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This article will be useful for those who have completed or are considering taking the “Energy Fields. Ra-Fields” course - Description of all paid School courses
Roger Penrose is a British mathematician and mathematical physicist, one of the most renowned thinkers of the 20th and 21st centuries in the fields of general relativity, cosmology, and the nature of consciousness. He was born on August 8, 1931, in Colchester, England.
A friend of Stephen Hawking.
This article presents Roger Penrose’s thoughts.
You Are Not Made of Particles. You Are a Pattern of the Universe
We are used to thinking of ourselves as something solid and separate.
As a body made up of atoms.
As a collection of tiny particles: electrons, protons, neutrons, quarks—as if, somewhere deep within the world, there were little building blocks of existence from which everything else was assembled.
This picture is convenient. It has firmly entered school textbooks, popular science films, and our very imagination. But modern physics shows that this picture is too crude and too simplified.
At the fundamental level, reality is structured differently.
Not Particles, but Fields
Quantum field theory tells us something radical: at the foundation of the world are not “things,” but fields.
A field is not an object located somewhere. It is something that has a value at every point in space. The temperature in a room is an example of a field: every point has its own temperature value. Earth’s magnetic field is also a field: at every point in space, it has a magnitude and direction.
According to modern physics, each type of “particle” corresponds to its own field, filling the entire Universe.
There is an electron field.
There are quark fields.
There is a photon field.
And what we call a particle is not a little ball flying through empty space, but a local excitation of a field, a stable ripple, knot, wave, or temporary process.
An electron is not a tiny object.
It is an excitation of the electron field.
A photon is an excitation of the photon field.
What appears to us as a “thing” turns out, at a deep level, to be a pattern in the continuous structure of reality.
A Wave Without Separate Wave-Matter
Imagine the ocean.
When a wave moves across its surface, we do not think that the wave is made of some special “wave substance.” A wave is not a separate object. It is a form of motion of the water itself. The water remains water, but a structure arises within it that moves, retains its shape, and is therefore perceived as something independent.
The same applies to what we call particles.
They do not exist as small, solid entities hidden inside matter. They are more like stable oscillations in fields that fill all of space. Therefore, it is more accurate to speak not of the “building blocks of the world,” but of patterns arising in the deep fabric of reality.
And here the familiar picture begins to collapse.
Why Are All Electrons Identical
If we think of the world as a collection of objects, a strange question arises: why are all electrons absolutely identical? Why isn’t one electron slightly redder than another, a hair heavier, or more temperamental on Mondays?
Quantum field theory offers an elegant answer: because they are not different tiny objects, but excitations of the same field. All electrons are identical for the same reason that notes from the same string are identical when excited in the same way.
This is no longer a mechanical Universe made of little balls, but rather a cosmic score in which stable forms of vibration create what we call matter.
Empty Space Is Not Empty
Everyday thinking divides the world into two parts: there is matter, and between it lies empty space. But this, too, turns out to be a misconception.
In quantum field theory, the vacuum is not nothing. It is not empty. It is filled with fields even where it seems to us that “nothing” exists. These fields can fluctuate. The vacuum has structure. It is not a dead backdrop, but an active foundation.
One piece of evidence for this is the Casimir effect: a measurable force arises between two very closely spaced metal plates, associated with quantum fluctuations of the field. This is not a fantasy or poetic metaphor, but a physical effect.
Thus, the Universe is not matter floating in empty space.
It is fields in which stable forms sometimes arise.
You Are Not a Thing, but a Process
If fields are fundamental and “particles” are merely their local excitations, then the human being, too, appears in a new light.
Your body is not a motionless object with strict boundaries. It is more like a whirlpool in a river. A whirlpool appears to be a separate form, but it is not made of “special whirlpool water.” The water within it constantly changes, while the form persists for a time.
The same is true of the body.
Atoms come and go.
Molecules break down and assemble again.
Cells are born and die.
The matter of the body is continuously renewed.
And yet something remains.
Therefore, your identity is not a collection of specific atoms. It is a structure, organization, a dynamic pattern that persists through time.
You are not a static object.
You are a process.
The Flame as an Image of Personality
There is another good image: a candle flame.
It seems to us to be the same fire. But if we look closely, it is clear that the gas molecules involved in combustion are constantly changing. The flame remains itself not because the same material is preserved within it, but because the process of combustion itself is preserved.
In a sense, a person resembles such a flame.
Personality, body, and consciousness are not an unchanging “thing,” but a stable yet constantly renewing flow of organization. Not a warehouse of parts, but a living configuration.
This changes not only physics, but also the philosophy of the human being.
The Boundary Between You and the World Is Not So Rigid
We are used to thinking: here am I, and there is the surrounding environment. Here is the skin—and this is where I end. But at the deepest physical level, these boundaries are not as fundamental as they seem.
Photons constantly pass through you.
Particles of air interact with your body.
Electromagnetic fields connect you with your surroundings.
The quantum fields underlying your body are the same fields that exist in stars, interstellar gas, and distant galaxies.
This does not mean that personality disappears or that science confirms every mystical formula indiscriminately. But it does mean something else: separateness is not absolute. At the deepest level, you are not an autonomous piece of matter cast into a foreign Universe. You are a local form of the same reality that unfolded in stars and nebulae.
Consciousness as a Pattern of Great Complexity
This becomes especially striking when we turn to consciousness.
The brain is one of the most complex known structures in the Universe. It contains about 86 billion neurons, each connected to thousands of others. Electrical signals, chemical reactions, ion flows, and the remodeling of connections—all of this creates an incredibly complex dynamic system.
At the fundamental level, these processes also obey the same laws of physics. The movement of charges, chemical interactions, and energy transitions are all rooted in the same physical reality of which the stars are made.
From this arises a majestic thought: consciousness is not something that fell into the world from outside, but one of the forms of organization of the Universe itself.
Reality, having reached a certain level of complexity, begins to observe itself.
Of course, this is also where caution begins. Science does not yet know exactly how subjective experience arises. We have not yet solved the mystery of consciousness. But it is already clear that consciousness is not separated from the physical world by an impassable wall. It does not hang apart from matter like a ghost above a machine. It is connected with the deepest processes of organization.
From Stars to Cells, from Cells to Thoughts
This is one of the most beautiful truths of modern science.
The heavier elements in your body—carbon, oxygen, iron, and calcium—did not appear all at once. They were created inside stars and ejected into space during stellar evolution and supernova explosions. Later, new star systems, planets, oceans, the chemistry of life, cells, organisms, nervous systems, and brains formed from this material.
Your body is a cosmic history that became biology.
Your brain is stardust that learned to think.
Your consciousness is the ancient Universe opening its eyes for a brief moment.
It is no coincidence that Carl Sagan’s phrase—“we are a way for the cosmos to know itself”—sounds not merely beautiful, but almost literal.
But There Is an Important Caveat
Here it is especially important not to cross the boundary between science and inspired fantasy.
Yes, quantum field theory profoundly changes our view of the world.
Yes, the language of “things” describes fundamental reality increasingly poorly.
Yes, in a certain sense, a person really is a stable pattern rather than a collection of unchanging particles.
But some bold conclusions require caution.
For example, the claim that “particles do not exist at all” is useful as a vivid formula, but in the strict sense of physics it is too extreme. In modern theory, particles are often called precisely quanta of field excitation, and this language works perfectly well. So it is more accurate to say not that “particles are a complete illusion,” but that particles are not fundamental little balls, as they are usually imagined.
What Ultimately Changes for Us
The most important consequence of this picture is not only scientific, but existential as well.
If the world consists not of isolated objects but of interconnected processes, then we should understand the human being differently, too. We are not merely “objects among objects.” We are temporary yet remarkably complex forms of organization of cosmic reality.
You are not a stone that happened to acquire thoughts.
You are a process in which the Universe attained the ability to ask about itself.
This does not diminish humanity. On the contrary.
Yes, we are temporary.
Yes, our pattern will one day dissolve.
Yes, the form we call “I” is not eternal in its present shape.
But the very fabric of reality from which we arose does not disappear. The fields remain. The cosmos remains. The laws remain. And what became you for a brief moment was not an event alien to the Universe, but one of its own gestures.
You Are Not Just Matter
And perhaps this is exactly what is worth remembering.
Not the schoolbook picture of the atom as a miniature solar system.
Not the naive mechanics of solid balls.
Not the crude idea that a human being is simply a heap of matter.
At a deeper level, you are not a thing.
You are a pattern.
You are a process.
You are a temporary symphony of interactions.
You are the form that the Universe assumes for one short, radiant moment in order to hear its own music.
In general, this video can be listened to as a meditation.
I assure you, after 25 minutes of listening, your consciousness will expand.
Roger Penrose is a British mathematician and mathematical physicist, one of the most renowned thinkers of the 20th and 21st centuries in the fields of general relativity, cosmology, and the nature of consciousness. He was born on August 8, 1931, in Colchester, England.
A friend of Stephen Hawking.
This article presents Roger Penrose’s thoughts.
You Are Not Made of Particles. You Are a Pattern of the Universe
We are used to thinking of ourselves as something solid and separate.
As a body made up of atoms.
As a collection of tiny particles: electrons, protons, neutrons, quarks—as if, somewhere deep within the world, there were little building blocks of existence from which everything else was assembled.
This picture is convenient. It has firmly entered school textbooks, popular science films, and our very imagination. But modern physics shows that this picture is too crude and too simplified.
At the fundamental level, reality is structured differently.
Not Particles, but Fields
Quantum field theory tells us something radical: at the foundation of the world are not “things,” but fields.
A field is not an object located somewhere. It is something that has a value at every point in space. The temperature in a room is an example of a field: every point has its own temperature value. Earth’s magnetic field is also a field: at every point in space, it has a magnitude and direction.
According to modern physics, each type of “particle” corresponds to its own field, filling the entire Universe.
There is an electron field.
There are quark fields.
There is a photon field.
And what we call a particle is not a little ball flying through empty space, but a local excitation of a field, a stable ripple, knot, wave, or temporary process.
An electron is not a tiny object.
It is an excitation of the electron field.
A photon is an excitation of the photon field.
What appears to us as a “thing” turns out, at a deep level, to be a pattern in the continuous structure of reality.
A Wave Without Separate Wave-Matter
Imagine the ocean.
When a wave moves across its surface, we do not think that the wave is made of some special “wave substance.” A wave is not a separate object. It is a form of motion of the water itself. The water remains water, but a structure arises within it that moves, retains its shape, and is therefore perceived as something independent.
The same applies to what we call particles.
They do not exist as small, solid entities hidden inside matter. They are more like stable oscillations in fields that fill all of space. Therefore, it is more accurate to speak not of the “building blocks of the world,” but of patterns arising in the deep fabric of reality.
And here the familiar picture begins to collapse.
Why Are All Electrons Identical
If we think of the world as a collection of objects, a strange question arises: why are all electrons absolutely identical? Why isn’t one electron slightly redder than another, a hair heavier, or more temperamental on Mondays?
Quantum field theory offers an elegant answer: because they are not different tiny objects, but excitations of the same field. All electrons are identical for the same reason that notes from the same string are identical when excited in the same way.
This is no longer a mechanical Universe made of little balls, but rather a cosmic score in which stable forms of vibration create what we call matter.
Empty Space Is Not Empty
Everyday thinking divides the world into two parts: there is matter, and between it lies empty space. But this, too, turns out to be a misconception.
In quantum field theory, the vacuum is not nothing. It is not empty. It is filled with fields even where it seems to us that “nothing” exists. These fields can fluctuate. The vacuum has structure. It is not a dead backdrop, but an active foundation.
One piece of evidence for this is the Casimir effect: a measurable force arises between two very closely spaced metal plates, associated with quantum fluctuations of the field. This is not a fantasy or poetic metaphor, but a physical effect.
Thus, the Universe is not matter floating in empty space.
It is fields in which stable forms sometimes arise.
You Are Not a Thing, but a Process
If fields are fundamental and “particles” are merely their local excitations, then the human being, too, appears in a new light.
Your body is not a motionless object with strict boundaries. It is more like a whirlpool in a river. A whirlpool appears to be a separate form, but it is not made of “special whirlpool water.” The water within it constantly changes, while the form persists for a time.
The same is true of the body.
Atoms come and go.
Molecules break down and assemble again.
Cells are born and die.
The matter of the body is continuously renewed.
And yet something remains.
Therefore, your identity is not a collection of specific atoms. It is a structure, organization, a dynamic pattern that persists through time.
You are not a static object.
You are a process.
The Flame as an Image of Personality
There is another good image: a candle flame.
It seems to us to be the same fire. But if we look closely, it is clear that the gas molecules involved in combustion are constantly changing. The flame remains itself not because the same material is preserved within it, but because the process of combustion itself is preserved.
In a sense, a person resembles such a flame.
Personality, body, and consciousness are not an unchanging “thing,” but a stable yet constantly renewing flow of organization. Not a warehouse of parts, but a living configuration.
This changes not only physics, but also the philosophy of the human being.
The Boundary Between You and the World Is Not So Rigid
We are used to thinking: here am I, and there is the surrounding environment. Here is the skin—and this is where I end. But at the deepest physical level, these boundaries are not as fundamental as they seem.
Photons constantly pass through you.
Particles of air interact with your body.
Electromagnetic fields connect you with your surroundings.
The quantum fields underlying your body are the same fields that exist in stars, interstellar gas, and distant galaxies.
This does not mean that personality disappears or that science confirms every mystical formula indiscriminately. But it does mean something else: separateness is not absolute. At the deepest level, you are not an autonomous piece of matter cast into a foreign Universe. You are a local form of the same reality that unfolded in stars and nebulae.
Consciousness as a Pattern of Great Complexity
This becomes especially striking when we turn to consciousness.
The brain is one of the most complex known structures in the Universe. It contains about 86 billion neurons, each connected to thousands of others. Electrical signals, chemical reactions, ion flows, and the remodeling of connections—all of this creates an incredibly complex dynamic system.
At the fundamental level, these processes also obey the same laws of physics. The movement of charges, chemical interactions, and energy transitions are all rooted in the same physical reality of which the stars are made.
From this arises a majestic thought: consciousness is not something that fell into the world from outside, but one of the forms of organization of the Universe itself.
Reality, having reached a certain level of complexity, begins to observe itself.
Of course, this is also where caution begins. Science does not yet know exactly how subjective experience arises. We have not yet solved the mystery of consciousness. But it is already clear that consciousness is not separated from the physical world by an impassable wall. It does not hang apart from matter like a ghost above a machine. It is connected with the deepest processes of organization.
From Stars to Cells, from Cells to Thoughts
This is one of the most beautiful truths of modern science.
The heavier elements in your body—carbon, oxygen, iron, and calcium—did not appear all at once. They were created inside stars and ejected into space during stellar evolution and supernova explosions. Later, new star systems, planets, oceans, the chemistry of life, cells, organisms, nervous systems, and brains formed from this material.
Your body is a cosmic history that became biology.
Your brain is stardust that learned to think.
Your consciousness is the ancient Universe opening its eyes for a brief moment.
It is no coincidence that Carl Sagan’s phrase—“we are a way for the cosmos to know itself”—sounds not merely beautiful, but almost literal.
But There Is an Important Caveat
Here it is especially important not to cross the boundary between science and inspired fantasy.
Yes, quantum field theory profoundly changes our view of the world.
Yes, the language of “things” describes fundamental reality increasingly poorly.
Yes, in a certain sense, a person really is a stable pattern rather than a collection of unchanging particles.
But some bold conclusions require caution.
For example, the claim that “particles do not exist at all” is useful as a vivid formula, but in the strict sense of physics it is too extreme. In modern theory, particles are often called precisely quanta of field excitation, and this language works perfectly well. So it is more accurate to say not that “particles are a complete illusion,” but that particles are not fundamental little balls, as they are usually imagined.
What Ultimately Changes for Us
The most important consequence of this picture is not only scientific, but existential as well.
If the world consists not of isolated objects but of interconnected processes, then we should understand the human being differently, too. We are not merely “objects among objects.” We are temporary yet remarkably complex forms of organization of cosmic reality.
You are not a stone that happened to acquire thoughts.
You are a process in which the Universe attained the ability to ask about itself.
This does not diminish humanity. On the contrary.
Yes, we are temporary.
Yes, our pattern will one day dissolve.
Yes, the form we call “I” is not eternal in its present shape.
But the very fabric of reality from which we arose does not disappear. The fields remain. The cosmos remains. The laws remain. And what became you for a brief moment was not an event alien to the Universe, but one of its own gestures.
You Are Not Just Matter
And perhaps this is exactly what is worth remembering.
Not the schoolbook picture of the atom as a miniature solar system.
Not the naive mechanics of solid balls.
Not the crude idea that a human being is simply a heap of matter.
At a deeper level, you are not a thing.
You are a pattern.
You are a process.
You are a temporary symphony of interactions.
You are the form that the Universe assumes for one short, radiant moment in order to hear its own music.
In general, this video can be listened to as a meditation.
I assure you, after 25 minutes of listening, your consciousness will expand.