V
The manner in which any individuals perception
of reality is formed, is governed by two combining
factors. Reward and punishment.
It's an incredibly simple learning system, yet,
when coupled with the input derived from the body's major
senses, forms a complex shell, a series of rules which
make up that individuals perception of the real world.
The shell itself being the total sum of all reward and
punishment experienced to date.
The reward and punishment learning system can
be most easily seen and understood, when observed in
action; in this case, in the fictitious example of Bob.
The reward and punishment process when applied
to constant values (the physical objects that make up the
world as we know it) will go on to form Bobs perception
of reality. Right from the point of birth, as the naked
brain is confronted with the perplexities of the real
world, it adapts itself accordingly, by sucking in input,
from any and all of its available senses.
Thrust forth into the world from birth, Bob
will commence gathering information on all available
objects, through sight, sound, smell, touch and taste. As
his brain starts to form a basic perception of reality,
it may then go on to make sense of how the real world
interacts with itself, and how any objects within that
world, act both with that world, and with each other. For
example, as Bob grows he will become aware that placing a
stone on a table will result in the stone resting upon
that table. Reward. Bob clearly desired that the stone be
placed upon the table, and he has therefore achieved his ambition.
However placing the same stone on a pond, will
result in the stone falling through the pond, and resting
on the ground beneath. Punishment. Bob clearly desired
that the stone be placed upon the pond, and yet it didn't,
it fell right through it. He has failed to achieve his ambition.
It's this basic reward and punishment process,
which guides Bob through life. It's permanently in use,
and updated, and will be constantly referred to when
interacting with any object within that world. For
example, Bob finds himself in a room that he's never
visited before. Sitting in the middle of that room is a chair.
Bobs formation of reality to date, will be
responsible for him assuming (quite rightly) that he may
sit on the chair. Yet he doesn't actually know that it's
possible for him to sit on the chair, he's never seen it
before, and consequently has no experience of that exact
chair for him to come to any conclusions about its
properties. It may be made of balsa wood for all he knows,
and sitting on it would clearly break it, resulting in
him falling on the floor and failing in his objective.
Obviously he doesn't have to have direct
experience of everything he's ever going to come across,
storing such a large amount of information and sorting
through it, in real time, would be near on impossible. It's
here where intelligence comes into play. He doesn't
necessarily need any information on the chair, or the
walls, or anything in the room. If he's experienced
anything slightly similar to any of these objects before,
which we can assume he has, then he can quite rightly
assume that these objects will have the same properties
as any he's experienced before, until proved otherwise.
The same principles of reward and punishment,
are utilised by the mind, with regards the formation of
that persons personality. Though whilst the results from
such a process are constant with regards their perception
of reality, the formation of that persons personality, is
based upon the results of interactions between fellow
higher life forms, namely other people.
As before, the brain will seek out reward
within any interaction, and will more often than not, do
whatever is required in order to experience it.
It is the desire for any individual to seek
out reward in any way that it can, that is responsible
for what most people, witness and experience, in 'baying
to the crowd'. For example, Bob's hanging around on a
street corner with his friends. Bob sees Bill, a boy who
is known to Bob, both for being Bill, and for being
weaker than Bob. Bob picks a fight with Bill over
something to petty to be of any real concern. Bob beats
Bill up. Bob experiences jubilation's and 'pats on the
back' in general from his friends. reward.
As we can see, upon closer inspection of the
situation, Bob was just hanging around with his friends
on the street corner (boredom setting in a bit maybe?
Lack of adequate stimulation etc.) Bob sees Bill walking
toward him. Bob knows Bill. He also knows that Bill is a
weak boy, and would not prove a great threat to him
within any violent confrontation. With this in mind, Bob
picks a fight with Bill "Are you staring me out?",
"Did you just call me a bastard?" etc. none of
these reasons need any solid or real foundations, they're
just plain, clear cut excuses for a fight. Bob proceeds
to knock Bill about a bit. Bobs friends, upon witnessing
the event, find great joy in seeing one of their
accomplices indulging in petty violence and coming out
the victor, and reward Bob by placing him at the centre
of attention and showering him with their admiration,
which is what Bob sought. His personality will now be
such, that he will be consciously aware that if he so
wishes to experience reward in future, all he has to do
is slap Bill about a bit.
However, with the mind operating upon such
principles, we can see the reverse would be true, if the
reverse were to happen. For example, if when Bob first
attacked Bill, Bill turned around and kicked Bobs head in,
Bob would experience punishment from the situation, not
only from Bill, but also undoubtedly from his friends, as
now he was the one getting slapped about, he would be the
one they were laughing at, or indeed if he had beat Bill
up, and his friends accused him of being a bastard with
little or no respect for his fellow men, again punishment.
Either way, Bob would now consciously adapt his behaviour,
and with it his personality forthwith, and when presented
with the same situation in future, would refrain from
attacking Bill in any way.
Such principles will be forthcoming throughout
Bobs life, as he continues on his life journey attempting
to experience reward at any available opportunity. For
example, Bob is at a party with his friends. Bob meets
Tammy, accompanied by nudges and winks from his friends.
Bob takes Tammy upstairs to the bedroom. Bob has sex with
Tammy. Bob tells his eager to hear friends of his bedroom
exploits. Bob experiences jubilation's and pats on the
back from his friends. Reward.
A different situation has occurred, involving
different people, yet we're still looking at the same
pattern. At the end of the day, the quest for sex wasn't
the primary driving force behind Bobs actions, as before
the main reason for indulging in the sexual activity,
wasn't the gratification gained from the sexual act
itself, more the reward gained from the slaps on the back
from his friends, being the centre of attention and such forth.
In the above example, we can generally assume,
that in these AIDS conscious days Bob was having sex with
a condom and, as is usual when using such a device, Bob
would have been doing exactly that, 'having sex with a
condom'. The fact that this particular condom came
wrapped up in an attractive young lady by the name of
Tammy, holds no relevance, it was the condom itself that
Bob was actually having sex with. Bob could just as well
have been having sex with an inflatable woman for all the
stimulation he was receiving, and vice versa. Tammy could
just as well have been masturbating with a dildo, for
that's all that was entering her vagina, and again, the
fact that this particular dildo was in the exact shape
and size of Bobs penis holds no real relevance. So in
reality, the sexual act itself did not occur, it was more
a case of both people using their bodies to aid each
other for the purposes of mutual masturbation. And if
masturbation was all that was really achieved, then there
was no real need for the act of intercourse to take place,
nor for that matter, for the other party to be present.
The whole event could have just as easily been
accomplished with both individuals being left alone.
Clearly the main, if not the only reason for
the above activities to have taken place, is the reward
that would be obtained from becoming the centre of
attention amongst the social grouping, as they carry out
their inbuilt desire to experience reward and/or shun
punishment. There's no point anyone wasting their time
eating unripe green bananas, when there are plenty of
tasty yellow bananas to be had, and if sleeping around or
fighting is where any individual has to go in order to
receive reward (or even making false claims of having
done so), then that's where you'll find them. Indeed, as
most people will be aware from their own interactions
with people, the acts themselves don't actually have to
occur for any such stories of bravado to be recited. Most
people know of at least one individual who's 'slept with
a thousand women', 'kicked the shit out of just about
everyone', 'done this, done that' and just about
everything else. Wallowing in the oohs and aahs of
admiration, as whilst they recite or exhibit their
activities, all attention is on them, they are the focal
point of the group, fame and glory is theirs for the taking.
Such actions are present when looking at the
common modern day example of the stage hypnotist, and his
amazing hypnotic show. As and when such 'hypnotised'
individuals run around on stage like performing monkeys,
indulging themselves in all manner of strange and funny
escapades, much to the enjoyment of the paying public,
again, the sole principles being exhibited, are those of
the desire to experience reward within any situation. As
we've seen before, if they were truly in some form of
induced level of consciousness whereby the brains senses
would be confused and therefore susceptible to any
suggestions given by the hypnotist, they would have to be
hovering around the internal/external mark on the scale
of consciousness, whereby such suggestions would manifest
themselves within the dream world of the internal
functions of the mind. That being the case, such a person
would exhibit, at best, slurred and incoherent speech, a
glazing over of the eyes, and slow cumbersome movement,
if at all. In order for such suggestions to be
interpreted and presented to the mind as real, such a
person would then experience sleep paralysis, and even if
any of these factors were present, which they clearly
aren't, such loud claps and cheers from the assembled
audience, would alert the mind to high levels of exterior
activity, whereby such an individual would promptly snap
out of it, and wake up proper. Though small facts like
not being in any form of trance whatsoever, and being
fully consciously aware of every single action they
commit, won't stop such a hypnotised individual from
running around on stage doing anything the hypnotist
tells them to do, for, as mentioned previously, as and
when such an individual indulges in such activities, they
find themselves at the centre of attention. For one night,
and one night only, they're a star.
Copyright Sean Copland 1995-2010
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