--- title: "The Global Wayfinding Model" description: "Laying out the basic claims and models of wayfinding" source: "content/wayfinding/wayfinding-model.md" canonical: "https://spiritual-rationality.org/book/wayfinding/wayfinding-model" --- # The Global Wayfinding Model *This is the markdown source of a page of the book. `::gloss[...]` lines are definitions of the nearest heading (invisible on the website, shown there as hover cards); `:::note[...]` blocks are callouts. Full notation guide and a single-file edition of the whole book: /llms.txt* This section discusses the most important parts of the global wayfinding model in more detail. *See [previous section](/md/wayfinding/introduction.md) for initial context*. ## Losslessness *Losslessness* is a concept from information theory, it describes a representation from which an original input can be reconstructed perfectly, that is, without any loss of information.[^loss] In the context of global wayfinding, Mark often claims that the mind, (barring traumatic brain injury etc.) is basically lossless, variously with respect to memory, at least of formative events, but more importantly with respect to its volitions, affective conditioning, and values. [^loss]: Er, rather, that the encoding doesn't lose any information, if the encoding is lossless then indeed there is an inverse function blah blah blah. First off I have to note explicitly that I expect the strongest version of this claim must be false. I haven't discussed this with Mark, but etc. etc., the maximal version[^any-sensory] would flatly contradict most of what I'm vaguely aware of about the literature on human memory. Even with claims outside of wayfinding of eg. recovering traumatic memories, I expect these are a mixed bag: some of these are definitely fabricated under suggestion from therapists, some I expect are straightforwardly real, some mixed, etc. [^any-sensory]: And Mark does seem to be making really extreme claims, so eg. [here](https://meditationbook.page/#body-self-trust-sensory-processing-meaning) "the mind is practically lossless (in that any distinguishable sensory memory can be ultimately recovered)" I'm less interested in the claim about memory per se, and more interested in the claim about values and emotions. The latter I see as a fundamental crux between wayfinding and certainly all traditional contemplative lineages I'm aware of,[^well] as well as almost all modern therapy systems. [^well]: So the exception here is plausibly *some* theories of karma kind of end up equivalent to this claim. Mark actually uses the term 'karma' a lot to mean something like "tech debt + conditioning," this feels like an annoying misuse of the term and I don't think is close enough to the traditional models for it to be appropriate. Anyway, the crux here with traditional systems is really more about tech debt + losslessness rather than losslessness alone, but this flowed better. The basic claim here is that, as a general property of human minds, let's say "volitional-affective structures" basically cannot be squashed, erased, or ripped out, and that those structures persist after even *apparently* effective attempts to do so, but now something like "swept under the rug." (By volitional-affective structures I mean something very general, so inclusive of eg. triggers, attachment bonds, felt status and social posture, tribal/religious loyalty or devotion, "trauma" very broadly, also basic social/emotional "needs," sex drive, etc.) This is *not* to claim that these structures never "naturally" decay or change, my understanding of Mark's claim here in general is that minds have organic, "[integrated](/md/practice/healing.md#practice-healing--integration)" conditions for relinquishing values and intentions, *as well as* conditions under which they will be suppressed and collect as conflicted, unintegrated cruft in the [body-mind](/md/practice/phenomenology-somatics.md), which is a very common pattern of *technical debt*. ## Technical debt *Technical debt* (often *tech debt*) is a concept from software engineering, where it refers to, among other things, common patterns of cruft and fairy-dust-and-duct-tape style complexity which tend to accrue in software systems over time. In actual software, tech debt is most often incurred when features are quickly tacked on, without respect to the "structural integrity" of the program—metaphorically one could imagine a house with an extension built on stilts jutting through the roof of the original structure, and with holes in the floor covered up with carpet. The metaphor of *debt* here is that tech debt represents engineering work which has been postponed to the future, which both will eventually have to be "repaid," and which continually impedes ongoing engineering work, hence on which an organization "pays interest." Tech debt is basically pervasive in real world software, and Mark's claim is that the same is true in human minds. There are a bunch of claims here: - Ordinary life experiences often leave residue which something like "needs to be" [metabolized](/md/practice/healing.md#practice-healing--metabolism) and [integrated](/md/practice/healing.md#practice-healing--integration). Until metabolized they distort one's *own*, robust relationship to oneself, a domain of experience, an individual person, etc., and remain an encumbrance until thoroughly integrated. - Note that this is at least partially normative and partially descriptive, viz. descriptively there exists metabolism, and there exists something that looks like more "extensive" metabolism, which is what wayfinding consists of, but why this is desirable or correct is more nuanced and maybe underdetermined. See more on [my takes](/md/wayfinding/my-takes.md) on wayfinding, and on [this question very broadly](/md/spiritual-truth/truth.md). - Tech debt *compounds*, in particular, various kinds of debt can build on existing strata, and more complex or entrenched patterns of tech debt both make new debt harder to pay off, and more likely to accrue in general. - Sufficiently snarled or compounded tech debt can make all integration impossible, manifesting in eg. meditation practice becoming stuck, or rigidity and stuckness in affect/perception/behavior in general. - (Mark is pretty extensive about this claim, eg. he thinks that cognitive decline associated with age is substantially about accrued debt.) - Some kinds of metabolism occur organically, but compounded debt is often intractable to default metabolic processes or at least to a person's existing skills. - Many kinds of debt get paid off (that is, resolved, "healed," processed, etc.) in normal life and with normal levels of introspective/meditative skill, eg. during sleep, stolen moments of reflection, sharing with others, etc. However, many patterns of debt are too complex or too intense, and so they will usually fester indefinitely. - Thorough integration is often hyper-idiosyncratic, fractal, and irrevocably *particular* to a person's specific shapes of tech debt, and skipping this particularity blocks future progress. - Eg. Mark [uses language like](https://meditationbook.page/#ordering-matters-order-matters) "million-moves long, ten thousand hour combination lock" to describe practice in his system. - Most adults have substantial outstanding technical debt. - [Awakenings](/md/practice/mysticism-awakening.md#awakening) can be, and in practice often are, *rolled in with* pre-existing structures of debt. Furthermore, many apparent awakenings are entirely *contingent* on particular patterns of debt, often specifically inculcated by a given lineage. - In any case, depending on how one construes the goal of spiritual practice, in wayfinding, "complete" or "correct" practice eventually requires unwinding all debt. [See more later](/md/spiritual-truth/truth.md) on this. - Similarly, there are some kinds of apparent healing and integration possible which are built on and entrench existing technical debt, even if they have a similar contour and result to "correct" practice. Also similarly, in the wayfinding model, these proximal or incomplete kinds of integration eventually need to be unwound as well. Some broad categories of debt, not necessarily exhaustive: 1. [Content](/md/practice/healing.md#practice-healing--psychological-content) at the surface - This would be more like straightforward grief, horror, fear, anger etc., along with associated thoughts/imagery/etc. - (So re the stylized depiction of content in the link above, here by "content" I mean more like the "gunk" that's excised and uh "emoted" out, rather than more ingrained patterns of belief, perception etc.) - Often content [comes to the surface](/md/practice/healing.md#practice-healing--metabolism) as a more complex structure of debt is unwound, so this ordered list here is sort of in reverse order of how [practice](/md/practice/spiritual-practice.md#transformative-practice) commonly progresses. 2. Encysted unmetabolized content, usually with downstream behaviors and perceptions - Central here will be examples I discussed in the sections on [trauma](/md/culture-trauma-memetics/trauma.md#models-reports-and-anecdata) and [trauma smells](/md/culture-trauma-memetics/trauma-smells.md#smells-in-particular-not-exhaustive). - (Note that strictly speaking behavior itself is not debt, but generally speaking trauma-smelly behavior/perception is generated by some debt etc.) 3. Gross and subtle layering ([see below](#layering)) - Briefly: compensatory or occlusive structures, often added on top of types #1 and #2 above. - (Note that trauma smells are often specifically layering) 4. Complex tangles ([see below](#complex-tangles)) - Impacted, snarled, overlapping, or knotted structures of volition, intention, affect, and perception. This list of course in great part overlaps with other models, and anyway these models are all at least substantially describing the same territory of healing and transformative practice. Tech debt and losslessness, as concepts together, are then partially analytical distinctions, but also theoretical ones which bear on what the structural constraints are ([see more below](#structure-preserving-transformations)), and what techniques we expect to work. In particular, many practice frameworks look at some "problematic" set of behaviors etc. in a practitioner, and prescribe practices which implicitly view the generators as simple or flat, whereas for the same cases, wayfinding will often predict that the generators are complex and snarled, with a lot of debt to be unwound before getting to the heart of the issue. Debt *often* has unmetabolized gross content at the root, but not always, or in some cases at least not in a way which ever becomes distinctly available. Some kinds of debt are purely perceptual, cognitive, or somatic tangles without much valence or emotion. Again, see the sections below. ### Layering ::gloss[*Layering* refers to structural contortion, dislocation, and suppression used to achieve a specific configuration of psychology and behavior, at the expense of integration.] *Layering* refers to structural contortion, dislocation, and suppression, used to achieve a specific configuration of psychology and behavior, generally at the expense of integration. (Unfortunately 'layer' evokes discrete strata *occluding* others, which was ish how it was meant in [the model Mark originally](https://meditationstuff.wordpress.com/2019/08/03/david-deida-shell-layer-theory/) took the term from, but it's meant more loosely and broadly in Mark's usage.) These kinds of "contortions" can be spatial, and very often specifically [somatic](/md/practice/phenomenology-somatics.md), with common patterns in their presentation and in [their resolution](/md/practice/healing.md#practice-healing--releases-and-openings). However, both layering and debt in general are not just somatic, and Mark is often insistent that meaning, being, and perception are all interwoven, with debt sometimes worked all the way down to the visual quality of space, the boundary of the body, object permanence, etc. Gesturally, some examples: - [Dissociation](/md/practice/phenomenology-somatics.md#dissociation), generally "active dissociation" (see link) - Resisting specific beliefs - Eg. affirmations, secondarily practices like CBT, etc., also often more stereotypically neurotic or "rigid" patterns of pushing down thoughts/beliefs - [Blockages](/md/practice/phenomenology-somatics.md#blockage) - Internal demands for positive affect, productivity, presentable-ness, etc. - (Though, not all such are exactly layering.) - Often, spiritual practices of "cultivation," especially often those framed as "cultivation of virtue" The claim here, at least implicitly, and claims which rhyme with this are often made by hippies as well, is that "by default" (oy) there are flows of information through a person's psyche which are afforded by attention, emotion, energy, thought, belief, expression, etc., and that layering structurally disrupts some or many of those flows. Then, often both "traumatic content" and just *information* are not able to come to the surface, and are stymied in participating in "the conscious mind." Moreover the claim is that layering is always adding a *compensatory* structure, and that occluded or obscured generators are still structurally and causally present, even if apparently introspectively absent, or only present at the fringes. Note this is subtly mixing both descriptive and normative claims, about the structure of human minds, *and* about what configurations are desirable, "original," *correct*, or inevitable. Again I'll [return to](/md/spiritual-truth/truth.md) these questions later. This is obviously besides big questions I discuss later re [introspective epistemology](/md/spiritual-truth/gnosis-confabulation.md). Again I want to stress the point that layering by no means mostly operates at the level of "belief" or "thought," rather Mark claims it operates on ~all features of phenomenology. On belief in particular, often there are layering structures which occlude the *existential impression* of some experience, which otherwise would have had a diffuse influence on perception, [verbal claims](/md/practice/introspection.md#introspection-thought-self-models-and-the-unconscious), or introspectively superficial "beliefs." These structures again very commonly centrally revolve around somatic patterns which occlude the [somatic instantiation of felt meaning](/md/practice/phenomenology-somatics.md#meaning-and-resonance). Some reports involve finding layering structures which are exclusively somatic, with no apparent "content," imagery, memory, etc.; on the other hand there are many reports of patterns which initially present """cognitively""" or behaviorally, which are [found to be](/md/practice/healing.md#practice-healing--releases-and-openings) tightly woven in with blockages or other somatic layering structures. Different forms of dissociation are together probably the most common form of layering, in my anecdotes. Very commonly layering structures block or hide some channel or slice of meaning, and so a swath of emotions becomes unavailable or invisible, eg. grief or anger becoming apparently absent, among other adjacent flavors of [trauma smells](/md/culture-trauma-memetics/trauma-smells.md#smells-in-particular-not-exhaustive). Often layering is partial or incompletely effective, my sense here is that eg. some shapes of sexual fetishism, and paraphilias otherwise, come from partially layered sexuality twisting itself to fit around some layering, and spilling out the sides. Similarly, IIRC I've seen reports of anger which is blocked from its *direct* expression, which finds expression and influence indirectly, eg. in self harm or (sometimes simulated) sexual violence, but also eg. tilting thought and expression, and constricting or distorting the expression of positive regard, affection, etc. #### Layering, shadow, and losslessness Sexuality in particular is a theme I've kept returning to, and is central (though often tacit) in Mark's writing. Sexuality is really the [taboo](/md/culture-trauma-memetics/culture.md) par [excellence](/md/practice/healing.md#practice-healing--robust-relationship-with-taboo), and turns up again and again in reports from practitioners in modern Western therapy/adult development/alternative spirituality cultures. Sexuality is no less salient in "traditional" cultures, and I'm not aware of a religious tradition which doesn't involve a substantial system of taboos and rituals surrounding sex and gender. A very common take here[^wayfinding-taboo] is that some structures of taboo around sexuality lead people to layer over it in general, or from some associated energies or aspects of its expression. Again these come up often in healing/transformative practice reports as a stuck energy or calcified blockage which at some point unravels in the course of practice. [^wayfinding-taboo]: Having nothing to do with wayfinding, but in its terms. I think it's instructive to look at the relationship with sexuality in renunciative or uh "semi-renunciative" traditions. This of course means celibate monastic traditions, but I also think of much of Islam or socially conservative forms of Christianity and Judaism, which may be variously pro-sex within marriage, but strongly proscribe any sex outside of marriage, and generally all masturbation or erotic fantasy. In many cases they explicitly teach this as a persistent struggle and temptation, especially for men, that must be fought vigorously and faithfully. *Layering, right there!* The distinction here is that they *don't* (mostly) teach that desire for proscribed sexual expression will usually wither and cease with appropriate devotion, or that it can be cleanly excised; I claim this is a straightforward instance of losslessness. There's a concept which Eliezer[^terminal-values] calls a *terminal value* (there's a variety of other names in other discourses), which refers to inexorable, atomic values of an agent. Sexuality is in some respects a mixed case here, partly because of menopause/low testosterone/etc., but also because of asexuality. [I'll discuss](/md/goodness/sex.md) sexuality, including asexuality, in more detail later, but the point is still easy enough here that the overwhelming majority of humans continue to desire and usually pursue sex regardless of their culture's beliefs about its propriety, or their meanwhile doggedly trying to subdue or erase it. [^terminal-values]: Eliezer Yudkowsky, 2007. [*Terminal Values and Instrumental Values*](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/n5ucT5ZbPdhfGNLtP/terminal-values-and-instrumental-values) In some respects this is begging the question, if you're unconvinced re sex then feel free to consider this case only evocative. Again, the claim here (agnostic necessarily of sexuality in particular) is that some structures and patterns of affect/perception/behavior are *something like* "inherent," such that attempts to remove them arbitrarily will fail because [the system](/md/practice/phenomenology-somatics.md#bodymind-and-the-system) *treats them* as inviolable. A slight generalization of this point also applies for what are called *instrumental values*. These are goals or values which are, indeed, *instrumental* with respect to other values, presumably forming some chain or network which grounds out in terminal values, for whose sake the instrumental ones were adopted. Any given example might be contentious or nuanced, and these examples are obviously contrived, but gesturally: - Desire for money - As instrumental for status, or power, or ease - "Finally have that conversation with Josh" - Perhaps grounding out in some combination of need for connection, integrity, self-esteem, or love - Not crying in front of one's parents - *Perhaps* ultimately instrumental for love and safety - Craving a specific taboo sex act - *Perhaps* intermediately involving structures around shame, perhaps ultimately resting on need for connection and grounding, and presumably desire for sex. - (Again [see more](/md/goodness/sex.md) in the section on sex.) (There's more I could say about regarding these proposed corresponding terminal goals as prototypical, but won't here.) So, the more general claim is that instrumental values in general persist in the system, *except for* specific conditions under which they can collapse, unify, or "resolve." I'll discuss this [more below](#refactoring), but briefly the claim here is that instrumental goals will specifically decay if their fundamental goals are *handled*, accounted for, or, ugh, "integrated." The obvious other exception here is decay: naively, presumably, there are decades-old intentions and fantasies which one has forgotten about, and *surely* many old grudges which really no longer hold any meaning. I'm not clear quite how far he goes, but Mark is pretty maximalist about the claim that old content in general persists. Indeed, there are many reports from practitioners of, in the course of practice, dredging up childhood vows or teenage anxieties and shames, which were otherwise completely absent from their day-to-day experience. This broad shape, of persistent generators, occluded or stymied but still tilting behavior and experience, is a decent, if nonstandard, angle on what's usually meant by *shadow*: tabooed realms of one's psyche, whether idiosyncratic or societal-level taboos, which continue to show their influence. Part of the trouble here is that shadow and taboo are *functional*, and often vital for relatively peaceable community. Eg., taboos against the use of violence, especially lethal force by civilians, *surely, presumably*, do actually contribute to society being more stable and more functional. So, to return to sexuality, one objection to this perspective, or a steelman of a class of objections, might be that taboos and restrictions on sexuality are functional and necessary, "the sexual revolution failed," etc. The general form here would be "x taboo is a safeguard against real harm, and tearing it down exposes practitioners and society to risk." In principle I'm sympathetic to this kind of argument, and in particular ambivalent, but distinctly the claim re layering is *structural* re human minds, and *mostly* values-agnostic. In my view wayfinding is not fundamentally antinomian, but it is, I'm so sorry, basically *tantric*[^tantra]. Again [see more below](#refactoring). [^tantra]: I'm using 'tantric' here in a slightly abused sense, to mean something like "using taboo-breaking as a gateway to transformation, mysticism, and the sacred." Note I don't mean New-Age sex practices, see [this footnote](/md/practice/mysticism-awakening.md#fn-neo-tantra) for a discussion of Western Neo-Tantra.
More context on shadow Context here which might be missing for some people: one of the spiritual/therapy frames *du jour* is what's known as "shadow work." This gets variously distorted in different contexts, but centrally this means "unraveling blindspots and idiosyncratic conniptions by turning towards and working with things that are untouchable, disgusting, unspeakable, rude, etc." Shadow work in the yoga bourgeoisie sense above is substantially older, but one of the most influential books in that space at the moment is still *Existential Kink* by Carolyn Elliot.
[what about weirdos? how common is this? how do I make these concepts more accessible?] [indeed I think this kind of "layered with unresolved compensated generators" is very common] Many practice systems regard content as like little bits of nutshell in an otherwise pleasant gruel; wayfinding's central thesis, imo, is that content is more like - [ ] 2026-07-22 So the thing about debt and losslessness is like, one way to express this, is that content isn't just sort of like little bits of nutshell in and otherwise pleasant gruel. Rather, it's tightly structured and tightly *raveled* in itself etc there are successive layers, and layers can get impacted over time, debt gets complicated. [presumably this sort of goes right before the section on complex tangles] ### Complex tangles ::nogloss This is really the bread and butter of wayfinding, more specifically making these patterns salient is what most distinguishes wayfinding for me from other practice systems. [something like "to continue on the evocative exmaple I gave above"] [This kind of shape, whether multiple compounded snarled brambles of layering, or simpler structures, if still often intense and overwhelming, is ] [that's a big part of why this distinction matters. so to very unfairly stereotype, the "simple" healing mode for this case might prescribe a bit of controlled catharsis, a heavy dose of equanimity, and maybe loving-kindness meditation to... uh, sorry, try to be nicer? ] [again, this is unfair but I'm actually only exaggerating a tiny bit from cases I've seen.] - [ ] I think I'm gonna talk about somatic tangles much more here. - [ ] "beliefs are full stack" [ Re "quagmires," there are reports (I see this more commonly among wayfinding associated people, but peripherally in other circles) of structures which look like: 1. Some persistent clump of [content](/md/practice/healing.md#practice-healing--psychological-content) which is intense or intolerable 2. Layering obfuscating or dissociating from 1. 3. Imbalance, or emotional/relational "absenses," due to both 1. and 2. 4. Further compensatory structures trying to perform the absent emotion/behavior/etc. 5. ...Further somatic tangles from many competing energies and blockages in all of the above This kind of pattern might present at the beginning of someone's practice as nebulous difficulty and dissatisfaction with some aspect of relationships, or often only in terms of visible second-order effects of *that*, etc., and then several of these clusters interacting... To be fair this is a bit exaggerated, but I've definitely seen reports of tangles just like this. ] ## Refactoring ### "Structure-preserving transformations" ::nogloss ### Wacky phenomenology ## Wayfinding and awakening [something like, and then awakening pops out for free? etc] ## Painting some pictures