In June 2026, the journal Frontiers in Pain Research published a hypothesis that challenged the traditional understanding of chronic primary pain. The authors—Muhammad Khatib, Dror Robinson, and Mustafa Yassin from the Rabin Medical Center in Israel—proposed looking for the cause of pain not in inflammation or sensitization, but in a disruption of bioelectromagnetic coherence at the boundary between consciousness and neural tissue. Their argument is based on magnetoencephalography data demonstrating thalamocortical dysrhythmia in patients with chronic pain, as well as on Johnjoe McFadden's theory of the conscious electromagnetic field, one of the leading proponents of electromagnetic theories of consciousness.
This hypothesis radically overturns the dominant pain model, where the symptom arises as a consequence of peripheral signals and central sensitization. The authors instead view a disruption of electromagnetic coherence as the primary event capable of initiating cascades of cytokines and neuroinflammation. They support their position by referencing the transmissive theory of consciousness proposed by William James in his 1898 lecture "Human Immortality," where the brain is seen not as the creator, but as a filter of consciousness—just as a prism does not create color but merely decomposes it. The authors see additional confirmation in data on photobiomodulation, which reduces pain by restoring electromagnetic coherence and activating cellular energy.
Methodologically, the work is a theoretical analysis without new experimental data. The authors openly acknowledge the falsifiability of their constructs but do not provide controlled studies that would directly prove a causal link between dysrhythmia and subjective pain experience. Existing observations—changes in heart rate variability, ultraweak photon emission—remain at the correlation level, requiring further verification.
McFadden's theory starts from the premise that the brain's endogenous electromagnetic field integrates information and exerts a feedback influence on the generation of action potentials by affecting ion channels. When this field loses coherence, the subjective experience of pain may persist even after peripheral pathology has resolved. This formulation touches upon the fundamental question of the neural correlates of consciousness: not just the presence of activity in the brain, but its spatiotemporal organization and electromagnetic structure determine the phenomenal content of experience.
Imagine a radio receiver picking up static instead of a clear signal: the station continues to broadcast, but the receiver distorts the sound. Similarly, when bioelectromagnetic coherence is disrupted, the brain may "decode" normal signals in a distorted way, generating a persistent sensation of pain without obvious structural tissue damage.
The article raises a fundamental question: to what extent can modern neuroscience explain the subjective aspect of pain without reducing it to molecular and cellular mechanisms? If this hypothesis finds empirical support, it will reorient therapeutic strategies—from suppressing inflammation to restoring electromagnetic coherence through photobiomodulation, magnetotherapy, and other methods of direct impact on the brain's bioelectromagnetic fields.
The work illustrates a crucial shift in understanding the boundaries between neural activity and conscious experience—a shift that will define the development of clinical practice and the philosophy of consciousness science in the coming years.
