The Baseless Fabric of this Vision

The title of this book is taken directly from Shakespeare's play The Tempest where Prospero qualifies this "baseless fabric" with a vivid description by later exclaiming that: "We are such stuff as dreams are made upon." With this passage, Shakespeare is conveying two deep insights. First, 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. How he arrived at these insights was through a single, liberating, epiphanic revelation; a direct perception into the Unity of the Sublime. Through a rare "way of knowing," in a fleeting and rare moment, one may achieve an unshakeable understanding as regards the very nature and ground of reality and come to know themselves as One with the universe. Some might call this altered state of consciousness "mystical," but it is more accurately understood philosophically, as a particular "mode of givenness" called Epiphany. However, given that few people are privy to this rare "way of knowing," we must turn instead to the foundations of physics, our deepest physical theory to express it as this very same insight is to be discovered at its bottom. As this book will show, a realistic, fields interpretation of Quantum Field Theory makes just such a claim as it places matter on the same footing as that of light by revealing the true nature of reality as wholly immaterial; to use Shakespeare's term - baseless. It shows that matter arises from processes, dynamics, and structures, that are not themselves material, and that the genuine essence of light and matter is borne of immaterial, 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." Armed with these insights - the immateriality of reality and the fundamentality of consciousness - we are prepared to put forward a theory regarding it: consciousness is a property of space, a timeless, infinite-in-extent, physically actual, wholly immaterial, field. It is an always-already "there" characteristic of the void-vacuum/quantum foam. A property patiently lying in wait for sufficiently complex systems - living organisms with their own kind of élan vital - to arise from and activate it. How to arrive at this picture will require a deep dive into quantum theory, and as we proceed, we will acquire many novel insights into the nature of Reality. Finally, I am aware that talk of quantum theory and consciousness is a taboo subject, as it often involves bringing in notions of the supernatural, paranormal, and other pseudo-scientific nonsense. However, the mysticism previously alluded to is founded upon actual transcendental experience, not illegitimate faith or belief. Regardless, it should be seen as 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.