In late 1977, I was walking through a thick pine-grove in Gainesville, Florida, the USA when suddenly a thought came out of the blue that gravity and human thought may be related.

I was not thinking about this relationship or anything connected to gravity at that time, and hence was taken aback by this thought and felt that it must be true since it came with such a force.  The power of this thought was such that I spent the next three-four months researching it and, in the process, neglected my Ph.D. research. I also felt that pine-grove acted as an antenna for getting such a thought. 

This event also propelled me to start investigating the area of mind-matter interaction and other aspects of spirituality. In fact, whatever little I have done within this realm in the last 40 years was triggered by this single thought.

Though I understood intuitively the import of this thought at that time and even today, somehow the relationship between deep human thought and gravity has remained elusive.  Recently it appeared that there may be a light at the end of the tunnel!  And this essay is my humble attempt to show how human thought and gravity may be related. 

The relationship is based on the idea that deep human thought is a very stable hologram - a light signal and may react with gravity. This idea is explored in greater detail in the following sections. 

According to the general theory of gravitation, light bends around massive bodies. This is because massive bodies distort the space-time matrix and the shortest path for light travel is a geodesic and hence light appears to bend when it passes heavy bodies like the sun. This was one of the great triumphs of Albert Einstein’s theory of gravitation.

Since gravity bends light, we can conjecture by the principle of equivalence that light should also bend the space-time matrix!  This is the line of thinking we will employ in our quest to find the relationship between deep human thought and gravity.

Human thought as a hologram 

It is an accepted fact that thought is produced when brain neurons fire. There are close to 80-100 billion neurons in the brain (the exact figure is not known). For a simple thought like what is the colour of a flower, open the door, etc. a small portion of the neurons fire but in deep concentration leading to Samadhi and Sanyam (the combination of concentration and contemplation on a single subject or object for a long time) almost all the neurons fire to produce a deep thought. Thus, the difference between deep and shallow thought is its intensity.

Activation of neural pathways triggers the firing of neurons. This activation is triggered either by signals from sense organs or stimulation of certain memory space in the brain. The firing of neurons helps them to communicate with each other. During this communication electrical signal from a neuron is converted into chemicals (neurotransmitters) and transmitted across the synaptic cleft to another neuron where it is again converted to an electrical signal for onward journey. 

The Synaptic cleft is a tiny space of about 20 nanometers (nm) between an axon and a dendrite and is the place where two neurons exchange information via neurotransmitters (NT).    

A neuron has three parts. At one end is dendrite which accepts NT from other neurons; the central nucleus which is the heart of neuron and a long nerve fiber called axon whose end (synapse) releases the NT for transmitting to another neuron.  

Why did nature produce this type of communication system where an electrical signal from the neuron is first converted into chemicals (neurotransmitters), and transmitted through synaptic cleft and again converted back into an electrical signal?

A possible answer could be that during this conversion in the synaptic cleft, photons are produced which are the signature of thought. Anytime a chemical reaction takes place (production of NT is one such reaction) it produces weak photons. This is the nature of the chemical bond. 

Weak photon production (in the far infrared region) was experimentally observed in the brain in the late 2010s when scientists detected them being emitted during the firing of the neurons and transfer of neurotransmitters across the synaptic cleft. Scientists are still not sure in what way the brain uses these photons but speculate that somehow, they may help in increasing communication between various parts of the brain.  

 I conjecture that these photons from a large number of neural pathways synchronize via a non-linear process to form a three-dimensional hologram which we can call a thought. Hence the origin of thought probably occurs in the synaptic clefts!

 Each thought however is the result of activation of a unique set of neural pathways though we still do not know how many neural pathways are needed for it. Just to give a sense of the complexity of the brain let us look at the numbers of possibly neural pathways in the brain.

There are close to 80-100 billion neurons in the brain. Each neuron has many dendrites and axons which connect it to other neurons.  Recent scientific evidence also suggests that besides neurons another type of cells called glial cells take part in communication. Glial cells outnumber neurons by nine to one and can modify the signals transmitted by each neuron. There are therefore estimates that 1015 synapses in the brain may be involved in communication. Thus, the number of different combinations for neural pathways and thought production is mind-boggling. That is the reason why the human mind can generate millions and zillions of thoughts!

However, the photons from each synapse have to be synchronized with others to produce a stable thought structure. This synchronization takes place via the positive feedback type mechanism so that each photon is influenced by others and is guided by an entity called ‘I’ (ego, will, sense of identity, etc.). The Ego acts like a symphony director and helps provide the necessary energy and focus to maintain a given thought for a certain time. It also constantly compares it with signals from outside to give us a sense of reality.

 We still do not completely understand how ‘I’ can influence this process, but just like the music conductor who determines which part of the orchestra plays for how long, ‘I’ decides how long a particular thought will remain in the ‘vision’ field.  This process is called concentration and seems to also exist in other animals.     

 How light interacts with gravity?

 Einstein’s general relativity and gravitation theory has shown that light is bent by heavy bodies. Gravitation theory also shows that a combination of energy and momentum can curve a space-time matrix.

  Though photons are massless particles, yet they have energy and momentum – two important attributes for bending space-time matrix.  Thus, light traveling through space-time should be able to change the matrix shape. However, the effect is minuscule and is extremely difficult to measure since photons have very little energy and momentum. Recently some theoretical studies have shown the effect of lasers on space-time matrix deformation. Thus, light interacts with the gravity field so that not only is it bent by it but can also change it.

 If we extrapolate on this idea, then it can be conjectured that an extremely focused human thought-hologram might act as a laser and could interact with gravity. Besides, it can also become a soliton and may reside in the knowledge space forever!

 Soliton is a wave that can remain stable for almost infinite time and can travel to great distances without dissipating. These waves arise because of the non-linearity of the wave phenomenon and have been observed in liquids, gases, optics, and even in space. It is possible that a deep human thought-hologram may interact with the space-time matrix in a non-linear manner to produce a soliton.  The word soliton is apparently derived from solitary wave which being stable almost acts like a particle.  Hence soliton rhymes with electron!           

 It is also possible that a thought-hologram soliton may interact with the space-time matrix to produce large mechanical effects. This process could be explained by the science of resonance.  

 All systems in the universe possess natural frequencies and when those frequencies are reached large-scale mechanical effects are observed.  A classic example is a child on a swing. A slight push at the right time and place to the swing can make it go higher and higher.

 Similarly, certain notes played on musical instruments can shatter wine glasses. In the same manner, some of the modern bridges were destroyed when the marching steps of the soldiers matched the natural frequency of the bridge.

 All these effects show that an exceedingly small force can create large mechanical changes when the natural frequencies of the system match the mechanical force affecting it. This is the genesis of the Butterfly effect generally seen in chaos theory.

 It is therefore possible that deep thought-hologram soliton may somehow interact with the system and can affect large-scale mechanical changes.

 This process may be able to explain the movement of physical objects by thought and poltergeist phenomenon where the presence of a troubled person brings in abrupt movements of the physical objects like stones, furniture, etc. 

 I also feel that it is this soliton thought wave that may be responsible for Mahasamadhi of great rishis and enlightened souls by which they could leave the body at will and be guided by celestial bodies like sun and stars. It is as if the physical structure of the brain and the body is required to reach the stage of highly non-linear thought and once the soliton is achieved the body’s function is over and the liberation of a being from the cycle of birth and death results.  

 It is also very tempting to speculate that the production of thought soliton artificially and its interaction with the space-time matrix may provide a possible propulsion mechanism for intergalactic space travel.            

(The writer is Director, Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute (NARI),  Phaltan, India.  The views are personal. He can be contacted at anilrajvanshi@gmail.com)