A

Perceiver Strategy 75

meaning. For the Perceiver, hearing a cliché is like turning on the
television set and seeing reruns. It channels his mind back to information
which he already knows by heart.
In the same way that the Mercy person may use inappropriate behavior
in order to open up channels of emotional communication, so the Perceiver
person can use deliberate nonsense to start the flow of facts. For instance,
while the Perceiver individual detests the well-worn phrase, he loves the
modified cliché. His version might go: “Roses are red, violets are blue.
Most poems rhyme, this one doesn‟t.” He will respond to “Hello, how are
you?” with something like “Dreadful, my great-grandfather is dead.” When
discussion is going nowhere, he will make the extreme statement just to get
people talking.A

The Perceiver Internal World

So far, we have emphasized the thinking which occurs within
automatic Perceiver strategy. Let us turn our attention now to the internal
world of Perceiver thought. With Mercy mode, I suggested that it was
identification which moved an experience from automatic memory to the
inner world. In the case of Perceiver strategy, I suggest that the critical
component is belief. Automatic Perceiver thought deals, we said, with
reasonableness. It decides which facts make sense and which ones do not.
Belief, however, goes further than reasonableness. A fact which is
reasonable could be true, it is probably correct, it seems to make sense. In
contrast, when I believe a piece of information, I am stating that it is true,
that it is certainly correct, and that it definitely makes sense. Of course,
believing that something is true does not make it true, but it does take the
information from the „storage shed‟ of automatic Perceiver thought and
move it into the „house‟ of the internal Perceiver world.

Facts enter the internal world of Perceiver thought through belief.

 If existing beliefs are uncertain, then new beliefs can be imposed.

 If internal knowing is strong enough, then belief is voluntary.

Memories which enter the internal world have the potential of
becoming „alive.‟ We saw how experiences which exist within the Mercy
inner world can combine together and start to „live.‟ In a similar way, I
suggest that Perceiver principles can coalesce together to form a living
system of belief. Any mental network which begins to „live‟ will want to

A The Exhorter person has a similar trait. Truth for him is that which

survives confrontation. Therefore, he may drop a verbal bomb into a group
and see what remains. Or, if a piece of equipment is marked „unbreakable,‟
then he may test it by throwing it out of the window.