Top image: Human consciousness is one of the wonders of life and also a mystery that has not been fully understood yet. An English neuroscientist claims he has solved the problem. But no so fast!

Human consciousness is created by the brain's “energy field,” which comes from the electric signals of the organ's neurons, claims an English scientist of neuroscience. The earliest use of the word “consciousness” dates back to the 1500s. And Western philosophers since the time of Descartes and Locke have tried to understand the nature of human consciousness: to understand if it had divine origins, whether or not it is made of matter, and how it relates to language and the greater experience of living.

In most religious, philosophical and mythological traditions, human consciousness is the human soul , the incorporeal essence of the person that is often described by scientists as the “ psyche,” representing the mental activities of people including feelings, memories and perceptions. For thousands of years the soul has been associated with divinity, causing many to believe the soul continues to evolve long after the body dies.

Is Free Will Nothing More Than An Electrical Signal?

More recently, the study of human consciousness has become an interdisciplinary scientific research discipline that incorporates cognitive sciences such as psychology, linguistics, anthropology, neuropsychology and neuroscience. The primary focus of modern studies into consciousness is understanding how biological and psychological system processes result in what we experience as consciousness.

Now, an English scientist has proposed an innovate, yet currently theoretical, approach to the big unanswered questions about human consciousness. This scientist shows how the electromagnetic signals from neurons in the body form “electrical fields around organs” that he believes is “key to understanding the complexities of consciousness.” And, in conclusion, this electrical field around our organs is what generates our entire perceptional range including all notions of “free will.”

A picture of a brain synapse and neuron and the electromagnetic signals exchanged, which is somehow the source of human consciousness.

Has The Mystery Of Human Consciousness Really Been Solved?

Dr Johnjoe McFadden is a professor of neuroscience at the University of Surrey and his new paper detailing his “theory” on how consciousness is built has been published in the journal Neuroscience of Consciousness . Claiming to have “solved the long-standing mystery of what creates human consciousness,” according to Dr McFadden, “consciousness, is a uniquely human trait that results from the electromagnetic field produced by the brain's neurons.” This, according to the professor, answers why humans are aware of their own existence whereas other animals are not. If he’s right, Dr McFadden has essentially removed all non-material functions of human consciousness, effectively destroying “the soul.”

Professor Johnjoe McFadden claims the electromagnetic field produced by the brain’s neurons is what produces our experience of human consciousness. The scientist has demonstrated how matter becomes “aware and manages to think,” providing a possible solution to a mystery that has eluded all of the philosophers, theologians, and mystics that have ever lived. And in his own bold world the professor lays out his belief that “the mystery of consciousness has now been solved.”

According to Professor McFadden, the brain's self-generated electromagnetic field and charged neurons generate what we perceive as “free will.”

Claiming To Have Solved This Eternal Problem Isn’t Fact Yet!

Jumping the gun, a little, most media outlets are reporting that the entirety of the mysteries of consciousness have now been solved. For example, a Daily Mail article states, “Professor Johnjoe McFadden has 'solved' the mystery of consciousness.” However, while the professor claims the accumulated experience of nerve signals flowing from the brain's self-generated electromagnetic field and charged neurons generates what we perceive as “free will and our voluntary actions,” this is all currently completely hypothetical and unproven by empirical scientific experimentation.

There is no question that Professor McFadden is metaphorically hacking a new path through an unexplored overgrown jungle, the final frontier of human science. His only clues come from data sets describing the bodies electrical field, which are currently only monitored by brain-scanning techniques such as the electroencephalogram (EEG). Nonetheless, Professor McFadden has seen a different application for these technologies and believes our electrical systems are the answer to what he describes as “one of the most enduring riddles in science.”

The Electronic Future Of Human Consciousness

In conclusion, the professor suggests in his new paper that electricity lies at “the very core of what constitutes consciousness.” And he proposes that the result of this electro-system is what drives free will and all of our voluntary actions. He says this energy field is created by the very messages which constitute a person, “a byproduct of every thought, movement and process.”

If the Professor McFadden’s theory is proven to be correct, his work could play a role in the control of future robots and ultimately in the creation of electronic artificial intelligences. Human consciousness as we understand it may be wrong or it may simply be as the professor claims. Time will tell . . .