two of “The Art of Reconnection,” series co-host Daniela Naomi Molnar speaks with guest Marcia Bjornerud about the narratives, notions of time, and deep wisdom embedded within rocks. Marcia is a writer and a structural geologist whose scientific research, which focuses on the physics of Earthquakes and mountain building, has taken her around the globe. She is a contributing writer to The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, Wired, and the LA Times. She is also the author of the books Timefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World and the recently published Turning to Stone: Discovering the Subtle Wisdom of Rocks. Throughout Marcia’s scientific and academic career, she has learned to listen to landscapes. She and Daniela discuss how the Western fallacies of objectivity and stability may act as a barrier to our innate capacity to notice landscapes not only with our instruments and hypotheses but also with our senses, our lived experiences, and our inherent curiosities.

Roger Penrose full interview on quantum physics, consciousness, his career, and his idols. Could quantum consciousness be the answer? Join Nobel laureate Sir Roger Penrose as he outlines his views on quantum mechanics, Gödel’s incompleteness theorem and consciousness. He also provides a glimpse into his visual thought process and scientific idol Galileo Galilei. Sir Roger Penrose is a world-renowned physicist, best known for his work on general relativity and sharing the Wolf Prize for Physics with Stephen Hawking for their work on black holes.

Are quantum events required for consciousness in a very special sense, far beyond the general sense that quantum events are part of all physical systems? What would it take for quantum events, on such a micro-scale, to be relevant for brain function, which operates at the much higher level of neurons and brain circuits? What would it mean? Ten individuals are interviewed and brought into conversation on these topics.

Are quantum events required for consciousness in a very special sense, far beyond the general sense that quantum events are part of all physical systems? What would it take for quantum events, on such a micro-scale, to be relevant for brain function, which operates at the much higher level of neurons and brain circuits? What would it mean?

The mysteries of sub-atomic physics offer us startling new perspectives on the human mind. Physicist Nick Herbert, author of Quantum Reality, points out that no matter how one interprets the equations of quantum physics the results lead to amazing and paradoxical concepts. Perhaps that time runs backwards as well as forward. Perhaps multiple independent universes are created each second. This is an excerpt from an episode of the PBS series Thinking Allowed.