224 A Programmer’s Guide to the Mind
despite the darkness, the viewer feels better after watching because he
knows that, black though his soul may be, it was fate that led him there and
no one can fight against his fate.A
We have seen how the physical body conflicts with the me of Mercy
identification. It is also possible to create an environment in which my
physical body can assist Mercy identification in holding on to good
experiences and avoiding bad ones.
Suppose that I build a world in which good experiences occur in certain
physical locations at certain specific times and bad experiences are
restricted to other specific locations and times. Then, by moving my
physical body to the good places at the good times and not moving my
physical body to the bad places at the bad times, I can use the self-image
provided by my physical body to reinforce the escapism and denial of
Mercy identification.
For example, I may decide that all Mercy identification with „God‟
occurs on Sunday morning in buildings called churches. By dragging my
body to church on Sunday morning, dressed in special clothing, in order to
„worship God,‟ I can use my physical body to help convince Perceiver
strategy that me and „God‟ really are connected.B In the same way, I can
construct special locations for professional sports events, or entertainment
complexes for family fun, and so on.
Similarly, if I quarantine all „bad‟ people to buildings called prisons,
and relegate all „bad‟ actions to red-light districts and inner city cores, I
can help Mercy strategy to avoid thinking about „bad‟ memories by
keeping my physical body away from these „bad‟ locations.
A Why fate? Because the guilt is being shifted to a predetermined
unchangeable plan, which Mercy strategy interprets as a impersonal
„person‟ called Fate. We will examine the idea of imaginary „persons‟ later
on.
B It is also possible to 'believe' that church buildings are never connected
with „good‟ people or „good‟ experiences. However, this 'belief' also treats
a church structure as a special location which separates „good‟ from „bad.‟
'Bad' 'Good'
Places Places