borgia@cwruecmp.UUCP (The Prince) (06/03/84)
** This is somewhat long ... You might learn something new ... ... from Intellectuals Anonymous (IA not AI) ** A few years ago, I became acquainted with an international group called Community International that operates through a technique called Guided Experiences to assist individuals in their progress towards self actualization. I remember that some of the techniques like Dis-tension, and the Experience of Peace were so effective that the Gurus in the group were sought by major corporations for their Executive Development programs. The Community itself is a non-profit, self-sustaining organization that originated somewhere in South America. The Community had a very interesting (scientific?) model for the body and soul (existence and essence) problem. The model is based on levels or Centers for the Mind. I will summarize what I remember about the Centers of the Mind. 1. The major Centers of the Mind are the Physiological Center, the Motor Center, the Emotional Center, and the Intellectual Center. 2. The functional parts of the Mind belong to different (matrix) cells in a tabulation of major Center X major Center. To illustrate the power of this abstraction, consider the following assertions where the loaded words have the usual meaning. The intellectual part of the intellectual center deals with reason or cognition. The rationalist AI persons must already feel very small. Reliance on reason alone indicates a poverty of the mind! The motor part of the intellectual center deals with imagination and creativity. The emotional part of the intellectual center deals with intuition. Similarly the motor center has intellectual, emotional and motor parts that control functions like learning to walk, the Olympics, and reflexes. The emotional center has intellectual, emotional, and motor parts that control faith and beliefs, the usual emotions like fear, anger, joy etc. and stuff like euphoria, erotica. The Physiological center is unfortunately the least understood. The center controls the survival drives for food, sex, safety etc. (And I believe, rational economic behaviour, free markets etc.) The thesis is that the lower centers (Physiological) must be developed before the higher centers can be productive. This must seem obvious since we don't expect a starving man to cry out with joy, or an emotionally disturbed person to reason effectively. ************************************************************************ I would appreciate any comments, anonymous or otherwise. Does this make any sense to you? Does this change your picture of your own mind? ************************************************************************