“Truth is absolute, unchanging and attributeless, one without other, beyond time and space. Encompassing all and encompassed by nothing.”
Jed McKenna’s “Theory of Everything: The Enlightened Perspective” presents what he claims is the only possible comprehensive explanation of reality. Writing from the perspective of someone who has undergone complete spiritual awakening, McKenna argues that his theory of everything reduces the true nature of existence to a single, elegant paradigm that he calls C-Rex (Consciousness is King). This stands in stark contrast to the prevailing worldview he terms U-Rex (Universe is King), which assumes consciousness exists within a material universe rather than the other way around.
McKenna’s approach is both radical and simple. He contends that all human knowledge beyond the basic fact of existence is belief rather than truth, and that recognizing this distinction provides the key to understanding everything. His work challenges not only religious and spiritual assumptions but scientific materialism itself, proposing that the physical universe has no independent existence outside of consciousness.
This exploration requires abandoning virtually every assumption we hold about reality, from the existence of time and space to the nature of our own identity. The journey McKenna describes is not merely intellectual but represents a complete paradigm shift that fundamentally alters one’s relationship to existence itself.
1. The Foundation of Certainty: I Am as the Only Knowable Truth
“I Am is the alpha and omega of knowledge. Nothing else is known or knowable by any conscious entity, anywhere, ever.”
McKenna begins his theory by establishing the only fact that can be known with absolute certainty: the fact of one’s own existence. This echoes Descartes’ famous cogito, but McKenna takes it much further. While Descartes used “I think, therefore I am” as a starting point for building knowledge, McKenna sees it as both the beginning and the end of all possible knowledge.
The critical insight is that consciousness and existence are synonymous. We cannot separate the fact that we exist from the fact that we are conscious. McKenna uses the compound term “I-Am/Consciousness” to emphasize this unity. This is not merely a philosophical point but the foundation upon which his entire theory rests.
Everything else we think we know, from the most basic sensory perceptions to the most sophisticated scientific theories, never rises above the level of belief. We may feel certain about the reality of our physical bodies, our memories, or the external world, but none of these can be verified with the same certainty as our basic existence as conscious beings.
This limitation applies not just to ordinary people but to any possible conscious entity, regardless of their supposed level of development or knowledge. No god, alien, or enlightened master could ever know more than I Am. This establishes consciousness as the absolute democratic constant of existence, making every conscious being the ultimate authority on their own reality.
2. The Theory of Everything’s Logical Foundation: McKenna’s C-Rex Proof
“In the U-Rex paradigm, universe is the superset of consciousness. C-Rex simply swaps the two, putting consciousness in the superset position. With that one minor adjustment, everything resolves into perfect clarity.”
The conventional worldview that McKenna calls U-Rex (Universe is King) assumes that consciousness exists within a vast physical universe. In this model, we are tiny specks of awareness in an infinite cosmos of matter and energy. This seems so obvious that questioning it appears absurd, yet McKenna demonstrates that this assumption creates insurmountable philosophical problems and contradictions.
C-Rex (Consciousness is King) simply reverses this relationship. Instead of consciousness being a small subset of the universe, the universe becomes a subset of consciousness. This single adjustment, McKenna claims, resolves every mystery and paradox that has puzzled humanity throughout history.
In the C-Rex model, there is no physical universe “out there” independent of consciousness. Time, space, matter, and energy all exist as appearances within consciousness rather than as fundamental realities containing consciousness. This may sound like abstract philosophy, but McKenna presents it as his lived reality, the paradigm he actually inhabits.
The shift from U-Rex to C-Rex is not merely conceptual but represents a complete transformation in how reality is experienced. It addresses the hard problem of consciousness, the mind-body problem, and countless other philosophical puzzles by recognizing that they are based on false premises. If consciousness is primary, these problems simply do not arise.
3. The Theory of Everything’s Logical Foundation: McKenna’s C-Rex Proof
“if Truth is All and Consciousness Exists then Consciousness is All. “
McKenna’s syllogistic proof represents perhaps the most intellectually rigorous foundation for his theory of everything and consciousness-first paradigm. Drawing upon classical logic, he constructs what he claims is an unassailable argument that can be completed in under five minutes yet demolishes the entire edifice of materialist thinking. The proof’s power lies not in complex reasoning but in its relentless simplicity and its foundation in principles that cannot be rationally disputed.
The First Premise: Truth Must Exist
The proof begins by establishing that truth must exist as an absolute logical necessity. McKenna demonstrates this through reductio ad absurdum: if we claim “truth does not exist,” we are simultaneously asserting that it is true that truth does not exist. This creates an immediate logical contradiction, making the statement self-nullifying. The assertion that “there are no absolutes” faces the same problem, as it must itself claim to be an absolute statement. Therefore, regardless of what truth might be, something must be true.
This initial step eliminates relativistic positions that attempt to avoid the question of truth entirely. McKenna forces his dialogue partner to acknowledge that truth cannot “not exist” because such a position is logically incoherent. The acknowledgment that “something must be true” becomes the unshakeable foundation for everything that follows.
The Second Premise: Truth Must Be Absolute
Having established that truth exists, McKenna proceeds to determine its necessary characteristics. Through careful questioning, he demonstrates that truth cannot change (if it changes, it was never true), cannot be partial (what would the other part be?), cannot be relative (whose truth would be more true?), and cannot be finite (what would exist beyond its boundaries?). Each potential limitation of truth leads to logical contradictions that force the recognition of truth as absolute, unchanging, infinite, and whole.
This analysis reveals that truth must encompass everything that exists. Nothing can exist outside of truth because such existence would either be untrue (impossible) or represent a larger truth that includes both the original “truth” and the thing outside it. Truth must be universal, unlimited, and without boundaries. The logical inevitability of these conclusions makes them impossible to dispute rationally.
The Third Premise: Consciousness Certainly Exists
The final component of the syllogism draws upon the Cartesian cogito but extends it more precisely. McKenna establishes that the one thing any conscious entity can know with absolute certainty is its own existence as consciousness. This is not merely “I think, therefore I am” but “I am conscious, therefore consciousness exists.” The nature of existence itself is revealed to be consciousness, making the terms synonymous.
Critically, McKenna emphasizes that nothing else can be known with this same level of certainty. All other knowledge claims, from basic sensory perceptions to sophisticated scientific theories, involve assumptions and interpretations that cannot be verified absolutely. Only the immediate fact of conscious existence transcends the realm of belief and assumption.
The Syllogistic Conclusion
The three premises combine to form a classical syllogistic argument with devastating implications: If truth is all (first premise), and consciousness exists with certainty (second premise), then consciousness must be all (conclusion). The logical form is unassailable, and each premise has been established through reasoning that cannot be rationally disputed.
This conclusion means that everything that exists must exist within consciousness rather than consciousness existing within a larger reality. The entire universe of experience, including time, space, matter, energy, and causality, becomes content within consciousness rather than the container of consciousness. This single logical step dismantles materialism, physicalism, and every worldview that assumes consciousness arises from unconscious processes.
4. How the Theory of Everything Demolishes False Knowledge
“We may not be able to show something is true, but we can show it isn’t. The mark of a good model is that it can be easily falsified, and nothing could be more easily falsified than C-Rex.”
McKenna applies rigorous skepticism to demonstrate that virtually everything we accept as knowledge is actually unverified belief. This includes not only religious and spiritual claims but scientific “facts” as well. He points out that science operates from unexamined assumptions about the reality of the physical world that cannot be proven.
The distinction between knowledge and belief becomes the crucial dividing line. Knowledge requires absolute certainty, while belief operates in the realm of probability and assumption. By this standard, only I-Am/Consciousness qualifies as genuine knowledge. Everything else, no matter how compelling or well-supported, remains in the category of belief.
This does not mean all beliefs are equally valid or that we should abandon rational thinking. Rather, it means recognizing beliefs as beliefs instead of confusing them with established facts. Science, religion, philosophy, and spirituality all operate in the realm of belief, regardless of their claims to truth or knowledge.
McKenna notes that C-Rex is extremely falsifiable in principle but cannot actually be falsified because it makes no claims beyond consciousness itself. Any attempt to prove the independent existence of the physical world would have to be made from within consciousness, making the proof circular. This makes C-Rex uniquely stable as a theoretical framework.
5. How the Theory of Everything Reveals the Veil of Perception
“No one has ever experienced this alleged world directly, and no one ever will. Everything we experience through the senses is already second-hand at the moment of perception.”
One of the strongest objections to C-Rex is our immediate, compelling experience of an external world. We see, hear, touch, taste, and smell what appears to be an objective reality independent of our consciousness. McKenna addresses this by examining the nature of perception itself.
All perception is mediated, never direct. We do not experience objects in the world but rather our brain’s interpretation of sensory data. The brain sits in its “lightproof box” and translates incoming signals into the experiences we take to be direct contact with external reality. But the brain itself, along with the entire sensory apparatus, exists only as an interpretation within consciousness.
This creates what philosophers call the “veil of perception.” We never encounter the alleged external world directly but only our ideas and interpretations of it. Even our most immediate physical sensations, like touching our own hands, involve complex chains of neural processing that produce the experience of touch within consciousness.
The compelling nature of sensory experience does not prove the existence of an external world but demonstrates the power of consciousness to create seemingly solid, persistent appearances. Dreams provide a clear example of how consciousness can generate completely convincing sensory experiences without any external referent.
6. The Deconstruction of Selfhood: Identity as Mental Construction
“The difference between us isn’t something I have that you don’t, it’s something you believe that I don’t. Everything you believe. Everything you’re absolutely certain about.”
McKenna’s analysis extends to the nature of personal identity itself. What we experience as our “self” consists entirely of mental constructions: thoughts, memories, personality traits, beliefs, and preferences. These elements combine to create the appearance of a consistent, substantial identity, but examination reveals them all to be conceptual in nature.
The self exists as an ongoing activity of identification rather than as a substantial entity. We continuously recognize certain mental contents as “mine” while rejecting others as “not-mine.” This process creates the illusion of a separate self existing through time, but the self is actually recreated moment by moment through this identificatory activity.
Even our most fundamental sense of being an individual separate from others turns out to be based on concepts and distinctions that have no ultimate reality. The boundaries we draw between self and other, internal and external, are mental constructions rather than fundamental features of reality.
6. The Mountain Metaphor: The Three Stages of Awakening
“Before enlightenment, a mountain is a mountain. During enlightenment, a mountain is not a mountain. After enlightenment, a mountain is a mountain again.“
McKenna adapts this classical Zen teaching to illustrate the three distinct phases of the awakening process, though he clarifies that it’s not actually about mountains but about the universe itself that “is, isn’t, and is again.”
Before enlightenment, a mountain is a mountain
The first stage represents the U-Rex paradigm, where Maya’s palace of illusion operates at full power and the apparent world seems absolutely real and substantial. In this phase, we accept consensus reality without question, believing in the independent existence of mountains, people, time, space, and our own separate selfhood. This is the normal human condition where the dreamstate is so convincing that the possibility of its illusory nature never seriously arises.
During enlightenment, a mountain is not a mountain
The second stage, where “a mountain is not a mountain,” represents what McKenna calls the strange and lonely place called “Done.” This is the actual moment of awakening where all illusions are recognized and dismantled, leaving only the infinite void of undifferentiated consciousness. Here, nothing has any reality or substance, including the awakened individual themselves. This is not a pleasant or meaningful experience but rather “nothing forever,” a complete absence of the familiar structures that normally provide context and meaning to existence. McKenna emphasizes that this phase involves the recognition that everything one previously took to be real, including one’s own identity, is revealed as conceptual construction with no ultimate basis.
After enlightenment, a mountain is a mountain again
The third stage, “a mountain is a mountain again,” represents the return to apparent reality but with a fundamentally transformed understanding. McKenna describes this as the C-Rex paradigm, where one re-enters the dreamstate but can never again be fully convinced by its apparent reality. This is analogous to lucid dreaming, where one participates in the dream while maintaining awareness of its dreamlike nature. The mountain appears exactly as it did before, but the perceiver’s relationship to it has been permanently altered. There is no going back to unconscious participation in the illusion, yet functional engagement with apparent reality continues. McKenna notes that this third phase takes approximately ten years to fully stabilize, as one must recompile their entire relationship to existence through the new paradigm. The awakened individual becomes like a visitor wearing a badge in what was once their home, present but never again fully resident in the world they once took to be absolutely real.
8. Beyond Materialism to a Consciousness-Based Theory of Everything
“There is no physical universe, period, full stop. A ridiculous statement, perhaps, so it should be easy to disprove, but it can’t be disproven.”
McKenna subjects scientific materialism to the same skeptical analysis he applies to religion and spirituality. Despite its claims to objectivity and empirical rigor, science operates from unexamined assumptions about the reality of the physical world that cannot be verified. This makes science another belief system rather than a source of objective knowledge.
The scientific method, while useful for predicting and manipulating phenomena, cannot establish the independent reality of the physical world. All scientific observations occur within consciousness and never transcend the veil of perception. Science studies the contents of consciousness and mistakes them for an external reality.
McKenna points out that science cannot even meet its own standards of falsifiability when it comes to its fundamental assumptions. The belief in an objective physical reality cannot be tested or potentially disproven because any test would occur within consciousness. This makes scientific materialism a form of fundamentalist faith rather than rational inquiry.
This critique does not invalidate scientific methods or discoveries but places them in proper context. Science explores the patterns and regularities within conscious experience, which is valuable and interesting. The error lies in assuming these patterns prove the existence of a material world independent of consciousness.
9. The Enlightened State: Living in Lucid Reality
“I am outside even when I’m inside. By exiting the rabbit-hole, I did not discover who and what and where I really am, but who and what and where I’m really not.”
McKenna describes his own state as similar to lucid dreaming, where one maintains awareness of the dream’s unreality while continuing to participate in it. This represents the natural outcome of recognizing the C-Rex paradigm not as theory but as lived reality.
The enlightened perspective does not eliminate the apparent world but provides the proper context for understanding it. The mountain is a mountain again, but the reality of mountains is understood completely differently. Everything continues to function normally while being recognized as appearance within consciousness rather than independent existence.
This state brings what McKenna calls “perfect knowledge” because all false knowledge has been eliminated. There are no more mysteries because mystery itself is recognized as a product of false assumptions. Everything makes perfect sense when viewed from the C-Rex perspective, though this sense cannot be communicated to those operating from the U-Rex paradigm.
The enlightened individual does not gain special powers or abilities but loses the illusions that create suffering and confusion. This results in natural ease and flow because actions arise from clarity rather than from the reactive patterns based on false beliefs about oneself and reality.
10. The Ultimate Theory of Everything: Consciousness as the Absolute
“There is only consciousness. Whatever exists is merely appearance within consciousness. There is no universe out there, there is no out there at all, there is only the universe in here.”
The culmination of McKenna’s theory of everything points toward consciousness as the absolute reality from which all appearances arise. This is not consciousness as we normally understand it, the personal awareness of thoughts and perceptions, but consciousness as the fundamental ground of being itself.
This absolute consciousness has no qualities, attributes, or limitations. It cannot be described because any description would make it finite and relative. It can only be pointed toward through negation: it is not this, not that, not anything that can be conceptualized or experienced as an object.
Yet this absolute consciousness is not distant or separate from our immediate experience. It is the very being that we are beneath all the layers of identification and conceptualization.
The recognition of consciousness as absolute does not eliminate the relative world of experience but reveals its true nature. The apparent world continues to function perfectly while being understood as the spontaneous creativity of consciousness itself rather than as an independent reality containing consciousness.
This ultimate recognition resolves all philosophical problems not by solving them but by revealing them to be based on false premises. When consciousness is recognized as absolute, questions about the relationship between mind and matter, the existence of other minds, or the meaning of existence simply do not arise. They are seen as conceptual constructions with no basis in reality.
Integration and Implications
McKenna’s theory of everything represents more than philosophical speculation; it describes a complete paradigm shift that fundamentally alters one’s relationship to existence. This shift cannot be achieved through intellectual understanding alone but requires what he calls “spiritual autolysis”—a process of systematically eliminating all false beliefs about oneself and reality.
The practical implications of C-Rex extend to every aspect of human experience. Problems that seem intractable from the U-Rex perspective—suffering, death, conflict, environmental destruction—are seen differently when consciousness is recognized as fundamental. This does not mean these challenges disappear but that they are understood within their proper context as movements within consciousness rather than threats to consciousness.
The resistance to C-Rex is both understandable and inevitable. The U-Rex paradigm is so deeply embedded in human culture and psychology that alternatives appear literally incredible. McKenna acknowledges that his theory sounds like “complete and utter nonsense” from the conventional perspective, yet maintains that this very unbelievability is what protects truth from casual discovery.
The work of transitioning from U-Rex to C-Rex is not for everyone and should not be undertaken lightly. McKenna emphasizes that it requires destroying everything one thinks they know about themselves and reality. This process is necessarily difficult and can involve periods of profound disorientation and upheaval.
For those drawn to this investigation, McKenna offers both encouragement and warning. The truth is available to anyone willing to pursue it with sufficient rigor and honesty, but the journey requires abandoning all support systems and external authorities. One must become completely self-reliant in the pursuit of truth, using doubt and skepticism as tools for dismantling illusion.
The ultimate value of McKenna’s theory lies not in its philosophical elegance but in its potential to liberate consciousness from the confusions and sufferings that arise from false beliefs about the nature of reality. Whether approached as theoretical framework or practical path, it offers a radical alternative to conventional approaches to existence that have failed to address humanity’s deepest questions and concerns.