You Are Not Book.indb - Stephen H. Wolinsky Ph. D.

The Physiology of I AM / 23
system creates 2 a label, “this is a car,” then through further
contracting, creates a description, “My neighbor’s car door
is smashed in.” Further abstracting-condensing can lead
to Inference-1, such as “The owner had an accident.” This
statement is a guess that goes beyond the observable facts.
Still more abstracting-condensing can lead to a “higher”
level Inference-2, “The owner had an accident because he is
a reckless driver.” This inference is even more removed from
the facts the observer had about the condition of the car. This
abstracting-condensing process on successively “higher” levels
can result in a conclusion such as, “I will never let my neighbor
drive me anywhere because we would have an accident.”
What needs to be emphasized again and again is that as we
move from level to level, much of the prior level is omitted
and only a small fraction selected out. This process of omitting
and selecting out is what Korzybski called “abstracting.”
Abstracting is defined, as the act of taking away; forming
an idea apart from concrete things, situations, events, etc.
(American College Dictionary, p. 4). To best appreciate this
term, imagine a scientific article of 75 pages. Now, imagine
an abstract of 2 paragraphs that describes the 75 pages. This
condensation or super-Cliff Notes is called an abstract. And, as
we will discuss later, the devil is in the details that are omitted, or
in our case, Nirvana or YOU ARE NOT is in the pre-abstracted
whole (elephant) which is unseen; this pre-consciousness “state”
Nisargadatta Maharaj pointed us to when he asked: “Eight days
prior to conception who were you?”
Now, as is abundantly clear, Inference-3 is “farther” from
THE SUBSTANCE than Inference-2, and Inference-2 is “far-
2 Please note, the nervous system automatically produces an “I” and all
that is to follow, the illusion or veil is the “I” believing that it does, when
the “I” and doership or beliefs, perceptions, actions, etc., have already
taken place. Nisargadatta Maharaj put it this way: “A stage is reached
where one feels deeply that whatever is being done is happening and
one (“I”) has not got anything to do with it.” (Powell, The Ultimate
Medicine, p. 101)