Article The Electromagnetic Will Johnjoe McFadden   Citation: McFadden, J. The Electromagnetic Will. NeuroSci 2021, 2, 291–304. https://doi.org/10.3390/ neurosci2030021 Academic Editor: James Sonne Received: 24 July 2021 Accepted: 23 August 2021 Published: 29 August 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford GU27XH, UK; j.mcfadden@surrey.ac.uk; Tel.: +44-1483-686-494 Abstract: The conscious electromagnetic information (cemi) field theory proposes that the seat of consciousness is the brain’s electromagnetic (EM) field that integrates information from trillions of firing neurons. What we call free will is its output. The cemi theory also proposes that the brain has two streams. Most actions are initiated by the first non-conscious stream that is composed of neurons that are insulated from EM field influences. These non-conscious involuntary actions are thereby invisible to our EM field-located thoughts. The theory also proposes that voluntary actions are driven by neurons that receive EM field inputs and are thereby visible to our EM field-located thoughts. I review the extensive evidence for EM field/ephaptic coupling between neurons and the increasing evidence that EM fields in the brain are a cause of behaviour. I conclude by arguing that though this EM field-driven will is not free, in the sense of being acausal, it nevertheless corresponds to the very real experience of our conscious mind being in control of our voluntary actions. Will is not an illusion. It is our experience of control by our EM field-located mind. It is an immaterial, yet physical, will. Keywords: consciousness; electromagnetic; neuron; will; determinism; ephaptic; field; computing 1. Introduction to the Cemi Field Theory When a neuron fires, the motion of matter particles, ions, through ion channels in and out of neuronal membranes generates the action potential that travels down the length of the neuron until it reaches the synapse where it triggers the release of chemical neuro- transmitters that transmit signals to downstream neurons. Although the details are far from clear, it is generally assumed that each neuron performs some kind of rule-based information processing on its many inputs to generate its output, somewhat similar in concept, if not in physical realization, to a computer logic gate. Most neurobiologists also accept, in broad terms, the computational theory of mind that proposes that networks of neurons implement something akin to computer algorithms to process sensory information to generate intelligent motor actions such as speech. The theory that will be discussed here accepts all of this, but it proposes that, alongside the matter-based algorithmic information processing performed along the brain’s neuronal wires, a quite different form of computa- tion is implemented through the interactions of EM field with neurons leading to motor actions. These we experience as what we call “will”. The idea that mental states reflect the dynamics of some kind of field goes back at least as far as the Gestalt psychologists who, in the early decades of the twentieth century, insisted that the holistic properties of perception must be instantiated in some kind of field. For example, they pointed out that musical notes get their value by being perceived as part of a whole melody, just as a beat gets its value only as part of a whole rhythm. Similarly, words are perceived in their entirety, not as a collection of letters. One of their founders, Wolfgang Köhler, proposed that these gestalt properties of object perception are encoded in electrochemical “brain-field[s]” that are isomorphic with “the field of a percept” [1]. The idea fell out of fashion when the underlying neuronal basis of brain function was discovered, as there did not seem to be any way of encoding fields within the discrete neuronal substructure of the brain. Nevertheless, the idea of some kind of NeuroSci 2021, 2, 291–304. https://doi.org/10.3390/neurosci2030021 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/neurosci