The conscious electromagnetic field theory

The electromagnetic field theory of consciousness is a theory that says the electromagnetic field generated by the brain (measurable by ECoG) is the actual carrier of conscious experience.

This theory was initially proposed by Susan Pockett, Johnjoe McFadden and E. Roy John. Related is Andrew and Alexander Fingelkurts theory "Operational Architectonics framework of brain-mind functioning".

The starting point for the theory is the fact that every time a neuron fires to generate an action potential and a postsynaptic potential in the next neuron down the line, it also generates a disturbance to the surrounding electromagnetic (EM) field. Information coded in neuron firing patterns is therefore reflected into the brain's EM field. Locating consciousness in the brain's EM field, rather than the neurons, has the advantage of neatly accounting for how information located in millions of neurons scattered throughout the brain can be unified into a single conscious experience (sometimes called the binding problem): the information is unified in the EM field. In this way EM field consciousness can be considered to be 'joined-up information'.

This theory accounts for several otherwise puzzling facts, such as the finding that attention and awareness tend to be correlated with the synchronous firing of multiple neurons rather than the firing of individual neurons. When neurons fire together their EM fields generate stronger EM field disturbances; so synchronous neuron firing will tend to have a larger impact on the brain's EM field (and thereby consciousness) than the firing of individual neurons. However their generation by synchronous firing is not the only important characteristic of conscious electromagnetic fields — in Pockett's original theory, spatial pattern is the defining feature of a conscious (as opposed to a non-conscious) field.

The different EM field theories disagree as to the role of the proposed conscious EM field on brain function. In McFadden's cemi field theory, the brain's global EM field modifies the electric charges across neural membranes and thereby influences the probability that particular neurons will fire, providing a feed-back loop that drives free will. However in the theories of Susan Pockett and E. Roy John, there is no necessary causal link between the conscious EM field and our consciously willed actions.

Observational expectations

Seamless connections across the conscious sections of our minds. The effects of electric fields would not be limited in direction or in the size of the interacting dynamics in the electric fields.
Lack of long-range effects from the individual components making up the electrical fields. While short-range effects can tie together huge areas into interacting electric fields, and thus consciousness (in this model, certainly) the fall-off of discrete effects from a particular action potential would keep it from affecting areas it should not affect. Some long-range effects should be possible from increased activity in a region of the brain, but these would not be very specific in their effects.
Interactions between qualia. Colors would interact with colors, sounds with sounds, and if in close enough proximity, sounds could interact with colors. Being tied to robust nerve impulses, the information in the fields would not be smeared out or compromised, but could be subtly altered through timing. These interactions do appear to occur a great deal in consciousness.
Harmonic--and disharmonic--interactions between qualia, especially sound qualia, could readily be supported by electric fields. Presumably this would tend to reinforce the signal of harmonic, ordered information against the backdrop of noise.

In the "common questions" section of http://www.surrey.ac.uk/ McFadden answers the following questions.

Definitely not! If ghosts were em field they'd be very easy to detect. Also, em fields are generated by charged molecules - they don't hang around in space without an obvious source. If ghosts were some kind of em field then we would be able to locate the source of that field.

mmm an interesting question. My hypothesis is that consciousness is the experience of information, from the inside. There is a postulate in physics that information is neither created or destroyed - the conservation of information 'law'. It is however just a postulate, nobody has ever proved it. But, if true, it would suggest that awareness (associated with that information) - in some form - might survive death.

Our hypothesis does not call for the existence of ghosts (in a literal sense) but more like an operating system (like windows on your computer) that survives due to a fluke in the death cascade. Quantum electrodynamics may also come into play and would not be so easy to detect. The detectable element may be the transmission of low frequency EM signals from the source.