OUR THREE OPERATING SYSTEMS

 “New epochs emerge with comparative suddenness” … Alfred North Whitehead

This “practical theory” stren is among the most important.   We must quickly teach ourselves to wisely manage the godlike power of self-mastery thrust upon us by our explosive growth science.   This stren provides insight into the operating systems of each of our three stages of development and the powerful influence of each on our thinking, feelings, and actions.

     We humans are the first creatures of a new era that changes virtually everything.  Nature and nurture have provided us a self and the power of self-mastery.  The message is clear:

“Take your freedom.  For good or ill, you are on your own!  With your new knowledge, you now change the structure of your genes and you clone to create life ‘your way.’   Your self may create a fulfilling and/or miserable life irrespective of what fortune nature and nurture have provided you.   It is your world.  You have the power to reshape it and/or destroy it!” 

     It is our lot to create a new operating system (O.S.) that permits us, more likely requires us, to rebel from the commandments that have directed every creature up to the present.  An O.S. is the means we receive data, process it, and use it to react, respond, and/or initiate action.  Our actions are defined by what is possible within our operating system.  The O.S. of nature and nurture provide a script for earth’s creatures.  Ad libs are discouraged.  The O.S. of self-mastery is an exception.  We may act with godlike creativity.  Initially, we  act out the script of nature and nurture; self-mastery begins a new age where we may modify it, cut out much of it, and/or paste in new drama.  While the O.S. of nature and nurture is “factory made,” the O.S. of self-mastery is custom; it is “mind-made."   Nature and nurture come “for free.”  Freedom is offered for a price, and only humans are eligible. 

     I have identified three phases of our development.   A “phase” is defined by specific characteristics that identify one period of development from another.  Each phase of our development has its own distinct operating system.  Our range of activity is defined by which of our O.S.s is in control.  An understanding of our three O.S.s enhances our self-control.

     This stren recognizes the power of self-mastery.  This Guide shows what you can do to grow it.    

Three phases (or stages) of our development:

1. Nature -- genes convey preprogrammed patterns of what we are and how we function
2. Nurture -- parents, teachers, our common external world cast us into their “mold” 
3. Self-mastery -- reflective abstract thinking enables us to create a personal identity or self … the uniquely human period of growth when we may manipulate the data, thoughts, and thinking provided by nature and nurture, create original patterns, and independently choose from among alternatives actions.  

     Initially, who and what we are, and how we function is determined by our genetic inheritance, our “nature.”  For many years after our birth, we require considerable nurturance to become self-sufficient.  During this nurture phase, a number of “others” direct our life’s experience.  Multiple nurturers shape our becoming, somewhat like the putting together of parts on an assembly line to create a specific product.   The third self-mastery phase of development marks the birth of our opportunity to take ownership of our thinking, and thereby, our feelings, and actions.  While the operating systems provided by our nature and nurture may be sufficient to become physically self-sufficient, it is not until this final phase of mental development that we may grow independently from what our fate has provided.  Freedom and personal identity require a new manner of thinking that promotes creativity, originality, flexibility, intention, and independence from the commands of our first masters.  

     Nature, nurture, and the self of self-mastery each have their own characteristic operating system or manner of dealing with information.  Our brain, like a computer, may contain multiple operating systems, each with its own means of expression or “language.”  For example, the words and symbols that express music, mathematics, English, and Esperanto are created to be adaptive to a specific application.   Nature’s directions for survival and reproduction are often ill-suited to our contemporary world.  Our nurture and then the self-mastery phase of development adds to and/or modifies rather than replaces the characteristics of each prior phase(s).  You will become a more effective self-manager by understanding the operating systems and adaptive “language” associated with each stage. 

Our Rapidly Emerging Godlike Power 

     Right now, we are in the midst of the most important epoch-making time for humankind!  And for the most part, we are unaware and therefore unmotivated to appropriately act on this knowledge.  Let me explain how I come to this conclusion.

       We have attained godlike power that changes all that we have experienced up to now.  We commonly describe “God” as an all-knowing being who has creative power, who has created the universe and life.  Consider how dramatically we humans are currently crossing the boundary of knowledge and creativity.  Our generation has mapped and is altering gene structure.  In 1990, the first patient received federally approved gene therapy.  A “quarantined always sick” four year old girl “has now been transformed” into “a healthy, vibrant nine-year-old who loves life and does everything,” Scientific American, 9/95.  More than 4000 conditions are caused by inborn damage to a single gene.  We have cloned life and are told we have the means to clone ourselves.  Several persons have the ability to destroy humanity and alter the world with the mere push of a button.  This power is unprecedented.   No earth creature has even approached our current power to alter the established patterns of nature and nurture.  History provides no experience to guide us.  Whatever the original creator that is “greatest of all,” I believe we are given the power to direct our own destiny.  We are thrust into this epoch by the combination of our newly developing self-mastery O.S. and the present state of our technology.  We are unwise to maintain the assumption that someone or something will take responsibility for our well-being.  I welcome help when it is offered and gratefully accept it when available.  Looking for help is not a substitute for applying our own resources to wisely manage our thinking, and thereby, our feelings and actions. 

     Nature and nurture have provided us with our unique capacity for reflective abstract thinking and immense storage capacity.   With this new means of processing information, we have created language and an individual identity or self.  The first creative primitive self-mastery O.S. was unique by its creative powers.  At first, its creative power was limited to few areas; it may be likened to that of a weak minor God.  But with increasing skill in transforming data into knowledge and knowledge into will power, the influence of self-mastery has grown.  We have used our new creative power to modify what has been the order of things millions of years.  We recently have begun to make a difference, for example – language, books, shared knowledge; sanitation, antibiotics, and surgery to extend life, and dramatic “improvement” over the teeth and sticks-and-stones nature has provided for warfare and destroying life.  While these changes have been made in a relatively short period, what is more remarkable is the dramatic “explosion” of knowledge during our very lifetime, and our ability to use it.

     Power is enhanced by the application of knowledge.  Consider the explosive growth of knowledge and how it is rapidly thrusting on us the godlike responsibility of self-management and world-management.  I was told earlier in my lifetime that more than 90% of scientists who have ever lived were alive today.  Current technology provides access to the collected knowledge of history.   We may also obtain virtually instantly, in our very own dwelling, the current ideas and wisdom of people throughout the world.  We no longer need wait for a boat to cross the ocean, a horseback rider to deliver a message, or months for a scientific article or creative insight to be printed and distributed. 

     Consider this one example of the acceleration of our knowledge, as printed in the August, 1993 Scientific American.  In 1971, the Intel microprocessor was the first to be built on a single chip.  It contained 2,300 transistors; the Pentium II contains 7.5 million.  “… a 250-megahertz, four-way superscalar microprocessor can execute a billion instructions per second.”  “Every 18 months microprocessors double in speed.  Within 25 years, one (desktop) computer will be as powerful as all those in Silicon Valley today.”  And a news article 4/21/02, Hartford Courant: A new Japanese supercomputer “works at a speed of 35,600 gigaflops.  A gigaflop equals a billion mathematical operations per second.”  It surpasses the 11/02 top-ranked IBM ASCI White which has a speed of 7,226 gigaflops. 

     It is estimated that earth formed more that four billion years ago.  Fossils of blue green algae have been dated back 3 1/2 billion years.   The first multi-cellular animals appeared about 600 million years ago and primates first appeared a mere 2-4 million years ago.  I provide this data to impress upon you the lightning change in the power of self-mastery.  Within my single lifespan, I have witnessed our ability to modify genes, clone life, and provide individuals the means to destroy humanity. 

     The harnessing of hydrogen power may light up the world or blow it up.  In our time, one country began with holocaust destructive power; thereafter, several countries and a few individuals could do so by pushing a button.  Now we witness the proliferation of more countries and individuals with such power.  Our generation is participating in the unprecedented ability to control our self and to “override” the directions of master nature and master nurture.  Given the dramatic improvements in the quality of life already made possible by the new self-mastery operating system, we can barely conceive what benefits we might attain through the wise application of our powers. 
 
     Moses, Christ, Mohammed, Copernicus, Galileo, Mozart, Marx, Darwin, Freud, Ford, Hitler, Picasso, Gandhi, King, Mother Teresa, and Einstein are names of famous individuals who applied their mental resources to effectively challenge what nature and nurture provided.  They each met great resistance and were scoffed by the “establishment.”  Yet, they “made a difference.” We observe “beggars” who are happy, smile, dance, and enjoy life; we observe “kings,” persons endowed with health, wealth, and status who are among the most miserable.   There are countless numbers of unknown individuals who have successfully challenged their own poor fortune and made major changes in their destiny.  These individuals have developed a newer way of thinking (ANWOT), a new operating system.  If fate hands us a lemon, we can make lemonade; we can also create bombs and other weapons that can change everything. 

     We are in the midst of a New Era of self-management, personal autonomy and power.  The power of self-mastery has changed the way we function.  We can no longer learn by trial and error because one mistake can be fatal.   I predict the combination of explosive knowledge and the active development of our new O.S. will maintain its accelerated pace and spread like a virulent infection.  As globalization occurs, we will participate in major changes in our life style including religion, government, social relationships, education, and values.  Will power (or wild power) give us the choice of encouraging our growth through chaos and/or wisdom?  What is your choice?             
     Now I am basically an optimist.  I hope you will share my belief that just as our “self” of this new O.S. can use its power for destructive ends, we may also create benefits never before experienced.  Through our recently acquired creative powers, we have already dramatically improved the quality and quantity of our life’s experience. I believe the best way to proceed is to develop an understanding of our three operating systems, to focus on our newest self-mastery third O.S., and to develop the skills to wisely manage our new powers.   
           
1. The operating system of Nature – your genes. 

     While your genes are derived directly from your parents, they have been crafted by nature throughout most of life on earth.  Their design has been improved and repeatedly tested through a process of “trial and error,” one might say by trying different things and “learning” by making mistakes.  No mistakes, no learning.  Those patterns that “work” best are continued in offspring so that after millions of years of practice our gene’s operating system is quite reliable.  Organisms having great complexity also have increased complexity in their genes.  For example, nature has developed a number of reliable clocks that regulate such cycles as sleep/waking, menstruation, menopause, dormancy in plants, hibernation and migration.   In the most complex creatures, such as ourselves, the reproductive cycle and associated chemical changes don’t get “turned on” until many years after birth.  Self-mastery (the subject of the Guide) also doesn’t appear until many years after birth and requires more than the genetic clock – it requires additional development from our nurture stage of development – specifically use of language and symbols, the acquisition of immense data about our common external world, and the use of abstract reflective-thinking.

     The most apparent and important function of our genes is to reliably sustain the life cycle: birth → sexual maturity → reproduction → death.    In most organisms, the means of survival to complete the life cycle includes a built-in automatic behavioral pattern to fight or to run.  Avoidance or escape is the common defense against predators; sometimes fight is required. Fighting and aggression may also be required to obtain food, gain sexual dominance, and protect one’s young or territory.  Sometimes the “flight” pattern is other than running, such as blending into the environment because of the color or markings nature has provided.   

     The “fight/flight” response pattern has a characteristic operating system.  In a relatively simple creature, receptors may direct movement to or away from light or heat.  When required, such as the presence of danger, chemicals are released and energy is produced.  In our system, the short-acting chemical, adrenalin, releases sugar.  Our nerves become active and prepare our muscles for action, blood is diverted from our digestive system, our attention is focused, and a general emergency alarm is sounded.  In nature, most life-threatening danger lasts seconds or minutes, so that red alert is of short duration.  The organism enters battle or successfully flees. Yet, it needs to be ultra prominent, ever ready to “go off” with a hair trigger sensitivity for the outcome of a failed alarm is commonly fatal. 

     When not engaged in fight or flight, most activity is focused of food gathering and reproduction, viz. building a nest.  There may be time for relaxation, play, “sitting in the sun.”  Behavior is predominately pleasure-seeking and pain-avoiding.  Organisms functioning with nature’s O.S. seem to “prey” and murder without a concern.  There is little evidence most have a “conscience.”  The wolf eats the chicken with as little remorse as the chicken pecks at grain.  You see, a characteristic of nature’s operating system is that it seems to lack morality.  It is amoral (without morality), not immoral.  

     Nature’s pattern of expression is also characterized as being “built-in.”  They are “gifts” to the organism; nothing need be done to learn or earn.  The operating system is also automatic.   The response to certain events is reflex.  The stimulating event directly causes a predictable response such as a startle response or eye blink.  Patterns that initially work are repeated; they become habitual.  Once established, there is limited flexibility.  We cry long after it no longer brings a parent to take care of us; we continue to use alcohol even though we understand it doesn’t get us what we want in the long-term; we continue to blame others and/or events when reason provides no support. 
                 
     Inflexibility is an important characteristic of nature’s operating system.  Each gene is like a mini-brain with a specialized job to direct.  Genes are “mixed and matched” at conception to provide a virtually unlimited number of distinct individuals.  However, once in place, they closely act out a narrowly defined script.  Just as there is virtual certainty that we will have two arms, eyes, ears, and one head, the dye is cast for so much else, including patterns of behavior.  Many genetic traits are so consistent and predictable that we use our knowledge to create vegetable seeds that are disease resistant, that grow in certain soil; we breed animals for preferred traits, and so on.  While human offspring may be a “chip off the old block,” we have such a large combination of genes that “selective mating” is not as yet so readily controlled.

     Simpler beings are often prepared to fulfill the life cycle at birth.  They do not require “nurturers.”  They have one operating system that dominates their behavior.  As will be explained, the absolute role of genes diminishes as organisms become more complex, develop consciousness, more sophisticated mental processing, and require increasingly longer periods of nurturance.  

     The “language of expression” or operating system of our genes is largely dominated by chemical and electrical messengers.  In organisms with a mental “conscious” life, genes do make their wants known presenting words and/or symbols as thoughts, “Need food,” “Pee,” “Pain,” “Feels good,” “Pay attention!” and so on.  Behaviors designed for survival, procreation, and the fight/flight response pattern are basic.  Patterns of expression are generally built-in, passively acquired, automatic, habitual, inflexible, and amoral.  They are oriented to the present here-and-now issues of the common physical world.  Even activities for future goals such as nesting are instinctually, automatically, inflexibly driven by attention to the here-and-now. 

     In addition to the built-in patterns for survival and reproduction, our first operating system is designed to do what “feels good” and avoid what “feels bad” at the present moment in time.  In this sense, pleasure is “good,” pain is “bad.”  Being short-sighted, (perhaps short-minded would be a better term) inherited patterns of behavior are usually impatient.   We may ascribe the motto, “I want what I want when I want it.”  Nature urges, “yes, do it ... and do it now!”   In simple organisms, there is little to resist the expression of nature’s prescribed patterns of activity.  Guilt, preoccupation with long-term consequences, and “after-life” don’t seem to compete with master nature.    

     When applied to sophisticated mental creatures, nature’s operating system functions as above described, but it requires modification.  For example, when we are frustrated, we may have a red alert response.  Adrenalin is released, energy is generated, our muscles tense, and we automatically prepare to fight or run.  However these behaviors are rarely productive in a relatively civilized community.  Fighting is prohibited.  We establish roots in our community and it is difficult to run without being found.   Instead, we restrain our anger and hold onto it as “resentment.”  We often maintain a prolonged or recurrent pink alert state of emotion.  We may blame others and/or act socially aggressive rather than physically attack.  There are many substitute avoidance outlets – mental withdrawal/illness, procrastination, substance abuse, getting preoccupied in compulsive work or other activities, fantasy/daydreaming, and the like.   Since the infant is not able to fight or run, it expresses its demands and frustration by crying and/or tantrums.   This response usually brings security, food, warmth, and the like.  As we mature, this once adaptive response may persist even though there is less likelihood a nurturer will come to provide care.  We may mentally create an expectancy a nurturer will come.  There may be far more effective actions than crying or tantrums.  Even though expectation becomes habitual, initial instinctive responses may no longer work.  Newer methods may be more adaptive.

     Though we may consider this first operating system “primitive,” it is so effective and powerful that creatures using it have multiplied and thrived over time.  We understand it is primitive only in the sense that our early operating system is ill equipped to manage the stresses of the complex demands of our ever changing outside world.  

     Consider what life was like for us at birth and infancy, when we had no formal language.  Even without much thinking capacity, when our brains have not yet matured, we are still among the most complex creatures on earth with a myriad of functions to perform.  Unless there is some major defect in our system, or trauma from outside our system, almost all survive.  This is because we inherit a wondrous complex of parts masterfully directed by a system of chemicals and wires.  These parts, our organs, nerves, and chemicals, have been programmed by a myriad of genes which themselves have been orchestrated over time. 

     In summary, our genes and their resultant chemicals and nerve patterns have a characteristic mode of expression: a primary mission is survival, self-preservation.  The words that most accurately express early functions are “I want what I want when I want it.”  The communication of frustration and anger is primarily crying, which commonly persists through adult life, sometimes remaining quite effective in getting what we want.  The behavior championed by this early boss has been described as fight or flight.   As we physically mature and have greater capacity to actually fight and flee, this early “boss” uses other means to express itsself.  We fight with words, subtle gestures, procrastination, and other acts intended to bring gratification, often irrespective of the harm we may cause.  Added to physically running, we flee with chemical substances, mental distractions such as pastimes, T.V., fantasy, emotional withdrawal, mental illnesses, and so on.   The powerful fight/flight pattern persists and our nature remains a would be boss throughout our life.  

2. The operating system of Nurture – parents, teachers, our culture, environment, religion, the law, and so on

     As creatures acquire specialized organs and become more complex, genes alone do not provide all that is needed to attain maturity and reproduce.  The newborn is helpless at birth; protection is a must.  Training and education from the outside world are required.  The greater the complexity, the longer maturity is delayed and the greater the need for nurturing.  Flying, swimming, getting food, and reproduction are complex skills conveyed by modeling.  Failure to follow exactly the demands of a protective parent may result in death by a predator.   Blind obedience is a mandate; it is not optional. 

     Organisms with a greater degree of conscious awareness, mental problem-solving resources, and a large repertoire of behaviors have an especially prolonged dependence.  Humans, like other creatures, rely on modeling, but since we are primarily mental beings, the O.S. of the nurturing phase of our development emphasizes meaning and interpretation.  The operating system provided by our genes doesn’t prepare us for a 30-year mortgage, to fly an airplane, to ask why we are here, or contemplate what occurs before our beginning or after our death.  

     Language and the manner we process words and symbols are basic to our survival.  We are physically and mentally undeveloped at birth and remain so for many years.  We are generally not considered ready to begin any formal education until age 4 or 5 when we enter kindergarten.  When we finish high school, we have been alive17 or 18 years and still aren’t well prepared to “make a living.”  Work and job skills may take years, college usually 4, and some specialized professions may add 12 years of education beyond high school.  

     Here are three important characteristics of our second O.S. acquired during our nurture phase of development.  Consider how the manner of thinking we acquire commonly becomes a basic source of our life’s difficulties as well as a critical asset. 

A. Our operating system stores data, which we mentally manipulate.   No longer simply present oriented, we engage in thoughts about the present, past, and future.  We “freeze” experiences in our mental storage and “replay” them.  We are prone to dwell on the negative ones because avoidance of danger has more survival value than pursuit of joy.  We engage in “resentment.”   We also tend to anticipate and fantasize the worst outcomes.  This is called “what iffing” where we escalate healthy concern to nonproductive worry and anxiety.  In addition to the shorter acting red alert adrenalin type chemicals, we produce and sustain high levels of pink alert steroid stress-type hormones.  Physical symptoms such as tiredness, changes in blood pressure, muscle tension, bowel irregularity, and so on are related to prolonged stress. 

B. Nurture’s words are prescriptive:  should, have to, must, ought (not), and the like.   Nature’s operating system is a permissive amoral “yes … yes if it brings immediate satisfaction, do it.”  The “YES” word and its relatives are the main vocabulary of our first operating system.  Nurture’s system is characterized by demands for restraint.  You are not allowed to fight and you are not allowed to run away!  We are told Moses came down from the mountain with Ten Commandments etched in stone.  How many tablets would it take to mark each commandment uttered by your parents?  Teachers?  Your culture?  Your religion?  The law? 

C. Nurture’s vocabulary is also dichotomous, i.e., it is limited to two categories.  Our first language presents the world as either ... or:  “yes or no,” “good or bad,” “right or wrong.” “yours or mine,” “O.K. … not O.K,”  “black/white” and so on.  The world is either this way or that way.

     Since language is a prime means of expression, and because our undeveloped mental and physical resources require a prolonged period of dependency, our nurturers are required to use a simplified language that the immature mind can understand.  Nurture’s O.S. functions with a specialized vocabulary the undeveloped mind can follow.    As with other creatures, blind obedience to the master nurturers is demanded; survival often depends on it.   The child does not understand the danger of a hot stove or crawling into the street.  Thus, our initial operating system narrowly restricts behavior and provides a simple biased understanding of the world.  The parent to child communication is necessarily demanding and commanding.  “Do as I say!”  The most common word uttered to a young child is “no!”   “NO” and its “should not”, “don’t”, “must” prescriptive relatives are often diametrically opposed to the permissive “yes’s” of our first operating system.  According to the fate of our circumstances, from our birth, the outside world imposes a set of rules on us.  Our nurturers create a newer wiring system to serve their demands.  
     The permissive and restrictive forces are usually at odds with one another.  Nature modifies its fight or flight actions to adapt to the new circumstances and newer operating system. The infant tenses, cries, and has tantrums.  The adult “attacks” by blaming and demeaning others, collects and stores resentments, and uses words and social power to inflict pain.   “Flight” is accomplished by procrastination, substance abuse, mental withdrawal, not trying/giving up (the helplessness/hopelessness response), and other means. 

     Nurture usually encourages these substitute expressions for fighting and/or fleeing and promotes new patterns that serve its own goals.   The “no” forces of our second operating system commonly enforce obedience by providing a variety of punishments.  They may include smacking or pinching but are more often nonphysical -- withholding rewards such as dessert, T.V., privileges, approval or love, by changing voice tone, through isolation and/or restriction of activity.  While blatant primitive physical punishment may be used, control by mental and emotional punishment (or rewards) is more common and effective. 

     Guilt is a sophisticated and effective weapon of the external “no” bosses to control the “yes” urgings of our gene’s O.S.   The “yes” would-be-boss is directed to turn its anger and aggressive energy inward, to direct it at one’s self.  “I deserve punishment when I don’t do what I should [or I do what I shouldn’t].  Attacking one’s own worth, self-putdowns, “depressing oneself,” and in the most extreme … suicide [“murdering our self”], are too common.   Do the wrong thing and you should feel “bad,” “ashamed,” “guilty,” “inadequate,” and … you get the idea! If you don’t convincingly show genuine remorse, shame, or self-blame, then externally imposed punishment will likely be imposed, including withdrawal of attention or love. External punishment continues until the skill of beating on your self is routine and meets the expected standard.  The immature mind is easily taught the skill of directing anger and aggression from “blaming others” to “blaming our self.”   Once we learn the habit of self putdowns and depressing ourselves, we do more of the same as adults when we face more sophisticated punishments such as academic and vocational criticism, social exclusion, and/or legal actions.  

     The “yes” part of us is, of course, unhappy with any attempt to constrain its interests.  The “I want what I want” doesn’t just go away; it usually sustains its desire to “get out of prison.”  Frustration at being unable to get what we want creates aggression, but when the opponent is more powerful, we learn to “store” our urge as “resentment.”   You may know people who, unfortunately, spend their lives as “resentment collectors.”  The substitute means of expressing fight or flight described above are not eradicated.  They continue among the alternative “choices” available to our three operating systems.    

     We admire the vigor and persistence of the child learning to walk.  He/she doesn’t seem to mind falling as is the natural requirement of trial-and-error learning.  The experience of mistakes is a basic learning tool for skill development, “a bit this way instead of that.”   Yet once we have acquired the skill of guilting on our self, the learning opportunities derived from mistakes often become little demeaning traumas ... “I said the wrong thing,” “I don’t like my appearance,” “I should be doing better,” all leading to some form of “I am therefore less worthy.”

     The prescriptive language of this operating system is productive and effective in providing the first “shaping” of our immature minds to adapt to the relatively civilized society we share with others.  The prescriptive and dichotomous language fosters a manner of thinking that serves the useful purpose of obedience and conformity during our immaturity.  Basic skills and values may be conveyed with little or no questioning.  An assumptive view of the world “prescribed” by one’s nurturers is the demanded outcome: who and when to trust, effective use of language,  problem-solving techniques, morality, and other “desirable” skills are impressed to remain throughout life.  

     However, problems commonly arise in adult life.  What if the assumptive views or beliefs about the world are unwise or inaccurate?  The child often continues in adult life blindly obedient to the teachings of early nurturance.  Thinking is “concrete,” inflexible.  The matured individual may acquire the power of self-mastery, but the creative powers remain blindly in the service of some “others” prescribed assumptive views. 
               
     I hope you see that prescriptive and dichotomous thinking inhibit independence.  Rather than attain autonomy, our self merely functions as an extension of the teachings of our first nurturers.  The newly acquired power of self-mastery, creativity, and originality will remain subservient to the expectations of our first masters.   We fail to take ownership of our thinking and independence.   Even if goals are worthy, they are not of our creation.  The language of true self-mastery requires a newer way of thinking.  Words offering continuity of understanding need to be substituted for our dichotomous language:  “both … and,” “a bit of this and a bit of that,” “weigh the positives and the negatives,”  “the world contains many shades of grey,” and so on. 
  
     To the degree we maintain dichotomous thinking, we are likely to be intolerant of others’ actions and beliefs.  We divide the world into “us” and “them.”   “They” are not to be trusted.  Herein is the basis of prejudice.  New information is interpreted to fit one’s preconceived assumptions.  Rationality is suspended and learning is stunted.   Persons with differing views, religion, race, ethnicity, economic status, and/or sex are likely to become targets for aggression.

     Limiting our thinking to two categories causes another problem – generalization, an exaggeration or distortion in our thinking.  “If I fail in these situations, I must always be a failure.”  “Two purple people cheated me.  All purple people are bad.”   “I have pimples.  No one could love me.”  And favorites are acquired such as, “I can’t stand it,”  “You make me crazy,” “You give me a headache.”

     Early philosophers described the mind as a “tabula rasa” … an “unwritten on” blank tablet.  I don’t accept that we come into the world like a blank piece of writing material and birth is the beginning of becoming what we are to become.  I have indicated above and elsewhere that our genes have already provided us a quite detailed system of operation at the time of our birth.  We are preprogrammed with complex reflex and instinctual behaviors, most designed for survival and reproduction.  Some patterns of action, like menstruation and orgasm, are even set by genetic clocks to “kick in” years after birth.  And self-mastery cannot be initiated without the prior inscriptions of both nature and nurture.  While we aren’t born a “blank,” without an elaborate “preface,” it is clear that for many years, usually several decades, our nurturers inscribe the early chapters of our life’s story.   We are exposed to others who become role models.  We imitate gestures, emotions, eating patterns, dress and grooming style, and even the sounds our nurturers utter.  We learn what boys do and what girls do.  We are provided our language, manner of thinking, view of O.K./not O.K., beliefs, likes, and we establish levels of trust in people and the institutions of our community.  I call this collection of interpretations of the data we acquire our “assumptive world.”  As mental interpretive beings, such assumptions greatly influence our thinking, and thereby, our feelings, and actions.  By the time we reach the age and stage of our development that we may take ownership of our thinking, we have acquired a “conscience” to direct how we should think, feel, and act.  We have learned how and when to blame others, to blame and guilt ourselves; to worry, and to create unnecessary unhappiness in our world.  Yes, we have learned many positive things including the experience of laughter and happiness.  As has been said, “I waste at least half of my time, I only wish I know which half.” 

     I liken us to an apartment building “housing” a diverse group of characters not of our choosing and storing all sorts of their “goods” and “bads.”   All this is to say that by the time we are capable of self-mastery, we have an elaborate past.   We are far from an unbiased tabula rasa; we have been pretty thoroughly “marked up.”  It is helpful to understand and accept that we cannot enter the uniquely human stage of self-mastery until we have passed through the first two phases of development.  We are wiser for the recognition that we indeed are servants to our nature and nurture, and it is a rare “master” who voluntarily directs his/her slave to go free.  This is the task of self-mastery.   Likely you are already at the stage where you can become what you choose to become.  You need not stay stuck in what fate has made you.         

     Just as the self-indulgent fight/flight O.S. of our first stage is not adapted to the relatively civilized external common world of our second stage, neither the “language” of our nature nor our nurture phase of development are suited to our uniquely human self-mastery stage of development!  We need a newer way of thinking to effectively manage our third stage of development, the period when our private mental world is fully developed and we may choose freedom to direct what we are to become.     

     Unless we actively and vigorously pursue the development of an O.S. compatible with self-mastery, we remain stuck using methods not conducive to a wholesome adult contemporary world.  Nature’s operating system disposes us to be a “blamer outer.”  Nurture’s operating system teaches us to add the new skill of becoming a “blamer inner,” i.e. guilt.   Depression, sustained anxiety, worry, and most of our negative self-punishing behaviors are learned in our nurturing stage of development.  A new operating system offering flexibility, new problem-solving methods, originality, friendliness, cooperation, and objectivity is needed.   

3. The operating system of godlike Self-mastery – taking ownership of our thinking, feelings, and actions, and providing wise direction to our life’s experience.

     Albert Einstein, recognizing the awesome atomic power that he conceived, declared “everything is changed,” and warned us that if mankind is to survive, we must develop a substantially new manner of thinking.  I believe Einstein was a prophet as well as scientist and philosopher.  Modern mankind has become a thinking interpretive creature capable of directing our own life’s experience.  Nature and nurture have joined to offer us unprecedented power and the freedom to choose how we apply it, for good and for ill!  We have received the gift of opportunity for self-mastery and wisdom.  The introduction of self-mastery marks the beginning of a new era.  The O.S. by which nature and nurture direct living creatures is ill suited to provide wise management by a thinking, creative, independent, newly powerful godlike creature.  The message I hear is “You are on your own – you have the ability to fly, now fly away.”   Our task is to create a new self-mastery O.S., a newer way of thinking (ANWOT) that can wisely manage our ability to both create nirvana and to destroy ourselves along the way.
 
     We are the first and only earth being with the power to change our destiny, individually and/or collectively.  One might argue that apes or primitive humankind were a bit godlike, but there can be no doubt that recent developments enable us to make a difference like no other.  We have already acquired immense power from our capacity to engage in abstract reflective-thinking and we rapidly growing our ability to transform data into knowledge and knowledge to powerful action.  While all life is subject to the directorship of nature and nurture, and the stable relatively unchangeable behavior patterns provided by their operating systems, self-mastery permits us to challenge what our fate has arranged, to modify it, and to make major changes.  We may make a fulfilled life or a miserable one.  Collectively, we now have the power to design what our world will become.  Creating peace-of-mind, peace-for-humankind, modifying genes, cloning life, radioactive waste, Armageddon – aren’t these among our godlike choices?
 
     We have created an elaborate internal mental world that has become our primary dwelling place.   Through reflective thinking we have “self-consciousness.”   We have a personal identity or self that is aware of our conscious awareness; our self “looks” upon what nature and nurture have brought us, modifies data, and creates new patterns.  We may modify the operating systems of nature and nurture by teaching ourselves new words and symbols that empower our capacity for reflective-thinking.  Like our computer, we must continually “upgrade” its software program(s) if we would have it perform new tasks not programmed in its present operating system.  When effectively empowered, our self creates new choices, not offered by our genes or outside nurturers.  By using will power, we may transform our intentions into action!

     Here is the critical issue we face.  We are in a transition period where nature and nurture, which have, together, been directors of all life’s patterns, are now sharing their command with a new master, the self of self-mastery.  Our early means of expression, the O.S.s of nature and nurture, are somewhat inflexible, limited, and automatic.  They have been designed for permanency to sustain life in the common physical reality we share.  Self-mastery requires a newer manner of dealing with life’s challenges.  The needs of a personal mental-dwelling creative being include, among others, flexibility, adaptation to rapid change, problem-solving by mental rehearsal more so than trial and error, independence, and the opportunity to create wisdom and update our values to the growing ethical issues we create.  The O.S.s of nature and nurture do not service these needs.  As we are shifting to a more functional self-mastery O.S., our new power is still largely directed using the O.S.s that have prevailed over 3 billion years. 

     The process of shifting to a new O.S., as explained in the practical strens, is quite straightforward and manageable by every ordinary person.  Each step to a self-mastery O.S. is small and simply done. All of the needed ingredients are within our grasp – willingness to try, work, patience, direction, and risk; applying them is our choice.  Like any new skill, it’ll get easier and even effortless.  The difficult part is not the acquisition of a new manner of thinking; it is the “letting go” of the old.  Habit patterns don’t voluntarily give way, especially when risk and uncertainty are involved.  I like the example provided by Gail Sheehy in her book on adult development, Passages – like the crustacean, to grow, we must give up our old protective shell and pass through a very vulnerable period until the new shell is in place. 
    
     If you critically examine the predominant behaviors of people and the societies we have created, you will conclude as I.  “Fight and/or flight” and amoral instant gratification are expressions of our first O.S., as provided by nature.  When adapted to our relatively civilized nurturer’s mental O.S., they are now more commonly expressed as resentment, social aggression, blaming others, procrastination, substance abuse, and the like.  Guilt, depression, worry, stress and tension related illnesses are newer expressions of this second O.S.   Further, the recurrent societal themes of competition, desire for dominance, and world conflict observed throughout history are simply reflections of these O.S.s.  In short, nature and nurture have been and remain the dominant means of expression for earth’s creatures.  These O.S.s are no longer adaptive to creatures that have attained godlike creative and destructive powers, and whose inner mental world is becoming a dominant force in our common external physical world.

     I have attributed the new era of self-mastery to several factors.  The outer part of our brain has been expanding in size and complexity in greater proportion than any other organ.  I call this portion of our brain our “freedom organ.”  Through our cortex and frontal lobes, we have acquired the capacity to engage in abstract reflective-thinking.  Abstract reflective-thinking is “thinking about what we are thinking,” the mental capacity to reflect on our self, to be conscious of our consciousness.  We can relatively independently think free of domination by our nature and our nurturers.  We can reflect on our thinking and modify it in a similar manner that we may see ourself by looking in a mirror to shave, put on make-up, or otherwise see our mental self and make changes.  Second, we have created language and special words that serve as tools that permit us to mentally reflect on and manipulate our thinking.  Third, we have the capacity to collect and store immense data and knowledge about the world.  These three factors, especially the ability to reflect on our thinking, create personal identity, a self with power to compete with nature and nurture.  We create a personal inner world that co-exists with our common external world and has become the dominant determinant of our life’s experience.

     Many years after our birth, we develop the sufficient “prerequisite” resources to attain self-mastery.   We have adapted the operating system of our genes to the relatively civilized demands of the common world we share, have developed an elaborate system of words and symbols to develop our mental awareness and thinking ability, have the means to acquire, store, and process data, and have acquired assumptions, arrived from our massive data, of how and why things happen.  By our late teens, our brain is physically mature and capable of integrating what nature and our nurturers have provided.  Because we are mental beings as well as physical beings, we need to create a newer operating system compatible with our power of mental processing.

     Let us now consider the self-mastery O.S. that offers godlike qualities unknown to any other earth being.  This third operating system, i.e., newer manner of thinking, is characterized by skill in mediation and resolving conflict between the yes/no would-be bosses.  It is capable of devising original solutions to problems and creating new levels of well-being not possible from the O.S.s of nature and nurture.  The newer developing “self” master may take into consideration the desires of master nature, master nurture, and global well-being.  The O.S.s of nature and nurture primarily express the interests of their own limited perspectives.  The mature self-master seeks to rule using problem-solving methods that are most considerate to all.  The words, gestures, and symbols prevalent in the updated O.S. language are descriptive, such as “could”, “I am wise when …”, “I prefer”, “I choose”.   Notice, this language encourages personal responsibility, consideration and/or creation of alternatives and selection from among them.  We recognize this capability as one of our most cherished accomplishments, “freedom.”  Prescriptive words (should, have to, must) imply a demand from an absolute authority and punishment if the command is not followed or expectation not met.      

     When we substitute descriptive words, “I (he, she) could” or “I would like” for “I should” or “I must,” we promote problem-solving more so than negative outcomes such as blaming, resentment and/or self put-downs.  When we think in terms of both … and instead of either … or and related dichotomous words, we attain a more accurate sense of reality, lessen our prejudices, and increase effective problem-solving.   We can learn to stop generalizing and think more objectively:  “Another mistake! I always ferk up,” “All &*@^#’s are ‘birds of a feather’ and not to be trusted.”  We can change blaming, avoidance, and other negative response patterns to the problem-solving mental response pattern.  See how easily we may make changes in our O.S.  

     The distinction among the three O.S.s is that the language of each is “wired” to a different pathway to process information.  Words of the self-mastery O.S. system follow different “wiring” than the word “families” of nature’s or our nurturer’s O.S..  The use of a specific “word-switch” can redirect the processing of data to an entirely different path.  For example, “should,” “must,” “have to” words are processed differently than “could,” “would like to,” “prefer” words.  The first words convey coercion and dependence, the second free choice and personal responsibility.  Prescriptive words are associated with blaming and “punishment” for noncompliance; descriptive words foster innovative problem-solving and learning from mistakes.  An error is more likely to be constructively addressed with “What can I learn from this to be better prepared now and in the future” rather than “What is the fitting punishment?” 

     I like to compare the function of words to the operation of a light switch.  Three “switches” may look exactly alike.  One may turn the living room light on or off, the second the dining room light, the third the hall light.   While the switches look identical, we know there is different hidden wiring that determines the outcome of turning-on the switch.  If I want the hall light “on” but use the second instead of third switch, the outcome will not be what I desire.  Similarly, words act as triggers for specific patterns of response.  “Could” is processed through a different pathway than “should,” with an entirely different outcome.  The maintenance of our capacity to feel good and do good depends largely on the words and symbols we use to trigger our data processing, i.e., our thinking.  The substitution of word-switches within the vocabulary of the ANWOT (third) O.S. for the trigger words of the earlier O.S.s will in itself create the new wiring process. 

     Much explanation could be added re how and why our “language,” our means of expression, our “operating system,” contributes to the control of our actions and life’s experiences, but that is not required in a “practical” guide to feeling and doing good.  Like the T.V. or lights, we need only work the right switch and need have no understanding of why and how the switch brings the desired results.  The practical strens in the Guide will work if you simply apply them.  I recommend you also consider the practical theory strens as they will expand your understanding and control.  The Mental Response Control Panel stren will make it easy to distinguish your blaming, give up, worry, tension-producing patterns of the earlier O.S.s and substitute the newer problem-solving response.  Thereafter, your on-going task will be to acquire, create, and maintain the wisdom that most effectively applies to your life’s experience.   

The Problem We Must Solve
           
     I have scarcely addressed the most challenging issue.  Self-mastery provides power and independence; it lacks direction.  We are required to add wisdom if we are to benefit.  Otherwise, we will increase the precariousness of the world we live in, as has been the present situation.  The acquisition of wisdom begins with the recognition that we have this task.   I urge you to make your contribution – develop your own self-mastery operating system and the wisdom to properly manage it.

     Most people most of the time, as creatures of habit, are still functioning with the fight/flight operating system of nature and the prescriptive, dichotomous mental processing of our nurture stage of development.  These O.S.s are not sufficient to effectively adapt our new explosive mental creative powers to rapid change.   Recorded history informs us that it is only a matter of time that we will use our godlike powers to create our own “big bang.”   The newer self-mastery ANWOT O.S. may challenge the manner of expression of the earlier operating systems, modify them, and create new more adaptive problem-solving skills.  These include, among others, conflict resolution, cooperation, “building” a friendship and love-making factory, creating peace-of-mind and peace-in-the-world.  I believe we are in a transition period, replacing our first O.S.’s with the newer self-mastery operating system.  I also believe that our modern technology can provide us the means to speed up this process.  Once the technique(s) is developed, its spread will be infectious.  A significant number of persons who experience the benefits of taking ownership of their own thinking, and thereby feelings and actions, can themselves create quite a revolution.  You may feel I am overly optimistic.  I believe we have no choice.  The helplessness/hopelessness mental response pattern is our least effective alternative because it shuts down our energy factory.

     Self-mastery provides us power to create and initiate original thinking, feelings, and action not previously present in the physical environment we all share.  Properly educated, we have the power to modify what nature and nurture has made us.  We have become so powerful through our collective knowledge that we not only create and change our self, we are directing irreversible changes to the physical world we share in common.  If we are to use our creative power wisely, we must understand and effectively manage our thinking; we require a science of thought control.  The inherited “fight/flight” response advocated by our genes doesn’t fit in a peace-loving civilized society.  In our second phase of development, nurturers modify nature’s fight/flight behavior to mental counterparts -- blaming others, resentment, social aggression, procrastination, substance abuse, and the like.   Nurture adds characteristic new patterns of experience not advocated by nature – blaming one’s self, guilt, shame, depression, suicide, worry and prolonged tension, stress diseases, dependency on symbolic “authority,” and so on.  With some reflection, we realize that nurture’s O.S., applied to mental creatures, is also not conducive to a peaceful state of mind or a peace-loving civilized society.  To add wisdom to our power of self-mastery, first to effectively manage our self, and then to collectively wisely manage worldly affairs, we need to acquire an understanding of the process of change. 

     Nature and nurture don’t advocate change.  They, like our “establishment,” are designed for stability and are relatively inflexible.  Rational beings generally arrive at similar aspirations, similar goals.  They include practice of the golden rule, peace-of-mind, love, happiness, doing “good” deeds that benefit ourselves and others, cooperation, making the world a better place to live, peace-in-the-world, and other common goals.  Most religions preach these goals but so far, in my opinion, their manner of teaching is inadequate.  Too many usurp the authority of religion for self-serving purposes.  History and direct experience are sufficient to inform us that if we are to attain these goals, individually or collectively, we require a newer way of thinking (ANWOT).   I hope this brief explanation provides sufficient awareness that if we are to become the thinking, wise, Godlike creature we are capable of becoming, we will need some practical understanding of our mental operating systems.           

If the above is a bit overwhelming, skip it and try the following:

Knowledge Of Practical Importance:  An “Overview” Summary of what we need to know 

     My understanding, which I here convey is that creatures that are prepared to survive at birth have a single operating system.  Genes control the release of preprogrammed behaviors that promote survival and reproduction.  More complex beings that are not fully prepared to survive at birth go through a period of dependence where nurturer’s provide new skills.  Behaviors acquired after birth create a second O.S. with new “wiring” and characteristics adaptive to newly acquired behaviors.   Trial and error, imitation, and role modeling are the predominant education methods to acquire patterns not “preprogrammed.”   While we share these methods of learning, our nurturers’ dominant method of teaching involves language, providing data, and mental problem-solving skills.  Because we function primarily as “mental” creatures with an elaborate inner private world, our O.S. has greater complexity and specialization.  Our nurturers’ O.S. is designed to adapt the fight and/or flight survival behaviors advocated by our genes to the demands of the changing relatively civilized common world we share.  This second O.S. improves the management of data and its mental processing.  Nature’s and our nurturer’s O.S.s persist throughout the life span of all creatures, guiding them through the perils of survival. 

     A well-developed third self-mastery operating system is present only in us humans.  It provides us an individual identity, a mental self with power to direct our life’s destiny, and develops the godlike creativity to modify what nature and nurture have provided.  The self is created using prerequisite skills from our first operating systems.  Like the second operating system, this third self-mastery O.S. requires new “wiring” that permits tasks adaptive to its growing independence.  As we attain maturity we increase our capacity to be conscious of our consciousness, to think about our thoughts and what we think, what I label “reflective-thinking.”  Our self may attain such powers as originality, independence, initiation, intentionality, unimpassioned rationality, and the will power to modify established patterns and create new ones. Whereas the O.S.s of nature and our nurture are relatively stereotyped, automatic, habitual, predictable, and stable, our self-mastery O.S. is characterized by such qualities as flexibility, originality, leadership, freedom to create and choose among alternatives and personal power. 

     While the powers of self-mastery are thrust upon us, a “gift” we cannot refuse, we are on our own to acquire the wisdom to effectively use it.  This is, after all, what we mean by freedom. Our newly acquired powers may be applied constructively and/or destructively!  The most important task of our self is to acquire and/or create wise management skills to consistently apply our new power constructively.   While the O.S. of nature and nurture are designed to each serve their own master, wisdom permits us to recognize that we use our best to do our best when we act in the interest of ourselves and the community of which we are a part.  Nature and nurture are more than eager to harness the power of abstract reflective-thinking to their own goals, compatible with their own limited perspectives!   Fight/flight behaviors of nature are not conducive to a modern civilized peaceful society;  nor are those substitute alternative behaviors most prominent in the second O.S. provided by our early nurturing – prescriptive, prejudiced “dichotomous” thinking, which too often leads to blaming, worry, substance abuse, hopelessness, chronic tension, and related nonproductive behaviors.  The O.S.s of nature and nurture have functioned to provide stable, automatic, relatively inflexible responses.  The era of explosive knowledge and rapid change requires a new O.S. with flexibility, learning emphasizing mental rehearsal in addition to trial and error, tolerance to autonomy and individuality, and acceptance of newly created patterns.  ANWOT anticipates future consequences in addition to past and present wisdom, favors prevention more so than cure, and rational problem-solving more than instinct and habit.  The consequence of “star-wars” involving the mega-power of WMD may be intolerable.

     To the degree we continue to seek the goals of peace-of-mind and peace-for-humankind, yet remain stuck in the operating systems provided by nature and nurture, we shall continue to see the conflicts recorded over thousands of years, both within and those reflected communally.  We are beginning to see the benefits that wise application of the power of self-mastery can provide -- conflict resolution, cooperation, a loving relationship with ourselves shared with others, enthusiasm for the well-being of ourselves and the global community of which we are a part, and the creation of moral and ethical systems that promote rather than deny the rights of others.  I believe humanity is going through its necessary transitional phase.  Early development is usually clumsy, inefficient, and marked by false starts.  Our present task is to marry wisdom to power in the self-management of our destiny.

     To get what we desire, we need to update the manner of thinking we acquire during our immature years.  Changing our established patterns involves modifying our first languages by substituting more effective “trigger” words, understanding our available mental choices (see The mental response control panel), and acquiring practical wisdom to effectively manage our life’s experience. 

     Our establishment invests considerable energy to teach its members the abc’s and elegance in the use of our native language.  Such preparation does not prepare our manner of thinking to wisely manage the freedoms of self-mastery or cope with our rapidly growing mega-power.  Where is there available education to update our manner of thinking (ANWOT) when we become equipped to learn in our adult stage of physical and mental maturity (late teens)?  Thus far, our establishment has failed to systematically establish such required formal education for our masses.  Some individuals are fortunate to have role models that provide such skill or they independently “get  it.” 

     This Guide is my attempt to create an effective teachable/learnable process for ordinary people to benefit from self-mastery.  I hope this, and similar guides to thought control stimulate the widespread education of our newer operating system to “feel good” and “do good.” 

     The continuing development of an ANWOT O.S. to effectively manage our destructive power will require the efforts of many persons over time.  This stren attempts to make you aware of the challenge we face.  The essay Good Aggression further explains why ANWOT works and how this requirement for our survival will be accomplished. 

The first operating system is programmed to serve nature’s perspective; the second is wired by our nurturers.