Choice is an Illusion LO4292

Willard Jule (75272.3452@compuserve.com)
17 Dec 95 11:38:59 EST

Replying to LO4232 --

In response to John Woods posting on Choice is an Illusion, I wrote

"That is in fact the gift; the gift of choice. As soon as I become aware
that I am a prisoner of my paradigms and that to get different results I
will have to have different paradigms, I can make a conscious choice.
That choice is to understand (or not) what paradigm would I have to have
in order to get the results I want. I then have a choice (maybe not) to
do (or not to do) what I have to do to create that paradigm in myself."

I want to expand on this thought. In the above paragraph I indicate that
we have choice in our paradigms. To be more specific, I view paradigms as
the collection of all our personal assumptions about the world. These
assumptions are operating whether we are consciously aware of their
presence or not. And, yes, we can choose our paradigms as adults.

The additional thought I want to propose is that we also have choice in
the thought processes we use to translate our paradigms into action. I
have discussed the Grape Game with this group in the past. In that game,
people discover that the results they get completely depend on the
assumptions they make (paradigms) and the thought processes that they use
to go from their assumptions to a result.

The thought processes that people use in this game are: analytic;
intuitive; analytic/intuitive; philosophical redefinition of the rules and
then analytic, intuitive, or a combination; determining their desired
result and analytically backward chaining to determine what assumptions
would have to exist to support their results; or ........

So, I am positing that we have choice over our assumptions and our thought
processes. These choices will enable us to reach any part of the
creator's phase space that we choose to visit. OOOOOOPS! A third choice:
where we want to go.

(Special note to Byrd Ball. Yes, you can share this with your network if
you would like to.)

Later.

--
Willard Jule
75272.3452@compuserve.com