Happy Birthday (and a PCT question)

CSGnet Archive CSG2011
1

[Martin Taylor 2011.03.02.11.29]

Let me add my belated good wishes, also.

But I'd like to ask a PCT-related question.

Many years ago, my wife had for a long time been somewhat depressed

(whether clinically or not, I don’t know). One summer, she painted
on the side of our garage a slogan that seems to have worked for
her. It said: “If you want to be happy, be.”

There are several possible ways of interpreting this, but one of

them is to add the imagined word “happy” at the end. This
interpretation seems to assert that one can control an emotion
perception in imagination. I find that difficult to describe in the
context of how we usually describe emotion perceptions.
Nevertheless, it seems to be the interpretation she intended, and
she has definitely seemed happier since writing it.

It's something that has been in the back of my mind as a puzzle for

quite a long time, triggered now by the sequence of “Happy Birthday”
wishes. Could it be that the wishes actually have a functional
value, in that the recipient may be able to “be”?

I know this question is very vague and not cast in a normal PCT

context, but it’s very vague in my mind, too.

Martin
···

On 2011/03/2 11:03 AM, Richard Marken wrote:

  Thanks Fred and Boris for the birthday wishes, even

though they are late. But I expect yu guys to do better next
year;-)

  Best



  Rick

  --

  Richard S. Marken PhD

  rsmarken@gmail.com

  [www.mindreadings.com](http://www.mindreadings.com)
2

( Gavin
Ritz 2011.03.03.1103NZT)

[Martin Taylor
2011.03.02.11.29]

Many years ago, my wife had for a long time been somewhat depressed (whether
clinically or not, I don’t know). One summer, she painted on the side of our
garage a slogan that seems to have worked for her. It said: “If you want
to be happy, be.”

There are several possible ways of interpreting this, but one of them is to add
the imagined word “happy” at the end. This interpretation seems to
assert that one can control an emotion perception in imagination. I find that
difficult to describe in the context of how we usually describe emotion
perceptions. Nevertheless, it seems to be the interpretation she intended, and
she has definitely seemed happier since writing it.

It’s something that has been in the back of my mind as a puzzle for quite a
long time, triggered now by the sequence of “Happy Birthday” wishes.
Could it be that the wishes actually have a functional value, in that the
recipient may be able to “be”?

I know this question is very vague and not cast in a normal PCT context, but
it’s very vague in my mind, too.

You should be concerned about the vagueness
Martin, ask
anyone what they think the “feeling of guilty” means and see if it
makes any sense. (Try making sense of Freud’s concept of guilt, or Norman O Brown or Rank) it will leave
you even more concerned.

Happy, guilty etc key human feelings are
very vague and not at all well defined in terms of any psychological model.

After-all aren’t psychological model
suppose to explain these feelings.

Ask this question what perceptions are
being controlled by “If you want to be happy, be.”

“Be” what?

Being is one half aspect of one aspect of
the nature of Reality. Primordial being is the part that never changes it’s
the constant energy of the universe; it’s the form of our logic. Its
abstractions are infinite.

It has an asymmetrical transitive twin “becoming”.

Regards

Gavin

···
3

[From Rick Marken (2011.03.03.0940)

Martin Taylor (2011.03.02.11.29)--

Let me add my belated good wishes, also.

Thanks, Martin. Even though I a now well into my Medicare years it's
nice to get the good wishes.

But I'd like to ask a PCT-related question.

Many years ago, my wife had for a long time been somewhat depressed (whether
clinically or not, I don't know). One summer, she painted on the side of our
garage a slogan that seems to have worked for her. It said: "If you want to
be happy, be."

There are several possible ways of interpreting this, but one of them is to
add the imagined word "happy" at the end. This interpretation seems to
assert that one can control an emotion perception in imagination. I find
that difficult to describe in the context of how we usually describe emotion
perceptions. Nevertheless, it seems to be the interpretation she intended,
and she has definitely seemed happier since writing it.

It's something that has been in the back of my mind as a puzzle for quite a
long time, triggered now by the sequence of "Happy Birthday" wishes. Could
it be that the wishes actually have a functional value, in that the
recipient may be able to "be"?

I know this question is very vague and not cast in a normal PCT context, but
it's very vague in my mind, too.

This is an interesting question, particularly because I had a recent
experience that was relevant to it. I had a stress creating event
about three weeks ago. What it was is irrelevant. I'll just say it was
a disturbance to my rental business -- a bounced rent check basically.
There was a lot more involved but while events were transpiring I was
experiencing emotions like anxiety and stress as well as physiological
symptoms, like heartburn. But I was consciously trying to calm myself
-- basically saying to myself "be happy" since the financial
disturbance was certainly manageable -- so I consciously was able to
eliminate the anxiety and stress. I was able to do this so well that I
did not associate the heartburn with the "bounced check" disturbance.
I thought I had GERD (given my advancing age;-) The heartburn wasn't
all that bad but it was uncomfortable so I started taking an antacid
to calm it down. But the condition persisted for a couple days until I
got a cashier's check. That night the heartburn ceased to exist.

I think the lesson I get from this (and it was a real interesting
lesson to me) is that imagination is of little help in reducing the
error in control systems -- the error that drives physiological output
processes -- that are not controlling well. I was imagining all kinds
of reassuring things, which successfully reduced my stress; I would
have said that I had become rather sanguine about the situation. But
my conscious feeling of calm did not keep the error in my "financial
control" control system from driving my "preparation of output"
physiology when there was no output that would actually get control
back for me.

If the problem had not been solved (getting my financial control
system error back to zero) by external events (the cashier's check) I
think I would have eventually had to reorganize so that I had better
control of the problem. I think imagination is like using
consciousness to "paint over" a problem; to really solve a problem you
have to do what is done in MOL; bring consciousness to the source of
the problem. Perhaps imagination worked for your wife because it gave
her time to reorganize in the background of her consciousness while
making believe she was happy in the foreground. I think that would
have eventually happened with me (and I might have to reorganize still
if the next check bounces;-)

Best regards

Rick

···

--
Richard S. Marken PhD
rsmarken@gmail.com
www.mindreadings.com