The Principal of Waiting in FUTURLOGICS a system of prospective thinking

FUTURLOGICS a system of prospective thinking:
by james n. hall


COPYRIGHT © 1983 BY
JAMES NORMAN HALL

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Chapter XI

THE PRINCIPLE OF WAITING


IMPULSE CONTROL
  
     There is nothing future that will not eventually become present.
All of the future can be known if we but wait and see.
     Contrasted to present reality, futurity has a separation period of
time between events.  These periods necessitate waiting before that
future reality becomes present reality.  In prediction the future, we
must also be aware of the waiting periods, necessary before experiencing
the future, as we experience present realities.  The future must 
be waited for.
     As we grow up we gain a longer span of attention.  Children have
a fleeting attention span and can wait for withheld rewards for only
moments.  Adults can, in some ways, wait for rewards that extend
beyond their lifetime.  The ability to wait and to pay attention to facts
for longer periods of time enables us to view and learn about our
future.  In the discussion of the artificial future we learned that a
person's need for a future cause him to assume one in order to
facilitate present action, which suggests that if we hold off longer
before taking action, we will learn the true future.  The greatest aid to
prediction is the ability to withhold our impulses.  Impulsive action
and the constricting effect of the six modes will distort (if not totally
block) what we could know of the future.


WAITING AND THE STIMULUS OF THE FUTURE

     If a person acts out of present circumstances observable to all,
then to those onlookers what one does is a natural reaction to obvious
conditions.  However, if one acts out of some knowledge of future
events which are not easily seen, then his activities seem incongruous
to the "obvious" conditions that prevail.  An example of this is a 
familiar Bible account of the building of the Ark, and Noah's call to
do so.  Here we have a man engaged in a vast project, building a large
barge, which, if built near an ocean would not seem strange.  But the
reaction of the neighborhood suggests the nearest body of water must
have been beyond practical means. Because of this, the community
laughed and mocked his efforts, calling Noah "crazy."  From their
point of view it was natural to believe that the man and his project
were deserving of their ridicule.  If they had been "tuned" into the
oncoming flood as Noah was, they would have been so busy building
their own arks they wouldn't have had time to make sport of Noah's.
The obvious conditions to the average onlookers suggested that there
was certainly no need for such and expensive "hobby."
     Are we motivated out of present stimuli or are we motivated out
of an awareness of future conditions and events?  Often the best way to 
study the answer to this is to view it against a backdrop of its
opposite.  But what is the opposite of action prompted out of the
future?  In order to clearly discuss these two concepts of motivation we
have to define and name them.  Procrastination is to put off action
for some future time.  But what Noah did is the opposite--he put off
his daily routine and immediate needs to embark upon his "folly."  He
waited until the Ark landed on the mountain top before he resumed his
daily routine of living.  Noah postponed, or suspended his interaction
with the present and was stimulated by the fact of a future flood.
     Oftentimes we must wait awhile before we resume our regular
course of activity to, respond to a future condition.  We wait, meaning
postponement of action, on the other stimuli.  Waiting is like procrastination
in that it defers action.  However, procrastination put off present
action required for the future, and waiting defers present motivations
to respond to other stimulation of DMP and the future.  When
we act upon future conditions we wait upon present conditions.  Our
immediate drives and impulses are delayed so we can respond towards
the future.  Without some degree of patience we could not deal with
the future at all.  The impatient person gives in to the moment and will
not wait.  The prompt person does not procrastinate, but as early as
possible gets ready for the future.  The prompt person prepares things
long before the crush of the deadline forces him to do what could have
been done long before.


DISPELLING THE ARTIFICIAL FUTURE

     Previously discussing the artificial future we linked the basic
drives and motivations of man's behavior to generating a "future."
This appears to contradict that statement if we fail to look at the
reverse effect where the future acts upon our motivational system.
Now we say that our ideas and thoughts of the future restrict and
channel the motivational system.  Waiting implies a holding back in
order to accommodate a response.  If we acted only out of a 
stimulus-reaction behavior we would react only to the input of our five
senses.  But we act according to our ideas of the future experience and
memory.
     In the complex brain and within the consciousness of the mind of
man, behavior is contingent upon what is known.  Civilization is
directly related to what a person knows.  In the artificial future
knowledge is so important to motivation that the mind will generate a
substitute  knowledge to allow pent-up drives and motives to follow
their course.  Even though false knowledge (or artificial knowledge) of
the future delays the problems of living until we run headlong into
reality.  The artificial future is an elaborate type of procrastination--
procrastination because we are unable to wait for the actual future.
     If we unable to defer action of the type stimulated by present
conditions, drives, motives, the future becomes more difficult to
predict.  Being able to endure expectations and anticipation is directly
related to our ability to predict and foretell the future.  Therefore to
gain a deep foreknowledge of the future we have to understand the
principle of waiting and deferring basic drives.


FOREKNOWLEDGE AND KNOWLEDGE OF THE FUTURE

     Previously we have not made any distinction between 'knowledge
of the future' and 'foreknowledge.'  Indeed, a sharp distinction was not
necessary.  But with the present discussion it is appropriate to point
out the difference.  Simply, foreknowledge is not mere data, but it is
embodies at the same time the 'application' of that knowledge of the
future to the present.  A knowledge of history is useless unless we can
apply it to the present.  When we can relate history to the present it
becomes 'experience.'  Likewise, knowledge of the future, when applied
to the present, becomes 'foreknowledge.'  This is the ultimate aim of
anyone who casts himself adrift in the ocean of the future.  When we 
combine experience and foreknowledge, we enter the dominion of
wisdom.  Wisdom is the ability to apply history and futurity to the
present.



CONSCIENCE AND WAITING

     None of us want our impulses to get out of control.  We have
learned by sad experience that to act rashly will produce unwanted
results.  We want to do things in an orderly and profitable manner so
that we can be successful.  Organizing our behavior results in obtaining
the objectives of our impulses.  This paradox of restraint is largely the
result of learning from the occasional flights of wild unrestrained
activities we all have experienced.  We learned that we must temper our
actions to prevent waste and possible danger.
     Conscience, like religion, is word charged with high feelings and
sentiments.  Self-control and its mastery is a worthy goal.  We admire
the people who have not only themselves under control but who can
also withstand all manner of temptations that prostitute honor for
immediate sensation.  Although ethnic and its theory is not the purpose
of this book, certain aspects of our study of the future make it
necessary.  The principle of our study of the future make it necessary.
The principle of waiting will take into account the above ethical and
moral implications of impulse control by allusion.  We do this because
the future act as a modifier to our impulses and motives much the
same way as our conscience; conversely, the artificial future we
generate is influence by conscience and self-control.
     It is impossible to have self-control or conscience with out some
idea of the future!  The futures propounded by the world's various
religious reflect this quest for control in their percepts of conscience.
The kind of future we conceive or perceive will qualify and define our
conscience.  All the various forms of self-control and moral judgment
are based upon some conception of the future.  If we block the future
from our minds, then we paralyze our self-control and our conscience.
People don not want to think of the future because it reminds them of
the consequences of their actions.  Conversely, a "bad conscience"
makes thinking ahead of prediction difficult, especially when the
future touches untactfully upon areas where our conscience is 
sensitive.


RATIONAL FOR WAITING AND IMPULSE CONTROL

     As we learn more and acquaint ourselves with Futurlogics, we
begin to realize that there is a reason for impulse and motivation
control.  Essentially, the reason we should delay action is to wait for
the opportune moment when action is the most  beneficial to all
concerned.   What ever our definition of success, we all desire to succeed.
We want minimum input for maximum output.  We want the most economical
means to success.
     An example which illustrates this type of economy is seen in times
of planting seeds.  If a seed is planted in a seasonal climate then to
plant too soon may result in the seed freezing before it cn germinate.
If planted too late, there will not be enough of a growing season to
allow full maturity as the plant develops.  Then we miss the reward of
fruit or flower.  Some things are not to be done until the time frame
arrives that favors the contingency which will assist the seed, or
project, object, goal, etc.  To achieve full fruition.  Timing of acts
is critical.  When we have this full sense of timing, we will know the
full meaning of the term "waiting."
     Economy and efficiency are the guideposts along the path that
waiting will take.  Brute force, if applied with minimum knowledge,
will achieve effects, but it is doubtful that it will give desired results.
Waiting sees a constant relationship between intelligence and brute
force.  When brute force increases the intelligence can be diminished
proportionately; likewise, if intelligent application of minimum force
is applied with foreknowledge, then results are naturally accelerated
without a constant surveilence of the ongoing endeavor.  Pure intelligence
can be a force of itself.  Brute force is impulsive, and intelligence
is waiting for the optimum time.  Brute force is always wasteful,
therefore the sign of intelligence is economy and efficiency.


PROCRASTINATION IS AN EXCEPTION

    If we wait to respond to a future requirement, then we are
procrastinating.  If we want to act upon DMP, then we are procrastinating.
If we put off needful acts, work, duties, etc., to indulge in
present impulses, then we procrastinate.  Waiting for the right moment
to respond is good if we do not defer needful action on important
matters.  Procrastination is generally viewed as a fault; it is seen as
detrimental to well-being.  The exception is when we are procrastinating
against a premature response to motivations originating from
the future, or if we are timing a present action relative to DMP.  Then
we are procrastinating for a good reason.  In this case, procrastination
is a tool rather than a lack of motivation to act upon the future.  This is
not true to its traditional reputation, but helps us to contrast our
present study.  Therefore, even though it can be a positive technique,
we will generally accept the common usage.
     Both techniques of procrastination and waiting can be worked
together to time activity relative to the present and guide it for the
future.   action in harmony with survival and progress are the most
fundamental of all goals, we can say that procrastination is deferring
long-range goals in preference to short-range goals, while waiting can
be termed as a deferring of short-range goals to accomplish long-range
goals.  Every act should be a result of balance and timing between
waiting and procrastination within the sense of futurity.


PREDICTION GENERATES THE ACTIVITY OF WAITING

     By prediction, we become aware of the future, and as we become
aware we can see the need for waiting and not simply reacting to
present stimulation.  If we, as human beings, had no future at all, we
would wait for nothing.
    We have made the careful distinction between "knowledge of the
future" and "foreknowledge."  Prediction produces knowledge of the
future, but to arrive at foreknowledge we must know how to apply
that knowledge to the present.  Waiting for answers is a discordant and
anxious occupation, but true foreknowledge generates no discordant
relation with the present.  When we have foreknowledge, we have no
waiting.  If we must wait, we must do it in the form of perfect timing
of activity in order to bring about optimum results and expectations.
This kind of waiting can cause DMP and from that we obtain a vision
of the future.


THREE FORMS OF WAITING

     We wait to produce or we wait to experience.  We can make the
future or we can "wait and see."  Planning and the activity of
planning reduces the tension and anxiety waiting produces.  Preparation
and the activity of preparation reduces the tension and anticipations
of waiting to experience.  If we do not have foreknowledge, we
then must plan, prepare, and orient ourselves to meet the future.
When we deal with these subjects later a more in-depth descussion of
them will be undertaken.  The important thing now is that we understand
the dividing line of control.  If we have limited power and
resource, then there is a point at which we stop waiting to produce,
and wait to experience.
     Planning is organization that creates a future.  Preparation is
organizing ourselves to meet a future that we cannot change.  In both
of these activities we use the prudence of waiting until the time is ripe
for our desires and hopes to be realized.  The third form of waiting is
the waiting to predict, foretell, or prophesy that prevents the generation
of an artificial future, so that we can either wait and experience
the future, or we can wait through Futurlogics for DMP.


PERCEPTIONS OF IMMEDIATE REALITY

     Perception of immediate reality is modified by the different
conceptions of the future such as might be encountered in the artificial
mode.  Previously we were cautioned that these conditions might
affect our perception of the future.  Immediate circumstances tend to
color our attitude and perspective, and give us bias.  Usually what is
around us is what we think about, and what we think about is what we
use as parameters of thinking about the future.  Essentially, this is
what was propounded in the natural future or the observational mode.
It leads us to interpret the future in like terms--the future is seen in
the same tone and color as the conditions of the moment.  DMP allows us
to see ahead as directly as possible without the distortion of a mode.
DMP isolates from present influences the terms of the future itself, so
that the intuitive parameters of the future are the descriptive language
of the future.
     The future we know or believe will and can affect our percept of
futurity.  Only pure DMP will bypass this effect.  We may experience
some preliminary distortion of the future with imperfect DMP, but
the ideal must be sought.  If the future is seen as Utopian, then we have
the necessity to endure the present.  The lure of future bliss draws us,
making the present an obstacle to achieving the hoped for "Golden Age."
     The opposite future is a holocaust of doom.  This outlook causes
the present to be extolled.  Here, we are distracted from the unpleasant
future by the importance of immediate things.  We enjoy everything
within sensory limits.  The moment is savored and the future ingnored,
"Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die" becomes the watch-word.
     These are both extreme views.  A grading of slighter degree may
be more suitable.  The general rule, however, is instructive.  If we are
utopian, then we look at life in a detached manner.  The immediate is
endured because of the comparative effect of seeing the present
against the backdrop of the brighter future.  On the other hand, if the
doom ahead causes the moment to be accentuated, the future becomes
an abstract for dreamers or doomsayers who preoccupy themselves
with the world of NOW.  Such materiality is common in these days of
cold wars and international distrust.
     Conversely, it will be observed that the materialistic person will
deemphasize the future.  Any form of waiting will be weakened because
the future is not esteemed as is the immediate.  The utopian
person who is seen as moral, having character that withholds present
enjoyment wo future reality will not be lost, will be enabled to wait so
he may eventually enjoy the fruit of his labors.  Such persons are more
future minded, and think more prospectively than the materialists.
    Waiting, then, is the activity caused because we hold values of
futurity as a par to the material realities of the present.  We would not
wait unless we valued the future in some way.  The intensity of waiting
is due either to how much we actually know of the future and/or how
much we value what we acknowledge the future to hold.
    A knowledge of the future will motivate us either positively or
negatively.  Since it is impossible to act except in the present, a
knowledge of the future can only modify activity towards the present.
If knowledge of the future produces the tension of waiting, then the
activities that relieve this are designed to either change the future or
change oneself to meet a future that cannot be changed.  Preparation
is a systemization of the approaches to the present where we are able
to change ourselves to meet unchangeable future events or conditions.
Planning is the approach to change the future.
     It is difficult to know the future without the ability to wait.
Waiting is patience, umpulse and appetite control, fasting, conscience--
all these make prediction easier.  The ability to endure "the wait"
enables us to see the future in more ways than one.