The judgemental heuristics of mainstream culture is linear, that is, most people do not think or feel the consequences of their actions five or ten steps down the road, into the future. This is because most people are educated and raised in a system that’s only interested in linear causality.
Non-linear thinkers, on the other hand, are able to think in limitless possibilities while linear thinkers allow their opinions to be shaped by current trends and mainstream media without question. Linear thinkers are quick to reject ideas that lie outside the linear causality of their mind patterns and emotional securities.
Today, we have inflation, foreclosures, greed and more economic depravities all over the world. The average person has complete ignorance if not skeptical disdain of super efficient energy technologies that work with nature. The average person craves political authority figures rather than living spiritual laws of life through holy scripture; this is exactly because of persistent, linear thinking patterns.
Average people in decadent culture are raised and trained to be gullible and hard-headed exactly because of persistent linear thinking patterns (present company excluded, of course).
Alan Tutt’s Keys To Power Persuasion Course offers excellent examples of linear thinking. Here are a few examples:
The basic premise of the Pygmalion Effect is that expectation alters experience and behavior. An example demonstrates how a teacher of linear thought patterns chose not to question her biased treatment of students, simply because her boss or whatever authority figure claimed that five students in particular out of the whole class where outstandingly intelligent.
The teacher drew large conclusions and biased her behavior towards five students according to a little information. As a result, those five students far excelled their peers.
This principle also applies to people who like celebrity gossip columns; linear thinkers figure their favourite stars are troublemakers or constantly having relationship troubles, so they feel OK when experiencing similar troubles.
In contrast, non-linear thinkers question how exactly their favourite celebrity got into trouble and why they would allow their dirty laundry to go public. (Well, OK, dirty laundry = publicity in Hollywood.)
In short, linear thinkers don’t like to think about a situation or question it too much because it’s easier to assume. I believe that I’ve already the subject of emotional securities at Constructs of Belief. Linear thinkers are always looking for ways to justify their emotional securities, no matter how shakey the foundation of their beliefs. This is why it’s so easy to play “devil’s advocate” with linear thinkers.
Here is the first law of linear thinking:
1) Build inverted pyramids.
Alan Tutt states on the ‘Hidden operation of the Human Mind:’ “It tries to associate every new experience or each new piece of information to something else already in the memory banks…” Linear thinkers take this process a step further to form preconceived notions about a situation; this process is integral to building an inverted pyramid.
The Déjà Vous technique also relies upon linear thinking patterns. Experienced hypnotists also rely on this technique for new patients by asking, “how did you get hypnotised in the past?” or “what do you imagine hypnosis is like?” The technique relies on a person’s previous experiences and/or preconceived notions in order to relate these memories to the new experience.
Once again, we have a technique that helps reaffirm the linear thinker’s emotional securities on a situation. I’m pretty sure you’ve met them; they crave human contact mainly to justify their own existence, without a care for much else in the world. When these types of people get old, they tend to share their entire life story with others – from the beginning – every time. Of course, the wisdom to be gained is from identifying and understanding such elder mind patterns.
Here is the second law of linear thinking:
2) Baby Yourself
Am I being harsh? Sorry for offending anyone out there, but if you’re a linear thinker, then you’re part of the problem in this world today. I’m hoping that people find this site exactly because they are non-linear thinkers.
On the other hand, non-linear thinkers are able to identify this technique immediately. Whereas, a linear thinker needs constant reassurance of their emotional securities, a non-linear thinker needs no such reassurance. Non-linear thinkers create new and useful situations in their minds to imagine how a certain resource might get them there.
One more example I’ll cover from Alan Tutt’s Keys To Power Persuasion Course is the Politician’s Technique; this is the flagship technique that serves as the basis of so much bad public policy that it’s ruining lives academically, financially, and healthwise today. This flagship technique relies completely upon this judgemental heuristic of persistence in linear thinking.
In the Politician’s Technique, we use a drawn-out pattern of pacing statements followed by a leading statement. The pacing statements consist of undeniable truths that everyone knows. The leading statement is the “truth” that you would like your prospect to accept as true. Thereupon, the speech consists of a further plurality of pacing and leading statements designed to sway public opinion.
This is a pacing and leading technique that has been used by every savvy politician. They know that linear minds accept the linearity of their logic. This technique works so well that the Tavistock Institute made it a world-wide sales technique for “authority” figures. (As you probably realise, the non-linear minds are few and far between.)
Since linear thinkers don’t like to think too much or question any situation, they prefer others to do their thinking for them – because there’s just not much room for solving problems in a linear thought pattern.
Here is the third law of linear thinking:
3) Give your problems to someone else
This law seems to go hand in hand with the second law of “baby yourself,” but at least babies show interest in the world around them and have problem solving abilities.
Here’s a titbit from a Harvard Study seems to agree:
New Study Reveals that ALL Children are Born Geniuses – but 98% of them will LOSE their Genius Potential by age 20.
As you know, a shocking Harvard study shows that a STAGGERING 98% of children below the age of 4 displayed GENIUS capability. Yet, when they reach the age of 20 it dropped to 10%. Worst, after the age of 20 the figures plummeted to a abysmal 2%. (extract from My Inner Magic w/downloadable report)
OK, I’m finished dissing linear thinkers, for now.
Let me share a little secret with you: I don’t read Keys To Power Persuasion that often because it depresses me; it depresses me that the tactics in this course really work because it lowers my view of the people around me – and I don’t like to do that – even when it makes me feel superior.
I think it’s great that the techniques in this course helps diffuse situations that could be harmful or dangerous, but we’re talking about situations that never would have happened if people, in general, were of higher consciousness. On the other hand, if it means creating peaceful, prolific situations for everyone, then it looks like the Keys To Power Persuasion provide the most realistic approach to our current reality.
Do you know what I mean?
Thanks for your time,
Randolph