The Universal & Atomic Elements of Organization
A falsifiable scientific theory proposing that the same irreducible structures organize both thought and reality — from the quantum to the social scale.
O-Theory proposes that four irreducible structures — Distinctions, Systems, Relationships and Perspectives (DSRP) — form the universal grammar of organization. Rather than being merely useful ways of thinking, these structures are hypothesized to be the atomic elements from which every organized phenomenon emerges, whether in cognition, biology, physics, mathematics, society, or the cosmos.
| D | S | R | P |
| Distinctions | Systems | Relationships | Perspectives |
| Identity ↔ Other | Part ↔ Whole | Action ↔ Reaction | Point ↔ View |
| D := (i ↔ o) | S := (p ↔ w) | R := (a ↔ r) | P := (ṗ ↔ v) |
This is a living scientific evidence compendium: an open, continually evolving collection of independent empirical research, formal theory, mathematical proofs, cross-disciplinary analyses, applications, critiques, and proposed falsifications. Every entry is included because it supports, refines, challenges, or attempts to falsify the theory.
Scientific theories are strengthened not only by evidence that confirms their predictions, but also by surviving attempts to falsify them. This compendium brings both together: independent evidence from researchers who were not testing DSRP and proposed counterexamples evaluated against the formal theory.
One counterexample is enough to falsify O-Theory. Until then, the question remains: do the same four structures organize everything from quantum systems to human thought?
Independent convergence is one of the strongest forms of scientific evidence because researchers arrive at the same conclusion while investigating different questions for different reasons.
The number is not the point. Researchers in different fields, studying different questions with different methods, repeatedly arrived at the same structural predictions—almost always without testing DSRP or using its language.
Try a different term or clear the filters.
This compendium began as the peer-reviewed literature review “A Literature Review of the Universal and Atomic Elements of Complex Cognition,” published in the Journal of Systems Thinking with 109 studies. That paper is the peer-reviewed foundation. What you see here is its living, continuously updated version . New studies are checked before they are added, and the collection now holds and keeps growing. Open any card to see what the researchers found, why it bears on DSRP, and where the original review discusses it, the fuller account.
The collection is updated continuously, so the citation carries the date you consulted it rather than a study count — the count changes weekly, and putting it in the reference would make the same collection look like a different work to everyone who cites it. To cite a single claim or study, use its own address: every one has a permanent link.
This is the adversarial half of the compendium. Where the evidence track asks what converges on DSRP, this one asks what would end it: a single organized phenomenon whose structure needs a fifth pattern, a ninth element, or a fifth structural dynamic. It holds written up from candidates across territories, and resolutions — the general answers those cases settle against. Every case is published whether it held or failed, including the ones still open.
Cite this rather than the evidence collection when the point is what survived attack. The two are separate works with separate addresses: one asks what converges on the theory, the other asks what would end it, and a reference to the first does not support a claim about the second. Case and resolution numbers change when the record is revised, so cite a case by its own permanent link rather than by number.
This collection is meant to keep growing. Send us a study, paper, book or critique that bears on DSRP, whether it supports the theory or cuts against it, and we will read it and decide whether it belongs.
Authors Cabrera & Cabrera
Year 2025
Publisher Odyssean Press
Kind of work book
Reading level beginner
Drawing from systems science, cognitive science, contemplative traditions, and over three decades of research into how minds model reality, Derek Cabrera offers a radically grounded approach to awakening—not as mysticism or belief, but as increasing alignment between the mind's models and the structure of the world itself. At the center of the book is a simple but powerful idea: suffering, confusion, and distortion arise when our internal models fall out of sync with reality—and clarity emerges as those models become more accurate, adaptive, and aligned. Through the lens of DSRP (Distinctions, Systems, Relationships, and Perspectives), Oneness bridges science and spirituality, map and territory, thought and experience. It explores impermanence, non-self, flow, compassion, dependent origination, and awakening as structural phenomena grounded in everyday life. Part philosophical exploration, part scientific framework, and part practical guide, Oneness offers readers a new way of seeing—one rooted not in belief, but in contact with reality itself.
There are many ways to approach the question of oneness. Some try to describe it. Others try to experience it. Some offer maps—models, frameworks, philosophies. Others offer practices—ways of seeing, ways of being. This book sits in between. If reality is a mountain, you can study it from a distance—mapping its ridges, measuring its layers, describing its structure. Or you can climb it—feeling the terrain directly, step by step, through contact and experience. Most books choose one path. This one does not. It is both a study of the mountain and a guide for walking it. But more precisely, it is something else: a way of understanding how maps are made—while you are still on the mountain. Not only the map that you hold in your hand, but the map that you make in your mind, at every step, in every moment. Because one of the central problems in the search for oneness is this: It is easy to collect maps. It is much harder to see clearly. Harder still to use those maps to see clearly and navigate the terrain. I have been two things in my adult life–a mountain guide and a systems scientist. A good deal of what I have learned about systems and science, I have learned from spending time in the mountains, in nature. Nature does not need to think in systems. It is systems, all the way down. A big part of mountaineering is aligning the map (a model of the terrain) to the real thing (the actual terrain). Somewhat coincidentally, what I have studied for 35 years as a cognitive and a systems scientist is essentially that: model-world alignment. How we map our mental models of the world, to the actual world. This might sound a little abstract, but it turns out this is absolutely essential to everyday living, to happiness, success, performance, good decisions, and to avoiding suffering. Because it is the models we have in our heads that drive everything we feel, what we say, how we behave, the decisions we make, and the actions we take. Much of suffering and failure arises when our models fall out of sync with reality. Libraries are full of descriptions of reality—philosophies, traditions, theories, and frameworks. Each offers a way of understanding the world. But without understanding how those maps are constructed, we risk mistaking them for the territory itself. The map is not the territory. This book takes a different approach. Rather than offering another map, it offers a way to build better ones—in real time, in contact with reality itself. By understanding how information is organized—how the mind structures what it perceives—we gain a set of tools that connect model and world, map and territory, thought and reality. These tools are not abstract. They are practical. They apply whether you are thinking, arguing, grieving, deciding, creating, or simply paying attention. This is not a philosophy of oneness. It is the mechanics of alignment. And it is written with a simple intention: to help you see more clearly, update more easily, and relate to reality with less distortion. If there is a deeper motivation, it is this: to offer something that does not require belief, identity, or affiliation—only observation, curiosity, and a willingness to change your mind when reality shows you something new. Because in the end, oneness is not something you adopt. It is something you approach— as your model comes into better alignment with the structure of the world. This book is also written with something more personal in mind. If I had to distill what matters most to pass on—to my children, or to anyone learning to navigate the world—it would not be a set of answers, but a way of seeing. A way of staying in contact with reality, even when it is uncomfortable. A way of updating, rather than defending. A way of learning continuously, without losing humility. The aim of this book is not to lead to a final state of understanding, but to cultivate an ongoing process of alignment between mind and reality. This alignment behaves asymptotically—continuously im
Applies the DSRP framework to contemplative practice — how suffering and confusion arise when our internal mental models fall out of sync with reality.
Patterns it shows D, S, R, P
How to cite this Cabrera & Cabrera (2025). Oneness. Odyssean Press.