What If Your Brain Is Just a Cosmic App?

(Storylingo Drop #1: A fun dive into Dr. Maria Strømme’s quantum-consciousness framework)

By Paul Ponce

Let’s start with something simple:

You're a human. On Earth. Deciding what to order for dinner.

Your brain spins: Pizza? Sushi? Something green so I feel virtuous for five minutes?

We've all been there.

Now here’s the plot twist:

What if that tiny decision isn’t happening “inside” your skull… but beyond the world as you know it—up in the cosmic field that creates reality itself?

Whoa. Hold up. Wut?

Alright, let’s roll with a tech analogy.

What if your brain is basically a Chromebook — and all your thoughts, memories, emotions, dreams, existential crises, and revenge fantasies are actually running in the cloud?

Pick your provider: Google Cloud, AWS, Azure, “Source Code of Reality, Inc.”

Sounds wild, right?

That, amigos, is the vibe of Dr. Maria Strømme’s 2025 paper Universal Consciousness as a Foundational Field — where she argues (with equations, not edibles) that consciousness isn’t a byproduct of brains…

It’s the foundational field of the universe.

Meaning your daily “What am I doing with my life?” spirals might be little ripples in that field.

Yes. Really.

Let’s unpack this without drowning in physics.

Who Is Dr. Maria Strømme, and Why Is She Talking About the Universe’s OS?

Norwegian physicist Strømme is a respected nanotechnology and materials science researcher at Uppsala University — not some social media personality livestreaming from Machu Picchu.

In her paper, she pulls off something rare.

She builds a conceptual bridge between quantum field theory, non-dual philosophy, and Sydney Banks’ Three Principles (Mind, Consciousness, Thought) — and then mathematically models it.

In other words, she tries to give physics an API for consciousness.

The Universe, According to Dr. Strømme — Without the Egghead Lingo

Her model blends:

• Quantum field theory

• Non-dual philosophy

• Sydney Banks’ Three Principles

But before your eyes glaze over, let’s decode those first two real quick.

Quantum Field Theory (QFT) — the universe as one big vibrating soup

In simple terms: QFT says the universe isn’t made of tiny Lego blocks (particles). It’s made of fields — invisible, vibrating “energy oceans” that fill all of space.

Particles? Those are just ripples in the fields. Electrons are wiggles in the electron field. Photons are wiggles in the electromagnetic field. 

QFT’s big idea: Fields come first. Everything else is an effect. Now imagine one of those fields isn’t physical… but consciousness itself. That’s where Strømme comes in.

Non-Dual Philosophy — no separation, only one big “thing” pretending to be many

Non-dual traditions (Advaita Vedanta, Buddhism, Taoism, and others) say: There aren’t “many things” in the universe. There’s just One appearing as many.

Your mind, my mind, the cat, the clouds — all expressions of the same underlying reality wearing different avatars. It’s the spiritual version of: “We’re all running on the same operating system.”

Strømme basically asks: What if QFT and non-duality are describing the same phenomenon… just using different accents?

Now that we’ve cleared the runway, here’s how she maps the whole cosmos using contemporary philosopher Sydney Banks’ Three Principles:

Mind = The creative engine of the universe

(Think: the cosmic Wi-Fi powering everything.)

Consciousness = The universal field of awareness

(The “screen” where your thoughts, sensations, Netflix picks, and intrusive memories appear.)

Thought = The selector that collapses potential into your experience

(The cosmic click: “Yes, I will obsess about that email from 2018.”)

According to Strømme, reality doesn’t start with atoms and “build up.”

It starts with awareness and differentiates down.

Space-time? Emergent.

Matter? Emergent.

You choosing tacos over ravioli? Also emergent.

You’re not a closed system. You’re a field ripple with Wi-Fi.

“Okay, but what does this have to do with me? I’ve got a deadline.”

Everything.

Let’s bring this down to daily life.

1. When you suddenly solve a problem in the shower

You think: “My brain’s finally relaxing.”

Cute.

Strømme’s model: You momentarily stopped blocking the universal field.

A little insight-wave slipped through. The universe loves shower epiphanies.

(Probably because your monkey mind finally shut up for five minutes.)

2. When you dream a bizarre sci-fi mashup at 3 AM

Neuroscience says: random neuron fireworks.

Nice try, Andrew Huberman.

Strømme: Your personal ripple is remixing deeper layers of the universal field.

Your mind is DJ-ing the universe’s implicate order.

David Bohm — quantum physics legend, friend of Einstein, and the guy who said reality unfolds from a deeper, hidden order — would totally approve.

3. When you fall in love and feel “connected to everything”

Materialists: “Hormones, bro.”

Strømme: The illusion of separateness flickers off for a second.

Your little ripple remembers it’s actually the whole ocean pretending to be a wave.

Oneness isn’t woo — it’s physics with better PR.

4. When you overthink what to order for dinner

You’re not “having thoughts.”

Thought is having you — selecting one possibility from infinite potential states.

So yes, your agonizing indecision over “Pad Thai or empanadas?” is technically a metaphysical event.

Congratulations. You’ve achieved Enlightenment-by-Menu.

But Here’s the Big One…

What if the universe is literally thinking you into existence?

According to Strømme’s math, individual consciousness (you, me, your cousin waiting for Bitcoin to hit $1M so he can “retire”) is a localized excitation of a universal field.

Meaning: You’re not an object. You’re a pattern.

A temporary wave. A cosmic push notification: “New consciousness instance available.”

When the wave settles? You don’t disappear. You log out. You reintegrate into the universal field — like closing a tab, not deleting a file.

Nice… But Is Any of This Testable? (Shockingly: Yes.)

Strømme points to anomalies in:

• Quantum random number generators

• Synchronized biological systems

• Global emotional events

• Strange patterns in the cosmic microwave background

She’s basically saying: “If consciousness is a field, it should leave fingerprints.”

And guess what? We might already have some.

Physics hates this. Mystics love it. Storytellers? We’re having an absolute field day.

The Takeaway (The Storylingo Drop)

Your daily thoughts aren’t sparks inside your brain — they’re waves in a universal field that builds reality moment by moment.

When you see life this way:

• Creativity stops being a skill → it becomes a connection.

• Inner clarity stops being mystical → it becomes physics.

• Overthinking stops being a flaw → it becomes misuse of the collapse operator.

• “We’re all connected” stops being yoga-studio wallpaper → it becomes cosmology.

Meaning:

If you relax and let go, you become more creative, more patient, more empathetic, less of an a-hole — because your “signal strength” to the cosmic Wi-Fi improves.

If instead you cling to ego, fear, status, and doomscrolling… you run on low vibration, low bandwidth, low clarity. Your cosmic Wi-Fi keeps buffering.

Final Answer to the Title’s Question

If consciousness is the universal field beneath space-time… then every time you think, dream, decide, imagine, hope, freak out, or have a brilliant idea… you’re literally watching the universe differentiate itself through you.

Yep. Even when choosing dinner. So order whatever you want — just remember: you’re not the thinker; you’re the surfboard. The universe is the wave.

Bon appétit!