Does consciousness collapse the quantum wavefunction?
Experiments with an optical double-slit system Dean Ratlin, Paul Wendland; Robert Rickenbach (Research, Institute of Noetic Sciences) A fundamental problem in physics is the transition from quantum potential states to classical actual states. This transition or “collapse of the quantum wavefunction” seems to require something beyond physics as described by quantum theory. Some have proposed that this something may be consciousness. If so, this would imply that (a) consciousness has an ontological reality beyond a brain-generated epiphenomenon, (b) it is not physical in the usual sense of that term, and (c) it may reside outside of the usual constraints of space and time. To test this idea, an experiment was conducted using a double-slit optical system. In randomly counterbalanced periods, participants focused their attention towards or away from the optical system while the double-slit interference pattern was recorded by a high resolution line camera. The measurement of interest was t
