That Other Way

Copyright (C) Ronald E. Madsen, Jr., August 25, 2023

As pointed out in a book about perception, the brain is a pattern-discernment / pattern-matching device. Rather than objectively processing the full minute details of sensory information, cues are selectively extracted from sensory input and used to engage an internal mental model. That mental model fills in details that may have been overlooked or subconsciously ignored when taking in sensory data. Thus, the content of the mental model has priority over what might be called objective reality. This economized approach to information processing is almost certainly applied to communication between people, causing every message to be mostly interpreted rather than clearly understood. This is part of the context-of-reception problem. I do not hear what you mean, but instead I hear filled-in details that are in my memory, my mental model. The sentences you say to me do not convey absolute objective truth, but merely convey a series of cues that my brain uses to access specific content within my own mind. The easy mistake: believing that the mixture of external extracted cues and internal mental-model information is Truth, accurate and objective.

Which path leads to Truth? Declaration, or discovery? Accusation, or discernment? 

Declaration: “You said this, and it means that…” Discovery: “Please help me understand what you mean.”

Declaration: “I know what happened.” Discovery: “Please help me understand what happened.”

Discovery: “I want to understand.”

Declaration: “I want to over-stand.” I want my interpretations to stand above reality, above objective Truth. I do not wish to learn. I want to declare, to subjugate reality, to shape it, distort it, bend it so it conforms to my desire and conceit. “Do not bother me with Science and History. I am very busy with my declarations.”

This site is intended to clarify the cause-and-effect connections between beliefs and results.

Do you have a way of looking at the world that you believe is uncommon? Has your perspective brought you success and happiness? Have you learned things, good or bad, that have changed your beliefs?

I think choices in life are based upon beliefs. Your choices determine what happens to you. Of course, there are exceptions to this – bad things happen to good people, and bad people sometimes have good things come to them. But I think that, for the most part, the things that happen to a person are caused by their beliefs. It is important to check your beliefs from time to time, making sure they make sense. If you are having bad things happen to you, start looking more closely at what you believe.  Make new friends, and learn new ways of looking at the world. Listen! Find new information. If other people have what you wish to have, find out what they believe. Study what they have done. Do not hope, and do not wish. Begin thinking. Start working, doing the things that other good people have done to get the things you want in your life.

May logic garnish your thoughts unceasingly….

Copyright (C) Ronald E. Madsen, Jr., October 3, 2010 – All Rights Reserved

When I was 15, I owned a single-channel audio amplifier that had been made in 1956 by Electronic Instrument Company (EICO). My father and I bought the used amplifier from a stereo shop. I used it to listen to music on a home-made system. The amplifier included a high-voltage power supply that drove the final-stage vacuum tubes.

One afternoon, I decided I would try to correct an internal feedback problem in the amplifier. I unplugged the AC power cord, and cautiously removed the base plate from the five-sided box chassis, exposing the hand-wired electronics within.

I had been warned by my father and by numerous authors that there were dangerously high voltages that could still be present in the circuitry of the amplifier, even after pulling the AC plug. Electrical energy could easily be retained in the capacitors used to create the DC power supply for the vacuum tubes.

“I know all about this,” I thought. I methodically went through the circuits and shorted out all the high voltages with a wire. I made sure that each attempt to short out a supply voltage resulted in a blue spark and a loud snap sound. After a few seconds, I knew I had eliminated the threat posed by the invisible stored energy. I was sure it was safe to proceed.

I found myself sitting on the concrete floor, legs outstretched, with my back pressed hard against the front of a dented furnace. I ached all over, as if I had suddenly played football in the rain for a week straight. The brown, wheeled desk chair I had been sitting on was now upside down in the center of the room. I could smell a strong, unhappy odor of burnt skin. That was me. I had been burned. I had been electrically shocked. The amplifier’s most dangerous power supply capacitor had sent a brief but very large electric current into one of my hands and out the other, visiting important, invisible things, such as my heart, along the way.

One moment, I was at my work bench. The next conscious instant, I was at the opposite side of the room. I sat there on the floor, marveling at my new perspective, contemplating the burning smell, not remembering my evident flight across the room, realizing that I could be dead. What if I were found by my parents in such condition? Very slowly, I stood up.

All my good intentions and attempts at caution did not win me any special treatment from Mother Nature’s physics department. Instead, Mother Nature ordered her physics department to send me a remarkably powerful and extremely memorable message. Here are the words I believe She said to me:

“You were sure. But you were wrong. There was something you overlooked before you took that step; something hidden, unobserved, misunderstood – a 450-volt-something.  My laws are unchanging, and for justice, and to be fair to everyone, I cannot make any exceptions. A few more microseconds, a few more milliamperes, and your heart would be ruined – you would be on your way back home to your Creator. But not today. Learn, study, and remember. Please.”

As a teenager, I believed that Mother Nature had a few other departments, including one for morality. The facts of my own life and the lives of other people seem to line up with this notion. I have seen the greatest things accomplished through deep understanding of principles not visible to the eye, yet very clear to the disciplined mind and soul. I have observed burns and painful shocks of a non-electrical nature. Some have brought me to tears, over and over.

My father gave me many things to explore when I was young. They were very real, and they were very powerful. Some were dangerous. All of them helped me find freedom and success as nothing else could. In a fool’s instant, one nearly killed me. Dad said, “You can make any choice you want, but first, know and consider the consequences.” Thanks, Dad, for all the real and true things you taught me. I know what love is.

“Each to his own way, I’ll go mine.
Best of luck in what you find.
But for your own sake, remember times
we used to know.” – Ian Anderson

“Live now. Make now always the most precious time. Now will never come again.” – Captain Jean-Luc Picard

My hands were busy through the day,
I didn’t have much time to play
The little games you asked me to,
I didn’t have much time for you.

I’d wash your clothes; I’d sew and cook,
But when you’d bring your picture book
And ask me, please, to share your fun,
I’d say, “A little later, son.”

I’d tuck you in all safe at night,
And hear your prayers, turn out the light,
Then tiptoe softly to the door,
I wish I’d stayed a minute more.

For life is short, and years rush past,
A little boy grows up so fast,
No longer is he at your side,
His precious secrets to confide.

The picture books are put away,
There are no children’s games to play,
No goodnight kiss, no prayers to hear,
That all belongs to yesteryear.

My hands once busy, now lie still,
The days are long and hard to fill,
I wish I might go back and do,
The little things you asked me to.

******************************

“I’ve been waiting every morning,
Just to help you find your way.” – America

Copyright (C) Ronald E. Madsen, Jr., October 2, 2010 – All Rights Reserved

When she was about 5 years old, my daughter and I went to Sears one evening. We spent most of our time in the tools and equipment section of the store. I noticed that she seemed very interested in all the different kinds of tools – pliers, wrenches, multi-purpose drivers. After answering her questions and looking at several different Craftsman tool kits with her, we decided to buy a rather large set – for her.

When she got home, she and her brother, age 7, opened the packing box and put all the plastic bags of bright, shiny sockets, handles and drivers on the living room floor. They noticed that the black carrying case had numbers molded into it, showing the different sizes for the parts of the set. It was like a puzzle for them, and they worked together assembling it, reading the markings on the different pieces and placing them carefully into the proper locations in the carrying case, until each one was in its rightful place.

They made a puzzle that had a purpose far beyond the fun they had while building it. My little daughter and her brother learned to work together. They learned about math, fractions and sorting. It was fun, and they laughed and smiled as they worked. And when they had completed the work, my daughter studied for a moment, and then snapped some of the parts together to make a socket wrench, and other parts to make a Phillips screwdriver. She smiled. She talked about the set, and all the things she thought she could do with her new toys.

In the days that followed, her older brothers came to her and asked to borrow the set so they could fix their bikes and other toys. She helped them get the right wrench handles, extender bars and sockets to do the repairs. Upon completion, she made sure that all the tools were carefully dis-assembled, and that the parts were returned to their correct spaces in the carrying case. She was proud of her toys, and she was happy to know special things about them, and to be helpful.

She was happy to be learning. She understood that her toys were not useless, made of cheap plastic, intended to last only during childhood. Her shining, metal toys could be used to fix real things. They were heavy, and they were strong. They could be used to build what she wanted. Her toys were real, and they might very well last a lifetime. They just might help teach her how to be free.

Today, years later, the little girl has become a wise, thoughtful and caring young woman. She enjoys science fiction, old and new. She excels at math and physics. She studies the writings of C. S. Lewis. Most evenings, we talk about all these topics, along with love, freedom and un-caused first causes.

Freedom is found along roads of discipline and precision…