218 A Programmer’s Guide to the Mind
First, we noticed that Perceiver beliefs should include a sense of time. I
suggest that a healthy self-image will also include a feeling for time. For
instance, the visit with the Queen was me at a certain point in time, but
now it is no longer me. The result of including time is that me acquires a
history and a goal. Certain experiences were me—I identified with them in
the past, other situations are me—I can identify with them now, and
hopefully the me of the future will be different as well—I will be able to
identify with better experiences.
Second, Perceiver beliefs about me, which determine self-image,
should be as general as possible. Suppose that Perceiver strategy only
evaluates every experience in the internal Mercy world as either me or not
me. The result is that situations which are not directly related to my
physical body become suppressed. Since me is the set of Mercy
experiences on which Mercy strategy can continue to concentrate, making
a memory not me means that Mercy thought at some point loses the ability
to concentrate on this experience. And, whenever Mercy thought cannot
access a certain memory, it becomes suppressed and acts like a Mercy
multiple.
However, suppose that I define me in more general terms. Then, when
Mercy strategy identifies with experiences not associated with my physical
body, Perceiver thought can decide that, while these experiences are not
me, they are similar to me—there are Perceiver connections which relate
the experiences of others to the experiences of me.A For instance, since I
am a male Caucasian engineer from Canada, the experiences of an Asian
female secretary in Hong Kong obviously are not me. However, if I look
for similarities between us, then I can identify in Mercy strategy with the
situation of the Asian lady while at the same time preserving Perceiver
facts about myself. I am not female, but I also have a body which feels and
which needs to eat and sleep. I am not Asian, but I do have experiences
with Asian people and I also live within a culture. I am not a secretary, but
I do work with computers and I know what it is like to sit in front of a desk
and type.
Guilt and Self-Image
We have seen how Mercy identification can lead to problems with self-
image. I suggest that guilt can also affect self-image—this is related again
to the difference between emotional 'facts' based in Mercy identification
and Perceiver beliefs rooted in facts about my physical body. When there
is guilt, Perceiver belief in cause and effect focuses Mercy strategy on
some unpleasant memory—the projected bad result of what I did. Mercy
thought would dearly love to be rid of this emotional pain. It does this by
A We also saw a relationship between repetition and similarity when we
examined conscience.