Metacognition and Mimesis

A Reflection on Ideas and Attribution

A couple of days ago, I woke up to a message from writer Jasun Horsley suggesting I had plagiarized his term 'second matrix' in my recent writing. Having great respect for his thinking, this hit hard. We exchanged several messages, followed by a Zoom conversation and subsequent email exchange that transformed what began as a concern about attribution into a perfect case study of the very concepts we explore.

Jasun's message was straightforward: "you can understand the misapprehension perhaps, since we only hooked up a few months ago & I have been using the term (without seeing anyone else ever use it) for 15 years or so; fyi I'm not a great believer in intellectual property rights but I am a believer in crediting & supporting one's cohorts."

For the last couple of years, my close friends and I have been exploring these deeper layers of social programming and control, using what we called 'the second matrix' to describe what we were observing. When we later discovered Jasun's work, we were struck by how perfectly he articulated these concepts. That immediate recognition - 'this guy really gets it' - led a few of us to dive deep into his writings, from his books Vice of Kings and Big Mother to his thought-provoking Substack, Children of Job (one of the few I pay for). I was even fortunate enough to be a guest on his podcast where we had a great conversation about these very themes. What's striking is that we were drawn to his work precisely because we were using the same terminology to describe the same phenomena, not realizing that he had originated the term we'd been using. It's a bit like tuning into a frequency only to find someone had been broadcasting on it for years.

There's a fascinating meta-layer here that I can't help but appreciate: while exploring concepts of mimesis and the second matrix - essentially how we unconsciously mirror and reproduce patterns - I was unknowingly mirroring Jasun's own framework. It's almost too perfect - in discussing how we're all mimics in the matrix, I was mimicking without awareness.

While Jasun developed both the terminology and framework years earlier, our arrival at this concept speaks to something profound about how ideas propagate. When concepts resonate with fundamental truths, they can emerge across different networks, like mycelium spreading underground and surfacing in unexpected places.

The most powerful ideas don't spread solely through citation but through resonance, activating similar recognitions in separate minds. Even if someone in our circle encountered this term indirectly through channels leading back to Jasun, our development of understanding still illustrates how certain insights arise organically when facing the same information landscape.

There's a profound irony here that deserves deeper examination: in writing about the second matrix - a concept exploring how we unconsciously inherit and reproduce patterns of thought - I unconsciously demonstrated the very phenomenon. This recursion isn't just coincidental but illuminating. Our discussion of mimetic patterns became itself a case study in mimesis.

In our exchange, Jasun clarified an important distinction: while there's overlap with zeitgeist phenomena (ideas emerging simultaneously from different minds), the second matrix is "less neutral and more of a (seemingly) intentional co-opting of truths by creating counterfeit versions of them." This important nuance highlights that we're not just discussing parallel emergence but something more deliberate - systems that appropriate authentic awakening.

This incident has made me question: how many of my 'original' insights are actually resonances with ideas already in circulation? What does true intellectual originality even mean when we're all swimming in the same information ecosystem? The second matrix concept itself suggests that our thoughts are never entirely our own - they're emergent properties of our collective unconscious engagement with reality.

In our little nook of the world, where we're trying to understand the depth of societal deception, it's never been about pride of authorship for me. It's about learning from one another through constructive dialogue, challenging assumptions, and finding points of alignment. Yet there's also value in recognizing those who've been pushing these ideas forward for years, often without the recognition they deserve.

The irony isn't lost on me - in trying to understand the matrices of control and mimesis, I became an unwitting example of how ideas can be unconsciously reproduced. But perhaps this is how knowledge actually grows - through a complex web of influence, resonance, and yes, sometimes unintentional mimicry.

What's particularly intriguing is how certain ideas seem to call to specific groups simultaneously - like a frequency that resonates with multiple receivers at once. My friends and I were drawn to explore this concept of a 'second matrix' because it explained something we were collectively sensing but struggling to articulate. When ideas bubble up this way in multiple places, it often signals that we're touching on something fundamental about our shared reality. Think about how terms like 'mass formation' or 'cognitive infiltration' suddenly emerged in multiple conversations during recent years - not because they were new concepts, but because they helped name phenomena we were all witnessing. Similarly, Jasun had been articulating this framework for years before many of us independently started groping toward the same understanding. In retrospect, perhaps we were all picking up on the same signal, with Jasun having developed the clearest antenna years before.

In our exchange, Jasun offered a profound insight about attribution that goes beyond intellectual ownership: "The question of where an insight originates...is much more essential than that of intellectual ownership or correct acknowledgement vs. 'plagiarism,' because it has to do with finding the medium behind the message; namely, what provides the best context for understanding it. If you want to understand Freud or Marx, go to the source; if you want to understand Christ, go to the Gospel."

He further cautioned that solutions themselves can become new extensions of the second matrix: "It is not only solutions that expand institutional power that characterize the trap of the second matrix; it is also any solution that comes (or is offered) prematurely and provides an illusory sense of having found a way out. This is the ipso facto, sin qua non of the trap of the 2nd matrix." This sobering observation reminds us that even our best attempts to escape controlled narratives can inadvertently create new controlled narratives.

In fact, in a recent essay, Jasun explores how this pattern operates through what he calls 'superculture' - a hidden causative dimension behind visible culture that co-opts authentic awakening. His analysis of how revolutionary ideas become instruments of the very systems they originally opposed adds another crucial layer to understanding how the second matrix functions. I encourage readers to explore his work for a deeper examination of these mechanics.

This situation reflects something important about the information landscape we're both navigating. In our shared effort to understand deeper patterns of societal programming, attribution becomes especially meaningful - not just as intellectual property, but as recognition of the difficult work of articulating these concepts. Jasun's concern isn't trivial; it reflects the value of original thinking in a world where ideas are easily appropriated. What's fascinating is how terms and concepts can travel through networks of thinkers, sometimes with their origins becoming obscured along the way. The true irony is that while discussing how ideas propagate through mimesis and unconscious reproduction, I was unwittingly demonstrating this very phenomenon. This doesn't excuse any oversight in attribution, but rather highlights how the patterns we study manifest in our own intellectual journeys.

What began as an uncomfortable accusation of plagiarism has transformed into something far more valuable: a case study in how ideas evolve, spread, and sometimes find their way back to their origins. In my effort to understand and articulate the second matrix - a framework Jasun developed for examining how authentic insights can be co-opted and counterfeited - I found myself unwittingly demonstrating a kind of mimetic pattern. Moving forward, I'll certainly credit Jasun's origination of this term. But perhaps the greatest value lies in how this incident created an opportunity for deeper understanding about how we collectively generate and share knowledge. In a way, I'm grateful that this began as an accusation, as it opened a door to insights we might not have otherwise shared.