Chapter Fifteen:

Input/Output Balancing

So now we come to one of the most complex questions of the entire book, one only you can answer: What is it that you want? When you are starting to take responsibility for your inputs and outputs, when you begin to alter your experience though applied memetics and various magical techniques, this question becomes very important. You want to change what you are experiencing, and expand your ability to change situations to your benefit, so you will need to understand not just what you want but why you want it. Are these desires your own or are they imposed upon you from an external source of some sort? This line of reasoning leads to more questions; where did you get the idea this was a desire you should experience? What are the consequences of engaging in these experiences or striving to acquire these items? Should you achieve this desire, will it be to your benefit or will it benefit someone else?

This book is about a way to hack one's mind, world view, and experience. To do this, it is essential to be able to organize existing cognitions and perceptions. Start by placing your topic or area of interest in the center of a piece of paper. Draw a line out from this and write a keyword for a concept or item related to it. You can have multiple lines coming out of any keyword, and the result will look vaguely like a spider web. This is what is called a cluster diagram or a mind-map. Of course, many variations of this exercise are possible, and there are also software applications now online⁷⁵ for mind-mapping exercises.