In the book “A Briefer History of Time” Stephen Hawking wrote:

The unpredictable, random element comes in only when we try to interpret the wave in terms of the positions and velocities of particles. But maybe that is our mistake: maybe there are no particle positions and velocities, but only waves. It is just that we try to fit the waves to our preconceived ideas of positions and velocities. The resulting mismatch is the cause of the apparent unpredictability.

Atoms are the basic unit of matter.  I often wondered as a child why, if atoms are actually mostly empty space with a tiny nucleus and electrons, matter could not pass through matter? The nucleus depending on the balance of positive and negative charges, can give an atom an overall positive or negative force.  The electrons appear to be tiny particles traveling very fast, but physics now sees that their orbit functions as a wave, called the electron cloud. Depending on the configuration of the nucleus and the electron cloud the atom behaves in a few different ways. It either binds to another atom, transfers electrons with another atom which transforms the atom, repels another atom or does not react.  So the atom is composed of forces and waves, and generates a field.

If our entire universe is composed of only fields, forces and waves, then why do we perceive matter? When quantum physicists do a dual slit experiment to measure light particles, they find evidence that the light is a wave form that only appears to be a particle when measured.  This is the mismatch that Stephen Hawking is talking about.  So how does the wave become a particle when measured.  That seems as if the observer is creating reality.  But what if the wave is just a wave as Hawking says, and it is only the interaction of the wave with the other fields, forces and waves used to observe or measure that provide a measurement point for us to capture.  We then interpret this measurement event as a particle.  To make matters more confusing, there is evidence that the potential collapses into an event before the event actually occurs.

So a wave is a set of potential points of interaction and observation is the measurement of the interaction events.  To me this says that our entire universe is composed of potential events that are only realized when interacted with.  Once an interaction occurs, the event does have a consequence in that the potential for downstream events is narrowed. So a light wave crossing a plant chlorophyll cell (event) will activate a chemical reaction (consequence) to feed the plant.   The potential for the cell to remain inactive is gone on this timeline.

Physicist Werner Heisenberg (right) believed that quantum mechanics implied an aspect of reality similar to the concept of “potential” advocated by the Greek philosopher Aristotle (left). A new paper suggests that the mysteries of quantum mechanics might be resolved by incorporating such “potential” elements of reality in a complete picture of nature.   https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/context/quantum-mysteries-dissolve-if-possibilities-are-realities

The concept of potential implies that there are different timelines to be experienced. Einstein explained this in his theory of relativity. That space and time are part of a single structure called spacetime, which can be distorted by gravity.  So observers traveling at different speeds would measure time differently.  But his teacher proposed that the spacetime continuum was consistent and only the frame of reference for measurement differed.    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacetime

Our ways of measuring spacetime do not fully capture the underlying reality, but instead our perception of space and time results in a series of narrowing potentials.  That gives us the experience of a particular timeline.  But what if the actual potentials of fields, forces and waves proceed in all directions through the spacetime continuum?  Events create an effect that flows in all time directions. This would open the door to different kinds of perception that might be able to detect potential events differently in time, precognition.