The Physics of You: A Surfer Made of Water Riding Water.
A Physics-Infused Understanding of Consciousness, Identity, Essentia, and Individual Human Awareness
**Note: This piece draws from my original ideas, research, hooks, and metaphors. For editing and some wording, I’ve used AI tools trained on my own books and style, always blending technology with my hands-on curation and oversight. Thank you for being here—Jade.
Most people walk through life believing the universe is made of solid things—matter, objects, particles, stuff. We’re taught that consciousness sits on top of this material world like a late-stage feature of a complicated brain, and that physics has nothing to say about who we are, why we feel meaning, or how identity changes.
But modern physics paints a very different picture.
The Big Idea
Here’s the core shift in how to see yourself and reality.
It doesn’t describe a universe built out of little objects.
It describes a universe built out of fields.
In quantum field theory, what we call ‘particles’ are localized ripples in fields that fill all of space. These fields are now considered the fundamental building blocks in modern physics, not little billiard-ball particles.
A field is not something floating in space. A field is the fabric of space itself. Or to put in a way that won’t annoy physicists as much… a field is a physical quantity defined at every point in space; it permeates space rather than sitting inside it.
The electron field fills the entire universe. So does the electromagnetic field. So does the neutrino field. So do all the other fundamental fields that make up the Standard Model. These fields are everywhere—layered, interpenetrating, and humming with potential.
Particles as Vibrations
When one of these fields vibrates in a localized way, we call that vibration a particle. A photon is simply an excitation of the electromagnetic field. An electron is an excitation of the electron field. A neutrino is an excitation of the neutrino field. The particle is the wave; the field is the medium that carries it.
This means nothing in the universe is made of little “things.”
Everything is made of patterns in fields.
The Zero-Point Field
And beneath all of these fields, beneath every wave and every vibration, lies a deeper layer known as the zero-point field (ZPF)… the quantum vacuum. I refer to this as the “Source Field.” Religious types might call it “God.” New Age types may call it “Spirit” or “Universe.” Physicists call it the ZPF.
The ZPF in physics refers to the lowest-energy state of all the quantum fields, which still fluctuates rather than sitting perfectly still.
It is not empty space. Even at its lowest possible energy state, it churns with subtle activity. Every field has a vacuum state, and all of those vacuum states together form this universal background. The zero-point field is the most fundamental physical layer we know of.
If you imagine the zero-point field as water, the quantum fields are currents in that water, and particles are waves riding those currents. Fields and particles are not separate from the vacuum. They are expressions of it.
What follows is a metaphor that connects this scientific idea of a restless vacuum with spiritual ideas of a deeper Source, not a lab result.
The Body as a Whirlpool of Fields
Once you see the structure this way, it becomes clear that the human body is not a solid object at all. It is a stable whirlpool in a sea of overlapping fields. Your atoms are standing waves. Your cells are coherent configurations of those waves. Your heart generates electromagnetic patterns that pulse outward. Your brain coordinates billions of electrical oscillations that rise and fall with thought, feeling, perception, and memory.
You are a field-pattern wearing the appearance of a body.
A dynamic constellation of waves and currents.
A living ripple in the ocean of reality.
The Consciousness Question
And now the deeper turn emerges:
What does all of this say about consciousness?
If consciousness is something the brain produces, then all of this physics is interesting but irrelevant. In one worldview, consciousness is primary… the fundamental ‘stuff’ of existence. In that frame, the zero-point field becomes more than the water of physics; it becomes the physical face of something deeper. A medium through which consciousness expresses itself in form.
Consciousness is the Ocean-Bed…
In this worldview, consciousness is not trapped inside the brain. The brain is a structure that organizes and reflects consciousness, folding it inward so it can experience itself. Consciousness is the ocean-bed. The zero-point field is the water. Quantum fields are the currents. Particles are the waves. Biology is a whirlpool. And human awareness is the surfer riding the wave-patterns of experience.
Why a Rock Isn’t Self-Aware
But if consciousness is everywhere, why isn’t a rock conscious like you are?
Because consciousness and self-awareness are not the same thing.
Consciousness may be universal, but self-reflection requires a certain kind of structure. A rock does not have self-referential information loops. Self-awareness seems to require complex feedback loops and integrated information processing, of the sort we see in nervous systems, not in static matter. Rocks don’t integrate sensation, memory, emotion, and intention into a unified field. They are more like static patterns of waves. A rock cannot turn awareness back on itself.
A human being can.
Your nervous system is a self-organizing, information-integrating, coherence-seeking field structure capable of creating an inner world, responding to meaning, shaping identity, forming purpose, and experiencing itself as “I.” Biology allows the wave to know it’s a wave.
MUD: Misguided Unconscious Decisions
And that brings us to the heart of the Next Level Human model.
At NLH we define MUD as Misguided, Unconscious Decisions… the turbulence that forms in your internal field when unresolved emotion, old wounds, defensive identity patterns, and inherited belief structures take the wheel.
MUD disrupts clarity. It bends perception. It distorts the wave-pattern you’re riding. It does not erase the deeper intelligence within you, but it makes your movement through life less stable, less coherent, less true.
For example, saying yes out of guilt when you mean no is MUD: the wave is still moving, but it’s moving in a direction you didn’t consciously choose.
Essentia: The Way You Ride the Wave
Essentia is the opposite of MUD.
Essentia is your essential nature plus your earned wisdom plus your directed purpose potential. It is the innate orientation of your being. The deep, quiet pull toward the life you’re meant to build. The line of force behind your truest expression. The style, stance, direction, and intelligence of your surfing.
Essentia is not the water. It is not the wave. It is not the current. It is the way you ride.
Some people ride with truth. Some with compassion. Some with precision. Some with rage that becomes purpose. Some with curiosity. Some with creation. Essentia is the set of signatures that shape your movement through the field of life.
Most people live from MUD without realizing it; Essentia is what it feels like when your choices line up with the part of you that actually knows where it’s supposed to be going.
Transformation as Reorganization
Transformation, then, is not manufacturing a new identity.
It is reorganizing your local field-pattern so Essentia can move through you with clarity instead of being hijacked by MUD. It is gaining enough coherence to ride the wave rather than be thrown by it. It is becoming intentional in how you meet the world, rather than reactive.
Why Physics Matters for Identity
This is why NLH integrates physics.
Not to mystify identity, but to reveal that you are not a fixed self struggling in a dead universe. You are a dynamic field-pattern participating in an unfolding reality.
Change is not about fixing yourself. It is about reorganizing your pattern. The same way water can shift from turbulence to flow, you can shift from misalignment to coherence, from distortion to direction, from identity to Essentia.
In practical terms, that means identity is more like a changing pattern than a fixed thing… something you can reorganize rather than ‘fix’ once and for all.
The Click
And when you see this clearly, something profound clicks into place.
You are not separate from the waves you ride.
You are not separate from the water that holds you.
You are not separate from the ocean itself.
In this metaphor, your body is like a vortex in a sea of fields. Physics would describe it more like this: your physical body is patterns of excitations in fields that fill space, rather than a solid, separate object.
Metaphysics suggests that your awareness is the ocean becoming conscious of the vortex it formed. Or, put differently… the patterns of excitations that make up a “physical body” take form in patterns of referential loops so consciousness at large can observe itself through the mirror it has formed through you.
In this way, we might see ourselves as condensed, solidified, localized consciousness… our brain and body able to filter certain aspects of a greater consciousness. This allows us to be aware that we are aware, and it allows us to interact with other localized aware patterns—other biological animals and humans.
NLH teaches you how to ride that vortex (your physical body and its corresponding field architecture)… how to stabilize it, guide it, grow it, and express it.
The Deepest Truth
Which leads to the deepest truth of all:
You are surfers made of water surfing that same water.
Your biology is the wave; your identity is the surfer riding it.
Your Essentia is the way you ride.
Your transformation is the clearing of MUD so the ride becomes truer.
And your life is the journey of consciousness learning to experience itself through your temporary, beautiful, ever-unfolding form.
This is the heart of the Next Level Human philosophy.
Not separation.
Not solidity.
Not certainty.
But movement, coherence, awareness, alignment, and the invitation to ride the wave of your own becoming.
Closing Thought
Let the metaphor stay with you. When life feels chaotic, ask yourself: is this turbulence from MUD or movement from Essentia? The practice is learning to feel the difference.
Everything becomes clearer when you realize you’re not fighting the ocean… you’re learning to surf it.
PS: If you’re ready to stop letting MUD run your life and start organizing everything around Essentia—clarity, direction, and coherence—explore my Next Level Human coaching program today. Spots are limited, so if this clicked for you, now is the time to step in. 👉 http://www.nextlevelhuman.com/human-coaching
Further Reading
David Tong. (n.d.). What is quantum field theory? University of Cambridge, DAMTP. Retrieved from https://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/tong/whatisqft.html
Peskin, M. E., & Schroeder, D. V. (1995). An introduction to quantum field theory. Westview Press.
Jaffe, R. L. (2005). The Casimir effect and the quantum vacuum. Physical Review D, 72(2), 021301. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.72.021301
Roser, M. E. (2019). Coupling the state and contents of consciousness. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 1979. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01979
Oizumi, M., Albantakis, L., & Tononi, G. (2014). From the phenomenology to the mechanisms of consciousness: Integrated Information Theory 3.0. PLOS Computational Biology, 10(5), e1003588. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003588
Just read “Surfers Made of Water Surfing Water” — brilliant! Perfect metaphor for Campbells MBT: we’re the ocean experiencing itself, riding probability waves with our free-will boards. Fear creates wipeouts, love carves clean lines. Lower entropy = better surfing.
You nailed the physics and the poetry in one graceful ride.
Some experience consciousness not through the brain or mind but through the soul via the spirit body, which reflects it into the physical body. Spiritual consciousness is multidimensional and originates from beyond and through the realms of time as the soul expands through and with the cosmos. In these beliefs, much of humanity is currently awakening from convoluted thought structures that are backwards relative to their true origins. With the control of what are called the archons, humanity has been caught in a repeated loop through incarnations to keep it subjugated and unaware of its true origins—its true creator of how humankind came to be on Earth, so to speak—and to maintain a pecking order of control to be exploited by these archons. It is an ancient belief that is the core teachings of Jesus/Yeshua before James, the Brother of Jesus, the first Bishop of Jerusalem, the one Yeshua had anointed to oversee the teachings, was killed so that the alterations of these teachings could begin under Paul—benefiting the archons. As a result, much of what is called Christianity today is actually Paulianity or Pauline—the teachings of Paul, not Jesus. This is why most people who call themselves Christian in 2025 are nothing like Jesus and are, in fact, the antithesis of Christ.