The Core Principle

Is there a model of the universe that unites scientific thought and spiritual meaning?

Is an evidence-based religion even possible?

What’s difficult to trust about many religions is they tend to ignore facts and theories in favor of written “prophecy;” the problem with science being its inability to validate some of our more divine human notions. Suppose the idea that bridges the two is a simple one, that what creates human connection is the very same process that aligns our atoms. Suppose there is neither Heaven nor Hell, only the choice of how we connect with others after death.

A Near-Death Experience (NDE) on Oprah provided the inspiration for this theory, after, on Coast-to-Coast AM, another man’s NDE repeated key details. The man on Oprah’s stage relayed his near demise on the operating table; on the radio, the man recalled having been struck by lightning. No matter the manner of death, both men had independently confirmed a functionally identical “afterlife,” in which they experienced the full effects of their actions on others.

During their Near Deaths, both men reported a “life review” from a previously unconsidered point of view– their victims. These men had returned to the abuse– the loud, disgusting, even violent behavior they’d inflicted. Only, in death’s altered consciousness, the men were not simple observers from some passive third-person perspective, but in every detail, a kind of participant from the grittiest point of view possible– their wives’ embodied first-person.

In their stories, it was as if each man had been temporarily reincarnated as the “ripples” they’d had on others’ lives– the abusive husbands became their abused wives. They experienced every previously unknown thought and feeling running through their spouse’s body– the emotional impact of a slur, lingering pain of being gaslit, physical sensation of an unexpected fist. All the abuse was known.

Spiritually speaking, what justice exists beyond a perpetrator reliving their victim’s exact experience? A reward beyond knowing firsthand the feelings created by every act of kindness? This “Complete Information,” exchanged between people after death, is not some divine force, but rather, the innate mathematics at work behind the universe, a simple balancing of information. From a perspective of information supremacy, “soul” is not some mystical energy or spiritual body, but simply our unique pattern of preference (data), shared (or not) with others.

Each action is like a rock tossed into a giant river, casting Ripples that interact with the Ripples of other rocks– a growing chain of cause-and-effect. For example, one aforementioned abusive husband lived through a Ripple during and after an argument with his wife– her storming out of the house, entering a nearby business, and verbally assaulting a person behind the counter. This husband bore, not only the direct effects as his miserable wife, but the subsequent series of effects his short temper had spawned– he next became the miserable store clerk, subject to a wife’s unprovoked attack. By causing pain in the world, he ultimately came to suffer exactly that pain.

What those men experienced in death was akin to unfiltered empathy, and they were forever changed by its truth. Both claimed in their interviews that they would never again abuse their wives, as they finally, fully grasped the consequences for their significant other, and ultimately, themselves. The men now knew violence does not move only in one direction– away– but directly back to also hurt them in the end.

Although impossible to fact-check these men’s stories, the idea of an empathetic afterlife certainly impacts the believer’s everyday life, inspiring profound consideration for other points of view. It, therefore, does not matter the veracity of these stories, only the inherent value, for the believer and society. Imagine a world where we all lived by the “golden rule,” but with a vital tweak– instead of doing unto others as you would do unto yourself, you do unto others as they would do unto themselves– true empathy.

The core scientific premise at work in the Novel Universe Model is that everything is data– qualia, or the somewhat quantifiable essence of experience. For instance, qualia is defined as the redness of red, how one shade differs in value along the color spectrum; but also how a specific shade is experienced somewhat differently between people. It’s the novelty of qualia– its accumulation in life, and potential exchange between individuals in the beyond-life– that is the function and purpose of the universe.

A personal preference for either Love (connection) or Power (control) frames qualia. Does one accept the characteristics of others as they choose to behave, warts and all, come to a full understanding of the other? That would be the framework of Love. Or would one forego the unpredictability of others, and force an environment filled only with their preferences? That’s the framework of Power.

The fully empathetic afterlife of Love is represented in these men who came near death– they chose Complete Information; intentional, vulnerable participation in the novelty of others. They’d experienced everything that their Ripples reached out to, for better or for worse. Power, however, makes a different kind of paradise– the forceful, silencing consumption of qualia, a world entirely curated by Information Control. Theoretically, the men in those NDE’s could have chosen not to experience every Ripple, but instead, cherry-picked from their Earthly existence, reliving only those fonder memories of their wives. Instead, the men suffered, and through their choice of Love, accessed what awaits beyond their ability to imagine– their wife’s authentic reality.

Does Love or Power lead to “heaven?” Neither is necessarily a reward nor punishment, but a flexible, personal choice. The carnal Novel Universe is formed by mixing the two frameworks– all of us have acted out of Power, experienced Love; however, in death, the Mixture does not exist, leaving us to choose one or the other. Either we filter the data we’ve created on Earth, use Information Control to make an afterlife for ourselves that is isolated and under our jurisdiction; or we accept the effects of all of our Ripples, and coexist with others in an afterlife filled with our collective, Complete Information.

Love and Power aren’t things– neither actions nor individuals– but points of view. We are always exercising either connection to or control over those around us. It doesn’t matter if we are “conscious” of the process or not– our desires are always rejecting or incorporating elements of the other in light of this spiritual choice. Accepting that neither Love nor Power is inherently right or wrong, but that each better “fits” an individual, or situation, is the first step in understanding each other, and the Novel Universe.