> This observation led him down a rabbit hole, a research project he code-named “Project Qualia.”

< Elias, a programmer by trade and a seeker by nature, had always been drawn to the fringes of consciousness. He’d spent years meditating, chasing the elusive tail of “enlightenment” that promised a glimpse behind the veil. Now, the veil was beginning to fray, not through spiritual discipline, but through a string of curious anomalies in his personal projects.

^ are we (indirectly) talking about cliff high ? Because this totally sounds like some cliff high shit, and worse yet, its some ai-scum-scraped cliff high shit.