* WE CARE *

At the Speed of Light: How It Started

​Thanks to Peter Thiel’s recent interviews and lectures on innovation, stagnation, and the challenge of not going back to the future, I went back to the future myself. I completed an 18-year theory that, as a creative, I couldn’t prove before. Then I wrote him a letter.

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It was a different world back in 2009. Words like ghosting, trauma, or narcissism weren’t part of our daily conversations. Books like It Didn’t Start With You, The Body Keeps the Score, Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents, Gottman’s Four Horsemen, and Supercommunicators were nowhere to be found.

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Back then, my only evidence was what my senses and experiences could show me, tested in fewer than 150 people—mostly family and friends. In a single 20‑minute revelation and one focused conversation, I could surface the greatest need in the room and watch what happened when people saw it clearly together. Every time, it proved that people cared—not some, but all—and, most importantly, their misery lifted almost instantly as they chose to take immediate action to meet that need at what felt like the speed of light.

Those early 20‑minute revelations became the backbone of Karma Physics: a simple Care Operating System that uses one conversation to turn misery into proof of care—and action.
 

The Need To Believe People Care

The greatest unmet human need is believing that people care. When we don’t, it goes against our 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, misery follows.
 

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 stand by. Misery is how babies communicate unmet needs, at the speed of light. That’s how 8 billion babies survive and are protected today. When babies think you don’t care, they believe they won’t survive.

When grown-ups feel the same, they believe the world will end.
 

I’m going to prove to you that everyone cares, and when I do, you’ll do the same—because for every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction. That’s the third law of physics. We are here to fulfill the Golden Rule at the top of a pyramid of needs: to care for others as we care for ourselves. That is love in action. Today, I have the research to back up my theory. And I plan to take us back to the future.
 

Back to Peter

Does anyone know Peter? If you or someone you know does, please read and share my letter with him. Let him know I am ready to meet anywhere, anytime. Tell him that, as a neurodivergent creative, I finally had the resources to gather what would have taken years, so I could share my findings—and now a world whose time has come to care.
 

About Me

Gretchen Schauffler is a color theorist and language lover who has built new creative ventures and innovated old ones along the way, including Color Baggage and Devine Color, which Sherwin-Williams later acquired. My work lives where emotional clarity, creativity, and innovation meet—translating what we feel but can’t see into reciprocal care actions that transform our lives.
 

About Karma Physics

Karma Physics is a framework for understanding how a Care Reflex, a Pyramid of Needs to climb, and a Golden Rule to fulfill at the top, work together to fulfill personal dreams and our shared destiny. The only way we get there is to prove people care at the speed of light—because love is care in action. What began in 2008 as a personal dive into emotion, identity, and design has evolved into a comprehensive theory shaped by science, culture, and experience.
 

Let’s Connect

I’m available for:

• Keynote talks on Care, Creativity, and Innovation

• Podcast interviews on Karma Physics and the Care Reflex

• Book club and workshops on speed-of-light conversations

 

Contact: g@gretchenschauffler.com — 503.570.9077

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