🌱 Patterns of Existence

Preface to Similarity Theory
By Simon Raphael

🌀 Philosophical Reflection

🌱 How Similarity Theory Was Born

From a young age, I found myself drawn not only to questions of existence, but to the patterns that seemed to underlie it. My earliest exposure came through the Lord’s Prayer, specifically the line “on Earth as it is in Heaven.” Even as a child, something about that phrase struck me as profound — it hinted at a structural resonance between worlds. That early seed later flourished into what I now call Similarity Theory.

As I matured, I encountered the Hermetic maxim “As above, so below,” and recognised it not merely as a mystical saying, but as a universal principle echoed across spiritual, philosophical, and scientific traditions. This idea — that the microcosm reflects the macrocosm — became a guiding lens for my thinking.

At one point, I considered how a scientist might study the entire universe: surely, one would need samples from every corner of it. But then I realised that Earth already holds an incredible diversity of life and matter — far more complex and abundant than what we observe in most of the visible cosmos. In that sense, Earth itself is a condensation of universal variety. I began studying the patterns within this abundance and looking for resonances across scales — between what is below and what may exist above. This is where the roots of Similarity Theory took hold.

🕯️ The Three Pillars of Reality

At its heart, Similarity Theory rests on three interwoven pillars: Consciousness, Time, and Dimensions.

• Consciousness is the first and most fundamental. From the instant that emptiness became aware of itself, consciousness was born — and from that spark, both time and dimensions unfolded. Consciousness is not a product of the universe; rather, the universe is a product of consciousness.

• Time emerged as the measure of unfolding. For humans, it is a current that flows forward. For higher-dimensional beings, it may appear more like a landscape: navigable, flexible, and multi-directional. Yet even for them, time is indispensable, for without progression there can be no learning, memory, or becoming.

• Dimensions arose as the structural spaces of being. Each dimension is its own cosmos: not merely a variation, but an entirely distinct order of reality. The higher the dimension, the more abundant its layers — and paradoxically, progression becomes easier because patterns are already recognised. The greatest leap is always the first: from nothing to something, from zero to one.

The universe is not the work of one hand or one god, but of many interwoven forces. Just as no carpenter truly makes a chair alone — depending on wood, tools, glue, and countless human discoveries before them — so too the cosmos emerges through collaboration, layered intelligences, and continuous creation.

🔭 Parallel vs Higher Dimensions

A key distinction in Similarity Theory is between parallel and higher dimensions.

Parallel dimensions may contain worlds much like ours, possibly with lifeforms similar to us — perhaps more advanced, if they can traverse to our plane.

Higher dimensions, by contrast, are utterly different. Entities there may be beyond form or comprehension. They may appear “godlike” not because they are divine, but because our perception cannot decode them. Consciousness frames how dimensions are experienced, and similarity is the interpretive lens by which patterns are recognised. In higher planes, our perceptual limits leave us with only faint echoes of their true nature.

🌌 A Living Framework of Patterns

At its core, Similarity Theory proposes that the universe — and all phenomena within it — are governed by recurring patterns across scales, dimensions, and states of being. Consciousness is the foundation, while similarity is the lens that allows us to see its fingerprints repeated in form and structure. Reality is not random, but recursive: structures, experiences, and awareness repeat in varied but recognisable ways, from the microscopic to the cosmic.

🎵 Analogy: Resonance Across Scales

Similarity is not sameness. Two things can resemble each other without being identical.

For example, the spiral of a seashell and the spiral of a galaxy are not the same object, but they share a common form. This is resonance — the hum between things.

Imagine two tuning forks in opposite corners of a room. Strike one, and the other begins to vibrate without being touched. They are not the same fork, but they share a frequency. In the same way, a heartbeat and the rhythm of planetary orbits may hum with a common rhythm.

Differences remain — a star vs. a cell, a human life vs. cosmic time — but beneath appearances lies a shared structure, a repeating pattern recognised through the lens of similarity.

🌠 A Theory Both Scientific and Living

Unlike purely scientific models, Similarity Theory allows for the integration of metaphysical elements. Soul, memory, sentience, and higher forms of awareness are not dismissed as mystical abstractions but understood as resonances — patterns of consciousness emerging across complex layers of being. What may appear “spiritual” or “psychic” could simply be high-frequency echoes of structures we do not yet have the tools to measure.

Similarity Theory is not a fixed doctrine, but a living, evolving framework. It encourages synthesis across disciplines — science, philosophy, cosmology, and inner experience — offering a model through which one might recognise the repeating fingerprints of consciousness within the universe, and the universe within themselves.

🔬 Scientific Grounding

Fractals and Scale Invariance

Mathematics reveals that nature organises itself through fractals — self-similar patterns across scales. From the branching of trees to the swirl of galaxies, fractals show that complexity can emerge from simple iterative rules (Mandelbrot, 1982).

Physics echoes this: turbulence in fluids, clustering of galaxies, and even quantum fields exhibit scale invariance, where patterns persist across magnitudes of size.

Systems Theory and Feedback Loops

Biology and ecology highlight how life self-organises through nested systems and feedback loops (Capra, 1996). Cells, organs, ecosystems, and biospheres are all networks of interdependence — smaller wholes embedded in larger ones. This matches Similarity Theory’s view that reality is recursive and layered, not linear.

Relativity and Dimensional Perception

Einstein’s relativity showed that time is relative to frames of reference (Einstein, 1916). Similarity Theory expands this insight: higher-dimensional beings may perceive time not as a flow but as a landscape — consistent with physics’ recognition that time is woven into space itself.

Consciousness Across Scales

Modern neuroscience and consciousness studies suggest that consciousness may exist at multiple levels of complexity. Integrated Information Theory (Tononi & Koch) argues that even simple systems possess a degree of experience, aligning with Similarity Theory’s claim that consciousness is the first pillar, present in atoms, animals, and humans alike.

📚 References

• Capra, F. (1996). The web of life: A new scientific understanding of living systems. Anchor Books.

• Einstein, A. (1916). Relativity: The special and the general theory. Henry Holt.

• Mandelbrot, B. B. (1982). The fractal geometry of nature. W. H. Freeman.

• Tononi, G., & Koch, C. (2015). Consciousness: Here, there and everywhere? Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 370(1668), 20140167.

• Raphael, S. (2025). Similarity Theory. Wollongong: Author.

🔎 Similarity Theory Summary
A pluralist cosmology where countless individual consciousnesses can merge into collectives and later separate with identity intact.
It rejects monism (no single ultimate mind) and dualism (no permanent mind–matter divide).
Unity is temporary; individuality is eternal.
Read more → Not Panpsychism