The psyche is bombarded by 12 000 messages daily.
~~ Psychological Operations Maxim. [2]Reality exists in the human mind and nowhere else.
~~ O'Brien to Winston Smith in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four. [3]
These three opening pessimistic nihilistic meta-belief statements support the Identity Theory, a philosophical construct that claims that mind constructs can be reduced to purely physical brain-states and information process models.
However the Identity Theory and the conservative philosophical schools (including Behaviorism, Mentalism, Functionalism, and the various kinds of Dualisms) must be correlated with contemporary scientific and cultural data to accurately judge their theoretical acceptability (and to whom?). Undertaking multi-disciplinary environmental scans [4] at the Twentieth Century's close, we can truly appreciate emerging Third Culture [5] paradigm-shifts and spiral-based [6] conceptual worldviews.
Identity Theory models have largely survived intact the criticisms levelled at (Philosophical) Behaviorism and Functionalism by Chomsky, [7] Damasio, [8] Dennett, and Csikzentmihalyi, [9] particularly the failure of models to explore ever-shifting psychological DNAs of the Deep Self (Jung, Lilly). [10]
Lilly's Human Bio-computer, [11] Grof, [12] Pribram, and Bohm's [13] Holographic Mind; and the Leary/Wilson 8 Circuit Matrix [14] must be considered as empirical scientific models of psychodynamic consciousness that offer new insights into the Identity Theory model. Recent critical literature regarding Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), [15] Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSS), [16] Multiple Intelligences, [17] and Near-Death Experiences also offer valuable clinical data that strict confines of (Philosophical) Behaviorism and Functionalism cannot easily accommodate. Physical process based models fail to explain how minds can conceive (or why they would need to conceive) of non-natural objects such as Moebius Strips, Klein Bottles, or Abstract Mathematics. [19]
Much of this clinical, experimental and operational data derives from post-World War II military-based research into communications processes, physics of consciousness, [20] and psychological operations (PSYOP) warfare. [21] Once suppressed, this research has increasingly filtered through existing academic networks into visual persuasion (advertising) [22] and competitor intelligence corporate divisions. [23]
The Identity Theory clearly shows that the Self as Fractal Sub-system (body-mind) [24] is infinitely malleable. It fragments under extreme stress, particularly during sleep deprivation, bio-survival threats, or conversion processes. [25] The Self alters under the influence of meditative practices [26] or after ingesting intoxicants and stimulants. [27] Belief-programs can be simulated. [28] Skilled stage magicians and charlatans regularly deceive their audiences. [29] Individual identity-matrices can be atomised within group settings through stimulus-response induced mass hysteria and rumour panics. [30] Key historical manifestations of out-of-control mass dynamics include atavistic Evangelical Christian [31] and NSDAP rallies. [32]
Identity Theory models offer insights into anomalous psychology (deja vu, fugue states, dislocation) and relationships with brain cognitive processes. [33] The models may also explain the encounters of Philip K. Dick, [34] Terence McKenna, [35] and others with an Overmind (possibly indicating invasions from the unconsciousness), and the growing prevalence of UFO contactee and channelling literature. Cyberculture critiques abound with examples of personal identity crises mediated by new technology, [36] as do Artificial Intelligence movement literature [37] and the Extropianism philosophical school. [38]
Individuals unaware of Identity Theory philosophical insights and models can be manipulated by those skilled in Neuro-somatic Reality Manipulation (current Psycho-technologies include Neuro-linguistic Programming, [39] Perceptual Engineering, [40] Hypnotherapy, [41] Metaphor Elicitation, [42] Memetics, [43] Smart Drugs, [44] and various audio-visual technologies). [45] Past depictions by Hassan [46] and Singer [47] fail to take contemporary data into account, or the sociopolitical complexities of the Aum Shinrikyo, [48] Branch Davidian, [49] or Heaven's Gate cases. This manipulation forms the basis of much sociopolitical discourse and propaganda, [50] specifically within the media data-sphere. [51] Chomsky, Korzybski, [52] Burroughs, and Rushkoff [53] have studied the linguistic basis of this manipulation, and revealed its abuse by various elites in conflicting Low-intensity Cultural Warfare [54] on an unsuspecting and 'dumbed down' populace. [55] Post-Enlightenment intelligentsia has noted disturbingly that prevailing religious and socio-political systems are routinely created as the basis of increasingly subtle domination, Social Engineering, [56] and Behavioral Modification/Control. This domination utilises ingrained cognitive defects, conceptual worldview flaws, [57] systemic thinking blocks, [58] and accidental imprinting [59] due to early childhood trauma. [60] Quantitative identity changes are common in Hacker subcultures, [61] Method acting, [62] and the rock music PR industry. [63] To the Identity Theorist, these people may be physically identical, but part of their exerting fascination is that this identity is obscured by ongoing Nietzschean creation of the Self. [64]
Fundamental insights into Identity Theory will come from the distant pre-history of humanity just being uncovered by bimodal split-brain research, [65] the development of abstract thinking and symbolic construction, [66] and shifts from animal to more complex consciousness states. [67] Identity Theory paradigms are better equipped to handle emerging technologies: future personal identity [68] is closer to the Human Genome Project, [69] Bio-technology, Nanotechnology, [70] Body Modification, [71] the Internet, [72] and Virtual Reality paradigms [73] than to Behaviorist black boxes or Pavlov's salivating dogs. [74]
Endnotes:
[1] Ousensky, P. In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching, Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd, 1949, p. 309. Four excellent scholarly biographies of Gurdjieff and the Fourth Way philosophical school are Patterson, W. Struggle of the Magicians: Why Uspenskii Left Gurdjieff, Arete Communications, 1996; Moore, J. Gurdjieff: A Biography: The Anatomy of a Myth, Element Books, 1991; Webb, J. The Harmonious Circle, Thames and Hudson, 1980; and Needleman, J. and Baker, G. ed., Gurdjieff: Essays and Reflections on the Man and His Teaching, The Continuum Publishing Company, 1997. The Gurdjieff International Review, edited by respected academics frequently reprints long lost and rare documents of interest to the philosophy of human psychology student. Also see Burns, A. Gurdjieff Dossier, edited by Richard Metzger and The Disinformation Company Ltd. Oral tradition indicates that one source of Gurdjieff's insights into psycho-dynamic models of consciousness was the Russian academic Vladimir M. Bekhterev, who was a fore-runner to the Russian neuro-physiologist I.P. Pavlov.
[2] Anecdotal comment from various confidential Psychological Operations (PSYOP) oral sources.
[3] See Orwell, G. Nineteen Eighty Four, Penguin Books, 1954, p. 200. A savvy postmodern rewrite is Huber, P. Orwell's Revenge: The 1984 Palimpsest, The Free Press, 1995; Huber indulges in Crimethink by optically scanning and then manipulating Orwell's speeches and novels to explore the maturation of his Dystopia (negative utopia) into the contemporary Surveillance Society.
[4] See Beck, Dr. D. and Cowan, C. Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership, and Change, Blackwell Publishers Inc, 1996. Based on the pioneering Biopsychosocial Systems (Levels of Human Existence) paradigm of Dr. Clare W. Graves (formerly Professor Emeritus Psychology, Union College, New York; a student of Abraham Maslow; and an influence on the VALS 2 psychographic profiling system), this is the most complete, holistic, and open-ended Unified Theory that the author has discovered (Canada's MacLean's Magazine dubbed Graves' work in the late 1970s as "the Theory that Explains Everything"). Don Edward Beck and Christopher C. Cowan were on the faculty of the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas, before forming the National Values Centre, Inc. They have applied Spiral Dynamics frameworks to revitalise corporate and top-level government sectors (flux and flow structures), sports teams (most notably for the South African 'Springbok' rugby team that used their 'hearts-and-minds' strategy to win the 1995 World Cup), and communities. Recent presentations in the past several months have included the World Future Society, the EC Committee for the Future, the London School of Economics, and the Clinton (US) and Blair (UK) administrations. Beck has also been intensively involved in South African geopolitical change (particularly dismantling apartheid) since the early 1980s and is a best-selling author in that region.
