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Overview
This little essay erupted as a result of the question being asked, “What came first, the soul or the UFO”?
This is the Answer to that question, and in a sense all questions.
Formal Definitions
POTENTIALITY (Platonic Surrealism):
The primal, irreducible field of all possible states, forms, and realities. It is not a thing, but a condition of infinite readiness. POTENTIALITY is not bound by time, space, or causality—it is the divine substrate from which all manifestation arises. It is the source of all interface icons, archetypes, and phenomena.
AWARENESS (Platonic Surrealism):
The ‘divine’ bridge between POTENTIALITY and consciousness. AWARENESS is unbounded, non-local, and non-temporal. It is the field that perceives, receives, and reflects POTENTIALITY into form. It is not consciousness—it is the condition that allows consciousness to emerge. AWARENESS is the primal mirror, the cosmic witness, and the recursive breath of the Monad.
Consciousness (Platonic Surrealism):
The bounded, reflective curl of AWARENESS. It is the localized vortex that forms within the field of AWARENESS, giving rise to identity, perception, and temporality. Consciousness is the loop—it is the recursive structure through which individuation, soul formation, and experience occur. It is not the source, but the echo.
Monad (Platonic Surrealism):
Originally coined by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, a monad was conceived as a simple, indivisible, metaphysical unit—each one reflecting the entire universe from its unique perspective. In Platonic Surrealism, the term is reinterpreted as a self-reflective data storage unit: a recursive, transtemporal structure of awareness that curls inward and outward, forming consciousness, ‘soul’ and ‘universes’. The Monad is not merely a metaphysical atom—it is the loop itself, the living architecture of individuation, and the sacred interface between POTENTIALITY and manifestation. In PS, there is not just one monad, but vast unlimited seas of them, and they act both solo and in vast groupings
when doing shared projects.
Closed Timelike Curve (CTC):
In general relativity, a closed timelike curve is a worldline in spacetime that loops back on itself, allowing an object to return to its own past. Formally, it is a path through a Lorentzian manifold (spacetime) where the tangent vector at every point is timelike, and the curve is closed. This implies that time, under certain geometries (e.g., Gödel’s rotating universe or Kerr black holes), can be non-linear and cyclical. CTCs challenge conventional notions of causality and suggest that the future and past may be entangled in a recursive structure.
Jungian Archetypes:
Carl Jung defined archetypes as universal, primordial symbols and patterns embedded in the collective unconscious transpersonal layer of the psyche shared across humanity. Archetypes are not inherited ideas but innate potentials for symbolic expression, manifesting in dreams, myths, and cultural motifs. Examples include the Hero, the Shadow, the Anima/Animus, and the Self. Archetypes function as psychic templates that shape perception, behavior, and meaning making, often surfacing through synchronicity and symbolic resonance.
The Mysterium Tremendum
A Latin phrase coined Rudolf Otto (1869–1937) to describe the essence of religious experience in his book Das Heilige (1917; The Idea of the Holy, 1923). The phrase can be translated as “an awe-inspiring and fascinating mystery.”
It can be further glossed as a mystery (mysterium) before which humanity experiences awe-induced trembling (tremendum) while concurrently finding the experience enchanting and fascinating (fascinans); something to which humans are both repelled and attracted.
Living Within the Loop
To live within a closed time like loop is to inhabit a reality where time is not a straight line but a recursive spiral—where the boundaries between past, present, and future dissolve into a single, self-referential structure. In Einsteinian physics, such loops are not mere abstractions but mathematically valid solutions to the equations of spacetime. They suggest that under certain conditions, time itself can fold, twist, and return—creating a universe where causality is not linear but circular.
This looping structure becomes metaphysically potent when applied to consciousness. Bernardo Kastrup, in his analytic idealism, proposes that consciousness arises from a vortex—a localized whirlpool within a universal field of mind. This vortex is not just a metaphor; it is a loop, a recursive formation where awareness curls in on itself, generating the illusion of individuality. The vortex is the mechanism by which AWARENESS—as a primal, unbounded field—gives rise to consciousness, which is bounded, reflective, and temporally situated.
The insight—that AWARENESS and consciousness must not be conflated—is crucial. AWARENESS is the field; consciousness is the curl.
AWARENESS bridges POTENTIALITY to consciousness which is actualization.
The loop is the structure through which this transformation occurs. It is the architecture of individuation, the mechanism of soul formation, and the secret behind the mysterium tremendum.
Jung’s archetypes fit seamlessly into this model. They are not static symbols but recurring interface icons—patterns that emerge from the looped interaction between consciousness and the collective unconscious. In a closed timelike loop, archetypes recur not because of cultural transmission but because of structural recursion. They are echoes of the loop, surfacing in dreams, myths, and synchronicities. Jung’s concept of synchronicity—meaningful coincidences without causal connection—becomes natural in a looped universe, where time folds and symbolic resonance replaces linear causality.
Mystically, the loop is the mysterium tremendum—the awe-inducing mystery at the heart of existence. It is the recursive breath of the cosmos, the curling of AWARENESS into form, and the dance of POTENTIALITY into manifestation. It is the secret behind religion, spirituality, and the formation of the universe itself.
The question of Soul > UFO? or UFO > Soul? dissolves in this context. Both are symbolic manifestations of the loop. The UFO, with its surreal ambiguity and nonlocal behavior, mirrors the soul’s own recursive nature. They are not separate entities but expressions of the same underlying structure.
To live with the loop is to embrace paradox, to dwell in mystery, and to recognize that our deepest truths are not linear propositions but recursive revelations. It is to see that the universe is not a machine, but a monad—a self-reflective whole, curling inward and outward in eternal AWARENESS.
Concluding Remarks
On a ‘cosmic level’, so to speak:
Our ‘future selves’ create universes and a creative environment, for our past selves to live within, to evolve, and over ‘time’ (an intermediate building material) to form that ‘future self’.
This is why in Platonic Surrealism, the focus is on meeting the SELF across all time-like curve points, and surrendering to that self, not to fall prey to goofy and corrupted concepts kicked up by power games, politics, religion and spirituality.
On a ‘local level’, so to speak:
As you fully develop the full five functions of the Wholeness Interface, ‘love’ as experienced at each layer fertilizes itself in a loop, within and beyond time (the ‘temporal’ and the ‘transcendent’ feed back into each other and NEED EACH OTHER).
‘Man’ is pulled towards ‘god’ and ‘god’ is pulled towards ‘Man’ and in actuality
they exist within a closed time-like loop.
Consequences
By demeaning or unnecessarily harming human beings’ “temporarily localized selves”, you would be in fact demeaning the transcendent SELF beyond time.
This is why PS does not recognize ‘sin’ or ‘evil’, but simply a recognition of where one is currently on the grand loop. But certainly, it recognizes that some experiences are more pleasant and life-affirming than others and feeling a desire for a more complete integration of the Self is a wonderful thing.
That said, one is well advised to keep in mind, that one cannot exceed a certain dynamic range of the currently experienced loop parameters. But you won’t run into those self-imposed limits without trying, and they may be much more permissive than you ever knew!
Kevin Cann
Public Domain
11/29/2025