I myself am a believer in the God Head/Trinity of the “Father, Son, Holy Spirit” as stated in the Holy Bible.
I cannot speak to Hameroff or Penrose’s beliefs, but the theory only offers a physical process that can connect our mind/consciousness/Soul to the quantum universe which I believe could very well be The “Heavens” where the biggest part of God resides.
Look at the Old Rabbi’s thought’s about the beginnings of our universe, specifically their ideas on what happened before the creation event, the great “Tzimtzum” or “Contraction”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzimtzum
I also believe the ideas expressed in the “Sefirot”,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sefirot
are very similar to the ideas expressed in modern string theory which has 10 to 11 dimension “or 10 to 11 emanations in the Sefirot”, depending upon who you reference.
Now on to your Spiritual questions.
“WHY did they need to have their hands ON them”
I am not sure if the laying on of hands is required for someone to receive the “Holy Spirit” those at Pentecost do not mention the laying on of hands, and what about Paul on the road to Damascus.
“HOW does this “receiving of the Holy Ghost” (or Holy Spirit) interact with our mind and change our mind, our thinking?”
In light of what Hameroff proposes, I believe the “Holy Spirit” connects to the body/mind/soul through each of the body’s cells’ “cytoskeleton”, think about the instant healings of Jesus, something had to be going on at the cellular level for these miracles to happen.
But the real action takes place inside the “Neuron’s” micro tubules that form the neuron’s cytoskeleton.