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Chapter Three

Control or Change

"Control yourself!" This is a common command and generally means to stop what you are doing. This concept of what controlling means is widespread in our modern world. Controlling of the self generally means to conform rather than to control. An individual is supposed to be controlled by the outside world rather than by the self. An individual is supposed to be controlled by the evening news and hence 'popular' opinion and not by individual studies or research. The control of the body is likewise governed by conditioning starting from early childhood or in repetitive learning processes. Most self-help books stress attaining more learned responses that are added to the unwanted responses rather than controlling or changing the unwanted responses. Individuals, in summary, are not taught about controlling themselves or even what control consists of.

In contrast to the lack of teachings about social and personal controls, the technical and highly productive commercial world is full of very effective and efficient controls consisting of interactive control systems. Many of these control systems are highly complex such as found in automated assembly lines or computer controlled space ships. Engineering uses such controls to keep our buildings comfortable, our food clean and well preserved, transportation safe and reliable, entertainment spectacular yet affordable, communication worldwide, and the supply chain of life's necessities unbroken. The business world is likewise well controlled with managers and administrators versed in how to optimize the interaction of individuals and equipment toward reaching some defined goal.

Surprisingly, the science of control that is used in controlling an automated assembly line can be applied to understanding and perfecting the inner control of an individual. Furthermore, the body and mind have controlling elements whose capabilities in many ways surpass those in the most advanced technical control systems. There are only six essential control elements used in the most elaborate control systems and these six elements are easy to find and use in controlling your world. These elements are however, generally unknown or unused by psychologists and sociologists who generally believe that it is nearly impossible to significantly change after the age of eight or thereabouts. Another surprising aspect of the controlling elements within an individual is that these control elements were described in some ancient writings long before the development of psychology as will be discussed in the Appendix.

The fundamental function of control systems is to turn on or off a source of power that effectuates some desired result. This requires the availability of a source of power that can supply the energy to power the change, the knowledge or data of what is desired, the knowledge of how well the power is doing, and then some manner of turning on or off or moderating the source of power. Control, whether of a machine or an individual, consists of six separate components:

1) the source of power for change,
2) an actuator or main power control and selector,
3) a sensor that measures what is being changed,
4) a comparator,
5) converters,
6) the data or description of what is desired.

The common thermostat for controlling room temperature can be used to illustrate all six of the above elements. The main function of the thermostat, as with most control systems, is to turn on or off a source of energy (1) to heaters that heat a room to some preset temperature. The switch that turns the energy on or off is called the actuator (2) normally mounted on a bimetallic strip that bends with temperature serving as a sensor (3) as well as a comparator (4) to the preset temperature (6) obtained by turning the bimetallic strip or switch. The converters (5) can be of several types ranging from hot water radiators, infrared emitters, electric heaters to hot air coming from a blower and furnace. The switch is generally provided with a further adjustment of the comparator (4) that sets the sensitivity of the thermostat or how much the temperature must drop before the thermostat activates the system again.

The elements of the industrial or mechanical control systems can be compared with the body's control system in the situation of controlling a vehicle being driven along a highway. The vision serves as sensor (3), one portion of the brain serves as the judge or comparator (4) for what is desired (staying in the proper lane) (6), the mind serves as the actuator (2) that directs energy (1) to the muscles of the arm or converters (5). Normally this control system operates so well that you are unaware of it and can think of many things while you drive without attempting to consciously steer the car.

Let us return to throwing a ball as was discussed in Chapter One. This is similar to the control used in driving the vehicle above. The placement of the body is sensed by the sense organs (3) and positioned by the muscles (5) according to the comparison by the mind (4) to the pose that has been learned (6). The energy of the body (1) is used to move the muscles (5) for the initial stance as well as the throw.

The control system of the body requires a more complex source of data however, when what happens in the future is added to controlling the immediate body. For instance, consider the 'follow through' discussed in Chapter One that assumes that what the arms do after the throw is important. This type of magical control might be typified by an automatic watering system for your lawn that turns on or off the water now according to when the next rain will come or how dry the lawn will be in a few days.

The 'Zen" player or the athlete in the 'zone' can only be described as having their control data being written by the final result of the play. This can be compared to the above automatic watering system to which is added the controlling of the water now to meet the requirements of a rain as well as the effectiveness of the water or the amount of future sunshine. In other words, what happens to the lawn or ball in the future influences what is done by the present converters. The future now controls the action of the present to some degree. This leads to the very nearly impossible situation for the brain to accept about the ball players such that if the ball is going to go off course, then how can the body be changed before the ball is released so that it will not go off course. The final motion of the ball therefore effects the data (6) that is used by the comparator (4) before the ball is hit or thrown.

This situation of the future controlling the present is however, quite common in life although it is seldom perceived as such. The majority of people believe that what is sought for or worked for can, in fact, be found with sufficient dedication and effort even if miracles are required along the way. Dedicated humans can change their future with a proper effort in the present that then changes the future to the desired future. Is this not a common religious axiom that what one seeks one can find and that there is a power within the self that can guide, direct and overcome obstacles?

It should be noted that this book differs from the present general modern approach that believes that the self is holistic, and rather, considers the self to be made up of many separate and different elements that must be coordinated to work together just as does a complex machine. In a complex machine there is a separation of the operator of the machine from the machine itself.

One confusing aspect of describing the self as being in separate pieces is that the body and brain must be considered to be separate from 'you'. 'You' in this case becomes the operator of the body and brain. A simple example of this separation is when you experience the attempt to change your mind or the way that you are thinking. This book uses this same approach in describing the setting of various control systems as is done when you change your mind. In other words 'you' become the operator of your own mind and body and set the functioning of the various control elements of the body and brain.

This book will not discuss the inner control processes of the body such as the controls for varying the heartbeat, breathing rate, hormone secretion, etc. These control processes do have all of the above elements of control, but since the data is generally genetic in nature and not consciously generated, they will not be discussed.

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