Where does the “physical” world come from? Matter in its smallest observable form-atoms that constantly appear and disappear. The idea that physical matter is born from a non-physical realm, such as a “quantum vacuum” or “void,” or something else we do not know about, is not new. Nikola Tesla himself believed that “all tangible matter comes from the primary substance that fills all space, or the light-bearing ether, which is acted upon by a life-giving creative force, causing all things and phenomena to exist in infinite cycles.
An article published by Parahamsa Tewari in Physics Essays addresses this question:
“A century from now it will be well known that: the vacuum of space filling the universe is itself the real foundation of the universe; the vacuum in a state of circulation becomes matter; the electron is the fundamental particle of matter and is a vortex of vacuum with a vacuumless void at its center, and it is dynamically stable; the speed of light relative to vacuum is the maximum speed provided by nature and is an inherent property of vacuum; vacuum is a thin liquid, unknown in material media; vacuum is massless, n . Scientists, engineers, and philosophers will then bow their heads in shame, knowing that modern science has ignored the vacuum in our pursuit of knowledge of reality for more than a century.”
This non-physical “field” may also be dark energy, we don’t know or fully understand it, but we know it exists. A declassified document from the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency said this,
“We don’t understand why it exists or how it is created; we just know that it provides an ever-present force on spacetime, causing the universe to expand.” Indeed, recent high-precision experimental observations suggest that dark energy may be the cosmological energy of the vacuum.”
So, if our material world is born out of this non-material “stuff,” does consciousness play a role? This is interesting to ponder, especially given the fact that consciousness is not a physical thing or the result of any known physical process or biology. You can’t define or find the source of consciousness in the brain. Even at the quantum level, it has been known that factors associated with consciousness alter the behavior of matter, such as photons, suggesting that matter itself may be a consciously thinking substance.
Does this mean that all “physical” things possess some type of consciousness? After all, photons don’t have a brain? What about plants? There is growing evidence that plants act and act in ways that suggest they are thinking beings, capable of experiencing feelings, emotions, sensations, and thoughts.
If consciousness can have this effect on matter and is a non-physical property that exists in all physical things, can it somehow be responsible for the creation of reality?
This topic has long been discussed within the framework of quantum physics. In fact, the discussion of “ether,” this non-physical, indescribable “matter,” has been the subject of speculation for thousands of years. Plato wrote about the ether in his work “Phaedo” and explained how life exists in it. He believed that what air is to us is to them ether. Is the ether alive? Is the universe itself, which may consist largely of this non-physical material, a conscious living entity?
You cannot explain consciousness in terms of existing fundamental concepts such as space, time, mass and charge. As a result, it is more logical to assume whether consciousness itself is something fundamental to the existence of reality in order to view consciousness itself as one of these fundamental components.
“Why do you insist that the universe is not a conscious intelligence if it generates conscious intelligences?” Cicero, c. 44 B.C.
Another scholarly work has appeared which argues that “observers” are responsible for defining physical reality, and that conscious observers themselves generate and create the structures of time and space.
It is interesting to ponder here that if this is true, it applies to all “observers” in the universe itself, not just humans. It reminds us of the double “door” experiment, where tiny particles of matter come through the passage, forming what is called a wave pattern of probabilities and possibilities, but when an observer is introduced, the wave function collapses.
One of the paper’s authors, Robert Lanza, said that observers can dramatically affect the “behavior of observed quantities” on both microscopic and huge spacetime scales. In fact, a “profound shift in our ordinary everyday worldview” is needed. The world is not something that is formed outside of us, simply existing by itself. “Observers ultimately determine the structure of physical reality itself.”
How does this work? Lanza argues that a network of observers is necessary and “inherent in the structure of reality.” As he explains, observers-you, me, and everyone else-live in a quantum gravitational universe and arrive at a “globally consistent cognitive model” of reality by exchanging information about the properties of space-time. “Because as soon as you measure something,” Lanza writes, “the probability wave of measuring the same value of an already measured physical quantity becomes ‘localized,’ or simply ‘collapsed.’ This is how reality becomes invariably real for all of us. If you continue to measure a quantity over and over again, knowing the result of the first measurement, you will find that the result will be the same.
The implications of this have always been, and continue to be, very significant. The idea that consciousness itself is the basis of reality implies that it must have played an integral role in the creation of reality, that consciousness itself must have existed before physical material reality was born. One can go on and on pondering such things as: if consciousness is fundamental to the creation of physical matter, then what created consciousness itself? Where did consciousness itself come from? Does existence itself have a beginning? Can the future change the past, can the past change the future?
Who knows, but the most important thing to learn here is that consciousness itself is the basis for creating our physical experience. If we want to change the world, ultimately we must change the way we think, feel and perceive. This is a key factor that is directly related to the kind of human experience we create for ourselves.
This may be why it sometimes seems that the greatest resource for influential people, politicians and corporations is the human consciousness itself. If we determine which direction humanity is headed simply by what we think and feel, just imagine what someone could do if they could manipulate that aspect within us? The state of the world today is, as some have said, chaotic, and this may be a direct result of the collective mind and heart not being in a state of unity.
You might say, “We are scattered all over the world. We are divided by our beliefs and cannot come together in a state of understanding and harmony. This collective state of being, in turn, creates a physical experience that reflects this, which is what we observe today and have observed throughout human history.
