Considerations

Of a truer experience
of living, perhaps the most important thing that one can do in life, is to tune one's perception, since perception is the experience of living.

If one were travelling in a rail car for the purpose of sight-seeing, one would not want dirty windows, such that when looking out, all one saw was only what was reflected from within. The windows whether clean or dirty are analogous to what is termed here, the Associative Landscape.

This Landscape is all Association contained in the memory, which affects the the way the individual perceives outside reality. Association is the memory of past experience and thinking. The individual recognizes, identifies and gives context to the present by comparison with association.

A dog is distinguished from a cat by remembered and associated past experience of dogs and cats. The experience of Zomp may have no associative reference of any kind, and thus Zomp cannot be identified in any way. Once having experienced Zomp, a second experience will contain a context of the first experience, and thus Zomp will be recognized within the context of that past experience.

Another example of association is when viewing the countryside through the window glass of the rail road car, it is not a true experience. One only senses by sight and does not experience with the rest of the sensory apparatus.

To fill in the blanks one relies on Association such that if one sees many trees with brown leaves one may be possessed of Associations of autumn.

Associations are the memory of past experience, that one automatically or selectively attaches or compares to present experience or other memories. While in the train compartment, one will interpret what one sees outside the window by Association, and these Associations are different for different people.

A home owner may associate brown leaves with raking, and a farmer might associate them with harvest. Association affects the perception of present circumstance and determines the experience of present reality. The Associative Landscape is the way Association affects the individual's perception.

What goes on inside the rail car compartment, affects what one perceives through the windows as outside reality. If one is engaged in conversation with another passenger, which is analogous to thinking, one may not notice what is transpiring outside the windows. If one sees things outside that one has no experience with, such as snow on the ground, this will affect what is perceived as un-understanding. If one becomes entranced with one's own reflection in the window glass, one will fail to notice what is on the other side.

The individual is stamped with the association of past experience. The Associative Landscape is the Conditioning of the individual, and may represent all the experience an individual has had, excepting what has been forgotten or repressed, but which may still affect present experience, something akin to the automatic conditioned response of fear for instance, at the sight of bullies that one has had bad experience.

The Associative Landscape is generally some kind of mix between pleasant and unpleasant memories. Some memories are stronger than others and thus have more of an affect.

Different individuals may register the same sensory subject in nearly the same, slightly different or completely different ways, depending upon the person's Associative Landscape. Two different people may experience the presence of the same dog in different ways, depending upon the experience each has had with dogs in the past. One person may like all dogs and pet every dog one encounters having been around dogs all of one's life, while another person may not trust dogs having limited or bad experience, and stiffen with the encounter of any dog. This kind of varying registration is termed Interpretive Context, which means that present sensory subjects are interpreted individually, by the context of association or experiences one has previously had with the subject.

The Interpretive Context is different for different kinds of people, in terms of dissimilar experience, such as the difference in wealth, climate and geography, education or outdoor experience. The individual recognizes, identifies and gives context to present consciously aware sensory impressions and images, by comparison with association.

Associative Landscape is derived from actual physical everyday experience, or from more removed means such as reading, watching films, or listening to others, such as story telling, and from thinking and imagination.

Association is the screen and filter in which all present reality is interpreted. Associative Landscape is the portals from which reality is perceived and interpreted.

These portals can be generalized into categories as associative perspectives, such as the type of national culture, political perspectives, religious beliefs or educational training. They also may include the experiences and values inculcated by one's family back-ground, the friends and relationships one has had, and general experience within one's community. From this Association one interprets the world.

Because memories can fade, can be altered by logical analysis, argument and understanding, and can be overridden by new experience, the Associative Landscape can be changed, so that the individual can perceive the world in various differing ways, either as continual and incremental change or of a sudden.

One can select to a certain degree, what impressions and images one places in the memory. One can refuse to watch violent media for instance, choose what one reads, choose the experiences one will have or the places where one will go. In this way Association that may affect the individual negatively can be avoided.

One of the primary determinants of the content of the Associative Landscape and how it affects one is Consequential Values. Consequence is what is most important to the individual and thus Associations containing Consequence, have the greatest affect.

What is considered to be of Consequence determines what one notices, pays attention to, is aware of, determines how one reacts, and affects the sensory experience and the emotions of the everyday experience of reality. If one thinks a thing is ordinary and unimportant, one may pay it no attention.

Association from the past that affects the individual in the present, in a way that the individual is unhappy with can be changed. This can be done by Analysis or the review of one's past, as the events of which the memories as associations occurred. An understanding of how and why Associations originated, can allow the individual to become aware of them and change one's characterization. One may create one's own values as a substitute for those, one may have been inculcated or indoctrinated with by others.

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