Years Often Bring Warped Realities

6. A Primer on Synergetics

By DON G. PURCELL

As we begin to examine ourselves, we discover that we possess characteristics tiswe would just as soon get rid of. In respect many of us have made "good resolutions". Many of us have sought, from time to time, to be better individuals, to lift our lives to a higher plane of effectiveness and wellbeing. If we have failed, it is probably because of impedances.

Let me define "impedance" as it is used here. An impedance is a pattern of perception, feeling, thought, or action that interferes with the synergic function of the organism. An impedance is one source of dysergy.

One way that impedances come into existence is through our inability to differentiate at the level of awareness between Unreality and Reality.

As children we were extremely capable of dealing with Reality vs. Unreality. We spent much of our time in the Unreal world of illusory imagination. But we were very capable of differentiating what we were doing. Remember when you played "cops and robbers" or "cowboys and Indians"? While you were playing, it was all very real. The broomstick you used for a horse could really gallop over the hills and through the valleys. And when you shot an Indian through the heart he was DEAD: But when the game was over, everybody came baek to life and you knowingly stood your trusty steed back up in the corner. You were fully aware that what you were projecting as reality was in fact only unreality-illusion. And thus did you preserve the fount from which much of your happiness flowed.

As the years pass, something happens to cause us to lose this ability to clearly differentiate between Reality and Unreality. With the passing of time we come more to accept Unreality as Real. And when we do this, as far as we are concerned, the Unreality IS real and we will defend it as Real with our lives. Finally, we betray ourselves into accepting the greatest Unreality of all--the Unreality of death--as the Reality of oblivion.

If we are willing to look with objective honesty at our lives as they are, we can begin to recognize our inability to differentiate between Unreality and Reality and we can begin to see how it comes about. And as we do this, our inability will begin to dissipate and we will again be able to differentiate the Unreal from the Real.

Actually, we fool ourselves into accepting Unreality for Reality. We desire only that good things accrue to us. But as we go along, we find many things not to our liking. We begin to think that life is hoaxing us or cheating us. Our carefully-laid plans go astray. We go along from day to day, desiring one thing and getting another. We hope and strive for happiness, only to find it eluding us more as we grow older.

As children we possessed the ability to experience happiness in abundance. As we grow older, we feel this ability slipping away from us. There must be a reason for this. Certainly God does not decree that we must be progressively less happy as we grow older. It must be a condition of our own maiiing. And it is, as we shall see.

God has endowed each of us with certain abilities and responsibilities. The primAry ability with which we are all endowed is self-determined individuality. As human beings, we are self-contained units of life. We possess self-generating and self-activating power. We possess intelligence and the ability to jude, reason, and think. And we are endowed with full respcnsibility for our own intellectual and spiritual development.

Except for the limitations we unknowingly impose upon ourselves, we are each free agents, free to choose regarding anything in any manner we may elect.

We choose our actions of the moment on the basis of what we know. Knowledge is awareness of Reality. When we find ourselves in situations where we must act in order to preserve our survival and yet do not know what to do, we are faced with the problem of finding out. We do this by using our intelligence, judgment, reason, and past experience to create for our awareness what the Reality probably is, and then choose our actions in terms of this creation.

To put it another way, if we do not know what the Reality is in a particular situation, we adopt a belief in lieu of knowledge. We must have some basis from which to proceed toward a solution.

It is well to note at this point that belief and faith are two entirely different concepts, although it is a common practice for us to interchange their meanings.

In order to solve any problem we must have a motive for Solving it. We must also adopt an attitude, a particular way in which we approach the problem. And if we do not know the Reality, we must adopt a belief, arepresentation of Reality, to substitute for knowledge of Reality.

Our basis for solving problems and choosing actions, then, is a complex of Belief-Attitude-Motive. For convenience, we will call this the BAM complex, or simply BAM.

Awareness of the BAM complex and its relationship to human problems is not new. We can find reference to it as far back as we can trace early Egyptian philosophy. In fact, it can be found to form a basic part of all early philosophies as well as those of modern times.

The fact that we accept BANS in lieu of knowledge of Reality and then forget we have done this is not a new concept, either. The early philosophers told their students to examine their BANS if they really wanted to change themselves for the better.

You might logically ask here, "How can a particular Belief-Attitude-Motive complex have anything to do with experiencing happiness?" Let me give you an example. Suppose a fellow has difficulty in his social relationships with girls. As a result, he becomes more and more left out of social activities, which inevitably leads to a feeling of frustration. I think we can all agree that such a fellow will experience less and less happiness as he goes along. Now, if this fellow will examine his BAM with respect to girls, he may find that he has a belief that girls don't like him or that girls are inferior to men an attitude of withdrawal from them or disdain for their inferiority, a motive to avoid girls, or prove

(Please turn to Page 11)