172 A Programmer’s Guide to the Mind
child to develop Perceiver thinking which includes both generality and
time.
First, there is the issue of consistency. Perceiver thought looks for
connections which are repeated. Therefore, if the Perceiver observer in the
child is to „wake up,‟ connections must exist which are consistent. When
parents use rules to guide their children, then Perceiver thought in their
offspring can look at the emotional memories associated with parents and
discover Perceiver facts. On the other hand, if children are free to do as
they please, or if parental rules are haphazard and inconsistent, then
Perceiver thought in the child more easily remains hypnotized, for no facts
exist in the family which can bring it out of hypnosis.
Paradoxically, this suggests that a child who is not given rules by his
parents will be forced to grow up by rebelling from his parents. This is
because he lacks the Perceiver tools which are required to digest his
childhood memories. If he wishes to grow up, he will have no choice but to
follow the Mercy method of focusing upon the emotional origin of his
childhood 'truth'—his parents—and then rejecting this source. We see this
in today‟s youth. The more liberty they are given, the more they respond
by rebelling from this freedom. Why do they rebel? Because external
freedom denies them mental freedom. Every child, because of his mental
wiring, begins life in emotional bondage. Perceiver thought gives him the
ability to escape this captivity. And, Perceiver thinking requires consistent
rules. This does not mean that any rules will do. Rather, if parental
discipline is to help Perceiver thought in the child to develop, then this
control must be consistent with Perceiver thinking.
Second, there is the question of status. I suggest that parents should not
claim to be the ultimate source of their rules. Suppose that parents give
commands to their children such as: “Do what I say. Obey your father. I
am the head of this house. You are making your mother feel bad.” This
attitude reinforces the child‟s assumption that all 'truth' is based in
important people and teaches him that rebelling from 'truth' means
rejecting the person who is the source of that 'truth.' Guess what these
children will do as teenagers? Rebel.
How to encourage Perceiver thought to develop in a teenager:
Downplay the emotional status of parents and other experts.
Encourage Perceiver strategy to develop with consistent rules.might add: One major factor which we are not analyzing here is cognitive
style. A parent may find himself competing with a child with the same
style, or perhaps suppressing traits in this child which point out his own
personality „warts.‟ Or, when parent and child have opposite styles
(Teacher and Mercy, Perceiver and Server), there can be mutual
misunderstanding.