PREPARING A PC FOR THE PROOF PHASE I Grab a meatball and do the following experiment with him. Get a video camera and hook it up in real time to a TV set, so that what the video camera sees is displayed on the TV set. Put a video recorder in line with the two, so that the recorder can record what the video camera sees, and also play it back to the TV set at a later time instead of a live feed. Position the TV set so that when the pc is looking at the TV set, he can not see the car, the video camera or the video recorder. Perhaps put them all around a corner from the TV set. But make sure he sees the full arrangement and understands the setup. Point the video camera at a big red car on the road, turn on the camera, and the recorder so it is recording, and the TV set. The TV set is getting a live feed from the video camera at this point, but the recorder is capturing it for play back at a later time. Step I. Take the pc to the TV set, and point to the image of the car on the screen and ask "What is that?" If the pc says "That's a car" you flunk him and ask the question again. Continue this until the pc gets the right answer. The right answer is something on the order of "That is an image of a car on a TV screen made of glass." Get him to discuss what the car is made of, and what the image of the car on the glass screen is made of. Discuss why his first answer was wrong and the last one right, until he 'gets it' completely and forever. Step II. Turn the TV set off while the pc is looking at it, so the screen is blank and ask him, "Did the car disappear?" If he says "Yes, the car disappeared" flunk him and ask the question again until he gets it right. The correct answer is "No, the image of the car on the TV screen disappeared." Ask him if the car is still there. If he says yes it is, ask him how he knows, since he can't see it, etc, and what his doubts might be. Step III. Take the pc inside to relax for a moment, and go back outside yourself, making sure the pc does not see what is going on. Drive the car away, rewind the video recorder, and set it to play back. Go back in and grab the pc, take him out to the TV screen. Again ask him "What is this?" Presumably he will say "That is an image of a car on a TV screen." Turn off the TV screen, ask him "Did the car disappear?" Presumably he will say "No, the image of the car on the TV screen disappeared, the car is still there." Take him to where the car was and show him that the car is not still there. Discuss this with him in detail until he gets it forever that the image of a car on the TV screen is a SYMBOL for the actual car on the street which is the REFERENT, and that the existence of a symbol does not prove the existence of the referent. Get him to see that the SYMBOL on the TV screen is a casual EFFECT of the car on the street which is a CAUSE. Light comes in from the sun, is reflected by the car, which is where the car is CAUSE, hits the video camera and is translated to the TV screen which is the EFFECT. Get him to see that the existence of an effect does not prove the existence of a cause. He will quickly see that the nature of the cause can be in question, it will take him a bit more to see that the EXISTENCE of cause is also in question. That is what you want, existence of effect does not prove existence of cause. Go over it with him until he gets it with absolute perfect certainty and can give it back to you in his own words and own examples, and can explain to you WHY effect does not prove cause so if you had never been through this yourself, you would get it also. You will know when he's 'got' it, as you will get it too, again. Let it sink in for a while, then continue with the rest of this. Step IV. Take your pc to the car on the street and ask "What is this?" If he says "That is a car" flunk him and ask him the question again until he gets it right. The correct answer is "That is an image of a car in my consciousness." Have him close his eyes, and ask him "Did the car disappear?" Keep asking until he stops waffling about "well I can't see the car any more", we want a yes or no answer, "Did the car disappear?" If he says "Yes the car disappeared" flunk him until he gets it right. The correct answer is "No the image of the car in my consciousness disappeared." (If he can't get the answer to the first or second question, have him close his eyes and ask him "What disappeared?" until he says "the image of the car in my consciousness disappeared.") Acknowledge this, and with his eyes still closed, ask him if the *CAR* also disappeared. If he says "No the car is still there", ask him how he knows, what his doubts are etc. Remind him of the time he was looking at the TV screen when the image of the car was on the screen and he said the car was still there, but it was a recording and the car was gone. Ask him to open his eyes and look at the image of the car in his consciousness. Ask him "Is the car there?" If he says yes, ask him how he knows, what his doubts are. Do this with eyes open and closed, until the pc gets it forever that he has no idea if there is a car there, all he knows is he sees the image of the car in his consciousness. Discuss this in detail with him. Get him to go over the material on SYMBOLS and REFERENTS until he sees that the image of the car in his consciousness is a symbol for the actual car which is the referent. Go at this with him until he also sees that the symbol and the referent are both actualities in their own right, and two very different actualities to boot. Get him to see that he thinks purpose of his conscious pictures (SYMBOL) is to track the REFERENT actuality which he can not actually see but which he believes is there. Then get him to see that all he can ever see is the SYMBOL, never the alleged REFERENT. Go over with him how the existence of the a symbols never implies the existence of the referent with certainty, and therefore he really has no idea at all if the REFERENT is out there at all even though he sees the symbol with perfect clarity. Discuss with him how this applies to dreams when he is asleep. Get him to realize that when he is dreaming, he sees conscious pictures which he takes to be symbols for external referents, and believes the referents to be actual, but then he wakes up and finds that the referents didn't exist at all, only the symbols. Get him to compare the similarities and differences between drreams asleep and the waking state of consciousness, until he realizes that all he is certain of is the symbols in his conscious pictures, and not the referents in either case. This will make him ready for the next phase of The Proof. Homer ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Homer Wilson Smith The paths of lovers Art Matrix - Lightlink (607) 277-0959 cross in Internet Access, Ithaca NY homer@lightlink.com the line of duty. http://www.lightlink.com