Through the Looking Glass: How to Understand Electromagnetic Phenomena, Including Neural Oscillations

A person viewing electric charges or magnets moving at a constant velocity does not see that the moving electric charges or magnets are at rest in a coordinate system moving at a constant velocity v relative to the stationary coordinate system in which the human observer is located. A person considers the electric charges or magnets in the same coordinate system in which the person finds himself at rest and that the charges or magnets are moving in his coordinate system. In special relativity, the truth is that the moving charges and magnets are indeed at rest in a coordinate system moving at a constant velocity v relative to the coordinate system in which the human observer sees himself at rest. With this understanding, one explains correctly how electromagnetic phenomena transform from the human observer’s coordinate system to the coordinate system moving with velocity v relative to the human observer’s coordinate system, thus establishing the invariance of Maxwell’s Laws for these coordinate systems and the principle of relativity for electromagnetic phenomena. This understanding also explains how an electric charge moving with constant velocity v in a coordinate system can experience an electric field associated with a magnet at rest in the coordinate system in which the electric charge is moving. Maxwell’s Laws explain all electromagnetic phenomena. Neural oscillations rely on local cell assemblies with local electric field potentials and local magnetic fields and thus are electromagnetic phenomena explained by Maxwell’s Laws. We in the “stationary” coordinate system just do not see the looking glass that is the “moving” coordinate system, because this coordinate system is not material but instead is a logical, cognitive construction. We just see the material electric charge and the material magnet moving or at rest. Neural oscillations are subject to the coordinate transformations described in this paper and may well involve logic and cognition that provide a platform that allow these oscillations to be the interface between mental and physical phenomena. The nature of these coordinate transformations could well support the following empirically supported associations: 1) a positive association between coherent oscillating electric fields arising from the brain and coherence in cognition, including memory, that manifests itself in conscious experience, 2) a positive association between incoherent oscillating electric fields arising from the brain and incoherence in cognition, including memory, that manifests itself in conscious experience, and 3) in certain situations it is possible to apply coherent oscillating electric fields on the surface of the skull which can decrease incoherence in oscillating electric fields arising from the brain and that are positively associated with increased coherent cognition, including memory, that manifests itself in conscious experience.