240 A Programmer’s Guide to the Mind
Obviously, the process of gaining sufficient Perceiver confidence to
redefine me is a major undertaking, slightly more important and difficult
than deciding what I am going to have for dinner tonight. This is the
problem with many books on pop-psychology—the „User‟s Guides to the
Mind.‟ They try to reduce the agony of changing self-image into a menu
for success: “Would you like the fried rice with sweet and sour pork or the
bold confidence combined with the personal touch?” Readers should be
deeply insulted at being treated like some combination dish at a Chinese
restaurant. If I take me seriously, then I will demand real answers, heavy
issues, and deep feelings, because me is worth nothing less.
Over the next several pages, we are going to examine the process of
redefining me. The name I give to this procedure is transformation. This
word suggests that something personal is undergoing a metamorphosis
from one form to something completely different. In a very real way, this
is what me feels like—almost as if it is being redefined.A
I should emphasize that transformation does not consist of a slow
adjusting, shaping and fine-tuning of the me of childhood until it is
gradually reformed into
the me of the adult.
There is no gradual way
to jump across a chasm.
Unless I leap far enough,
I simply will not make it
to the other side. And
the two me‟s are
separated by a mental
chasm—the gulf of the
threshold of uncertainty.
This means that
somewhere there will be
a „leap‟ of identity, a
„jump‟ of personality, a
letting go of the old me in order to sail through the clouds of uncertainty
with nothing below me—in the hope that I will not plummet to my death
below but rather land intact on the solid ground of a new me.
The Perceiver confusion which separates the childhood me from the
transformed me also means that it is not possible to see from one side of
the chasm to the other. Seeing where I am requires a mental map, and it is
Perceiver strategy which is responsible for building this map. But, if
Perceiver thought itself is confused, then there will be no map. I may
A We now have two pairs of me‟s: The me of Mercy identification versus
the me of the physical body, and the me of the child versus the me of the
adult. Don‟t worry. These two pairs will be integrated very shortly.
The clouds of uncertaintyThe ol d
'me'
The solid new me!
?