Description of Benveniste’s Experiments Using Quantum-Like Probabilities

Abstract

Benveniste’s experiments (also known as “memory of water” or “digital biology” experiments) remain unresolved. In some research areas, which have in common the description of cognition mechanisms and information processing, quantum-like statistical models have been proposed to address problems that were “paradoxical” in a classical frame. Therefore, the outcomes of the cognitive state of the experimenter were calculated for a series of Benveniste’s experiments using a quantum-like statistical model (i.e. a model inspired by quantum physics and taking into consideration superposition of quantum states, non-commutable observables, and contextuality). Not only were the probabilities of “success” and “failure” of the experiments modeled according to their context, but the emergence of a signal from background was also taken into account. For the first time, a formal framework devoid of any reference to “memory of water” or “digital biology” describes all the characteristics of these disputed results. In particular, the difficulties encountered by Benveniste (reproducibility of the experiments, disturbances after blinding) are simply explained in this model without additional ad hoc hypotheses. It is thus proposed that we see Benveniste’s experiments as the result of quantum-like probability interferences of cognitive states.

Keywords: Memory of water—quantum cognition—quantum-like probabilities—entanglement—experimenter effect—contextuality —nonlocal interactions