I've long known that someday I would tell you more about the void. I think that day has come but it is not an easy task. It is one of those things I would prefer to let be unsaid but I believe it is my life's work to not only experience the truth but also articulate it and demonstrate it. So, somehow, I will have to tell you about the void.
So far I have implied that the meaning of the void is basically timing. Things happen in just the right order and I always get what I need- nothing more, nothing less- in regards to my self-realization. As long as I remain open-hearted to my destiny, life always finds a way home.
I will copy some of my previous writing on the subject: first from a letter written on November 24 2019, then an article I wrote on July 30 2019.
Excerpts from the Letter on the Void
“The way that decay over time is ultimately defied is by acknowledging the connection to the void. I know the void is real because I wrote about it several years ago without ever having heard of it before. I have since found a limited amount of information on the void but it is enough to retroactively confirm what I initially wrote about the void.
What is the void? The void is a collective and a singularity. The void is 'the All.' Everything is connected to the void: this makes the void the conglomeration of all things and, simultaneously, the connections between all things. Connection and Time are possibly two of the most pertinent aspects of life.
The void is one of those ever-present, larger truths of life that I prefer to let be and generally speak nothing of-- partially because such speaking only seems to distort the truth being spoken of...”
“The void brings about a perfect synergy of connection and timing which together produce elevation. If I could sum up the void in one sentence it would be this: you always get what you need and at the right time. Similarly, one of my rules is that I don't have to want to do a thing until it is time to actually do it.”
“I could provide many examples of my experience with the void. But I might not, not now...!”
“It is time that I revealed some background on some of the ideas I have presented previously. Mastery of the void requires purity of heart. My hope has been that I can speak of purity of heart without having to reveal the backstory of how I came to this idea, as the whole premise of the idea is that it in itself is enough for one to know the truth at all times. Well, the reason that pure heart is required to have the highest awareness of truth is that pure heart also is required to form the highest possible connection to the void.
I hate qualifying my statements, but I will do so quickly. One reason I have been reluctant to talk about the void is that it sounds 'dumb,' and by 'dumb' I mean, at the very least, non-academic. However, even though knowledge of the void is considered 'esoteric,' the void in itself is actually straightforward. Does it not make sense that in order to have the most accurate understanding possible one must be free of petty fear? Such purity increases one's ability to see everything, i.e. the void.”
“In the small amount of writing I have found on the void there is the phrase, 'One who can pull on the tether between life and death.' Death is a pervasive theme, much like connection and time.”
“I also old you that I believe life's subjective experiences are valid and valuable. Tune in next time for void, part two?”
“So much more but this is so disorganized. The more similar and closely connected people are the less necessary words are and the more possible it is to transmit understanding. This relates back to the ideal of not needing technology because where the original perfection of life is present technology is unnecessary.
Viewing time via the void. I have managed to do this but it seems sensitive to the needs of the moment. I have done this by taking the perspective of another person-- in particular, when I have a certain physical sensation such as breathing or pain, I imagine being that person and having that same sensation in their body just as it happened in mine. This is something I've had only a few fairly recent experiences with but it has very high potential.”
First of all, this reminds me that I actually have written publicly about the void already. Again, it does not include all that I want to say. But at least the subject is already covered on my website. I want to note that I have never spoken of the void in person.
Second, I am quite sure that I made edits to the letter before I delivered it but I am not certain that I have access to those edits. I could look in potential places for a final version but I'm also not sure that I need to.
Third, I am fearful that I have not had enough “success” with the void to boast of its importance-- mainly in regards to viewing time. But I have to start somewhere, and the void demands heart. So I have to speak of what I have experienced so far. It largely is just a matter of how I am to do this.
What is the Void?
On July 30 2019 I wrote up a document, which I considered unsatisfactory, called, “What is the Void?”
“The goal of the void is the return to original perfection. This is achieved through its facilitation of an ever-ascension of lifeforms. Ascension is largely about non-violence, eternal consciousness, natural control over attention, honorable decision-making, perception of time, timely action, and connection.
The void is sort of a black hole, and black holes are not merely holes but they are singularities, spherical rather than just a rip through the ether. The void is the fundamental nothingness which gives rise to everything. The void facilitates the ascension of consciousness and of life to a higher level. The void is the essence of what I am. It is what makes an existence beyond materialism possible.
A necessary tool for tapping into the void is purity of heart. Though complete separation from the void is not possible, when one is jaded contact with the void will not appear to be forthcoming.
For various reasons I do not think everyone can tap into the void. For the present this is obviously true-- the question is for whom and how many that can change. At the same time, the void cannot be made into a cult because there is really nothing to be taught. Everything has a connection to it and that connection just is what it is for each being. The connection cannot be changed fundamentally. The question is in what way this connection is realized in the physical world. Hence the primary importance of self-realization, and why I say that Love is just the force for your self-realization. While the void is always providing to you it also calls upon you to make something of it. What you make of it is fully your decision, however it may turn out and however pre-destined it may feel. It feels pre-destined because the void brings certain consequences into being depending upon not only your decisions but also all of the other connections it has, which ultimately are connected to you as well since these all are a part of life. The void, in its essential nothingness, is the All-- the collective soul and originator of all life.
I have been told that, 'Spirit guides are for chumps.' This is because they must be called upon. When you tap into the void, however, there is no need to call upon anyone. Instead your kin in the void knock on the door and all you must do is answer.
The void enables communication between beings which does not necessarily involve noise. Through the void you may both speak to and hear from the soul of another. The message is dependent upon the moment. Usually at some point they make a physical presence which both signifies and is part of the connection. However, they need not be present for communication to occur.
The void makes synchronicity possible. Meister Eckehart said that the soul impels God to itself. Such is the essence of the void, always bringing forth what is called for in every moment (this includes thoughts and feelings). Timeliness is a primary element of the void and is crucial to the communication that occurs through the void (as described above). While the soul impels God to itself, I add to this that God often looks strangely like your own people (i.e. those whose connections to the void are closest to your own). Of course, all of Nature comes together via the void to interact with your own connection, which more or less takes the form of helping you in your journey to self-realize.
The void is nothing, and without it we are nothing.”
My Own Introduction to the Void
I recommend reading my original writing on the void titled, What Lies Beyond Suffering? I posted that article on March 28 2016, almost exactly four years ago from this day of March 25 2020. I remember that I started writing with this question in mind and at some point I started writing about "the void" without having ever heard the phrase before. The explanation I have for this is that the void provided me with knowledge about itself. I was able to receive this knowledge since I was open-hearted enough at that time to tap into the void. The answer to the question of what lies beyond suffering is, indeed, the void.
I will share the most essential parts of the article here.
"But life cannot be damaged. In the present moment of reality, in that timeframe where the moment is beginning to begin and is beginning to end, there is nothing but life. There is no concept of removing life. In that snapshot of a moment, there is an abundance of life. It is hard not to experience this as so.
No matter what happens, no matter what the “stuff” of the present moment may be, you can experience no loss of life within that moment. When you are in a place that is neither here nor there- not in some place far off, but not in a state of logical comprehension and communication, either- you are in a gap. You are in the void.
The secret of that void, which the logical mind struggles to remember, is that things are always emerging from the void. It is the razor’s edge. It exists just to the side of damage and suffering. Why, emergence and suffering exist right next to one another. In the immense realm of the human experience, they are so very close.
This is why it is believed that suffering leads to wisdom. It is so very close to emergence. Many have thought that it is the closest we can possibly get to emergence. But we can’t get any closer. Just beyond suffering there is a void. And if we step into the void, we will never re-emerge. We will never come out of it.
But that belief is only a belief. Indeed, you can do nothing but re-emerge from the void, once you have stepped into it. It would have you do no other. Emergence is the void’s nature. This is its primary function.
You see, we have believed that suffering leads to wisdom because suffering is so close to emergence. It gets us closer to emergence than does any other human experience—except, of course, for emergence itself.
Some people have jumped off the edge of suffering and gone into the void, to emerge again anew. This is why they perceive that suffering leads to wisdom. They saw that they went to the land of suffering, and from there they found the place of renewal. From there, they experienced a major upgrade in intelligence. Suffering served as the diving board into wisdom. It opened up a path to reaching wisdom.
This is a perfectly valid path to wisdom. When you suffer, you can be led to the edge of what you know- of your current reality- and then prodded to dive into the newness of the unknown.
But, this is not the only path. The void does not require that you walk through the land of suffering to reach it. In fact, there is no land of suffering laid out for you to find. It is actually the land of pain that lies next to the void. People only see the land of suffering if they choose to see it.
So, suffering is not a requirement. You can walk the grounds of what you once thought were the land of suffering, and not suffer at all. You will be uncomfortable. You will feel pain. But you do not have to suffer.
For many of us, the void has been reached by way of the land of suffering. We suffered immensely, and after a long while of this we came upon insight, and saw life anew. With this heightened vision, we were then able to cultivate an approach to life that was more functional for us. We were able to live more intelligently."
“But the comfort of pain cannot remain to nurture you. Pain cannot fill the void. The void can be filled only by travelling to its very depths. Pain can take the journey there with you, and it likely will. But do not look to pain to fill the void. You will be tempted to do so. In fact, you probably will do so. When this happens, remember pain’s proper place. It is a guide, but not a destination. It is a healer, but it is not the healing. It is a means, but not an end.”
“Many will traverse the land of suffering to reach the void. Many more will travel with discomfort and pain, while choosing not to suffer. Yet there are few who will eschew travel altogether. They will opt, instead, to live in the void.
Not many make the decision to do this, let alone whether to do this. To live in the void is a major commitment. It is an eternal sentence.
So it appears, anyway. We all have known the void to be a painful place. The process of being suspended in the space of emptiness as we re-imagine what is possible is difficult work. It lends itself easily to fear. We may catch ourselves in imagining possibilities of terror, rather than the desirable possibilities which we came to this place to conceive.
But the truth is that to live in the void is to exist in a state of flow. To live in the void is to ride the wave of perpetual emergence. The void provides opportunity for continuous growth. Your growth is much more easily unfolded when it is continuous, even if intense. The more intense the better, in fact. Stay on the wave.
When you live in the void, you recognize that you’ve no need to leave. The void is the source of life. It is the holder of life—just like you. The void contemplates life anew. By this contemplation, it produces new life. When this contemplation is continuous, there can never not be life. Life is ever- and always- emerging anew from the void.
The even deeper truth here is that you cannot not live in the void. In fact, you have always lived there. But you have believed that you can leave and come back, and have created experiences of this in your imaginings. Indeed, to dream is to imagine oneself as outside of the void.
There is nothing wrong or inferior in this act. It simply is not in full awareness. The only difference between those who are said to live in the void and those who are said to not is that those in the first group embrace the void, and behold life anew in it by fully conscious choice. By their choice, they dive deep and arise high, there expanding the void in order to experience ever-deeper depths and higher heights. Through the endless space of the void, they rise and they fall. Yet never in their travels are they devoid of life. This cannot be so in the void, which is the holder and producer of life itself.
So, what lies on the other side of suffering? The full embracement of an unabashed, ever-expanding experience of life. It is quite simple, yet it is profound.
Would the holder of life have it any other way?”
If I had to sum up these parts of the article in one sentence, I would say this: the secret to life is having a soul.
Other References to the Void
Most of my other public references to the void have been brief, in comparison. I will share them here in order by time.
First of all, apparently the first time I wrote about the void was in an article I posted on October 30 2015, called The Heart Steps Up. I had no idea of this until searching for the term “void” on my website just now. By comparison, I remembered in November 2019 having written about the void in the above article from March 2016 (i.e. “What Lies Beyond Suffering?”). I do not have the same vivid recollection of writing “The Heart Steps Up” that I do of “What Lies Beyond Suffering?” so I decided it would be best to start with the latter. I at least know that I wrote it.
In "The Heart Steps Up" I wrote about the void at the end of the article. What amazes me is that I also talked about heart. It very well echoes what I wrote in November 2019 (e.g. “Mastery of the void requires purity of heart”). It is pleasing to see how consistent my highest thoughts have been over the years-- especially considering that not 100% of my worldview has remained static. Maybe the parts that have remained unchanged are the ones that matter most anyway.
Here is what I said in “The Heart Steps Up” in October 2015:
“I know—when you stop playing the game for a while, the thought of starting again can be scary. You have to start fighting monsters again. You have to start moving around again. You have to start talking to people and put yourself on the line and actually be a real human being.
And that’s scary, because you don’t remember- or you never knew- what it’s like to be a real human being. A big part of the game is to find that out. Discover what it’s like. Expose yourself to new things. Listen to the voice of your incredibly powerful heart. Find some values and stick to them. Be honorable. Find something worth living for and devote yourself to it.
These things are scary because they push you to the edge and force you to look into the void—the void of uncertainty, the void of the ephemeral nature of your very existence. But what really lies in that void, because it lies in all things, is the massive expanse of universal intelligence. It’s scary because it is vast and powerful beyond human comprehension. It could dangle you by the back of your spaghetti-sauced T-shirt. It could complete your calculus homework in an instant. It could make you cry for your mother (spoiler: it has).
When you meet with this void where intelligence lies, you are forced to question your present ideas about your existence. When you go to the edge, you are on the brink of realizing that some of your current beliefs and ways are wrong, and it is time to change. This is scary because you have rested your very reality on these ways, and you believe that if you give them up, you will die. Of course, each time you say Yes and you choose to trust in the endless void that lies on your path, it takes you to a new path- a better one- and you now can live more than you have ever lived before.
This is the process of growth.
When you listen to your heart, you will be lead to the void. It is inevitable. Your heart wants you to go there. But this is not to torture you. Instead, it is so your heart can open more fully, and be heard more clearly. It is in that void where strength and infinite love lie. It is in the space where you believe you will meet with death that you find life.
This is why the world needs more heart: so that we all can truly begin to live. I know—the goal of living seems pretentious when you’re trying to survive. Who has time for that? Won’t that kill me? How strange our ideas about life are: we fear it, yet we cling so hard to that which is not life, meanwhile believing that it indeed is life.
But if you are stagnating, trying to run from fear and death and meanwhile being overtaken by these things, then none of your stagnation-promoting efforts will bring you life. No taste-filled sensation or flashy television show or night of sex will bring you life, because you are not alive. You will eat, but you will not taste, nor will you be filled. You will watch, but you will not see. You will speak, but you will not think, nor will you be heard. What you work so hard to protect is not life. And if it is not life it is not worth protecting, because living is the only valuable thing that can be done with this life.
If instead you seek to consult the source of life- your higher intelligence- then you shall find all of life that you need. You will never be in want, because at last your needs will be aligned with the needs of the universe.
When you seek to live in such a way that the universe expresses itself through you, how can you possibly be in lack? Is that not everything? When you attend to your higher needs, the few physical needs you have will be filled easily, because you at last will be intelligent enough to fill them easily.
The physical world operates more so in your favor when you choose to focus on the non-physical. It is only then that you can both eat and taste, watch and see, think and speak, love and be loved. After all, it is the controller of the game who has wants and needs, and thoughts and feelings—not the game characters themselves. It is only the controller who desires and chooses to play the game. The characters simply act in line with his desires. So, too, does the game world.
Choose to open your heart, and to become more sensitive to its needs. In this way, you will become stronger. Sensitivity and true strength increase together—they do not conflict. True strength lies in your ability to peer into the void and say, “I will go forth.” And it is your heart that leads you there.
Live with heart, and live for intelligence. When you do these things, you will at last begin to live.”
On January 5 2016, in The Rejection of Rules I made an extremely brief reference to the void which makes sense only within the context of that article. As such I will say nothing about it here.
Back to the chronological order. On March 28 2016, the same day that I posted “What Lies Beyond Suffering?” I posted an article titled Innovating Anew. It contains a single reference to the void.
“Some people might say that the field of chemistry is near-complete. The Periodic Table has almost been filled out. All the big discoveries have been made. Surely there is nothing new here.
...But what if a substantial shift was to occur in the collective consciousness of humanity? What if we decided that the uses of our chemistry no longer resonate with us? What if people no longer wanted to see processed, preserved foods that are covered in pesticides? What if people did not want to use cleaning substances that can be deadly if ingested? What if people lost interest in their consumption of pills?
What would happen? Would chemistry be left nearly-obsolete, with nothing left to do? Would it be able to carry on only if strict ethical standards were enforced upon it?
Or, would this be an opportunity to make new discoveries? Might this catalyze chemistry’s being kicked to the void? Would humanity be in a perfect position to re-imagine what is possible for this field of study?
Sometimes, we must upgrade our context of reality before the things within that reality can be upgraded. Right now, chemistry may appear mostly-complete. But if you give it another 10 years and a major shift in the way that humans think about life, we may find ourselves raving about innovation in the field of chemistry—much the way we do now about computers."
In June 2016 I posted a pdf titled Imagining Anew (apparently without an accompanying blogpost). The document contains the following dialogue which references the void.
“You are going to tell yourself many stories, trying to weave them all into one coherent story. The problem is, this story is an endless number of wings of projection. You project first from over here, then from over there... Why, you turn a person into everything except the person. You do not dislike people. You dislike what you project on to them.
Well, what do I do? I can’t live in a vacuum.
You cannot help but write code—to program reality. It is just what you do. It is an extension of who you are. If you just observe, you will see yourself doing it all the time. The void is not a vacuum. It is dynamic. That is where you consistently tap into the base desire to live.
But if I am inside a program of my own creation, I can’t be in the void.
Well, it’s void enough to you—isn’t it? It is void of certainty. It might not work. You do not know what will happen. There is movement here. There is potential for change. This is to live, and this is what you desire.
Oh god. I just don’t know.
Exactly! Why do you need to know in advance?
I’m not sure. I guess it is more exciting if I don’t know, eh? But it’s scary, too... Or, I should say, and it’s scary, too.”
“Imagining Anew” also contains the following.
“Do not walk away so quickly—not from this situation. Not yet.
You could just click right on to the next thing, but perhaps this one is deserving of more of your
attention. Consider it. If you simply wait you will dig deeper into the void, and see what there really is to see. You’ll get far more than the surface reality. You’ll get the deep, profound, complete, raw, unearthed reality. You won’t just get an image. You’ll get the experience—the being. It will present itself to you, whole and real, and you will know it at last. You will become one with it. You will be it.
...But all of this is possible only if you choose not to walk away—not just yet.
Whenever you feel that you are about to feed into compulsion and turn too soon, stop. Stop, and wait. Keep yourself from setting foot into the floodgates of foggy-minded hell. Do not step forward so soon. Do not walk away so quickly. Not from the one that you love.”
As far as I know I did not speak of the void again for three years, until August 6 2019 in Hopelessness.
“So, over the last year I have come to the conclusion that the highest and purest thing I can do is to encode my own journey of self-realization. It does seem rather hopeless because I think no matter what I say, nothing will fundamentally change. To a large extent people are stuck being as they are and I do not know what shall become of them. I think no matter what I say I will be met with hype and complete failure of understanding. It does not seem possible to transfer one's worldview to another without that other having the ability to tap into the void and see through the eyes of others. I fear that very few have the capability for this and even fewer develop that capability.”
Note that the ability to see through the eyes of others is absent from my earlier references to the void. I touched on the idea in “Becoming a Social Genius” but that article has the complete opposite spirit of the one required to tap into the void. Indeed, that article has the spirit of the economic worldview, rather than the life-centered one.
The two most recent references were in Existential Loss and in The Spiritual War-- Part Two.
In “Existential Loss” I wrote the following.
“Around mile 33 or 34 there was a thawed patch of the Erie Canal, no more than 50 feet wide. At least 30 geese were gathered in the water here, all fairly close to one another though there was space between them. The combination of the water and the heads of the geese created a dark picture which reminded me of the void. When I am in full consciousness of the void it empowers me by giving voice to all fears: this is typically an immersive process. Between the full moon and the looming void, I felt a bit of pressure and even foreboding possibility. What would happen? Would I start running at the level of my true ability during this race? Or would I fail?”
Finally, I mentioned the void twice in “The Spiritual War-- Part Two.”
“The purpose of the Tools Across Time is to bring together people of a certain type. A pure and natural brotherhood based upon a shared soul must be realized somehow or this species is doomed. Let me emphasize that this brotherhood must be pure. It cannot come together along the wrong lines. It will not be brought together by empty phrases nor nice-sounding ideas. There can be no coercion nor persuasion. I am aware of the historical role of propaganda and I just do not think that will be good enough here. I want nothing to do with posturing. As such, at least for now I will have no slogans, no symbols, no images, no unnecessary titles-- nothing. I am represented by nothing, which is fine since nothing is synonymous with the void. I belong to nature untarnished and to express this I am unadorned. If you look around this website you will notice there are very few images, though I may end up adding more since images serve as evidence of the fact that I am real. Besides that, I wear no jewelry, no makeup, put nothing in nor on my body which is unnecessary-- nothing. To be nothing, to need nothing, and to impose myself on nothing is one of my impossible ideals which I will never forget even if I must defy it.
I am not delusional in that I realize that those on a shared path might comprise only an extremely small segment of the population. My guess is that there will be two types of people on the life-centered side. There will be those who have a very clear understanding of things and an ability to tap into the void. Then there will be those who are not as capable as this tiny elite but they can at least appreciate and support what this elite believes in. So there will be a small group highly focused on ascension and a much larger supporting group.”
The only thing which might beg for explanation here is why the larger group is less capable of tapping into the void. Will it be due to-- individual will? A lifetime of habit? Inability to change? Tarnished health? Inherent ability? I believe all of these factors will be involved. Maybe there is still time to prove me wrong but I believe it is too late: mankind is too far gone.
In January 2018, months after I largely left kimwrate.com behind and had forgotten all of my writing on the void, I became interested in going to what I called "the Edge" and even created a "Religion of the Edge" in which I spontaneously included, you guessed it, the void. The basic idea stated that in order to reach the void one should first go to the Edge though one does not have to. This is rather similar to what I wrote in “What Lies Beyond Suffering?” in March 2016 and I had no idea of this similarity. This is an important detail because it means the idea of the void came to me at least two separate times in life with no prompting from the outside world. Finally in July 2018 I managed to find a bit of reading on the void (without having tried to find it, of course) and since then it has been a regular part of my thinking.
Sharing from the Void
After posting this Introduction to the Void it would make sense to begin sharing my personal experiences. That will prove difficult for the primary reasons of wordiness and embarrassment. I will be concerned about relaying my messages regarding the void in the right manner since it is an important and rather uncovered topic.
Here is one example. I had profound experiences of the void during the longest race of my life which was 129.2 miles and took 47 hours 11 minutes and 1 second to complete, from July 4th to July 6th 2019. These experiences all occurred during the second half of the race. I am inclined to tell you about the whole race instead of cherry-picking the blatantly void-related parts. It is very much like how I am inclined to share with you the whole letter I wrote in November 2019 instead of just the above void-related excerpts. Sharing a whole “thing,” whether an event or a letter, requires many more words and much more attention; and, morever, it might not be necessary in order to make the point. However, more thorough sharing will furnish a stronger connection between us and contribute to a more complete picture of reality. I will not say for certain at this exact moment what I will do, but I am more likely to go with sharing in fullness. Specifically, I am likely to take the approach that I did in “Existential Loss”: it was not written with the intention of being a race report since it is focused on the spiritual journey; but, it serves that purpose as well. This took a lot of work and the article fell short in certain respects: there were a few areas where I could have added more detail or clarity and I wouldn't be surprised if people who read it get that sense. I do not have much of a genuine response to that issue at the moment.
For Spiritual Men- those of the life-centered worldview- the current times are not especially lonely: many hundreds, if not thousands, of years have been. The ultimate way for us to be together is through the source of life itself, which is the void.
P.S. I typically write out “the void” in all lowercase letters 100% of the time. I did not do so in the section titles throughout the article since it just looks too improper. Also, I am aware that this style preference would get lost in translation into other languages like German where all pronouns get capitalized.
P.P.S. The void wants me to tell you that this isn't really an introduction because not only has the void both always been here and is above time but there also never was a time when you were unaware of the void, you just didn't know it yet. For practical purposes within apparently linear time, however, the void is fine with me referring to this as an “introduction.”