View source for Field theories of consciousness

== Libet’s field theory of consciousness  ==
Like most of his contemporaries, Benjamin Libet swallowed whole Lashley’s anti-Köhler conclusions – but he still liked the idea that consciousness is a field. Therefore Libet proposed in 1994 that consciousness is a field which is “not … in any category of known physical fields, such as electromagnetic, gravitational etc” (Libet 1994). In Libet’s words, his proposed Conscious Mental Field “may be viewed as somewhat analogous to known physical fields … however … the CMF cannot be observed directly by known physical means.” 

A field that is not observable directly by known physical means is in some danger of remaining confined to the realms of philosophy, but Libet was able to render his hypothesis scientific by proposing an ingenious experimental test of its predictions. The test involved isolating a slab of cortex known to produce a particular conscious experience so that no synaptic transmission could occur between the interior of the slab and the rest of the brain, then asking whether the conscious experience generated within the slab could still be reported. Libet’s theory predicted that it could, by means of communication between the conscious field generated by the slab and the spatially contiguous larger conscious mental field. The technical difficulties involved with (a) actually doing this experiment and (b) interpreting the results are discussed in detail in Libet’s paper, but remain so formidable that no such experiment has yet been done. However, at this stage it is probably worth pointing out that even if the experiment could be adequately done, the success of Libet’s theoretical prediction in such a test would not distinguish between his theory and the electromagnetic field theory of consciousness as outlined below.