The Theory of Normalisation
Karl Lilje

Normalisation is the shifting of extremes to fit into another set. Any closed system is at rest near the median of the extremes. The system typically fits into the extremes as an involuntary environmental response.

The diagram is a 2 dimensional depiction of Normalisation, but the effect can happen in 3 dimensions, or through change/time.

When an event occurs that forces the system out of it's regular extremes, new extreme averages are created. This requires more energy to sustain, consequently there is more drain on the system's total energy.
The extremes are boundaries that adjust more slowly than the reaction they contain.

We can apply this theory to any closed system, for example the emotions, planetary motion, electronics...

Normalisation in vision
We don't see exactly what our eyes see, rather we see the brain's painting of the environment. We are all artists!
The brain fills in shapes and adjusts colours and tones continually. This is why we think we see a full image even though we have a blind spot.
If we saw exactly what our eyes saw it would look something like this:

Left: What our eyes actually "See", and right: how our brain assembles the information into a coherent "normalised" image.
Seeing auras: Sometimes our brain bypasses the internal 'painter' and we see what appears to be a colourful aura around someone. Many hallucinogens work by interfering with this part of brain function.


We can see our brain normalising information when we look at optical illusions. The above illusion is a great example of the brain expanding the perceived tones to create the most detailed image possible. The blocks A and B are actually indentical in shade.
The effect is exacerbated by continual excitation of the optical nerves, so that shadows seem lighter than they are. Almost close your eyes and you can more easily see the true tones.

Normalisation in emotions
Emotions of course are those wonderful chemical reactions that make us feel. We can feel the positive emotions being above median, and negative emotions below. If our emotional curves are continually at extreme, or if exposed to extremes, then a new artificial extreme is created that contains the reaction. We then feel emotions less, because they are typically felt at the extremes, not at the median. Adrenaline junkies are a product of this artificial extreme. A problem arises that the artificial extremes may not be easily reversible, and consquently a form of addiction occurs, where the person must experience the extreme experience to feel a normal amount of emotion. Regular emotions simply don't register, because they are felt near the extremes of the system. If the emotion is always positive, then an offset median can result, causing emotions that are regularly mildly pleasant to seem unpleasant, because they are below the offset median. Of course it is much more complex 'under the hood' of the brain, but normalisation is a way of understanding mild emotional disorders.

Normalisation in addiction
In a closed system like the human body any extreme influence can cause the extremes to shift. Continual use of strong drugs and alchohol can become addictive, because the median of experience shifts, or the extremes become artificially exagerrated. The body then seeks these new extremes - a body reacts to the extremes as being normal and strives to maintain them. Because drugs operate on many connected parts of the brain they can have side effects that are seemingly unconnected to the experience. A common side effect is that normal experiences become unpleasant, because the median has shifted into the positive. The addict then seeks to 'escape' into the drugged state to feel normal. Ideally a system should have the median at a point where it accurately reflects the environment's median. We can think of the accurate response by taking the average of all people's median. Or, we can say the median is what is socially acceptable, and the extremes are generally unacceptable.

Normalisation in chemical systems
A repeating chemical system is typically a closed system, and therefore has extremes and a median. When the reaction is chaotic it transfers energy, when the reaction is stable it is at the median of the extremes. External influences cause shifts in the extremes and the median towards the greater extreme.

Normalisation in electrical systems
Applied to electrical systems we can see that a battery continually exposed to overcharge will eventually lose power, even though the potential energy is present or given externally, such as a recharge. Energy is transferred past the extreme of the cycle. As the extreme expands the battery can transfer less energy. An efficient battery is one that has extremes that do not move when exposed to charge and discharge.

Normalisation in biology
An organism's rest-pose is always exactly half way between the extremes. Relax your limbs in water, they always end up in the middle of the range of motion. Evolutionary developments always settle on the median of the extremes - environmental attributes like weather can slowly move the median to the middle of a changing extreme.

Normalisation in voice recognition
A vocal sound, or phoneme, is not an absolute, but a relative and changing sound with many dependant factors. A child learns the difference in sounds by exploring the extremes, this is why MAMA and PAPA are such pervasive words, an M or P sound is the hardest to recognise (because it has no discernable features as a sound wave, virtually a pure sine or pure noise), and the Ah sound is the easiest to recognise because it has asymmetrical characteristics. The rest of language is built between these extreme sounds. So by first exploring the extreme sounds a child is able to form a model or template in which to fit the rest of language.

Normalisation in motion
When an object is at rest relative to it's container the extremes of it's energy production and reclamation are at it's center of mass, however when an object moves we can think of a marker ahead of the object related to the amount of force applied to the object, and another marker behind the object relating to the gravity and field resistance exhibited by the mass of the object. Exactly between these two markers is the center of inertia, which is not the same as the center of the object itself. An object moves around it's center of inertia, not around it's perceived center. An object in motion has a different center of movement when the extremes are altered. The moment of inertia (or resistance to change) can be understood using normalisation because the extremes of the forces have between them a location that changes more slowly than the object itself.

The Offset Median
At Rest does not mean the system contains the least energy, because an offset median requires energy for the median to be in it's place. At the point of median the energy transferrence is least.
The median is not a physical item, it is the shifting center of the extremes. If a system is in extreme in one direction more than others, then the others will move toward the extreme.