December 2025
A new hypothesis by physicist Maria Strømme says consciousness is fundamental and gives rise to matter –– not the other way around. Individual consciousness doesn’t die when the body does, per the theory.
ILLUSTRATION Slide from Maria Strømme’s article.
Journal AIP Advances published a paper by Norwegian–Swedish materials science professor Maria Strømme positing that consciousness is fundamental, and that it gives rise to space, time and matter. Her model is based on mathematics and quantum physics, but she also makes religious references. The journal’s inclusion of her hypothesis is rare for such a publication and it signifies a shift to openness for post-materialist evidence.
The paper is an attempt to close the gap between natural science and spirituality, which is reflected in the title, “Universal Consciousness as a Foundational Field: A theoretical bridge between quantum physics and non-dual philosophy.”
In the introduction, Strømme points out that the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) highlights the “urgent need for a scientific understanding of consciousness that integrates its universal and individual aspects. ” She goes on to say, “What distinguishes machine intelligence from human or universal consciousness? How does consciousness emerge, and can it exist beyond biological substrates?” … “Without such understanding, the rise of AI risks deepening existential uncertainty and ethical dilemmas,” she wrote.
Strømme leans on the model of philosopher Sydney Banks, in which mind represents the universal creative intelligence, and consciousness represents “the universal capacity for awareness, enabling all forms to be perceived and experienced” through thought.
This is aligned not only with spiritual traditions such as Advaita Vedanta and Buddhism, but also with emerging ideas in physics, according to the article. The quantum vacuum is understood as containing the potential for all physical phenomena. A growing body of research has provided insights into how physical, “classical,” reality emerges from a deeper, quantum foundation.
Strømme integrates Banks’ model with quantum mechanics and field theory and proposes a mathematical framework for consciousness.
The framework is a basis for understanding how the physical world around us emerges and how we can have subjective experiences. It postulates that consciousness is nonlocal, which in turn explains phenomena we perceive as “mysterious,” such as telepathy and Near-Death Experiences (NDEs). It also indicates that our individual consciousness doesn’t cease when we die but re-emerges into the universal field of consciousness it once originated from.
Strømme’s article serves as an overview of the division between materialist science and metaphysical philosophy, and it sheds light on the crux of the division, namely what philosopher David Chalmers called “the hard problem of consciousness” (the difficulty to scientifically explain subjective experience).
“Bridging this divide is not merely an academic exercise; it is essential for creating a holistic understanding of reality,” Strømme writes.
The last section suggests how the model can be tested with experiments, for instance the theorized nonlocal character of consciousness. “Subjective experience is deeply interconnected with the fundamental structure of reality, challenging conventional materialist paradigms,” the paper says.
Strømme notes that texts in major religions such as the Bible, the Quran or the Vedic texts, often describe a coherent consciousness.
“Those who wrote them used metaphors. Early quantum physicists drew similar conclusions with scientific methods,” she says in a press article for Uppsala university.
Quantum physicist and philosopher David Bohm’s theory of an implicate and an explicate order is particularly highlighted in Strømme’s paper.
“It’s time modern natural science starts exploring this seriously.”
Strømme points out that her hypothesis is “a preliminary scaffold” and that refinements can enhance its alignment with established physical theories.
Written by Anders Bolling
Edited by Liza Horan
