In proving the Law of Experience, Ashby verified that new information entering a cybernetic system destroys previous information of a similar nature. We can cite countless examples of this phenomenon in the activities of the human brain. In the brain, once a pathway of information processing has been established, whether a pattern of speech, a bad habit, or a generally accepted concept (for example, the once widely held belief that the earth is flat), that information, that way of experiencing the world, will prevail unless new information comes in to destroy and replace it. A pattern of speech may be consciously changed or corrected, a bad habit may be forcibly broken, or a new concept of the universe may gain popular acceptance. In each case, the new experience supersedes the old.
Other familiar instances demonstrate the obvious applicability of the Law of Experience to larger, more complex patterns of thought and feeling. A traveler may have an image of a place in his mind, the French Riviera, for example, and a number of feelings associated with it, such as fun, excitement, adventure, and relaxation. That image and those feelings, however, may be utterly shattered when he finally arrives and finds rundown hotels, polluted beaches, high prices, and abominable weather. The overall impact will be to destroy and replace his previous feelings with new information that is a proper reflection of his experience. In another common example, a rider who falls off a horse is traditionally instructed to get back on as soon as possible. His first feelings of pleasure and safety have been destroyed, and fresh, new, positive information is prescribed immediately to erase the trauma of his fall.
In human terms, the Law of Experience describes an organic process that does not require our conscious attention or active participation. It is a natural function of our human capacity for communication that works automatically. This fundamental principle of communication also applies to the larger forms of human awareness and personality, establishing patterns of thought and feeling where there are none and granting priority to new experiences over old.
In An Introduction to Cybernetics, Ashby gives this brief example of the Law of Experience in everyday life that demonstrates its larger implications for the development of personality: "Perhaps something of this sort occurs when it is found that a large number of boys of marked individuality, having all been through the same school, develop ways that are more characteristic of the school they attended than of their original individualities."
As Ashby described them, the changes were subtle; as an engineer his focus was unwaveringly upon changes in behavior. In contrast to our own investigation of experience, Ashby was not concerned with the impact of experience on human awareness. Although he acknowledged that consciousness was "the most fundamental fact of all," he declined to discuss it because it could not be demonstrated or scientifically verified.
Yet in our research, which has benefited greatly from discoveries made since Ashby's inquiry, we gathered a wealth of evidence which confirmed for us that the Law of Experience is enforced across the entire spectrum of human awareness, from primary processes of perception to the whole of personality. In interviews with neurophysiologists and bio-information scientists, we heard about exciting new discoveries concerning the brain's active response to experience which, to us, clearly described the communication process of new information superseding old. In some cases, new and intense experiences may sever long-standing synaptic connections; in others, new patterns of thought and feeling may simply bypass or be superimposed over previous ones. Science has only begun to understand the dynamics of these infinitesimal yet immensely complex organic processes, processes that may involve only the slightest shift in the electrical resistance of a tiny portion of a neural cell, or change only the most subtle chemical configurations of what are believed to be minute memory molecules. Yet most new research in the field appears to confirm the spirit of Ashby's law, suggesting that the basic processes of the human brain are in an endless state of growth and reorganization.
And, indeed, few activities in nature are as striking to behold as the interplay that takes place in this living world of communication. We experienced one of the most inspiring moments of our research, in fact, when we were shown action pictures of brain cells, magnified many times, in which we could actually see the neurons waving their tentacle-like fibers, branching outward toward offer neurons, seemingly making and breaking synaptic connections with each successive moment's measure of information and experience.
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Today, however, it is not necessary to use a microscope to view the Law of Experience in action. Many dramatic examples are visible in America's religious cults and mass therapies. Like an electric shock, the information an individual receives from some massive physical, emotional, and intellectual experience may be powerful enough to destroy deep and long-standing information-processing pathways in the brain. Our talk with Jean Turner revealed how the overwhelming experience of her encounter with her est trainer apparently destroyed patterns of feeling that had been a source of intense pain in her legs since childhood. Similarly, after our interview with Lawrence and Cathy Gordon, it seemed to us that, in the course of their weekend retreat among the Moonies, the constant repetition of Unification Church doctrines destroyed and replaced the couple's fundamental spiritual beliefs. In this instance, presumably, the incessant bombardment of information received in lectures, discussion groups, and personal confrontations -- combined with the physical impact of the weekend was powerful enough to bring about the couple's conversion.
But these powerful experiences, like all experiences, cannot be separated from their holographic nature and effects. Jean Turner's miracle cure was not simply a healing scalpel that excised the pain in her legs and left the rest of her body unscathed. On the contrary, as she testified, her concentrated est encounter summoned up a wrenching emotional convulsion. She felt it in her legs, her wrists, and throughout her entire body. And the next weekend of the training, it "came up like a ball," temporarily dismantling the structure of her personality and leaving her in a state of disorientation and emotional disarray. The Gordons, as well, underwent far more than a simple transformation of belief during their weekend among the Moonies. Their physical appearances changed noticeably -- their eyes, their posture, their tone of voice; indeed, they seemed to become totally different people. Furthermore, their sweeping inner change also transformed the way the couple experienced the world around them. On their return, as Lawrence recalled, the everyday world seemed strangely alien and sinister. In response to the new information they had absorbed, the specter of Satan seemed omnipresent, even in the worried appearance and genuine concern of Lawrence's mother.
Like all human information processing, the Law of Experience is holographic. As these examples confirm, it is not possible to tamper with one element of an individual's awareness without endangering his personality as a whole. In many religious cults and mass therapies, the sudden injection of experience may destroy some specific pattern of thought, feeling, or belief, but it may also alter the entire focus of consciousness, shifting the window of individual awareness or changing the landscape altogether. In our investigation, we have found every reason to believe that these intense experiences effect physical changes in the organization of the brain. In some instances, they overlay new patterns of belief, behavior, and awareness that take precedence over old; in others, they actually destroy the fundamental pathways of thought and feeling that make up an individual's personality. Once these changes take place, as Ted Patrick's deprogramming and rehabilitation procedures demonstrate, the former sense of self can only be restored by breaking the tenuous new connections of the individual's cult personality and then slowly, consciously, rebuilding the deeper underlying personality by reconnecting the individual with his past experiences and relationships and with the world around him.
The principles of the hologram and the Law of Experience are cornerstones in the foundation of our understanding of snapping, tools from the communication sciences and neurophysiology which we have endeavore
d to use to overcome the limitations of the robot model of psychology. Now we can address the subject of how our individual personalities are shaped and altered by experience and examine the impact of that experience on the information-processing capacities of the brain. From this new perspective, we can look directly at the moment of sudden personality change, at the abrupt snapping of human awareness from one level to another.
12 The Snapping Moment and Catastrophe Theory
In time to come it will often be difficult perhaps, to decide whether an
advance in knowledge represents a step forward in physics, information
theory, or philosophy, whether physics is expanding into biology or
whether biology is employing physical methods and approaches to an
ever greater extent.
-- Werner Heisenberg, The End of Physics?
Our framework complete, the separate pieces of our investigation came together to form a comprehensive picture of the phenomenon of snapping. All the elements were there: the intense physical experiences of religious ritual, such as singing, dancing, drumming, chanting, prayer, and meditation, along with the physiological stresses reportedly used by many of the cults and groups, such as exhaustion, poor diet, isolation, and other forms of sensory deprivation.
Under the proper circumstances any of these experiences, or some combination, may produce an intense, overwhelming peak moment which may, in turn, be followed by a precipitous plunge into physical or emotional collapse. However, not even all of them in concert need set off the moment of snapping, which we have distinguished from a brief spiritual or emotional high as the sudden drastic alteration of an individual's entire personality.
An altogether different kind of information is usually needed to trigger this extraordinary human response. It consists of the potent rhetorical ploys, individual and group techniques, and mass-marketing strategies that make up America's technology of experience, everything from fervid lecturing and earnest personal confrontation to slickly packaged appeals, from casual conversation to active role playing and guided fantasy. It is this set of instruments which may be systematically orchestrated to engage the entire range of an individual's communication capacities, from the most rudimentary and automatic biological functions to the highest reaches of human awareness. This all-encompassing verbal and nonverbal assault, charged with challenging new beliefs, suggestions, and commands, may build up profound and often conflicting feelings -- feelings of fear, guilt, hatred, anger, humiliation, embarrassment, and alienation which may prompt the individual to seek release from a troubled past or from more immediate and pressing problems. Then, often in a sensuous, seductive, or totally foreign environment, or surrounded by an atmosphere of love, warmth, acceptance, openness, honesty,and community, the individual may yield to some call, either from within or without, to surrender, to let go, to stop questioning, to relinquish all hold upon the will. And more than anything else it is this act of capitulation that sets off the explosion we call snapping.
In that moment, something quite remarkable may happen. With that flick of a switch, that change of heart and mind, an individual's personality may come apart. From our perspective, this phenomenon can now be identified as an overpowering holographic crisis in the brain.
The experience itself may give rise to a rush of physical sensation: a blinding light, a floating feeling, momentary paralysis, breathlessness, a flood of tears, a coursing of blood throughout the body, or a strong tingling sensation that showers downward from the head with the surge of an electrical discharge. The immediate impact may be felt as awe, ecstasy, amazement, a quiet peace -- or complete collapse. In the aftermath of this moment, a person may feel a whole new sense of being, not one of enlightenment, but of something on the far side of that spiritual crest. This is the moment when the individual falls off the precipice and crash lands with the distinct impression that somehow, somewhere, something has changed, either internally or in the outside world. Just what that change is usually remains something of a mystery at first, but the unmistakable sense is that whatever has happened is irreversible.
It is this sharp break in the continuity of awareness that the term snapping so vividly depicts. In the course of our interviews and conversations, we were amazed to find that so many people were fully conscious of this exact moment when "something snapped." For some, it was as if the massive assault of information "blew out" their existing personalities and their unquestioned perception of the world around them. In many instances, this snapping moment took people by storm, creating a deluge of new sensations and dredging up a slurry of buried images and emotions from the past. For these individuals, the experience seemed directly analogous to the familiar description of dying: we heard from more than one person that when it happened his whole life flashed before his eyes. Afterward, however, the individual may be faced with more than a simple sensation of being reborn. Many people we spoke with were indeed brought to a new and heightened state of thought, feeling, and awareness, but suddenly and inexplicably, in a manner that was jarring and led to panic and disorientation.
For the individual who experiences it, the snapping moment may pose terrifying dilemmas. He may find it impossible to integrate the keen, clear presence of his new sense of being with some vague notion of his former self which he is no longer able to locate or define. In some instances, the individual may feel catapulted across a one-way threshold that was more than he ever bargained for in his search for self. He may find himself completely severed from his past, thrown into an emotional and intellectual tailspin.
In this condition, a person becomes critically vulnerable, for in the aftermath of this shattering break, the brain's information-processing capacities may literally become "disorganized," not simply leaving the mind open to new ideas and information, but in fact rendering it receptive to a whole new plan of organization. Someone whose sense of self has just been detonated in this way may seize upon the first available interpretation or explanation of his experience. If he is told that his overwhelming ecstasy was the Holy Spirit visiting his mind and body, he will very likely believe it. If he is told that his feeling of detachment is a state of "cosmic oneness with the universe," in all probability he will find that not merely acceptable but absolute truth.
It is important to recognize that this state of vulnerability to suggestion does not represent a physiological malfunction of the brain. In its holographic nature, the snapping moment evokes a purely cybernetic crisis. As we learned from bio-information scientists, the brain's sturdy machinery is virtually indestructible except under the most extreme physical attack. Following the snapping moment, it keeps on performing its natural functions, striving to regain some semblance of organization. In fact, in this state of surrender and disorganization the human brain becomes capable of amazing feats of imagination. Under one set of circumstances, an individual may hop out of a water-filled "rebirthing" tank and begin barking like a seal, just as a person who relinquishes his self-control to a hypnotist may become firmly convinced that he is a chicken! A more common example is the mature adult who emerges from a marathon encounter group reconstructed or, in psychiatric terms, "regressed" to the emotional level of a young child or rebellious adolescent. If he receives no help in dispelling this notion, that may in fact be the way his personality becomes reorganized.
In almost every instance, the resolution of this crisis in the brain depends on the course of action followed in its immediate aftermath. If the individual returns to his former surroundings and actively restores his former relationships, the effects of the snapping moment will in all likelihood dissipate in a relatively short time. If, however, out of fear and panic he withdraws into himself, he may linger in this precarious state of mind for a period of weeks or even months, trapped in its mind-boggling aftereffects and extreme vulnerability to suggestion. Alternatively, if he remains in an alien setting with little or no connection to his former life and relatiooships, his personality will almost certainly be refash
ioned in the image of his new surroundings, and his awareness will fall into line with that of the people around him.
So far in this book we have presented a selection of instances of the snapping moment in contexts ranging from private, personal experiences to large public gatherings. In the examples that follow, we will look at some of the more unusual and startling instances of the phenomenon that we uncovered in our research, with the purpose of demonstrating how certain intense experiences may lead to the snapping moment and the condition of vulnerability that generally follows.
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In our investigation, the Hare Krishna cult emerged as perhaps the most practiced at inducing the snapping moment that brings about sudden changes in personality. Formally known as the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, this worldwide Hindu cult has thousands of full-time members in the United States. They are frequently seen dressed in bright orange devotional robes, chanting and singing on street corners in almost every major city in America, but they also dress more conventionally to engage in fund-raising activities, which include the selling of incense and brilliantly illustrated copies of the Bhagavad Gita in airport terminals coast to coast. Some of the most bizarre tales we heard of physical and emotional breakdowns concerned Krishna members, yet until now the cult's rituals and techniques have remained obscure.
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