* WE CARE *

At the Speed of Light: How It Started

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Peter Thiel’s recent interviews and lectures about innovation, stagnation, and not going back to the future sparked something in me. I went back to the future. Then, I wrote Peter a letter. I used A.I. to finish an 18-year theory that, as a creative, I couldn’t “prove” before. It was a different world.

Words like ghosting, trauma, or narcissism weren’t in our daily conversations. Books like The Body Keeps Score, Gottman’s Relationship Dark Horses, and Determined were nowhere to be found.

My evidence was gathered through my senses and experiences, tested by fewer than 150 people—mostly family and friends. I was able to meet the greatest need people have and relieve their misery at the speed of light, with a 20-minute revelation and one conversation that proved people cared. Not some. All. Unexpectedly, they shared their results, too.

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Today, I have all the research to back up my theory. And I plan to take you back to the future.

 

The Need To Believe People Care
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The unmet need—the greatest unmet human need—is believing that people care. When we don’t, it goes against our own biological wiring. We become miserable and helpless, like babies. This is why we believe people don’t care and should know better. And when they don’t, they are miserable.

 

It's a Baby-Proof World
 

The proof is in the baby. No one wants a baby to die, because we have a Care Reflex that doesn’t let us. Misery is how they communicate unmet needs, at the speed of light. That’s how 8 billion babies are surviving and being protected today. When babies think you don’t care, they believe they’ll die.

When grown-up babies think the same, they believe the world will end.

 

I’m going to prove to you that everyone cares, and when I do, you will do the same—because for every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction. That’s the third law of physics. We are born to fulfill the Golden Rule at the top of a pyramid of needs: to care for others as we care for ourselves, because that is love in action.
 

About Me

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Gretchen Schauffler is a color theorist and language lover who’s built creative ventures along the way, including Color Baggage®, ColorWright™, and Devine Color™, which Sherwin-Williams later acquired. Her work lives where emotion, identity, and design meet—turning what we feel but can’t see into something that transforms our lives. 

Karma Physics
 

Karma Physics is a framework for understanding our Care Reflex at the speed of light. It began in 2008 as a personal deep dive into emotion, identity, and design. She now has a fully developed  and comprehensive theory shaped by science, culture, and empirical experience. 

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Let's Connect

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I'm available for:

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• Keynote talks on Care, conflict, and connection

• Podcast interviews on Karma Physics and the Care Reflex

• Book club or team workshops on speed-of-light conversations

Contact: g@gretchenschauffler.com — 503.570.9077

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