CHAPTER TEN
HOW TO BRAIN-WASH
FRIENDS & ROBOTIZE
PEOPLE
There is no government, no industrial-military complex, no eco-
nomic system,  no mass media that can ever reduce us to puppets
and robots as thoroughly as the biological and environmental dicta-
torships have.
— P.M.  Esfandiary,  Upwingers

As noted earlier, when the bio-survival circuit flashes danger, all
other mental activity ceases.
There  is  no  "time"  on  the  bio-survival  circuit;  reflexes  act
without emotional ego, rational mind or adult personality partici-
pating:  "I just found myself doing it."
All  the  martial  arts—judo,  akido,  kung  fu,  etc.—are  reim-
printing techniques for the bio-survival circuit. They are intended
to  ensure  that  what happens  mechanically  ("without  thought")
really does serve bio-survival, since the reflexes imprinted acci-
dentally on this circuit are not that dependable.
The  mechanical  nature  of  the  bio-survival  circuit  is  of  key
importance in brainwashing. To create a new imprint,  reduce the
victim to an infantile state,  i.e., first-circuit vulnerability.
As pointed out in the last chapter an army begins this process
with the draft notice,  which informs the subject that his body no
longer belongs  to  him  but to  the  government.  The  S.L.  Army,
seeking quicker brain change, began the conversion of Patty into
Tania by taking her at gun point, but the message was the same:
"We can do what we want with your body from now on." First-
circuit  bio-survival  instincts  thus  become  hooked  to  obeying
those who have this awesome power—just as the infant learns to
hook its bio-survival circuitry to the parental figures.
Patty's  ride  in  the  trunk  of a car  (after  being  taken  at  gun-
point) is a classic rebirth ritual; the trunk is even womb-like in its
contours.  When  the  trunk  opened,  she  was  reborn  into  a  new
reality-tunnel,  that  of her captors.  Similarly,  where  the  earliest
forms  of masonic  initiation  survive  and  have  not  been  diluted
(Note the  Adeptus  Major Ritual  in  the  Complete  Golden Dawn
System  of Magic,  by  Israel  Regardie,  Falcon  Press  1983.)  the
candidate is thrown into a well,  and then "raised" as a newborn
Freemason.  Total submersion,  the  form  of baptism  preferred  by
Protestant  fundamentalists,  imitates  this,  but  without  the  real
anxiety  that made  traditional  masonry  and  the  SLA  so  effective
as brain change agents.
All  brainwashers  empirically  know  (without  in  most  cases
ever having read Leary's eight-circuit model of the brain)  that
the oral bio-survival circuit seeks bonding with a mothering fig-
ure.  To  increase  panic  and  imprint  vulnerability,  then,  the
subject,  after  being  seized  by  the  brainwashers  (U.S.  or  S.L.
Army, "secret police," or whoever they may be in a given case)
163164  Prometheus Rising
is  isolated from all  those to  whom bonding had previously been
established.  The draftee is  sent to boot camp and sees  no loved
ones  (wife,  girlfriend,  parents,  etc.)  for  a  number  of weeks  or
months. The political prisoner is thrown into a dungeon.  Patty
Hearst was locked in a closet as soon as she was "rebirthed" out
of the trunk of the car.
Experiments in isolation by the U.S. Marine Corps, Dr. John
Lilly  and  others—and  the  records  of  shipwrecked  sailors,  as
summarized  by  Lilly  in  Simulations  of God—show  that  only  a
few  hours  of pure  isolation  may  be  necessary  before  halluci-
nations  begin.  These  hallucinations,  like  those  of psychedelic
drugs, indicate the breaking down of previous imprints and the
onset of vulnerability to new imprints.
The  need  to  bond  the  bio-survival  circuit  to  somebody  (or
some  thing)  is  indicated  by  the  giraffe  who  imprinted  on  the
hunter's jeep as a mother-substitute. Similarly, children without
siblings,  especially  those  in  remote  rural  areas,  often  invent
imaginary  playmates,  which  can  become  "real"  enough  to
frighten  the  parents  into  suspecting  the  onset  of psychosis.  Dr.
Lilly's  records  of  sailors  and  explorers  in  isolation  show  that
such "guides," "companions" or "holy guardian angels" reappear
quickly  even  in  adulthood  when  normal  social  contact  is
removed.  They  also  come  promptly  to  those  undergoing  the
mysterious state called "near-death" or "out of body experience,"
(e.g., when the heart stops on the operating table.)
The  first  human  being  who  appears  to  the  subject  after  this
isolation can easily become bonded as the mother-substitute, or,
next best, as a father-substitute. This explains  why people held
prisoner by terrorists (e.g., on hijacked airplanes) often develop a
"paradoxical"  sympathy  for  those  who  are  threatening  to  kill
them. It also explains why the draftee begins to look on his kid-
nappers as protectors as well as captors, and why the brainwash
victim  begins  to  please,  gratify  and  eventually  "respect"  the
brainwasher.
In all cases, since the bio-survival circuit is keyed to nourish-
ment,  those who bring food become possible subjects for bond-
ing. The political prisoner,  the draftee,  the  subject kidnapped by
terrorists,  all  move  somewhat  closer to  identification/bonding
with  their  captors  as  they  are  fed  regularly.  Again,  this  isPrometheus Rising  165
imitated  crudely  by  various  religions  (without  the  terror  that
creates true imprint vulnerability) by following baptism/rebirth
rituals with a communal meal or Holy Eucharist.
Adaptations  of these principles  can  be  applied even to  those
who walk into the brainwashing environment voluntarily at first,
as  in People's Temple,  the Manson Family,  and similar organi-
zations.  The  first  step,  once  the  victim  is  inside  the  territory
(commune),  is to begin isolation by cutting off all communica-
tion  with  the  outer  world  and  its  conflicting  reality-tunnels.
Meanwhile, a parental-protective atmosphere is quickly created
(sometimes called "love-bombing")  and food is provided.
Whether the  subject has entered voluntarily  as in these com-
munes,  or has been kidnapped or arrested  (as  in police  states),
the  next  stage  is  to  break  down  the  second-circuit  emotional-
territorial imprints. That means that the  subject continues to be
fed (maintaining first-circuit oral dependence) while the second-
circuit  ego  is  attacked  in  every  manner  possible.  A  point-by-
point  comparison  of the  techniques  of a  Synanon  "gamer"  and
U.S.  Army  drill  sergeant,  for instance,  would  show  astonishing
similarities,  since  the  basic  message  is  dozens  and  dozens  of
variations on "You are all wrong. We are all right. It is extremely
unlikely that somebody as  wrong as you will become right, ever,
but we  will  try  to  teach  you."  The  anal  vocabulary  of territorial
status is, of course, employed extensively. The ideal subject may
almost forget his or her name and become conditioned to answer-
ing to "You asshole, come here."
The  sense  of bottom  dog  helplessness  can  be  escalated  by
periodic  doses  of real  terror.  One  of Charlie  Manson's  famous
sayings was  "Fear is the great teacher," and every brainwasher
would agree ardently. In communist countries (as dramatized in
Costa-Gravas's  fine  and  factual  film,  The  Confession)  a  favorite
trick is to take the subject out of his cell, march him to a court-
yard, place a noose about his neck, and convince him he is about
to be hanged. The relief, when this turns out to be a bluff, creates
ideal imprint vulnerability. A variation in my novel Illuminatus!
has the victim persuaded he has been poisoned, dumped in a cof-
fin and the lid slammed upon him. Those who have been initiated
as Mark Master Freemasons  will  recognize at once that the same
technique is the "mark that you will carry to your grave."166  Prometheus Rising
Among  the  Zuni  Indians,  the  male  at  adolescence  is  kid-
napped by masked "demons" who carry him away from the tribe
(away  from mother and  other imprinted  security  figures.)  He  is
dragged out into the desert and threatened with  whips. Then the
masks  come  off,  revealing  his  maternal  uncles,  and  in  that
moment  of imprint  vulnerability  the  tribal  "secrets"  (the  local
reality-tunnel)  are  explained  in  a  way  that  leave  an  indelible
mark on his consciousness. Similar rites of passage are found in
all  tribes,  few  as  cleverly  designed  as  this  one.  Symbolic  and
diluted  versions  survive  in  Bar  Mitzvahs  and  Confirmation
ceremonies in our local mega-tribes.
The  rebirthing  of the  second  circuit  is  (relatively)  complete
when  the  Bottom  Dog  subject  begins  to  seek,  sincerely  (not
hypocritically)  to  win  the  approval  of the  Top  Dogs.  This,  of
course,  only  begins  as  play-acting;  the  skilled  brainwasher
knows that, and does not really object. With subtle reinforcement
the play-acting becomes more and more genuine. Edmund Burke
noted long ago, and every Method Actor knows, that you cannot
make three dramatic gestures of rage in a political speech, with-
out beginning  to  feel  some  real  rage.  You  cannot  make  three
gestures  of submission  without beginning to feel really  submis-
sive.  (This is the psychology of the "company man," who truly
identifies with his employer after years  of obedience.)
The  draftee  first  tries  to  please  the  sergeant,  to  avoid  further
humiliation  and punishment.  Gradually,  he  genuinely  wants  to
please the sergeant, i.e., to prove he is not all wrong and is "good
enough" to be a soldier. Patty Hearst undoubtedly pretended to
accept  the  SLA  reality-tunnel  at  first,  and  gradually  found  the
presence becoming more and more real.
This process is accelerated by a system of occasional rewards,
as  the  subject  more  and  more  often  emits  (as  the  Behaviorists
would say) the desired behaviors. Since people are more compli-
cated  than  Behaviorists  know,  it  is  necessary  to  vary  this  with
occasional  punishments  for "insincerity,"  or "backsliding,"  so
that  the  subject  learns  that after the  initial  stage,  it  is  not enough
to  pretend  to  accept  the  new  reality-tunnel;  to  escape  further
humiliation,  ego-loss,  terrorism  and  permanent  Bottom  Dog
status, one must begin to accept it sincere/y.  After the imprint of
helplessness had been made, this conditioning and learning willPrometheus Rising  167
proceed  fairly  smoothly,  especially  if the  Chief Brainwasher's
confederates  reinforce  it  with  encouragement,  support,  and
general "reward" (for sincere submission) and contempt, disap-
pointment and general rejection (for insincerity or backsliding.)
Reimprinting the third semantic circuit can now follow easily.
The  human  brain  is  capable  of mastering  any  symbol-system  if
sufficiently  motivated.  Some people can even play  Beethoven's
late piano music,  although to me this is as "miraculous"  as any
feat  alleged  by  psychic  researchers;  people  can  learn  French,
Hindustani,  differential  calculus,  Swahili,  etc.  ad.  infinitum—if
motivated.  When  the  first  circuit  security  needs  have  been
reimprinted  and  second-circuit ego-needs  have been  hooked  to
mastering  a  new  semantic  reality-tunnel,  that  tunnel  will  be
imprinted.
At this point a certain amount of arbitrary nonsense is of great
value. That is, the new reality-tunnel or symbol-system (like the
old one) should contain pitfalls (gross violations of previous real-
ity tunnels and common sense) so that the subject can be accused
of backsliding  (being  "all  wrong,"  after  all)  and  thereby  incited
to try harder to become part of the new reality-tunnel.
Thus, Jehovah's Witnesses may not accept blood transfusions,
even  if their  life  depends  on  it:  harder  still  (since  all  mammals
have  an  instinct  to  protect  their  young)  they  must  reject  blood
transfusions  for  their  children,  even  if  the  children  die  of  this
neglect. A Roman Catholic woman may not be divorced even if
her  husband  comes  home  drunk  every  night,  beats  her  up  and
gives  her VD.  In the  U.S.  Marines,  a recruit  who commits  the
hideous  crime  of calling  a  rifle  a  "gun"  must  walk  around  the
base with his rifle in one hand and his penis in the other reciting
to everybody he meets, "This is my rifle/This is my gun/This is
for fighting/This is for fun." Theosophists were once required to
believe that there is a hole at the North Pole going down to the
center of the earth; Manson required his followers to believe the
hole was in the Mojave Desert. Nazi Party members were asked
to believe that the  lion  is an Aryan animal  and the rabbit non-
Aryan. Etc.
The  neurological  and  sociological  function  of  such
"nonsense"  (which  makes  the  Rationalist  gasp  in  shock)  is  to
sharply segregate those within the new reality-tunnel from those168  Prometheus Rising
outside.  This makes  for group solidarity,  group-reinforcement,
and  a  strong  sense  of alienation  and  discomfort  when  on  rare
occasions  it  is  necessary  to  talk  at  all  with  those  outside  the
brainwasher's  semantic  system.  The  group  must  ensure,  of
course, that this alienation is experienced as "superiority." Those
who  are  outside  the  reality-tunnel  must  be  perceived  as  "all
wrong"—just as the subject was, before being brainwashed.
Drugs can be, and have been, used to fine-tune these process-
es,  but the  general  neurological  principles  are  powerful  enough
that  it  is  quite  likely  that  many  famous  cases  of brainwashing
were  accomplished  as  above  described,  without  any  drugs  at
all—e.g., the American soldiers who confessed to war crimes
which  they  evidently  had  not committed,  the  loyal  Communists
who confessed to Trotskyite conspiracies which seemingly never
existed,  etc.  It  takes  very  few  weeks  for most  armies,  without
drugs, to convert a civilian into a soldier, even though the two
species are as different as Roman Catholics and Shintoists.
In  one  of my  Immortal  Novels  I  describe  a  religious  cult
called Loonies, founded by one Neon Bal Loon,  in which mem-
bers pray in pig-Latin while standing on one leg like storks. This
is considered satire, but any would-be messiah who understands
the  above  principles  could  create  such  a  cult  easily;  and  the
members would soon have a quite sincere sense of superiority to
those outside that reality-tunnel.
Cults  and outlaw terrorists generally follow the above proce-
dures  by  further  rewiring  of  the  fourth,  socio-sexual  circuit.
(Governments usually leave that circuit alone,  since government
agents  are  largely  puritanical-authoritarian  and  afraid  to  get
involved  at  all  with  raw  Eros.)  It  is  no  secret  that  the  most
powerful secret society of the middle ages, the Knights Templar,
forced recruits to participate in both blasphemy and sodomy. Just
as  the  deliberate  nonsense  of all  cultish  third-circuit  semantics
isolates  the  group  from  the  rest  of society,  this  initiation  sepa-
rated the Templars from the rest of Christendom;  the alienation
could easily be conditioned into a sense of superiority. The Mau-
Maus  in  Kenya  also  insisted  on  one  act  of  homosexuality  to
break the new member's previous conditioning toward hetero-
sexuality  and monogamy.  Other cults,  some quite  well known,Prometheus Rising  169
attempt to  repress  sexuality  entirely—another way  of breaking
the statistically normal imprinting of the fourth circuit.
The Manson Family insisted on what might be called, oxymo-
ronically, compulsory  free  love.  The Army  serves normal  ama-
tive bonds  and casts the  subject into a world where compulsory
celibacy alternates with whore-house adventures and, quite often,
the  rape  of  enemy  women,  with  homosexuality  as  an  ever-
present hidden option.  A current American guru, Da Free John,
imprints  his  subjects  for  lifelong  monogamy,  almost  like  the
outside U.S.  culture,  but is  indifferent  as  to  whether these  pair-
ings  are  heterosexual  or  homosexual.  Whatever  variation  the
cult-leader  may  choose,  what  makes  for  successful  "separate
reality" is that it be in  some respect outlandishly different from
that of the major society.
The easiest way to get brainwashed is to be born.  All of the
above  principles  then  immediately  go  into  action,  a  process
which  social  psychologists  euphemistically  call  socialization.
The bio-survival circuit automatically hooks onto or bonds to the
most  appropriate  mother  or  mothering  object;  the  emotional-
territorial circuit looks for a "role" or ego-identification in the
family or tribe; the semantic circuit learns to imitate and then use
the local reality-grids (symbol systems); the socio-sexual circuit
is  imprinted by  whatever mating experiences  are initially  avail-
able at puberty.
The  subjects  may  not  come  out  of  this  process  ready  to
murder women and children, like the graduate of boot camp, or
even willing to believe that Charlie Manson was both Jesus and
Satan simultaneously, or willing to spout New Left slogans while
robbing banks. The subjects come out of normal "socialization"
depending  on  where  and  when  they  were  born  as  Eskimo
totemists,  Moslem  fundamentalists,  Roman  Catholics,  Marxist
Leninists,  Nazis,  Methodist  Republicans,  Oxford-educated-
agnostics, snake worshippers, Ku Kluxers, Mafiosos, Unitarians,
IRA-ists, PLO-ists, orthodox Jews, hardshell Baptists, etc. etc.
The  universe  or  existence,  is  obviously  large  enough  and
complex  enough  and  the  ego  self-centered  enough,  that  all  of
these reality-tunnels  are capable of "making  sense,"  to  some
degree, to those imprinted/conditioned to accept them. It is also
obvious  that most  of these reality-tunnels contain elements  soI JO Prometheus Rising
absurd that everybody not imprinted/conditioned by them looks
at them with  astonishment and dismay,  wondering  "How  can  a
rational person (or peoples) believe such rubbish?"
What the Thinker thinks,  the Prover proves... whether you are
living in a Christian reality-tunnel, a Mansonoid reality-tunnel,
an  Immortalist  reality-tunnel,  a  vegetarian  reality-tunnel,  a
Rationalist reality-tunnel...
Everybody has the only true true religion.
Earlier, we quoted some words from Persinger and Lafreniere:
We,  as  a species,  exist in  a world in  which exist a myriad of
data points. Upon these matrices of points we superimpose a
structure and the world makes sense to us. The pattern of the
structure  originates  within  our  biological  and  sociological
properties.Prometheus Rising  171
It is to be hoped that this makes more sense to the reader now
than  it  did  at  the beginning  of our enquiry.
The  function  of the  domesticated  primate  brain,  insofar  as  we
have  described  it  up  to  this  point  and  leaving  out  the  higher,
newer circuits, is to serve as an "organ of adaptation" in Freud's
phrase. Specifically, the oldest, most primitive, most mechanical
centers serve simple bio-survival. The more recent (500,000,000
year-old, roughly) emotional territorial centers serve to maintain
pack  identity,  habitat-space  and  hierarchy.  The  distinctly  homi-
nid  semantic  circuit  (100,000-year-old?)  makes  maps  and
models—reality-tunnels—which  we  tend  to  confuse  with  reality
itself,  and,  worse  yet,  with  "all"  of  reality.  The  (30,000?  year
old) moral-social circuit creates the domesticated adult personal-
ity, or parent-role, or super-ego.
Now,  obviously  the third,  semantic circuit works  with  and for
these  other antique circuits.  The  maps  and  models  it  makes  are
tools  of adaptation,  and  what  they  adapt us  to  is  social  roles  in
domesticated primate society. Thus,  a Midwestern Methodist is
not "misusing his brain" as Arthur Koestler thinks in construct-
ing a Midwestern Methodist tunnel-reality; that is precisely what
his brain is for, to adapt him to the Midwestern Methodist tribal
system—to impose the structure of Midwestern Methodist ideol-
ogy  upon  the  myriad  of  data-points  he  encounters  in  his  life-
time.  The Chinese  Maoist,  the  Iranian  Moslem,  the  New  York
Feminist,  the  Marin  County  Hedonist,  etc.  each  has  a  similar,
equally arbitrary, equally complex reality-tunnel. Each tunnel is
also equally absurd when seen from outside.
The  problems  of  the  modern  world  arise  from  the  fact  that
these  reality-tunnels  are  no  longer  isolated  from  each  other.
Throughout most of human history and up to  100 years ago—up
to  20  years  ago,  in  some  parts  of the  world—a  man  or  woman
could  lead  their entire  life  snugly  within  the  cocoon  of the  local
tunnel-reality.  Today,  we  all  constantly  collide  with  persons
living  in  wildly  different  tunnel-realities.  This  creates  a  great
deal of hostility in the more ignorant, vast amounts of metaphys-
ical and ethical confusion in the more sophisticated, and growing
disorientation  for  all—a  situation  known  as  our  "crisis  of
values."1J2 Prometheus Rising
The average person has a deluge of contradictory and conflict-
ing reality-tunnels impinging on him or her, with little training in
either  cultural  or  neurological  relativism.  Speed  of travel  has
increased by  a factor of 1000  since  1900,  and speed of commu-
nication  by a factor of 10,000,000,  according  to  J.R.  Platt.  The
deluge is accelerating and intensifying. One symptom is the fact
that  TV Guide has been taken  over by  a band of terrified conser-
vatives,  who  cannot understand  and  can  only  dread  this  down-
pour of "alien" signals; instead of being merely a guide to what
is  on  the tube,  TV Guide has become a continuous  wail that the
tube's tunnel-reality is wider,  stranger and more varied than the
narrow tunnel-vision of the small-town WASP.
There  has  also  arisen  a profession  of "deprogrammers,"  so-
called. These are neuro-technicians who will, for a fee, kidnap a
child (even a "child" over 21) who has wandered off, departed
the  parental  reality-tunnel  and  been  brainwashed  into  the  com-
peting  reality-tunnel  of  some  new  (i.e.,  not  established—not
acceptable yet) "cult." This is known as restoring the victim to
normalcy.Prometheus Rising  173
It is all hypocrisy and neurological ignorance, of course. The
"de-programmers"  are  actually  re-programmers.  The  parental
tunnel-reality  is  as  arbitrary  (and,  to  an  outsider,  as  bizarre)  as
that  of any  "cult."  A  special  system  of tricky  semantics  allows
most people and  some courts to  ignore these facts.  Just  imagine
what would happen if a wayward child of Methodist parents had
wandered into the Roman Catholic Church,  say, and the parents
attempted to have that child coercively  "de-programmed" (repro-
grammed)  into Methodism;  or if the  child  had joined the  U.S.
Army, like Calley, and the parents kidnapped him and tried to re-
program him into civilian reality-tunnels.
These  problems  will  not  go  away;  and  the  abrasions  they
cause,  as  various  brainwashed  robots  continue  to  collide  with
each  other,  will  accelerate.  Speed  of travel  and  of communica-
tion are still continuing to accelerate.
Fortunately,  higher  circuits  are  forming  in  the  human  brain
and  offer  broader  vistas  than  the  narrow  tunnel-visions  of  the
antique circuits. That is the topic of our concluding chapters.
Since  everybody  "prefers"  one  circuit  over  the  others,  there
are people in each society who are easily recognizable as Narcis-
sists  (first-circuit robots),  Emotionalists  (second-circuit robots),
Rationalists  (third-circuit  robots)  and  Moralists  (fourth-circuit
robots).
Rationalist robots, like the other robots, may be totally mech-
anized  or  may  have  some  slight  flexibility,  or  "freedom"  built
into  their circuitry.  The totally  robotized make up the  vast horde
of  the  Fundamentalist  wing  of  the  Materialist  church  and  the
other True  Believers  in  the  scientific  paradigms  of  1968,  1958,
1948  or  whenever  their  nervous  systems  stopped  taking  new
imprints.
These are the people who are perpetually frightened and dis-
mayed by the large portion of human behavior mediated through
Circuit II mammalian politics. They  think that because this terri-
torial-emotional ("patriotic") behavior is not Rational,  it should
not exist.  They  accept Darwin  as  dogma,  but are  nervous  about
"Darwinism"  (because  it  accepts  mammalian  politics  as  an
Evolutionary Strategy that has worked thus far) and are repulsed
by  the  data of ethology,  genetics  and  sociobiology.  They  don't
like the rest of the human race much, because it is not guided byIJ4  Prometheus Rising
their favorite circuit, and they are uneasily aware that the rest of
the human race does not like them much.
These Rationalist robots are also very uncomfortable with the
newer  circuits—and  some  of  them  spend  most  of  their  lives
writing  articles  and books devoted to  "proving" that the  newer
circuits do not exist and that all scientists who have recorded the
behavior of these newer circuits are liars, fools, bunglers, charla-
tans or some manner of Damned Heretics.
Like the Emotional robot, the Moralistic robot, the Narcissist
robot etc.,  the  Rationalist  robot cannot be  "argued"  out  of his
narrow reality tunnel.  We can  only emphasize,  one more time,
that  each  and  every  reality-tunnel  created  by  a  domesticated
primate  brain  is  a  finite  cross-section  of that  brain's  personal
history; and each such finite reality-tunnel is as "personalized" as
the music  of Bach or Beethoven, the paintings of Rembrandt or
Picasso, the novels of Joyce or Raymond Chandler, the comedy
of the Three  Stooges  or Monty  Python,  the  religions  of Roman
Catholicism or Zen Buddhism, the politics of Libertarianism or
the IRA, the architecture of St. Peter's or Disney land...
And each of these art-works seems like "reality" to the people
who  have  created  them  and  live  in  them.  Rationalism  is just
another  such  group  art-work,  a little  less  tolerant  than  most,  a
little  more  useful  to  technologists  than  any  other,  a  little  stupid
when it can no longer transcend the last paradigm it has created.
The  totally  robotized  Rationalist,  the  one  whose  nervous
system has  stopped growing entirely, can be recognized by two
signs:
He or she  is constantly  trying to prove that much  of the daily
experience of the rest of humanity is "delusion," "hallucination,"
"group hallucination," "mass hallucination," "mere coincidence,"
"sheer coincidence," or "sloppy research."
And he or she never thinks that any of his or her own experi-
ence would fit into any of those categories.
EXERCIZES
1. Become  a pious  Roman Catholic.  Explain  in  three pages
why  the  Church  is  still  infallible  and  holy  despite  Popes  like
Alexander VI (the Borgia Pope), Pious XII (ally of Hitler), etc.Prometheus Rising  775
2. For  those  of you  who  remember  Mai  Lai,  become  Lt.
Galley.  Say aloud, and really feel and believe,  "The Army comes
first.  I'm for the Army all the way." If you don't remember try
Jerry  Falwell.  Say  aloud,  and  really feel and believe,  "Help us
fight moral decay, send your checks in today."
3. Refute this  whole book.  Demonstrate that everybody  else
has been brainwashed but you and your mother (father) has the
one, real, objective view of the universe.
4. Accept  this  book,  if not in  whole  at  least  in  general  out-
lines. Assume you have been brainwashed. Try to learn as much
from every  human you  meet  about  their  separate  reality-tunnel
and  see how much  of it you can use to make your reality-tunnel
bigger and more inclusive. In other words, learn to listen.
5. James Joyce said he never met a boring human being. Try
to  explain  this.  Try  to  get  into  the  Joycean  head  space,  where
everybody  is  a  separate  reality-island  full  of  mystery  and  sur-
prise. In other words, learn to observe.
6. Read Aldous Huxley's The Genius and the Goddess.  Note
how the Circuit III scientific Genius reverts to Circuit I helpless
infant when his wife leaves him.
7.  After  experimenting  with  the  Nazi  reality-tunnel,  the
Catholic reality-tunnel etc., re-enter your "normal" reality tunnel.
Does it still  seem totally objective,  or do you begin to recognize
how  much  of  it  is  your  own  software  and  hardware  running
programs?
8. Finally, explore the tunnel-busting reality of Christopher S.
Hyatt' s  book  titled  Undoing  Yourself With  Energized Meditation
and Other Devices.  What tunnel-reality  is  he  selling  and  how
sincere is he about his  writing? Also,  do you think he has read
my work and I his, or is this last statement a gimmick of the pub-
lishers played on two innocent authors and the trusting public or
even worse did I write his book,  or could it be, that we are one
and the same?