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Programming
The
Most Complex Computer
So you think you are an expert programmer! You can set
up and play all the games on mini, maxi and micro computers, make Christmas
cards and funny faces, and land rockets on the moons of Mars.
If you’re that good, there’s one special computer you
might like to try your hand at programming for fun and profit. It’s the most
complex computer currently manufactured, with a memory base of thousands of
bytes, a mainframe storage unit, central processor, three or four subsystems,
several simultaneous input channels and multiplex output capacity. This
computer is also the fanciest and most sophisticated available. Its
capabilities are so fantastic not even the “reproducers” know them all.
Compared to the 8080 or the 88, they are hardly expensive.
New ones, available for a few hundred dollars, come in two types, M or F. Used
ones are also readily available, though maintenance can be high. Delivery time
on new units is 10 lunar months. Power supply is chemical rather than electrical.
The computer I’m writing about is the human mind.
Whether you know it or not, you are in fact programming
your mind every day. The real question is whether you program it well or
poorly.
Programming the mind is the subject of BioMeditation,
an integration of hypnosis, biofeedback and meditation, developed by Dr. Buryl
Payne, director of the Institute for PsychoEnergetics in Brookline,
Massachusetts, and Carmen Reitano, a hypnotherapist working in the
computer science field. The programming system comes in the form of a
comprehensive manual of experiments, techniques and games; a training tape for
basic programming; and a GSR (galvanic skin response) biofeedback instrument.
Programming the mind can be challenging as well as
worthwhile. Whatever you’ve learned about programming computers will most
likely help you in programming your own computer-mind.
All of us program our own minds, only we generally
don’t realize it. Delayed feedback, the complexity of the outputs, the mixing
of programs, or sloppy programming all result in so much confusion that most of
us don’t recognize the patterns and general principals that govern our lives.
The old computer adage “garbage in
—
garbage
out” applies to the human computer just as much as to any other computer system.
When people don’t know the principles of programming, don’t know the mechanisms
and general operating principles of the system and don’t have clearly defined
program objectives, nothing much can happen.
The result is usually a warm “fuzzy”, lives a tangle
of chaos and confusion, bodies that don’t work properly, a general degradation
of performance arising from contradictory programs or actual self-destruct
programs.
Authors Payne and Reitano base some of their
postulates about the human computer on modern psychology and Eastern techniques
of meditation.
They assume the system consists of one rather amorphous
blob with two primary input channels and three secondary ones. There are two
differently working mainframe components called left and right hemispheres and
several independent, but interacting subsystems, identified as the physical,
emotional and sexual centers. These subsystems, sometimes called the
“subconscious mind”, interact strongly with all programs introduced to the
main system and must be either taken into account or programmed around for
lasting effectiveness.
In addition to the main system and subsystems, the
authors postulate there is a super system which can be accessed with the proper
program. Many geniuses have, apparently, accessed their own super computer,
and so can anyone else
—
with the right key.
The first basic programming principle to remember when
working with the human mind is: DECREASE THE NOISE.
Most minds are full of chitchat
—
a
random collection of old programs which circulate continuously in the central
processor (called the “conscious mind”) modulated by subsystem activity and
continuous real-time input.
To be successful, any new inputs must be “heard” above
this noise background.
Here is where the biofeedback instrument comes into
use.
The unit in the BioMeditation system is one of the
latest designs (Payne developed the first general-use biofeedback instruments
in the late 60 s) to use one IC.
To operate the unit, you simply rest two fingers on
the metal sensor plates. Skin resistance, indicative of sympathetic nervous
system activity, is thereby monitored. Thus, the instrument enables the “noise”
of the emotional subsystem to be fed back in the form of a tone of varying
pitch. As the sympathetic activity decreases, the pitch of the biofeedback
instrument drops. Through experience, the user learns how to drop his internal
noise level.
Often considered more effective and objective than traditional
hypnosis or meditation, GSR biofeedback is an important application of
technology to human behavior modification.
A training tape included with the BioMeditation system
also helps teach you how to reduce your internal noise.
While it is usually not feasible to cool the human
computer in liquid helium, it is possible to reduce external noise by
retreating to or, if necessary, creating a quiet, dark place for the
programming process. Executives and kids have been known to hide in closets,
under the covers, or inside pyramids.
When the mind is quiet, it is ready for programming.
For best results, programs should be SIMPLE, POSITIVE and CLEAR.
Both visual and auditory inputs may increase the
effectiveness of the program. The language used
—
English
—
is
refreshingly redundant, though often ambiguous. Here is where programming
experience helps; it’s easy to program in a command which is not really what
you want, though it may be precisely what you programmed.
The human computer works on the basis that the loudest
program wins. Whatever you program in must compete with all past programs as
well as all future programs. This differs from the logic most programmers are
used to. Humans are not thought of as logical beings. But they are: their logic
is just affected by the weightings of emotional, physical~or sexual subsystems,
if not powerful contradictions. It all depends...
Such ever changing, ever challenging activity makes
for hours of fun for the novice or the expert.
Another principle for human computer programming is:
CONFLICTING PROGRAMS SHOULD BE CANCELLED.
If conflicting programs are not cancelled you will
either get no results, alternating behavioral outputs or nonsense. This
fundamental principle, so obvious to experienced computer programmers, often
escapes so-called professional human programmers, called “teachers”. In extreme
cases, conflicting programs could destroy the computer (drive it nuts).
It can be difficult to recall programs for
cancellation that have been programmed in early childhood, at birth, or even
before. Such early programs may be in a language other than English; perhaps
visual, tactile, or experienced primarily in the physical subsystem with little
connection to the main processor.
The designers of the BioMeditation system have
developed some general ways of clearing the mind which not only use the main
processor, but make use of the dream mind and the supercomputer. In addition,
they devote some time to programs which may enhance the capability of the
system to open up input channels not ordinarily used (called extrasensory
perception), to programs which improve the working of the system itself, and to
just about whatever one wishes.
All in
all, it is a fascinating game to systematically program the most complex
computer in the world. One’s whole life is the output! Each output event is also
input for the next sequence. The universe is the limit!
The BioMeditation System is available from: The
Institute for Psychology.
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