From the author: Personal freedom is the power over information. PROPOSAL OF REALITY (or the nature of information) Man is a dependent being. Significantly more dependent than representatives of “our little brothers.” Our well-being as people is determined by the state of diverse forms of dependence: from purely vital to existential-semantic. It must be said that for a person in almost all forms of dependence and codependency, the determining factor is the “information factor”. Information dependence is, in fact, a basic form of dependence. For not only development - socialization of the individual and self-actualization of the individual, but even the banal “civilized” existence of a person in modern society is impossible without high-quality information consumption. A person’s total dependence on information is determined by the fact that a person cannot remain in a state of uncertainty even for a short time. The phenomena of sensory deprivation, discovered during the era of research into the condition of astronauts in conditions of weightlessness and isolation, reliably prove the “vital nature” of direct impressions and kinesthetic sensations for a person’s physical and mental health. As you know, one of the most severe punishments for criminals is solitary confinement without the ability to read, write or communicate with others. The feeling of loneliness as an existential phenomenon and a difficult condition is directly related to the frustration of a person’s need for communication... Sensory, communicative, social aspects of information support for a person’s natural existence in society are necessary and very important conditions for his mental and personal health and well-being. The question arises about the nature of this total information dependence. The answer to this question should be sought in the phenomenon of information itself. Information form (tion) is content contained in a certain form. That is, the form (carrier) is an external component of the content. Neurolinguistic programming postulates the relationship between the surface structure (form) and the deep structure (sensory-analogue) of content. Simply put, to understand the phenomenon of information, it is important to have a sign (surface) structure that appeals to the deep – analog content. In short, information appears in the “sign-analogue” relationship. Each of us accesses information through a sign form that explicates the corresponding analog content. An example of the most common sign component of information is the verbal structure - the names and formulations of ideas important to the individual, which have a sensory-image deep equivalent - the analog component of the information. The information to which the subject has access has absolute power over him, since it reveals to him the analogue content with which he has to live. The process that reveals the connection between the sign and analog components is interpretation - a subjective determination of the analog characteristics of information. Interpretation is an unaccountable translation of a sign component into an analogue one. This process is reflexive and is described through the laws of ideodynamics. “Ideo” is an idea, “dynamics” is its implementation in the states and behavior of the subject. “Gaining access to information” is a key phrase that explains the power of information over a person. Access to information important for accurate understanding and adequate behavior is carried out through a special form of activity of the subject - perception and appropriate evaluation of messages and meta-messages. It is messages and meta messages in vitally important communicative test situations that are given in a symbolic form - in verbal and structural-behavioral appeals to the subject. Each person is a hostage of direct or implicit - indirect appeals to him by the participants in the communicative situation. And precisely because of ideodynamics - automatisms of response to the meaning of the message. It seems to me important to emphasize the automaticdependence on information as the inability not to react cognitively, emotionally or behaviorally to the deciphered meaning (analog) of a message. Thus, a person will automatically react equally to both the question “What time is it?” and to a declaration of love, although, of course, the personal meaning of the messages of each of the requests will be different. In my opinion, the essence of the information automatic influence and information dependence of the subject is both once again consists in the phenomenon of “suggestion of reality” in messages and meta-messages of significant other people and situations that are significant for him. “Reality proposition” is the essence of information. Reality for each of us - real or illusory - is the world into which we place ourselves through information. This world can have different meanings for us - to be good or evil, filled with wealth or objectively or spiritually poor, cheerful or sad. The proposition of reality contained in external messages can have many different personal meanings. It is very important for the subject to have the ability to accept or reject “suggestions of reality.” I would even define this as a criterion of wisdom and mental and psychological health: the ability to deal with information from external “well-wishers.” One of the serious indicators of such skill is the ability to identify and respond to incongruence of the message and meta-message. I once had the opportunity to observe the behavior of a visiting coach. The method itself - the Gestalt approach - is good with ideas (messages). But the trainer’s behavior was characterized by lack of structure (uncertainty of his personal attitude to what was happening), lack of rapport with the participants, evaluativeness, “stage” and bias in managing the participants’ learning activity. And, since we were talking about aspects of his own reality that were very significant for everyone, which constituted the content of “learning situations,” such behavioral impudence (meta message) forced one to defend oneself from the proposal of such “reality.” It is the incongruence of messages and meta messages of significant external sources of information is the main factor in asymmetric manipulation. The message masks the meta messages. As in the example above, the declarations and ideas of the presented method create a dominant and thereby a screen for realizing the intention of demonstrating one’s own exclusivity, superiority, power…. But it is the relationship between the message and the meta message that forms the meaning of informational influence. I invite the reader to independently define this very meaning as “a figure against the background.” This incident prompted me to analyze incongruent communication and manipulation, which in fact takes place. But the subject does not reflect. The offer of reality emanating from such messages will be accepted by those who are oblivious to incongruity, insensitive to the paradox of form and content, and obsessed with their own ideas. Nevertheless, the “proposed reality” still takes its position in the unconscious and, on occasion, is actualized by the corresponding (external source!) vanity and paradoxical attitude towards valuable subject content. Someone else's information incongruence will be reproduced ideologically by the subject in important test situations. In any case, the probability of this type of automatic self-reproduction of uncritically inspired information content is very high. There is only one way out: since a person is, in principle, unable to resist informational influence, it is important to learn to make a choice in favor of dependence on congruent information. To do this, it needs to be made this way in case of incongruent information. For a mature person, it is not particularly difficult to detect hidden intentions in meta messages that do not correspond to the declared content. For a naive subject, this can be a trap, from which humor and a diplomatic attitude towards “intuitive manipulators” can help them get out. The desire to clear the “wheat from the chaff”, to form.