Introduction to the Online Study Program


Dr. Norman D. Livergood




      The Progressive Awareness online program instructs you in:

  • Learning to think critically: forming your own personal beliefs by basing them on evidence

  • Increasing your self-awareness: developing an autonomous self which is able to think and act on its own initiative

  • Gaining critical consciousness: learning to perceive social, political, and economic injustice and learning to take action against the oppressive elements of reality

  • Developing acute discernment: comprehending what's happening in the world and working toward social structures that allow for greater freedom and creativity

     

Progressive:

Of, relating to, or characterized by progress; making use of or interested in new ideas, findings, or opportunities; educational theory marked by emphasis on the individual; moving forward or onward; advancing; advocating political change through social improvement; enlightened

Awareness:

Having or showing realization, perception, or knowledge; cognizance, discernment, sensibility; aliveness; being awake; having knowledge of elements not generally known or apparent

"Either you think-or else others have to think for you and take power from you, pervert and discipline your natural tastes, civilize and sterilize you."

F. Scott Fitzgerald

      This training program is based on a new concept, perspective, and procedure--Progressive Awareness--which the author has developed through his study of philosophy, religion, psychology, political-economic dynamics, artificial intelligence, and in his pursuit of discernment through assimilation of the Perennial Tradition. 1    The primary instructional material for the training program is the author's book Progressive Awareness, which the trainee will need to purchase prior to beginning the program.

     As Head of the Artificial Intelligence Department at the U.S. Army War College during 1993-1995, I investigated personality simulation systems that:

  • Capture a person's mental components: beliefs, ideas, attitudes, etc.

  • Translate these into a computer system: hardware and software

  • Use the system to manipulate and control that person's ideas and behavior.
      It's necessary for us to realize that the components of most personalities can be captured and developed into a complete simulation of our thinking and feeling processes. That simulation can then be used to manipulate us in any way the artificial intelligence technician, political operative, or propaganda expert chooses. Not only is this possible, it's already taking place in psychological "profiling" and election mind manipulation.

     The progressive Awareness training program can only help you develop if you apply its principles and practice to develop the mental and behavioral skills associated with it. Progressive Awareness is not just theorizing or thinking--it also involves acting on and assimilating its principles. Progressive awareness, that is, must lead to definite changes in your ideas, beliefs, and actions. If you're not ready to make radical transformations in your thoughts and behavior, you wouldn't be suitable for this program.

      The reason I work with a few people who apply for the Progressive Awareness study program is to screen for those few persons who can prove themselves able to learn to think and act in an extra-ordinary manner to assist in human evolution. In other words, this is no unconsidered, incidental activity on my part.

      If you're admitted to the study program on a provisional basis, my responses to your assignments will be pointed and astringent, to help you rid yourself of fuzzy, confused thinking habits. If the tone and process of the study program, including my responses, at any time seem not to be useful to you--perhaps too harsh for your purposes--you should immediately discontinue the study program.



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1 See the author's recent book, The Perennial Tradition, published by Dandelion Press