Globus’s Quantum Thermofield Brain Dynamics

Psychiatrist-philosopher Gordon Globus seeks to link two seemingly independent discourses: an application of quantum field theory to brain functioning, which he calls “quantum brain dynamics,” and the continental postphenomenological tradition, especially the work of Martin Heidegger and Jacques Derrida. Underlying both, he says, “is a new ontology of non-Cartesian dual modes whose rich provenance is their between" (Globus 2003).

The key issue, in Globus's telling, is that of primary “closure”—the nonphenomenality of quantum physical reality—and the action that brings “dis-closure.” Dis-closure of the phenomenal world, he argues, “can be understood within the framework of dissipative quantum thermofield brain dynamics without any reference to consciousness” (Globus, 2011). He posits to “deconstruct” the field of consciousness studies by combining “two persistently controversial areas: the hard problem of qualia and the measurement problem in quantum physics …. within the framework of dissipative quantum thermofield brain dynamics: disclosure.”

His claim is that “the problematics of consciousness/brain, qualia, and measurement in quantum physics are resolved by substituting disclosure for perceptual consciousness and distinguishing the phenomenal brain-p from the macroscopic quantum object brain-q” (Globus, 2013).

Disclosure and Brain Dynamics

Metaphysically, Globus conceives the world as a “continual creation” on the part of each quantum thermofield brain in parallel, which is “triply tuned”: by sensory input, memory and self-tuning. Such a brain, he says, “does not primarily process information—does not compute—but through its multiple tunability achieves an internal match in which a world is disclosed, even though there is no world out there, only objects under quantum description at microscopic, mesoscopic and macroscopic scales.” Globus claims his “unconventional formulation revives a version of monadology via quantum brain theory” (Globus, 2022).

Critique of Philosophy and Science

Globus decries how “philosophers have said some rather naive things by ignoring the extraordinary advances in the neurosciences in the 20th century. The skull is not filled with green cheese!” On the other hand, he criticizes “the arrogance of many scientists toward philosophy and their faith in the scientific method,” which he calls “equally naïve,” asserting that “scientists clearly have much to learn from philosophy as an intellectual discipline” (Globus, 2012).