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Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer
Preface to the Second Edition, by Dr. John Lilly, 1967

In a well-organized biocomputer, there is at least one ... critical control metaprogram labeled "I" for acting on other metaprograms and labeled "me" when acted upon by other metaprograms.

Beyond and above in the control hierarchy ... there may be other controls and controllers, which, for convenience, I call "supraself metaprograms." They are many or one depending on current states of consciousness in the single self-metaprogrammer. These may be personified as if entities, created as if a network of information transfer, or realized as if self traveling in the Universe to strange lands or dimensions or spaces. If one does a further unification operation on these supraself metaprograms, one may arrive at a concept labeled God, the Creator, the Starmaker, or whatever. At times we are tempted to pull together apparently independent supraself sources as if one. I am not sure that we are quite ready to do this supraself unification and have the result correspond fully to an objective reality.

Certain states of consciousness result from and cause operation of this apparent unification phenomenon. We are still general purpose computers who can program any conceivable model of the universe inside our own structure, reduce the single self-metaprogrammer to a micro size, and program him to travel through his own model as if real (level 6, Satori +6: Lilly,1972) This property is useful when one steps outside it and sees it for what it is—an immensely satisfying realization of the programmatic power of one's own biocomputer. To over-value or negate such experiences is not a necessary operation. To realize that one has this property is an important addition to one's self-metaprogrammatic list of probables.

Once one has control over modeling the universe inside one's self, and is able to vary the parameters satsfactorily, one's self may reflect this ability by changing appropriately to match the new property.

The quality of one's model of the universe is measured by how well it matches the real universe. There is no guarantee that one's current model does match the reality, no matter how certain one feels about the high quality of the match. Feelings of awe, reverence, sacredness and certainty are also adaptable metaprograms, attachable to any model, not just the best fitting one.

Modern science knows this: we know that merely because a culture generated a cosmology of a certain kind and worshipped with it, was no guarantee of goodness of fit with the real universe. Insofar as they are testable, we now proceed to test (rather than to worship) models of the universe. Feelings such as awe and reverence are recognized as biocomputer energy sources rather than determinants of truth, i.e., of the goodness of fit of models and realities. A pervasive feeling of certainty is recognized as a property of a state of consciousness, a special space, which may be indicative or suggestive but is no longer considered as a final judgement of a true fitting. Even as one can travel inside one's models inside one's head, so can one travel outside or be the outside of one's model of the universe, still inside one's head (level or state +3 Satori +3: Lilly,1972). In this metaprogram it is as if one joins the creators, unites with God, etc. Here one can so attenuate the self that it may disappear.

Definitions:

Metaprogram: a set of instructions, descriptions, and means of control of sets of programs.

Program: a set of internally consistent instructions for the computation of signals, the formations of information, the storage of both, the preparation of messages, the logical processes to be used, the selection processes, and the storage addresses all occurring within a biocomputer, a brain.

Self-Metaprogram: a special metaprogram which involves the self-programming aspects of the computer, which creates new programs, revises old programs, and reorganizes programs and metaprograms. This entity works only directly on the metaprograms, not the programs themselves; metaprograms work on each program and the detailed instructions therein. Alternative names are set of self-metaprograms, "self-metaprogramming entity," or the self-metaprogrammer.

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