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364Pacific Worldconditions of worth and belonging. In other words, most inputs are notinherently threatening, but become threatening by contradicting internalizedstandards.32. Kenneth E. Boulding, “General Systems Theory—The Skeleton ofScience,” in Modern Systems Research for the Behavioral Scientist, ed.Walter Buckley (Chicago: Aldine Publishing Co., 1968), p. 7; see alsoCharles T. Tart, States of Consciousness (New York: E.P. Dutton & Co.,1975), p. 5; Arnold Powell, Joseph R. Royce, and Burton Voorhees, “Personalityas a Complex Information-Processing System,” Behavioral Science 27(1982): pp. 345–6; K.H. Pribram, “The Role of Analogy in TranscendingLimits in the Brain Sciences,” Daedalus 109/2 (1980): pp. 22–3.33. Ervin Laszlo, Introduction to Systems Philosophy: Toward a NewParadigm of Contemporary Thought (New York: Gordon and Breach,1972), p. 127.34. Ibid.35. Hunt would extend this analysis to the culture at large. As he puts it,“much of ‘everyday’ and ‘high’ culture can be seen as a socially endorsed,communal attempt to contain and control this potential for unexpectedopenness and novelty”—in other words, as a way to maintain the statusquo (Hunt, pp. 29–30).36. Combs, Radiance, p. 272.37. See Sackeim and Gur on the inherent, anxiety-producing dissonanceassociated with self-confrontation. They state, “In every study that we areaware of arousal levels were higher after presentation of the self…. The[experimental] evidence indicates that feedback of the self leads to autonomicarousal, negative self-evaluations, defensive reactions, and constrictionson ideational content” (Sackeim and Gur, pp. 153–4, 159). Thismay reflect an inherent dissonance between the egocentric reality of the selfand the idealized self-images most of us hold. Paradoxically, positive selfimagetends to coexist with low self-esteem. In Twelve-Step Programs, thisparadox is often expressed by the remark, “We’re all egomaniacs with aninferiority complex.”38. As Pope and Singer report, “A recent unpublished study by CatherineMcDonald indicated that subjects averaged 43% of reports of stimulusindependentor daydreamlike thought during a given day.” Kenneth S.Pope and Jerome L. Singer, “Regulation of the Stream of Consciousness:Toward a Theory of Ongoing Thought,” in Consciousness and Self-Regulation:Advances in Research and Theory, vol. 2, eds. Gary E. Schwartz andDavid Shapiro (New York: Plenum Press, 1978), p. 131. See also Arthur J.Deikman, “Deautomatization and the Mystic Experience,” in UnderstandingMysticism, ed. Richard Woods (Garden City, NY: Image Books, 1980),p. 248. On the “abstract attitude,” see Francisco Varela, Evan Thompson,