You can't have massive paradigmatic disruption in the Standard Model without someone completely flipping the chessboard upside down, so let's give this a shot:
Consciousness as the foundation: New theory addresses nature of reality
Nov 2025, phys.org
Consciousness comes first, and structures such as time, space and matter arise afterwards.The theory is based on the idea that consciousness constitutes the fundamental element of reality, and that individual consciousnesses are parts of a larger, interconnected field.In this model, phenomena that are now perceived as "mysterious" - such as telepathy or near-death experiences - can be explained as natural consequences of a shared field of consciousness."My ambition has been to describe this using the language of physics and mathematical tools. 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?"
via Uppsala University: Maria Strømme, Universal consciousness as foundational field: A theoretical bridge between quantum physics and non-dual philosophy, AIP Advances (2025). DOI: 10.1063/5.0290984
You still good? Ok let's get to it.
First, and more importantly than the article above, please have some consideration for Michael Shermer's invocation of Carl Sagan's Baloney Detector Kit [link], wherein we are presented the maxim, albeit of nebulous origin, that "It's good to have an open mind, but not so open that your brain falls out."
With that in mind, let's take a look at Ms Maria Strømme, the single author of this paper. First impression? Plastic surgery. Sure I'm a superficial asshole - look I'm not the one claiming to be a scientist here. Second impression? The article was retracted in 2026 because "a central operator in the theory had no associated measurable quantity and that the theory's predictions could not be empirically verified or falsified." [link] Got it. I'll stick with Modified Newtonian Dynamics. Just kidding, that was squashed too, just this year.
Post Script:
Dream engineering can help solve 'puzzling' questions: Study offers insights to optimizing sleep
Feb 2026, phys.org
All these years I have never seen a study that uses dreams show ip in the science aggregators.
The researchers recruited 20 people who had experiences with lucid dreaming, the state of being aware of dreaming when they are dreaming.Upon arriving at the lab, participants tried to solve a set of brain-teaser puzzles within a three-minute time limit per puzzle, each puzzle having its own unique soundtrack. Because the solutions to the puzzles were difficult to find, most of the puzzles went unsolved. Then the research team set up polysomnographic recordings to measure the physiology of participants as they slept overnight in the lab.During periods of REM sleep, the scientists presented soundtracks from 50% of the unsolved puzzles, with the aim of reactivating these puzzles selectively. Several participants performed signals agreed upon before sleep, such as a series of in-out sniffs, to indicate that they heard the cues presented and were working on the corresponding puzzles in their dreams.By presenting sounds during sleep that reminded study participants of a prior experience of trying to solve a specific puzzle, a method known as targeted memory reactivation (TMR), the scientists were able to encourage participants to have more dreams about randomly selected unsolved puzzles."Even without lucidity, one dreamer asked a dream character for help solving the puzzle we were cueing. Another was cued with the 'trees' puzzle and woke up dreaming of walking through a forest. Another dreamer was cued with a puzzle about jungles and woke up from a dream in which she was fishing in the jungle thinking about that puzzle."
via Northwestern U Paller Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory: Creative problem-solving after experimentally provoking dreams of unsolved puzzles during REM sleep, Neuroscience of Consciousness (2026). DOI: 10.1093/nc/niaf067 doi.org/10.1093/nc/niaf067
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