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The Reality Perception Personality Spectrum Ensemble Example - Schizophrenia (v. #3)          Select the section that interests you.

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Offered by David Apollo

Author's Note

"What is Real is not simply what we imagine it to be." - David Apollo

While there may be multiple interpretations and perceptions about what is actually happening among a variety of individuals watching the same thing happen, in reality there is only ONE truthful description of what is going on For Real. All the variants of the perception of Reality are the result of the "Filters" we are built with that serve to detect and interpret the environment we encounter and interact with. Those filters differ within each of us from each other in a variety of ways. Those differences are responsible for the different perceptions that are generated and embraced.

The Reality Perception Personality Spectrum Ensemble confers the ability to recognize the Real from the Imaginary, the thought in one's mind from the actual reality going on outside the mind. All That Is, including oneself, is Real. However, the mind may not be regarding the Real truthfully, even as It unfolds in plain sight.

The advances made in the scientific domain that will lead to a deeper understanding of cognitive perceptions, interpretations, and responses are advancing much more quickly and with much more rigorous scientific methodology than was possible in the past, and is very exciting. It is wonderful to be able to sketch some of that out for a general audience interested in The Truth of Things based more on uncovered facts and less on imaginary rhetoric that can be made to "feel right" but cannot be empirically validated.

This is Version 3 of the chapter discussing the Reality Perception Personality Spectrum Ensemble. It is currently offered as is in order to get introductory information out to the ConserveLiberty audience for their review. Subsequent revisions may include additional material that support sections of this chapter more completely.

→ The Author's Note was last updated 29 Nov 2016 12:00 PST ←

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Preface

We start each Personality Spectrum Filter discussion by reminding the reader several things about the filters, ensembles, and tapestries. ← Click there.

The biological and genetic basis underlying human personality is expected to be quite complex, with many component parts. By no means should it be construed or implied that the Reality Perception Personality Spectrum Ensemble is the result of a single gene. Rather, an ensemble of biological parts are necessary to be expressed and put together just right so that a person's individual place on the Reality Perception Ensemble is determined.

In fact, with regard to the Reality Perception Ensemble, or (when the ensemble components have drifted far enough away from the settings required in order to perceive the distinction between Reality and Imagination) Schizophrenia ... its probably a bit more clarifying to reiterate the statements above in a more declarative manner:

There is no single gene (whose expression or structure is variable and can be altered,) or for that matter a single event, that is causative of Schizophrenia when it is sufficiently altered. Either by genetic variation, environmental influence, or random fluctuation resulting in recognizable clinical impact. Similarly, there is no single gene, or for that matter a single cause, that results in our ability to correctly distinguish between Reality and Imagination.

Rather, numerous genes are involved, which together under the right circumstances result in our ability to correctly distinguish between Reality and Imagination. These numerous genes, functioning together as an ensemble, many times do result in the ability of many to correctly distinguish between Reality and Imagination, and we refer to this as the Reality Perception Personality Spectrum Ensemble. Each of the components within the ensemble are subject to variation among individuals, as all genes are. Thus, on a population scale, individuals can be found all along the "scale" from 0 (zero) to 100 (one hundred), regarding the default "setting" for this Reality Perception Ensemble for each individual.

Filter as ensemble of components

Ensemble as ensemble of filters

In fact, the "setting" for the Reality Perception Ensemble is itself determined by the collective settings for the Filters that make it up and how those settings impact the way in which they integrate with each other. And of course, if these component Filters are themselves ensembles of individual components that make them up, then the Filter settings themselves are determined by the collective settings of the individual components that make them up. And so on if relevant.

For the purpose of illustration, we will simply assert that a setting of 100 confers a perfect ability to distinguish between Reality and Imagination. And, a setting of 0 confers a perfect inability to distinguish between Reality and Imagination.

And now we come to a most interesting inference. Assuming that:

• the Reality Perception Personality Spectrum Ensemble is ultimately organic in nature and thus generated genetically, and
• there are variations from one person to the next among the individual components that ultimately compose the Reality Perception Ensemble

... then it follows that we will find people all along the spectrum, having default settings from 0 to 100. Since this ensemble is not yet worked out,

• it is possible that we may find that getting to the extreme settings of 0 or 100 might require component changes that could have lethal results, and/or
• a perfect setting of 100 (or 0), which would result from perfectly aligned settings between all the ensembled components, while possible would also be extremely rare from a statistical consideration

Thus we can anticipate that in a large population what we may actually find will be Reality Perception Ensembles with default settings between approximately 15 to 85.

Continuing, at some point, as the default setting becomes lower, the inability to distinguish between Reality and Imagination becomes an issue. And, it becomes an issue well before all ability to distinguish between Reality and Imagination is absent. So, lets just throw out a number, and assert that once the setting for the Reality Perception Ensemble becomes less than 50, then the ability to distinguish between Reality and Imagination is so compromised that a diagnosis of Schizophrenia can be made.

The Reality Perception Ensemble - depending on where our default "setting" is, renders one instinctively within a range anywhere from:

• doing a credible job at discerning what is Real vs. what is Not Real, or Unreal, or Imaginary (if set near one extreme,) to
• doing a good enough job such that we are still tolerable among those sane souls we interactive with, although they may regard us as "high-maintenance" (if set a bit more midway,) to
• being considered schizophrenic, unable to distinguish between the Real and the Unreal, if set near the other extreme)

Thus, at any time, when interacting with a sufficiently large and randomly selected group of people:

• We will interact with many who do quite well distinguishing between Reality and Imagination.
• Others that we interact with have occasional confusion between what is Real and what is Unreal, but they do well enough that they mostly make sense to us, and so we tolerate them. They find themselves perfectly normal. Perhaps we think of them as a little more creative than others, or entertaining in some way.
• There are others who don't do so well, on average, distinguishing between the Real and the Unreal. They still may mostly make sense to us. They believe themselves to be reasonable, justified. We may find them to be "high maintenance".
• Finally there are those that pretty much don't make sense to us very often if at all. At some point they are diagnosed as schizophrenic after a visit to a credible psychologist.

In other words, all of us may be, in one way or another, a little bit (or more) on the way to becoming crazy. And, when that understanding is made, it is usually made by us suspecting that it may be the "other person" who is making misjudgements in distinguishing between the Real and the Unreal.

While it is important to Conserve Liberty, at some point liberty may need to be restricted if the risk of unnecessary harm to others becomes too high.

→ The Preface was last updated 18 Dec 2016 11:15 PST ←

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