The Baseless Fabric of this Vision: A Quantum-Field-Theoretic Model of Consciousness

The title of this book comes from The Tempest, one of Shakespeare's final plays. In it, the character Prospero remarks on the essence of existence by calling it a "baseless fabric." He goes on to qualify it with the phrase "We are such stuff as dreams are made upon." With this passage, Shakespeare conveys two deep insights. First, that the ground of reality lacks substantiality. That it is formed of a tapestry lacking a base and is a substance without foundation. Second, with the reference to 'Vision, ' that consciousness is fundamental. He arrived at this insight through a liberating epiphany. Through a rare "way of knowing," whose result is a direct perception into the Nature and Unity of the Sublime. Here, in the Now, one arrives at an unshakeable knowledge about their own divinity. Where they come to know themselves as interconnected to the whole of existence. In fact, supporting its actuality. Few have been privy to this "mystical," altered state of consciousness and guiding people to it has proven difficult. Luckily, modern physics provides us with a model that may explain this timeless spiritual truth. Quantum field theory illustrates in a profound way the Unity of reality. Quantum theory reveals the universe to be an ocean of energy. It places matter and light on the same footing by showing that the true nature of reality is wholly immaterial. To use Shakespeare's term - it is "baseless." Matter is not what it seems. It arises from processes, dynamics, and structures, that are not themselves material. It is of the same, genuine essence of light as it is also borne of immaterial - inherently massless - fields. Essentially, quantum field theory reveals matter as a kind of illusion. For as it turns out, its most vivid property - solidity - arises from the same "stuff as dreams are made upon." With the immateriality of reality and the fundamental nature of consciousness guiding us, we can put forward a theory concerning it. Consciousness is a property of space. It is a timeless, infinite-in-extent, physically actual, yet wholly immaterial, field. It is an always-already "there" characteristic of the void-vacuum. A permanently present yet not always actualized property of the quantum foam. Consciousness is an eternal characteristic of nothingness that patiently lies in wait for sufficiently complex systems - living organisms with their own kind of élan vital - to arise from and activate it. Throughout the book we will explore how quantum theory bears this out. I am aware that talk of quantum theory and consciousness is a taboo subject as considerations of both often involve notions of the supernatural, paranormal, or other pseudo-scientific nonsense. A trap I wish to avoid. As I will show, neither faith nor belief ground the mysticism previously alluded to. Rather, phenomenological experience that is lived through does. And besides, it is self-evident that consciousness and quantum fields are intrinsic to the reality in which we live. They both exist, and as such, *must* relate, even if we do not yet know how. Now, I ask you to turn the page and consider a novel metaphysics.