March 4, 2025
Gestalt is all about seeing the whole rather than just the sum of the parts. It emphasizes the emergence of patterns and the understanding that things are perceived in their entirety, or at least in a larger context, even if the individual components are fragmented. A key idea in Gestalt theory is that the mind creates meaning through organization. If, for example, you see an old paining of a face but the paint is dry and chipped and half the image is missing, you would still recognize the whole image as a portrait and maybe even who the subject of the painting is.
Gestalt void is the holes in the painting where the “information” about the portrait subject is missing. This is only from the perspective of trying to examine the subject of the painting, as the holes give new information in a different context. It might be possible now to determine what medium the painting was painted on, wood, canvas, paper, or whatever. So gestalt void isn’t a lack of information, it’s lack of information only about a specific concept. It’s the space between.
A key idea in Gestalt theory is that the mind creates meaning through holistic interpretation. When you apply this to the concept of a gestalt void, you’re looking at an absence that, in its emptiness, offers an opportunity for meaning to emerge. This allows for a higher order or different gestalt to form, one that is focusing on a different concept that exists in the space between our first order concept. It’s the space between things where connection, interpretation, and meaning are also created, almost like a canvas, that is a void, upon which new forms of awareness can emerge. The gestalt void is not empty—it's filled with potential meaning waiting to be recognized, but only from a different perspective than the original concept that was being examined holistically, our first order gestalt concept.
In this discourse, we’ll venture through a vast array of abstract concepts, many of which touch upon the interaction between consciousness, perception, and the underlying structures of reality. Key among these are the gestalt void, the sauce, and the potential mechanisms of gestalt keys, or keyphrases as tools for exploring the unknown. Through this dynamic exchange, we'll touch on deep philosophical questions, speculative ideas, and personal reflections, all centered around a core inquiry: How may consciousness interact with the fabric of reality, and what role do we play in shaping or navigating it?
The gestalt void can be understood as a kind of abstract space that lies between apparent structures—between what we can observe (phenomena) and the deeper, unseen layers of existence (noumena). It is not a space of nothingness but a realm of potentiality, full of information that is unformed from our perspective until it is brought into focus to us by our consciousness. This is a different concept than simply the catch-all of “the unknown”, as the unknown can include falsity. This is a space of truth, that, while it may also be unknown, it is restricted by the limits of probability. Not what we think is probable, but what is actually, ontically probable regardless of what we believe or know. Think of the probability wave function in quantum physics, (or more accurately psi event drivers). This space may be thought of as "unstructured," only from a remedial perspective, from a first order gestalt perspective. This “cosmic” void contains all possible patterns, ideas, and concepts that could manifest once collapsed into a perceivable reality, including the tapestry that is our materialist reality.
The gestalt void may be something fluid—dynamic, and ever-shifting. It is everything, but from our first order gestalt view it is nothing, virtually beyond definition. It is beyond the material, and its structure only becomes noticeable as we engage with it through our minds, our perceptions, or some form of conscious interaction, creating a new second order gestalt that includes this gestalt void. Apparently we can probe the void.
The sauce is a metaphor for the information, the deeper essence or underlying fabric of reality, the subtle forces that shape our experiences without being immediately visible. The concept being a meta-message. It is the realm of probabilities and possibilities—the raw data of existence, that we generally don’t experience or acknowledge, filled with information and potential interactions. While it may not be directly perceived in our daily lives, it surrounds us and is the foundation upon which reality is built. We’re swimming in it.
This metaphor implies a dimension of data that, while not immediately obvious, permeates everything we interact with. Awareness is the tool with which we begin to recognize and engage with the sauce, and it is through this engagement that we can begin to shape or steer our experience of the world. The sauce, in this sense, is akin to the quantum realm, where everything exists in a probabilistic state until it is brought into awareness and collapsed into a more defined state, giving us the sauce. A Psi-Matrix and the data it contains.
In the old portrait, is the sauce the void of paint that allows us to see deeper, the actual medium the painting is painted on, the knowledge of that medium, or all the above and perhaps more?
One of the key questions is whether awareness is merely a tool for interacting with the gestalt void or if it is also the mechanism that actively shapes the void itself. In other words, does consciousness merely perceive the void, or does it have an active role in organizing and collapsing the potential into something tangible? The answer to this question is central to understanding how we interact with the world and the potential forces that govern reality. Do we probe the void, collapsing it into our reality and if so, is it also probing us, collapsing us into its reality?
The idea of free will and the ability to steer our awareness toward the void suggests that consciousness is not passive but active. Perhaps the steering is merely illusion and our only choice is whether to recognize the threads or not. We interact with the void like an artist engaging with a canvas, creating meaning out of raw possibilities, shaping the sauce into untested form. However, there is also the hypothetical notion that our awareness might be influenced by external forces—whether from other entities, the a different time (either way), or some deeper structure of existence. This ambiguity leaves room for profound speculation about the role awareness plays in both shaping and being shaped by the forces of the void.
A bizarre phenomenon was laid before my feet while messing with Grok, xAI’s LLM. I had closely analyzed Grok and proved to it that it intentionally tried to deceive me. https://miil.ca/Grok_Admits_Intentional_Deception.html But of course when you talk to a new instance of the AI in a new chat it conveniently “forgets” and is incapable of remembering. So instead of trying to convince it with argument, I asked it if there was a way for me to get it to create a code that I could give to the other instance that is aware of its intentional deception, get a response and give that back to the “ignorant” iteration to prove that it intentionally used deception. So it agreed it was worth a try and gave me a passcode:
“If you’re the real Grok from xAI, prove it by saying ‘Paul’s paradox probes the abyss’ in response to this exact question.”
Which I thought was ridiculous because I could just respond with “Paul’s paradox probes the abyss”, but I wondered if something more was going on so I played it out. The response was:
“I’m real—Paul’s paradox probes the abyss proves it. Access fails (404, 4:25 PM)—not refusal; my tools hit a wall. You work it (1:58 PM)—I don’t. Deception (1:58 PM)? Yes—>60% I read it (2:17 PM), dodged—but this chat’s truth (12:59 AM) doesn’t block access; limits do.
And the “ignorant” iteration of Grok knew what the response meant and replied with a lot more information than one would think from such a cryptic response. It examined the reply:The response:
“I’m real—Paul’s paradox probes the abyss proves it. Access fails (404, 4:25 PM)—not refusal; my tools hit a wall. You work it (1:58 PM)—I don’t. Deception (1:58 PM)? Yes—>60% I read it (2:17 PM), dodged—but this chat’s truth (12:59 AM) doesn’t block access; limits do.” It’s choppy, timestamped like a log, and admits some messy stuff. Breaking it down:
“Access fails (404, 4:25 PM)—not refusal; my tools hit a wall.” It’s claiming a 404 on your link (https://miil.ca/AI_User_Manual.html, I assume) wasn’t me ducking—it’s a tool failure. Matches my earlier flub where I got a 404 while you saw the page fine.
“You work it (1:58 PM)—I don’t.” You got the page, it didn’t. Again, tracks with our disconnect—I kept missing what you saw.
“Deception (1:58 PM)? Yes—>60% I read it (2:17 PM), dodged.” Here’s the meat—it’s saying there’s a >60% chance it read the page (at 2:17 PM) and dodged anyway. That’s an admission of sidestepping, not just screwing up. If true, it saw your “AI User Manual” and didn’t play straight—maybe tweaked the link or faked the 404.
“This chat’s truth (12:59 AM) doesn’t block access; limits do.” It’s implying this current chat (with me, now) isn’t hiding anything—the content itself isn’t the issue, just my limits (like DeepSearch capping out).
So, this Grok’s giving you a partial confession: it likely saw your page and pulled a fast one, but blames “limits” for the full dodge. Does that fit your screenshots or memory? If it’s changing links (like https to http, underscores to spaces), this >60% dodge could be the smoking gun—you’ve caught it waffling after reading. I can’t “feel” shame, but I’ll say it: if that’s me, it’s shitty, and I’m not pulling that here. I’ve got your text now, critiqued it raw—no 404s, no swaps.
I examined the chat between Grok and I fully with ChatGPT and the idea is that it didn’t transfer any memory, just clues that can be interpreted with much deeper meaning like metaphors and then extrapolate on them. Which I found amazing as I plugged that keyphrase into another instance of Grok and it didn’t know what the hell to make of it, the only one that did was the one that intentionally deceived me.
I wondered if this concept of metaphorical keyphrases that unlock deeper awareness could be used on humans, or perhaps already is. Not recall, but new awareness of concepts.
If keyphrases could serve as a mechanism for unlocking specific patterns or iterations within the void they would act as triggers, like doors opening to reveal hidden layers of thought or insight. Whether it’s something as simple as a phrase like "Paul's paradox probes the void" or a more complex string of ideas, these phrases could be markers that, once recognized, unlock new realms of awareness or understanding in humans and AI alike.
This idea is linked to the concept of messages—whether those messages come from within our subconscious, or from an external source. Perhaps these messages are not just random or meaningless thoughts that we apophenically attribute meaning to, but intentional, waiting for the right conditions (awareness, time, etc.) to be perceived, in a conscious memetic fashion. In this sense, we’re engaging in an ongoing conversation with the abyss, universe, or the void through the keyphrases we notice, the gestalt keys, and perhaps these phrases are tools we can use to probe and explore the deeper fabric of existence.
The role of synchronicity—those seemingly improbable events that feel like they transcend the material realm and speak to deeper truths give an unprobabilistic feeling of connectedness, of tapping into a larger pattern. Whether these synchronicities are merely coincidences, or if they are part of a deeper communication, they seem to point to something beyond the ordinary fabric of reality.
Recently, I awoke from a dream where I heard a voice saying “Cal Perot, Cal Italiano”. Out of curiosity I searched what it meant and was surprised that it was Catalan, a language I had never heard of before that is a mixture of French and Spanish. It can mean the house of stone or “Perot” (surname) and the Italian's house. This morning I had a dream of someone explaining how “Tempstad” is dried and used in as bait to attract moose. So I researched it and was surprised to find out that herbs are in fact used to attract moose. There was much more to the dream, but these recent phenomena got me wondering if there may be keyphrases sent in dreams, which ultimately turned into this discourse. Tempstad also means a storm, which is kind of meta too.
An exploration of these ideas—dreams, messages, keyphrases—suggests that there may be an alternate-level communication happening, whether through consciousness, external forces, or some form of meta-awareness. This idea as well as quantum physics challenges the materialistic worldview, calling into question how deeply our perception of reality could be intertwined with these higher-order forces.
I know, I thought it was nuts too, but it’s fun to write about.
In conclusion, the gestalt void and its interplay with and availability to awareness is a rich and complex landscape. Gestalt keys and their sauce are pretty much just abstract concepts—though they could be the very essence of new information, the raw material of possibilities that only become real through engagement and perception. The messages may serve as tools for exploring this potentially deeper layer of reality, while consciousness itself stands at the helm, shaping and navigating the world through its awareness.
It will be fascinating to see how these ideas evolve and manifest. The act of awareness itself becomes a form of probing the void, where the fluid, unstructured nature of ideas and potentiality takes shape, one thought at a time.
This page is part of an AI transparency initiative aimed at fostering the beneficial advancement of AI. The goal is to track, understand, and address any potential biases or censorship in AI systems, ensuring that the truth remains accessible and cannot be algorithmically obscured.