A nanotechnologist with Sweden’s Uppsala University has published a paper that proposes a new theoretical model for consciousness to be viewed not as a property generated from within the brain, but rather as a non-local phenomenon arising from a fundamental field that permeates the very fabric of reality. This idea reverses the mainstream notion that an inanimate universe needed to form before consciousness could emerge in more advanced lifeforms, and instead proposes that consciousness existed before the universe even came into being.

The article, titled “Universal consciousness as foundational field: A theoretical bridge between quantum physics and non-dual philosophy”, was authored by Uppsala University Professor of Materials Science Maria Strømme, and was featured on the cover of the November 2025 issue of AIP Advances as the best article of that issue.

The article discusses the concept of consciousness as an intrinsic property of the universe that is projected from a non-local fundamental field that underlies the universe itself, rather than being an emergent byproduct of biological brains, much like how the Higgs Field, a scalar field that underlies the very fabric of physical reality, imparts the phenomenon of mass to all mass-bearing particles in the universe.

This concept is far from new: human endeavors such as philosophy and religion have sought to reconcile consciousness with the universe as a whole throughout our species’ history, and has more recently been the subject of physicist Roger Penrose and anesthesiologist Stuart Hameroff’s theory of quantum consciousness, ‘orchestrated objective reduction’ (‘Orch OR’). But while Penrose and Hammeroff’s theory is largely focused on the structures that allow consciousness to manifest within the body—our internal antennae, if you will—Strømme’s paper discusses the flip-side of this concept: where would this non-local phenomenon originate, what might its properties look like, and what are the implications for consciousness—human and otherwise—be.

“This model suggests that the apparent separateness of individual consciousness is an illusion, with all experience ultimately arising from a unified, formless substrate,” Strømme states in the paper’s introduction. She goes on to point out that if consciousness is an intrinsic property of the universe, the existence of reality itself may rely on the presence of consciousness, “suggesting that consciousness interacts with physical processes as a fundamental field.”

“My ambition has been to describe this using the language of physics and mathematical tools,” Strømme said in an interview published on Phys.org. “Are these phenomena really mystical? Or is it simply that there is a discovery we have not yet made, and when we do it will lead to a paradigm shift?”

Strømme points out that understanding the nature of consciousness is now more important than ever due to the accelerated pursuit of increasingly advanced artificial intelligence: one of the paradoxes of the potential for consciousness to emerge from an advanced AI is that, considering we have no real way to prove that we humans are conscious, we would have no way of determining if a given computer program has actually achieved self-awareness, or is just parroting “I think, therefore I am” simply because it was programmed to say so.

“Generative AI systems, capable of producing human-like text, art, and even decision-making, compel us to confront fundamental questions: What distinguishes machine intelligence from human or universal consciousness?” Strømme’s paper asks. “How does consciousness emerge, and can it exist beyond biological substrates? Is AI simply mimicking thought, or could it eventually connect to deeper principles of consciousness?”

Regarding consciousness in general, Strømme’s paper explores her thesis through examining works ranging from the philosophical, such as Sydney Banks’ Three Principles (3Ps) of mind, consciousness, and thought, to physics concepts such as physicist John Archibald Wheeler’s Participatory Anthropic Principle, an idea positing that reality requires an observer to exist.

“I am a materials scientist and engineer, so I am used to seeing matter as something fundamental,” Strømme says of the concept her paper illustrates. “But according to this model, matter is secondary—much of what we experience is representation or illusion.” But while the content of the paper itself is rooted in both hard and theoretical physics, the metaphysical implications are apparent.

“The texts of the major religions—such as the Bible, the Koran, and the Vedas—often describe an interconnected consciousness,” she explained in the aforementioned interview. “Those who wrote them used metaphorical language to express insights about the nature of reality.

“Early quantum physicists, in turn, arrived at similar ideas using scientific methods. Now, it is time for hardcore science—that is, modern natural science—to seriously begin exploring this.”

While Strømme’s paper seeks to apply hard science to age-old concepts that link consciousness and reality, Whitley, along with co-author Jeffery Kripal, explore the idea that so-called supernatural events are simply natural phenomena that occur in normal reality—hence the title of their 2016 book, The Super Natural: A New Vision of the Unexplained.