Reviewer A, Professor Hans-Georg Geissler of the University of Leipzig, responded to my general and specific comments to say that he agreed with nearly everything I had said, and was himself sympathetic to the idea that perceptual experiences might best be explained by wave-like holistic processes, although he is pessimistic about convincing others of this. He advised me to take more care about the presentation. In particular he advised that I
begin with a detailed description of the neuron doctrine, in such a way that its proponents can identify with it
then show step by step the phenomena which cannot be explained by this approach
present an analysis of the alternatives, such as Grossberg's ART model, and Pribram's holographic theory, and then discuss why they are themselves insufficient to account for those phenomena
list these deficits and reference Gestalt phenomena in such a way that the required solution is already more or less my harmonic resonance theory, without actually mentioning it
then present the harmonic resonance theory
Geissler advised me to make acceptance easier by calling my presentation "tentative", and if possible, to divide my presentation into a "soft" and a radical "hard" version, so that I could treat the latter with a certain distance, saying that there is nothing known that would prove the contrary. Avoid the impression that I believe that I am suggesting a new paradigm. Finally, I should discuss possible weaknesses of my approach.
Geissler concluded that all this may sound Machiavellian, but that this is what is required to swim against the current of received wisdom, which he acknowledged is among the most difficult tasks in science.