So by identifying and resolving significant incorrect beliefs and unhealthy associations, we can minimize our internal stress and improve our state of mind (see Incorrect Belief Examples). This would bringing us to our happiest state; our true self. I believe we are not inherently evil, we are driven by a collection of psychological forces, which if kept in check and result in a good and loving disposition, providing our environment doesn't threaten us.

I am also interested in finding out where our biologically inherited tendencies stemmed from (a product of past survival techniques). By studying human behavior and it’s origins, we can make decisions on our future with our best interests at heart; both personally and collectively. Rather than relying on mythology and religion, topics like abortion, gene therapy, genetic engineering, even space travel can be placed into a correct perspective. Consider the benefits of removing a genetic trait that leads to irrational fear/suicide in the human genome, or our 'blood-lust' instinct.

The Underlying Forces Behind our Behavior
I have thus far concluded that our happiest state can be found by focusing on our survival. All our instincts are related to survival techniques we have accumulated over our evolutionary path which started 3,400 million years ago (the first living organism on earth). These include fundamental instincts such as feeding, parenting, mating, aggression. These instincts can be diluted/intensified by other genetic traits or learnt beliefs (e.g. the preference of same sex partners, usually a genetic variation of our mating instinct).

As my focus is on our happiness, I would like to focus on parts of our instinctive traits that can be capitalized on. So I would like to promote these 3 objectives;

• Security
• Love
• Wisdom

• Opportunism (deceit, theft)
• Lust
• Blood Lust
• Anger

Consider our primal origins;

• Security; needing a safe place to be in, free from the threat of wild animals, other oppressive humans etc.
• Love; needing nurturing over the first 15 years of our life, as we learn to capitalize on our maturing brain. We were communal creature like chimpanzees and having no hard scales or poisonous fangs, benefited from having others ‘look out for us’ while we ate, drank etc.
• Wisdom; using our intelligence we have dominated the animal kingdom despite not having large teeth etc..

We can see these objectives in our personal life;

• Security; Putting locks on our doors and windows, killing spiders and flies, self defense courses etc..
• Love; seeking companionship and friendships.
• Wisdom; Studying and reading self-help books. Learning from our experiences; note how we are drawn to look at car accidents - like monkeys, we are instinctively curious creatures.

• Security; the enforcement of Law and Order.
• Love; subsidized health care, pensions for the unemployed, elderly and disabled.
• Wisdom; building schools and universities, promoting education.

It logically follows that there is one ideal way of thinking and possibly no need for any religion. Some variations in cultures could be supported if they were not held onto strongly; e.g. so as to not hinder marriage between people of different cultures, and to prevent culture based wars. A common international language is also good as it further breaks down the barriers between each other and thus aide in the prevention of wars.

Controlling our Biologically Inherited Traits
Our species is the product of over 3.4 million years of evolution; we can trace our origins from single cell bacteria, through to algae, reptiles and most recently monkeys. As we passed these stages our genes picked-up life saving instincts (e.g. our fight or flight response, blood lust, sex drive, love, curiosity, need for excitement). Some instinctive tendencies became less suitable and were to varying degrees superseded by new ones. However these primal tendencies are still available and can have a powerful influence over us (e.g. fear, rage) for better or worse; these driving forces having nothing to do with logical thinking. Fortunately we have a very long developmental stage (especially for the first 15 years¹), allowing our brain to biologically mature, it acquires many non-instinctive habits as we learn from interpreting the things we see, hear, touch etc. to challenge these instinctive influences.

Since beliefs and associations are learnt through reasoning, hypnosis, etc., they can also be unlearnt using similar techniques. Advertisers capitalize on our capacity to associate etc.. However the biologically inherited driving forces (e.g. instincts) remain with us and cannot be removed from our subconscious. When these influences are not managed (through a healthy fear of the Law, objective thinking etc.) an action reflecting some primitive stage in our evolutionary development may result; e.g. murder, rape, suicide. Note what happens when a group overthrows a government without the support of the police force/military; shops are ransacked, racist violence and other primal acts quickly gather momentum (e.g. Indonesia, Fiji). Learning the importance of self-control rather than short-sighted selfishness reflects the tension between primal instincts when we were social to other earlier eras in our evolutionary history when we were fighting each other to survive.

When our biological/genetic needs for support are not perceived to be forthcoming we suffer from anxiety, depression etc. these symptoms are sourced from primal fears; we are anxious because no one loves us, and instinctively feel we are vulnerable to attack by fellow humans or animals (our last evolutionary change occurred approx. 100,000 years ago; at that time all humans were nomadic). These feelings arise in response to various situations, and they may be exaggerated or suppressed due to personal past traumatic feelings that are unprocessed and repressed (e.g. from childhood, jail or war)². Note that wearing warm bed clothes and going to bed with a teddy bear or body pillow, comforts our instinctive needs for security (which are replacing our mother/partner in a more primal setting). Note also how dogs and cats provide comfort to single people, providing a safe way of giving and receiving affection (which may be replacing a instinctive need for a child/parent relationship).

Why Individualism?
Most philosophies focus on the group, rather than the individual. Even though we seem to have instinctive traits that seem to switch off our intellect and we fight for a common cause without giving much thought to personal loss or follow a leader blindly, I think predominately we are individuals. We fight for our own survival - we try to manage our physical and psychological needs (babies cry, children try different ways to get their parent's attention, adults may use drugs to manage depression, gambler use gambling in an attempt to satisfy a psychological desire).

A mob can act quite illogically, as the individuals in the group have a greater need for camaraderie and acceptance from the group, than focus on the common good. A group of individuals can easy get out of control, as they switch off their intellect/conscience as the need for companionship and lust for power dominates their subconscious thoughts and desires. The group can loose interest in controlling our destructive, short-sighted selfish instincts and the flawed beliefs we have accumulated during our life. Consider how when people are trained as soldiers they can blindly carry out inhumane acts.

We get involved in a group in an attempt to further our individual happiness. So by focusing on the individual’s happiness, collectively we can have a happy civilized community, regardless of race, creed or color.

Racism vs. Individualism Since most of our behavior stems from our upbringing, rather than our genetic heritage, I think a person’s bloodline has little to do with their anti-social behavior (although the culture/upbringing they grew up with would be very influential). The old argument of "Nature verse Nurture" is in need of consideration.

I would also like to point out that on focusing on the individual rather than the group, wars and fighting will be minimized. People are much more likely to fight if they believe they have supporters. By having people be loyal not to an individual/race but to the common good of the community, a more civilized, stable government will result.

The United Nations is trying to police unruly leaders of countries, but it is much easier to have peace if their is no nationalism, no blind following of any leader - to judge each leader against a his/her ability to support the common good, rather than giving privileges to groups on racial grounds. By fostering a culture that gives acceptance to those that idolize a common good, rather than a particular person or grouping, our psychological need for acceptance won't blind our intellect and conscience.

I would like to point out here that I am not promoting Communism, rather a scheme where the common good is kept as a the highest priority (a form of Social Capitalism/Utilitarianism). Where people's intentions are important; where the state encourages people to focus on personal and collective happiness, using both the rule of law, advertising and psychotherapy ( through belief correction).

Capitalism
"The individual who comes closest to being the originator of contemporary capitalism is the Scottish philosopher Adam Smith, who first set forth the essential economic principles that undergird this system. In his classic An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776), Smith sought to show how it was possible to pursue private gain in ways that would further not just the interests of the individual but those of society as a whole. Society's interests are met by maximum production of the things that people want. In a now famous phrase, Smith said that the combination of self-interest, private property, and competition among sellers in markets will lead producers “as by an invisible hand” to an end that they did not intend, namely, the well-being of society."³.

My hope is that capitalist investors will also consider the welfare of the community as a whole in making their decisions, rather than purely to maximize profit, which may by default benefit the community. I think some mechanism should be in place to help those who are disadvantaged by such objectives; Promoting goodwill in the community and in the work place;

• Providing a reasonable minimum wage.
• Not allowing people work more than 40 hours a week etc., at a cost to their personal life and family.
• Promoting the quest for knowledge (which empowers the democratic process) rather than totally focusing rewarding those who invest in capital; e.g. the government giving tax advantages for those who complete university as opposed to those that acquire wealth purely through investing.
• Not just providing unemployment benefits, but by providing other work that will both produce an benefit to the community and generate self-worth amongst those who are unemployed.
• Allocating a fixed percentage of economic wealth to furthering goodwill in the community (advertising campaigns, mass psychotherapy etc.).
• Closer supervision of how children are being raised (to prevent high psychotherapy costs/antisocial behavior as adults).

Activism
I think it wise to point out at this stage, that I think there are many people who's flawed belief system results in anti-social/revolutionary behavior. I find that some who promote violent actions are venting such anger as a result of low self-esteem and directing built-up emotions to hating particular philosophies/ideologies/authority figures. They may be quick to sacrifice their freedom, even their life, as their flawed assumptions about life are left intact.

For example, a Anarchist shoots a policeman, and as he is led to jail, holding firm to his belief that he was right in fighting for his cause. We ask him how policemen have caused him any personal injustice, he replies that there were no particular events, but a gut feeling that he is being oppressed, that there is a conspiracy. But when we consider his past childhood experiences, we find their was much injustice, not from police but from his parents.

He experienced little love and much violent discipline. As a child he couldn't think of his parents as a threat, as he instinctively relied on them for his survival, so he assumed he must be at fault to the extent of the pain that he felt (physically and psychologically). He says he honors his parents, as is the custom, so even in adulthood he must assume that he is a very bad person, and lacks self-love. With some psychotherapy he can put the past in it's true perspective, vent his anger towards his parents past actions and as a result his selfworth is replenished. He then would loose interest in behaving irrationally. He was in effect looking for a cause to fight for - looking for another symbol of authority to be angry with, rather than face the truth; that his parents were at fault.

This example illustrates how a flawed belief system can cause serious problems in a civilized society.

Hopefully in your society, authorities that abuse their power can be kept in check by influencing leaders to seek the common good as the ultimate objective via debate rather than violent protest.

2. The Evolution of Western Culture¹

3. Personal Security & the Economy

4. The Impact of this Philosophy

• Freeing.
• Improves your health & happiness.
• Seeks truth, encourages a questioning mind.

• Confronts all forms of negativity that exist (threatening to unethical people).
• Removes power from others (especially unethical people).
• May contradict the way you have been conditioned by your parents, friends etc.

Scientist's discoveries have discounted sections of traditional religious teachings, resulting in a loss in the belief in goodness and the value of ethics. This has been replaced by the incorrect belief that the acquisition of money, leisure and the ever increasing consumption of goods, will lead to happiness. The focus is on personal gain, at the expense of others (not the common good). These beliefs are reinforced through advertising and media, and impact on the world in many ways;

• People are encouraged to believe that ethical people are at a disadvantage, people should disregard their morals, especially when at work.
• Family; divorces and single parent household are common.
• Children; shown to be uneconomical, unlike in the pre-industrialized era, where they helped gather food.
• Education; as ethical behavior is no longer fashionable, children are increasingly out of control, school teachers blaming parents and vice versa.
• Fuel; the cost of fuels is the major focus, favoring nuclear power plants, and the burning of fossil fuels (despite their damage to the environment).
• Business; ethics in all industries declining, as unethical people are thought to be at an advantage (denying the less tangible/long term benefits of goodwill).
• Environment; the focus on production (especially of those in positions of power via a Capitalist philosophy) is leading to the clearing of rainforests, fears of global warming, holes in the ozone layer, acid rain, and smog becoming a health risk in major cities. Some manufacturers are hoping to capitalize on these changes in environment.
• Jails; ever increasing in number, as more and more people loose contact with innate goodness.
• Defense; civilized countries selling their technology to warring nations, to maximize material profits.
• Medicine; heart disease on the increase. Other illnesses and new deadlier diseases (e.g. HIV/AIDS) appearing as negativity grips the world.
• Transport; public transport unfashionable, multi-car households encouraged.
• Gambling; becoming more wide spread, as the focus on money drives forward.
• Vanity; large sums of money spent on being fashionable through; brand name cosmetics, weight loss programs, brand name shoes etc.
• Marketing; With knowledge of psychology, some advertisers focus on creating incorrect beliefs in the consumer's mind. For example; teaching the consumer that "powdered milk is superior to breast milk", to sell more powdered milk into South America. Other products using this technique include; cigarettes, sports wear and soft drink manufactures. This brainwashing, affects the happiness of the consumer, and generates ongoing anxiety and vanity. Uneducated citizens/countries are easy targets.

Western World Status Report: 2025 (possible future)

Communities are discovering a love that has never been experienced in recorded history. People are focusing on reducing negativity as soon as it is detected, and improving the common good. There are few poor people, as people no longer seek happiness through material wealth, but through the generation of goodwill in the community. Incorrect beliefs are challenged through advertising, and impact on the world in many ways, targeting the individual's and mankind's well being;

• Churches are being reused as community halls, religious leaders are no longer seen has having a monopoly on knowledge about goodness. They function as facilitators for freethinking meetings and organizing community events encouraging open minded debate, goodwill and the quest for truth.
• People detect incorrect beliefs in others. As people target negativity, there is no fear of reprisals, just love; with people helping each other overcome their problems. Ethics is now the only logical course of action, people easily sensing when they are being deceived.
• Family; few divorces, extended families/close communities are fashionable.
• Children; loved, and taught the values of ethical behavior. Discovering their True-Self forms part of their school program, minimizing anti-social behavior. The long term effects result in a more loving community as these children become adults.
• Education; great advances in learning are achieved. Ethics and love the basis for all education, the removal of fear a common goal. As children graduate mankind's scientific advancement is moving at an astonishing rate, with the help of imaginary experts (the untapped power of our subconscious).
• Fuel; solar and other renewable resources are used. Nuclear power plants, and the burning of fossil fuels is prohibited.
• Business; ethics in all industries increasing, as unethical businesses are detected by customers, and close down due to lack of business.
• Environment; rainforests are regenerating. Fears of global warming, holes in the ozone layer, acid rain, and smog are subsiding. Manufacturers are hoping to capitalize on products which are safe for the environment.
• Jails; many have been converted to housing, as more and more people regain contact with their inherent good nature, and loose interest in crime (see Incorrect Belief Examples).
• Defense; there are tight controls on selling technology to warring nations, as the focus of developed countries shifts from purely profit motived to focusing on the welfare of mankind as a whole.
• Medicine; heart disease on the decrease. Many contagious disease no longer exist, as negativity looses it's grip. Gene therapy commonly used to relieve numerous illnesses. Innovations in the creation of human life lead to happier healthier children.
• Transport; public transport fashionable, multi-car households discouraged. People walk more, and avoid rushing around.
• Gambling; no longer considered socially acceptable. Casinos converted to enable other forms of entertainment that are more sociable and less greed focused.
• Vanity; minimal money spent on being fashionable; people wearing more individualistic clothes, less concerned with social acceptance (as they are accepted for who they are, not what they wear).
• Marketing; Through government sponsorship, some advertisers focus on correcting common incorrect beliefs in the consumer's mind. For example; teaching the consumer that "breast milk is good for babies". The benefits of product to the consumer is focused on, to fulfill an existing need (as advertising company staff consider their personal altruistic beliefs when making business decisions). Undeveloped countries are slow to embrace the new way of thinking.
• Television, and video games; are of little interest, as people seek a deeper satisfaction from the interaction with their fellow humans.
• Communication; wide spread, ideas flowing freely around the world in seconds, bringing the world together, like never before and revealing corruption.
• People no longer idolize other people, but goodness.

5. Decision Making

For example: A girl has no interests in loving anyone, and won't forgive her father for hating her. Upon investigation (see Incorrect Belief Examples) it is revealed that she believes her father hates her as a person, telling her such at one point. She thus avoids loving anyone. Her negativity disappears as this belief is found to be incorrect. It turns out that the correct belief was that her father sought his wife's undivided affection (a consequence of one of his incorrect beliefs), and would of hated anything that prevented this from happening. The daughter was therefore not hated as a person. On understanding this, a trickle affect occurs in her personality; she now seeks to give and receive love.

When a negative thought isn't rebuffed by our conscience, it becomes a belief. This incorrect belief leads to decisions that effectively end in lesson learning events (events that confront the incorrect belief). The events will hopefully affects our conscience, and lead us to see the error in the belief. By holding on to a particular set of beliefs we are setting our destiny along a certain predicable path. If we hold onto incorrect beliefs (which is generally the case) we will experience negative outcomes along the way, and our destiny will not bring us to the happiest state possible.

If we consider ourselves as being fellow travelers walking along the road to some form of personal enlightenment, our perspective will move from judging/idolizing others to focusing on our own progress, with a love for our fellow travelers, since we all have a common goal, a quest for happiness (although most seek it along the wrong path).

Spoiling Children

It is important not to spoil children, because they grow up with a incorrect belief that they are superior, beyond discipline. As adults, their lack of self discipline can cause those around them a lot of pain (without it worrying their conscience). This has a negative flow on affect. They may be eventually abandoned by the one's whom love them, left to wonder what went wrong? The incorrect belief, also gives rise to obvious conflicts between their beliefs and the reality around them, resulting in the person taking on compulsive behaviors (becoming an alcoholic, workaholic, smoker, con-man etc.).

8. Social Conditioning Part 2

9. Family Obligations

As mentioned earlier (see Getting What You Want: Part 1) these wants are what you perceived were in your best interest, but since they may be based on incorrect beliefs, they may not lead to your happiness. For example, you may have received everything you wanted as a child with little need to offer anything in exchange (a spoilt child). As an adult that believe you should get your wants met without offering anything in return, resulting in many failed relationships.

Cultures often put you under an obligation to your parents and them to you. This enables the family to perform the tasks needed to encourage population growth and maintain social order, without the need to remove incorrect beliefs from the individuals in the family. It is then possible to have a very close family that dislikes each other. Grandparents may be rude and arrogant, the youngsters spoilt brats. Obviously this doesn't lead to an individual's happiness. The situation could be much improved if everyone got rid of their incorrect beliefs, but this may be difficult to achieve, as members may be unwilling to change. The motivation to resolve incorrect beliefs can be hampered by the other family members tolerating the negative behavior or false personalities (not saying what they really feel).

When you leave home you really have no obligation to your parents, you don't have to do anything, unless it fulfills the basic principle of getting your wants met (and they should use the same principle with you). You have a built in desire to be happy, anyone who interferes with this quest and will not change, should be therefore avoided regardless of their elderly age. When and if they change their approach, you may like to return since you have a lot of memories in common and will then enjoy their company.

By having family members free of incorrect beliefs, terrific friendships can grow, but in the meantime you should not feel obliged to tolerate their negativity or false personalities.

Inheritance

Since you are more a citizen of humanity than a descendant of your parents, you should not expect or anticipate a material inheritance. Through learning you have already inherited their wisdom (and most likely their incorrect beliefs). Through the incorrect belief that material possessions bring happiness beyond that needed to survive, combined with the social conditioning that states you are have an obligation to your genetic parents for bringing you into the world and rearing you, children perform all sorts of deeds and tolerate all sorts of behavior from their parents (remember your mother had you to fulfill her wants, or by accident). Neither your tolerance of their negative behavior/false personality nor your inheritance will bring you happiness; only a clear mind and a environment that promotes goodwill will.

• A boy is unpopular at school. His father gives him more pocket money so the boy can buy food for other boys. The boy now has friends of convenience, that don't really like him. The boy's inability to gain friendships naturally may be correctable with psychotherapy (see Incorrect Belief Examples).
• A father sees his young son has pulled a toy into pieces, without asking the boy to put it back together, he is consumed by anger (stored up from problems at work) and keeps telling the boy how stupid he his, until the boy shows signs of remorse.

  The boy trusts his father to teach him the correct way to interpret things, since the father kept saying that he was stupid, he eventually believed him and thus reject his own positive opinion of himself as flawed (ruining his spirit and confusing his mind). He concludes that other people's opinion of him is much more important than his opinion of himself (opening the way for low self-esteem). From that point on, the boy focuses on doing things that he hopes will improve his father's opinion of him. His father realizes how keen his son is to please him (without knowing why) and capitalizes on the opportunity, effectively converting his son to a shy slave.

  Now the father's whims can be satisfied by his slave son, in return the son hopes that his father will say something positive about him, and improve his worth. This type of scenario is wide spread, and low self esteem is capitalized by many different people seeking to control others (parents, teachers, governments, religious leaders, lovers etc.).

• A man is seeking the affection of a woman. He talks as if he has the answers to life and the universe to try and get the woman to believe she is inferior (but he knows he doesn't). If she believes she is inferior, she will value his opinion of her worth over her own. This will give him power over her, enabling him to get what ever he desires (except true love). This technique is also common amongst gurus, religious leaders and others who seek power.
• An employee feels his talents are not being acknowledged by his employer (even though he is receiving money for the work he performs). He leaves the company and opens a business. He expects to gain happiness using the follow reasoning;
  1. A person's worth is determined by the opinion of others (an incorrect belief).
  2. People have a high opinion of people who own successful businesses.
  3. The successfulness of a business is measured by how much money it makes.
  4. Therefore happiness can be gained by making lots of money in a business.
  
  His happiness now revolves around his sales figures. One month he's on top of the world the next he's depressed.
  This can also be seen in action with stock market risk takers. They, having big 'money brings happiness' beliefs, can suffer from sudden depression when they loose large sums of money. During stock market crashes, some are so overwhelmed with depression they suicide.
• A man influenced by his strongly held incorrect beliefs, holds a gun to a woman's head and tells her to give him all her valuables. Here the man is using fear, offering safety in exchange for her possessions. After receiving the valuables, he may not fulfill his part of the exchange, and shoot her anyway.

to be ....continued in Book 3: Getting What You Want: Part 2.

Trust
A friendship requires an understanding of the other person - if they aren’t honest your time and the energy you invest will be wasted. If you do it often enough with people that turn out to be untrustworthy, you may decide that it's not worth the effort, or take on their dishonest traits yourself. As a result you'll loose interest in pursuing true love because you have come to believe it's just too hard to find.

Of course you could try to get a dishonest person to become trustworthy but it is a very difficult task - you'll have to convince them that they would be better off being honest (love being a more valuable than material gain, sexual fulfillment and the pursuit of excitement). You will have to consider if it would be worth all that effort.

Communication
To aide the trust and enable a strong bonding, it is useful to communicate their feelings and beliefs openly. Now this leaves you open to a personal attack, since the other party knows how you think - so it will take a lot of trust to let down your guard and communicate well. Each partner will no doubt have a variety of incorrect beliefs that need to be worked on to ensure the maximum happiness is attained through the relationship.

Love is often a new experience, something that is so easy to describe or analyze. By focusing on people who are trustworthy and are good communicators, you will be heading for a bright loving future.

Looks
Now here's a touchy subject!
A person's appearance is a significant factor initially when looking for an intimate relationship - it will encourage you to put in the time and effort, which is required to build a bonding relationship. Not everyone fits the mold of 'perfect' by societies standards, and fashion will dictate what type of look is more attractive at a particular point in time, amongst a particular community. People are come as a package, an attractive appearance doesn't mean a person is trustworthy committed etc.

To find a loving relationship you'll need to reach a balance, an state whereby both people in the relationship respect each other. If one finds the other less than ideal, he will not be as keen as the other, who may feel abused in the relationship. The trick is assess your worth and then seek someone who would appreciate your attributes, whether they be good looks, but low intellect, or reasonable looks, reasonable intellect, or below average looks but a terrific personality/intellect etc..

You invest a great deal of time and effort in establishing a relationship. So it's wise to tread carefully at the start of a possible romance.

Being good looking possesses some problems, as you love towards your partner must be strong enough to fend of offers from other people in the community - mixing with other partnered people and avoiding single people is often used by societies for this reason. Muslim women are requested to wear head coverings to deter the roaming single males.

Deceitfulness
You tell someone you like people that are caring...they then behave in a caring manner so that you will like them, yet they only want sex etc.. They are in fact deceiving you. It's an unfortunate but common approach people use to get what they want. Though what they need is really to be trustworthy and find someone who is trustworthy too, so they can find true love, rather than settling for short term unfulfilling relationships. But people rarely give up habits like deceit. Many cultures encourage deceit in relation to courting a partner.

1. work on improving our state of mind, removing depression etc. (see Discovering your True Self).
2. learn that it is not good to fantasize about certain things (e.g. associating sex with violence).
3. have a healthy respect for the law, and a fear of it's application.
4. increase our resistance to committing an offense by not associating with criminal types etc.

Preventing Murder & Suicide

Cultures influence their citizen's in what is the most appropriate form of fighting; whether boys are taught to fist fight, use Karate, or threaten each other with knives. The culture also influences adult behavior; to favor verbal abuse, fists, knifes, guns etc.. Confusion can occur when two individuals of different cultures are fighting; one might think knives are appropriate, the other might think they are uncivilized.

The cultural acceptance of an instrument of fighting is therefore an important factor in whether an individual will use it in a hostile way. A person who believes it is socially acceptable to use a knife, will, when hostile run to the kitchen draw for a knife. Whereas an individual of a different culture, may not even consider that possibility, but will by instinct search for a gun.

We can be influenced by our incorrect beliefs to perform acts on impulse, our will power can override the impulse, given time and concentration. It is therefore beneficial to move a your culture's socially accepted weapon in a remote place, where time and concentration is required to access it (e.g. a safe). This removes the likelihood of us using the weapon recklessly against others or ourselves (murder or suicide). This is especially true if the socially accepted weapon can cause serious damage quickly (e.g. guns). To enable self defense, other weapons that cannot cause permanent damage should be considered.

Punishment

Punishment and reward is a way of conditioning an individual to behave in a certain way. It is of limited use however, if you want a population of intelligent individuals as it stifles the person's open mindedness, creative thinking, and the ability to love and learn. This is especially true of capital punishment.

The persons (or group) issuing the punishment benefits by satisfying their primal desire for dominance; an imbalance, giving a increased sense of security and may sexual arouse them. Since the people are in a position of power their incorrect beliefs have great power, especially if they have freedom to express that power without any regulation. e.g. the incorrect beliefs that influenced Hitler during world war II, and those that influenced the Popes during the Inquisition Era.

Over the ages punishment, whether threatened or enacted, has been used to instill fear into people and thus condition their behavior (or the behavior of the observers). The method being used to condition others;

• To obey other people's wishes (whether good or bad)
  e.g. people who have broken the law are jailed as a form of revenge, and hopefully to instill fear into other citizens, so they don't brake the law.
• To reveal secrets. e.g. Political prisoners and spies
• To increase the power of a minority, at the expense of truth.
  e.g. Galileo; threatened by the Inquisition with torture if he didn't denounce his book on astral physics which contradicted the beliefs of the church (that earth was the center of the universe).

It should be noted however, that the heavy-handed use of fear as a method of creating social order, retards the population's ability to love, and encourages anti-social behavior when the population feels that there will be no retribution (e.g.. during a riot). It also weakens the will of people seeking to do good works.

It is therefore desirable for people who by their occupation are in positions of power over others (police, prison wardens, judges etc.) to be free of incorrect beliefs, as their ability to cause harm on other humans without retribution is greater.

By giving a thief hard labor, long sentences etc., we are trying to teach them it is wrong to steal. But this may only repress the symptom, not jolt their conscience and clear the cause. The incorrect belief(s) that influenced people to steal etc., may grow bigger and have more power it's reinforced by the oppressive environment.

Thieves and other hardened criminals are in essence the same as everyone else (unless they suffer from physical damage to their brain). They have taken on incorrect beliefs, but given enough encouragement (through poor childhood etc.), we may have done likewise. We should therefore aim at correcting their beliefs (see Incorrect Belief Examples). The current method of isolating them from causing harm in our society (with their belief system unchanged) is expensive and only gives temporary relief.

Case Study: Eric Cooke, Serial Murder

• Born into a family whose parents physically abused each other.
• Eric had a hair lip and cleft palette. He was oppressed by school friends because of his unusual characteristics, and physically abused by his parents (possibly suffering brain damage).
• He left schooling early, and started to steal etc.
• Eventually he was murdering people in succession.
• He was caught and became the last person to be hung in Australia in 1964.
• His son Tony Cooke seeing the harm people can do through flaws in their belief systems, became an active campaigner for civil rights through the union movement, and fights the spread of domestic violence.

People who have been involved in anti-social activities without being penalized, have strongly held incorrect beliefs which, over a period of time, get a tight control over the individual. The person will need a lot of will power and determination from others to challenge their incorrect beliefs' position of power over them.

They may not want to correct their beliefs. Then like stubborn children, they need to be influenced to change that stance. This may involve prison, counseling, living in a loving environment (enabling them to realize that there is love in the world). Twenty four hour observation may be needed to maximize the impact, by removal opportunities to re-offend without retribution (which would otherwise re-energize the offending incorrect belief).

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