What's Up with the cognitive realm?

[Stormtide_Leviathan]

So in the cognitive realm, 3d spaces are mapped onto a more 2d kind of map. So a planet may be round, but in the cognitive realm its manifestation is more flat. And you can travel directly from one planet to another because of this, like from Nalthis to Roshar. The vast expanse of outerspace doesn't really matter in the cognitive, because it doesn't have any minds in it so that space maps to essentially null in the cognitive. But the cognitive realm is, of course, still 3 dimensional. Terrain isn't completely flat, you can go up and down. So what happens if you go up in the cognitive... and keep going? In the physical realm, you'd reach outerspace, but that's not the case in the cognitive i wouldn't think. There is something up there though; there's the weird inverse sun. So yeah, the question is, What's Up?

[EmulatonStromenkiin he/him]

I'm relatively sure that the inverse sun represents the spiritual realm. Maybe you'd end up there?

[That1Cellist he/him]

Much of what characters see in the cognative realm is based on what people think. People don't think of their planets as being curved surfaces, even if they know that they are, which is why it is flat. Worldhoppers think of planets as much closer together than they are, so planets are much closer in the cognitive realm. I assume you could go upwards for forever. As more people find out about the cognitive realm, it will likely change to more closely resemble our actual world, like correct planet distances.

Spoiler

Dallen Powell

Is it easier to travel in the Cognitive Realm because people in the Physical Realm don't understand the immensity of space, and their lack of comprehension condenses the Cognitive Realm?

Brandon Sanderson

I'd say that's a factor, yeah. Definitely a factor. I think it's impossible to comprehend the immensity of space even with all the visualizations I've seen.  Yeah, definitely. Good question. 

YouTube Spoiler Stream 1 (Dec. 17, 2020)

There is another, better WOB about distances between planets, but I can't find it.

As people's perceptions of it change, the cognitive realm changes. It is the realm of thought, after all.

[Yumiya]

27 minutes ago, EmulatonStromenkiin said:

I'm relatively sure that the inverse sun represents the spiritual realm.

In Secret Histories, Preservation does use the sun in a metaphor for how the Realms work. However, the sun is never described as inverse, only as tiny and seen through dense grey clouds. I expect it is a different sun than the one seen in the Rosharan Cognitive space.

 

Quote

Men - all things, truly - are like a ray of light. The floor is the Physical Realm, where that light pools. The sun is the Spiritual Realm, where it begins. This Realm, the Cognitive Realm, is the space between where that beam stretches. 

 

I assume that Preservation is not literally saying that the sun seen in the Cognitive realm is the Spiritual Realm, as we know that the Spiritual realm does not real have space/shape, given that space, time and distance are irrelevant. Instead, I think he is saying that the Spiritual Realm is the source of all investiture, like the sun is the source of light. That light/investiture becomes physical due to the perception of them. As they are perceived, they are created. 

Now, why is the Scadrian Cognitive sun different than the Rosharan Cognitive sun. Well, perception. The Scadrians only ever saw the sun through ash and mists. They think of it as distant and largely less important than someone who grew up on an Earth like planet. Therefore it is represented as tiny and clouded. 

The Rosharans though, did not have that growing up. To them it is a sun much more like what we would have on earth. So why is it inverse. Not entirely sure, but I assume it is related to the shadows that point the wrong way and how invested light works. We know that the light in gemstones is invested. We also know that it is slightly related to how humans in the cognitive realm are drawn to the beyond. Liquid and solid are inversed in shadesmar, why not light. I think it has to do more with the investiture. Stormlight is viewed as a primary source of light and power. It would make sense for it to be conflated with sun in the minds of Rosharans.