Beyond The Conscious Mind

Beyond the
Conscious
Mind
Unlocking the
Secrets of the Self
Beyond the
Conscious
Mind
Unlocking the
Secrets of the Self
THOMAS R. BLAKESLEE
Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
On file
ISBN 978-0-306-45262-8 ISBN 978-1-4899-4533-4 (eBook)

DOI 10.1007/978-1-4899-4533-4
© Thomas R. Blakeslee 1996

Originally published by Plenum Press New York in 1996
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1996
10987654321
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming,
recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher
Preface
In the fifteen years since I wrote The Right Brain (Dou-

bleday, 1980), I have marveled at the practical value of
better understanding the physical basis of the mind. Let-
ters from many readers confirmed that their lives were also
greatly improved by this understanding. Some even wrote
that they had bought copies for each of their friends to
share their discovery. Since my own understanding has
recently been brought to a new level, I am eager to share
my new insights with all who will listen.
Roger Sperry's Nobel Prize-winning split-brain ex-
periments showed us the way to a new understanding of
consciousness that recognized that we can have inde-
pendent thoughts in the right side of our brain that control
our behavior yet remain outside of our awareness. These
experiments are described in detail in my previous book
and also in Appendix One of this book.
v
vi PREFACE
Michael Gazzaniga, who worked with Sperry on the

first split-brain experiments, continued the work with
many additional patients and ultimately concluded that,
while the simple right-brain/left-brain model of the mind
was an important first step, it was a gross oversimplifica-
tion. He concluded that there are not two, but actually
hundreds of independent, specialized modules of thinking
in our brain that all vie for control of behavior in a kind of
competitive free-for-all. One of those thinking modules,
which he called the "interpreter" module, tries to explain all
of our behavior, even though it is only in control occasionally.
Carrying Gazzaniga's thinking further, I have come
to the conclusion that his interpreter module is actually the
physical basis of what we normally call the self. In fact,
what is commonly called self-control is actually behavior
under control of this mental module. I have therefore
renamed Gazzaniga's interpreter the self module. The self
module is the specialist in the process called introspection,
through which we examine our own thoughts. It interprets
reality based on certain basic assumptions that are learned
in childhood, which I will call the self-concept. An impor-
tant part of our self-concept is the false belief that the self
module is the mind and can therefore authoritatively ex-
plain all behavior. In fact, most behavior is controlled by
other modules of the mind to which the self module has
no access.
The self module's delusion of power and control is the
cause of endless conflicts, misunderstandings, and wasted
potential. It is therefore clearly worth some effort to correct
your self-concept to one based on how the mind really
works. To develop this new understanding, I will devote
a large part of this book to demonstrating that many of the
PREFACE vii
most obvious facts" about consciousness are not true. As

II
I will show, our sense of self is a powerful but false illu-

sion-an illusion that is never given up without a fight. A
lifetime of habits will not be undone by simply reading a
book. Still, I hope to direct you toward a new under-
standing that you can use to relearn your mental habits.
My ultimate goal is to help you find, as I have, that a new
understanding of self can help you make sense out of
previous enigmas in love, relationships, creativity, sports,
and art and help you better understand anger, bad habits,
and phobias in yourself and others.
While most psychological theories tum out to be fan-
tasies built on the biases of their authors, I have tried to let
sound evolutionary logic lead the way. The principles of
neural Darwinism, suggested by Nobel Prize-winner Ger-
ald Edelman, seem to me to provide a solid basis for
understanding human consciousness as the inevitable re-
sult of evolution.
Acknowledgments
This book is the direct result of my attempts to under-

stand the bizarre interactions of a stormy love affair. From
that pain came a new understanding for which I am grate-
ful. Thanks, therefore, to Ms. Ginny Cicciarelli, who
started me on the path to discovery by mystifying me with
mental illusions.
Many of the concepts in this book are well accepted
as part of the cognitive revolution, a new collaboration based
on evidence from brain-scanning equipment and a healthy
dialogue between evolutionary biologists, psychologists,
philosophers, and mathematicians. This new consensus,
discussed in the many cognitive technical journals, has
many practical applications that have not previously been
explored. My goal of easy readability and emphasis on
useful applications rather than theory is served by confin-
ing technical details and references to the Notes chapter at
the end of the book.
ix
x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Credit for many of the concepts in this book must go

to the real leaders of the cognitive revolution: The late
Roger Sperry certainly deserved his Nobel Prize for start-
ing the whole thing back in the 1960s. His kind comments
and support of my previous book will be missed on this
one. Thanks also to Daniel Dennett, Michael Gazzaniga,
Gerald Edelman, Robert Solomon, and Donald Hebb,
whose ideas I have borrowed freely.
Thanks also to my son Robert for the art direction and
to the many friends who helped and encouraged me,
including Allyn Wiebold, Kyle Culley, Larry Zempel, Mel
Walsh, and Carolyn Wesson.
Contents
Chapter One: The Self-Organizing Mind 1

The Miracle of Spontaneous Organization 8
The Human Body: A Colony of Cells 10
The Emergence of Mind . . . . . . . . 11
The Emergence of Self . . . . . . . . 19
Context Switching . . . . . . . . . . 20
Sports and Creative Thinking Modules 24
The Mind as a Computer . . . . . . . 26
Chapter Two: Getting to Know Your Self
Module 29
The Self Module as Press Secretary 36
Gap Filling . . . . 37
Blindness Denial . . . 41
Other Fabrications . . 44
Why Did You Do That? 46
"I Wasn't Myself' . . . 48
xi
xii CONTENTS
Chapter Three: Time and Consciousness 51

Backdated Memory. . . . . . . 56
Is Consciousness in Control? . . 58
Is Consciousness Continuous? . . 61
Chapter Four: Memory nlusions 65
Memory Gap-Filling . . 69
Changing Memories . . 73
The Challenger Disaster 77
Modular Memory . . . . 79
Brain Damage Evidence 80
Parallel Memory Structures 81
Explaining versus Doing . . 82
I
Chapter Five: Other Concepts of Self 85

The Self in Other Cultures 90
The Concept of Time . . . . 93
Pain: A Learned Concept . . 96
The Boundaries of Self . . . 99
The Self-Concept in History 102
Chapter Six: False Beliefs III
Why We Have Wars . . . . . 114
Winners and Losers . . . . 118
Denial: Ignoring the Unthinkable. 119
The Placebo Effect 124
Mental Illness . 126
Financial Beliefs . 128
Urban Legends. . 129
An Urban Nightmare 131
Belief in Magic . 133
Auras and ESP. . . 134
CONTENTS xiii
Chapter Seven: Hypnosis and Other

Altered States 139
Hypnotism: Believed-in Imaginings 142
Creating Hidden Observers . . . . 146
Creating Multiple Consciousness . 149
Chapter Eight: Psychotherapy and
Multiple Personalities 153
Lobsters and Unicorns 156
Finding Your Modules . 159
Psychotherapy and Reality 162
Treating the Offending Modules 164
Training Your Fight Module . 165
Psychiatry and False Beliefs . . 169
Satanic Memories . . . . . . . 172
Chapter Nine: The Infant Brain 177
The Beginnings of Spontaneous Organization 183
Language Development . . . . . 187
Language and the Left Brain .. 188
Development of the Self-Concept 192
Self-Control . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Identifying Your Modules . . . . 195
Chapter Ten: Nonverbal Thinking 199
Words: Useful but Dangerous . 202
Nonverbal Consciousness . 206
Creative Thinking . . . . . 207
Improving Your Creativity . 210
The Reptilian Brain . . 212
Nonverbal Logic . . . . . . 215
The Logic of Emotions . . . 216
Flow: Silencing the Self Module . 219
xiv CONTENTS
Using Sports and Crafts . . . . 220

Developing Sensuous Thinking . 222
Chapter Eleven: Love-Merging
the Self 227
The Biological Basis of Love . 230
Smell and Sexual Chemistry 232
Body Language . . . . . . . 233
The Concept of Love. . . . . 235
Love and the Liberated Woman 237
The Love Module . . . . . . . 239
Sensuous Love . . . . . . . . 241
Chapter Twelve: The Empty Self 245
Filling the Void . . . . . 248
New Concepts of Control 249
The Meaning in Life . . . 252
Relearning Your Reality . 253
Appendix One: The Cognitive Revolution 255
The Split-Brain Experiments . . 258
The Cognitive Revolution . . . . . . . . . 264
Appendix Two: A Summary of
Conclusions 267
Notes 273
Selected Bibliography 291
Index 305
Beyond the
Conscious
Mind
Unlocking the
Secrets of the Self
CHAPTER ONE
The Self-Organizing
Mind
The eyes are not responsible when the mind does the seeing.
- PubLUius Syrus. 1 st century Be
The billions of neurons that constitute the human brain
are richly interconnected, not according to a precise wiring
plan like a computer, but more like the chaotic tangle of
plants in a jungle. In an awesome demonstration of the
power of self-organization and evolution, the miracle of
human consciousness emerges spontaneously from this
tangle of neurons. In recent years a new understanding of
this self-organizing process has emerged that revolution-
izes our understanding of the very nature of conscious-
ness.
Although our internal mental world feels like an in-
herent part of our very being, it is really an imagined
illusion defined, not by a physical network of neurons, but
rather, by a collection of learned concepts that we will refer
to here as the self-concept. This self-concept is learned in
childhood and serves to define the very nature of our
consciousness and our sense of self. It provides a mental
framework and a model for making sense of the continu-
ous flood of inputs from our sensory organs. These learned
3
4 CHAPTER ONE
concepts of reality are at such a basic level that we feel sure

that they are objective and immutable.
Since we learn our self-concept from our parents and
our culture, it varies greatly depending on where and
when we were born. It profoundly affects our under-
standing of the world and our ability to function success-
fully. The very nature of conscious experience in our
culture has evolved significantly as the self-concept has
evolved.
The physical evolution of the human brain proceeds
with glacial slowness, requiring tens of thousands of years
for any noticeable change, yet our species has repeatedly
made giant leaps where major changes in abilities oc-
curred in a single generation. The key to these rapid
changes is not in changes to the brain itself but in changes
to the self-concept.
A similar phenomenon is the reason computer tech-
nology has so rapidly taken over the world: Computers
can change their abilities dramatically without any change
in the physical hardware of the computer by simply load-
ing new software program.1 Likewise, the abilities of the
human brain and the sensation of human consciousness
can change dramatically without any physical change:
New mental software in the form of learned concepts can
transform the abilities of the human brain. When the self-
concept changes, the very nature of consciousness and
ability to affect the world can also change dramatically.
The incredible burst of progress and creativity of the
Greek philosophers and later during the Renaissance in
Europe can be attributed to new concepts of self that
elevated the power of the individual. When people
stopped thinking of themselves as pawns of fate and began
THE SELF-ORGANIZING MIND 5
seeing themselves as individuals in control of their own

fate, tremendous creative powers were unleashed. The
concept of the individual self being in control of destiny
changed the very experience of consciousness and the
effectiveness of human creativity.
Just as a computer can do marvelous new things when
a new software program is used, the human potential can
likewise change dramatically with revisions in the mental
software of our self-concept. Unfortunately, new software
often contains unforeseen bugs-undesirable side effects
from the very changes that improved performance. The
modem concept of a unique and separate self has pro-
duced amazing technological and material progress, but it
has also left many people with a feeling of emptiness and
despair. Several of today's critical social problems, such as
increased crime, suicide, and drug addiction, may well be
side effects of the same changes in consciousness that
brought us material progress.
The stone-age version of self still exists today in the
members of many primitive cultures. Their brains, iden-
tical to ours, experience a totally different reality. Their
world may be under the control of angry or friendly gods.
Their experience of time requires no clocks or calendars
or frantic efforts to make progress toward a better future.
They may in fact have no awareness of their selves as
separate entities and no concept of using introspection to
look into their own minds. All of these aspects of reality
that seem so real and inherent to our consciousness are
really illusions constructed in our mind using the self-
concepts we have been taught. If we had grown up in a
primitive tribe, the stone-age concepts of reality would
seem equally real and unquestionable.
6 CHAPTER ONE
If conscious awareness is so relative and determined

by concepts we have accidentally grown up with, what
difference could it make whether these concepts are true
or false? Though we can construct a conscious awareness
around any variety of nonsensical beliefs, if these concepts
are not in agreement with reality, we will obviously be at
a disadvantage. For example, the stone-age culture's expe-
rience of reality as under the control of their gods puts
them at a distinct disadvantage in dealing with people
who have the modem idea of a self that directly controls
events.
Our own culture's self-concept has a similarly dis-
abling major flaw. Our concept of consciousness presup-
poses a mental unity that is a gross distortion of the way
our mind actually works. We imagine a unified mental
world where all behavior emanates from a singular self.
Yet there is significant evidence that your brain is actually
organized into hundreds of independent centers of thought
called "modules." Each module is an independently think-
ing specialist that evolves to fill a specific need. What we
call the self is actually just one of these many modules. Though
this self module is usually not in control, we are taught to
imagine that the self module controls all behavior. Since this
belief forms the very core of our conscious experience, it
feels convincingly true.
In this scientific age it may seem amazing that our
understanding of the mind could be so basically incorrect
that we mistake a collection of separate centers of thought
for a singular mind. The reason this is possible is that
consciousness itself is nothing but a creative construction
of the mind. Our self-concept defines our conscious expe-
rience so that consciousness will, by definition, confirm
our beliefs-no matter how much they conflict with real-

ity. In other places and times many different self-concepts
have existed. All have been convincingly confirmed in the
conscious experience of the believer. The mind's amazing
ability to construct a conscious world that meets our ex-
pectations has kept the truth hidden because the illusion
is so persuasive.
Roger Sperry's Nobel prize-winning split-brain ex-
periments in the 1960s shook that confidence by clearly
demonstrating that when the two halves of the human
brain are surgically separated, at least two conscious
thinking entities can be demonstrated to simultaneously
exist in one head. 2 This discovery led him and others in
his team to reconsider the convincing illusion of mental
unity we all experience as normal consciousness. The re-
sulting explosion of new multidisciplinary thinking about
the mind has been called the cognitive revolution. The
falsehood of the single mind concept has finally been
exposed and replaced with an understanding of how the
mind spontaneously organizes into a collection of special-
ized modules of thought.
Unfortunately, the mental software of your self-con-
cept cannot simply be changed like a computer program
by just loading the new updated version. Your self-concept
is so basic that all perception is automatically interpreted
in a way that will confirm it---even if it conflicts with
reality. To change your self-concept you must ignore what
seems to be obvious and carefully examine the external
evidence. Old thought patterns will change only gradu-
ally, as you learn to reinterpret your conscious experience
around the new model, which is based on the actual modu-
lar organization of your mind.
8 CHAPTER ONE
In the chapters that follow we will gradually chip

away at the certainty you naturally feel about your self-
concept. By bringing your self-concept into harmony with
the physical reality of your brain's actual organization,
many of the mysteries of your own and others' behavior
will be clarified.
THE MIRACLE OF SPONTANEOUS

ORGANIZATION
Since we are all products of evolution, one of the most
powerful tools for understanding the human mind is com-
prehending how it evolved. Evolutionary principles apply
not only during the millennia of our physical evolution but
also in the shorter time frame of the development of the
infant brain into adulthood. The emergence of a conscious
mind from the tangle of neurons in a baby's brain has
always seemed like a miracle beyond the understanding
of science. A new scientific paradigm is finally providing
answers.
The exciting new sciences of chaos theory and com-
plexity3 are beginning to provide important insights into
a whole class of problems once considered too complex for
analysis. The 1972 Nobel prize went to Belgium's Ilya
Prigogine for his discovery of the basic principles of self-
organization. His insights apply to a wide range of prob-
lems where simple elements, like the neurons in an infant
brain, self-organize to produce marvelous and unexpected
emergent properties like consciousness.
Self-organizing systems turn out to be all around us,
producing complex emergent properties from simple ba-
sic elements. These powerful properties emerge spontane-

ously when simple components act together and are then
perfected by evolutionary forces into systems of incredible
complexity. The amazing thing about self-organization is
that individual elements spontaneously organize without
any outside coordinating control.
A simple example of spontaneous organization4 is a
beehive: Bee behavior has evolved so that a hive full of
bees has complex properties that naturally emerge with-
out any formal organization. Each bee simply behaves
according to its own genetic behavior pattern, yet the hive
temperature is regulated, the queen is fed, the hive is
defended and repaired, food is stored, and hundreds of
other details are accomplished without any executive in
charge of the operation. Individual bees survive only if the
hive survives, so evolution perfects the emergent properties of
the hive, not the behavior of a bee in isolation.
Bees automatically specialize in certain jobs such as
building cells, gathering nectar, guarding the hive, and
feeding larvae, depending on their age. 5 Experimenters have
found that if a certain age group is removed from the hive,
that niche will be filled by members of adjacent age
groups. Thus, a kind of natural selection occurs wherein
an individual bee continues guarding the hive entrance
longer if there seems to be a shortage of guards. Younger
bees take it upon themselves to graduate to guard duty
earlier if a shortage exists.
The emergent properties of the hive are a result of the
behavior of the individual bees but are impossible to pre-
dict by simply studying the individual bees. For example,
though the individual bee is not a warm-blooded animal,
the bee colony essentially is. Hive temperature is regulated
10 CHAPTER ONE
precisely at an elevated temperature by the concerted

action of the individual bees. On hot days some bees will
gather water and others will fan the hive with their wings.
THE HUMAN BODY:

A COLONY OF CELLS
Each cell of the human body is similarly an internal
beehive of activity. Tiny mitochondria independently
scurry around, taking care of energy needs inside each cell.
Individual red blood cells spend their lifetime traveling
around the bloodstream distributing oxygen throughout
the body, while antibodies protect it from disease. Again,
each individual cell simply does its own thing. The result
is exquisitely coordinated activity without any central con-
trol. The cells, like the bees, have evolved these behaviors
because the entire organism was able to survive when the
separate cells acted in this way.
Even on a day-to-day level, the evolutionary principle
of natural selection is the organizing principle right down
to the component cell level. When blood is lost as a result
of injury, the low population of red blood cells provides an
opportunity for more cells to survive, replenishing the
blood. Gaps are filled because they provide opportunities
in the competition for survival.
Science used to view our antibodies as reserves to be
called up by some mysterious central control, like an army,
when infection occurred. We now know that there is no
central control. We all have a complete collection of at least
one of each of the antibody types we will ever need-like
a locksmith's collection of skeleton keys. Each antibody
automatically divides whenever it encounters the kind of

invading cell it was designed to destroy. By this simple
mechanism, the population of antibodies for a particular
infection automatically increases dramatically as needed.
The large population of that antibody battles the infection
and gives us future immunity to prevent reinfection. 6
The more scientists understand living things, the more
they observe this kind of spontaneous organization, which
functions with no central controL Evolution encourages
cooperative action because survival of the species is im-
proved by it. Our ancestors survived because they evolved
antibodies that could destroy disease and had the ability to
multiply as required. These antibodies arose at some early
point in evolution and filled a gap in the organism's needs
in the same way that a plant or animal evolves to fill a niche
in an ecological system. "Nature abhors a vacuum" is a
basic principle of evolution, so if there is an unfilled niche,
something arises to fill it. This principle applies not only to
species in an ecosystem, but also to the independent ele-
ments in a self-organizing system.
THE EMERGENCE OF MIND
The emergence of a conscious mind from a tangle of

billions of neurons in an infant's brain is a miracle not
unlike the evolution of intelligent life on this planet. Both
result from the same evolutionary principles operating on
a vastly different time scale. The spontaneous organization
of the neurons in the brain can proceed relatively quickly
because it is based on learning mechanisms. The brain's
learning capability is based on reinforcement caused by
12 CHAPTER ONE
success: Whenever a successful result is obtained, the sy-

naptic connections between neurons that acted to produce
that result are reinforced. Chemical changes at the points
where the active synapses connect enhance their effective-
ness, essentially creating a structure out of the random
interconnections.
Spontaneous organization begins when neural con-
nections in an infant brain that accidentally produce a
successful result are reinforced. This reinforcement gives
them a better chance of producing the same behavior the
next time similar conditions occur. The first successful
reinforcements are for trivially simple behaviors, but as
more complex but related challenges occur, the reinforced
patterns may be extended and evolve to support gradually
more complex and varied behavior.
Sometimes, a new situation occurs where the pre-
vious learning is of no help. In this case a new cluster of
neurons may succeed and be reinforced. This new cluster
will tend to prevail whenever the new situation arises
again. This process results in a gradual, spontaneous or-
ganization of the neurons into useful specialized clusters,
which gradually evolve in complexity each time they are
successful in producing a positive result.
We will call these functional clusters of neurons with
learning-reinforced synapses modules because they can
each independently control behavior. The crude first suc-
cesses of a newly formed module in an infant become the
basis for future success in controlling behavior of ever-
increasing complexity. The modules compete for control,
which goes only to the one that has been the most rein-
forced in the current situation. This competition between
modules produces an evolutionary pressure that continu-
THE SELF·ORGANIZING MIND 13
ally improves the performance of each module at filling its

specific niche. Just as a single-celled animal ultimately
evolved into modem man, crude accidental behavioral
results of neuron modules can eventually evolve into ex-
quisitely complex behaviors.
Whenever a new challenge arises where the experi-
ence of the existing modules is of no help, a new module
may be created around a cluster of neurons if they happen
to accidentally produce successful behavior. Eventually
hundreds of separate, specialized modules spontaneously
organize, as needed, to fill the behavioral requirements of
the whole person. More often, an existing module's expe-
rience helps it to win the competition for control, adding
new behavior patterns to its repertoire if it is successfuL The
module's boundaries grow as the complexity of its behav-
ior evolves. This process whereby randomly connected
neurons can evolve into a collection of complex modules
of cognition was called neural Darwinism by Gerald
Edelman? the Nobel prize-winner who conceived it.
Since each of the modules is an independent center of
thought and all function simultaneously (like a parallel
computer), more than one module may try to respond to
a situation. To prevent conflict, only the strongest module
can gain control of the speech or movement mechanisms
at any given time (Figure 1). This control-by-the-strongest
mechanism prevents us from, for example, trying to say
two things at once (although stutterers may be trying to
do just that!). We can, however, talk and perform an unre-
lated movement task, like driving a car, simultaneously.
Note that the "strongest" generally means the one
most reinforced by success. The mind thus develops as a
collection of individually thinking modules all working in
14 CHAPTER ONE
FIGURE 1. A control mechanism in the brain (represented here

by the teacher) selects the most confident (not necessarily the most
competent) specialized module. Two separate mechanisms of
this type decide (1) which module will control speech and (2)
which will control body movement.
parallel. Sensory inputs and movement outputs are con-

nected to specific areas in the brain, so modules that re-
quire these connections tend to form close to the required
connections. Though sensory inputs can be available to all
interested modules, the fact that many modules may be
simultaneously active makes it necessary that speech and
movement capabilities each be controlled only by one strongest
module. Competitive control mechanisms make certain
that only one module controls speech and only one mod-
ule controls body movement. This competition for control

is an important part of the evolutionary pressure that
forces the modules to continually strive and improve.
A similar spontaneous organizing process occurs
whenever a leaderless group of people gets together-for
example, as roommates. Slight differences in abilities
gradually intensify as people naturally pitch in to main-
tain the household. Usually one person, who is neater than
the rest, is the first to be annoyed by the mess. That person
gradually becomes the cleanup specialist. Another room-
mate may like to cook and will tend to become the food
preparer. With each meal he becomes a better cook and
more established as the cook. Another roommate, alarmed
by the stack of bills, takes charge of paying the bills and
keeping track of expenses. Each time an individual does
his specialized task, he become more proficient and more
habitual about doing that job again.
The brain undergoes a similar process from birth on,
with each thinking module emerging to fill a need-start-
ing with a very basic capability like recognizing the
mother's face or grasping her finger. As the baby matures,
these simple beginnings gradually evolve into increasingly
complex behaviors. Extra groups of uncommitted neurons
always compete for control also, but usually they are out-
done by an existing, more evolved cluster of neurons al-
ready organized into a module with relevant experience.
Occasionally, a novel situation arises where one of the
aspiring new clusters of neurons wins the competition
because none of the existing modules has any experience
appropriate for the task. Whenever a new module gains
control, it is reinforced and set on a path to becoming a
new specialist. Each success allows the module to become
16 CHAPTER ONE
better able to prevail in a similar context in the future. New

situations can thus give birth to new modules less fre-
quently as maturity is reached. Usually, an existing mod-
ule's experience allows it to easily outdo any new
competitors. For example, if a module is established for
recognizing faces, it will generally prevail when we en-
counter a new face, but it mayor may not win when a child
tries to read her first word. Behavior patterns thus evolve
continually as conditions change.
An infant's brain development is similar to the evo-
lution of life on a newly created planet. Just as creatures
evolved on earth to fill ecological niches, modules of
thinking capability develop to fill a person's needs.
Again, "nature abhors a vacuum," so neurons organize
to meet specific challenges as they spontaneously organ-
ize and then evolve to meet the individual's changing
needs. Brain modules may also gradually become ex-
tinct through disuse if we no longer use them. If we
played baseball as a child, that module may become
extinct in old age or evolve into a sports module that
includes golf. A new module might not form because
some of the baseball experience may be relevant the first
time we try to play golf.
Sometimes an accident or stroke kills part of the brain.
Since brain cells cannot divide, repairs are effected strictly
by reorganization using this same evolutionary mecha-
nism. Just as extinction of one species of animal or plant
allows another to evolve into its ecological niche, brain
damage is healed by the evolution of other modules. They
can now succeed where they previously lost to competi-
tion with the now-damaged module. Stroke victims must
often relearn skills just as a child would, starting from
scratch with a new module forming in a healthy cluster of

neurons to replace the damaged one.
As early as 1949, Donald Hebb, in the book The Or-
ganization of Behavior, speculated that neuron structures
with synaptic interconnections that strengthen with use
would naturally organize themselves into useful cell as-
semblies. John Holland, working at the then new com-
puter company IBM, began a project to write a computer
program that would simulate Hebb's neural networks.
The results were fascinating, with uniform arrays of simu-
lated neurons spontaneously organizing into cell assem-
blies as predicted. 8 In 1980 at the University of Pittsburgh,
Steven Smith's poker-playing program based on this same
neural network learning-from-success approach easily
beat the current conventional program. 9
Looking at the chaotic nature of the evolutionary
process, it is not surprising that each individual's brain
develops into a unique organization. The critical decision
points where a new module mayor may not be formed
may be very close competitions whose outcomes could be
changed by tiny differences in conditions. Yet each deci-
sion starts development down a unique path that may
profoundly affect many future decision points. Many
reading and learning handicaps are started when learning
of the new skill gets off on the wrong track with a strategy
that works only in the short term.
Even identical twins don't have identical neural wir-
ing. The neurons grow like blades of grass on a lawn:
Though they follow the same rules, the network of roots
and blades of grass on each lawn is different in detail. Tiny
defects and chance events can eventually develop into
large differences. The development of the brain before
18 CHAPl'ER ONE
birth also follows evolutionary principles: Over 70% of the

neurons in some specifically mapped parts of the develop-
ing brain die in a kind of competition before birth. Even
after birth over 1000 neurons die every day, forcing a contin-
ual restructuring. Since neurons cannot divide like other
cells, no neurons are created after birth.
Though most of the brain consists of chaotic tangles of
connections between neurons, there are some very well
defined structures concerned with the connection of sen-
sory inputs and speech and body movement outputs. Spe-
cific parts of the body connect to specific places in the brain.
The connection point of these mapped structures gives an
advantage to specific parts of the brain for certain tasks. The
eye, for example, has about 20 specifically mapped connec-
tions of preprocessed data to the brain. These maps are
specialized for such things as motion, color, and shape.
Other mapped connections exist for hearing specific fre-
quencies and for moving or feeling specific parts of the
body. Clearly this arrangement causes certain general areas
of the brain to be favored to spontaneously organize for
certain tasks. Preprocessing structures such as speech rec-
ognizing and generating structures can be incorporated in
many different modules as needed. Modules can also over-
lap and use parts of each other's resources as needed.
New brain-scanning techniques such as the PET
scanlO actually monitor the metabolic activity of the brain
in three dimensions and in great detail. These scans con-
firm that most tasks utilize multiple centers of activity in
the brain. For a given individual the active areas for a
particular task will be consistent (though they may change
with strategy changes as the task is practiced). Because of
the uniqueness of individual brain organization, the exact
physical locations of the modules vary considerably be-

tween individuals (see Figure 10, p. 186). This variability
is to be expected in any spontaneously organized system.
THE EMERGENCE OF SELF

As soon as a child learns to speak, she begins to be
exposed by her parents to their self-concept. At this age the
self-concept is a greatly simplified good-girl/bad-girl
idea, but it is a start. Her parents may question her about
why she behaved in a certain way and about what she was
thinking at the time. The module that takes on this task
will become increasingly important as it develops into
what we will call the self module.
Even at this tender age the disassociation between
behavior and the attempted explanations by the self mod-
ule may be obvious. The self module is the specialist in
explaining behavior, but in many circumstances the be-
havior being explained was actually controlled by some
other specialist module that won the competition to take
control. ll In fact, there may well be a fighting-with-your
brother module that actually caused the behavior, but the
self module will still try to make the explanations because
explaining behavior is one of its specialties.
With practice the self module gets pretty good at
making up explanations for behavior. In a later chapter we
will discuss research showing that most of these explana-
tions, and the belief system developed to support them,
are pure conjecture. As with anything practiced repeat-
edly, the explanations soon start to have the natural feel of
direct, intimate knowledge.
20 CHAPTER ONE
Other cultures view reality totally differently from

what seems natural to us. If you had grown up in a culture
such as the Chewong tribe of Malaysia, you would natu-
rally explain your questionable behavior as the result of
external demons. There are many ways to explain the
causes of behavior, but the culturally defined self-concept
learned in childhood will always seem most natural to us.
A Chewong tribesman would find our explanations for
personal behavior ridiculous. In the chapters that follow,
we will review scientific evidence indicating that our mod-
ern Western way is as misguided as those of the Chewong.
By the time a child reaches the teen years, the self
module is almost fully developed. This module is ex-
tremely important because it is the specialist in logically
planning for the future and also for all calm explanations
of behavior. In our culture the self module may assert
control of behavior more or less often depending on how
the individual has developed. Some people can dedicate
themselves to a logical goal and resist all temptations and
emotional distractions to achieve that goal. We would say
that these people have strong self-control. Others appear
to have little self-control and become addicts or criminals.
For some people, the self module is seldom in control of
behavior except when it comes to making excuses or ra-
tionalizing. Good self-control and strong will both indicate
a well-developed, confident self module.
CONTEXT SWITCHING
The self-concept most of us have grown up with

denies the existence of separate modules and tries to ex-
plain behavior as though the self module is always in

control. It takes a lot of practice to learn to recognize the
different modules kicking in and controlling your own and
other peoples' behavior.
The human mind has an uncanny ability to switch
modules instantly when the context changes. Multilingual
people, for example, can effortlessly switch modules and
reply in the correct language when spoken to in either one.
Often, different styles of gesturing and reacting to others
will also be part of the package. The switch from one
module to another is effortless and unconscious: The ap-
propriate module simply wins the competition for control
because it feels more confident in the momentary context.
Though it is possible that some people could develop the
habit of handling a second language in the same module
as their primary language, brain damage cases where one
language is lost and the other retained provide strong
evidence of the existence of separate modules.
A similar instant switching can be observed with
other changes in context. Behavior patterns can be notice-
ably different for each kind of relationship. One person can
instantly switch between mother, daughter, boss, and
lover-becoming a different person depending on the con-
text within which she finds herself. Teenage boys often
develop a unique style for hanging out with their buddies.
This includes swearing, spitting, swaggering, and acting
disrespectfully. With their mother, however, a completely
different behavior module is engaged: a gentle style, often
soft-spoken, more articulate, and without profanity. Acase
in point is the gangster who is a tough, ruthless murderer
to his enemies yet warm, loving, and honorable to his
family and friends.
22 CHAPTER ONE
Though the current acceptance of mental modules by

cognitive scientists started in the 1960s, earlier minds have
grasped and discussed the importance of these changes of
personality with context. In 1890 William James wrote,
" ... we may practically say that he has as many different
social selves as there are distinct groups of persons about
whose opinion he cares. He generally shows a different
side of himself to each of these different groups." Sigmund
Freud grasped the inconsistencies between behavior and
the verbal explanations of the ego, which turns out to be
quite similar to the self module.
Early in this century Armenian philosopher and spiri-
tual teacher George Gurdjief£12 wrote:
Man has no individual I. But there are, instead, hun-
dreds and thousands of separate small I's, very often
entirely unknown to one another, never coming into
contact, or, on the contrary, hostile to each other,
mutually exclusive and incompatible. Each minute,
each moment, man is saying or thinking "I." And
each time I is different. Just now it was a thought,
now it is a desire, now a sensation, now another
thought, and so on, endlessly. Man is a plurality.
Our behavior modules have a life of their own: They
evolve with time and changing surroundings and may re-
main inactive for long periods of time. The teenager's hang-
ing out with the buddies module is a descendent of his early
childhood play relationships and may undergo significant
evolution when he goes to college. When he graduates, this
behavior module may remain dormant until a class reunion
or may evolve into a bar room or sports context.
Fighting behavior is partly instinctive and partly
learned in childhood from observing parents. This special-
THE SELF-ORG.ANIZING MIND 23
ized fight module can instantly gain control of a person in

a context of hostility or threats. Its reaction can be com-
pletely inconsistent with the avowed belief system of the
self, which may later attempt to explain the action. Often,
the memory of events that occurred in a fight may be
vague or even incorrect.
Inactive modules have access to sensory inputs, but
they may not pay attention to or even understand what is
happening when another module is in control. When the
self module discusses what happened in a fight, for exam-
ple, it is like a bystander who observed the fight (which
was under control of the fight module) without following
everything that happened. When we try to recall what
happened in an automobile accident, for example, we may
find that the memory is very vague because the self mod-
ule was busy talking or paying attention to other things
before the impact.
Most routine driving is handled by a specialized driv-
ing module while you carry on a conversation, listen to the
radio, or think about something else. Though you have
been making decisions, stopping at traffic lights, and read-
ing street signs, your memory of these actions, as told by
your self, is often completely blank when you arrive at
your destination.
Many people can hold a conversation on the tele-
phone and simultaneously scan the headlines on a news-
paper or write down notes of things to do. Sometimes
while we are speaking another part of us has an idea of
what to say next or even remembers something totally
unrelated. While we listen to the other person in conver-
sation we are often simultaneously planning what we are
going to say next. The "cocktail party phenomenon" al-
24 CHAPTER ONE
lows you to be alerted to a subject of great interest being

discussed in a remote comer of the room while you are
listening to the much louder vocalizations of your own
discussion partner.
If a person is angry but speaking words that deny the
anger, body language, facial expressions, and even tone of
voice often betray the true feelings. In this case one module
is controlling speech and another is controlling body
movements. All of these examples of parallel thinking
clearly demonstrate the independence of our modules.
Each is capable of independent thoughts, feelings, and
memories-almost like a separate person.
SPORTS AND CREATIVE THINKING

MODULES
Sports provide an excellent illustration of the separate
modules of the mind. It is not uncommon to talk while
playing a sport. There is very little interference because
generally the self module does the talking, while a nonver-
bal module that has evolved for playing that sport simul-
taneously executes the movements. (Remember, as Figure
1 shows, speech and movement control is resolved inde-
pendently.) Interestingly, verbal comments on your own
game sound like those of a separate person. The self mod-
ule often becomes angry at bad performance or missed
shots and even shouts suggestions. Sometimes the self
module will even seize control of the movements-usu-
ally with disastrous results. When we initially learn a
sport, no skilled module exists to compete with the self. As
a result, the self module may win the competition for
control, resulting in awkward, verbally directed move-

ments. When a sport is truly mastered and you want to
explain it to someone else, you may actually have to watch
yourself do the movements, and describe what you see.
The self module may not know how to perform a specific
movement so it must watch the performance of the mod-
ule controlling the movement to discover the secret. This
splitting of yourself into two separate people is an excel-
lent demonstration of the true independence of the parallel
modules of the mind.
Creative thinking is another area where parallel activ-
ity of separate modules sometimes becomes obvious.
Flashes of insight seem to come from out of the blue, and
we have no idea from where they came. In fact, as I write
this book, I have no idea where the words and thoughts
come from. I have read and contemplated a great deal
about the subject, but yesterday I was unable to write a
word; today, for some reason, the words flow effortlessly.
In its own time some module in my mind starts pouring
out the words that I am only too happy to transcribe.
Mozart claimed that entire symphonies came to him
in a flash so that he only had to write them down. Everyone
has had an "aha!" experience where the solution to a
knotty problem suddenly becomes clear. Such moments of
insight are the result of mental processes that have been
active outside of our conscious awareness while we were
doing other things. Clearly, other modules are actively
working on problems and doing creative thinking totally
outside of the awareness of our self module. The very
source of genius may often be a module we have no
awareness of except when it occasionally provides us with
its gift.
26 CHAPTER ONE
THE MIND AS A COMPUTER
Digital computers, built with circuits a million times

faster than the neurons in the brain, are still pathetically
dumb in many ways. The reason for this is a basic differ-
ence in their organization: The mind has a parallel organi-
zation with hundreds of specialized processing modules
simultaneously active. Since it is self-organizing, the mind
is continuously adapting, modifying, and customizing its
structure to deal with the individual's unique environ-
ment and challenges. If an additional need arises, a new
special-purpose module will spontaneously organize to
fill the gap. A never-ending evolutionary process keeps
polishing the organization to fit the tasks at hand.
The reason we so often hear the mind being compared
to a computer is that our self-concept tends to ignore the
other modules that do their work in paralleL The fact is,
computers are patterned after only the self module and
leave out all of the other modules. It is a historical fact that
when John Von Neumann invented the computer he was
attempting to model his own ster-by-step thought proc-
esses as seen by introspection.1 Since the self module
specializes in introspection and explaining behavior but
can only guess at the activity of other modules, our most
important thought processes are usually invisible to intro-
spection.
The self module is language oriented and logical and
thinks in a step-by-step manner-just like a computer.
Computers, with circuits a million times faster than the
neurons in our brain, run circles around us in this type of
step-by-step processing. The fact that they tum out to be
totally uncreative and inferior to the human mind in so
many other ways makes it obvious that they are lacking

some very important features.
Since we have plenty of computers to help us in linear
tasks, it seems doubly important that we gain a better
understanding of those other, less visible, parts of our
minds. We must learn to look past the mental illusions
created by our faulty self-concept and learn to appreciate
and use the other crucial modules of our mind.
Changing our self-concept to accept the existence of
other modules is not easy; we have been living with our
self-centered view all of our lives. Just as people during
the Middle Ages, accustomed to visualizing themselves as
the center of the universe, had a hard time accepting the
idea of orbiting around the sun, our self-concept will not
change easily. It takes time and much effort to change such
basic habitual patterns of thinking. The first step we must
take is to come to a new understanding of ourselves.
CHAPTER TWO
Getting to Know Your

SeljModule
The spirit is the true self, not the physical figure

which can be pOinted out by your finger.
- Cicero, c. 51 Be
Beware of no man more than thyself.

- Thomas Fuller; 1732
Introspection means looking inside your own mind. It is
risky business because the act of looking alters the very
thoughts you are trying to observe. Introspection is so
notoriously unreliable that the behaviorist movement,
which dominated psychology between 1915 and 1965,
completely rejected it. The cognitive revolution, which is
now the dominant force in psychology, takes the more
enlightened view-accepting the importance of conscious
thought processes but remaining cautious about the accu-
racy of introspection.
Our new understanding of the mind as a collection of
specialized modules of thought neatly explains why intro-
spection is sometimes so unreliable: One module naturally
becomes the introspection specialist, so introspection is ac-
curate only within that module. All other introspection is
imaginative fabrication and therefore unreliable. We will
define the self module as the one that does introspection. This
important module also specializes in many other related tasks
that involve calm, logical, verbal analysis and planning. We
31
32 CHAPTER TWO
will call the set of basic assumptions used by the self

module to make sense of the world the self-concept.
If your self-concept includes a belief that introspec-
tion can explain all behavior, then your self module will
do its best to fabricate plausible explanations for behavior
even when it must depend only on observation and guess-
work. The purpose of this chapter is to help you learn to
recognize the work of your self module so that your
self-concept can be brought into line with reality. With
much practice you can learn to make a distinction be-
tween real introspection within the self module and inac-
curate fabrications.
When you try to use introspection to look into your
own mind, you are generally in a calm, logical, verbal state
of mind. The mental module that is active in this thought-
ful state is what we will call the self module. Notice that
in this state you are aware of consciousness and may even
be able to follow a verbal train of thought that is a little like
talking to yourself. 1 Though you certainly make many
decisions without any internal verbalization, when you do
think in words and are aware of the process, it is clearly
the work of the self module. The self module has no direct
access to the thought processes of other modules.
If I ask you your mother's maiden name, it just pops
into your mind. If I then ask you to explain how you
remembered it, you will draw a blank. Introspection sim-
ply doesn't work because the process used for retrieving
the name was an unconscious one. If I now ask you how
many windows you have in your home, you will probably
have to use a logical step-by-step process of visualizing
each room and counting the windows. Your self module
will be aware of the step-by-step process because the self
GETTING TO KNOW YOUR SELF MODULE 33
module is actually controlling the steps of the thinking

process. You will probably be conscious of the process and
be able to introspect and describe it. Just how you accessed
the visual images of the rooms is another matter, because
they came from a different module.
If I give you two objects and ask you which is heavier,
you will easily indicate the heavier one, but you will again
draw a blank when it comes to using introspection to
explain how you got your answer. Consciousness is not
necessary for many kinds of thinking, but it does accompany the
logical thinking of the self. The simple reason for this is that
the self module is the one that talks about consciousness
and introspection. "Talks about" in the previous sentence
betrays a hidden meaning in our concept of consciousness:
It is based on language and our verbal description of the
conscious experience. If a person is sleepwalking or in a
trance state and we want to see if he is conscious, we
probably would talk to him and see if he responds. If he
ignores us, we would probably say that he is "uncon-
scious" even though he is walking around and acting
otherwise normally.
Language is the very basis of introspection and logical
thought; without it there would be no consciousness as we
presently know it. Of course there are other kinds of
consciousness. People have had the entire speaking hemi-
sphere of their brain surgically removed because of a
tumor and yet have retained a kind of nonverbal con-
sciousness and much of their normal behavior and non-
verbal personality.2 Language so dominates our view of
consciousness and introspection that these other kinds of
consciousness are almost always ignored. It is not surpris-
ing that the self module has been able to fool us for so long.
34 CHAPTER TWO
Once you begin trying to look into your own mind to

see how common things are done, you soon realize that
you are unable to explain most of them. For example, how
do you walk? How do you say the word "walk"? How do
you climb a ladder? All of these examples are actually
quite complex activities that require considerable knowl-
edge for their performance, yet we cannot bring that
knowledge to consciousness.
Of course, you can study these activities and develop
an ability to describe them in detail, but you would prob-
ably do it only by observing yourself in action. In fact, you
could probably learn more by observing somebody else.
You clearly don't have any direct personal access to this
knowledge using introspection. It is unconscious knowl-
edge. The majority of our knowledge and thinking is of
this unconscious variety and is therefore usually com-
pletely ignored.
Yet, there are certain kinds of conscious thoughts that
are easily recalled through introspection: These are the
thoughts of the self module. Easily identifiable examples
would be situations where you exercise self-control to
overcome a natural emotional tendency, laziness, or bad
habit: when you don't eat a dessert because it is fattening,
or if you have a goal of becoming a concert pianist and you
consciously decide to stay home and practice even though
you want to go out with friends. These are examples of the
self module at work. Free will, long-term planning, and
practicing of skills are all the uniquely human work of the
self module. It is interesting how perfectly the common
usage of the term "self-control" can be taken to mean
"under control of the self module." We will use it in that
sense.
Though our culture encourages an all-powerful indi-

vidual self, each person develops a unique self module
that may be powerful or weak when it comes to controlling
behavior. If you are considered strong-willed and logical,
you have a self module accustomed to prevailing even
when other modules feel strongly that they should prevail.
Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., both accom-
plished great things by overcoming their natural human
tendencies to fight against injustice through the usual
violent means. Virtually everybody has a fight module
that specializes in taking control of violent conflict or
threatening situations. These two men had self modules
strong enough to prevail even when they were challenged
by beatings and massacres. They exercised self-control.
Deceit is another clear area where the self module is
in control. If we pretend to like our boss because we know
it will help us advance, our self module is consciously
overcoming our natural reactions. One of the survival
values of consciousness in evolution is that it enabled our
ancestors to utilize deception in order to survive captivity
by pretending to cooperate with the captor until the op-
portunity arose for escape. The self module makes long-
term plans and can override other modules to accomplish
that plan.
Another clearly self-controlled behavior is when we
consciously shift direction. Deciding to change jobs,
change colleges, get a divorce, or change routes while
driving to a new destination are all conscious decisions in
which we are aware of the actual thought process.
Logical problem solving, where we break things up
into components and make step-by-step decisions, is an-
other clearly conscious behavior. Often, we will use other
36 CHAPTER TWO
modules for the substeps of such thinking, but the guid-

ance by logic is a process of the self module. Long-term
planning toward any kind of goal usually requires the
conscious guidance of the self. Often self-control is what
keeps us on track toward the goal, and we are always
aware of this process.
If you think for a moment about how much of your
actual life is spent doing the kinds of thinking we have just
discussed, you will see that for at least 90% and possibly
as much as 99% of your day, the self module is not in
control. If unconscious modules of the mind are usually in
control, why do we seem to be continually conscious and
able to explain our behavior? The answer, we will show, is
related to an amazing ability of the mind to fill in gaps and
fabricate a reality that delivers what our self-concept leads
us to expect.
THE SELF MODULE AS PRESS

SECRETARY
The modem Western concept of the self in control of
virtually all behavior puts your self module in the uncom-
fortable position of having to bluff and fabricate, much like
a Presidential press secretary does. Press secretaries have
the difficult task of authoritatively explaining why things were
done without actually having any part in the decision process
itself. They do their job, very convincingly, by constructing
a model in their mind of the beliefs and goals of the
administration based on past statements and acts. This
model is used to explain logically all actions of the admini-
stration in a positive light. Since consistency is important,
interpretations are bent to fit the model, and the model is

continually adapted to fit new actions. Many press secre-
taries have been able to do their job, convincingly, with
virtually no contact with the President.
There is strong evidence that most of our introspec-
tion and explanations for our actions are similarly done by
guesswork. We are brought up with the idea that we can
explain all of our actions, and, with practice, we become
pretty good at it. As with anything we practice a lot, it soon
begins to feel effortless and real. Eventually, we develop a
convincing feeling that the self module is actually control-
ling all behavior-just as we were taught.
Freud and others have taught us that certain bizarre
behavior problems are a result of the unconscious mind.
Though most people have accepted that idea, we haven't
begun to appreciate the extent of normal behavior con-
trolled by unconscious processes. Our mind does such a
good job filling in gaps to create the reality we expect that
we don't even notice the inconsistencies.
GAP FILLING
A dramatic example of the brain's ability to fill gaps

by fabrication is the blind spot in your vision where the
optic nerve connects to the retina. This gap in vision is a
circle about ten times larger than the image of a full moon in
the sky. If you close your right eye, the blind spot is about
one-third to the left of the center of your vision. Try closing
your right eye and looking around the room right now. The
brain does such a convincing job of filling in the blind spot
Be sure to keep trying until you see this demonstration work because it is extremely important. We will
repeatedly refer back to the ability demonstrated by this figure. The important thing is that your
imagination is so convincing in its ability to fill in what is necessary to preserve a nice orderly world
that fits your beliefs. This is a basic part of the way your brain works which shows itself in many other
areas also. The filling in is so convincing that it is hard to believe that it is not real --yet
what is filled in is only a guess and therefore may be dangerously deceptive This text could as
well be any pattern, or a red spot, or different type sizes. What your brain fills rn is what it believes
to be there, just as our perception fills in to create a world that confirms our beliefs. If those beliefs
are false, as is the belief that there is no hole in this text, we may make serious errors in interpreting
reality.
FIGURE 2. Close your right eye and hold the book about 8 inches in front of you while your left eye
stares directly at the X. Adjust the book position until the hole in the text disappears. Your brain easily
fills in words to cover up for the blind spot in your vision (where your optic nerve enters the retina).
This tendency of the brain to imaginatively fill-in gaps to make the world seem normal is the cause of
much confusion in the world.
by fabricating imagined vision that you may still be skeptical

about the existence of a blind spot.
To eliminate that doubt, close your right eye and stare
at the X at the right of the block of text in Figure 2. Move
the book closer or farther away until the hole in the text
disappears. Be sure to hold the book level with the X about
8 inches directly in front of your left eye. 3
Notice that your brain does much more than simply
ignore the blind spot-it actually seems to fabricate words to
fill the gap! Of course you can't read the words because they
are in the part of your vision that is actually fuzzy (though
you normally never notice that it is fuzzy), and moving
your eye moves the blind spot. This demonstration also
works with any pattern or color. If the hole is in a green
plaid pattern, the brain will appear to fill in green plaid. If
it is in a wallpaper pattern of little pictures of rabbits, it
will seem to fill in rabbits. Of course, the brain doesn't
really need to fill in anything. What it really does is simply
not register a change. Our perception is not like a TV
camera, but more like imagination, so actual filling in is
not necessary.4
In fact, your brain fills in much more than the blind
spot. The image on the retina of your eye is constantly
jiggling around as your eyes move to capture details. Figure
3 shows a trace of the unconscious eye movements of a
person simply looking at a picture of a face. S (You can see
the emphasis on the eyes and mouth.) The eye must con-
stantly move around to see details because your vision is
really sharp only in a tiny area the size of your thumbnail at
arm's length. This area, called the fovea, contains as many
sensors as the rest of your retina combined. In spite of this,
the mental illusion is of an instantly perceived image that
40 CHAPTER TWO
FIGURE 3. A plot of actual eye movements while a person

studied a picture of a face. Notice the extra attention to the eyes
and mouth. We all make these movements unconsciously to
piece together a complete picture in our mind since our sharp
vision is confined to a tiny area about the size of a thumbnail at
arm's length. We only imagine that we see a nice steady picture
which is sharp everywhere. (From Higher Cortical Functions in
Man, 2nd edition, by A. R. Luria. Copyright © 1979 by Consult-
ants Bureau Enterprises, Inc. and Basic Books, Inc. Reprinted by
permiSSion of Basic Books, a division of HarperCollins Publish-
ers Inc.) For additional territory, please contact Consultants
Bureau, 227 West 17th St., New York, N.Y. 10011.
seems sharp and in full color over the entire field of vision.
Much of the color is also imagined because your color vision
works only in a 30 degree circle at the center ofyourfield ofvision.
Your brain takes this jittery image with a hole in it,
sharp only in the middle, and with no peripheral color and
uses it to imagine the consistently clear, steady, full-color
picture you have come to expect. Obviously, we must be
very cautious about accepting anything we perceive at face
value because the brain is so good at fabricating to satisfy
our expectations.
Most magic tricks depend on the fact that what we see
is largely imagined. The magician uses misdirection to
distract your detailed vision to something else while he
actually performs the trickery in the fuzzy area that you
only imagine you see clearly.
BLINDNESS DENIAL
One dramatic demonstration of just how convincing
the mind's fabrications can be is called Anton's syndrome
or blindness denial. Sometimes brain injury leaves the pa-
tient totally blind yet completely unaware of the blindness. To
quote a doctor's description: "Asked to describe the doc-
tor's tie the patient may say that it is a blue tie with red
spots when in fact the doctor is wearing no tie at all. When
pressed further the patient may volunteer the information
that the light in the room seems a little dim.,,6
How could a person be blind and not know it? You
should know since, as Figure 2 demonstrated, you have a
blind spot yourself that you don't even notice! When no visual
image presents itself, the brain simply accommodates and
42 CHAPTER TWO
fills in with imagination-just as convincingly as you fill

in your blind spot. Remember the principle of competition
between modules. Without the competition from the vis-
ual system, the visual imagination is free to "imagine in"
the needed images. In sensory deprivation experiments
people usually have strong visual hallucinations. Just
think of what happens when you talk repeatedly to some-
one on the phone whom you have never seen: You gradu-
ally develop an imaginary mental picture of that person.
This can become shockingly obvious when you finally
meet in person. You may be surprised to find that the tall
blonde you have been imagining as you talk on the tele-
phone is actually a short brunette!
Imagination is such an important part of color vi-
sion that, though you have color sensors only in the
middle 30 degrees of your vision, it is difficult to dem-
onstrate this fact to yourself. If you fix your eyes on
something straight in front of you while you move a
brightly colored object gradually into your field of vi-
sion, you should be able to see the color appear only
when the object is halfway into your visual field. How-
ever, it is important that you don't see the object first or
let your eyes move even for a brief glance because once
you know the color your brain will naturally fill it in and
you will think you see the color. You may have to have
a friend help you by hiding the object and watching your
eyes against unconscious cheating. If your friend wig-
gles the object, you will see that it is there before you can
recognize the shape. Next, as the object moves in, you
will be able to identify vertical versus horizontal, then
the shape, color, and, finally, small details. In spite of
these limitations, peripheral vision is imagined to be

sharp and in full color.
In his early experiments with color, Dr. Edwin Land,
the inventor of the Polaroid instant camera, developed a
two-color system where images of only the red and the
white components of the image were superimposed. The
amazing result was a full color image. A photo of a fruit
bowl would include purple grapes, yellow bananas, and
all of the normal colors. The only problem was that much
of the color was imagined so that, if they had photographed
a fruit bowl where the banana had been dyed blue, you
would still have seen a nice yellow banana! When you look
through colored sunglasses you can make similar mistakes
since they actually block many of the colors you think you
are seeing.
Our depth vision also draws on a lot of imagination.
If you want to experience three-dimensional television,
just hold a pair of sunglasses up to your face such that only
one eye has a lens in front of it. When you watch any action
scene where the camera is following a moving object such
as a runner or sports car, the dark lens will slow your eye's
response to motion so that the moving image of the back-
ground will lag slightly. This tiny shift in position is enough
to give a strong impression of a realistic three-dimensional
image. Our brain takes subtle clues and uses imagination
to extrapolate them into dramatic three-dimensional
vision.
When you read text, your eyes make abrupt move-
ments three to five times a second, pausing briefly on, at
most, a few words at a time as you move through the text.
Each time your eyes move, your vision goes blank for
1/50th of a second before and 1/30th of a second after the
44 CHAPTER TWO
movement. When you read a screen full of text on a

computer you are really seeing a blinking series of snap-
shots as your eye scans the screen. A fascinating demon-
stration of this can be made by connecting an optical
device for monitoring eye movements to a computer pro-
grammed to change words randomly on the screen when-
ever an eye movement is detected. The resulting display
looks rock-solid to the person whose eye movements are
being monitored, yet other observers, whose eyes are mov-
ing at different times, see a screen amazingly "aquiver
with changes.,,7
OTHER FABRICATIONS
The reason for the digression about vision is that it is

easy proof of the mind's power to convincingly fabricate,
as needed, to meet our expectations. Filling in gaps with
imagination is a pervasive characteristic of the mind that
is not limited to vision. For example, the auditory equiva-
lent to filling in, called the phoneme restoration effect,
allows us to understand speech in the presence of noise
from a jetliner or a bad telephone connection. Gaps in the
sound are unconsciously filled in by the brain. Another
example is the "proofreader effect," which causes us to not
see obviously missing words and spelling errors when we
read a manuscript.
More to the point is the equally powerful illusion the
mind produces to satisfy the expectations of our self-con-
cept. We expect to be able to explain all of our behavior by
using introspection, so the self module obliges by filling in
using imagination. Just as part of what we see visually is
real and part is imagined, part of introspection is real and

part is fabrication. The big difference is that, while visual
filling in is almost always harmless, if we take our fabri-
cated introspection seriously it can seriously impede our
understanding of our own actions and our interaction
with others. We all have personal beliefs and desires that
our self module can discuss. We sometimes act on those
beliefs when the self module is in control, but most of our
behavior is actually controlled by other modules. Most of
the time the self module is not in control.
There is a large body of experimental literature on
cognitive dissonance that demonstrates that beliefs are
often constructed to harmonize with our actions, rather
than vice versa. Cognitive dissonance is created when our
behavior doesn't match our actions, and numerous ex-
periments show that people often eliminate that disso-
nance by changing their avowed beliefs after such a
conflict. In one such study,8 students were first given a
questionnaire to assess their beliefs about cheating on
tests. Some of the students strongly disapproved of cheat-
ing, while others thought it not so bad. The students were
later given an important exam structured so that it was
easy to cheat; the subjects didn't know it but the experi-
menters were carefully monitoring them for cheating.
Some of the students who had said they strongly disap-
proved of cheating did cheat on the test, while some of
the others, who didn't disapprove strongly, were nonethe-
less honest on the test.
After the test, the students were again questioned
about the morality of cheating. The students whose be-
havior had been in conflict with their previously stated
beliefs were found to have changed their beliefs to match
46 CHAPTER TWO
their behavior: If they had cheated, they now felt that cheat-
ing was not so bad; if they had been tolerant of cheating
before, but been honest on the test, they were now more
disapproving of cheating.
It appears that, in some cases, the decision to cheat
was made by a module other than the self, but the self, as
press secretary, modified the belief system so it would no
longer conflict with its own observed behavior. Of course,
a strong-willed student could have consciously exercised
self-control to override the temptation to cheat. However,
as the results showed, this often doesn't happen.
WHY DID YOU DO THAT?

When we practice something enough to become an
expert, we often get the feeling of a kind of sixth sense or
feel for the subject. For example, chess masters say they
can feel that a piece on the chessboard is in danger before
they figure out the cause of the danger. After a lifetime of
explaining reasons for our behavior, the self module gets
just such a feeling. Psychologists have performed numer-
ous experiments that indicate this confidence may be mis-
taken. For example, one group of experimenters 9 set up
a mock consumer survey in a commercial establishment.
They placed four identical pairs of nylon stockings on
display and then asked passersby to evaluate them and
pick the one they felt was of the best quality. They were
surprised to find a large 4:1 bias for choosing the stockings
displayed farthest to the right. (This is probably because
English-speaking people habitually scan left to right so the
right side was the last examined.) When the subjects were
asked why they chose the stockings they did, nobody men-
tioned the position in the array, even though that was
usually the real, though unconscious, reason for their
choice. When the examiner suggested that it could be
related to display placement, virtually all subjects denied
it, "usually with a worried glance at the interviewer sug-
gesting that they felt either that they had misunderstood
the question or were dealing with a madman."
In another study, 81 subjects were asked to memorize
a list of word pairs. Some of the word pairs were included
to see if they would affect the results of a later, different
word association task. For example, when subjects memo-
rized the combination" ocean-moon," it might make them
more likely to think of "Tide" when they were later asked
to name a detergent. When the results were tabulated, the
semantic cuing was found to double the frequency of
target responses. Subjects were asked in an open-ended
way why they had given their responses, and, though they
could still remember the word pairs, they almost never
mentioned the word pair as a reason for giving a particular
response. Instead, they gave answers like "Tide is the
best-known detergent," or "My mother uses Tide," "I like
the Tide box." When the experimenter suggested that the
word pairs could have influenced the choice, only about
one-third of the subjects would admit that the words
probably had an effect.
During other, similar experiments, researchers also
quizzed people who didn't participate in the experiment
about what they thought people would do in the situation
presented by the experiment. They found an excellent
correlation between what an average outsider would theo-
rize about behavior in that situation and what the experi-
48 CHAPTER TWO
mental subjects said about what actually caused their own

behavior. In other words, your insight about your own behav-
ior may be no better than the theorizing of another person. The
self module seems to have no private knowledge of the
reasons for behavior not under its control.
"I WASN'T MYSELF"
"I wasn't myself" is a common phrase people use to

excuse bad behavior. It shows a self-concept that agrees
with the one we are presenting here. However, it also
shows a dangerous denial of responsibility for personal
behavior. Society recognizes a difference between self-
directed behavior and the instinctive reaction of other
modules by making a legal distinction between murder
and manslaughter. First-degree murder is clearly behav-
ior directed by the self, involving long-term planning.
Manslaughter, on the other hand, is probably the work of
the fight module.
Your personality is an emergent property of the col-
lection of specialized modules of thought that have
formed in your brain. They are all part of you, and as a
person, you will be held responsible for all of their actions.
President Truman's attitude, "The buck stops here," is a
healthy one to adopt when explaining your own behavior.
The President doesn't control everything directly either,
but must depend on specialists to do most of the actual
work. A commitment to take responsibility, rather than
pointing the finger of blame, is a healthy one. A strong self
module is capable of exercising self-control when it sees
bad behavior. As with being President, the key to success
is not invariably in taking personal control of everything

but in nurturing and supporting the specialists while ac-
cepting responsibility for the results. An effective person
is similar to a small company with skilled and relatively
autonomous specialists doing most of the work and a
nurturing president (the self) acting as spokesperson, per-
sonally doing only things the specialists cannot do. Occa-
sionally, however, situations may arise where the
president (or self) must momentarily seize control to pre-
vent disaster.
Whether we like it or not, we will be held responsible
for the actions of all of our modules. Prisons are full of
people who weren't themselves at the time of the crime.
Good advertising and salesmanship is seldom directed at
your rational self module. Unfortunately, it is the self
module that must make good on the checks written by the
less rational parts of your mind.
CHAPTER THREE
Time and
Consciousness
illusions conunend themselves to us because

they save us pain and allow us to enjoy pleasure instead.
We must therefore accept it without complaint when
they sometimes collide with a bit of reality
against which they are dashed to pieces.
- Sigmund Freud
When we hear a church bell ring and look at the steeple,
we feel a very real consciousness of its being there-across
the street. Yet the mental picture we have is really almost
pure imagination: The vibration of our eardrums inside
our head is interpreted, not as something happening in-
side our head, but rather as a sound across the street. The
upside-down image on our retina, also inside our head, is
turned into a vision of a church across the street. Clearly,
these sensations are imaginative, mental constructions
rather than a simple factual awareness of what is happen-
ing to our sensory organs.
Consciousness is marvelously creative and deceptive,
constructing an orderly picture of the world imagined into
a format that will be most useful for survival. Our percep-
tion of time undergoes a similar creative distortion to help
us make sense of things. For example, when we watch a
movie, we are really seeing a series of still pictures: If a
person in a movie is raising his hand, we may actually see
one frame with the hand at waist level and the next with
53
54 CHAPTER THREE
FIGURE 4. When we watch a movie of something in motion we

only imagine that we see continuous movement. A movie of
someone throwing a ball may only actually show the arm in two
positions, yet we imagine that we see an arm in smooth motion.
Our perception must be delayed in time because otherwise, at
the instant when the arm was halfway extended, we wouldn't
even know that it was moving since we wouldn't yet have seen
the next frame.
the hand at shoulder level. What we experience is a smooth

movement of the hand traversing all of the intermediate
positions. When the hand appears to be halfway up we
must have already seen the next frame or we wouldn't know
that the hand was moving up. Clearly, our sense of time
must be distorted or delayed in consciousness to make this
possible (Figure 4).
Another simple demonstration of our creative inter-
pretation of time is called the phi phenomenon. When two
light bulbs, reasonably close to each other, are alternately
TIME AND CONSCIOUSNESS 55
blinked, we will see them as a single light moving

smoothly back and forth. If the two lights are different
colors we will see a light moving back and forth and
changing color in the middle. How can we know what color
the light should be in the middle unless we have already
seen the next color? Our sense of time must obviously be
distorted to make this possible. A built-in delay in percep-
tion would do the job but would be a disaster in the many
situations where fast response is a matter of life and death.
Evolution would simply not allow it.
The real explanation is that our mind is able to revise
the memory of what we saw, after the fact, to incorporate
information that arrives later without our noticing it. As
an example, read the following sentence aloud to some-
one: "Rapid righting with his uninjured hand saved from
loss the contents of the canoe." Halfway through the sen-
tence the second word will seem to be "writing," yet the
second half of the sentence clarifies the meaning to "right-
ing." When the sentence is finally correctly understood,
the original wrong meaning is forgotten by most people as
their memory revises itself to remove the confusion. 1 Re-
vision after the fact to make things make sense is a normal
characteristic of memory.
The mind uses considerable creativity in construct-
ing a reality for us that makes sense. The process of
filling in a sense of smooth movement from the series
of still pictures on the movie screen is simply another
variation of the filling in that we saw with our visual
blind spot in Figure 2. It seems that filling in and fabri-
cating to tidy up reality is a basic characteristic of con-
sciousness.
56 CHAPTER THREE
BACK-DATED MEMORY
If you are driving a car and talking simultaneously
and a child darts into the road, you will immediately
slam on the brakes to avoid hitting him. Your conscious-
ness of the braking and your emotions will actually
come after the braking has already occurred. Your pas-
senger may even hear you finish saying a word while
your foot is hitting the brake, but your memory will
make it seem like you consciously hit the brake. Though
the braking was actually done by another unconscious
module of the brain or spinal reflex, your memory is
backdated to keep things tidy and maintain the illusion
of conscious control (Figure 5).
Memory Revision
Fast
Motor Conscious
Stimulus Reaction Perception
t t
o .1 .2 .3 .4 .5
TIME (Seconds)
FIGURE 5. Backdating of consciousness. When asked to press

a button in response to a touch to the skin, subjects are able to
react in only 1/10th of a second. Other tests show that it takes 1/2
second before the subject is conscious of the touch. In spite of
this, the button pressing seems like it was done consciously. We
appear to routinely revise our memory of the timing of an event
to maintain our belief in conscious control.
Benjamin Libet, of the University of California in San

Francisco, experimentally demonstrated that conscious-
ness of touch sensations may in reality be delayed more
than we remember. He used brain surgery patients with
wires connected directly to a part of the brain that receives
touch sensations. Electrically stimulating this area can
block the sensation of touch. 2 The amazing thing is that
the sensation is still blocked even when the electrical
stimulus starts 0.2 second after a touch! Since it only takes
0.1 second to respond physically to a touch (for example,
pressing a button), it is clear that consciousness is not
involved in the response. To make everything look tidy,
our consciousness simply revises its memory of when the
touch sensation was felt-a little like fudging the books,
or backdating a contract.
Another fascinating experiment by British neurosur-
geon W. Grey Walter3 used electrodes implanted at the
point in the motor cortex of the brain associated with index
finger movement. He amplified the electrical signal at this
point and connected it to the advance mechanism on a
carousel slide projector. He gave the patients the slide-
advance button and told them to push it whenever
they wanted to see a new slide. This was a free decision
based on boredom or curiosity about the next slide. What
he didn't tell them was that the button wasn't even con-
nected. The patients were amazed to see the slides advanc-
ing just as they were" about to" press the button but before
they had actually made their decision to press. Their free
and conscious decision to look at the next slide produced
an electrical signal in their brain before they actually de-
cided to press the button! It appears that many of the
decisions that we think are conscious actually originate
58 CHAPTER THREE
somewhere else in the brain. Our memory is tidied up to

place the conscious decision before the action.
Libet did another experiment4 with the timing of
consciousness that didn't require an internal connection to
the brain. He attached electrodes to the scalp of the subjects
to electrically detect the "readiness potential" that occurs
before we make voluntary movements. He asked the sub-
jects to flex their wrist at random times and to take note of
the position of a spot on a rotating clock disk at the instant
they consciously decided to do the flexing. He found that
he could detect the readiness signal about a third of a
second before the time subjects became aware of their con-
scious decision.s Again, the actual decision to flex must
have come from another module-before consciousness of
the decision. To maintain our feeling of consistency and
self-control we simply adjust our memory to keep things
tidy. While this sounds dishonest, it is really not that
different from filling in our visual blind spot with phony
words.
IS CONSCIOUSNESS IN CONTROL?
All three of these experiments show that our feeling

of conscious control may often be just another illusion
created by the self module. The actual impulse to press the
button to see another slide, for example, comes from an-
other mental module. The self module later becomes
aware of the action and backdates memory to maintain the
illusion of self-control. Consciousness seems to fabricate a
narrative of our actions that fits our self-concept as con-
troller of all actions. When we use introspection we are
asking our self module for a narrative of what happened.

It should not be surprising that this self-centered point of
view could be a distortion of what actually happened--es-
pecially when you consider that the self module is not even
aware of the existence of other modules of thinking or of
the parallel nature of the mind.
One of the clearest demonstrations of this delusion of
the self is a phenomenon called "blindsight," which is the
opposite of blindness denial. A stroke or brain injury can
completely destroy all awareness of vision, usually on one
side or the other. Though the patient insists he sees noth-
ing, careful testing will show that he can do much better
than chance at guessing" about shapes or flashes of light
II
presented in the blind area. It appears that connections are

still intact to other, unconscious, modules that deal with
reacting to vision. The fact that the patients refer to their
responses as guessing" or a "gut feeling" is yet another
II
demonstration of how the self module maintains the fic-

tion that it controls everything. 6 Hunches and intuitive
judgments are probably the result of similar weak commu-
nications between other modules and the self module.
Another similar demonstration of modularity is seen
when a stroke destroys a person's ability to recognize faces
of friends and family. If skin conductance is monitored (as
in a lie detector) while the patient views photographs of
strangers and friends, skin conductance sometimes clearly
shows that recognition has occurred at an unconscious
level? Clearly the self module is not aware of much of
what goes on in our brain.
One of the basic principles of evolution is that nothing
can ever be totally reorganized or redesigned. Changes
must always occur by mutations that gradually add to or
60 CHAPTER THREE
modify existing structures and yet maintain functionality.

Since consciousness is something added late in evolution,
it must have been added on top of existing brain capabili-
ties. It can add new abilities and possibly override older
behaviors, but the basic behavior found in lower animals
continues to function as it always has. Even the visible
structure of the brain shows the layers resulting from
evolution: Deep inside our brain is the reptilian brain, an
evolutionary remnant of our reptile ancestry that still per-
forms many basic functions. This is covered by a newer
mammalian brain, which in turn is enveloped by the new-
est part of our brain, the cortex. Though many other ani-
mals have a cortex, it is the massively evolved cortex that
gives us our edge over other animals.
The verbal, logical self module is very much a product
of language; it is, in a sense, constructed out of language.
Though most of our behavior continues to be produced by
the old preconscious structures, our self module imagines
our behavior as something that it alone initiates, because
that is our learned model of reality. With such a distorted
picture of reality, it is not surprising that we have such
problems understanding each other. The first step in get-
ting along with others must be understanding ourselves.
The self module may have veto power on behavior and it
may even direct certain logical actions, but the vast major-
ity of behavior is controlled by other modules and lower
parts of the brain unseen by the self.
Though the illusion of control is strong, evolutionary
logic, and experiments like the ones just discussed, tell us
that consciousness is more often simply an observer of
behavior. Even something as simple as a decision to look
at the next slide in a slide show actually comes from an
unconscious part of the brain. Consciousness of the deci-

sion comes later, accompanied by a strong conviction that
consciousness made that decision.
IS CONSCIOUSNESS CONTINUOUS?
If consciousness and introspection are so unreliable,

how can we survive at all? Luckily, 99% of the time most
people don't use either of them. When you are thinking and
reading about consciousness it is particularly easy to overes-
timate its presence. The fact is, anytime you ask yourself, Am
II
I conscious now?" the answer will always be yes! Since introspec-

tion is done by the selfmodule, whenever you use introspection you
will see the self module in control. This is a little like the
Heisenberg uncertainty principle in physics: The act of ob-
servation changes what we are trying to observe. To really
understand how our minds work, we must use experiments
and external observations and ignore the strong conflicting
impressions produced by introspection.
The powerful illusion that we are always conscious is
a hard one to ignore. We always see consciousness when
we look for it, so it seems obvious. The simple fact is that
the act of asking ourselves whether we are now conscious
implies a conscious train of thought. When we are not
conscious, which is often, we cannot notice it because that
would require consciousness. To take a similar example, if
you could ask a flashlight in a dark room if there were any
dark corners, it would answer, "no." Since there is light
wherever the flashlight turns, it would never see any dark
places. 8
62 CHAPTER THREE
On the other hand, if you try hard to quiet your mind

and think about nothing you will find that there is always
something-a noise, a breeze, a memory image, or a ran-
dom thought. The problem is, the effort not to think always
engages your self module. Willpower is the domain of the
self, so the harder you try not to think, the less chance you
have of succeeding. There is a way to quiet the self module,
but it does not involve willpower: If you do any task that
firmly engages another module of thought, the self mod-
ule will instantly fall silent.
Skill activities that require concentration, such as art,
music, sports, dancing, or nonroutine work, can put you
in a flow state where the self module is quiet and time seems
to stand still. When you have been in a flow state for an
extended period of time and your self module reasserts
itself, you may feel that there is a time gap in your memory
where you don't even know what happened. You may
look at the clock and remark about how time flies. The
activities that will make this happen always require skills
in which the self module is not proficient. This guarantees
that the self module will lose the competition for control.
While the gap in consciousness is noticeable after such
extended periods, normal day-to-day existence contains
occasional brief bursts of self-consciousness.
Since the self module is often nagging us with what
we should do, it can feel quite refreshing to have this
nagging silenced for extended periods. Drinking alcohol
and smoking marijuana both weaken the hold of the self
module and silence the nagging. Alcoholics are often peo-
ple who are nagged by a feeling of not doing what they
should be doing. When they are drunk they tend to live in
the moment and not worry about the long-term planning
of the self. The gap in memory experienced by some

alcoholics indicates that their self module has been dis-
abled while they were drunk.
One reason people develop hobbies is that they can
quiet the nagging self module by putting themselves in a
pleasant flow state for extended periods of time. The qui-
eting of the self module and living in a continual flow state
are common goals in Eastern religions. Meditation is a
regular exercise directed at quieting the self. It could be
very useful for Westerners, but it is often made very diffi-
cult by our strong habit of using self-control to accomplish
things. When we try to use willpower, it engages the self
module, which defeats the whole purpose of meditation.
Learning to accomplish things by letting go takes a lot of
practice, but the payoff is considerable.
CHAPTER FOUR
Memory Illusions
Nothing is easier than self-deceit.

For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true.
-DeTTlDsthenes, 320 Be
Gaps in memory are filled in by consciousness just as
convincingly as the blind spot's gap in our vision. While
visual filling in seldom causes any trouble, false memories
are the cause of countless arguments and misunderstand-
ings. The problem is that fabricated memories feel so
completely and convincingly real.
The bizarre blindness denial we discussed earlier has
an exact equivalent in memory loss. When people abruptly
lose their memory as a result of stroke or injury, more than
half of them don't even notice their amnesia: They simply,
and naturally, begin making up stories to replace their
missing memories. They are totally unaware that the sto-
ries are false and will volunteer endless details, thinking
that they are real memories.
One study of 101 serious brain injury patients at Wal-
ter Reed hospital found that 60% made up stories (con-
fabulated) to replace actual memories of their injury and
other aspects of their life as soon as they regained con-
sciousness. 1 It seems that when the normal source of in-
67
68 CHAPTER FOUR
formation is missing, it is quite common for consciousness

to fill in with fantasy. Just as the blindness denial patients
imagined vision when their real vision was destroyed,
people who lose their memory often fill in the gap with
imagination. In both cases the patient doesn't even notice
the difference. Even in normal memory recall, missing
details are often filled in. When the memory is totally
missing, the filling in becomes confabulation: a completely
fabricated story believed by the teller.
The reason confabulation is so common after brain
damage is simply that it is a habitual part of normal
behavior. Just as we all unconsciously fill in the blind spot
in our vision, we often fill in gaps in memory without even
knowing it. When we recall a memory, we feel certain we
are really remembering every detail, yet it is easy to prove
otherwise. For example, visualize a penny in your mind's
eye. Now, try to draw it in detail-including all of the
words and numbers in their correct location. If you were
able to do it correctly you are one in a hundred. The fact is
that our mental images seem to be detailed but actually
prove otherwise when we try to get specific.
If you close your eyes and try to visualize your hand
you should be able to tell which finger is the second
longest by just looking at the mental image. The fact is you
probably can't because you have never noticed that detail.
Yet, the image feels convincingly complete till you push it
for details. We seem to be able to ignore missing details
and feel that they are filled in even when they are not. The
words that seemed to fill in your blind spot in Figure 2 are
similar. They seem normal, yet we can't read them.
Recall a recent memory, such as entering the room in
which you now sit and picking up this book. Visually,
MEMORY ILLUSIONS 69
remember what it was like. You may see an image of

yourself walking into the room, sitting down, and opening
up the book. If you see a memory image like that, you
know it is pure imagination because your eyes never saw
anything like that. In reality, what you saw was more like
moving views of the room-as though your eyes were a
TV camera. You may have seen your hands holding the
book and possibly your knees but, unless you were watch-
ing yourself in a mirror, you didn't see yourself at all. An
imagined image that seems logical can feel convincingly
like a real memory.
MEMORY GAP-FILLING
When we consciously recall a memory, we creatively

reconstruct it-sometimes from tiny fragments that are ac-
tually in our memory. What we tend to construct is what
should have been, rather than what actually occurred. If we
misunderstand what somebody says, the memory will be of
what we thought we heard, not what we actually heard. If we
misunderstand what we see, the memory will be of what we
thought we saw, rather than what we actually saw. Memory
is not a recorder of raw sensations, but rather a very concen-
trated and filtered record of what we understood, sometimes
modified into what we now think it should have been.
Sometimes a hypnotist can seem to bring out more
details from memory, but when those details are checked
they often tum out to be fabrications. The subject tries to
satisfy the hypnotist's request, even if it means making up
details. This is easy to do because we do it all the time in
the normal filling-in process of consciousness. Subjects
70 CHAPTER FOUR
will even tell details of their lives in the future or in

previous lives if asked to under hypnosis. Experiments
have shown that hypnotism is no better at aiding recall of
details than carefully taking some time to recall the details
in a normal state.
Many people consider themselves quite good at
retelling complete conversations in minute detail. If the
conversation has been tape recorded, we have a unique
opportunity to check the accuracy of the recall. One
classic example of such recall is a matter of public record
from the infamous Watergate scandal of 1972. John
Dean, President Nixon's assistant in charge of contain-
ing the scandal, submitted a 245-page statement to the
investigating committee recounting events and conver-
sations during the cover-up. Soon after his testimony, it
was revealed that Nixon had tape recorded all of the
conversations. Comparing the recall to the actual conver-
sation provides a fascinating picture of memory filling in
and creative modification at work. Here is an excerpt
from Dean's account of his meeting with President
Nixon the day after the grand jury indicted the five
Watergate burglars along with Hunt and Liddy, thus
excluding the White House from blame:
The president asked me to sit down. Both men ap-
peared to be in very good spirits and my reception
was very warm and cordial. The President told me
that Bob-referring to Haldeman-had kept him
posted on my handling of the Watergate case. The
President told me I had done a good job and he
appreciated how difficult a task it had been and the
President was pleased that the case had stopped with
Liddy. I responded that I could not take credit be-
cause others had done much more difficult things
MEMORY ILLUSIONS 71
than I had done ... I told him that all I had been
able to do was to contain the case and assist in
keeping it out of the White House. I also told him
there was a long way to go before this matter would
end and that I certainly could make no assurances
that the day would not come when this matter
would start to unravel.
When the actual White House tapes of the conversa-
tion are compared to Dean's recall, we can see the creativ-
ity of memory recall. To quote Neisser's article2 in a
medical journal:
Comparison with the transcript shows that hardly
a word of Dean's account is true. Nixon did not say
any of the things attributed to him here: He didn't
ask Dean to sit down, he didn't say Haldeman had
kept him posted, he didn't say Dean had done a
good job (at least not in that part of the conversa-
tion), he didn't say anything about Liddy or the
indictments. Nor had Dean himself said the things
he later describes himself as saying: that he
couldn't take credit, that the matter might unravel
someday, etc. (Indeed, he said just the opposite
later on: "Nothing is going to come crashing
down.") His account is plausible, but entirely in-
correct.
It is apparent that Dean recalled very little of what was
actually said. Yet he was confident enough of his recon-
struction of the conversation to repeat essentially the same
account in sworn verbal testimony. What he recalled was
not what was actually said but a fantasy of what should
have been said from his personal point of view. Again quot-
ing Neisser's article:
72 CHAPTER FOUR
In Dean's mind Nixon should have been glad that the

indictments stopped with Liddy, Haldeman should
have told Nixon what a great job Dean was doing:
most of all, praising him should have been the first
order of business. In addition Dean should have told
Nixon that the cover-up might unravel, as it eventu-
ally did, instead of telling him it was a great success
(as Dean actually did).
When memories are filled in there is a strong ten-
dency to unconsciously use wishful thinking and to
distort the memory in a self-serving way. The problem
is that we may be totally unaware that we are fabricat-
ing. The filling-in process is so natural and convincing
that we may honestly swear that we are remembering
clearly. Once a memory has been retold falsely, a new
and stronger memory of the retelling is created. Each
time the story is recalled we become more certain that it
really happened. Many courtroom battles end up with
conflicting eyewitness testimony: Two people, having
experienced the same conversation, each unconsciously
fills in in a way that enhances his own self-image. With
neither consciously lying, we end up with two people
swearing, under oath, to conflicting versions of the same
conversation.
Even with written contracts, a battle still often results
since each side swears that he remembers a different inter-
pretation as the true intent of the contract. Usually both
sides honestly believe their own interpretation, which is
always one that favors their side. Each time a fabricated or
distorted memory is discussed with friends or lawyers it
is reinforced so that the person becomes even more certain
of its truthfulness.
MEMORY ILLUSIONS 73
CHANGING MEMORIES
Stories of cute things you did as a child that are

repeatedly retold at family gatherings soon take on the feel
of actual memories. Sometimes the stories gradually
change over time and may end up only loosely related to
what really happened. You can easily bring back images
of yourself acting out the current version, which has the
convincing feel of genuine memories.
Jean Piaget, the famous child psychologist, tells a
personal story in his Plays, Dreams, and Imitation of Child-
hood3 that illustrates this beautifully:
... one of my first memories would date, if it were
true, from my second year. I can still see, most clearly,
the following scene, in which I believed until I was
about fifteen. I was sitting in my pram, which my
nurse was pushing in the Champs Elysees, when a
man tried to kidnap me. I was held in by a strap
fastened around me while my nurse bravely tried to
stand between me and the thief. She received various
scratches, and I can still see vaguely those on her face.
Then a crowd gathered, a policeman with a short
cloak and a white baton came up, and the man took
to his heels. I can still see the whole scene, and can
even place it near the tube station. When I was about
fifteen, my parents received a letter from my former
nurse saying that she had been converted by the
Salvation Army. She wanted to confess her past
faults, and in particular to return the watch she had
been given as a reward on this occasion. She had
made up the whole story, faking the scratches. I
therefore, must have heard as a child, the account of
74 CHAPTER FOUR
this story, which my parents believed, and projected

into the past in the form of visual memory.
Memory is a dynamic thing that not only fades but
grows and changes with time. As the Piaget story shows,
memories can even be created after they are supposed to
have occurred. Memories are reinvented whenever we
recall them and are changed in the light of later experi-
ences. "I don't know what I ever saw in ... " is a common
saying about former lovers that shows how dramatically
memory can be altered with time. Former golden memo-
ries are rewritten to maximize our own self-esteem and to
bring the memories into conformance with our present
beliefs. The fascinating thing about these memory changes
is that the new memories seem so real. Though your logic
tells you that the memories must have been wonderful at
one time or you wouldn't have loved the person so much,
your new beliefs cause a dramatic reinterpretation of the
memories. The more you think about the memories and
re-rehearse them with the new interpretation, the more
they are altered. 4 This is another demonstration of the
amazing creativity of the process we call consciousness. To
preserve our own self-esteem, memory may have to be
drastically altered, yet we feel certain that the revised
version is correct.
These revisionist tendencies can be demonstrated un-
der experimental conditions. In one studyS high school
students were questioned about their opinions on 30 social
issues, including busing of school children to achieve in-
tegration. The researchers then secretly tried to change the
students' views by having them join small discussion
groups, each of which had a student confederate armed
with very convincing arguments against lheir known po-
MEMORY ILLUSIONS 75
sition. The confederates were highly successful in chang-

ing the students' views, with most pro-busing subjects
being converted to the anti-busing position. The original
anti-busing subjects had their opinions sharply changed
in the pro direction. The experimenters then asked the
students to recall their earlier stand on busing on the
original questionnaire. They reminded them of the pre-
vious questionnaire and told them that they would be
checking the accuracy of their recall. Control subjects were
able to recall accurately their earlier opinion but the stu-
dents whose views had been changed all remembered incor-
rectly that their new position was the same as they had expressed
before. Their memory of their previous opinion was appar-
ently not very strong because it was one item out of 30.
Their new and stronger belief on the busing issue caused
them to assume that they must have previously answered
in agreement with this belief. Beliefs, logically deduced by the
self, can easily be mistaken for actual memories.
One study of voters who had changed party affiliation
from 1972 to 1976 found that 91 % reported thatthey hadn't
changed parties. Memory, like perception, is creatively
distorted to create order and consistency. Whenever we
change our beliefs we often also unconsciously change our
memories because much of memory recall is actually crea-
tive reconstruction.
Elizabeth Loftus, a University of Washington psychol-
ogy professor, has done hundreds of experiments to show
how memory can be intentionally manipulated after the fact.
In one such experiment she showed the subjects a series of
slides of a car accident in which a car tums right at an
intersection with a yield sign and hits a pedestrian in the
crosswalk. Immediately afterward, she planted a false mem-
76 CHAPTER FOUR
ory in half of the subjects by asking them, "Did another car

pass the red Datsun while it was stopped at the stop sign?"
When questioned later over 80% of that group claimed that
they had seen a stop sign rather than a yield sign.
If you have ever been in a courtroom where there are
several eyewitnesses to the same event you have probably
seen this effect in action. As the memories are rehearsed
and reinforced by lawyers, people get more and more
confident of them whether they are true or not. Police
lineups must be carefully selected to prevent false identi-
fications. For example, if there is only one tall redheaded
man in the lineup, he may look so much more like the
criminal than the others that he gets selected. Once the
witness has picked the same man out of several lineups,
the face becomes so familiar that the certainty of identifi-
cation grows.
Because no one likes to feel like a powerless victim of
events, we often unconsciously distort memory to increase
our feeling of control. In a famous study of the memories
of the children in Chowchilla, California, who in 1976 were
kidnapped and buried alive for two days in their school
bus, Lenore Terr found that in 1981, 19 of the 26 victims
had appended earlier or later events to their memory.
Many of these additions were omens which if heeded
could have prevented the event. For example, one 8-year-
old girl said she had turned down a chance to go camping
with her parents that day. Another girl said that she had
stepped on a "bad luck square" the day before. One said
that a crank caller had called and warned her, though the
call had actually occurred afterwards. Five of the children
blamed their parents for not reading" the signs" that it was
going to happen.
MEMORY ILLUSIONS 77
In retelling the story over the years, these added

features crept in as a way to "assign meaning to the mean-
ingless." The common feeling of synchronicity, where ran-
dom events seem to be magically related, has the same
basis. We look back in time to find relationships whenever
something happens to us. If we can relate two events we
add order and meaning to our lives. Often this tidying up
is done later in the retelling of an event by slightly altering
one of the events to make it fit. Once this is done the fit
between the two events gets better and better each time we
retell it. Just as we creatively fill in our visual blind spot to
create order, the same perceptual process fills in and modi-
fies memory.
THE CHALLENGER DISASTER

At 11:00 AM in January of 1986 the space shuttle
Challenger exploded on takeoff, killing the entire crew and
an elementary teacher along for the ride. The next morning
Ulric Neisser gave a questionnaire to 106 students in a
Psychology 101 class. They were asked to record where
they were when it happened, who else was there, how they
felt, and other details. Two and a half years later, 44 of the
students still available were given the same questionnaire.
The results dramatically confirmed that even apparently
vivid memories may be unreliable.
For example, compare the following two accounts
given by one student:
NEXT DAY: I was in my religion class and some people
walked in and started talking about [it]. I didn't
know any details except that it had exploded and the
78 CHAPTER FOUR
schoolteacher's students had all been watching

which I thought was so sad. Then after class I went
to my room and watched the TV program talking
about it and I got the details from that.
2 1/2 YEARS LATER: When I first heard about the explo-
sion I was sitting in my freshman dorm room with
my roommate and we were watching Tv. It came on
the news flash and we were both totally shocked. I
was really upset and I went upstairs to talk to a friend
of mine and then I called my parents.
Asked for 5-point confidence ratings on all of the
above points the subject gave a top rating of 5. Generally
the students' confidence ratings had practically no correla-
tion to the accuracy of their reports. Since the original
questionnaire was simply passed out at the end of class,
only 11 of the subjects even remembered filling it out. When
they were shown their original questionnaires in their own
handwriting, many found it hard to believe that their
memories could be so wrong. "Whoa! That's totally differ-
ent from how I remember it" was one comment. Others
said, "I still think of it as the other way around" and "I
mean,li~e I told you, I have no recollection of it at all."
It is interesting to try to analyze the kinds of modifi-
cations that were made. There was a tendency to remem-
ber first seeing it while watching television, probably
because the increased drama when they actually saw it on
television left more of an impression. Some of the false
memories were simply stereotyped fantasies. For exam-
ple, one girl who heard the news in the cafeteria and got
so sick she couldn't finish her lunch said the second time
that she was in her dorm room and a girl came running
down the hall screaming, "The space shuttle just blew up."
MEMORY ILLUSIONS 79
Another one remembered the second time that she heard

it when she was home with her parents.
Before anything was said about the accuracy of the
second questionnaires, several memory recovery tech-
niques were used in an attempt to improve the accuracy
of recall. Subjects were asked to think of additional ways
that they might have heard the news, to change their
perspective, recall the emotional context, and finally they
were even shown their original questionnaire. None of the
techniques had any effect at all. The experimenters com-
mented: "As far as we can tell the original memories are
just gone."
MODULAR MEMORY
Thinking and memory are impossible to separate. The

same reinforcement of synapses that causes modules of
thinking to form is also the basis of memory. It is not
surprising therefore to find that memory is also organized
as many separate specialized modules. New categories,
called schemas, are created as needed in a way that makes
each individual's memory organization unique. Memory
organization also has critical decision points where a new
category mayor may not be created. Each decision point
(bifurcation as it is called in chaos theory) affects future
memory abilities and also the course of future develop-
ment. Your unique pattern of aptitudes and abilities are
strongly affected by minor external influences at these
critical times.
Each person has a unique pattern of memory abilities:
good in some areas and bad in others. A person may have
80 CHAPTER FOUR
a terrible memory for names and faces, yet have an excel-

lent memory for places and numbers. Each specialized
kind of memory is independent. Some musical conductors
can effortlessly memorize an entire score and yet have a
difficult time remembering where their car is parked.
BRAIN DAMAGE EVIDENCE
Brain damage resulting from strokes (death of a small

area of the brain) or injury can cause loss of very specific
categories of memory while preserving others. Though
each brain seems to have its own unique organization and
there is little correlation of exact location for memory
types, we can learn much about the organization of mem-
ory from these cases. For example, some bilingual people
have lost one language yet retained another, which would
indicate that they have separate structures in different
parts of the brain for each language. Others lose the ability
to recognize faces while continuing to have normal vision
and ability to recognize other objects. Some people lose the
ability to recognize words representing concrete objects
like acorn, needle, and goose but have no problem with
abstract words like arbiter, pact, and supplication. Others
have the reverse pattern, retaining concrete words and
losing the abstract words. In one reported case the patient
lost the ability to recognize things distinguished primarily
by looks (e.g., plants, animals) but had no problem with
items distinguished by how you use them (e.g., tools,
household objects).6 Even specific categories can be quite
separate: One person, with a hobby of gardening, lost the
ability to recognize flowers while retaining the ability to
MEMORY ILLUSIONS 81
recognize all other things? Parts of the human body seem

to have their own separate memory structure, as there are
many reports of separate loss of body-related words. One
patient lost only the verbal ability to recognize animals by
name. 8 He did fine with inanimate things and was accu-
rate when presented with a picture of an animal, but he
couldn't describe the same animal after hearing its name.
Other recognition categories that have been observed to
be separate modules include tools, animal and food items,
numerals, and musical instruments. Clearly, the recogni-
tion process is the result of a large number of specialists
working in parallel. These specialist modules organize
spontaneously and evolve uniquely for individuals ac-
cording to their needs and experiences.
Conduction aphasia demonstrates how the ability to
remember literally exactly what was said is separate from
the ability to recall meaning. The patients seem to have
normal abilities to speak and understand fluently and
intelligently, yet they are unable to repeat back word for
word arbitrary sequences of words even two words long.
They also cannot repeat back verbatim sentences of more
than a few words. Though they are unaware of doing it,
they will radically paraphrase the sentence, preserving
only the meaning.
PARALLEL MEMORY STRUCTURES

Different contexts and viewpoints are examined in
parallel by different parts of the brain so that, for example,
if you can't recognize a banana by its shape, then perhaps
you can by color. Shapes are recognized through self-
82 CHAPTER FOUR
organized modules that form near the part of the brain

where various shape-sensing outputs of the eye are
mapped to the brain. Color recognition is through another
module formed near the color-sensing map to the brain.
People can be recognized by their face, voice, accent,
posture, walk, clothes, name, location, or even the time we
met them. Although each of these traits probably repre-
sents a separate module, recognition often requires only a
strong match from one of them. Overall, the act of recog-
nition is the sum total of all of these strategies. Just as a
color print is built up from the sum total of many separate
images, each a different color, our recognition is based on
many different strategies used together. The final result,
however, is probably the result of the same kind of com-
petitive mechanism that selects the most confident module
to control speech or movement.
The timing of an event seems to be remembered by a
separate structure than the one that remembers the event
itself. This is demonstrated by certain types of brain damage
where things are remembered but the order in which they
occurred is forgotten. Emotional feelings associated with an
event seem to be likewise remembered separately. Some
people lose the ability to remember preferences. The title of
a book or movie is clearly remembered in a different module
from the plot in my brain. I know this because I can often
remember the story in detail, yet forget its title or author.
EXPLAINING VERSUS DOING
Verbal or declarative memory, which allows us to

explain how to do something, is completely separate from
MEMORY ILLUSIONS 83
the memory of how we actually do it. Although we cer-

tainly remember how to speak, walk, or swallow, we can't
explain verbally how to do them because it was never
useful to learn them that way. If we become a throat
specialist we will probably learn a parallel verbal memory
of how to swallow, which will allow us to analyze and
explain it. Just as our self maintains memories that form a
belief system for explaining our unconsciously controlled
behavior, it also may learn to analyze and discuss move-
ments and other unconsciously controlled procedures.
Memories that actually control the behaviors and move-
ments are completely separate.
Advertisers have become experts in directing their
message to your subconscious behavior modules. When
you make a purchase, it often conflicts with what your self
would logically choose. Of course, the self is a master of
rationalization, so it will probably make up a plausible
story to explain the purchase. For example, the sales of
Ford Broncos skyrocketed after O. J. Simpson was tele-
vised nationwide driving his. The buyers would probably
tell you that they bought it because they liked the styling
or the quality but most would be angry if you pointed out
the Simpson connection.
Numerous experiments have demonstrated that we
can create subliminal knowledge by, for example, flashing
words for such a brief time duration that they don't enter
consciousness. Later testing will then show an increased
preference for the words even though the subjects claim
that they never saw them. This is not surprising at all when
we consider the parallel and modular nature of memory.
Learning obviously occurred in some module even though
the stimulus was too short to enter consciousness.
84 CHAPTER FOUR
With practice, you can improve your memory for a

particular kind of thing. Actors, for example, can develop
an amazing ability to memorize long scripts though their
recall for other things may remain average. Dancers de-
velop the ability to remember long movement sequences,
but this has no effect on their ability to memorize verbal
scripts. A restaurant maitre d' can learn to recognize thou-
sands of patrons' faces and names but may not be able to
memorize dance movements. Each of these memory abili-
ties develops independently because each is a separate
module in the brain.
One of the important flaws in the self-concept taught
by our society is a distorted idea of the certainty and unity
of our memory. By understanding the illusions and limi-
tations of our memory, we can avoid many conflicts and
begin to know ourselves and others better.
CHAPTER FIVE
Other Concepts of Self
Man can be defined as the animal that can say "I.·

that can be aware oj himself as a separate entity.
- Erich Fromm. 1955
We all have a self-concept that we have learned from our
parents, teachers, and society. This important mental soft-
ware defines our experience of consciousness, our abili-
ties, and our potential for happiness. It is so basic to our
being that it is hard for us to imagine just how different the
experience of consciousness is to other people in other
places and other times.
Our self-concept is a collection of basic beliefs about
consciousness and the nature of reality. 1 These beliefs
define our conscious experience at such a basic level that
our experience will always convincingly confirm them,
even when they conflict with objective reality.
Study the list in Table I and try to imagine how your
consciousness and your life would be changed if you could
change each belief to the opposite of what it is now. Your
culture and your family have taught you one of the vari-
ations of each belief, but there are people in the world who
strongly disagree with you on everyone of them. These
people are as certain that they are right as you are because
87
88 CHAPTER FIVE
TABLE I
Self-Concept Bellefs
My destiny is controlled by myself/gods.
I imagine reality/it exists and I simply experience it.
Time flies/is not significant.
I can/cannot use introspection to see the workings of
my mind.
I can/cannot see visual imagery, calling up pictures in
my mind.
I can think in words/gods speak to me.
All/ some of my thoughts are in words.
I am naturally lucky/unlucky.
I am naturally healthy/unhealthy.
I am basically a good/bad person.
Life is beautiful/horrible.
I am sensitive/insensitive to pain.
My mind is singular/a collection of modules.
I primarily strive for my self/nuclear family/extended
family/tribe / company/country.
their conscious experience continually confirms their be-

lief just as convincingly as yours does.
The gap-filling mechanism of our brain uses these
beliefs as the model for interpreting reality. Consciousness
will creatively construct our reality in a way that will make it
fit the expectations of our beliefs. If we believe that we are
controlled by gods, we will interpret everything that hap-
pens to us that way and, thanks to our gap-filling ability,
it will seem convincing and consistent. Likewise, if we
believe that our self module alone controls our actions and
our destiny, then that interpretation of reality will seem
convincingly correct.
OTHER CONCEPTS OF SELF 89
FIGURE 6. This drawing of an old hag can also be seen as a

beautiful girl looking away and to the left. Note:The hag's nose
is the girl's chin, her mouth is the girl's necklace. Either belief is
convincingly confirmed by your perception. (Reprinted with the
permission of Scribner / a Lisa Drew Book, a Division of Simon
& Schuster Inc., from The Modular Brain by Richard M. Restak,
M.D.)
Perception tries to make sense out of reality by stretch-

ing it to fit our beliefs. When it succeeds, the feeling of
certainty can be very deceptive. For example, looking at
Figure 6 you may see an old hag or a beautiful woman, but
once your mind has clicked into one interpretation, that one
seems very convincing. With a little effort you can change
your belief to the other interpretation and then, with some
90 CHAPTER FIVE
practice, that one will seem certain. (Note that the hag's
nose can be the beauty's chin, her mouth a necklace.) This
false feeling of certainty is a basic characteristic of the mind.
A belief becomes a template for making sense of the world,
and, once we fill in properly to make an interpretation
work, it feels convincingly like the only possible one.
The basic assumptions of our self-concept can be dead
wrong and yet appear to be obviously right. The good
news is that, just like our interpretation of Figure 6, our
assumptions can be changed. With practice a new version
of consciousness will click into place and feel natural.
People used to regard of earth as the center of the universe.
Our concept of the self module as the center of our mental
universe is just as false. Learning to see the self module as
a member of a team of specialists instead of the whole team
can go a long way toward improving our understanding
of ourselves and others.
Many of the self-concept beliefs in Table I can be
considered modem "inventions" that have never been
tried before and still have not spread to primitive societies.
For example, our belief that we can directly control our
own destiny and the idea that we can look into our owh
thoughts with introspection are both probably less than
5000 years 01d. 2 Both strongly affect the very nature of the
conscious experience.
THE SELF IN OTHER CULTURES

Our concept of the self seems to us so obvious that it
is hard to appreciate that most of the population of the
world today would find it quite bizarre. Other cultures
base their consciousness on entirely different assump-

tions. Our sense of time, which includes continual pro-
gress and change, and our narrow boundaries of self, only
loosely linked to family and community, are incomprehen-
sible to most of the world.
Paul Heelas and Andrew Lock of the University of
Lancaster in England have made an extensive study of the
anthropology of the self-concept3 in indigenous cultures.
They analyzed eight different cultures and made a chart
(Figure 7) plotting where each stood on the first two beliefs
listed in Table 1. Belief that the self is in control of reality
can exist in varying degrees, so they made a graph with the
horizontal axis representing where that culture's belief lies:
Complete self-control of reality is on the left, and no control
(reality controlled by gods) is on the right. The vertical axis
represents the degree of internalization of reality, with the
bottom extreme meaning that all reality exists only in the
imagination and the top indicating completely objective
reality. As Figure 7 shows, each culture has a unique com-
bination of these basic assumptions. This creates a unique
mentality and experience of consciousness.
The Tibetan Buddhist mystics, in the lower left comer,
represent an extreme of internalization and self in control.
They taught that
... the world and all phenomena which we perceive are but
mirages born from our imagination . ..
They emanate from the mind
And into the mind they sink.
At the other extreme, in the upper right comer, are the
Dinka people, who live along the White Nile in Africa and
92 CHAPTER FIVE
o
Modified
idealist
Indigenous
a ,
Externalized conceptualizations
,,-
o possiones
Indigenous
psychology
~Dinka
psychology '"
""""""
,,-,//' @Chewon g
"""'" """
Self in " / Self under
control ,I' "'.. control
" ....
"" ........ Homeric
Greece
"" ........
Tibetan,,' ....'"
Buddism " Our .....
(mystical £!
Indigenous @ ",~ Maori
level) W
psychology
Idealist
Indigenous
0 " ~I----
Kalahari
,
'0 possiones
Modified
psychology Indigenous
psychology
Internalized conceptualizations
6
FIGURE 7. Heelas and Lock's plot of two dimensions of the
self-concepts of eight different cultures studied: degree of self-
control and degree of internalization. (Reprinted with the per-
mission of Academic Press, San Diego, from Indigenous
Psychologies: The Anthropology of the Self by Paul Heelas and
Andrew Lock.)
essentially have no concept of a mind. As Godfrey Lien-

hardt4 described it,
The Dinka have no conception which at all closely
corresponds to our popular modern conception of
the "mind" as mediating and, as it were, storing up
the experiences of the self. There is for them no such
interior entity to appear, on reflection to stand be-
tween the experiencing self at any given moment and

what is or has been an exterior influence upon the
self.
The idea of having a mind seems so obvious and real
to us. Yet it is simply a concept, one not shared by all
people.
The traditional Maori culture of New Zealand has
another way of experiencing reality.S They believe them-
selves to be descended from their gods, so a man's inheri-
tance of the supernatural qualities, mana and tapu,
determines his position in society. Mana is a variable quan-
tity given and taken by the gods. As mana increases, so
does the success of the person. The tapu is a state of
sacredness that has to be maintained by properly observ-
ing complex rules and rituals. Mana will increase only if
the tapu is kept clear. They conceptualize most emotions
as being associated with specific organs of the body, so the
self is essentially split up into these separate organs, which
at various times take control. The self is thus an observer
rather than a controller of experience. If you had been
raised since birth in the traditional Maori culture, your
experience of consciousness and reality would be as we
have just described: It would seem as obvious and natural
to you as your own self-concept does now.
THE CONCEPT OF TIME

Our concept of time is another dimension of the basic
mental software that defines our experience of conscious-
ness. Again, we are out of step with most of the people of
the world. Though our sense of fast-flowing time and
94 CHAPTER FIVE
change seems very natural to us, it is uniquely an inven-

tion of modem culture. The majority of the world's popu-
lation is born into a tribal or peasant environment where
one's life is pretty much a repetition of the life of one's
parents. Time takes on a completely different meaning
under these conditions. There is no such thing as progress,
so each year is basically like the one before. The yearly
cycle of the seasons endlessly repeats itself and provides a
comforting familiarity.
The Trobriand Islanders of the South Pacific were
extensively studied by Bronislaw Malinowski. 6 Their
sense of time represents an extreme case in that the concept
of time is virtually nonexistent; their language and their way
of thinking are constructed in a way that essentially ig-
nores time. They have no word for "to be" nor do they
have a word for "to become"; existence is implied by the
names for things, as are the current state they are in. When
a thing changes, its name also changes. For example, the
taytu is a species of yam that they grow. The single word
taytu implies that a perfectly ripe and well-formed speci-
men is present now. If the taytu isn't at harvesting ripe-
ness, it is not a taytu. If it is unripe it is called a bwanawa.
If it is overripe it is called a yowana. If it is blighted it
becomes a nukunokuna. If it has a rotten patch it is called
a taboula. If misshapen it is a usasu. If perfect in shape but
small, it is a yagogu. A postharvest gleaning is called a
ulumadala.
When the spent tuber, the yowana, sends its shoots
underground, as we would put it, it is not a yowana
with shoots but a silisata. When new tubers have
formed on these shoots, it is not a silisata but a gadena.
An object cannot change an attribute and retain its

identity.
Trobriand verbs are timeless, making no temporal
distinctions. History and mythical reality are not the
past to the Trobriander. They are forever present,
participating in all current being, giving meaning to
all activities and all existence. A Trobriander will
speak of the garden which his mother's brother
planted, or the one which the mythical Tudava
planted, in exactly the same terms with which he will
refer to the garden which he himself is planting now;
and it will give him satisfaction to do so.
They have no word for "to be" or for "to become"
because they have no concept of time. Remember, the self
module, as we define it, is the module that does introspec-
tion and talks about our thoughts. It is not surprising that
the structure of language has such a strong influence on
one's self-concept.
The Trobrianders do not value change. They expect
things to stay the same next year as they are this year. This
was a big problem for the pearl traders who tried to get
them to work. Nicely made European tools 7 that seemed
far superior to the crude tools they made themselves had
no attraction for the Trobrianders. We Westerners are so
accustomed to desiring change, progress, and improve-
ment that we find it difficult to understand people wanting
to keep things the way they are. The Amish people in
Pennsylvania have an attitude toward change that is simi-
lar to the Trobriander attitude.
Our society's concept of time has been created by
advertising and the imperatives of a consumer society. It
has made us feel anxious for progress and therefore has
96 CHAPTER FIVE
profoundly affected our material wealth. The unfortunate

side effect is that many people have lost the ability to enjoy
the moment and feel trapped in a rat race. Happiness and
contentment may not be compatible with maximum ma-
terial progress.
PAIN: A LEARNED CONCEPT
Pain feels convincingly like an inherent thing wired

into our nervous system and not affected by beliefs. Yet
there is much evidence that it is as changeable as our sense
of time. When a hypnotist suggests that we will feel no
pain, we can tolerate pins stuck into our arms and even
surgery without being bothered by the pain. What the
hypnotist does is make us believe that we won't be bothered
by the pain, and, as a result, our perception of the pain
changes to something benign.
Experiments have shown that a pain reduction
equal to that achieved under hypnosis can be achieved
without hypnosis if the subjects are given brief instruc-
tion on pain-reducing strategies. By simply relaxing and
diverting attention, an 80% reduction in pain8 can be
achieved by most people. Acupuncture creates an alter-
nate focus and a rationale for experiencing reduced pain
that is very effective if you believe. When a fakir or yoga
lies on a bed of nails he simply puts aside the sensation
of pain.
We allieam how to interpret pain from our culture,
and it becomes a part of our self-concept. The Sherpa of
Nepal traditionally act as porters for mountain climbers
who climb Mount Everest. They uncomplainingly carry
77-pound packs up the mountain with little outerwear,

even in freezing temperatures. Their culture takes pride in
the ability to endure pain and hardship without flinching.
Despite years of training and conditioning, our climbers
tell of great hardships even with their hi-tech thermal
wear, oxygen, and minimal packs.
In 1982 two American psychologists9 performed a
series of controlled experiments on six Nepalese and five
Western trekkers. They found that the Nepalese were just
as sensitive to stimulus as the Westerners and just as able
to make discriminations between high- and low-intensity
stimuli. The only difference was found to be in the inter-
pretation of painful stimuli: What the Westerners would
call unbearable pain, the Sherpas would accept stoically.
Their concept of pain is simply different from ours.
In Bavaria today it is considered inappropriate to ask
for anesthesia when you have a tooth filled, yet 200 miles
to the north most Germans consider it a necessity. Many
African tribes painfully mutilate their bodies without
complaint. Dentists will confirm that even within a single
culture, people's tolerance for pain varies greatly.
It is common for people with serious injuries who are
absorbed in important survival actions not to feel the pain
until they are safe and able to focus on the pain. In wartime,
soldiers often suffer severe wounds, including loss of
limbs and open abdominal wounds, without complaining
about the pain. Some soldiers with major injuries actually
react with euphoria at the thought of being able to leave
the battlefield and go home. In Lamaze natural childbirth
classes mothers are taught to ignore or positively experi-
ence the pain of childbirth. Many can then deliver without
anesthesia.
98 CIIAPTERFIVE
Noise above a certain threshold is perceived as pain.

One of the best possible demonstrations of the effect of
mental attitude on pain can be seen at a heavy metal rock
concert. The teenage fans love what would seem quite
painful to an older person or even a young lover of
classical music. Outdoor rock concerts often have com-
plaints that the noise is intolerable from annoyed resi-
dents who live miles away. The insignificant noise of a
dripping water faucet can be agonizing if your mental
attitude makes it so.
Reactions to heat and cold are also largely determined
by learned concepts. The aboriginal people of Tierra del
Fuego close to the antarctic circle lived essentially naked
in the freezing cold when the Europeans first encountered
them. People who live in cold climates rejoice at unseason-
ably warm winter weather and remove their coats when
the temperature reaches 40 degrees. In the deserts of north
Africa tribesmen live with average summer high tempera-
tures of over 110 degrees. Hypnotic suggestion can make
people feel uncomfortably hot or cold in a comfortable
room by simply making them believe it is hot or cold.
If you work on your own attitude toward pain, heat,
and cold, you can make significant changes in your own
reactions. By practicing a kind of positive thinking when
you are exposed to these stimuli, you can learn to increase
your tolerance significantly. The secret is to imitate your
friends who say,"I love heat!" and also to imitate the ones
who say, "1 love cold!" With practice you can change your
beliefs until you really do feel comfortable over a wide
temperature range. By widening your comfort range you
can learn to be comfortable when others are miserable and
complaining.
THE BOUNDARIES OF SELF
Another part of our self-concept that would seem

bizarre to the majority of the people on earth is our
shrunken self boundary. The self defends and pursues
goals within a conceptual boundary; this boundary is an
important component of our self-concept. In most of the
world's cultures the self boundary includes at least an
extended family and more often a tribe or community
(Figure 8). In modem American culture the tendency has
been for more and more people to shrink this boundary to
a single person: themselves. All goals then become per-
sonal goals, and the lines of defense end with the limits of
your own body. When we move far away from home we
are hurting the extended family to benefit our narrower
self-concept.
One of the reasons the Japanese were able to overtake
the West economically so rapidly in the 1980s was that
their self-concept included the company for which they
worked. They worked incredibly long hours and did with-
out many comforts in pursuit of goals that were really
company goals. Their self boundary included their em-
ployer and possibly the whole country. Instead of seeking
goals individually, the purpose was to fit into and be useful
to the group; the goals were then achieved by the group.
Thanks to American television and movies, this is all rap-
idly changing.
The Asian mentality, in general, tends to place the
boundaries of self at least at the extended family level. The
family thrives and gains status because each member tries
to fit in and be useful. Marriages are arranged with the
bride being selected for the good of the family, not the
100 CHAPTER FIVE
Boundaries of Self
FIGURE 8. The self-concept includes a concept of boundaries

which varies between cultures. The narrowest boundary ends at
the skin of the individual's body while the widest includes the
entire universe.
groom. A Chinese man considers himself a brother, a son,

a husband, or a father, but hardly ever just as himself.1 o
The Balinese consider themselves not as individuals
but as members of a social category. This is reflected in the
way people are named. While we are given a name at birth
that is uniquely ours and stays with us for life, the Balinese
names ll change with changes of status. Infants aren't even
given a name until they are 105 days old. That name is used
only sporadically until adolescence, when it ceases to be
used. More commonly used are kinship names, which one
shares with all siblings and cousins within one's genera-
tion. There are also names based on birth order: Wayan for
the firstborn, Nioman for the second, and so on. An adult
who becomes a parent is called "Father of ... " or "Mother
of ... " followed by the child's name. When a grandchild
is born the name changes to "Grandmother of ... " etc.
and similarly when a great-grandchild is born. Public titles
are also used for people with jobs such as postman, politi-
cian, and so on. Social life in such a society also tends to be
less personal, more general and formaL Relationships tend
to be seen as links between representatives of different
groups or classes.
Property concepts are another way to view the
boundaries of self. The nuclear family in the United States
ideally is bounded by the property lines of their home. In
many parts of the world, these boundaries are not so clear.
The Japanese often live in a company compound that
includes recreational facilities and even company vacation
resorts. The American Indians, and many other tribal and
nomadic cultures, have no concept of individual property.
The Dogon people12 of Mali have permanent villages
with a population in the thousands, yet their definition of
house is the people living there, not the structure. The
Dogon house is never sold and is thought of as belonging
to the mythical descendants of the people who occupied
the village before the Dogon arrived. For each individual,
the village is "his" house; his family simply sleeps in a
102 CHAPTER FIVE
particular structure. The self boundary in this case could

be said to extend to the limits of the village.
The extreme extension of the self boundaries would be
found in the teachings of many religions that espouse a
universal consciousness. The self boundary would thus
include the entire universe. At the other extreme, a fairly
common symptom of strokes and right hemisphere brain
damage is unilateral neglect: The patient, paralyzed on the
left side, denies that his left arm or leg belongs to himP
Accustomed to depending upon a-now damaged-mod-
ule in the right hemisphere to attend to such things, the self
module simply narrows the boundaries of self down to the
right half of the body. The opposite occurs when an ampu-
tee with an artificial arm or leg learns to extend his self
boundary out to include the artificial limb.
You can change your own self boundaries by practic-
ing thinking of yourself as a part of something greater than
yourself. Your individual cells are born and die as part of
a continual cooperative process that you lump together
and call your body. Your body in tum is a component part
of many processes that are larger than you: your family,
your community, job, country, the earth ecosystem, and
even the universe. Life can seem richer and death less
important with these expanded concepts of self.
THE SELF-CONCEPT IN HISTORY
The major turning points in the history of mankind

can all be related to changes in the self-concept. These
changes are easy to trace at the start of the Renaissance
because the books of this era are full of discussions of the
new concepts (see Table II). Earlier history is not so clear

because our ability to translate ancient hieroglyphics, cu-
neiform, and other written languages is limited to simple
concrete meanings. The first major work in a language that
we can translate with some certainty is the Iliad. This epic
story was developed about 1230 BC, verbally passed on by
Greek bards and then written down by Homer about 850
Be. With the exception of a few speeches, believed to be
added later,14 there is no indication of consciousness in
any of the 24 books. The concept of will, though highly
developed in Plato's time, does not appear. Actions are
driven not by conscious plans, reasons, or motives but by
actions or speeches of the gods.
By 399 BC the concept of free will had evolved to the
point that Socrates demonstrated the meaning of the con-
cept of self in control by making a conscious decision to
intentionally wait for his sentence of poisoning though he
ironically submits to the will of others. Plato dramatized
it in Phaedo as follows:
... since the Athenians thought it right to condemn
me, I have thought it right and just to sit here and to
submit to whatever sentence they may think fit to
impose. For by the dog of Egypt, I think that these
muscles and bones would long ago have been in
Megara or Boeotia, prompted by their opinion of
what is best, if I had not thought it better and more
honorable to submit to whatever penalty the state
inflicts, rather than escape by flight.
The Athenians accomplished great things with their
newly discovered idea of a self in controL However, their
self-concept still didn't include introspection. "Know thy-
self," inscribed on the Delphic oracle in about 600 BC,
TABLE II
Issues of Selfhood in Different Historical Eras.a
Historical Self-knowledge, self Self-definiton Fulfillment Relation of individual
era conception to society
Late Unproblematic Mortality and virtue Christian salva- "Great Chain of
medie- Increase sense of unity Honor, glory, reputation tion (in heaven) Being" -fixed,
val of single life (fixed criteria) (Possible) public stable order
Otherwise, society de- acclaim Self equated with
fined identity: rank, social, public
kin, etc. self
Early Unproblematic for own Concept of personal Christian salvation Unstable (social
modern self; for others, ques- change, development Incipient secular mobility)
(16th to tion of inner true self Sincerity; equivalence of fulfillment, as Some separation
18th vs. outer apparent self inner and outer in creativity (privacy)
century) Increased interest in selves, as a virtue Loss of
individuality, identity through
uniqueness of self family lineage
Puritan Self-consciousness In principle, none! Christians salva- Work: Success
Concern with self- (predestination) tion; but individ- means
deception (henceforth, ual is helpless salvation
self-knowledge uncer- Inner struggle to
tain) overcome sin
and weakness
Romantic Need to discover own Individual exists prior Creativity Individual vs.
(late destiny and fulfill it to particular social Passion society struggle
18th, (duty) roles ("romantic" love) for freedom
early Imperial, hypertrophied Quest for fulfillment as Thus, grope for Individual insepa-
19th self self-definition secularized rable from soci-
cen- Personality as identity concept of ety, but can
turies) fulfillment change roles
Victorian Repression, hypocrisy Self-reliance, rugged Seek fulfillment Peaceful coexis-
(mid Involuntary self-disclosure individualism alone (transcen- tence (transcen-
and late Imperial, "hypertrophied" Adolescence as crisis in dentalism) Private, dentalism) Change
19th self self-definition family life society
century) is paramount (Progressivism,
Utopianism)
Early Devaluation of self Socioeconomic status Society prevents Hostile, critical,
20th Impossibility of complete Existential concerns, fulfillment muckraking
century self-knowledge (Freud) authenticity (alienation) Alienation
Personality, social skills Emotional fulfill-
Radical choice ment in family Work
as unful-
filling
Recent Belief in personal Personality Quest for celebrity Accommodation
20th uniqueness Socioeconomic status Quest for means Myth-making
century Values of self-exploration of self-actualiza-
tion
"From "How the self became a problem: A psychological review of historical research," Journal of Personality and Social Psy-
chology, 1987, Volume 52, No.1, p. 164, by Roy F. Baumeister.
106 CHAPTER FIVE
sounds to us like a reference to introspection. However, in

the context of the mentality of the time 15 the meaning was
probably more related to knowing your talents and ca-
pacities so that you could carry out your duties effectively
and with good judgment.
A thorough search through medieval literature by
R. W. Hanning of Yale University16 found virtually no
reference to inner struggles. Though Saint Augustine
wrote, "In the inner man dwells truth," he also wrote, "No
person should therefore desire to change his or her station,
any more than a finger should wish to be the body's eye"
("station" here means standing in society). The Christian
writings on salvation prior to the 12th century speak only
of collective salvation. After that time, the idea of final
judgment developed and with it came a concept of each
person's being held accountable for one's acts.
The first literature with significant references to the
internal self was by Petrarch, a 14th century Italian poet.
He was one of the first to rediscover Plato and other Greek
teachings as the basis of a new cultural framework. As
these ideas spread, the result was the dramatic change in
the self-concept, which resulted in the Renaissance in
Europe. Rene Descartes' famous "I think, therefore I am"
in 1644 showed the further development and spread to
France of the concepts of introspection and the individual
self.
The literature and drama in the time of Shakespeare
exhibits plenty of internal conflict. Hamlet's famous "To
be or not to be" is the kind of internal dialogue that was
absent from medieval literature. "The fault, dear Brutus,
is not in our stars, but in ourselves" reflects clearly the
concept of self-control of destiny. In Greek tragedy, circum-
stances rather than personality are the central focus. Oedi-

pus' personality is irrelevant to his misfortunes, which
were decreed by fate.
Biographies were practically unheard of in the Middle
Ages because the idea of the individual self was not part
of the mentality. People thought of themselves only as a
member of a larger group. During the late 18th century,
individual personality came to be increasingly valued,
even above social rank. Biographies became a popular
form. When people wrote about their travels, they began
to talk about their personal feelings and what moved
them. Before this time, travel descriptions focused on gen-
eral information depicting the place from an impartial
viewpoint. Boswell's travel descriptions are extremely
personal, revealing as much about his own feelings as
about the place he describes.
With the narrowing of self boundaries has come an
increasing emphasis on privacy and individual rights. In
pre-18th century French towns, unmarried people accused
of fornication, cuckolds, and men who had done women's
work were subjected to the charivari. Noisy public ridicule
was the punishment for things that would today be consid-
ered private family matters. Even kings were never left
alone. Servants were ever-present in rich families, and the
poor families lived together in a single room, often sharing
a single bed. Until the end of the 17th century nobody
expected to be left aloneP With the trend toward individu-
alization came the idea of separate rooms and servants'
halls. The private chair was introduced at the dinner table
to replace the bench. The continuation of this trend in
modern times has led to each family desiring its own fenced
yard for privacy and a private bedroom for each child.
108 CHAPTER FIVE
Too much logic and self-control can to some degree

rob life of the richness of the senses. In the late 18th century
a reaction began against the extreme Rationalism of the
previous century. The Romantic era emphasized individ-
ual feelings and fulfillment. Artists, natives, and peasants
were idealized for their direct, simple approach to life. In
1798 William Wordsworth wrote,
One Impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man
Of moral evil and of good
Than all the sages can.
The Romantic versus Rationalist dichotomy is an im-
portant part of our self-concept that strongly affects our
perception of reality. Rapid changes in popular culture
show how quickly these basic concepts can change and
how easily influenced most people are by the society in
which they live.
In the 1960s there was a brief revival of romanticism
when frilly clothes, simple folk songs, and Rod McKuen
poetry became mass market hits. Ten years later, the pen-
dulum had swung back, making these same songs, poems,
and styles seem cloyingly sweet and embarrassing. This
rapid change in our basic way of perceiving things illus-
trates just how quickly our mental software can change.
The same things that previously brought pleasure can
become an embarrassment as the underlying concepts that
shape our reality are changed.
The important thing is to recognize that since our
mind creatively constructs our reality around self-concept
beliefs, these beliefs will always seem to be obviously true.
The mind interprets and fills in as necessary to confirm
them no matter what they are. Once the beliefs that consti-
tute our self-concept are planted in our minds in early
childhood, they tend to grow stronger with every year
because they seem to be continually confirmed by experi-
ence. Only with great mental effort can we use our logic to
see past these mental illusions and find and correct the
errors in our self-concept.
CHAPTER SIX
False Beliefs
A beliefis aperceptualframework which leads us

to see the world in a way that reinforces thatframework.
- - Edward De Bono, 1990
The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.

- - Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1500
We are so constituted that we believe the most incredible things;

and, once they are engraved upon the memory,
woe to him who would endeavor to erase them.
-Goethe,1771
False beliefs are always something somebody else has. Yet
everywhere beliefs are in conflict. People even die for and
endure torture for their beliefs. We cling to false beliefs
steadfastly because of the way perception works: The
same filling-in process that helps us to make sense of our
world also prevents us from knowing if our beliefs are
false. Our mind creatively interprets all of our perceptions
in an attempt to fit them to our beliefs and expectations. It
is not surprising then that even false beliefs appear to be
convincingly confirmed. This flaw in our mental makeup has
been the source of much strife throughout history.
Positive feedbackl is an engineering term meaning
feedback in the same direction. It tends to reinforce and
increase errors, usually resulting in drastic instability. (An-
other confusing use of the term positive feedback means
giving encouragement, which is not what we mean here.)
A simple example of feedback is the thermostat in your
home, which is normally connected to give negative feed-
back to stabilize the temperature by turning on the heat if
113
114 CHAPTER SIX
it is too cold or the air conditioning if it is too hot. If you

reversed the connections to the thermostat so that it would
tum on the heat when it got too hot and the air condition-
ing when it got too cold, that would be positive feedback.
The result would be disastrous: If your house started out
warm, the furnace would go on and make it hotter and
hotter; if it started out cold, the air conditioning would
come on, making it colder and colder. Clearly, positive
feedback is to be avoided.
Our belief system is a perfect example of positive
feedback because the observations used to test for truth are
altered in the direction that is assumed to be true. The result
is a tendency to lock in on whatever is first assumed to be
true. 2 If we grow up thinking that a flat Earth is the center
of the universe, we will see that belief confirmed every-
where we look. This circularity of our belief system makes
our world appear much more orderly than it really is.
Unfortunately, it also causes much disorder because of the
conflicts that result when people begin with different
assumptions.
WHY WE HAVE WARS
Wars most always occur between two groups of peo-

ple who have strong negative beliefs about each other.
With time, positive feedback strengthens these beliefs to a
breaking point. If you are raised a Catholic in Northern
Ireland, then you likely believe that the British are not to
be trusted. Generous acts of reconciliation are seen as
tricks to gain advantage. In fact, tricks against the British
are seen as smart and necessary to prevent the British from
FALSE BELIEFS 115
gaining first advantage. If an IRA bomb kills schoolchil-

dren, it is seen by true believers as a British trick to make
the IRA look bad. 3
The U.S. involvement in Somalia in 1994 is another
example of how negative beliefs can make people see the
most generous acts in an evil light. The 20,000 soldiers we
unselfishly sent there to help a famine were showered
with rocks by children, shot at by snipers, and dragged
dead through the streets by exultant citizens of the capital.
In the end 42 Americans were killed and 175 wounded
before we finally made our hasty retreat. Hatred can
distort perception until the most generous acts look like
an imperialist plot.
Prejudice between racial groups and sexes is also
perpetuated by the circularity of beliefs: If you believe that
blacks are criminals and you hear about a crime in your
neighborhood just after you saw a black person on your
street, it will likely confirm your belief, even though he
was innocent. You may read in the paper a week later that
a white criminal was caught, but the reinforcement of your
belief system is already done and will not be undone by
this "exception." In fact, since memory recall is also crea-
tively distorted to fit beliefs, it wouldn't be unusual for
someone still to say, "Every time I see a black person in the
neighborhood somebody gets robbed." Both perception
and memory are naturally distorted to confirm beliefs,
regardless of whether they are false or true.
The circularity of belief systems is just as serious when
blacks adopt a white conspiracy belief. This makes them
interpret all bad events as being caused intentionally by
whites. Rudeness of a white clerk in a store is interpreted
as prejudice, even though whites are often rude to each
116 CHAPTER SIX
other. Drug addiction, AIDS, and high murder rates are

seen as results of a white conspiracy. Most wars are a result
of this kind of interaction between two false belief systems.
Each side thinks it is seeing convincing confirmation of its
beliefs. Positive feedback tends to produce instability;
when two related but distinct positive feedback systems
interact, the result can be catastrophic.
Habitual criminals are caught in this kind of cycle.
They see the system as an unfair and cruel conspiracy
against them, and the citizens and police expect more
criminal behavior, so both sides clearly see and get the
result they expect. The Communists believed a conspiracy
of capitalists was the cause of all of their problems. They
could convincingly see confirmation everywhere they
looked and honestly believed they were doing the right
thing by overthrowing the system. It is now clear that they
were wrong, but the world could have been saved a lot of
trouble if they had stood back and seen the dangerous
circularity of their beliefs.
Another serious problem caused by positive feed-
back is that it prevents beliefs from changing even when
the conditions that originally caused them have ren-
dered them false. Communism survived long after it
was obviously not working as well as the free market
system. It was born in an age of worker oppression but
continued well after unions and government regula-
tions brought exploitation under control in the demo-
cratic countries. Distorted perceptions continued to
reinforce the now false belief system. Most labor unions
were started to protest intolerable wages and working
conditions. Once the antimanagement belief was estab-
lished it became self-perpetuating, even after workers
FALSE BELIEFS 117
gained control. Many U.S. industries have been de-

stroyed by worker demands that went far beyond fair-
ness, demanding featherbedding and salary excesses.
Many false beliefs were once true but were perpetuated
by positive feedback to continue long after conditions
had changed, rendering them false. Most hatred be-
tween countries and ethnic groups is based on events
that happened generations ago, but positive feedback
perpetuates the hatred.
Some countries, such as England, have had stable,
honest government for centuries, while others seem to
have one corrupt regime after another. The reason for
the difference may well have to do with beliefs. When
the English have a corruption scandal, they see it as a
temporary aberration and proceed to correct it: They
believe in, and expect, good government. In many coun-
tries people believe government is always corrupt and
develop a way of life based on working around that
corruption. These countries are almost impossible to
reform because even if the government is honest, the
people will perceive it as corrupt. Positive feedback
keeps them where they started because the initial beliefs
are self-perpetuating.
The distortion of perception to confirm beliefs actu-
ally has a stabilizing influence on some things. For exam-
ple, people have a tendency to feel that the place where
they grew up is the best of all possible places to live. In
Kansas they are glad that they don't have to worry about
earthquakes like the poor people in California. Tornadoes
and ice storms, on the other hand, are not so bad. If people
didn't have this mental trait, California would be even
more crowded than it is.
118 CHAPTER SIX
WINNERS AND LOSERS
Most gamblers believe in luck and losing streaks: When

they feel lucky they view each successive win as a confirma-
tion of their luck and each loss as an exception. Once the belief
turns around to a losing streak, the wins become exceptions.
Your personal self-concept can likewise include a belief that
you are basically a winner or a loser. In this case the results,
in the form of success and happiness, can be profoundly
affected by the way life's events are interpreted. A glass half
full of water can be seen as half empty. A lost job can be seen
as a lucky opportunity to improve or as yet another failure.
A basic part of the mental software of our self-concept
includes some basic beliefs about the world. A child reared
in a wealthy family may tend to assume that life is easy
and anything can be accomplished with a little effort. A
totally opposite belief system may result from being raised
in a ghetto, welfare-dependent family: The world is hostile
and it isn't even worth trying.
The power of beliefs is clearly illustrated by the success
of the Jewish immigrants who interpreted the prejudice
and hardship they found as a challenge to try harder. The
same crushing events, interpreted by some ethnic and ra-
cial groups as proof that there is no hope, were taken by the
Jews as a challenge. The only difference was the initial
belief assumption instilled during childhood by the family.
Experience is interpreted to confirm beliefs, positive or
negative, with often totally opposite results.
Self-esteem is a part of your self-concept defined by
your beliefs about your own abilities. If you have high
self-esteem you will see your failures as exceptions and
always expect success. Some people actually overestimate
FALSE BELIEFS 119
their abilities and view their own mediocre accomplish-

ments as quite exceptionaL Low self-esteem can make
truly exceptional and talented people see their abilities as
mediocre. Again the positive feedback of these distortions
of perception tend to perpetuate the initial belief instilled
by parents during childhood.
It is quite common to see two brothers or sisters, having
grown up in the same family, with a totally opposite view of
the family's disposition. One may remember a blissful rela-
tionship between the parents, while the other remembers
continual bickering. One remembers the parents as loving
and supportive, while the other remembers their doling out
cruel punishments. Again the reason is positive feedback
stemming from a slightly different initial perception of the
same family life. Seemingly insignificant events at crucial
moments in development can start a child in a negative or
positive direction. Once a negative belief is started, percep-
tion is distorted to support the negative interpretation of
future actions by the parents. This calls for more rebellious
and negative behavior, which builds a negative expectation
in the parents' minds. Positive feedback soon drives both the
parents' and the child's views to extremes by repeatedly
confirming what began as a weak initial tendency. Genetic
differences between siblings may also be a part of the picture,
but positive feedback finishes the job.
DENIAL: IGNORING THE

UNTHINKABLE
Denial edits perception by ignoring things that are

unpleasant or contrary to our beliefs. It is the antithesis of
120 CHAPTER SIX
filling in. We are all in denial of the certainty of our own

eventual death. It is a useful defense mechanism that
makes life livable by allowing us to ignore things that we
are powerless to change. However, it is often misused to
allow us to avoid facing realities that could be changed.
Denial is simply a special category of false beliefs that edits
our reality so that we can unconsciously ignore the un-
thinkable.
Groups of people unconsciously follow unspoken
rules about what can and cannot be discussed. These limits
are set by example and are followed without any conscious
intent. Abusive or alcoholic parents' problems can go to-
tally unnoticed in families where collective denial is the
unspoken rule. Each child maintains a positive belief re-
garding the parents and actually fails to acknowledge the
dysfunctional behavior. Memories that don't fit into the
basic belief of a harmonious family are ignored or dis-
torted as long as the belief is sustained. A parent can be
alcoholic and the family can shrug it off with an explana-
tion like "Dad is sick again." Once such a family pattern
develops,4 the creative nature of perception and memory
makes it seem very natural to continue. In fact, it becomes
just as natural as ignoring the blind spot in your vision.
Sexual and physical abuse can go on in a family for years
and be ignored by everyone. Though the taboo is never
actually discussed, everybody knows by example that
certain things are taboo subjects.
If you live in a family with sexual or physical abuse,
then those unthinkable facts are simply added to your
normal denial of death. Patterns of abuse are forgiven and
forgotten by pretending they are temporary aberrations.
Memories of events are stored away normally, but the
FALSE BELIEFS 121
retrieval is distorted to agree with the current belief in a

perfect family. The person simply avoids thinking about
the unpleasant events the same way that he avoids think-
ing about his own death. However, just as the thought of
death sometimes slips through our barrier of denial, other
denied thoughts and memories also occasionally flash into
consciousness. When beliefs change and denial is allowed
to stop, the memories can be reinterpreted to match the
new version of reality. "Coming out of the closet" causes
all existing memories, previously distorted by the false
belief system, to be seen in a new light.
Group pressure seems to be amazingly effective in
causing denial of glaringly obvious problems. In Nazi
Germany, extermination camps and other atrocities were
ignored by almost everyone. People simply failed to see
what they could not bear to see. The fact that others were
doing the same thing seemed to make it much easier. A
sense of loyalty makes it possible to filter perception to an
amazing degree.
In failing companies and military campaigns the ob-
vious signs of impending disaster are often ignored by
everyone in the managing group. "Groupthink" works by
focusing attention on all other possible details except the
obvious unpleasant facts. It seems that denial is a conta-
gious disease insofar as the group dynamic arrives at
unspoken rules about what is taboo. In the disastrous Bay
of Pigs invasion of Cuba and also the Vietnam War, plan-
ners blundered ahead in spite of easily available informa-
tion that would have foretold disaster. The Bay of Pigs
invasion was based on the assumption that the Cuban
people would unanimously rally to support the 1400 in-
vaders even though a widely circulated poll showed that
122 CHAPTER SIX
the vast majority of Cubans supported Castro. In spite of

that, nobody thought to ask the CIA, the Secretary of State,
or the State Department Cuban desk. S
Denial and distortion of reality to match our beliefs are
defense mechanisms that make life more tolerable in the
short term. However, as the above examples show, in many
situations they can exact a high cost in human suffering.
In September of 1919, President Woodrow Wilson had
a massive stroke that left him paralyzed and blind on the
left side of his body. He also totally neglected the left side
of his body, lost his spatial sense, and lost all emotional
inflection in his voice. In spite of these handicaps he suf-
fered from denial of symptoms, a common symptom from
such strokes. He fired his secretary of state for calling a
meeting to discuss the problem. During his last two years
in the White House he was severely disabled and couldn't
even sit up at his desk or read more than a few lines at a
time. Yet he and most of his staff claimed that he was
merely lame. 6 He finished the final two years of his term
in this severely disabled state and even tried to run for
renomination.
Denial is quite common in terminally ill patients and
their families. Medical reports and other symptoms seem
not to be heard at all. This can be a useful defense for
someone in a hopeless situation who is receiving proper
treatment. However, denial can be the cause of death when
it prevents people with obvious symptoms of cancer or
other serious diseases from seeking treatment. Many brain
damage patients initially deny serious symptoms like
blindness, deafness, paralysis, and loss of memory. Con-
sciousness is extremely creative in perceiving only what it
accepts.
FALSE BELIEFS 123
When we take a new job, move to a new city, or meet

a new friend we often go through a honeymoon period
where we are in denial of serious defects. Later, when
disillusionment sets in, we can look back at our intact
memories of the clear signs of defect amazed that we
didn't see them at the time. "Love is blind" because when
a person falls in love, he or she has an idealized belief in
the other person. Because of this belief, denial causes
obvious major faults to go completely unnoticed. Parents
often deny the faults of their children, maintaining that a
murderer is "a good boy."
In the 1960s Lester Luborsky7 did some fascinating
experiments that demonstrate an ability to censor out un-
desired visual inputs at the very source. He used a special
camera to track a spot of light reflected from the cornea so
as to track the scanning eye movements of the subjects as
they examined pictures (see Figure 3 for example). He
showed the subjects ten pictures and asked them to rate
which ones they liked and which they disliked. Three of the
pictures had a sexual content. For example, one showed the
outline of a woman's breast with a man reading a newspa-
per in the background. Some of the subjects showed an
amazing ability to look at the pictures without once letting
their gaze stray to the sexy part of the picture.
When they were asked several days later what the
pictures were, they remembered little or nothing sugges-
tive about them. It seems that an unconscious module of
the mind that controls eye movements is able to protect us
from seeing things that violate our standards of accept-
ability. Selective awareness is a fundamental and neces-
sary part of our brain's function. Without it the world
would be a confusing buzz of too many sensations.
124 CHAPTER SIX
THE PLACEBO EFFECT
The placebo effect is a powerful demonstration of the

power of beliefs to affect not only our perception but also
our immune system. If you have an illness and you believe
that something has been done to cure it, you will often
either get better or think you have gotten better. Faith
healers often have people throwaway their crutches after
being healed by prayer. Even a sugar pill, called a placebo,
will often cure an illness if it is given to you as a cure for
that illness.
This effect is so strong that the Food and Drug Admini-
stration (FDA) testing procedure for new medications re-
quires an extremely expensive double-blind technique. In
a double-blind test half of the test subjects must secretly be
given placebos (sugar pills). The results must be tabulated
by workers with no knowledge of who got the placebos.
Normally there will always be a considerable number
of people who seem to benefit from the treatment. Ap-
proval is given only if the drug under test does signifi-
cantly better than the placebo. The people taking the real
medication do better because they get the benefit of the
placebo effect plus the effectiveness of the medication.
The other side of the double-blind procedure is the
requirement that the researchers must not know which
subjects received the real medication. Without this precau-
tion, it has been found that test results will be biased in
favor of the new drug. Even though the researchers at-
tempt to be honest, their perception is distorted enough by
their belief in the new drug that the results will be tainted
if they know who actually got the drug. Subtle errors of
perception, ways of asking questions, errors in record
FALSE BELIEFS 125
keeping, and other factors all have been found to work

together to prejudice the results toward confirming the
researchers' beliefs.
The double-blind test technique must even be applied
to testing new surgery techniques. Dummy surgery is
actually performed on some patients in the paid test who
are secretly chosen as controls: An incision is made but
nothing is done internally. Without this control it is impos-
sible to tell if new surgery really works because patients'
symptoms improve even with dummy surgery. The pla-
cebo effect is present anytime the patient knows that some-
thing was done to improve his condition.
In the Philippines, psychosurgeons perform opera-
tions using only their bare hands (and a little palmed
chicken blood and guts). Their good results are a testimo-
nial to the power of the placebo effect. Homeopathy is
another alternative medical treatment that seems to have
no sound scientific basis. Most of the medications are so
highly diluted that a typical dose often has no molecules of the
substance they are supposed to contain. 8 In spite of this fact,
the placebo effect causes many people to be highly impressed
by the results. Homeopathic drug sales are actually growing
by 25% a year.
The opposite of the placebo effect happens when
people believe themselves to be unhealthy. The immune
system seems to be able to shut down in such situations.
Black magic curses actually appear to work by this process.
Believing in the power of a voodoo doll with pins in it can
make a superstitious person's immune system shut down
and put that person in a downward spiral that leads to
death. Another common example is the way the survivor
in an elderly married couple often dies soon after the
126 CHAPTER SIX
partner. A Finnish study of 96,000 widowed people found

that their risk of death doubled in the week after their
partner'sdeath.9 Again, positive feedback is a factor, since
any illness confirms the belief that death is near. Mental
attitude seems to be able to affect not only perception but
also the body's immune system.
MENTAL ILLNESS
Positive feedback is also an important factor in men-

tal illness. Beliefs that cause fear can distort perception
to reinforce a fear until it becomes absolutely terrifying.
The Darwinian competition between modules of the
mind for strongest meaning or match makes it possible
for a rogue module, which increasingly overreacts to a
fear, to develop. A slight fear of flying can intensify with
each flight because the fear causes even small bumps,
due to turbulence, to seem worse than they really are. As
the fear belief grows stronger, the overreaction grows
with it.
Binge behavior such as fits of heavy eating, drinking,
or gambling could also be examples of a rogue module.
The instant change in behavior when a person clicks into
the binge state has all the earmarks of a change of mod-
ules. The dramatic personality changes of some people
when drunk could easily just be the personality traits of
their "drunk module." This module has its own develop-
mental history, which is also influenced by the fact that
the physiological effects of alcohol are present whenever
it is in control. Lost memories of things that happened
FALSE BELIEFS 127
while drunk may be recovered the next time the person is

drunk again.
Depression, also a result of positive feedback, may
begin with a real cause, such as a misfortune or a chemical
imbalance caused by PMS. The negative experience soon
causes even good events to be interpreted in a negative
way. The more misfortunes accumulate, the more negative
interpretations grow until the person plummets into a
deep depression. The negative belief system distorts per-
ception, causing even well-meaning friends' helpful ac-
tions to be seen as cruel attacks.
Hypochondria sometimes includes a much-low-
ered tolerance for pain. Normal feelings can be inter-
preted as pains once the belief of illness is planted.
Normal body sensations that would usually be ignored
can take on an ominous significance. The false belief in
the illness distorts perception to create the expected
symptoms. A large percentage of visits to physicians are
found to have no physical basis. Though it is impossible
to get accurate figures, estimates of such visits vary
from 30 to 80%.10
Paranoia, a similar runaway belief system, occurs
when any event is interpreted as a personal threat: The
phone rings and nobody is there, a stranger standing on
the street corner is perceived as somebody keeping a
watch on the house, a headline on a newspaper is a hidden
message. Once this paranoid belief takes control, distorted
perception confirms it, and it grows stronger with each
imagined experience. Again, positive feedback reinforces
an initially weak belief until it grows stronger and
stronger.
128 CHAPTER SIX
FINANCIAL BELIEFS
Financial markets tend to go through wild and de-

structive cycles of boom and bust that are a result of the
same positive feedback of our perceptions. During a bear
(down) market, everything tends to be interpreted nega-
tively, including things that would be considered good
news in a bull market. A good earnings report becomes
bad news-it could mean that the economy will get over-
heated and cause inflation and a hike in interest rates. In a
bull (up) market, that same news would be welcomed as
an indication that prosperity is continuing. The explana-
tions given by news reporters for stock average move-
ments, up or down, are often the same, with the
interpretation depending on whether the prevailing belief
is bullish or bearish.
An unstable stock market oscillates between limits
because of positive feedback: Rising prices make people
willing to pay more for a stock while falling prices make
them want to sell. Interest rate adjustments are the Federal
Reserve Board's attempt to add negative feedback to sta-
bilize the system. If things look too good they raise interest
rates, which makes people want to sell their stocks.
Interest rates are also strongly affected by the prevail-
ing belief system. Prior to 1966, interest rates were stable
at less than 4.5% for decades. By 1973 inflation reached a
runaway 36.4%,11 but the prime rate rose to only 8%
because people continued to believe in the stability of the
dollar. An investment in treasury bills that year would lose
about 20% of its real value. As a result of the negative
interest in those years, real interest rates are still incredibly
high by pre-1970s standards. People no longer believe, as
FALSE BELIEFS 129
they used to, that the dollar can remain stable and free
from inflation.
The prices of homes also suffer from boom and bust
cycles as a result of changing beliefs and expectations. The
inflation of the 1970s caused home prices to grow dramati-
cally in many parts of the country. As people learned to
expect home prices to double every few years, a kind of
frenzy developed, driving prices to ridiculous heights. In
many areas, less than 30% of the families could afford the
median-priced home. Once this bubble burst, hundreds of
thousands of homes were foreclosed as their value fell
below the loan balance. The idea of reasonable value for a
home is still unreasonably high in some areas because the
drop in values is seen as an aberration rather than a return
to sanity. The original belief in the wisdom of home own-
ership is still alive in most people, despite some very
negative evidence.
URBAN LEGENDS
Urban legends are the modern version of folklore.

They are untrue stories that are picked up by the news
media and spread by word of mouth until they take on a
life of their own. They are a clear demonstration of the
power of positive feedback in that they begin with a single
false story and then mushroom into a major epidemic that
is nearly impossible to stamp out. Several tabloid newspa-
pers specialize in running this type of story and don't
hesitate to make up stories and even fake photographs to
fan the flames.
130 CHAPTER SIX
The moon-and-stars trademark used to appear on all

Proctor and Gamble products until somebody started a
rumor that the company was run by satanists. The trade-
mark was said to be a satanic symbol being used as a result
of a pact with the devil to ensure the company's success.
A company executive had supposedly confessed the truth
on 60 Minutes or Donahue, depending on which version of
the rumor you heard. By mid-1982 Proctor's consumer
services department was getting 15,000 calls a month12
from people asking about the company's connection with
Satan. The company tried a counterpublicity campaign
and both Donahue and a spokesman for 60 Minutes pub-
licly denied that such interviews existed, but the legend
lived on. Ultimately, Proctor and Gamble was forced to
change its trademark.
Another famous urban legend started in 1975. Sud-
denly there was a rash of reports by cattle ranchers in
Colorado and nearby states of bizarre slaughter of cattle.
Little meat had been eaten but the blood had been drained
and the sexual organs and lips had been surgically re-
moved. Speculation about the cause ranged from UFOs to
satanic ritual to secret government experiments. A movie
titled Endangered Species was rushed out to support the
government experiment theory.
Expert animal pathologists were called in to investi-
gate. They found that the deaths were nothing more than
normal predator attacks and natural causes. The sex or-
gans and lips had been removed, not with a knife, but by
scavengers who took them because they were the softest
and most accessible parts. The news reports had planted
a belief in the minds of the ranchers that made them
interpret normal deaths as confirmation of the rumors.
FALSE BELIEFS 131
Eventually a few real cases appeared in Idaho and

Montana. When police investigated they found it was the
work of copycat satanic cultists who had read about the
attacks in the newspapers and decided to try sacrificing
cattle instead of the stray cats and dogs they usually used.
This demonstrates another kind of positive feedback that
keeps urban legends going: People read about the rumor
and actually act it out, making it real. The idea of razor
blades or poison in Halloween candy may have started as
a rumor or a joke by one child, but it still has mothers
checking candy decades later. 13
The source of most urban legends usually remains
forever a mystery, but the cattle mutilation was later re-
vealed to be the result of an intentional hoax started as a
joke by Dan Fry, the host of an astrology radio show called
Cosmic Age. The joke got out of hand when the Houston Post
published the story as a fact and then the wire services
picked it up from them.
AN URBAN NIGHTMARE
Sexual abuse of small children by teachers in a pre-

school is one of the most horrible crimes imaginable. In
August of 1983 a wave of revelations of such abuse spread
like wildfire across California and other states. Many of
the cases have now been dismissed, and some of the
accused teachers are suing law enforcement officials for
damages. The epidemic started in the McMartin pre-
school14 in southern California when a mother, later
diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, called the police
to report that her 2-year-old son had been sexually mo-
132 CHAPTER SIX
lested by one of the teachers. The police sent a letter to 200

McMartin parents to warn them of "possible criminal acts"
such as "oral sex, fondling of genitals, buttocks or chest
area, and sodomy."
By the beginning of November full-scale panic had
spread among the parents. Over 350 children were inter-
viewed by a consulting psychologist who used anatomi-
cally correct dolls and asked leading questions. Eventually
the charges spread to include many other teachers and
included charges that they jabbed scissors into a boy's eyes
and even killed a baby and made the child drink its blood.
The author of Michelle Remembers, a bizarre 1980 book
based on a mental patient's repressed memories of satanic
cults, was flown in as an expert. Charges continued to
grow and now included babies being cooked and eaten, a
child being put naked in a cage with a live lion, and making
children perform in kiddie-porn movies.
The pUblicity from the McMartin case scared parents
throughout the country and resulted in an epidemic of
similar charges throughout the country. IS Once the belief
was planted in the minds of parents, police, and the "ex-
pert" psychologists, getting 3-year-olds to confirm them
was easy. When an authority figure asks leading questions,
children do their best to cooperate. Three-year-olds often
have violent fantasies, particularly when they have had
the trauma of being taken from their mother to be cared
for by a stranger in a preschooL Even more importantly,
interpretation of the children's answers is naturally dis-
torted by perception to confirm the adult interviewer's
beliefs.
After digging up the schoolyard for evidence with a
backhoe, offering a $10,000 reward for the kiddie-porn
FALSE BELIEFS 133
movie, and staging the most expensive trial in California

history, all of the McMartin defendants were acquitted. An
investigation by the FBI Behavioral Research Unit con-
cluded that" cross-contamination of ideas" between par-
ent and law enforcement groups and between the children
and the interrogators caused the fiasco. Positive feedback,
acting on the fantasies of one crazed mother, grew uncon-
trollably into a nationwide epidemic.
BELIEF IN MAGIC
Why does it always seem to rain right after you have

washed your car? Unless the world exists just on your
behalf, this must be an illusion because somebody washes
his car every day. The real difference is in our perception
of the rainstorm, which changes after we have washed the
car. A similar mental illusion happens after we have made
a major decision such as getting married, getting divorced,
or buying a new red car. It will suddenly seem that every-
body is getting married, or divorced, or driving a red car.
Your mind's natural tendency to look for unifying relation-
ships actually changes your perception so that you notice
things that confirm your decision. Disasters, such as air-
plane crashes, often seem to occur in threes. What really
happens is that after a disaster, your mind is primed to
notice other similar disasters. After the third one, the nov-
elty wears off and you tire of making the connection.
Psychics benefit from our tendency to creatively dis-
tort our perception to fit our expectations. If you really
believe in mystics and one says, "You have recently
changed careers," you may be quite impressed that the
134 CHAPTER SIX
psychic knew you were thinking of changing jobs. Even

though the prediction was wrong, you can support your
belief by stretching the interpretation a bit to make it right.
If your friend asks you how the reading went you may
reply, Amazing, she knew that I was thinking about
1/
changing jobs." You would not even be aware that you

distorted the fortune to fit your belief because it is simply
the result of your mind's natural filling-in process.
Let me suggest a fascinating experiment for anyone
who believes in psychics. Bring a small tape recorder to
your next reading and secretly record the predictions.
After a few days have passed, write down from memory
a summary of the successful predictions. Then let a non-
believer sit down with you and help you compare your
recollections with the taped recording of what was actu-
ally said. Don't be surprised if there are some discrepan-
cies. Memory distortions to confirm beliefs are amazingly
convincing and require no dishonest intent. We want to
have control and see order in the world so our mind simply
obliges by helping us see reality according to our beliefs.
Remember, anyone who can really see into the future
should be living in a mansion: By simply choosing one
winning lottery number or hot stock investment this prog-
nosticator could be fixed for life.
AURAS AND ESP
Auras are a kind of colored halo effect around a

person's head that is believed, by some people, to result
from an energy flow. If you believe in auras, you will have
no problem seeing them because your perception will fill
FALSE BELIEFS 135
in to match your belief. If you believe that nice people have

green auras, your mind will fill in green or yellow based
on your feelings about that person. It's really no different
from filling in the blind spot in your vision. Scuba divers
at great depths report seeing red fish even though there is
no red light down there because it has been scattered and
absorbed by the water above. Their mind simply fills in
the red color because they know the fish is red from having
seen it in shallow water.
If you believe in extrasensory perception, a call from
a friend after you have thought about her is a confirma-
tion of your powers. Such an experience feels truly amaz-
ing, but remember, the mind is very creative in finding
patterns and connections; the mystical experiences that
do click are the only ones we will notice and remember,
while millions of other possible coincidences are ignored
and forgotten. One coincidence is often enough to create
a false belief, which will then be strengthened by the
positive feedback of perception: Once you believe in your
own or a friend's psychic powers, everything that you or
the friend does is then experienced through perception in
a way that confirms your belief. The psychic powers seem
to grow with each experience until almost anything seems
amazing. As a skeptic I once attended a demonstration by
a world-famous psychic and was amazed, not by his
powers, but by the way the believers in the crowd were
so easily amazed. The most obvious generalizations
based on people's visual appearance and manner were
perceived as convincing proof of his powers. One sloppily
dressed housewife in the audience was amazed and em-
barrassed that his psychic powers revealed that she had
left her house in a mess.
136 CHAPTER SIX
Astrology retains its popularity as a result of the same

need to believe. The predictions are written ambiguously
so that they stimulate your imagination to make connec-
tions just like a Rorschach test. Since they predict several
things every day, with selective forgetting of the predic-
tions that don't come true, and creative distortion of the
meanings, you are bound to be occasionally amazed. A
1984 Gallup Poll of teenagers found that 55% believed in
astrology, considerably up from the 40% who believed in
1971. If you find the astrology predictions amazing, let me
suggest an experiment: Try picking another sign for a
month and reading those predictions as your own. You
will find that the most astonishing thing of all is your own
mind's ability to distort perception and memory to con-
firm your beliefs.
In designing control systems, engineers avoid posi-
tive feedback because of the instability it causes. When it
is an inherent part of the system, as it is with the mind,
negative feedback often needs to be added to stabilize the
system. In your own mind that means learning to under-
stand the creative distortions of your perception and mem-
ory and offsetting them with the negative feedback of
common sense. Knowing that false beliefs can appear to
be convincingly confirmed, we must continually challenge
our own beliefs and try to look carefully at other view-
points.
If you want to put this insight to work in your life, try
making a list right now of beliefs you hold that seem to be
opposed by people who may have started out in an oppo-
site position. Think carefully about whether the confirm-
ing experiences that strengthened your belief could have
been distorted by your perception. Try putting yourself in
FALSE BELIEFS 137
the position of someone with an opposing view and reex-

amining those experiences. Can you see them from the
other viewpoint? Maybe you should reevaluate the belief.
Try to form a habit of adding this negative feedback to your
thinking habits to offset the positive feedback built into
your consciousness.
Since your beliefs determine the nature of your reality,
it is always wise to err on the positive side in your beliefs.
If you believe that the world is a horrible place, it will
surely seem to be so. If, on the other hand, you believe in
goodness, you may be wrong, but the world will still seem
better. In this sense you can create your own reality.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Hypnosis and Other

Altered States
There is nothing more diJJicult than to become critically aware

oj the presuppositions ojone's own thoughts . ... Every
thought can be scrutinized directly except the thought by which
we scrutinize.
- E. F. Schumacher, 1977
Our own reality seems so inherent and secure that it is
difficult to imagine just how different it can be if a few of
the assumptions of our self-concept are changed. In many
parts of Africa and in Pentecostal churches in Brazil, Haiti,
Mexico, and even the United States, you will see parish-
ioners seized by spirits, speaking in tongues (unknown
languages), and otherwise demonstrating forms of con-
sciousness that are frighteningly different from what we
consider normal. Howling, spasms, and speaking in un-
known languages are the norm during these church serv-
ices. These altered states are not a physical ailment but
simply a result of people believing that they exist. The exact
form these altered states take varies from region to region
because the concept varies. In the United States it has been
estimated that there are some five million people who
speak in tongues. Televangelists Oral Roberts, Jim Baker,
Jimmy Swaggart, and Pat Robertson all speak in tongues
but they avoid doing it on TV because they have found
that it scares the uninitiated. 1
141
142 CHAPTER SEVEN
In our culture people are expected to have a single

well-defined self that is in charge at all times. When people
depart from this model, many psychiatrists would regard
it to be a mental problem called dissociative disorder, or
dissociation. In other parts of the world, however, they
have a different concept of what is normal. A 1972 cross-
cultural study of some 400 non-Western societies by E.
Bourguignon of Ohio State University found that 89% of
them had "some institutionalized form of dissociation."
As any reading of ancient Greek mythology shows, it
was once considered normal to hear voices of gods telling
you what to do. Our modern concept of a singular self that
is always in charge may in fact be only about 5000 years
old. Most of us can be easily put into a state of hypnosis
where we will follow the instructions of the hypnotist yet
retain a "hidden observer" to observe and remember our
actions. This is certainly a different model of consciousness
than the one we call normal.
HYPNOTISM: BELIEVED-IN
IMAGININGS
Hypnosis is another altered state that requires only

belief to enter it. The way people act under hypnosis has
changed through the years and still varies in different
parts of the world. The hypnotic state is simply a different
concept of consciousness where the mind fulfills different
expectations. In the late 18th century Anton Mesmer used
magnetic particles to put people in a hypnotic state that
included violent fits and seizures. Other early hypnotists
put subjects into a state resembling deep sleep. Experi-
HYPNOSIS AND OTHER ALTERED STATES 143
ments have shown that the characteristics of hypnosis will

change significantly based on information given to the
subject before any attempt is made to hypnotize them. The
hypnotized subject seems to substitute an alternate self-
concept based on their beliefs about the nature of the
hypnotic state. An important part of this concept is that
initiative and self-planning are suspended and control
comes instead from the hypnotist.
Most people can be hypnotized if the basic require-
ments of prestige and faith are satisfied: The hypnotist must
be in a position of prestige, and the subject must have faith
in the hypnotist's ability. Hypnotizing intimate friends is
difficult, but a famous stage hypnotist who has just dem-
onstrated his powers has a very good chance of succeeding
with almost any nonskeptic in the audience.
In the hypnotized state the subject loses initiative and
lacks the desire to make and carry out plans of his own.
Control is instead turned over to the hypnotist. This ten-
dency to switch to a remote-control state may have an
evolutionary basis. The herd instinct allowed evolving
humans to blindly follow a leader in war or hunting
situations. It is still seen in the mob mentality at riots, rock
concerts, and lynchings. Just as all ducks in a formation
follow the lead duck when flying, evolving humans had a
survival advantage when they were sometimes able to
blindly follow a leader. Normal reality testing is also sus-
pended in the hypnotic state so that illogical illusions and
distortions of reality are readily accepted. No special
trance-inducing procedure is necessary if the basic pres-
tige and faith requirements are met.
At religious revival meetings church members see
visions of angels and other manifestations simply because
144 CHAPTER SEVEN
their charismatic leader suggests it. A faith healer achieves

the same kind of control as a hypnotist by simply touching
the person to be healed. New age healing by transferring
bioenergy uses visualization of an imaginary energy field
and suggestion to effect (placebo) cures. Subjects report
that they can feel the warmth of the bioenergy field sug-
gested by the healer. The prestige and faith relationship
works nicely in these situations without any specific hyp-
notic procedure.
Many altered states of consciousness are equivalent
to self-hypnosis in that they are self-induced. Witch doc-
tors and psychics put themselves into a state that alters
consciousness by essentially switching to an alternate self-
concept. In channeling, the psychic's consciousness is sup-
posedly taken over by a departed spirit. As with hypnosis,
belief in this state causes a believed-in imagining to be
created that may seem real to the psychic. Unfortunately
the messages produced are nothing more than confabula-
tions.
Millions of believers in dianetics2 have undergone a
kind of therapy called auditing in which the therapist
leads them back in time to when they were in the womb.
The subject recalls traumatic experiences starting a few
weeks after conception. Eventually almost every patient
experiences a "sperm dream" that recovers the experi-
ences of the sperm swimming up the channel to find the
egg. Since no brain existed to do any remembering at that
time, it is clear that the "memories" must be nothing but
imaginative fantasies. In fact, the brain is not ready to store
real verbalizable memories until almost the age of three.
Suggestion can sometimes affect body responses that
are not consciously controllable by the average person. A
hypnotist can suggest that the room is very hot and beads
of sweat have been known to form on the forehead of some
subjects. Suggestion seems to be able to work directly on
modules that cannot usually be controlled by the self.
People yawning in a crowd can make you yawn also. This
is the result of suggestion even though most people cannot
consciously initiate a real yawn. The placebo effect also
demonstrates the power of suggestion over processes not
under conscious control. Studies have shown that the
immune system can be energized by suggestion or the
placebo effect enough that it significantly changes the
outcome of real diseases, including cancer.
Hypnotic suggestions of paralysis of limbs, blindness to
certain objects, amnesia, insensitivity to pain, and even deaf-
ness demonstrate the power of the mind to distort our
perception and abilities. Experiments have shown that hyp-
notic subjects are actually in control of their own behavior but they
convince themselves that the behavior is involuntary to fulfill their
belief that they are hypnotized. This is not a conscious deception
any more than the one that we all do when we fail to see the
blind spot in our field of vision. It is simply another demon-
stration of how strongly basic beliefs can affect the experi-
ence of consciousness. When people believe that they are
deeply hypnotizable, their behavior and their conscious ex-
perience will confirm that belief.
When experimenters change the expectations of hyp-
nosis by changing their comments and explanations before
they begin? they can totally change the outcome. For
example, if subjects are told that the ability to resist sug-
gestion is one indication of very deep hypnosis, they will
successfully resist having their arm raise during a sug-
gested visualization of an upward pull on their arm. If they
146 CHAPTER SEVEN
are told that resistance is impossible under deep hypnosis,

they will find that they are unable to stop their arm from
raising. 4
In one study subjects were asked to write a short essay
about what happens in hypnosis before they were hypno-
tized. When hypnotized later, one of the subjects couldn't
perform hypnotic tasks while standing. Checking her es-
say, they found that she had written, "The subject has to
be reclining or sitting." Another kept waking from the
trance whenever she was given a task where she had to
see. She had written, "A person's eyes must be closed in
order to be in a hypnotic trance." Another subject couldn't
be hypnotized till the second attempt. His paper said,
"Most people cannot be hypnotised the first time."s
Another confirmation of the role-enactment interpre-
tation of hypnosis is that when hypnotized subjects are left
with effects, such as a paralyzed arm, suggested earlier in
the session uncanceled at the end of a hypnotic session,
they will cancel it themselves6 when they feel that the
session is over. As soon as the subject thinks that the
expectations have changed, the arm returns to normal
operation. With posthypnotic suggestions, on the other
hand, there is a clear expectation that certain behavior will
occur on signal after the trance is over. Generally, the
hypnotized subject always tries to act out his under-
standing of what the hypnotist expects.
CREATING HIDDEN OBSERVERS
Nicholas Spanos and a team of researchers at Carleton

University in Ottawa, Canada, demonstrated the role-
playing interpretation of hypnosis with the following ex-

periment on hypnotically induced amnesia: They had
eight highly hypnotizable students memorize a list of
words and then suggested that they would forget of all the
words until a prearranged signal. Three times the subjects
were asked to remember the words. Each time they were
beseeched to be completely honest in the interest of the
scientific experiment and to try their best to remember the
words. None of the students could breach the suggested
amnesia until the prearranged signal released them from
the suggested amnesia.
The experiment was repeated but this time the stu-
dents were told that they would have a hidden observer
in their head that could be accessed whenever their shoul-
der was touched and that this hidden observer would
remember everything. All of the subjects remembered the
words while their shoulder was touched but forgot them
otherwise.
In another variation of the experiment the subjects
were given two hidden observers: Touching the right
shoulder would allow remembering abstract words while
touching the left would allow concrete words to be remem-
bered. Otherwise all words were forgotten until the prear-
ranged signal. Again all of the subjects performed exactly
according to the instructions. When the subjects were
interviewed after the experiment they all described the
experience as beyond their voluntary control-as though
their consciousness and memories changed depending
upon which shoulder was touched. This ability to redefine
consciousness with hypnotic suggestion demonstrates
clearly how profoundly our conscious experience is de-
fined by our beliefs.
148 CHAPTER SEVEN
A suggestion that a potato is an apple makes it possi-

ble for the subject to happily eat a raw potato and think it
delicious. A bottle of ammonia can be made to smell like
wonderful perfume. If a hypnotist places five postage
stamps on a white card and then points at two of the
stamps and suggests that they are not there, the subject will
insist that there are only three stamps, pointing at each of
the three stamps he sees as he counts them. If the stamps
are scrambled, he will still count only the same three
stamps7 in their new positions, denying the existence of
the two tabooed stamps. In order to find the three allowed
stamps the forbidden stamps must have been seen at some
unconscious level to know enough to ignore them. This filtering
of consciousness to fit beliefs is simply the way the brain
works.
Under hypnosis you can be made to think you are
Napoleon Bonaparte and you will try to react as you think
he would. If the hypnotist suggests that you regress to
being a child of a certain age, you will imagine that to be
true, talk baby talk, write in a childish scrawl, and even
answer questions about yourself at that age. You can even
be progressed into the future and you will play the role of
yourself at age 80.
Past life regression8 under hypnosis was the subject
of a study by researchers at Carleton University. Under
hypnosis and suggestion of regression to a past life, 35 out
of 110 college students tested recalled a past life identity.
During the hypnotic regression they were questioned
about the times, their name, and particularly about com-
monly known facts such as currency, the name of the ruler
of their country, and whether their country was at war. The
past lives reported were found to be generally limited to
times and places familiar to the students. The facts given

usually failed to agree with the verifiable facts of the
imagined time and place. The researchers concluded that
"past-life reports are fantasies that subjects construct on
the basis of their often limited and inaccurate historical
information."
Posthypnotic suggestions can make the subject do
bizarre things after they are out of the hypnotic state, for
example, crawling on the floor in response to a specific
signal from the hypnotist. When this is done the subject
usually rationalizes the behavior by saying something
like, "This is an interesting floor." We are clearly in the
habit of confidently rationalizing behavior even when we
have no idea what caused it.
CREATING MULTIPLE
CONSCIOUSNESS
Hypnosis can be used to alter consciousness in ways
that split the mind9 into multiple entities. E. Hilgard of
Stanford University performed numerous experiments in
which he used hypnosis to set up a hidden observer in the
subject tha t communicated only through automatic writing.
In one such experiment he suggested a numbing of one
hand to consciousness but not to the hidden observer. He
could then dip the subject'S numbed hand into ice water
and the subject would claim to feel nothing though the
hidden observer would simultaneously write down a mes-
sage indicating pain. When the subjects were interviewed
after the experiment, one said he was annoyed at the superior
attitude of the hidden observer, which seemed amused at
150 CHAPTER SEVEN
his self-deception. Another subject said it was comforting

to have a "guardian angel" there to protect his body from
his own failure to recognize the pain.
When a hypnotist creates these bizarre alterations of
consciousness the result is almost like what would happen
in an actor's workshop except that the subject truly be-
lieves the role he is acting out. Good method actors in fact
do just that: They must truly believe the role they are
playing. Good hypnotic subjects may really just be good
actors.
Automatic writing without hypnosis used to be a
popular way to tap into unconscious thoughts. Gertrude
Stein used automatic writing in all of her later books. The
Ouija board uses the same principle, with unconscious
forces on the hands moving a pointer touched lightly with
the fingertips to spell out answers. All that is required is
belief. Consciousness can take many forms since it is de-
fined by our beliefs. People who keep daily journals de-
velop a kind of observer module that has a life of its own.
Facilitated CommunicationslO (FC) is a technique,
originated in Australia in the 1980s, that provided hope for
millions of parents of autistic children. Since the autistic
child cannot communicate, FC gave them a voice by hav-
ing a "facilitator," usually a special education teacher,
support one hand of the autistic child and help the child
to type out messages on a keyboard. The facilitator sensed
where the hand wanted to go and simply helped the child
to type his own reply. Wonderful results were obtained,
with children who had previously seemed to have ex-
tremely low IQs doing well in advanced subjects.
Though the movement still has many advocates, the
unfortunate fact seems to be that FC is just an illusion.
Dedicated facilitators with honest intentions seem to be

actually unconsciously using the child's hand as a Ouija
board to write messages from their own mind. In control-
led experiments it has been found that FC works only
when the facilitator knows the answer and can see the
keyboard. The training courses for facilitators apparently
created a split consciousness much like Hilgard produced
in his hypnotic subjects. Though the facilitators are not
conscious of it, a separate module in their own brain is
providing the answers for the children. In 1995 the FC
movement is still very much alive; in fact, a facilitated
book supposedly written by an autistic child was just
released. This is another example of the sometimes tragic
mistakes caused by our misunderstanding of the nature of
consciousness.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Psychotherapy and
Multiple Personalities
Where id was, there ego shall be.

- Sigmund Freud, 1930
The man who once cursed his Jate, now curses himself-and
pays his psychoanalyst.
- John W. Gardner; 1968
A mental illness called hysteria was extremely common
among women in Freud's time. Hysteria could cause pa-
ralysis, loss of consciousness, seizures, blindness, and
other symptoms of physical illness. Hysteric patients were
found to be mostly women who were very easily hypno-
tized and also needful of more attention and respect from
others. Hysteria is rare today, but people with this profile
now suffer from other syndromes that were rare in Freud's
day. Multiple personality disorder (MPD)l is one amazing
example.
Though it was previously considered quite rare, in the
past decade over 20,000 people 2 have been diagnosed as
having MPD. One of the catalysts for this explosion was
probably the best-selling fictionalized book Sybil,3 which
was published in 1973 and sold over four million copies. An
earlier book and movie The Three Faces of Eve also helped
define and popularize the idea of multiple personalities.
Once MPD had been defined in the popular imagina-
tion, positive feedback soon transformed it into an epi-
155
156 CHAPTER EIGHT
demic. A few psychiatrists started specializing in the dis-

order and collecting patients together into group therapy
sessions where they could reinforce each other. A special
technical journal was created, books were written, and
conventions and workshops were organized. Before long
MPD became a popular alternative for the same kind of
easily hypnotized, frustrated, and powerless people who
had previously chosen hysteria as an attention-getting
alternative to normal behavior.
Using hypnosis to find and name alter personalities,
MPD therapists find an average of 7 personalities, but as
many as 50 have been reported. After much practice it be-
comes possible to talk to any of the personalities by
name-just like switching channels on a TV set. The problem
is that the personalities may have nothing to do with real modules
of the mind.4 The hypnotized subject uses all of her creativity
to try to meet the expectations of the hypnotist. Sometimes
the alter personalities write with different handwriting and
speak in different voices. This is very imaginative, but what
could be the basis other than fantasy? Clearly different mod-
ules share the same speech and writing structures in the
brain. Hypnotized subjects suspend their own reality testing
and create the whole character complete with a distinctive
voice-just as an actor would. Under hypnosis, creating a
new alter personality is no harder than regressing to a past
life or acting out your own imagined future.
LOBSTERS AND UNICORNS
The therapist-patient relationship has the perfect

prestige and faith ingredients to make it possible for patients
PSYCHOTHERAPY AND MPD 157
to enter the receptive state without any specific hypnotic

procedure. In this state the patient unconsciously sus-
pends normal reality testing and becomes dedicated to
satisfying the expectations of the therapist.
Alter personalities, or alters, discovered in therapy tend
to have characteristics that vary greatly depending on the
particular therapist's expectations. One therapist reported in
the professional journal Dissociation that he encountered
"demons, angels, sages, lobsters, chickens, tigers, a unicorn,
and God" in his search for alter personalities. "The inscapes
in which they exist," he wrote, "have ranged from labyrin-
thine tunnels and mazes to castles in enchanted forests, high-
rise office buildings, and even a separate galaxy."S More
often alters are the kind of stereotyped characters one would
expect to come out of a drama improvisation workshop.
The number of alters tends to grow as therapy contin-
ues because many therapists are continually trying to
discover more. Just how suggestive these techniques can
be is shown by the following quote from an article on
therapy techniques6 written by the director of a hospital
MPD program:
I also try to recruit other alters to the therapy by
asking if any other parts of the mind that I have not
yet met would like to contribute their thoughts or
share any concerns or opinions. If there is no re-
sponse, I may say, "Since there is no answer, may I
assume that those of you I have not met are in agree-
ment?" This often leads to inner speech or emergence
by other alters ...
Once a patient has a firmly established multiple per-

sonality, the symptoms can become so bizarre that it seems
amazing they could have gone unnoticed during 7 years
158 CHAPTER EIGHT
of therapy. Yet the average duration of psychotherapy

before MPD is diagnosed is 6.9 years?
Another disturbing fact is that some leading MPD
specialists find that a high percentage of their patients end
up firmly convinced that they have been victims of satanic
cults that practice human sacrifice and cannibalism. This
seemingly unrelated finding is another frightening dem-
onstration of what happens when the imaginative role-
playing of hypnosis is misinterpreted as something real
and is reinforced by positive feedback.
When I originally began researching the MPD litera-
ture I had hoped that it would provide insight on the
modules of the normal mind. What I found instead was a
bizarre demonstration of how false beliefs can flourish,
hypnosis can be misunderstood, and the awesome power
of suggestion can totally restructure a person's self-con-
cept and consciousness. The emotional pain many of these
patients go through is ample proof of the benefit of having
some degree of unity in your self-concept.
Understanding the true multiplicity of the mind can
enhance your understanding of your own and other
people's behavior. However, letting your imagination
run wild and create an unruly collection of stereotyped
characters, devils, and animals can only lead you further
away from self-understanding and perhaps even into
madness.
Somewhere buried in the 20,000 recent cases of MPD
are undoubtedly some real cases where the spontaneous
organization process actually produced a unique brain
organization with two self modules. In one case reported
in 19558 a 20-year-old woman who was normally "de-
pendent, shy, self-effacing, affectionate, and obedient"
would sometimes switch to an almost opposite personal-

ity that was "impulsive, irresponsible, mischievous, and
vindictive." In this case there was clear evidence that the
mechanism for activating one or the other half of the brain
was faulty. When the shy personality was active she was
always numb on the left side of her body and hypersensi-
tive on the right. When the vindictive personality was
active this pattern reversed itself.
Another pair of cases reported in 19939 both had
temporal lobe epilepsy. By injecting a sedative in the artery
in either side of the neck the doctors were able to disable
one side of the patient's brain or the other. In both cases
the two personalities seemed to have formed in opposite
sides of the patient's brain. In these authentic cases the
epilepsy and the faulty orientation mechanism provided
a physical mechanism for creating the separation of
memories necessary for true split personalities. In normal
people, separate modules all receive the same sensory
inputs but may interpret the memories differently because
of their different specialized viewpoints.
FINDING YOUR MODULES
The idea of using therapy to improve the relationship

between the modules of your mind is a fascinating and
promising one. The problem is that you must first correctly
identify the modules. People generally have no awareness of
the other modules of their mind so that patients under
hypnosis simply confabulate to satisfy the therapist. Once
these imaginary personalities are identified and named,
they take on a life of their own. The patient's self-concept
160 CHAPTER EIGHT
begins to include the separate named entities, which were

originally just confabulations. Efforts to integrate imagi-
nary entities simply build fantasy on a foundation of
fantasy.
The real modules of your mind are not easy to identify,
but the fact that they must evolve from simple beginnings,
usually in childhood, is an important reality check. Iden-
tifying your modules requires hard detective work, obser-
vation, and an understanding of evolutionary principles.
The modules compete with each other to control behavior,
and only the fittest survive. Part of this evolutionary proc-
ess is the way a module relates to other modules.
If your self module shuts down completely when you
engage in sports, art, or other flow activities, it is because those
activities are more successful without any second-guessing
from the self. The fact that this leaves a gap in your conscious
memory is normally not a problem, so the habit becomes
firmly ingrained. People who keep their self module alert in
such situations will never be great athletes or artists. In fact,
concentration is often just another wordfor dissociation. Of course
there are times when concentration can cause you to miss
appointments, forget to watch after children, or even burn the
house down with a cooking fire. The ideal is to develop the
teamwork of your mental modules for maximum effective-
ness-and that requires some, but not too much, dissociation.
We all have multiple personalities in a manner of
speaking, but people differ in how well their modules
work together as an integrated team. Certainly some peo-
ple have problems caused by poorly integrated dissoci-
ated personalities where one module doesn't know what
the other is doing. A common experience of dissociation is
when you are absorbed in a flow activity, like driving,
reading, or art, and you find that you have a gap in your
memory. This simply means that your self module was not
paying attention and therefore remembers nothing. This is
usually not a problem, but if you have no memory of a
shopping spree, a drinking binge, or other destructive
behavior it can cause serious problems.
Many children have imaginary playmates that develop
unique personalities. Children often talk to these playmates
by name and even answer in a different voice. Likewise,
many normal adults talk to themselves when alone. In fact,
normal variations in people include varying degrees of dis-
sociation between modules. When a questionnaire normally
used to screen mental patients for MPD was given to 415
students lO in a wide range of majors at the University of
Idaho, 8.9% of them scored above the threshold that usually
indicates MPD or other dissociative disorders. Clearly many
normally functioning people have dissociative experiences.
Usually, a module that is not in control is still in the
receptive mode, following and remembering what is hap-
pening. However, each module has its own mental habits.
Since the self module is the one that fills out questionnaires,
high dissociative scores could indicate that the self module
is in the habit of not being receptive at certain times. In
some cases this can be a good mental habit indicating that
the self module is standing back completely to avoid in-
terfering in areas where it is not qualified.
PSYCHOTHERAPY AND REALITY
Many of the famous names in psychology have ob-

served the fact that the mind is clearly split into separate
162 CHAPTER EIGHT
and sometimes conflicting entities. Freud, for example,

called them the ego, the id, and the superego. His ego
corresponds roughly to the self module. Carl Jung listed
a much wider cast of characters. In addition to the ego, he
also included the persona, the shadow, the anima, the
wise man, the self, and many others. Eric Berne, a leader
in transactional analysis, identified three major ego 1/
states," which he called the parent, the adult, and the

child.
All of these methods of dividing up the mind made
sense to their creators and continue to make sense for their
disciples who use them in the practice of psychotherapy.
Their original appeal may be partly dependent on how
closely they match the actual organization of the thera-
pist's mind. However, once you believe in any of these
theories, positive feedback will guarantee that the belief
will be convincingly confirmed many times a day.
The problem is that for a scientific method of treat-
ment to be effective, the original assumptions that form its
basis must be true. While it is useful to view the mind as
made up of independent modules, it is important that you
get the nature of the division right. The hundreds of con-
flicting schools of psychology depend far too much on
authoritative principles laid down by their founders and
too little on sound scientific principles. The principles of
self-organization and Darwinian evolution provide just
such a sound basis.
The multi-billion-dollar therapy industry is cur-
rently at a stage similar to 19th century medicine when
doctors bled their patients and often did them more harm
than good. Numerous studies have tried to measure the
effectiveness of psychotherapy and have come up with
embarrassing results. For example, a 1977 metaanalysis

by Smith and Glass ll published in American Psychologist,
which compared results of nearly 400 psychotherapy out-
come studies, concluded, "Despite volumes devoted to
theoretical differences among different schools of psycho-
therapy, the results of research demonstrate negligible
differences in the effects produced by different therapy
types."
Though that study found therapy to be helpful for
most people treated, it had two important flaws: (1) It
included some behavioral therapy studies, and (2) it ig-
nored the placebo effect. In 1983, Prioleau, Murdock, and
Brody of Wesleyan University did another analysis that
included only studies of real patients under nonbehavio-
ral psychotherapy where a placebo treatment12 was of-
fered. The placebos varied from sugar pills with weekly
visits where the discussion was limited to the pill itself to
group therapy sessions where the leader purposely kept
the discussion on unrelated subjects. They found no dif-
ference between the effectiveness of the placebo treat-
ments and the professional psychotherapy! Since some
therapists are clearly better than others, this null result
implies that there must be some therapists who consis-
tently make their patients worse to cancel the results of
the good therapists. In their summary, the researchers
said, "after about 500 outcome studies have been re-
viewed-we are still not aware of a single convincing
demonstration that the benefits of psychotherapy exceed
those of placebos for real patients." If psychotherapy was
a drug it would be banned by the FDA because it fails to
meet their requirement that effective treatments must be
more effective than placebos.
164 CHAPTER EIGHT
TREATING THE OFFENDING

MODULES
The problem with any talk therapy is that the patient's

self module does the talking about behavior that is often
controlled by other modules about which the self module
has no direct knowledge. The result then may be an im-
provement in the self module's ability to explain and understand
the behavior but no change in the actual behavior. A side benefit
of this improved understanding may be an improved
ability for the self module to seize control when it recog-
nizes the behavior. The real goal, however, should be
changing the behavior itself, and this requires retraining
the errant module itself by doing corrective work when it
is actually in control. To teach someone to dance you must
get his dance module involved with actual movement and
visual demonstrations. If you simply talk about the prin-
ciples of a dance you will develop a verbal understanding
but no ability to dance. For therapy to be really effective it
must be directed at the modules that are producing the
errant behavior. Some in-context behavior modification
actually does this and has proven amazingly effective.
For example, phobic disorders such as agoraphobia
and panic attacks are very effectively treated by application
of in vivo (real life) exposure to the sources of fear for
prolonged periods in gradually increasing difficulty. The
result is a gradual decrease in the fear via a process called
habituation. For example, for an agoraphobic patient who
is afraid to leave her house, the therapist makes a house call
and helps her overcome the fear in small steps. The first
step would be to simply stand in the doorway together
until the panic passes. The next step would be standing on
the front porch, and then on the sidewalk, and so forth until
eventually the patient has regained complete freedom of
movement. Homework assignments between therapist vis-
its help the patients learn to progress on their own. The
cognitive part of the treatment involves teaching the pa-
tient techniques for distracting their mind from negative
thoughts and also learning to interpret the feelings of panic
in a healthier way. The principle is to "feel the fear and do
it anyway." Cure rates as high as 80%13 have been reported
with very few relapses. A similar technique is very effective
for obsessive-compulsive ritualistic behavior. The impor-
tant thing is to do the work in the same real-life situations
that would normally trigger the behavior so that the mod-
ule with the problem will be engaged.
TRAINING YOUR FIGHT MODULE

Many marital and relationship problems are a result
of an inability to settle differences without ugly fights. If a
couple has problems when their fight modules engage, it
helps very little for each person to go to a separate psy-
chiatrist and let their self module spend endless hours
discussing its self-serving rationalizations about what
happened. Since the self module was only observing the
fights anyway, the discussion is academic-almost like
sending a friend who witnessed the fights to discuss them
for you.
As any skilled debater can tell you, arguing can be a
pleasant and satisfying experience when both parties ob-
serve certain rules. The problem with ugly fights is that
they are explosions of tension that has built up from
166 CHAPTER EIGHT
exercising self-control to avoid settling differences be-

cause of previous bad experiences with your fight module.
Often, bad patterns are learned from parents who
didn't know how to fight constructively. A good therapist
or a friend can act as a referee while you and your partner
discuss topics that have caused fights in the past. This way
the actual behavior of your fight module can be modified
while it is engaged. Ideally you should start with the
easiest issues that will actually engage the fight module
and work up to more difficult issues as you gain confi-
dence in your improved skills.
The referee should be neutral and focus only on the
argument techniques being used. One technique that must
be totally forbidden is the personal attack: Discussions
should be about issues and actions, not about insulting
generalizations about the opponent. In other words, "You
did" is allowed, but "you are ... " isn't. Having a referee
to monitor the discussion and point out violations to this
rule can eventually train the fight module to monitor itself
and change this destructive behavior pattern. Another
important rule is to listen to what the opponent has to say.
Again the referee provides corrective feedback whenever
this rule is broken to correct the bad habits and keep the
discussion constructive.
Once the two fight modules have experienced the
satisfaction of a good, constructive fight, they gain the
confidence that they can settle differences without things
turning ugly. Though the self module is not in control, it is
watching and gaining confidence that it can safely let the
argument happen. Differences can then be settled by the
fight modules themselves before frustration builds to a
breaking point.
Other psychological problems can also benefit from

doing work while the correct module is in control. Psycho-
drama and role-playing exercises can engage the proper
module and then try to modify behavior and develop
better skills. A salesperson develops a sales module that
can be engaged during realistic role playing exercises to
provide improvements that would be impossible to
achieve by reading books or listening to lectures. A boss
with an unpleasant boss module can develop his or her
skills by role playing with someone trained in personal
skills.
Problems with intimacy and sex are best worked on
with a lover who engages a cuddling module and con-
structively reinforces good behavior. Just as the behavioral
treatment for phobic behaviors gradually tackles more and
more fearful situations, the treatment should start with
easy situations and gradually build confidence while at-
tacking more and more challenging situations. A common
cause of sex and intimacy problems is an abrupt switching
to another inappropriate module that defensively takes
control. Building the confidence of the cuddling module
helps it keep control. Often the offender is the self module,
which is afraid to lose control because it doesn't trust the
cuddling module.
There are some problems that do respond well to talk
therapy. Any problem that is primarily a result of bad
patterns of thinking of the self module itself are candi-
dates. Certain kinds of depression, for example, are effec-
tively treated by cognitive therapy. The therapist works
with the patient to identify the faulty thought patterns
causing the depression and helps him practice looking at
problems in healthier ways.
168 CHAPTER EIGHT
Often neurosis is not a disease at all but simply the

result of unrealistic expectations about life. Our media
creates a false belief that life is easy, which causes some
people to have a very low tolerance for mental pain. Just
as people's response to physical pain can vary greatly with
learned beliefs, mental pain can be the result of bad mental
habits magnifying insignificant misfortunes. The truth is
that it takes a lot of work just to keep food on the table,
people die, cars break down, and bosses, parents, and
mates aren't perfect. Many depressed people simply need
to face up to the fact that "shit happens" and learn to face
real life bravely, enjoying the good times and paying the
dues as cheerfully as possible.
One of the problems with the idea of directing treat-
ment at the proper module is that it is sometimes diffi-
cult to even identify the modules. Though most people
have a fight module, a cuddling module, a childish play
module, a school/work module, and a driving the car
module, the unique life and brain organization of each
individual makes further generalization difficult. It is
therefore very important to first get to know your mod-
ule structure. It would be nice if hypnosis could access
this, as some MPD specialists seem to think it can, but
unfortunately the only answer is careful observation
and detective work. Your life history, siblings, friends,
teachers, jobs, children, and a thousand influences mold
your module structure. The exact timing and sequence
of these influences can make a profound difference,
because modules tend to evolve in a complex interaction
with your previous developmental history. In the next
chapter we will look further at how you can identify
your own unique module structure.
PSYCHIATRY AND FALSE BELIEFS
In most fields false beliefs are quickly disproved by

reality and die a natural death. If an engineer has a faulty
idea for a new invention, the reality of a prototype that
works or doesn't work will quickly eliminate the bad
ideas. In the mental health field the opposite is true: The
placebo effect and the positive feedback of subjective
measures of success often make even bad ideas seem to
work. This problem is exacerbated by the long-standing
tradition in medicine of considering it unethical to criticize
another doctor's treatments.
In the 1940s and 1950s tens of thousands of frontal
lobotomies14 were performed on hapless mental patients.
In this operation the entire frontal lobe of the patient's
brain was destroyed using an instrument like an ice pick.
Dr. Egas Moniz, the inventor of this grotesque operation,
won the 1949 Nobel Prize in Medicine for its invention.
During the frontal lobotomy' s heyday, the mainstream of
psychiatry was uncritically enthusiastic about the opera-
tion. After initial relief, many of the patients eventually
exhibited worse behavior, while others degenerated into a
vegetable like state. The patients themselves were unaware
that they were now essentially zombies because they could
still talk and fill gaps as needed to construct a conscious
reality based on what was left of their brain. During the first
ten years of the lobotomy craze very little was published
against it, again because of the long-standing taboo against
publicly criticizing another physician's treatment.
A modern-day nightmare of even greater proportions
is the memory recovery movement. Sigmund Freud may
have set the stage for this one when he invented the idea of
170 CHAPTER EIGHT
the Oedipus and Electra complexes. The Electra complex is

Freud's idea that every little girl has fantasies of having
sexual intercourse with her father. Armed with this con-
cept, many therapists dismissed their female patients' true
memories of childhood sex abuse as nothing more than the
standard Electra fantasies. In reality, childhood sex abuse
has been found to be much more common than previously
acknowledged. A random survey of 930 women in 197815
found that 12% said they had experienced unwanted actual
or attempted incest by the age of 14.
The justifiable anger at this situation prompted an
uprising of indignation that grew into the memory recov-
ery movement. It is the perfect archetype for the plight of
women in our society: Fathers rape their daughters, and
then male psychiatrists dismiss their memories as fanta-
sies. In the 1980s an informal network of feminist thera-
pists in the Boston area began using hypnotic age
regression and dream analysis to reawaken repressed
memories of incest in their patients. In 1988, a book by
Ellen Bass and Laura Davis called The Courage to Heal made
the repressed memory search a national phenomenon. It
has since sold over 750,000 copies.
The book begins with a long list of the symptoms of
childhood sexual abuse that everybody essentially exhib-
its. The list includes many almost universal feelings like
feeling powerless, feeling different from other people, having
trouble expressing your feelings, being prone to depression,
feeling alienated and lonely, clinging to people you care about,
and having trouble feeling motivated. If you have any of these
symptoms, the book claims, you are probably an incest
victim and need to begin working to recover your lost
memories. Support groups have been formed throughout
the country where people who haven't yet recovered their

own memories of incest can listen to the recovered memo-
ries of fellow victims to help them find their own hidden
memories.
Therapists who specialize in memory work often use
hypnosis, dream analysis, make-believe visualizations,
and other suggestive techniques to bring out the repressed
memories. Even without hypnosis, the information re-
called in psychotherapy is always profoundly affected by
the beliefs of the therapist. As Carol Tavris said,16
people in psychoanalysis have Freudian dreams,
people in Jungian therapy have archetypal dreams,
people in primal scream therapy remember being
born, and people in past-lives therapy remember
being Julius Caesar (or whoever).
The use of hypnosis for memory recovery has been

condemned by the Council on Scientific Affairs of the
American Medical Association. Their 1985 report in the
Journal of the American Medical Association stated that
recollections obtained during hypnosis not only fail
to be more accurate but actually appear to be gener-
ally less reliable than recall. . .. Consequently, hyp-
nosis may increase the appearance of certitude
without a concurrent increase of veracity.
In spite of this clear statement, a 1992 survey of 860

therapists17 attending national conventions found that
84% thought that hypnotic age regression was a useful tech-
nique and 75% believed that hypnosis enables people to accu-
rately remember forgotten events. The average respondent
had education above a master's degree and had been in
clinical practice for more than 11 years.
172 CHAPTER EIGHT
Memory is not like a videotape recorder that records

everything you see. The bits and pieces that are really
remembered fade with time just as those dates you memo-
rized in sixth grade history class have faded. With effort
we can sometimes recall some of them, but hypnotic age
regression, dream analysis, and other extreme measures
will never bring most of them back. The chemical changes
in the brain that originally recorded memories can simply
fade away forever. Trying too hard to recover memories
simply forces the mind to fill in with imagination.
The unfortunate fact is that once a memory has been
"recovered" it becomes convincingly real in the mind of
the victim, and there is no way to test it for reality and no
way to remove it. After much rehearsal and discussion it
may become even more vivid than a real memory. There
is no way to tell how many families have been tragically
destroyed by the effects of battles over accusations based
on false recovered memories.
Real memories that have been ignored or distorted by
denial do require work to sort through and reinterpret, but
they are not completely invisible. They lurk in the back of
the mind in the same manner as our, usually denied,
knowledge of our own mortality. Perhaps the worst thing
about the recovered memory movement is that the back-
lash from their excesses may make it difficult for real
victims of abuse trying to come out of denial to be believed.
SATANIC MEMORIES
Recovered memories are almost impossible to refute

because the only other witness could be in denial. How-
ever, one certain indication that recovered memories are

often false is the fact that about 18% of the victims who
recover memories of childhood sexual abuse after a long period
of unawareness also eventually recover memories of satanic
abuse.1 8 In fact, some therapists report that half of their
patients19 are survivors of such abuse. In most recovered
memories of ritual abuse the patient gets so carried away
with the fantasy that their claims are clearly impossible.
A recent book by a survivor of ritual abuse includes a
survey of 52 other survivors. 20 All had recovered memo-
ries of ritual abuse and were still in therapy at the time of
the study. The results showed that 36% said they had been
"forced to breed children who were later sacrificed." This means
that, though friends or neighbors must have seen them go
through the pregnancy, nobody got suspicious when the
baby suddenly disappeared! The same survey found that
88% had witnessed or participated in human sacrifice, 82%
with cannibalism.
The sheer number of unsolved murders this would
represent doesn't tally with reality. Fifty percent of the re-
spondents said the abuse took place in their church-usually
in the basement-and 67% said their fathers perpetrated the
abuse, while 42% named their mother. These runaway fan-
tasies demonstrate the total instability that results from un-
checked positive feedback.
Once again, a book is implicated for spreading the
idea of satanic ritual abuse and stimulating imaginations
all over the country. The book Michelle Remembers, publish-
ed in 1980, was written by a psychiatrist and his patient. It
recalls in detail satanic rituals Michelle now believes she
was forced to attend with her mother when she was a child.
These memories were recovered years later under a kind
174 CHAPTER EIGHT
of self-hypnosis. Though the book didn't mention it,

Michelle's two sisters have no memory of any abuse, and
neighbors describe their mother as a "charming person."
One person's confabulation under hypnosis thus becomes
a kind of urban legend, spread through the media and
victim groups to resurface in recovered memories all over
the country.
A recent survey of American Psychological Associa-
tion members21 found that over 12% indicated that they had
treated one or more patients who recalled ritual abuse. Many of
the respondents told of treating dozens-and in some
cases hundreds-of such victims. Clearly a sizable minor-
ity in the psychotherapy profession have a dangerously
poor understanding of the nature of memory and of the
ease with which they can lead their vulnerable believing
clients into madness.
All memories are changeable. They can be created,
elaborated, and modified after the fact. Our behavior pat-
terns are based on the same neural mechanisms as mem-
ory, so changing behavior is essentially the same as
changing memory. The job of the therapist should be to
change our interpretation of memories and retrain our
behavior in ways that will make us happier, more effective
people. Our past can't be changed, but its effect on us can.
Unfortunately, many therapists use their patients to
vent their own anger at parents or the opposite sex. In
doing this they often do irreparable harm-often creating
traumatic memories or changing pleasant memories into
traumatic nightmares. Raging against parents who you
formerly loved is not therapeutic because it modifies your
memories in a negative direction. Learning to understand
your parents' human weaknesses and love them anyway
should be the goal of therapy. All parents try their best but
fail in varying degrees because of human imperfection.
The Norman Rockwell vision of the perfect family exists
only in fantasy. We are bound to find life disappointing if
we can't even learn to be tolerant of our own parents'
shortcomings, as we all must live in a world of imperfect
people.
CHAPTER NINE
The Infant Brain
But what am I?
An infant crying in the night:
An infant cryingfor the light:
And with no language but a cry.
- Tennyson. 1850
Months before a baby is born, alllD billion neurons that
will constitute its adult brain are already in place. Neurons
cannot divide as other cells do, but an infant's brain still
grows significantly in the first two years. Most of that
growth results from further development of the rich net-
work of interconnections (axons and dendrites) and sur-
rounding tissue that supports and insulates the neurons
(Figure 9).
Ultimately a neuron may have interconnections to as
many as a quarter of a million other neurons; the average,
however, is more like 10,000 connections. Though most of
the interconnections look like the wild tangle of plants in
a jungle, some sensory and motor connections are quite
regular and clearly follow a genetically determined plan.
Some of these interconnections seem to grow by a "sur-
vival of the fittest" process in which ineffective connec-
tions don't survive. This process works properly only if
there is sensory stimulation during the critical growth
period.
179
-~~~~'-.~.:-
Newborn 3 monchs S monchs 2 years
FIGURE 9. All of the neurons you will ever have are present months before birth, but the connecting
dendrites and axons that join them continue to develop during the first two years of life. (From
Brain and Psyche by Jonathan Winson, Doubleday, New York, 1985.)
THE INFANT BRAIN 181
For example, visual information is connected to the

brain by at least 20 different genetically determined maps.
These maps are areas of the brain where preprocessed
visual information is connected according to a very spe-
cific wiring scheme. Each map handles an aspect of vision,
such as movement and color, and different categories of
shapes, such as lines of different angles. If these aspects of
vision aren't exercised during the critical first two years of
life they will never develop properly. When vision is re-
paired in an adult who has been blinded by an optical
problem from birth, very little useful vision results even
though the eye itself may function perfectly. Even after
years of practice, full visual ability will never be achieved
because of the fact that these nerve paths didn't grow in
properly in the first place.
If a child with severe astigmatism1 (bad focus on lines
of a certain orientation) doesn't receive corrective lenses
until after six years of age, there will be a permanent loss
of sharpness for lines of that direction. The specialized,
preprocessed connections that handle the blurred line ori-
entation apparently don't develop properly during the
critical period.
Studies have shown that babies who spend most of
the first year of their life lying in their cribs develop
abnormally slowly. Some of these infants couldn't sit up at
21 months of age, and less than 15% could walk by the age
of three? They would scream and try to avoid strangers or
novel objects or toys and spend hours on end engaged in
repetitive movements such as rocking and head banging
in a quest for stimulation. 3
Evolution always works by adding new structures on
top of ancient ones inherited from lower animals. Many of
182 CHAPTER NINE
the newer structures of the brain are incomplete at birth

because the infant can survive at a basic level using the
older structures inherited from earlier- and faster-devel-
oping ancestors. A human infant's cry follows the same
rising and falling melodic pattern as the separation call of
a monkey.4 As this is refined into speech by later-develop-
ing higher parts of the brain, sentences continue to have
the same melodic pattern, rising in pitch at the start and
falling at the end.
The infant's progress in learning new behaviors and
abilities is paced by this gradual completion of the wiring
of the brain. At birth, speech would be impossible because
that part of the baby's brain is still not fully developed.
Memories that can be verbally recalled are not possible
until the child is almost three because the connections
between neurons are incomplete.
Since sucking on the mother's breast has been and is
crucial to evolutionary survival, the neurons for these
reflex responses in the older lower part of the brain are
ready to go at birth. To use computer terminology, the
growth of the interconnecting network between neurons
shown in Figure 9 can be thought of as hardware develop-
ment. When the neural hardware is ready, the infant's
mental software can begin to develop. The software part
of development relies, not on physical changes, but on a
learning process. Learning is achieved whenever a successful
outcome causes the synapses of the specific neural connections
in the brain that caused that outcome to be strengthened. The
synapses are tiny gaps at each connection point between
the neurons that can control the efficacy of the connection.
Scientists have recently found that the neuron actually
sends a signal back to the active synapses whenever it fires.
This "back-propagating" action potentialS may be the ba-

sis of learning and self-organization.
THE BEGINNINGS OF SPONTANEOUS

ORGANIZATION
When the baby's mouth first finds the nipple and gets
a milk reward, the synapses active during that behavior
become strengthened, thus increasing the chances of suc-
cess in the future. Clusters of neurons begin to organize
spontaneously as soon as the baby is exposed to the exter-
nal world. If the baby's hands knead the breast and get
more milk, that refinement is added to the nursing mod-
ule's behavior. As the baby grows beyond nursing age, this
specialized module, as a result of tireless exploration,
continues to develop. Virtually everything that can be put
into the mouth is tried at least once. As the child grows to
adulthood this module evolves and may continue to be
active during smoking a pipe or cigarette, making love, or
drinking. A child may seek comfort after stress by sucking
his thumb, blanket, or pacifier. Smoking rituals often have
an uncanny similarity. Watch an adult male in a bar after
he has been rebuffed by a woman and you will almost
surely see him immediately raise his glass to his lips-just
like a pacifier.
Another basic behavior module of infancy is one that
is engaged during crying. As the child grows, this module
evolves into more sophisticated temper tantrums. Every
adult has a behavior module that has evolved from this
basic crying module. It takes control in certain emotional
fighting situations. If parents try from the beginning to
184 CHAPTER NINE
allow the child to express anger in a constructive way

rather than forbid anger entirely they set the stage for
development of a healthy fight module.
If you watch an infant's movements you can see an
almost continual random experimentation. Occasionally
something accidentally works, causing the synapses in-
volved to be reinforced so that the behavior can be re-
peated. If you practice biofeedback or even try to wiggle
your ears, you will find yourself doing the same kind of
random experimentation. You don't know what you are
doing but you just keep trying things until voila!-you see
your ears wiggle in the mirror. If you practice it repeatedly
you will find that it gets easier each time as the new pattern
of synapses gradually gets refined and reinforced.
New modules spontaneously organize whenever the
experience of existing modules gives them no advantage
in reacting to a new situation. If a new cluster of neurons
wins the competition for control, then it will be reinforced
instead of an existing module. When the mother first looks
into the baby's eyes and responds to the baby's eye move-
ments, a new module may be created that can evolve into
a whole repertoire of responsive behavior. Grasping an
extended finger and finding a playful interaction can be
the beginning of another module or simply a refinement
of an existing one. Very subtle differences in circumstances
can cause development to start down a different path,
which can ultimately have a major impact.
This sensitivity to very small changes is one of the
characteristics of self-organizing systems that have pro-
found implications in child development. At certain criti-
cal points in the child's development a tiny difference in
conditions can determine whether a new module is born
or an old one is refined. As a result of many such critical

moments each person ends up with a uniquely different
brain organization.
Violinists who begin their study late in life generally
cannot reach virtuoso status because their early brain or-
ganization evolves to meet requirements that do not in-
clude violin playing. Later learning will still develop
special neural pathways but, since they must work around
the existing structures, they may be less effective. Learning
piano at an early age encourages an organization that
allows independent sequencing of the left and right hand.
Organ players develop three independent channels for the
left hand, the right hand, and the feet (for playing the pedal
part). Developing these kinds of abilities late in life can be
very difficult.
Figure 10 shows the PET scans6 from five different
individuals all doing the same mental task. The marks,
which identify the active parts of the brain, are in different
places for each individual. The active areas sometimes
even differ in number because each person's brain is spon-
taneously organized along different paths. With each criti-
cal turning point, the brain organization of two people will
grow further and further apart so that even identical twins
can end up being quite different.
One of the important princi2les of mathematical
chaos theory is "the butterfly effect,,,7 named for a classical
example of the major effect of tiny perturbations at the
right critical moment: The wind created by the wings of a
butterfly in Peking can be the cause of a storm next month
in New York. This can happen if the complex chain of
events and related global weather systems that ultimately
led to the storm in New York was affected by an earlier
186 CHAPTER NINE
FIGURE 10. PET (positron emission tomography) scans show

increases in activity in certain regions of the brain during a
specific mental task. Illustration shows that five different sub-
jects doing the same task each have uniquely located active
regions. (Thanks to Marcus E. Raichle, Professor of Radiology
and Neurology, Department of Neurology and Neurological
Surgery, School of Medicine, Washington University, St. Louis,
MO.)
storm in Peking that occurred when a tiny breeze from the

wing flap of the butterfly at a critical instant began a
weather system that turned into a storm.
These critical instants are called bifurcations because
one of two paths will be taken. Sometimes these decision
points are so delicately balanced that the slightest pertur-
bation will determine the outcome. The final result is like
climbing a tree where your decisions at each branching
point determine which twig you will finally end up on.
When you are partway up the tree you have already
eliminated the possibility of reaching some of the twigs.
Major changes in human personality and abilities can
likewise be the result of tiny variations in the child's environ-
ment at certain critical times. Any new challenge can reinforce
and help one of many existing modules evolve, or it can cause

a new module to form. Tmy differences in past history or the
specific nature of the new challenge can alter the outcome and
eventually cause major differences in brain organization.
LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
Reading is an important skill that sometimes gets
started down the wrong track, causing difficulties later.
For example, children who recognize words holistically, as
they would recognize other objects, do well reading at a
very simple level. As words start getting longer, com-
pound words appear, and spelling becomes a factor, this
initially successful strategy becomes a disaster. Reading
phonically requires a new module, not just adding some
words to a module that recognizes things by shape. Dys-
lexic children have extreme difficulty spelling and often
cannot distinguish between the backward spelling of a
word and the correct spelling. Whereas in recognizing an
object it is important to ignore its orientation (left to right
or vice versa), a word written backwards is simply wrong.
Once children start along the wrong path, the longer
they continue to use the wrong module, the more firmly
ingrained and reinforced it becomes. Remedial exercises
that force children to use the correct strategy must start
from scratch to train the proper module against strong
competition from the module that has the benefit of re-
peated practice.
Starting down a wrong path in reading has major
consequences, so corrective techniques have been devel-
oped, but consider all the other areas where a bad pattern
188 CHAPTER NINE
can spontaneously organize and cause personality quirks,

learning disabilities, and even pathological behavior. At
critical moments in a child's development, the spontane-
ous organization path that prevails can determine bril-
liance or disability. The highest quality art, literature, and
science are usually produced by people who "don't think
like the rest of us." The chaotic nature of brain organization
thus has both benefits and liabilities.
The critical moments in a child's development are
often as difficult to spot as the critical flap of a butterfly'S
wing. When my father bought me a crystal radio as a gift
when he was on a business trip to New York, he didn't
know it would so fascinate me that I would develop a
technology module that would evolve into an amateur
radio module that in tum would evolve into the basis of a
career in electronics.
The first time a child tries to steal something is another
such critical time. If he succeeds and the behavior is there-
fore reinforced, it can ultimately develop into a life of crime.
Undoing such a development when it is really under way
can be extremely difficult, as the crime module can take on
a life of its own, quite immune to later stem lectures.
LANGUAGE AND THE LEFT BRAIN
The brain is divided into two mirror-image hemi-

spheres that are virtually identical. In about 95% of the
population, speech self-organizes on the left side of the
brain. This appears to be a result of a slight advantage the
left side has for sequenced movements which also predis-
poses most people to be right-handed (the connections are
crossed so the left hemisphere controls the right side of the

body and vice versa). Despite this slight advantage, about
5% of the population develops speech on the right side of
the brain. Even minor defects in the left side probably tip
the balance in favor of the right side in these individuals.
Sometimes an entire defective left hemisphere is sur-
gically removed to prevent it from interfering with the
healthy right hemisphere. As long as this surgery is per-
formed before the age of five, normal speech will develop
on the right hemisphere. In fact, one case was reported of
a college student with a verbal IQ of126 who had the left half
ofhis brain removed at the age offive. 8 This amazing flexibility
in the spontaneous organization process allows it simply
to work around missing brain tissue.
The basic ability to comprehend sounds of speech
begins to organize spontaneously before the child speaks.
Recognition of the familiarity of a sound is in itself suffi-
cient for reinforcement learning to occur. A child in China
or Japan grows up in a world where the distinction be-
tween ilL" and "R" sounds is meaningless because their
language makes no such distinction. Consequently, the
basic phoneme analysis ability that spontaneously organ-
izes does not distinguish between those sounds. When
English is learned later, the child is already down an
inappropriate path and finds it very difficult to distinguish
L from R sounds?
Numerous studies of bilingual children10 have con-
firmed that far more than pronunciation is affected if the
child initially is exposed to more than one language. The
basic organization of the way words are remembered can
be affected such that words will be grouped according to
meaning, rather than by sound pattern. Though early
190 CHAPTER NINE
vocabulary in each language may lag slightly behind sin-

gle-language children, performance on some nonlinguis-
tic tasks and basic thinking skills has actually been found
to improve.
Ideographic languagesll such as Chinese have no
need for an intermediate syllable translation in visually
comprehending words so the brain may organize differ-
ently for recognizing words. This may make spelling and
sounding out words in European languages difficult later.
Braille reading must organize with touch rather than vi-
sion as the first stage of analysis. Hieroglyphic reading
requires yet another organization where meaning varies
more with context.
Language is indeed the basis for certain kinds of
thought. The vocabulary and organization of our lan-
guage certainly set the style of our verbal and logical
thinking. The sequential nature of Western languages has
given the Western nations an advantage in the writing of
computer software. The Oriental languages, which use
ideograms to represent complete words instead of se-
quentially building words out of components, may make
writing computer programs more difficult because the
ability to break down operations into a sequence of tiny
steps is less developed. Ideographic languages must cer-
tainly change the way the brain spontaneously organizes
its vocabulary and may therefore affect the organization
of other knowledge.
Once speech is established on the left side of the brain,
any module that uses speech or language will tend to
spontaneously organize on the left side of the brain be-
cause of the more direct connections available to the
speech apparatus. Nonverbal modules will then tend to

form on the right side of the brain,12 resulting in a ten-
dency toward left-right specialization of verbal and non-
verbal functions.
During early development, speech capability often
develops on both sides of the brain. About 10% of all
children13 stutter at some time in their development
and then the stuttering clears up in about a year. The
problem is worse in boys because they are slower to
complete development of the band of nerves linking the
left and right halves of the brain. About 15% of normal
adults have some speech capability on both sides of
their brain.
Stuttering can result when both sides of the brain try
to initiate speech at the same time. At the tum of the
century stuttering was much more common than it is
today. It was finally discovered that about half of the
stutterers were people who had been born left-handed but
had been forced as children to use their right hand. 14 This
unwise practice was confusing the normal development
of speech on the same side of the child's brain that controls
the dominant hand.
A very clear demonstration that stuttering can result
from speech organizing on both sides of the brain is found
in a 1966 medical report by Dr. R. K. Jones. He successfully
treated four patients15 who had stuttered since childhood
by surgically removing damaged speech areas that had
developed on the nondominant side of the brain. Stuttering
may well be very similar to what happens when two people
both want to speak at the same time: Both may hear the
conflict, pause to let the other speak, and then collide again.
192 CHAPTER NINE
DEVELOPMENT OF THE
SELF-CONCEPT
The infant mind begins with no sense of any bound-

ary between its self and the rest of the world. At about the
age of 15 months, most babies begin to recognize them-
selves in a mirror. 16 If a red mark is painted on their nose,
they will know enough to wipe it off based on seeing their
image in a mirror. They will also react differently to a
videotape of themselves than to one showing another
baby, indicating a basic understanding of the existence of
their self as distinct from others.
At the age of 2, most babies go through a battle with
their parents over whether the world will continue to
rotate around them. The self boundary, at this age, does
not include consideration for other members of the family.
By the age of 4, most children have begun to feel at least
some merger of their self-interest with that of their mother.
One researcher asked 3- and 4-year-old children, "Where
is the part of you that knows your name and thinks about
things?" Sixty-four percent of the children localized the
thinking part of themselves17 inside their head (or very
close by) and indicated that other people cannot see these
activities or the part of the self that performs them. A
well-educated Greek in ancient Athens would have
pointed to his heart. Clearly this is an example of how
quickly our culture loads in the basic software for the
self-concept.
Other parts of the self-concept take longer to develop.
For example, experiments have shown that most 3-year-
olds have not yet developed the belief system that adults
use to explain their intentional behavior. They have no
concept of beliefs as something separate from their imme-

diate knowledge. In a typical experiment, the child is
shown a candy box18 that actually contains pencils instead
of candy. After opening the box, the child is questioned
about the belief he had before the box was opened: "When
you first saw the box, before we opened it, what did you
think was inside it?" One half to two thirds of the 3-year-
olds said that they originally thought there were pencils in the
box. Not having developed a concept of belief as distinct
from knowledge, they simply answered with what they
currently knew to be true. This important part of our self-
concept, which adults use so often to explain their actions,
seems to be learned by most children at about 4 years of
age.
SELF-CONTROL
Self-control requires that the self module be strong

enough to prevail over another behavior module. In very
small children the self module is not established well
enough to achieve control. Before the age of 3 most chil-
dren cannot successfully stop themselves from doing
something by verbal commands. In one experiment chil-
dren 18 months to 5 years old were given a bulb-squeez-
ing19 task where they would say "press" and then squeeze
a rubber bulb; and then say "don't press" and release it.
Children below the age of 3 had no problem with the
"press" part of the task, but would actually squeeze the
bulb harder on the "don't press" part. Two-year-olds are
notoriously difficult to control ("the terrible twos") be-
194 CHAPTER NINE
cause they have the physical ability to get into trouble but
still lack self-control.
Self-control is learned from parents, friends, and
teachers. In a supportive environment, successes are
praised and failures are treated as an encouragement to
try harder. Some children learn a very negative attitude
of helplessness from their parents. This learned helpless-
ness can sometimes be undone by utilizing a strong role
model to retrain the child to believe in the power of
trying harder. It is important, however, for children also
to learn to live with their actual limitations, those that
no effort can overcome.
The self module undergoes a major upheaval in the
teen years as children try to define themselves as separate
beings from their parents. Rebellious behavior can often
result as a child tries to redefine boundaries and establish
an identity separate from the parents. In cultures where
the self boundary always includes the extended family the
teenage identity crisis, so common in this country, is rare.
The self module continues to evolve throughout life
with painful transitions often occurring at points where
the self boundary changes. In our society a midlife crisis is
often triggered when grown children move away to seek
employment, forcing the parents to redefine their self-
concept with narrower boundaries.
In cultures where the extended family boundary is a
stable lifetime concept these crises are not a problem. Our
new concept of the individual self is thus a double-edged
sword: It has produced great progress by providing a
mobile work force and freeing up individual creativity, but
it has also produced some painful side effects by breaking
up the unity of the family.
IDENTIFYING YOUR MODULES
The marvel of human uniqueness is that we each end

up with a totally distinctive team of specialist modules that
ultimately define our personality and abilities. You can
learn to recognize your own modules at work through
careful observation and some knowledge of evolutionary
principles. The cuddling and fighting modules we have
already mentioned are fairly universal. We all also have a
childish play module that forms in infancy. As we mature
and grow old this module usually grows less active; in
some people it atrophies completely.
Sometimes you can clearly observe the inconsistency
in attitude between the self module, which does advance
planning, and this play module: After a fun day of childish
play at the beach you would expect enthusiasm two weeks
later when making plans to repeat the experience. What
you sometimes find is an unfamiliar negative attitude that
remembers only that the water was cold and the sand was
dirty. Since making future plans is the job of the self
module, you are hearing the memory of the day at the
beach from the point of view of the self module that is
much more concerned with staying warm and clean and
therefore may not have had much fun. If you end up back
at the beach anyway, again the play module clicks in and
you have a wonderful time, ignoring the cold water and
messy sand. The same thing can happen when planning a
vacation. After almost forcing yourself to go, a moment
comes when your self module finally lets go and you begin
having a wonderful time in childish play or relaxation.
Another module we all have is a school/work mod-
ule. This module begins development on the first day of
196 CHAPTER NINE
nursery school and gradually evolves as you advance

through school. When you finish school and get a job this
module continues to evolve to control your working be-
havior. Graduates of the top universities earn more money
not because the specific knowledge they learn but rather
because of the behavior and work habits they have devel-
oped give them an advantage on the job. They have devel-
oped both their self module and a school/work module
that knows how to work hard and succeed.
Sibling relationships also tend to develop inde-
pendent patterns: The arrival of a new little brother or
sister is one of those crucial moments in a child's life when
a new module mayor may not form. The attitude of that
module can be positive or negative, depending on very
subtle factors. In adulthood, if the sibling is no longer
present the module may resurface in some other relation-
ship at work or in a marriage where the context is similar
enough to make that module prevail.
Favorite childhood games and pastimes can some-
times develop into a unique module that evolves into
related adult behavior patterns. Dangerous childhood
games, for example, can later evolve into pleasurable hob-
bies such as skiing or rock climbing or into pathological
patterns such as serial murder, gambling, or burglary. A
generous caregiver module or a mommy module may
evolve from playing with dolls. Relaxed behavior on
camping trips or when fishing may evolve from similar
times in childhood and may be totally different from fran-
tically driven business behavior that has its genesis at
exam times in high school or college.
Binge behavior may also have its origins early in
childhood. Some overweight people seem to have a binge
module that takes control during the first piece of pie and
effectively changes their personality. The cautious dieting
of their normal self-controlled behavior gives way to out
of control eating, which ends only when they are sick or
out of pie. Bulimics end this pattern by vomiting up what
they have eaten. The binge module has a life of its own and
can develop quite a different personality. Drunks, for ex-
ample, often have a mean brutal personality that is clearly
recognizable when they have lost control.
Work skills and hobbies also usually develop into
unique modules. A piano player can continue playing a
song while another module simultaneously holds a con-
versation about a request for another song. During many
skilled jobs other modules are free to have conversations,
thoughts, and daydreams while the work is in progress.
Almost all of us have a module for driving a car that
makes it possible to independently hold a conversation or
do intensive thinking while driving. Some people have a
driving personality that is obviously distinct from their
normal personality. Gentle people sometimes have an ag-
gressive personality that gets engaged during driving.
That personality may show anger by tailgating and cutting
off other cars, giving the finger, and even cursing. If some-
one cuts them off, a pleasant conversation may be inter-
rupted by a string of obscenities from the driving module,
which has a distinctly different sound and attitude.
Not all modules have the ability to control speech.
Some are able to work on a problem and pass the results
to other modules through intermodule connections. When
you suddenly realize the solution to a problem or remem-
ber a name without having been aware of thinking about
it, the work is clearly done by a nonverbal module working
198 CHAPI'ER NINE
in parallel. Any kind of interconnection structure that

works is possible in a spontaneously organized system, so
modules can overlap, communicate, and cooperate in
many ways.
Though it may be difficult to identify your specific
nonverbal modules, you can certainly learn to make better
use of them. All creative people learn to respect and work
with these powerful modules even though they are invis-
ible to consciousness.
One such technique is called "incubation": Once you
have reached an impasse in solving a difficult problem,
you simply put it aside and work on something else while
your unconscious modules continue working on the prob-
lem. Often the key to the problem will be revealed to you
in a flash later as some unknown module passes its answer
through intermodule communications channels. The more
this kind of thinking is practiced, the more reinforced and
developed it becomes.
CHAPTER TEN
Nonverbal Thinking
All credibility, all good conscience, all evidence oj truth come

only from the senses.
- Nietzsche, 1886
A poem... begins as a lump in the throat, a sense oj wrong,

a homesickness, a lovesickness . ... Itftnds the thought
and the thoughtfinds the words.
- Robert Frost, 1916
Most Experiences are unsayable, they happen in a space

that no word has ever entered.
-Rilke, 1903
Since the brain is insensitive to pain, brain surgery is often
done with the patient fully conscious. A local anesthetic is
used only on the flesh of the scalp around a circular "trap
door" that is cut in the skull for access. This makes it
possible for the surgeon to converse with the patient
throughout the operation and monitor the effects of the
surgery. Sometimes tumors or severe epilepsy make it
necessary to remove surgically an entire half of the brain
in an operation called a hemispherectomy. One surgeon's
report on the removal of the entire right half of the brain
on four patients stated that, "Conversation with the pa-
tients was carried on throughout the surgery without any
significant change in conscious state."l Clearly the patient's self
module failed to notice the removal of all of the modules
in the other half of the brain! Since we have already
shown that the self handles discussion of consciousness
even though it has no direct awareness of the other mod-
ules, this is not surprising. In fact, the surgeon could
probably continue cutting and remove everything, down
201
202 CHAPTER TEN
to the self module and its supporting speech apparatus,

and the patient would continue the conversation as
though nothing was happening.
The self module's awareness of other modules
comes, not from direct access, but from observation. After
the operation, the patient may find that half of his body
is paralyzed and that he cannot put his clothes on right-
side-up or find his way back to his bed. The self will
typically continue to try to rationalize these obvious defi-
cits with confabulations, like the press secretary trying to
keep things together. The emotional aspects of the pa-
tient's personality may also disappear, but the self mod-
ule will often continue, cheerfully, making light of the
situation.
WORDS: USEFUL BUT DANGEROUS

Words are both powerful and dangerous. They are the
language of certain kinds of logical thought and knowl-
edge. Even more important, words are the medium with
which we communicate the concepts of self and our expe-
rience of consciousness. Because of this, it is easy to fool
yourself into thinking that all thought is expressed in
words. The truth is, most of your thoughts and most of your
knowledge are in nonverbal form and, therefore, are uncon-
scious and invisible.
We have defined the self module as the one that uses
introspection to describe verbally our thoughts, con-
sciousness, and feelings. If your self-concept includes the
belief that all thoughts are in words, then consciousness
will convincingly confirm that belief. Here we will try to
NONVERBAL TIUNKING 203
alter that belief to one that better correlates with the reality
of how the mind actually functions. With practice, you can
learn to modify your conscious experience so that it also
includes the richness of nonverbal thinking. This can sig-
nificantly increase your pleasure in life and allow you to
develop abilities you never thought possible.
Your brain's only job is to process sensory inputs and
respond by producing movement. Movement is, in fact,
the only useful result of the brain's activity: Thought by
itself is useless until it is expressed by some kind of move-
ment such as physical action, speech, writing, or keyboard
entry. In our evolution from lower animals, refinements,
such as language and verbal thought, were simply added
on top of the existing structures that generate movement.
Internal, verbal thought that evolved from speech was a
separate, late addition, not a replacement for sensory
thinking. Nonverbal thinking has continued to evolve and
still does the majority of the mind's work, using nonverbal
knowledge directly to solve problems and generate move-
ment. When you are proficient in sports or dance, your
thoughts are not in words but rather in the form of kines-
thetic images.
When we try to analyze and understand our thoughts,
the result is always in words. This one-sided view, which
ignores all of the nonverbal aspects, gives us a distorted
view of our thinking and knowledge. For example, if we
recall a conversation, we will probably retell only the
words even though a major part of human communica-
tions is nonverbal. It has been estimated that words carry
only 7%2 of the total feeling communicated, while 38% is
inflection and the remaining 55% is communicated in the
form of facial and body expression. Silent movies and
204 CHAPTER TEN
mimes demonstrate just how much can be communicated

without words.
While listening to a tragic aria from an Italian opera,
you may cry-even though you have no idea what the
words mean. Deprived of words, you will have difficulty
describing why you are crying. If the aria was in English,
you would easily explain your tears by repeating some of
the sad lyrics. Words, so much easier to verbalize than the
nonverbal communications, tend to hog the spotlight
when we try to explain our feelings and behavior. When
we listen to vocal music in a foreign language, we are
forced to pay more attention to the other powerful com-
munications we are experiencing in the gesture and tone
of the voice. When we listen to a recording, we are also
deprived of the visual communications of facial expres-
sion and body language-and yet again, a sad aria in
Italian can make us cry. In the old days, people were
certainly moved to tears by the silent movies. Without
words grabbing the spotlight, people became more sensi-
tive to facial expressions and body language.
Verbal comprehension is performed by a different
module than the one that judges emotional expression
from tone of voice. This is confirmed by studying patients
after a stroke or brain injury: Many people retain their
ability to comprehend the cold, logical meaning of lan-
guage yet lose their ability to respond to the emotional
expression. In normal people there is competition between
these two modes: When we can't understand the lyrics, the
emotional side wins controL When we do understand the
lyrics, we tend to explain our feelings by interpreting the
verbal meaning even when our reaction is primarily from
the nonverbal inputs.
NONVERBAL THINKING 205
Our interactions with other people all seem to be

unified because language hogs the spotlight. However,
all conversations are, in reality, interactions between
many different modules working in parallel. Body lan-
guage, facial expressions, and tone of voice are ex-
tremely important parts of any conversations that may
be controlled by a module other than the one controlling
speech. They are often ignored during verbal recall.
Television reproduces all of these modes of communica-
tions, making it much more powerful than print media,
which is limited to words only.
With practice you can increase your self module's
awareness of nonverbal communications. A good way to
practice without driving your friends crazy is to watch
dramatic shows on television with the sound turned off.
Watch the facial gestures without the distraction of words
and try to notice the subtle movements of eyes, eyebrows,
mouth, hands, and the body gestures that any good actor
uses. Notice that the two sides of people's mouths are often
out of sync because each is controlled by a different side
of the brain. Often involuntary emotional expressions are
more obvious on the left side of the mouth while inten-
tional ones are stronger on the right.
Good businessmen know that written communica-
tions and even E-mail can easily get a negotiation off track
and even produce anger because it is easy for the reader
to get a wrong meaning from the words alone. Talking on
the telephone or voice mail at least adds the subtle mes-
sages of tone of voice and inflection. It is often worth an
expensive airline ticket just to talk to a person face to face
so that meaning can be reinforced by interactions of body
language and facial expression.
206 CHAPTER TEN
NONVERBAL CONSCIOUSNESS
The convenience of words can obscure an important
component of our own experience of consciousness.
Words are used to define the very meaning of conscious-
ness: in the dictionary, in philosophical and psychological
discussions, and even in this book. Our false belief in the
power of verbal introspection causes us to imagine a com-
plete mental world built on words.
H. D. Barlow3 of Cambridge University wrote:
It is argued that consciousness primarily arises in the
relation between one individual and another, and is
not a property of a brain in isolation. One can, of
course, be conscious when one is alone, but it is
suggested that on these occasions one is rehearsing
future discourse with an imagined individual.
... Thus the survival value of consciousness consists
of a peculiar form of gregarious behavior it generates
in man; it is nature's trick to chain him to the herd.
There is, however, another kind of consciousness that
uses no words. Stroke patients can have large parts of their
brain damaged by loss of blood circulation. Those who
completely lose their powers of logical speech provide a
clear demonstration of consciousness without words.
Though unable to speak about it, they are clearly still
conscious, with their nonverbal personality and knowl-
edge intact. Though their self module is essentially dead,
they defiantly remain conscious. The kind of conscious-
ness they feel is present in all of us, but it tends to get
upstaged by the easy verbalization of the self module.
Some brain tumor patients have even had the entire
left hemisphere surgically removed. Though they lost all
logical speech ability, they remained conscious and re-

tained their personality characteristics such as humor,
boredom, love, and frustration. 4 With the self module
removed and speech destroyed much of what we call a
"person" still remains. We can all benefit if we can learn to
see beyond the smoke screen of verbal introspection and
experience our nonverbal consciousness directly.
One of the reasons we are so easily confused about
consciousness is that our language tries to use that single
word for a wide range of meanings. In Sanskrit, the ancient
Indian language, there are some 20 different words5 for
various forms of consciousness. Clearly the self module has
a specific kind of consciousness that is verbal and self-re-
flective. It is aware of and can reflect on its own existence.
When the self module is in control we are self-conscious
because that is the specialty of the self. Other modules have
their own kind of consciousness. We all have a childish play
module that is not self-conscious and can consciously ex-
perience the simple joy of playing like a small child. An-
other kind of consciousness is the quiet intensity you feel
when you are deeply absorbed in a nonverbal task. Yet
another is the pleasant glow you feel when cuddling with
the one you love. A balanced personality retains the ability
to enjoy all of these forms of consciousness. Many people
have lost touch with them by allowing a takeover by their
misunderstanding self module to invalidate them.
CREATIVE THINKING
All creative thinking makes extensive use of non-

verbal modes of thought. We can all improve our crea-
208 CHAPTER TEN
tivity by learning how to use these nonverbal modules

effectively. In 1945 Jacques Hadamard6 sent question-
naires to prominent mathematicians all over America to
learn the secrets of their creative success. He summa-
rized the results:
Practically all of them ... avoid not only the use of
mental words but also the mental use of algebraic or
other precise signs . . . The mental pictures of the
mathematicians whose answers I have received are
most frequently visual, but they may be of another
kind-for instance, kinetic.
It is interesting that even though our schools teach
very little that is not verbal, the most successful people in
the very logical field of mathematics don't think in words.
They have developed these nonverbal modules to such a
degree that they depend on them.
Albert Einstein was one of the most creative gen-
iuses of all time. His answer to Hadamard's survey
shows that he not only used nonverbal thinking but also
had a conscious awareness of these kinds of thoughts.
He wrote:
(A) The words of language, as they are written or
spoken, do not seem to play any role in my mecha-
nism of thought. The physical entities which seem to
serve as elements in thought are certain signs and
more or less clear images which can be "voluntarily"
reproduced and combined.
There is, of course, a certain connection between
those elements and the relevant logical concepts. It is
also clear that the desire to arrive finally at logically
connected concepts is the emotional basis of this
rather vague play with the above mentioned ele-
ments. But taken from a psychological viewpoint,

this comminatory play seems to be the essential fea-
ture in productive thought-before there is any con-
nection with logical construction in words or other
kinds of signs which can be communicated to others.
(B) The above mentioned elements are, in my
case, of visual and some of muscular type. Conven-
tional words or other signs have to be sought for
laboriously only in a secondary stage, when the men-
tioned associative play is sufficiently established and
can be reproduced at will.
Words are too restrictive to be the basis for creative
thought but are used only after the creative breakthrough.
Since classes in school are taught in words, this ability to
think in nonverbal images was apparently learned outside
of school by these great thinkers. Even Aristotle, the genius
who first formalized the rules of logic, thought in nonver-
bal images. In De Anima he wrote: JIlt is impossible even to
think without a mental picture. The same affection is
involved in thinking as in drawing a diagram."
Though many of our modules with powers of speech
can be deduced by watching our behavior, nonverbal
modules are much harder to identify. We can see from the
results that some modules can be working on a problem
while we are consciously doing something else. If we get
stuck on a problem like remembering a name, the module
that remembers names clearly continues wrestling with
the problem because, even though we are busy with
something else, we suddenly get a strange feeling and
bingo! We have the name. Clearly there are links between
some modules that allow this kind of information to be
passed.
210 CHAPTER TEN
IMPROVING YOUR CREATIVITY
Creative people learn to put this parallel processing

to work in an organized way. In a 1945 book titled The Art
of Thought, G. Wallas broke the creative process into four
stages: preparation, incubation, illumination, and verifica-
tion. In the preparation stage relevant information is gath-
ered and the problem is narrowed down until the obstacles
are visible. Once this is done you can work on something
else while the incubation step is performed outside of your
awareness. It is permissible to occasionally think about the
problem during this stage but there should be no pressure
for a solution. With some luck the illumination stage will
come when the results of subconscious thinking present
themselves as an insight or intuition. Finally, in the verifi-
cation stage you logically test the intuition for validity and
express the final solution in verbal form.
This kind of creative thinking process improves with
practice because your confidence in the unconscious
thinking of the incubation stage gives those modules a
chance to develop. Once you develop that confidence you
can learn to relax and remove the pressure for a solution
that can block creativity. Many complex problems are not
solved by a single intuition but require you to identify the
next level of difficulties and start the incubation step again.
Really productive thinkers often overlap their projects like
a juggler: They work on the definition or verification stage
of one problem while another problem is in the incubation
stage.
The important principle here is to let the specialist
modules do what they do best. Logical thinking is good
for identifying problems and for testing the validity of
intuitive insights, but it is not good for making creative

breakthroughs. The reason the modules that are good at
these creative leaps are nonverbal is that language is too
tightly structured to be good for creative thought. Nonver-
bal images have a vagueness that lends itself to the flexi-
bility required for making the distant connections between
unrelated things that are the basis of most creative break-
throughs. Computers are not creative because they are too
literal.
One of the most famous intuitive leaps in history was
when Archimedes discovered the principle that now bears
his name. His protector had given him a gold crown that
he was suspected to be adulterated with silver, and Ar-
chimedes was asked to tell him if it was real. Archimedes
knew that, since gold is heavier than silver, he could solve
the problem if he could just find a way to measure the
volume of the crown. As he sat in his bathtub, the water
level rose as he had seen it do hundreds of times. This time
Archimedes recognized the rising water as the solution to
his problem: The volume of the water that was displaced
was equal to the volume of his immersed body. "Eureka!"
he cried as he jumped out of the tub and ran through the
streets naked.
Talented people develop specialized modules that
are the key to their success yet are not directly accessible
to the introspection of their self module. These modules
produce miraculous works of art that the artist can only
attempt to describe verbally. Artists' verbal descriptions
of their paintings are probably no more accurate than the
descriptions of any art critic because both the artist's self
module and the critic are looking at the painting as an
outsider.
212 CHAPTER TEN
Mozart described the apparently subconscious proc-

ess of his musical compositions in a famous letter7:
When I feel well and in a good humor, or when I am
taking a drive or walking after a good meal, or in the
night when I cannot sleep, thoughts crowd into my
mind as easily as you could wish. Whence and how
do they come? I do not know and I have nothing to
do with it. Those which please me I keep in my head
and hum them: at least others have told me that I do
so. Once I have my theme another melody comes,
linking itself to the first one, in accordance with the
needs of the composition as a whole: the counter-
point, the part of each instrument, and all those me-
lodic fragments at last produce the entire work.
When the composition was complete in his head,
Mozart often wrote down the notes directly from the
musical image in his head. Sometimes he would have his
wife read a book to him to occupy his mind while he wrote
out the notes in his head.
THE REPTILIAN BRAIN
Language ability is a recent addition to our brain in

evolutionary terms. Since evolution never has the luxury
of redesign, old structures must always remain intact and
functional while new ones, like language, evolve to add
refinement. As evolution added these new structures to
the reptilian brain the result was modification and elabo-
ration rather than a replacement of the primitive reptilian
behavior patterns. As evolution continues the new struc-
tures can gradually take over and replace the old, but they
must compete to do so. We are all born with a repertoire

of instinctive behavior patterns that still affect our behav-
ior. The spontaneously organized modules of the more
recently evolved parts of our brain can only inhibit, refine,
or elaborate on these patterns.
The fixed behavior patterns of reptiles are often vis-
ible through the thin veneer of human behavior. American
neurophysiologist Paul MacLean enumerated 24 different
instinctive reptilian behavior8 patterns, including: (1) se-
lection and preparation of homesite; (2) establishment of domain
or territory; (5) showing place-preferences; (6) ritualistic display
in defense of territory, commonly involving the use of coloration
and adornments; (7) formalized intraspecific fighting in defense
of territory; (8) triumphal display in successful defense; (9)
assumption of distinctive postures and coloration in signaling
surrender; (10) routinization of daily activities; (11) foraging;
(12) hunting; (13) homing; (14) hoarding; (15) use of defecation
posts; (16)formation of social groups; (17) establishment of
social hierarchy by ritualistic display and other means; (18)
greeting; (19) "grooming"; (20) courtship with displays using
coloration and adornments; (21) breeding and, in isolated in-
stances, attending offspring; (23) flocking; and (24) migration.
Experiments with monkeys have confirmed that their
sexual display behavior can be eliminated only by remov-
ing parts of the lower reptilian portion of their brain.
Destruction of more recently evolved parts of their brain
leaves sexual display behavior intact. In fact, a human
male paraplegic, paralyzed by a severed spinal cord, can
still have an erection if his penis is stroked. 9 The spinal
cord, though completely disconnected from the brain, has
its own primitive behavior program. Though the self mod-
ule does an amazingly good job of fulfilling our false belief
214 CHAPTER TEN
that it controls everything, penile erection is one area

where this fiction sometimes becomes painfully obvious:
A penis sometimes seems to have a mind of its own for a
good reason-it does. The other reptilian behavior pat-
terns on the list above also probably live on as the driving
forces in human behavior to which verbal introspection
has no access.
If you watch carefully, you can see primitive behavior
patterns showing through our civilized veneer at business
meetings, cocktail parties, sporting events, on battlefields,
and in many other common settings. Self-control often
really means that the logical self module has seized control
and substituted rational, verbally directed behavior for
more primitive responses. Only when this occurs does
introspection really give us access to the thoughts that
cause our actions.
Though self-control can often prevent fights and other
destructive behavior, too much control is not the way to
lead a happy and meaningful life. The basic drives that we
have inherited from lower animals help give meaning and feeling
to life. To prove this to yourself make a list of the things that
give you the most pleasure in life and then analyze each
item to find the basic drive it satisfies. Total self-control
means existing like a human computer with nothing but
logic controlling your behavior. The real goal should be to
evolve and refine your basic drives so that they may safely
be allowed to rule more rather than less. By bringing your
self module into harmony with these basic drives you can
reduce internal conflict and bring more meaning to life.
Your self module can guide and support these basic behav-
iors, as a wise CEO would guide and support the special-
ists within a corporation. Pushing them aside and
NONVERBAL TIUNKING 215
overriding them only stifles their development and makes

them frustrated and unruly. Successful corporate presi-
dents often "go with their gut" when making decisions.
NONVERBAL LOGIC
What the philosophers and mathematicians call logic

is a completely verbal game with verbal rules. Nonverbal
thinking has its own kind of logic, which can often be more
effective than verbal logic. Kinesthetic logic, for example,
is the only effective way to perform sports and dance
movements. Nonverbal kinesthetic knowledge of body
and ball dynamics is used directly to solve problems in-
stantly. Catching a ball in a crosswind requires complex
solving of trajectory problems with wind correction,
which would be impossible if we used equations and
verbal logic. Amateurs often try to override this highly
effective kinesthetic logic with verbal logic, producing
disastrous results. Lawyers and engineers are notoriously
bad dancers because their highly developed and overcon-
fident logical self module tends to win the competition for
control.
People with highly developed logical thinking are
also often handicapped in art, sports, and music. A good
artist utilizes visual thinking to think directly in images,
using nonverbal knowledge. Art education often misses
this point by trying to teach verbal concepts, making mat-
ters worse. Formulas for body proportions are a perfect
example: Though counting the number of head lengths
between the knee and the ground may be a good way to
check proportions, thinking in terms of verbal rules while
216 CHAPTER TEN
drawing or sculpting can often engage the wrong module,

ruining the result.
One excellent art teaching program based on Betty
Edwards' excellent book Drawing on the Right Side of the
Brain forces people to copy drawings upside down: This
puts logical control at a disadvantage, forcing it to release
its grip. Many people on this program have had amazing
breakthroughs-allowing the artist inside them finally to
emerge. Music is another area wherein verbal logic can
stifle the artist inside, producing a mechanical, player
piano pianist who has no ability but to read notes on paper.
Good musicians think directly in musical sound images,
to compose and play by ear. Musical logic makes it possi-
ble for many people to compose with no knowledge of the
verbal rules of harmony and composition.
THE LOGIC OF EMOTIONS
Our emotions and feelings also have their own kind

of logic, which is not easily verbalized because it operates
without words. When we criticize a movie, book, or play
because the characters don't seem real, we mean that their
emotions aren't logical. We can often agree on such criti-
cisms, thus proving that there is a generally agreed logic
to emotions.lO When we say, "She wouldn't have reacted
that way," we mean that the character violated the rules of
emotional logic.
Our own emotional logic sometimes makes us do
things that seem strange and illogical. Further analysis can
usually uncover an underlying cause, such as a previous
painful experience, which makes the behavior quite logical
from an emotional standpoint. Emotional logic is driven by

our need to maximize self-esteem and personal dignity. This
can sometimes conflict with long-term goals set by the self
module and make emotion-driven actions seem illogical.
For example: You are trapped in a job you hate, you allow
yourself the luxury of revealing this to your boss, and it
results in your getting fired. This certainly interferes with
your logical long-term plan for success, but it is a perfectly
logical action for preserving your self-esteem.
Emotions come from the older structures of the
brain. Long-term planning is a uniquely human capability
that is based on the newer, language-based parts of the brain.
Chimpanzees and other nonhumans live a completely
reactive life without any long-term planning. Though
they can throw things, they never systematically practice
throwing, as even a child ll can do. It is not surprising
then that our emotional logic is sometimes at odds with
the long-term plans of the self module. Many emotional
and physical illnesses are the result of stress caused by
our logical self module overriding our natural emo-
tional logic. Destructive emotional outbursts occur
when the pressure, resulting from this override, builds
to an intolerable level.
Emotional reactions often seem illogical because we
try to explain them by using verbal introspection. Though
we think we are speaking with authority, our explanations
are really nothing more than creative theorizing, which is
often totally incorrect. The self module has no direct access
to our emotional logic, which is based on feelings, not
words. Our own theories about the reasons for our emo-
tional responses are often less reliable than those of an
outside observer. Whatever we decide about the reasons
218 CHAPTER TEN
for our actions is sure to be convincingly confirmed by our

creative perception.
The popular notion that we cannot be mistaken about
our own feelings is based on the false assumption that
"we" is a single entity. The truth is that the self module is
often dead wrong about the cause of our feelings and often even
misidentifies them. For example, it is quite common to say
that we hate someone when, in reality, we love them.
Friends can see it and, after time has passed, we will often
admit it, but at the time we insist on misidentifying the
feeling.12 We may feel anger toward the cat when we are
really angry with our boss. Or, we may deny that we are
angry when our anger is obvious to any impartial ob-
server. We may think that we are depressed when, in
reality, we are angry. It is rare for anybody to admit to
jealousy or envy, though they are common emotions. Even
basic feelings like heat and cold can be confused under
certain conditions: If you show someone a blowtorch, then
secretly put ice on their hand, they will think that you have
burned them. The problem with understanding emotions
is that they originate outside the self module. The self, a
logical, language-oriented module, does its best to con-
trive a story that rationalizes all behavior.
How can we get more "in touch" with our emotions?
Unfortunately, there is no easy answer, but a good start is
to realize that the self module is an outside observer of
emotions. Open your mind to the possibility that false
beliefs can cause a convincing illusion of direct under-
standing of the reasons for your emotional behavior. Hav-
ing faced these facts, you are then ready tofeel your emotions
with the nonverbal part of your consciousness. Don't ex-
pect them to be articulate. Joy is simply joy and pain is
simply pain. The fine distinctions are all things you will
have to fabricate with words and the feelings surely will
suffer in the translation. If you want to theorize about the
reasons, do it as you would for a friend-with the full
realization that the words are coming from an observer.
FLOW: SILENCING THE SELF

MODULE
The self module, like a loudmouth who monopolizes
the conversation, drowns out important parts of our con-
sciousness that feel things but cannot talk about them.
With effort, we can develop our awareness of this impor-
tant, but silent, part of our being. Long before the modular
concept of brain organization was proposed, people with
an intuitive understanding developed techniques for si-
lencing the self.
For centuries, Eastern religions have taught that belief
in individual selfhood is an illusion. The goal of Sufi
practice is to reach the ecstatic state of jana, or freedom
from the self. 13 Zen Buddhism is based on denial of the
relevance of self. Yoga, Taoism, and the Oriental martial
arts are all, in their authentic form, focused on silencing
the self.
All of the exercises that have been developed for silenc-
ing the self module involve focusing the mind on something
in the present. Future planning is a verbal, step-by-step
process, so future planning and goals must be avoided. To
really jeellife, we must live in the present. In meditation, the
focus is sometimes on a single word (mantra) and sometimes
on basic functions such as breathing. Sometimes the focus is
220 CHAPTER TEN
on some activity such as T' ai Chi, karate movements, or yoga

body postures. A common practice with all techniques is to
become totally absorbed in nonverbal activity, thus prevent-
ing the self module from gaining control. When this flow state
is achieved, time flies and worries disappear. The nagging
by the self module about things you "should do" ceases and
is replaced by a feeling of bliss.
Instead of concentrating on rationalistic planning and
working toward goals, which are the job of the self, Yoga
teaches one to focus on physical activities that would nor-
mally be automatic. Activities such as movement, eating,
breathing, or digesting are done consciously and deliberately.
Monks in Zen monasteries are encouraged to focus solely on
their required chores. When washing the floor, the mind
should be focused on the washing movements themselves,
not on how nice the floor will look when it is done or on how
much is left to do. Nor are you supposed to daydream or think
about what you will do later on. When the allotted time for
a chore is up, the monk simply moves onto the next task,
whether or not the job is completed. This rule helps prevent
goal-oriented thinking, which would engage the self. Zen
spiritual exercises punish rational thinking for the same rea-
son: It encourages the self module to take control.
USING SPORTS AND CRAFTS
Mental discipline is difficult for some people, but there

are other ways to achieve a flow state.14 Danger, or the ap-
pearance of danger, focuses the mind without need for
discipline. Sports such as skiing, mountain climbing, hang
gliding, and car racing silence the self module nicely. Even
if the fear is of nothing more than pleasantly falling into

the water, sports such as windsurfing and waterskiing
require careful attention and are therefore good for silenc-
ing the self. Games such as tennis, handball, or volleyball
requiring fast reflexes for effective play can also be good,
if played with kinesthetic thinking. Running can silence
the self module by pushing the body's endurance to a
point where all attention is focused on the act of running.
Arts and crafts, when done correctly, use intense non-
verbal thinking. Sculpture, for example, requires thinking
directly in tactile and visual images. While sculpting, one
goes into a wonderful flow state where time seems to fly
by, like being unconscious. Of course, the self module later
reports unconsciousness because it has not been in control.
The consciousness we feel when absorbed in a nonverbal
task is the primitive kind that other animals probably feel.
Some art students never experience this quieting of the
mind because their logical self module never lets go. The
work they produce is usually poor. Breaking the hold of
the self module during activities that should be nonverbal
is a real problem for some people. However, once they
have a breakthrough in one area, allowing the self module
to let go in other areas becomes easier. Each person has an
area where breakthrough will be easiest.
Schools should make it a goal to ensure that every
child learns how to do something in a nonverbal state.
Unfortunately, music, art, and sports are always the first
things cut back to balance school budgets. They don't
directly affect academic achievement tests, but they do
develop important nonverbal thinking skills and also
teach the child how to experience the joy of nonverbal
consciousness. This is an important example of how hu-
222 CHAPTER TEN
man potential can be wasted when we misunderstand

how the mind really works.
People who don't know how to silence their self mod-
ule with flow activities generally do it with television:
Staring at a television set is an easy way to engage your
attention and therefore silence the self. Violent action
shows with dangerous car chases engage the attention of
our nonverbal side just as participating in dangerous sports
does. Though certainly effective at silencing the self, watch-
ing passively does little to develop our ability to use non-
verbal thinking. Some people become addicted to spending
entire weekends watching sports on television. It may be
the only way they know to silence their self module.
Workaholics, having given up even trying to silence
their self, remain engaged in self-directed behavior all of
their waking hours. Society benefits from these people be-
cause, although they may get ulcers or heart attacks from
overwork, they are the driving force in our tremendous
technical progress. Unfortunately for them, the evolutionary
forces that drive the development of our culture's self-con-
cepttend to select for progress, not personal happiness. Some
lucky people in low-stress, absorbing jobs can work, like the
Zen monks, in a flow state for their allotted working hours.
DEVELOPING SENSUOUS THINKING
A well-balanced person has a strong self module and

strong nonverbal modules. The education we have re-
ceived has damaged the nonverbal side in most of us. With
sustained effort we can undo much of this damage. How-
ever, it takes years to change mental habits that have been
reinforced for decades. In order to develop your nonverbal

side, your self module must exercise control and learn to
intentionally stand back to nurture this development.
Whenever we try to verbalize things, we take away from
our direct sensuous experience. Many academic classes in
art and music use too many words. The words stand in the
way of direct nonverbal appreciation or performance. We
can use our senses to put us into a flow state if we can just
quiet the self module and allow our sensuous feelings to
take control. We usually associate the word sensuous with
sex. Indeed, making love is one way that most people can
experience the senses. However, sensuous thinking
doesn't require the privacy of your bedroom. It can be a
major part of your life, bringing meaning and pleasure
often throughout the day.
If you have difficulty letting go and allowing your
feelings to emerge, you are not alone. Our culture buries
sensuous thinking in an avalanche of words. A good way to
start relearning these habits is to practice paying attention to
your senses. Remember, there is a competition between
modules, so if you can focus your attention on one sense at a
time, you will maximize your chances of success. Vision is
such an important sense that it tends to overwhelm the other
senses. Blind people, as is commonly known, develop their
senses of hearing, touch, and smell to incredible levels be-
cause they lack this competition. You can do the same by
simply closing your eyes or using a blindfold.
One good method is to focus on really feeling just one
sense at a time, directly, and, without analysis, to allow a
simple, nonverbal consciousness of feeling to take over.
For example, focus on your sense of touch by feeling like
a mute, blind sculptor. With closed eyes, caress sensuously
224 CHAPTER TEN
shaped objects like rocks, sculptures, and even people as

a sculptor would, forming a tactile image in your mind.
Learn to know a shape with just your hands-as a sightless
person would. Take your time and really become ac-
quainted with every detail of surface texture, shape, and
even temperature. Remember, no visual images or words
are allowed. If you want to pursue this further, take a
sculpture class: Learning to sculpt in clay can really help
you develop this ability. You will soon learn to think
directly in tactile images and your perception of shapes
will be changed forever.
When you were an infant, your whole world was
experienced through your mouth. A baby tastes and feels
everything to become acquainted with the world, and you
still have that behavior buried beneath the layers of civi-
II
lized" thought. A real gourmet experiences food in that

way. Each grain of rice has a wonderful shape that can be
felt with the tongue as you eat. The aroma of the food
under your nose and inside your mouth is something you
can appreciate if you just focus your attention. Wine ex-
perts swirl the wine in the glass, inhale the bouquet, and
then taste. They allow the wine to curl around their tongue
to feel its texture and bring out the bouquet inside their
mouth. Sensitivity to the senses is a matter of paying
attention. It can be developed with a little effort, or it can
be lost in the chaotic buzz of words.
Sound can be another source of sensuous pleasure.
When you are standing in the woods, close your eyes and
listen to the wind in the trees, to the birds, and even to the
buzzing of insects. Feel the wind caress your skin. Canned
music is often too available, assaulting us everywhere
from elevators to supermarkets. We soon become desensi-
NONVERBAL THINKlNG 225
tized and stop paying attention. Try to deprive yourself of

sound for as long as possible, until the numbness dissi-
pates. Then get comfortable, close your eyes, and really
listen to music,like a cave man who has never heard music
before-using just your feelings.
In these days of television and magazines our sense
of vision also becomes saturated. It is easy to forget how
to really look at things. Here again, a blindfold can be
helpful. After depriving yourself of vision, try to really
look at things as if your vision was just restored by a
miraculous operation. Learn to observe things like an
artist and appreciate every nuance of color, light, and
texture. Before you eat a dinner, enjoy the visual treat of
the food's colors and textures. Do like the wine experts and
spend some time really paying attention to the visual
beauty of the wine before you drink it.
Please remember that exercises like these cannot per-
manently change the way you perceive things. Your habits
of perception, etched in by a lifetime, will not change in an
hour. What practice can do is open your mind to the joy of
sensuous thinking so that you can spend the rest of your
life working toward changing those habits. Your self mod-
ule can learn to stand back and let the other parts of you
develop and gain strength. Instead of being a tyrant that
tries to take over everything, your self module can become
the supportive spokesperson for a happy family of confi-
dent specialists.
A fundamental change in a basic belief is called a
paradigm shift. One of the most famous paradigm shifts
was the Copernican revolution, in which the Earth-centered
concept of the universe gave way to the realization that the
Earth was simply one of many planets revolving around
226 CHAPTER TEN
the sun. We must now undergo a similar change in belief

and realize that the self module is just one of many pow-
erful and useful modules in our mind.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Love
Merging the Self
Love is a gift oj oneself.

- Jean Anouilh, 1948
The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of

- Blaise Pascal, 1656
Nothing demonstrates the practical application of the
ideas we have been discussing more clearly than the love
relationship. It is one area of our lives where primitive
emotions can collide most dramatically with the logic of
our beliefs. Love involves a redefinition of the boundaries
of our self module to include another person. This can be
a frightening or even impossible task if your self module
is insecure or accustomed to fighting for survival. Differ-
ences in the self-concept between lovers can cause them to
interpret the world in totally different and conflicting
ways.
The very idea of love is a concept learned from our
culture along with the other concepts that constitute the self.
In other cultures and other times, the concept of love, and
therefore the experience of love, is and was completely
different. Yet love has a biological basis, honed by evolution,
with survival forces acting differently on men than on
women. I am devoting an entire chapter to love because it is
a specific example of the complex interaction between the
229
230 CHAPTER ELEVEN
mind's evolutionary history and the learned concepts of our

self. The mental illusions of our belief system are nowhere
more clearly demonstrated than in love relationships. In
love, as in all of our mental software, if we can harmonize
our concepts with the underlying primitive drives we can
maximize happiness and minimize frustration.
During the first few months in the womb male and
female babies are virtually identical. In the third month of
development the genital area of both sexes consists of an
open groove like a female. After the fourth month, if
masculine hormones are present, this groove grows
closedl and the testicles descend. The fine line (raphe)
down the center of the scrotum and penis is the result of
this last-minute joining. The sex hormones also cause im-
portant changes in the brain that give men and women
somewhat different instinctive behavior.
THE BIOLOGICAL BASIS OF LOVE
Since the human infant is so helpless during the first

years of its life, a bonding system has evolved to provide
for the child's survival. The awkwardness of pregnancy
and the demands of nursing made it important for sexual
bonds to evolve that would keep human couples together
in a kind of symbiotic relationship that improved the
infant's chance of survival. As with any such relationship,
the two symbionts coevolve so that they complement each
other.
Most of our evolution occurred in a wild hunter-
gathering existence. A man who impregnated as many
women as possible could maximize the survival of his
LOVE-MERGING THE SELF 231
genes, while a woman had to be more stable and take care

of the infant for her genes to survive. After millions of
years of evolution, we can see the results in the differing
attitudes of men and women. 2 Surveys in the United States
and anthropological studies3 of other cultures have shown
that men tend to rate good looks first in their priorities for
choosing a mate. While this sounds shallow, in evolution-
ary terms good looks means a healthy look, which favors
a healthy mother and child. The same studies find that
women rate being a good provider as the number one trait
they seek in a man. Sounding equally shallow, this also
makes sense, in evolutionary terms, because it ensures that
the man will be able to provide the support needed so that
the woman's child can survive.
Though only 3% of mammals bond for life, humans
have special needs, which are related to the long period of
complete helplessness of infants. Women are the only
mammals receptive to intercourse all of the time rather
than just during estrus.4 This helps make monogamy work
by making it unnecessary for the man to go elsewhere for
sex. Several studies indicate that over 90% of all people in all
societies marry at some point in their lives. s Though the
majority of the world's cultures allow men to take more
than one wife,6 only about 5-10% of the men in those
cultures actually take multiple wives. Thus, the vast ma-
jority of men worldwide marry only one female at a time.
Though culture has a strong effect on the nature of
male-female bonding, strong support is also provided by
biology. Our basic emotional makeup produces a strong
bonding force during and after sexual intercourse. Sexual
penetration is indeed a merging of physical self-bounda-
ries. The intensity of such closeness can have a transform-
232 CHAPTER ELEVEN
ing effect on emotional self-boundaries. In species where

male-female bonding does not exist, the sexual act is never
prolonged or ritualistic. After being serviced by the
rooster, a hen simply shakes her feathers and resumes
pecking her feed as he moves on.
The euphoric feeling during human lovemaking is
caused by a release of endorphins and supported by in-
creases in the euphoria-producing chemical phenylethy-
lamine (PEA) in the bloodstream. One researcher, studying
depression, found high levels of this chemical in the urine
of 33 people who were happily attached to a significant
other and said they were feeling great. The two subjects
going through a divorce had very low PEA levels. 7 When
we crave a love relationship we may really just be looking
for a PEA fix.
SMELL AND SEXUAL CHEMISTRY
Our senses of smell and touch have the longest

evolutionary history and therefore the most direct effect
on our feelings. That unconscious sexual chemistry, which
seems so mysterious to our logical mind, is probably based
on primitive reactions to smell that aren't even acknow-
ledged by our consciousness. Any dog can show you that
every person has a unique scent. Although humans have
come to rely more on vision, we may still have uncon-
scious reactions to a person's scent. A woman's sensitivity
to the aroma of male musk is most intense just before
ovulation. When women live in close contact their men-
strual periods tend to lock into synchronism. This appears
to result from an unconscious reaction to sweat. In one
experiment all direct contact was eliminated other than

putting a daily dab of another woman's sweat under the
subject's nostrils. Within 3 months, the women's periods
fell into synchronism with those of the sweat donor. 8
If the smell-producing pheromone released from the
vagina of an ovulating woman is smeared on a virgin
female rhesus monkey, it will tum on male monkeys who
normally ignore females who are not in heat? Another
researcher found a strong tendency for a husband's blood
testosterone level to peak 7 days after his wife's ovulation.
This is in synchronism with the wife's postovulatory peak
in testosterone. 10 These unconscious responses to scent
prove that behavior can be affected by smells that we don't
even notice.
BODY LANGUAGE
Another major unconscious component in our re-

sponse to the opposite sex is our body language. When we
interact with another person, the eyes also converse in
their own way, without our knowing. Our pupils, uncon-
sciously, dilate with pleasure. Researchers have shown
that this happens when we look at a sexri picture or a
luscious plate of food. One experimenter 1 carefully re-
touched pictures of pretty women so that each woman was
represented twice: once retouched with large pupils, and
the other with small pupils. He then showed the pictures
to a group of men and asked them what they imagined the
women's personalities to be. The faces with enlarged pu-
pils were rated "soft," "pretty," and "feminine," while the
small pupil versions were thought to be "hard," "selfish,"
234 CHAPTER ELEVEN
and "cold." Without knowing, the men were reacting to

the unconscious signaling system of the eyes.
When a man and a woman look at each other, "good
chemistry" is signaled by dilation of the pupils in a
positive feedback: The warmth felt from one person's
dilation causes an answering response from the other.
Another important signal, when strangers meet, is the
length of holding their gaze. Holding the gaze a little
longer than the polite time limit is an amazingly strong
signal. Holding the gaze and then glancing quickly at
the genitals and back to the eyes is an invitation that one
can feel without actually noticing it. Eye movement
studies show this as a normal response that most of us
do without realizing it. Standing closer than the normal
distance for strangers can produce a feeling of "magic"
even if it isn't consciously noticed. The subtle signals of
body language are often in complete disagreement with
what we say verbally.
Dr. Fritz Perls of California's Esalen Institute has de-
veloped a kind of Gestalt therapy12 based on carefully
watching body language, facial expression, and tone of
voice during conversation. These nonverbal channels may
be controlled by a different module than the one that wins
control of the vocal apparatus. The therapist watches these
clues and points out obvious conflicts between what the
patients say and what they really feel as indicated by body
language, tone of voice, pauses, and other subtle clues.
Since the self module is often out of touch with our real
feelings and motivations, monitoring these more primitive
communication channels can often give a better under-
standing of our true feelings. Dr. Perls believes that repres-
sion affects only the words we say, not the other, less
conscious, forms of communication such as voice inflec-

tion and body language.
The old pop song lyric, "If you want to know if he
loves you so, it's in his kiss," has it right. Touching is
another primitive form of communication that betrays
our true feelings. In the form of hugging, cuddling, and
kissing, touch is a much more direct communication of
true feelings than are words, which can, in fact, be in
direct conflict with actual feelings. Many love relation-
ships demonstrate the dissociation some people have
between feelings and logic. A love relationship is really
two separate relationships: one verbal and the other
nonverbal. It is not uncommon for one to be good, while
the other is bad. If your self module is out of touch with
your feelings, you can turn the joy of love into an exer-
cise in frustration. Logical theories about love or about
your ideal mate should not totally override your equally
important, nonverbal feelings. The chart below illus-
trates the two modes of experiencing a lover:
Logical-verbal attributes Nonverbal attributes
smart warm
rich sexy
eligible smells good
sensible feels good
lives nearby sensitive
looks good
THE CONCEPT OF LOVE
Evolution has given us a brain built up in layers, with

the verbal and logical parts added last. Although the self
module tries to speak for all levels of the brain, it is often
236 CHAPTER ELEVEN
mistaken-particularly in matters of love. The verbal con-

cept of love often includes the false belief that our self
module can explain our primitive feelings. It can override
and profoundly affect the quality of those feelings. Though
the concept of love varies greatly between cultures, a
recent cross-cultural study of romantic love in 168 differ-
ent cultures by W. R. Jankowiak and E. F. Fischer13 found
that 87% had some concept of romantic love. The re-
searchers felt that the anthropologists whose reports they
tabulated may not have asked the question correctly in the
cultures where no romance was reported. Clearly, there is
a biological basis for love, but the pleasure and pain it can
produce are strongly affected by one's belief system.
In our culture, love and marriage are equated. How-
ever, in most parts of the world a wife is considered an
addition to the extended family rather than an individual
object of love. In those cultures love is often a thing that
occurs outside of marriage. Love in Samoa,14 for example,
is quite romantic, including ardent love songs and love
letters, but not monogamy. Their philosophy is that one
love will quickly cure another.
The extended family provides a stable setting where
husband and wife need not have the closeness demanded
by our nuclear family. Our society has raised the expecta-
tions of married life, while at the same time narrowing self
boundaries to such an extent that many people are so
self-contained they find it impossible to extend their self
boundary to include a mate.
The Western concept of love that lasts forever is sup-
ported only for the first few years by instinctive bonding.
Though mutual bonding with children can provide a basis
for a longer-term bond, a duration of 3 years or so makes
evolutionary sense as a period when fatherly support is

most necessary to ensure infant survival. The most com-
mon time couples divorce, in most Western countries, is
after about 4 years of marriage. IS
The concept of love and marriage varies considerably
in the different cultures of the world. For example, our
disapproval of premarital and extramarital sex is shared
by onlX 10 of 190 non-Western societies covered by one
studyJ6
LOVE AND THE LIBERATED WOMAN
One of the great issues in modem American love is

the changed role of women. Most of us have intellectually
rethought the traditional idea of merged self where the
woman is expected to surrender her self and become a
mere extension of the man. The residual effects of the old
concept make it very difficult to achieve the ideal of an
equal merging of selves, with each partner preserving an
intact individual self. Ideally, both partners should be open
to expanding their world to include some of the interests
and insights of their partner. Some modem women feel
threatened by this interaction because they lack confi-
dence that their self will survive. As a result, they erect a
wall that makes real partnership impossible. Some men
still make this fear real by failing to understand that
growth must be equal, in both directions.
A true merging of selves means there is no competi-
tion. Any accomplishment becomes a joint achievement,
which bolsters the sense of pride of both parties. When two
secure selves merge there is no need for defensiveness. A
238 CHAPTER ELEVEN
poorly defined self, entering into a relationship, may easily

be engulfed because the person's need to be merged comes
from weakness. Unfortunately, the development of a se-
cure self is a lifetime task influenced strongly by childhood
family interactions. Teenagers who are unable to forge an
independent self often resort to negative behavior that
brings their boundaries up against parents, teachers, or
police. These behavior strategies can be carried into adult-
hood, wreaking havoc with relationships.
Behavior patterns developed in childhood and early
adulthood are firmly and separately ingrained in many
modules other than the self module. When we change our
beliefs by reading books, discussing issues, and even psy-
chotherapy, we are mainly changing concepts in the self
module. Conflicting behavior and feelings often remain,
but the self module tries to rationalize them to fit its new
beliefs. The result can be quite obvious to other people, but
the self, believing that it controls all behavior, is furious at
the suggestion that old-fashioned values are still showing
through.
One common example of this is in open sexual rela-
tionships: An intellectual decision by the self module to
allow your mate to date others is fine in theory until it
actually happens. The negative emotions from other, less
enlightened, modules are rationalized by the self. The self
module misidentifies the source of the anger into some-
thing acceptable under the new sexually liberated belief
system. Trying frantically to act as press secretary for the
other modules, the self module will come up with amaz-
ingly convoluted logic to explain the anger. Some small
infraction of manners may be given as the explanation for
a major fight or breakup that is actually the result of
old-fashioned feelings of jealousy. The negative emotions

are there for reasons unknown to the self module, but the
behavior must be explained within the framework of the
current liberated beliefs of the self.
Anytime you change your beliefs you must be aware
that there are other less intellectual modules that are left
behind and are still conditioned to feel and behave in the
old way. If your self module can accept the fact that other
modules, which have not yet changed, may have been in
control of behavior, you can avoid the trap of misinterpret-
ing your own behavior. Ideally your self module can at
least learn to know your other modules. Changing them is
another matter.
THE LOVE MODULE
Our basic gut-level response to love is controlled by

a mental module that was formed when we first re-
sponded to the loving interaction with our mother in the
first months of life. As we mature, this module evolves and
is molded by witnessing our parents' loving interactions
and then by love experiences with the opposite sex. This
module controls our behavior during warm moments
with a lover such as cuddling, lovemaking, or watching a
sunset together.
Our self module tries to interpret these moments
using logical beliefs we have learned. It may elect to inter-
fere with these moments by refusing to yield control to
what it perceives as our weak and vulnerable side. Our
concept of love can easily spoil the moment if the self
module feels it must defend itself. Survival is the rule for
240 CHAPTER ELEVEN
anything produced by evolution; our self module will

fight with a vengeance against all perceived threats. Giv-
ing in to love means opening the boundaries of self to
include another. If our self module is insecure, it will panic
at the threat of being open to domination or hurt.
Loving requires the trust and confidence of a self
module that is willing to release its grip on the controls. A
common destructive pattern is when the insecure self
module gives in to love, for a while, and then grabs the
controls in panic by creating a conflict that will undo the
perceived threat. Once a fight is under way, the self module
again loses control to another specialist module that has
evolved from the crying and negative behavior module
formed in infancy. This fight module incorporates many
patterns from your childhood experiences with your par-
ents' fighting behavior. After your fight module has been
in control you may honestly say, "I wasn't myself," be-
cause your self module can only guess why you behaved
as you did.
When you exercise self-control to avoid a fight, you
don't allow the fight module to take control. While this
seems like a good idea, it may make matters worse in the
long run because the feelings of the fight module go unex-
pressed and may build up to become a destructive force.
The better solution is to develop a healthy fight module
that can safely be allowed to take control by intentionally
releasing self-control on minor disputes. The fight module
is thus able to express itself before its frustration builds to
a breaking point. Disputes are thus settled before they
become ugly. Again, the principle is for the self module to
stand aside and allow the specialist modules to do their
job and develop in a healthy way.
If we translate this into a healthy concept of love, it

means accepting the idea of respectful but possibly some-
what heated disputes with the one you love. It also means
giving in freely to the passion of love with a mutual
understanding that you will each respect the unique self
of the other while opening up your own self boundary.
This may be the hardest part because it involves trusting
your mate not to take advantage of your openness. If you
have had bad experiences or if your parents set a bad
example, this can be difficult. You can easily become stuck
in the positive feedback of a false belief, which will make
it look convincingly like nobody can be trusted. This false
belief will make you sense that a person, who really can be
trusted, is up to something. It is easy to become locked into
a pattern of suspicion that no mortal can break through.
Of course, the opposite situation is also possible; if you
believe that everyone can be trusted, then you will ignore
clear signs of dishonesty and fall in love with people who
will hurt you. As with all false beliefs, there is no easy
solution. You must continually reexamine your beliefs
with the realization that your present beliefs may be falsely
confirmed by your distorted perception. When in doubt,
it is usually better to err on the positive side.
SENSUOUS LOVE
A love relationship is a perfect opportunity to make a

mutual pact to develop your nonverbal modules together.
Your relationship with a lover has many separate aspects
that should all act harmoniously together.
242 CHAPTER ELEVEN
Your sense of smell, for example, forms the basis of an

interaction at the most basic instinctual level. It is probably
not based on a module at the level of the self module but
rather on instinctive structures17 deep in the reptilian part
of your brain. Regardless of the exact location, the impor-
tant thing is that your self module must learn to stand back
at times and allow the unfettered richness of your direct
interaction with your lover's smell. Soaps and colognes
can be enjoyable in themselves but they tend to mask the
unique individual smell of the person. Watch the way a
dog interacts with and loves its master's smell. If you
practice the same kind of interaction with your lover you
may be able to uncover a whole new dimension to your
relationship. In a famous letter, Napoleon asked Josephine18
not to bathe for two weeks before they were to reunite. The
French poet Baudelaire19 wrote, "My soul soars upon your
perfume as other mens souls soar upon music." Our
society has taught us to deny such feelings. You can work
with your lover to free yourselves from this loss: Both of
you agree to close your eyes and focus on using smell and
taste only to explore each other.
Each of your senses has its own way of contributing
to an intimate love relationship. You use your hearing
when you talk to your lover but there is a more primitive
kind of vocal communications that reaches deeper areas of
the brain. Sighs and moans during lovemaking and affec-
tionate embraces come from other parts of the brain. This
is a perfect example of how control of the speech apparatus
is assigned to one module only. If you are talking while
making love, the sighs and moans stop because they origi-
nate in a more primitive part of your brain that is control-
ling your body movements but is overpowered for vocal
control by the module doing the talking. When the talking

stops, the speech apparatus is again available for sensuous
control.
Control goes to the module that has been most rein-
forced in this context; unfortunately that is not necessarily
the best-qualified module. Often we miss out on sensuous
experience because the self module has a bad habit of
taking over at inappropriate times. With practice these
habits can be changed. Make a pact with your lover against
talking during lovemaking and focus instead on commu-
nicating with more primitive sensuous sounds.
Touching is another primitive form of communication
that can best be practiced with a lover. Close your eyes or
wear a blindfold while you focus on just one sense at a
time. By learning to respect and support these more primi-
tive forms of communications you can gradually undo the
tyranny of an overdeveloped self module. While self-control
is extremely important during some aspects of your life, it
can rob life of its joy and meaning at other times. The
important thing is to develop a balance and flexibility in
your thinking that allows each specialist to develop fully
and gain control at the appropriate time.
CHAPTER TWELVE
The Empty Self
To live is like to love-all reason is against it,

and all healthy instinct for it.
- - Samuel Butler; 1902
Reason is, and ought to be, the slave of the passions.

- - David Hume, 1739
Emotion is the chief source of all becoming-consciousness.

There can be no transforming of darkness into light
and of apathy into movement without emotion.
- - Carl Jung, 1938
Every culture has a prevailing self-concept that strongly
affects its citizens' potential for progress and happiness. In
Chapter Five we saw how a change in self-concept made
an explosion of creativity and progress possible in Renais-
sance Europe. In the recent past the American self-concept
has undergone significant changes that may be the cause
of many social problems, such as crime, teen suicide,l and
drug abuse. The ideal of an autonomous, bounded, mas-
terful self has reached an extreme that Philip Cushman has
called the empty self.
Throughout this century the boundaries of self have
undergone continual shrinkage. The extended family,
which was common before the tum of the century, has all
but disappeared. Older people, who used to remain an
important part of the family, are now institutionalized. The
percentage of American households of seven or more per-
sons declined from 35.9% in 1790 to 20.4% in 1900 to 5.8%
in 1950. Even the nuclear family seems to be endangered
as more and more people choose to live alone. Divorced
247
248 CHAPTER TWELVE
and unwed mothers are often choosing to live alone with

their children. The number of single-parent households
has tripled since 1960. One-third of all children today are
raised in a household with only one or no parents present;
in the black community the figure is two-thirds. House-
holds consisting of only one person rose from 3.7% in 1790
to 9.3% in 1950 to 18.5% in 1973.2 Privacy has become an
obsession. Fences isolate backyards in many areas, and
front porches, formerly places to chat with your neighbors
out for a walk, have been enclosed or abandoned. Parties
and socializing with neighbors and friends have become
a thing of the past for some people as they draw in their
self boundaries and follow the new trend of "cocooning."
The continuing trend is toward narrowing the boundaries
of self to their ultimate limit-the private, self-contained
individual cut off from all attachments to family, commu-
nity, and traditions.
FILLING THE VOID
The void created by this loss of a shared tribal or

community identity is often filled in in modem society by
identifying with professional sports teams and superstar
public celebrities. Advertising has become less focused on
the product itself and more on an identification with a
superstar or lifestyle image. Designer names on clothes are
more important than their actual style or quality. Often,
the designer name itself is a highly visible part of the
design so that people will be certain to notice.
Identification with professional sports teams provides
a needed extension to the self that replaces the tribal iden-
THE EMPTY SELF 249
tity. If the home team wins, fans are heard to yell "We won!"
and "We are the best!" even though most of the players are
not even from the city identified with the team. Teenage
gangs are on the increase because they provide an exten-
sion of the self and an identity that fills the void left by the
collapse of both the nuclear and the extended family. The
self-improvement industry is thriving with workshops on
such things as channeling, which puts your self in touch
with a spirit guide who is attached to you for life. Products
for losing weight, firming up, and eliminating wrinkles
fight for advertising space. One cable channel sells nothing
but exercise machines and self-improvement products. We
even have a popular magazine called Self. Overeating and
drug abuse may just be attempts to fill the empty self.
Shopaholics try to fill their emptiness by filling their closets.
NEW CONCEPTS OF CONTROL

The concept of the self-contained individual has de-
stroyed the network of group loyalties and connections
between people that used to keep society and business
together. In the United States, the legal profession has
encouraged this mentality and mushroomed to fill the gap.
Instead of interactions based on common sense and good-
will between connected people, we have legalized our
dealings with one another. The United States has 30 times
more lawsuits per person and 20 times as many lawyers per
person as Japan. 3
One of the consequences of this new lawsuit fever is
the victim mentality. Exactly the opposite of the concept of
the self-in-control, victims feel helpless to control their
250 CHAPTER TWELVE
own life. Instead of taking personal responsibility for their

misfortunes, the modem tendency is to always search for
an external cause: If we spill hot coffee on our lap or slip
on the sidewalk, the modem trend is to sue the restaurant
rather than take personal responsibility.
If we can identify with a group of victims we can
excuse all of our failures because aI/conspiracy" makes
success impossible. Instead of being the object of scorn we
can become the object of pity. The conspiracy can be corpo-
rate, male, white, black, big business, parents, or any other
identifiable group. Lawyers have benefitted greatly from
this concept because lawsuits are the main defense against
conspiracies. The problem is that the victim often takes no
personal responsibility for his or her own actions, focusing
instead on the evil of the victimizer. Instead of working on
the problem by trying harder to gain respect, the victim
declares war and actually makes the problem worse.
By banding together in special groups, victims gain a
group identity that supports them in their fight against the
enemy. In such groups victim-oriented beliefs are im-
planted and reinforced by the group, adding more positive
feedback to that already built into the victim's mind. The
victim's belief causes him to see confirming evidence of
the conspiracy everywhere.
The sense of belonging to a group with a common
identity fills the void that used to be filled by family,
community, and job loyalty. Some of the militant black,
racist white, gay, and women's and men's rights victim-
oriented groups work themselves into such a hostile
frenzy that any successful contact with the enemy is per-
ceived as a betrayal of the cause. Efforts toward reconcili-
ation are tantamount to treason. 4
THE EMPTY SELF 251
Child abuse and dysfunctional family life has been

found to be a common factor in the background of many
criminals. Unfortunately, the useful and necessary discus-
sion of this fact in the press is picked up by people looking
for an easy way out. By incorporating the abuse victim
belief into their self-concept they feel free to break the law
and be pitied for it. A new trend is to use the abuse excuse
in court to defend murderers and thieves. The victim label
allows them to escape responsibility for crimes that they
actually committed out of greed, malice, or laziness. Vic-
tim labels are attractive because they give people permis-
sion to escape from the hard realities of life and receive
pity instead of condemnation for their actions.
While some people have given up on the concept of
any control of their own lives, there are other popular
movements that have taken the concept of self-in-control
to the other extreme-where control of reality is absolute.
A popular bumper sticker a few years ago was "Visualize
World Peace." Surely this must be the ultimate extension of
the concept of the self-in-control. Under this self-concept,
the complex external world of politics becomes a part of,
and controllable by, the individual. Another variation of
this concept promises that anyone can become anything
they want to if they just try hard enough. This extreme of
the self-concept in complete control without limitations
can cause as much unhappiness and disappointment as
the opposite extreme. While free will is a powerful con-
cept that can allow us to take control of our lives and
overcome incredible difficulties, it cannot stop a bullet
hurtling toward us. An important part of a healthy self-
concept is an understanding of which apparent limita-
tions are real.
252 CHAPTER TWELVE
THE MEANING IN LIFE
Science and logic have brought our knowledge to a

point that we now see ourselves, not as the center of the
universe, but as insignificant grains of sand in a small solar
system destined to explode into a supernova someday. This
depressing view of life is found in countless works of litera-
ture and philosophy. Of all of the animals, only man can talk
himself into such a state of despair that he commits suicide.
Life is absurd, the existentialists say. This sentiment is
the inevitable result of trying to apply logic to an inappro-
priate problem. While the logical, objective point of view
has accomplished marvelous things in the field of science,
it is not appropriate for finding meaning in life. Animals
have no problem with meaning, nor will we if we can just
listen to the older and wiser parts of our brain. It doesn't
matter if life in general has an objective meaning; what
matters is the subjective meaning in our life. Life has
meaning, not of it but in it. s
People in love never feel that life is absurd. The ques-
tion never comes up because they are too busy feeling the
joy of life. Our basic drives and emotions give life a mean-
ing and a purpose if we allow them. One of the flaws in
the modem self-concept is an overemphasis on self-con-
trol that often stifles our less logical emotional side. The
modem logical self module often sees emotions as trou-
blesome and misleading distortions. In reality they are
often the very things that give life meaning.
Emotions have their own logic. Instead of being sub-
dued, they should be respected and nurtured to health by
the self. The specialized modules of the mind all have their
own area of competence. The self, with its cold logic, is the
THE EMPTY SELF 253
least qualified to find meaning in life and must learn to

yield that task to more qualified modules. The ultimate
demonstration of the harm done by our culture's worship
of the self may be when people commit suicide because
they can find no meaning in life. Truly this is the self
module run amuck.
RELEARNING YOUR REALITY

We have all had a lifetime of practice viewing reality
through a false belief system that ignores all but one of the
specialized modules of our mind. The tyranny of the self
module's takeover of reality is not easily overthrown. We
must use our knowledge of the actual organization of the
brain to gradually relearn how to correctly interpret our
own reality. With practice we can learn to recognize the
difference between the real introspection of verbal thoughts
within the self module and the imaginative filling-in we use
to maintain our false belief in a singular mind.
We should be thankful for our brain's very useful
ability to fill-in gaps to make sense of the world. However,
we must also be extremely cautious of the false sense of
certainty it provides. False beliefs are confirmed so con-
vincingly that seeing the truth can be extremely difficult.
The blind spot in your vision is a handy reminder of just
how difficult it can be to see objective reality. Without a
special demonstration like the one on page 38, you would
swear that it doesn't exist. Other false beliefs are equally
hard to see through. Wherever there is hate and strife you
will find opposing belief systems that are convincingly
confirmed for each side. Learning to see past these false
confirmations in your own life takes effort and practice.
254 CHAPTER TWELVE
FIGURE 11. A happy team of specialist modules works together,

each doing what it does best.
It also takes practice to change your self module from

a tyrant to a nurturing and supportive parent. You will be
amazed at what you can accomplish when you become
aware of the team of specialists you are blessed with. With
time and effort you can develop this family of modules
into a happy team where each member gets the opportu-
nity to develop its own unique qualities to full potential.
APPENDIX ONE
The Cognitive
Revolution
In 1981 Dr. Roger Sperry of Caltech won a Nobel Prize for
his pioneering work on understanding the organization of
the brain. Since it was Sperry's work that led to the insights
we have been exploring in this book, a review of his
fascinating split-brain experiments is in order.
The brains of all mammals are divided into two dis-
tinctly separate halves, or hemispheres, which are con-
nected only by a narrow band of nerves called the corpus
callosum. Each half of the brain is directly connected only
to the nerves and muscles on the opposite side of the body.
The optic nerve connections to the retina of the eye are
likewise crossed so that the right half of the brain sees only
the left side of the visual field 1 and vice versa. This sepa-
ration of control has a survival value because during a
battle you have two independent channels at work:
Threats from the right can be dealt with by the left brain
while at the same time the right brain handles threats from
the left.
257
258 APPENDIX ONE
THE SPLIT-BRAIN EXPERIMENTS
Back in the 1950s, Dr. Sperry began doing animal

experiments to discover how the two halves of the brain
interact. These experiments ultimately led to his being
awarded the Nobel prize. He found that when the two
hemispheres of a cat's or monkey's brain were surgically
separated, the animals remained remarkably normal.
Sperry created an apparatus for separately communicating
with each half of the animal's brain by briefly flashing
images to their left or right visual field. The animal was
trained to use one paw or the other to press a lever in
response to specific flashed shapes. Since the left visual
field and the left paw are controlled by the right hemi-
sphere, and vice versa, he was able to demonstrate separate
and independent learning in the two halves of the animal's brain.
He separately trained each side of the animal for a different
response: The right paw (left hemisphere) was trained to
press a lever whenever an "X" was flashed on the right, but
ignore an "0"; the left side was trained to do the exact
opposite. It was almost as if the animal had two separate
minds, each trained for a different response.
The real breakthrough came in 1962 when Dr. Sperry,
and his students Michael Gazzaniga and Jerre Levy, had the
opportunity to study a human split-brain patient who had
undergone the split-brain surgery to control epileptic sei-
zures. Though the split-brain surgery had been done on
other humans 20 years earlier and the examining doctors had
concluded that the operation had no effect on the patients'
mental abilities, Sperry used his new test techniques to
separately test the two halves of the new patient's brain with
amazing results.
THE COGNITIVE REVOLUTION 259
FIGURE 12. A classic split-brain experiment of Sperry. The

subject stares at a spot on the screen while a slide projector
flashes a message to the nonverbal side of the subject's surgically
split brain. In the example shown he will be verbally unaware
that he saw the word "pencil" yet his left hand will easily
retrieve the pencil from the selection of objects.
The apparatus used is illustrated in Figure 12. Infor-

mation was communicated to only one side of the subject's
brain at a time by having him stare at a spot while words
or pictures were flashed to one side or the other of his
visual field. By having the subject respond with one hand
or the other, it was possible to get separate responses from
each hemisphere. For example, when the word "pencil"
was flashed on the left, the subject's left hand could easily
260 APPENDIX ONE
pick a pencil out of a collection of objects hidden behind a

panel. His right hand couldn't pick the correct object be-
cause that side of the brain only saw things on the right
and had therefore seen nothing. Since normal communi-
cations between the two halves of the brain were cut, each
hand could respond only if the message was flashed on its
side of vision.
The amazing part was when the subject was asked
which object he had picked he could answer only for his right
hand. When his left hand picked something he would insist
that he had seen nothing! When pressed for an explana-
tion, he would answer something like, "Well, I must have
done it unconsciously," or "I guessed.,,2 Clearly his self
module only knew about the messages flashed on the right
side. The actual act of reading the flashed message and
picking an object on the left was clearly done by an inde-
pendent module on the other side of his brain!
Without the unifying control of the connections be-
tween the two halves of the brain, the patient sometimes
had conflicts that clearly demonstrated the separate paral-
lel modules of the mind. To quote an article by Sperry3:
... while the patient was dressing and trying to pull
on his trousers the left hand might start to work
against the right to pull the trousers down on that
side. Or, the left hand, after just helping to tie the belt
of the patient's robe, might go ahead on its own to
untie the completed knot, whereupon the right hand
would have to supervene again to retie it. The patient
and his wife used to refer to the "sinister left hand"
that sometimes tried to push the wife away aggres-
sively at the same time that the hemisphere of the
right hand was trying to get her to come and help him
with something.
Such conflicts are not common because the two halves

of the brain normally develop a kind of working agreement
whereby each side tends to take over control in situations
where it feels most comfortable. In another article4 Dr.
Sperry summarized the effect of the operation as follows:
... in the split brain syndrome we deal with two
separate spheres of conscious awareness, i.e., two
separate conscious entities or minds running in par-
allel in the same cranium, each with its own sensa-
tions, perceptions, cognitive processes, learning
experiences, memories, and so on.
Though it didn't become clear until many years later,
this demonstration of two centers of thinking in one head
was only a beginning. The simplified concept of two kinds
of thinking was a useful first step that was easily demon-
strated in the split-brain patients. Later studies, by Dr.
Michael Gazzaniga, on dozens of other patients who had
undergone the split-brain operation convinced him that
the mind was actually divided into a large number of
separate modules. One of these modules, which he called
the "interpreter," tried to explain all behavior, even when
that behavior was clearly driven by other modules. For
example, in one experiment Gazzaniga flashed the word
"laugh" to the subject's right, nonverbal, hemisphere. To
quote Gazzaniga5:
After the stimulus was presented, one patient
laughed and, when asked why, said: "you guys come
up and test us every month. What a way to make a
living!" In still another example, when the command
"walk" is flashed to the right hemisphere, patients
will typically stand up from their chairs and begin to
leave the testing van. When asked where he or she is
262 APPENDIX ONE
going, the person's left brain says, for example, "I'm

going into the house to get a coke." However you
manipulate this type of test, it always yields the same
kind of result.
The split-brain patients make it possible to scientifi-
cally demonstrate the firmly ingrained habit the self mod-
ule has of making up stories to explain and take credit for
behavior caused by other modules. Since the right brain
modules are surgically disconnected, we know positively
when the behavior was not under control of the self. Since
the self module can be very clever at using subtle cues, the
split-brain patients can appear very normal if special ap-
paratus is not used. For example, without the special flash
projection apparatus, eye movements make it possible for
both hemispheres to see both sides of vision.
If the hands are not obscured from vision during
left-hand pointing responses, the self module can see what
the left hand pointed to and will, without hesitation, use
this information to explain the response. For example, in
one experiment a snow scene was flashed on the left and
a chicken claw on the right. The subject pointed with his
right hand at a card on the table with a chicken on it, and
his left hand chose a snow shovel. When asked why he
made these choices he answered, without hesitation, "Oh,
that's easy. The chicken claw goes with the chicken and
you need a shovel to clean out the chicken shed.,,6 A
normal person would have known that the shovel was a
snow shovel but, deprived of the stronger answer that
seeing the snow scene would have provided, the subject's
self module simply confabulated a plausible answer.
Without the special lab setup, the split-brain patients are
so good at bluffing their way around their handicaps that
they appear quite normal to most observers. Back in the

1940s, Dr. A. J. Akelaitis performed split-brain surgery on 25
patients. His published report concluded that the operation
had no effect on the patients' mental or physical abilities. 7 The
self module's long standing habit of "filling in" to fabricate
a consistent conscious experience makes disconnection of
half of the brain an event that is scarcely noticed.
Extensive testing of the separate abilities of the left
and right hemispheres of the brain has uncovered a con-
sistent pattern: One side of the brain, the left for 95% of the
population, specializes in language and logic but has poor
spatial and emotional capabilities. The other hemisphere
has poor language and logical abilities but is good at
spatial, emotional, and other nonverbal tasks. This spe-
cialization is not surprising when you consider the process
of spontaneous organization under which mental mod-
ules form: The first glimmering of speech ability on one
side of the brain tends to give an advantage to neurons in
the same vicinity for any new module formation that
involves language or logic. On nonverbal tasks, the other
side of the brain gains an advantage as nonverbal modules
form in a sort of specialized community. For the 5% of the
population where speech happens to organize in the right
hemisphere, the roles of the hemispheres are simply re-
versed. Each person develops a unique brain organiza tion,
working around inevitable defects in the neuron network.
Some people develop considerable speech on both sides
of their brain, and, in fact, women tend to have more verbal
abilities in both hemispheres8 than men.
It has been well known for centuries that women have
a better prognosis for recovery after strokes that damage
speech abilities. This is the result of a significant difference
264 APPENDIX ONE
in the degree of specialization between the two hemi-

spheres of the brain. Because the neural connections be-
tween hemispheres are not completely developed in
infancy, during early development the infant is almost like
a split-brain patient. 9 Modules spontaneously organize in
the separate halves of the brain with very little cooperation
or interaction possible until about the age of six, when
development (myelination) of these connections is com-
pleted. Since girls mature significantly faster than boys,10
cooperation and interaction between the two halves of the
brain become possible earlier in development. This results
in less specialization between left and right brain organi-
zation and more language abilities in the nonverbal hemi-
sphere. Given the extreme sensitivity of the spontaneous
organization process, this earlier joining of the two hemi-
spheres in girls could be an important explanation for the
differing brain organizations of men and women.
THE COGNITIVE REVOLUTION
The concepts we have been discussing represent but

one aspect of revolution that has now spread from psychol-
ogy to numerous other fields of science. The successful
overthrow of behaviorism and incorporation of conscious-
ness into our model of the mind required a revolutionary
new scientific paradigm that has grown in popularity in
recent years. For centuries science has focused on the prin-
ciple of microdeterminism, i.e., the idea that if you study the
tiny, solvable, details an overall understanding of the
whole system will follow. In recent years, it has become
clear that this approach will not work with many real-
world problems: The whole is often much more than the sum
of its parts, and most important emergent properties in
nature are not at all predictable by studying the basic
components.
For example, though water is simply a combination
of hydrogen and oxygen atoms, studying the charac-
teristics of these atoms gives us no hint of what the mar-
velous properties of water will be. Likewise, studying an
individual bee gives us no inkling of the complex proper-
ties that will emerge when bees assemble together in a
colony. The miracle of human intelligence and conscious-
ness that emerges from a relatively random assemblage of
neurons would never be predicted by studying those neu-
rons in isolation.
Behaviorism was an attempt to make psychology "sci-
entific" by objectively studying the basic stimulus-response
elements of behavior. Consciousness and introspection were
completely rejected as factors because they appeared to be so
unreliable. Between 1915 and 1965, behaviorism was the
dominant school of psychology in the United States. It
failed to produce useful results because consciousness can-
not be ignored and the emergent properties of the mind are
simply not predictable from reductionist models. Though
introspection is inaccurate fantasy when applied to all but
the self module, it is nonetheless important because it often
affects our behavior since we think it is accurate. Conscious-
ness is often not in control, but it can and does drive our
behavior at some very crucial times.
The cognitive revolution was finally able to displace
behaviorism in the 1970s because a new paradigm was
developed that allowed a top-down approach to systems
analysis to be superimposed on the traditional bottom-up
266 APPENDIX ONE
reductionist approach. Studying the emergent charac-

teristics of a colony of bees helps us explain and predict the
movements of the individual bees as they follow their
evolved group behavior patterns. Without this kind of
analysis, the behavior of an individual bee makes no sense
at all and is unpredictable. Dr. Sperry calls this the principle
of downward causation. 11 Applied to the mind, it means that,
if you want to explain and predict neuron firings, you must
consider the thoughts ofthe mind that emergefrom those neurons.
All of the traditional, upward-acting scientific principles
continue to apply and be useful, but the downward causa-
tion principle is superimposed, allowing us to develop a
deeper understanding.
In psychology this means that much of the work of the
behaviorists is still valid and useful but that their mistake
was in completely rejecting the effect of consciousness.
Since introspection is done by the self module it is accurate
only for the thoughts of the self module. Though the self
module is often not in control, it can and does take control
at crucial times. Self-control and consciousness cannot be
ignored.
After centuries of attempts to understand the human
mind, it is amazing that our basic understanding is still so
crude that many people in the field still speak of the mind
as a singular entity. Paradigm changes take time to be
absorbed. Perhaps with this new knowledge we can finally
begin to truly understand the human mind.
APPENDIX TWO
A Summary of
Conclusions
1. The neurons of the brain spontaneously organ-
ize into hundreds of separate, specialized mod-
ules.
2. At any given moment the one module that has
been most reinforced in the current context takes
control of our speech.
3. A similar control-to-the-strongest mechanism al-
lows only one module to control body move-
ment at any given moment. This mayor may not
be the same module that controls speech.
4. All modules can monitor the inputs from the
senses at all times, though some do not because
some sense inputs are not relevant to their spe-
cialty.
5. Some modules produce an experience of con-
sciousness, but in modem Western culture, one
module, which we call the self, tends to hog the
spotlight and make us ignore other kinds of
consciousness.
269
270 APPENDIX TWO
6. The self module is a specialist at calm, logical,

verbal behavior. It is engaged when we do intro-
spection.
7. The self module uses concepts, learned in child-
hood, to construct an imaginary, unified world
fulfilling our expectations.
8. The brain is good at filling in to make sense of
the world by perceiving it in a way that fits
expectations.
9. The learned expectations of the self module are
called beliefs.
10. Introspection and consciousness distort percep-
tion to make it fit these beliefs. Initial beliefs thus
tend to be confirmed and strengthened by expe-
rience--even if they are false.
11. Most of our behavior is not controlled by the
self module. However, the modem Western
self-concept includes beliefs that the self module
is able to introspect and explain all behavior.
12. The self module attempts to explain our behav-
ior, which it observed but didn't control, by con-
structing a system of beliefs deduced from our
own observed behavior.
13. Though introspection is usually nothing more
than imaginative theorizing based on past obser-
vations, after a lifetime of practice it begins to feel
like direct, private knowledge of our mental
processes.
14. The only introspection that is not imagined is
when we look at the self module itself: self-con-
trolled behavior such as step-by-step logical
A SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS 271
thinking, long-term planning, and goal-oriented

overriding of instinctive behavior.
15. Memory recall is a creative process that includes
distortion to make it fit our beliefs and
strengthen our self-esteem. Memories can be cre-
ated and altered by later events.
16. Our sense of time is also creatively distorted to
make perception fit our expectations.
17. Nonverbal, emotional behavior has its own
logic, which is more effective than verbal logic in
many situations. It brings meaning to life.
18. Self-control should be used with caution because
it may stifle the development of a module better
qualified for the job at hand.
19. The modem Western self module suffers from
the false belief that it is the center of all con-
sciousness and all reliable thinking.
Notes
CHAPTER ONE: THE

SELF-ORGANIZING MIND
1. Software is the changeable part of a computer that
determines what it will actually do. It is usually purchased
on a diskette and updated regularly with improved versions.
One of the reasons computer technology has evolved so
rapidly is that the physical hardware of the computer can
remain the same while the functionality can be improved by
loading in new software programs. The brain has also re-
mained fixed through recorded history, but human capabili-
ties can change quickly when learned concepts change. The
self-concepts are similar to the operating system on a com-
puter in that they define the basic reality under which other
learning and perception will operate.
2. See Appendix One for more details on Sperry's
split-brain experiments.
273
274 NOTES
3. Chaos theory mathematically addresses extremely

complicated problems such as global weather and self-organ-
izing natural formations (see Gleik, 1987). Complexity theory
focuses on the edge of chaos. It has yet to mature into a real
science, but people are hard at work trying to generalize its
principles. Athink-tank organization has been formed in Santa
Fe, New Mexico (see Waldrop, 1992, and Kauffman, 1991).
Both sciences are trying to generalize the principles of
self-organization.
4. I will use the term spontaneous organization some-
times in place of the more conventional self-organization
because it more accurately describes the process in which
organization occurs spontaneously as a result of the char-
acteristics of the individual entities-without any central
control or coordination. For more on self-organization see
Prigogine and Stenses (1984) and also Koestler (1967).
5. Cell-building is normally done after graduating
from feeding young larva at an age of about 10 days. At 20
days of age the bee is ready to begin guard duty at the
entrance to the hive. Eventually, foraging for food becomes
the bee's lifetime occupation (Koestler, 1967, p. 107).
6. We actually have another separate immune system
that protects infants before this antibody system is fully
functional. It is probably a remnant of earlier evolution
that remains active to fill the gap before the newer immune
system is ready to become active.
7. He also called it the theory of neuronal group
selection (see Edelman, 1985, 1992).
8. See Waldrop (1992, p. 158).
9. See Waldrop (1992, p. 191).
10. PET stands for positron emission tomography. It
actually produces detailed three-dimensional views of the
NOTES 275
brain metabolism increases that occur in active parts of the

brain. Water with a radioactive marker is injected in a vein
in the arm, and the positrons released as it decays produce
radiation. Computerized analysis then reconstructs a plot
of activity. The plots in the figure are obtained by calculat-
ing the difference in activity between a rest state and
during the mental task (Raichle, 1994).
11. Credit must be given to Michael Gazzaniga for
developing the idea of a separate verbal "interpreter"
module in the left brain. He developed this concept after
decades of working with split-brain patients who often
make up elaborate verbal explanations for behavior
known to be caused by the surgically disconnected right
hemisphere of their brain (Gazzaniga, 1985).
12. Quoted in Tart (1975, p. 164).
13. See Dennett (1991, p. 215).
CHAPTER TWO: GETTING TO KNOW

YOUR SELF MODULE
1. The degree of awareness of an internal verbal dia-

logue certainly varies greatly between individuals. Some
people talk aloud to themselves or make subtle move-
ments of their speech apparatus; others are probably
aware of very few internal words. These remarks reflect
the author's experience of consciousness, but the princi-
ples are hopefully fairly general.
2. See Blakeslee (1980, pp. 152-155).
3. Because the demonstration of gap filling in Figure
2 is a very important one to the rest of the book, make sure
276 NOTES
you see it. If your left eye doesn't see well, turn the book
upside down and use your right.
4. Dennett (1992, p. 34).
5. Eye movements plotted with special optical sensing
equipment. These eye motions generally occur at a rate of
about three to five movements per second, even when we
think our eyes are still (Kosslyn and Koenig, 1992, p. 100).
6. Quote from Crick (1994, p. 167).
7. Dennett (1991, p. 361).
8. Cheating experiment demonstrating Festinger's
theory of cognitive dissonance (Gazzaniga, 1985, p. 139).
9. In the stockings experiment the bias may have been
related to the natural habit of scanning left to right. Since
the last stocking was as good as the others, it got chosen
as best (Nesbit and Wilson, 1977).
CHAPTER THREE: TIME AND

CONSCIOUSNESS
1. Canoe sentence by Lashley (1951) quoted in Behav-
ioral & Brain Sciences, 1992, 15(2), 227 (part of a 55-page
discussion of time and the observer).
2. Harth (1992, p. 198).
3. Dennett (1991, p. 197). From a 1963 presentation to
the Ostler Society, Oxford University.
4. The electrodes remained in place for a week after
surgery. A mild shock was applied to the hand and to an
electrode in the neocortex. They each produced a slightly
different sensation from a slightly different part of the
hand. Even with a 1/4 second delay on the electrode stimulus
to the hand, the hand stimulus seemed to occur first. With
NOTES 277
a 1/2-second delay they seemed simultaneous. The signal

seems to go through the thymus, which represses the
sensation and then backdates it. Brain, 1979, 102, 193;
quoted in Winson (1985, p. 276).
5. Dennett (1991, p. 163).
6. Dennett (1991, p. 325), Crick (1994, pp. 171-172).
7. Restak (1991, pp. 152-153).
8. For an excellent discussion of consciousness, see
Jaynes (1976, pp. 1-66). The flashlight analogy is on page
23. For a further discussion of our mind's distortion of time
and the illusions of consciousness by a philosopher, see
Dennett (1991). Caution: He uses words like "heterophe-
nomenological. "
CHAPTER FOUR:
MEMORY ILLUSIONS
1. The study showing 60% incidence of confabulation

after damage is in Weinstein and Lyerly (1968, p. 250).
Another study of denial of symptoms is in Prigatano and
Schacter (1991, p. 254).
2. John Dean's memory: Acase study, Cognition, 1981,
9,1-22; quoted in Goleman (1985, p. 93).
3. Pia get quoted in Loftus and Ketcham (1991).
4. Actual measurement of distinct electrical patterns
in the parts of the animal brains that distinguish smells
has shown that when a new smell is learned, all of the
distinct patterns change, indicating that some kind of
complete reorganization takes place as new memories are
added.
278 NOTES
5. Goethals and Reckman (1973). The perception of

consistency in attitudes. Journal of Experimental Psychology,
9,491-501; quoted in Nesbit (1977).
6. Patient J.B.R. couldn't recognize things distin-
guished primarily by looks (e.g., plants, animals). He had
no problem with items distinguished by how you use them
(e.g., tools, household objects). Y.E.R. had trouble with
inanimate objects but no problem identifying food, flow-
ers, or animals. (Kosslyn and Koenig, 1992, p. 229.)
7. See Gazzaniga (1985).
8. Restak(1994, p. 66;p. 68 for categories of memory loss).
CHAPTER FIVE:
OTHER CONCEPTS OF SELF
1. In the world of computer software the self-concept
would represent the bottom layer on which specific pro-
grams such as your individual personality are added. It is
a bit like a computer operating system: a graphical com-
puter interface versus text orientation. Specific programs
loaded on top of it will have drastically different charac-
teristics depending on the operating system. Likewise,
individual personalities will have drastically different
characteristics depending on the underlying self-concept.
2. For a detailed development of the idea of conscious-
ness as a recent invention, see The Origin of Consciousness
in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes
(1976), and also Lyons (1978).
3. Indigenous Psychologies: The Anthropology of the Self,
edited by Heelas and Lock (1981, p. 40).
4. Heelas and Lock (1981, p. 9).
NOTES 279
5. Heelas and Lock (1981, p. 545).

6. Quotes from Lee in Jennings (1955, p. 290).
7. Jennings (1955, p. 295).
8. Spanos (1986, p. 461).
9. See Gazzaniga (1988, p. 19).
10. Goodwin Chu quoted in Steinberg and Barnes
(1988, p. 276).
11. Princeton anthropologist Clifford Geertz quoted
in Gergen (1991, p. 9).
12. Kahn (1973, pp. 7, 103).
13. The brain is divided into two hemispheres, each
controlling the opposite half of the body. The responsibil-
ity for attending to space on each side seems to be indi-
vidually assigned, though modules on either side of the
brain can normally initiate action on either side. This
autonomous control certainly has survival value when
things are happening simultaneously on both sides.
14. Jaynes (1976, p. 69; Iliad additions, pp. 72-83).
15. Baumeister (1987, p. 165).
16. Taylor (1989, p. 130).
17. Baumeister (1987, p. 169). For more on privacy see
Taylor (1989, p. 291).
CHAPTER SIX: FALSE BELIEFS

1. Note that we don't mean positive feedback in the
sense of encouragement. Positive feedback in the engi-
neering sense could mean encouragement of someone
who already has an optimistic outlook and discourage-
ment of someone who is already discouraged. The positive
means that the feedback is in the same direction, as op-
280 NOTES
posed to negative feedback, which would be in the oppo-

site direction. Positive feedback tends to produce instabil-
ity because a small input will grow as a result of the
feedback until some limit is reached.
2. See De Bono (1990, p. 126) for a discussion of
circularity.
3. IRA is the Irish Republican Army, a Catholic ter-
rorist group.
4. Goleman (1985, p. 174) discusses "the game of
happy family"; see also p. 96 on the self-concept.
5. Goleman (1985, p. 185).
6. Calvin (1991, pp. 111-119) discusses President Wil-
son's disabilities. For a lengthy discussion of denial after
brain injury see Prigatano and Schacter (1991).
7. See Goleman (1985, p. 106). See Figure 3 for a plot
of eye movements done with similar equipment.
8. Homeopathy is debunked in Gardner (1957; also
Gardner, 1992). For sales growth see LA Times 6/13/95, p. E3.
9. Meyers (1992, p. 144).
10. Warwick and Salkovskis (1989, p. 78).
11. Inflation statistics from Congdon (1988, p. 21).
12. Lyons (1988, p. 140).
13. Lyons (1988, p. 139).
14. Pendergrast (1995, p. 360), Lyons (1988, p. 141).
15. See Lyons (1988, pp. 143-145) for brief descriptions of
nine of these cases together with a summary of their outcomes.
CHAPTER SEVEN: HYPNOSIS AND

OTHER ALTERED STATES
1. Gardner (1992, p. 175).
NOTES 281
2. Dianetics is described in one of the best-selling

books of all time, Dianetics by L. Ron Hubbard. For a
discussion see Gardner (1957, p. 269).
3. Spanos et al. (1991).
4. Spanos et al. (1985, p. 1166).
5. A study by T. R. Sarbin in Jaynes (1976, p. 393).
6. Spanos et al. (1985, p. 1165). Also see Fromm (1979).
7. Wynn (1956, p. 78).
8. Spanos et al. (1991, p. 310).
9. Experiment in Wynn (1956, p. 130). See also Hil-
gard (1977). The comments on their conscious experience
during hypnosis are reproduced in Spanos et al. (1985, p.
1161).
10. Pendergrast (1995).
CHAPTER EIGHT: PSYCHOTHERAPY

AND MULTIPLE PERSONALITIES
1. The new official term for MPD according to DSM-IV

is Dissociative Identity Disorder.
2. McHugh (1992, p. 507).
3. Barton (1994, p.169). The case that inspired the book
Sybil was a classic case of therapy-induced symptoms. Her
16 different personalities were brought out in over 2300
psychotherapy sessions. Another therapist who took her
case during the vacations of her main therapist reported
that she seemed to be relieved when he allowed her to
discuss her problems directly rather than having to "be
Peggy" as her normal therapist preferred (Pendergrast,
1995, p. 158).
282 NOTES
4. Harold Merskey, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry

at the University of Western Ontario in Canada, reviewed
original documents describing cases of MPD before the de-
velopment of widespread publicity and concluded: "To my
surprise, there was not a single case which allowed a valid
diagnosis of MPD, free either from a misunderstanding or
from the effects of suggestion" (Merskey, 1994, p. 174).
5. Pendergrast (1995, p. 165).
6. Kluft (1993, p. 156). Here is another interesting
quote from the same paper: "I will assign pairs or groups
of alters the task of talking together about decisions to be
made or issues of concern, but most commonly at this
stage I want them to do no more than spend time together
and hold casual conversations. I want communication
channels to be established early on, and for there to be a
feeling of fellowship among the alters before I address
their areas of discord."
7. Barton (1993, p. 170).
8. Ischlondsky (1955); see also Blakeslee (1980, p.
163-165).
9. Ahem et al. (1993).
10. Dissociative Experiences Survey (DES) (Murphy,
1994, p. 29). The DES questionnaire asks you the percent
of the time you have each of the following experiences:
memory gap when driving a car, gap listening to some-
body talk, finding yourself in a place and not knowing
how you got there, not knowing how you got dressed in
these clothes, finding new things you don't remember
buying, meeting strangers who insist they know you,
feeling like you are watching yourself, not recognizing
friends or family members, no memory of important
events in your life, being falsely accused of lying, not
NOTES 283
recognizing yourself in the mirror, feeling that the world

is not real, feeling your body doesn't belong to you, re-
membering seems real, can't tell memories from dreams,
a familiar place looks strange, flow watching Tv, fantasy
or daydream feels real, can ignore pain, sit staring into
space, talk to yourself, act like different people in different
situations, can't tell if you did something or just thought
about doing it, find things you wrote or drew but can't
remember doing, hear voices in your head, things look far
away or in a fog.
11. Smith and Glass (1977). See also Luborsky et al.
(1975), who found "insignificant differences in propor-
tions of patients who improved." Also, Strupp and Hadley
(1979) found professional therapy no better than equiva-
lent time spent with untrained college professors.
12. This study in the journal Behavioral and Brain Sci-
ences includes 24 lengthy replies in the Open Peer Review
section and a rebuttal from the author. It is recommended
reading.
13. Salkovskis (1989, p. 51). For an excellent book on
treating phobic disorders using cognitive-behavioral
methods in context see Ross (1994). See also Scott (1989).
14. Ofshe and Waters (1994, p. 301).
15. Incest survey by Diana Russel published in the
1978 book The Secret Trauma (Pendergrast, 1995, p. 49).
16. Tavris (1993).
17. Michael Yapko is a clinical psychologist who wrote
the 1994 book Suggestions of Abuse (Pendergrast, 1995, p.
488). Also, in 1993 Poole and Lindsay did a survey of 86
randomly selected Ph.D. therapists with a substantial fe-
male client base. They found that over half said that they
were sometimes "fairly certain" after the first session that
284 NOTES
they were dealing with a repressed-memory case. Since

there are something like 250,000 therapists in the country,
each with many clients, it is not hard to see why we have
a nationwide epidemic of families destroyed by "recov-
ered memories" induced by therapist expectations (see
Pendergrast, 1995, pp. 489-491). Some therapists routinely
asked patients to imagine abuse as an aid in recovering
memory. Such visualizations can actually create memories
that will be easily confused with real memories (Loftus
and Ketcham, 1994).
18. From a 1993 survey of the False Memory Syn-
drome Foundation (Neisser, 1994, p. 4).
19. Ofshe and Waters (1994, p. 178).
20. From the book Ritual Abuse: What It Is, Why It
Happens, How to Help (Smith, 1993, p. 77).
21. Survey in Ofshe and Waters (1994, p. 178).
CHAPTER NINE: THE INFANT BRAIN
1. Winson (1985, p. 167).

2. Shatz (1992, p. 61).
3. Joseph (1993, p. 80).
4. Lieberman (1991, p. 18).
5. Barinaga (1995, p. 200).
6. PET, positron emission tomography. See Raichle
(1994) for color photographs of brain activity during vari-
ous tasks.
7. Gleik (1987, p. 8).
8. Smith and Sugar (1975); also Blakeslee (1980, p.
149).
NOTES 285
9. This may be a hardware development requiring

stimulation during a critical period similar to that for
vision of vertical and horizontal lines.
10. Lieberman (1991, p. 147). Nine different studies
referenced.
11. Merlin (1991, p. 12).
12. Since the right side has more free space. Experi-
ments have demonstrated how the competition for space
determines where abilities will develop. When nerves to
certain fingers on a monkey were cut, experimenters
found that the areas of the brain controlling finger move-
ments rearranged themselves with more space dedicated
to the still-functional fingers. This space came from areas
that used to control the areas that were cut, indicating a
kind of competition for brain space. See Edelman (1985).
13. Wingate (1976, p. 93); also Blakeslee (1980, p. 93).
14. Hecaen and De Ajuriagueira (1964, p. 77).
15. Jones (1966); also Blakeslee (1980, p. 93).
16. Berk (1989, p. 465).
17. Berk (1989, p. 466).
18. Gopnik (1993, p. 7).
19. Berk (1989, p. 542).
CHAPTER TEN:
NONVERBAL THINKING
1. Austin (1974, p. 103).
2. Mehrabian (1972) cited in Masters and Johnson
(1982, p. 250).
3. Barlow (1980, p. 81).
4. Gott (1973).
286 NOTES
5. Russel (1983, p. 49).

6. Hadamard (1945, p. 84).
7. Mozart quote in Hadamard (1945, p. 16). See also
Pearce (1974, p. 147).
8. Harris (1976, p. 196).
9. Money (1980, p. 127). Sonograms sometimes catch
male fetuses in the womb with erections (Money, 1986, p.
16). Spinal cats (with their spinal cord severed) can walk
and even change the way they walk without guidance
from their brain. Male roaches continue copulation after
decapitation by the female (Dretske, 1988, p. 4).
10. Solomon (1976, p. 247).
11. Merlin (1993, p. 739).
12. Searle (1992, p. 144), Solomon (1978, p. 163).
13. For Sufi see Baumeister (1991, p. 180). For Zen and
Yoga see Baumeister (1991, pp. 192-193).
14. Csikszentmihalyi (1990). Baumeister (1991) devel-
ops the idea that suicide, drug addiction, and masochism
are all attempts to silence the self.
CHAPTER ELEVEN:
LOVE-MERGING THE SELF
1. For step-by-step drawings of this development see

Figure 3-3 in Money (1980).
2. One survey asked men and women how many
sexual partners they would ideally like to have over vari-
ous time intervals. The men's preferences were three to
four times higher than the women's (Buss and Schmitt,
1993, p. 211).
NOTES 287
3. For a study of male/female preferences of 37 peo-

ples in 33 countries, see Fisher (1992, p. 47).
4. Walsh (1991, p. 182).
5. Buss and Schmitt (1993, p. 204).
6.84% allow polygamy (Fisher, 1992, pp. 66-69).
7. PEA addiction may be the basis of romance addiction.
MAO inhibitors, which reduce PEA, help romance junkies
(see Fisher, 1992, pp. 52-54). Dr. Thomas Insel and Dr. Sue
Carter's research with prairie voles, a small mammal that
bonds for life, has found that after mating males have a large
increase in vasopressin in their brain. Mating causes a dra-
matic behavior change with strong bonding to one female.
On female voles, the magic chemical seemed to be oxytocin,
the same chemical used to trigger uterine contractions and
milk production in women (Nature, 1994).
8. See Fisher (1992, p. 43).
9. See Money (1980, p. 74).
10. Money (1980, p. 122).
11. See Marshall (1983, p. 107). Another unconscious
contributor to the process of falling in love is the fact that
we tend to like a face more when we have seen it repeat-
edly. Experimenter Robert Zajonic proved this by showing
subjects pictures of faces and then testing their prefer-
ences. The more they had seen a particular face, the more
they liked it (Gazzaniga, 1988, p. 169).
12. Perls (1969) read verbatim to see just how much a
skilled observer of nonverbal communications can see. He
believes that repression is a fallacy and that only the words
are blocked. "We have blocked one side, and then the
self-expression comes out somewhere else, in our move-
ments, in our posture, and most of all in our voice. A good
therapist doesn't listen to the bullshitthe patient produces,
288 NOTES
but to the sound, to the music, to the hesitations. Verbal

communications is usually a lie. The real communications
is beyond words."
13. Jankowiak and Fischer (1992).
14. Solomon (1988, pp. 48-49).
15. Fisher (1992, pp. 109-113).
16. For extramarital sex see Walsh (1991, p. 236). One
study found that out of 34 male deaths during coitus, 27
of them occurred with mistresses (Gazzaniga, 1988, p.176).
17. Some people have a working vomeronasal system.
This separate smell system with separate direct connec-
tions to the reptilian brain is a vestige from our evolution-
ary past. See Rivlin and Gravelle (1984, pp. 149-153).
18. See Ackerman (1990, p. 9).
19. Quote from liThe Fleece" in Flowers of Evil.
CHAPTER TWELVE:
THE EMPTY SELF
1. The suicide rate among teenagers has tripled in the
past 30 years. Victims tend to be solitary boys who hold
themselves to a high standard. Suicide is rare before the
age of 12, which is when awareness of self becomes acute
(Berk, 1989, box 11.1).
2. Population statistics and the concept of the empty
self from Cushman (1990, p. 603).
3. Sampson (1988, p. 19).
4. Of course, some black, gay, and women's groups
exist that have a positive attitude and can actually help
people to be accepted into mainstream society; however,
the victim approach seems to have more appeal in recent
NOTES 289
years. The double-positive-feedback of bad feelings it en-

courages are exactly the same as the attitudes that cause
wars.
5. For a wonderfully done full-length discussion of
the meaning of life and the importance and logic of emo-
tions see Solomon (1976). Also read The Magus by John
Fowles.
APPENDIX ONE:
THE COGNITIVE REVOLUTION
1. Note that the division is not between the right and

left eye. Both eyes connect to both sides of the brain, but
the light-sensitive retina in each eye is divided into a left
and right half, each connected to one half of the brain.
2. Sperry (1968b, p. 726).
3. Sperry (1966).
4. Sperry (1968b, p. 318).
5. Gazzaniga (1985, p. 126). Dr. Gazzaniga's excellent
book The Social Brain (Basic Books, 1985) is highly recom-
mended if you want to learn more about these experi-
ments. Though he earlier advanced his theory of the
"verbal interpreter" in other writings, this one is the most
readable presentation. My self module concept is a direct
outgrowth of his ideas about a verbal interpreter module
in the left hemisphere.
6. Gazzaniga (1985, p. 72).
7. To quote the doctor's report, "Following complete
section of the corpus callosum no disturbance in visual,
auditory, and tactile gnosis [sensation] was observed and
290 NOTES
praxis [movement] and language functions were unim-

paired" (Akelaitis, 1944).
8. Women's brains may be less lateralized as a result
of the earlier maturation of their brain structure. Boys
spend more years with their brain hemispheres essentially
isolated by incompletely developed connections between
the hemispheres. This encourages more specialization
(Blakeslee, 1980, pp. 102-108).
9. Witelson (1977).
10. Waber (1976). For a full-length book on sex differ-
ences in the brain see LeVay (1993). Dyslexia (reading
disability) and stuttering, both problems of lateralization,
are rare in girls but fairly common in boys.
11. Sperry wrote extensively defending the down-
ward causation idea, which initially met much resistance
when he first proposed it in 1965. See Sperry (1992, 1993).
Selected Bibliography
Ahern, Geoffrey, et al. (1993). The association of multiple person-

ality and temporolimbic epilepsy. Archives of Neurology, 50,
1020-1025.
Ackerman, Diane. (1990). A natural history of the senses. New
York: Random House.
Akelaitis, A. J. (1944). A study of gnosis, praxis, and language
following section of the corpus callosum and anterior com-
missures. Journal of Neurosurgery, 1,94-102.
Austin, G., Hayward, w" & Rouhe, S. (1974). A note on the
problem of conscious man and cerebral disconnection by
hemispherectomy. In M. Kinsbourne & A. Smith (Eds.),
Hemispheric disconnection and cerebral function. Springfield,
IL: Charles C. Thomas.
Baars, Bernard J. (1993). Why volition is a foundation problem
for psychology. Consciousness and Cognition, 2, 281-309.
Barinaga, Marcia. (1995). Dendrites shed their dull image. Sci-
ence, 268, 200-201.
291
292 SELECTED BmLIOGRAPHY
Barlow, H. B. (1980). Nature's joke: A conjecture on the biological

role of consciousness. In Consciousness and the physical world
(pp. 81-93). B. D. Josephson, & Romachandran (Eds.), New
York: Pergamon Press.
Barton, Charles. (1993). Backstage in psychiatry: The multiple
personality controversy. Dissociation, 6(3), 167-172.
Barton, Scott. (1994). Chaos, self-organization, and psychology.
American Psychologist, 49(1), 5-14.
Baumeister, Roy. (1987). How the self became a problem: A
psychological review of historical research. Journal of Per-
sonality and Social Psychology, 52(1), 163-176.
Baumeister, Roy F. (1991). Escaping the self. New York: Basic
Books.
Beahrs, John O. (1982). Unity and multiplicity. New York: Brun-
ner/Mazel.
Beaton, Alan. (1985). Left side right side: A review of laterality
research. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Berk, Laura A. (1989). Child development. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Bernstein, Eve, & Putnam, Frank W. (1986). Development, reli-
ability, and validity of a dissociation scale. Journal of Nervous
and Mental Disease, 174(12), 727-735.
Blakeslee, Thomas R. (1980). The right brain. New York: Dou-
bleday.
Buss, David, & Schmitt, David. (1993). Sexual strategies theory:
An evolutionary perspective on human mating. Psychologi-
cal Review, 100(2),204-232.
Butz, Michael. (1992). The fractal nature of the development of
the self. Psychological Reports, 71, 1043-1063.
Calvin, William. (1991). The throwing madonna. New York: New
Sciences.
Churchland, Patricia Smith. (1986). Neurophilosophy. Cambridge,
MA: MIT Press.
Congdon, Tim. (1988). The debt threat. Oxford: Blackwell.
Crick, Francis. (1994). The astonishing hypothesis. New York:
Scribner's.
SELECTED BmLIOGRAPHY 293
Crick, Francis, & Koch, Christof. (1992, September). The problem

of consciousness. Scientific American, pp.152-159.
Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. (1990). Flow. New York: Harper &
Row.
Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. (1993). The evolving self. New York:
Harper Collins.
Cushman, Phillip. (1990). Why the self is empty: Toward a
historically situated psychology. American Psychologist,
45(5),599-611. Excellent ideas inspired part of Chapter Eleven.
Cytowic, Richard. (1993). The man who tasted shapes. New York:
Putnam. An excellent book on doctors, synesthesia, and the mind.
Davies, Paul. (1988). The cosmic blueprint. New York: Simon &
Schuster.
Davis, Penelope J., & Schwartz. (1987). Repression and the inac-
cessibility of affective memories. Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, 52(1), 155-162.
Dawkins, Richard. (1976). The selfish gene. London: Oxford Uni-
versity Press.
Dawkins, Richard. (1986). The blind watchmaker. New York: Nor-
ton.
De Bono, Edward. (1990). I am right you are wrong. New York:
Viking.
Dell, Paul F. (1988). Professional skepticism about multiple per-
sonality. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 176(9),
528-537 (includes discussion).
Della Barba, Gianfranco. (1993). Confabulation: Knowledge and
recollective experience. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 10(1),
1-20.
Dennett, Daniel. (1991). Consciousness explained. Boston: Little,
Brown. A very interesting but technical treatment of conscious-
ness from the philosophical point of view. A source of many of the
ideas in this book.
Dennett, Daniel. (1992). Filling in versus finding out: A ubiqui-
tous confusion in cognitive science. In H. L. Pick et al. (Eds.),
Cognition: Conceptual & methodological issues. Washington,

DC: American Psychological Association.
Dennett, Daniel. Commentary by peers on Dennett's work fills
the whole issue of Consciousness and Cognition, Volume 2,
No.1, Academic Press, March, 1993. This journal is generally
filled with discussions related to the subject of this book.
Dennett, Daniel, & Kinsboume, Marcel. (1992). Time and the
observer: The where and when of consciousness in the
brain. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 15, 183-247. An excellent
debate on the timing of perception.
Doi, Takeo. (1985). The anatomy of self. New York: Kodansha IntI.
Dretske, Fred I. (1988). Explaining behavior: Reasons in a world of
causes. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Edelman, Gerald. (1985). Neural Darwinism. In Michael Schafto
(Ed.), How we know. New York: Harper & Row.
Edelman, Gerald. (1992). Bright air brilliant fire. New York: Basic
Books. Technical but good treatment by a Nobel prize-winner on
the evolution of consciousness and neural Darwinism.
Erdmann, Erica, & Stower, David. (1991). Beyond a world divided:
Human values in the brain-mind science of Roger Sperry. Bos-
ton: Shambala.
Eysenck, Michael W. (1990). The Blackwell dictionary of cognitive
psychology. Oxford: Blackwell.
Fast, Julius. (1970). Body language. New York: M. Evans.
Feldman-Summers, Shirly, & Pope, Kenneth S. (1994). The expe-
rience of "forgetting" childhood abuse: A national survey
of psychologists. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychol-
ogy, 62(3), 636-639.
Ferris, Timothy. (1992). The mind's sky. New York: Bantam.
Fisher, H. (1992). The anatomy of love. New York: Ingram.
Fisher, Seymour. (1954). The role of expectancy in the perform-
ance of posthypnotic behavior. Journal ofAbnormal and Social
Psychology, 49, 503.
Fromm, Erik, & Shor, Ronald. (Eds.). (1979). Hypnosis: Develop-
ments in research and new perspectives. New York: Aldine.
SELECTED BmLlOGRAPHY 295
Excellent argument against the trance state paradigm, pages

217-265.
Gardner, Howard. (1985). The mind's new science: The cognitive
revolution. New York: Basic Books.
Gardner, Martin. (1957). Fads and fallacies in the name of science.
New York: Dover.
Gardner, Martin. (1992). On the wild side. New York: Prometheus.
Gazzaniga, Michael. (1985). The social brain. New York: Basic
Books. A very well-written book written by Sperry's assistant on
the first split-brain experiments presenting evidence for modules
and suggesting that a verbal interpreter in the left brain makes up
stories to explain behavior driven by other modules. A source of
many of the ideas in this book.
Gazzaniga, Michael. (1978). The integrated mind. New York: Ple-
numPress.
Gazzaniga, Michael S. (1988). Mind matters. Boston: Houghton
Mifflin.
Gazzaniga, Michael. (1992). Nature's mind. New York: Basic
Books.
Gianotti, Guido, Caltagirone, & Zoccolotti. (1993). Left/right
and cortical! subcortical dichotomies in the neuropsy-
chological study of human emotions. Cognition and Emotion,
7(1),71-93.
Gilovich, Thomas. (1991). How we know what isn't so. New York:
Free Press.
Gleik, James. (1987). Chaos. New York: Viking. A good introduction
to mathematical chaos theory.
Gold, Steven. (1994, May). Degrees of repression of sexual abuse
memories. American Psychologist.
Goleman, Daniel. (1985). Vital lies and simple truths. New York:
Simon & Schuster. An excellent book on false beliefs and memory
errors.
Gopnik, Alison. (1993). How we know our minds: The illusion
of first-person knowledge of intentionality. Behavioral and
Brain Sciences, 16, 1-14. A key article on how children learn the
concept of intentions.
Gott, Peggy S. (1973). Cognitive abilities following right and left
hemispherectomy. Cortex, 9, 266-273.
Greenwald, Anthony. (1992, June). Unconscious cognition re-
claimed. American Psychologist, pp. 766-777.
Guidano, Vittorio F. (1987). Complexity of the self: A developmental
approach to psychopathology and therapy. New York: Guilford
Press.
Hadamard, Jacques. (1945). The psychology of invention in the
mathematical field. New York: Dover Publications.
Hadley, & Strupp, Hans H. (1976). Contemporary views on
negative effects in psychotherapy. Psychiatry, 33, 1291-1294.
Hamachek, Don. (1971). Encounters with the self. New York: Holt,
Rinehart.
Harris, Harold. (Ed.). (1976). Astride the two cultures. New York:
Random House.
Harth, Erich. (1992). Windows on the mind. New York: Morrow.
Hecaen, H., & De Ajuriagueira, J. (1964). Left handedness: Manual
superiority and cerebral dominance (E. Ponder, transl.). New
York: Grune & Stratton.
Heelas, Paul, & Lock, Andrew. (Eds.). (1981). Indigenous psycholo-
gies: The anthropology of the self. New York: Academic Press.
Hilgard, Ernst R. (1977). Divided consciousness. New York: Wiley.
Humphry, Nicholas. (1992). A history of the mind. New York:
Simon & Schuster.
Hunt, Morton. (1982). The universe within. New York: Simon &
Schuster.
Ischlondsky, N. Dorin. (1955). The inhibitory process in the
cerebrophysicallaboratory and in the clinic. Journal ofNerv-
ous and Mental Disease, 121,5-18.
James, William. (1980). Principles of psychology, Vol 1. Fawcet
(1963, p. 294).
Jankowiak, W. R., & Fischer, E. F. (1992). Across-cultural perspec-
tive on romantic love. Ethnology, 31(2), 149-155.
SELECTED BmLlOGRAPHY 297
Jaynes, Julian. (1976). The origin of consciousness in the breakdown

of the bicameral mind. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Jennings, Jesse, & Hoebel, D. (Eds.) (1955). Readings in anthropol-
ogy. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Jones, R. K. (1966). Observations on stammering after localized
cerebral injury. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psy-
chiatry, 29,192-195.
Josepf, R. (1986). Confabulation and delusional denial: Frontal
lobe and lateralized influences. Journal of Clinical Psychology,
42(3),507-519.
Joseph, R. (1993). The naked neuron. New York: Plenum Press.
Kahn, Lloyd. (1973). Shelter. Bolinas, CA: Shelter Publications.
Karmiloff-Smith, Annette. (1994). Precis of beyond modularity:
A developmental perspective on cognitive science. Behav-
ioral and Brain Sciences, 17, 693-745.
Kauffman, Stuart A. (1991, August). Antichaos and adaptation.
Scientific American, pp. 78-84.
Kluft, Richard P. (1993). The initial stages of psychotherapy in
the treatment of multiple personality disorder patients.
Dissociation, 6(2), 145-160.
Koestler, Arthur. (1967). The ghost in the machine. New York:
Macmillan Co. An excellent book on self organization.
Kosslyn, Stephen M., & Koenig, Oliver. (1992). Wet mind: The new
cognitive neuroscience. New York: Macmillan Co. An interest-
ing but technical book with a computer approach to consciousness.
LeVay, Simon. (1993). The sexual brain. Cambridge, MA: MIT
Press.
Lewin, Roger. (1992). Complexity. New York: Macmillan Co.
Lieberman, Philip. (1991). Uniquely human. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard.
Liebowitz, Michael R. (1983). The chemistry of love. Boston: Little,
Brown.
Linville, Patricia. (1987). Self-complexity as a cognitive buffer
against stress-related illness and depression. Journal of Per-
sonality and Social Psychology, 52(4), 663-676.
298 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Loftus, Elizabeth, & Ketcham, Katherine. (1991). Witness for the

defense. New York: St. Martin's Press.
Loftus, Elizabeth, & Ketcham, Katherine. (1994). The myth of
repressed memory. New York: St. Martin's Press.
London, Perry, & Klerman, Gerald L. (1982). Evaluating psycho-
therapy. American Journal of Psychiatry, 139(6), 709-717.
Luborsky, Lester, Singer, Barton, & Luborsky, Lise. (1975). Com-
parative studies of psychotherapies: Is it true that "every-
one has won and all must have prizes?" Archives of General
Psychiatry, 32, 995-1008.
Lyons, Arthur. (1988). Satan wants you. New York: Mysterious
Press.
Lyons, John D. (1978). The invention of self. Carbondale: Univer-
sity of Southern Illinois Press.
McCrone, John. (1991). The ape that spoke. New York: Morrow.
McHugh, Paul R. (1992). Psychiatric misadventures. American
Scholar, 61(4),497-510.
McKellar, Peter. (1979). Mindsplit. London: J. M. Dent.
Margulis, Lynn, & Sagan, Dorian. (1986). Microcosmos: Four billion
years ofmicrobial evolution. New York: Summit Books. A wonder-
ful book about self-organization and nature at the cell level. Read it!
Marshall, Evan. (1983). Eye language. New York: New Trend.
Masters & Johnson. (1982). Sex and human loving. Boston: Little,
Brown.
Merlin, Donald. (1991). Origins of the modern mind. Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press.
Merlin, Donald. (1993). Precis of origins of the modem mind:
Three stages of evolution of culture and cognition. Behav-
ioral and Brain Sciences, 16, 737-791.
Merskey, Harold. (1994). The artifactual nature of multiple per-
sonality disorder. Dissociation, 6(3), 173-177 (includes re-
joinder by Charles Barton).
Meyers, David. (1992). The pursuit of happiness. New York: Mor-
row.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 299
Meyers, Gerald E. (1969). Self: An introduction to philosophical

psychology. New York: Pegasus.
Moir, Anne, & Jessel, David. (1989). Brain sex. New York: Dell.
Money, John. (1980). Love and love sickness. Baltimore: Johns
Hopkins Press.
Money, John. (1986). Love maps. New York: Irvington.
Murphy, Patricia Engle. (1994). Dissociative experiences and
dissociative disorders in a non-clinical university student
group. Dissociation, 6(1), 28-35.
Neisser, Ulric. (1994). Self narratives: True and false. In Ulrick
Neisser & Robyn Fivush (Eds.), The remembering self. Lon-
don: Cambridge University Press.
Neisser, Ulric, & Harsch, Nicole. (1992). Phantom flashbulbs:
False recollections of hearing the news about Challenger. In
Eugene Winograd et al. (Eds.), Affect and accuracy in recall.
London: Cambridge University Press.
Nesbit, Richard, & Wilson, Timothy. (1977). Telling more than we
can know: Verbal reports on mental processes. Psychological
Review, 84(3), 231-265.
Ofshe, Richard, & Waters, Ethan. (1994). Making monsters. New
York: Scribner's.
Ornstein, Robert. (1972). The psychology of consciousness. San
Francisco: Freeman.
Ornstein, Robert. (1991). The evolution of consciousness. New York:
Touchstone. An easy-reading presentation of the modular con-
cept of the mind. Calling nonverbal modules "simpletons" is a
mistake, however, as some of them are actually the very basis of
creativity.
Ortony, A., Clore, G., & Collins, A. (1988). The cognitive structure
of emotions. London: Cambridge University Press.
Pearce, Joseph Clinton. (1974). Exploring the crack in the cosmic
egg. New York: Julian Press.
Pendergrast, Mark. (1995). Victims of memory: Incest accusations
and shattered lives. Hinesburg, VT: Upper Access Inc.
300 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Penrose, Roger. (1989). The emperor's new mind. London: Oxford

University Press.
Perls, Fredric. (1969). Gestalt therapy verbatim. Moab, VT: Real
People Press.
Phelps, Michael, & Mazziotta, John. (1985). Positron emission
tomography: Human brain function and biochemistry. Sci-
ence, 228(4701), 799-809.
Prigatano, George, & Schacter, Davis. (1991). Awareness of deficit
after brain injury. London: Oxford University Press.
Prigogine, Ilya, & Stenses, Isabelle. (1984). Order out of chaos.
New York: Bantam Books.
Prioleau, Leslie, Murdock, Martha, & Brody, Nathan. (1983). An
analysis of psychotherapy versus placebo studies. Behav-
ioral and Brain Sciences, 6, 275-310. Recommended. Includes
peer review discussion.
Radner, Dasie, & Radner, Michael. (1989). Animal consciousness.
New York: Prometheus.
Raichle, Marcus E. (1994). Visualizing the mind. Scientific Ameri-
can, 270(4), 58-65. PET scans in color.
Rakic, Pasco, et al. (1966). Concurrent overproduction of syn-
apses in diverse regions of the primate cerebral cortex.
Science, 232, 232-234.
Restak, Richard. (1991). The brain has a mind of its own. New York:
Harmony.
Restak, Richard M. (1994). The modular brain. New York: Scrib-
ner's.
Rivlin, Robert, & Gravelle, Karen. (1984). Deciphering the senses.
New York: Simon & Schuster.
Rosenfield, Israel. (1988). The invention of memory. New York:
Basic Books.
Rosenfield, Israel. (1992). The strange, familiar, and forgotten. New
York: Knopf.
Rosenweig, Saul. (1988). The identity and idiodynamics of the
multiple personality "Sally Beauchamp." American Psy-
chologist, 43(1), 45-48.
Ross, Colin. (1991). The dissociated self and the cultural disso-
ciation barrier. Dissociation, 4(1), 55-61.
Ross, Jerilyn. (1994). Triumph over fear. New York: Bantam Books.
An excellent book on contextual cognitive-behavioral therapy for
phobias.
Rowan, John. (1990). Subpersonalities: The people inside us. Lon-
don: Routledge.
Sacks, Oliver. (1970). The man who mistook his wife for a hat. New
York: Harper. A very entertaining account of several right hemi-
sphere damage cases.
Salkovskis, Paul M. (1989). Obsessions and compulsions. In Jan
Scott, Mark Williams, & Aaron Beck (Eds.), Cognitive therapy
and clinical practice. London: Routledge.
Sampson, Edward E. (1985). The decentralization of identity.
American Psychologist, 49(11), 1203-1211.
Sampson, Edward. (1988). The debate on individualism: Indige-
nous psychologies of the individual and their role in per-
sonal and societal functioning. American Psychologist, 43(1),
15-22.
Sanders, Barbara. (1992). The imaginary companion in multiple
personality disorder. Dissociation, 5(3),159-162.
Schacter, Daniel. (1992). Understanding implicit memory: Acog-
nitive neuroscience approach. American Psychologist, 47(4),
559-569.
Schieve, William c., & Allyn, Peter M. (Eds.). (1982). Self-organi-
zation and dissipative structures: Applications in the physical
and social sciences. Austin: University of Texas.
Schnabel, Jim. (1994). Chronic claims of alien abduction and
some other traumas as self victimization syndromes. Disso-
ciation, 6(1),51-59.
Scott, Jan, Williams, J. Mark, & Beck, Aaron. (Eds.). (1989).
Cognitive therapy in clinical practice. New York: Routledge.
Searle, John R. (1992). The rediscovery of the mind. Cambridge,
MA: MIT Press.
Shatz, Carla. (1992, September). The developing brain. Scientific

American, p. 61.
Smith, Aaron, & Sugar, Oscar. (1975). Development of above
normal language and intelligence 21 years after left hemi-
spherectomy. Neurology, 25, 813-818.
Smith, Elliot, & Miller, Fredrick. (1978). Limits on perception of
cognitive processes: A reply to Nesbit and Wilson. Psycho-
logical Review, 85(4), 355-362.
Smith, Margaret. (1993). Ritual abuse: What it is, why it happens,
how to help. New York: Harper Collins.
Smith, Mary Lee, & Glass, Gene V. (1977). Meta-analysis of
psychotherapy outcome studies. American Psychologist, pp.
752-760.
Solomon, Robert C. (1976). The passions. New York: Doubleday.
An excellent book on the logic ofemotions and the meaning in life.
A source of many of the ideas in Chapters Ten and Eleven.
Solomon, Robert C. (1988). About love. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Spanos, Nicholas P. (1986). Hypnotic behavior: Asocial-psycho-
logical interpretation of amnesia, analgesis, and "trance
logic." Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 9, 449-502. An excellent
discussion with many peer comments and a rebuttal.
Spanos, Nicholas P., Radtke, H. Lorraine, & Bertrand, Lome D.
(1985). Hypnotic amnesia as a strategic enactment: Breach-
ing amnesia in highly susceptible subjects. Journal ofPerson-
ality and Social Psychology, 47(5), 1155-1169.
Spanos, Nicholas P., et al. (1991). Secondary identity enactments
during hypnotic past-life regression: A sociocognitive per-
spective. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61(2),
308-320.
Sperry, R. W. (1966). Brain bisection and mechanisms of con-
sciousness. In John C. Eccles (Ed.), Brain and conscious expe-
rience. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
Sperry, R. W. (1968a). Mental unity following disconnection of
the cerebral hemispheres. Harvey Lectures, Series 62. New
York: Academic Press.
Sperry, R. W. (1968b). Hemisphere disconnection and conscious

awareness. American Psychologist, 23, 723-733.
Sperry, Roger. (1982). Some effects of disconnecting the cerebral
hemispheres. Science, 217,1223-1226.
Sperry, R. W. (1991). A defense of mentalism and emergent
interaction. The Journal of Mind and Behavior, 12(2),221-246.
Sperry, R. W. (1992). Turnabout on consciousness: A mentalist
view. The Journal of Mind and Behavior, 13(3), 259-280.
Sperry, Roger. (1993). The impact and promise of the cognitive
revolution. American Psychologist, 48(8), 878-885.
Steinberg, Robert J., & Barnes, Michael 1. (Eds.). (1988). The
psychology of love. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Strupp, H. H., & Hadley, Suzanne. (1979). Specific vs nonspecific
factors in psychotherapy. Archives of General Psychiatry, 36,
1125-1136.
Szasz, Thomas. (1970). The manufacture of madness. New York:
Harper & Row.
Tart, Charles T. (1975). Discrete states of consciousness. New York:
Dutton.
Tavris, Carol. (1993, January 3). Beware the incest survivor ma-
chine. New York Times Book Review, p. l.
Taylor, Charles. (1989). Sources of the self. Cambridge, MA: Har-
vard University Press.
Terr, Lenore. (1994). Unchained memories. New York: Basic Books.
Velmans, Max. (1991). Is human information processing con-
scious? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 14,651-726; also com-
mentary in Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1993, 16(2),404-415.
Waber, Deborah P. (1976). Sex differences in cognition: A function
of maturation rate? Science, 192,572-573.
Waldrop, Mitchell. (1992). Complexity. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Walsh, Anthony. (1991). The science of love. Buffalo, NY:
Prometheus Books.
Warwick, Hilary, & Salkovskis, Paul. (1989). Hypochondriasis.
In Jan Scott, Mark Williams, & Aaron Beck (Eds.), Cognitive
therapy and clinical practice. London: Routledge.
304 SELECTED SmLIOGRAPHY
Watts, Allen. (1977). The essence of Alan Watts. Millbrae, CA:

Celestial Arts.
Weinstein, Edwin A., & Lyerly. (1968). Confabulation following
brain injury. Archives of General Psychiatry, 18, 348-353.
Wessler, Richard, & Hankin-Wessler. (1989). Nonconscious algo-
rithms in cognitive and affective process. Journal of Cognitive
Psychotherapy, 3(4), 243-253.
Wingate, Marcel E. (1976). Stuttering: Theory and treatment. New
York: Irvington.
Winson, Jonathan. (1985). Brain and psyche. New York: Dou-
bleday.
Witelson, Sandra F. (1977). Early hemisphere specialization and
interhemispheric plasticity. In S. Segalowitz & F. Gruber
(Eds.), Language development and neurological plasticity. New
York: Academic Press.
Wood, Garth. (1983). The myth of neurosis. New York: Harper &
Row.
Wright, Robert. (19940. The moral animal. The new science of evolu-
tionary psychology. New York: Pantheon.
Wynn, Ralph. (1956). Hypnotism made easy. North Hollywood:
Wilshire Book.
Zeki, Semir. (1992, September). The visual image in mind and
brain. Scientific American, pp. 69-74.
Index
Agoraphobia, 164 Bilingual children, 189

Alcohol, 62 Binge behavior, 126, 196
Altered states, 139 Biography, 107
Alters, 157 Blind spot, vision, 38, 39
Amnesia, 67 Blindness denial, 41
Amnesia, hypnotic, 147 Blindsight, 59
Antibodies, 10 Body image, 102
Anton's syndrome, 41 Bodylanguage,24,233
Aphasia, conduction, 81 Bonding, 230, 231
Archimedes, 211 Boundaries, 99
Astrology, 136 Brain damage, 80
Augustine, Saint, 106 Brain surgery, 201
Auras, 134 Butterfly effect, 185
Automatic writing, 150
Cannibalism, 173
Babies, 15 Cattle mutilation, 130, 131
Backdated memory, 56 Challenger disaster, 77
Balinese, 100, 101 Chewong tribe, 20
Bay of pigs, 121 Childish play module, 195
Beehive, 9 Chowchilla, 76
Beliefs, 88, 193 Cocktail party phenomenon, 23
Berne, Eric, 162 Cognitive dissonance, 45
Bifurcation, 79, 186 Cognitive revolution, 264, ix
305
306 INDEX
Cognitive therapy, 168 Emergent properties, 265, 266

Colony of Cells, 10 Emotional expression, 204
Color vision, 41, 42, 43 Emotional logic, 216
Communism, 116 Empty self, 245
Complexity, 8 Erections, 213
Computer, mind as, 26 ESp, 134
Computers, 26 Evolution, 13, 16
Confabulation, 67, 68 Explaining vs. doing, 82
Consciousness, 34, 58 Eye movement, 39, 40, 43, 44
continuity of, 61
nonverbal, 33, 206, 207 Facilitated communications, 150
Conspiracy, 116 Faith healing, 144
Context switching, 20 False beliefs, 111
Contextual therapy, 164 Feelings, mistaken, 218
Crafts, 220 Fight module, 22, 165, 240
Creative thinking, 25, 207-211 Financial beliefs, 128
Creativity, 24 Flashlight, 61
improving, 210 Flow,219
Cuddling module, 239 Freud, Sigmund, 22, 37, 50, 152, 162
Danger sports, 221 Gandhi, Mahatma, 35

Dean, John, 70, 71 Gap filling, 37, 38, 44
Deceit, 35 Gazzaniga, Michael, vi, 261
Declarative memory, 82 Government, 117
Dendrites, 179, 180 Groupthink, 121
Denial,119 Gurdjieff, George, 22
Depression, 127
Depth vision, 43 Hadamard, Jacques, 208
Descartes, Rene, 106 Hebb, Donald, 17
Dianetics,l44 Hemispherectomy, 33,189,201
Dinka,92 Herd instinct, 143
Divorce, 237 Hidden observers, 146, 149
Dogon,101 History of self-concept, 102
Double blind testing, 124 Holland, John, 17
Downward causation, 265 Hot and cold, 98
Driving module, 23 Hypnosis, 142-152, 171172
Hypochondria, 127
Edelman, Gerald, vii, 13 Hysteria, 155
Edwards, Betty, 216
Einstein, Albert, 208, 209 Ideographic languages, 190
Electra complex, 169 Imaginary playmates, 161
Emergence of mind, 11-13 In-vivo therapy, 164
Emergence of self, 19 Incubation, 198
INDEX 307
Infant brain, 177 Modules, 6, 12

Interest rates, 128 finding your, 195
Introspection, 26, 31, 32, 61, 90 Movement, 203
IRA,115 Mozart, Wolfgang, 25, 212
MPD: see Multiple personalities
James, William, 22 Multiple personalities, 149, 155-159
Jung, Carl, 162 Murder, 48
King, Martin Luther, 35 Neisser, Ulric, 77

Neural Darwinism, vii, 12, 13
Land, Edwin, 43 Nonverbal communications, 203
Language development, 187 Nonverbal logic, 215
Language, 33 Nonverbal thinking, 33,199-226
Lawyers, 249
Learning, 182 Pain as a concept, 96
Left brain, 188 Parallel memory, 81
Libet, Benjamin, 57, 58 Paranoia, 127
Lobotomies, 169 Past life regression, 148
Lobsters, 156 Peace, pray for, 249
Loftus, Elizabeth, 75 Pentecostal church, 141
Logic of emotions, 216 Perls, Fritz, 234
Losers, 118 PET scans, 18, 185, 186
Love,227-244 Phi phenomenon, 54
Love as a concept, 235 Phoneme restoration, 44
Love, biological basis, 230 Piaget, Jean, 73, 74
Love module, 239 Placebo effect, 124
Luborsky, Lester, 123 Poker, computerized, 17
Positive feedback, 113
Magic, 133 Posthypnotic suggestion, 146, 149
Maori,93 Practice, 217
Maps, neural, 18, 181 Press secretary, 36
Marijuana, 62 Prigogine, Ilya, 8
McMartin School, 131 Privacy, 248
Meaning in life, 252 Proctor and Gamble, 130
Memories, changing, 73, 74 Proofreader effect, 44
Memory gap filling, 69 Psychiatry and false beliefs, 169
Memory illusions, 65, 74 Psychics, 133, 134, 135
Memory revision, 55 Psychodrama, 167
Mental illness, 126 Psychosurgery, 125
Mesmer, Anton, 142 Psychotherapy, 163-172
Michelle Remembers, 132
Microdeterminism, 265 Recognition, 81, 82
Modular memory, 79 Recovered memories, 172, 173
308 INDEX
Renaissance, 4 Split-brain, 7, 257-261

Repressed memories, 170 Spontaneous organization, 183
Reptilian brain, 212 Sports, 24, 220
Ritual abuse, 173, 174 Stock market, 128
Roberts, Oral, 141 Strokes, 16
Romanticism, 108 Stuttering, 191
Roommates, 13 Synapses, 182
Synchronicity, 77
Satanic abuse, 132, 173
School/work module, 195, 196 Time and consciousness, 51
Self-concept, 4, 85 Time, concept of, 93, 95
beliefs, 88 Touching, 243
development, 192 Trobiand islanders, 94, 95
other cultures, 90 Truman, Harry, 48
Self-control, 34, 193, 214, 240
Self-esteem, 118 Urban legends, 129
Self module, 6, 19,29-50
Self-organization, 1-13 Victim groups, 250
Sensory inputs, 14 Vision, 38, 39-43
Sensuous love, 241 Von Neuman, John, 26
Sensuous thinking, 222, 224, 241 Voodoo dolls, 125
Sexual abuse, 131, 132
Sexual chemistry, 232 Wallas, G., 210
Sexual display, 213 Walter, Gray, 57
Shakespeare, 106 War, 114
Sherpa, 96, 97 Wilson, Woodrow, 122
Shopping, 248 Winners, 118
Sibling relationships, 196 Woman's liberation and love, 237
Silencing the self, 219 Words, 202
Smell, 232, 242 Workaholics, 222
Software, 4, 5
Somalia, 115 Yoga, 219
Spanos, Nicholas, 146
Sperry, Roger, 7, 257 Zen Buddhism, 219

Beyond The Conscious Mind

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Beyond The Conscious Mind

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Beyond The Conscious Mind

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Beyond the

Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

ISBN 978-0-306-45262-8 ISBN 978-1-4899-4533-4 (eBook)

© Thomas R. Blakeslee 1996

In the fifteen years since I wrote The Right Brain (Dou-

Michael Gazzaniga, who worked with Sperry on the

most obvious facts" about consciousness are not true. As

I will show, our sense of self is a powerful but false illu-

This book is the direct result of my attempts to under-

Credit for many of the concepts in this book must go

Chapter One: The Self-Organizing Mind 1

Chapter Three: Time and Consciousness 51

Chapter Five: Other Concepts of Self 85

Chapter Seven: Hypnosis and Other

Using Sports and Crafts . . . . 220

concepts of reality are at such a basic level that we feel sure

seeing themselves as individuals in control of their own

If conscious awareness is so relative and determined

our beliefs-no matter how much they conflict with real-

In the chapters that follow we will gradually chip

THE MIRACLE OF SPONTANEOUS

sic elements. These powerful properties emerge spontane-

precisely at an elevated temperature by the concerted

THE HUMAN BODY:

automatically divides whenever it encounters the kind of

THE EMERGENCE OF MIND

The emergence of a conscious mind from a tangle of

success: Whenever a successful result is obtained, the sy-

ally improves the performance of each module at filling its

FIGURE 1. A control mechanism in the brain (represented here

parallel. Sensory inputs and movement outputs are con-

ule controls body movement. This competition for control

better able to prevail in a similar context in the future. New

scratch with a new module forming in a healthy cluster of

birth also follows evolutionary principles: Over 70% of the

physical locations of the modules vary considerably be-

THE EMERGENCE OF SELF

Other cultures view reality totally differently from

The self-concept most of us have grown up with

plain behavior as though the self module is always in

Though the current acceptance of mental modules by

ized fight module can instantly gain control of a person in

lows you to be alerted to a subject of great interest being

SPORTS AND CREATIVE THINKING

control, resulting in awkward, verbally directed move-

THE MIND AS A COMPUTER

Digital computers, built with circuits a million times

many other ways makes it obvious that they are lacking

Getting to Know Your

The spirit is the true self, not the physical figure

Beware of no man more than thyself.

will call the set of basic assumptions used by the self

module is actually controlling the steps of the thinking

Once you begin trying to look into your own mind to

Though our culture encourages an all-powerful indi-

modules for the substeps of such thinking, but the guid-

THE SELF MODULE AS PRESS

interpretations are bent to fit the model, and the model is

A dramatic example of the brain's ability to fill gaps