When I was a school kid, we were taught in school that matter was the base of existence, and Einstein's famous formula only told us there was a huge amount of energy in it, if we would be able to take it out somehow. Over time though, this viewpoint has been turned upside down, and energy is now the basis of reality. The equivalence between energy and matter still holds, but we now understand that matter is just energy in resonance, standing waves that create solid substance.
I could find the exact scientific references that explain this all, but as artificial intelligence (or super intelligence as Trump now calls it) can answer those questions for you, I will refrain from mentioning them here, since any story is part fact and part fiction anyway.
