Hyponoetics - Essays
Noetic Patterns of Exonoesis
Abstract: Noetic patterns are idiosyncratic features or properties that make up the unique constitution of an Individual Mind. Hyponoesis (Universal Mind) manifests itself as an infinite variety of noetic patterns. A coherent set of noetic patterns constitutes a specific individual form (Exonoesis). They are Exonoesis's principle of individuation. Noetic patterns function like attractors that attract only information that is congruent with Exonoesis's unique noetic structure. There is a passive and an active information matching process. Noetic patterns exist in a persistent and a transient mode.
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Exonoesis (Individual Mind) unconsciously accesses non-local information residing within the potentiality of Hyponoesis (Universal Mind). There are different modes of information access:

I don't want to deal with each phenomenon in detail, but rather point out the shared structure of information access that underlies all of them.

Exonoesis (Individual Mind) does not access information directly as it is the case with the faculty of Paranoesis or Transrational Thinking postulated by Hyponoetics. Information is passed through the channels of thinking and feeling, each of which again pass through subconscious and unconscious mechanisms. Basically, Exonoesis is connected to Hyponoesis (Universal Mind) and that link represents the pathway of information access. I want to emphasize, however, that this is only an analogy. This link is only a figurative and not a literal connection.

Exonoesis is not something that stands apart from Hyponoesis and therefore actually needs a connection. From the ultimate view as presented in Hyponoetics, there exists an absolute identity of Exonoesis and Hyponoesis and the treatment of them as being two different entities is purely conceptual, or rather as Schelling noted, only phenomenal. Therefore the question of how Exonoesis accesses Hyponoesis does not posit a philosophical problem. It all has to do with the degree of manifestation or expression. There are various levels of overt manifestation, especially in regard to what we as Individual Minds can perceive as manifested or conceive of as intelligible. The unconscious part of Exonoesis is therefore not accessible to our conscious part. The conscious mind can only perceive or conceive of that which matches the noetic pattern or structure of the conscious part of Exonoesis.

A noetic pattern is an idiosyncratic feature or property that makes up the unique constitution of an Individual Mind (Exonoesis). Hyponoesis (Universal Mind) manifests itself phenomenally as an infinite variety of noetic patterns. A coherent set of noetic patterns constitutes Exonoesis in its particularity. The universality of Exonoesis is based on its aspectual correspondence, what I call a Noeme.

In a nutshell, Hyponoesis manifests itself in various aspects, called Noemes, one of them being Mind. The individuated Noeme or Aspect is Exonoesis (Individual Mind), and its principle of individuation is the unique constitution of noetic properties or patterns.

The amount of information and what kind of information that is accessed unconsciously depends on the unique structure of Exonoesis, on its noetic patterns. This structure can be analogically compared to a filter or a magnet (attractor) that either attracts or filters only that kind of information that is in coherence with Exonoesis's overall structure or noetic patterns. The information must match or be congruent with the noetic patterns of Exonoesis.

For example, if someone claims to recollect a previous life, that claim can be interpreted as this person accessing the information of another dead person's life. There is no need to believe that she actually lived as this person in a previous life. A much easier explanation would be that whatever triggered her recollection she accessed unconsciously the information concerning the life of another person because her noetic patterns matched those of the dead person.

Now what does it mean when we say that information matches a noetic pattern or a set of noetic patterns? It is similar to the following situation experienced by probably every one of us. When being in a particular disposition of our mind, we attract or ignore involuntarily everything that doesn't fit our current disposition of mind. If we are in a depressed state of mind, everything around us appears to be actually feeding our pessimistic view. We find that the world around us corroborates our current beliefs but only because we tend to ignore everything else.

Noetic patterns manifest themselves in our beliefs, interests, in what we like and do not like, in our personality, our character, etc. Other, more subconscious patterns can be found in our behavior (neurotic or pathological) and in the archetypes of our collective unconscious. There is no higher purpose or reason in why we are what we are. Each of us is a unique individuality, expressing Hyponoesis in an individual and unique way. If that hypothesis is true, then we have to answer the following question: how is it possible that unique and individual information entities can match each other?

Exonoesis is a complex set of different noetic patterns. However, a single noetic pattern can be found in a multitude of other individual entities as part of their set of patterns. Otherwise, no classification or abstraction would be possible, each human being would be completely different from another human being. Even the word "human" could not be applied, because humanness is an abstraction and defines a particular noetic pattern common to all individuals within the species of homo sapiens. The very process of abstraction allows for pattern matching. Information can be thought of as consisting of noetic patterns and therefore if the whole set or only one single pattern matches with another coherent structure of patterns or a part of it, we can meaningfully talk of information matching.

The surfacing or emerging of unconsciously accessed information into the conscious mind needs a trigger mechanism. This could be anything that represents an input from the experience we have of the external world or from an inner experience, such as a feeling or a thought. Sometimes it can be just the state or disposition we are currently in. If that disposition persists for more than just a few seconds, that disposition is liable to attract information that matches its noetic patterns. However, we can up to a certain point control how much we are susceptible to the influx of matched information, or how much we want to get affected by other noetic patterns that try to force themselves into our mind.

Therefore, we can postulate a passive and an active information matching process. The passive process happens to us. We can only interfere after we received the corresponding noetic patterns of the matched information. However, through an active process called thinking we can monitor the passive pattern matching process that is like a permanent open door letting in whatever fits through the door frame. The way we think changes the overall noetic patterns or the noetic structure of our Individual Mind. Although only a few people are probably capable of individually tuning their Mind Structure, most of us can still affect the general disposition of our Mind (see for example the wide-spread pontification of positive thinking.)

Noetic patterns exist in two basic modes: a) persistent noetic patterns that don't change basically over a long period of time and b) transient noetic patterns that change frequently or become part of a coherent set of noetic patterns or are unlinked from a coherent set of patterns. If we fall into a state of depression, the noetic patterns that are typical for that kind of state are created extemporaneously as long as that state persists. On the other hand, part of our character was formed back in our early childhood and has not basically changed over time.