Version: September 30, 2022
Timothy Corwen :: Human-Direction Mapmaker :: tcorwen@humandirectionmap.com
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activation: Mustering one's resources of mind and body to face a challenge or engage in a particular thought process, communication, or activity, including directing one's mind to the appropriate domain, changing one's muscular and physiological state (including adrenaline levels), and generally adopting a stance of readiness and engagement.
active-features identity: Personal identity based on my interests, talents, and actions, rather than on the static attributes I was born with or have done nothing to make part of my identity. See also my book The Worth of a Person. Cf. inflamed static-features identity; static-features identity.
adversity monopolist: A person who claims to have the exclusive right to be seen as suffering from adversity. In this view – usually held by that person, but also perhaps by others – everyone else's suffering is without substance or significance.
advocacy guide: Someone who presents guidance in life, based on arguing for one particular pathway to one particular goal, not allowing for alternative approaches or points of view. See also entitlement fighter; mental-clump herd; one-true-path mapping; reality monopolist. Cf. human-direction mapping.
afterburst: After a realization session, an afterburst is the emergence of ideas as we are winding down from the creative lift that was involved in the realization session. In the minutes or hours after we have devoted ourselves to developing a creative work, we will often find further thoughts coming to mind. See also backdrop; burst; realization session.
alignment: A position we take on how to look upon and act regarding a particular feature and opportunity or challenge in life – that is, regarding a direction point. Alignments range from surface alignments such as how I get to work in the morning (e.g., by driving a car, following a certain route, etc.), to deep alignments such as how I think things get done (mechanical cause and effect, divine intervention, social influence, or a combination of those). For example, what makes things happen in the world? Is it prayer to a divinity, taking practical steps, looking for help from others, or some combination of these for different sorts of situations? See also trellis. An alignment has three parts: what we believe, what we say, and what we do. These may or may not be fully manifest or consistent. See also alignment domain; direction point; fractured alignment; reality interface; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
alignment array: A set of alignments covering several different aspects of experience. For example, the position I take on what I believe really matters in life, the position I take on how things get done (how I believe they get done, how I act to get them done, and how I engage emotionally with things getting done or not), the position I take on how to fulfill my needs, and so on, together constitute an alignment array. See also fractured alignment array; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
alignment domain: All of the different aspects of our life with regard to which we take a position, have a set of ideas and beliefs, adopt a pattern of actions, and engage emotionally – in short, where we align ourself. These areas of experience range from those covered by surface alignments such as how I get to work in the morning (e.g., by driving a car), to those covered by deep alignments such as how I think things get done (my car works based on mechanical cause and effect, divine intervention, social influence, or a combination of these). See also my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
alignment pull: A force on an alignment that pulls it this way or that, and presses it toward a certain shape. These can take the form of various environmental influences, social pressures, personal predispositions and genetic characteristics, and so on. Our alignment pulls thus take many forms, but probably the most obvious are our needs and our desire to fulfill them. See also alignment.
allotment: A period of time devoted to an activity (e.g., a task) or state (e.g., of rest), and generally, how we arrange the use of our time during the day. The topic of allotment includes the questions of how we order our activities in a given day, what we include in each period, and the pace at which we pursue those activities and change between them. Cf. (time) slot.
allotment load: The level of effort required by the allotment object – including mental lifting and mental jostling in creativity, and concentration on a complex subject.
allotment series: A succession of allotments devoted to the same object (i.e., the same occupant).
allotment slot: A slot (period of time) taken up each day with the same allotment.
allotment slot channel: A series of allotment slots which involve taking up the same area of endeavor one day after the next for a period of time – especially a period long enough to make substantial progress in the endeavor.
alter occupant: An activity that involves a different set of faculties from the one with which one has grown tired. For example, going out to chop wood or to go running after a day working on a computer. Or, even, for example, in the case of students of literature, turning from studying poetry to relaxing by reading a biography of the poet.
appliage: The willingness, desire, and capacity of people to apply themselves to acting on, changing, or preserving something, including, but not limited to, buttressing. Sometimes this involves paid employment resulting in remuneration, but sometimes it may be in response to a crisis, where everyone chips in to do what they can to meet a common threat. For example, in facing a storm, people may show free appliage in acting and making use of their resources to contribute to common preparations or in response to damage or a threat to life, without thinking about how they might personally be rewarded for doing so. See also loose appliage.
arena view of life: The view of life that sees our experience in this life as what counts. Whether this means the comforts we enjoy, the titles and recognitions we achieve, the wealth we accumulate, or the duties we perform, it is what we do or experience within the arena of our lifespan that makes the difference between a life of substance and happiness, and one of failure and distress. Cf. outpost view of life.
artifact: A notation of the mind, including snippets of advice, quotations, facts or figures, rules or formulas, vocabulary terms, musical phrases, or identified colors or smells, which is one of the more or less formed and established items in our express awareness. See also verbal strand.
assembly marker: A predictive sketch of an assembly of circumstances. For example, if a weather pattern has settled in with persistently hot and sunny weather for many days, I might assume, with some justification, that tomorrow will show the same assembly of circumstances (but I also know that one day, the weather will change). See also assembly of circumstances; predictive sketch; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
assembly of circumstances: A situation or unfolding of events in which there is no one agent or factor that is of greater weight with regard to any outcome, but which is characterized by a particular pattern for a time, one that can be expected to change sooner or later. An assembly of circumstances only lasts as long as the state of affairs or set of conditions holds together: for example, a high pressure zone of weather that leads to settled warm and dry conditions for a few days or weeks until a new front comes in; or the arrangement of staff and technology at an airport that will get me to my destination on schedule, as long as every element (person or technology) functions as it should, and there are no weather disruptions, computer glitches, or staff walk-outs. See also assembly marker; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
assembly riding: Carrying on with a routine during an assembly of circumstances, where changes are not needed or where they are impossible. See also assembly of circumstances.
assert and urge: An approach to guidance in life that includes an assertion followed by an urging for us to do something. For example, the maxim “You only live once, therefore live each day to the full” is an assertion about how short life is, followed by an urging that I live it in a certain way. Most self-help books and resources offer this sort of guidance. See also authorized trellis; human-direction mapping; relegation; satellite trellis; tips and techniques; the entry in the HDM Directory, on eight conventional approaches to guidance in life; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
attentive presence: Being in someone else’s thoughts and more or less constant awareness, and as a result having them there as someone in your life who always knows and shows an interest in where you are and what you are doing.
authorized trellis: A trellis (ideas and beliefs that guide our perceptions and thoughts) with its principal points specified and/or verified by some authoritative power. For example, scientific knowledge based on fundamental research or large-scale studies that are collected and evaluated by committees of scientists is the basis for a scientific authorized trellis of ideas and understandings. Religious beliefs are authorized by divine scripture or communication and perhaps also the authorities of a church. See also satellite trellis; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
awareness cluster: All of the objects, emotional resonances, and patterns of those that are present in my awareness at any given time, constituting a cluster with interrelations among the parts and having an overall pattern and character, and which may or may not be related to the reality of the world around me.
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backdrop of one's awareness: The back of one's mind, a part of our psyche where we keep and work on an area of interest or concern, including when doing other things. This is the active, intentional part of what is normally referred to as the subconscious. On occasion, we may bring its contents forward to consciously mull them over in a backdrop push (perhaps as pegs), thinking about the ideas, images, or inklings involved. But mostly a backdrop remains in the background of the area of our mind for which we have off-set awareness, and it carries on devoted to thoughts and subliminal activation when other activities are taken up and pursued. A backdrop can, if the subject is difficult and requires a lot of creative lift, take enormous energy to sustain, but it is the place where deep creativity occurs. Its products appear suddenly, and seemingly inexplicably, in our conscious thoughts as original ideas and flashes of clarity. The output of a backdrop is, therefore, more often characterized by quality and depth, rather than quantity. See also backdrop push. Cf. realization session.
backdrop bounce: When you have been mulling something over the evening, night, and morning before (perhaps, not consciously but in the backdrop of your awareness), and in your first work session of the day, you take that up, before being distracted by any other demands on your concentration.
backdrop progression: The progress you make in an off-hour flank and in your backdrop, at times away from fully attentive work on the topic you are pondering or a problem you are trying to solve.
backdrop push: Taking up the subject of a backdrop and having a look at it, giving some effort to thinking about how it might be worked out, and attempting to see it more clearly. For example, I have, let’s say, been trying to decide how to reorganize my study when I get some time. I’ve been pondering this on and off for weeks, when I’m not focusing on a work task, so while taking a shower I give that backdrop a push by collecting my thoughts about it and trying again to advance it.
back-step pull: A manipulation to try to get someone to come closer to you and give you their attention, which is done by moving away from them, so they feel compelled to close the distance and approach you.
bastion (of time): A daily or weekly period (slot) devoted to some particular, important activity, which is at roughly the same time of day or at the same time on the same day of the week, so we turn to it automatically when cued by the time or by something that happens just before it. See also slot; switching-cost.
biological person: Someone who focuses their attention on, and interest in, the periphery others, when it comes to considering their suitability for companionship and for partnership for personal and sexual intimacy – that is, they focus on the youth and physical attractiveness of a woman, or the material possessions, professional titles, and social status of a man, rather than on shared values and interests, congeniality of character, and qualities as a person. See also periphery; and my book The Worth of a Person. Cf. rapport-focused person.
bonded lever: A lever based on a bonded unfolding, which therefore nearly always works. For example, an antibiotic that in the vast majority of cases will cure a particular infection. See also my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
bonded unfolding: An unfolding of events that depends an all of the factors involved playing their part (i.e., a full intermix), but which is dominated by a mechanism or the nature of something, so that it occurs in a predictable way in the vast majority of cases, without a substantial change likely in a person’s lifetime. It may, however, break down on occasion if submerged by other circumstances. For example, an antibiotic may cure a particular infection in 95% of cases, and have been doing so since the 1940s. See also my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
bracket scale: A scale with values that are not set absolutely but relative to the other values on the scale. For example, what we experience as warm weather may simply be warmer for us than recent colder weather. Someone coming recently from a hot climate, would find the same air temperature to be very cool.
brand work: Working to project an image of yourself, a product, or a service into the public sphere and make it well-known so that people will value and perhaps pay for it.
bright comet: Being in a creative state of having many ideas bursting forth. See also burst; comet orbit of creativity; dark comet.
broken unfolding: An unfolding of events in which nothing works out one way or another; instead the unfolding situation or struggle remains unresolved and is suspended, with nothing further happening, or the status quo continues unchanged. There is not even, in other words, a continuation of any sort of progress toward a resolution. See also my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
bulk activation: What one is activated regarding, and spend most of one's time on, during the bulk of a day. This may be something that is not the object of one's primary activation. See also activation. Cf. primary activation.
burst: In the creative cycle, this is an often-unexpected written expression, visual idea, musical idea, social arrangement, or other output that suddenly comes to one – often this occurs out of one’s backdrop, while thinking of other things or doing something unrelated. See also bright comet; comet orbit of creativity; dark comet.
buttressing: The effort to manage, preserve, and improve one’s personal, practical, financial, and social needs. This is in contrast to rest, recreation, socializing without practical intent, and meshing (connecting to a source of meaning and purpose, including greater-value worth).
buttress chasing: Running about madly to achieve enough enhancement of one’s basic personal, financial, and social position to feel entitled to relax and do nothing, or to pursue meshing.
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calculated elegant unfolding: An unfolding of events that is precisely and quantitatively described in a mathematical principle or equation, or a law of nature. Based on the relevant mathematical equation (e.g., 2+2=4 or the Pythagorean theorem) or law of physics or chemistry (e.g., the laws of thermodynamics), we are able to make precise predictions of outcomes for these unfoldings, and those show us how to change either the situation itself or our position within the situation. See also elegant unfolding; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
calibrated possibility pointer: An estimation of the probability of an event occurring, produced by large-sample science using statistical analysis. See also possibility pointer; spectrum uncertainty; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
capped present state: Present state where my awareness of my actual physical and psychological state is blocked by some layer of distraction. For example, I may be extremely tired, but watching an adrenaline-releasing film will make me unaware of that fatigue, because my awareness is blocked by the rush of hormones unleashed by viewing it.
care-void alignment: We have a care-void alignment when we are not aware of, or actively engaged with, something in a caring manner. Sometimes this is inevitable given the many demands on our attention and efforts, and if the domain is an unimportant one, it can even make good sense. But in other areas, a care-void alignment can have negative consequences – for example, in neglecting a child or not caring for the environment. See also my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
caring fabric: A certain breadth of vision and concern that embraces looking after the well-being of something or someone beyond oneself. There are two types of caring fabric: narrow caring fabric (e.g., job, family, friends, or tribal or ethnic group) and broad caring fabric (e.g., sustainable impact on the environment). See also my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
cascade toward currency: The tendency in any endeavor to move one’s interest and motivation from the initial objectives, to the measures used to evaluate one’s progress toward achieving those objectives. For example, it is a common lifetime pattern for a young writer or artist to start out seeking to create great works, then focus on getting in a position of status or employment (e.g., as a teacher) that will enable them to support that effort, then focusing on the status and income that that position gives – until producing great works fades into the background, and they are entirely focused on public approval and remuneration, as markers of their success in their creative field.
chain-ganging: This involves handling work on a project by linking the end of one work session to the beginning of the next, with a note or a next step indicated in a task or to-do list, and not by thinking about that next step in the interim (i.e., not allowing it to take up space in your thoughts, including in your mental backdrop).
churning: When you are tired and should be resting, you continue to work, sometimes at an accelerated rate to distract yourself from how bad you feel due to that fatigue or to anticipate the point where you will not be able to carry on any longer and therefore try to get as much done before that as you can. See also activation reservoir; capped present state.
circuiting: The process of going around a set of related alignments or direction points, to update and adjust one’s alignment regarding those direction points. Thus, in trying to clarify aspects of your life, you bounce some initial degree of clarity in one area off other areas, to see what needs to be adjusted or can be seen more clearly as a result of whatever progress you have made. For example, a new alignment regarding greater-value worth may require that you think about your relationships and how you will approach them in future. See also alignments; mental jostling; and vague-sensing.
clarity of cluster: The clearness of my awareness when it is unobstructed by inchoates, untried needs and half-formed desires, impulses to do something else, resentment, or other negative emotional resonances.
clear-sensing: The basic faculty of the mind that enables one to sense clear elements in one’s awareness and, specifically, to sense their degree of quadriclarity, plus their nearness or distance from each other (similarity or dissimilarity), their congeniality or antipathy, and/or their polarity toward an objective. See also mental sensing; vague-sensing.
clear state: See still state.
clenching: An approach to contact with reality, in which one is overly wrapped up in what the outcome may be, to the extent that one's effectiveness is diminished and one suffers from excessive and unmanaged cloudiness of awareness cluster. See also cloudiness of awareness cluster. Cf. touch contact.
clockwork unfolding: A type of elegant unfolding of events that is a pattern in our experience that is precisely predictable based on a natural law or divine guidance, and which we can discover by observing a pattern to events. For example, the rising and setting of the sun can be seen as a clockwork unfolding based on one year of observation, which sets a pattern for that occurrence on each day thereafter. (It is also a calculated elegant unfolding, if we describe it based on calculations from the laws of planetary motion.). See also calculated elegant unfolding; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
cloudiness of awareness cluster: The opposite of clarity of awareness cluster: the state of my awareness when it is obstructed by inchoates, half-formed needs and untried desires, impulses to do something else, resentment, or other negative emotions. Cloudiness makes cross-cluster swing and monitoring very difficult, but it is also the source of creativity. See also inchoate; inkling; map-and-engage method; mental jostling. Cf. clarity of awareness cluster; still state.
clump: See mental clump.
clump herd: See mental-clump herd.
cluster: See awareness cluster or motivation cluster.
co-dweller: Someone who devotes at least some of their time and attention to the same domain of experience or endeavor as you do.
cogency storm: A storm of compelling excitement. Prolonged attention to some topic or situation, in which the energy expended is greater than what is required in dealing with it and may even be entirely inappropriate.
cognitive direct effect fallacy: The false belief that just thinking something is enough to make it happen. For example, I may plan and envision a holiday, and think that having thought about, I should be rested as a result and not need to actually take the time off. Another currenly common example of the cognitive direct effect fallacy is the belief that by changing the name of something, we change its reality. For example, a “visually impaired person” is expected to suffer less from blindness for having been described with a new term. See also crier of should.
comet orbit of creativity: Creativity’s cycle of productivity with creative output alternating with ostensibly inactive periods of germination sometimes lasting weeks or months. The cycle generally has three phases: bright comet (when the work progresses, almost seemingly without effort), intermediate comet (progress with some effort), and dark comet (no effort seems to lead to anything). When one is dark comet, even writing a shopping list can, for a writer, seem a challenge. See also bright comet; burst; dark comet; prodding the comet of creativity.
competent agency: The capacity to do something with skill to bring about a desired result, including as an approach to acquiring and maintaining a particular level of validated-entitlement worth. See also validated-entitlement worth.
competent-agency display: Showing a marker of the successful completion of an action or project to indicate that one is a competent agent (i.e., in an entitlement validation pathway).
composite: A feature of human direction that embraces several aspects of experience: for example, happiness for many comprises present state, satisfaction, worth of person, rapport with others, and a sense of deep order.
conjoined humanity: People working together in a way that involves more than cooperation: It requires a sharing of fabric and concerns, a shared and linked awareness of something, which enables people to communicate and to appreciate each other’s contributions or suffering. See also my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
consumer reflectance: In paying for an item or service and receiving it, we are reassured that we can still get a response that brings us the goods and services we need or desire. Sometimes we buy things we don’t need, simply to reinforce this consumer reflectance and reaffirm to ourselves that we are still able to buy what we might need, if we ever did need it. See also reflectance; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
contraesteem: A communication, action, or event that leads me to feel that my worth as a person is being devalued. See also worth of person; and my book The Worth of a Person.
contrast reset: When a break occurs in one's habitual or expected activities, a period of anxiety may suddenly seem to have improved, harriers to have evaporated, and one's perspective shifted, with the result that by contrast everything appears lighter, simpler, and more positive. This can occur when you change your location, situation, and involvements, finding that you leave behind your anxieties and anticipations, because your attention is now focused in a new place without those, until perhaps a new set of worries and anticipations enters into your thoughts to cloud your awareness once again.
convertible token of value: The payment or reward I receive for completing the first stages of the entitlement validation cycle – for example, by doing a job or holding a position of responsibility for a time. This is something I can later convert to something that fulfills a need, gives a pleasure, or enables me to display my status. The most common convertible token of value is money, but it can also be an improvement in reputation (e.g., an employer or client says, “I’ll let others know what a good job you did”), finding help in times of need, etc. One of the most important types of convertible tokens of value is social connection: being granted access to others who can then help you find work, advance your career, inform you of opportunities, or invite you to participate in pleasant and social events. See also entitlement validation cycle; entitlement validation pathway; worth of person; and my book The Worth of a Person.
coordinated layers of worth: When two or more layers of your worth as a person (see worth of person) are based on different endeavors or areas of interest, but are so arranged in your life that they support each other. For example, an office job inspired by, and providing financial support for, weekends spent mountain-climbing. See also worth of person; and my book The Worth of a Person. Cf. fractured layers of worth; seamless layers of worth.
core of an endeavor: The essential and primary goal of an endeavor, which if accomplished would be the fulfillment of all that is needed. For example, in driving to work, the core of that endeavor is to get to work on time; the fringe of the endeavor is checking the weather forecast and traffic reports to see if anything from outside my driving the car is likely to present a problem. There is normally a balance to be reached between anticipating problems (perhaps to meet them more effectively if they do arise – the fringe) and focusing on the basic objective (not losing sight of what I am actually trying to achieve – the core). Cf. fringe of an endeavor. See also my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
core versus fringe dilemma: The dilemma between (a) needing to focus on the core of an endeavor or an unfolding, for the sake of intensity of experience and effort and (b) needing to keep a fringe of supportive or possibly exigent aspects in mind, in case steps need to be taken there to defend the core or in case there are steps there that would make the core more effective. See also core of an endeavor; fringe of an endeavor.
countersensory benefit: When you are doing something beneficial to your system, but it feels terrible, as if you were in fact doing an injury to yourself. For example, in rest, one sometimes feels worse, as if going back to work and keeping busy (capped present state) would be better, even though you really do need the rest.
creative fruition: The process of conceiving, through to completing, presenting, and gaining influence and support for, a creative work. This has six construction levels and four presentation levels. The construction levels start from capture of raw experience, sketching and making notes on ideas, outlining and creating overviews, development of parts, completing by filling in gaps, and finally bringing the work to life with broad vibrancy in other domains of experience. The four presentation levels involve presentation of the creative work to others, exposure and promotion, garnering interest and support, and finally, perhaps having an influence.
creative impetus: A persisting impulse toward creative expression or productvity that manifests itself when conditions permit (i.e., when buttressing needs or others distractions are not overwhelming). Honoring the creative impetus means giving time to noting a burst or to other forms of off-hour generation when they arise, and not allowing the pressures of other matters to prevent that realization. In other words, when a thought comes as part of the unfolding creative process, we make sure to complete at least the first two steps in the creative fruition process (capture and sketching or noting down) before we lose the image, idea, or musical notation. See also creative fruition.
creative lift: An action in the third and fourth stages in the map-and-engage method, which comes after one has gathered all of the relevant information available and fractured any preconceived ideas or images. One then uses creative lift to look for new frameworks or ideas or expressions, by raising one's ideas, resonances, and/or other objects of awareness up out of their customary patterns, not allowing any one element to hold the focus of one's attention for long, and mentally jostling them until they become clearer (perhaps in contrast to each other) and form new arrangements. See also map-and-engage method; mental jostling.
creditor status: A validated-entitlement worth status based on the fact that another person owes you something in return for a past favor or a loan from you. You are therefore entitled to their attention, consideration, and support when called upon. See also validated-entitlement worth; and my book The Worth of a Person.
crested buttressing: The impossible situation or state of mind where you have enough of a surplus of support to feel able to relax and do things not devoted to buttressing. This is generally an insatiable motivation to continue with overextended work, based on the idea that if one just worked a bit more, then one would reach a point where one could ease up, rest, and/or devote oneself to greater-value worth. In fact, we can never really achieve crested buttressing, because our needs generally expand to match and exceed our resources (needs for an added degree of security or enhanced status and validated-entitlement worth, if nothing else).
crier of should: Someone who believes that we should only describe things as they should be, not as they really are, because if we describe something bad for what it is, then we validate its bad state and encourage it to remain bad or even get worse. So, for example, we should not honestly describe problems in ethnic minority communities, because by describing those problems frankly and honestly, we promote the continuation or even the worsening of those problems by specifying them as part of the identity for that community. See also cognitive direct effect fallacy.
cross-cluster swing: The swinging back and forth of the focus of my attention across a broad awareness cluster, to compare and contrast a variety of different elements within that same cluster. This is part of the fourth stage in the map-and-engage method: hold suspended and mentally jostle. See also map-and-engage method.
crystalline world: See gatekept-world view.
current: See surrounding currents.
cushioning: The basic motivation to prepare for future needs and exigencies by building up and maintaining reserve food stocks, tools, and cash savings (“for a rainy day”), as well as higher levels of validated-entitlement worth. That validated-entitlement worth is pursued so that you will be seen as deserving to receive assistance when needed and will be buffered against the worst of life’s indignities. See also validated-entitlement worth; hypercushioning; and my book The Worth of a Person.
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dark comet: Being in a stage in the comet orbit of creativity where you simply can not think of anything to advance the work in progress. No effort seems to lead to anything. This germination phase may last for some time, during which one can do nothing aside from prodding the comet and hoping your mental backdrop will bring you to renewed creativity. See also backdrop; bright comet; burst; comet orbit of creativity; prodding the comet of creativity.
decisive tribunal: Some force we believe or hope will rule decisively in our favor in situations or the unfolding of events that otherwise seem muddy and unresolved. See also heavenly tribunal; Olympian tribunal; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
deep alignment: This is an alignment regarding a direction point we all have to do something about, or take a stance on, one way or another, just to function in our everyday life. For example, we all need to take a position on what is important in life, whether that means relating to people, artistic expression, making money, devotion to a divinity, or something else, or some combination of these. See also alignment; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
deep causation: The process where forces and events make things happen at a level below immediate effect: For example, food comes from a supermarket (shallow causation), but originally from trees or plants in fields, which need bees to pollinate them, and those need that some of my otherwise sterile suburban lawn be left to grow as a wildflower patch. Cf. shallow causation. See also my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
deep handles: Approaches, levers, or pushes that address underlying conditions in one’s life. See also my book The Environment-Sustaining Person. Cf. front handles.
deep order: The last and most profound of the seven basic human motivations, based on the desire to find a sense of value and meaningful order in ourselves and life itself, and thus protection from emptiness and impersonal annihilation. This may be based simply on belief in something greater and/or on greater-value worth. Sometimes this is combined with bonding with a group, where it provides a common idea to unify a movement or revolution, but at other times, individuals may dedicate themselves to a deep order even against the surrounding currents of the times. See also greater-value worth; and my book The Worth of a Person.
deep worth: Those layers of worth that extend beyond everyday worth, to prepare one to meet future exigencies and to gain a deeper sense of meaning in life. These include validated-entitlement worth and greater-value worth.
desirable: Something we want because it either fulfills a need, gives us pleasure, enables us to display our validated-entitlement worth, or can be used in seeking greater-value worth. See also economic chain; entitlement validation pathway; and my book The Worth of a Person.
destructive status displays: Proentitlement thrusts motivated by a cluster of need, pleasure, imitation of others, and hypercushioning, which involve displaying physical objects such as oversized cars, expensive gadgets, or oversized and overmanaged houses and land. These have an excessively destructive impact on the environment and are corrosive of social cohesion. See also my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
direction: See human direction.
direction map: See human-direction map.
direction mapping: See human-direction map.
direction point: An aspect of reality or experience, regarding which we (individually or as a group) take positions (alignments) that define how we live our life and what structure we have as persons (or a group). Humans are uniquely flexible in this regard. For example, for the direction point what makes things happen, we have a choice among three major types of alignments: material cause and effect (scientific view), divine guidance (religious view), or social causation (people make things happen). Often we combine these positions. See also alignment; human direction; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
direction point block: Being blocked regarding what approach to take regarding a direction point (i.e., what alignment to take up), because you are unable to see it clearly.
direction point lock: A way of handling a direction point that would tend to interfere with or block my stance regarding another direction point. Something that actively prevents me from pursuing a certain direction, whether that means being prevented from seeing something at all, or from taking up a particular alignment, or from pursuing a set of actions.
disentitlement jab: A gesture of verbal abuse, physical aggression, or other remark or action that is intended to lower someone else’s validated-entitlement worth and thereby raise your own. This often focuses on physical characteristics including race or gender, which are relatively easy to use to emphasize a difference between yourself and the other. Some company bosses or other professionals or workers may also use disentitlement jabs to maintain their relative validated-entitlement status, especially if they are insecure in their position. See also downward-contrast entitlement validation; static-features identity; and my book The Worth of a Person. Cf. proentitlement thrust.
disentitlement slight: A signal from someone that indicates they see another person as having a relatively low validated-entitlement worth or even a puffed-up one, without explicitly stating that opinion. For example, someone knows you like something, but does not bother to offer it to you. See also my book The Worth of a Person. Cf. proentitlement highlight.
dispersion: A characteristic of an unrewarding social contact, in which I try to initiate or build up a worthwhile sequence of thoughts or comments to share with another person, but find that they change the subject or diffuses it, and thus disperse the energy of my attention and efforts. Cf. reflectance.
divinity portal: See portal.
domain of greater value: See greater-value domain.
downward-contrast entitlement validation: By devaluing someone else in your own thoughts or attitude, with or without saying or doing anything, you contrast their lower validated-entitlement worth with what then seems to be your own higher validated-entitlement worth. This can take two forms: variation cruel (enacted by injuring the other party) and variation benevolent (enacted by a gesture of generosity – often a somewhat condescending generosity). For example, injury to an animal or plant can be based on an attitude that they are inferior, which is then translated into a disentitlement jab, raising your own validated-entitlement worth by showing how inferior that part of nature is to you as a superior force (variation cruel), or you may rescue an animal to show how benevolent you can be as the superior but caring force (variation benevolent). See also disentitlement jab; disentitlement slight; proentitlement exchange; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
dribbling: A trivial expenditure of time or money to do or purchase something one does not really need. Although this involves trivial individual expenditures, the cumulative effect of these is a substantial depletion of one’s resources (which is often referred to as an opportunity cost).
[E]
economic chain: A series of actions that involve labor to produce a thing or outcome. This is in contrast to producing a result by holding a position of status, asserting an validated-entitlement claim to dependency, or otherwise appealing to the support of others or the divinity. See also flipped economic chain; long economic chain; short economic chain; and my book The Worth of a Person.
elegant lever: An approach to getting something done or to positioning oneself in preparation for an event, based on an elegant unfolding. See also my book The Environment-Sustaining Person. Cf. full intermix.
elegant unfolding: A precisely predictable event such as those guaranteed by the divinity in religion (e.g., divine justice) or those of science and mathematics (e.g., the rising and setting of the sun, or calculations of time to my destination if I travel at a certain speed over a specified distance). See also umbrella of elegance. See also my book The Environment-Sustaining Person. Cf. full intermix.
empty question: A question but does not extract anything that clarifies an issue or situation, nor is it symptomatic of anything but the desire of the author to pursue a line of inquiry. Cf. extractive question; symptomatic question.
empty reflectance: Expecting acknowledgement in return for an unrequested and unwanted contribution on my part. The false belief that if I give something – even something not wanted or asked for by anyone – then I will benefit somehow from a reciprocal generosity from someone else. See also reflectance.
engineered bonded unfolding: This sort of bonded unfolding once created will cover everyone, and it can be counted on to work out nearly always as expected, but without the precision of an elegant unfolding. For example, antibiotics are developed to treat a particular infection in the vast majority of patients, not with the precise timing and universality of an elegant unfolding, but with a high degree of predictability nonetheless. Also, for example, a computer is an engineered machine that has been designed to nearly always produce an expected outcome. See also bonded unfolding; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person. Cf. elegant unfolding; full intermix; local bonded unfolding.
entitlement contender: Someone who frequently raises issues of entitlement worth: theirs, yours, and the relative level of each. See also entitlement fighter; validated-entitlement worth; and my book The Worth of a Person.
entitlement disingenuousness: Pretending to not be interested in social hierarchies, even as you are careful to keep your own claims to social status clearly evident. For example, academics who pay lip service to social equality but do not hesitate to call attention to their own advanced degrees and the status and higher validated-entitlement worth they derive from those. See also validated-entitlement worth; and my book The Worth of a Person.
entitlement fighter: Someone who fights for the superiority of a particular entitlement worth group and point of view against all others, arguing vehemently for one particular pathway to one particular goal, not allowing for alternative approaches or points of view. This has become very common in the culture wars in the US, Canada, and the UK, where opposing perspectives are seen as not only wrong but perhaps even evil, and every means possible is used to destroy those who espouse those other views. See also advocacy guide; metnal-clump herd; one-true-path mapping. Cf. human-direction mapping.
entitlement reflectance: A specific type of reflectance, which is the experience of acting or speaking about some aspect of validated-entitlement worth, and seeing your actions or remarks reflected in the response of another person, in such a way that your own experience is clarified and intensified by the exchange, rather than muddled and dispersed. See also reflectance; and my book The Worth of a Person. Cf. dispersion; greater-value reflectance.
entitlement validation cycle: The 10 stages that when completed give us a full measure of validated-entitlement worth: (Stage 1) find an opening (opportunity); (Stage 2) pursue an entitlement validation pathway (e.g., hold a status, complete a job, or claim a dependency); (Stage 3) complete the pathway; (Stage 4) display a marker of completion; (Stage 5) claim a payment; (Stage 6) receive a grant of a convertible token of value or other item of worth; (Stage 7) store that convertible token of value; (Stage 8) exchange the convertible token of value for a desirable; (Stage 9) enjoy or benefit from the desirable; and (Stage 10) display an entitlement validation marker (which may come after Stage 6). See also economic chain; flipped economic chain; and my book The Worth of a Person.
entitlement validation gesture: An action or comment that is intended to influence your validated-entitlement worth and that of others. See also disentitlement jab; proentitlement thrust; and my book The Worth of a Person.
entitlement validation marker: A possession, association, or title that someone acquires or possesses to indicate they deserve a certain level of validated entitlement. For example, an academic title such as “Dr.” that gives someone a certain status superior to others, or a designation as a member of the deserving poor – that is, someone who is suffering through no fault of their own and deserves to be helped out. See also validated-entitlement worth; and my books The Environment-Sustaining Person and The Worth of a Person.
entitlement validation pathway: An approach to improving one’s level of validated-entitlement worth. For example, going to university and getting a degree confers a certain status (with an entitlement validation marker in the form of a title such as “Dr.”), which in turn leads me to expect to find a job that pays well, to be respected by friends and family, to be treated well in public, given more consideration by the police, looked after better in a hospital, etc. See also entitlement validation marker; validated-entitlement worth; and my books The Environment-Sustaining Person and The Worth of a Person.
entitlement worth: September 2022: This term has been changed to validated-entitlement worth to avoid the implication of an unjustified high degree that is suggested by the plain term entitlement. See also my book The Worth of a Person.
equality worth: The top layer of the worth of a person, which gives equal, high worth to all humans (or all sentient beings, in some views of this) based simply on their humanity (or sentience). See also my book The Worth of a Person. Cf. validated-entitlement worth; everyday worth; greater-value worth.
equating: The tendency for two or more individuals to maintain a balance of give and take between each other. That balance can be maintained either by equal reciprocal contributions (of time and energy) or by one person devaluing the contribution of the other person (i.e., downward-contrast entitlement validation) so as to reduce that other person’s contribution to levels commensurate with their own, which is smaller in absolute terms. See also downward-contrast entitlement validation; and my book The Worth of a Person.
errant pontification: The act of a celebrity or someone else with some knowledge and authority regarding one subject, who communicates an opinion about something they know no more about than anyone else, expecting their authority to carry over to that unrelated field. For example, film actors voicing opinions about geopolitical events or problems of social injustice. See also validated-entitlement worth; and my book The Worth of a Person.
everyday worth: The second layer of the worth of a person that is based on their capacity to use their skills or resources to fulfill their needs and those of others (usually their family); in other words, being able to either do (e.g., cook a meal) or buy (e.g., purchase groceries) what is required to fulfill needs, whether your own or those of others. This also includes some small degree of setting aside resources for future needs. See also worth of person; and my book The Worth of a Person. Cf. validated-entitlement worth; equality worth; greater-value worth.
extended needs: Needs that lie beyond basic needs for survival, comfort, and psychological stimulation and social rapport. An extended need often has to do with reassurance regarding our continued ability to satisfy our current basic needs or with the anticipation of future needs, so that, for example, a farmer sets aside seed from one year’s crop to plant for the next year’s, or someone saves some cash from one year’s income toward future needs that may arise. But this may also involve social capital: We build up our status among others (i.e., our validated-entitlement worth), so they will be more likely to honor a request (e.g., if we have helped them in the past) for goods or services if we need them in the future. Because extended needs are almost infinitely expandable (e.g., as ever more extravagant status symbols), these tend to have a disproportionate impact on the natural world and its destruction. See also validated-entitlement worth; hypercushioning; and my book The Worth of a Person. Cf. foundationing.
extension: An individual’s capacity to perceive and influence a particular domain in their surroundings or experience. Any given extension will include a specific set of related skills and will be based on some combination of innate potential, training, and experience.
extraction: The drawing out of vague feelings or perceptions and expressing them in a way that helps us understand and deal with them. This is usually done in a communicative medium such as language, visual arts, or music. It can also be done by developing the skills needed to participate in the area of experience. In language, it often involves the use of analogy or metaphor. See also map-and-engage method.
extractive question: A question that accurately expresses the problem in a situation, as opposed to a symptomatic question, which indicates that there is a problem but does not accurately express what that problem is or how it might be addressed. Cf. empty question; symptomatic question.
[F]
faculty needs: A type of extended need that involves tools, skills, and stock for future fulfillment of needs. See also extended needs; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
false buttressing: Efforts to improve one's financial and social support (i.e., one’s buttressing) that are not based on any reasonable likelihood of achieving a useful result – that is, it won’t make you any money or improve your ability to earn support. This includes things we do that seem to be directed toward a useful objective, but which if we thought about them, we would find to be unlikely to be helpful. Cf. empty reflectance.
fitting: See trellis fitting.
flipped economic chain: A partial reversal of the normal long economic chain. With a flipped economic chain, you start not with work to produce a desired result, but with purchasing the opportunity to work to produce something that gives you not payment per se but enhanced validated-entitlement worth, from which you can claim a desirable. See also desirable; economic chain; and my book The Worth of a Person. Cf. long economic chain; short economic chain.
forward register: Collection of steps, materials, and information needed for a future action, as these are come upon or thought of beforehand.
foundationing: On fulfilling our needs and those of our family, we turn our efforts not to hypercushioning or extended needs (including perhaps the insatiable pursuit of status displays those involve), but toward making the world better for others and, in particular, making it easier for others to achieve everyday worth and the satisfaction of their basic needs, with reduced invidious social effects or destructive environmental impact. See also my book The Environment-Sustaining Person. Cf. extended needs; hypercushioning.
fractured alignment: An alignment with inconsistent facets, in which what we say is not consistent with what we think or believe, and/or what we do is not consistent with what we experience emotionally. This may be because different facets of the alignment are either undeveloped, contradictory between each other, or involve unresolved internal vacillations. For example, I may have some idea of the importance of the environment from science, but not show that awareness in the second facet of my alignment – my behavior – and further, in the third facet, have an unresolved contradiction in my emotional engagements whereby I cry when I see polar bears stranded by receding polar ice but also feel strongly pressed by my family and peers to get the biggest car I can afford and all of the latest gadgets, so they respect me. See also alignment; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
fractured alignment array: When the position we hold in one aspect of our life is inconsistent with the alignments we have in other parts of our life. For example, I may be loving to my family and hostile to my colleagues at work. See also alignment; alignment array; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
fractured layers of worth: Having layers of worth of person that are in conflict: for example, being forced to do a boring and tiring job for everyday worth, while your validated-entitlement and greater-value layers of worth lie elsewhere. See also worth of person; and my book The Worth of a Person. Cf. coordinated layers of worth; seamless layers of worth.
free grant of worth: One of the basic approaches to validated-entitlement worth, based on an unconditional gift from someone, of their attention, consideration, approval, and support, and one's having an influence on them (i.e., the five facets of validated-entitlement worth), often based on love – perhaps for either a short time, or for a lifetime. See also entitlement validation pathways; validated-entitlement worth; and my book The Worth of a Person.
freight carrier: A verbal phrase, visual image, musical tune or sound, or scent used in the assert-and-urge approach to guidance in life, which indicates a way of looking at something or a way of acting, which with repetition will have the effect of changing an alignment one has, thus helping one to deal with anxieties or difficult situations. For example, “more was lost in the war” can be used as a repeated reminder to put minor inconveniences into their proper perspective. See also assert and urge; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
fringe of an endeavor: The secondary aspects of an endeavor that still need to be watched out for. For example, in driving to work, the core of that endeavor is to get to work on time; the fringe is checking the weather forecast and traffic reports to see if anything from outside my actual driving of the car is likely to present a problem. There is normally a balance to be reached between anticipating problems in the fringe (perhaps to meet them more effectively if they do arise) and focusing on the core objective (not losing sight of what I am actually trying to achieve). See also my book The Environment-Sustaining Person. Cf. core of an endeavor.
front handles: Approaches, levers, or pushes available for dealing with a particular situation or unfolding of events in a direct manner. See also lever; push; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person. Cf. deep handles.
full intermix: An unfolding of events that results from the interaction of all of the elements and factors involved, including the time, manner, and pattern of their interaction – such that to remove one element or change its place and relative position or time of impact would alter the overall character of the outcome. For example, in cooking, the ingredients and the way they are included all determine the character of the dish produced. To add or subtract one spice or ingredient, or use it in a different way, add it at a different time, or even stir it into the dish in a different manner would change the final dish. Thus, no single ingredient or basic set of rules can be said to determine what the dish will become. See also my book The Environment-Sustaining Person. Cf. elegant unfolding.
functional reservoir: The store of resources or state of person that enables us to function, whether that is to activate ourselves and do things or to deactivate and attempt to switch to still state, in either case with greater or less effectiveness, largely depending on how well we have developed and maintained this reservoir. Our functional reservoir includes our restedness and energy levels, fitness, breathing habits, posture, habits in general, the load of antinutrients vs. nutrients we have in our system, any infections that may be weighing us down, and our mental state. See also activation.
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gadget display: An entitlement validation marker based on having acquired expensive objects such as electronic devices and showing them off to establish our status and thus our validated-entitlement worth. This involves the constant upgrading of expensive gadgets that you don’t really need to change, but which you display in their latest and more expensive versions to show you have the success status that enables you to pay for them. See also entitlement validation marker; hypercushioning; parcel display; and my books The Environment-Sustaining Person and The Worth of a Person.
gatekept-world view: A concept of the world and reality as clear and precisely orderly throughout, in contrast to appearances, which can be muddled and imprecise. In religious views of a gatekept world, this is based on the fact that the divinity rules all things to his purpose with absolute clarity (clear to the divinity, at least). In elegant and large-scale science and mathematics, this is based on all parts of reality being clearly proven (or provable), transparently determined by chains of cause and effect, and precisely interrelated, without flaws, weaknesses, or shadows. This view is based on the distinction, dating from Plato, between appearance and reality. For science, this means a world made up entirely of elegant unfoldings and perhaps bonded unfoldings, where only illuminators or luminescences are admitted as facts; everything else is regarded as appearance. For example, if I feel hungry, that feeling is not part of reality; it is just a manifestation of what is fundamentally a physiological process. It is those physiological impulses going from my stomach to my brain that are measurable and therefore, in this view, real. See also my book The Environment-Sustaining Person. Cf. rough-world view.
gateway sketch: A sketch that is not of any current practical use and does not offer predictions of outcomes, but gives access to domains of experience when the need arises. See also sketch; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
grand-social portal: A connection to the greater-value domain of a large and significant social group. This is one of the four basic types of portals that enable us to achieve greater-value worth (if we develop them). See also greater-value worth; portal; and my book The Worth of a Person.
grant of worth: A decision taken to give yourself (or another person) a high degree of validated-entitlement worth, which dismisses anxieties about whether you or they are producing enough or acting in the right way to actually have proven your (or their) worth. This is sometimes an essential step to letting go of one’s daily obligations and taking a holiday. See also validated-entitlement worth; and my book The Worth of a Person.
greater average: The mean or median of data gathered by science in an attempt to reach the root essence of something. Statistical analysis of data by scientists is designed not to find solutions to the particular problems of individuals, but to uncover where the largest, average group lies in any population (assuming a normal distribution of the data). Finding that largest and most important average group is claimed to offer two things: I am supposed to be able as an individual to use that information “to make an informed choice” (this is sometimes bad direction, though, because of spectrum uncertainty, and more forthright scientists will admit that “science does not do individuals”), and it should indicate where the root essence of what is going on lies, so that someday those scientists can find the bonded or even the elegant unfoldings underlying the situation in question – which would be truly useful. For example, the greater average is the group of people who can avoid cancer by exercising more (in scientific terms, they reduce their risk), but a significant minority will not get cancer whether they exercise or not, or will get cancer despite exercising, so whether this applies to me or not I have no way of knowing. It might be that in my case, while adequate exercise will increase my general health, a change in diet to eating fewer processed foods would be a more important step for me to avoid getting cancer. There is, for example, some evidence now emerging that some people are nonresponders to exercise and do not receive the same benefits as others do. See also bonded unfolding; elegant unfolding; spectrum uncertainty; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
greater-value domain: An aspect of reality characterized by harmony, wholeness, benevolence, aliveness, and meaningfulness, which we can connect to via a portal, and which can be a component of greater-value worth. See also greater-value worth; and my book The Worth of a Person.
greater-value fecklessness: Being so caught up in the pursuit of greater-value worth that you lose sight of, and suffer a deterioration in, your everyday worth and validated-entitlement worth. A famous classical illustration of this is the story about Thales, the Greek astronomer, who was said to have been walking one night gazing at the stars and fell into a well, only to be laughed at by a servant girl for being so distracted by the heavens that he didn’t see what was there at his feet. See also greater-value worth; and my book The Worth of a Person.
greater-value portal: See portal.
greater-value reflectance: Seeing your actions or words reflected in the words, thoughts, and actions of another with regard to a greater-value domain, in such a way that your own experience is clarified and intensified by that interaction, rather than being muddled and dispersed. See also reflectance; and my book The Worth of a Person. Cf. dispersion; validated-entitlement worth reflectance.
greater-value worth: The fourth, deepest layer of the worth of a person, based on (a) connecting through a portal (a belief or state of awareness) to (b) a greater-value domain, (c) seeing the force of an intolerable unmet need in that domain, and (d) finding a place in addressing that need in the service of the domain. See also greater-value domain; layers of worth of person; portal; and my book The Worth of a Person.
grinder: Negative formations in awareness that permeate and color many successive experiences and grind us down under their negative influence. Often they will persist even during unrelated experiences. For example, worry over not having the resources required to complete a project may permeate my every step in working on it, and deprive me of any pleasure in what might otherwise be an intrinsically enjoyable experience.
guided full intermix: A full intermix in which some person or agent is in charge, takes control of the unfolding of events, and is able to respond to some changes or alterations in the way things are working out, in such a way as to produce a largley predictable outcome. Occasionally, that person or agent will have an off day, however, and things will not work out. For example, a chef in their kitchen at my favorite restaurant is the controlling agent for a guided unfolding; they are capable of taking charge of the kitchen, managing all of their own skills, the staff, ingredients, and other complex factors that go into making each dish. All of these things must come together perfectly to produce a good result, and it is the skill and personality of the chef that, on most occasions, will ensure that that will happen. See also full intermix; guide marker; guiding leverage; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person. Cf. bonded unfolding; elegant unfolding.
guide marker: A predictive sketch of a guided full intermix. This is usually a picture of the person or mechanism that is the competent agent guiding the outcome, mostly to an expected outcome, but occasionally with off days. See also guided full intermix; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
guiding leverage: Having the competence, experience, skills, and tools for taking charge of, and getting something done in, a guided full intermix. See also guided full intermix; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person. Cf. bonded lever; elegant lever.
[H]
halo system: A proposed system of cyber-projected (hologram) color auras around each person’s body, place occupied, and/or any vehicle they are traveling in, that will indicate the validated-entitlement worth of that person, without requiring the expensive, socially invidious, and environmentally destructive use of natural resources to produce physical objects for displays of validated-entitlement worth (gadget display and trinkets, oversized and overpowered cars, parcel display, etc.). See also validated-entitlement worth; gadget display; parcel display; and my book The Worth of a Person.
handle: An approach to altering the world around or within me. There are two sorts of handles: levers, which give more or less precise and predictable control over the situation or my positioning within it, and pushes, which are rough pressures applied by me, others, or some other force, which have an approximate and to some extent unpredictable impact on a situation. See also bonded lever; elegant lever; lever; push; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
harrier: A prompt to do an unfinished task that is unsettled (not assigned to a scheduled time or indicator) and that constantly worries me. See also prompt.
heavenly tribunal: A force similar to a tribunal of the ancient Greek gods on Mount Olympus, but which intercedes to ensure that outcomes are fair and that we each get our just deserts, perhaps in an afterlife. In this life, we often hope for an intercession by a heavenly tribunal but are very often disappointed. See also decisive tribunal; Olympian tribunal; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
higher-order reflectance: I am inspired to do things because I see myself reflected in the divinity. See also my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
honoring the creative impetus: Noting down, sketching, or otherwise recording creative thoughts or fully formed parts of a creative work, as and when they arise in one’s thoughts, often during odd times during the day or night when not focused on the creative work. See also backdrop; burst; off-hour flank.
hovering: In creativity, mulling something over, staying close to it and keeping it in mind, without being ready to express or resolve it. This is part of Stage 4 in the map-and-engage method. See also map-and-engage method.
human direction: The approaches we take to life’s basic opportunities and challenges, what goals we pursue, and how we guide ourselves. How we sort out and live our life; both the directions we take and the methods we use for watching and guiding ourselves in those different situations, toward different kinds of objectives or states. For articles on this topic, see the entry in the HDM directory. See also direction point; human-direction mapping; and my books The Environment-Sustaining Person and The Worth of a Person.
human-direction map: A description of all of the objectives that are credible in an area of experience, together with all of the pathways taken by individuals or groups to achieve each of those desired results, including the objectives and pathways to the certainties of religion and science, but also the pathways that do not even approach certainty and which require different methods and approaches. This involves spelling out the features and dynamics of different aspects of our experience, validated by personal application, without necessarily requiring any proof from large-scale surveys or a divinely inspired text. Unlike a scientific theory, which will tend to exclude outliers (gatekept-world view and one-true-path map), a human-direction map can include features that may apply to only a very small number of individuals – even a single individual. Unlike self-help guides, a human-direction map does not focus only on the best approaches to a particular problem, but rather spells out all of the available objectives and pathways and, crucially, shows their relative positions, possible surrounding currents, and positive and negative features. See also my books The Environment-Sustaining Person and The Worth of a Person. Cf. gatekept-world view; one-true-path map.
human-direction mapping: Creation of one or more aspects of a human-direction map. This website is devoted to human-direction mapping. For articles on this topic in particular, see the entry in the HDM directory; and my books The Environment-Sustaining Person and The Worth of a Person.
human motivation: Any one of seven types of influences that get us to do something: need, pleasure (including comfort), emotion, habit, imitation of others (including bonding to a group), cushioning, and deep order. Motivation often acts in a composite cluster of influences. See also composite; cushioning; deep order; motivation cluster.
human nature: Defined in human-direction mapping in terms of vibrant assemblies of an alignment array based on culture or personal choice. See also alignment; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
human superstructure: All of the things created by humans to further their comfort and convenience. See also my book The Environment-Sustaining Person. Cf. strutweave.
human-order supremacy: See supremacy of human order.
hypercushioning of needs: Anticipating future exigencies through investment in validated-entitlement worth markers. This involves an overextension of the basic human motivation of cushioning, leading to an excessive desire and effort to maximize validated-entitlement worth displays regardless of any social or environmental impact. See also cushioning; and my books The Environment-Sustaining Person and The Worth of a Person. Cf. foundationing.
[I]
idea bold: Being willing to recognize the value and power of ideas, even where those ideas are unlicensed by an academic degree or other social consensus of approval. Cf. idea craven.
idea craven: Being afraid or otherwise failing to recognize the value and power of ideas, perhaps because those ideas are unlicensed by an academic degree or other social consensus of approval. Cf. idea bold.
illuminator: A predictive sketch of an elegant unfolding. Our idea or representation, in other words, of what to expect (precisely) in a situation that is governed by a law of nature or in events subject to divine guidance. For example, the laws of planetary motion enable us to predict precisely when the sun will rise at any point on the earth’s surface on any morning thousands of years into the future. See also elegant unfolding; predictive sketch; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
impression work: Work that involves making a spectacle (sports). See also my book The Worth of a Person.
inchoate: An unidentified and vague fragment of experience that disrupts my awareness without finding a place in a track or any formed cluster. These are the UFOs of my experience: unidentified objects flying through my awareness and unsettling me, without being stopped and examined. When they are taken up in the map-and-engage method, inchoates are referred to as inkings. See also map-and-engage method.
inflamed static-features identity: This occurs when individuals or groups use their static-features identity (based on external attributes, usually congenital, such as race, ethnic background, sex, and perhaps sexual preferences) as the basis for conflicts with other static-features groups. See also static-features identity; and my book The Worth of a Person. Cf. active-features identity.
info-lever: The force of information that guides our actions as rational, information-processing creatures, such that if we receive the right data, we will process it rationally and be guided to follow the best course of action. This is a widely held view among scientists, journalists, and campaigners. It completely ignores the momentum of habits of thought and the other two facets of any alignment. See also my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
inkling: Something in our awareness for which we have only a vague sense of its characteristics, what the right name for it might be, and where it might fit in among the other entities of our awareness (i.e., something that is short of quadriclarity), regarding something incomplete or not yet accomplished, which can be in and out of our thoughts and awareness for many years, even decades. See also inchoate; map-and-engage method.
inner buttressing: An activity or support that directly fulfills one's needs or those of one's family (e.g., income to pay for food or the act of preparing food to be eaten). This is a level of buttressing in which we directly fulfill our needs. See also buttressing. Cf. outer buttressing.
interface (reality interface): The relation we have with reality at any given moment (active interface) or are able to have (suspended interface). This has four components: a part of reality, a tracing of that reality (my idea of it that guides the formation of my awareness of it and how I deal with it), a pattern of interactions (how and when I bump up against that reality), and a set of resonances (my feelings and emotions with regard to the reality and my ideas of it).
interspace: The sociopsychological space between two people, which begins with having any contact at all with the other person, when that contact involves attentiveness on the part of one or both persons to the sight or physical presence of the other. Interspaces range from (a) the most basic level in the entirely impersonal contact of two people in a public space who see each other and move relative to each other but only to the degree required perhaps to avoid bumping into each other, and for as long as it takes to go on their way; to (b) the deepest and strongest interspace in a long-established and deeply matured space between two people who have lived the greater part of their entire lives together and share a large variety of established patterns of interaction.
interspace jumping: Trying to do something with someone that the interspace you have with them does not extend to. For example, a premature request of someone you barely know. Interspace jumping occurs when you attempt to take a very sketchy interspace (where you are barely acquainted), skip all of the intermediate steps of getting to know each other, and go directly to some unwarranted degree of intimacy. This is a common impulse in men seeking to establish a relationship with an attractive woman, or in people seeking to associate themselves with a celebrity.
[J]
jangler: An activation and perhaps emotional response regarding something at a time when there is no reason to attend to it. This may be an unsettled prompt (to do something) or just a state of agitation over something that has no importance to you, about which you can do nothing, or which is not something you need to attend to at that time (or even any other time).
jostling: See mental jostling; social jostling.
jumping an interspace: See interspace jumping.
[L]
land parcel display: See parcel display.
lapidary view of endeavors: The view of human endeavor as based on major fields, such as business, domestic life, physics, chemistry, literature, art, economics, etc., that have been defined by ancient founders and are not subject to any fundamental redefinition. This view is particulary common in academia, where the major fields of study – the humanities, social sciences, hard sciences, etc. – are seen as having been set out mostly in ancient times, and they are not open to fundamental change. For example, in one view, the Truth about the natural world is the exclusive domain of mathematics and physics. All other disciplines are merely imitating their quest for knowledge. In part this view is held because academics invest heavily in their initial training and do not want to sacrifice or question their acquired intellectual capital, with which they expect to further their career. Cf. human-direction mapping; map-and-engage method; track view of endeavors.
lateral validation of entitlement worth: When we are felt to deserve to be supported, but not for what we want to be supported for – so that we need to take the support offered or acknowledged, and redirect it to get the support we actually want and need. See also validated-entitlement worth; and my book The Worth of a Person.
launch listening: When I hear part of what someone says, then stop listening and launch into voicing my own thoughts on the topic I thought they were talking about (which they may or may not have been talking about).
layering: A technique to keep a greater-value portal alive and to develop it, by relating aspects of other involvements and endeavors to that portal by analogy. See also greater-value portal; and my book The Worth of a Person.
layers of worth of person: The four different levels of worth that are more or less important in any particular person’s sense or position of worth as a person, both in their own eyes and in the consideration they receive from others: equality worth, everyday worth, validated-entitlement worth, and greater-value worth. See also my book The Worth of a Person.
leading margin: Something that is just beyond the range of what I am accustomed to or capable of, as measured on a bracket scale.
leading-margin goal: A goal that is just beyond the range of what I am capable of right now.
lever: An influence or force in human direction that has a precisely predictable (elegant lever) or a mostly predictable (bonded lever) effect. For example, if I want to travel to a town 100 miles away and arrive at a certain time, I can precisely calculate when I need to start out and how fast I need to drive. That calculation gives me an elegant lever on the unfolding of events: my getting there at a certain time. See also my book The Environment-Sustaining Person. Cf. push.
levers-and-pushes array: An array of approaches to a situation or unfolding of events that combines elegant levers and/or bonded levers, some guiding leverage, and pushes. For example, if my car is stuck in the snow, I can assemble some “levers,” such as downshifting to second gear to apply more torque and less velocity of spin to the wheels (which is a lever, in this metaphorical sense, because it could be precisely calculated what that force would be, based on the principles of mechanical engineering). Then I would add pushes (largely unpredictable in their effect) such as putting a board under the wheel (traction effect would depend on unquantifiable levels of moisture, state of tire rubber, etc.), and asking a friend to push the car from behind (I could measure his strength and weight and get precise values for those, but I have no knowledge of how good a foothold he will be able to get and therefore of how much he’ll be able to push). Together those levers plus pushes should have the desired effect of getting me out of that patch of snow. See also lever; push; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
lift: See creative lift.
local bonded unfolding: A regular unfolding of events that is consistent for the vast majority of instances, but which applies not universally but in particular for me or others as individuals, or for particular settings or situations. For example, it may be that every time I eat raw tomatoes, I get indigestion. The distinction between a local bonded unfolding and an engineered one such as the use of antibiotics is important because the latter are discovered through large-scale scientific research and development (as in the case of medical treatments), and I can not therefore discover or develop engineered bonded unfoldings for my own circumstances. I can, however, find and create local bonded unfoldings that help me guide myself in my own situation, and many of these will be all the more relevant because they do apply to my perhaps unusual personality or circumstances. See also engineered bonded unfoldings; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
local momentum: The current momentum of my awareness, actions, and responses, based on what I have been doing and experiencing for the past few days.
locus control: Having control over one’s surrounding circumstances, one’s routine, and how one does things, including the arrangement of objects and schedule of activities.
locus mastery: Being able to achieve good and wisely directed control over one’s surroundings and of oneself. This requires clear perception, discipline, a willingness to make sacrifices, and perhaps to face one’s fears.
long entitlement worth: Validated-entitlement worth claims that last a long time, because they do not rely simply on other people remembering them.
long economic chain: After completing a job of work, you seek remuneration, receive payment, then purchase something you want or desire. This is in contrast to just doing something that directly fulfills a need for yourself or your family or gives you pleasure (short economic chain). See my book The Worth of a Person. Cf. flipped economic chain; short economic chain.
long inkling: An inkling that takes months, years, or even decades to be clarified, in contrast to a short inkling, which may be clarified in minutes or hours. For example, Tim Berners-Lee spent many decades pondering the possibilities of combining the different elements that went into his development of the World Wide Web before any of it came to fruition. In contrast, James Murray, when writing definitions for the OED, sometimes took a large part of a day to work out the different senses of a single word and give its definitions. But even an entire day is not long for the inkling-to-artifact process, so he was working with short inklings – that is, those close to clarification. See also artifact; inkling; map-and-engage method. Cf. short inkling.
long unfolding: An unfolding of events that happens over a long period of time. See also unfolding; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
loose appliage: The capacity and desire to act (appliage), without there being any need or opening for that action. See also appliage.
loose sketch: A sketch that is not part of any project or regular pattern of interactions. For example, the idea I have that the Norman conquest occurred from 1066, if it has no part in how I live my life or how I understand things. See also predictive sketch; sketch; sketch component; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
luminescence: A predictive sketch based on a bonded unfolding. For example, some infections are successfully treated by antibiotics in as much as 95% of cases, thus representing nearly certain favorable outcomes. Our idea of antibiotics and how to take them (as prescribed) is a luminescence, clearly indicating how to solve that particular problem in life. This is in contrast to the precise certainty of an elegant lever, where events like the rising and setting of the sun can be precisely predicted in advance, enabling us if not to control them, then to position ourselves with regard to them, with certainty. See also bonded unfolding; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
[M]
maintaining a presence: A tracking stance that is not open to greater extension on my part and does not involve any degree of creative lift or reformulation; having learned the relevant skills, I do not progress further toward a goal but simply maintain a situation in whatever state it needs to be keep in. For example, in cleaning house or keeping a shop, I may at some point stop learning anything new. I simply maintain a state of cleanliness or meet the needs of customers as they arise, respectively.
manifestation: See personal manifestation.
map-and-engage method: An approach to thought that involves using mental sensing to sort, clarify, and find a pattern to both clear and vague elements in awareness, settling a map, and then attempting to apply the resulting map to the appropriate situation to see whether it facilitates responsive contact, and beyond that, whether it stands up to scrutiny in other related sitations as well. The map-and-engage method involves eight stages: gathering (all information or other mental elements that are relevant or related), assembling (collect your thoughts), fracturing and creative lift, holding suspended and mental jostling, settling a map, checking the map for completeness and consistency, engaging the map to check for facilitation of responsive contact (ability to control, or position oneself with regard to, the relevant domain), and further verification in related areas of experience. For articles on this topic, see the entry in the HDM directory.
map facilitation: The quality of a map as a facilitator of a desired or positive interaction with the reality it depicts – that is, as a tool that makes responsive contact possible. See also map-and-engage method; responsive contact.
material complacency: The attitude that I have the nice things I need to be comfortable, and that's all I care about.
mechanical-device display: The use of expensive and powerful mechanical devices such as a car to display one’s success and thus one’s validated-entitlement worth. See also validated-entitlement worth markers; validated-entitlement worth; and my books The Environment-Sustaining Person and The Worth of a Person.
meditative portal: See portal.
mental clump (or simply clump): A bundle of ideas, images, emotions, verbal strands (i.e., connected statements in one's thoughts), associations, and other elements that constitute one's established thoughts on a subject. People rarely think in any linear process, but instead pick up these tangled bundles of emotion and thought, which can be flung from one person to another, sometimes sticking, and sometimes repelled. Once a clump does stick, it will resist any interference from discordant outside influences of other clumps, new information, or logical arguments. See also mental-clump herd.
mental-clump captured (or simply clump captured): Being in a state of having acquired a mental clump, which excludes and repells anything inconsistent or antithetical to it. See also mental-clump herd.
mental-clump defense (or simply clump defense): Reacting to new information that contradicts a clump, by repelling it as a threat to your current thinking, rather than looking at it objectively and modifying your ideas and beliefs if that is warranted by the new information.
mental-clump flaming (or simply clump flaming): Trying to extend the influence of a clump beyond what is warrented by the evidence and logical argument it contains, using it to make grandiose and emotionally charged claims on others. For example, climate scientists do not have very strong evidence that one single factor, CO2 levels, will precisely determine future temperature levels on the planet outside the more complex and unpredictable factors of complex weather patterns, interglacial cycles, and solar activity, but they make emotive claims of precise calculated elegant unfoldings, catastrophic outcomes if anyone fails to listen to them. (The clump herd for climate change, like those for the current culture wars in the US, Canada, and UK, is an extremely violent and intolerant one, to the extent that opposing views are routinely banned from social media platforms.) See also mental clump.
mental-clump herd (or simply clump herd): A group of people carrying the same clump or clumps, who protect, support, and reinforce their shared clump against people with other clumps, against new information that is inconsistent with the clump, and against logical arguments that contradict it (if those exist). See also mental clump; one-true-path map. Cf. human-direction map; map-and-engage method.
mental jostling: An approach to clarifying a vague experience, used in Stage 4 of the map-and-engage method, that involves taking all vaguely sensed elements plus whatever clear facts, ideas, images, even musical tunes and smells, you have in your awareness and bouncing them off against each other, until through their often vaguely sensed contrasts, relative positions, similarities or dissimilarities, and/or congenialities or uncongenialities, you gradually clarify an overall pattern and the nature of the elements within it. See also circuiting; map-and-engage method; mental sensing; vague-sensing.
mental lifting: Together with fracture of one’s conventional awareness in the second stage of the map-and-engage method, this involves raising the elements of the awareness cluster so they can be held suspended and mentally jostled. See also creative lift; map-and-engage method; mental jostling.
mental sensing: The basic faculty of the mind that enables one to sense vague as well as clear elements in one’s awareness and, specifically, to sense their degree of triclarity, plus their nearness or distance from each other, their similarity or dissimilarity, and/or their congeniality or antipathy. This is commonly seen in the experience of not remembering a word but having it “on the tip of one’s tongue”: one can mentally sense that it is like another word or not at all like it, that it is close to something or far from it, and/or that it fits with something else or is antipathetic to it. See also clear-sensing; vague-sensing.
mental trellis: See trellis.
meshing: The state of being connected to a domain of greater value through a portal. This involves bringing together and combining different components of one's experience and activation, including the four components of greater-value worth, and the right present state, thus finding meaningful substance in that experience. See also greater-value domain; greater-value worth; portal; present state; and my book The Worth of a Person.
millionth of a tiny push: Some efforts we make are simply too tiny to ever have any effect – for example, commenting on social media regarding something where the outcome of any unfolding of events in that regard will be the product of thousands or even millions of people choosing a course of action, and there is almost no likelihood that anything I say will make the slightest difference. Although we may still make such efforts based on their being a personal manifestation, we are generally better off focusing our time and effort on things around us that we can have some influence over. See also levers-and-pushes array; personal manifestation; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
motivation: See human motivation.
motivation assembler: The mechanism that selects and pulls together a motivation cluster, which may then erupt as an action or pattern of behavior. This is generally a full intermix. For example, the mechanism (whatever it is) that causes me to cluster need fulfillment (for transport), comfort (pleasure), and status display (cushioning) around my purchasing, maintaining, and using a car.
motivation cluster: A group of motivations that operate together to push someone to do something. For example, destructive status displays are often motivated by a combination of need, pleasure, and hypercushioning.
motivation mediator: Some experiences or states of mind may not be motivations in themselves but can serve to unleash and augment other motivations: e.g., progress toward a goal, perhaps toward raising one's status, can be a motivation mediator based on the anticipation of fulfilling a desire for cushioning.
multiangulation: The test of my understanding of a situation that can be formulated as the question, does any responsive contact I have hold up under different conditions at different times and in different settings? For example, does a prospective romantic partner I met for a ship-board romance, show the same affection and attention to me when we are back on land resuming our ordinary lives, with friends and family? Does the relationship hold up during a routine working week as well as when on holiday, and during bad times as well as good? See also map-and-engage method.
mustering: See activation.
mutuality: A relationship between two or more of what were weak and unclear entities, together with whatever entities have been clear from the start, which forms a pattern that is not only much greater than the sum of its (two or more) parts, but in which the parts themselves become clearer and stronger, because the overall pattern is clarified. See also map-and-engage method; mental jostling.
myriad: The total amount of information available to our awareness at any given moment. Most of the myriad is the undistinguished background perceptions of our body and surroundings – the countless bits of data that we do not notice but which are there to be registered should something draw our attention to them.
[N]
natural bonded unfolding of events: A largely predictable outcome based on a natural pattern that is not, however, precisely certain. See also bonded unfolding.
needist: Someone who thinks need fulfillment is the only factor behind productive human behavior, that people do not act sometimes solely out of vanity and a desire to display their status – beyond what they actually need – and who does not accept that there are elaborate systems in society for advancing those validated-entitlement worth status displays and marking competitive validated-entitlement worth. See also validated-entitlement worth; and my book The Worth of a Person.
negative leverage: The experience with unrecognized work (especially common with creative work), where each effort we make leads to a loss of capacity to support ourselves, because we not only do not receive support from the outcome of our efforts but are depleted by the time and energy that goes into them. See also validated-entitlement worth; and my book The Worth of a Person.
nesting: Believing in something based not on conclusive evidence, but on the fact that it fits in with a more general view of the situation that I hold to be true. Nesting is the setting of expectations, rather than a drawing of conclusions from (limited) past evidence. Cf. cognitive direct effect fallacy.
no-mapper: Someone who lives day to day, without seeking to gain an overall perspective on what pathway they are following, what lies nearby, and where it is likely to come out, or on what other pathways and objectives might be possible. Cf. human-direction mapping.
not-mine blockage: When I disapprove of or block something simply because it was not my idea, did not originate with me, or I was not consulted about it.
[O]
occupant: the activity or state that occupies me during a particular allotment. These may be of two types: thin occupants, which require little concentration or activation and can be taken up or dismissed quickly and easily; and thick occupants, which require some effort to assemble all of the relevant elements into my awareness and to activate myself to engage them.
off-hour flank: A period of involvement in a creative or other activity, maintained outside realization sessions, which involves taking a look at your backdrop, mulling things over at times outside the periods when one is actually working on the completion of a creative work or other project. It is the time in which off-hour generation occurs. See also backdrop; burst; comet orbit of creativity. Cf. realization session.
off-coursing: Turning one's activation away from the pathway that leads toward something you want to accomplish. This may involve outright distraction by something compelling but trivial, or it may involve being overly attentive to the fringes of the endeavor. See also core-and-fringe dilemma; course-tracking.
off-hour generation: The creative or other thinking process as it advances when one is doing other things, or when one is unoccupied with anything in particular, or even when one is sleeping. See also backdrop; off-hour flank.
off-set awareness: Awareness turned back on itself, in which I am aware of being aware, and of the nature of my own awareness, its contents, emotional resonances, and patterns.
Olympian tribunal: A force, based on our supposition that life should be fair, that intercedes in life to lead to a fair and just outcome in our affairs, especially in giving us the recognition and rewards we deserve to receive (this is something we often desire, even feel we are entitled to, but almost never see in real life). See also heavenly tribunal; decisive tribunal.
omnipsychology: A view of psychology which claims that an expert can see things in our speech and actions that we cannot see ourself, and which they hold to be true without any evidence – indeed sometimes contradicting the available evidence.
one-true-path map: A view that sees only one objective in a particular situation as worth considering, and allows for only one path to reach it. This is common in science, for example, where individual scientists or groups of scientists take up and champion a theory and seek evidence for the validity of that theory against all others. In part this is motivated by the need to compete for research funding against other groups with other theories, but it is also characteristic of social group cohesion and mental-clump herding. See also mental-clump herd. Cf. human-direction map.
open full intermix: A type of unfolding of events characterized as entirely one of possibilities, a messy type of unfolding of events, in which anything might happen, where every influence and factor plays a part – including with regard to how and when they interact with all of the other factors – and there are no general trends. The outcome is unpredictable in practice, and to become predictable would require, in theory, tracing the influence and timing of every single element that enters into it – which itself would be impossible because the presence of any measuring device would itself be an influence changing the result. See also full intermix; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person. Cf. assembly of circumstances; elegant unfolding; guided full intermix.
opulent parcel display: This is a form of parcel display that involves showing off the value of a property, usually a house and as large a plot of land as we can manage, as a mark of our status and validated-entitlement worth. See also parcel display; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person. Cf. tidy parcel display
order-rending beliefs: See deep order.
outer buttressing: Whereas inner buttressing is an activity or support that directly fulfills our needs (e.g., income to pay for food, or the act of preparing food to be eaten); outer buttressing is in support of that, and can in turn be differentiated among distant outer buttressing: general education or setting up one's general workspace, tools, and procedures for any sort of work or living in general (i.e., not preparation to seek a specific paid job); intermediate outer buttressing: preparing a resume or other marketing materials as preparation for near outer buttressing; and near outer buttressing: applying for a job or seeking work. See also buttressing. Cf. inner buttressing.
outpost view of life: The view of life that holds that it is what we find in the next world that counts – that in this life we merely occupy an outpost away from the much greater reality of eternity and universal truth. Cf. arena view of life.
overactivation: Activation means mustering one's person to face a challenge. Overactivation means doing more than what is necessary or even appropriate in a particular situation, where we may face only a minor challenge or no challenge at all. See also activation.
overlevering: Pushing too hard on a lever that either does not exist (is not really a lever, merely a push) or is one that is inadequate to achieve the desired effect. For example, a one-off gesture of dramatic protest that does not lead anywhere (probably only incites a defensive reaction); where it would be much better to apply a steady and persistent correctly modulated push array, or to contribute to someone else’s efforts to do that. See also lever; levers-and-pushes array; millionth of a tiny push; push; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
overpushing: When we apply too much force in a situation so that there is a counterreaction against, or breakdown in, our efforts, and we fail to achieve our objective as a result. Cf. underpushing; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person..
[P]
parcel display: Keeping a plot of land and a house in an excessively tidy and overextended condition to show off your success and ability to tame the natural world, and thus to establish your status validated-entitlement worth as a householder. This often involves causing unnecessary damage to a natural habitat (including in urban or semiurban settings). A parcel of land is only effective as a parcel display if it is well-tended, with anything natural strictly removed or clipped and fenced. If I have a big house with a large sterile lawn and closely clipped shrubs, I must be entitled to respect and to whatever goods and services I may need. See also validated-entitlement worth display; extended needs; and my books The Environment-Sustaining Person and The Worth of a Person.
participatory portal: A portal that enables us to connect to a domain of greater value characterized by clarity and beauty. As the term suggests, the connection is made through our participation in the domain, in contrast to a divinity portal where the connection is made through belief in the divinity. See also greater-value worth; portal; and my book The Worth of a Person.
pattern of interactions: The second facet of an alignment: how and where we are involved in our surroundings. See also alignment; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
peg: An idea, image, melody, or other entity of one's awareness that one sets mentally to hold a position in one's thoughts, and which can be used (e.g., in thinking) to tentatively mark an issue that needs to be clarified. A peg is an initial formulation of a half-formed feeling for something, often quite roughly expressed and perhaps just in the form of a vague question, or it can be a clear entity that seems at that time to be pivotal. It may or may not be part of the final outcome of thought. See also map-and-engage method; mental jostling.
perimeter: The range of my influence on other people, my responsibility toward them, and my ability to influence conditions and events in their lives. For example, the president of the United States has probably the largest perimeter of any single person, whereas a bum on the street may have virtually no perimeter whatsoever. Cf. periphery.
periphery (of person): The collection of material possessions, social status and connections, personal appearance, professional titles, etc. that you present to the world and that people (especially a biological person) will tend to judge you by. Traditionally, this was youth and physical attractiveness in women (and not their intelligence or character); and wealth, social position, power, and general status for men. It is rare that people will see beyond this to who you really are – that is, your preferences, interests, and ambitions, and how honest, trustworthy, and good you are. See also biological person; and my book The Worth of a Person. Cf. rapport-focused person.
personal manifestation: An action or work that represents who I am, in an objective form external to myself. This can be (a) a social presentation so other people may know who I am (e.g., in the form of a sign outside my professional offices, or a website presenting my professional services or identity, or in my built-up reputation in the eyes of a group of people who know me), and/or (b) simply a way of making my identity visible to myself. A personal manifestation can be helpful in giving others a clear idea of who I am, but it can also help me get a clearer sense of my own character, purpose, and direction in life, by enabling me to see those represented in a place outside myself. It may also help to define my legacy after I am gone. Cf. validated-entitlement display.
petty personal state: The particular state of myself, my feelings and so forth, which does not take into account other considerations such as those of something worthwhile outside of myself, of other people, and of other realities beyond myself.
portal: A belief, participation, or quality of awareness that enables one to connect to a domain of greater value, to find guidance and worth in the part one plays in serving that domain, and to experience the portal glow of the domain’s value permeating other aspects of one’s life. There are four basic types of portal that can be used to connect to a greater-value domain and perhaps achieve greater-value worth: a grand-social portal (living as part of a family or tribe), a divinity portal (based on belief in a divinity), a meditative portal (based on a quality of awareness achieved through a long practice of meditation), and a participatory portal (belief in the value of a realm of order and beauty, which one serves in an endeavor to make the world, through that meaningful domain, a better place). See also deep order; divinity portal; grand-social portal; greater-value domain; greater-value worth; meditative portal; participatory portal; portal glow; and my book The Worth of a Person.
portal glow: The sense of meaning and purpose that permeates other areas of one’s life during or after the experience of connecting to a greater-value domain through a portal. Once discovered and developed, one’s portal and sense of greater-value worth can light up long hours, perhaps days, of other, even unrelated and mundane involvements. See also greater-value worth; and my book The Worth of a Person.
position work: Work based on holding a position of power, authority, and/or responsibility, with or without any competent agency required beyond the holding of the position – for example, a monarch who holds a symbolic position without any need to show competence beyond what is require to fulfill that role. See also validated-entitlement worth; and my book The Worth of a Person.
possibility pointer: An estimation or sketch of a possible outcome, without any of the certainty of an illuminator or luminescence, or even the general confidence given by a guide marker or trend marker. See also calibrated possibility pointer; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
precipitate: Something in my awareness that only emerges after thinking about the relevant situation or after events unfold (engagement stage of the thought cycle of the map-and-engage method). Before that, it is either an inkling or a void. See also inkling; map-and-engage method; void.
predictive sketch: A sketch that enables us to foresee outcomes and to guide our actions accordingly. For example, I know that if I go to France, the people there will speak French, and if I know that language I will be able to communicate. See also assembly marker; loose sketch; sketch; sketch component; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
premature ascension: Our widespread tendency as a species to believe we have a higher level of predictive sketch than is warranted by the nature of a particular unfolding of events and our understanding of it. See also predictive sketch; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
present state: My state of mind and body in the moment, as I am experiencing it at any particular time.
pressure of proximate stance: The sociopsychological force that is exerted on us simply by seeing or being near another person who is expressing an idea, acting in a certain way, or holding a certain posture. We feel compelled if not to imitate it, then to respond to it.
pressured slouch: The internal posture where I am tense and unable to rest, but also am not making any active effort. This should be a state of rest leading to revitalization, but it is instead a tiring idleness.
primary activation: During any particular day, one will have one particular domain of activation which occupies the main part of one's attention and efforts. This is my primary activation. It is also likely to correlate to my backdrop. It may not, however, be what occupies one for the bulk of one's time on that day (i.e., one’s bulk activation). See also activation. Cf. bulk activation.
problematic: The unformulated need or desire that preceeds a question or problem formulated to resolve or deal with it. Something that bothers me, without my being able to say exactly what it is. In the map-and-engage method, we generally begin to address a problematic by setting a peg (some initial effort to voice this as a question to be addressed). See also map-and-engage method; peg.
proentitlement exchange: When you do something to recognize and affirm a high level of validated-entitlement worth in someone else, and that elicits a reciprocal gesture of affirmation of your having a high level of validated-entitlement worth as well. See also validated-entitlement worth; and my book The Worth of a Person. Cf. downward-contrast entitlement validation.
proentitlement highlight: An indirect indication that someone has a positive feeling about the validated-entitlement worth of another, showing respect, with or without an outright remark or directly relevant action. For example, walking down the street and seeing someone looking at you with an expression of approval indicates they find you attractive, even without that gaze being intended as any outright communication. See also validated-entitlement worth; and my book The Worth of a Person. Cf. disentitlement slight.
proentitlement thrust: Saying or doing something to assert your own higher validated-entitlement worth – for example, claiming superior skills or virtues, or claiming to be successful, or claiming that a group you are a member of is more notable for its accomplishments than other groups are. See also validated-entitlement worth; and my book The Worth of a Person. Cf. disentitlement jab.
prodding: A technique for keeping a greater-value portal alive and developing it, by rekindling or reengaging your awareness, interest, and involvement in the greater-value domain, in regular, brief periods of attention and effort, in addition to any (perhaps less frequent) extended periods of dedicated involvement. See also greater-value domain; layering; portal; and my book The Worth of a Person.
prodding the comet of creativity: While in a dark comet stage of the comet orbit of creativity, one persists in evoking the unresolved issues and ideas in a creative project, often in the form of pegs, until you move on from the dark comet to the bright comet stage. See also bright comet; burst; comet orbit of creativity; dark comet; peg.
project fuel: Ideas, perspectives, and facts that provide the resources needed to advance a project. For example, the theory of evolution is considered a serious theory although it can not be falsified and does not enable one to make any predictions regarding future outcomes (two standards normally expected to be met by any theory worthy of the name). Instead it is project fuel for evolutionary biologists, giving them something to study and use to justify their positions.
project overhang: All of the unfinished things we need to do, but for which we do not have enough time to do them, and which therefore hang over us.
prompt: An indication or idea of something that needs to be done, of something you ought to do. Sometimes this is an idea of something specific that you need to do, but it may also be a feeling for there being something that needs to be addressed, but you're not quite sure what it is and what should be done about it.
prompt dump (also referred to as a brain dump by time management writers): Taking all of the things one has on one's mind that need to be acted upon, and noting them all down as specific tasks. The step that follows this is, perhaps, to create taskcards for each and then sort those into projects (with next-action taskcards) and/or affixed prompts (taskcards scheduled for a particular time).
public current: The weight and influence of society whether to maintain a status quo or to change. This is the cumulative effect of individual proximate stances multiplied by thousands, even millions. The combined energy, values, and actions of large groups of people or society as a whole, the fashions and mood of the time, the vox populi, which is often represented in the alignments taken by our neighbors, local and national political movements, the people we hear and see on mass media, what we read in current fiction and see in the visual arts, and so on. The public current presses on individuals toward one pattern of behavior or another. For example, for many decades, the public current was one of admiration for bankers and their cleverness at making large amounts of money, thus displaying their fitness and intelligence to manipulate forces that the rest of us could not understand. Then with the 2008 financial crash, the public current shifted away from that view toward an almost universal negative feeling that bankers had been gambling with other people’s money and profiting at their expense. Or, for example, for many years, a well-dressed man would always wear a hat when he went outside. Suddenly, the public current changed, and the well-dressed man only wore a hat if he was in sports clothing.
public-current tracing: Analysis of social trends and the public current, which describes what is happening, and is assumed to indicate what's going to happen, in society by revealing the underlying factors and influences in past events. This is a widely favored mapping approach taken by journalists and other commentators.
puffed-up unvalidated-entitlement worth: This is a claim to higher validated-entitlement worth than is reasonable, where you expect to be given more attention, consideration, approval, and support, and to have more of an influence, than you deserve. This may be based on birth or just having become accustomed to being treated as someone special when you are not. See also validated-entitlement worth; and my book The Worth of a Person.
push: A pressure, without the precise control of a lever, that is applied in a full intermix, without any specific indication of how or when it might have an influence in producing a result. Usually pushes are applied as an array, and are based on a necessarily vague understanding of where the opposing side or the situation might be amenable in some small way to influence. See also lever; levers-and-pushes array; millionth of a tiny push; push array; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
push array: A collection of pushes that are handled in a coordinated fashion to apply pressure on a situation or a person without knowing if, when, or how it might have the desired effect. For example, if I would like ergonomic desks introduced in my office where I am an employee, I initiate and maintain a push array, where I talk to various colleagues pointing out the advantages, point out studies to my boss showing how they increase productivity, arrange for contacts with another office using such desks, and so on. A push array is less effective than a lever-and-push array, but it is often the only option. See also push; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person. Cf. levers-and-pushes array.
[Q-R]
quadriclarity: A characteristic of an element of awareness, where the element is clear in all of four ways. First, it has a name or other established label; second, it has a set of known characteristics; third, it has known relations to other adjacent or distant elements in awareness; and fourth, it has a place in an overall pattern that gives it a context.
quantifixation: A state where more and more is felt to be better and better. For example, often we desire greater and greater validated-entitlement worth (which is unlimited and can never be completely satisfactory whatever the level we have of it).
rapport-focused person: Someone who is capable of being more than a biological person, seeing beyond other people’s periphery (their physical attraction or lack thereof, and their material wealth, social status, etc.), to connect to others based on shared values and interests, congeniality of character, and the pleasure of their company. See also periphery; and my book The Worth of a Person. Cf. biological person.
reality adherent: Someone who believes in the reality of one of the six types of reality. See also reality register. Cf. reality monopolist.
reality interface: The contact we have with reality, which involves four components: a part of that reality, our ideas and guiding images of it (our sketches of it and trellis to coordinate those sketches), the pattern of our interactions with it, and finally, our emotional engagement with it. In other words, a reality interface comprises an alignment plus the part of reality we are aligning ourselves with regard to. See also alignment; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
reality monopolist: Someone who maintains that the reality they attend to is the only one that is real and that what others consider realities are merely realms of appearance and opinion. Thus, for example, an atheist scientist may regard spiritual reality as nothing more than superstition, while a religious believer will see the atheist scientist as shallow and uncomprehending of what lies beyond or beneath material cause and effect. See overview map of human direction (in preparation).
reality register: The reality or set of realities (from among the six reality types) that one is taking into account at any particular time. For example, on a road trip by car, one might take into account simply the quality of the experience (qualitative reality), or using the trip to reconnect with family (biological-social reality), or the distance versus speed calculation for time of arrival (scientific reality), for any of these perhaps ignoring other realities, or combining them. See also reality types.
realization session: In creative activity, the stage where the artist or writer does the actual work of applying paint to canvas or words to paper, or in the case of practical creativity, the stage where a manager puts ideas into force in a new way of doing things. Cf. backdrop; off-hour flank.
recognized-face validated-entitlement worth marker: Being someone known by sight as deserving of respect and support (i.e., having a high degree of validated-entitlement worth as marked by their being known to others). See also validated-entitlement worth; and my book The Worth of a Person.
reflectance: The experience of moving, acting, or speaking, and seeing a corresponding change in my surroundings or in another person. For example, I move my arm to bring a cup to my lips and the cup actually does reach my lips. In interactions with people, reflectance refers to the experience of speaking to or acting with someone, and hearing or seeing them respond in a relevant fashion, so that what I have said or done is clarified and reinforced, and not just ignored, muddled, or dispersed. This is something we normally take for granted; it becomes much clearer when we are deprived of it: when we have an injury that means we cannot move a limb as we want to, or if when we try to move it, the result is not what we expect (due, e.g., to a hand tremor or other such malady); or when we speak to someone, and they act as if we did not exist or respond in a way that diverts and muddles what we’ve said. See also entitlement reflectance; greater-value reflectance; and my book The Worth of a Person. Cf. dispersion.
relative positioning: A quality of something or someone that is based on its being relative to something or someone else. For example, the level of your validated-entitlement worth is normally defined not objectively on its own, but as greater or less than that of someone else. See also bracket scale.
relegation: An approach to guidance in life, in which we let someone else decide. For example, in the army, every moment of one’s day and one's every action are decided by a commanding officer. See also the entry in the HDM Directory, on eight conventional approaches to guidance in life.
resonance: The emotional charge that is attached for me or others to an object, person, or situation. For example, I may see a bicycle and feel it resonates with the unhappy poverty of my school days and the misery of not being able to afford a car. Or I may feel it unleashes an emotional response of freedom to fly through the air, weaving through the traffic and not confined in a box on wheels.
resource box: The time and other resources we have available to us for an undertaking. This may limit us in, for example, the amount of research we can do before we must act.
responsive contact: A connection with events whereby when we act in a certain way, the response we get reflects what we want or expect to happen (albeit the responsiveness or foreseen outcome may be complex and come with some delay). If I am driving my car on ice, and it starts to spin out of control, will turning the steering wheel toward the direction that the rear of the car is coming around to, and easing up on the accelerator pedal, bring me out of the spin? If not, then I do not have responsive contact with the situation. See also map-and-engage method; map facilitation; reflectance.
rest foundation: A reservoir of well-restedness that is one of the primary resources behind one's motivations and capacity to activate oneself to face a task. This is one of the components of the support facet of the functional axis of human direction.
retrospective science: The careful study of evidence from the past in an attempt to uncover what happened, without being able to test the resulting theories or make any predictions from them.
rich moment satisfaction: The experience of having a satisfying and enriching sense of one's present state, current perceptions, good health, and general awareness, free from anxiety and unclouded by resentments, anticipations, or other negative emotions or thoughts. This is about the richness of the experience of a moment in one's life – rich enough in one's awareness to compensate for and displace any aggravations and anxieties one might have been experiencing lately.
right measure: The balance between the need and desire to grow, on the one hand, and the forward constraints of prudence and the unhappiness of unreasonable expectations or inflated desires, on the other hand.
root essence: A concept of the underlying mechanism of reality, dating from Plato’s concept of Forms, that science sees as the fundamental basis of all events – something that is clear, unchanging, and the true causal force in events, in contrast to appearances and individual characteristics, which come and go and are not the real cause of what happens in the world. See also gatekept-world view.
rough-world view: A view of reality that includes both appearances and causes as parts of it. It is, therefore, more complex than a gatekept-world view, because many events are seen as occurring as the result of full intermixes, and facts other than illuminators are also taken into account (such as guide markers, assembly markers, and possibility pointers). If, for example, I feel hungry, that feeling is real, not just, as it is seen in a gatekept-world view, a superficial manifestation of a physiological process that is what is real. Of course, the reality of my hunger is relative to my other feelings and influences from my surroundings, which is to say that it is real in the way a full intermix is real. This is the world as we live in it – full of uncertainties or contradictions that may never become clear but which simply have to be lived with, or that can be clarified only by engaging with that area of life, watching to see how things play out, and responding accordingly. See also map-and-engage method; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person. Cf. gatekept-world view (of religion or mathematics and science).
running on: A type of outcome where events just go on unfolding without ever reaching a conclusive resolution. See also my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
[S]
satellite trellis: Where I find that an authorized trellis based on religious doctrine or scientific proof is not appropriate to my situation, I can still look for guidance from a set of beliefs and an understanding that is directed toward those ideals. For example, I may not be able to find scientific evidence for what is making me feel unwell – no large-scale studies have been conclusive – but I can pursue investigations that are still in the spirit of the scientific approach by trying different diets and regimens, and objectively recording the results, to try to find what suits me as an individual. This local science is no more than anecdotal to a real scientist, but it means I can stay true to the spirit of scientific research by applying it in my own small way to my own circumstances. See also authorized trellis; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
scattering: When we need to rest or recover, but subject ourselves instead to impatient outbursts of emotion or activity –very often in an attempt to cover up the feeling of boredom, illness, or fatigue.
seamless layers of worth: Having layers of worth of person that are all based on the same area of interest and endeavor. For example, a dedicated poet who is paid for their work, so that their everyday, entitlement, and greater-value layers of worth are all based on writing poetry. See also worth of person. Cf. coordinated layers of worth; fractured layers of worth.
self grant of validated-entitlement worth: A simple decision to give yourself a grant of worth, perhaps so you can take a vacation without accounting for it to anyone, including yourself.
short economic chain: Relatively simple and straightforward steps taken on one’s own to fulfill a need for, or give pleasure to, oneself and perhaps one’s family, with some basic steps to set aside something for the future. For example, harvesting a crop or cooking a meal is a short economic chain from an action to the resulting fulfillment of a need or enjoyment of a pleasure. See also flipped economic chain; long economic chain; and my book The Worth of a Person.
short entitlement worth: Entitlement worth with validation that does not last very long, because, for example, people quickly forget what you’ve done to earn it. See also validated-entitlement worth; and my book The Worth of a Person.
short inkling: An inkling that can be clarified relatively quickly, in contrast to a long inkling, which may occupy someone for many years or a lifetime. For example, James Murray, when writing definitions for the OED, sometimes took a large part of a day to work out the different senses of a word and give its definitions. But even an entire day is not long for the inkling-to-artifact process, so he was working with short inklings – that is, those close to clarification. In contrast, Tim Berners-Lee spent many decades pondering the possibilities of combining the different elements that went into his development of the World Wide Web before any of it came to fruition. See also artifact; inkling; map-and-engage method. Cf. long inkling.
single-lever approach: An approach to any endeavor, based on one elegant or bonded lever to direct the outcome. In religion, this may be the divine; for with divine favor, in some religious views, we need seek assistance from no other power. In science, the single lever will be an elegant causal factor or equation that defines an outcome more or less with certainty, with no other factors or considerations that need to be taken into account – something found in mathematics, physics, and chemistry, but generally not in the other, softer sciences. See also bonded lever; elegant lever; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
sinking motivation: When a problem that demands my best efforts at facing it, also has the effect of reducing my ability to do so. For example, very often a crisis in an important personal relationship will demand that I change the way I live (with whom I live, let’s say), while at the same time it undercuts my ability to motivate myself even to go on living the way I was before (not to mention making any changes).
sketch: An idea we have of something, part of our mental trellis, built up by repeated experiences, and based on which we formulate our perceptions and expectations each time we are in touch with its object or person. For example, I look at someone in a crowd at some distance and from the way that person stands, I know it is my beloved, and I can reconstruct an entire set of images, emotions, related impressions, memories, and expectations for when I approach her and see her turn to face me. Even before I can see her clearly, I find all of my feelings for and ideas of her returning based on that sketch I carry of her. See also gateway sketch; loose sketch; predictive sketch; sketch component; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
sketch component: A sketch that is part of a project to develop a useful understanding of some aspect of our life but which is not formed enough to be useful. For example, we know that certain proteins are involved in the progression of cancer, but we do not yet know how they are involved or what they mean.
slot: A period of time marked out both by clock time and by the activity associated with it and with what comes before and after it. For example, I might see the morning period from 9:00 to 10:00 as a slot (in which to take up one or more allotments for that time) because it is my first hour in the office and comes before the morning meeting at 10:00 (the beginning of another slot), and it is usually, let’s say, when I check and reply to my e-mails. See also allotment.
slot channel: The repeated observance of a slot devoted to the same allotment on successive days. A single slot might be, for example, the time between 9:00 and 10:00 one morning (as designated by clock time and by its being a period of time set aside for a particular allotment), and that may be part of a slot channel that will be a sequence of such slots devoted to taking up that particular project or activity with one day following another (not perhaps every day) over the course of many weeks and months. See also allotment. Cf. slot stream.
slot chopping: Switching between single slots devoted to different allotments one after the other (this makes deep work impossible). See also allotment; slot.
slot stream: Following up the same activity or state (allotment) from one consecutive slot to the next during the course of one or more days. See also allotment; slot. Cf. slot channel.
social jostling: Bouncing back and forth in communication with another person or persons to work out when and how to do something, perhaps simply when to meet and what to do. See also map-and-engage method.
species habit: A pattern of behavior that has arisen to meet the objectives of the species impetus. This is a habit in the sense that it is a largely unconscious and involuntary pattern of behavior that is built up by repetition. Like most habits, these take the form of a weighted full intermix, tending to emerge over time, based on many influences, all of which have a part to play. In other words, sometimes that pattern of behavior appears, and sometimes it does not, but in general, it will tend to emerge more often than not, and it also sets the long-term trend. See also weighted full intermix; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
species impetus: This is the nearly hardwired motivation in humans, as in every plant and animal species, to do three things: (a) survive (find essential water, food, and shelter), (b) prosper (achieve a level of comfort and some security of future supply), and (c) propagate (have children). See also my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
spectrum uncertainty: Large-scale science functions by doing surveys of populations to discover the characteristics of the greater-average group. As an individual, however, I may have no way of knowing whether I fall into that greater average or not. For example, if getting 150 minutes of exercise each week reduces the average chances of premature death, does that apply to me? Statistically, there will be a group that benefits as indicated from exercise. Another group will die early regardless of whether they exercise or not, while still another will live a long life without doing any exercise at all. Which group do I fit into? Spectrum uncertainty means that such statistics do not tell me what I should do for my own circumstances. Science is advancing in some areas beyond spectrum uncertainty. For example, there are genetic markers that indicate whether or not I am responsive to exercise (some people are not). Such a marker would enable me to determine whether the average results from exercise would apply to me as well. See also my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
spill: A spill occurs when something that is appropriate in one context is extended into another context where it is not appropriate. For example, a joke that is terribly funny for the guys at the club, may be inappropriate at a formal dinner party.
static ascendancy: The assumption that I can enjoy satisfaction only if and when I make the next step up some particular ladder of status or possession, and that having taken that step I will automatically enjoy satisfaction once and for all.
static association: The stance in which I try to find significance for my own experience by associating myself with something or someone greater than myself (especially someone with extensive periphery or upperance), rather than looking for it in my own dedication to a track (i.e., in my own sense of purpose). See also track; and my book The Worth of a Person. Cf. greater-value worth.
static-features identity: A personal identity based on external attributes, usually congenital, such as race, ethnic background, sex, and perhaps sexual preferences. This sort of identity is assigned without any actions or beliefs required on the part of the person involved. It can be largely ignored if we and others focus on who I am as an individual, my talents, my active interests and contributions to society, and my interactions with others (i.e., my active-features identity). On the other hand, my identity can become an inflamed static-features identity, if my superficial, external attributes are used as the basis for contention with others – whether that means chauvinism on my part and that of my group against other static-features groups, or resentment for past injustices to a group that is based on external appearances, for which we seek reparations. See also inflamed static-features identity; and my book The Worth of a Person. Cf. active-features identity.
status display: Using the things I possess so as to demonstrate my status, usually as a successful person. This is most often done to make entitlement claims: to show that I deserve to fare well in life, to be respected and supported by others, to receive whatever it is I need to be comfortable and prosper. See also validated-entitlement worth; and my book The Worth of a Person.
status display leech: Some one who takes natural resources or causes destruction of natural habitat not to fulfill their needs but for status markers to display. See also validated-entitlement worth; and my book The Worth of a Person. Cf. foundationing.
still state: A state of mind and person, in which one's awareness is settled enough and free from janglers to be able to follow, for example, one's breath through a count of 4 seconds of inhalation and 8 seconds of exhalation, without one’s thoughts wandering, and in which one's body is relaxed, with throat, chest, abdomen, arms, hands, legs, and feet open to a flow of energy (chi, as the Chinese refer to this). In still state, both one’s mind and body are cleansed and revitalized. Cf. cloudiness of awareness cluster; jangler.
strutweave: Those aspects of the ecosystem that are mutually supportive and essential for the survival of the entire edifice of nature, on which humans also rely for their survival. See also human superstructure; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
submergence: Submergence is the phenomenon whereby an unfolding of events that began as elegant and predictable is swept up in a more complex set of circumstances. For example, I start driving to a destination 100 miles away, knowing that if I average 50 miles per hour, it will take me 2 hours to get there – a precisely predictable outcome based on a simple mathematical calculation. In the event, however, I find that traffic and bad weather mean I can not average 50 miles per hour and therefore have no idea when I will arrive. That calculation is submerged by the complexity of other factors. See also elegant lever; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
substance work: Work that addresses the substance of a person or group of persons, such as education and science, which involve working to make people become more knowledgeable and skilled; or art, which involves working to improve people’s clarity of awareness and ability to appreciate beauty. See my book The Worth of a Person.
supremacy of human order: The idea and reality that human arrangements and technology should override any features of, or living things in, nature. See also my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
surplus-product–entitlement-deficit dilemma (SPCD dilemma): The basic dilemma of a modern economy with mechanized and AI means of production, where human input is no longer required to supply everything needed, but most pathways to validated-entitlement worth require that people work toward that unneeded productivity to justify benefiting from its products. See also validated-entitlement worth; and my book The Worth of a Person.
surrounding currents: The context of a situation that needs to be taken into account in any reading of what was going on there, because it may reverse or otherwise alter what would normally have been indicated by that reading. See also human-direction mapping.
survival equation: The arrangement that defines doing something or holding a position that leads to receipt of material or social reward, which in turn enables one to purchase or find the things you need to survive (and perhaps flourish). In modern economies, this normally takes the form of working for X hours to receive Y payment, which can be used to purchase the goods or services you need to survive. Creative people can find themselves spending a lot of time outside the survival equation.
switching-cost: The time and energy required to change from one activity or state (allotment) to another. The switching-costs involved make more than one or two bastions in a day an inefficient approach to a day schedule. See also bastion; slot.
symptomatic question: A question that is not an accurate extraction of the problematic (and does not really need to be answered in itself) but is indicative of a state of mind or situation that itself needs to be addressed by formulating an extractive question. For example, what is the meaning of life? is normally symptomatic of a failure to find meaningful and satisfying experience. See also problematic; greater-value worth; and my book The Worth of a Person. Cf. extractive question.
[T]
talk-shaping: An approach to trying to influence others, by engaging in conversation, not as a series of steps to complete a defined task, but as a meandering around a topic, in an effort to create an understanding, an atmosphere, a social influence on the other’s attitudes and behavior. This is very common in academia.
task-stepping: Working from a task list to complete the steps needed to achieve an objective. This may start, for example, with managing a cascade to a particular levers-and-pushes array, and then moving on to their application. See also levers-and-pushes array; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
tessera: One of the types of elements in our awareness at any given time. This is an image, idea, or fact in our thoughts that can be used as a piece in the mosaic of a particular awareness cluster. It will generally have a name, attached description, established relations to other elements of our awareness, and a place in an overall context (see quadriclarity. For example, our idea of an apple tree, which as an image or idea in our thoughts has a name, a set of characteristics (depending on one's knowledge or past associations perhaps), a relation to other trees and features in a park or garden, and an overall context as a pleasant feature providing fruit. There are two types of tesserae in our thoughts: heavy tesserae, which are substantiated by extensive evidence or experience (e.g., idea of apple tree), and light tesserae, which may be mere fantasies or ideas about which we are uncertain. See also map-and-engage method.
thinking: As used in human-direction mapping, thinking is the deliberate rearrangement of the contents of awareness, usually to enhance our perceptions and understanding (drawing conclusions from evidence presented), to regulate our emotions (e.g., moderate our fears by putting events into perspective), and/or to enable us to direct our actions to a better result (choosing the best course of action). See also map-and-engage method.
tidy parcel display: A sort of validated-entitlement worth marker that is based on good stewardship and the immaculate upkeep of a property we own or occupy. Someone who does not keep up the grounds around their property, does not maintain the house itself, and allows the interior to be untidy will be seen as being of lower status than a proud householder who does keep up their property, and thus entitled to less consideration and respect. See also validated-entitlement worth; parcel display; and my books The Environment-Sustaining Person and The Worth of a Person. Cf. opulent parcel display.
tips and techniques: One of the nine basic approaches to guidance in life, involving the use of a method or resource to address a particular problem in life, without any overall, coherent system of belief or understanding. See also my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
touch contact: An approach to contact with reality, in which we are aware of what is going on, we respond to it and try to manage the course of events, but we are not wrapped up in the outcome (i.e., it is not clenching). Cf. clenching.
tracing: See sketch.
track: The fundamental unit of formulated human doing-anything. A track is any coherent and recognizably repeatable activity toward some end – in other words, any defined procedure for getting something done, even if entirely new, that includes the objectives, tools, vocabulary, knowledge, and procedures involved in completing the task. This is not limited, therefore, to established fields of study or endeavor. Cf. labidary view of endeavors.
track view of endeavors: The view of human endeavor as being based on tracks – that is any defined set of objectives, tools, vocabulary, knowledge, and procedures involved in completing a task. This is in contrast to the lapidary view of endeavors, which sees human endeavor as largely defined by major fields of undertakings, which have been set in stone by ancient founders. See also map-and-engage method; track. Cf. labidary view of endeavors.
transcendent need: A need for some quality of contribution beyond our petty personal state, often enabling us to face significant deprivation with regard to basic needs. See also greater-value worth; and my book The Worth of a Person.
trellis: A mental framework comprising a set of ideas, beliefs, mental images and associations, musical tunes, scents, and other representations of the world that we use to sort out our perceptions, direct our thoughts, and guide our actions. See also alignment; sketch; trellis fitting; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
trellis fitting: The part of a mental trellis that covers a direction point regarding which we need to take a position or follow a course of action to live successfully or at all. For example, to function in my daily life, I need to have some concept of how things happen, whether that be physical cause and effect, social influence, divine intervention, or some combination of these. In other words, when I want to get something done, do I pray to the divinity, do I ask someone for help, do I get down to work moving whatever levers I have on the situation, or some combination of these? See also trellis; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
trend marker: Something that marks a trend, such as, for example, my child’s height at a certain date, which when compared to an earlier measurement indicates they are growing. See also my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
trickle limit: The basic fact that creative output is limited each day, and if you draw on too much one day, your output the following days will be disproportinately reduced, so that pacing yourself is a more productive approach over the longer term. As a result, doing some other work of a noncreative sort (alter occupant) does not reduce your overall progress, as long as you don't exhaust yourself with that other effort. See also alter occupant.
trinket display: An approach to marking one’s validated-entitlement worth, using expensive jewelry or bits of clothing to show how successful one is. See also validated-entitlement worth; and my book The Worth of a Person.
trivial drift: The tendency of the human mind to drift away from what is simple, important, and familiar, toward what is novel, exotic, and less important.
twenty-four-hour linger: The phenomenon of the mind and other activations of person being able to resume an area of endeavor with relative ease after 24 hours of doing other things. If one is away from the endeavor for longer than that, it becomes more difficult to take it up and start it again. Somehow one day represents a cycle, whereby it is relatively easy to return to what one was doing at the same time the day before. The breakdown of this cycle is commonly seen in a traditional weekly schedule on Monday mornings after a weekend off, when it is notoriously difficult to get back into one’s regular work schedule again.
twist of self: The adjustments I must make in my profile and to my needs and points of access in my life to enable me to have a chance at establishing rapport with another person. This is often inversely proportional to the degree to which my validated-entitlement worth falls below that of the potential rapport partner – that is, if my validated-entitlement worth is much lower than theirs, I will need to twist my true self more to accommodate them. See also my book The Worth of a Person.
[U]
umbrella of elegance: Being (or pretending to be) part of the science that discovers elegant unfoldings. See also my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
underpushing: An approach to handling a levers-and-pushes array, where we do not fully clarify our thinking, establish a pattern of actions, and engage our emotions, with the result that we are unlikely to reach our objective. See also levers-and-pushes array. Cf. overpushing.
unfolding: The path and outcome of a person, object, situation, or set of circumstances. Unfoldings can be an elegant unfolding (precisely predictable), a bonded unfolding (occur in a certain way in the vast majority of cases), a guided full intermix, a weighted full intermix, an assembly of circumstances, or an open full intermix. See also bonded unfolding; elegant unfolding; full intermix; and my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
unifixation: A compulsion to try to find a simple set of causes for events – that is, to drag all of reality into a single theoretical net. See also one-true-path map. Cf. human-direction mapping; map-and-engage method.
upperance: The ability to command the support of other people or to influence them, without offering any incentives or arguments outside my own force of personality or my status. Thus upperance may be based either on high social status or manipulation or a combination of the two.
useful work: Work that is undertaken to fulfill a need, as part of either a short or long economic chain. See also flipped economic chain, long economic chain, and short economic chain; and my book The Worth of a Person.
[V]
vague-sensing: The basic mental faculty of being aware of something we can not identify clearly, but regarding which we still have a sense of what it is near to or far away from, what it might or might not resemble, and/or what it might be in harmony with or antipathetic to. This faculty is used in mental jostling and circuiting, to clarify vague elements in our awareness. See also circuiting; mental jostling; and the article on this website: “Origins of HDM ”.
validated-entitlement worth: The third layer of the worth of a person, which involves being seen by yourself, others, or both, to deserve to fare well, and in reality doing so. This has five facets: deserving of and receiving attention, consideration (given to your needs, comforts, and preferences), approval, and support, and having an influence. The highest degree of validated-entitlement worth includes all five of those facets. A high degree of validated-entitlement worth can be seen in a doctor, for example, who is generally seen as someone of worth, who deserves to be supported and encouraged. A low degree of validated-entitlement worth will generally be seen, for example, in a drunkard living on the street, who is not seen as someone who anyone will even give the time of day to (in contrast to, e.g., the “deserving” poor). There are five basic pathways to validated-entitlement worth: competent agency (e.g., a person who is good at what they do and has earned the right to be treated with respect and rewarded), social status, force (“possession is nine tenths of the law”), need (“the deserving poor”), and a free grant (e.g., when in love). Validated-entitlement worth is based on the need to relate fairly with others and the desire for cushioning for oneself. See also entitlement worth validation marker; entitlement worth validation pathway; cushioning; puffed-up entitlement worth; and my book The Worth of a Person.
valuation: How much one person values another. This may or may not coincide with their social status (which is based on consensus). Some of the manifestations of valuation or ways in which people give valuations include respect (or lack) for routine, who helps whom, whose contribution is more important, invitations, tone of address, value they give to your time (making you wait, etc.), willingness to accept a bad mood on your part, accepting or seeking your guidance, remembering your name, sympathy toward need to rest, believing what you say without further evidence. See also validated-entitlement worth; and my book The Worth of a Person.
verbal strand: One of the entities of thought, which takes the form of a sentence or word phrase, sometimes constructed to form a logical argument. This is often regarded as the fundamental form of thought (mostly by those whose profession involves verbal strands). But in fact, thought also includes images, impressions, inklings, mental sensing, emotional elements, voids, and other elements, which can all have a part to play in the map-and-engage approach to thinking. See also map-and-engage method; and the article on this website: “Origins of HDM ”.
vibrant array of alignments: Human nature when a person is in a good state: vibrant in the sense of having an energy of attention and of taking a position or acting on something. This is the objective of good human direction: to have a fulfilling and satisfying array of alignments. See also alignment; alignment array; human direction.
void: A missing entity in one’s thoughts, which can be sensed in its absence, but which cannot be clarified without further information. See also map-and-engage method; and the article on this website: “Origins of HDM ”. Cf. inkling.
[W]
waking glide: Recuperation process in which we just let time pass. This is rest that functions while we are awake and may even be somewhat active, but with little activation and with a minimum sense of responsibility about anything.
watch and guide: A practical approach whereby we seek to manage a situation from indicators of, and handles on, it, rather than to dominate it or be able to predict it with certainty based on a fundamental knowledge of causal conditions (e.g., with an elegant lever). The emphasis in watch and guide is on positioning ourselves correctly in the midst of events as they unfold. See also my book The Environment-Sustaining Person. Cf. elegant lever.
waypoint: An event that marks the status of a situation, and from which a record can be made (a waypoint marker) of where something was or how a situation stood at a particular point in its evolution over time and what it has become at various stages since then, including the present. See also my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
waypoint record: A record of an event or of how situation stood at a particular point in a long unfolding. See also my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
weighted full intermix: A trend in the unfolding of events that arises over longer periods of time, in which there is an overall change in a particular direction, while there are also individual outcomes that may contradict that trend. For example, the traffic in a city may increase for many decades, then decrease with various measures to restrict it, and then finally start to increase again: The overall weighted full intermix is toward a general increase in the number of cars on the road over time. See also my book The Environment-Sustaining Person.
worth of person: My value as a person as it is seen in my own eyes and those of others. Worth of person has two parts: its pillar (its central structure) and its outliers (including proesteems and contraesteems). There are four layers to worth of person: equality worth, everyday worth, validated-entitlement worth, and greater-value worth. See also validated-entitlement worth; equality worth; everyday worth; greater-value worth; and my book The Worth of a Person.
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