254 A Programmer’s Guide to the Mind
with me, acknowledging my „sins‟ when I worship „God,‟ including my
subjective feelings in my scientific research, being honest in my business,
telling the truth in my marketing, and building personal integrity into my
love life. Ouch, that hurts! Of course it does. But isn‟t it better than the
alternatives of either leaving me locked in the childhood fantasies of
emotional 'truth,' or having me forced across the chasm into adulthood by
some physical trauma or disaster?
It is precisely this agony of personal honesty which builds the Perceiver
confidence that is required in order to hold the new me together.
Remember that there is no way to build Perceiver confidence except
through holding on to facts in the midst of emotional pressure. As
Perceiver belief grows in confidence, it becomes strong enough to
reconnect memories within the internal world of Mercy thought. The result
is an inner vision of how things could be. It is as if the clouds of
uncertainty clarify slowly into shapes and forms. At first I only see these
possibilities dimly and vaguely, but as Perceiver belief continues to build,
this inner sight becomes ever sharper until the clouds actually start to look
solid. The result is that one mental „foot‟ ends up being placed upon the far
side.A
Eventually, the inner picture of what could be becomes so bright that it
appears more stable and real even than the ground upon which the old me
is „standing.‟ This is when the old me makes the shift from the ground on
this side, to the clouds on the other, and by making this shift, turns these
clouds of Perceiver belief into solid ground and reveals the „ground‟ of
emotional 'truth' on this side as the oozing mud which it really is.
Remember, it is Mercy strategy which adds individual experiences to the
abstract connections of Perceiver thought, and when Mercy identity makes
the jump into the new me, then it turns this me into reality by attaching the
flesh of new emotional Mercy experiences onto the skeleton of Perceiver
self-image which was previously built by Perceiver logic.
We notice this type of mental shift illustrated sometimes by the
entrepreneur with his new product. His vision of improved reality can be
so real to him that he believes his version of reality more than he trusts his
own senses. For instance, Steven Jobs, the personal computer innovator,
was described as carrying with him a „reality distortion field,‟ as he
combined computer facts with computing possibilities. However, he also
A When the me of Mercy identification has been reshaped by Perceiver
logic, then identification turns into enjoyment. Mercy feelings are still
there, but not the identification. Me can enjoy a pleasant experience and
then move on, without clinging to the memory. Therefore, it is no longer
accurate to call it the „me of Mercy identification.‟ However, in order to
avoid introducing yet another label for me, I will continue to use the term.