We continue with the seventh of the Edinburgh Lectures delivered in 1904 on mental science. See: 1) Spirit and Matter 2) The Higher Mode of Intelligence 3) The Unity of the Spirit 4) and 5) Subjective and Objective Mind 6) The Law of Growth.

Receptivity

Thomas Troward  

We continue with the sixth of the Edinburgh Lectures delivered in 1904 on mental science. See: 1) Spirit and Matter 2) The Higher Mode of Intelligence 3) The Unity of the Spirit 4) and 5) Subjective and Objective Mind.

The Law of Growth

Thomas Troward 

About Thomas Troward

We continue with the fourth and fifth of the Edinburgh Lectures delivered in 1904 on mental science. See: 1) Spirit and Matter 2) The Higher Mode of Intelligence 3) The Unity of the Spirit.

Subjective and Objective Mind

Thomas Troward 

Up to this point it has been necessary to lay the foundations of the science by the statement of highly abstract general principles which we have reached by purely metaphysical reasoning. We now pass on to the consideration of certain natural laws which have been established by a long series of experiments and observations, the full meaning and importance of which will become clear when we see their application to the general principles which have hitherto occupied our attention. The phenomena of hypnosis are now so fully recognized as established scientific facts that it is quite superfluous to discuss the question of their credibility. Two great medical schools have been founded upon them, and in some countries they have become the subject of special legislation. The question before us at the present day is, not as to the credibility of the facts, but as to the proper inferences to be drawn from them, and a correct apprehension of these inferences is one of the most valuable aids to the mental scientist, for it confirms the conclusions of purely a priori reasoning by an array of experimental instances which places the correctness of those conclusions beyond doubt.
 
The great truth which the science of hypnotism has brought to light is the dual nature of the human mind. Much conflict exists between different writers as to whether this duality results from the presence of two actually separate minds in the one man, or in the action of the same mind in the employment of different functions. This is one of those distinctions without a difference which are so prolific a source of hindrance to the opening out of truth. A man must be a single individuality to be a man at all, and, so, the net result is the same whether we conceive of his varied modes of mental action as proceeding from a set of separate minds strung, so to speak, on the thread of his one individuality and each adapted to a particular use, or as varied functions of a single mind: in either case we are dealing with a single individuality, and how we may picture the wheel-work of the mental mechanism is merely a question of what picture will bring the nature of its action home to us most clearly. Therefore, as a matter of convenience, I shall in these lectures speak of this dual action as though it proceeded from two minds, an outer and an inner, and the inner mind we will call the subjective mind and the outer the objective, by which names the distinction is most frequently indicated in the literature of the subject.

A long series of careful experiments by highly-trained observers, some of them men of world-wide reputation, has fully established certain remarkable differences between the action of the subjective and that of the objective mind which may be briefly stated as follows. The subjective mind is only able to reason deductively and not inductively, while the objective mind can do both. Deductive reasoning is the pure syllogism which shows why a third proposition must necessarily result if two others are assumed, but which does not help us to determine whether the two initial statements are true or not. To determine this is the province of inductive reasoning which draws its conclusions from the observation of a series of facts. The relation of the two modes of reasoning is that, first by observing a sufficient number of instances, we inductively reach the conclusion that a certain principle is of general application, and then we enter upon the deductive process by assuming the truth of this principle and determining what result must follow in a particular case on the hypothesis of its truth. Thus deductive reasoning proceeds on the assumption of the correctness of certain hypotheses or suppositions with which it sets out: it is not concerned with the truth or falsity of those suppositions, but only with the question as to what results must necessarily follow supposing them to be true. Inductive reasoning, on the other hand, is the process by which we compare a number of separate instances with one another until we see the common factor that gives rise to them all. Induction proceeds by the comparison of facts, and deduction by the application of universal principles. Now it is the deductive method only which is followed by the subjective mind. Innumerable experiments on persons in the hypnotic state have shown that the subjective mind is utterly incapable of making the selection and comparison which are necessary to the inductive process, but will accept any suggestion, however false, but having once accepted any suggestion, it is strictly logical in deducing the proper conclusions from it, and works out every suggestion to the minutest fraction of the results which flow from it.

As a consequence of this it follows that the subjective mind is entirely under the control of the objective mind. With the utmost fidelity it reproduces and works out to its final consequences whatever the objective mind impresses upon it; and the facts of hypnotism show that ideas can be impressed on the subjective mind by the objective mind of another as well as by that of its own individuality. This is a most important point, for it is on this amenability to suggestion by the thought of another that all the phenomena of healing, whether present or absent, of telepathy and the like, depend. Under the control of the practised hypnotist the very personality of the subject becomes changed for the time being; he believes himself to be whatever the operator tells him he is: he is a swimmer breasting the waves, a bird flying in the air, a soldier in the tumult of battle, an Indian stealthily tracking his victim: in short, for the time being, he identifies himself with any personality that is impressed upon him by the will of the operator, and acts the part with inimitable accuracy. But the experiments of hypnotism go further than this, and show the existence in the subjective mind of powers far transcending any exercised by the objective mind through the medium of the physical senses; powers of thought-reading, of thought-transference, of clairvoyance, and the like, all of which are frequently manifested when the patient is brought into the higher mesmeric state; and we have thus experimental proof of the existence in ourselves of transcendental faculties the full development and conscious control of which would place us in a perfectly new sphere of life.

But it should he noted that the control must be our oum and not that of any external intelligence whether in the flesh or out of it. But perhaps the most important fact which hypnotic experiments have demonstrated is that the subjective mind is the builder of the body. The subjective entity in the patient is able to diagnose the character of the disease from which he is suffering and to point out suitable remedies, indicating a physiological knowledge exceeding that of the most highly trained physicians, and also a knowledge of the correspondences between diseased conditions of the bodily organs and the material remedies which can afford relief. And from this it is but a step further to those numerous instances in which it entirely dispenses with the use of material remedies and itself works directly on the organism, so that complete restoration to health follows as the result of the suggestions of perfect soundness made by the operator to the patient while in the hypnotic state.

Now these are facts fully established by hundreds of experiments conducted by a variety of investigators in different parts of the world, and from them we may draw two inferences of the highest importance: one, that the subjective mind is in itself absolutely impersonal, and the other that it is the builder of the body, or in other words it is the creative power in the individual. That it is impersonal in itself is shown by its readiness to assume any personality the hypnotist chooses to impress upon it; and the unavoidable inference is that its realization of personality proceeds from its association with the particular objective mind of its own individuality. Whatever personality the objective mind impresses upon it, that personality it assumes and acts up to; and since it is the builder of the body it will build up a body in correspondence with the personality thus impressed upon it. These two laws of the subjective mind form the foundation of the axiom that our body represents the aggregate of our beliefs. If our fixed belief is that the body is subject to all sorts of influences beyond our control, and that this, that, or the other symptom shows that such an uncontrollable influence is at work upon us, then this belief is impressed upon the subjective mind, which by the law of its nature accepts it without question and proceeds to fashion bodily conditions in accordance with this belief. Again, if our fixed belief is that certain material remedies are the only means of cure, then we find in this belief the foundation of all medicine. There is nothing unsound in the theory of medicine; it is the strictly logical correspondence with the measure of knowledge which those who rely on it are as yet able to assimilate, and it acts accurately in accordance with their belief that in a large number of cases medicine will do good, but also in many instances it fails. Therefore, for those who have not yet reached a more interior perception of the law of nature, the healing agency of medicine is a most valuable aid to the alleviation of physical maladies. The error to be combated is not the belief that, in its own way, medicine is capable of doing good, but the belief that there is no higher or better way.

Then, on the same principle, if we realize that the subjective mind is the builder of the body, and that the body is subject to no influences except those which reach it through the subjective mind, then what we have to do is to impress this upon the subjective mind and habitually think of it as a fountain of perpetual Life, which is continually renovating the body by building in strong and healthy material, in the most complete independence of any influences of any sort, save those of our own desire impressed upon our own subjective mind by our own thought. When once we fully grasp these considerations we shall see that it is just as easy to externalize healthy conditions of body as the contrary. Practically the process amounts to a belief in our own power of life; and since this belief, if it be thoroughly domiciled within us, will necessarily produce a correspondingly healthy body, we should spare no pains to convince ourselves that there are sound and reasonable grounds for holding it. To afford a solid basis for this conviction is the purpose of Mental Science.

Further Considerations Regarding Subjective & Objective Mind

An intelligent consideration of the phenomena of hypnotism will show us that what we call the hypnotic state is the normal state of the subjective mind. It always conceives of itself in accordance with some suggestion conveyed to it, either consciously or unconsciously to the mode of objective mind which governs it, and it gives rise to corresponding external results. The abnormal nature of the conditions induced by experimental hypnotism is in the removal of the normal control held by the individual’s own objective mind over his subjective mind and the substitution of some other control for it, and thus we may say that the normal characteristic of the subjective mind is its perpetual action in accordance with some sort of suggestion. It becomes therefore a question of the highest importance to determine in every case what the nature of the suggestion shall be and from what source it shall proceed; but before considering the sources of suggestion we must realize more fully the place taken by subjective mind in the order of Nature.

If the student has followed what has been said regarding the presence of intelligent spirit pervading all space and permeating all matter, he will now have little difficulty in recognizing this all-pervading spirit as universal subjective mind. That it cannot as universal mind have the qualities of objective mind is very obvious. The universal mind is the creative power throughout Nature; and as the originating power it must first give rise to the various forms in which objective mind recognizes its own individuality, before these individual minds can re-act upon it; and hence, as pure spirit or first cause, it cannot possibly be anything else than subjective mind; and the fact which has been abundantly proved by experiment that the subjective mind is the builder of the body shows us that the power of creating by growth from within is the essential characteristic of the subjective mind. Hence, both from experiment and from a priori reasoning, we may say that where-ever we find creative power at work there we are in the presence of subjective mind, whether it be working on the grand scale of the cosmos, or on the miniature scale of the individual. We may therefore lay it down as a principle that the universal all-permeating intelligence, which has been considered in the second and third sections, is purely subjective mind, and therefore follows the law of subjective mind, namely that it is amenable to any suggestion, and will carry out any suggestion that is impressed upon it to its most rigorously logical consequences. The incalculable importance of this truth may not perhaps strike the student at first sight, but a little consideration will show him the enormous possibilities that are stored up in it, and in the concluding section I shall briefly touch upon the very serious conclusions resulting from it. For the present it will be sufficient to realize that the subjective mind in ourselves is thc same subjective mind which is at work throughout the universe giving rise to the infinitude of natural forms with which we are surrounded, and in like manner giving rise to ourselves also. It may be called the supporter of our individuality; and we may loosely speak of our individual subjective mind as our personal share in the universal mind. This, of course, does not imply the splitting up of the universal mind into fractions, and it is to avoid this error that I have discussed the essential unity of spirit in the third section, but in order to avoid too highly abstract conceptions in the present stage of the student’s progress we may conveniently employ the idea of a personal share in the universal subjective mind.

To realize our individual subjective mind in this manner will help us to get over the great metaphysical difficulty which meets us in our endeavor to make conscious use of first cause, in other words to create external results by the power of our own thought. Ultimately there can be only one first cause, which is the universal mind, but because it is universal it cannot, as universal, act on the plane of the individual and particular. For it to do so would be for it to cease to be universal and therefore cease to be the creative power which we wish to employ. On the other hand, the fact that we are working for a specific definite object implies our intention to use this universal power in application to a particular purpose, and thus we find ourselves involved in the paradox of seeking to make the universal act on the plane of the particular. We want to effect a junction between the two extremes of the scale of Nature, the innermost creative spirit and a particular external form. Between these two is a great gulf, and the question is how is it to be bridged over. It is here, then, that the conception of our individual subjective mind as our personal share in the universal subjective mind affords the means of meeting the difficulty, for on the one hand it is in immediate connection with the universal mind, and on the other it is immediate connection with the individual objective, or intellectual mind; and this in its turn is in immediate connection with the world of externalization, which is conditioned in time and space; and thus the relation between the subjective and objective minds in the individual forms the bridge which is needed to connect the two extremities of the scale.
 
The individual subjective mind may therefore be regarded as the organ of the Absolute in precisely the same way that the objective mind is the organ of the Relative, and it is in order to regulate our use of these two organs that it is necessary to understand what the terms “absolute” and “relative” actually mean. The absolute is that idea of a thing which contemplates it as existing in itself and not in relation to something else, that is to say, which contemplates the essence of it; and the relative is that idea of a thing which contemplates it as related to other things, that is to say as circumscribed by a certain environment. The absolute is the region of causes, and the relative is the region of conditions; and hence, if we wish to control conditions, this can only be done by our thought-power operating on the plane of the absolute, which it can do only through the medium of the subjective mind. The conscious use of the creative power of thought consists in the attainment of the power of Thinking in the Absolute, and this can only be attained by a clear conception of the interaction between our different mental functions. For this purpose the student cannot too strongly impress upon himself that subjective mind, on whatever scale, is intensely sensitive to suggestion, and as creative power works accurately to the externalization of that suggestion which is most deeply impressed upon it. If then, we would take any idea out of the realm of the relative, where it is limited and restricted by conditions imposed upon it through surrounding circumstances, and transfer it to the realm of the absolute where it is not thus limited, a right recognition of our mental constitution will enable us to do this by a clearly defined method.

The object of our desire is necessarily first conceived by us as bearing some relation to existing circumstances, which may, or may not, appear favorable to it; and what we want to do is to eliminate the element of contingency and attain something which is certain in itself. To do this is to work upon the plane of the absolute, and for this purpose we must endeavor to impress upon our subjective mind the idea of that which we desire quite apart from any conditions. This separation from the elements of condition implies the elimination of the idea of time, and consequently we must think of the thing as already in actual existence. Unless we do this we are not consciously operating upon the plane of the absolute, and are therefore not employing the creative power of our thought. The simplest practical method of gaining the habit of thinking in this manner is to conceive the existence in the spiritual world of a spiritual prototype of every existing thing, which becomes the root of the corresponding external existence. If we thus habituate ourselves to look on the spiritual prototype as the essential being of the thing, and the material form as the growth of this prototype into outward expression, then we shall see that the initial step to the production of any external fact must be the creation of its spiritual prototype. This prototype, being purely spiritual, can only be formed by the operation of thought, and in order to have substance on the spiritual plane it must be thought of as actually existing there. This conception has been elaborated by Plato in his doctrine of archetypal ideas, and by Swedenborg in his doctrine of correspondences; and a still greater teacher has said, “All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have received them, and ye shall receive them.” (Mark XI. 24, R.V.) The difference of the tenses in this passage is remarkable. The speaker bids us first to believe that our desire has already been fulfilled, that it is a thing already accomplished, and then its accomplishment will follow as a thing in the future. This is nothing else than a concise direction for making use of the creative power of thought by impressing upon the universal subjective mind the particular thing, which we desire as an already existing fact. In following this direction we are thinking on the plane of the absolute and eliminating from our minds all consideration of conditions, which imply limitation and the possibility of adverse contingencies; and we are thus planting a seed which, if left undisturbed, will infallibly germinate into external fruition.

By thus making intelligent use of our subjective mind, we, so to speak, create a nucleus, which is no sooner created than it begins to exercise an attractive force, drawing to itself material of a like character with its own, and if this process is allowed to go on undisturbed, it will continue until an external form corresponding to the nature of the nucleus comes out into manifestation on the plane of the objective and relative. This is the universal method of Nature on every plane. Some of the most advanced thinkers in modern physical science, in the endeavor to probe the great mystery of the first origin of the world, have postulated the formation of what they call “vortex rings” formed from an infinitely fine primordial substance. They tell us that if such a ring be once formed on the minutest scale and set rotating, then, since it would be moving in pure ether and subject to no friction, it must according to all known laws of physics be indestructible and its motion perpetual. Let two such rings approach each other, and by the law of attraction, they would coalesce into a whole, and so on until manifested matter as we apprehend it with our external senses, is at last formed. Of course no one has ever seen these rings with the physical eye. They are one of those abstractions, which result if we follow out the observed law of physics and the unavoidable sequences of mathematics to their necessary consequences. We cannot account for the things that we can see unless we assume the existence of other things, which we cannot; and the “vortex theory” is one of these assumptions. This theory has not been put forward by mental scientists but by purely physical scientists as the ultimate conclusion to which their researches have led them, and this conclusion is that all the innumerable forms of Nature have their origin in the infinitely minute nucleus of the vortex ring, by whatever means the vortex ring may have received its initial impulse, a question with which physical science, as such, is not concerned.

As the vortex theory accounts for the formation of the inorganic world, so does biology account for the formation of the living organism. That also has its origin in a primary nucleus which, as soon as it is established, operates as a centre of attraction for the formation of all those physical organs of which the perfect individual is composed. The science of embryology shows that this rule holds good without exception throughout the whole range of the animal world, including man; and botany shows the same principle at work throughout the vegetable world. All branches of physical science demonstrate the fact that every completed manifestation, of whatever kind and on whatever scale, is started by the establishment of a nucleus, infinitely small but endowed with an unquenchable energy of attraction, causing it to steadily increase in power and definiteness of purpose, until the process of growth is completed and the matured form stands out as an accomplished fact. Now if this were the universal method of Nature, there is nothing unnatural in supposing that it must begin its operation at a stage further back than the formation of the material nucleus. As soon as that is called into being it begins to operate by the law of attraction on the material plane; but what is the force which originates the material nucleus? Let a recent work on physical science give us the answer; “In its ultimate essence, energy may be incomprehensible by us except as an exhibition of the direct operation of that which we call Mind or Will.” The quotation is from a course of lectures on ” Waves in Water, Air and Ether,” delivered in 1902, at the Royal Institution, by J. A. Fleming. Here, then, is the testimony of physical science that the originating energy is Mind or Will; and we are, therefore, not only making a logical deduction from certain unavoidable intuitions of the human mind, but are also following on the lines of the most advanced physical science, when we say that the action of Mind plants that nucleus which, if allowed to grow undisturbed, will eventually attract to itself all the conditions necessary for its manifestation in outward visible form. Now the only action of Mind is Thought; and it is for this reason that by our thoughts we create corresponding external conditions, because we thereby create the nucleus which attracts to itself its own correspondences in due order until the finished work is manifested on the external plane. This is according to the strictly scientific conception of the universal law of growth; and we may therefore briefly sum up the whole argument by saying that our thought of anything forms a spiritual prototype of it, thus constituting a nucleus or centre of attraction for all conditions necessary to its eventual externalization by a law of growth inherent in the prototype itself.

We continue this evening with the third of the Edinburgh Lectures delivered in 1904 on mental science. See: 1) Spirit and Matter 2) The Higher Mode of Intelligence. 

The Unity of the Spirit

Thomas Troward 

We have now paved the way for understanding what is meant by “the unity of the spirit.” In the first conception of spirit as the underlying origin of all things we see a universal substance which, at this stage, is not differentiated into any specific forms. This is not a question of some bygone time, but subsists at every moment of all time in the innermost nature of all being; and when we see this, we see that the division between one specific form and another has below it a deep essential unity, which acts as the supporter of all the several forms of individuality arising out of it. And as our thought penetrates deeper into the nature of this all-producing spiritual substance we see that it cannot be limited to any one portion of space, but must be limitless as space itself, and that the idea of any portion of space where it is not is inconceivable. It is one of those intuitive perceptions from which the human mind can never get away that this primordial, all-generating living spirit must be commensurate with infinitude, and we can therefore never think of it otherwise than as universal or infinite. Now it is a mathematical truth that the infinite must be a unity. You cannot have two infinites, for then neither would be infinite, each would be limited by the other, nor can you split the infinite up into fractions. The infinite is mathematically essential unity. This is a point on which too much stress cannot be laid, for there follow from it the most important consequences. Unity, as such, can be neither multiplied nor divided, for either operation destroys the unity. By multiplying, we produce a plurality of units of the same scale as the original; and by dividing, we produce a plurality of units of a smaller scale; and a plurality of units is not unity but multiplicity. Therefore if we would penetrate below the outward nature of the individual to that innermost principle of his being from which his individuality takes its rise, we can do so only by passing beyond the conception of individual existence into that of the unity of universal being. This may appear to be a merely philosophical abstraction, but the student who would produce practical results must realize that these abstract generalizations are the foundation of the practical work he is going to do.

Now the great fact to be recognized about a unity is that, because it is a single unit, wherever it is at all the whole of it must be. The moment we allow our mind to wander off to the idea of extension in space and say that one part of the unit is here and another there, we have descended from the idea of unity into that of parts or fractions of a single unit, which is to pass into the idea of a multiplicity of smaller units, and in that case we are dealing with the relative, or the relation subsisting between two or more entities which are therefore limited by each other, and so have passed out of the region of simple unity which is the absolute. It is, therefore, a mathematical necessity that, because the originating Life-principle is infinite, it is a single unit, and consequently, wherever it is at all, the whole of it must be present. But because it is infinite, or limitless, it is everywhere, and therefore it follows that the whole of spirit must be present at every point in space at the same moment. Spirit is thus omnipresent in its entirety, and it is accordingly logically correct that at every moment of time all spirit is concentrated at any point in space that we may choose to fix our thought upon. This is the fundamental fact of all being, and it is for this reason that I have prepared the way for it by laying down the relation between spirit and matter as that between idea and form, on the one hand the absolute from which the elements of time and space are entirely absent, and on the other the relative which is entirely dependent on those elements. This great fact is that pure spirit continually subsists in the absolute, whether in a corporeal body or not; and from it all the phenomena of being flow, whether on the mental plane or the physical. The knowledge of this fact regarding spirit is the basis of all conscious spiritual operation, and therefore in proportion to our increasing recognition of it our power of producing outward visible results by the action of our thought will grow. The whole is greater than its part, and therefore, if, by our recognition of this unity, we can concentrate all spirit into any given point at any moment, we thereby include any individualization of it that we may wish to deal with. The practical importance of this conclusion is too obvious to need enlarging upon.

Pure spirit is the Life-principle considered apart from the matrix in which it takes relation to time and space in a particular form. In this aspect it is pure intelligence undifferentiated into individuality. As pure intelligence it is infinite responsiveness and susceptibility. As devoid of relation to time and space it is devoid of individual personality. It is, therefore, in this aspect a purely impersonal element upon which, by reason of its inherent intelligence and susceptibility, we can impress any recognition of personality that we will. These are the great facts that the mental scientist works with, and the student will do well to ponder deeply on their significance and on the responsibilities which their realization must necessarily carry with it.

We continue this morning with the second of the Edinburgh Lectures delivered in 1904 on mental science. See: 1) Spirit and Matter. 

The Higher Mode of Intelligence

Thomas Troward 

WE have seen that the descent from personality, as we know it in ourselves, to matter, as we know it under what we call inanimate forms, is a gradual descent in the scale of intelligence from that mode of being which is able to realize its own will-power as a capacity for originating new trains of causation to that mode of being which is incapable of recognizing itself at all. The higher the grade of life, the higher the intelligence; from which it follows that the supreme principle of Life must also be the ultimate principle of intelligence. This is clearly demonstrated by the grand natural order of the universe. In the light of modern science the principle of evolution is familiar to us all, and the accurate adjustment existing between all parts of the cosmic scheme is too self-evident to need insisting upon. Every advance in science consists in discovering new subtleties of connection in this magnificent universal order, which already exists and only needs our recognition to bring it into practical use. If, then, the highest work of the greatest minds consists in nothing else than the recognition of an already existing order, there is no getting away from the conclusion that a paramount intelligence must be inherent in the Life-Principle, which manifests itself as this order; and thus we see that there must be a great cosmic intelligence underlying the totality of things.

The physical history of our planet shows us first an incandescent nebula dispersed over vast infinitudes of space; later this condenses into a central sun surrounded by a family of glowing planets hardly yet consolidated from the plastic primordial matter; then succeed untold millenniums of slow geological formation; an earth peopled by the lowest forms of life, whether vegetable or animal; from which crude beginnings a majestic, unceasing, unhurried, forward movement brings things stage by stage to the condition in which we know them now. Looking at this steady progression it is clear that, however we may conceive the nature of the evolutionary principle, it unerringly provides for the continual advance of the race. But it does this by creating such numbers of each kind that, after allowing a wide margin for all possible accidents to individuals, the race shall still continue

In short, we may say that the cosmic intelligence works by a Law of Averages which allows a wide margin of accident and failure to the individual.
 
But the progress towards higher intelligence is always in the direction of narrowing down this margin of accident and taking the individual more and more out of the law of averages, and substituting the law of individual selection. In ordinary scientific language this is the survival of the fittest. The reproduction of fish is on a scale that would choke the sea with them if every individual survived; but the margin of destruction is correspondingly enormous, and thus the law of averages simply keeps up the normal proportion of the race. But at the other end of the scale, reproduction is by no means thus enormously in excess of survival. True, there is ample margin of accident and disease cutting off numbers of human beings before they have gone through the average duration of life, but still it is on a very different scale from the premature destruction of hundreds of thousands as against the survival of one. It may, therefore, be taken as an established fact that in proportion as intelligence advances the individual ceases to be subject to a mere law of averages and has a continually increasing power of controlling the conditions of his own survival.

We see, therefore, that there is marked distinction between the cosmic intelligence and the individual intelligence, and that the factor which differentiates the latter from the former is the presence of individual volition. Now the business of Mental Science is to ascertain the relation of this individual power of volition to the great cosmic law which provides for the maintenance and advancement of the race; and the point to be carefully noted is that the power of individual volition is itself the outcome of the cosmic evolutionary principle at the point where it reaches its highest level. The effort of Nature has always been upwards from the time when only the lowest forms of life peopled the globe, and it has now culminated in the production of a being with a mind capable of abstract reasoning and a brain fitted to be the physical instrument of such a mind. At this stage the all-creating Life-principle reproduces itself in a form capable of recognizing the working of the evolutionary law, and the unity and continuity of purpose running through the whole progression until now indicates, beyond a doubt, that the place of such a being in the universal scheme must be to introduce the operation of that factor which, up to this point, has been conspicuous by its absence—the factor, namely, of intelligent individual volition. The evolution which has brought us up to this standpoint has worked by a cosmic law of averages; it has been a process in which the individual himself has not taken a conscious part.

But because he is what he is, and leads the van of the evolutionary procession, if man is to evolve further, it can now only be by his own conscious cooperation with the law which has brought him up to the standpoint where he is able to realize that such a law exists. His evolution in the future must be by conscious participation in the great work, and this can only be effected by his own individual intelligence and effort. It is a process of intelligent growth. No one else can grow for us: we must each grow for ourselves; and this intelligent growth consists in our increasing recognition of the universal law, which has brought us as far as we have yet got, and of our own individual relation to that law, based upon the fact that we ourselves are the most advanced product of it. It is a great maxim that Nature obeys us precisely in proportion as we first obey Nature. Let the electrician try to go counter to the principle that electricity must always pass from a higher to a lower potential and he will effect nothing; but let him submit in all things to this one fundamental law, and he can make whatever particular applications of electrical power he will.

These considerations show us that what differentiates the higher from the lower degree of intelligence is the recognition of its own self-hood, and the more intelligent that recognition is, the greater will be the power. The lower degree of self-recognition is that which only realizes itself as an entity separate from all other entities, as the ego distinguished from the non-ego. But the higher degree of self-recognition is that which, realizing its own spiritual nature, sees in all other forms, not so much the non-ego, or that which is not itself, as the alter-ego, or that which is itself in a different mode of expression. Now, it is this higher degree of self-recognition that is the power by which the Mental Scientist produces his results. For this reason it is imperative that he should clearly understand the difference between Form and Being; that the one is the mode of the relative and the mark of subjection to conditions, and that the other is the truth of the absolute and is that which controls conditions.

Now this higher recognition of self as an individualization of pure spirit must of necessity control all modes of spirit which have not yet reached the same level of self-recognition. These lower modes of spirit are in bondage to the law of their own being because they do not know the law; and, therefore, the in dividual who has attained to this knowledge can control them through that law. But to understand this we must inquire a little further into the nature of spirit. I have already shown that the grand scale of adaptation and adjustment of all parts of the cosmic scheme to one another exhibits the presence somewhere of a marvellous intelligence underlying the whole, and the question is, where is this intelligence to be found? Ultimately we can only conceive of it as inherent in some primordial substance which is the root of all those grosser modes of matter which are known to us, whether visible to the physical eye, or necessarily inferred by science from their perceptible effects. It is that power which, in every species and in every individual, becomes that which that species or individual is; and thus we can only conceive of it as a self-forming intelligence inherent in the ultimate substance of which each thing is a particular manifestation. That this primordial substance must be considered as self-forming by an inherent intelligence abiding in itself becomes evident from the fact that intelligence is the essential quality of spirit; and if we were to conceive of the primordial substance as something apart from spirit, then we should have to postulate some other power which is neither spirit nor matter, and originates both; but this is only putting the idea of a self-evolving power a step further back and asserting the production of a lower grade of undifferentiated spirit by a higher, which is both a purely gratuitous assumption and a contradiction of any idea we can form of undifferentiated spirit at all. However far back, therefore, we may relegate the original starting-point, we cannot avoid the conclusion that, at that point, spirit contains the primary substance in itself, which brings us back to the common statement that it made everything out of nothing. We thus find two factors to the making of all things, Spirit and—Nothing; and the addition of Nothing to Spirit leaves only spirit:

The following lecture was given 100 years ago. It was a first of a series delivered to a small audience in 1904. This series of lectures are considered fundamental to understanding mental science.

Spirit and Matter

Thomas Troward 

IN commencing a course of lectures on Mental Science, it is somewhat difficult for the lecturer to fix upon the best method of opening the subject. It can be approached from many sides, each with some peculiar advantage of its own; but, after careful deliberation, it appears to me that, for the purpose of the present course, no better starting-point could be selected than the relation between Spirit and Matter. I select this starting-point because the distinction—or what we believe to be such—between them is one with which we are so familiar that I can safely assume its recognition by everybody; and I may, therefore, at once state this distinction by using the adjectives which we habitually apply as expressing the natural opposition between the two—living spirit and dead matter. These terms express our current impression of the opposition between spirit and matter with sufficient accuracy, and considered only from the point of view of outward appearances this impression is no doubt correct. The general consensus of mankind is right in trusting the evidence of our senses, and any system which tells us that we are not to do so will never obtain a permanent footing in a sane and healthy community. There is nothing wrong in the evidence conveyed to a healthy mind by the senses of a healthy body, but the point where error creeps in is when we come to judge of the meaning of this testimony. We are accustomed to judge only by external appearances and by certain limited significances which we attach to words; but when we begin to enquire into the real meaning of our words and to analyse the causes which give rise to the appearances, we find our old notions gradually falling off from us, until at last we wake up to the fact that we are living in an entirely different world to that we formerly recognized. The old limited mode of thought has imperceptibly slipped away, and we discover that we have stepped out into a new order of things where all is liberty and life. This is the work of an enlightened intelligence resulting from persistent determination to discover what truth really is irrespective of any preconceived notions from whatever source derived, the determination to think honestly for ourselves instead of endeavouring to get our thinking done for us. Let us then commence by enquiring what we rea1ly mean by the livingness which we attribute to spirit and the deadness which we attribute to matter.

At first we may be disposed to say that livingness consists in the power of motion and deadness in its absence; but a little enquiry into the most recent researches of science will soon show us that this distinction does not go deep enough. It is now one of the fully-established facts of physical science that no atom of what we call “dead matter” is without motion. On the table before me lies a solid lump of steel, but in the light of up-to-date science I know that the atoms of that seemingly inert mass are vibrating with the most intense energy, continually dashing hither and thither, impinging upon and rebounding from one another, or circling round like miniature solar systems, with a ceaseless rapidity whose complex activity is enough to bewilder the imagination. The mass, as a mass, may lie inert upon the table; but so far from being destitute of the element of motion it is the abode of the never-tiring energy moving the particles with a swiftness to which the speed of an express train is as nothing. It is, therefore, not the mere fact of motion that is at the root of the distinction which we draw instinctively between spirit and matter; we must go deeper than that. The solution of the problem will never be found by comparing Life with what we call deadness, and the reason for this will become apparent later on; but the true key is to be found by comparing one degree of livingness with another. There is, of course, one sense in which the quality of livingness does not admit of degrees; but there is another sense in which it is entirely a question of degree. We have no doubt as to the livingness of a plant, but we realize that it is something very different from the livingness of an animal. Again, what average boy would not prefer a fox-terrier to a goldfish for a pet? Or, again, why is it that the boy himself is an advance upon the dog? The plant, the fish, the dog, and the boy are all equally alive; but there is a difference in the quality of their livinguess about which no one can have any doubt, and no one would hesitate to say that this difference is in the degree of intelligence. In whatever way we turn the subject we shall always find that what we call the “livingness” of any individual life is ultimately measured by its intelligence. It is the possession of greater intelligence that places the animal higher in the scale of being than the plant, the man higher than the animal, the intellectual man higher than the savage. The increased intelligence calls into activity modes of motion of a higher order corresponding to itself. The higher the intelligence, the more completely the mode of motion is under its control; and as we descend in the scale of intelligence. the descent is marked by a corresponding increase in automatic motion not subject to the control of a self-conscious intelligence. This descent is gradual from the expanded self-recognition of the highest human personality to that lowest order of visible forms which we speak of as “things,” and from which self-recognition is entirely absent.

We see, then, that the livingness of Life consists in intelligence—in other words, in the power of Thought; and we may therefore say that the distinctive quality of spirit is Thought, and, as the opposite to this, we may say that the distinctive quality of matter is Form. We cannot conceive of matter without form. Some form there must be, even though invisible to the physical eye; for matter, to be matter at all, must occupy space, and to occupy any particular space necessarily implies a corresponding form. For these reasons we may lay it down as a fundamental proposition that the distinctive quality of spirit is Thought and the distinctive quality of matter is Form. This is a radical distinction from which important consequences follow, and should, therefore, be carefully noted by the student.

Form implies extension in space and also limitation within certain boundaries. Thought implies neither. When, therefore, we think of Life as existing in any particular form we associate it with the idea of extension in space, so that an elephant may be said to consist of a vastly larger amount of living substance than a mouse. But if we think of Life as the fact of livinguess we do not associate it with any idea of extension, and we at once realize that the mouse is quite as much alive as the elephant, notwithstanding the difference in size. The important point of this distinction is that if we can conceive of anything as entirely devoid of the element of extension in space, it must be present in its entire totality anywhere and everywhere—that is to say, at every point of space simultaneously. The scientific definition of time is that it is the period occupied by a body in passing from one given point in space to another, and, therefore, according to this definition, when there is no space there can be no time; and hence that conception of spirit which realizes it as devoid of the element of space must realize it as being devoid of the element of time also; and we therefore find that the conception of spirit as pure Thought, and not as concrete Form, is the conception of it as subsisting perfectly independently of the elements of time and space. From this it follows that if the idea of anything is conceived as existing on this level it can only represent that thing as being actually present here and now. In this view of things nothing can be remote from us either in time or space: either the idea is entirely dissipated or it exists as an actual present entity, and not as something that shall be in the future, for where there is no sequence in time there can be no future. Similarly where there is no space there can be no conception of anything as being at a distance from us. When the elements of time and space are eliminated all our ideas of things must necessarily be as subsisting in a universal here and an everlasting now. This is, no doubt, a highly abstract conception, but I would ask the student to endeavour to grasp it thoroughly, since it is of vital importance in the practical application of Mental Science, as will appear further on.
 
The opposite conception is that of things expressing themselves through conditions of time and space and thus establishing a variety of relations to other things, as of bulk, distance, and direction, or of sequence in time. These two conceptions are respectively the conception of the abstract and the concrete, of the unconditioned and the conditioned, of the absolute and the relative. They are not opposed to each other in the sense of incompatibility, but are each the complement of the other, and the only reality is in the combination of the two. The error of the extreme idealist is in endeavouring to realize the absolute without the relative, and the error of the extreme materialist is in endeavouring to realize the relative without the absolute. On the one side the mistake is in trying to realize an inside without an outside, and on the other in trying to realize an outside without an inside; both are necessary to the formation of a substantial entity.

Reposted from the SynEARTH Archives.

The Dual Mind and Happiness 

Timothy Wilken, MD

Human intelligence science has revealed that our enormous intelligence is the result of possessing dual minds. These dual minds create pictures of a dual world in which we live. Most of us don’t know we have dual minds and almost all of us don’t know we live in a dual world. We live in two worlds all of the time.

Let us begin by examining the world created by the space-mind. The space-mind thinks in pictures and codes those pictures with feelings. The space-mind is in charge of survival. So it needs to know what the world is really like. Boy if you are in your space-mind, you better live in the real world. Right? Ever play dodge ball? When I was a kid, dodge ball was a big game. I don’t know whether they even play it any more. You go into the gym and line up against the wall and somebody throws a volleyball at you at high speed. Right? You dodge it Right? You better know where the ball really is or you are going to get hit. Ever play snow ball fights? Same thing right? You better know where those snowballs really are or you’re going to get hit. The space-mind has to know where things are in space. Where they really are. When I’m teaching this lesson to a group of students I’ll suddenly toss a pencil to someone sitting in the first row, and it’s amazing, they almost always catch it. One hand will fly up and catch the unexpected object. Their space-mind reflex puts their hand up. The space-mind has to know what’s real and what’s really going on or you don’t survive. If there is a tiger in this room I had better know it’s here. So the space mind makes a picture of reality from its sense images and feelings. That’s picture of reality is what I call the world of “is”.

The world of “is” is the way things really are. And, at its very best this picture of reality approaches the “real” world. Now we don’t have a perfect picture of the universe the way it really is. But our space-mind is pretty good. It keeps me from running into the walls and safe in high speed motor traffic. My student in the front row demonstrated his ability to catch the pencil perfectly when it came flying through the air unexpectedly.

The Time-mind thinks in words and forms those words into opinions. The time-mind is into becoming, its interested in cause and effect, it is always predicting the future based on its understanding of the past. So the time-mind forms an opinion of reality from words and thoughts. This opinion of reality is what I call the world of “ought to be”.

Our time-mind uses all of its cause and effect knowledge to predict the way things “ought to be”. And we are always carrying our opinions of how it “out to be” with us at all times. Seven o’clock in the evening, and I run out of milk. So I get in my car and go down to Seven-Eleven only to discover they’re closed. “Damn it! That’s not the way it ought to be!” My space-mind shows me a picture of a closed store  —  the world the way it is. My time-mind tells me in words,“That’s not the way it ought to be.”And, so my space-mind prepares my body to fight.

Now let us examine how the space-mind and time-mind make their decisions which is very different.

Let us begin by examining how the space-mind makes its decisions. Remember the animal mind is a Space-mind. He moves toward pleasure and away from pain—toward good space—away from bad space. My cat comes running when he hears the automatic can opener. He jumps into my lap to get a good rub. He runs away when hears the bark of a dog. Or the slam of a door.

The space-mind has only one goal—survival. Once achieved, the space-mind is content. It has no need to become, no need for achievement, no need to accomplish anything more than survival. My house cat once he has obtained shelter and good food has no need to do anything more. He is willing to lie by the fire, day after day, year after year—totally content with his full belly and his masters stroking hand. But if he encounters pain he gets away from it as fast as is possible. And few animals move as fast a “scalded cat”.

Space-mind Deciding

The space-mind’s purpose is to secure survival for the body. When it’s decisions produce high survival it feels pleasure. When its decisions produce low survival it feels pain. The space-mind tries to guide the organism towards pleasure and away from pain.

Very high survival is called ecstasy. Sexual orgasm feels very good because reproduction of the organism is the most powerful form of biological survival. Very low survival is called agony. So this is how the space-mind makes all its decisions. It moves towards pleasure and away from pain. The space-mind is concerned about being. Survival is being. Is my being pleasurable or painful.

Time-mind Deciding

The time-mind works in totally different fashion. The time-mind is concerned about becoming. To become somebody, I need to understand. And, if I understand something I know what it means. So understanding, allows me to develop meaning in my life. Meaning and becoming are tied integrally to understanding.

Understanding leads us to predict what will happen and with accurate prediction, I can control. We humans judge our lives by how the events in our world compare to our predictions. So if nothing is going the way I predict it should—If nothing is the way it ought to be, I feel depressed.

Depression results when our lives are not working as we predict they should. I predict a well deserved raise in my salary, but instead I get fired. I predict the pleasure and enjoyment of a brand new car, but I buy a lemon. I predict my wife will throw me a surprise birthday party, but she doesn’t even remember my birthday.

When life does not occur as I predict it should, I am disappointed. When my experiences do not become what I expect they should, I am depressed. And, just the opposite, when things go the way I predict they should, I am satisfied and excited. I predicted I would win the award as an outstanding employee, and I won the award. I predicted I should get a new car, and I did and its even nicer than I imagined. I wanted my spouse to celebrate my birthday, and she threw me a marvelous party with all my friends.

Now let us examining the spectrum of our prediction accuracy. We can have very low prediction accuracy—very low meaning. Life can be depressing.

We can have low prediction accuracy—low meaning. Life can be disappointing.

We can have high predictive accuracy—high meaning. Life can be satisfying.

We can have very high predictive accuracy—very high meaning. Life can be exciting.

Things are going the way I predict they should be going. My life is meaningful. I am becoming a success. I feel in control.

Dual Mind Deciding

Now if we can examine the dual-mind as a unified entity. Happiness is when my life is both pleasurable andsatisfying. I feel joyous when my life is both ecstatic and exciting. And sadness is when my life is disappointing and painful. Or in the extreme when its agonous and depressing.

This model then explains how all humans make all their decisions. But which path I will follow to achieve happiness depends on how I think the world works. Synergic science shows there are three types of humans to be found in our present world.

Adversaries believe there is not enough for everyone and only the physically strong will survive. They believe humans are coercively dependent on others, and they best understand the language of force.

Neutralists believe there is enough for everyone, if only you work hard enough and take care of yourself. They believe humans are financially independent and should be self-sufficient unless they are too lazy or defective. They best understand the language of money.

And, finally a new type of human is still emerging. Synergists believe there is enough for everyone but only if we work together and act responsibly. They believe humans are co-Operatively interdependent and can only obtain sufficiency by working together as community. Synergists best understand the language of love.

But, to be successful in our present world, the synergist must understand all three languages and know when to use them. Synergists must sometimes use the language of force, and sometimes the language of money, it depends on whom they are talking to. However, when synergists are seeking allies—when synergists are seeking to build community—they must speak the language of love.

We believe that you should, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” What is it that most of us want others to do unto us? Synergic scientists answer this question as follows: Help and support others as you would wish them to help and support you.  Or, more simply, ”Treat others the way they want to be treated.” 

Synergists are trying to heal the wounds inflected by those who don’t understand how the world could work. This then is the essential challenge to the synergists. Can we work together and act responsibly in time to save our ourselves on this planet? … Only by helping each other.

From the SynEARTH Archives. Human intelligence science has revealed that our enormous intelligence is the result of possessing dual minds. These dual minds create a dual world in which we live. On Wednesday, I discussed the Dual Mind and Progress which leads to today’s conclusion.

My World of  ”Ought to Be”

Timothy Wilken, MD

In the past week I have talked about learning to “could” on each other. Now I would like to “could” on my readers. I will start by revealing an important secret.

If you want to help make a world that works for all humanity, you must know this secret. It is the secret of making wholes — the secret of oneness.  You must live from the point of view of the whole.  You must identify with the whole. If you take care of the whole, the whole will take care of you.

The following analogy may help you understand.  Think a moment of how our brain functions — the neurons of our human brain focus entirely on the needs of the whole body, and in turn discover the whole body takes care of them.  They have no concerns and give no attention to maintaining their own temperature, to acquiring their own nutrition, to oxygenating themselves, or even in protecting themselves from bacteria or virus.

The neurons place their trust in survival of the whole.  By making decisions which keep the body healthy and safe, they  insure the body is capable of meeting all the needs of the neurons.  By serving the whole the neurons find themselves served.

I have taught that humanity is evolving. We evolved from the animals. Animals are space-binders. Their lives are dominated by adversity. Early humans lives were dominated by adversity. Humans who commit to adversity could be called Adversans. I explained to escape the Adversary world, humans invented Captitalism and the Great Market. This is a Neutral mechanism. Humans who commit to Capitalism and the Market could be called Neutrans. I have explained that if humanity is to have a future that we must give up the hurting of Adversity — give up the ignoring of Neutrality, and embrace the helping of Synergy. Humans who commit to Synergy could be called Synergans.

Now imagine that the Earth including all of life is a single organism — GAIA.  Further imagine the entire humans species  —  all of humanity — organized in a single organizational tensegrity. This evolved form of humanity could be called Synerganity.  Synerganity then could be the brain of GAIA.  Each human being functioning as a neuron within GAIA’s brain.

Synerganity will care for GAIA — care for all of Earth.  We humans could function as neurons.  We could care for the whole and discover ourselves to be cared for as a part of  Gaia.  Synergan will meet all the needs of the individual humans within it.  Just as our brain meets the needs of all the forty trillion cells contained in our bodies.

Synerganity structured as a organizational tensegrity could create an optimum environment to maximze individual meaning for all humans on earth. If we serve synerganity, synerganity will serve us. I believe this is what Jesus meant when he taught us to serve God and all  our needs would be met. Fuller knew this intuitively — he discovered the more humans he served the more important was his life. The only time he could’t meet his individual needs was when he focused on trying to meet them.

When a human begins to think as a synergan, then GAIA’s brain grows.  The more intelligent GAIA is, the more likely she will survive.

Thinking as a synergan is a state of mind — to begin we stop thinking about meeting our needs separately.  We stop adapting from our own individual point of view. Instead, we think wholistically — how can I help synerganity meet my needs. My needs are a subset of synerganity’s needs.  We stop thinking about accomplishing our individual goals separately, instead how can synerganity accomplish its goals which include the subset of my goals.

When I am a synergan, I think about meeting all Synerganity’s needs — which include my own individual needs, and my own individual survival. When I am a synergan, I think about meeting Synerganity’s goals — which include my individual goals.

Then the first and most important step on the critical path for human survival is for all of us to increase our awareness. 
 

AWARENESS   =   Who I Know on Earth 
                               All Living on Earth

As a synergan, I decide with an awareness of the needs and goals of all of humanity.  There is no place for neutral in a synergic Earth.  To be unaware is to conflict by accident and redundancy.

Only by examing all points of view can I choose the action that promotes the most and hinders none — only by stabilizing our whole species can I hope to protect my family.  As Arthur Coulter teaches I must choose SYNERGY.

This then is FIRST TASK — I must learn to think as a synergan.  I must stretch my skin around the entire earth.  I must extend my senses to monitor all my fellow cells.  I must develop empathy for all of humanity.

With increasing awareness we will be able to self-organize much more effectively — to synergize much more powerfully.

We all have  our own individual awareness — each awareness is unique and different from any other awareness on the planet.  From whatever point of awareness we begin each of us can transcend ourselves and choose to become even more aware of the whole … the whole species.

As a synergan, I view life from the point of view of all.  My awareness is ONE.  I make my decisions with an awarenss of the goals and needs of all humans.  I need not know the detail’s of every human’s life to know every human’s needs.  I need not know everyone’s story to know what environments have potential for everyone’s meaning.  An awareness of ONE is more a qualitative change than a quanitative one.  It is a new point of view.

Choose to think as a synergan.  Think of yourself inside synerganity.  Meet your needs as a subset of synerganity’s needs.  Serve the whole and the whole will take care of you.

This is the secret of making wholes — the secret of oneness.  If you take care of the whole, the whole will take care of you.   If we serve synerganity well, we will find ourselves alive and well safe inside of synerganity. The world’s problems today are much larger than any single one of us.  But to synerganity, these problems will seem like nothing. No more than a few months work.  Then our future will truely be unlimited.  The stars will indeed be ours.

We now have a solution — the Organizational Tensegrity is a pattern we could use to become synerganity.  The binding is the win-win relationship.  Decision is made in Heterarchy with synergic consensus as first principle.  No one is coerced.  All losses are synergically vetoed.  Action occurs in Hierarchy  negotiated by all, here again we all win.

We could make the world better. We could work together. We could love each other. Are you ready to join the Synergic Evolution? All you have to do is change your mind. 

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Here are some things that we could do if we chose to work together: 1) BIAS systems, 2) A Synergic Future, 3) Ortegrity, or 4) GIFTegrity.

From the SynEARTH Archives. Human intelligence science has revealed that our enormous intelligence is the result of possessing dual minds. These dual minds create a dual world in which we live.

The Dual Mind and Progress

Timothy Wilken, MD

Remember, Korzybski defined Time-binding as that unique human ability to pass that ‘knowing’ from one generation to the next generation. We humans bind time and are bound together in time. The record of our time-binding is everywhere. It is in all that activity that we so innocently call progress. It is the very motor of obsolescence. It is imbedded in just about every thing associated with humans and yet most humans are unaware of the very power that makes them human. We humans catalogue and store our various knowings in libraries, universities, colleges, data banks, and information services. We store our knowing in many formats — books, tapes, films, movies, newspapers, magazines, video, microfilm, photos, computer files, etc., etc., etc. We are time-binders and the mark of human power is everywhere.

Both animal and human offspring begin their lives in nearly total ignorance. The differences that exist between them are small, but what advantage in knowing that does exist belongs clearly to the animal. While the animal seems to begin life with a greater store of inherited knowing, it possesses little ability to learn from its parents. The animal is condemned to rediscover over and over, every generation must discover anew the knowings of its parents. The wise old owl may know a great deal, but he has no way to pass what he knows to his offspring and they have no way to receive it. Animals have only the space-mind. They are confined to living in the world of “is”.

Only humans have access to the dual-world. We can and do pass our knowing from one generation to the next.

Progress —defined—> The progression from the world of “is” to the world of “ought to be” —  the progression from the real world to the ideal world.

We humans need our space-mind to survive in space. To be safe in the world of “is”, but we need our time-mind if we want to create a better world  —  a world that “ought to be”.

Albert Schweitzer, the great humanitarian who worked with the poor and ill in Africa, said he wanted to see a world where there was no disease. Well, I think most of us would probably agree that represents a good “ought to be”.

Now, its important to remember that not all “ought to be”s are good.

“Ought to be”s are just opinions. Adolf Hitler wanted a world where there were no Jews. Not such a good “ought to be”. An “ought to be” is just an opinion. At its very best, it becomes an ideal. At its very worst it can become nightmare of crime and tragedy. Animals kill for food or to eliminate competing genetic lines, but only humans murder each other because their time-mind has decided that someone “ought not to be”.

The space-mind and the time-mind are partners. Universe is space-time.

When we use our dual minds intelligently, our space-mind tells us what is and our time-mind tells us what could be. What could be. Our world of “ought to be” is an opinion of how realty could be. The term should is best left to describe the picture of how reality is. This is also the scientific definition of the term should.

The dual-world model is also very helpful in determining whether your relationship with someone should continue. I have used this model in couple counseling. Not uncommonly, when a husband and wife come in to see me, they are at war with each other. After I have got to know them and learned how they perceive their problems, I teach them about the dual-world. Then it becomes a simple matter to ask each of them to define their “ought to be” mates. Then the next step is find out if they are willing to “could” on each other and work together to move in the desired direction.

The human space-mind often gets injured by its experiences in life because it thinks in pictures and images and feelings. These three always go together. So if a lot of pictures in your memory are attached to negative feelings, then you will carry a lot of beliefs and associations that are hurtful. All of us carry some of these painful pictures around. Most of us have seen somebody, that we care very much about, when they were very angry, screaming, or crying. And further, because no one is the way they “ought to be”, nearly all of us have felt some time felt rejected by our parents even though they may loved us. And, if you are not the way you “ought to be” then there must be something wrong with you. This makes us feel second rate and inferior. These old injuries often occur in our childhood and are carried throughout our lives unless they are repaired.

Let me use an example from my own life. My wife carries an injury from her childhood that Rational Psychologists call catastrophizing. Her mother was a catastrophizer and my wife is one as well. Do you know what a catastrophizer is? Let me give you an example of catastrophizing. Imagine you are sitting at the kitchen table and one of your kids knocks over a glass of water. Now a non-catastrophizer might say, “Oh,here, let me get a towel. You could be more careful son.

Now lets look at the same situation with a catastrophizer. One of your kids knocks over a glass of water. The castastrophizer responds, “OH NO!. MY GOD! WHAT HAPPENED? OH CHRIST, MY TABLE IS RUINED. YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN MORE CAREFUL.”

Catastrophizing. Do you know anybody who acts like this? Unfortunately, catastrophizing behavior which is never intentional still injures little kids. Why? Because children’s space-minds create pictures with strong negative feelings when events like this happen. They believe they are bad. They think, “What did I do? Something terrible. I ruined mother’s table. I must be a horrible person to have created so much havoc for my mother. Maybe she won’t love me.” And so children who have catastrophizing parents duck. They get gun shy. And by the way if you are a catastrophizer it’s almost always because you know a catastrophizer who was usually your parent. And your parent knew a catastrophizer who was probably her parent, and so on.

We always get two things from our parents. We get their ‘knowing’ and their ‘not knowing’. So, if mom was really good with a checkbook, always had the budget balanced, knows where every penny is, then probably I’ll also be good with a checkbook. But if mom was a catastrophizer, then I may be a catastrophizer too.

So in my world of “ought to be”, my wife would learn not to catastrophize. Now one of the injuries I carry from my childhood is called by Psychologists a touch disorder. What’s a touch disorder? Being uncomfortable when you are physically touched by another human. Many Americans have this injury. Where does it come from? Not getting touched very much. So, if one or both of your parents were uncomfortable being touched or touching others, you may not have gotten touched much as a child. I can remember whenever my father would try to give my mother a hug or a kiss, she would withdraw or pull away saying, “Oh no, not in front of the children.” So I grew up uncomfortable with being touched and with a tendency not to reach out and touch others.

And, in my wife’s world of “ought to be”, I would learn to be more comfortable with being touched and in touching others.

After learning about the dual-world, we were both able to could on each other. I was able to tell my wife Judy that my “ought to be” Judy would be less catastrophizing. And she told me that her “ought to be” Tim would be warm, affectionate and more comfortable with touch.

So, after thinking about it for a while and I said, “Well, my “ought to be” Tim would also be warmer, affectionate and more comfortable with touch. And she said, “You know, my “ought to be” Judy would be less catastrophizing.” So we helped each other move towards our mutual “ought to be”s.

If you can’t agree on “ought to be”s with the important people in your life then you don’t have sound basis for a successful relationship, and you will be better off terminating that relationship. But before you decide to end a relationship, you need to make sure both of you understand the dual-world.

When I worked with couples in stressed and troubled relationships, I would teach them about the dual-world. This was often the very first lesson, because it  explains so much about human relationships. And when we reached the point in counseling were I felt they understood the dual-world, I would say, “Now let’s talk about what’s wrong.”

The wife would say, “Well he’s doing this, and it really annoys me.”

“All right, so your “ought to be” husband wouldn’t do that. He would do something different.”

And then the husband would say, “Well, she is doing this, and it really annoys me”

“All right, so your “ought to be” wife wouldn’t do that. She would do something different.”

Are the two of you willing to could on each other, remember no shoulding, but inviting each other to change, pulling each other a little bit with an invitations, can you pull each other a little bit in the right direction?

And you would be amazed at how often individuals using this model can decide that they really would like to move in the directions that the other individual really does want. And that it hasn’t been that they didn’t like the idea, often they agreed. It’s they didn’t like being pushed. They didn’t like being shoulded on. They didn’t like feeling NOT OK, bad, defective, not all right. They didn’t like being treated as inferior and without respect.

Imagine you are occasionally late getting home because you work overtime to help pay the bills, sometimes you forget to call your wife and she always gets upset. One day she gives you an ultimatum, “You never call me when you’re going to be late. If you don’t start calling me, I’m going to leave you.”

Now you start thinking, “Why should I have to call her? I am working hard for her and the kids. She knows I’m not goofing off. She should trust me. How dare she threaten to leave me for working so hard for the family. I shouldn’t have to call her.”

So my wife is shoulding on me, and I am shoulding on myself. Maybe one of my friends is shoulding on me as well, perhaps telling me that I shouldn’t let my wife tell me what to do. And I become reactive and say, “No. I’m not going to let anybody tell me what to do.” Remember the space-mind is in charge of survival. Survival is an individual experience. When you are angry, when you are hostile, when you are in a rage, you are fighting against the world.

So if we can get rid of the shoulds, and the badness, and the NOT OK’s, then very often human beings can say, “You’re right. I could call you when I am going to be late. If you’ll stop telling me that I should call you,then I could call you.”

Now the time-mind doesn’t think there is much difference between saying, “You could call me,” rather than, “You should call me.” But the space-mind feels an enormous difference.

Remember, its not what you say its how you say it. The time-mind focuses on content, while the space-mind focuses on the process.

And, your could has to be genuine. If the tone of your voice is demanding when you say “YOU COULD CALL ME!” then your words will not be heard as a request. The space-mind is an expert at reading tone of voice and body language. We cannot hide our true feelings from the space-mind of others.

So if we want to make progress in our personal lives or as a community, we must learn to could on each other — to pull our fellow humans from the world of is toward the world of ought to be — to pull our fellow humans from the real world toward the ideal world.

We humans could solve our problems. We humans could work together. We humans could love each other.

 

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To be continued …

Reposted from the SynEARTH Archives.

“Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” —George Santayana

DUAL WORLD 

Timothy Wilken, MD   

Did you watch the opening ceremony for 2002 Winter Olympics? It was beautiful. It depicted how we honored, repected, and cherished the first humans to inhabit North America — the Native Americans.  We showed how we respected and protected the native animals of America — the Buffalo, Coyote, and Eagle. And, did you see the beautiful paper puppets? Wasn’t the one of the giant American Bison cool with all the little buffalos running inside of it?

We sure put on a good show for the rest of the world. … Of course, our show really wasn’t the truth. It was only a picture of the world as it ”ought to be”. An “ideal” picture of early America. This is the way our Amercian history “ought to have been”.

In the “real” world — in the world of “is”, those arriving from Europe would kill or imprison most of the Native Americans, use the Chinese and African immigrants as slave labor, and kill all but 800 of the millions of mighty Buffalo that ran on the American plains. This was the number of living Buffalo at the end of the 19th century. Our American history “could have been different”. But it wasn’t.

I am suggesting that the opening ceremony “could” also have been different. It could have presented the settlement of the American west with a little more respect for the truth. It could have still been beautiful, perhaps even more beautiful. I think it would have been much more valuable to show the rest of the world that we know that real adversity is a part of our history. That we know we made mistakes in the past, and have committed to learn from those mistakes. That we now have respect for Native Americans, Chinese Americans and African Americans. That we wish we had not made so many native animal species extinct, and that today we cherish all live on planet Earth.

This would have shown the world that we did remember the past.

Human intelligence science has revealed that our enormous intelligence is the result of possessing dual minds. These dual minds create pictures of a dual world in which we live. Most of us don’t know we have dual minds and almost all of us don’t know we live in a dual world. We live in two worlds all of the time.

Let us begin by examining the world created by the space-mind. It creates a picture of reality. Space-mind is in charge of survival. So it needs to know what the world is really like. Boy if you are in your space-mind, you better live in the real world. Right? Ever play dodge ball? When I was a kid, dodge ball was a big game. I don’t know whether they even play it any more. You go into the gym and line up against the wall and somebody throws a volleyball at you at high speed. Right? You dodge it Right? You better know where the ball really is or you are going to get hit. Ever play snow ball fights? Same thing right? You better know where those snowballs really are or you’re going to get hit. The space-mind has to know where things are in space. Where they really are. When I’m teaching this lesson to a group of students I’ll suddenly toss a pencil to someone sitting in the first row, and it’s amazing, they almost always catch it. One hand will fly up and catch the unexpected object. Their space-mind reflex puts their hand up. The space-mind has to know what’s real and what’s really going on or you don’t survive. If there is a tiger in this room I had better know it’s here. So the space mind makes a picture of reality from its sense images and feelings. That’s picture of reality is what I call the world of “is”.

The world of “is” is the way things really are. And, at its very best this picture of reality approaches the “real” world. Now we don’t have a perfect picture of the universe the way it really is. But our space-mind is pretty good. It keeps me from running into the walls and safe in high speed motor traffic. My student in the front row demonstrated his ability to catch the pencil perfectly when it came flying through the air unexpectedly.

Now we humans also have a time-mind which is into becoming, it’s interested in cause and effect, it is always predicting the future based on its understanding of the past. So the time-mind forms an opinion of reality from words and thoughts. This opinion of reality is what I call the world of “ought to be”.

Every human has two worlds created by their two minds. Everyone of us has a world of “is” and a world of “ought to be”. I’ve got mother “is” and mother “ought to be”. Teacher “is” and teacher “ought to be”. Son “is” and son “ought to be”. Dad “is” and dad “ought to be”. Husband “is” and husband“ought to be”.

By the way, our husband “is”and wife “is” are always comes up short. Aren’t they? They are never the way they ought to be. Also, our son “is” and daughter “is” are also coming up short. They are also never the way they ought to be.

Why are they coming up short? Why are they never the way they ought to be?

Our time-mind uses all of its cause and effect knowledge to predict the way things “ought to be”. And we are always carrying our opinions of how it “out to be” with us at all times. Seven o’clock in the evening, and I run out of milk. So I get in my car and go down to Seven-Eleven only to discover they’re closed. “Damn it! That’s not the way it ought to be!” My space-mind shows me a picture of a closed store  —  the world the way it is. My time-mind tells me in words,“That’s not the way it ought to be.”And, so my space-mind prepares my body to fight.

All of us are rejected to some extent because we are never the way our parents think we ought to be. Because you see an ought to be at its very best is an ideal. The world of “ought to be” at its very best is an ideal. Well in the ideal world, the Seven-Eleven Store would be open, right? I’d go in and get my milk. Right? My son, in the world of ought to be, would get straight A’s. Right? That’s an ideal. Ideally my son would get straight A’s. Ideally my husband would remember my  birthday. Ideally the people on the road would be more courteous. Ideally the government would lower our taxes, right? In the world of “ought to be” the government would operate economically, and give the taxpayers a large refund. But in the world of “is” we just keep paying more taxes.

Now knowledge of the dual-world can be of great help to you. Whenever you find yourself angry at the world of “is”, it probably is because you are mistaking your world of “ought to be” for the real world. Imagine, I am reading my newspaper when I come across a story I don’t like. I exclaim: “I can’t believe this! This can’t be happening.” In other words, in my world of “ought to be”, this doesn’t happen.

There are none so blind as those that will not see.

Not believing reality can be very dangerous. The Jewish people during WWII were very much victimized by the world of “ought to be”. The American government played into that tragedy in a very large way. There was a group of Jewish people who suffered even more than those who were gassed in the concentration camp gas chambers. These were extraordinarily brave individuals who risked their lives to smuggle out pictures of the death camps. These photographs eventually reached the American government providing proof of Hitler’s atrocities. The American government said they were fake. Why? In the American government’s world of “ought to be”, atrocities like those shown in the photos just didn’t happen. In their world of ought to be those kinds of things simply don’t happen. The photographs had to have been faked. Sadly, the whole world learned four years later that the photographs were not faked.

If I’m angry about the world of “is”, it’s often because I am convinced that my ideal world of “ought to be” is the real world.

This is the most powerful lesson that I teach in stress medicine. It’s the single one tool that can help you make a major change in your life. I can teach you how to  desensitize yourself to hostility. I can teach you how to do all kinds of relaxation, biofeedback. But if you understand about the world of “is” and the world of “ought to be”, and you understand that the world of “is” is the real world, and that the world of “ought to be” is only an ideal world, you can unstress yourself  greatly.

When my daughter was only four years old I taught her about the dual-world. I remember when something wouldn’t work out for her, she would say, “Well, that’s not the way it ought to be, but that’s the way it is.” If adults could learn to say those words they could help themselves a lot. “That’s not the way it ought to be, but that’s the way it is.”

But because we don’t understand the dual-world, we “should” all over each other? You see the world “should” comes from our world of “ought to be”. This ought to be “should” is an ideal. When I say,“You shouldn’t have said that.” I mean in my world of “ought to be”, you wouldn’t have said that. Ideally, you wouldn’t have said that.

The real “should” is from the world of “is”. If I drop this pencil it should hit the floor. I drop the pencil and it does hit the floor.

The ideal “should” is from the world of “ought to be”. I should weigh twenty pounds less, but nothing happens. What’s wrong here. Why didn’t I magically lose twenty pounds. This must be a different kind of should. This is an ought to be “should”, not an is “should”. Ignorance of our dual-world can make life very confusing.

To take advantage of our new knowledge of the dual-world, we must learn to “could” on each other. Let us learn how to “could” on each other rather than “should” on each other. This becomes very important. Why? Because see when I “could” on you it’s an invitation. But when I “should” on you it’s a push and your space-mind fights all pushes. Remember the space-mind fights all pushes.

To demonstrate this point in the classroom, I approach one of my students and ask the other students to turn to each other and do what I’m doing. Then I take the hand and wrist of my student, and move the arm around without the student’s control. I push the student around a little. Not causing any real pain.Then I ask, “How does that feel? How does your space-mind like it? Here, feel it. Don’t think it. What does space-mind say? Now you know I’m doing an experiment. But what does space mind-feel?”

Of course the space-mind doesn’t talk but if it did it would say, “Leave me alone. Get off me. Don’t touch me. Don’t push me.”

When we “should” on each other we are pushing,“You should have done a lot better on that test.”

“Damn it. I’m all right. I’m ok. You can’t tell me I should have done better.”

My space mind defends against all pushes. And a “should” is a push. Anytime you “should” on somebody you invoke their space-mind and they shut down. They rebel. They push back and they won’t do anything you tell them.

If you want to win friends and influence others, you need to learn how to “could” on people — a “could” is a pull — a “could” is an invitation.

“You could study a little more and maybe your grades would come up.” The student says, “Yes, I could study a little more and maybe my grades would come up.” That’s not a push. That’s an invitation. That’s a pull. That’s a possibility.

“You could make a note in your schedule about my birthday because it’s real important to me.” And I reply,“You know I could do that. Maybe I will do that. This is a better alternative to: “You shouldn’t have forgotten my birthday. You never have time for me.” To that I may reply, “Damn it. I’ll forget your birthday every year from now on.”

Our space-mind does not like to be pushed around. And so, what do we do? We humans push each other all day long.

We also push ourselves don’t we? Ever hear your little time-mind “shoulding” on yourself? “I shouldn’t have done that. I shouldn’t have said this.” “I should have done this. I should have told my boss off. I should have told him what I really thought of him. With knowledge of the dual-world, it is much more effective to could on yourself. I could have communicated my point of view more effectively to my boss.

In summary then, all humans have two minds — the space-mind and the time-mind. These two minds create two worlds  —  the world of “is” and the world of “ought to be” — a picture of the real world and an opinion of the ideal world.

It is our ability to create these two worlds that makes us human.

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To be continued …