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Posted: September 16th, 2022

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I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his
life by conscious endeavor.
— Henry David Thorea
As you read this book, try to stand apart from yourself. Try to project your consciousness
upward into a corner of the room and see yourself, in your mind’s eye, reading. Can you
look at yourself almost as though you were someone else?
Now try something else. Think about the mood you are now in. Can you identify it? What
are you feeling? How would you describe your present mental state Now think for a
minute about how your mind is working. Is it quick and alert? Do you sense that you are
torn between doing this mental exercise and evaluating the point to be made out of it?
Your ability to do what you just did is uniquely human. Animals do not possess this ability.
We call it “self-awareness” or the ability to think about your very thought process. This is
the reason why man has dominion over all things in the world and why he can make
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significant advances from generation to generation.
This is why we can evaluate and learn from others’ experiences as well as our own. This is
also why we can make and break our habits. We are not our feelings. We are not our moods.
We are not even our thoughts. The very fact that we can think about these things separates
us from them and from the animal world. Self-awareness enables us to stand apart and
examine even the way we “see” ourselves — our paradigm, the most fundamental paradigm
of effectiveness. It affects not only our attitudes and behaviors, but also how we see other
people. It becomes our map of the basic nature of mankind. In fact, until we take how we
see ourselves (and how we see others) into account, we will be unable to understand how
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others see and feel about themselves and their world. Unaware, we will be unable to
understand how others see and feel about themselves and their world. Unaware, we will
project our intentions on their behavior and call ourselves objective.
This significantly limits our personal potential and our ability to relate to others as well.
But because of the unique human capacity of self-awareness, we can examine our
paradigms to determine whether they are reality- or principle-based or if they are a
function of conditioning and conditions.
The Social Mirror
If the only vision we have of ourselves comes from the social mirror — from the current
social paradigm and from the opinions, perceptions, and paradigms of the people around
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us — our view of ourselves is like the reflection in the crazy mirror room at the carnival.
“You’re never on time.”
“Why can’t you ever keep things in order?”
“You must be an artist!”
“You eat like a horse!”
“I can’t believe you won!”
“This is so simple. Why can’t you understand?”
These visions are disjointed and out of proportion. They are often more projections than
reflections, projecting the concerns and character weaknesses of people giving the input
rather than accurately reflecting what we are.
The reflection of the current social paradigm tells us we are largely determined by
conditioning and conditions. While we have acknowledged the tremendous power of
conditioning in our lives, to say that we are determined by it, that we have no control over
that influence, creates quite a different map.
There are actually three social maps — three theories of determinism widely accepted,
independently or in combination, to explain the nature of man. Genetic determinism
basically says your grandparents did it to you. That’s why you have such a temper. Your
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grandparents had short tempers and it’s in your DNA. It just goes through the generations
and you inherited it. In addition, you’re Irish, and that’s the nature of Irish people.
Psychic determinism basically says your parents did it to you. Your upbringing, your
childhood experience essentially laid out your personal tendencies and your character
structure. That’s why you’re afraid to be in front of a group. It’s the way your parents
brought you up. You feel terribly guilty if you make a mistake because you “remember”
deep inside the emotional scripting when you were very vulnerable and tender and
dependent. You “remember” the emotional punishment, the rejection, the comparison with
somebody else when you didn’t perform as well as expected.