„Your Inner Computer“ Series No. 6

Control Panel

© Heidrun Beer 2004

So far, we have devoted most of our attention in this article series to unwanted events in the operating system of our “inner computer”, the mind. System crashes and endless loops, the difficulties of finding the balance between two opposites which are both positive, and the careful handling of free attention are issues which mark the life of every computer user, whether it is a computer made from metal and silicon, or the combination of biological and spiritual components which is known as a mind.

Today we will look at another important part of an operating system: its user interface, called the “control panel”. We have seen it many times: the window which pops up with a collection of little symbols, each representing a task in managing the computer’s components. There is a hardware manager, a network manager, a manager for multimedia and sounds, an interface for the management of regional settings like time format or currency, a manager for telephone and modem settings, managers for mouse and keyboard, and many more.

A comparable control panel is also necessary in the human mind. Where it is missing, it needs to be installed, and where it is not well utilized, its utilization needs to be improved. Only people with a lot of luck can live without thinking about their management tasks - mostly by delegating them to loving mothers, fathers, wives or husbands -, but to be on the safe side, we better spend some time studying them and practicing their use.

Unwanted identities

People trained in Scientology are used to the term “valence”, which describes an artificial personality created by trauma or overwhelm. There is an agreement that valences are something unwanted and need to be processed out of the person’s case - which will bring the true personality to light. Alan C. Walter and especially John Mace have developed efficient processes to eliminate such unwanted identities.

Another kind of unwanted personality shows up on the “upper levels” - the not incarnated spiritual being, called an “entity”, who has somehow attached himself to a person’s body or lives in his space. In Scientology, these spirits are processed with NOTs (New Era Dianetics for OT’s). The Ron’s Orgs handle them with a process by Bill Robertson, “Excalibur”. Both processes will handle some of the entity’s case but basically aim at getting rid of them.

Wanted identities

The identities we want to look at don’t belong in either one of these groups, as they are not unwanted. Basically there are two kinds of identities which we want to keep - trying to “run them out” would leave us with the void of a spirit in native state instead of a personality with a mind that is fit to handle a human life.

First and most important, there are our main identities whom we certainly don’t want to lose - all the roles we play during our existence: the spouse, the father, the business person, the politician, the spiritual seeker etc. In a well established mind, they actually have the main focus, or share the main focus between them. If, however, the underlying management tasks are not well cared for, the focus will be pulled off the main identities and forced into the management tasks as they present their typical emergencies.

For this reason, the manager identities which compose the “control panel” of the mind need some attention at least until they are well grooved in and producing reliable results. They too are role models which are not only wanted, they are necessary if we expect our lives to function and our mind to be free for the challenging endeavours of the main identities, or the ambitious goal of making spiritual progress. We could think of them as secretaries or household staff - life without them is possible but not very rewarding.

Parallels with the computer

The parallels with the computer are obvious: we are looking at a collection of specialized managers who are supposed to take care of indispensable functions, like body management, financial management, spiritual caretaker etc. As discussed in the last article (“System resources”), the managers will have to make sure that they develop an intelligent system of utilizing the available resources - space, time, free attention, equipment and funds - in such a way that there are no serious collisions or shortages.

This sounds simple and easy, but applied in real life it turns out to be quite a challenge - so much that it is a good idea to keep notes until all of the managers are really used to their jobs and all the essential actions are well in place and producing the expected results!

Especially time and free attention are rare in a typical human being’s life. For the basic management tasks on the mind’s “control panel” they MUST be allocated though. An omission in these areas can not only be dangerous (as in the case of a neglected financial manager), it even can turn out to be deadly (as in the case of a neglected or non-existent health manager).

Taking things lightly is a nice and loveable feature for the main identities; but if the mind’s collection of managers takes things lightly, we are pretty close to a scene of sabotage. There is no alternative to consistent, thorough and predictable work where these managers are concerned. Only with our collection of managers being at work in a reliable way, can we hope to have a good amount of resources free for our main identities - the really interesting roles we want to play on the stage of life.

Non-parallels with the computer

The managers also have some features which cannot be found in the computer. They are not only managers, they are also live beings with actual feelings, and when mistreated or neglected, they can have upsets, confusions, misemotions or irrational reactions, just like the main identities. They can give up when overwhelmed, they even can go on strike when in protest!

Another interesting thing which is not found in our computer’s control panel is that the mind’s manager identities can have conflicts with each other. Here the main identity - in his function as “general manager” - needs to take action by initiating a “conference” where he has the two (or more) conflicting identities gain reality about each other and find a compromise, before damage can happen.

These are the main identities who need to be installed and activated in every human mind’s control panel in order to keep the operations smooth and free of unpleasant surprises. In non-human life forms, the control panel probably would look different, but it would still exist.

Physical control panel

1. Personal (body) manager: Covers basic functions like diet, sleep, environment, hygiene, exercise, health. Covers sexual needs where no relationship exists and has to negotiate sexual needs with the spouse identity if a relationship exists (for instance, when the partner is sick or absent).

2. Household manager: Takes care of physically maintaining the homebase.

3. Administrative/financial manager: Takes care of money flows and paperwork. Must provide income if no professional identity is assigned to that, or negotiate financial needs if we depend on a family income provider.

4. Parenting manager: Makes sure that well-maintained bodies exist for use in the future and that a well-maintained environment will exist at the same time. In the big picture, the parenting identity is a body and household manager for the future, and needs to cover all issues relevant to body and household matters in the future.

Parenting responsibilities do not necessarily require physical children. Caring for orphans, 3rd world children, working for a healthy environment or making a substantial and ongoing contribution to the future in other ways will fulfil this function.

Human interface control panel

5. Social manager: Keeps the connections to extended family and social groups.

6. Ethnic (cultural) alignment manager: Makes sure that individual interests are aligned with the culture. Where the main identity’s goals ask for daring explorations (sex or drug experiments!) or cultural reformation (as we observed it in women’s liberation, the gay movement or the ecology movement), the cultural alignment manager needs to supply sufficient data that any personal risk can be thoroughly evaluated before actions are taken which cannot be reversed.

7. Education manager: Takes care of keeping all knowledge up-to-date which is used (or would be needed) by any of the identities. Actively locates areas of missing knowledge - doesn’t wait for the requests of other identities!

Spiritual control panel

8. Spiritual coach (processor): Takes care of spiritual health, hygiene and well-being on a regular (if not daily) basis.

9. Communicator to spiritual parent level: A priest or guru, non-incarnated spirit-guides, guardian angels, "higher self" etc. may take over this function, but should be checked for reliability whether they are in a body or not! They will sometimes set up traps as a test for completion of certain training levels - we need to be aware of those!

This identity provides a channel to the roots of our existence outside of the time/reality stream and sometimes interferes with our plans because these plans do not correlate with our future which - at the level outside of time and reality - already has happened.

10. Central management: No matter what identities are installed on the “control panel”, there must be a central management, or some of the identities will destroy the operations of others, because they are like a choir without a conductor - not aligned with each other.

11. Additional identities as needed.

Typical problems

The most typical problems among identities who belong to the “control panel” are these:

- Manager missing (not installed): Here we find the reason for many existences which we consider below average. People in financial trouble, people in poor health, socially withdrawn people or people in conflict with the law don’t necessarily have to have massive case trouble. They may simply come from a family where some relevant manager identities were not installed either, so none of the parents helped the kids to install an efficient financial manager, health manager or social manager - not to speak of the more ambitious managers on the spiritual level. The remedy would be to install the manager, pretty much like pulling a CD out of the pocket and adding a symbol to the control panel.

- Manager untrained: A manager who never got a good training on his job will not be able to function. He must be trained like any secretary or other employee who is supposed to do work for us. His goals must be explained to him and he must be shown his tools and other equipment. This is a short paragraph in an article but requires life-long work and attention (see education manager).

- Manager discouraged: Any one of the managers can have been invalidated (unmocked), abused or otherwise overwhelmed, either by one of the main identities, by one of the other managers, or by forces outside the person - in this case, the discouragement is probably “inherited” from the main personality who got overwhelmed herself. In all such situations, we would schedule a session for the identity, pretty much like we process entities - but we process them back to an eagerness to work, not to a “blow” (going away). The program would be tailormade like for any other client and use all available tools ad needed.

Power struggles between managers are frequent: a health manager can easily get overwhelmed by a stressed parenting manager or financial manager. The worst of all is sometimes the “spiritual parent level communicator”, who acts from outside the timestream and can “force” us into a certain reality or future. We sometimes feel compelled to do something entirely unreasonable, against the loud protest of all the rational managers present. Even the main identities might be in disagreement. Such things often turn out to be key actions which can only be understood in hindsight. If it were not practically impossible, we really should ask for such orders in writing!

Discouraged managers need to be acknowledged for their attempts to function, and reinstated in a management conference (see below). Generally they like appreciation from the main identities, even if their sense of duty will make them work regardless of any acknowledgement.

- Manager has no resources: We shouldn’t be surprised that our diet is bad if we never allow the health manager the time to get himself educated! The same is true for the work of all other managers as well. A social manager needs funds for Christmas cards. An education manager needs a book budget and, if possible, an internet connection. It is an easy exercise to add more items to this list.

- Education manager idle: One of the most disastrous situations in the control panel! The education manager is responsible for getting the necessary knowledge into the circuits of all the other managers as well as himself. His most important resource is daily study time. The study should cover all management issues before it covers the projects and hobby-horses of the main identities: After all, a healthy body, a functioning homebase and a sound financial scene are the foundation for all these more far-fetched activities!

Other troublesome situations might disturb a manager’s work. Generally it is not too difficult to understand them, as these managers react pretty much like people (trained Scientologists are aware of the fact that the human being is a composite of consciousnesses). As long as they are not ignored by a too relaxed or careless leadership, or pushed aside by identities who think nobody other than themselves is important, most if not all situations can be sorted out in the management conference.

Management conference

In regular intervals, a management conference should be held where all the managers are asked for their recent activities, successes, but also their disappointments. It is necessary to connect the consciousness of the individual managers, so that there is mutual understanding and an awareness of the fact that they work for each other as well as for the whole person - not for some isolated and unconnected purpose. This is done pretty much like a session on entities - telepathically, with the questions and commands “intended” to the individual managers, rather than asked aloud. Communication lines can be established by visualizing actual lines, or channels, on which understanding can travel, or wavelength patterns can meet and interact.

This way, the health manager who groans about the overweight gets a chance to talk to the financial manager who has bribed the body with sugary food in order to squeeze more income producing work out of it - or to the damn spiritual crew who doesn’t let the body go to sleep before it collapses - or the financial manager can show the limits to the education guy who got into a book buying frenzy - all these people are just doing their job, but they need coordination. Another necessity would be the general manager bringing the activity requests (“mission orders”) of the main identities to have them discussed by the managers.

Especially managers who seem to be too quiet should be questioned what is happening in their area of responsibility. Some monstrous outpoint might come to light - like a health manager reporting “my stomach doesn’t like the green vegetables” - which is alarming news, because a whole branch of very much needed nutrients has been driven out of use by the case dramatization or primadonna attitude of a body part, or entity pretending to be a body part. Here the processing manager has to jump and schedule a session as soon as possible - long before the situation can become dangerous for the whole physical/spiritual team who just turned out to depend on a body which is suffering from malnutrition.

Another, very different alarm situation is a spiritual parent level communicator complaining “We have become totally human, I don’t get a chance anymore to direct any attention to the communications I am supposed to convey - in the last half year, all the work was only about money, body, physical possessions, success in the business, we are no longer spiritual...” The general manager who observes this knows at once that the main individual is just about to “go native” (becoming a “meatball” instead being an aware person with a spiritual identity or spiritual mission). Here the remedy would consist of making the physical part of the operation so much smaller that the spiritual part has a chance to grab some of the resources again - or at least to get a holiday so that a spiritual project can be squeezed in.

Not all possible alarm situations can be predicted here, but a good general manager gets a sense for the wavelength of “alarm” and can react to it with the appropriate actions.

Urgency level

There are few things in a computer which are more urgent than its maintenance. There is no doubt about this point where office computers are concerned. Our mental computers are much more likely to be found in a state of chaos or at least partial neglect, because we come from a culture which is not look at the mind in such a systematic way.

Ideally, there would be a constant dialogue between the “general manager” identity and the management crew. If all of them are existent, active and in good communication, a daily or weekly management conference might be unnecessary. But if some are newly installed or need an upgrade in their training, it would be best to create a solid anchor for a regular consultation, like an entry in the calendar.

If it is difficult to visualize them, the management conference can be done in a room with a big table and each manager given a chair. It may sound childish to do this, but giving some mass and solidity to them can help to make them more real. The purpose is not unimportant after all: we want a mind which is not functioning just by chance but because it is well organized and maintained.

 „Your Inner Computer“ Series No. 5: System Resources  --  „Your Inner Computer“ Series No. 7: Program Hierarchy

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This page last changed on: 30. Mar 13