Now I turn attention to the how of neural synaptic transmission, drawing upon the neural synaptic model which was the focus for Sir John C. Eccles’ microsite hypothesis. How can interaction between a nonmaterial spirit and mind and the material brain be explained? Just what is the energy that induces synaptic transmission, and how is it related to information? To what degree can a nonmaterial energy be identified in mind-brain interaction, and where does it exert its effect? (I address these questions in detail in Chapter Four, Nerve Endings of the Soul: Interaction between the Mind of God and the Mind of Man through Neural Synaptic Networks.)

At this point I will share some concepts about quantum fields and atomic particles. In my second book, The Boundless Love of God: A Holy Spirit Story, Chapter Five, I cite von Baeyer who stated that the universe is filled with quantum fields and that there is a field for every elementary particle. He further stated that quantum fields are joined at each point in space-time by intimate bonds that allow them to exchange energy.” He gives the example of an electron being “a ripple in the electron field. A proton, located elsewhere and carrying a different amount of energy as a wave frequency [also with amplitude and shape], is a separate ripple in the proton field.” Each interacts with the other like water waves [with both facilitation and inhibition depending upon their phase relationship]. It is now compelling that mental intention is causally effective in transmitting information with meaning and purpose. The causality appears to be associated with the nonclassical energy of wave functions given direction through neural synaptic networks. To come to an understanding of neural transmission it is important to examine neural networks at the quantum level. More to come.

In the above blog posts I have addressed wave functions. In Parts One and Two of “Waves in Our Brains” very current information has been included about waves. The question to be asked is how wave functions may trigger synaptic transmission by the quantum tunneling of quasiparticles, including electrons, along specific pathways in the brain to transmit specified information. Ultimately how might the immaterial mind be involved in the generation and propagation of wave functions and quasiparticles in the tunneling process? Answers to these questions are complex and incompletely understood, but progress is being made in current neuroscience. The more that is being learned by scientific investigation the more we realize how awesome is our Creator God, and how much more there is to know!

When reference is made to John 1: 1-3 (“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made.”) we see that the Mind of God is the ultimate Source of all information. He is the Sender of information actualized in all five levels in the creations by the Son, Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Gitt identified the one prerequisite of information, that it must be in coded form, the neural patterns described by Penfield. For human beings it is a linguistic code, and the essential aspect of all information is its mental content. The recipient evaluates the message after decoding it, and the code must be known both to the sender and the receiver if the information is to be understood. Matter cannot generate codes. A thinking being exercising free will, cognition and creativity is required. Gitt concluded that there is no known natural law by which matter can give rise to novel information. Neither can any physical process nor material phenomenon do this. Only a mind, including the Mind of God, can generate information, but in our space-time it may require material media for actualization, transmission or storage. Neurons of the human brain serve as the medium for both the transmission and storage of information.

In my books I share that Werner Gitt defined information as “a fundamental entity on equal footing with matter and energy,” though often disregarded in academic discourse. He has identified five components of information that include structure (syntax), meaning (semantics), and purpose. A fourth is the transmission of information from a sender with the expectation of a response, or intended action, in the recipient who must have the capacity to interpret the information received. Finally, the fifth component refers to the intentional selection of information to be transmitted from an essentially infinite resource so that information selected is with a small probability. The selective process consists of a statistical or probabilistic component that gives it specification.

A nonmaterial energy, or power, of the Mind of the Holy Spirit acts through the human spirit and mind to trigger the synaptic transmission of patterned action potentials having meaning. The neural synapse is considered to be a “frontier” across which interaction flows in both directions, and the flow is comprised of information. Since Man has been uniquely gifted with the capacity for language it is a linguistic neural code that transmits information from sender to recipient. The energy is capable of interacting with the classical electrochemical processes of synaptic transmission. (I expand on this point in Chapter Six, Section 6.4, “Information, Its Transmission,” of my book Nerve Endings of the Soul: Interaction between the Mind of God and the Mind of Man through Neural Synaptic Networks, and in my previously posted blogs, “Waves in Our Brains,” Parts One and Two.)

Like the Mind of God, who is Spirit, the human mind is an immaterial entity. Action by the Mind of God and the cognitive mind of Man on the brain’s neural networks depends on a nonmaterial, nonclassical energy (which will be discussed in succeeding blogs). The immaterial mind triggers synaptic transmission through the quantum mechanical process of tunneling. In the tunneling process molecular conformations of synaptic proteins in ion channels, synaptic vesicles and pores are probabilistically altered by a nonmaterial energy of the mind. As a result nerve impulses are generated as action potentials and transmitted across synaptic clefts. The impulses are transmitted as spike trains consisting of neural codes. The spike trains are directed in an integrated, coherent fashion through specific synaptic networks established by learning to transmit meaningful, or specified, information as instructions. (See the blogs above, entitled “Waves in Our Brains,” Parts One and Two)

The immaterial mind does effect physical and functional changes in neural synaptic networks. Action potentials are transmitted along the axons of neuronal pathways as spike trains that transmit instructions. We are learning that the instructions are codified within the spike trains of action potentials with both syntax and semantics, or meaning. The cognitive mind interprets the neural codes through a lifetime of learning archived in memory.

The studies of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) reported by Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz and Sharon Begley have provided compelling evidence that the human mind is an independent entity that can shape and control the functioning of the physical human brain by the process of synaptic plasticity that occurs throughout life. Dr. Schwartz’ four-step process for treatment of OCD resulted in significant and lasting corrective changes in their brain’s neural pathways with significant improvement of their symptoms. The changes were induced by the active focusing of attention away from negative behaviors and toward more positive ones without the administration of drugs. Patients learned to reassess the significance of their OCD feelings with the result that the activity of the brain regions underlying their OCD was changed both physically and functionally. The physical changes were documented by positron emission tomography. Dr. Schwartz postulated that the human will generates a force that effects the physical changes he observed in the brain. Mind and matter interact, and the force involved is most likely explained by application of quantum mechanics from his collaboration with Dr. Henry Stapp. More will be posted about the role of quantum mechanics and wave functions in this regard.