the substrate

What is the substrate?

6 min read

Hi – I’m david, and this is my blog about metaphysics. or more accurately, metapatterns.

the substrate is how I’m conceptualizing this thing we call existence. It’s been described as God, nature, “The Pattern”, etc.—and I’ve landed on the “substrate”. Why? well, for me, it carries the right connotations.

Strange coincidence, huh?

There’s some funky stuff going on. Have you noticed?

I’ve found that there are these weird moments where everything seems to coalesce. A coincidence here, a “missed” step there. Moments where the stars align, and you find yourself in a better place than you could’ve even imagined.

Not everyone is aware of this phenomenon (Synchronicity, and some people reject the premise entirely. It’s difficult to walk the line of insight and delusion—especially because we (as humans) are hyper-prone to projecting our (limited) experiences onto the world around us.

But the people who get it, get it. People who have realized they’re on a journey tend to embrace it, because after all—when you experience a spiritual awakening, there’s no going back. And once you’ve embraced your journey, you’ll start to notice that it seems to be taking you somewhere…

Building a personal model for the universe; A practice in Perception & Accession

Lately, I’ve been thinking about my journey as if I’m filling out a library.

The purpose of life is to learn lessons

As new perceptions enter the hallways, they must be shaped into books and stored on the correct shelf. Some perceptions enter the halls and don’t seem to fit. Others infect, rotting through the shelves, throwing the books into disarray.1

But the really powerful perceptions fit remarkably well. So well, that it’s hard to figure out which shelf to put them on. It kind of seems like it could fit on any of them! The reason for this is that the perception is getting closer to the truth; the pattern is replicable, because you are able to shape it into a «lower entropy state» via lesson after lesson. Lifetime after lifetime.

The reverse entropy principle

Very briefly: There is clearly more to life than what we can put in a physics simulation.

My theory is that there are essentially two planes of existence: the spiritual, and the physical. a.k.a. yin/yang. On the physical layer, entropy can only go up. (Assuming the universe is a closed system.) But on the spiritual layer, entropy can only go down.

You see, on the physical layer, we have this idea of energy. Kinetic energy, potential energy, etc. Innovation always seems to be about bringing matter into a lower entropy state configuration. Denser packets of energy are, after all, more useful.

And on the spiritual layer is, rather than “energy”, knowledge. On the spiritual layer, it is about love—which is an anagram of understanding. In this layer, entropy can only decrease. Lessons can be obscured, but they cannot be unlearned. Collectively, as one, we can only get more organized—even as it seems everything in the physical is being torn apart.

you create your own universe

you can channel energy from anywhere you believe it to reside

your feet are where they need to be

So this is in-progress; I’m trying to figure out how to communicate this all.

Here’s a first draft:

Metaphysics are pretty cool

Hi, I’m david, and I like metaphysics. I think about them a lot—in fact, I’m fixated on them. I find them everywhere, as if every path leads to Rome; in every situation, I find my attention inevitably pulled to the recurring meta-patterns at play.

I think about these patterns in every single social interaction; every emotion; even in my dreams—and while this is sometimes to my detriment, every day I find myself settling further into a compounding state of Awe: which I believe to be the very essence of fulfillment.

The substrate

What is the substrate? Well, it’s this idea that there is some strange substance that permeates through everything. More specifically, it’s a substance that expresses itself both physically and spiritually. It is a flow of energy both infinitely complex and infinitely simple—paradoxically Yin, while at the same time Yang.

Now, I’m aware that this all sounds very ‘woo’—which unfortunately has this affect of pushing people away from these concepts.2 But I urge you to consider: Have you ever noticed that Everything is waves? Every ‘thing’3 seems to sit at the intersection point between many different ‘spectrums’.4 For example: Recently, I have been fascinated by the idea that: The two poles of autism are ADHD and OCD. It’s wild because I promise you, in every single situation—when you break it down to first principles—you will always find a spectrum at play.

I’m of the belief that these spectrums are observable—but not always through scientific instruments (blasphemy, I know). Oftentimes, the only way we can observe truth is through the subjective experiences of our bodies. For some, this can be a big psychological hurdle, given our culture’s obsession with rationality. But frankly, if you keep an open mind, and notice that these waves/spectrums are everywhere—it becomes impossible to ignore the underlying tautological logic of the colloquial “subjective.” Or, more simply, what we consider to be irrational is, actually, very rational.5

What’s the use?6

Ambiguity is uncomfortable to hold. The ego, our differentiating component, reeeally wants to collapse it down into its two poles. This is why people with a ‘big ego’ are often the least able to handle ambiguity.

But you can practice sitting in the middle. The Taoists call this Wu Wei (無為); a state of doing-non-doing. And it is by following your wu wei that you are able to learn the richest lessons life has to offer.

With much help, I’ve come to discover that The purpose of life is to learn lessons—and it is from this atomic concept that everything follows suit.

When all this clicks for you, that’s where you really get pulled into realizing: there is some real, funky stuff going on in this universe.

Footnotes

  1. An example might be limerence—when you forget everything you’ve learned, and fall into negative patterns of obsession ↩

  2. Samsara ↩

  3. ‘things’ include objects, ideas, etc. ↩

  4. ‘spectrums’ include the masculine & feminine, right & wrong, etc. ↩

  5. Emotions are rational ↩

  6. You can love it, you can leave it / They say you’re nothing without it / Don’t let them keep you down ↩

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