`Code 159`: Capturing The Flag of The Mind
The Crucibe of The Übermensch: Putting The Will-Power to The Test
1. Thy Shalt Put Thy Will-Power to The Test
2. Delivering The Will-Power From Evil: Outlasting The Game of Extreme Self-control
3. How To Outrace An Impulse?
4. How To Install The Triggers To Counter To Emotional Impetus?
5. Further Notes on Encraty and Reflex
Thy Shalt Put Thy Will-Power to The Test
`Code 159` is a derived stage from the `100 Day Game`. While the `100 Day Game` is a basis Game of Life designed for conditioning a person to mine his/her methods, so that with more events created and simulated, they will be more adept in handling real life situations. In the `100 Day Game`, as promised on Day 0 before the game has started, the subject under Cardinal 2 must promised that once the game has started, s/he must see it through to the end of the 100 days. It prepares the mind and being of the person for situations to come. This is where `Code 159` comes into the design of the schemes. While the `100 Day Game` is set on Phases, with each phase preparing for the other. `Code 159` is the crucible of self-control.
Differing from the Game, when the requirements are set, if the subject is unable to fulfill the criteria, even just by failing any one of the target in any single day on the premises s/he promised to live by, that single 1 incident is enough to marked the entire scheme a failure. The subject has to start all over again.
《孟子》故天将降大任于是人也，必先苦其心志，劳其筋骨，饿其体肤，空乏其身，行拂乱其所为，所以动心忍性，曾益其所不能。
“When the heavens wishes to bestow great responsibility upon a subject, it would foremost render the bitterest sorrow to the heart, wear down his tendons and bones, empty his stomach, and divest him of desperate means, subject him to be adrift to grueling terror and chaos, and put him through untold temptations and confusions … just in order to empower him to do what he could not do … from the start”. — Mencius
To save time, you can abort and reorg for the next trial. However, you are encouraged to continue to log observations and data points for learning and re-adaptation. Always remember that failure is also data. As `Code 159` is a crucible, the criteria must match the premises to be set as a proof of attainment. Only when you outlast the game, it warrants that you have lived the mark and you are considered to have become the person you had designed.
`Code 159` lasts 159 days. We have observed that a person is able to stabilized of the state of mind which s/he is conditioning him/herself into becoming for around 85 days per cycle, instead of the commonly known 66.5 days. For assurance, the experiment is repeated or prolonged to ensure that the state of ability or mind is well-established. Hence, it was recommended that buffer period of more than 50% is to be added, mounting it to around 130 days. We designated 159 days to be sure.
159 days was also a playful designation which we drew parallels from the `Incredible Hulk` as a parable where his maximal number of days without incident is 158 days. Hence, we added 1 more day to beat that record as a tease.
… Do not bring us to the test, But deliver us from evil … — The Lord’s Prayer
Delivering The Will-Power From Evil: Outlasting The Game of Extreme Self-control
Neurogenesis and re-wiring comes from comes through deliberate and relentless conditioning. Let people and situations be the resources for self-conditioning. Do not commit yourself into the situation. Every entity is regarded as a computational object of the universe, with each a module of system subjected to stimulus and response, merely unknown and yet to be comprehended and captured.
Understand that every entity, including human, are victims of wild circumstances and contagious zeitgeist. Treat each of them with care, yet to be treated, conditioned and cured. Concoct your prescription craftily. Do not hate the people who test your limits in your daily life, detest their flaws instead, and let that be your motivation and compassion. Let that be your mental frame to demystify the working mechanisms. Tame the situation and direct its power to ride your storms. Be curious instead of frustrated. Get even with the situation, instead of getting angry.
How To Outrace An Impulse?
How can we outrace something that fires off so fast? Legend states that Hercules captured the Ceryneian Hind that was so fast it could outrun an arrow. Hercules understood that everything in nature has their functions. He observed the Ceryneian Hind all year round, studied it’s cycle, and laid in wait. He crafted a trap and got all factors set in its place for her to fall right in, instead of chasing her in vain.
In the same idea, in order to capture, tame and bide these lightning speed impulses to our will, akin to Hercules, we examine and trace the emotions right to their root triggers. Reflect and `holodeck` to observe where the emotions are fired from. What was in the subliminal association? Be aware of both the visible and invisible. Examine if a context from the past or a symbol conditioned and embedded in our pre-programmed beliefs and preferences is defining and directing our predisposition.
Study it to trace if there a secondary emotive such as sense of inadequacy, sense of insufficiency, sense of insecurity, envy or paranoia. Use a journal to analyze and anatomize the feelings to trace the triggers, and design triggers to counter them. Keep refining and re-adapting our methods, diligently recording what works and what does not with brutal honesty and objectivity. Do not let your ego blind you or tunnel vision you. Ego is perhaps one of the most dangerous curse to trap you in that delusion. It will incapacitate you from learning and progress. Energy will be spent on foolish defensive and self-deception.
One of the methods discovered through our observations is that, in order to capture a triggering of that impulse, whether a rage or fear, another trigger has to be set it to capture and counter them.
The 1st step is to separate mind and matter. Anatomized the issue and extract the fundamental principles. Intercept the feelings, and suspend sentience. This does not dismiss the sentience, but in promise to revisit it later after the matter of the event is anatomized to its sociological and strategic components. While a solution may not be reached, and status quo remain, be reminded that crisis had been handled and contained in the past. They can be technically be managed again. Sometimes, that small space between stimulus and response is a conditioned mechanism triggered by a question. That space, therein, becomes the power to make choices of greater encraty to steer a different course in our lives.
While there is a loss in the battle for the day, the campaign will not conclude if you know there is yet another day. Persist.
How To Install The Triggers To Counter To Emotional Impetus?
Philosophical thought with technical strategic mindset must be the mental modus operandi to conduce the sentience and conduct to work out the resolution. Be very observant how the impulse starts, and `holodeck` to replay what happened. Check for changes of breathing, heart-beat, tightening of muscles, pressure to the head or any sensations in any part of the body. In the recognition of such patterns, induce another reflex to intervene. Keep at it until it is 2nd nature. Mental conditioning is like magnetization. After sometime, it becomes permanently magnetized. In the same way, the brain gets hardwired for the reflex triggering (the auto filter focus). Wire the counter triggers till you cannot unthink them. Once they are ready, they are loaded to counter the impulses you want to capture. Journalize to check the progress. If the simulated and the stimulated (of the situation) is almost the same, the `Holodeck` conditioning is working. You should see the results in an actual or similar situation.
The mental symbol, once established, becomes the mental trigger or symbolic button to intercept and intervene the old non-conducive reflexes. Use a mental symbol to trigger the mental mode. When crisis hits once more, this modus operandi must trigger off like a reflex. It is akin the divide between an untrained mind and the one holds by an assassin / sniper.
Use `Holodeck technique` to hardening the mind, and mentally simulating and replaying scenarios of indignation and losses in the past to re-visit, re-examine and re-condition the situation handling. The ability to take mental hits is the 1st step. This is similar to mental conduction of imagery visualization to practice shooting / archery. It may be a form of conditioning through simulation, however, it has been observed to deliver significant results. Actively observe the mind and log carefully during the exercise.
These counter triggers that you install to catch and control the counteractive triggers will eventually condition your filter and focus of the situation. Effectively, these are the 2 decisive mechanisms that determines your direction and distraction, and if your directed energy is dynamic or diffused.
In similar cases, I gave TS-U, TS-J and et al an analogy. I once heard that a skilled Taji grandmaster is able to be extremely sensitive in the engagement with opponents such that they are able to intercept and defuse their attacks, and / or even manipulate them. They termed the skill — ‘sticky hands’. One of the demonstration of such skills is to be able to trap a bird in the hand by preventing it to take off from the hand ( 杨露禅 “惊鸟不飞”, Yang Lu Chan’s ‘the bird that cannot leave’). When the bird wants to take off, it lowers its body to kick off. Once detected of such movement, the grandmaster will lower his hand and extend the bird’s legs to disable the kickoff. It finds no ground and falls back on the same spot. At the same time, the bird raises the wing to lift off by catching the wind under its flaps, but the grandmaster follows the motion upwards in time, removing the air pressure, so that the wings cannot trap sufficient air to create air pressure for the liftoffs. He continues both to incapacitate the bird by neutralizing and cancelling the forces for both its kickoff and lifts-off, rendering it to remain in his/her hand helplessly.
This analogy tells us that we must assiduously understand the system and identify the determining forces and factors. Once we understand the dynamics and master the controls, we can derive and invent ways to contain it. Just as in the analogy, specific precision in manipulations can be achieved due to acute understanding of gravity and actuation of muscles of the bird in the hand. If we understand the system, we can learn to subject it under our control.
If you find the perch or crutch*, you control the marionette.
Either you get the reins on the `dragon wings` … or the situation will.* a.k.a. airplane control or `dragon wings`, wooden cross-shaped structured where the puppet is attached to, used to control the movements of the marionette.
Example:
[Case: TS-U]
Pre-conditioning
Event (Stimulus): <From logs of TS-U> “The project is launched and shipped, I had been awaiting for the announcement. I was shocked and enraged by the report that the credit was given to a newbie, Mr A., who just joined 6 months ago. I had been on this project for 4.5 years since the first kick-off meeting. My name was not even mentioned! Mr A. was bragging how he spent his time pleasing his boss instead of doing the real work. We now realized why he had always been missing from the working sessions. It was announced Mr A. is getting a double promotion.
To add salt to injury, at the performance, I was picked on for using ugly fonts for power point presentation. None of these were mentioned through the years. I used the same templates every year for the past 5 years! My bonus RSUs was deducted by half. I was horrified to find out that the people taking my credit has 4x the RSU rewarded. Is this happen because I am a minority and a woman?”
Result (Response): TS-U logged that she threw a fit for a week. She cried and took 3 days sick leave. Finally, in resignation, she went back to work and pretended nothing had happened. In despair and impulse, she cancelled all her course work.
Post-conditioning
Event (Stimulus): <From logs of TS-U> “I spoke to Ob1 after that incident, and begin to log on everyone and every event that irritates me. I noted down every thought, association and sensations on those events. “Act, don’t react. Ask yourself — ‘what is my next move?’ Write down the plan, make micro-trials on them and chart the progress.”, Ob1 advised. Ob1 mentioned about the triggers and how we can use them to gain the control of ourselves.
Mr A. scaled up his dragnet. Now, he gangs up with Mr R. and Mr J. There is a power play going on. I wanted to let Mr E. know, but I think he already knew. Just that we are worker ants that are unimportant to him. They are already an exclusive group holding the reins to the decision.
I held my triggers noted, as I wrote my breathing hasten. I lost my cool and broke my pencil as I logged. I re-read the notes on using the `Holodeck Technique`. It’s quite fun to use. Initially, I used it to vent, screaming, kicking, tying my enemies in my `Holodeck` and shaving their eye-brows. Ob1 read my logs and asked me to keep that within 20 mins. I continue to log the events and on how I react and act on them as instructed.”
* Ob1 (sounds like ‘Obi-Wan’) is the Game Observer (a.k.a. yours truly, Mi’kail Eli’yah).
Result (Response):
<From logs of TS-U> “After 13 weeks, I am in better control. I went back to my courses, and no matter how dirty the politics are, and what is taken from me, I worked it forward. The counter triggers is working. I don’t excuse myself from meetings to cry at the balcony anymore. The counter trigger excites me instead, I feel excited that I have been mentally played out. Instead of frustration, I am able to hold back my tension, and trigger the excitement to jump onto the next plan and make the progress. I just submitted my resignation this morning. The new job offered more than the RSUs I have lost, and I got the position I always wanted. I am not even angry with the Gang of 4.
I reviewed the logs and realized Ob1 was right. It was not worth costing my family to pay with their peace of mind. ”
<Notes from Ob1 on TS-U> TS-U successfully identified the triggers to her reactions. She is able to condition new behaviors after 13 weeks trial, and act instead of reacting. Her time and energy is used on making progress and creating change instead of futile demonstrations and venting. She kept to her promise of 20 mins venting. For the 1st 3 weeks, people around her, including myself had part of the spill-overs from her meltdowns. She is sensible to see the cause, cost and effect, and she did the ‘emotional financing and budgeting’, made that decision to pick up her will and herself, and took action to move strategically.
TS-U’s story is not unique. We see the same patterns re-played in others. The principle is 1st to gain control of ourselves, only then can we re-direct the deficiency into efficiency.
Further Notes on Encraty and Reflex
The `Holodeck Technique` is recommended to induce a `reflect-to-reflex` conditioning. It relies on constantly and vicariously self-reinforcing the mental state and recalling it at will from the memory. Once the mind is conditioned to be able to re-invoked the states by reflex triggering either with mental reframing or a trigger cue or `designed stimuli`, such as an action (e.g. finger snapping), or imagery (evocative mnemonic), or verbal reminder (preferably short for ease of invocation, e.g. “I got this”), etc, the `designated response` will be more assured. The mind will be re-wired and re-adapted to reframe and re-position to recall the previously `loaded mental states`. This is what we termed as `psychological beamforming`.
The triggers can be installed modularly. Gradually, the reinforcement learning / conditioning can be intensified and encraty (self-control) will be within reach.
If you are conditioned into it, you have to condition yourself out if it. People are hard to change, but it does not mean they won’t or they can’t, they just require the right conditions to.
It is extremely difficult to hold back an impulse. The way we have observed is to have people conditioning themselves assiduously, and cultivate a sense of vigilance of how they feel at every episode and use the `Holodeck technique` to observe and re-simulate the situation. This is what we termed as `installing counter-triggers`. Once the training is set, the next time a similar situation happens, when the trigger of the impulse happens, the counter-trigger that was instilled over time will kick in. It will buy you more time. Impulse is extremely hard to contain because of the shortness of reaction time. It is a reflex, hence, when another counter reflex is conditioned to hold it back, it buys the time window for other actions to be taken. However, this takes a lot of training. We have seen people conditioning themselves over a few years, it is difficult but possible.
According to observation, every cycle takes around 85 days. Would there be an easier way? Everyone has different calibrations. Some people may have discovered some methods, and some methods are required to be re-adapted for others. Mileage may vary, but the physics is similar. We all share similar sentiments, we just express them differently. Keep mining, discovering, refining and cultivating. Share your discovery and revelation. Let everyone try and keep delivering the methods. This is how civilizations move forward.
The Hulk has 158 days with no incidents, let’s see if we can break that record. — 2014–09.13
The 100 Day Game
Phase 1: `Germination`: The Scheme to Author Your Life
Phase 2: `Metamorphosis`: Autopoiesis
Phase 3: `Peripeteia`: Turning The Tide, Breaking The DawnGuide : The 100 Day Game Survival Guide
FAQ : The 100 Day Game FAQ
Crucible : Code 159
The Arenas : Different Schemes and Modes
Group Scheme : `Ecological Clusters`Things We Learned From People On The 100 Day Game
1. How People Beat Their Odds
2. What People Tell Us About Their MotivationsThings People Do To Make A Difference In The 100 Day Game
1. Domain: Pneuma
2. Domain: Psyche
3. Domain: Soma
4. Domain: Opus
5. Domain: Kismet
You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. — Plato (428/427 or 424/423 BC — 348/347 BC)