---
title: "Physicists Are Starting to Suspect Physical Reality Is an Illusion"
description: "According to scientist and philosopher Bernardo Kastrup, some physicists are starting to suspect that matter and reality are complex illusions."
date: "2019-03-25"
modified: "2019-03-25"
authors:
  - name: "Jon Christian"
    job_title: "Executive Editor"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/physicists-suspect-reality-illusion"
categories:
  - "Physics"
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "philosophy"
  - "physics"
  - "reality"
  - "the digest"
---

# Physicists Are Starting to Suspect Physical Reality Is an Illusion

![Instead, according to scientist and philosopher Bernardo Kastrup, some are starting to suspect that matter and reality are complex illusions.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/physicists-convinced-reality-illusion.png>)
*\<em\>Image: Ramon Kagie via Unsplash/Tag Hartman-Simkins\</em\>*

## Master of Reality

A [provocative new column](<https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/physics-is-pointing-inexorably-to-mind/>) in *Scientific American* floats the idea that what's fundamentally real in the universe — its actual, base reality — isn't the quarks, fields, and quantum phenomena that seem to comprise it.

Instead, according to scientist and philosopher Bernardo Kastrup, some are starting to suspect that matter itself is an illusion — and that the only real thing is information.

## Information Space

The basic idea is that the physical universe exists because we perceive it — it's a sort of mass hallucination we use to make sense of the mathematical relationships of objects.

Make no mistake**,** this is a pretty far-out idea. But, according to Kastrup, it's gaining ground.

"To some physicists, this indicates that what we call 'matter,' with its solidity and concreteness — is an illusion; that only the mathematical apparatus they devise in their theories is truly real, not the *perceived world* the apparatus was created to describe in the first place," Kastrup wrote.

**READ MORE:** [Physics Is Pointing Inexorably to Mind](<https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/physics-is-pointing-inexorably-to-mind/>) \[*Scientific American*\]

**More on reality:** *[Quantum Physics Experiment Suggests That Reality Isn’t Objective](<https://futurism.com/quantum-physics-experiment-reality-objective>)*

## Author
I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/jonchristian.net>)