Four Principles
(or ways in which in which we see and interpret our way of interacting with the world and that which surrounds and informs our lives.)
It is a Tetroidian World View that there are four principles ways of interpreting the events, actions, or occurrences that shape and inform our impression of Reality and our place within it. These four principles are: the Randomness Principle, the Design Principle, The Attraction Principle, and the Butterfly Principle. These name are elected because people are to some extent familiar with each concept, to some extent either through scholastic studies, or popular culture.
It is the Tetroidian contention that these principles are primarily choice driven yet have a fundamental impact on our world views and the way in which we perceive and receive the world around us. They also inform and dictate to some extent the mores and codes of behavior or belief that we choose to uphold. It is also the Tetroidian contention that these four principles are not mutually exclusive but form a tetradic multifaceted continuum in which we move mentally thus our views and ways of interpreting the world shift and change from time to time depending on knowledge, experience, events, and/or circumstances.
Thus it is that choice is the number one factor in placing us within this multifaceted continuum, and as we know, Choice can be and active or passive, conscious or subconscious decision process, with many factors of which we are both aware and unaware of influencing the decisions, the choices we make.
1: The Randomness Principle.
In essence this principle contends that the universe and all that is in it is the product of random interactions, that there are as a consequence downstream, predictable “universal” laws that dictate the reasonable predictableness of further downstream interactions. In other words, nothing is pre-ordained or written to dictate the direction of our lives or the interactions that come into our lives. This Principle may also to some extent be considered the “Skeptic’s” principle but this would be far too limiting in scope as Skeptics have their belief system firmly founded on the fundamentals of Scientific Thought and Methods of inquiry (for simplification, “If it can’t be measured, it doesn’t exist,” alternatively, “One has to ’See It’ in order for one to believe it is so.”)
There is much to this principle that makes it appealing. It implies that our lives are not controlled by some external all knowing, all seeing higher power. It implies that what transpires in our lives is not prewritten and prescript by benevolent or vindictive Gods, Angels, Deities, or other unseen forces that may or may not be amenable to entreatment. It also implies that to seek for meaning or rational explanation for why things happen, is a fundamental waste of time, energy and effort, which are things better expended on just living. In other words, That which cannot be predicted by Nature’s Laws, is Universal Randomness; both are outside our ability to influence or control, however what can be reasonably predicted can be accounted for, and what cannot be reasonably predicted is Universal Randomness at work, just accept it. This acceptance can lead one to some greater sense of freedom: from fear, worry, and stress.
2: The Design Principle.
In essence, this principle contends that the Universe and all that is in it, as well as our interactions within, and in response to, it is the result of “Fate.” That everything happens for a reason, these reasons have been pre-ordained, and we are powerless to change the “Skein of our lives.” Thus, our lives, and the way in which we interact with others and the Universe is scripted, that our purpose is to determine what that script is and fulfil to the best of our ability the “Promise” of that script, for there are many challenges put before us to steer us away from that Promise and towards Failure. Spiritual progress or achievement is then measured by how well we fulfil the Promise of each of our own individual Scripts, and from that, our final reward or punishment.
There is much to this principle that makes it appealing. It implies that there is some form of order to the universe and all that transpires within it. It implies that there is relevance and meaning to everything, both good and bad, that transpires within our lives, and that the people in our lives are there to help us grow, that they along with us, are part of an consentually orchestrated plan. It also implies that there are things beyond our knowing and that all we need to do is trust, “Believe,” and in the end, all will be revealed. It lastly, implies an attitude of acceptance of both good and bad, that we are finite beings with a purpose and that the problems, worries and stresses of our lives can be relieved by communing with our higher power through offerings, prayer, meditation, or other form of worship.
3: The Attraction Principle.
In essence this principle contends that the universe and all that is in it is made up of random energy that can be influenced by will or intent. That, “There is no fate but what we make,” or, “Do as thou wilt shall be the entire law,” or, “Your wish is my command.” In other words, what you will, wish or desire can be manifested fully into your life. There is nothing pre-ordained, nothing inherently good or evil, that the Universe will act in a random manner until you command it to act according to your will. Some also say that the Universe manifests our thoughts by trying to be congruent with those thoughts so that what we think is what we experience, see and know.
The appeal of this principle lies in essence in the concept of personal control. Our past is a record of the choices and wishes and beliefs that we have held, and that our future is whatever we wish it to be. If we can imagine it, visualise it, and hold it purposefully in our mind, "That as it is within, so shall it be without." Our thoughts then are our reality. So we are able to manage, and change how we feel about our worries, stresses and feelings by taking control of those thoughts and emotions and substituting more desirable thoughts, feelings and emotions.
4: The Butterfly Principle.
In essence this last principle contends that the Universe and all that is in it is interconnected, that the randomness that we see is chaotically interlinked, that every element in the Universe communicates with and has an influence on every other element (butterfly effect) thus, though there are natural Laws to the Universe that are knowable, predictable, we are also able to influence outcomes in subtle ways through our thoughts, actions and intentions. In other words, our lives are a manifestation of “Guided Randomness,” in that our actions and intent create outcomes that are predictable to a certain extent in form but not final actualisation or function.
The appeal of this last principle lies in essence in the concept of an ordered universe that responds to and manifests our thoughts feelings, emotions and beliefs in a manner that is essentially congruent to those thoughts and feelings. It implies that what we ask for may not be exactly what we receive, however it conforms in some way to our wishes in so far that we are able to use it to achieve our desires, dreams and relief from worries, pressures and stresses. It also implies that our actions have a subtle impact on outcomes, a famous example of this is the experiment with Schrödinger’s Cat. Thus we can live as powerfully as we chose but for every choice there are consequences and how we feel about those consequences will inform our thoughts feelings and emotions, as well as our levels of stress and worry. Lastly, for every chosen action or inaction there may be unknowable knock on effect and impacts that may or may not effect us directly but could perhaps impact something else that also exists in the Universe (butterfly wings and hurricane example.)
From the above, it can be readily seen that these four principles are inter-related. Thus:
a) Everything is random and outside our sphere of influence;
b) everything is pre-ordained and outside our influence;
c) some things are random but we can influence outcomes to some extent; and,
d) everything is random and from out of it we can create anything we wish.
We can visualise this interrelatedness by plotting each principle on the points of a triangular pyramid, a tetroid, and visualizing ourselves as a point somewhere within the pyramid. Depending on how we are currently viewing, responding and interacting with the world, we will see that point as favouring one point over the others.
The Tetroidian World View contends that through interaction with this continuum of thought, continuum of ways in which to interpret, understand, see and influence the world around us, that part of our struggle to find meaning and self-actualisation is to strive for and attain some semblance of balance, to integrate elements of each principle into our lives so that for us, the tetroidian continuum is balanced, with our ‘selves’ at the center of that continuum.
This does not however, mean that the specific elements that bring central balance for one person will be the exact same elements for another. This is the beauty of Universal Randomness.
