The Watcher
For instance, the individual may be from a background of clerics, where the world is viewed in terms of religious considerations, such as God is the measure of all things. The individual may want to change this pattern and evaluate things in terms money or love. Instead of evaluating in terms of God, one may watch the way one thinks, and look for instances of this pattern, and attempt to make the appropriate changes as described earlier. The concept of the Watcher is the conception of alternative personalities and traits. But the individual will possess the propensity to watch oneself from the perspective in which one is most familiar. The individual may be limited by the consciousness, awareness and knowledge of other kinds of personality and character traits, other than one's own. One can only model the choice for self-evaluation upon character traits that one is familiar with. The Watcher may then be limited in what can be observed and the assessments that can be made, by the limitations of the individual's consciousness of varying perspectives and personalities. Thus, the individual's ability of self-evaluation is restricted to the ability to understand the perspectives of others, as how they would view reality in general, think, act and behave in varying circumstances.
To overcome this, another aspect to the concept of the Watcher is the symbolic creation of Watcher identities that are characters synthesized into elemental roles, that are perhaps more relavant to
Transcendental Analysis. These roles are such things as the king and queen, cleric, soldier, lawyer, doctor, revolutionary, mystic, inventor, artist, merchant , spy or beggar. Each of these roles contain a different perspective in which the individual operates and regards the world of reality. Decisions are made based upon the dynamics of the function, that these perspectives and personalities as they are perceived, would be used to operate in the world. The individual can play these roles symbolically or can surreptitiously place others in these roles, in order to observe oneself in the context of interaction with others of varying perspectives.
External Analysis means to go out into the real world and get experience with unfamiliar persons and personality types, points of view and various circumstances, environments, places and events. The purpose of External Analysis is also to create experience that epitomizes and embodies problems and questions that one is working on, so that the individual can observe the mechanics of problems in reality firsthand, separate and outside the limitations and prejudices of one's own intellect. The object is to witness one's problems and questions in the real world, such that they are manifested and illustrated in reality.
For example a problem or question like, the way the victim of racial, gender or religious prejudice may feel, could be illustrated when the individual in the real world, looks and plays the part of an outcast. The observation of or involvement in, the real time manifestations of abstract questions and problems, can entail being in the right place at the right time. This can involve something called Synchronicity. It could also involve psychic ability that would be helpful with the rendezvous of the individual with the manifestation of abstract problems in the real world. These are mentioned not merely as conveniences, but as real possibilities that cannot be intellectually willed, but may attend the process of External Analysis.
The practice of producing real experience may also include the deliberate manipulation of persons and circumstances so as to create the portrayal of particular problems. For example, in reference to a problem such as varying individual perspectives, the individual having the advantage of a space in which many people might visit, could orchestrate the decor in such a way as to provoke reactions, and correlate those dispositions with what one can conclude of the personal backgrounds and histories of the visitors. However, ethical considerations are to be acknowledged in these instances, wherein the regard for the places or persons necessary to undertake these kinds enterprises, should outweigh the advantages to the investigator.
In order to understand the circumstances and perspectives of other places and people and to witness the manifestations of the problems and questions one is concerned with, the individual becomes an observer.
This is observation of people in varying situations, surroundings, difficulties and crisis, and especially when consequence is involved. Thus, the individual becomes the observer and Watcher of both of the self and of others, in order to gain the knowledge of alternative character types, and thus to have the greatest degree of choice, in changing existing or creating new personality traits and characteristics. There are two primary approaches. These are by observation only, or by interaction, in which the emphasis of the individual is as much upon taking part in the real events of the world as it is about observation.
Observation is the passive watching of individuals and groups within the framework of diverse contexts of circumstances and events. One observes others without actually interacting within situations being observed. Observation, specifically in reference to strangers without interaction, enjoys several advantages. It allows one to concentrate on observation without the many distractions that accompanies involvement. The observation of strangers allows for greater objectivity which may not be possible when dealing with known persons, for example where one may be prone to overlook specific character traits that may affect the relationship.
However, a certain subjectivity may also be helpful. Uninvolved observation allows the individual to create one's own identities and contexts for what is observed, that serve purposes of producing experience that would otherwise be impossible. For instance when traveling in foreign countries, in which the individual does not understand the language, the individual can create characters of one's own imagination, such that what is otherwise the observation of ordinary people talking about the weather, can be a theater of the mind, wherein the parties observed can represent any kind of characterization the individual will give. Because the individual can only have one physical presence, and thus experience is limited in terms of access to all the many and varied human realities, such as the revolutionary, fashion designer or ambassador, one can produce characters that may be useful in one's study of the problems inherent in the many personifications of life experience. However, an overemphasis of this technique can produce unrealistic perspectives concerning the nature of human realities and should be used only to the best advantage of time and energy.
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