In August 1995, Cognitor, Inc. was founded by this author and Paul T. I met Paul at some function in Chicago. We began talking about our experiences and he found out how long I had been selling software. Our conversation led to his request for me to accompany him to a presentation he had scheduled with Purdue University. He was trying to get a consulting gig there and wanted me to critique his presentation. I agreed.

He had created software that he called "Slice and Dice"; and his presentation of the capabilities of this software could not possibly be understood by the average person. When he was describing how it worked during his presentation, I saw the potential. On the drive back to Chicago, we discussed the meeting:

"Paul, you have created an artificial ego!"

"What do you mean, John?"

"Slice and Dice works exactly as the human decision process works, Paul."

We spent the next six or seven hours exchanging views and understanding until we decided to establish Cognitor, Inc. and rename the software "Cogitator" -- ergo my screen name. It means thinker, and that is what the software does. The company name was chosen because it is my Rosicrucian name. Cognitor means "defender." We were way ahead of our time. Few could grasp the meaning.

In 2007, I self-published "The Mind -- User Manual" with Author House in an effort to revive Cognitor. That was my first (albeit sophomoric) attempt at communicating my epiphany.

When I experienced my epiphany on February 6, 1982, I was both euphoric and petrified. I felt as though I had fallen into a river of understanding and didn't know how to swim. From that day, I have struggled to find words that can delve deep into consciousness and help others find that same stream of thought. Why? Because it is the "follow your bliss" that Joseph Campbell suggests we should all do. When I connect with others on the path to awakening, it makes all my swimming worth the effort. It is my "Reason for being."

All of us regard the universe we create from our individual and peculiar point of view. How we describe and explain our view to others is based upon language and action. My newly acquired view was overwhelming. How could I share this view with others? I would have to study and research to create the best possible communication possible. I will spare you the details of the dozens of books and thousands of hours I have dedicated to forging a meaningful message.

My focus turned from WHO I am to WHAT I am. That wasn't hard to do because my epiphany destroyed all egoistic tendencies. (Thank you, Ego, for stepping aside and letting me back into the driver seat.) Ego is meant to be a navigator for our meanderings and could no longer tell me where to go without my permission. My life wasn't all about knee-jerk reactions to stimuli before this, but a large part certainly had been.

I tried to spend as much time as possible ruminating about communication and why we do what we do. However, there were still bills to pay and other distractions to tend to. Having been exposed to some twenty years of experience in systems analysis, five or so years selling high-level executives in the Fortune 500, I had enough value to be hired for a two year stint in Saudi Arabia. Getting away from my comfort zone and submitting myself to another culture shock (my first was coming to the United States when I was ten) would allow me to grow. I also took a 45-day tour of the world that further opened my view. It helped clear my mind and steel my resolve.

When I returned to the US, I again dived into my stream of thought and felt more comfortable swimming in it. At times, I simply floated and contemplated my eventual destination. I did not know where I wanted my river to go yet. I thought about that day in February that had created my epiphany. It was after a class created by Wilson Learning -- Counselor Selling. This was a highly-advanced sales course that went deep into psychology and interaction during the sales cycle. I had noticed that the class did not have an accurate depiction of the process so I contacted Larry Wilson. At the time, Larry was attempting to define and create a Corporate Brain. I had a pretty solid idea as to how that could be done. After we spoke on the phone for some minutes, he invited me to his Pecos River Learning Center at his expense.

The Pecos River Learning Center is located about thirty-five miles north of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Larry had acquired about ten thousand acres to create this playground. He had given me a free pass to his "Ropes Course" of three days' duration.

Taos and Santa Fe are both artist meccas, primarily because of the incredible pure light that painters love. After New York and Los Angeles, Santa Fe sells the most art. (The town had about seven thousand residents at the time.) When I woke up the first morning on the ranch and walked outside in the brisk, fresh air and looked to the sky, I understood why artists love this place. Clarity of light could never be better defined.

The "Ropes Course" is three days of breaking down the stubborn ego, aimed primarily at stodgy corporate executives. We were blindfolded and led by the elbow through rocky hills, made to fall backward from a six-foot platform into the arms of our comrades, climb a rock wall that necessitated having to let go of footholds to reach the top, etc. All activities intended to engender trust in others and remove egotistic behaviors in the process. There were group meetings as well to discuss our feelings and interact about our shared experiences.

It wasn't until the last day that Larry and I got to meet. I presented my case, and he stopped me much before I reached the conclusion to call his entire staff into the meeting room for them to hear what I had to say. That's when I knew my stream was going in the right direction.

I still had not defined as much of the stream to myself as I wanted. I spent three years studying the Rosicrucian "Mastery of Life" course, read more books and continually forged a better understanding of me. "Time, Space and Knowledge" by Tartang Tulku was one meaningful book that gave me further insight. I made a mental note to change the word "Knowledge" to "Understanding" because a piece of knowledge is mere trivia unless it gets assimilated into our base of understanding. It led me into studies of the brain and how we build our universe or, at least, our view of that universe. I finally reached the point where I could not see anything "wrong" in my view, save when my ego took control of the wheel. I learned how to calmly put it aside and return it to the navigator position. That's when I turned my attention to the current human condition.

If I can do it, everyone can do it. It takes time and attention. It takes commitment and understanding. It necessitates an open mind and a willingness to change and understand more. It means the Comfort Zone must be vacated. It involves becoming a truth-seeker.

Being human is a fantastic gift. There is no other creature we know of that has the range of capabilities and potential we have (maybe dolphins.) There are many traps humans fall into on the way to enlightenment, though. One of the most dangerous is habit. Another is action without thought -- (the Pavlov dog response or knee-jerk reaction.) Another is the herd instinct that groups us and insulates us from interacting with other groups or individuals "Birds of a feather..."

My first attempt at understanding was aimed at duality. I knew that wave/particle, yin/yang, frequency/amplitude, one/zero and many other analogies meant the same thing to me. No form can be perceived or exist without this duality. Form following function or function creating form is the chicken and egg paradox to me. How does this understanding apply to groups?

We are social animals. We want to feel we "belong." Many of us will do anything to "fit in" the social circle we want to be with, sometimes sacrificing our true purpose. We want to love and be loved from the moment we are born and perhaps before that. In creating these circles, however, we may encounter values and beliefs that exclude others. There is a myriad of values and beliefs that cannot possibly be true, but many people simply "go along with the flow." My stream of thought doesn't flow that way. There are no values nor beliefs in it. I either know or do not know. What I know is founded in truth, and what I don't know, I research until I can incorporate it into my base of understanding. No assumptions of ego are allowed to wade into my stream. When someone says: "I believe," it means "I don't understand!"

Social stratification occurs because of levels of understanding. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs depicts these levels (and have been expanded by others.) Truth is, we have no needs other than consciousness -- other so-called needs are only wants or desires. It is what we want that drives the economic system, not what we need. These unnecessary and egotistical wants are despoiling Mother Earth. As I've written in other essays, we do not need oil -- we need clean water and clean air; we need love and compassion, not atomic weapons; we need to share this planet, not assign ownership of pieces of it to the chosen few. It seems that the chosen few are leading this world into oblivion. We need new leadership for the masses unwilling or incapable of seeing this greater view.

The current lords and masters have many ways to have us spend money that they can put into their coffers. (A recent study stated that the richest eighty-five people on earth have as much wealth as the bottom 3.2 billion people.) That appears to denote inequality. How do they maintain control over the minds of the unfortunate and the disenfranchised? Why is there no outcry and revolution to depose these people and end this unfair and cruel treatment? The answer is lack of understanding to some degree, but more importantly, it is the inaction of those who could take the reins away from the oligarchs and plutocrats. Oligarchy is government by the few and plutocracy is government by the rich. I have taken it upon myself to coin a new word for the next revised version of the dictionary -- Plutarchy.

Government means to rule or influence others to perform behaviors according to a set of laws or agreements. Religion is a form of government. The Constitution of the United States is the set of laws and agreements establishing acceptable behaviors in society. The Bible and Koran, etc. do the same thing. One appeals to the material sense while the other affects the spiritual sense. This is how politics and religion govern the masses. If Gutenberg used his printing press to publish the achievements of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle rather than the fiction, folklore and fantasy of the Bible and Koran, the Dark Ages would never have occurred and this world would already be Utopia.

Logical Thinking

When I first started writing COBOL code, I became enamored with the IF/THEN statement. Simply put, it is the decision point for what the program should process next -- "IF value X is greater than value Y, THEN do this..." One aspect of this powerful decision-making tool is that I could "nest" multiple IF/THENs to make more complex decisions -- "IF this condition AND IF this condition OR IF this condition, THEN, THEN, THEN..." I still use this concept to analyze any new information I receive. This is how I connect my existing base of understanding to new information. It is how I reached my current State of Being. I am an information processor evolving by understanding -- I am a Being in the Process of Becoming a greater Being through understanding. We all are.

I started studying communication, linguistics and semantics to find better ways of stating my view. English is my second language; computer languages follow. Nine months after arriving in the States not speaking a word of English, I came in second in the school spelling bee. I even surprised myself. The significance of this result was not that I did it, but that I learned the language from the dictionary. Having to go through the mental gymnastics from French to English and English to French gleaned much more meaning from words than most native-born people.

We receive all communication through our five physical senses. The communication is felt through vibrations that carry both frequency and amplitude. The vibrations created by these words are felt by your eyes and interpreted as the image I want you to contemplate. Your brain has two hemispheres. The left interprets frequency of vibrations and the right, dimension of amplitude. If I have verbally painted the image I have in my mind properly, you will build that image in yours. We will have successfully communicated.

Love and compassion are created in the right hemisphere of our brain, not the heart. The heart is just another organ for the brain to monitor. That hemisphere is the door that religion enters to govern the believers. The left hemisphere processes the values of material society, primarily defined by politics while the right hemisphere's emotional capability is manipulated by religion(s). We need to know who is gaining entry to our mind and why.

Cogitator is very similar to Alexa, the voice-operated convenience of the tech-savvy millennials. Everyone in the world, regardless of language, could have access to Cogitator's knowledge bases to maintain balance for themselves, their community and the world of Utopia.

Cogitator

There are many technical terms that can be confusing to the average person. This is normally referred to as "shop talk" by those involved in whatever specialty they work. In the description of Cogitator, there are a number of terms that need at least some familiarity to grasp its operation.

Artificial Intelligence

"Artificial" is: made or produced by human beings rather than occurring naturally, especially as a copy of something natural. It is the source of the word "art" which suggests the depiction of some form of reality by an art-ist.

"Intelligence" is: the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills. This is the innate ability all organic life uses to maintain the necessary balance for survival. It cannot be artificial. The artificial part of artificial intelligence is KNOWLEDGE.

Knowledge

Knowledge is Facts, information, and skills acquired through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject. The experience it creates in an individual becomes a "scenario" that can be re-membered as a memory or meme. (The members of an experience are recalled to reproduce the scenario in our mind.) A meme is a single element of a system of behavior.

Creating the scenario necessitates understanding various aspects of knowledge. They include knowledge of:

What
When
Where
Why
How
Who

These are all requirements for creating a human scenario in a computer and can be stored in a Knowledge Base to be linked to related experiences. The knowledge base becomes a translator and communication facilitator for use by human beings. When successfully communicated between people, experience is shared meaningful context. "Context" is: the circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood.

Common Sense

The cornerstone of common sense is the FACT. Cogitator does not use assumption or belief in the construction of knowledge bases. Every element must have a connection to every other element and all elements must pass the test of truth and logic. Whenever it learns from human interaction, it adapts and updates its knowledge base(s).

As it "learns," Cogitator will occasionally perform a Merge/Purge routine. This is analogous to humans ridding their mind of trivia which had been incorporated into their life experience and creating a higher level of understanding -- (move up a rung on the understanding ladder.) Once beliefs and assumptions are removed from a human mind, the climb up the understanding ladder picks up speed.

Accessing the knowledge base allows users to develop their heuristic prowess. Heuristics means enabling a person to discover or learn something for themselves. It is said that experience is the best teacher but, in truth, it is the ONLY teacher. This will allow users to experience the shared contextual context. This can eventually lead up the ladder if we allow our shared kindred spirit to surface.

Noetic Science

Noetic Science allows for states of insight into depths of truth unplumbed by the discursive intellect. They are illuminations, revelations, full of significance and importance, all inarticulate though they remain; and as a rule they carry with them a curious sense of authority. Very much like becoming a mystic. Noetic sciences was co-founded by Edgar D. Mitchell, an Apollo astronaut who said:

"The simple truth of the universe is that we create our own reality."

If we all commit to sharing meaningful context and begin imagining Utopia as our goal, there will be no stopping the climb up the enlightenment ladder. It will become the reality that Edgar Mitchell refers to.

Because of voice recognition, the knowledge base(s) that Cogitator accesses can be made available to the entire population in whatever language it uses. The world will be connected with truth and understanding.

The follow-up to John Lennon's song "Imagine" tells what we need to achieve peace and well-being on Mother Earth:

"All You Need Is Love"

Love, love, love
Love, love, love
Love, love, love

There's nothing you can do that can't be done
Nothing you can sing that can't be sung
Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game
It's easy

Nothing you can make that can't be made
No one you can save that can't be saved
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time
It's easy

All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need

Love, love, love
Love, love, love
Love, love, love

All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need

Nothing you can know that isn't known
Nothing you can see that isn't shown
Nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be
It's easy

All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need

All you need is love (All together, now!)
All you need is love (Everybody!)
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need
Love is all you need (Love is all you need)
Love is all you need (Love is all you need)
Love is all you need (Love is all you need)
Love is all you need (Love is all you need)
Love is all you need (Love is all you need)
Love is all you need (Love is all you need)
Love is all you need (Love is all you need)
Love is all you need (Love is all you need)
Love is all you need (Love is all you need)
Love is all you need (Love is all you need)
Love is all you need (Love is all you need)
Yee-hai! (Love is all you need)
Love is all you need (Love is all you need)

Yesterday (Love is all you need)
Love is all you need (Love is all you need)
Love is all you need (Love is all you need)
Love is all you need (Love is all you need)
Oh yeah! (Love is all you need)
She loves you, yeah yeah yeah (Love is all you need)
She loves you, yeah yeah yeah (Love is all you need)

Do us dreamers a favor and pass this book to others...