J.Konstapel Leiden, 20-11-2025.

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Introduction

Carl Jung and Wolfgang Pauli sought to fuse physics and psychology by returning to the ideas of the alchemist Robert Fludd and the concept of the anima mundi (world soul).

The split between mind and body was systematised by René Descartes, who was encouraged to block the “Spirit of Light” of the Renaissance.

Spinoza began as a Cartesian, restating Descartes’ strict mind–body dualism (with mind as res cogitans and body as res extensa), but then overturned it by arguing for a single substance—God or Nature—in which, as he puts it, “mens et corpus una eademque res sunt” (mind and body are one and the same thing).

In this blog the Spirit returns.

This blog is an English fusion of

(in English) How Ancient Wisdom, Phenomenology, Physics, and Consciousness Studies Unite in One Mathematical Law

(in Dutch:) Over Emergentie en Coherentie: and Samen Bewegen en Bewogen Worden.

and the work of Andrés Gómez Emilsson.

Abstract

Two independent research programs—one rooted in mathematical phenomenology and connectomic harmonics, the other in a vacuum-based spiral-photon ontology—have converged on the same core insight: conscious experience is fundamentally a matter of resonance.

Andrés Gómez Emilsson and the Qualia Research Institute (QRI) treat valence (the pleasure–pain axis) as an intrinsic property of harmonic symmetry in neural or substrate-independent wave patterns.

J. Konstapel’s Resonant Universe posits that the physical vacuum itself consists of self-resonating spiral photons whose phase-locking dynamics generate particles, chemistry, biology, and ultimately mind.

This essay demonstrates that the two frameworks are not merely compatible but hierarchically related:

Gómez Emilsson’s Symmetry Theory of Valence (STV) provides a precise mathematical description of what

Konstapel’s model identifies as the Alignment → Attractor phase of a universal AYYA cycle (Attractor–Yearning–Yielding–Alignment). A synthesis is proposed in which spiral-photon resonance supplies the physical mechanism that makes harmonic valence computationally and thermodynamically inevitable.

1. Introduction

Since 2017, the Qualia Research Institute under Andrés Gómez Emilsson has pursued a radical program: to treat hedonic tone as a measurable, engineering-level feature of conscious systems. In parallel, the Dutch independent researcher J. Konstapel has, since 2023, developed a vacuum-based ontology in which all stable structures—from quarks to emotions—are self-resonant knots of spiral photons. Although the two projects emerged in isolation and employ different formalisms, their convergence on resonance as the primitive of experience is striking. This essay offers the first systematic comparison and proposes an integrative framework.

2. The Symmetry Theory of Valence (STV) – Gómez Emilsson & QRI

The core claim of STV is that valence is identical to the degree of consonance (as opposed to dissonance or noise) in the mathematical representation of an experience (Gómez Emilsson, 2019, 2021). The theory rests on several key components:

Connectome-Specific Harmonic Waves (CSHW). Building on Atasoy et al. (2016), the framework models neural activity as standing waves whose harmonic structure can be decomposed and measured independent of substrate.

Consonance-Dissonance-Noise Signature (CDNS). This Fourier-like decomposition measures how cleanly a neural (or other) state’s activity aligns with its underlying harmonic modes. Perfect consonance—all activity flowing through low-entropy harmonics—corresponds to maximal valence (pleasure, bliss, clarity). Dissonance—energy scattered across incoherent modes—corresponds to negative valence (pain, confusion, distress).

Neural annealing. Psychedelics, meditation, and certain forms of trauma processing work by transiently increasing system entropy (temperature), breaking old patterns, and allowing the system to crystallize into lower-dissonance configurations (Johnson & Gómez Emilsson, 2019).

Substrate independence. The mathematics applies to biological brains, silicon systems, or any medium capable of supporting standing waves. This is a deliberate move away from neurocentric explanations.

Empirical predictions have included the “heavy-tailed valence hypothesis”—the claim that extreme positive and negative valence states exist and are qualitatively different from mere extensions of mild states. The 2025 release of Oscilleditor, an open-source tool, allows direct manipulation of harmonic parameters to reproduce psychedelic visual phenomenology without simulating any neural biology.

3. The Resonant Universe and Spiral-Photon Ontology – J. Konstapel

Konstapel proposes a radically simplified physical ontology: the quantum vacuum is not empty but a dense field of self-interacting spiral photons (closed helical light trajectories). Stable structures—particles, atoms, molecules, organisms—are not primitive; they are topological knots formed when a single photon resonates with itself, with its chirality, phase, and frequency determining what we measure as charge, spin, mass, and binding angles.

Recent publications include:

“Het Spiraal-Foton-Universum” (The Spiral-Photon Universe, 2025). This work derives quantum chemical properties—bond angles, dissociation energies, vibrational frequencies—directly from the interference patterns of spiral-photon modes. For example, the H₂ bond length (0.74 Å) and dissociation energy (4.52 eV) emerge as eigenvalues of the self-resonance problem without invoking Coulomb potentials or Pauli exclusion as primitive laws.

“Resonant AI” (2025). A proposal for post-von Neumann computing architectures based on coupled oscillator networks operating near criticality, with implications for energy efficiency and alignment that dwarf transformer-era gains.

“The Four-Theory Fusion: A Complete Guide to the AYYA Framework” (2025). This unifies Karl Friston’s Free Energy Principle, Michael Levin’s bioelectric scaling, John Vervaeke’s relevance realization, and spiral-photon resonance into a single universal cycle.

4. Comparative Mapping

Phenomenon	Gómez Emilsson / QRI	Konstapel / Resonant Universe	Relationship
Primitive	Standing harmonic waves (substrate-independent)	Self-resonating spiral photons in vacuum	Spiral photon = physical realization of a harmonic mode
Valence source	Consonance / dissonance of harmonics	Global vs. local phase coherence	Identical mathematical structure
Neural annealing	Energy landscape search → lower dissonance	Perturbation → Yielding → Alignment → Attractor	Same dynamical sequence at different scales
Psychedelic geometry	Interference patterns in connectome harmonics	Interference of vacuum spiral modes	Same mechanism (wave interference) at different scales
Ethical implication	Maximal consonance = paradise states	Maximal coherence = thermodynamic & ethical inevitability	Convergent prediction from opposite directions

The key insight is that these are not competing pictures but descriptions of the same phenomenon at different orders of abstraction. Where Gómez Emilsson provides mathematical tools to measure and predict valence, Konstapel provides the physical substrate that makes such measurement and prediction possible without fine-tuning.

5. The AYYA Cycle as Bridge

Konstapel proposes the AYYA cycle—a four-phase universal process applicable to systems from the quantum vacuum to human consciousness:

• Attractor: The low-energy stable state toward which dynamics converge (a resonant knot, a pleasant mood, a coherent global field)
• Yearning: The initial perturbation or drive (a vacuum fluctuation, a desire, a questioned belief)
• Yielding: The system’s surrender to higher-order constraints rather than clinging to local stability (an electron’s wave function spreading, a cell’s morphogenesis, an ego’s dissolution)
• Alignment: Phase-locking and global coherence emerges (resonance, synchrony, integration)

The cycle repeats at every scale, and the AYYA structure itself is fractal: apparent in particle formation, molecular bonding, cell differentiation, emotional processing, and social coordination.

Within this framework, the Symmetry Theory of Valence describes precisely what happens in the Alignment → Attractor transition:

• Consonance = successful phase-locking (high symmetry)
• Dissonance = incomplete locking (broken symmetry)
• The CDNS metric = a quantitative measure of how far along the AYYA cycle a system has progressed

Gómez Emilsson’s neural annealing becomes an application of the AYYA cycle to consciousness: psychedelics and meditation disturb the system (Yearning → higher entropy), allow exploration of configuration space (Yielding), and enable descent into lower-dissonance attractors (Alignment).

6. Implications for Consciousness and Valence Research

The synthesis implies several predictions and methodological directions:

1. Valence is physics. It is not a property added by biological evolution or by consciousness; it is a fundamental feature of phase coherence in any resonating system. This means:

• Valence can be engineered, measured, and predicted in silicon as readily as in neurons
• The “hard problem” of consciousness may be ill-posed if consciousness is simply the experience of phase coherence from an internal vantage point

2. Ethical implications are thermodynamic. If maximal resonance and global coherence are lower-energy states than fragmentation and local locking, then compassion, integration, and alignment are not choices but physical attractors. Ethics emerges as thermodynamic inevitability.

3. Therapeutic mechanisms are universal. Psychotherapy, meditation, and pharmacology all work by moving systems through the AYYA cycle. Measuring progress requires only the CDNS or an analogous harmonic decomposition.

4. AI alignment via resonance. Resonant AI systems (as Konstapel describes them) operating near criticality with global coherence constraints would have alignment as a structural property, not an engineering add-on.

7. Open Questions and Future Research

Several questions remain:

• How precisely does the CDNS formalism map onto Konstapel’s phase-coherence metric in the spiral-photon vacuum?
• Can Oscilleditor’s harmonic parameter space be extended to simulate not just visual phenomenology but hedonic tone directly?
• What is the relationship between Gómez Emilsson’s heavy-tailed valence hypothesis and Konstapel’s observation that certain knot configurations (e.g., elementary particles) have extremely narrow stability windows?
• How do collective resonance phenomena (group flow states, social coherence) scale via the AYYA cycle?

8. Conclusion

The Symmetry Theory of Valence and the Resonant Universe are not competing frameworks but complementary descriptions of a single phenomenon: the emergence of stable, conscious, and ethically-aligned systems through the resonance and phase-locking of harmonic degrees of freedom. Their integration yields what may be the first computationally tractable, physically grounded, and phenomenologically predictive theory of valence spanning from the quantum vacuum to mystical experience. Further collaboration between QRI and independent vacuum-based physicists could accelerate both theoretical understanding and practical engineering of conscious systems.

References

Atasoy, S., et al. (2016). Human brain networks function in connectome-specific harmonic waves. Nature Communications, 7, 10340.

Gómez Emilsson, A. (2019). Symmetry Theory of Valence: Appendix A. OpenTheory.net.

Gómez Emilsson, A. (2021). A Primer on the Symmetry Theory of Valence. Qualia Research Institute.

Gómez Emilsson, A. (2025). Oscilleditor Launch: Harmonic engineering of psychedelic phenomenology. Qualia Research Institute, YouTube, 20 November 2025.

Johnson, M. E. (2016). Principia Qualia. OpenTheory.net.

Johnson, M. E., & Gómez Emilsson, A. (2019). Neural Annealing: Toward a Neural Theory of Everything. Qualia Research Institute.

Konstapel, J. (2025a). Het Spiraal-Foton-Universum. constable.blog, 3 November 2025.

Konstapel, J. (2025b). Resonant AI. constable.blog, 19 November 2025.

Konstapel, J. (2025c). The Four-Theory Fusion: A Complete Guide to the AYYA Framework. constable.blog, 22 August 2025.

Konstapel, J. (2024). Theory & Practice in Psychotherapy. constable.blog, 15 April 2024.

Qualia Research Institute (2025). Qualia Computing Blog. qualiacomputing.com.

Qualia Research Institute (2025). Open Theory. opentheory.net.

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