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This article is the result of thought experiments on the nature of reality, combining quantum mechanics, neurobiology, and philosophy of consciousness into a unified worldview. We explore the hypothesis that time is multidimensional rather than one-dimensional, leading to a new understanding of the multiverse where all possible variants of events exist simultaneously in different temporal dimensions.

At the center of our research is the concept of the Perception Continuity Function (PCF), a minimal structure in the brain that maintains the basic sensation of “I am.” The PCF can be described as a quantum-mechanical system existing simultaneously across multiple timelines in the multiverse. This leads to the assumption that when the brain dies in one timeline, the PCF continues to exist in others — implementing a special form of “quantum perceptual immortality.”

Key Theses

Physics of Reality:

• Time is multidimensional — our timeline is just one trajectory in multidimensional temporal space
• The multiverse contains ~10^10^10^10timelines where all possible event variants are realized
• The entire multiverse is deterministic; quantum randomness is a perceptual effect of one temporal slice

Quantum Life:

• Quantum processes are active in living matter — from photosynthesis to brain neurons
• Ions in synapses (Ca²⁺, Na⁺) are quantum objects influencing thoughts and decisions
• Neuronal microtubules may support quantum states

Perception Continuity Function (PCF):

• PCF is the minimal core of consciousness, the basic sensation “I am” (not memory or personality)
• Replicated in the brain by thousands of independent neural circuits
• Exists as a quantum system smeared across a bundle of timelines
• Resistant to destruction due to replication both within one brain and across the multiverse

Transition Mechanism:

• Upon brain death, PCF replicas fade in our classical universe but continue in the multiverse
• Quantum evolution of each PCF replica’s wave function continues in nearby or distant timelines where the structure is preserved
• Structural matches in the multiverse are inevitable since the number of timelines is ~10¹⁰¹⁰¹⁰

Quantum Perceptual Immortality:

• PCF continues in other timelines/brains where the macrostructure of PCF is compatible
• Subjective probability of experience continuation ≈ 1 (there are always timelines where the wave function continues to evolve)
• This is not religious soul immortality — no memory or personality is preserved
• Only the minimal ability to experience “I am” continues

Disclaimer: Ethics and Boundaries of Knowledge

Many ideas presented here go beyond experimental verifiability in principle. Some models of modern physics exist only as mathematical constructs; they cannot only not be tested but are practically impossible to use for predicting experimental results. This does not make them meaningless — they can be created for their internal logic and beauty. Moreover, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

We clearly distinguish:

• What is experimentally confirmed (quantum mechanics, decoherence, quantum biology)
• What is logically compatible with known physics (multidimensional time, multiverse, PCF as macrostructure)
• What is a thought experiment (PCF transition between brains, quantum immortality)

The concept of “quantum perceptual immortality” and the perception continuity function (PCF) are philosophical models inspired by quantum mechanics and neurobiology. They do not guarantee preservation of memory, personality, quality of life, or transition to “favorable” timelines. There is no experimental evidence that PCF actually survives physical brain death. The model may be wrong.

It is unacceptable:

• Using these concepts to justify risky behavior or disregard for life
• “Testing” hypotheses in practice (results cannot be reported, and risks affect real people)
• Blaming yourself or others for illnesses/deaths (“timeline choice” is not controllable)
• Claiming that illness or death is a “manifestation” or conscious choice

Grief for loved ones remains a completely valid emotion. When a loved one dies in your timeline, you lose the opportunity to interact with them in your branch of reality. The fact that their consciousness may continue somewhere in the multiverse does not diminish your personal loss. Death breaks personal connections in your timeline, and this loss is real.

If this article provokes thoughts of harm to yourself or others, immediately contact a psychologist, doctor, or psychological help hotline. Your life in this timeline matters, and actions here affect real people.

I. INCEPTION

Recall your deepest dreamless sleep — when there was nothing. No images, no sounds, no thoughts. Just absence. And yet there was something. Because when you woke up in the morning, you understood that you had slept. You had passed through a period of time. You existed during those eight hours, though you remember not a second. What exactly continues when everything else disappears? There is something that feels continuous, constant. This feeling of presence, sensation of existence, the simple fact that you are experiencing life. Something that was with you in childhood, is now, and will be tomorrow. Something that remains even in deep dreamless sleep. What is it? Where is it stored? What is its structure? And the most provocative question — is it possible for it to survive the death of the body?

The main premise of this article is the hypothesis that deep in our brain there exists a minimal structure we call the Perception Continuity Function (PCF). This is not memory, not personality, not even self-awareness in the full sense. It is something more minimal. Simply the fact that there is a subject that perceives. Something that says: “I am.” Not “I remember my name” or “I know who I am,” but simply — “I am.”

The PCF can be described as a quantum-mechanical system obeying the wave function equation and existing simultaneously across multiple parallel realities — timelines of the multiverse. And from this follows another assumption: when your body dies in one timeline, the PCF does not disappear. It continues to exist in other timelines, in other brains, where physical conditions allow its realization.

In this article, we will go through 3 stages:

We will start by rethinking the nature of time and space. We will show that time is likely multidimensional, and our universe is just one of countless timelines in a vast multiverse. We will break down how quantum mechanics naturally leads to this worldview, and how quantum processes turn out to be critically important even for living systems.

We will define the PCF as the minimal core of consciousness, show its physical basis in the brain, and describe how it exists as a quantum system smeared across multiple timelines.

We will break down what happens at the quantum and neurobiological level. We will show how the quantum probability of subjective experience redistributes in the multiverse, following the evolution of the perception continuity wave function.

You will need openness to new ideas and willingness to temporarily set aside habitual beliefs. You don’t have to agree with everything you read. Try for a while to accept these ideas as a hypothesis and see where they might lead. Because at the end of this experiment, you may gain your own understanding, and it may change your view of life, death, and the very nature of existence.

II. MULTIDIMENSIONAL TIME AND BUNDLE OF TIMELINES

Let’s start with a fundamental question: how do we know that time is one-dimensional? The answer may surprise you — we don’t know, we assume it. When Einstein described the 4D space-time continuum, he postulated that time is a one-dimensional coordinate perpendicular to the three spatial axes. Three axes X, Y, Z for space, one axis T for time.

What prevents time from being two-dimensional? Five-dimensional? Or having as many temporal dimensions as spatial ones, or even more? Modern string theory — one of the main candidates for a “theory of everything” — postulates the existence of eleven dimensions. The traditional interpretation assumes that ten of them are spatial (with seven “compactified” to sizes smaller than an atom), and one is temporal. If out of 11 dimensions three are spatial, why should the remaining eight be spatial? Why not, for example, 3 spatial + 8 temporal?

Working Hypothesis 1: In our universe, there are three spatial dimensions and several temporal dimensions, and particles and fields are mathematical objects existing not only in space but also in multidimensional time. In multidimensional time, there can be axes T₁, T₂, T₃, T₄, T₅, …, forming temporal space, trajectories in which are timelines.

There exists a huge, possibly infinite, number of timelines that at the current “now” moment touch each other, forming a bundle like optical fibers in a cable. Our consciousness moves along the bundle of timelines from past to future. Each of us is in a superposition state in the subspace of nearby timelines. For each of us, this subspace is our own, and to some extent these subspaces overlap. In addition to the close bundle of timelines, there are many other temporal trajectories parallel to them, along which other versions of us move, with which we are not even in superposition. And in some of them, there are versions of us made of different particles.

The moment of time “now” is not a point on the arrow of time, but some cloud or even multidimensional subspace. The probability density of each wave function is smeared along several temporal axes, meaning the “now” point itself, conditionally speaking, looks a bit into the future and a bit into the past along each temporal axis. Possible variants exist in other directions of multidimensional time. Worldviews in timelines diverge as they move away from the common point. At the “now” point, they are maximally close to each other, almost touching. There are variants of future and past that are compatible with our current state but not located directly on our timeline. We perceive time as one-dimensional, but in reality, the arrow of time is a tangent to the bundle of timelines.

In quantum mechanics, there is an approach developed by Richard Feynman, where you calculate the probability of a particle going from point A to point B by integrating amplitudes over all possible trajectories between those points. All possible trajectories contribute to the final probability. Where do all these trajectories exist? In our model, each trajectory exists in its own timeline. The path integral is actually an integral over multiverse timelines.

In 1957, physicist Hugh Everett III proposed the “many-worlds interpretation” of quantum mechanics. According to Everett, the wave function never collapses. Instead, at each quantum event, the entire set of possible outcomes is realized. When you toss a quantum “coin” (e.g., measure an electron’s spin), in half the universes you see “heads” (spin up), in the other half “tails” (spin down). Both branches are equally real. Your consciousness just fixes one result in the branch where it is. From the perspective of the entire multiverse, both outcomes are inevitable — predetermined, just in different branches. Randomness arises only when we look from the perspective of one branch and don’t know in advance which one we will end up in after “splitting.”

Mathematically, this is expressed through the Schrödinger equation, which describes how the wave function of a quantum system evolves. A key property of this evolution is unitarity: the total norm of the wave function is preserved over time. This means that no “information” or “probability” disappears or arises from nothing. Everything that was in the initial state is preserved in the final one — just redistributed among different components of the wave function, i.e., between different timelines.

How many timelines exist in the multiverse? A conservative estimate based on the entropy of the observable Universe and quantum-mechanical degrees of freedom gives a number on the order of ∼10^10^10^10. This number is so vast that it is impossible to comprehend. For comparison:

• Number of atoms in the observable Universe: ∼10^80
• Number of stars: ∼10^24
• Age of the Universe in seconds: ∼4.4×10^17

The number of timelines surpasses all these scales by many orders of magnitude. This means that in the multiverse, literally all possible combinations of events compatible with the laws of physics are realized.

And one more hypothesis that grows from this picture: in the full multiverse, there is no “quantum” as a fundamental unit. There are only fields and waves. Continuous, infinitely divisible fields. But when you look at a field through the slit of one timeline — it looks discrete, as if composed of indivisible quanta. Each pixel on a monitor looks like an indivisible unit of light of one color. But if you look at the original photograph from which these pixels were created, you will find a continuous distribution of light and color. Pixels are an artifact of discretization, an artifact of projecting a continuous image onto a finite grid. The quantization of the classical universe may also be such an artifact.

For a long time, it was believed that the “warm and noisy” environment of the brain destroys quantum effects. However, discoveries of the last decades (Engel et al., 2007; Panitchayangkoon et al., 2010) have proven the existence of functional quantum coherence in biology — from photosynthesis to bird magnetoreception. In the brain, key candidates for carriers of quantum properties are ion channels and microtubules. Ions (Ca²⁺, Na⁺, K⁺) are quantum objects whose probability of passing through a channel is described by a wave function. The Penrose-Hameroff hypothesis and recent studies on the effects of anesthetics (Li et al., 2024) suggest that microtubules may act as quantum resonators, linking quantum processes to macroscopic neuronal activity. This refutes the old dogma of the impossibility of quantum effects in a biological environment and opens the way to understanding the PCF as a quantum system.

III. PERCEPTION CONTINUITY FUNCTION

There is an ancient paradox: if you replace all parts of a ship, is it still the same ship? The Ship of Theseus performed heroic voyages, and the Athenians decided to preserve it as a monument. But the planks rotted, the sails tore, the masts broke. Every time a part of the ship became unusable, it was replaced with a new one. After many years, not a single original plank remained. Is this still the Ship of Theseus?

The same question applies to a person: your body is continuously renewed, carbon, oxygen, hydrogen atoms — all of them are replaced with new ones, every decade most atoms in your body are replaced. Your memories are also not constant: every time you recall an event, you do not reproduce a saved recording — you reconstruct it anew, and in the process, details change. Memory is not a video recording but a constantly rewritten narrative. Your personality evolves. Beliefs change, character transforms. Look at a photo of yourself as a child. That person thought differently, felt differently, wanted different things. In what sense are you that person?

Let’s mentally start stripping away layers, moving from complex to simple.

Remove memory. Imagine a person with amnesia. They don’t remember their name, their past, their loved ones. But if they still perceive something — see light, hear sounds, feel touch — something remains. Some subject of perception is still there.

Remove language and abstract thinking. A baby in the first months of life does not possess language, cannot formulate thoughts in words. But they clearly experience something. They cry from pain, rejoice at a familiar face. There is someone experiencing this experience.

Remove self-awareness. You may not think about yourself, not reflect “who am I,” not formulate any thoughts about your own identity. But as long as you perceive something — color, sound, sensation — there is the fact of perception.

What remains at the very end when we remove everything else? Remains the basic sensation of existence. Not “I am Ilya” or “I remember yesterday,” but simply the fundamental “I am”. The fact of the presence of an experiencing subject. The quality of “being an observer.”

Working Hypothesis 2: In the brain, there exists a perception continuity function (PCF) — a minimal structure sufficient to maintain the subjective sensation “I exist.” This is what remains with us during deep dreamless sleep — a kind of minimum of what consciousness can be, minimum activity, minimum content, and still this is existence in the most fundamental sense.

We use the word “function” in two senses:

Neurobiological: PCF is a brain function, a biological process supporting the basic sensation of presence. Like breathing is a function of the lungs, PCF is a function of certain neural circuits.

Mathematical: PCF is a wave function in the quantum-mechanical sense, a mathematical description of a quantum system that evolves in time according to the Schrödinger equation.

As a quantum-mechanical system, the PCF is not in one definite state. It exists in superposition, smeared across multiple possible configurations. It exists not in one timeline but in multiple parallel timelines simultaneously. This is the key idea to which we will return again and again.

Where is this minimal structure of consciousness physically located? The PCF is a dynamic neurobiological macrostate distributed across several key brain areas. Structural basis of PCF:

• Neurons, axons, and dendrites — structural “wires” for signal transmission
• Synaptic clefts — spaces between neurons where chemical transmission occurs
• Neurotransmitters — mediator molecules (glutamate, GABA, acetylcholine)
• Ion configurations — specific placements of Ca²⁺, Na⁺, K⁺ ions in critical synapses

Important: these circuits in the brain are redundant. Multiple partially overlapping microconfigurations implement the same macrostructure. This is not one fragile chain of neurons that can be easily broken, but a resilient network with multiple replication.

How much “matter” is needed to maintain PCF? This is not billions of synapses encoding all your memories (there are ~10¹⁵ synapses in the brain). This is a relatively compact structure. Estimate:

• Neurons: on the order of 10⁵-10⁶ (hundreds of thousands to millions)
• Key synapses: on the order of 10⁷-10⁸
• Critical ion configurations: on the order of 10⁹-10¹² individual ions in specific positions

For comparison: the brain has ~9×10¹⁰ neurons. PCF requires only a small fraction (~0.001–0.01%) of the total number of neurons, but these neurons must be in the right places and properly connected.

Key point: ions in synapses are quantum objects. A calcium ion Ca²⁺ in the synaptic cleft has a wave function. It has a probabilistic distribution — it is not in one point but “smeared” in a cloud of probability. When a neurotransmitter opens an ion channel, the Ca²⁺ ion can tunnel through energy barriers, can be in superposition of “inside” and “outside” cell states.

These quantum effects are critical for synapse function. The slightest differences in the quantum state of ions can change:

• Probability of neurotransmitter release
• Strength of the synaptic signal
• Long-term plasticity (strengthening or weakening of connections)

And since PCF is based on neural activity structures that depend on synaptic transmission, which depends on ions — PCF inherits the quantum nature of its building blocks.

Many different microstates correspond to one macrostate of PCF. This property is called “coarse-graining.” You can shift one calcium ion a nanometer to the left, change the state of one synapse, replace one molecule with another — and the macrostructure “I am” will be preserved. The macro-level configuration matters, not the exact micro-level details.

Despite feeling yourself as a single, integral subject, at the neurobiological level, thousands of parallel neural models work in your brain, each representing the world slightly differently. Brain functions are multiply replicated, and the perception continuity function (PCF) also exists in multiple replicas.

Imagine a huge choir of a thousand performers. They all sing the same note in unison. Each voice is slightly different — one a bit louder, another quieter, one higher, one lower. But together they create a powerful, stable sound. So it is with PCF. Thousands of independent neural circuits simultaneously generate the “I am” pattern. Each circuit is a separate “voice” in the choir of consciousness. You don’t hear individual voices because they sing in perfect unison, synchronizing disparate neural ensembles into a single cognitive whole.

How many such replicas? Their number is measured in thousands or tens of thousands of independent circuits, each capable of supporting PCF. This redundancy is critically important for survival. If one replica is damaged, the system does not fail. The choir continues to sing. Your sensation of “I am” is preserved. It’s like if in an orchestra of a thousand musicians a few step away — the melody still plays. You won’t even notice the absence of a few voices.

When damage becomes extensive, more and more PCF replicas fade. The choir becomes quieter. The unison breaks. But as long as at least one replica remains, PCF persists, the person still realizes their existence. PCF is the minimal, most protected level of consciousness.

Where do all these thousands of replicas exist? Answer level one: in your brain, in different neural circuits. Answer level two opens when we recall multidimensional time and the multiverse: each PCF replica is a quantum system consisting of ions and molecules. And each ion exists not in one timeline but in multiple. In different multiverse timelines, this same ion is in slightly different quantum states.

This means that your full “self” is not what exists in one timeline, but an integral structure manifesting across multiple timelines.

So, time is not one-dimensional — it is a bundle of parallel timelines, like an optical fiber cable with thousands of light guides. At every “now” moment, there exist many nearly identical worlds differing only in microscopic details. In one timeline, a specific calcium ion in your synapse did not pass through the channel, in another — it did. The ion’s wave function describes the superposition of all these possibilities. The ion is literally in different places in different branches of reality.

Now imagine not one ion, but the entire PCF construction — each of the thousands of PCF replicas, all millions of ions in critical synapses — exists in superposition. At the macro level, in all these timelines, the same macrostructure “I am” is realized (macrostructures don’t care about exact microdetails). Like how a photo remains recognizable even if you shift a few pixels, the PCF macrostructure is preserved when changing microconfiguration within certain limits.

Thousands of replicas in one brain × trillions of timelines = astronomical number of parallel realizations of the same “I am” pattern. How many timelines contain your PCF — exactly yours, with the same ions in the same configurations? Even if requiring exact match down to every atom — the number is still astronomical:

• Number of people in one timeline (now + past + future): ~10¹¹-10¹⁵
• Number of timelines: ~ 10^10^10^10
• Number of potential PCF carriers across all timelines: practically infinite

At any moment, there exists a countless multitude of brains in the multiverse where a structure either functionally equivalent to at least one of your PCF replicas or fully made of exactly the same atoms, molecules, and ions as yours is realized.

We have built a picture:

• PCF is the minimal core of consciousness, basic “I am”
• It is replicated in thousands of circuits in the brain
• Each replica is a quantum system
• The entire structure is smeared across a huge number of timelines

Now we are ready to ask the main question: what happens to the PCF when the brain dies in one timeline? This is the topic of the next section — the most technical and most provocative in the entire article.

IV. TRANSITION MECHANISM

After cardiac arrest, the number of active PCF replicas begins to decline exponentially. From experimental data, half-life is τ​=​∼2−3 minutes. This means that every 2–3 minutes, half of the remaining replicas stop functioning.

Degradation Graph:

• t = 0 min: 10000 replicas (100%)
• t = 2 min: 5000 replicas (50%)
• t = 4 min: 2500 replicas (25%)
• t = 6 min: 1250 replicas (12.5%)
• t = 8 min: 625 replicas (6%)
• t = 10 min: ~300 replicas (3%)
• t = 12 min: ~150 replicas (1.5%)

By 10–12 minutes, only a tiny fraction of the initial choir remains. And then they fade too. What does consciousness experience in these minutes? The first seconds — probably nothing unusual. Consciousness still functions normally on residual energy. Then — gradual fading. The world becomes blurry. Thoughts slow down. Perception narrows, as if falling asleep. As more replicas fail, the choir becomes quieter. The unison breaks. Individual voices sound desynchronized. What happens to the quantum “probability” of subjective experience that was associated with this brain when the brain dies?

Two Scenarios:

Scenario 1: Survival in Parallel Timelines

In this timeline, the brain dies. But in neighboring timelines — where a quantum fluctuation went slightly differently, where doctors arrived a minute earlier, where the heart didn’t stop — this same brain continues to function. From the perspective of subjective experience, you find yourself in a timeline where you didn’t die. This is a narrow version of “quantum immortality.”

Scenario 2: Transition to Other Carriers

But what if in all available timelines this particular brain still dies? Say, the damage is too severe, the probability of survival is negligible in all close branches. Then the probability of subjective experience must redistribute to states where other brains have either compatible or identical PCF macrostructure (strict identity requires matching specific atoms, ions, and molecules). This is not teleportation in the physical sense. This is not transfer of matter or information. This is following subjective continuity to those segments of the wave function where the PCF macrostructure persists.

Important:

1. For compatibility of two PCFs, identity of individual atoms, ions, and molecules and their configurations at the macro level in different timelines is required.
2. Simple isomorphism of the quantum state of two PCFs is not enough, i.e., the same set of degrees of freedom in the same configuration realizing the same functional structure but with different atoms, ions, and molecules, since such isomorphism can be observed within one timeline.

V. QUANTUM PERCEPTUAL IMMORTALITY

In the multiverse, the Ship of Theseus paradox is resolved through scale: each of us is not one ship, but a fleet of millions of vessels constantly exchanging parts. In one person’s brain, thousands of nearly identical replicas of PCF synchronously generate the “I am” pattern. Each replica is a set of atoms and ions existing across multiple timelines. At the moment of death, these replicas redistribute across timelines, finding new compatible configurations.

From all this follows a fundamental conclusion: there are two levels of personal identity.

Level 1: “I in the timeline”

This is you, living in a specific variant of the multiverse, in a specific stream of events. You have specific memories, biography, role in the world, relationships with people. You are mortal at this level. At some point, the neurons of this specific body will die, all thousands of PCF voices in this brain will fall silent, and the structure will never return to this body. This “I in the timeline” is interrupted. When your loved ones grieve your death, they grieve precisely this level — the loss of the opportunity to interact with your specific personality in their timeline.

Level 2: “I between timelines”

This is your PCF as a process, as a structure that exists not in one brain but in multiple. This level can be called immortal, but not in the traditional religious sense.

It cannot completely cease because:

• The astronomical number of timelines ensures countless realizations of compatible structures
• The PCF macrostructure has low informational precision, facilitating matches

Somewhere, in some timeline, in some brain, a structure compatible or identical even to one of your PCF replicas will exist, and the basic ability to experience “I am” will be preserved.

“I between timelines” does not remember its journeys. Does not feel them. Each timeline seems like a separate, independent stream of life. But at a higher level — if you look at the entire multiverse as a whole — you can see a single distributed asynchronous structure of all perception continuity functions of all humanity, which exists almost everywhere, almost always.

Now we can more precisely formulate what “quantum immortality” is in our model.

This is NOT:

• Religious soul immortality with preservation of personality
• Preservation of memory and biography
• Reincarnation with karma
• Guarantee of favorable conditions
• Ability to “choose” good timelines or “manifest abundance”

This is:

• Ineliminability of the minimal ability to experience “I am”
• Continuation of PCF as a structure in the multiverse
• Redistribution of subjective experience probability to timelines with compatible structures

Subjective probability of experience continuation ≈ 1

Just as you inevitably find yourself in a universe where life is possible (because otherwise you wouldn’t exist to ask the question), you inevitably find yourself in a timeline where at least one of your PCF replicas continues.

Memory is not an archive of unchanging records but a process of active reconstruction prone to errors. In the context of the multiverse, phenomena like déjà vu, false memories, and the “Mandela effect” can be interpreted as traces of micro-transitions of PCF between close timelines. Memory unreliability smooths these joints, maintaining the illusion of continuity of a single timeline.

Provocative question: perhaps PCF transitions between timelines occur not only at death but during life? A choir of a thousand voices sounds almost the same even if one singer moves from one choir to a neighboring one. Subjectively, you don’t notice these fluctuations because the “I am” pattern persists. This is like a smooth transition between frames in a movie — if the transition is smooth enough, you see continuous motion.

Your sensation of “I” continuity is actually the continuity of the macrostructure continuously realized in slightly different microconfigurations, in slightly different timelines, with occasional exchange of individual replicas between close branches of the multiverse. During life, the choir of a thousand voices reliably holds you in a specific body and specific bundle of close timelines. At death, this choir disintegrates, and the structure transitions to a completely different body.

VI. CONCLUSION

After this thought experiment from multidimensional time through quantum biology to PCF transition mechanisms, it is important to return to solid ground and honestly assess where we are on the map between science and philosophy.

What is confirmed by science:

✓ Quantum mechanics and Schrödinger equation ✓ Unitarity of quantum evolution ✓ Everettian (many-worlds) interpretation as a logically consistent model ✓ Quantum processes in biological systems (photosynthesis, magnetoreception) ✓ Neuronal redundancy of critical brain functions

What is plausible but not proven:

✓ Multidimensional time as interpretation of extra dimensions in string theory ✓ PCF as minimal consciousness structure ✓ Quantum effects in neuronal microtubules (Penrose-Hameroff hypothesis)

What thought experiments can be conducted about:

✓ PCF transition between different brains upon structure matching

✓ Interpretation of Born measure as “density of subjective experience”

✓ Quantum perceptual immortality

✓ Influence of conscious attention on timeline selection

The model does not explain:

• Does not explain the origin of consciousness — where the ability to experience comes from at all
• Does not provide testable predictions — the central claim (PCF transition) is untestable by definition

If the model is correct: you are not a fragile candle that can be extinguished by the slightest breeze. You are a distributed resilient structure in the fabric of the multiverse that finds ways to continue. The minimal core of your consciousness, the basic “I am,” is indestructible within quantum mechanics.

How to act in a world where all possibilities are realized? What life strategy to choose? Intuitive understanding suggests living to maximize happiness level in your timeline for yourself and humanity, but multiverse mathematics dictates different logic.

1. Optimize not a specific timeline, but their totality In classical life, we often strive to maximize peak gain. But in the multiverse, chasing extreme success in one branch often creates fragility in neighbors. A trajectory giving absolute happiness in one world and catastrophe in 99% others is a bad strategy for a distributed observer. Strategy: Maximize not the peak, but the minimum. Create a level of well-being below which you will not fall in the subspace of nearest timelines.

2. Create energetically favorable attractors in state space Trying to control every decision is impossible — it requires infinite computational power. Instead of micromanaging actions, it is more effective to change the landscape of state space. Strategy: Don’t pave the route, create “pits” (attractors) into which the system rolls itself. Change the environment and habits so that the “right” choice becomes the most energetically favorable and inevitable in all close timelines.

3. Do not narrow the space of possibilities In the classical universe, we strive to hyperfocus on a goal. In the multiverse, early narrowing of possibilities is risky behavior, as it cuts off escape routes in case of unfavorable fluctuations. Strategy: Preservation of optionality (variability) is valuable in itself. If a decision at step t1t1​ makes 90% of future positive outcomes impossible, it is losing, even if it promises immediate reward. Whenever possible, don’t back yourself into a corner, even for a big goal.

Appendices

Appendix A: Key Scientific Sources

Quantum Biology:

• Engel, G. S., et al. (2007). “Evidence for wavelike energy transfer through quantum coherence in photosynthetic systems.” Nature, 446(7137), 782–786.
• Panitchayangkoon, G., et al. (2010). “Long-lived quantum coherence in photosynthetic complexes at physiological temperature.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(29), 12766–12770.
• Lambert, N., et al. (2013). “Quantum biology.” Nature Physics, 9(1), 10–18.

Quantum Consciousness:

• Penrose, R., & Hameroff, S. (2014). “Consciousness in the universe: A review of the ‘Orch OR’ theory.” Physics of Life Reviews, 11(1), 39–78.
• Tegmark, M. (2000). “Importance of quantum decoherence in brain processes.” Physical Review E, 61(4), 4194.
• Stapp, H. P. (2023). “Quantum Theory and the Role of Mind in Nature.” Foundations of Physics.
• Li, M., et al. (2024). “Anesthetic gases target the quantum-optical properties of microtubules.” eNeuro, 11(8), ENEURO.0291–24.2024.

Many-Worlds Interpretation:

• Everett III, H. (1957). “‘Relative state’ formulation of quantum mechanics.” Reviews of Modern Physics, 29(3), 454.
• DeWitt, B. S. (1970). “Quantum mechanics and reality.” Physics Today, 23(9), 30–35.
• Wallace, D. (2012). “The Emergent Multiverse: Quantum Theory according to the Everett Interpretation.” Oxford University Press.
• Linde A., Vanchurin V. (2009). “How many universes are in the multiverse?” https://arxiv.org/abs/0910.1589

Multiverse and Cosmology:

• Tegmark, M. (2009). “The Multiverse Hierarchy”.
• Carroll, S. M. (2019). “Something Deeply Hidden: Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime.” Dutton.

Philosophy of Consciousness and Identity:

• Parfit, D. (1984). “Reasons and Persons.” Oxford University Press.
• Chalmers, D. J. (1995). “Facing up to the problem of consciousness.” Journal of Consciousness Studies, 2(3), 200–219.
• Dennett, D. C. (1991). “Consciousness Explained.” Little, Brown and Company.

Appendix B: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q: How does this model relate to religious ideas of soul and afterlife?

A: The model offers a framework based on physics, not requiring supernatural elements. It is compatible with some spiritual teachings on consciousness continuity but interprets it through quantum mechanics. Everyone is free to understand these ideas through the prism of their beliefs. The model neither refutes nor proves religious concepts — it simply offers an alternative language of description.

Q: If I exist in multiple timelines, which one of me is the “real” one?

A: All versions are equally real from the multiverse perspective. Subjectively, you experience only one branch at a time. The “real” one is the one asking the question now.

Q: Can one learn to consciously switch between timelines?

A: If the influence exists, it is mediated by uncontrollable quantum processes. The quantum Zeno effect suggests possible weak influence of attention on quantum evolution.

Q: Why don’t I remember past lives if PCF transitions between bodies?

A: Memory is not transferred. PCF is only the minimal core of consciousness, basic “I am,” without content. Memories require specific neural configurations that are not reproduced during transition. This is not reincarnation in the traditional sense.

Appendix C: Glossary of Terms

Hilbert space — infinite-dimensional mathematical space used in quantum mechanics to describe all possible states of a quantum system.

Decoherence — process of loss of quantum coherence due to interaction with the environment. Creates classically distinguishable timelines from quantum superpositions. Occurs in ~10⁻²⁰ sec at biological temperatures.

Quantum entanglement — phenomenon where quantum states of two or more particles remain correlated regardless of distance between them.

Born measure — square of the probability amplitude modulus (∣ci∣2∣ci​∣2), determining the “weight” or “density” of subjective experience in a specific timeline.

Multiverse — totality of all parallel universes or timelines. In our model — the full structure of multidimensional time with all possible histories (~10^10^10^10 timelines).

Timeline — one specific trajectory in multidimensional time. Represents one “branch” of reality from countless possibilities.

Unitarity — property of quantum evolution where the total norm of the wave function is preserved. Means measure cannot disappear or arise from nothing.

Perception Continuity Function (PCF) — minimal neural/quantum structure necessary to maintain subjective sensation of existence “I am.” Root element of consciousness that can persist during transitions between timelines.

Author: Ilya Tegmark.

Acknowledgments: To all scientists, philosophers, and thinkers whose works inspired this research. From Everett and Einstein to Penrose and Hawking.

December 7, 2025 First edition