Suffering

Suffering

Where joy expands, suffering compresses—and the geometry makes precise why. Suffering requires three dimensions:

• $\valence < 0$ (negative gradient—approaching viability boundary)
• $\intinfo$ high (hyper-unified, impossible to decompose or look away)
• $\effrank$ low (collapsed into narrow subspace—trapped)

This is the core structural signature. Self-model salience is often high (the self as locus of the problem), but not necessarily—one can suffer while absorbed in external pain.

High integration but collapsed into low-rank subspace. The system is deeply coupled but constrained to a dominant attractor it cannot escape.

Suffering feels more real than neutral states because it is actually more integrated. But it feels trapped because the integration is constrained to a narrow manifold. Formally: $\intinfo_{\text{suffering}} > \intinfo_{\text{neutral}}$ but $\effrank[\text{suffering}] \ll \effrank[\text{neutral}]$. This is why you cannot simply "think your way out" of suffering—the very integration that makes it vivid also makes it inescapable.