Originally published in The Whirl of ReOrientation on April 3, 2025.
As some of you may be aware, I’ve been neck-deep in some wild shit. Just the other day, I wrote on The Whirl about the market as a consciousness entity—think hive mind, vibrating with intent—go check out our NWO episode with Patrick Schotanus if you want to learn more. Last week, I poked around the Edgar Cayce Library, soaking up vibes from the “sleeping prophet.” In March, I’ve had a string of chats with Alan Green about sacred geometry—codes baked into pyramids and, get this, our own country’s founding documents. You should really watch NWO episode 113, it will blow your mind. This week, I reconnected with former Hollywood actress who is now diving into the Akashic Records—cosmic archives, anyone? She’ll be joining us on No Way Out soon. Later today, I have a call with a founder of a top AI company who used to be a shaman. Yeah, you heard that right. All this has me primed to drop some rarely explored bombs about John Boyd’s world. On No Way Out and here, we’ve hammered one truth: Boyd’s OODA Loop—Observe, Orient, Decide, Act—isn’t just for fighter jocks dodging MiGs. It’s a non-linear cosmic playbook, deep as hell, with mysticism and spirituality pumping through its veins. As a vet pushing psychedelic-assisted therapy for brothers and sisters with PTSD and TBI, I’m all about bridging worlds. So, I decided to explore Boyd’s 32 boxes of books, notes, and wild ideas to see if Boyd ever went “woo.” Spoiler alert: of course he did. Mystic Boyd’s OODA Loop isn’t just military genius; it’s a spiritual magnet for the consciousness crowd and a wake-up call for leaders everywhere. Here’s what the archives reveal.
Boyd’s “40-second” legend at Nellis is badass—no question, he could go from a defensive start to an offensive kill in a heartbeat. But his OODA Loop sketch, penned 30 years after his cockpit days, isn’t chained to aviation. We’ve riffed on No Way Out about how it scales—strategy, teams, mental health, you name it—and the archives show why: Boyd was swimming in mystical waters. Fritjof Capra’s The Tao of Physics, drenched in Boyd’s stars and underlines, ties quantum physics to Taoism and Buddhism. It’s flow, connection—Orientation as a universal dance, not just a tactical snapshot. Some of you might be sick of me yapping about the Free Energy Principle—how living systems minimize surprise—but Boyd’s loop vibes with it: a metaphysical take on grasping the whole damn picture.
Alan Watts litters Boyd’s Quantico stash—three books, all annotated, one dedicated by Chet Richards. TAO: The Watercourse Way screams spontaneity, riding the wave. That’s Action—fast, fluid, stretching beyond jets into any high-stakes gig. We’ve explored wu-wei on No Way Out and The Whirl—effortless action—and Boyd’s loop breathes it. Watts’ The Wisdom of Insecurity flips chaos into freedom—pure OODA, turning uncertainty into power. Pushing psychedelic therapy, I see parallels: those treatments melt the ego, our default Implicit Guidance and Control lens, and Boyd’s sketch can map how different modalities—meditation, breathwork, sleep, you name it—rewire that subconscious flow for healing.
Lao Tzu’s The Way of Life—the Tao Te Ching—sports Boyd’s ink all over it. Simplicity, letting go—it’s Decision, free of overplanning (please stop using the term pre-planning), ready for anything. John Heider’s The Tao of Leadership doubles down: influence, not force. That’s not just dogfights; it’s life. Zen crashes in—Joe Hymans’ Zen in the Martial Arts and Ray Grigg’s The Tao of Zen. Presence, clarity—Observation slicing through noise, as universal as sacred geometry. I’ve felt it sitting still; Boyd’s notes say he did too. OODA isn’t locked to jets—it’s for anyone chasing awareness
Then it gets freaky: Mysticism and the New Physics by Michael Talbot—two copies, one marked up. Reality’s a co-creation, Talbot says, and that’s Orientation—shaping the world as you see it, from battlefields to boardrooms, from the observers advantage point. Julian Jaynes’ The Origin of Consciousness tracks how minds shift under pressure—Boyd’s reorienting, anywhere, anytime. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig blends Zen with quality, intuition with logic—a synthesis for every human mess. This is OODA unbound, mystic crowd: it’s your jam.
Marilyn Ferguson’s The Aquarian Conspiracy, dreams of a connected, transformed world. I’ve been geeking out on sacred geometry on my own time and you may have noticed this on No Way Out—patterns tying it all together—and Boyd’s stretching OODA there, beyond war into existence. Hideki Yukawa’s Creativity and Intuition fuses East and West, powering Action with gut brilliance. The I Ching, via Mondo Secter’s guide, gives Boyd a mystic’s lens—patterns in chaos, universal as hell. Military leaders, this is your genius; spiritual seekers, this is your call.
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Boyd’s margins—stars, underlines, rants—map his soul. His favorite, Brian Goodwin’s How the Leopard Changed Its Spots, whispers order from chaos—a spiritual echo. His Dune obsession—“The Sleeper must awaken”—is consciousness, a thread we’ve chased on the pod. And here’s another layer: my No Way Out co-host, Mark “Moose” McGrath, has been diving deep into The Phenomenon of Man by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin lately—a French geologist, paleontologist, philosopher, and Jesuit priest. In this essay, Teilhard describes evolution as a process of increasing complexity, culminating in unified consciousness. Boyd had a copy in his stash, and it’s no surprise—Teilhard’s vision of a “noosphere,” a global layer of thought, vibes with Boyd’s OODA scaling to humanity’s big picture. Moose has been geeking out on how Teilhard’s ideas tie to Boyd’s loop, especially that unification of consciousness angle—think Orientation on a planetary scale. There’s a wild connection to Edgar Cayce here, too. Cayce, the “sleeping prophet” I’ve been digging into, talked interplanetary sojourns—souls vibing in planetary dimensions between lives. Teilhard, a contemporary, intuited similar cosmic journeys, blending science and spirit like Boyd did. Mystic Boyd wasn’t just outsmarting foes; he was tapping the universe’s rhythm.
On No Way Out and The Whirl, we’ve shouted that OODA’s not a simple linear bullshit process—it’s a way of being. Mystics, it’s your bridge to Boyd; leaders, it’s his brilliance laid bare. I’m pushing therapy to heal vets, Sarah Kernion’s connecting Boyd to autism, and Boyd’s loop ties it all—practical, profound, and damn near divine. Moose and I want to hear from you—what’s your take on Boyd’s mystic side?
Reference/Notes
Capra, Fritjof. The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels Between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism. Bantam Books, 1977.
Location in Marine Library: John R. Boyd Collection, COLL/2949, Box 1, Series 14 (Books).
Watts, Alan. TAO: The Watercourse Way. Pantheon Books, 1975.
Location in Marine Library: John R. Boyd Collection, COLL/2949, Box 2, Series 14 (Books).
Watts, Alan. The Wisdom of Insecurity. Vintage Books, 1951.
Location in Marine Library: John R. Boyd Collection, COLL/2949, Series 14 (Books).
Watts, Alan. The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are. Vintage Books, 1972.
Location in Marine Library: John R. Boyd Collection, COLL/2949, Box 1, Series 14 (Books).
*Lao Tzu. The Way of Life (Tao Te Ching). Translated by R.B. Blakney, Mentor Book, 1955.*
Location in Marine Library: John R. Boyd Collection, COLL/2949, Series 14 (Books).
Heider, John. The Tao of Leadership: Leadership Strategies for a New Age. Bantam Books, 1986.
Location in Marine Library: John R. Boyd Collection, COLL/2949, Series 14 (Books).
Hymans, Joe. Zen in the Martial Arts. Bantam Books, 1982.
Location in Marine Library: John R. Boyd Collection, COLL/2949, Series 14 (Books).
Grigg, Ray. The Tao of Zen. Charles E. Tuttle, 1994.
Location in Marine Library: John R. Boyd Collection, COLL/2949, Series 14 (Books).
Talbot, Michael. Mysticism and the New Physics. Bantam Books, 1981.
Location in Marine Library: John R. Boyd Collection, COLL/2949, Series 14 (Books).
Jaynes, Julian. The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. Houghton Mifflin, 1982.
Location in Marine Library: John R. Boyd Collection, COLL/2949, Series 14 (Books).
Pirsig, Robert M. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Bantam Books, 1974.
Location in Marine Library: John R. Boyd Collection, COLL/2949, Series 14 (Books).
Ferguson, Marilyn. The Aquarian Conspiracy: Personal and Social Transformation in the 1980s. Houghton Mifflin, 1980.
Location in Marine Library: John R. Boyd Collection, COLL/2949, Box 2, Series 14 (Books).
Yukawa, Hideki. Creativity and Intuition: A Physicist Looks at East and West. Translated by John Bester, Kodansha International, 1973.
Location in Marine Library: John R. Boyd Collection, COLL/2949, Box 1, Series 14 (Books).
Secter, Mondo. I Ching Clarified: A Practical Guide. Charles E. Tuttle, 1993.
Location in Marine Library: John R. Boyd Collection, COLL/2949, Series 14 (Books).
Goodwin, Brian. How the Leopard Changed Its Spots: The Evolution of Complexity. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1994.
Location in Marine Library: John R. Boyd Collection, COLL/2949, Box 3, Series 14 (Books). .
John R. Boyd Collection (COLL/2949): The collection is open to all researchers at the Archives Branch, Marine Corps History Division, 2044 Broadway Street, Quantico, VA 22134. Hours are Monday–Friday, 8:00 AM–4:00 PM. No appointment is needed, but contacting mcu_archives@usmcu.edu (mailto:_archives@usmcu.edu) or (703) 784-4685 ensures availability, especially for handling annotated copies.