Mental concepts for FUTURLOGICS a system of prospective thinking

FUTURLOGICS a system of prospective thinking:
by james n. hall


COPYRIGHT © 1983 BY
JAMES NORMAN HALL

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No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatever
       without express written permission of the publisher

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Printed in the United States of America

SELF TEACHING PUBLICATIONS
WEST JORDAN, UTAH 84084
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PART ONE
ORIENTATION

Chapter I

PSYCHOLOGY
ATTITUDE OF FUTURLOGICS

     Research in the field of psychology has produced little organized
knowledge of the ways in which we comprehend the future.  Much of
the thinking we do about the future is indirect, akin to the subconscious
thought processes common to psychology in general.  The
reason for this is that sustained conscious thought of the future
produces anxiety.  This anxiety, however, is cause more from lack of
a concrete design than by any reason of the abstract nature of the 
future.
     It is commonly said that "the best way to handle the future is by
not thinking of it at all."  Some social and cultural influences foster
such approaches by indirect means.  Even so, not thinking of the
future is another way of saying that we are relinquishing conscious
effort--letting our forethinking remain at the subconscious level.
     When an subconscious and suppressed idea is brought to consciousness, 
it will either produce anxiety and distress or it will relieve
tension and be cathartic.  Therefore, a certain amount of tension is
unavoidable, but there will also be rewards to exhilarate and stimulate
study.
     Our method of defining our surroundings has a lot to do with our
attitude.  Attitude can also turn anxiety to serenity and make the
discordant become harmonious.  Compare the man who sees a glass of 
water as half empty to the man who KNOWS it to be half full!  A positive
or negative view illustrates the effect of definition in thinking and in
perception.
    The future should never be defined as "half empty" as a positive
attitude is to be favored, at first,  while studying the future, thus
contributing to the full benefit of futurlogics.  Pessimism versus optimism 
is an old debate; we have heard the benefits and detriments of
either emphasized.  Later we will see that these are merely tools of the
good futurist.  They should not be accepted as the complete approach.
In the meantime, we are to remember while assuming the positive or
the optimistic stance, how we define our world will influence how we 
live in the world.
     Everything has either a beginning, middle or ending, depending
upon our definition or point of reference.  In reality, what is a
beginning of one is the middle of another; also what is the middle of
some other is the ending of still another.   Until we realize this power
that definition has over our attitude, we will not understand that
beginnings, middles, and endings are at the same time endings, middles, 
and beginnings.  All of this has much to do with our ability to
study the future.  Some persons see every event as an ending; this will
foster a doomsday attitude leading to a negative outlook, which is not
always useful.  Again, those who see the middle of every action are
sensory bound and value is measured in terms of material hard reality.
The beginning-man is the one in the best position because he has the
perspective of seeing everything progressing in its natural time order.
He may conceive the whole of reality as it develops in sequence--first
to last.


THE MIND AND THE BRAIN

     The mind is more than the brain.  Thinking is a stimulus in itself.
The mind responds to more than sense perceptions of the physical
environment.  Even animals react to the internal stimuli of their
instincts.  Man uses his intelligence to survive and progress as animals
use their instinct to adapt and survive changes in their environment.
    There are good reasons for an optimistic approach.  We will not
assign limits to mental capacity since doing so causes artificial barriers.  
We will discover the natural limits of the mind by personal
experience, and avoid any skeptical closed-mindedness that retards
mental growth.  The mind may have no limits!


RELATIONSHIP OF THE MIND TO THE SENSES

     Many animals have a keener sense of sight, smell, or hearing than
man does.  It would logically follow that animals are in better contact
with the environment.  But sense perception without mental process is
nothing more than stimulus-response of the most rudimentary form.
     Animals perceive no past and no future.  The only have instincts
to enable them to operate in the continuum of the present.  Man not
only has the ability to conceive of a past and a future, but he can also
consciously plan and prepare for future events and conditions.  His
intelligence makes possible a life beyond simple sense contact with the
physical environment.
     On the other hand, with out senses the mind operates in a 
vacuum.  When our sensory contact is limited we compensate for it
by relying on the other senses, as we observe in the blind and deaf.
During sense deprivation experiments the effect of sensory deficiency
upon consciousness is dramatic.  When the mind is cut off from
sensory feedback, it goes into action with new freedom, but as time
passes progressive boredom and hallucinations result.  Although it is
refreshing to imagine an environment free of distraction, the mind
thrives and need stimulation.  We meditate at times, and "sitesee" at
other times.  The art of balancing the mental life with the sensory life is
the key to concentration and observation.  If our mind is engrossed in
deliberation like the absent-minded professor we miss many things
that go on about us.  But it is obvious that if we don't stop to ponder,
we may never know the meaning of things.
    Beyond the range of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch, we
are at a loss.  We have invented instruments to compensate for these
limitations.  We see the stars through telescopes and listen to fish
sending signals through the water with sonar device; through instruments 
our ancestors never knew existed. But when instrumentation
reaches its limits we are forced to rely again on the mind and the purely
mental contact.
     The future is total abstraction.  It is something that must be
grasped by the mind, and the mind must be at its best to consider the
future.  Prospective thinking is the most advanced form of thought.
The Future must be approached from a purely mental environment:
ultimately we must perceive the future with our mind.
     The senses only give us a sample of the things they perceive; they
never tell us everything.  Even if we were outfitted with perceptual
organs to provide us information of the material world, their inherent
limitations give us only a partial picture of what is "really out there."
The magician uses this fact to work his feats of illusion.  Also, no two
persons receive the same event exactly the same.  We are never able to
see, hear, taste, smell, or touch everything all at once.  The senses
alone leave us with an incomplete picture of the total environment.
     Reality is "seen" with both the mind and the senses.  We can
make up for this partial contact with the material environment by the
mental process.  From samples we derive the properties of the whole.
The mind uses the samples a data to fill in and we feel we have the
complete picture.
     Since observation is never complete, things are understood only
after we have accumulated data from many angles, from many periods
of time.  This is converted into a symbolic form so the mind can
operate upon it.  From symbolic form we gain the capacity to judge, to
value, to remember and relate to any subsequent perception, adding
depth.  Perception becomes more meaningful as the number of related
experiences give background to sensory data.
     The first impressions and experiences--though superficial--are
samplary.  We remember the first time we experience things better than
the succeeding times.  When we let the dominating influences of a
strong first impression color the following similar experiences, we
often make poor judgments.  Sometimes this is used to our benefit,
such as, when favorable first impressions foster important relationships.
  When we meet a new business contact we are on our best
behavior, and the red carpet is rolled out to dignitaries to cement
this effect.


THE MIND AS PERCEIVER

     The mind is the receiver of perception since it accepts and
registers the stimuli sent by all the other senses.  We can use common
expressions to illustrate this: i.e. that "beauty is in the eye of the
beholder," "music is in the heart," and "seeing is believing."  The
mind adds quality to perceptions of the sense organs.  With out these
additions to sensory contacts, we would be at the basic stimulus
reaction of the lowest forms of life.  Action would be merely reflexive.
     Many of us need a place to meditate.  Remember the last time the
radio or the television was on in the next room while you were trying
to read or concentrate?  In such a din, we say that "I can't even hear
my own thoughts."   Thinkers, writers, and students seek a place where
they are able to tune into their own thoughts.
     It is common practice to avoid stimulus and perception--mostly
for beneficial reasons  contributing to study habits.  But what else do
we block out, or shield from consciousness?  Do we put out of 
mind other things as easily, such as the perceptions of the mind itself?
Can the mind receive on its own, directly from the environment?  Does
a direct mental perception occur,  bypassing the regular channels?
Perhaps we ignore more than we realize.  Can we be conscious of more
than our own thoughts?  Does the mind learn by direct means?
Answers to these questions fairly scintillate the mind.


DUAL DEFINITION OF DMP

     At this point in our discussion a concept fundamental to
Futurlogics must be introduced.  Direct Mental Process and Direct
Mind Perception, (DMP), both refer to a mental operation necessary
to self-teaching and learning the future.  The mind as a "perceptual
organ" itself is an idea that opens to view the world beyond the five
senses.  The future is intuitively known and the concept of Direct
Mental Process or Direct Mind Perception takes on special meaning
offering answers (perhaps to easily and temptingly) we seek.  However, 
DMP is basic to this study.  (Or to researching the unknown in
general.  The future can be a one word metaphor for all that is to
be researched or yet learned.)
     DMP is a duplex acronym of both Direct Mind Perception and
Direct Mental Process.  The definition of DMP must be left purposely
ambiguous to draw in simultaneously both dimensional features of
mental consciousness.  (The rational and intuitive nature of thought
are both necessary to prospective thinking.)  Because DMP contact with
the future is left loosely defined, personal input into the subject is
unavoidable.  Rather than a problem, such bias is an aid (if we keep an
open mind).  As we shall see, as the theory develops, DMP can only be
a matter of self-discovery and intuition after we develop Futurlogics.
     DMP may be creativity, meditation, intuitive insight or a process yet
undefined.  At this point we cannot make a strict definition.  If we say
what it IS, we also say what it IS NOT, and the mind is not left free to
make its own discovery--an experience necessary to Futurlogics and
to self-teaching.  It is offered as a temporary concession that, since we
now know that a future exists, we must have come to this knowledge
by a purely mental process or perception.  What that is, is DMP!
     Before DMP is apparent by self-discovery we experience hunches,
insights, precognition and similar phenomena which reflect one form
of bias; conversely, training and schooling in logic and reasoning and
philosophy-related experience might ascribe to DMP the reasoning
processes necessary to handle abstract thought.  Either view or input is 
constructive to an understanding of Futurlogics and DMP.  If an open 
mind is maintained these inputs will be unavoidable with an open 
definition; but, this should not affect the study of Futurlogics.  Diversity 
of this nature should enhance the learning effect when principles
of Futurlogics are discussed with others who look at the future with
interest.
     No matter what DMP means to the reader, the general concept is
a tool in studying the future.  The minimum limits, however, for a
working definition is that the future or the temporal environment can
only be mentally considered or perceived.  DMP offers a quick reference 
to such demands upon higher thought processes.  DMP is also the
intuitive process of hunches and insights that bode of the future.
Finally, it is a shortened description of all the means of learning
exclusive of the five senses.
     seeing is believing, but what we believe directs our eyes toward
what we see.  Without DMP we would not learn even with the five senses.
     (As we study the six modes/models of Futurlogics we shall see
how nicely the three modes that relate the time continuum equate to
DIRECT MENTAL PROCESS: and how appropriate  three modes relate to
DIRECT MIND PERCEPTION because of the principles of intelligence they
represent such as imagination, assumption, creativity.  This form of
parallel thought streaming of DMP are foundations to the holistics of mind. )


DMP DEPENDS UPON CONSCIOUSNESS

     We never are conscious of everything at once.  Awareness is
limited, attention can be distracted or diverted.  There is always an
area of oblivion in mental life.  There are limits.  We have levels of
consciousness, fields of awareness, directions of attention.  These are
dimensions of mind as they are dimensions of DMP.  What one person
may be acutely aware of another may be totally oblivious toward.
Intelligence, native abilities, and capacities vary from person to person.
Individually, we vary in intelligence at different times.  We may go 
through all the phases of consciousness in a day.  During night in
sleep, early in the mourning, late in the evening will find most persons
in different moods if not different mental states of consciousness or
awareness.  Experiments have shown that there are persons who perform
at test better in the morning while others will do better in the
evening,  and what we are alert to at one time of day we may miss
altogether at another time.  Consciousness is a changeable thing.
     We may be more aware than we think.  Blocking out unwanted
stimulus is habit.  We all shut out distractions.  Does concentration get
out of hand so that we also repress other mental activities we feel to be
nonsensical or irrelevant?  The extent of repression and blocking is
unknown.  Remember scientist's have determined that we use only a 
small percentage of our  total brain capacities.  Latent within us may
be things we need only dream about to make true.
     Allow your intuitions!  Ideas that pop into consciousness may be
developing insights that will free flow to the surface.  Attention to all
things which enter the mind is the key to DMP.  We should trace the
origin of all ideas to their source.  When we can do this, we know the
credentials of our beliefs and knowledge.