162 A Programmer’s Guide to the Mind
it „sleepy‟ and less able to think clearly in related situations.A This type of
behavior is often exhibited, for instance, by religions. When 'faith' in
religious 'truth' begins to waver, people use the emotions of religious
fervor to restore their sense of Perceiver 'knowing.' And, countries such as
Iran show that religious fundamentalism reduces the level of rational
thinking.
Notice that the threshold of uncertainty can
be viewed in two ways. First, a change may
occur in Mercy feelings. This is illustrated by
the diagram on the previous page. In this case,
a rise in Mercy feelings will support emotional
'knowing' and threaten logical knowing. I
suggest that this is the mental mechanism
behind a phobia. Some emotional event occurs
which makes logical thinking impossible.
Likewise, a fall in Mercy feelings will assist
rational knowing and frustrate emotional
'knowing.' I suggest that this is the main reason
for modern Western skepticism. As feelings have been removed from our
society, we have naturally emphasized reason and doubted traditional
'beliefs.' This crisis of 'faith' was not triggered by the appearance of any
specific Perceiver facts. Instead, it was caused by an overall drop in
emotional fervor.
Second, it is possible for knowing to be affected by a change in
Perceiver thinking. This is shown by the diagram below. Suppose that a
person builds Perceiver confidence by doing mental „weightlifting‟—he
holds on to Perceiver logic despite his Mercy feelings. The emotions of the
situation may remained unchanged, but the increase in Perceiver
confidence will allow him to approach more topics rationally and give him
a greater ability to question the assumptions of traditional 'knowledge.'
This is what happens when a person grows in mental maturity.
A There is one exception to the rule that Perceiver facts and 'facts' cannot
coexist. The Perceiver person is conscious in Perceiver strategy and can
use conscious thought to mix and match these two otherwise incompatible
ways of thinking. This is because his Perceiver room actually contains two
observers: One is the built-in observer which comes with the room, which
may either be awake or asleep. The other is the observer of conscious
thought which can mentally „jump‟ from one network of information to
another. Other cognitive styles can do similar things in the rooms in which
they are conscious.