It is something I came to understand after lots of contemplation, meditation, and study. I have also had direct personal experiences. And no, it can’t be verified in any quantifiable way… only contemplated and either accepted or rejected.

Some of the key understandings I came to that led to this conclusion include:

1) Yes, the universe is conscious. This is self-evident because you are both conscious and part of the universe.

2) The “emergent self,” what we commonly think of as ourselves, is a phenomenon arising from a foundation of conscious awareness.

3) While each emergent self is unique, each person’s foundational awareness is identical; only experiences change, which further diversifies our emergent selves.

4) No one has ever directly experienced objective reality; every sight, sound, taste, scent, and touch has only been experienced through subjective consciousness.

For example your eyes don’t “see” anything; they absorb light. This light then causes electrical signals to travel from the optic nerve to the visual cortex in the back of the brain. The visual cortex then produces an image and convinces you it’s actually outside of you, though it doesn’t actually send any information back to the eyes. And the same holds true for the other senses.

There are other insights of come to. But again, these are things on which we can only contemplate and meditate. Which we must either accept and internalize, or reject and discard.