If our group is right, then all the other groups must be wrong...So we have these collectives of people, all stuck in various matrices, arguing over which matrix it's best to be stuck in.

Read the last paragraph again. It is what all political systems and religions are about.

Being stuck in a matrix is the same as if one bit of your brain decided it had the best way to think, so let's make all the other bits think that way too. That's how stupid it is, except these bits of 'brain' really are destroying each other. We cannot get a successful social system out of one matrix, just as we could not get a coherent mind from only one bit of brain. We cannot allow any of these choices to rule us; we must make a new choice. One with a whole working brain behind it.

Now we cannot do that to society at present, but we can do it to ourselves. We can start with the ideals of real independence and freedom, and like it or not, with the need to defend ourselves from enemies both foreign and domestic. And our actions must be similar; we must be vigilant and aware whilst being free from paranoia.

4. Firewalls, Keys and Codes

So, perhaps not surprisingly, attitude is another weapon against breaches of security. With self-esteem we find we value ourselves more highly and are more concerned about our own well being.

The degree to which a change in attitude towards justified confidence affects concrete physiology always takes people by surprise. That's another reason why we have to control input. With our attitude under control (and at first it must be conscious control) we are well and truly in the driving seat. Self-esteem, justified confidence, and freedom from anxiety are the strongest firewalls in the world.

To get them we have to stop internal dodgy input, the enemy within. The most dangerous time for our internal input is when our neurochemistry slips out of balance and we feel depressed or 'down'. The choice of memories we can access at any given moment depends upon our mood, and inevitably whenever we are anxious or afraid, unpleasant thoughts and memories will arise. There are two ways to deal with them.

1. Stop thinking. No, I mean it. Use the noble art of ignoring things, take in some light external input like an amusing book or movie, and distract the mind from paying attention to gloomy thoughts until the mood has lifted (and it will, with time). Drink or smoke enough not to remember the mood.

2. Change the mood by hacking. The internal input will then automatically change with it.

Whenever you use memory, you use a series of different hormonal triggers for keys or symbols to access neural pathways correlating with former associations, all related to your sensory input both past and present (input from within has the same effects as external sensory input on the mid brain). All of these are based on one master key; control of perception. It can be the key to absolute freedom, or a ring to rule them all, so watch it. If you control someone's perception, you control them utterly. Best make sure you're controlling yours.

Question: Why does a newborn human intelligence have the ability to recognize a face?

The presentation of a face at birth is an input trigger, for hormonal keys that bring our sensory networks online. The evolution of intelligence in us personally is about the selective opening or closing of neurochemically active gateways, allowing access to new networks as they develop. At every matrix shift we are given a window of opportunity to bring new networks online with greater ease. They develop anyway, in preparation for use, but access is not granted without the correct chemical key (and if the key is never found, or is destroyed by cortisol, access is never granted). If the key is there, and we have constructed, as intended, the half of the network on our current side of the gates, we are able to use the neurotransmitter keys produced there to release the electrochemical locks and join the networks together or increase the thickness of the connection. Chemical messengers will flit back and forth looking for points of similarity, and associated memories will be strengthened. Keys must fit locks, for gateways to open and networks to connect.

A newborn's hard-wired face-recognition program, on presentation of the correct input, triggers the hormones (keys) to open the chemical gateways that engage the reticular formation's connections for visual processing networks. Any face will do, but only if the input is a face will the external trigger enable the key to fit the internal lock. Once it's in, other keys will follow through and the newborn will smile; a signal to biology that all is well. Nothing else will activate the sensory networks except for the correct input, in this case, visual. For every gate there is an optimal input, and knowing what these are is therefore important.

Exactly likewise, but on a varied scale, we can establish anything from a new habit to the triggering of a matrix shift by establishing new connections, by deliberately and repeatedly triggering the biological keys to access the gates we require open. Some of the networks they lead to may be a little wrinkled and small but if the keys fit, they won't stay small for very long. The beauty of intelligence is that the networks sit there for as long as they do; they literally take years to give up waiting for the keys and die on you, unless some other activity hijacks their memory space.

Changing internal dodgy input, fortunately, is merely about changing habits. We can work with habit or against it, because ironically, the trick is merely changing one (deleterious) habit into another (beneficial) one, but there are ways to do this which work and ways which don't, (as anybody now addicted to both nicotine patches and cigarettes can testify). Changing a habit, really, is testing your ability to change reality.

A habit is a behavior program, running on a frequently used and usually long-established network. Gates to and from those networks are more or less permanently open. To change a habit we need not merely set up new pathways and open new gates, we usually need to close down the old ones. The 'familiarity' part of habit is an aspect of addiction. Once a network is used, the pattern of action etches in as a memory, a pattern of recognition. If we do something regularly, the brain clocks it, begins to learn when to expect it, and serves up a dish of the relevant hormonal keys right on time in anticipation of the input.

The easiest way to make a change to habit is to make a really noticeable change, establishing a strong memory of the new network patterns right away and not letting the old stuff get a word in edgeways. To do this you need multiple input. (Three triggers). You need to let the whole brain know what you are up to, throw an all-departments party, with free beer for the unbelievers. Neurosignalling gateways and connecting busses occur between all major brain modules, but for multiple input we need three different kinds of input code.

The old brain requires muscular movement to give emotional weighting, or 'importance' to an experience. micromovements are always present, and their effects can be amplified with concentration on the subject and close attention to it, but we can make muscular movement a trigger by deliberately using any muscular movement in association with other triggers during the learning process.

An example, and a warning: back in the ancient days when I was in high school, a bunch of us in an attempt to alleviate the boredom, thought up a set of keywords/reactions and linked them together to see how long it would take to respond to a given signal automatically. One of these was to jump to our feet and salute any time anyone said the word 'Enterprise' (we were all Trekkies). This formed a habit so fast, we'd find ourselves doing it by accident in situations where it was sometimes embarrassing, and what we hadn't thought of was how easy it wouldn't be to stop. Over three decades of trying to stop it later, my mind still hears 'Enterprise' and thinks, in seemingly innocent surprise...'isn't there something urgent I should be doing'? Muscular movement is a very strong trigger to establishing keys for 'habit' memories because a part of them are in procedural memory; the strongest memory there is.

Another kind of input needed is midbrain language and imagery for emotional weighting and storage in eidetic memory. Midbrain language, where one thing can represent another thing or many things, is very compressed. It needs the input relevant to emotion and imagination; these may be inner, visual, auditory, or more rarely relayed through the other senses. Music, poetry and art are all powerful midbrain triggers. (We'll have a look at this in greater depth in chapters 14 and 15.)