My World of “Ought to Be”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Just Talk

Daniel Quinn writes: Using one set of words or another, people often tell me they want to do more than "just talk" about saving the world. They want a plan of action. Well, I'm nothing if not a s-l-o-w thinker, so for a long time I rather complacently accepted this sock on the jaw (after all, as a writer, my whole life is "just talk"). Recently it began to dawn on me that, along with my jaw, "just talk" was getting a really bad rap. (08/25/02)

The Structure of Winning

Timothy Wilken writes: The Ortegrity is a system for organizing two or more humans. It produces win-win relationships between all individuals within the organization. This results in a conflict free environment which optimizes the two processes of human behavior — decision and action. The resultant is that efficiency, productivity, and quality of work-life are optimized. ... A level 12 Ortegrity would be adequate for organizing the entire humans species within a single organization. Recalling that the larger a tensegrity the more powerful it will is. Synergic science predicts this will also be true for human organizations structured as Ortegrities. Therefore, I would expect a trend towards very large organizations. Imagine, what could be possible if the entire human species were a single organization. No conflict, no wars, no crimes. Is there anything we could not accomplish? (08/25/02)

Understanding Dual Mind