Vision Circle

In the automatized state of consciousness typifying 99%+ of Americans, images matter a very great deal and control of images is control of the associative responses and potentials of that large herd of people.

A person who is awake and in possession of an objectively valid self-image is unaffected by media images, or, by unconscious associations driven by media images and implanted in the automatized minds and behaviours of other people.

The question of whether an image is good or bad boils down to a single measure of utility. Is the image DEVELOPMENTALLY useful? From the perspective of objective self-awareness and objective culture, the only concept of objective good that has any meaning for man, is related to
DEVELOPMENT.

This means that developmental utility can be the only way of valuing something as good or bad for someone who is involved in work on achieving an objectively valid understanding of himself (image), meaning that something is "good" to the
degree it will create movement and development, and bad to the degree it will keep you on the spot.

But development is not possible without a certain kind of suffering, or "sacrifice". This means that the idea of what is good and bad for someone involved in WORK, will be THE OPPOSITE of what is the popular opinion, where "pain"
is considered "bad" and "pleasure" is considered "good".

This means that in order to do WORK on yourself and develop, you need to begin viewing pain and suffering as a resource, while "pleasure" or "feeling good" is considered a grave danger, which is only needed in minimum amounts in order
not to end up in a lunatic asylum.

On the ROAD, suffering, sacrifice and pain will have to become your best friends in order to achieve anything real.

The realization of this seems to me as what makes "The Work" unique compared to other "development-systems".

How can this suffering, and this pain, be endured.....?

Bohm described how we could look at our self–image as being made up of three completely different representations — Me, Myself and I.

“Me” might be the image created by the first brain; “Myself ” the resonate representation of the limbic or emotional brain, and “I” a representation of self generated by the third brain.

All three are images, however. If you penetrate to the core of the great traditions you always find this differentiation.

There lawfully appears in all humans a sense of “I”, a sense of singularity, but that is still an image. There is a possibility of moving beyond the image to what may be called Real I. This is a perception of participation and relationship that is not an independent “I”, but an “I” that is completely integrated in and through everything. To consciously go beyond the images created by our triune brain presents extraordinary challenges.

We each have imbedded in the neural matrix of our first and second brains a hard–wired imperative to accept and respond to the created images as if they were real and whole. Hundreds of millions of years underpin these physical and social survival patterns. Clearly the first and second brains cannot question themselves. The third brain has that capacity, if it applies reasoning, logical analysis, comparison etc.The awareness that it is an image and not reality is however, a very tenuous state and one that we can drop quickly, especially when highly evocative images are presented by the first or second brain. (For instance, when we get a disturbing phone call or are cut off on a highway while driving 70 miles an hour.) In such instances the immediacy of the image as being real is both appropriate (in survival terms) and potent.

Because of the way in which our first and second brains function we are equally vulnerable to the facial expression or tone of voice of the boss, and to mistaking a tree root for a snake. A moment later, when the brain has processed additional data the image is perceived as non-threatening. We may feel foolish but our heart and breathing rate, muscle tension, and circulation of adrenalin betray that our first and second brain are continuing to react to the imaged threat.

As difficult as it is to sustain our impartiality to first and second brain images it is more difficult yet with regard to third brain images. The Sense of I naturally created by the neural imaging of the third brain brings a potent sense of singularity that is both real and imaginary: real because of our physical and subjective feelings that we are a separate individual; imaginary in that this image artificially separates us from everything. It also creates a subjective “specialness” that is the germ of a false and intrinsically malevolent egoism.

It is this false I that creates monsters like Idi Amin, Pol Pot, and Hitler, as well as to abusive parents and arrogant corporate CEOs.

In our time the challenge has been made considerably greater because of the extraordinary and positive insights of modern science and the unparalleled negative impact of technology. There is overwhelming evidence that shows that the third brain’s use of technological power (radio, TV, computer) has confused and greatly diminished the attention needed to go beyond our absorption in the image to the true “I.” It has fractured our personal relationships and community life, and now seriously threatens the continuity of life. The origin of this gross imbalance is not out there in the outside world. It is inside, in the images created by the third brain of each of us.

All of that represents a great obstacle in
discovering what may lie beyond the image—the Real I. We must go beyond the limited images of the three brains for this is the key to achieving development of a real and objective self-awareness.