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Introduction
The main reason most "success" books, tapes, and seminars fail, is because the authors don't
really know all the reasons behind their success. And sometimes their only major success is
getting them published! The reason there are so many "success" products on the market is
because they generally don't work and people keep on buying more with the hope that
eventually something will work.
This report does not deal with the reasonably well-known success principles. I believe it covers
much more powerful underlying success principles. But you be the judge of that.
Success Formulas
If you get a job in a long-established, viable company, it's relatively easy to succeed. Over the
years the company's founders and workers have developed formulas for doing things that work.
The details have been worked out. When you join such a company you are told in one way or
another how to do things. You may be given a job description. Through existing paperwork,
computer systems, and asking questions you discover the details. In such a set-up it's relatively
easy to succeed because the company has viable products and services, trained personnel, an
established customer base, a good or reasonable reputation, and procedures or formulas that
work for doing things.
If you were to start your own business as a hairdresser it would be more difficult to succeed.
Suppose you've worked as a hairdresser so you know the details of cutting hair. However, you
don't know all the details of creating and running a business successfully. Nevertheless, many
people have successfully created hairdressing businesses. They used certain formulas to
determine what to do and what not to do. You can discover these formulas and even improve
them. But it's more difficult to succeed because you don't have a boss who knows the formulas
and can tell you exactly what to do.
Now if you were to start a new kind of business - like Federal Express - it's even more difficult
to succeed. You're trying to do something which nobody has done before. You have to invent
the details from scratch and make them work. The formulas for success need to be developed.
You can't copy them from someone else.
To walk from A to Z you need to put one foot in front of the other as many times as necessary
to cover the distance. You simply take one step at a time until you arrive at Z. It's very simple
because all the steps are the same - assuming the path from A to Z is straight, level, and
uniform. The formula is simply: take the next step. To succeed all you have to do is take the
next step.
In the job described above it's relatively easy to determine the next step. In starting a
hairdressing business it's more difficult. In creating Federal Express it's vastly more difficult.
Most people fail because they don't take the next step. When you're just walking it's easy to
determine your next step: just move the other foot forward. But when you have a more difficult
task, it's not always so easy to figure out the next step. Maybe that's why most people fail: by
not taking the next step. I hope this report will help you figure out and take your next step.
There is no clear line of demarcation between my three levels of success. You can decide for
yourself what you regard as ordinary, spectacular, and ultimate success. And, of course, you
can define your own levels of success.
Whatever level of success you want to attain, the most basic formula you need to apply is:
TAKE THE NEXT STEP! One way to find out the next step you need to take is to apply the
"non-existence formula" given in Report #80A: Creativity Report #1.
One of the most powerful success books I know of is The Cynergetics Sixty-Minute
Success/Wealth Guidebook published by Applied Cynergetics, 1308 Broad St., San Luis
Obispo, CA 93401. I don't know of a more powerful guide for selecting your next step.
Three Paradigms
A "paradigm" is a set of assumptions that determines how you view things. There are three
basic paradigms concerning human nature:
The evil/good paradigm: People are basically evil and were born evil. By some means
we need to become good. Criminals are evil and need to be rehabilitated so they become
good.
The ignorance/knowledge paradigm: People are ignorant or knowledgeable. We do
harm out of ignorance. Education is the solution.
The immature/mature paradigm: We need to grow up, which is a continuous, never-
ending process spanning many elements (described later). We are immature as
individuals and as society. We fail due to immaturity. Education and knowledge are
often insufficient for more than ordinary success.
As far as I know, the immature/mature paradigm was first formulated in the book The Mature
Mind by H.A. Overstreet, published in 1949. The author thought that his "maturity concept"
would revolutionize society. Let me introduce the maturity concept through a quotation from
the above book:
"All children, Diderot once observed, are essentially criminal. It is merely our good luck that
their physical powers are still too limited to permit them to carry out their destructiveness.
Had he lived today, Diderot might have expanded his remark. He might have said that all
childish minds are dangerous, but particularly when those minds are housed in adult bodies; for
then they have the power to put their immaturities fully and disastrously into effect.
The forms that adult childishness can take are almost infinite in number. They exist not merely
in those unfortunates who have to be confined to institutions, but in countless thousands of men
and women who look adult, are taken to be adult, and are granted the full prerogatives of
adulthood.
In these grown-up child-minds, the immaturities are almost invariably disguised from the
individuals themselves. Also they are usually disguised from those who share their life - largely
because these others display similar immaturities themselves. The immaturities, moreover, are
disguised from society at large, since that society has as yet developed no constant habit of
appraising adult behaviors as immature or mature."
"So far in the history of the world there have never been enough mature people in the
right places... The only real threat to man... is man himself... the difficulty man has with
himself is that he cannot use his highly developed intellect effectively because of his
neurotic fears, his prejudices, his fanaticisms, his unreasoning hates, and equally
unreasoning devotions; in fact, his failure to reach emotional maturity, or mental
health."
Psychological Age. Our psychological age may be different from our chronological age.
The adult who throws temper tantrums may psychologically be an infant - and use force
or violence destructively as a result of temper tantrums. Hitler may have been a
psychological infant.
Arrested Development. Traumatic childhood incidents may have stopped our
development in some aspect of life. Anyone who at any point in life stops developing
and maturing suffers arrested development.
Conditioned Response. We tend to develop automatic, unconscious habits or behavior
patterns like Pavlov's dog that salivates at the ring of the bell.
Aptitude Uniqueness. Everyone has unique strengths. To mature we have to develop
these strengths - and never stop doing so. We each have to bring our unique powers to
realization and continue to expand them.
Adult Capacity to Learn. We have the capacity and potential to continue learning
forever. To ever stop learning is immature.
There is much more to the maturity concept and I recommend that you get hold of H.A.
Overstreet's The Mature Mind from a used-book store or a library and study it.
Another introduction to Gurdjieff is the book Gurdjieff: Making a New World by John G.
Bennett. He quotes Gurdjieff: "Man is a machine. He is asleep. He can do nothing. He can
control nothing. Everything controls him." In his book The Harmonious Circle, James Webb
writes:
"But by Gurdjieff's own account, the chief result of his close acquaintance with political
intrigue was to... fill him with horror at the ease with which ordinary people allowed
themselves to be led by the nose. Partly in reaction against the violence he had seen and partly
as a result of conversations with "various revolutionists" he had met in Italy, Switzerland, and
the Caucasus, Gurdjieff decided that he "must discover, at all costs, some manner or means for
destroying in people the predilection for suggestibility which causes them to fall easily under
the influence of 'mass-hypnosis.'""
Gurdjieff's contention that we are asleep is echoed by Erich Fromm as quoted by Stephen R.
Covey in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People:
"Today we come across an individual who behaves like an automaton, who does not know or
understand himself, and the only person that he knows is the person that he is supposed to be,
whose meaningless chatter has replaced communicative speech, whose synthetic smile has
replaced genuine laughter, and whose sense of dull despair has taken the place of genuine pain.
Two statements may be said concerning this individual. One is that he suffers from defects of
spontaneity and individuality which may seem to be incurable. At the same time it may be said
of him he does not differ essentially from the millions of the rest of us who walk upon this
earth."
Gurdjieff's life was devoted to waking us up. He successively established several institutes to
deliver his teachings. They all failed. I surmise that Gurdjieff lacked organizational,
management, and marketing skills. Nevertheless, dozens of books have been written about
Gurdjieff, his work, and his followers, and there are Gurdjieff groups all over the world.
"I have a very strong sense of being in the middle of a historical wave. One hundred and fifty
years from now, what will the historians say about this age? What was really important? What
was going? What was finished? My belief is that much of what makes the headlines is finished,
and the "growing tip" of mankind is what is now growing and will flourish in a hundred or two
hundred years, if we manage to endure. Historians will be talking about this movement as the
sweep of history, that here, as Whitehead pointed out, when you get a new model, a new
paradigm, a new way of perceiving, new definitions of the old words, words which now mean
something else, suddenly, you have an illumination, an insight. You can see things in a different
way."
"[A] mature truth told to immature minds ceases, in those minds, to be that same mature truth.
Immature minds take from it only what immature minds can assimilate. In the end, even though
they may give it lip-service and may raise institutions in its name, they turn the mature truth
into an applied immaturity."
I have expanded Overstreet's too limited maturity concept into my Expanded Maturity Concept,
which includes many more elements. We each need to become more mature in most or all of
the "elements of maturity" I identify.
Elements of Maturity
Self-Love. We need to continuously increase our love of self. How to do this is covered in
Report #04A: The Most Fundamental Human Problem.
Knowledge. A week ago, when having to wait half an hour, I browsed through a used-book
store. I regularly do this. You never know what "earth-shattering" book was written 50, 100,
200, or 3,000 years ago. I've discovered several such books during the past 25 years. H.A.
Overstreet's The Mature Mind is an example.
Suppose there are a hundred "keys" (or elements) to ultimate success - a hundred things that
need to be achieved for ultimate success to become reality. I propose the following ratios:
I have no idea how accurate my ratios are. But I expect they are in the right ballpark. (And this
is not an attempt to demean any of the above individuals or their movements. In my opinion,
they have all made great contributions to greater maturity in the world. Some of them may even
be 20-key or 50-key people.)
What typically has been happening is that the average one-key person makes contact with the
ten-key activist or movement. The one-key person thinks the ten-key activist or movement has
all the answers and is what he or she has been looking for all along. The one-key person then
becomes a convert to learn the ten keys to ultimate human success. The ten-key activist or
movement tells the convert that they have all the keys and there is no need to look further.
Unfortunately the ten-key activist or movement is 90% ignorant of the keys necessary to bring
about ultimate success. So, ultimate success never occurs. I suggest this has been the general
history of attempts to bring about ultimate success.
A further problem is that it is very difficult for the ten-key activist who poses as a 100-key
know-it-all to personally develop and mature and to handle the remaining unhandled problems
and unwanted conditions in his or her personal life.
Of course, in practice it won't be this easy or simple. Some of the ten-key activists will know
keys that overlap those of others. There will be some keys unknown to all ten activists. Some
will refuse to even consider some of the keys. Nevertheless, such a network should increase the
chances of bringing about ultimate success.
The subject of knowledge is covered in more detail in Report #03: How to Improve Your
Information. The subject of education is covered in the article On Education. The most
important thing to realize about knowledge is that we can't get very far through education -
much more is necessary.
Recognizing Masters.
At the same time, it's necessary to realize that there are people who are masters in their fields.
It's important to learn from these people their best knowledge, expertise, and wisdom, and to
apply it. W. Edwards Deming was the "master of quality." During World War II he was
recognized by a few Americans. After the war he was ignored. So he went to Japan where he
was recognized. Deming's management and quality principles revolutionized Japanese industry
and were a major factor in Japan's "economic miracle."
A few days ago an associate told me that Jay Abraham was a business and marketing master.
He gave me a number to call. I called and within a few days received some of Jay's materials. I
quickly recognized that Jay is indeed a master. I will be learning a lot more from Jay. If you're
in business and/or marketing, and you don't know about Jay, call this number for information:
1-800-395-8290. The information I've just given to you could be worth thousands or even
millions to you.
So always be on the lookout for masters whose best knowledge, expertise, and wisdom you can
apply to multiply your success.
Emotional Control. This is an example of an element or factor where much more than
knowledge or education is necessary. It's covered in detail in Report #12: How to Achieve
Emotional Control.
Intelligence Increase. To progress towards maturity we may have to increase our intelligence.
Most of us can increase our intelligence dramatically. How to do this is covered in Report #11:
How to Increase Your Intelligence.
Thinking skills. Intelligence can be regarded as the capacity or potential to think effectively.
Your intelligence, no matter how high, does not guarantee that you will think effectively.
Increasing your intelligence can be futile if you don't also master specific thinking skills. Some
thinking skills are covered in Reports #11: How to Increase Your Intelligence, #50A: Semantic
Rigidity, Flexibility, and Freedom, and #80A: Creativity Report #1. Many more reports on
thinking skills will be written.
Consciousness. Many models of the development of consciousness have been suggested. The
one I like best is my "bicameral model" which distinguishes three major levels:
Many human institutions (governments, churches, corporations, families, etc.) are rooted in
stage 1 and 2. In society, generally, a shift is occurring towards stage 3. But as people become
more conscious they need to think for themselves. They no longer operate on automatic
obedience to "authorities" who tell them what's "right and wrong." But they haven't learned the
thinking skills to think for themselves. This is a factor behind the seeming "breakdown of
society." A longer-term perspective is that we're going through a turbulent transition.
The subject of how to become more conscious is covered in How To Increase Your
Consciousness.
Decisions. In his book Living Life as a Super Achiever, Bernhard Dohrman writes:
"There is only one factor about a Super Achiever that is different - the process the Super
Achiever uses to make a decision, a choice, to set a priority. The Super Achiever's DECISION
PROCESS is more awake than a non-Super Achiever."
It was Mr. Dohrman's book that first made me realize how important it is to become more
conscious of my decision-making processes and the need to improve them. His book is "must"
reading - contact IBI Publishing, PO Box 173, Madison, AL 35758. It contains a wealth of
information on improving your decision-making ability.
You probably should make the fundamental decision to improve your decision-making skills.
And you need to support this choice by making the necessary primary and secondary choices.
The first step to making better decisions is to recognize the decisions you do make. We are
constantly making decisions about all our thoughts, emotions, and actions whether we know it
or not. You can't improve your decisions if you're not aware of them.
There is a "real you" which is independent of other people. The "real you" or essence is covered
up and overshadowed by "your personality" which is an "artificial you" or a "fake you" created
in order to seek acceptance from and approval by other people.
In his book Word Controlled Humans: A Brief History, John Harland writes about people who
grew up in cold climates in isolation (little or no contact with other people), and thereby were
stimulated to think about how they related to the entire universe. In contrast, in warm climates
with denser populations there is much more contact with other people and children are
subjected severely to group control. Harland writes:
"This essential being of an individual in direct relation to the universe I will call "soul." Some
who submit to group control are well aware that by so doing they are giving up their souls.
Others have become such total zombies - the walking dead, subject to control by a will outside
themselves - that they are conscious of nothing but the game that dominates all else on this fork
of the road; they are no longer aware that anything "counts" if it is outside the human game. All
have lost their souls as individuals."
Harland writes about two "forks" in human development. The first fork is that of individual
sovereignty or self-ownership, living out of one's essence. The second fork is that of group
sovereignty or slavery, living out of a fake personality forged as a reaction to group control.
To discover and develop your essence, the first step is to discover that you are a free and
sovereign individual. This is covered in Report #05: How to Discover Your Freedom.
Programs in the Brain. We have all kinds of programs in our brains. A program is a set of
instructions. For example, the set of instructions we use to drive a car. Programs can be
conscious or subconscious. Some programs act like "curses." For example, someone may have
decided at an early age that "nobody loves me." Subconsciously, then, this person tends to
behave in such a way that the self-inflicted "curse" always comes true. It is very difficult
through education or the acquisition of knowledge to do anything about such "curses." But you
can reprogram your brain. To find out how I recommend the books by Shad Helmstetter:
Choices, The Self-Talk Solution, and What to Say When You Talk to Your Self. Or write to The
Self-Talk Institute, PO Box 5165, Scottsdale, AZ 85261. Or call 1-800-624-5846.
Education is virtually useless in doing anything about self-defeating programs in the brain. In
addition to Helmstetter's self-talk techniques, I know of two very powerful "maturity
technologies" for reprogramming the brain: (1) Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP); and (2)
Idenics. For an introduction to NLP I recommend the book Using Your Brain - for a Change by
Richard Bandler. For information on Idenics contact Survival Services International, 1670
Elkhart St, Aurora, CO 80012; 1-800-433-6427 (1-800-IDENICS).
Attitudes. Certain attitudes - like optimism - are more conducive to success than others. F.M.
Esfandiary, author of such books as Optimism One, Up-Wingers, and Telespheres, epitomizes
the attitudes of ultimate success:
"I am thrown off by such common questions as: What is your nationality? Where do you live?
What is your profession? Where do you study? Are you married or single or involved with
someone? How old are you? Are you Right wing or Left?
I am Universal. I translive all over the planet. Learn via Unicom [universal communication].
Have many professions. Am involved with many people. Consider all children as mine also.
Neither Right nor Left - I am Up.
I have no age. Am born and reborn every day. I intend to live forever. Barring an accident I
probably will. I also want to help others live on indefinitely.
Playing to win. Rush Limbaugh quotes Danny Ainge, a Phoenix Suns basketball player, whom
he describes as "a hard-nosed competitor who understands the dynamics of winning":
"There's a huge difference between showing up, playing, having fun and doing well, and really
playing to win. It's an entirely different mind-set. It's not a physical thing. It has nothing to do
with athletics. It has to do with attitude." [emphasis added]
Rush himself is the perfect example of someone with the winning attitude. He writes:
"...[R]eporters frequently approach me and ask, "Did you ever expect to rise to the top the way
you have?"
My answer is always the same: "Yes, of course. I was striving for it. I didn't move to New York
just to be in the top five. My eye was always on Number One." The fact of the matter is that
I've always been that way, ever since I was a little kid. I was never intimidated by the prospect
of failure. I knew that if I missed the mark, I could live with myself. What I couldn't live with,
however, was the prospect of not having taken my best shot at the brass ring."
Creativity. A certain attitude is central to being creative: Every problem or crisis is also an
opportunity. The worse many things are, the bigger opportunities they represent. Specific
creativity will be covered in the creativity reports, starting with Report #80A: Creativity Report
#1.
The most powerful book I know of on creativity is The Path of Least Resistance by Robert
Fritz. I regard it as the single most valuable book in my library of about 5,000 books. Its basic
approach is covered in Report #10: How to Achieve and Increase Personal Power.
Our freedom organization is a new innovation. Our starting point is discovering and
recognizing that we are free and sovereign by nature. Then we behave in accordance with our
individual freedom and sovereignty as far as possible and practicable. We withdraw our support
from those who seek to violate our freedom or property. We experience our freedom. We
induce others to experience their freedom. We create voluntary alternatives that gradually
replace unfree institutions.
It's a radically different approach - an innovation. There is a superb manual on the subject. It's
called Innovation: The Attacker's Advantage by Richard N. Foster. Must reading for anyone
interested in strategy.
You might ask, "Why all this complexity? Why all this thinking? I mean, you just do what's
obvious!" Well, the answer is that maybe practically all our individual and collective problems
stem from our relative immaturity in consciously applying the above. You see, we have here a
formula for doing the right thing. What if this formula is a concise summary of every success
book ever written, including this entire report? Maybe it's a very powerful success formula...
Responsibility can be thought of as the ability to respond - doing the right thing. You boost
your maturity by increasing your competence to do the right thing in the right way at the right
time.
If you watch the TV gameshow Wheel of Fortune carefully over a period of time, you may
notice from the strength with which certain players spin the wheel, where they look
immediately after they've spun the wheel, and the position in which the wheel comes to rest,
that those players almost certainly aim. Some of these players repeatedly hit or come close to
the $2,500, $3,500, or $5,000 slots. You may notice that some players seem to use a strategy of
spinning the wheel about a quarter to half a turn, seeking to avoid the "lose a turn" and
"bankrupt" slots. You'll also notice some players who almost certainly don't aim. The players
who aim attempt to form a cognitive link between action and result. Could it be that many
people go through life like the Wheel of Fortune players who don't aim?
Communication. If you lived alone on a deserted island you would not need to communicate
to succeed. But, that not being the case, you have to communicate to produce the results you
want. In fact, you may spend several hours a day communicating. In general, you communicate
because you want to produce certain results.
How often during a conversation do we only half-listen to what the other person is saying,
while thinking about what we're going to say next? How often, after we said something, do we
really observe our audience to determine if we achieved the desired result?
Why does survey after survey indicate that people's greatest fear is having to speak in public?
Why is speaking to an audience of three friends so qualitatively different from addressing a
group of 30 strangers? What might the 30 strangers discover about you that the three friends
wouldn't? These issues are addressed in Report #04A: The Most Fundamental Human Problem.
I have developed a very powerful method for improving the effectiveness of communication.
It's called the power-message principle and it's described in detail in Report #10: How to
Achieve and Increase Personal Power.
Later in this report (the one you're reading now) I discuss something very important about voice
quality and success...
Relationships. I must confess that I'm a relatively immature beginner when it comes to
conducting successful relationships. I've heard that the Japanese are very good at conducting
relationships and that it's one of their major strengths. Keeping agreements is obviously crucial.
When I've become more effective I'll tell you what I learned.
Nevertheless, I am succeeding in getting others to work with me. It could be that the most
important factor in getting others to work with you is to formulate a vision of extraordinary
power and communicate it to the right people.
The subject of how to get others to work with you is further described in Report #10: How to
Achieve and Increase Personal Power.
Networking. The power of networking is extraordinary. I believe someone has calculated that
in going from person to person knowing each other, anyone in the world can be reached in
about seven steps. In other words, someone you know knows someone, who knows someone
(repeat a few times), who knows anyone in the world you might want to contact.
All major religions and philosophies have spread through networking. Much of the power of
MLM (multi-level marketing) is due to networking.
I know of two excellent books on networking: Wishcraft and Teamworks by Barbara Sher.
Personal Power. See Report #10: How to Achieve and Increase Personal Power.
Leadership. Until a few days ago I greatly overvalued the power and influence of leaders.
That changed when I came across the book The Power of Followership by Robert Kelley. The
dust jacket reads:
"For three thousand years, business has studied, worshipped, and spent billions in training and
developing leaders. All this focused attention has led to a profound blindness about and
misconception of so-called followers - the people of exceptional ability who know how to lead
themselves. They are the people, says Robert Kelley, who actually contribute more than 80
percent to the success of any project, any organization, while leaders at best contribute only 20
percent."
[Finding this book illustrates three important success principles: (1) The most useful
information is often that which is the most different from what you now believe; (2) Always be
willing to consider the opposite of whatever you believe; and (3) Always be on the lookout for
information that might fill an important gap in your knowledge, or change your thinking
drastically in some area.]
In their book Leaders: The Strategies for Taking Charge, Bennis, Warren & Nanus formulate a
general theory of leadership: A leader formulates an inspiring vision; communicates that vision
effectively; generates trust in himself or herself, the vision, the organization; and regards the
activity of leadership as a means for self-development. Frederick Mann could be regarded as a
"great leader" for the freedom organization he started. Or, he could be regarded as a "great
follower" who attempts to assemble, integrate, and implement the best ideas of others.
According to Kelley, we suffer from a "leadership myth" in that leaders tend to be grossly
overrated, worshipped, and idolized; and a "followership myth" in that followers tend to be
ignored, undervalued, and denigrated. History has always been written as if the leader did
everything and nobody else did anything. "King so and so built a great pyramid" - he probably
never lifted even one stone. "General Patton won a great battle" - he probably didn't fire a single
shot. "Gandhi defeated the British Empire" - his followers probably contributed more than 90%
of the effort. Kelley writes:
[If you further research the authorship of the Declaration, you may discover that it was more
likely written by Thomas Paine - refer to the book Thomas Paine, Author of the Declaration of
Independence by Joseph Lewis. This is further covered in an excellent book: A Personal
Declaration of Independence: To Complete the American Revolution by Paine's Torch,
available from Zeno Press, Box 170, Sedalia, CO 80135.]
In the network structure of our organization, the distinction between leader and follower
gradually disappears. In a network we are all peers.
The great disparity between the apparent power of the leader and that of the follower in
hierarchical structures is partially due to the hierarchy itself, and partially due to the immaturity
of the followers. As we mature we become less comfortable at the bottom or in the middle of
hierarchies. As we mature and become more conscious, we learn to think for ourselves and we
become more capable of leading ourselves. In our organization everyone becomes a leader.
But I haven't even come close to doing justice to the importance of The Power of Followership
by Robert Kelley. Whether you're in a "leader" or a "follower" position, Kelley's book is must
reading and can help you increase your personal power phenomenally.
The book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey contains some
very powerful principles and practices of self-management.
The elements of organization and management are further covered in Reports #30A: The Power
in the Details and #30B: The Missing Function, and additional reports to be written.
Setting Goals. The most powerful and effective way to set goals that I know of is to make
choices for the future. In a sense it is the creation of the future in the mind in the present. The
choices generate a creative tension between the future and the present. The creative tension acts
like a magnet which draws the present into the chosen future. You set it up so the path of least
resistance leads from the present to the realization of the choices you've made. How to do this
described in the book The Path of Least Resistance by Robert Fritz.
Health and fitness. Important elements of maturity, covered in Report #09: How to Achieve
Superhealth.
Quality. The idea of increasing quality in the world was inspired by Philip B. Crosby's book
Quality is Free. He was largely responsible for initiating a "quality revolution" in ITT,
beginning in 1967. If a quality revolution can be created in a large corporation, maybe we can
use that as a model for creating a quality revolution in the world at large. If enough individuals
increase the quality of their lives the result will be a higher quality world.
Crosby defines quality as "conformance to requirements." Each individual can define a set of
ideal personal life requirements, covering areas such as self-esteem, health, fitness,
relationships, sex, career, influence, finances, freedom, happiness, etc. Insofar as your actual
life circumstances conform to your requirements, you have created a quality life. To increase
the quality of your life, you improve aspects of your life, as necessary, so they approach or
reach your ideal requirements. As you advance, you would probably also raise some of your
requirements.
At a more profound level, our emphasis on quality was inspired by Robert M. Pirsig's Zen and
the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, the second half of which is devoted to the Question: What
is quality? Is quality what you like? Or is it what the "authorities" like? Can quality be
defined? Can anyone know quality? Is quality what is beautiful? Is esthetics (a branch of
philosophy) an attempt to define quality? Does the worth or value of something reflect its
quality? Is quality part of matter, part of mind, or outside both mind and matter? Do different
people see quality differently? If so, why? Can two or more people agree on quality? If not,
why not?
About 2,500 years ago Lao Tzu, a Chinese philosopher, wrote the Tao Te Ching. "Tao" is
translated as "the way." Pirsig speculates by substituting "quality" for "tao." Could quality be
another word for "the way" we've been looking for?
Actually, a quality revolution has already been brought about in the major companies of a
whole country, namely Japan. Two Americans played pivotal roles: W. Edwards Deming and
Joseph M. Juran. Deming is the better known and could be described as "the father of the
Japanese Quality Revolution." Deming's definition of quality is essentially "continuous
improvement in all areas in all respects." The Japanese use one word to encapsulate this
concept - KAIZEN.
If a quality revolution could occur in the main businesses of an entire country, then it should be
possible to bring about a quality revolution in more countries and in wider aspects in addition to
business - GLOBAL KAIZEN.
Semantics. In his book Word Controlled Humans: A Brief History, John Harland writes:
"THE FORK IN THE ROAD
Words can be used to tell others what an individual perceives; they can also be used to override
perception, condition or destroy thought, and control humans. When the first trails were being
made in the expanding growth of conscious ideas, there was a fork in the road of possibilities.
The majority of humans turned off in a direction that has now been made into a broad highway.
Nature's method of making individual perception a major factor affecting survival was the way
rejected; acceptance of the individual by a word-conditioned group was made the dominant
requirement affecting the individual's survival. As I see it, the fork we have taken can lead only
to human extinction or biological regression; the other could have led to a further evolutionary
advance. I want to contrast the two directions, recommend the other fork, and set forth a
procedure for getting over to it." [emphasis added]
Words are tools. Like with many tools (using the word in a wide sense), we have a basic
choice: either we control them, or they control us. The first choice is that of the sovereign
individual. The second is that of the slave. Words are also used to brainwash slaves into
believing they are "free."
If you operate on the basis that a word-created group masquerading as "government" owns
"your" life - they can draft you into their army and kill you in their war - then you're a slave. If
you believe this group owns "your" body - they dictate what you may or may not put into
"your" body - then you are a slave. If you believe this group owns "your" mind - they force you
into their "schools" for brainwashing - then you are a slave. If you believe this group has the
right to "your" property - taxes, eminent domain, confiscation - then you are a slave.
Territorial gangsters are individuals who use force, fraud, violence, and threat of violence to
claim "jurisdiction" (so-called) over a territory and the people who happen to be there, and to
live like parasites or cannibals off the production of their victims. The primary weapon these
territorial gangsters use to control, dominate, and suck you dry is not the gun; it's the word.
First they brainwash you into believing that their fancy titles - "King," "Queen," "President,"
"Authority," etc. - give them a (magical) status so they can lord it over you. Then they
brainwash you that because of their (magical) status, their word is also special and magical and
is "the law" (so-called). If you believe them you become their slave.
When territorial gangsters want you, your life, your mind, your body, or your property, they
don't at first come at you with a gun; they send you words on paper. The word is their primary
weapon. They only send a policeman with a gun if you repeatedly ignore or disobey their word.
If you want to escape their slavery you have to reject their words. If you continue to subject
yourself to their words you will remain a slave.
The primary power of the territorial gangster is the word. I don't care how much mental effort
you have to put into grasping this, but you have to do it. John Harland's book Word Controlled
Humans is described as follows:
"The processes that turn individual humans into monstrous group organisms is the significant
aspect of history on which this book focuses. "Civil" and "religious" groups, growing into
powers by destruction of individual souls and control of individual will, receive the same
examination - with no glorified generalities glossing over the horror that sharp focus reveals.
Concerned primarily with the word conditioning that now dominates America and Europe, this
work highlights the need to first remove the obstructions from our own eyes - before trying to
correct the faults of others. The history and current practices in our own conditioning are
examined from a new perspective. No issues are dodged...
This is a book for those who want to be individuals. There is none of the usual summing up that
"we, as a group" should take some vague corrective action. Instead, a clear possibility for
individuals to take effective action is spelled out in precise detail."
You also need to read Robert J. Ringer's Restoring The American Dream, Chapter 8: "Keeping
It All in Place." I don't care how many times you have read this chapter, but if you want to
cease being a slave you have to grasp how you've been enslaved by words - including the words
"government" and "country." You have to understand that political tyrannies are kept in place
primarily by words and only secondarily by guns. And you have to invest the mental effort to
find out which words and why.
Semantics is further covered in Report #50A: Semantic Rigidity, Flexibility, and Freedom, and
subsequent reports to be written. Also relevant to the element of semantics are Discourse of
Voluntary Servitude, The Constitution of No Authority, and Report #07A: The Anatomy of
Slavespeak.
The book Awaken the Giant Within by Anthony Robbins has a very informative chapter on the
power of words.
In my opinion, the biggest leap forward in the growth of human maturity will occur when
individuals become aware of how their minds have been enslaved by the words of territorial
gangsters and how these words are used to, "override perception, condition or destroy thought,
and control humans."
One
basic
truth can
be used as
a foundation for
a mountain of lies,
and if we dig down deep
enough in the mountain of lies,
and bring out that truth, to set it
on top of the mountain of lies; the entire
mountain of lies will crumble under the weight of
that one truth, and there is nothing more devastating to a
structure of lies than the revelation of the truth upon which
the structure of lies was built, because the shock waves of
the revelation of the truth reverberate, and continue to
follow, awakening even those
people who had no
desire to be
awakened
to the
truth.
- Delamar Duverus
(Quoted in Behold a Pale Horse by Milton William Cooper.)
Individual Sovereignty. Our Code of Basic Principles For Civilization reflects individual
sovereignty - see Report #01: Introductory Freedom Guide. Individual sovereignty is further
discussed in Report #04: How to Find Out Who You Are.
What do you think are the implications of individual sovereignty? Could this be the "ONE
BASIC TRUTH?" Could it even mean that, from a functional point of view, every individual
could or should regard himself or herself as the center of the universe? What will happen to
political institutions when a critical mass of individuals discover that they are individually
sovereign?
If you haven't yet discovered that you are a sovereign, individual, does this mean that you are
automatically the slave of something outside yourself - by your own choice, even if unwitting -
or simply by default?
Freedom. Many freedom-lovers learn a few things about freedom. At some point they decide
that their view of freedom is "absolute truth." They form or join a group of likeminded
freedom-lovers with the purpose to convert the world to their view of freedom. A mature
approach to freedom is that there will always be more to learn about freedom. To regard any
view of freedom as the "final word," is to arrest your development in this vital maturity element
at that point. Maybe it's necessary to continuously free yourself from your own view of
freedom! See Reports #05: How to Discover Your Freedom and #05A: The nature of Freedom.
Philosophy. Philosophy needs to to be re-evaluated, re-integrated, and reformulated by free
sovereign individuals who are sophisticated in semantics.
The most important result to be achieved is the formulation of a set of values - as mature as
possible - and the development of the means to effectively disseminate these values. Here is my
crude beginning:
Our Code of Basic Principles For Civilization (see Report #01) is based on such a set of values.
The first four items above can be condensed as: Respect others, their property, and their
choices.
This is the beginning of the branch of philosophy called Ethics - the values that result in
harmonious interaction. We also need to examine Epistemology (how we know), Ontology
(what exists), and Cosmology (the nature of the universe and its creatures). Semantics could be
regarded as a branch of epistemology.
Psychology. We need "Maturity Centers" where the most effective techniques such as Neuro-
Linguistic Programming and Idenics can be taught and applied. People need to learn the most
effective techniques for intelligence increase. People need to learn thinking skills and emotional
mastery. Anthony Robbins, author of Unlimited Power and Awaken the Giant Within, has
created a substantial and profitable business marketing success techniques, all of which could
also be called "maturity techniques." His business can be used as a model for launching
"Maturity Centers."
Economics. We need sound free-market alternatives to political monopoly currencies and
banking. We need the kind of attitude towards money suggested by Douglas Casey in his book
Crisis Investing for the Rest of the Nineties. We need to bring about a huge shift of resources
from the public and private sectors into the real, true, or pure free market - commonly called the
"underground economy" or the "black market." We need to learn to operate in the free market
while avoiding the territorial gangsters.
Many of us have programs in the brain about money that hold us back. To achieve ultimate
success, we need healthy attitudes toward money. Let me quote Douglas Casey:
"Attitudes toward money are a psychological watershed that reflect on every aspect of
life."
"...[M]oney as a moral good, representing all the good things in life you want to have,
do, and provide for others."
"Insofar as you spend the days of your life working for it, money represents
concentrated life."
The subject of financial well-being is covered in more detail in Report #13A: The Millionaire's
Secret.
Politics. Politics is probably the element in which most people are most immature. I propose
a simple yardstick for maturity in politics: the extent of institutionalized coercion. I describe
coercion as the initiation of force, fraud or violence by some against others, without the consent
of the recipients; the use of force or threat to overwhelm the will of another. Coercion is
essentially the use of brute force. As Mao said, political power comes from the barrel of a gun.
By this measure, the highest degree of political maturity in America was achieved in 1776 with
the Declaration of Independence. Since then it's all been downhill.
Practically every law passed in America increases the degree of institutionalized coercion, and
is a downhill step towards immaturity. Consider the possibility that the more coercive or violent
the political system becomes, the more immature, corrupt, and criminal the people it draws into
its positions of power. The more laws that are passed, the more actions become defined as
"crimes," sometimes irrespective of whether these actions are harmful or not. Also, the more
laws that are passed, the more harmful acts by government immaturity agents against innocent
victims are "legalized."
As the political system becomes more coercive, violent, and immature, the "crime rate" rises.
Apart from more and more harmful actions being defined as "crimes," the coercion and
violence of government begets more coercion and violence in society generally.
Our solution to this mighty problem - or great opportunity! - is covered in detail in the many
other reports available here.
The following is extracted from The Arizona Republic, of January 7, 1994, under the heading:
"OUTRAGEOUS DECEPTION - Radiation secrets":
"Babies, retarded children, pregnant women and sick men were turned into guinea pigs by their
own government.
Here in the nation built on respect for individual rights. Here in a country governed by a
Constitution carefully crafted to protect the governed from the excesses of government.
Is this the land of the mad scientist and the home of the dupe? Is this the kind of place where
retarded boys are fed radioactive milk by researchers who cynically refer to them as the
"science club"? Where pregnant women are injected with radioactive iron courtesy of a federal
grant? Where newborns are given radioactive iodine in an effort to find a test for thyroid
disease? Where laboratory walls are impregnated with radioactive cobalt and cesium so the
effects can be measured on unwitting cancer patients?
In a 1950 memo, one of the researchers said critics might find "a little of the Buchenwald
touch" if they knew of the radiation experiments on an unwitting population. Radiation
biologist Joseph G. Hamilton urged the Atomic Energy Commission "for both political and
scientific reasons to secure what data can be obtained by using large monkeys."
If you study the AIDS exposé in Report #09A: AIDS - Bad Science or Hoax?, you might come
to the conclusion that what governments are doing in respect of "AIDS" is mass genocide.
"The primary reason why the individual citizens of a country create a political structure is a
subconscious wish or desire to perpetuate their own dependency relationship of childhood.
Simply put, they want a human god to eliminate all risk from their life, pat them on the head,
kiss their bruises, put a chicken on every dinner table, clothe their bodies, tuck them into bed at
night, and tell them everything will be allright when they wake up in the morning.
This public demand is incredible, so the human god, the politician, meets incredibility with
incredibility by promising the world and delivering nothing. So who is the bigger liar? The
public? Or the "godfather"?
This public behavior is surrender born of fear, laziness, and expediency. It is the basis of the
welfare state as a strategic weapon, useful against a disgusting public."
Religion. According to Overstreet, about 15 centuries ago there was a great religious
controversy. The chief spokesman for one side was Augustine, who claimed that humans
inherited evil. The main proponent for the other side was Pelagius, who held that evil was not
inherited. Augustine won and Pelagius was declared a heretic. Hence the doctrine that humans
are basically evil.
Consider that this doctrine might be a psychologically crippling and debilitating brain program
or "curse." According to Overstreet, Jesus of Nazareth tried to induce his followers into greater
maturity: "Here was a mature man's declaration that the way for a human being to save himself
is that of his growing into the fullness of his powers - and into knowledge that the greatest of
these powers is love."
According to John Harland's Word Controlled Humans, about a hundred years before the
Declaration of Independence a great advance in religious maturity occurred:
"...Roger Williams... declared that every individual's view about the universal creative
intelligence was a matter of conscience. He proclaimed that no one could have any position of
"authority" over what another "should" believe. He established the first Baptist church within
the area that was later to be designated the United States.
Each individual Baptist church was conceived as being composed simply of those with like
beliefs who voluntarily came together; the church had no "authority" over its individual
members; the pastor of each had no "authority"; he was chosen and/or "ordained" by those who
wanted him to conduct the services; there was no infant baptism; membership in the church was
a voluntary decision of those old enough to think for themselves and make their own decisions.
This would become the non-Catholic church that was chosen by the greatest number of people
in what would be called the United States..."
In boosting one's religious maturity I suggest that one should consider the opposite of every
argument. To expose oneself to a wide range of arguments and to open one's mind to new
information, I propose the following reading list: The Bible by various authors, The Origin of
Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes, The Varieties of
Religious Experience by William James, The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors or Christianity
before Christ by Kersey Graves, Twilight of the Idols and The Antichrist by Friedrich
Nietzsche, The Jesus Hoax by Phyllis Graham, and Atheism: The Case Against God by George
H. Smith.
The development of the motor car could also serve as an analogy for the growth of maturity.
Early cars had relatively few elements and functions and performed poorly by modern-day
standards. As the car became more sophisticated, more elements and functions were
incorporated and functions were better integrated, leading to improved performance. In the
most modern cars, computer functions have been added to improve function-integration. From
the hindsight of the modern car it's easy to see the missing elements or functions in the Model-T
Ford. From a "Model-T-perspective" it is difficult to envisage the elements and functions
that need to be added to transform the Model-T into a modern car.
By surveying a very wide range of the best suggestions of our most advanced thinkers (past and
present) it's possible to come up with a list of elements where we need to boost our maturity. By
applying our imagination and other mental faculties, we further expand our list. This is
essentially how the Model-T developed (or matured) into the modern car.
The power of the expanded maturity concept comes from the incessant, intense, and never-
ending focus on finding ALL the elements where maturity needs to be boosted. All other
success approaches I know of are partial and usually lead to failure, sometimes to ordinary or
partial success, and very seldom to spectacular success.
Other Elements
There are other areas of life where maturity needs to be boosted, such as Science, Technology,
Ecology, Agriculture, Architecture, etc. The methods suggested in this report can be applied in
all these areas.
What's Missing?
This is a request to all readers. What do I need to change or add to make this report more
powerful and effective?
Priorities
1. The first priority for those who wish to boost maturity is to boost their own maturity.
2. The second priority is to learn how to assist others to boost their own maturity.
3. The third priority is to assist others to boost their own maturity.
4. The fourth priority is to induce others to assist others to boost their own maturity.
Much of what is generally known as "common sense" can be described as heuristics that were
developed by applying steps 1-6 above, for example, "If you kick a stone you hurt your foot."
You can boost your maturity considerably by learning from others. Because of writing and
other forms of recording information and communication, many experiences of others are
available to you. To avail yourself of this store of knowledge you need to open your mind to
new information.
Another method you can use to boost your maturity is to find a wise mentor who serves as a
provider of practical wisdom. You can also establish a buddy relationship and assist one
another. You can go further and establish a network of people, each of whom informs the others
when they come across useful information that is not generally known.
"Heuristic" Defined
Heuristics play a central role in my formula for boosting maturity. A heuristic is a rule of
thumb, a method or procedure based on common sense, a general principle that that is roughly
correct. The word "heuristic" comes from the Latin heuristicus and Greek heuriskein meaning
to discover. It is akin to the Old Irish word fuar meaning I found. A heuristic is a self-educating
technique using feedback to improve performance. The basic formula for boosting maturity -
steps 1-6 above, is an example of a heuristic procedure.
Another definition of heuristic is cognitive link between action and result. We mail out
thousands of sales letters every week. From experience we've learnt that a particular sales letter
to a particular kind of mailing list yields a 2% response. On average, if we mail to 100 people,
two will buy. "2%" is a cognitive link between action (mailing) and result (orders). It's a rule of
thumb or a heuristic.
In yourself, which of these three can you change most easily? Over which do you have most
control? In my opinion, you can change your actions much more easily than your beliefs,
thoughts, and emotions. This leads to a fundamental heuristic:
TO BOOST YOUR MATURITY, CHANGE YOUR BEHAVIOR WHENEVER THE
RESULTS ARE UNSATISFACTORY
In moving on to the second priority: learning how to assist others to boost their maturity,
consider again the classification of human behavior:
You may think that in order to change the behavior of others, all you have to do is to provide
them with facts, scientific evidence, logical explanations, and rational formulas so they will
understand and change. This approach is based on the fallacious assumption that it is easier to
change beliefs and emotions than actions. If you find it easier to change your own actions
compared to your beliefs and emotions, then how can you expect it to be otherwise for others?
This leads to another heuristic:
[Acknowledgment: The above heuristics were partly derived from material provided by Clear
Purpose Management, Inc. of Englewood, Colorado.]
Most of the undesirable results or consequences in the world - war, inflation, depression, crime,
unemployment, poverty, famine, homelessness, drug addiction, fraud, coercive government,
terrorism, pollution, corruption, bank failures, etc. - can be ascribed to the above eight
heuristics.
I further speculate that, loosely speaking, three such quantum success jumps could occur: (1)
from pre-success to ordinary success; (2) from ordinary to spectacular success; and (3) from
spectacular success to ultimate success.
The three levels of success: ordinary, spectacular, and ultimate are analogous to a car with three
gears and a stick shift. Ordinary success is like first gear; spectacular success like second gear;
and ultimate success like third or top gear. Pre-success is like neutral. A quantum success jump
is analogous to shifting gears.
Moreover, I speculate that these quantum success jumps occur when we reach a critical level of
maturity in a critical number of elements.
What's interesting about this is that I've been involved in self-improvement and self-
actualization activities for 25 years. Nobody ever said to me, "Listen, you have to do something
about developing your natural voice."
Dr. Cooper describes success as "becoming the best person you can possibly be." Success has
to do with achieving goals, performing tasks that satisfy requirements, being healthy, happy,
loving, rich, famous, etc. - according to your own criteria. Success and voice quality are related.
In the area of voice quality I've suffered from a blind spot all my life. A blind spot is an area
where you don't see. It is a "nothing" which is by nature invisible to you. The term "blind spot"
itself suffers from "blind spottedness." It doesn't include "deaf spot." Regarding my voice, I
have actually suffered from a "deaf spot."
Very few people know that for optimum health they can use the sense of smell, for naturally
occurring nutrients, to select the food their bodies need most at any particular time (see Report
#09: How to Achieve Superhealth). This indicates a further aspect of "blind spottedness."
Consider the following:
see - blind
hear - deaf
smell - ?
What is the missing word? Do you know? In the area of smell we have a "blind spot" we are so
"blind" to, that we don't even know the word to describe it. Does any reader know the missing
word?
Well, I'll tell you the missing word: "anosmic." Someone who suffers loss or impairment of the
sense of smell is anosmic. The noun describing the condition is "anosmia." The person with the
condition is called an "anosmatic." There is also a medical term that specifically describes the
inability to smell food: "anosmia gustatoria."
And to become aware of our blind spots may be very difficult. As Butler Shaffer said:
"We are unwilling to turn our mind back upon itself - like a mirror facing another mirror - and
let it examine itself! That terrorizes the hell out of us, because to do so will call into question all
the silly little games we have made up with which to amuse ourselves and, more importantly,
will reveal to ourselves that all of the cherished values and institutions for which we have been
willing to make our personal lives miserable, were nothing more than made up games!" (in a
talk presented to the Albert Jay Nock Forum, Long Beach, CA on December 1, 1987).
Question Everything
It's possible that, rather than having to boost a large number of parts, factors, or elements of
maturity to a critical level in order to make a quantum success jump, you merely have to
develop or acquire a single ability that transforms you from an "immaturity cripple" into a
"maturity-booster." If there is such a single ability I propose as the leading candidate: the
willingness and ability to question everything.
Our sense organs can only perceive over limited ranges. Sounds occur that we cannot hear. Our
senses may deceive us. Sometimes we see what we want to see. Professional magicians can
deceive our senses with consummate ease. In addition, our sense perceptions are converted into
mental images in our brains. These mental images may be further distortions of our perceptions.
So, what about the concept of "truth?"
(b) Because of the recency of the evolution of human consciousness, most human organisms
have not yet developed the means to determine their optimum ingestion of information.
(c) Human organisms require external intervention to rediscover how to use their sensory
means to determine their optimum nutrition. They also require external intervention to optimize
their ingestion of information. In accordance with axioms 2 and 4, such intervention is most
effective when based on voluntary cooperation and reduced to the appropriate minimum.
Speculation 6: Action Precedes Development
For optimum human maturity development it is necessary to provide human organisms with
opportunities and incentives to take actions highly likely to produce beneficial results, including
maturity development in some or all maturity elements. In accordance with axioms 2 and 4,
such intervention is most effective when based on voluntary cooperation and reduced to the
appropriate minimum.
The immaturity cripple may be blocked from further development by factors such as unjustified
arrogance or pride; closed-mindedness; plain ignorance or stupidity; "paradigm paralysis"
(inability to shift from one paradigm to another); blind spots; poverty; famine; intellectual
isolation; "unreality addiction"; being a "true believer"; cultural, philosophical, religious, or
political brainwashing; etc.
Some people get stuck by "conversion" into a particular branch, cult, or movement of
philosophy, psychology, religion, or politics. They perceive this movement as "having all the
answers." During their initial involvement with the movement (and possibly for several years)
the "converted" may experience a marked increase in maturity in some aspects of life. A
marginal utility heuristic may apply: after a while the benefit derived from being involved in
the movement declines in comparison to the money, time, and effort invested in continuing in
the movement. Eventually the "converted" may get stuck because of the limitations of whatever
movement they are involved in, and derive no further development towards maturity. A sane
strategy in this respect is to move from movement to movement, taking, using, and applying
from each whatever you can to boost your maturity.
In much of human activity there is a tendency for people to get preoccupied with the means
while losing sight of the ends. People eat and drink for for the short-lived pleasure of
stimulation (and die of heart attacks, strokes, or cancer in their youth or prime), rather than for
the enduring pleasure of superb health; eating becomes more important than health and
survival. The car tends to become more important than the destination. We developed emotions
and thoughts as means to guide our actions to produce the ends we want. But many of us
become slaves to our emotions and thoughts. We develop institutions as means to produce the
ends we want. Instead we tend to become slaves of institutions that often produce the opposite
of what they're supposed to - like government. For example, government currency systems
supposed to produce monetary stability, produce inflation instead.
The preponderance of means over ends is a common thread that runs through most immaturity.
The antidote is the willingness and ability to question everything, particularly all the means
we develop.
However, the very suggestion that change is necessary tends to make people wrong. My saying
that maturity needs to be boosted in the world automatically makes people wrong. How to
resolve the dilemma? The very fact that someone agrees to work with me to boost maturity in
the world means he or she accepts as a first priority to boost their own maturity. This opens the
door for me to assist that person. We have an agreement to assist one another to help boost the
maturity of each. The agreement could be limited to certain maturity elements. In respect of
those elements we could operate out of a context of identifying rightness and building on that
rightness.
To escape the "right-wrong" pitfall, We say: "Try playing with my toys; you might like them."
This is a general heuristic:
Now it seems that I need to learn to find out what's right about people and how to build on these
rightnesses or strengths. What's right about us humans generally?
1. We have become the dominant species on earth because of our tool-using ability,
intelligence, consciousness, reason, communication abilities, adaptability, and ability to
change and control our environment.
2. We have mastered nature to the extent that in several parts of the world many of us live
and travel in safety and comfort, without lacking any physical necessities of life.
3. Some of us know that because we control the energy that animates our bodies and
minds, and because we are conscious, we are free to choose our actions. We can choose
any action which we are physically capable of performing. Of course, we are not free to
choose the consequences of our actions.
4. Every day practically all of us take actions that predictably produce the results or
consequences we want. The reason we can choose and take actions that produce the
results we want is that we have cognitive links between actions and consequences.
These cognitive links can be expressed in the form of heuristics like, "If under
conditions 'C' I perform action 'A' then the result 'R' occurs 'P' percent of the time."
5. Many of us perform multitudes of actions based on heuristics that work, producing the
results we want. The very fact that we are alive demonstrates this.
Humility
At this point, in accordance with the we-don't-have-all-the-answers perspective, we need to
humbly consider the possibility that the expanded maturity concept, heuristics, and
speculations represent only a small fraction of the "1,000 keys" necessary to significantly boost
maturity. Any missing keys are "nothings" by nature, invisible to us who don't know (and don't
know we don't know) about keys we have not yet conceived. Humility is almost certainly one
of the keys.
Now we can step back and ask, "So, what is the function of our organization?" Clearly, it is to
bring about the explosive growth of the most positive results produced by the most potent
maturity boosters in the world. We need to become a "meta-maturity-booster," so to speak.
What might be the requirements for this to come about?
1. This and other reports need to be improved to the point that they will impress significant
individual maturity boosters so they will want to cooperate and work with us.
2. We need to develop marketable products and services and viable methods for marketing
and distributing them.
3. Our personnel need to improve to the point where their personal lives reflect a high
level of maturity in most or all respects.
4. We need to incorporate the most advanced organization technology to serve as a
vanguard institution of service, quality, and maturity.
5. We need to disseminate a wide range of maturity-boosting information, breakthroughs,
and new developments. Our information needs to be mass-marketed.
6. Other media - computer networks, radio, and TV - need to be utilized for mass-
marketing maturity-boosting information.
7. We need to deliver certain maturity-boosting services, for example, Win Wenger's
intelligence-increasing methods.
8. We need to expand worldwide, providing products and services in all major languages.
9. Maturity-boosting products and services need to become available to the poorest and
most disadvantaged people all over the world. (This needs to be done in a cost-effective
and profitable manner.)
10. Political, legal, economic, monetary, education, health, and welfare systems that inhibit
individual opportunity need to be ignored, improved, bypassed, eliminated, replaced,
and/or transformed.
Mass Marketing
The single most vital key to our success is mass marketing technology. Two centuries ago, a
philosopher like Voltaire could have a tremendous influence on millions of people. He wrote,
published, and distributed pamphlets to a world hungry for his information. He didn't have
much competition. It wasn't very difficult for him to achieve mass marketing. And mass
marketing of ideas did play a crucial role in bringing about both the French and American
revolutions...
Today, we live in a very different world in which we are bombarded with far more information
than we can handle. The competition for attention is frightening. In order to achieve the mass-
marketing of maturity development, the marketing effort itself needs to be at the appropriate
maturity level to reach our best minds.
Orders of Difficulty
"Ideas are a dime a dozen" is a common cliché. Sometimes an idealist gets a brilliant idea. He
writes a book about it, expecting that people will buy the book and the world will change. He or
she gets disillusioned if this fails to happen.
In order for the world to change a sequence needs to occur: idea --> product --> marketing -->
application. This could be called the free-enterprise sequence of change.
There is also a statist sequence of change: idea --> law --> punishment. If people perceive it to
be in their interest they will follow the law; if not, they won't. Sometimes the statist sequence
provides economic opportunities to provide goods and services to those who don't want to
follow the law. Lawyers and accountants sometimes serve those who don't want to pay taxes.
Drug merchants serve drug users at greater profit to themselves than there would be in a free-
enterprise economy. The statist sequence may also bring about unintended consequences, such
as drug users stealing, robbing and murdering to acquire the drugs they crave.
The following table approximates the relative importance and value of the elements of the free-
enterprise sequence of change:
Obviously, this is a rough guess and will vary greatly from instance to instance. But it provides
certain perspectives. An idea may be useless if you can't turn it into a product. In other words,
it's 100 times as easy to come up with a good idea as it is to develop the idea into a marketable
product - or, out of every 100 good ideas, only one gets developed into a marketable product. A
product is useless if you can't market it. The effort in developing successful marketing for a
product may be a hundred times more difficult than developing and producing the product
(10,000 units). And even if you market a product in great numbers, few people may use it. The
effort to get an idea applied may be a million times greater than the effort to generate the idea.
Of ideas generated and suggested, it could be that only one in a million gets successfully
implemented. Also, to get one person to implement an idea, you might have to sell the product
that conveys the idea to 100 people.
In Conclusion
The function of our organization can be encapsulated in a heuristic formula:
"Primitive psychology, in spite of its enormous, state-supported bureaucracy and its priesthood
mystique, has produced no verifiable theory for explaining human behavior nor any methods
for solving the classic problems of human society - crime, conflict, alienation, prejudice,
stupidity, boredom, aggression, unhappiness, and philosophic ignorance about the meaning of
life...
If we can imagine an anthropological report about homo sapiens written by extra-terrestrial
scientists from a more advanced civilization, we can assume that humanity's inability to solve
its psychological, social and ecological problems or to provide answers to basic cosmological
questions (e.g. why are we here and where are we going?) would lead to the conclusion that
homo sapiens is a species capable of very limited robot-activity and that Intelligent life has not
yet evolved on this planet."
Leary postulates eight neural brain circuits we need to successively activate in order to mature.
Below is my oversimplified and abbreviated version of the eight neurological circuits, as I
interpret them:
According to Leary, homo sapiens as a society is stuck at circuit four. The robot-authoritarians
of the fourth circuit will do anything to keep people at large from activating their higher
circuits. I quote from Neuropolitics:
I wonder if the AIDS hoax - see Report #09A: AIDS - Bad Science or Hoax? - has anything to
do with the unconscious determination of our robot-authoritarians to impose sexual repression
at all costs. The AIDS hoax is perpetuated through mass brainwashing. According to Leary:
"Brainwashing is happening to all of us all of the time. Knowledge of brain function is our only
protection against it. The solutions to our predicament are neurological. We must assume
responsibility for our nervous systems. Our robothood can remain static if we endlessly repeat
the imprints of infancy to adolescence, or it can be drastically altered by brainwashers without
our consent, or we can take control of our nervous systems. If we don't assume this personal
responsibility, somebody else will; if we do take over the control board, we can each be any
person we want to be."