Mental Models and Modes 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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Chapter III

CYCLES AND MODES


HOLISTIC VS. FACTIONAL THINKING

     Sometimes a subject is best understood when contrasted against
its opposite.  DMP is such a subject.  But what is its opposite?  We are
unable to see the future, we don't hear the future, we don't touch
things of the future, and we can't smell or taste what has not occurred.
We are unable to remember what has not yet happened.  Any thinking
that contains the operation of the senses, memory, etc., that is beyond
the limits of a pure mental grasp is a cycle.  DMP is cycle free thinking.
     A cycle is thought which uses any of the observational channels
of the senses or process of memory.  Seeing is believing and observation
is experience.  If we see what we believe or think about what we
see, then we are using a cycle that is the see-think cycle.  If we think
about what we remember, and remember what we think about, we
are cycling namely the think-know cycle.  In fact, the scientific method
uses cycles of observation and thought.  Philosophy is based upon the
cycles of logic and reason.  (Note: In a philosophical discussion it is
not sufficient to say that an object exists simply because one sees it.
There must be logical proof that it exists.  In such a style of thinking
certain methods of learning are excluded to enhance the use of others.
i.e., reason and logic, and the purpose of philosophy is to use these
methods only to attain knowledge.)
     When a learning approach based upon a cycle is used to the
exclusion of the other means of learning it becomes a mode of approach.
Total learning is DMP where all the mind is used to intuitively arrive
at knowledge.  A mode is an approach to learning where only a portion
of the mind process is used to arrive at knowledge.   DMP is Cycle and
Mode free thinking.

     Cycles and modes are not as strange as they might seem.  Cycles
are a common part of thought.  When we concentrate on something to 
exclude extraneous thoughts we produce a cycle.  We want to focus on
every possible aspect.  Don't we close our eyes to hear and concentrate
better?  Don't we study where we will not be distracted?  Cycles are
problems only when we try to learn the future with them.  Or attempt
to think creatively.
     How often do we ignore an idea that pops into the mind because
it does not fit into our box of knowledge?  Because we are trying to pay
attention to a particular subject of thought or a particular object of
perception, we cast our thoughts away from new or different ideas.
Many inventions and discoveries have come from the accidental and
'illogical' thought.  Seldom does the new knowledge we marvel at come
from the logical effect.  We must  pay attention to the new ideas that
apparently intrude into our consciousness, seemingly at the wrong time.
     Once in a wile we have to suspend logic and allow a voice to
these new ideas.  Logic is important and indispensable to clear thinking,
but it should not dominate learning.  It has a time and a place.  Logic
is the rule of thought we use to maintain a cycle that so often eludes
DMP of intuition.
     We will always have to use what we already know to learn new
things.  This is especially true of learning of the future.  Using what we
already know to discover and describe the future employs the principles
of parameter, simile, metaphor, parable, types, allegories, analogy, etc.,
to approach the future.  Using what we have learned through a cycle
causes the modal effect, and what we know interferes with what we will
yet learn.  Cycles and modes should be viewed as tools to produce not
the finished product. 


BASIC MODES

     Looking at the future in the light of the see-think and the think-know
cycles gives our research new meaning.  Our notion, beliefs, perceptions and
knowledge obtained through a cycle, or limited approach to learning, can
affect the way (and the things) that we can learn about the future.  It can
prevent us from from thinking clearly about the things that have not happened
yet.  When knowledge gained from a cycle is used as a base to further research
the future, it is called a mode, which is simply a shortened form of "mode
of approach."  Simultaneously, mode means the knowledge gained from cycle
thinking and it means the knowledge gained from the same cycle used to
study the future.  It is the bank of knowledge used as a base to study
and describe the unknown elements of the future.  A mode can be thought
of as the perspective of the future as viewed through a particular cycle of 
learning technique.
     Since modes derive from cycles and cycles are the limited use of
the mind and its processes, modes essentially limit the intuitive
learning, or DMP.  If we do not know the origin of our knowledge we
cannot think clearly.  Tracing the source of what we know and how we
came to know it is fundamental to DMP.  Futurlogics requires that we
be able to look back and see how we came to know anything we use as
data or information to research the future.
     We must ask: did we learn this from observation, authority, 
reason, hearsay, imagination, insight, or some other source?  Knowing
when an idea first entered the mind and the circumstances surrounding
it can help develop DMP.
     Not knowing which cycle we have come from, we fall victim to
interpreting everything from a narrow perspective.  Science alone is
not enough.  Religion, philosophy, or history alone are not enough.
Any narrow approach to learning that excludes other ways of learning
is not enough.  We must adopt an overall approach, understanding
that how we learn is not more important than the knowledge itself.
The end must not be frustrated by the means.  In Futurlogics the end
justifies the means.  Heuristics finds its employ here.  Or use
whatever work and gets the job done.
     All modes of learning, all methods of science, religion, philosophy,
history, psychology, imagination, and the total mind must be used to
study the future.


MODES AS MENTAL BLOCKS

     We all have moments when our mind fails to serve us well--
those annoying occasions in which we can't remember something,
or else we can't keep our mind "on it."  Something distracts us or
we are occupied with worries.  The common, everyday "mental block"
has special interest because this annoyance is similar to the subtler
workings of the mode.
     Simplistically, we could say that the mode is a mild mental block.
However, instead of preventing some thought or idea to surface to
consciousness, the mode will only distort the thought to conform to
the thought pattern it uses.  These distortions, though slight, will have
an accumulative effect.  When this effect is present in any learning
method we have the modal effect.
     Modes are not new.  We hear that we should be objective in
dealings and avoid the subjective approach.  Personal feelings, emotions,
and opinions sometimes prevent us from seeing things as they really are.
We commonly seek counselors to help us make objective decisions.  
(There is nothing inherently wrong with being subjective with reality
if it is done with balance and interplay.)  To be completely
objective is to be nothing.  If there were not opinions, creeds,
philosophies, hopes--then living would be sterile.  We must be subjectively
objective and objectively subjective to think clearest.
     No human knows everything, and complete objectivity is impossible.
We have to fill in the missing parts of reality with our own
subjective input.  As living, thinking beings, "how we think"
influences "what we think."  Modes are a manner of thinking that 
influences what we think in a predictable way.
     1.  The mode is somewhere between the solid hard core prejudice
and the mild predisposition.  When we engage in the study of Futurlogics,
we will use this concept of the mode.  We want to avoid the
effect of "old knowledge" either preventing the learning of "new
knowledge" or some how COLORING it so that true understanding is
not achieved.  Futurlogics, then is a way of being as objective about
the future as possible--realizing that the future is not within the
objective range of the senses, and that the subjective faculties of the 
mind must be used through a special technique.
     2.  A mode is only a mode when we are swallowed up in it.  If we
are conscious that we are in a mode, then we can take measures to
prevent the effect of such a narrow perspective upon thinking and
learning.  Part of Futurlogics aim is to become conscious of the
various modes that we use so clear and open-minded thought can take 
place.  Then the intuitive learning of DMP is possible.
     3.  Modes are approaches to learning where the old existing
knowledge overlays a pattern and COLORING to the knowledge acquired
by that pattern, or cycle.  We know of open-minded and closed-minded
personalities.  A mode is a compartmentalized version of
closed-minded thought except that it does not concern itself with life
in general.  Closed-mindedness is like looking at the world through
a knothole.  A mode is like looking at the future through a keyhole.


SIX MODES IN FUTURLOGICS

     In beginning a study of the future it would seem we have limitless
starting points.  Not all of these will develop into a mode.  The possible
attitudes, opinions, frames of mind, and definitions subject to the
concept of modality eventually limit themselves.  But man, being a
creature of habit and economy, will settle on favorite cycles which will
feedback into themselves and generate the modes we have discussed.
     Since we have common personality traits with similar motivations
and common experiences, there are common grounds from which
modes spawn, and it is because of this that special or dominant modes
persist.  There are six major modes which are common approaches to the
future.
     Imagine looking through a kaleidoscope--every time we move it,
it changes.  There is an infinite variety to its color and designs.  But
when we take the kaleidoscope apart, we discover that there are just a 
few pieces of colored glass, a diffusing medium to destroy fine detail
and enhance general form, and a tube to direct the line of vision to the
mirrors.  The cycle mode concept, though infinite in variation, is
similarly simple.  Only six basic modes appear when we take things
apart.
     Each of the modes common to thinking about the future must be
investigated individually.  As we do this we can know when we are
thinking in a particular mode.  When we can be conscious that we are
in a mode, it becomes easy to use DMP and system of Futurlogics.


ANALYSIS OF THE SIX MODES

     Modes are not only a method of learning, they are also the
knowledge produced by a cycle used in the mode.  Each one of these
six modes produced a conception of the future with characteristics
drawn from the various cycles and knowledge derived through the
mode.  The six modes will be referred to interchangeably as follows:

     1.  Retrospective mode.............Absolute future
     2.  Observational mode..............Natural future
     3.  Imaginary mode................Imaginary future
     4.  Assumptive mode..............Artificial future
     5.  Creative mode.................Synthetic future
     6.  Model mode.....................Paradigm future

    For example the Artificial future is the "future" "seen" through
the assumptive mode.  This is true respectively for the other "futures"
as seen through their modes.
    Futurlogics takes the above modes and puts them to special use in
a systematized mental process developed as a learning ground for DMP.
But we must first learn the separate modes of approach to the future
before we can synthesize them in the system called Futurlogics.
    When we can use all the above modes separately, then simultaneously,
by using Futurlogics we can achieve DMP (Direct Mind Perception; Direct
Mental Process).  But the modes must be learned first as separate
components.  They must not only be understood, but the must be used.
They then take on the role of a model of thought or a "future".
    Someday we will have to stand on our own and be accountable for
everything we have been taught.  As we learn to drive an automobile
we realize that eventually we would have take our first solo drive.
Futurlogics must likewise train its students to go out on their
own eventually.  Futurlogics demands we become self-reliant.
    Before we arrive at the time where we are able to leave our
teachers behind and learn on our own we will have to learn the system.
When all the modes are learned and used interchangeable and
alternately so that the become a multi-faceted view of the future,
then we are ready to fully understand Futurlogics and DMP as a
system to "see" what lies ahead.