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The Opponent's Perspective

If you know your opponent and know yourself
you need not fear the result of a hundred battles
— Sun Tsu

To know your opponent, you must become your opponent
 —  Sun Tsu

 

When you encounter a conflict between the path of greatest advantage and the path of least resistance, your challenge is to choose the former despite the forces of corruption that try to make you defect. This project is a collaboration between you the performer, who experiences the challenges from the first-person perspective, and the observer, who experiences them from the third-person perspective, whose objective is to promote good outcome as you define it. The other side of the conflict, the personification of corruptive influences, is working to oppose your objective.

Your opponent sees things from the second-person perspective. If this was a tennis match, your opponent would see you as either its opponent or as the tennis ball. To illustrate this perspective, consider Mr. E:

The mystery of Mr. E's repeated failures

Mr. E has sworn off gambling to protect the financial future of his family. During his most recent session we discussed his upcoming road trip to the west coast. He was intending to drive through Las Vegas "where you can get great hotel rooms for next to nothing." I argued that this apparently irrelevant decision is actually part of the path to relapse as it would put him "close to the action" where the PIG would influence his judgments. He said that he understood my concern but felt certain that he would be able to handle the temptation and wanted to test himself.

His history of costly relapses has driven him to hire me to help him prevent future relapses, which shows that he recognized he was a compulsive gambler. Considering that, you would think that it would be obvious to him that driving through Las Vegas would a bad idea.

Here is mystery of mysteries: Why does an intelligent fellow who hates to fail continue to make the same obvious blunders?

As bizarre as it sounds, such preposterous rationalization and blindness to obvious dangers is typical for those attempting to control an excessive appetite. The observation that otherwise competent individuals seem to intentionally follow a path that is obviously counter to their interests is often taken as evidence that they are compelled by a disease to make the choices that they do.

The unintended consequence of attributing the cause of such perverse decisions to a disease over which one is powerless is to encourage the search for an external rescue. The downside of turning over responsibility for control of your behavior to an external source, such as treatment provider, medication, support group, shows up in high likelihood of relapse when the external source of control is not around. For change to be irreversible, it must come from within.

To discover your solution

For Mr. E to regain control of his choices he must solve the mystery of why he keeps failing. Solving his mystery will be a good exercise for you to prepare to solve your puzzle.

Thought experiment: Can you empathize with each perspective?

Nietzsche's perspectivism path to understanding: "[T]he more affects we allow to speak about a matter, the more eyes, different eyes, we know how to bring to bear on one and the same matter, that much more complete will be our "concept" of this matter."

View Mr. E.'s conflict of whether or not to drive through Las Vegas through these eyes:

  • After his last relapse, the remorseful Mr. E swore he would never make that mistake again [third-person's perspective looking back on his error].
  • Before the next relapse, Mr. E. feels certain he can handle the pull of temptation [first-person perspective].
  • The casino owners designing their advertising campaign judge Mr. E's conflict from the second-person perspective

Three Perspectives

  1. First-Person: "I am driving to the west coast. At this moment I don't feel any temptation to gamble and I am aware of my commitment to quit gambling for the benefit of my family. I feel certain that I can take advantage of the high-quality, inexpensive lodging and demonstrate that I am not a compulsive gambler [loser]."
  2. Second-Person: You are driving to the west coast. [The opponent's perspective is to get Mr. E. to obey the laws of cause-and-effect— i.e., follow the path of least resistance.]
  3. Third-Person: Mr. E is driving to the west coast. There are many possible third person perspectives, some helpful [rational, problem-solving, wants Mr. E. to get the outcome he says he wants] and some harmful [harshly critical that judges Mr. E as defective and bad, overly permissive including rationalizations about quality hotel room].

As Sun Tsu recommends, see through the eyes of your opponent in order to get some insight about your vulnerabilities. When you plan how to cope with a HRS, consider how the opponent might appraise your weaknesses and use its weapons.

The valuable byproduct of personal research

As was the case for the Personal Research Tool, the shift in perspective required to do the research can exert its own influence to promote the intended change. In addiction to the information you acquire, the shift in perspective required to observe the opponent and his weapons [especially if you can do it during HRS] helps your side of conflict.

The shift of attention reveals the opponent and reminds you of the conflict between your will and external sources of control - for example: whenever you experience conflict, that is your opponent challenging you to a match. These occasions give you the opportunity to observe from the third-person perspective your opponents weapons and how you can react to them in real-time.

Will & Hypnosis

What people call hypnosis includes one or both of these related phenomena:

This section [The Direct Path] described why it's a good idea to intentionally choose your perspective rather than to accept the perspective of least resistance. The next section [The Trance Formational Path] describes how to create subjective reality by reifying the advantageous perspective.

Hypnosis & Ordinary Trances > >

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