Conscience, Time, and Life 117our internal world, then the resulting mental structure will involve
conscience. This changes the fundamental question. The issue is not
whether or not we will have a conscience. Instead, the question is what
type of conscience do we desire? A
Notice that I am not suggesting that conscience is life. Rather, I am
suggesting that mental life is constructed out of bricks which involve
conscience. If we want to build something as awe-inspiring as life, we need
powerful materials. Internal mansions cannot be constructed out of mental
scraps.
I should also emphasize that acquiring a conscience does not lead
automatically to life. We can see this by observing people with an
operating conscience. However, I do propose that a search for lasting life
will include conscience as an intermediate step, and I also suggest that an
absence of conscience makes life impossible. This conclusion can also be
reached by observing society. Thus, if we want to pursue mental
programming—the process of bringing lasting „life‟ to our minds—we will
have to begin with a detailed discussion of conscience. Everyone ready? If
so, let us start, using the example of Johnny, the cookie, and Johnny‟s
mother.
The Mechanics of Conscience
I have suggested that conscience involves an interaction between two
modes of thought: The Mercy internal world contains a pair of emotional
memories separated by time, and the Perceiver internal world contains a
Perceiver belief which links these two Mercy experiences together.
We could divide the Mercy aspect of conscience into a „bait‟ and a
„hook.‟ First there is a „bait,‟ some tasty morsel of pleasure that we would
just love to sink our teeth into, like that chewy chocolate chip cookie fresh
from the oven, lying so invitingly upon the kitchen table. In other words,
the „bait‟ is a Mercy experience with a positive emotion which Mercy
strategy would like to draw into the internal world. There is a desire to
identify with this experience. Johnny would love to grab the cookie, stuff it
into his mouth, and make it part of me. That is the bait.
Next we have a „hook.‟ This is a painful result which we definitely
want to avoid. For Johnny, it may be the memory of the stinging sensation
that he feels after his mother applies the „board of education to the seat of
learning.‟ The hook always comes after the bait. No fish would bite if it
saw the hook right away. The „bait‟ is a pleasant experience which Mercy
strategy wants to have within the internal world. In contrast, the „hook‟ is a
bad experience which Mercy strategy does not want within its internal
A Notice how, again, the first part of the answer involves a discovery of the
right question.