3

In the near future we can expect a rapid expansion in applications of atomic power, programed education, and production of machinery, along with higher standards of living and lengthening of human life. Even with this optimistic outlook, we may wonder where progress and technology are leading us.

The United States enjoys an economic level, educational system, and a technological development far superior to those of countries like Spain, Poland, or India, yet it is questionable whether its citizens experience greater happiness, family love, closer friendships, and less fear, anxiety, and psychological pressure than the people in less advanced countries. Neither East nor West has succeeded in resolving human conflicts, and the latest technology is being used to kill thousands of people around the world. If modern civilization with its many comforts does not provide greater individual and social happiness than less advanced societies do, the value of this type of civilization may well be challenged.

We should realize that in spite of our progress in other areas, psychic life and emotional reactions are little known. The solutions to present social conflicts proposed by sociologists, religious organizations, experimental institutes, and the United Nations have had only limited success. This is partly because the usual frames of reference for these solutions have been politics, economics, history, metaphysics, sociology, and psychology, while the basic cerebral mechanisms related to man's ideas,

17

18 PHYSICAL CONTROL OF THE MIND

emotions, aggressions, desires, and pleasures have been ignored.

Individual reactions are determined by environmental factors acting through sensory inputs upon neurophysiological processes and are manifested through appropriate motor outputs as behavior. All of these intervening elements must be taken into consideration to understand the responses of individuals. To examine the problem only from outside of the organism, as is usually done, is as insufficient as if we were to ignore the environment and try to explain behavior solely in terms of neuronal activity.

At present, not only is there far greater emphasis on material environment than on the understanding of the mind, but what is even more dangerous, this lack of balance is self-perpetuating through education, economic incentives, and general orientation of civilized life (69). "The danger that the entire culture may become technological is obvious" (15), and the divorce of mind from life which is taking place catastrophically everywhere in the modern world (10) has evoked strong intellectual reactions and is one of the central themes of existential philosophy. Present civilization is geared to produce more and better machines and to increase physical power rather than to facilitate individual happiness. Most of our time is spent in performing technical skills, being transported by motorized vehicles, being entertained electronically, and in other occupations which reflect our increasingly mechanized environment.

The purpose of education is to further man's knowledge of himself and his surroundings through instruction in the arts and sciences. During the last few decades, technical fields of study have multiplied rapidly, overshadowing the humanities which until this century formed the basis of education. Although such information is increasingly available, scant effort is devoted specifically to providing an adequate foundation for self-knowledge or for the intelligent construction of individual personality. A curriculum may teach a student something about evolution and general physiology and may introduce him to various

MENTAL LIBERATION AND DOMINATION 19

aspects of his cultural inheritance, but it usually explains very little about the most important organ, the brain, which alone is responsible for man's emergence as a unique anthropoid and on which every person must rely for immediate survival and future development. Study in the realms of philosophy and introspection is generally considered a nonessential diversion not directly related to the preparation of future members of the industrial society, and the inference that "man can succeed better in this world if he doesn't invest much time learning about his relation to it" further promotes the divergence between the technical world and the world of ideas. This pedagogic deficiency was understandable in the past, when psychophysiological knowledge was limited, but today science is providing the means to coordinate the diverse fields of philosophy and biology to form a new basis of inquiry into the nature of man. This is no longer a purely speculative endeavor but an exploration in a new direction already blazed with scientific landmarks. When present knowledge about the physical substratum of the human mind is disseminated in centers of learning, man will be better equipped to utilize his mental powers and to relate effectively to his environment, and the needed balance in orientation may be achieved.

This is our alternative: to accept, enjoy, and promote the increasing material progress without investing much hope or effort in an attempt to understand our power center, the brain, or to modify the present direction of civilization by shifting part of our available intellectual and economic resources toward an investigation of the mechanisms of mental activity. This redirection of goals could produce an evolution of the mental quest similar in significance to the processes of ecological liberation and domination which have already occurred.

The thesis of this book is that we now possess the necessary technology for the experimental investigation of mental activities, and that we have reached a critical turning point in the evolution of man at which the mind can be used to influence

20 PHYSICAL CONTROL OF THE MIND

its own structure, functions, and purpose, thereby ensuring both the preservation and advance of civilization. The following pages contain a discussion of what the mind is, the technical problems involved in its possible control by physical means, and the outlook for development of a future psychocivilized society.