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So I have always wondered what exactly happens to your body when you travel to the CR. After all how do you bring a physical body into the realm of the mind. Luckily for me there is a WOB on this very question. So from this I gather that you body is transformed into Investiture on your way in and transformed back into physical matter on your way out. This got me wondering since you are Investiture while you are in the CR and you technically have no physical body, would a blind person be able to see. After all the reason they can't see is because there is a physical ailment going on with their eyes. Since their eyes are now pure Investiture and they are in the realm of the mind they should be able to see in the CR if they were to change their perception enough.

Being as all the worlds in the Cosmere are round, and the Cognitive Realm parallels the Physical Realm, how does worldhopping work? Previously, before this occurred to me, i had pictured worldhopping being achieved (based off of Kelsier's journey to the Ire in secret history) by simply walking off the edge of the world, passing through a vague amount of compressed space (due to a lack of thoughts/Cognitive stuff) and arriving on a different world. But upon reflection, a globe has no edge to walk off of. So how does one transfer between different worlds?

Whose thoughts count in shaping the cognitive realm? Is it just humans and humanoids? or do animals (and especially more intelligent animals like aviar and ryshadium) count too?

My theory is that spren are visible in Roshar because Honor's perpendicularity (shardpool) constantly pulls shadesmar closer as it travels inside highstorms.

Has any one asked Brandon about how the three dimensional sphere of a planet gets converted to a two dimensional space in the cognitive realm. With a sphere, if I start walking in a straight line along any direction, logically, at some point I have to get back to that point (assuming I swim when there's water etc). From what we've seen and the WOBs I've read on the subject that doesn't sound like it's the case with the cognitive realm, because in the CR you just reach off world at some point instead of circling back to where you started. This suggests there is some kind of axis along which the sphere gets divided. So if you're exactly one step on one side of said axis, you're at one end of the cognitive realm, and if you're exactly one step on the other side of the axis you're at the other end of the cognitive realm of said planet. How exactly does this work. Is there a WOB about that? I tried searching but haven't found anything.... The clear implications of this I can think of happen on places like Roshar where its just one continent, that is entirely in the southern hemisphere (if I remember correctly) and so if that axis is the equator, doesn't really matter. If that axis is a prime meridian passing through Urithiru on the other hand, that could be really really bad. Cuz half of Urithiru in the cognitive realm would be one end of whatever is the boundary of shadesmar before you're no longer on Roshar, and the other half would be the other end. Clearly from the maps we have of the Roshar cognitive realm this isn't the case, but I was using it as an example to illustrate where the issues might be most prominent (I.e. in cases of a super continent). Any who, any thoughts on this subject?

**Warning: This post contains MASSIVE spoilers for Oathbringer. Proceed either with caution, or not at all.** Hi guys! This is my first post here, and I want to talk about Dalinar. Near the end of Oathbringer, Dalinar is able to recreate Honor’s perpendicularity by joining the 3 Realms. I was wondering what the extent of these powers are. Could Dalinar travel to the Spiritual Realm? What would happen if he did? Does this require Stormlight? At the end of Oathbringer, Kaladin said that Dalinar was able to renew gemstones for his trip, which indicates that Dalinar is able to combine the Realms at any time. Can Dalinar do this because he is a Bondsmith, or is it something else entirely? We know that Bondsmiths are somewhat special among Radiants, as there can only be three, and the order was founded by Ishar, who (I think) Ash said was the only Herald that didn’t lose his mind. Dalinar seemed able to do something similar when he operated the Oathgate, despite having no Shardblade. This power is surely the same as the one Dalinar used later on to unite the Realms, but this quote makes it sound less like a Bondsmith power, as opening the Oathgate seemed to hurt the Stormfather, or at least bother him deeply. This probably wouldn’t happen had this been typical Bondsmith behavior. This raises a question: if it’s not a Bondsmith ability, then where did this power come from?

This theory is really a reaction to 3 things, @WeiryWriter's thread on The Expanse of Densities, a couple of WoBs, and the extended view of the Rosharan sub-astral we got in Oathbringer. I think the Cognitive Realm is a contiguous topology, like the model for gravitation's effect on space time. It's a large continuous surface that is elastic and is stretched by densities of thought. To put this in terms of the analogy of the warping of space time through gravitation, thought would be like mass; a dense accumulation of thought in one area would warp the topological plane, but unlike with space time, this warping wouldn't manifest as a dimpling of the surface of the cognitive realm, because it really is a two dimensional construct, instead the elasticity of the system would spread outwards, like a balloon being pulled on both ends stretches in reaction to the force. The exact shape and nature of the Cognitive Realm in relation to the Physical Realm I think is best left to the Scholars at Silverlight to determine, until we get the 3 Dimensional map of the Cosmere that Brandon has hinted that they are making, but there are a number of topologies that are surfaces that are fully contiguous, where it would be possible to circumnavigate the surface of the topology in a near infinite varieties of ways. One example of an interesting topology is the Klein Bottle (which can be non-intersecting with a time component, spoilered below because the animation can be distracting unless you want to look at it). The thing is that is compelling about this formulation is that it allows for the Cognitive Realm to change and adapt over time, depending on where cognitive densities occur, like this animation of a Coffee Cup transforming into Torus (spoilered too, because it's animated): So the Cognitive Realm, as I see it, is a modified plane, a plane that is in continuous transition to form a changing 3 dimensional surface. And the Spiritual Realm is a single point, the single Point of Pythagorean thought where all infinity is encompassed. Everything is connected to this point, but this point exists outside of time and space, it is a one-dimensional construct (the Great I-Am of the Cosmos). Certain points are more connected to this singular point, and because everything is connected to it as well, sentient beings can use these points of high thought density to access the point outside of time and space, and through cognitive will, reach another point in time and space (most likely this transition occurs from the Physical Realm with an intermediary stop in the CR before the being is transported to the Spiritual Realm, and process repeats in reverse (to CR then to PR). So here are the WoB's that I think support this general idea: First this WoB, which implies that the Cognive Realm is like a flattened version of the Physical Realm (emphasis added): And this WoB, which I think gives the best idea of what the Cognitive Realm actually is (emphasis added): Here are the rest of the supporting details (spoilered so you can read them if you want to): Here are some general thoughts about why the Cognitive Realms manifest in such different ways on different Shard worlds (spoilered again, read if you want): And Here is the most important part, I am going to be getting some signed copies of Brandon's books for my birthday (coming up in February) and I'll have 3 questions to ask, I already know what I want to ask for the first one, but I would love to hear your guys' thoughts on what I should ask for the second two. I do have to say I want the suggestions restricted to Realmatics (cognitive realm, spiritual realm, linkage between 3 realms, etc). Excited to see what some of the smartest sapient lifeforms on this planet come up with!

So we know that a normal shardblade will not appear as such in shadesmar, as it will instead appear as the spren which becomes the blade in the physical realm. We also see that Vivvennas shardblade does appear in the cognitive realm because it is not a spren. So then what about honorblades? As far as I'm aware, the honorblades aren't spren, but instead some other magical stuff™. So I ask, would an honorblade be usable in the cognitive realm?

Sorry if there is already a post saying what i say here. I the end of 'the bands of mourning' (chapter 28) there is a section where wax is dead and is talking to harmony. and there harmony shows him (in the cognitive realm) that the planet is engulfed by red mist, and imply that he is under attack from the outside. Furthermore, in the epilog it is said by the set's faceless immortal "recent advances made civilization here too dangerous... So we have decided to remove life on this sphere... You will be allowed to serve in another realm". Does anyone need any further proof that someone who does not belong on Scadrial is muddying things up? I personally think this is odium's work. and part, and i emphasize part, of the reason harmony is open to hoid's own letter but cannot help him. Also the oblivious way the facelees immortal is behaving is very close to the disregard of the fused of their own lives.

I'm not sure if this is where I should post it, and if it should be somewhere else, notify one of the admins so it goes where it should be. now that that's out of the way: if the Cognitive Realm were real, everything on the internet would exist in the cognitive realm, because the internet is really just a bunch of ideas floating around as data. because the internet is really just a bunch of ideas, and a lot of people interact with it, the internet would be an incredibly large source of Spren, including: Websitespren, Userspren, Postspren, Memespren, Topicspren, Threadspren, WoBspren, Upvotespren, and others. (autocorrect does not like any of those, so I stopped listing them.) The implications of this would be huge: Thread necros would actually be bringing a dead Threadspren back to life, We might be able to change our personal Userspren's appearance by changing our Profile picture, the Postspren would be happier when you give them Upvotespren... everything would be so different. In addition, there might be a single, large Spren that would form as a result: The Internetspren, which would probably be large enough to become a higher spren, and possibly form a Radiant bond with. feel free to: use some of the Spren names as a Username, come up with more Spren that would exist on the Internet, and create Radiant oaths for any varieties of the Spren, I'm interested to see where this goes.

From Wikipedia How would this impact a Ship's Cognitive self/identity?

So, I only recently read Mistborn: Secret History. I found it very interesting, but a major discrepancy came up. In the Cognitive Realm on Scadrial, Kelsier was able to walk around on the parts that should have been cognitive "ocean" as if it were land, whereas Shallan nearly drowned while in an equivalent place. Also, the "spren(for lack of a better term)" in Scadrian Shadesmar were semi-solid smoke versions of what they looked like in the physical realm, whereas on Roshar they manifest as spheres. Basically, why is the Cognitive Realm on Scadrial so different from the Cognitive Realm on Roshar?

Alright so quick conversation starter: what do we think the emotional metals have to do with the cognitive realm? We know that wearing an aluminum lines hat around your head prevents the effects, as well as burning copper, but what would happen if you tried to sooth or riot szeth? Someone who is partially in the cognitive realm. Can you affect Spren? If both you and your target are in the cognitive realm will there be a visible effect when you sooth? I’d just like to know more about the cognitive side of emotional allomancy. If there is one. Forgive the format and hastyness I am writing this in class on my phone and didn’t want to forget it!

Did Roshar originally have Spren? Sylphrena indicates 4 genders of spren. 2 for the Parsh, 2 for the human. I don't think Roshar was formed like other Shardic worlds. No other Cosmere world has spren like Roshar, so far. It would seem that the Parsh thought of their objects being Malen and Femalen, voila SPREN! Perhaps? Maybe? Did the way they think or sing create the spren way back then? Shard worlds seem to have the 3 realms setup. Roshar wasn't created by a Shard (that I'm aware of.) The way I understand the history is that Odium saw the existing native Parsh and decided to become their god. He got invested to that Solar System. Along comes the human Voidbringers to settle around Shinovar (initially.) Honor and Cultivation either settled with them or decided to call it home at a later time. Introducing Honor's high storms, Odium's Everstorm (old in design) and the Cultivation's/Nightwatcher's Old Magic. When I read TWoK, I assumed Honors' death and Splintering brought about the spren. I have now been proven false. So, I suspect Roshar was similar to an Earth like world and topography. The Parsh evolved naturally and all was pleasant until Odium rolled on in. My question is HOW and WHEN do you think Roshar got spren? A certified timeline of these early events would be great to read. Thank you.

If you struggle understanding the relationships between the Physical, Cognitive, and Spiritual realms, this video has an interesting perspective:

Hi everyone, I’ve been thinking about this, and I’m curious to see what evidence there might be for this theory... Is Jasnah a Worldhopper? Though I’ve never seen evidence of her on a different planet or solar system, we do know that she’s had more years of experience as a Radiant and with Shadesmar— 6 more years, to be exact. Not to mention, Jasnah is an Elsecaller, and can literally teleport to different places. We know that Shadesmar, aka the Cognitive Realm, actually has distance, and places in Shadesmar correspond to locations in the Cosmere. For example, the Expanse of the Densities is confirmed to be Sel, and the Expanse of the Vapors is confirmed to be Scadrial. There is a good chance that she has traveled to these places within Shadesmar. Thoughts? Further evidence?

I'm a little (very) new to this, so I hope I'm doing it right. Please correct me if I've made a mistake. So, I forget where, but at some point, it's mentioned that shard blades first cut and kill the cognitive body, the mind, and can then cut flesh. However, aren't all of the fused spren? Kaladin hears the men at Kholinar say that the fused fear Azure's shardblade, and he kills one as well, however, if the fused are permanently killed with a shardblade, how many were there originally? I assume this is not a correct idea, but how does the shardblade-spren actually work? Does the shardblade not kill spren on the cognitive side?

Hello all! Not quite sure how to start this off so I'll just jump right in. First of all, I am very interested in philosophy. Currently, I have a class about ancient Greek philosophy. When we were going over Plato's forms, it struck me that this idea is incredibly similar to the Cognitive Realm. If you're not familiar with the idea, Plato essentially believed that the Forms were what was most real about an object. If you break down a table, it it just made out of wood. However; there is some sort of thing about a table that makes it a table. That "tableness" is distinct from the wood, stone or metal that makes it up. For Plato, there is another realm, a real of ideals, where things such as Justice, Table, Triangle, ect. all exist at their most real. This sounds incredibly similar to the Cognitive realm and I think that may have been a major source of inspiration for Brandon Sanderson. I'm curious to see if he has said anything on the matter. Additionally, it seems this is not the only thing that he has drawn from ancient Greek philosophy. Now, I haven't read all the Cosmere literature at this time, so this may be completely wrong, but here goes. Heraclitus believed that all things were constantly changing. Sanderson has mentioned that Hemalurgic spikes need contact with the blood in order to actually steal power. He mentioned in a Q&A that it has something to do with the blood being in motion. Motion was tied with life for many pre-Socratic philosophers. This idea is still somewhat half-formed, but I think a discussion on it is warranted. It is possible that the spiritual realm is tied with how objects and people change through time. Something else was incredibly important to the pre-Socratic and some post Socratic philosophers. That was the notion of Arkae, or, roughly, what it means to exist. To me, no unifying theory can be complete without asking this question of the Cosmere. Clearly, for something to exist, it needs at least a Cognitive aspect. However; for something to be sentient, it needs a Spiritual aspect. Motion is life. This is supported by how we see Investiture work on Roshar. The Stormlight encourages those who hold it to move. Investiture is the stuff of life. This also follows from what we know of humanity, Investiture is necessary for the existence of humanity. In fact, I would argue that Investiture is Sanderson's Arkae. Without that, there is no connection between the Cognitive and Spiritual realms, and no impact on the physical realm. In this way then, it would seem that actual magic is largely incidental to the way that reality itself exists in the Cosmere. Thank you, if you read through the fruits of my procrastinatory ramblings. I probably got some things wrong, in fact, I hope I did so those can be pointed out and I can learn something new about the Cosmere! I appreciate any thoughts that you have on this mass of a post! Thank you so much!

My theory is fairly simple, (so you should have very few problems tearing it down ). Basically, here is the issue. The Radiants did not all have light blue eyes. Only the Windrunners did, because their Gemstone was sapphire. Since Kaladin's eyes turn blue when he Surgebinds, it stands to reason that Radiants of other orders will have their eyes turn the color of there order. So Why does dead Shardplate, from any order, turn it's wearer's eyes blue? The only instance of this that we've actually seen is with Moash, and while it's possible that his armor was Windrunner armor, it seems unlikely that every single darkeyes to take hold of dead plate happened to obtain Windrunner armor (this is assuming that there is some truth in the legends). So, my suggestion is this: the only reason Moash's eyes slowly began to turn blue is because that is what he though would happen. We know that dead Shardplate is somewhat Invested, since it is "charged" by gemstones. So, Moash, or anybody wearing dead Shardplate, would have some investiture to utilize. Everybody at the moment thinks of Shardbearers as lighteyes, and so Moash is slowly using that investiture to turn himself into one. As would anybody else in dead plate. Ideas?

So I was doing some readings on WOBs and I found this one: I thought it was interesting because I would have thought that Taravangian's smart days would be days in which he is closer in alignment with the cognitive realm. I think I have seen that theory before and now it is debunked. We know that beings that can see the future, such as shards and atium burners, often achieve this through connection with the spiritual realm. However, I thought that this connection is the "fortune" that Odium speaks of, and we know from him that Taravangian didn't use Fortune to create the diagram. This must mean that Taravangian uses some other means of prediction. My first thought would be that Taravangian is closer to the Spiritual realm and therefore closer to his perfect intellectual form, like an intelligence gold Ferring. Also, a lot of people seem to think that on smart days Taravangian is closer aligned with one realm and on dumb days he is aligned with another. Could that mean that on his smart days he is closer to the person he truly is? Maybe his Machiavellian tendencies are the real Taravangian and the smart days just emphasize it. Or it could be that on his dumb days he is closer to the cognitive realm and therefore becomes more like how he thinks of himself? That would make sense because a man that thought of himself as truly intelligent likely wouldn't ask for capacity. Not really sure, but I thought it would be a good discussion.

EDIT: This theory has been pretty soundly disproved due to fundamental errors as pointed out by @Weltall. I don't know exactly when to put spoilers and when not too, but don't read further unless you've read Mistborn. I was thinking. Yes, I know, I'm proud of me too. In Secret History we see what happens to koloss in the CR when they die. They separate into the people that were used to spike them without memory or knowledge of their life as a koloss. That's a relief, right? It means it didn't change the people into bloodthirsty monsters, they were more used as a battery against their will. But how does this translate to kandra? First off, I'd like to make clear that- in my eyes at least- over the course of its life, a kandra is three sentient, intelligent beings. Two people (made into Blessings), and the kandra itself. The original kandra were four sentient intelligent beings because the mistwraith was actually a Feruchemist. So when a kandra dies, how does it appear in the CR? Does it split into the two blessings and the original Feruchemist, the kandra wiped away? 'Cause that would suck. I mean, a Ryshadium- a storming horse- gets into the Beyond and a fully sentient immortal stops existing? Doesn't make sense. Therefore, I propose that when Hemalurgy (do you capitalize that?) is used in a way that it fundamentally changes the recipient of the spike, so much so that their personality is immediately and drastically effected, it creates an entirely new soul. In this case, I believe that when a kandra dies, four beings appear in the CR. However, I've just run into a couple of problems. Right now a certain question has been created. "So, do koloss and those disgusting wolf people in the Homeland enter the CR in death, and go to the Beyond?" I would say it depends on the sentience and intelligence on the being in question. For instance, the disgusting wolf people I would classify as simply dissipating into the people used to create it. For original Era 1 koloss I would probably say the same. Era 2 koloss are different, because the human turned koloss remembers his life as a human, and is roughly the same person. When you start getting into koloss like Human, it begins to get philosophical. That concludes my rambling theory. Feel free to rip it apart!

So i tend to agree with some theorists proposing that the in book, book, Oathbringer is being written by jasnah. The line that stuck out the most was "I did not die. I experienced something worse." I believe she is referring to her attack on the wind's pleasure, and subsequent trip into the cognitive realm. We know from her first hand that she visited the highspren and their city during her travels there, but i think the perhaps she made another stop along the way. Possibly by choice, or perhaps by force or happenstance. I think jasnah visited braize in the cognitive realm, this is one of the things often referred to directly or obliquely as being worse than death. Damnation. This is only supposition which may be proved wrong on this upcoming tuesday, but i imagine that if jasnah was finally going to take a deep dive into the cognitive realm she would be compelled to have a better understanding of her enemy. Discuss.

So as I read more Sanderson books I've seem to notice a trend. Each world has seem to split their investiture into 3 "powers" for the world. I was theorising that each of these powers is based of the 3 realms. The real world (not sure it's actual name), cognitive and spiritual. I've tried to list each worlds power based of the realm i feel it fits best. I'd like to know if you think this works or am I reading to much into it. Scadrial-Allomancy real world Feurchemy-cognitive (put into metal) Hemalurgy- spiritual Nalthisis-breath real world Nightblood-cognitive world Spiritual world not yet shown? Or the Gods reborn Sel-dar kor real world Aon dor-cognitive (a splinter object) Forgery-Spiritual (messing with the soul of an item/person) Roshar- surgebindings Cognitve-spren Spiritual-shard blades Roshar I had some trouble with. I haven't read ars arcanum yet so don't have the smaller worlds.