Chapter Nine

Data

This chapter is perhaps the most important part of the book since it deals with the essential criteria for defining the desired change or control limits. Data can be defined as that which describes what you and the perceived outer world should be under particular conditions. The brain must be able to create or find the data that describes a desired future that the control system needs to conform to. For example, you need an accurate picture of what type of clothing others will be wearing at an upcoming party in order to plan for your own future dress. This data must be complete enough so that at each unfolding moment the comparator can compare what is supposed to be from what is actually being experienced.

There are four types of data that you use: 1) genetic, 2) conditioned, 3) temporary and 4) gnosis or knowledge. Genetic data is that data that is present at birth and includes DNA coding, experiences obtained in the womb, and perhaps as some religions and philosophies argue, the experiences gained from prior existence.

Conditioned data is that which is gained from the repeated and reinforced training and education received from family and society. It includes what is commonly called wisdom or habit.

Temporary data is imaginative or formative and is used to provide data for the development of fully brand-new operational data. Temporary data is also used to create new roles to be played.

Gnosis (Greek) means to know in the sense of touching truth or some intuition or insight that was not previously known. Gnosis is knowledge (early definition) as distinguished from the data called wisdom.

The complexity of genetic data and its wide range of descriptions is now becoming better understood as more and more deficiencies of individuals are found to be related to their DNA coding. This chapter will not expand upon genetic data other than to point out how the DNA data works as an example of other sources of data as well as some of the internal conflicts arising from other data.

A DNA molecule furnishes its data to surrounding control centers by duplicating its structure in RNA molecules that then move away from the chromosome into outlying regions of the containing cell. This might be compared with making a photocopy of a cookbook in a library and then carrying the photocopy home as data to prepare meals.

A similar source of data is found with the genetic data contained in hormones. Hormones are generated and then serve as data when they find an open receptor that fits their particular shape, whereupon they can then transfer their data much as the RNA molecule.

DNA, as well as being the source of biological and instinctual data, is also the source of basic societal data such as manifested in the need to fight for your own existence in a group. This societal data includes being sure that you get in line for food and at the head of the line if possible. On the other hand, although the data obtained from DNA and societal conditioning forces you to desire to be at the head of the group, yet you also desire to be accepted within the group by conforming. This conflicting data also appears within an infant who wants quick satisfaction to hunger pains, but also does not want to be rejected. Infants learn quickly to modify their cries between demanding/controlling and helplessness/conformance.

Conditioned data, even though it is generally built upon DNA data, is even more conflicting. For almost every bit of data that says, for instance, that you should be positive, you have an equal amount of data saying that you should be negative. If you consider the data of being successful, you give rise to the opposing data that you are not better than anyone else, or that it will take too much effort. If you have data of being friendly to strangers, other data immediately appears and says that you might get mugged or robbed. If you attempt to use the data of feeling good, the opposite data appears pointing to the dangers of feeling good or of becoming threatening to your somber friends.

Problems also arise when what you see on the outside does not agree with what is desired on the inside. For instance, you may believe that you are being a kind person yet others state that you are being unkind. Similarly, your inner feelings may not agree with what you believe your feelings should be. In general, strong feelings in the bowels are conditioned to be bad while those in the head or brain are labeled as good if they agree with religious or moral teachings that you have received from childhood. This combination of do/don't commands or data is fundamental in understanding individual control.

This do/don't or supportive/opposing data is used by control engineers to keep a machine or operation within tight limits. If the machine for instance, operates too efficiently then opposing data is introduced to slow it down, or if it is operating below the standard then a supportive set of data is compared. Society uses the same type of conflicting data to keep its members in their proper places. You have one set of data that you use when you are hungry and another set of data that you use when you are full. These two sets of data keep you from starving as well as from over eating. Similarly, you use one set of data in being friendly with people but another set of data that keeps you from being a bore or dominating other people.

Humans are unique in the animal world in that they have a much longer period of time to be infants and children and hence are able to more fully develop their minds and become more conditioned to a complex society. However, this data gained by prolonged conditioning or learning may not be consciously recognized. As an example, in tying your shoe, you rely upon data that seems to be stored in your fingers and find that it is nearly impossible to describe how to tie your shoes, but generally you must resort to physically tying the knots. Parents in helping their children to tie their shoes will invariably stand behind the child so that they can tie the child's shoe as if it were their own. Similarly, there are times when you cannot verbally describe some operation to someone else, but must revert to 'showing' how it is done.

Professional people rely upon conditioned data to do their jobs. One interesting example of gaining conditioning is the tradition of physician internship. They are forced to go without much sleep and yet respond to life and death matters. Doctors facing prolonged emergencies do not have to think and instead can rely upon their conditioning gained through years of training to meet some immediate challenge.

Conditioned verbal data is stored and retrieved in many ways, such as evidenced when you are asked what letter comes before 'X'. In general most people will have to sub-vocalize or recite at least part of the memorized alphabet since they do not have a learned response to the position of single letters. Similarly, you may have to recite your whole social security number to state the last four digits. The ancients required children to memorize prose or songs to inject voluminous data into children and is still evidenced as children sing their ABC's.

You can be very aware of very fundamental inner conditioned controlling data if you watch your own responses to the outer world. Most of these responses are automatic such as the manner in which you laugh. Each family has slight variations in laughing that are conditioned. The manner in which you speak, walk and how you stand are all conditioned. Your preferences for food, manner of approaching problems, gestures, or social interactions with others are determined by conditioning, both from the family as well as from your immediate society.

Added to this early societal conditioning is the conditioning of being different people or rather of playing different roles. For instance, a child must be a different person in a schoolroom than when on the playground with friends or with a grandparent. Each different role requires a separate data bank that may of course include some of the same data as in other roles, but nonetheless, the data must all fit together to define the role. For instance you cannot keep the data of squealing with delight from the playground and use it in the classroom data bank. The data in each role must all be consistent with that role.

Wisdom should also be recognized as basic conditioned data and you are aware of its accumulation as you had to memorize such things as your phone number, the content of books and the proper behavior in various situations. This data or your wisdom includes your developed arguments or rationality for such things as your religious or political views and life style.

Wisdom can be categorized as being made up of three types of data: scientific, belief and false. Scientific data is that data that can be verified or proven. Belief data is data that cannot or will not be proven. False data or false wisdom can be proven wrong yet continues in society primarily to support some false position of an individual or institution. Some ancient writings laud those who have the ability to discriminate or to identify belief and false data for what they are.

Temporary data is used in determining what data can or should be used in finding a control. Temporary data is commonly used in analysis or in developing some new concept where the end goal may be known but the underlying data is not. For instance, in attempting to explain some observation of the outer world, you search for data that might support or explain the observation. During this process your mental control system becomes busy substituting temporary data into the mental converter to find data to best describe the observation. As an example, Bill is perceived to have made some unusual facial expression and you are attempting to understand the meaning behind it. Your brain or mental control system tries to analyze what is behind his facial expression by applying one definition after another to the perceived expression such as starting with, "Is he angry?" But perhaps that does not fit so your mind finds another possible definition such as, "Is he happy?" That definition may not fit, so another definition is compared and so forth until the comparator finds some agreement. When your comparator does find a comparison, you then accept that Bill's immediate expression indicates frustration and that conclusion becomes permanent data.

There is another form of temporary data that is used in taking on another role to be played. The best example of this is the data that is used by a child in a make believe game such as playing the part of a magical princess. The child does not have any permanent data as to how to be a princess and must first assume some temporary data and then see how that data fits into the game. Parents also use this type of temporary data in teaching their children to become civilized. For instance, parents will give a child the temporary data of being a good girl and then coach the child into being able to fully play that role just as a child would experience in an imaginary game. Upon forced repetition, this temporary data becomes permanent and the child labels it as the data of being good. Similarly you may be given a position of authority and you then assume new or temporary data that describes your new role or position. After months of playing that role, the data becomes conditioned and the role is automatically put on when you step into the place requiring it.

The concept of Gnosis or knowledge as data was expressed in early psychology as 'conation' before they excluded any non-measurable phenomena. Conation was described as pre-thought or pre-cognition. The basic idea is that before you can have a thought about something, you must first have a feeling of that something. Your conscious thinking process then attempts to put concrete words and definitions to that feeling. To the early Greek philosophers, Gnosis or knowledge, was built upon feelings that were called eidos or word . Word therefore contained only the essence of something before it became classified or called by name. As an example, you identify a 'table' in many forms because behind any table is a feeling of 'tableness' or of that something with a level flat surface. Some religions speak of creation coming forth first as a word or the basic feeling of what is to be. Then it is made manifest. Similarly you first have a subtle feeling of what might be and then you make it manifest by putting actual physical words to it.

In terms of common experience, at times you can be aware of the required mental effort as you attempt to describe some inner feeling or insight. This inner effort is of the mental control system that converts the subtle to the gross or the conative to the cognitive. You perceive this inner mental control system working as you experience the rejection by your comparator as it fails to find a corresponding word to express the inner feeling. You may, for instance, apologize and state that what you are saying doesn't quite fit what you are feeling. Similarly, you may spend time attempting to clarify some mental image you cannot quite see clearly. The accuracy of your descriptions or how well they fit your subtle feelings depends upon the sensitivity of your mental comparator. Clarity in thinking or cognition requires a sensitive comparator and control system in order to convert subtle data into definitive words. Controlling the comparator will be discussed later in Chapter Seventeen.

Data from gnosis is generally expressed as having to be 'found' deep within your self. In solving a problem you are aware of seeking some image or feeling that can lead you to some productive thought process. What is exciting is that when the data from gnosis is found, it appears suddenly and generally with great clarity. However, many times as you attempt to translate this instant gnosis into words, you discover that it takes time and effort to describe the feeling to others.

To many of the ancients, this subtle data from gnosis was stored in or obtained from the lowest portion of your body in what was called your Spirit (see Appendix). As an example, the book Of Jeremiah (Jer. 31:37) in the Bible states that the Lord will write his words in the 'bowels' of men. (bowels or qereb is commonly translated as 'inner parts') Calling this source the Spirit fits some of your experiences as you feel that you are digging deep into the unknown as you attempt to express some feeling.

The data from Gnosis is many times evidenced as appearing to be from the future. This data is found to be accurate and is associated generally with strong gut feelings. Many times this data does not ever get changed into the cognitive space, but serves to supply the data for what are called the purely gut or intuitive reactive responses to life.

In conclusion, it must be remembered that your interpretation of self and world is based upon data that has many sources: genetic, temporary, conditioned or gnosis. These sources offer data that may not be complete or accurate and may even be false. The value of this data is determined almost solely by your dedication and your ability to discriminate as will be discussed in later chapters.

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