The writings of Johanna the Electrified were not meant to be understood by any reader but herself. Indeed, this turgid and ponderous text is most accurately described as a meditation. I have transcribed from Johanna's journals the valuable entries, and I have anthologized them into Being and Something. Johanna comments on the properties of reality; the relationship between the mind, the body, and the universe; identity as dictated by oneself and by others; and other aspects of experience.
The objective universe, free from any distortion of the mind, referred to by Johanna as the "Absolute", is a fundamental concept in Johanna's philosophy as something unknowable yet perceptable. Various beliefs may identify the Absolute as the divine, a science, or a reality, yet none of these are quite accurate, for the Absolute is beyond all these; closest may be the mother of all things, whose true form is unnamed and unending, which is the origin of all phenomena, and to perceive it would in itself be an approximation. Existence is defined broadly and radically, because there is not another word that describes such a broad scope of being. The validity of a phenomenon's existence is entirely dependent on context. Every phenomenon has potential to exist, however it may only be able to exist in a particular context. Namely, a phenomenon may exist in the Absolute, or it may exist in the mind.
Stemming from this is Johanna's compatibilist hierarchy of contexts in which greater contexts affect lesser contexts but not vice versa. Johanna affirms a deterministic Absolute which always remains unaffected by the mind. Still, the will of people is free even to the limit of our knowledge. To undermine free will would be to extend beyond the boundaries of knowledge and claim divinity. By its own definition, man can never be divine.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, should you meet and, heaven unwilling, have a conversation with Johanna, you have my permission to stare directly into her eyes.
Starfárfas