Torday’s Cellular and Cosmic Consciousness

Developmental physiologist John Torday offers an original cellular-based explanation of consciousness that embeds quantum mechanics (Torday, 2022a, 2022b, 2023, 2024a). He describes consciousness as a two-tiered system, derivative from physiology, having been “constructed” from the environment via factors in the environment that have been assimilated via symbiogenesis and integrated as cell physiology—the cell semi-permeable membrane being the first tier, and the compartmentation and integration of cell physiologic data as cell-cell communication as the second tier.

Basing his model on both classical Newtonian and quantum mechanical principles, he proposes that consciousness is stored within and between our cells based on control mechanisms, referencing the “First Principles of Physiology”, that is, negative entropy, chemiosmosis and homeostasis, and consciousness is retrieved from them via the central nervous system as the “algorithm” for translating local and non-local cellular physiologic memories into thought (Torday, 2022a).

Consciousness in Cellular Physiology

He claims that quantum entanglement is integral to our physiology, and that it links our local consciousness with the non-local consciousness of the cosmos, distinguishing causation from coincidence based on science. Moreover, he posits that local physiologic memories are paired with non-local memories that dwell in cosmic consciousness and that all cellular memories are on a continuum of local and non-local properties, and that under certain conditions we may be more locally or non-locally conscious. He speculates that as we evolve, we move closer to the non-local by transcending the local. He maintains that we can take advantage of certain experiences in order to attain a transcendent level of consciousness: lucid dreaming, near-death experiences, out-of-body experiences, Maslow peak experiences, runner's high (Torday, 2022a).

Torday's main point is that “the quantum” is native to our physiology (Torday, 2022a, 2022b, 2023, 2024a). Moreover, “since our physiology derives from the Cosmos based on Symbiogenesis,” he hypothesizes that “the cell behaves like a functional Mobius Strip, having no ‘inside or outside’ cell membrane surface—it is continuous with the Cosmos, its history being codified from Quantum Entanglement to Newtonian Mechanics, affording the cell consciousness and unconsciousness-subconsciousness as a continuum for the first time” (Torday, 2024a).

Symbiogenesis and Cosmic Monism

Torday seeks to connect, as he puts it, “symbiogenesis with the monism of the cosmos.” Symbiogenesis, he says, “has been systematically exploited to understand consciousness as the aggregate of our physiology. The symbiogenic mechanism for assimilation of factors in the environment formulates the continuum from inside the cell to the cosmos, both consciousness and cosmology complying with the laws of nature. Since symbiogenesis is ‘constructive’, whereas eliminating what threatens us is ‘destructive’, why do we largely practice symbiogenesis? Hypothetically, symbiogenesis recursively simulates the monism of our origin, recognizing ‘something bigger than ourselves’.”

This perspective, he argues, “explains many heretofore unexplained aspects of consciousness, such as mind, epigenetic inheritance, physiology, behaviors, social systems, mathematics, the arts, from an a priori perspective. Moreover, there is an energetic continuum from Newtonian to quantum mechanics, opening up to a novel way of understanding the ‘true nature of our being’, not as ‘materialism’, but instead being the serial homeostatic control of energy.” The latter, Torday adds, is consistent with the spirit of Claude Bernard and Walter B. Cannon’s perspectives on physiology. “Such a paradigm shift is overdue,” he offers, “given that materialism is causing the destruction of the Earth and ourselves” (Torday, 2024b).

Mathematics and Symbiogenesis

Torday says that it has been hypothesized that mathematics is innate to physiology, but how and why that has occurred is undetermined. He offers “A ‘First Principles of Physiology’ approach to the cellular evolution of physiology,” which, he says, “would facilitate such a deep understanding of the relationship between mathematics and consciousness—particularly the role of symbiogenesis in assimilating the environment, conferring the unique capacity to the cell of being both observer and observed.” Thus, he claims, “this perspective offers a novel understanding for the ontology and epistemology of mathematics for the first time” (Torday, 2025).

Torday asserts that “symbiogenesis is now a full-fledged theory, given all of the experimental evidence to support it over the last 60 years.” He claims that “symbiogenesis is a constructive process, referring back to the [cosmic] singularity from which it evolved.” Given these assumptions, Torday concludes, “Symbiogenesis is recognized as the means by which both local and non-local consciousness have evolved, the former based on the homeostatic control of energy in sync with the environment, the latter as the higher-order mathematical scaffolding of our physiology connecting homeostasis with the mathematics of the cosmos” (Torday, 2025).