Dialogue 4 of 7:

THE THIRD EGO TRAP OF MIND,
HUMAN INFORMATION PROCESSING COMPETENCE
(Abstract vs Concrete)
UNDER REVISION BEGINNING APRIL 15, 2007

Copyright © 1995-2008 by Thomas E. Harries, Ph.D.
All Rights Reserved

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Ode to “Stay the Course”

With all our wisdom coalesced,
We focus just on what seems best,
Though failure acts to dim the shine,
Our effort there does not decline!
How great we suffer in our need,
But best be damned than change our creed!

Old Farragot now known by that great name,
Torpedoes damned,  his claim to fame,
“Full speed ahead” his slogan cried,
When cried by others, we find they died.
How great we suffer in our need,
But best be damned than change our creed!

So from that myth came “Stay the Course,”
Fiercely claimed from a macho source,
To mask incompetent design,
To shun the new and ignore the mind,
To deny a fix of every kind.
How great we suffer in our need,
But best be damned than change our creed!


Would you play cards with less than a full hand?
Would you go to a picnic with half a sandwich?
No? Then be amazed how often, and why,
we make some of our most important decisions with
a short hand of C/consciousness and
wonder why we get back half a sandwich of results.

BENEFITS FROM UNDERSTANDING THE NATURE OF HIP COMPETENCE

This Dialogue will offer explanations for the current conditions in American politics, i.e., for the ascendence and dominance of the political dominance of right wing's predatory values and the "stay the course" phenomena.  NOTE: The phrase "Stay the course!" or its equivalent, were among the last words uttered by Edward John Smith, Captain of the Titanic, on the day of the great sinking after he was informed that there were reports of icebergs in the area.   Smith, his ship, and those who entrusted their lives to him, were all victims of inadequate HIP.

The United States today is in the thrall of a dangerous condition of the intellect that is defined in the MP as human information processing (HIP) impoverishment.  In the MP, this adverse condition is labeled concrete HIP. Unless this condition can be understood by the members of the electorate who suffer from this defect, they will keep supporting impoverished and destructive public strategies, electing incompetent, narcissistic, or sociopathic individuals to high office and have to deal with the fall out from their concrete HIP decisions, as is currently the case in the Republican party in the post election year of 2007.  

Unfortunately, for those who are owners of this intellectual defect, the nature of the defect is such that  it is not visible to them. They are not conscious of its presence that owns and operates their values and their thinking.  Thus, they cannot heal themselves from it, nor can they even recognize this defect as the cause of destructive conditions in their lives that is being spawned by it.  So they are helpless to even recognize, let alone correct the adverse fall out and destructive political and social conditions it spawns.  

It is also unfortunate that the concept and dynamics of HIP competence is complex, and not easy to understand for many students. Nevertheless, Life is RAW, REALITY Always Wins.  If the current adverse political climate and consequent adverse social conditions are to be healed and corrected, a majority of the electorate in such numbers as to carry elections must somehow come to understand and apply HIP principles to their lives, and to the current and evolving conditions in society and its politics.

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Study Point 4-1
Therefore  if you have the discipline and intuitive insight to purse this dialogue through all of its complexity, you will gain access to at least the following benefits:

1. Religious Behavior: Understand why low (concrete) HIP competence is the source of, and explains the dynamics of Christian, evangelical, and Islamic fundamentalist behavior.  Each is a different manifestation of the same undergirding HIP defects.
2. Degrees of HIP Competence:  Recognize the manifestations of concrete HIP compared with its opposite, Abstract HIP, and benefit from the management and analytical competency that Abstract HIP generates and makes possible.  The US electorate appears not to be capable of relating to gifted politicians who are competent in abstract HIP.  Instead they reactively and mindlessly support low HIP politicians and programs which are concentrated mostly in right wing politics, programs an values.
3. Detect the "stay the course" dynamic when it is present, understand its political significance, identify possible HIP related causes so as to recognize and avoid or minimize its destructive byproducts.
4. Detect efforts to victimize you:  Learn how to recognize when political, management, union, nd ioyther power figures are offering to make you victim of concrete HIP and the dangerous kind of politics nd programs they advocate and practice, e.g., Bush-Cheney and their coporate supporters.
5. Political competence re HIP competence: Understand when public figures likely benefit from high or Abstract HIP competence, and the potential for positive and effective leadership it empowers.  But this requires high HIP competence among the voters in the electorate which has largely been absent.
6. HIP and Power Lust:  Understand the direct relationship between concrete HIP and the pathological lust for worldly power as is currently being coveted and made manifest by right wing politics and religion.
7. Recognize why HIP competence is a learned characteristic of human C/consciousness, and why its competence is most likely to be fostered by conditions that improve the  human capacity for Spiritual Substance, and thus, why and when organized fundamentalist religion is more likely to be destructive to the emergence of Spiritual growth, and how and why it inhibits the development and use of Abstract HIP.
8. Recognize some keys to develop Abstract HIP within yourself, and advocate for the educational and Spiritual conditions that are required to develop Abstract HIP competence in our society.

Study Point 4-2:
THREE CURRENT EXAMPLES OF CONCRETE THINKING:
Bush, re the Pentagon's opposition to the surge as assuring eventual failure in Iraq  [during the winter of 2006-2007:

1. "The profoundly pessimistic thinking that permeates the senior military and the intelligence community, however, is forbidden in the sanitized atmosphere of mind-cure boosterism that surrounds Bush. "He's tried this two times -- it's failed twice," Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said on Jan. 24 about the "surge" tactic. "I asked him at the White House, 'Mr. President, why do you think this time it's going to work?' And he said, 'Because I told them it had to.'" She repeated his words: "'I told them that they had to.' That was the end of it. That's the way it is."  In Salon, February 8, 2007,  "The Pentagon's not-so-little secret,"    By Sidney Blumenthal 

2. The Bush administration, with the cooperation and support of his Department of Justice and Supreme Court, is rapidly destroying the Constitution of the United States and the laws that follow from it.  They are further transforming government by rapidly privatizing as much of its elements, Institutions and operations so that much of our former government is already under corporate control and not subject to the will of the people. 

3.  This example is from a Chris Matthews (MSNBC) interview with a right wing radio talk show host, Kevan James.  The issue was President Bush's accusation during a speech before the Israeli Parliament, that Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama by wanting to discuss issues with Iran, was appeasing Iran the way British Prime Minster Neville Chamberlain appeased Hitler in 1938 with the Munich Accord that give Hitler the Sudetenland (western Czechoslovakia) in exchange for a promise not to indulge in any further annexation.  Hitler repudiated the appeasement six months later and invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia.   In this clip from Matthews MSNBC program Hardball, right wing radio host Kevin James illustrates typical right wing concrete HIP behavior, the dynamics of which will be presented below.   Notice the filibustering (refusing to stop talking) and rude interruptions by Kevin James which are typical of right wing advocates when they are opposed or challenged with a credible alternative or argument.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/15/hardball-shoutfest-matthe_n_102020.html

NOTE: appeasement is giving something as an inducement to achieve a particular set of conditions based on trust that the agreement will be respected by the recipient of the appeasement.  Negotiation is not appeasement. Negotiation is simply entering into a discussion with an opponent to explore the issues and nature of any disagreements and to identify possible solutions.  Nothing need be on the table to be given in exchange for any proposed agreement.  Obama was not even prepared to negotiate, but to simply to discuss common issues.

Meanwhile, the public remains oblivious to the dunamics behind these developments, and thus, is helpless to take any meaningful action to counter it.  Many even continue to support the right wing elements that own and operate George W. Bush and his puppet master, Dick Cheney. 

WHY IS THIS THE CASE?  

Some answers are found with an understanding of the dynamics of HIP levels of competence, which is the focus of this dialogue  

GUIDEPOST 4-1: OBJECTIVES FOR DIALOGUE 4:  HIP The pilgrim, will acquire an understanding how and why important information may or may not be accessible, and why it may not be detected, let alone related to, evaluated, or used.  HIP is a quality of the C/consciousness capacity of a human system.  [The reader is encouraged to first study Dialogue 1: On Consciousness, to assist in understanding the complexity of this dialogue] This defect can have serious consequences for personal (or system) well being.  Likewise at the system levels of the group, organization, institution, or society, the capacity of high HIP competence is a requirement for surviving and thriving in a highly complex information ecology such as the world presents today.  The material world of today is overwhelmed with data and information.  The pilgrim will appreciate how inadequate HIP can threaten their good, or make them vulnerable to missed opportunity, or to consequences that may be highly adverse.  What you don't know can not only hurt you, it can kill you.  The appearance of conditions that are visible in self and in society will be used to illustrate the basic principles of how the dynamics of HIP can affect a Pilgrim's Spiritual journey. This dialogue will suggest what can be done to advance one's HIP competence, and consequently, promote the visibility of and access to valuable information throughout the material world that may now be eluding detection or whose actual significance may be lost.

TABLE 1: List of Quick Links to Topics Below

Introduction Nature of Uncertainty Frozen Consciousness or PCC Degrees of Freedom (DF) Costs of Inadequate HIP and DF Concrete vs Abstract HIP HIP Competence is Context Specific Effects of Low vs High HIP Applications of HIP Master-Slave Dynamics

Characteristics of the "Master's" Consciousness Characteristics of the "Slave's" Consciousness How Master-Slave Relationships Appear The Dynamics of Balanced Power Relationships Dynamics of Spiritual Relationships Male vs Female Language in Necker Cube Interaction Personal and Social Implications of HIP Competence Costs of Low vs High HIP Competence How Low HIP competence energizes the power monger How Forces of Right Wing Extremism are Gaining Control

Mystical Protagonist:
P: Yes, I will tell you up front that this may be the most intellectually challenging element of the MP for you.  It is for most.  But in accordance with the "curse of Holistic/systems thinking" [definition] I told you about, this is a major piece of the Holistic puzzle.  You will soon recognize that those who embrace right wing politics, or any form of extremism, will be found lacking in HIP competence.They are burdened by a pathological condition called concrete HIP.    The "stay the course" syndrome is  a symptom of concrete HIP.  I will show you that there is little correlation between HIP and intelligence, and therein lies a great danger.

Q:  Why is that?

P:  Because they don't know what they don't know, and hey are not capable of even caring about such a possibility.  However, brilliant their intellect, they are most vulnerable to promoting wrong decisions, decisions devoid of Wisdom. [See definitions related to information hierarchy] As they harm themselves, they most likely to lead their followers astray from their good. Therefore, they are a most potent threat to the well being of other members of any human system they can affect.   The destructive behaviors associated with concrete HIP are most visible in the political and religious right.   A number of evils follow from this HIP defect.  

As you move through the special challenges of understanding HIP, in the context of our prior discussions, you should begin to experience some of these "Ah! Ha!" experiences as the Whole of the MP's Reality begins to illuminate your C/consciousness.

Q: I've made it this far, and I will persist.

P: Great!  Now recall, that the three traps of mind are in constant service to the ego. These are: (1) the controlling agendas, (2) the paradox of communication, and now, (3) HIP or the human processing of information complexity. We will focus on the third of them in this Dialogue. HIP is the "trap of the day" so to speak. HIP involves the nature of the dynamics of processing  perceptual and intellectual information complexity.  It is the ability, or lack of it, to manage the rules, to create them, delete them, or revise them in order to think in the context of the larger Reality.  Truth is always and only resident in the larger Reality, whether you recognize it or not. 

Q: You mean of course, the Spiritual Supra System. [of matter energy information]

P: Yes. Recall the Part 1 of our Introductory Dialogue where I challenged you with examples of the three types of  "not knowing what I don't know?" [revisit]  Ask yourself, "Do I see, hear, or sense every dimension of the R/reality that I could experience if I fully used the potential HIP competence I have?"  

If you think so, then before I mention it, were you aware of the pressure of your feet on the floor, or the chair on your body as you sit at your computer?"  Actually, throughout each day, you are actually conscious of very little of what is affecting you in the Holistic context of Reality.  But what you are aware of so totally dominates you that you remain oblivious to the rest of this Reality.  This ignorance of the Whole of Reality is natures way of protecting us from destructive information loads that would otherwise overwhelm us.  Fortunately, most of this lost data and information are trivial and of little import. However, some of this filtered out information may have critical implications for your well being.  To Know the difference must be a conscious effort.

The Out-of-consciousness Reality can have major implications for our ability to handle the complexity of our individual actions in behalf of any cause.   Here is the central question I will address:

Can you detect and translate the relevant facts (data) and information that define the important symptoms of problems in your sense limited material reality, and translate them into information that can only be accurately and fully described from the Spiritually grounded Reality?  The Spiritual realm of the Supraconsciousness is the only source and relevant context for recognizing the full import and context of dangerous conditions, crucial problems, or invaluable opportunities?

This HIP skill is part of our mental consciousness, which in the absence of a Spiritually guided Consciousness, is limited to decision making only in our conscious and subconscious memory within the unreliable material experience of reality created by our five material senses.  Everything that we conclude from only the mind's perception is likely to be a distortion of the Whole of Reality actually affecting us.  As I said, most of the time this discrepancy has negligible or trivial consequences, but at other times, well, in this ignorance, the disasters of our lives and the world are created, signed, sealed, and delivered.

Q: So you are saying that the trap of HIP is responsible for my not being able to know what I don't know, even though that knowledge could be accessible had I sufficient HIP competence?

P: Exactly, and do you remember the little exercises we did in the first part of our introductory dialogue, the "Not knowing I don't know" exercises? [revisit again]  Where HIP is concerned, you can't even know what you don't know in order to look for it or be respectful of your limits.

Q:  You mean I just crash around in my known reality as if that were the complete Reality?  So what do I do?

P:  Ask yourself what your inclinations are in the face of any innovative challenge to your current paradigm (model) of reality? What would you choose for yourself and for those you love or advise?

Your choices are limited by your HIP competence,
at the level of C/consciousness you have achieved,
not by your intellect. 

Some have said that a person will persist in a clearly destructive neurosis simply because they believe they "understand" it!  Do they really Know what they do?   As one definition of the concrete "stay the course" mentality, someone has argued that any psychosis or neurosis in a person (or in any human system) can be observed in their persistence in repeating failed behavior in the expectation of achieving a different result.   

Q:  Wow!  I just got a flash of insight into the HIP related defect in President Bush and his former Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld's destructive persistence in pursuing the Iraq insurrection long after other experts, including their own generals, recognized it as a lost cause.  So a person, alas myself, could be caught up in a loosing strategy and not even know.  Then I am likely to keep on keeping on with a constant failure scenario.  Could you place this HIP in the context of the first two traps of mind?

Study Point 4-4:
MINI-SUMMARY
P: Let me place our core topic of this dialogue, HIP competence for managing complexity, in a context for the whole of the MP.  Although we now focus on HIP, we must successfully and simultaneously address the following contextual questions we have already studied:

Trap 1: Agendas (Dialogue 2): We can ask in any particular context,  which human agenda does the system we are examining give evidence of serving, ourselves, other person, group, organization or society? is it security, safety, ego identity, affirmation and belonging with his/her peers. Or has it metastasized into a grand obsession for power and control?  Or are we seeing expressed the higher agendas that guide us to positive cultural expression (patience, compassion, understanding, trust, love), achieving self actualization, or reaching for the highest transcendence into complete Spiritual fulfillment?

The agendas involve the emotional feelings within us that begin at birth with those events that link to our primal biological needs that we all have.  From our primal priorities that require us to serve these feelings of need arises our urge to control the factors affecting them. This urge can translate into a  tendency to seek or crave power and control for its own sake.  The need is at first reasonable, simply to control sufficient environmental elements to insure basic survival, then to get more of what we need and want, then to control the sources that create uncertainty around these needs.  This uncertainly is expressed within the person (system) as a corresponding level of fear and anxiety.

But at some point, a reasonable desire can metastasized to become a craving that takes over the person's consciousness. The later arise out of the presence of uncertainty (related to the complexity trap.) Then when are consistently successful, and have no ethical barriers to constrain us, we crave power and control because we love it.  The aggressive among us (the "bully" mentality) love dominating others, dictating to them even which of their needs will be served.  The dominant right wing agendas that empower right wing politics and religion have little to do with serving human needs, or the tenants of Christianity.  The dominant force for them is the lust for power and control over others.

THE DRIVING FORCE BEHIND THIS AGENDA IS PRIMAL FEAR!

Q: Fear!?  How so?  I thought they wanted the goodies that go with power, with the complete control over others.

P: This craving for safety to control fear is very pathological for a healthy human system at any level of complexity. Further, this craving creates coalitions of like minded persons who share this unconscious primal fear, and who organize to compete with each other to control others and protect and serve each other. This rises from the level of the person, through the group, up through organizations of increasing complexity (e.g., the neo-Nazi movement) , and ultimately to nations of which Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Kim Jong-Il of North Korea are only the most recent pathological examples.

Trap 2: Communication (Dialogue 3):  We ask, what does the language used actually mean to the communicator (person, group, organization, society) that is built solely on the foundation of their own intimate lifetime experience with the words they must use? The Paradox of Communication [definition] exists in which you learned that language is found to have no objective meaning independent of the experiences of its user(s) with the words and symbols he/she/they use.   Communicators must supply their own unique meaning for every symbol they use and perceive.

This creates a real trap for serious semantic based confusion, misunderstandings and conflict. The danger is amplified when infused with any fear driven agenda characterized by excessive commitment to power and control.  And there is further danger when the limits of HIP combine with any semantic vulnerability in the characteristics of language. One person (system) may have few contextual possibilities for the meaning of a word, while another person (system) may have many contextual possibilities for the meaning of the same word.  The tendency in any communication for language users to have different referents (denotatively and/or connotatively) is potentially destructive to effective communication.  A person's potential discrepancy in their understanding a term translates into vulnerability for both parties to create or amplify suspicion or conflict.

This vulnerability is, in turn, amplified when the owner has low HIP competence. These low HIP individuals tend to function under the illusion that words carry an absolute meaning for everyone, namely, their own private meaning. They believe this no matter whose, or what, the source is of a communication.  Fundamentalist insistence on the inerrant meaning of Scripture is the most glaring example of manifest concrete HIP.  It is not in their consciousness to even allow that the "Word of God" has been filtered through hundreds of unique human  minds (each holding their own agendas from control)  and thus altered through dozens of translations and editions.  For example, their slavish devotion to the irrational concepts of "The Rapture" and being "left behind," have been provided by very recent contributors to scriptural interpretation, by aggressive and controlling preachers only in the last 150 years of Christian interpretations of New Testament scripture.

In our prior Dialogue 2: On Communication, I demonstrated for you in 60 seconds that words have no absolute or objective meaning, none at all! [revisit]  Words only relate the meanings defined by the audience, or for each listener.  This meaning is determined by their experience that shapes the language with the individualized meaning associated with the words. That meaning may be inappropriately simplistic and impoverished, or it may be rich in conditional possibilities. 

What then does this principle of Paradoxical Communication  have to say about the "objective" validity of all that is written or spoken, even this Dialogue.  This problem of semantic difficulty increases when the experience being communicated becomes more complex rather than simple, or is vulnerable to the HIP competence of the communicators.

Trap 3: Complexity (Dialogue 4): we must now ask, as we detect our perceptual ecology with its communication environment, and its apparent (to us) promise or threat to our agendas, and our vulnerability to communication pathologies, what functional level of HIP competence does the observer have compared to any other person?  Concrete and closed? or Abstract and open? 

No person can answer this without some conceptual frame of reference about the nature and dynamics of HIP competence, and the special accessibility to Spiritual input.  Such input is required to transcend learned and practiced HIP limits that are locked into a particular material reality. A person must be Spiritually empowered to transcend these limits to embrace and be informed by the larger Reality.  I will provide some keys for you to comprehend this insight in this Dialogue.

Study Point 4-5:
Q: So then, I will be able to make practical use of this information in my transactions with others?

P:  Helpful questions to ask are, how do you experience the presence of the uncertainty as presented by the behavior of conditions you detect in your reality?  How much conceptual complexity and information uncertainty can you handle today?  How flexible and open would your consciousness be in engaging new ideas if they are really novel but urgent topics for you?  If you are a typical human being, you will not be able to imagine that you are vulnerable to negative consequences that are the byproducts of your inadequate HIP competence.

The nature of low HIP competence is such that the defect hides from your consciousness.  The lower your HIP competence, the more confident your ego is that you know everything you need to know, the more confident you are that the greater the discrepancy between your views and those of another, is that the others are irrelevant or wrong. Nevertheless, the only Truth is located in Reality not reality. [definitions]  This is why I am always saying, "Life is RAW!  REALITY Always Wins!"

You may know nothing of what you need to know to save you from mortal danger.  But you will likely insist that you fully process  all aspects of a proposed complex scenario. This of course is because your ego protects you such that you don't know what you don't know.  Thus as required by the ego, the experience of stress is removed.   In fact, the more HIP incompetent you are, the more you will insist that you are not vulnerable to low HIP!

Q: I guess that the problems in our society and the world that you outlined in our introductory dialogue remain impervious to solution because of this dynamic.  A low HIP society will insist there is no danger.

P:  And such a society will develop within it, deep divisions of opinion, a search for scapegoats, and a resistance to acknowledging threat.   You already demonstrate your potential to apply HIP to assessing serious problems in our world today.  This is why concrete right wing religious, political, and fascistic fanatics are impossible to deal with in the normal logical-rational style of negotiation.

Q: They live in a different part of a reality necker cube?

P: Actually, they may dwell within an entirely different necker cube altogether as I will soon show you.   If you attempt the effort to contradict or confront them with alternative threatening possibilities, you can literally see their eyes glaze over, hear their voice rise with stress to meet and drown out the incoming threat challenges. You can hear or see the doors and windows of their limited consciousness slamming shut, and feel the heat of defensive energy rising to the attack in order to defend the only truth that they can admit to their their limited reality, their limited consciousness, their truth.

Examine the following metaphorical tale.  Put yourself in the place of the characters who are asked by the Wright Brothers to visit a strange sight in a lonely farm field. How would you (and those you know) act today given a similar challenge?  Be honest with yourself.  How do you relate to such an experience?  What shoe fits?

The Wright Brothers' Secret Visitors.
Always include the interpretation at the conclusion of each story.

[Return from Allegory]

Q:  I can only imagine their incredulity.

P:  But what would you do? Think how outrageous such a proposition would be to them, even in the face of the abstract but visible evidence.  The Truth of it is lost to them in its complexity, and the large number of missing (for them) conceptual connections they would have to put together to capture the possibilities of the vision.  That capacity is a function of HIP competence.  Few are equal to such a challenge.  What if there were a comparable experience today?

Q: You mean like discovering OT/MP?  But the story you presented was a fantasy.  Things like that don't occur in my reality.

P: Ah!  Well now!  Don't be too sure.  Remember your initial stress reaction when I asked you to confront The Primal Dream of the Infant?  That allegory suggests the dynamics of birth at which we are separated from our awareness of the Holistic Spiritual Realm that is our natural home.  Then we become transfixed only on the experiential events defined by our sensual reality.  The more we fixate on what our senses tell us in the absence of contact with our Spiritual Consciousness, the more limited we become to detect all of our options for coping with the complexities and subtleties of our life.

We are also limited in our capacity to detect and solve organizational or society wide problems, deal with the needs of others, and adequately address the complex social phenomenon of our age.  Now you should be able to observe how what is unrecognized in consciousness, cannot therefore be challenged.  This conceptual limit is a phenomena we can label, "frozen consciousness" which is the fixation of a limited state of awareness.  I will define for you how this lack now contributes to increasing a potential hell for humanity.

Q: I can guess that this "frozen consciousness" as you call it,  is especially dangerous when one enters into a political arena and tries to separate the reality form the Reality of complex implications.

P: "Frozen consciousness" is one source of the right wing fascistic threat.  Its members literally are incapable of knowing the full effects of any harm they do, nor can they care, nor can they relate to any larger scale of consequences beyond their narrow self-serving focus. Do you remember the warning about the intellect and C/consciousness?

Q:  Remember, what is not first held in C/consciousness cannot be processed by the intellect.

P:  Correct. Because when their mental field of focus  is narrow as compromised by their limited consciousness, they tend to feel threatened by any real or imagined invisible (to them) force. To cope, they become masters in the use of what Hawkins refers to as force [Hawkins, 1995.]  Like the bully in our "The Playground" allegory, they feel compelled to control, dominate and intimidate all other human systems in order to feel real, to feel safe. A fearful person of low consciousness, without their own inner confidence must surrender and comply with the bully's will as the price of admission in order to feel safe within their protective tight little group.  

The Spiritual health of our Society can be estimated by the number of followers of such primitive mentalities.  I note that these extremists are not always found in neo-Nazi and KKK fringe groups, but are more likely skillfully hidden as "respectable" corporate moguls, lawyers, religionists, and elected or competing politicians.

Q: Wow--but what about the other two traps of mind?   How does the trap of HIP affect our ability to deal with verbal or conceptual complexity?

P:  You might say that an inadequate or impoverished HIP capacity to process conceptual complexity (i.e., a person with low HIP) causes a person to play the cards of life with less than a full deck, to go to picnics with half a sandwich, or to play marbles without a shooter, so to speak, if you catch my drift. Therefore I will now present the foundation information that will develop your understanding of HIP competence in order of the following sub concepts:

The concepts of "Frozen Consciousness" and PCC (Premature Cognitive Commitment)
The concept of DF (Degrees of Freedom) as related to HIP (Human Information Processing) competence
Socializing factors that contribute to an enhanced or impoverished HIP that can act to limit or expand DF
How childhood neglect or overt abuse can freeze a low HIP consciousness and block further HIP development, with the unfortunate social implications for the victim and every level of our society

P:  Yes! Mostly.  But technically, PCC can occur at any level of complexity, as you metaphorically put it.  First, the idea of a "frozen" consciousness is a general phenomenon. This unconscious belief in having a fixed (frozen) reality has been described as making a "Premature Cognitive Commitment" (PCC.) [Chopra, 1990]  The involves making a commitment to a reality which is defined by the observer as being finished or complete.  But in Reality, any condition dismissed as finished is in fact never complete. The ego intellect always acts to diminish, distort or make invalid any challenge beyond its currently defined, limited and approved ego reality.  This dynamic occurs regardless of the context of any larger frame of reference (Reality.)  But the presence and dominance of this limited ego state can only be understood from a more expanded intellectual consciousness, one that is beyond that which is locked up by PCC..  The problem of PCC is set by the nature of the observer's own consciousness.

Q:  Give me some examples.

P:  Deepak Chopra [in Chopra, 1990; 1991, Chopra discussion] and others offer examples of "frozen" consciousness using the PCC concept. The following examples suggest to us how these entrenched habit patterns appear in simple creatures compared to humans. Like these less complex creatures, we too unthinkingly invest our energies and trust in our personal versions of PCC. We seldom challenge the evidence of our own PCCs even when the conclusions derived from such error are absurd.  Here are examples of the less complex creatures we emulate:

Fly/fleas kept in a closed jar causes their mind-body consciousness to learn not to escape even after the lid is later removed.  They believe that nothing exists beyond their jar. So they stay put.
Baby elephants are taught to believe when they are young, that they cannot move if tied by a small chain to a small tree. As adults, they continue to believe that the same small iron chain that holds them to a flimsy tree cannot be broken, when in fact they could easily break the chain or uproot the tree and walk away.
A Harvard University series of experiments in the 1970s showed that kittens raised in a horizontal reality could only see a "horizontal" world. [Sperry, Hubel, Wiesel, 1981]  They could not function effectively when later moved to a complete environment that incorporated both a vertical and horizontal reality.  For example if raised in a horizontal  reality, they collided with chair legs because they were not able to interpret the information significance of this vertically organized data.  If they were raised in a vertical reality, they fell of the edges of tables because they could not see the horizontal dimension of reality.  Because their internal neural connections that defined their reality had been set up incomplete, they were committed to suffer the effects of the limited reality (consciousness) they must accept. In the terms of OT/MP, the vertical component of reality was not in their consciousness. [epistemological view of these studies]
A hungry chicken is unable to reach food blocked by a wire mesh fence, even through the span of the fence is only a few feet wide.  The frustrated chicken will walk in a circle limited to about two or three feet in diameter.  A similarly hungry dog, also blocked from its food by the same fence, is able to expand its field of consciousness and search within seconds to round the fence and acquire its meal.  The chicken, in this example, suffers PCC, its limited consciousness has made a neural commitment to a reality that binds its freedom of action to a short span of fence. It has created its own limit which is less than the already limited length of the fence, even though the fence's boundaries are visible.
I note that while a dog may be "conscious" of the presence of its master, it has no concept of the purpose behind its master's actions, or coming and going, and must make PCC decisions within those limits.
Prey fish in tanks separated from predator fish by a glass pane cause predator fish to learn that prey fish can not be attacked. They learn this from the sharp rap on the snout they get when they strike at the prey fish protected behind the glass that separates them.  Once the prey fish give up their attacks, they maintain this belief even after the glass is removed.  Then they starve to death as the swim among the accessible food.  There are parallels to this absurdity in the human condition.

Q: Yes but we humans are not limited by the simple nervous systems those creatures have.

P:  But we are limited under certain conditions, for example, in the psychological condition of co-dependency. [Mellody, 1989]  We do have our own limits, and the problem is that we are as unaware of our limits as are the lower order creatures unaware of theirs.

Study Point 4-7
The concepts of DF (Degrees of Freedom) and HIP (Human Information Processing competence)
Now in the context of the examples we just discussed about PCC, let let me introduce you to how to think at our human level about the freedom each of us has to function in our Reality. This capacity is limited by our ego guided perception of reality, i.e., our personal PCC.   Please read this parable.

The "Master and the Student on Freedom,"
including the "Blot that Thought"

[Return from Parable]

Q: Alas! I identify with the student.  It would be just like me to jump to a conclusion like he did.

P: No pun intended there, I hope.  But the principle is the same whether we jump to conclusions with large or trivial consequences. We are all limited to the DF that our ego consciousness sets for us.  When our best interests require us to transcend our reality and operate outside our PCC and DF limits, we are vulnerable.  You have heard the contemporary phrase, "to think outside the box?"  [Recall the Necker Cube  Demonstration in Dialogue 1 on C/consciousness]  In the presence of such limits, we cannot even know what we don't know.  This is a dangerous condition.  Apart from being vulnerable to harm, we can also cheat ourselves. That condition is also similar to not knowing we have a winning lottery ticket which we indifferently throw away.  How many opportunities have you thrown away?  I recall you said you had other plans when you were convinced to come here.

Q: Yeah.  I would have missed all this, but the jury is still out whether I did the right thing.  But what exactly is this "DF?"  I means how can I understand its relevance for me?

P: Examine this figure [left.]  It illustrates this concept of DF presented in "The Blot that Thought."  Although it is a mechanical analogy it can illustrate the same principle within the intellect. The principle that is relevant to your consciousness actually operates in psychic space as well as in physical space. In this example, DF is illustrated by comparing the capacity of the three vehicles to travel in a complex environment. Which vehicle would your rather master to navigate most effectively in your world?  The railroad engine is limited to one DF in that it can only move forward and backward on its track. It cannot turn left or right in order to leave its fixed track, nor can it lift into the air. The engineer (operator) has a simple decision making protocol, shall he go forward or backward on the track, or stop. While this removes stress from making decisions, he lives within a limited (one DF) range of options.  That limit creates other kinds of stress, such as might be experienced if he wanted to get to something well to the right or left of the track.

Q: So going forwards and backwards don't make two degrees of freedom because together they define only one dimension.

P: Correct. But the stress that is created by not being able to navigate left or right requires access to an additional dimension of DF. The automobile then operates in a dimensions where it has two degrees of freedom. It can go forward or backwards, but also is able to turn to  the left or right and cross the terrain at will.

Q: But it is limited when the terrain is not always smooth. Crevices and cliffs, boulders, and vegetation can greatly interfere with the agenda of the driver.  Another dimension of DF is required.

P: Yes and please note, there is a price to pay for the increased DF.  The engineer only has to start and stop the train, and of course adjust its speed.  But the driver with two DF has more options than the train operator with one DF, but must manage greater complexity and responsibility that are required to operate the automobile safely and effectively.

Q: So then the helicopter has most DF, but even greater skill and investments are required to safely operate it and benefit from its increased DF.

P: The helicopter, with its three DF, has the greatest flexibility to respond to the agenda of its pilot. In three dimensional space it can go backward and forward, left or right and up and down. The third dimension gives it the capability to avoid the roadblocks that the automobile driver may encounter on the ground. However, this increased DF and with its improved options, carries the greatest complexity. No one can safely operate an expensive and complex helicopter without complex training and experience.

Q: How is DF relevant to people like me in the real world.

P: Well you just completed your formal education.  At some point, as does everyone poised before a career decision, you must ask what your field of study will be.  How would your spend your time over a four to eight year training period, not to mention the enormous costs of such an investment?  Consider this figure [left] of a decision tree. At the top, when you consider what career to follow, you have access to 100 percent of all possible choices.  [The figure shows only choices selected for Science and Liberal Arts.]  Suppose you choose Science.  Now you have ruled out the careers that make up the other choices.  Since there is so much overlap in the basic courses, you could still switch over to liberal arts, business other career without too much difficulty during your first and second undergraduate college years.  You have not yet shrunk your career DF so that the costs of change are unacceptable. 

But once you choose engineering, you loose DF.  You can't easily back track to a new career path because now your investment of time, study, and money has been tied up in the engineering sub specialty.  By the time your get to your application of microelectronics, your career DF has shrunk considerable.

Q: But I can still change careers, kids do it all the time.  My dad changed his career when he was 40.

P:  Of course.  However, changing from microelectronics to computer science is within the range of the related DF activities involved. Therefore, the cost of changing careers to transfer to computer science is not as great as should you suddenly wanted to enter government to consult about the structure and processes of government management.  Then you would have to go back and begin at the top of the political science specialty.  Likewise, if you want to back out of any of the other tracks you could have followed, you must pay a cost of time and money. The greater your investment in a chosen specialty becomes (shrunken DF,) the greater and greater the costs of changing specialty until at some point, changing specialties becomes unfeasible.

Q: I recall the advice to "think before you leap," or there may be a big downside.

P:  Yes. But there is even an upside to such a decision because the person who knows what specialty they want to serve as a career, becomes progressively narrowed as she/he builds competence in their narrowing specialty.  But the person who moves around before settling down is broadened creates an advantage in that his/her consciousness has expanded to embrace a larger world of possibilities.  There are no absolutely "right" or "wrong" decisions where DF is concerned.  There are only consequences based on context.

Q: You said something about specialization being an enemy of an expanded consciousness.

P:  Not just specialization, but overspecialization.  Those who devote their life to a narrow specialty, e.g., gem setting, research on micro tubules, crime scene investigations, nano technology, etc, ought ask themselves, do they actually know the implications of voting, or not voting, in the next election, and for what conditions they actually vote for?

The tradition in a democracy is that you vote self interest. When you do this you may be convinced your voting for at least a short term gain.  But you could be voting for a long term disaster.  It is one thing to specialize from convenience in serving a career.  It is something else to deny or ignore the larger Reality, the larger social and political frame of reference required to meet one's civic obligations in today's complex world.  Today, we live in a predatory, selfish, and narcissistic culture whose networks of power and control influence are anchored to and devoted to the ego needs for power and control of those who set the rules and create the conditions we must submit to in our society. 

Q: I think I have justed detected a link to the conditions you described in our introductory dialogue!  So this principle functions everywhere I suppose?  I remember some of my friends complaining about all those "useless" liberal arts courses they were required to take. I see now the cost to them for ignoring those courses.  I wonder if they do?

P: Probably not.  But expanded consciousness can help in every professional area.  A corporation developing a marketing strategy for a product progressively invests in a series of initiatives.  At some point, if they find out they have a made a mistake, changing to another strategy may be prohibitive. 

In war, generals who develop a battle plan must make sure that all applicable possibilities are considered so they have adequate DF to make adjustments as the plan unfolds.  Sometimes they are so focused on a war strategy (their specialty) they remain oblivious to the equivalent need for the same dedication and flexibility in creating a viable exit strategy.  In some cases, as in the Iraq war of 2003-2007, political considerations are forced to prevail over military conditions with the punitive consequences fully evident by 2007.  Iraqi oil and military-economic control of the middle east trumps liberation into democracy.  Then we find the disaster we now experience.

Q: And the low HIP public is oblivious to the discrepancies between promises and actions.  The military and political disaster in Iraq in not planning for the occupation after winning the war is indeed a good example. 

P: Definitely, and the factors are far more complex than we have time to discuss now.  As they invest the lives and resources of their assets in any campaign, serious reversals and costs can accrue if they are suddenly forced by unanticipated developments to have to make a major shift to an entirely different plan of battle.

Q:  So the Iraq war does come to mind, the so called quagmire after proclaimed victory.  So these are good examples of how what you don't know can hurt you, once you step out of the arena affected by your DF.   I guess you would not say DF, but your inadequate C/consciousness, or HIP competence in that C/consciousness?

P: Correct.  But as I hinted before, there is another equally serious cost in investing in any specialization in any area of focus, especially if you obsessively stick with it.  Pundits have noted that the owner of a Ph.D., which is the ultimate in specialty degrees, has learned more and more about less and less until at last he/she knows everything there is to know about nothing.

Setting aside the obvious joke, this is a serious problem at the level of society as well as for the individual, and it that applies to all specialized training in every area.  The more you focus on a specialized career track, technical skill or craft based trade, the less informed you become about the other career and social information in areas where things are happening in your R/reality that can and will affect your life.

This blind spot is a fundamental flaw in our educational programs when they do not include systems sciences or Holistic applications of specialty areas. [sometimes labeled by some universities as the "integrative sciences."] not to mention a complete lack of Spirituality training because of its confusion with religion.

Q: Yeah! I now do relate to that confusion.

P:  The more you concentrate on any specialty, the more focused you are, then the more efficient and effective you are in that narrow area, but the more "blind" or resistant you become to being open to what is occurring in other important information areas.  As one example, from the point of view of a healthy society, wise voting depends on a maximum expansion of politically and socially relevant information from diverse areas in your consciousness (reality.)

Q: It occurs to me that the evaluation of any candidate for any political (or other) high office should not only consider knowledge, training and experience, but especially a demonstrated capacity for Spiritual Consciousness.

P: Excellent observation, and we will develop that idea in our Dialogue 5 which directly examines the topic of power and control.

Q: OK.  Then I should be better off as a Ph.D. generalist.  That way I will learn less and less about more and more until at last I will know nothing about everything!

P: Yes, of course, very insightful.  Typical logic of a Mensa intellectual, correct in principle, but overdone in degree.

Q: So the message is to take time to think it through?

P: Don't you mean meditate over it.  That is, don't just "think" about it. Remember, thinking is controlled by your ego.  Here is one key to successful implementation of the MP:

First, take time to meditate on what you already think you know.  Become informed by the higher Spiritual Intelligence.  But you are not ready to take that step yet. But keep this in mind:

There is an important difference between wisdom versus knowledge.  This is because Wisdom is not located in the intellect, but in Spiritual Consciousness.  But we will have to return to this challenge later in our dialogues.  For now, Know that adequate DF is the first essential ingredient within the priority arenas where you have chosen to function effectively in a complex setting.  This competency is required in order to survive and thrive.

Study Point 4-8
Costs of an Inadequate DF and HIP Capability:
P:  What are the costs to you of inadequate DF in approaching any challenge?  Here is a simple material example of the principle in failing to program adequate DF into a robot.  Please review the story.
....
Robie the Robot

[Return from Parable]

Q: So the example is obvious.  The robot must have a inner map of its external world (reality) that is as faithfully complex as the complexity of the territory in which it must navigate, evaluate, and decide.  When it doesn't have sufficient complexity of response options, it screws up.

P: Exactly.  And that is exactly true for every human system as well, from the individual, to the group, to the organization and ultimately, society.  There is a law in General Systems Theory (GST) that states that:

Q: Now what about a fourth level of DF?  Isn't there a so called fourth dimension? Time, I think?

P: The next or fourth DF dimension you will find in physics, is time.   In psychology, complex multivariate statistics are applied to process complex relationships among variables that can involve many DF.  But now I turn us toward psychic space, which involves an even greater complexity with enormous multiples of DF. I will label this consciousness space to exist on a continuum from concrete (low HIP, low DF) to abstract (high HIP, high DF). There is the challenge for us, to grasp what is really going on in intellectual consciousness during the unfolding of Spiritual Consciousness.

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

The Consequences of Low (Concrete HIP) versus High (Abstract HIP)

HIP (Human Information Processing Competence):
A: Now I will help you estimate how much DF you have to process the information in your R/reality, and how to enhance your potential ability to interpret and expand your DF.  HIP is a concept for assessing what contributes to or limits your DF.  HIP is the capacity of a human mind to Detect, Select and Effect appropriate transactions within a complex environment at some level of DF.

As you think, your options are set by limits defined by your PCC and your current level of HIP competence.  While we generally don't like constraints, a constraint can be as positive as much as it is negative.  Ashby's Law states that when a constraint exits an advantage can usually be taken of it.  But you must have sufficient HIP competence to act on your full DF potential to recognize how, and then be able to do it.  Given that you develop this talent, you can create and enjoy above average success in meeting life's challenges.

Q: Hold on--you say HIP is a "competence?"  You mean like a skill?   That suggests it is not something we are born with, like IQ, but something that we learn or have some control over?

P: Control, yes, but only if you can see yourself in relation to other people who have higher or lower HIP competence.

Q: Enter Spiritual Consciousness yet again. Right?

P: Right.  Expanding your Spiritual Consciousness (and the DF that comes with it) is the only fully effective way you can transcend the limits of your senses and their compelling illusions. Complexity copying skills are is learned by the manner in which you are raised, first in your family, then by the friends you choose, and finally by the practices found in your school curriculum, and then the dominant values of your culture.  Creativity is also an expression of HIP competence, and it is empowered directly by Spiritual Consciousness.  "Creativity" is the experience of expressing in novel ways within the reality you intellectually define, a reality that exists within (i.e., as a sub-set of) your Spiritual Reality.

Q: So what is a constraint in relation to freedom--you mean like a prison is a constraint on my freedom of movement?  Give me an example.

P: Yes, but let me be far more general that the prison example. For example, the sides of a swimming pool, compared to a vast lake, constrains the swimmer from easily doing distance swimming. But the same sides will be recognized as essential for getting out of the water easily. The sides of the pool limit my freedom to swim unconstrained, but empower me to easily get out of the water.  A chair constrains us to walk around it in a room, but creates the possibility for comfortable rest by sitting in it.

But the observer must have the requisite C/consciousness to see the advantage in the face of a constraint. She or he must first be able to change his/her frame of reference.  This capacity to exploit potential DF is a HIP competence.

P: Of course, such a challenge is demanding, and difficult. But in those examples I would ask you, do you see the Spiritual potential or Lesson within the nature of any such loss or problem. Do you see the Spiritual Lesson in any difficulty that you now face in life?  Your emotional salvation from that hurt depends upon your capacity to truthfully say "Yes!  I understand the Lesson."  If you can't, believe me, you'll be stuck forever in heartbreak, anger and despair.  [This idea is fully developed in the dialogue on Karma and Reincarnation.] Like the experience of discovering the other dimension to the Necker cube, transforming a constraint into an advantage first requires a precipitous change of consciousness. This stimulus for this can only come from you having access to a functionally useful Spiritual Consciousness.

Q: So the point your making is that, when I feel constrained, I should back off and try to see a larger picture, one that could not possibly be seen by a limited consciousness.  Even heartbreak, loss, lack, poor health, each can remain as constraints if we accept their permanence by defining ourselves as helpless to them.  But you say we must try to accept the experience of them, and try to transform the negative about them into a larger positive context. [See Butterworth, 1968] Whew!  Tough assignment.

P: Yes. Compared to another person who can not perceive the RAW of any relationship, if you are able to perceive any relevant alternative, each step in expanding this capacity is evidence of a progressively higher C/consciousness.  This higher consciousness offers higher HIP capacity with its greater DF potential and less PCC blockages.  But these are in turn dependent on your first developing a Spiritual Consciousness-- the mind alone cannot achieve DF or HIP enhancement. When these HIP and DF limits are increased, you will always obtain a  better advantage.  Now, examine these figures.

[The tests for measuring HIP competence as developed here
were developed by Schroder, et al, 1967]

Q: The figure [left] looks like a stack of Necker Cubes.  I guess that symbolizes a given level of conceptual complexity.  Are there names for these different levels of HIP skill?

P: Yes.  You think of complexity as being a combination of Necker Cubes, but of course the subtlety of each concept is such that the potential exists for millions of necker cube from low to high complexity. The labels at the extremes of HIP competence are low, "concrete" or high, "abstract" as they define one's decision making potentials limits. These characteristics were originally defined by Schroder and his associates at Princeton University. Concrete persons, as symbolized in this [adjacent] figure, are limited to having only a few rules or concepts for interpreting the complexity they can detect in the array of incoming information. Concrete processors manage uncertainty by reducing (filtering) excessive complexity they experience.  They force the nature of the uncertainty to fit their few available concepts and rules. [as in the Myth of Procrustes]

The greater the discrepancy between the incoming data and the available rules to manage it, the greater the stress experienced by the individual (family, organization, any system, etc.) "Constructs" or explanations of a reality when defined by low HIP types tend to be fast, fixed, simple and absolute. The behavior of a famous television character provides a perfect name for this phenomenon,  a "bunker" mentality, [modeled by Archie Bunker, star of the All in the Family TV program.]  Notice in this figure, that when asked to define the purpose of rules in society, the definition offered is fixed, limited, and rigid, i.e., concrete.

Q: So I bet their are many practical applications of concrete HIP incompetence.   Surely the Islamic militants are concrete in their total reliance and commitment to violence.  You mentioned their literal or fundamentalist interpretations of their Koran before, in our dialogue on communication.

P: Yes, but my assertion applies to most fundamentalist thinking, not just Islam but also to Christian zealots, and those that would corrupt Christian Principles of unconditional Love and forgiveness, e.g., the extreme Christian right wing, the neo Nazi, and the Ku Klux Klan.   But no religion is excepted.  It is not the religion itself, but the concrete HIP minded fundamentalist zealot who interprets and applies its principles. There have recently emerged serious threats against western scholars for discussing a Hindu religion  in analytical (Freudian) terms [Ganesha, based on the beloved Indian God with the head of an elephant].  Indian fanatics in different parts of the world are in a rage, calling for the death of these people.  The writings of these scholars are being removed from some university libraries by fearful administrators. [evidence]

Q: You mean our educated elite are knuckling under to these mindless fanatics?   Now that is scary.

So I'm beginning to see how little it takes to start a murderous war and reduce the stressors created by overpopulation.  But this next figure shows the opposite, that "Abstract" folks are those who are high HIP empowered (many "Necker Cubes" of possibilities.)  I trust that they have above average DF to detect, select, and effect actions in their own interests. Correct?  I expect that they will assess the question about rules by considering many possibilities.

                                [Based on Schroder et al, 1967]
P: Yes "Abstract" Decision Making Characteristics [compare "concrete" and "abstract" figures] have greater HIP competence. They see through a much greater degree of complexity before they too become confused or experience stress. Complex HIP persons have many rules accessible to them for interpreting uncertainty in their relevant environment.  Incoming data can be "mapped" and interpreted against a variety of rules, concepts and possibilities, (A through Z) not just one or a few. Rules that don't work can be deleted or changed. Or new more appropriate HIP rules can be created.  High amounts of data tend to create high uncertainty, but can be tolerated with minimal increases in stress for this abstract HIP kind of person.

Q: Then I would guess that when abstract HIP types are presented with complexity, they examine and modify the available rules to cope with and accommodate to the challenge.  But I also bet that when low HIP types faced with the same challenge, they will try to force the situation to change to accommodate their few available rules.  Correct.

P: Correct!  Excellent!  And the low HIP types experience and exhibit enormous distress during the process. You appear to understand HIP dynamics very well already.

Q: Then does the structures and process of language also mirror the level of HIP competence of the culture that creates the language?

P:  I have already noted [Dialogue 3, on Communication] that the structure of language and its HIP sophistication has mirrored the evolution of unfolding human consciousness.  Analysis of the information content of Old Testament Biblical texts have shown the difference in levels of concrete vs abstract HIP competence. Scholars have compared the information complexity between one of the earliest Biblical texts, The Book of Amos, that was composed about 800 BCE compared to one of the last books that were written, The Book of Ecclesiastics, at about 250 BCE.  (Jaynes, 1976)

In Amos, the text is dogmatic and direct in its reference with ritual pronouncements that frequently precede simple declamatory statements, e.g., "For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel: Seek me and live; [5:4]

Q:  Very blunt. Very concrete.  No ifs, ands, or buts.

P: But compared to this expression of the mind of Amos in 800 BCE, only 600 years earlier than Ecclesiastics, the language of "The Teacher" has become rich in subtle symbolism indicating the expanded consciousness of that second century BCE author e.g., "For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven...etc." [Eccl, Ch 3:1]

Q: Amazing!  Evidence right from sacred scripture.
.

Study Point 4-10:
P:  Now examine this figure. [left]  The greater the HIP potential (Abstract,) the more effective any system can be in coping with complexity, whether it be an individual, grou
p, family, organization, or even an entire society.  See the relationship of different HIP competencies in responding to the challenges of complexity as discovered by Schroder, et al, op cit.  The greater a person's HIP, the greater their ability to keep processing information even under high stress conditions as I can show you in this chart. Note that the chart's label "person" can also be replaced by, "family," "organization," "society," or the generic term "system."  The relationship shown in the graph applies regardless of the characteristics of the human system being measured.<