for Annet

Constructive Recollection

introduction

How can memory or recollection at all be constructive? The answer, which all of the following will address, can help those, yours sincerely in particular, having problems with understanding, let alone learning their world. Basic are two human capacities that we are all born with: to sense and to know. Sensing and knowing are extremes on the scale of human capabilities, from dealing with material-, to dealing with cultural reality surrounding you and making you up. Your brain is the product of evolution, including your history of dealing with, or sensing, material reality, up till this moment. The content of your brain is of the same sort, only this time dealing with, or knowing, cultural reality (figure 1).

figure 1

Your environment 'produced' you and as a sensing organism you are thus instinctively connected to it. Inversely, you 'produced' the environment you know and as a knowing organism you will or should thus always be intellectually connected to it. So there are 4 basic entities to deal with, each having powers of their own, (the abbreviations of) which will exclusively be used below:

The 'now & here' is a point that changes over time, as the organism and the environment 'roll' (which is why I call it the 'roll-model') as modeled in the figures, or share a common sense and common knowledge of material bodies in time and space. All points 'rolled-off', form a flat surface, a coordinated inter-est (literally 'is-between') organism and environment. Actually there are two of those surfaces, one sensed between sEnv and sOrg, and the other known between kOrg and kEnv. They should perfectly match and co-ordinate.

figure 2

You simultaneously sense and know your environment. Sensory perception is Object-Orientation (OO), like a baby bringing things to its mouth to taste, touch, see and smell it. Cognitive apperception or knowing, by making certain assumptions, is Multi-Perspectivism (MP), describing, explaining and understanding an impression in context from a changed perspective each time, and making sure that those perspectives add up logically. While sensing 'picks up' what is sensed, knowing 'puts down' what is known (figure 2). Movement occurs when the sensing between sOrg and sEnv on the one hand, and the knowing between kOrg and kEnv on the other, start to happen simultaneously and co-ordinatedly (figure 3 - yellow dot).

figure 3

When kOrg and sEnv interact, they alternate active and passive mode. The impression of the one is the expression of the other. Their exchange keeps them checked and balanced through their interest and coordination.  Impressions and expressions are kept in memory, consciously and/or subliminally. The more functionally coordinated and structured, the stronger they are held. When social interaction shifts towards dominant and submissive role-play in an environment that includes others, then expressions and impressions tend to be directed only one way. Power accumulates on one side, and can be misused. This is a mechanism of group-polarization (figure 4 left and right).

   figure 4

While within groups dependency arises between the dominant and submissive behavioral patterns, simultaneously between groups or between individuals not belonging to one group in particular, independence remains imperative. Specifically, independent confirmation is necessary to find out what is true and what isn't, for conventions and confidentialities are no longer usance. You then overtly seek independent confirmation for the impressions you hold true, and no sooner rely on them than until they were independently confirmed by concurrence or the other's verification, be it emotionally or rationally. Across time, the information is placed, and emotions are functionally structured into rationalities, in kOrg and in sEnv simultaneously (figure 5).

 figure 5

What you know and carry with you, must correspond to what you feel, by intuition. This is true for everybody. When you meet somebody else and start communicating, you will compare intuitions to assess what is true and what is false of your assumptions or precepts. Independent rational or emotional confirmation can prolong the status of what you consider True. Independent denial will falsify that belief, though not necessarily prove it to be false (yet). Both of you seek confirmation and when one finds it, he will follow the other. That means one of you may feel the need to improve and adapt his/her beliefs according to the other's, realizing the the emotional content enclosed in that rational form, the oneness and uniqueness of your shared condition humaine (figure 6), instead of emptiness.

figure 6

I. Sense

Sometimes you can sense but not 'make sense of it', which can be quite depressing. This is because it is the beginning of a new experiential cycle to confirm you are on the right track. Else you  must correct your course (realize what you de-realized or personalize what you de-personalized). Since the environment is full of meaningful natural or humanistic structure, your impressions should soon reveal these as well, when the organism translates what it senses into what it knows.

II. Know

The organism connects your sensing to your knowing, to make you 'know what' you sense. You can at least copy it so that it is 'the same', even though immaterial, as an image in your mind. You have created a known environment from a knowing organism (i.e. yourself). And just like sensing, knowing is something now & here. Your mindmap can direct you to better places. You 'roll' to places that are more agreeable, make better sense or have stronger connotations. Initially this may be just a reflex, but later on memories may insert themselves so that you can be more reflective and make better judgments.

III. Intuit

Next, match the now & here you sense, with the now & here you know and sense what you know. This means you have to make a choice for what determines your present state of being: the environment or you. Which feels more True or real? The one gets copied onto, and effectively replaces, the other. The environment may be the power (of argument) or expectations of the other. You, on the other hand, may have affections and evaluations you cannot or do not want to let go off, and so you let those prevail.

IV. Realize

As figure 6 showed, two intuitions can turn into one uniquely shared intuition, by the realization of dominance and submission. You then only look for confirmation and possibly even forbid criticism (e.g. by political correctness). However, another way, and much more democratically appropriate, is by independent confirmation. Then you are willing, not forced, to accept the view offered by the environment. So in this 'negotiation', what is  True or real, will come forward and you know what you sense.

Your realizations and insights can become overt, real, expressions in the manner described above, or remain covert impressions in the group to which you belong. Covert impressions, realized in private reflection, not as real as in public, follow  independent confirmation of your intuition after the fact (a posteriori), from the environment or sensed material reality. Overt expressions, realized in public behavior, seek  independent confirmation for your intuition before the fact (a priori), from the environment, as known cultural reality. That way, confirmation-seekers (who may be leaders) and -followers test each other's validity and reliability, in intuited social reality. In terms of the 'roll-model' presented, seeking confirmation is the organism's intention (figure 7 red), while following confirmation is the environment's or other's (figure 7 blue).

figure 7

So the construction of your knowledge from facts and ideas most true, eventually happens in reality as well, if others agree. When you no longer accept cultural reality, you start to question the content of ideas, which you are supposed to inherit, and begin working on your own new insights, until you reach a point where these can be realized. Ideas (if not practices) for a new cultural reality are put forward in social reality, seeking acceptance or confirmation from material reality. The only difference between these three realities (material, cultural and social) on the one hand and the three stages prior to realization (sense, know and intuit) on the other, is that intention is on the other foot; after a period of dialogue, interaction and exchange, the opposite side may have accepted the ideas proposed and is willing to endorse them now (figure 8). You then have realized your ideal, realized your mistake, or have come one step closer to true realization.

	I				sense what you sense		sense material reality
	II				know what you know		know cultural reality
	III				sense what you know		intuit social reality
	IV				know what you sense		realize independent confirmation

figure 8

All constructions, in the mind (kOrg) or in reality (sEnv), are based on assumptions. Revision of cultural precepts may be as historically necessary as their confirmation. Overt propositions seek confirmation of their truth claim (figure 9 red), as if the woman is to say "yes" to the man who is after her (figure 9 blue). Once this confirmation is found, the man's overt seeking turns or re-turns into covert following of cultural reality, as she takes over, intuiting what life really ìs all about. However, when she cannot, or no longer, wholeheartedly and truly confirm the claim that was put forward, then insecurity and sadness make their appearance, since confirmation could not be independent enough, though it was given anyway, on a need-to-be-provided basis (a sort of bailout).

figure 9

"Cette immense affaire" as Sartre called it, requires enormous quantities of objective information (including the covert), to continuously make the necessary calculations for behaving and performing accountably. The strains and stresses on the organism reach towards the periphery (figure 10 red arrows) as well as to the core (figure 10 blue arrows). Constructive recollection needs this 'inner space & time' to intuitively coordinate what is sensed with what is known and, after realization, to coordinate material- and cultural reality, constituting social reality, in togetherness. René Descartes (1596-1650) called inner space 'res cogitans'. Henri Bergson (1859-1941) called inner time 'intuition of duration'.

figure 10

So the most natural thing in the world, interacting with your environment or the other, is a two-way street. From the depths of your being, you develop knowledge that you believe fits the world out there and when you overtly test this knowledge, reality will tell you whether you are right or wrong. The logic from one idea 'now and here' to the next 'then and there' (knowing), may lead experience from one fact to the next (sensing), or it may follow it, depending on which of these two seems more true (figure 11).

figure 11

'Hot ideas' rise to the periphery while 'cold facts' sink in. Knowing what you sense, and sensing what you know, constantly and dynamically interact, seeking and following what you believe is True. It may happen either subjectively, only in the mind or in a dream, as a model of reality, or it may happen in objective reality as well, lead by the model, as speech or behaviour. While you stay in check with social reality, feedback either confirms or denies your beliefs about it (figure 12).

On the personal level, reality and intuition use sensing and knowing as 'hardware' to transport messages simultaneously tó the environment, by intuition and fròm the environment, by reality (figure 14, blue and red arrows). When they confirm each other, both are strengthened ('conditioned') and are more likely to repeat in the future. So you and me, we both have the other and ourselves as reality and as intuition; the reality of the interaction between you and me as one image, must match the intuition of the interaction between you and me, as another image; intuition and reality for you and me are reversed: your intuition is my reality and my intuition is your reality. Therefore, intuition and reality between us, show a reversing pattern of who is active or passive, from one image to the next. Sensing what one knows (grey) and knowing what one senses (yellow), create both your and my intuition and reality, actively intended by you or by me.

Here, your perceptions do differ and you also know why; you expect nothing less. Where you come from and where I come from, are different origins. So what I sense I know and what I sense you know, is widely open for debate. We may disagree and suspend our (independent) confirmation of what the other says. While you speak, you determine my reality and I listen, using my intuition to understand you. Then the phase and roles change to and fro, during our whole conversation. If and only if reality (knowing what one senses) confirms intuition (sensing what one knows), then both their strengths or values increase. Personal Memory Manager can help make us understand each other better, or even ourselves. It is life-long learning software and personal knowledge management freeware or -shareware (figure 15).

Reality is the same for you and the other. You both represent yourself and the other as individuals, and each of your individual representations of your own and the other's intuition and realization. When you are active, the other is reactive. Active intuition is sensing what you know; reactive intuition is sensing what the other knows. Active realization is knowing what you sense; reactive realization is knowing what the other senses. Of course you and the other don't really know reality as you know your own intuition, but that reality, as it really was and is and not only as you think it is, does find its way into your intuition though, when your intuition is reactive. Reality is active when intuition is reactive, for example when you are asleep (or when you are a victim of a crime or of war, see below). Reality is reactive when intuition is consciously active and expressing itself in behavior. Intuition as behavior is overt and is between (inter-est) you and the other; the impact of reality or realization as consciousness is primarily covert and private to each of you (figure 16).

Your intention and that of your environment or the other, are constantly interacting, however their relative strengths may differ over time, moving you into or out of conflict. You feel no conflict when your intuition is 'free' to sense what it knows. Then you are in command and probably (even) being paid for it. Reality is around, but it only hits you when you cannot fight back, such as in your dreams. During the day it is also there, but it is submitted or metabolized by you, being in command, and where ever else it may be, you won't know about, such as people talking about you or your actions. So you know what you sense (reality) in your dreams or subliminally beyond the immediately given, perhaps implied in your actions. You sense what you know (intuition) in immediate thinking, talking and acting, being somehow in control, as long as the feedback is positive, seems to be so, or can be controlled when negative. (figure 17).

You need to turn any dependent rejection (depend on someone and still be rejected) into independent confirmation. Do so not only for your own intuition but also for the other's who did not, while you were dependent on him, make you see things that way, nor to whom you may have done the same. Give each other a chance to find truth in confirmation. This must be done by turning your dependency into independency, and rejection into confirmation, which you must look for. Truth maintenance requires both simultaneously: independency between observations makes those observations (and beliefs) reliable, while seeking and following confirmation keeps them valid. These criteria are not only crucial for science, justice and journalism, but also for common everyday life or social reality. You want to be independent from power and be confirmed and accepted as you are and truly believe the world is (figure 18).

You are represented as "the other" by the real other, and you represent him as "the other" for you. What you both sense, stems from the same reality that brought you together, while you approach what you both know, as best as you can. Your expressions are intended to be the other's realizations. Questionable however, and motive for communication, is whether they indeed are or not, as the subject and inter-est of dialogue, logical- and factual adaptation, exchange of new information and more dynamic interaction by (independent) confirmation and rejection. Basically, you compare sensing and knowing, as parts of both your and the other's intuition and realization, here and now between you, letting both sensed material reality and known cultural reality manifest themselves. This interaction of material- and cultural reality, represented by you and the other as what you sense and know, is social reality (figure 19).

Ron C. de Weijze

M2M Matter to Man bv Amsterdam, the Netherlands Tel.: +31 (0)20 - 618.1632 E-mail: info@pmm.nl

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