From: David Musick (David_Musick@msn.com)
Date: Thu Dec 26 1996 - 01:17:44 MST
Lyle Burkhead went back and re-read all my posts to this list over the past
two months and noticed how consistent my writing style has been on this list
over that time. He announced this in response to me saying that I undergo
profound belief system changes on a regular basis.
First of all, "David Musick" is only an interface which was designed to
communicate on the Extropians list. It's a role that I am playing for the
Extropians list. There are certain styles of writing and thinking which
"David Musick" is allowed to use in these posts. The character, "David
Musick" is not who I am, it is only one minor aspect of me.
Creating a character which has certain thinking styles and communication
styles and then consistently presenting that character to others is a powerful
way of communicating certain ways of thinking. When others get familiar with
a certain character they like, they begin to incorporate those traits into
their own mind. "David Musick" is a style of thinking about things and
explaining things which I use on this list. The ideas that "David Musick"
communicates are important, but the basic thinking style is what I'm most
wanting to communicate. So, people reading lots of the writings of "David
Musick" will have the ability to ask themselves in various situations, "What
would David Musick think about this?"
In spite of my major belief system changes, most of my daily, learned
functions remain relatively unchanged; for example: I still remember how to
walk and how to play the piano. Acting as "David Musick" is a fairly easy and
basic task for me, so my performance is mostly unaffected by my other changes.
Lyle asks, "If you have been through a change as traumatic as the shift from
theism to atheism in the last month, it doesn't show. Can you give an example
of a major belief system that has changed in the last few weeks, or even the
last few months?"
This is a little difficult. I know of no words to adequately describe the
major changes that have been going on here. Basically, the changes have had
to do with my sense of identity and with my perception of my world. Over the
past week or so, I have been making a profound shift from seeing myself as a
particular person with certain character traits and beliefs to a state of mind
where there are only experiences flowing, thoughts arising and falling, where
I identify more with my current, constantly changing perceptions than I do
with my belief of my past and who I think I am.
In many ways, what's happening now is an extension of what was being worked on
before. It's just that a certain threshold of learning had been passed and
then a great change could happen, where the ideas went from the purely
intellectual to the experiential. When theism was dropped, it felt like a
profound change at the time, but when the memories are traced back, it is
obvious that the change was being prepared for, for several years. It was
simply a matter of going over the threshold of acceptance, the point of no
return. A matter of letting it sink in and accepting the change fully.
Big changes happen here so quickly because lessons are applied and *lived*
very quickly. When new things are learned, they are incorporated very deeply
by the intelligence rather than being thought about at a distance, in the
abstract, for long periods of time, as the custom was here previously.
Keep in mind that I have many personality groups, and I'm very good at acting
out certain characters and playing different roles. Most people I deal with
have no idea what's going on inside me because they don't see me switch roles
in front of them dramatically. When they deal with me, they deal with a
consistent personality group, which I select, depending on the type of person
I observe them to be and what sort of a relationship I wish to form with them.
So as long as I present the personality group, "David Musick", you will see a
fairly consistent personality on this list. There is consideration here of
presenting lots of different personalities and writing styles. There is much
debate and argument regarding the matter, and there are many factors to
consider, as far as many here are concerned. We shall see.
- David Musick
-- We act out each other's expectations, playing each other's games;
adopting, modifying and living our myths. --
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