Gabriel Guerrer, August 24, 2017
Abstract
Motivated by a series of reported experiments and their controversial results, the present work investigated if volunteers could causally affect an optical double-slit system through mental efforts alone. The participants task alternated between intending the increase of the (real-time feedback informed) amount of light diffracted through a specific single slit and relaxing any intention effort. The 160 data sessions contributed by 127 volunteers revealed a statistically significant 6.37 sigma difference between the measurements performed in the intention versus the relax conditions (p = 1.89 × 10−10, es = 0.50 ± 0.08), while the 160 control sessions conducted without any present observer resulted in statistically equivalent samples (z = −0.04, p = 0.97, es = 0.00 ± 0.08). The results couldn’t be simply explained by environmental factors, hence supporting the previously claimed existence of a not yet mapped form of interaction between a conscious agent and a physical system.
Discussion
The five experiments testing a consciousness-related form of interaction with a double-slit system resulted in a 6.37 sigma effect, successfully replicating the anomaly found by previous studies. In contrast, the control sessions conformed to the null hypothesis, showing that the obtained effect cannot be reduced to methodological or analytical artifacts. The effect neither can be explained by a temperature increase in the experimental room as shown by experiment 0 with a lamp producing more heat than a human body does. Experiment 0 also excluded possible artifacts caused by the participant/control sessions order. Care was taken in order to isolate the experiment from mechanical vibrations and electromagnetic waves, as well to monitor the magnetic field and the temperature over different places. The same differential analysis procedure resulted in no significant results for the monitored environmental variables, discarding those physical processes as the primary causal sources of the light measured intention/relax differences. The participants intended the feedback magnitude increase, which in turn was linked to a specific feedback variable and a test hypothesis. The variable was built by taking into account a model which predicted the most sensitive wavenumber regions in the case of a legitimate interaction. With this method, the participants indirectly intended the increase in the amount of light crossing through a specific slit. The results indicate a flexible interplay between the two degrees of freedom ψ and φ to achieve the desired variation, revealing a goal-oriented characteristic for the ψφ-interaction. As the light luminosity is conserved, the interaction can be pictured as Maxwell’s demon kind of influence, where intention plays the demon’s role by “steering” some photons to the desired left/right slit. 11 The observed effect cannot be explained as the consequence of a measurement taking place in the participants conscious awareness. If that were the case, one should expect to see a decrease in the interference component followed by a 50/50 balanced slit intensity ratio. Differently, the results reveal a probability modulation enhancing the light passage through the desired slit. Thus the presented results don’t provide a solution to the quantum measurement problem (a similar view is shared by [26] on commenting about Radin et al. conclusions). According to the experimental evidence, it is more reasonable to label the effect as an interaction adding complex numbers to the path amplitudes, which by interference leads to a change in the outcome probabilities. Instead of challenging the quantum mechanics framework and the traditional objective interpretations, the results are suggestive of a standard-model violation, pointing to the existence of a still to be elucidated fundamental force field. A pertinent question to be addressed is: if such an effect really exists how could it have lasted consensually undetected in spite the technological breakthroughs of the last century? First, it’s reasonable to expect a small cross-section; an effect too small it could go unperceived in people’s daily lives, that needs proper amplification and a group of people to be statistically detected in a controlled setting. Second, by being a function of the conscious agent subjective condition, it may rely on a specific state of consciousness and an individual skill to promote it, thus not being consistently obtainable by anyone in any situation. In particular, if the effect happens to be catalyzed by states opposed to rational faculties such as thinking and the use of language, it may lead to a paradoxical situation: the more one tries to exert control in a pragmatic approach, the less they cause the phenomenon. The third reason can be argued as a consequence of the sociocultural process described by [27, Chap. 1] that led physicists to shift from philosophical interests to a more pragmatic approach motivated by post world war II military interests. While it was not uncommon to watch the quantum physics founding fathers discussing topics such as consciousness and mysticism, after the post-war technological race, the interest in such topics not only became old-fashioned but something to be avoided while following a “serious” career path. As a result, the current consensus defends that consciousness is not necessary to describe the physical world, while not introducing consciousness per se in their experiments. Compared to the previous efforts to probe the phenomenon using random number generators, the double-slit system has the advantage of providing interference information across a spatial dimension as opposed to binary outcomes. Having more information available makes it more sensitive to the investigated ψφ-interaction. Moreover, as opposed to the usual random number generator physical processes, it allows final state interference, which allows the phase difference φ to play a role in the probability modulation. Regarding the double-slit variable of interest, the use of Fourier transformed variables is suggested in order to benefit from the full CCD frame instead of using the fringe visibility three pixels (the central maximum value and its adjacent minima). Future improvements to the current double-slit setup can be achieved by focusing on strategies to improve the signal-to-noise ratio in the interference pattern measurements and to provide clearer feedback information. From the theoretical side, refinements in the interaction model can be sought in order to provide sharper variable predictions. Regarding the profound implications in the event that the observed effect is confirmed as a legitimate anomaly, replication efforts are highly advised.
