SUMMARY OF THE THEORY STRENS: 

Whereas practical strens provide “what to do” directions, theory strens convey the basic knowledge of why and how we attain self- mastery.  They inspire us to creatively direct our raw energy to constructive outcomes.    

Here is what I would like to convey:

1. Nature initiates us into life wired through genes and instinct with the wisdom of billions of years of past experience.
2. After birth, our nurturers continuously add newer commands, often competing with nature’s demands.  Their methods emphasize repetition, habit, and obedience to their authority.  Our nurturer’s perspective focuses on the wisdom most practically applicable to present experience.     
3. We are capable of adding a third master controller to direct our life: self-mastery.  A freed mental self favors reason more so than instinct and habit; it is most capable of integrating the wisdom of past and present while engaging in mental rehearsal to wisely anticipate the future consequences of action.    
4. For better or worse, fate deals us a set of genes, parents, and nurturers that set our course in life.  After decades of development our mind acquires creativity, yet remains blindly obedient and servant to the dictates of fate and circumstance.
5. Self-mastery is the process of emancipating our mental self from servitude to our early masters.  Like our reproductive capacity, self-mastery cannot be realized until years after birth.  Unlike sexual maturation, mental freedom is optional.
6. Self-mastery is an opportunity slowly emerging with the development of our mental processing equipment, skill in the use of symbols (labels, images, words, language, concepts), and skill in abstract reasoning and reflective thinking.  Self-mastery requires willful intervention!
7. All the ingredients we need to become our own person, to take charge of feeling good and doing good, are available to us.  They include the will to learn (“Yes, I think I can”), work, patience, direction (knowledge), and risk-taking (we must challenge habitual patterns, “old friends” that no longer work yet fight for survival).  Status, wealth, even good health are not required!
8. Self-mastery is the freedom to direct our thinking and thereby make a difference in our feelings and our actions.  Emancipation does not necessarily better our life’s experience.  We may choose to direct our energy constructively and/or destructively.  Constructive management of mental freedom requires wisdom, will power (mental strength), love, and a newer way of thinking, ANWOT.     
9. I personally believe we best fulfill our purpose in life by becoming our own person and pursuing a virtuous life:  “Virtue” means becoming what we are capable of becoming and acting in the interests, both short-term and long-term, of ourselves and the greater community of which we are a part.
10. Until we teach ourselves ANWOT and apply our collective wisdom, we will continue to use our best to do our worst.  All the resources to create the needed weapons for mass construction are available now! … if only we apply our will.

            Theory strens describe the “masters” directing our life (Know Your Self, Know Your Masters, Know Your Board of Directors) and the media by which they operate (Our Two Worlds, Our Three Operating Systems, Thoughts and Thinking).  Know your Board of Directors proposes that by creating a motion picture documentary of our own unique Board, we obtain a valuable resource for self-management.  These theory strens provide knowledge and insight into the process of mental development.  However, the Guide’s practical strens will “work” irrespective of your understanding or agreeing with them.  The culminating essay Good Aggression is the Guide’s most comprehensive and important stren; it explains why our destiny is rapidly propelling us on a course to self-destruction and what we can do to change it. 

Note: These theory or “knowledge” strens will guide you to ANWOT, to mental freedom, and self-mastery.  While the concepts can be easily understood, it will take considerable practice and patience to integrate them and fully enjoy the practical benefits of their application.