Energetic Consciousness Theory — Canonical Diagrams
The following diagrams define the canonical structural framework of Energetic Consciousness Theory. They describe constraint relationships and organisational limits rather than mechanisms or prescriptions. Extended analysis and applications are developed in the associated publications.
Energetic Constraint Cascades
Baseline functioning occupies a bounded energetic bandwidth rather than a point of neutral equilibrium. Remaining within baseline already requires energetic expenditure, and stability reflects maintained regulation rather than absence of cost.
Energetic Bandwidth of Organisation
Baseline functioning occupies a bounded energetic bandwidth rather than a point of neutrality. Progressive top-down organisation requires sustained energetic input and is inherently temporary, while regressive bottom-up organisation emerges automatically under constraint as a low-cost default.
Baseline as Energetic Bandwidth
Baseline functioning occupies a bounded energetic bandwidth rather than a point of neutral equilibrium. Remaining within baseline already requires energetic expenditure, and stability reflects maintained regulation rather than absence of cost.
Energetic Demand Over Time
Even within baseline conditions, energetic demand fluctuates over time. Sustained regulation accumulates fatigue, progressively narrowing viable organisational states and increasing vulnerability to regressive capture despite apparent behavioural stability.
Latent Attractors Under Baseline Conditions
Energetically efficient behavioural pathways exist prior to breakdown as latent attractors. These pathways are not created by collapse but become dominant when regulatory capacity declines.
Attractor Capture Under Energetic Constraint
As energetic margins shrink, behaviour is captured by pre-existing low-cost attractors. Behavioural persistence may therefore coexist with declining coherence, masking instability until reorganisation becomes unavoidable.
Directional Asymmetry Around Baseline
Movement toward regressive organisation is energetically favoured and occurs automatically under constraint, whereas movement toward progressive organisation requires continuous top-down regulation. Neutrality is metastable and does not hold without sustained input.
Psychological Organisation Under Energetic Constraint
Psychological processes emerge as regulatory strategies operating within fixed energetic limits. Emotion, cognition, meaning, and identity organise behaviour under constraint rather than overriding underlying biological capacity.
Emotion as Energetic Regulator
Emotion functions as a first-order regulatory mechanism translating energetic pressure into behavioural bias. Under constraint, emotional modulation shifts automatically toward simplification and conservation, preceding cognitive or narrative reorganisation.
Meaning as Energetic Insurance Strategy
Meaning operates as an insurance mechanism that justifies sustained energetic expenditure by projecting future coherence under conditions of uncertainty. It redistributes regulatory cost across time without reducing energetic demand and may fail under prolonged constraint.
Identity as Stabilised Attractor
Identity emerges when repeated regulatory strategies consolidate into a low-cost, self-reinforcing organisational structure. While identity stabilises behaviour under constraint, it narrows flexibility and increases the energetic cost of reorganisation.
These diagrams define the canonical structural framework of Energetic Consciousness Theory. They describe constraint relationships and organisational limits rather than mechanisms, prescriptions, or normative hierarchies.