Fundamental 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
USA
   
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PREFACE

     This book is not just about the future.  It also concerns what man
thinks and believes his future to be.  We plan, prepare, wait, and
predict.  Why?  The rationale behind these activities is taken for
granted.  The future is such a necessary part of the thinking process it
behooves us to make an in-depth study of it.  By so doing, one may
reveal to himself that the future is a prime ingredient to life.
     Yet, and exact knowledge of the future seems beyond us, like
tomorrow's sunrise.  But all have preconceptions of the future even if
they are guesswork.  Living requires pragmatism.  In turn, a practical
idea of the future is needed to match problems that arise.  Don't we
demand to know the time and place for every potential event and
condition?  specific time and place, however, frustrates an overall
study.  This untempered demand of specificity is too much too soon.
much could be gained through studying the general properties and
characteristics of the future; afterward we may be in a better position
to make more difficult predictions.  We will learn that the prerequisite
to prospective thinking is the ability to think in the most general of
terms.
     We have a rudimentary prescience from trial and error.  In no way
will futurlogics detract from these empirical beginnings.  In fact, using
what we already know to expand consciousness and awareness is
fundamental to this thesis.  Nevertheless, by necessity there must be
some unlearning of methods that detract from a more expansive
approach.  Unfortunately, unlearning is harder to do than learning
from a blank start.  Therefore the heart of the generalist of futurist
must have courage and mettle.
     This means that futurlogics is the capping off or education.  It
takes us back to the preschool state of mind when the most prolific
learning rate existed.  Learning then was natural and easy, but 
somehow this ease has become dormant and almost forgotten.  The aims of 
this book include the reactivation of the art of learning to the ideal.
    Futurlogics is a self-improvement book, as the subject of the
future lends itself to the technique used in that class of writing 
currently published.  The reader may find it helpful to view this work in the 
same format as these to obtain the goals of the book.  Most 
self-improvement books are "now" oriented, formulated to improve status,
prestige, and power.  Instead, we are to go ahead to the future, seeking 
to improve the self that is to be.  By this we can see that progress and
success promised in these other books will be easier and viable.
    It must be understood that this book contains no prophesy, no
predictions or forecasts of any kind except those used merely to
exemplify the inherent principles of prospective thinking.  In no way
are they to be interpreted as mystical and underlying the pattern of
things to come except in the most general way.  If one is seeking such,
he will have to look elsewhere, as one of the tenets of this book is
that the future should be a matter of self-discovery and not the 
prerogative of a select few dictating their vision to the many.  Self-teaching
must remain the core and wellspring of this writing.  And the 
interpretation of religious writings must be left to those who have the
authority to do so.

James N. Hall



PROLOGUE

MATERIALITY

    We are surrounded by matter.  Everything seems to be made of it.
We need only look at our own body to see the importance of
materially in our lives.  It is so overpowering that it is the common
denominator of existence.  With some individuals materiality is so
dominant that every facet of life begins and ends in its dimension.  All
of us find our senses focused to the aspect of the properties of the 
material dimension.  Matter  provides data which looms in our consciousness.
    The opposite of matter is space, and space is equally important.
Where the photographic negative is black, the positive is white.
Likewise, the negative copy of matter is space.  Where there is no 
matter, there is space.  Space is opposed in every respect by materiality.
  Again, where there is no space there is matter.  Our sensory organs
cannot perceive space directly.  Rather they only perceive where matter 
ends.  We judge space as mirrored from matter, as we do with the
photographic negative and its opposite, the positive print.
     If the environment were only made of space and matter its aspect
and panorama would be fixed and still, but such is not the case.
Reality is not an inanimate snapshot.  Motion, change, life are
evident, all pointing to the very important third element--time.  This
central dimension of existence turns the still snapshot photographically
into the flowing movie.  Our environment consists of matter, space,
and time.  And time is the magic of motion.
     Within the dimension of time there is an indenture we call NOW.
The environment in that instant constitutes present reality.  We perceive
it with our eyes, ears, nose, through all of the senses.  Our body,
anchored by its materiality, must continue in this moment of NOW--
but intuitively know that things exist beyond immediate materiality.
There is an awareness that time extends reality to its upper
reaches.  If the mind were not fettered by matter, it could soar through
time!
     Don't we feel all things are going somewhere?  We have become
aware of the new relationships surrounding us.  The material aspect
changes when things are viewed through the perspective of temporality.
With time, there is progress and expansion, indeed, the addition
of time to the thought process liberates the mind to think as it should,
freeing it from the prison of materiality.
     Life is the ultimate reality.  Life consists as a span of time, a
planet, and a mind full of thoughts.  These three spheres constitute the
total environment--namely, the temporal environment.  The physical
and the mental conjointly complete all the dimensions of life.  However,
 time is the abstract relationship of the other dimensions and
eludes simple sensory observation.  Because of this, the temporal
environment and time must be studied with a special technique.
Futurlogics will teach us that technique.



THE FUTURE IS THE SUBJECT AND OBJECT OF OUR RESEARCH

    The most fascinating part of our temporal environment is our
future.  The future is the subject of our thoughts and our object in
living.  When the future is mentioned we feel either a pleasant stirring
or an uneasiness,  exciting the mind to its potential.  The degree of
intelligence we use alone limits any probe of the future.  A system is 
needed to utilize our intelligence in an organized study.  Futurlogics is
such an approach.  The future exists only in the mind of man until it is
observable.  If we cannot predict the future, then we must apply
futurlogics to study what we believe the future to be.
     Positive mental attitudes--thinking big and self-improvement
programs--suggest that we are guided by our beliefs.  Without understanding 
the future we are in danger of losing the potential and latent
talents we possess.  After all, the goals we choose come from our belief
in what the future might be.  Understanding the future and mastering
Futurlogics assists us in achieving our goals.  To do this, we must think
big, be positive, and accept progress.


THE NEED TO KNOW

    The future is not what it used to be.  The past is no longer
prologue.  This is and unprecedented age and it will be difficult to find
examples in history to parallel what is happening now--let alone what
will happen in the near future!
    In times past our influence upon our environment had the impact 
of a butterfly upon a rock.  Now we are like the bull in a china shop.
Brute force offers immediate solution, but the side effects of using
force blindly mount to threatening levels.  Modern technology has
delivered into our hands such power that we can literally change the
shape of the planet we reside upon.  We fight nature rather than use
her forces to work for us.  We expend too much energy when nature
would supply our needs.
    We needn't be so brutish.  Instead, we can profit from a studied
look a the ways we deal with the future.  If we envision turmoil and
confusion ahead, the effects of our assumptions influence all of our
activities, and what we believe the future to be may directly cause
those things to occur.  Moreover, imagination flourishes when so little
of the nature of the future is known.  History books proliferate upon
library shelves.  But books concerning the future stand out as oddities.
And to accept ignorance is to accept the consequences of that ignorance!    


POTENTIAL OF SYSTEM

     Although this approach to the study of the future is new, there is
a familiar ring to each idea.  The ideas are, in reality very old ideas seen
in a different light.  There was a time when prophets were respected
and their gift acknowledged.  Futurlogics promises to restore this
respect as it brings the future into  the range of common sense.
Experience is the basis of this approach, thus we are able to keep the
study within the reach of everyone, and not only touch an esoteric
group of Futurist.  Because the future affects us all, we need to be
"tuned in."
     Latent within each of us are many talents and capabilities which
are gifts at birth.  Many of these will never be discovered if they are not
developed.  Futurlogics expands the mind, revealing latent potential.
Then mind is the first and the last frontier.  It is the ultimate horizon.




*MAN IS THE UNIT OF MEASURE

     When man begins to measure an object he users a rule with a scale
to compare the dimension of measurement.  What does man use to
measure the universe and the things he sees in it?  The standard unit by
which man will measure anything is ultimately himself.  Man will
eventually relate all things to himself.  Man, himself, is the standard
from which he will gauge everything he encounters or will encounter.
Recognizing this therefore must be the key to understand the things
man attempts to know and discover.
     The rule is most evident when man studies himself or his fellows.
He will compare himself to all others and arrive at a norm or a
standard of reference to be able to predict of judge the behavior of the
individual or society.  This standard of reference can be distilled to be
the bank of accepted knowledge acquired and recorded.  Finally
knowledge is used to measure knowledge.
     This principle can be further refined until we arrive at the level of
an axiom or a postulate, which is that man uses current knowledge to
measure and research the unknown.  Put more simply, the known is
used to gauge and measure the unknown.  Present accepted knowledge
is the unit of measure by which all other knowledge known and
unknown is weighed and judged.
     Even taking one step further back we find that the mind is both
topographer or the cartographer of all that thought surveys.  Therefore, 
understanding the mind is the key to mapping out knowledge.
The study of the mind remains an essential to any subject.  Since the
subject is the future, we will have to investigate the mind itself.
     It is said the mind of man contains the past, present, and future
all at once.  If this is so, then the mind of man contains the complete
map of reality.  We must refer and reflect upon the workings of the 
mind.
     Psychology investigates the mind.  However, its range is limited to
study the "visible aspects" of thinking.  Futurlogics imposes no such
limit.

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     *Man refers to both male and female simultaneously as neither can
surpass the other in intelligence.  By no means is the future exclusive.