A

Mercy Strategy 47

nibble is not too painful, I retain the mental ability to block this experience
from my internal world. But, if I am sufficiently frightened, the nasty
experience will enter into my inner world of Mercy thought, whether I like
it or not.

Experiences enter the Mercy internal world through identification.

 Experiences with excessive emotion force their way in.

 If internal feeling is high, then identification is voluntary.

Any emotional experience which forces its way into the Mercy internal
world becomes a defining experience.A I suggest that defining experiences
affect thought in three ways: First, they define me. Any experience which
barges its way past the doors of Mercy identification will naturally become
part of me. Second, defining experiences strongly influence how I feel
about related situations. Remember the illustration of the doll in the
window? The experience of having a dress rip in a school play obviously
was a defining experience. Because of its strong emotion, it overwhelmed
the little girl‟s sense of Mercy identity. Years later this memory still had
the emotional potency to poison the pleasant experience of an evening
walk.
Third, I suggest that a defining experience becomes an emotional
magnet which attracts other experiences. New situations which are similar
will bring it back to mind. These new experiences become mentally
attached to the defining experience. Whenever this network of memories
becomes sufficiently large, it turns on and begins to develop a life of its
own. This is how a phobia develops. It starts as a bad memory. It turns into
a living, breathing entity of fear.B
The number of similar memories required to create mental „life‟
depends upon the emotional intensity of the defining experience. If the
feeling is not too strong, then it may take quite a few similar memories for
mental „life‟ to begin. On the other hand, if the emotional level is very high,
a single experience may be enough.
For example, think about an evening walk in the park. The birds are
singing, the flowers are blooming, the air is cool and the setting sun creates
a beautiful picture. One act of criminal violence is sufficient to turn this
idyllic scene into a continuing mental horror.
Notice that there is a strong connection between personal identity,
emotional labeling, and the Mercy internal world. What is my identity? I

A A defining experience always forces its way in. However, a mature mind

can allow emotional experiences, even strong ones, to enter the internal
Mercy world without feeling coerced. We will examine this topic later.
B We will see later that the first and third aspects involve Perceiver mode.

Perceiver facts are the „glue‟ which holds Mercy memories together.