Testing the Consciousness Causing Collapse Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics Using Subliminal Primes Derived from Random Fluctuations in Radioactive Decay

Abstract

Stimulus primes derived directly from patterns in a local source of radioactive decay were flashed on a screen for a duration of time too brief to be consciously experienced.  The primes were immediately followed by a presentation of a stimulus symbol that human participants were asked to rapidly respond to.  According to the Consciousness Causes Collapse Interpretation of  Quantum Mechanics (CCC), because the primes had not yet been exposed to conscious observation, they should continue to exist in a state of superposition based on the radioactive decay from which they were derived. It was hypothesized that if the CCC interpretation were correct, a prime produced in this way should not yield the standard effect on subsequent response times as it would in a control condition in which observation had deliberately occurred beforehand.  This hypothesis was supported.  The standard effect on response times was found in the observed condition but not in the unobserved condition.  The current findings support the CCC interpretation of quantum mechanics.