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The Two Me’s 239

in „Russia,‟ with its emotional chaos, who has the opportunity to gain the
Perceiver confidence that is necessary to become a true „German.‟
If this is true, then every paradise has a finite lifetime, because the easy
living which Perceiver confidence makes possible removes the difficult
Mercy experiences which teach Perceiver confidence. Therefore, a society
will go through the stages of growth, success, decadence and failure, just
as the human body passes through childhood, maturity, aging, and death.
This means that every „German‟ success story is also the breeding ground
for a „Russian‟ failure.


The paradox of modern society:
 Living in paradise removes the pressure needed to build paradise.
 Every paradise that we build has a finite lifetime.

That sounds really depressing. Really, really, really depressing. Is there
a better way? Do we have to go continually between heaven and hell?
Does every attempt to leave hell have to be a struggle? Why can‟t we stay
in heaven all of the time? Cheer up. I suggest that there is a solution, if we
are willing to pay the price. In order to understand this cost, we are going
to have to look at the question of redefining me.


Personal Transformation


We have seen how 'facts' based in Mercy emotions and facts rooted in
Perceiver confidence are separated by a threshold of uncertainty. Going
from one to the other means crossing a mental no-man‟s-land of doubt and
confusion. I suggest that the same principle applies to the Perceiver facts
which define me. As we know, the self-image of a child is determined by
culture, parents and other god-like figures. These emotional experiences
and persons establish the set of Perceiver 'facts' which define the identity
of the child—his self-image.
Rebuilding me upon a solid foundation of Perceiver confidence means
throwing all of these 'facts' into confusion—each piece of information
which defines me must be dragged through the threshold of uncertainty.
As the Perceiver observer wakes up from the trance of childhood, it will
question the 'facts' of childhood identity: “Who am I? What am I? What
defines me?”
If this uncertainty were limited to Perceiver thought, it might be
possible to survive the process. But, when the Perceiver glue of self-image
dissolves, then Mercy strategy will feel that me itself is falling apart—
which it is. And, as I mentioned before, people would rather feel severe
pain than face mental annihilation. And we are not just talking here about
normal mental annihilation. Rather, it is the core of our identity, the
essence of the internal Mercy world, the emotional foundation for the
entire mind, me, which is falling apart.

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