Tom, Alex, Fred:

Brain sientists Bill Calvin, in his book "How Brains Think" lays out the following hierarchy of persistent levels of organization in the human mind on page 37 in a cartoon-like diagram.

Starting below the ground (below consciousness) and working their way up they are:

Quantum Mechanics
Chemical Bonds
Bio Chemistry
Membranes
Synapses
Nerve Cells

Above ground are:

Consciousness (Which he describes as being, insight and bonding)
And at the top is the whimsical "Love is blind".

He states that quantum mechanics is to consciousness as spark plugs are to traffic jams. He suggests that the mind might be seen as something like a crystal, just ordinary matter like everything else temporarily organized in some complicated way - that ceases to have those properties if that organization is changed, as in injury or death.

Just thought this was interesting.

Margaret