The leading theory for why any of the stuff we see around us exists, is the 'Big Bang'. The leading questions about the Big Bang are - what was there before, and how did it start? Ylem is the answer: the name for the original matter that existed before the formation of the elements we know today. It was used by George Gamow (Physical Review, April 1st, 1948) as a term for the stuff that normal matter condensed out of. Ylem is therefore some kind of superhot, superdense, superdark plasma. The name comes from a transliteration of the Greek for "fundamental matter" as described by Aristotle way back when.
(Ylem is also a much less interesting album from the German band Dark Fortress).
The disturbing effect on a persons identity when passing though a black hole into an alternative universe. First described by the Scottish physicist and philatelist Emily Batsbelfy: "Ylem" is a transmogrified version of "Emily". The loss of the letter "i" expresses the idea that one's original sense of identity is bound to the universe and lost in the process of passing into another.
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