ROADMAP TO “A NEWER WAY OF THINKING” (ANWOT)

If Mankind is to survive, we must develop a new manner of thinking … Einstein

This stren provides an introduction to, The Practical Person’s Guide to Feeling Good and Doing Good through A Newer Way of Thinking. By developing thought control, you may wisely direct and produce your own life’s experience.
 
            I invite you to come with me on a journey.  If you invest your time and energy, it will be one of the best investments you’ve ever made.  Since I really want your company, it’s only fair that I first let you know where we’re going and how we’ll get there.  The destination is mental freedom with a major goal of feeling good and “doing good.”  Along the way, you will acquire a newer way of thinking with a language somewhat modified from your present one, recognize new paths to direct your energy, enjoy some new wisdom(s), and acquire some very worthwhile friends, beginning with your self.  Others have called this journey “Becoming One’s Own Person” (BOOP).   It is the mental process of freeing your thinking from domination by your genes and nurturers and acquiring the wisdom to wisely master your own dwelling.   I have been collecting glowing reports from many people who’ve ventured ahead, put their insights together, and now I aim to make the best roadmap available.  The journey is a process of taking ownership of your thinking, and thereby your feelings and actions so that you rather than some “others” direct your life’s experience. 

            Permit me to use an analogy to create a picture in your mind that will help you see where I’m going.  Consider the spaceships that have successfully reached the moon.  A rocket is fired with a blast and goes soaring towards its destination.  In a short time, the first stage rocket is jettisoned.  The second stage carries it well along into space whereupon it is also discarded and a third stage rocket fires, carrying the “command module” to its destination.  This “motion picture” of the rocket launch provides me considerable insight into the life journey we humankind experience.

            The first stage of our life is dictated by our genetic inheritance.  Nature launches us with a predetermined set of traits and characteristics.  It is an awesome feat; we have complexity greater than any other earth being.  Far more than the 9 months of our “making,” the wisdom within our genes is the outcome of billions of years of development.  Immediately after launch, a second stage comes to life.  A multitude of nurturers provide directions.  They literally make us what we are as they force-feed us a language and a set of rules to govern our behavior.  These early directors would master how we act and think through our entire life’s journey, as is the case with other earth beings.  Many years pass before we are far enough along that the sparks of the third stage begin to flicker.  Yes, the third stage is our opportunity to take control of our own life’s experience.  Whereas the first stage is “Master Nature” and the second stage is “Master Nurture,” the third stage is “Self-Mastery.”    The roadmap I have constructed offers guidance for this third stage of self-mastery, the process of becoming what we choose to become.

            While we share similarities with the spaceship analogy, there are important differences.  Nature is too efficient to throw away its early boosters.  The dictatorship of master nature and master nurture continue with our own self-mastery in a joint effort throughout our lifetime.  They remain faithful to their own perspectives, jealously rule their own kingdom, and are more than willing to dominate all.   They speak their own language and regularly make their demands known to our conscious awareness by messengers that we call “thoughts” and “thinking”.  While they may be supportive of one another, they commonly are at odds.  Master nature and master nurture understand life from very different perspectives, and the language one speaks is often quite unintelligible to the other. 

            A second major difference is that we humans are not obligated to take control of this third emancipation phase of our life cycle.  You see, the degree of freedom we attain in the third stage is optional!  The amount of energy we invest in self-mastery is itself an act of free will.  We may, and indeed I do believe, more commonly expend our life’s energy serving the dictates of what our nature and our nurture has fated for us.  The gift we receive, like an uncut diamond, is a gift of opportunity, of potential!   Nature and nurture have set a relatively automatic course to make us who and what we are; freedom is the process of taking charge of the direction of our life’s experience.  The choice is ours – how much time and energy, and which course to pursue.  So as to clarify any doubt, I wish to emphasize that self-mastery is not simply freedom of our muscles from control by another “master,” it is the skillful use of reason by our freed will to consider life’s challenges, to create new solutions, choose among them, and act in the wise interest of ourselves and the community of which we are a part.  Self-mastery is your opportunity to become what you choose to become.        

            I hope this spaceship “picture” provides an overview of the proposed journey.  Now let us examine the roadmap more closely.  You have already reached the third stage of your life’s journey and have acquired the prerequisite skills of self-mastery.  You know how to read, have developed thinking skills, and your brain is sufficiently physically developed to be capable of learning a newer way of thinking.  Also, modern technology, near instantly, provides the collected data of recorded history and the current knowledge and wisdom of people throughout the world.   The combination of these mental skills and technology thrust upon us unprecedented power to direct our life’s experience and to even change our world, a world which nature has kept relatively constant over 4 billion years. 

            If you can read this guide, you can benefit from it.   You don’t require unusual intelligence, good connections, or money.  You need not even have good health.  There are no fees for this guide or any service offered.   I am amply rewarded by my ability to share these collected wisdoms, independent of any commitment on your part to give it a try.  Further, although the benefits may seem magical, there is absolutely no magic required!  Each step may be attained using ingredients that are already in your possession or that you can readily acquire.  The guide identifies and explains how to obtain the required ingredients.  I have written this guide for the ordinary person to provide practical understandable skills.   As you acquire and orchestrate the specific collection of strens, or strengths, empowering your newer way of thinking, you will experience the power of self-mastery and the wisdom to effectively use it.   If what I say is so, you can make this collection of skills the most important reading resource in your lifetime. 

            Should you choose to develop the skills this guide offers, I urge you to begin with the preliminary mental skills (strens) on becoming your own best friend, on growing your own “love-making factory.”  Self-endorsement is important because our genes or biologic nature predispose us to direct our energy into aggressive fight or flight behavior to get what we want.  Thereafter, our nurturers demand that we redirect physical aggression to more civilized socially tolerated mental substitutes, many of which serve us poorly.   For example, we learn to blame others, harbor resentments, and/or powerfully convert aggression towards ourselves in the mental form of guilt, shame, and self-putdowns.  We acquire the common ills of worry and excessive anxiety, depression, resentments, stress illnesses, and the like.  In our contemporary world, these inherited and acquired patterns of behavior are rarely helpful and waste our valuable energy.  To the degree we fail to teach our self to become our own best friend, we serve the enemy within that is of our very own creation.  The good news is that since we are a (I believe the) major contributor to a less than wonderful life experience, we are in the best position to make it better.  Your progression to self-mastery and ANWOT is far easier when you are a loving friend and good traveling companion to yourself.    

            Unless you’ve been fortunate enough to escape these early patterns, the efforts to become a kinder/gentler friend to your self and others is well rewarded.  You are your lifelong traveling companion.  You have immensely more dialogue within your self than all “others” combined.    It is appropriate that, as your lifelong traveling companion, you become your own best friend.  The preliminary strens develop skills in love-making, beginning with your self.   Hopefully, you have had good “loving” role models and are well advanced in this skill; if not, you really need to begin by filling your cup.      

            The stren, Your lovemaking factory - becoming a better lover shows that you can increase your lovemaking capacity.  It is followed by Emotional Self-endorsement, which emphasizes creating loving feelings, not merely loving words.  Self-endorsement and Secondary endorsement will expand your loving capacity.   You need emotional MDR’s too explains that we have a Minimum Daily Requirement (MDR) of endorsement just as good physical health has it’s minimum requirement of vitamins and minerals.  Review the skill-building strens on growing and expressing love and take from them what you can use.  Other strens provided will support being your own best friend and prepare you for the task of becoming your own person.

            While continuing to practice becoming your own best friend, you can immediately move on.   You will be introduced to the five ingredients needed to acquire the skills of self-mastery: faith in yourself to make a difference (“Yes, I can”), work, patience, direction, and risk-taking.  These ingredients are already present and/or you will be shown how to acquire what you may have in limited supply. 

            Thereafter the journey proceeds with a series of strens to add useful tools to enrich your life as you build ANWOT.  These strens will address three areas.  The first are language (vocabulary) strens.  New words are proposed to replace those of the manner of thinking directed by your earlier masters.  Vocabulary strens serve to update your mental processing, or operating system (O.S.), to be compatible with personal or self rather than “other” control, viz. nature and nurture, instinct and habit.  Our manner of thinking, and thereby feeling and acting, is guided by the words and symbols that activate what we think.  Simple substitution of alternative words for words commonly used changes the path of mental processing.  The substitute words lay new “wiring” that fosters ANWOT.  You will be provided specific words to substitute for words that primarily serve the demands of your nature (genes) and nurturers.   The words of the new language of self-mastery provide choice making, foster creative problem-solving, and get you unstuck from the other “bosses” of your life.  

            The language strens convey a basic productive insight.  The languages of our first two phases of development distort our thinking.  To the degree that we persist in using them, they are the root source of the majority of our life’s stress.  In our early years, before we have the capacity for mature thinking, our nurturers teach us using a dichotomous and prescriptive language our immature minds can “understand.”  Dichotomous means there are only two choices.  The language (or operating systems, O.S.s) of our early mental processing becomes wired to think “either … or,” “right” or “wrong,” “O.K.” or “not O.K.,” “good” or “bad,” “us” or “them,” “mine” or “not mine”, “all” or “nothing”, and so on.   This either … or manner of thinking we acquire in our native language predisposes us to deal with ourselves, and the world about us, in a competitive and usually harmful “win-lose” manner.  It is as though we assume there exists a limited quantity of good feelings in this world, and if someone else has (“wins”) them, they’re not available for our benefit.  For example: “He got the pie.”  “Who gets your love?”  Dichotomous thinking also is a major source of distorted thinking called “generalization.”  If John was cranky, he’s always a crank.”  “All people who don’t believe the way I do, the ‘right’ way, must be unworthy.”  Such thinking often leads to prejudice.  Prejudice commonly leads to hatred and using our best to do our worst.    

            A second characteristic manner of thinking acquired in our nurture stage of development is that it is prescriptive.  The immature undeveloped mind cannot reason; commands and blind obedience enforced by negative consequences are more effective.  For example, using the prescriptive “should” words common in our early nurturing leads to some form of negative consequence for not doing what “should have been done.”  Failure to adhere to the rules of authority, what “should” be, is “bad” and requires punishment – blame, shame, guilt, worry and other negative responses that often lead to depression.  “I shouldn’t look this way; I’m ashamed of myself.”  The newer descriptive vocabulary words create a “wiring” system appropriate for our self-mastery phase of development, i.e. an O.S. suitable for ANWOT.  The substitute “could” word of the self-mastery language has a problem-solving pathway: “What steps are most likely to get me where I want to go?”  Productive steps are fostered, not blame, resentments, and/or guilt.   Flexible personal problem-solving is promoted to replace the previously established prescriptive patterns of mental processing.  Some practical theory of why and how these words lead to ANWOT will be presented but the applications are simple, and they work whether or not you are interested in learning why simple changes create huge differences.

            A second series of practical strens will explain “The Mental Response Control Panel” (MRCP).  Blaming, worry, depression, and other negative patterns consume energy.  I have identified and classified the choices of mental action available to us into eight patterns.  The MRCP is a tool to recognize these eight action patterns and channel your energy to the wiser problem-solving choice.  Accurate labeling provides the “handles” that permit their redirection to most effectively attain your goals.   Fortunately, most are easily manipulated to get you what you want rather than what you don’t want.  Each choice of mental response leads to a very different outcome.  A slight modification in your thinking can make a dramatic difference in how you feel and how you act.  For example, the stren The Blaming Mental Response Pattern and related strens explain how aggression, commonly directed at yourself and/or used to blame others, is the same energy available to “aggressively” create self-endorsement and solve problems.    

            The third group of practical strens deals with basic wisdom.  Self-mastery is the power to direct our thinking and our life’s experience.  Power without wisdom may be more harmful than staying “stuck” thinking in the manner or our first life managers.  This guide contains a collection of insights gleaned through my lifetime’s study of persons who have been successful in taking control of their thinking, and thereby, their feelings and actions.  Each stren (mental skill) adds wise guidance to our power of self management.  Important life issues include: becoming our own best friend, attaining the thought control and mental freedom to wisely master our self and actively contribute as a valuable member to the larger system of which we are a part.  Strens empower our mind to make our decisions right more so than make right decisions; to grow skills in loving and forgiveness; to manage destructive aggression, worry, and anxiety.  Strens educate our will power to become our most potent weapon for mass construction (WMC).

            Unlike many guides to self-mastery, among the collection of wisdom strens, you are invited to attend to your value system.  The basis of my value system is “The Golden Rule.”  I believe this “rule” is found in each of the major religions.  Who we are is strongly related to what we stand for.  We are uniquely mental interpretive creatures.  The assumptions we make of the world about us, our belief system, powerfully influence what we do.  If you are like most, your values are largely “unexamined,” i.e., you blindly accept the values provided according to the fate of your upbringing.  Even if you have received a marvelous and adaptive value system, there is great satisfaction practicing and “owning” them as a reasoned choice of your own making, not simply following a set of values acquired through automatic uncritical acceptance of what fate has brought you.  Your conscience is largely the reflection of what you have been told by your early masters (more so nurture than nature).  You will enhance your feeling good and “doing good” as you create conscious recognition of the underlying principals on which you base your actions. 

            These three practical stren groups – vocabulary, the MRCP, and the collection of wisdom(s) -- are presented in a mixed order, giving priority to those most easily mastered and providing more immediate practical benefits.  Your application of the ANWOT skills, especially the early strens on blaming will quickly diminish the resentments that drain your energy and the self put-downs that lead to apathy and depression. 

            Practical strens provide simple what to do directions.  Theory strensexplain why and how developing ANWOT is effective.  Examples are Know your self, Know your Directors, Our Two Worlds, Thoughts and Thinking, Our Three Operating Systems, and Good Aggression.  Destructive aggression towards others and ourselves consumes much of our energy.  It is the most global unsolved problem we face.  The productive management of aggression is best attained through an understanding of the why and how of ANWOT.  For this reason, the Good Aggression theory stren is unusually comprehensive.  Put together, these theory strens create a motion picture of the development of the powers that control our life’s experience; they illustrate the process through which we may appropriately assume the position of “producer” and “director.”  These theory strens identify and describe the function of the three masters that comprise our “corporate” management.  They offer insight to the task of wise management of our associate directors as we decide what promotions and demotions are in our best interests.  As we grow in self-mastery and assume the role of chief executive officer of our life’s direction and experience, we enjoy “using our best to do our best.”   The theory strens lead to discovery and creation of new strens to add to our repertoire.  They help us to experience the fulfilling opportunity of “giving” of our self to others.

            Our manner of thinking is of global importance because it is reflected in our cultural attitudes, government, laws, politics, and the manner we express our religion.   ANWOT fosters peace-of-mind, cooperation, and constructive application of our resources, short term and long term, and for the benefit of ourselves and the global community of which we are a part.  Unless we teach ourselves ANWOT, we will continue to be the major contributors to our own individual unhappiness.  We passively will watch as our larger community drifts into destruction.   Our task is to get “unstuck” from the first two stages of our development and add “wisdom” to our third stage of self-mastery.  The millenniums of our recorded history document war after war among people, countries, and religions.  Through the power of rational thinking, humankind has reached a critical point never before experienced – we are capable of destroying everything with the mere push of a button!   This power of mass destruction is no longer restricted to one individual or group; it is rapidly expanding.  We are well beyond the bow-and-arrow stage of evolution.  Any rational person examining this phenomenon will conclude, as I, that it is only a matter of time … maybe soon, maybe not in our lifetime … that we are on a collision course to use our weapons of mass destruction.  I have hope and optimism because we also have the resources to rapidly learn to take responsibility for our destiny.  We may teach ourselves how to direct the marvelous potential available to us to attain peace-of-mind, and peace-for-humankind.   We act for our most important purpose when we first teach ourselves to feel good and “do good.”   Our greatest hope for productive solutions to the problems we observe in our community is that we first act to change our own thinking.  “Each one, teach one” has great power.

Introduce yourself to your self:

            Now to write about this force within us that makes us characteristically human, I need to use a name.  How can we acquire an important skill for that which we have not named?  What shall I call our unique personal powers?  This part of us is not “born” until years after our physical birth.  More than providing immense power and free will, it is our resource for wise direction, performing the most sophisticated function of all earthlings, present and past.  If there is a common name for this unique force, I haven’t discovered it, so I will create a special designation in this guide.  Otherwise, it will be difficult to explain the development of this “something” that can master our fate and assume a controlling role equal or superior to our first masters, nature and nurture.  It strikes me curious!   We have names for special organs like “kidney,” and special functions like “reproduction,” but why is there no commonly used designation for this powerful emerging organ-like part of “humanmind” that can direct our life’s experience? 

            Since the outcome of the process of becoming one’s own person is “self-mastery,” and this something provides us our human identity, I will represent this powerful part of our mental processing by the designation “self” in italics.  The designation for this latest developing “freedom organ” will be written separate from the usual designation of “self,” “yourself” or “ourselves,” that we commonly use to represent the combined physical and mental self in its entirety.  You might think of this powerful “reflecting” self as your “independent,” “free,” “mature,” and/or “master” self.  I suggest that you use my term “self.”   You maysubstitute any word/notation that provides a better “handle” for you to recognize this newly developing mental function within yourself.  What is important is that you have a label for this “manager of your thinking,” this source of “thought control.”   Learning starts with labeling!  I shall here identify the self’s unique capabilities:  

            self, yourself, ourselves: These are the terms we commonly use to represent all that is our physical and mental self.  When, in these papers, I use the term “yourself,” I mean what is traditionally meant.  It includes your physical self and all those mental activities (thoughts and thinking) that originate from sources outside your self and appear in your conscious awareness (for example, the urge to pee - “nature’s call,” or the thoughts that “pop into your mind” conveyed by your five senses.   

            self, your self, our self : This designation labels that special function of your mental processing system that can create and implement action, independent of the demands of your earlier masters, nature and nurture.  When I use the terms “self,” “your self,” “our self,” “self-mastery,” in italics, I am referring to the unique part of your mental activity that can reflect on yourself, including your thoughts and thinking.  The self is not present in your early life; it requires years of development after your commonly accepted physical “birthday.”  The self also requires wise nurturance to become an effective “chief executive officer” (C.E.O.) or “boss” among your other “masters.”  This self of “self-mastery” emerges from the portion of the brain that is most recent to evolve (the cortex).  Like other identified organs which have a specialized function, the self’s special function is that of abstract rational thinking, a very sophisticated form of mental processing.  Our “self organ” is capable of introspection.  It is conscious of our consciousness!  Our self manipulates thoughts and thinking, and exercises willpower to initiate action independent of prior “programs.”  The focus of this guide is the newer way of thinking (ANWOT) that provides the self “mastery.”  The new “self-organ” provides us the opportunity to become what we choose to become, to free ourselves from the destiny provided by the genes we inherit and the prescriptions of our parents, community and other external “nurturers.”  As you develop your self, you will grow your ability to feel good and “do good,” and realize many of your other goals.  You will increase your choices among alternatives; this is what is meant by “freedom.” 

            Now you may think I have been a bit grandiose, as I have stated above that you can make this the most important reading of your lifetime.   You understand that you have multiple requirements to attain physical well-being.  For example, if you have inadequate vitamin B, or too little or too much of thyroid hormone, you will experience serious physical problems.  A very small adjustment in these or any of the vital nutrients you lack is all that is required to dramatically improve your physical well-being.  Similarly, there are important basic ingredients to maximize your mental and emotional health.  It may be that you already have acquired the basic skills of well-being and you are fully satisfied with your present state.  If this is your situation, then this guide will not be your most significant past or present reading.  Would you identify what you presently consider the most helpful reading of your lifetime?  I know many will identify a religious or a similar inspirational text.  That is fine and I fully respect your choice.  If this guide does indeed provide you some vital missing ingredients that enable you to “feel more good” and “do more good,” then this guide could rate second or third, at least rate in the top five.  Wouldn’t you be satisfied with that?

            The Guide is offered as a way, as one way, not the way, to achieve what we are capable of becoming.  As there are many paths to the top of a mountain, I believe there are variations not only to the roads we may productively take but we may also differ in our preferred destinations.  Since religion is largely our collection of assumptions considerably based on faith, the Guide may be considered an expression of my “religion.”  Science provides knowledge, but the conduct of our life is primarily determined by our personal assumptions or beliefs.  The Guide accepts value in each of the great formal religions; it is not intended to proselytize or to dissuade you from whatever religious views you presently subscribe.  Indeed, the development of these strens may help you become closer to, and enrich your present religious practice.  I personally believe in tolerance and respect for all religions that show the same for others.  For the many persons who have not found any formal religion to adequately serve their needs, this reading may help you clarify the important assumptions by which you conduct your life and to enjoy the faith you will create in the personal religion of your choosing.

            If you choose to take this journey, you may elect to focus on the collection of practical “action” strens.  However, I recommend that you include the theory strens, my explanation of why and how strens work.  Practical strens emphasize “what to do” to get a desired payoff.  They work even if you don’t understand how and why.  An understanding of why and how your T.V. brings a picture of someone thousands of miles away into your living room may be useful, but the desired results come from pushing the “on” button.  You had directions in what to do, you do it, and the T.V. works.  The practical strens will contribute to your well-being even if you don’t know how and/or why.   Indeed, a favorite story is told of the grasshopper who, admiring the smooth movement of a centipede, asked, “My, how do you manage to coordinate your rows upon rows of legs as you walk?”  For the first time, the centipede turned to closely examine his rows upon rows of legs ... and he fell over, unable to walk!  You will feel good and “do good” if you skillfully apply the practical strens even if you ignore the theoretical information in the Guide.  Now in spite of this good news, I urge you to continue on and be convinced of the value of understanding why and how ANWOT works.  I endeavor to present this theory in a manner that is “practical.”  

Why Theory? 

            If practical strens explain what to do to get desired results, why is the why and how it works of any importance?  While the theory strens are not required to feel good and “do good,” the why and how explanations provide an important foundation for becoming your own person.  The why and how is the basis of your personal creativity, originality, and ownership of your actions.  You decide to what degree you choose to be a technician or a scientist.

            Practical strens improve your well-being; they don’t fully remove the limits on your own powers of initiation and self-direction.  Theory strens provide a solid foundation to wisely direct your own life’s experience as you emancipate your self from the directions of “others,” viz. genes and nurturers, as well as this guide.         

            Your genes and nurturers may have prescribed a very good set of directions for you to get along in the world.  If you are so fortunate, you may have a wonderful life experience.  You may be creative; you may receive praise for your good works.  But your life’s direction is still at the behest of some others’ will.  If you apply the directions provided in this guide’s practical strens, they will likely further increase your satisfaction.  However fulfilling, as long as you are the “muscle” following the directions provided by some “other,” you have not truly attained self-mastery.  You will be following a course like an arrow shot out of a bow.  This Guide will simply be another “archer” added to your long line of nurturers who have determined your life’s course.  This Guide is not meant to simply add to your long list of nurturers that would direct your thinking.  The desired outcomes are (1) that you transform “directions” from your genes and nurturers into information and/or knowledge for your consideration, (2) that you use your power of self-mastery to wisely validate (“valudate”) the perspectives you have passively received from “others,” and/or (3) independently confirm and/or originate your own assumptions, beliefs, and values. 

            Do you understand that self-mastery is not merely being creative and doing good?   It is the unprecedented power to change the direction of fate’s prescribed course, to plot one of our own design, to take a leadership role in our own personal destiny.  We are the first and only earth being to challenge the rules of nature (genes) and nurture. 

            Self-mastery is the acquisition of godlike powers.  Creativity, originality, and “all knowing” are qualities we attribute to God.  Through mastery of the physical sciences, we are rapidly acquiring such power.  For example, we are now altering genes, creating life “our way” by cloning, and have created the power of mass destruction, which can now be initiated at the touch of a button.  Astonishingly, these powers have been acquired in my generation!  Our Internet communication technology brings us the knowledge of recorded history and the growing knowledge and wisdom of people throughout the world, almost instantly, in our own dwelling.  The combination of self-mastery and recent technology has not only stepped up our power to change ourselves and our world, we are also making changes with dramatically accelerating speed.  In our unprecedented era of increasing power and rapid change, we would be unwise to remain habitually dependent on direction designed for constancy, stability, and power of limited consequence.

            I am enthused about the theory of ANWOT.  It offers an understanding of why we have experienced conflict individually and globally, and how we can make a difference.  ANWOT applied to our power of self-mastery offers a practical “cure” for much of our personal ills and those of our community.  The insights arising from the theory provide rushes of excitement as occurs with a new “aha” insight, a discovery and/or exploration of new territory.  My enthusiasm is what I imagine Galileo, Darwin, and Einstein experienced as they added new pieces to the puzzle of astronomy, evolution, and nuclear physics, and what you have felt on solving a riddle that challenged your mind.  Their unconventional views aroused skepticism, as will the assumptive views re ANWOT here presented.  I realize the enthusiasm of “creative insight” may occur when there is no actual practical insight.  Perhaps my practical theory is such a false start.  This is for you and others to judge.  I welcome your critical evaluation.   The stren, Practical Theory of ANWOT is an overview of a newer way of thinking.  It introduces you to the “theory” strens contained in the Guide.   

A summary of the stren, Practical Theory of ANWOT; why and how the newer way of thinking leads to self-mastery:

            Upon the unleashing of the power of the atom Einstein declared “everything is changed.”  His discovery marked the birth of a new era!  Humankind has graduated from primarily being a servant of nature and nurture to becoming their partner in determining this world’s present and future.  We now engage in a furious competitive race to control genes and clone life our way; we both expand our power for mass destruction and spread its availability.  Einstein prophetically sounded a red alert, “if mankind is to survive, we require a substantially new manner of thinking.”  We are growing our new powers of self-mastery so rapidly that the means of managing aggression provided by nature and our nurturers are no longer sufficient to sustain our well-being.  We need to develop a manner of thinking that consistently promotes personal well-being and global harmony. 

            We face a task.  Are we capable of solving it?  Faith is the first step.  “I think we can, I think we can, I think we can!”  Yes, we can! 

            Einstein’s “red alert insight” has stimulated me (1) to collect whatever wisdom others have devised that may resolve this red alert signal and (2) to organize them into an easy understood, readily expanded, format.  ANWOT has predictable characteristics.  ANWOT needs to promote cooperation, peaceful problem-solving, and “win-win” outcomes for one’s self and the larger community, short-term and long-term.  It would be so practical that some satisfying results may be rapidly attained.  It would process information to problem-solving action using “no-trial” learning (mental rehearsal) more so than “trial-and-error” learning.  ANWOT would be easily teachable, learnable, expandable, available at little or no cost, and readily transmitted by means such as the Internet or computer disk to a “friendly” location.  It would emphasize self-teaching at one’s own pace, and would be understood by the average person.  I have observed that those individuals most successful in developing ANWOT have sufficient self confidence that they are willing to risk letting go of older established thinking.  This is why I urge early attention to the practical strens on “feeling good,” on growing your skills of self-endorsement.   These preliminary strens enable us to love our self, free our thinking from outside control, and enhance our capacity to share our abundance with others.

            To the degree we assume autonomy and apply the power of self-mastery, we become responsible for our actions, and we our self must wisely decide which course is in our best interest.  As we acquire godlike power, the wisdom built into our genes by over 3 billion years of trial-and-error learning, and the blind obedience to the commands of our nurturers are no longer adequate to protect us from our self.  We are on our own!   We now decide if our power will be used to our “good” and/or our “ill.”   You will see, as the theory strens explain, nature and nurture have “parented” humankind to become independent, have great power, free will and choice-making. 

            Emancipation from fate and circumstance is a magnificent achievement, but it does not, of itself, improve our life’s experience.  Freedom provides the opportunity to make a difference, to freely choose among alternatives, for better and for worse.  With opportunity comes risk.  By its very concept, freedom to direct our life’s experience implies power without direction or wisdom.  Positive outcomes demand wise direction.  Wisdom is the responsible use of our power to create our values and to seek goals with beneficial outcomes.

            Some might conclude that we best remain dependent on nature and nurture to determine your life’s experience:

1. “masters,” once established, resist letting go or sharing power; rebellion may bring forth punishment, and/or
2. freedom lacks opportunity (consider the plight of many slaves after the Emancipation Proclamation), and/or
3. we lack sufficient wisdom to effectively challenge what has “worked” to get us this far, and/or
4. following the present script is easier, and/or
5. I’m certain you can come up with additional justification to remain passively dependent on the “programming,” i.e. the operating systems (O.S.s) nature and your nurturers have inscribed.

            “Therefore, fate and circumstance are best for me.” 

The theory strens, however, lead to the conclusion that the wiser choice is to recognize and accept the task thrust upon us.  We cannot manage our rapidly expanding explosive powers using our established “trial and error” means of management.  The O.S.s of nature and our nurture are outdated by our new weapons of mass destruction.  The ANWOT O.S. provides hope to direct our power to beneficial outcomes. 

            Our task:  The theory strens explain that we have a task that we would be very unwise to refuse.  It involves teaching ourselves “thought control” to feel good and “do good.”  The task is learning to wisely manage our power of self-mastery.  The task itself is easy, pleasant, and rewarding.  It is also onerous because failure to complete our task has grave personal and global consequences.  Individually, we forgo our opportunity to create the well-being within our capability; globally, with each tick of the clock, we passively drift into “Star Wars.”  The theory explains how we have come to this situation, and most important, it identifies what we can do to successfully fulfill our task.  The theory is quite persuasive.  I think you will agree with these assumptions if you familiarize yourself with the theory strens, “Practical Theory, an Overview,” and/or “Good Aggression.”  Here is my attempt to summarize, in a few paragraphs in this Roadmap stren, my assumptions as presented in the theory strens:

            Darwin and other naturalists have carefully documented that as earth’s creatures become more complex in structure and function, they increase their range of adaptive powers.  Nature provides all life with the means to produce energy and act.  The powers of flexibility and control increase as organisms add more “features.”  There is a progression from simpler physical means of operation (viz. light, heat, and chemical sensitive receptors, hormones, electrical nerve transmission, genetic coding) to more complex nonphysical “mental” means (viz. conscious awareness, thoughts, thinking, “will power”).   Organisms with a sufficient brain develop conscious awareness and mental problem-solving.  In organisms with a smaller brain, consciousness is the servant of its genes.  Conscious awareness enables creatures to better respond to the demands of the environment for survival.  The “perspective” of genes has been acquired through “trial and error” over millions of years.  It provides relatively automatic “instinctive” patterns for survival.  Its primary pattern has been described as “fight or flight.”  Both domination and avoidance are basic means of survival for most of earth’s creatures. 

            Life provided with more complex brains increasingly use mental processing to direct action.  Symbols, words, and language further increase problem-solving and flexible adaptive skills.   Using such mental tools, our mind creates a private “virtual reality” that is distinct from the common reality.  As the brain increases in size and maturity, thoughts expand to thinking, greater creativity and “will” power.   Creatures with larger brains require a longer time to attain mental maturity.   We humankind remain dependent on our nurturers for many years.  During this prolonged phase of our “becoming,” our nurturers lay out, or wire, our mental means of operation, just as our genes pre-wire our physical means of operation.  We acquire our “native” language.   Can you picture that during our prolonged phase of dependence and rapid learning of new skills, our mental means of operation is determined by what our nurturers “prescribe,” just as our genes prescribe our physical means of function?  Our symbols, words, language, meanings, beliefs, assumptions, culture, religion, etc. are basically replicates of those of our parents and teachers, just as our physical and behavioral characteristics are replicas of patterns determined by our genes.  

Genes physical means of function
Nurturers mental means of function

            The manner of function of “nurtured” creatures is no longer simply determined by their genetic inheritance; their nurturers’ perspective is a new traveling companion.  We are the product of our nature and nurture, of fate and circumstance.  Creatures with more sophisticated brains are guided both by what is inherited and what is “taught” by others. 

            Our uniqueness among earth’s creatures is due to the newest features of our human brain (nature’s gift of “reflective” thinking), and by the creation of sophisticated language to process information (our nurturer’s gift).  We are unique by the degree we may reflect on our thoughts and thinking, manipulate concepts independent of the directions of our genes and nurturers, challenge established patterns, and/or create and originate new patterns of action.  Using symbols, we manipulate thoughts, and make interpretations; we create and dwell in our own personal “virtual” reality, where we make private “rules,” create our own “perspective,” and may exert will power to alter the directions programmed into us by “others.”  I label this power “self-mastery” and the portion of our brain that distinguishes us from every other creature our “freedom organ.”

            Recognize the progression among earth creatures from (1) physical beings to (2) physical and mental beings, to (3) physical and mental and mental interpretive beings, to (4) physical, mental interpretive “becomings” possessing self-mastery.  [I agree with a friend’s comment that we would be more accurate to label ourselves as “becomings” rather than “beings.”]  We are the “growing tip” of this progression.  Given the means, we have discovered the power of self-mastery.  Upon tasting freedom, we lust for more.  We are all united in our common desire for freedom.  Let us cooperatively develop the means to grow it and to preserve it for our “family.”    

            Now I realize global harmony is a Herculean task beyond any individual’s means.  So, “What then does this have to do with me?”   I believe it depends on “you” because the first step is the way every journey begins.  The first step begins with teaching one’s self to apply ANWOT to feel good and “do good.”  A recent cartoon characterized current thinking.  It depicts the self-help section of a library.  An individual asks the librarian: “Where is the section on how to change others?” 

Innovation begins with theory.  Practical theory is required for wise innovation!  It is a worthy investment of our energy to build a foundation of practical theory to wisely use our recent “gift” of godlike powers.  One purpose of the Guide is to provide practical strens that improve the quality of life.  A more desirable outcome is that each reader will take ownership of their thinking and thereby feelings and behavior, and become the wise master of their own dwelling.  As self-master, skillfully apply what nature and nurture have to offer rather than “depend” on it.  

            While ANWOT sounds difficult, as will be explained, each of the skills are quite readily understood and mastered, and you will like the personal rewards.  If you choose to take in the theory strens, and my explanations are accurate, you will benefit by finding yourself in a corridor of many doors, each opening to powerful new insights.  If the theory is folly, you will waste some energy ... however; the practical strens will work as they have for others, and so can for you.  Practical theory of ANWOT, an overview, explains why we are often our own worst enemy and how we can develop ANWOT to change it.  It identifies the three masters associated with our three phases of development and the different means by which each would govern us.  Of particular importance is the self-mastery current phase, the power it has thrust upon us, and our means to wisely manage it.  Additional strens more completely describe, with examples, the theory of ANWOT:  Our Three Operating Systems; Practical Knowledge, Practical Theory; Our Two Worlds; Know Your Directors; Know Your Self; Thoughts and Thinking; and the most comprehensive theory stren, Good Aggression.   

            By updating your native language with the ANWOT mental skills, you will experience many beneficial outcomes such as those here indicated.  More specific changes are highlighted in the two page chart at the end of this Roadmap stren. 

1. As you provide your self the minimum daily requirements of self-endorsement, you will become less dependent on others for approval and enjoy giving to others the good feelings you now create in abundance.
2. You will develop a newer way of thinking, or “operating system,” that promotes love, cooperation, and problem-solving. 
3. As you substitute appropriate ANWOT words for the prescriptive and dichotomous words that characterize the dependency state of your early years, prejudice, resentment, hatred and self-putdowns will diminish.  You will redirect your aggressive energy to problem-solve issues for short and long-term benefit.
4. As you free your will from the demands of your early masters, you will work to become your own person and what you are capable of becoming.  You will attain a better sense of self, your “identity,” your values, who and what you stand for. 
5. As you strengthen your mind with the practical wisdom(s) others have shown to work, you will enthusiastically grow your own insights that add meaning and belonging.  You will enjoy the “Aha” experience that comes with original creative thinking that newly serves what you your self choose to become.   
6. As you recognize and emphasize the two productive mental choices available to your thinking, the alternative six choices that lead to blaming, avoidance, worry, stress illness, and what you don’t want will atrophy from lack of use.
7. Through repetition and its positive rewards, ANWOT will become automatic and effortless.
8. From the above, you will grow your power to feel good and do good.
9. You will experience the joy of giving away your “wealth,” including infecting others to spread peace-of-mind and peace-in-the-world. 

--------------------

Use of the Guide
 
            Read and/or print hard copies from your computer.  I suggest you maintain a three-ring binder for printed strens.  Take one stren or portion at a time, reviewing it, saving it for later review, and then removing another for study.  You’ll find it easier to focus on each skill a few sheets at a time.  Keep the binder readily available for review.  Share portions or this entire guide with anyone of your choosing; you will find this especially useful if you want to solicit discussion on any stren.   Freely use this guide and its contents as you wish, when you wish, with no obligation on your part save one requirement -- if any material is to be used for profit, prior authorization from the Educational Community, Inc. is required.    

            Since most persons today have access to computers, you may read or print this free collection of strens from the web site at www.ANWOT.org.  You may also receive the Guide on computer disk for material and mailing costs (estimated $3) by request to: ANWOT c/o Pet, 235 East River Drive #1107; East Hartford, CT; 06108.  Help spread ANWOT by recommending it to others.  Make copies of the CD for a thoughtful gift.

-----------------------

Highlights of ANWOT Behavior/Highlights of Nature/Nurture Behavior

            The chart that follows contrasts the perspectives and action outcomes of behavior when information is processed substituting the self-mastery operating system for those passively inherited from our genes and acquired during our immature nurtured stage of development.  The positives and negatives are emphasized to highlight the contrast. 

HIGHLIGHTS OF ANWOT BEHAVIOR LOVE: I create and maintain my love-making factory.  I generate love to fill my own needs and have excess to share with others.  I welcome love from others.  AGGRESSION: I aggressively direct my energy to constructive purposes for myself and the greater community.   I energetically pursue conflict resolution, win-win relationships. POWER: Power is a useful asset when applied with wisdom.  It is a tool to do constructive things. WISDOM: A fulfilled life requires wise self-direction.  The pursuit of wisdom is a lifetime goal; I can learn much from others. WORLDVIEW: The world is my garden.  I have a choice of many things I can grow here and enjoy the outcome of my labor. LANGUAGE: When I can, I use descriptive words that dispose to problem-solving and analog words that provide me a more accurate picture of things. RELATIONSHIPS: I am my lifetime traveling companion and work to become my best friend.  I share my good feelings with others. PROBLEM-SOLVING: I regularly ask “What is most likely to get me what I want in the short term and the long term.” This usually occurs with cooperation, consensus, compromise, patience, dialogue, and other skills of conflict resolution. ORIGINALITY, CREATIVITY: I come up with creative new ideas and methods that I determine will make a contribution to my well-being and/or that of my community. CHILD REARING: At first I need to set firm limits to direct them.  As they mature, I will educate them to think for themselves and become what they choose to become. DIRECTION: Now that I am empowered to think for myself, I am responsible for the direction of my life’s experience.  There are many fulfilling paths to choose from. INDEPENDENCE, HABIT: I am my own person.  I am grateful for what has been provided and now I’m master of my own ship.  Consider, but don’t depend on habit. VALUES, RELIGION: My beliefs and the meanings I ascribe to the world have largely been acquired from my nurturers.  I will critically evaluate them and determine what makes sense to me. FREEDOM: I have been provided the unique opportunity to free myself from the control of other “masters” and own my thinking and therefore my feelings and actions.  I will gratefully strive to wisely direct my life’s experience.  TOLERANCE: While I don’t respect all views, I try to respect all people and promote friendship.  There is plenty of room for differences of opinion.

HIGHLIGHTS OF NATURE/NURTURE BEHAVIOR LOVE: I am a love junkie depending on others to fulfill my requirement for love and approval.  I am upset when the person(s) I need love from loves another.  AGGRESSION: I use physical and mental aggression to get my way.  I must win and see to it that the “other” loses even if it is harmful to me. POWER: Power helps me get my way.  I want as much as I can get.  I want to dominate others.  WISDOM: Power is wisdom.  I know what is good and right.  Those with powerful tools make the rules. WORLDVIEW: I have been provided for in my early years.  I should be taken care of during my lifetime.  If I don’t get what I need, it’s somebody’s fault. LANGUAGE: I am used to prescriptive words that point out who’s to blame and dichotomous words that make it clear which side is the good and right one. RELATIONSHIPS: Friends are important because I can get what I need from them.  I am worthwhile if and when others give me praise and show me love. PROBLEM-SOLVING: I hope someone or God will resolve this problem.  If I were boss, I’d know how to handle it.  Much of my life though is “grinning and bearing it” because the “haves” have it and unfortunately I don’t.  ORIGINALITY, CREATIVITY: I come up with creative new ideas and methods that will please some important “other.”  I want the love and adoration that comes from doing what they say is worthwhile. CHILD REARING: I will teach my kids right from wrong, and demand that they make me proud.  When they go astray, the right punishment will correct things. DIRECTION: I am stuck in what fate has made me.  Others have given me a good idea what I am and what I’m suited for so I might try to make the best of it.  INDEPENDENCE, HABIT:  What has got me this far has “worked” to a degree.  The old path is what I was taught and what I know; hopefully it will work out the best. VALUES, RELIGION: I have been educated in the ways of the world, have been told the right way to believe and how to properly act.  If the authorities said it, it must be O.K. and the right thing for me. FREEDOM: As long as I do the right thing and follow the rules, I will be granted a good life’s experience.  By being creative and pleasing the authorities that prescribe the correct way of thinking and doing, I will be rewarded and not punished. TOLERANCE: I know who the good people are and who is trustworthy.  Others need to be taught to think and act in the right way or be punished.