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

36 / You Are Not
of light-sensitive cells, it is also a ‘satellite computer’ in
which visual information is pre-processed for the brain.’
(Gregory, The Intelligent Eye, p. 24) The eye takes in a
little of the energies of reality, translates that sample and
the brain interprets the translation. What a person sees
is based on this interpretation of light patterns that were
perceived a split second ago. So, when we think we are
reacting to what is happening in reality, we are really
reacting to an interpretation of some translated energies
of reality. To live is to abstract—everything we do
involves abstracting (Bois, The Art of Awareness, p. 105).
Johnson put it this way: ‘Abstracting, like digestion, is
a natural bodily function (as a matter of fact, digestion
too is a variety of abstracting process) . . .’ (Johnson,
People in Quandaries, p. 155).” (Sawin)
This is the crucial part of The Substance Diagram, because
from THAT ONE SUBSTANCE, comes the condensation or
contraction of THE SUBSTANCE thus appearing as consciousness.
Then comes Korzybski’s process-movement event,
(“here,” still YOU ARE NOT). At the next condensation, the
physics level, “there” YOU ARE NOT, and then at the microscopic
level there too—YOU ARE NOT. During the next
condensation a nervous system appears. Prior to the object
level we can call the condensed “space” of the body, the object
level, which is where the I AM appears, as well as the objects
the I AM views through perception. However, the I AM views
without thoughts, memory, emotions or associations and is
prior to the label or descriptive levels of abstraction.
This is in the Yoga Sutras:
“Nirvikalpa Samadhi is experienced when memory is
purified and the mind is able to see the true nature of
gross objects of the universe as they are directly, without
distortion, without the mixture of words and meaning.”
(Mishra, The Textbook of Yoga Psychology, pg. 398)