In Platonic idealism, for example, there are "ideas" or "forms"—perfect and immutable entities existing in an intelligible world, and everything in the material world is merely a "copy" or manifestation of these primordial ideas. In other words, what exists in the physical world only exists because it participates in the world of ideas.

From the perspective of quantum physics, there is a discussion about the role of thought or consciousness in the manifestation of physical reality, based primarily on the so-called observer effect.