The Call That Changed Everything
Picture this: A former NASA physicist walks into a quantum optics lab at a California state university, sets up a modified version of the double-slit experiment, and proceeds to test a claim that mystics have been making for over two thousand years. Not as metaphor. Not as philosophy. As a falsifiable, repeatable, laboratory-provable hypothesis.
That physicist is Thomas Campbell. The claim? That consciousness is the fundamental stuff of reality. That matter is secondary. That what you’re looking at right now – the screen, the words, the room around you – is being rendered for your awareness, much like a video game renders only what the player can see.
And the university? CalPoly Pomona, where researchers are currently running five groundbreaking experiments designed to detect whether the universe behaves like a computed simulation generated by mind.
Sound familiar? It should.
Because somewhere around two thousand years ago, a figure known as Hermes Trismegistus wrote something strikingly similar. The Hermetic texts – the Corpus Hermeticum, the Emerald Tablet, and later the Kybalion – laid out a cosmology that modern physics is now stumbling toward with expensive equipment and peer-reviewed papers.
“The All is Mind; the Universe is Mental.”
That’s the First Hermetic Principle of Mentalism. And right now, in labs in Pomona, California, scientists are trying to measure whether it’s true.
What the Experiments Are Actually Testing
Let’s get specific, because this matters.
Campbell designed five experiments. They’re all variations on quantum mechanics classics – the double-slit experiment and the delayed-choice quantum eraser. If you’re not familiar, here’s the short version: when you shoot particles through two slits, they behave like waves when nobody’s watching and like particles the moment you try to detect which slit they went through.
The standard interpretation says this is just how quantum mechanics works. Weird, but that’s reality.
Campbell’s interpretation is different. He says this is exactly what you’d expect if reality were a virtual simulation rendered on demand for conscious observers. In a video game, the computer only renders what the player looks at. The rest isn’t computed until needed. Campbell believes the physical world works the same way – consciousness requests data, and reality provides it.
The five experiments are designed to tease out the difference between these two interpretations. They’re testing whether the universe computes information on demand or whether it’s all just probabilistic weirdness with no deeper explanation.
One key experiment modifies the double-slit setup to test whether recorded data that is never observed by a conscious being produces the same results as data that is observed. If reality is truly rendered by consciousness, then data nobody looks at should behave differently than data someone reviews.
That’s not philosophy. That’s a testable hypothesis.
The Hermetic Echo
Now, here’s where it gets interesting.
The Hermetic tradition never used the word “simulation.” They didn’t have computers or video games or quantum optics. But the core insight is startlingly similar to what Campbell and his team are testing.
In the Corpus Hermeticum, Hermes teaches his student Tat that the visible world is a reflection – a shadow, really – of a deeper mental reality. Matter isn’t the foundation. Mind is. The physical universe arises from a cosmic consciousness that thinks it into being.
The Kybalion puts it bluntly: “The All is Mind; the Universe is Mental.” Not “The All has a mind” or “The universe contains mind.” The universe IS mental. Reality is a thought. You’re living inside a thought.
For centuries, that sounded like mystical poetry. Beautiful, maybe meaningful in some symbolic way, but not the kind of thing you’d bring to a physics lab.
Until now.
Campbell’s framework – his “My Big TOE” (Theory of Everything) – proposes that consciousness is the fundamental substrate. Not matter. Not energy. Consciousness. Everything else, including what we experience as physical reality, is information computed within that consciousness.
The Hermetic texts said the same thing. They just said it differently.
“As above, so below. As below, so above.” That’s the Principle of Correspondence. Patterns repeat across scales. What’s true at the cosmic level is true at the personal level. If the universe is fundamentally mental, then your personal reality is also fundamentally mental.
Which means these experiments aren’t just about physics. They’re about you.
The Observer Problem
Quantum mechanics has always had an observer problem. The math works. The predictions are accurate. But the interpretation? That’s where physicists start arguing.
Why does observation seem to collapse the wave function? Why does a particle behave differently when someone watches? Standard physics has explanations that don’t require consciousness – decoherence, measurement interaction, statistical mechanics. These are clean, respectable answers.
But they have a gap. A nagging, persistent gap that no amount of mathematical formalism has closed.
The gap is this: observation by a conscious being and measurement by a machine shouldn’t produce fundamentally different results if consciousness isn’t involved. But the data, interpreted carefully, suggests they might.
The CalPoly experiments are designed to isolate consciousness as a variable. Not just measurement. Not just detection. Actual conscious observation.
If they find what Campbell predicts – if data that is recorded but never observed by a conscious being behaves differently from data that is reviewed – then we’re no longer talking about philosophy. We’re talking about evidence that consciousness plays a causal role in determining physical outcomes.
The Hermetic tradition would say: of course it does. That’s what “The All is Mind” means.
Living in the Middle of the Question
So where does that leave you? Sitting at your kitchen table, scrolling through this article, living your life?
Probably in a strange and interesting place.
Because if these experiments confirm what Hermes taught – if consciousness is fundamental, if reality is rendered on demand, if the physical world is more like a shared dream than a fixed machine – then some things shift. Not everything. You still have to pay rent and feed the dog and show up for work on Monday. But the texture of those experiences changes.
The Hermetic tradition doesn’t ask you to float away into abstraction. It asks you to pay attention. To notice how your mind shapes what you perceive. To recognize that the story you’re telling yourself about your life is, in some very real sense, generating the life you’re experiencing.
This isn’t “manifesting” in the Instagram sense. It’s not about wishing for a parking spot and getting one. It’s subtler and more radical than that.
It’s the recognition that your consciousness is not a passive receiver. It’s an active participant. You’re not watching reality. You’re involved in its creation.
Campbell would say you’re a player in the simulation, and your choices – your attention, your intentions, your consciousness – shape what gets rendered next.
Hermes would say you’re a co-creator with the divine mind, and your thoughts participate in the ongoing creation of the cosmos.
Different language. Same structure.
The Rhythm of Not Knowing
Here’s the honest part: we don’t have the results yet.
The experiments are running. The data is being collected. Science moves slowly, and the kind of questions being asked here – questions about the fundamental nature of reality – don’t get answered in a semester.
But that’s okay. The Hermetic tradition has always been comfortable with uncertainty. The Principle of Rhythm says everything moves in cycles. There are seasons of knowing and seasons of not knowing. There are moments of clarity and moments of mystery.
We’re in a rhythm right now. The old materialist paradigm is swinging. The new paradigm – whatever it turns out to be – hasn’t fully arrived. We’re in the middle of the pendulum, watching it arc.
And there’s something valuable in that.
Because the Hermetic path isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about learning to live in the questions. It’s about developing the inner stability to hold uncertainty without panic. To say “I don’t know yet” without needing to fill the space with false certainty.
The Kybalion calls this the Principle of Polarity. Hot and cold are the same thing, different in degree. Certainty and uncertainty are the same thing, different in degree. You can learn to stand in the middle without tipping into either extreme.
What Changes If It’s True
Let’s play the thought experiment out. Suppose Campbell’s experiments confirm the hypothesis. Suppose the data shows that consciousness is fundamental. Suppose the Hermetic claim – that the universe is mental – gets published in peer-reviewed journals and accepted by the scientific community.
What changes for you?
Probably less than you’d think. And more.
Your day-to-day experience wouldn’t suddenly become magical. You’d still stub your toe and forget your keys and argue with your partner about whose turn it is to unload the dishwasher. The simulation, if that’s what this is, has rules. Physics still operates. Cause and effect still function.
But the frame changes. The story about what’s happening changes.
Instead of being a random accident in a dead universe, your consciousness becomes something fundamental. Not a byproduct of brain chemistry. Not an illusion produced by neural firing patterns. Something that matters. Something that’s involved.
The Hermetic tradition says you’re not a body that has consciousness. You’re consciousness that’s having a body experience. That’s a different starting point, and it leads to different choices.
If your mind is fundamental, then what you pay attention to matters. Not in a superficial, productivity-hack way. In a deep, ontological way. Your attention isn’t just a resource to be optimized. It’s your participation in the creation of reality.
The Micro-Habits of a Mental Universe
So what do you do with this, practically?
The Hermetic approach is never about grand gestures. It’s about small, consistent shifts in awareness.
Start with observation. Just notice. Notice the stories you tell yourself about your life. Notice how your mood colors your perception. Notice how your expectations shape what you see.
You don’t have to change anything yet. Just notice.
Then try this: for one day, approach your ordinary experiences as if they’re being rendered for you. Not in a paranoid, “someone’s watching me” way. In a curious, “this is being presented to my awareness” way.
Your morning coffee. The commute. The email inbox. The conversation with a coworker. What if these aren’t random occurrences in a fixed universe? What if they’re data being rendered for your consciousness, shaped in part by your expectations, your attention, your mental state?
You don’t have to believe it. Just play with it. See what shifts.
The Principle of Cause and Effect says nothing happens by chance. You have influence. Your consciousness is a cause, not just an effect. What you put into the system – your attention, your intentions, your mental clarity – shapes what comes back.
This isn’t about controlling outcomes. It’s about recognizing your participation.
The Quiet Revolution
Here’s what’s remarkable about this moment: for the first time in history, the Hermetic claims about consciousness and reality are being tested with the tools of modern science.
Not debated in philosophy seminars. Not meditated on in monasteries. Tested. In labs. With equipment. With controls. With the possibility of being wrong.
Campbell and his team might find that consciousness is fundamental. They might find that it isn’t. That’s the beauty of actual science – the willingness to be surprised by the data.
But either way, the fact that the experiments are happening is significant. It means the questions Hermes raised are no longer considered outside the bounds of legitimate inquiry. It means the boundary between “mystical” and “scientific” is getting thinner.
And that boundary was always somewhat artificial anyway. The Hermetic tradition never saw itself as opposed to rational inquiry. Hermes was called the god of wisdom, not the god of blind faith. The Corpus Hermeticum is full of careful observation, logical reasoning, and empirical testing of ideas against experience.
The difference is that Hermes tested ideas through direct experience of consciousness. Campbell is testing them through quantum optics.
Different instruments. Same curiosity.
Where You Stand
You’re living through something unusual. Not every generation gets to witness a fundamental shift in how humanity understands reality. Some generations do – the Copernican revolution, the discovery of quantum mechanics, the mapping of the human genome.
We might be in another one of those moments. Or we might not. The experiments aren’t finished.
But the Hermetic tradition teaches that you don’t have to wait for external confirmation to begin living differently. The Principle of Mentalism isn’t just a cosmological claim. It’s a practical instruction.
Your mind is active. Your consciousness is involved. What you think, what you attend to, what you believe – these aren’t passive reflections of a fixed reality. They’re part of how reality comes into being.
That’s true whether or not Campbell’s experiments confirm it. It’s true whether or not the scientific community ever accepts it. It’s been true for two thousand years, and it’ll be true tomorrow.
The experiments are interesting. The data will be interesting. But the real laboratory is your own awareness.
So here’s a question to sit with: What would shift in your daily life if you genuinely believed – really, down in your bones – that consciousness is fundamental? Not as a concept. As a felt reality.
And a small experiment to try: Tomorrow morning, before you reach for your phone, take thirty seconds and notice that you’re aware. Don’t analyze it. Don’t think about it. Just notice the awareness itself – the space in which your thoughts and experiences are appearing.
That’s the Hermetic starting point. That’s the thing the scientists at CalPoly are trying to measure. And it’s been right there all along.