The individual typically experiences an uncertain reality on a continuum from humorous or acceptable, to interesting, through confusion to anxiety and fear, to outright panic.  Within that range from acceptable to panic, the Pilgrim will experience a mixture of anxiety and fear arising from the ego's increasing need to demand that action be taken to deny or eliminate the threat..  This unresolved fear is experienced within the individual as increasing levels of stress and distress.  The nature of any level of threat created by the experience of uncertainty must, and will be, accounted for by the perceiving system in one of the following ways, whether this threat is correct or false:

adequately comprehended and found to be acceptable, or
comprehended and found that the conditions must be altered to be acceptable, or 
the nature of the threat is such that it can be denied (ignored) as such, or 
the perceived source of threat must be attacked and destroyed. 

The less the HIP competence of any perceiving system, the more vulnerable to irrational fear based decision making it is in the presence of high complexity (uncertainty) or threat induced stress  As a general rule, as information complexity increases in a systems ecology, high HIP is most beneficial to the promoting the stability and functional effectiveness of any participating system.  High HIP systems are more likely to be effective when they must function in complex, uncertain, or threatening social contexts. 

However, an optimum HIP competence first requires the empowering presence of an awakened Spirituality.  This empowering precondition is required in order for the observer's C/consciousness to transcend the innate limits imposed by the ego's biologically induced sense based fear.  This fear is reactive to the presence of any perceived threat or uncertainty. 

This section of OT/MP develops the dynamics of HIP in order to empower you to deal effectively with a continuum of uncertainty ranging from possible opportunity (at one extreme,) to dire threat (at the opposite extreme.)

Each of us has a only a limited amount of DF (Degrees of Freedom) from which to choose and act. But some have many more DF than others.   We have to first detect that our options are there before we can choose to act. The amount of DF for any person (or any human system) is not absolute but relative.  It is relative between and among individuals, groups, organizations, institutions and societies. It is also relative within each one of these living systems.  That is, you as an individual can have many DF (detect many options and possibilities) in once context, but at the same time have few DF in another context, i.e., a flexibility to process in in different ways in different Necker Cubes.) 

For example, a football coach can patiently detect many options to train and coach his team to achieve victory.  But that same person may have very little DF (few options or possibilities) in dealing with stress in his/her own family. In response to family conflict he may quickly respond with anger, stress amplification, closing up, withdrawal, or even abuse.  In the extreme he could commit murder. 

The concept of DF is a way to think about how your ego directs (expands or limits)  your perceptual capacity to detect some number of the full scope of options actually available to you in Reality.  The concept of DF is a way to estimate how open your ego is to receive those possibilities to cope with any type of challenge, uncertainty, or their byproduct, fear and stress.  HIP and DF are complimentary concepts and interact with each other.  The greater one's HIP, the greater one's DF, and the healthier and more appropriate, and the more effective one's responses for coping with any challenge or opportunity.

The HIP competence of any given system can be categorized and measured as ranging from very low HIP competence (low perceived DF in which to act) to very high levels of HIP (many DF in which to act) given the same reality.  Low HIP  type systems are called "concrete," while high HIP systems are called "abstract." [after Schroder, Driver, & Streufert, 1967] That is, abstract or high HIP systems have the capacity to experience a reality with many possibilities, options, and coping solutions because these can be more easily derived from the abstract universe of possibilities in Reality.  On the other hand, concrete systems cannot construct that wide variety of coping options in their limited perception of the same reality.

Hence, low HIP systems experience significantly higher stress, and are more prone to react defensively and aggressively when provoked with any experience they perceive to contain high uncertainty.  These low HIP (concrete) systems are much less effective in dealing with change or reversals than systems with high HIP (abstract) competence.  This is true regardless of the nature of the challenge.  However, low HIP systems are much more stable and predictable in environments that are also simple and stable.  That is, in those contexts that are friendly in consistently creating low stress and low uncertainty.  In those same highly simple and stable environments, high HIP systems may become unstable due to wanting to break out from the limits and boredom they experience in such highly predictable and stable environments. 

Here again one can see demonstrated that for every status in R/reality, there is not an absolute good or bad, right or wrong, but there are always consequences that are relative to the needs of the system of interest within the reality context it must navigate and negotiate to survive and thrive.

This section will offer how you can use your insight to HIP dynamics to clarify complex symptoms and problems in today's experiences.  The differential effects of low vs high HIP system behavior can be seen in many applications.  One such example can be found expressing in the generic condition of "master vs slave" relationships.  The basic nature of this relationship is that the DF reality (Necker Cubes) can function function at any level of human system complexity (e.g., person, group, organization, or society.) The consciousness status of the master permits him/her/it to impose her/his/its will on those he/she/it has license to dominate.  The master need not alter his/her/its consciousness.  But the slave must learn to cope with the reality created by the master.  The slave's reality is thereby forced to develop a greater consciousness, to include aspects of the master's reality to simply cope and survive.  Slaves do not have the overt DF (Necker Cubes power and control) to directly confront the master with force within his/her/its reality (Necker Cubes.) 

This creates an interesting dynamic in that the consciousness of the master has no need to incorporate the reality of the slave's experience of their power (Necker Cube) relationship with their master. Thus the master unwittingly develops little DF to address the slave's reality.   On the contrary, the slave's consciousness must studiously incorporate the reality of the master's consciousness in order to exploit the master's weaknesses through increased DF (opportunities to take action), in their power relationship. Only then can the slave contrive ways and means to manipulate the master through passive aggressive and other such strategies.  Thus the slave becomes more skilled (increased DF and abstract HIP competence) in order to exploit what opportunities there are to control the master through submissive and passive aggressive means. 

Paradoxically then, the master is encumbered with relatively concrete HIP and limited DF with regard to the slave.  That is, the master's reality contains low DF to accurately understand the reality of the Slave that he also shares but does not perceive.  The master and slave become locked in and endless contest of power. The force used by the master to control the slave plays against the slave's use of indirect power applied through manipulation and passive aggression. Both master and slave are thereby demeaned in the process.  An awakened Spiritual Consciousness within both master and slave systems is required to create stable solutions to the injustice and conflict that is otherwise incipient and persistent in their relationship.

The presence of some level of HIP competence within any given living system is a predictor of its potential to survive. In order to cope in the presence of complex challenges, a system must have high HIP competence.  In a social ecology characterized by rapid change and the need to attend to many diverse challenges across many levels of technical sophistication, high HIP is a highly desirable and in fact is an essential dimension of mental consciousness. 

In the presence of any perceived threat, the HIP of the affected system must have access to a variety of possible ways to define and defuse the threat other than the extreme fight or flight options.  Low HIP systems, whether an individual, a religion, a political party, or a nation, is extremely vulnerable to flawed decision making that produces more ultimate harm through misplaced force, aggression or denial than can be accomplished by patiently negotiating through the perceived risks. 

The capacity to negotiate requires abstract HIP to be able to detect and advance all relevant options and resist the need to quickly collapse into an aggressive or reactive posture.  Further, low HIP individuals and social systems are vulnerable in every aspect of their activities when low HIP cheats them of the opportunities derived from creative problem solving. They are unable to benefit from opportunity, or promote positive relations with other systems. They cannot remain at peace in the midst of external stress and uncertainty. Unlike the agendas which are biologically wired in, HIP competence is a learned skill which requires the context of a viable Spiritual Consciousness to properly grow and become effective in serving the Real needs of the system at issue. Low HIP and the dysfunction it introduces can be remediated by carefully designed intellectual and Spiritual interventions.