Some Scientists Continue to Explore Consciousness Outside the Bounds of Medieval Science
I was reading this article on Phys.org, and was happy to see that the scientific community—or at least some of it—is continuing to explore the nature of consciousness beyond the confines of the Newtonian view of the world.
Maria Strømme’s new theory proposes something both radical and strangely familiar: that consciousness is not an emergent property of matter, but the underlying ground from which matter, space, time, and even life arise. In other words, rather than the brain producing consciousness, consciousness produces the universe we experience.
For thousands of years, this has been the quiet hum beneath mystical traditions. Now, physics is beginning to gesture in that direction—not from belief or metaphysics, but from mathematical models that refuse to keep consciousness as a latecomer in a mechanical cosmos.
Strømme’s work positions consciousness as a field, an ontological bedrock. What we call particles, forces, and the physical world are modulations or condensations within this field. This opens the door to reinterpreting experiences that have long been dismissed—such as near-death experiences, telepathy, and states of unity or timeless awareness—as natural expressions of a deeper fabric rather than anomalies or hallucinations.
What intrigues me is not the sensational possibility of “explaining” mystical experiences. It’s that science is inching toward something that dissolves the historical split between the subjective and the objective, the inner and the outer, the observer and the observed. The wall between physics and phenomenology is becoming increasingly porous.
In the Newtonian worldview, consciousness is an afterthought—a byproduct of chemical processes happening inside a skull. But in every genuine inner exploration—whether through meditation, inquiry, contemplative prayer, or the direct experience of essential presence—consciousness reveals itself not as a side-effect, but as the ground of knowing, the very medium in which reality appears.
This doesn’t mean turning science into mysticism or mysticism into science. It means recognizing that the world is far stranger, more intimate, and more interconnected than a mechanical model could ever contain.
- What would it mean if the universe is conscious all the way down?
- What would it mean if awareness is not inside us, but we are inside awareness?
- What becomes possible when science begins to frame consciousness not as an illusion, but as the root of reality itself?
If this direction continues—and I suspect it will—it may shift the conversation from “How does the brain produce consciousness?” to “How does consciousness produce the brain?” That inversion changes everything.
If you’d like to explore these questions in a direct, experiential way—not just philosophically, but phenomenologically—I’m available. This is the heart of the work I do as a Diamond Approach teacher: guiding people into the living experience of consciousness as the ground of being, the source of presence, and the intimate field in which everything arises.
John Harper is a Diamond Approach® teacher, Enneagram guide, and student of human development whose work bridges psychology, spirituality, and deep experiential inquiry. His newest book, Nurturing Essence: A Compass for Essential Parenting, invites parents to discover the role essence plays in child development. He is also the author of The Enneagram World of the Child: Nurturing Resilience and Self-Compassion in Early Life and Good Vibrations: Primordial Sounds of Existence, available on Amazon.