In 2007, I wrote about the “social starfish,” how ideas spread through decentralized networks rather than top-down broadcasts. I was fascinated by viral influence patterns.
Now I understand something different. Real influence isn’t about messaging. It’s about coherence.
Reality Is a Mirror
If we think about reality as a mirror, then what we own as our identity, what we actually become, shows up in the reflection. Reality is a giant mirror showing us the trapped energy or trauma we’ve bypassed, the emotions we need to feel through and process in order to evolve.
So real change isn’t about better messaging or viral tactics. Real change is about getting radically honest with who we are and how we’re showing up. It’s practicing brutal honesty about what we know we should be doing versus what we’re actually doing.
The Consciousness Network
Here’s what I understand now that I didn’t in 2007: everyone is a node in a larger consciousness network.
Think about how blockchain works. Nodes have a joint mission of reducing entropy in the system. The network rewards nodes that are good at processing chaos into order.
When we do deep somatic integration work, what I call shadow work, we’re essentially doing the equivalent of mining bitcoin. We’re solving complexity in the consciousness system by processing incoherent energy back into coherence.
Just like a bitcoin miner, we’re rewarded when we do this work. But not through the Law of Attraction the way The Secret teaches it. Life rewards you for being a node that turns chaos into coherence.
What Makes Someone Influential
When we look at mystical avatars like Jesus, what we’re seeing is an incredibly effective node in the system. They’re so good at taking any chaotic energy transmission near them and ordering it into absolute coherence that “miracles” occur.
This kind of authenticity is attractive because it’s reducing the entropy of the entire system. Everyone around such a person gets to experience more coherent reality.
Influence that lasts comes from radical honesty and the willingness to take the mirror of reality seriously. Can we actually acknowledge what life is triggering within our nervous system? Can we feel our big feelings and integrate them rather than becoming what I call a “balloon person,” inflated with mental techniques but hollow underneath?
What This Means for How Ideas Spread
As we do this work, we become less compartmentalized. We rise in consciousness coherence. And when we’re coherent, we become more powerful. We’re given more responsibility, which really means bigger experiences, bigger data packets to process.
As our nervous system grows, we become the type of person who can handle bigger and bigger experiences. We become a more valuable node to the network.
This is the lens the Bible is meant to be read through.
Explore the Bible Mystic book series for mystical Bible interpretation that reveals the inner meaning of Scripture.
The social starfish wasn’t just about Web 2.0. It was about how consciousness actually spreads: through people who have processed their own chaos into coherence, naturally transmitting that coherence to everyone around them.