Help! I’m lost in another tar pit between science and new age crap!
So I won’t tell you the source, but apparently, this guy explains that quantum tunnelling happens in your brain when you drink green tea, which improves mental performance. It is also experienced when drinking Ayahuaca (whatever the active hallucinogen is in there, I forget). He has some convincing examples of why this is legitamete, or at least that his credentials are.
Can anyone come up with their own source, or their own opinion whether this makes any sense at all?
I get that paradoxical “you’re right” feeling along with “did I just make myself as stupid as I sound?”
So I suppose, if green tea contains some compound that affects the structure or biochemistry of the cytoskeleton, then it could produce “quantum” effects.
Or it could just be jargonized bullshit. Who knows…?
Well im a physicist and i also enjoy a bit of DMT, LSD, Mescaline and magic mushrooms.haven’t tried ayahuasca not sure im ready for that stuff. I think that we must understand that there are no proven theories that relate significate mental effects to quantum physics.
Too drunk to type a better responce will post later.
The active chemical in ayahuasca is indeed dmt but it also contains MAO inhibitors which stop the dmt being broen down and hence make it last longer but also make many other things such as cheese poisonous.
Thanks! That was very helpful, everyone! I now remember him explaining microtubules. In fact I remember the word “microtubules” being stated a lot between physicists and new age buffs alike.
I feel as though I’ve studied a lot about these phenomena, but without real non-lamen discipline in math and physics, and particularly with the ways that I hear people distorting the truth for their own sort of cult agenda, I don’t feel very qualified to speak about it.
It helps to know that I can hear something far-fetched and that I begin to believe, and ask if it’s bullshit, and get some reasonable answers.
Sorry I couldn’t give the source yet. It could seriously affect the outcome of another thread. I do think that this knowledge is the peak of the modern epiphenomenal frontier.
Microtubles are mentioned by roger penrose in this theories about how the mind/quantum gravity. Penrose is probably one of the greatest living mathematical physicists atleast in his understandin of general relativity. /but although i was a fan of his theories on the mind I’m not so convinced anymore. He doesn’t make any links to drugs though, i think anything that links physics to drugs should be viewed with suspicion(unless its me! lol).
DMT(ayahusca) and Psilocybin(magic mushrooms) both work because they are tryptamines. Serotonin is the brains natural neurotransmitter is also a trytamine so the drugs can mimic serotonin in the brain. Not sure how much is exaxtly known but it makes sence to some degree.
Mescaline and MDMA are phenethylamines whic can also be neurotransmitters. Dopmine is one as well so I guess the same logic allpies.
Green tea is just plain good for you! drink it!
The only place I know where quantum tunneling is (very) significant is the sun. without any quantum effects there is no way that nuclear fusion could occur in the sun. The forces just arent big enough. But because the particles(hydrogen i guess) can tunnel throgh the potential barrier on rare ocasions nuclear fusion does occur.
The claim is idiotic and has nothing to do with science. What the fuck does quantum tunneling have to do with drinking green tea, what scientific sources/evidence did he provide that this quantom tunneling existed/was beneficial for health other than mumbo jumbo? (I mean quantom tunneling in the brain or whatever the fuck the claim is)
Yeah, the quantum theory of the brain would be the best route to explain that.
Except that it is absolute rubbish. The guy might be a good physicist, but he is overlooking some pretty basic biology. Suggesting that something present in every eukaryotic cell is the source of consciousness is downright silly. If that were the case, a central nervous system wouldn’t be necessary.
Nope, good-ol’ electrochemistry is still the way to go. Forget about the microtubules. And I’d say be wary of New Age claims.
Any time a biologist makes sweeping claims about cosmology or physics everyone raises their eyebrows, but the reverse is simply not true, at least among new-age belief groups.
Exactly what I thought. He appeared to me as a very insightful and organized man in his discussion of computer sciences . . . up until. If, as a scientist, you make a looney bin claim like that and can’t support it, you’ve lost me completely in absolutely all your presentations / publications and I sentence you to eternity of sceptic hell.
Wayne Dyer, and Deepak Chopra are there amongst others.
I promise to give the absolute full spread of who he is and how he supports it, in a few days or sooner. Right now I’m waiting for someone else to challenge me on it elsewhere, whom might be reading this.
And I’d love to hear more of the biologist sweeping claims.
Meh, people are bound to have all sorts of crazy opinions. That is what people do. The trick that we can do, as philosophers, is learn to identify good authorities from bad authorities while recognizing that all “good” authorities are limited. There are very few people out there that spread lies simply for the sake of spreading lies, and those that do are rarely listened to. What we have to avoid is blind reliance – just because someone is a “good” authority on a particular subject, we can’t generalize that and think of them as a “good” authority on all subjects.
It’s the same mistake that Fundamentalist Christians make when they say, “Geee, my preacher sure knows the Bible. So it follows that he also knows science! Huzzah! Young Earth Creationism for everybody!” Bad business for everybody.
Absolutely, an individual has no universal authority on all subjects. But the responsability of scientists is also to realize their own bounds. If I try to take a person’s position on a matter, and then praise their good claims, and then ignore their bad claims, this is cold reading. Each claim of a scientist must reflect their entire position, which means that seemingly absurd claims should reflect their stature. (They can retract, as people often do).
Anyhow, I’m not so quick to say that this person is a lunatic. I’ll delve more deeply soon. It’s tough when a computer scientist / engineer gives a lecture on the subject you expect, then jumps to biology and nutrition . . . eeesh. I’ll have much more crazy things to submit shortly.
Now that the debate is over, I’m safe to say the source of this claim is a computer scientist named Hartmut Neven. It’s somewhere at the end. I wanted to see if I would be challenged on the ludicrousness of my sources. He seems like he backs everything up, but his final claims still sound just bizarre. It borders on that Green Tea and Ayahuasca give you psychic power.
work on maintaining a natural high: as it’s a ‘real’ high - just a suggestion! 
