As scientists probe deeper into the nature of reality, they are discovering that consciousness is at the root of everything. What we believed were the laws of physics and matter are really the archetypal laws of mind, and the condensation of consciousness that created our universe originated from a dimensionless point in the void known in physics as the "Singularity" and in mathematics and philosophy as the "Monad."
In philosophy, the Monad is the is the indivisible source that created our reality. In mathematics, it is the origin of all numbers and geometry that describe Nature. In science, the Monad is the Big Bang explosion of consciousness, which physicist Erwin Schrödinger described as "a singularity phasing within all beings."
In ancient Egypt, the idea of the monadic "Aten" inspired the first monotheistic religion, and the concept of the Monad was a key principle in the development of Hinduism, Taoism, and Buddhism. In Gnosticism, the Monad is the One God at the root of the pleroma, the infinite fount of matter and energy in the universe. Renaissance scientists like Giordano Bruno, Gottlieb Leibnitz, and John Dee touted the Monad as the key to understanding the whole of Nature. And the concept of a monadic universe in which one's soul can rise to unite with the universal Soul, inspired scores of philosophers, theologians, writers, and artists of the Age of Enlightenment in the 17th and 18th centuries.
By the late 20th century, an interdisciplinary science of Consciousness Studies emerged dedicated to solving the puzzle of consciousness and understanding the mysterious monadic origin of the universe. Most of the pieces to that puzzle are already in place, and we are just beginning to glimpse the overall picture. It's not like anything we ever expected.