138 A Programmer’s Guide to the Mind
with modern society. However, we shall see later that these two are not
always connected.
The second shortcut gains instant 'knowing' by embracing strong
feelings. It avoids the conflict between Perceiver confidence and Mercy
emotions by allowing feelings to mesmerize Perceiver thought. If Perceiver
thinking does not have the freedom to form its own connections, then there
will be no conflict between „feeling‟ and 'knowing,' because to „feel‟ will
be to 'know.' I suggest that this shortcut to 'knowing' tends to be followed
by a society with a strong culture. This leads to another common
assumption: We generally think that only primitive societies follow
emotional 'knowing.'
There are two shortcuts to Perceiver knowing:- „Objective‟ thought protects facts by avoiding feelings.
This leaves Perceiver knowledge weak and vulnerable. - „Subjective‟ thought gains 'knowledge' by embracing emotions.
This makes Perceiver thought the slave of Mercy feelings.
We can illustrate the difference between emotional 'facts' and logical
facts with the help of an analogy. Raw Mercy experiences are like water.
They flow here and there without stability. Perceiver connections are like
the chemical bonds which turn liquid into solid. We often use this imagery,
talking for instance about „liquid assets,‟ „solidifying a relationship,‟ or
„going with the flow.‟ Perceiver thought gives stability to the shifting
world of Mercy experiences by separating the flowing liquid into solid
objects. It does this by saying which experiences belong together (truth),
and which ones do not belong together (error). Thus, it compartmentalizes
the raw material of Mercy memories into solid mental „clumps.‟
Perceiver confidence could be compared to melting temperature, with
emotion being the source of the heat. Warm up a solid, and it turns
eventually into a liquid. Similarly, apply enough emotional pressure to a
Perceiver fact and the Perceiver connections ultimately become unstable,
turning solid facts back into liquid experiences.
The growth of Perceiver confidence seems to change the inherent
nature of mental „solids.‟ As confidence develops, the Perceiver bonds
between the individual Mercy experiences become stronger and are able to
survive greater emotional heat without collapsing. In contrast, emotional
'facts' form when mental liquids are turned into solids by „freezing‟ thought.
When Perceiver strategy becomes mesmerized by emotion, it really is
„frozen.‟ It is paralyzed, unable to think or to move. The essential nature of
liquid experience has not been changed. Rather, the mental temperature has
been lowered, turning the „water‟ into „ice.‟
Finally, I suggest that working with logical facts which lack Perceiver
confidence is like building a sand castle on the beach. The structure may