How is it that people with the gift of reason are creating an insane world? And how to start living as you want, rather than the way you are.
Table of contents
Introduction
Part 1. How is it that people with the gift of reason are creating a insane world?
1.1 How do our two brains tear us apart?
1.2 The tricks the Reptilian Brain plays on us.
1.3 How do emotions create problems for us?
1.4 What is the heroic struggle of the Reptilian Brain for?
1.5 How we mindlessly execute the programs which have been installed in us
1.6 Life in a dream with eyes open
Part 2. How to start living the way you want
2.1 How to control your two brains
2.2 How to put a stop to the tricks of the Reptilian brain?
2.3 How to control your negative emotions?
2.4 How to avoid the Reptilian brain worrying about you.
2.5 The new brain – how to reverse its destructive influence?
2.6 How to reconcile the Mind and Instincts in order to achieve your goals?
2.7 How to make your life easier?
Conclusion. How are you going to live now?
I recommend reading the present work.
Introduction
There are two things which are infinite – the Universe and human stupidity.
However, I’m not sure about the Universe.
Albert Einstein
What’s your view of our world? It seems that no one’s walking around naked, people try and avoid forcing themselves on you, they communicate using words. They drive around in cars.
It seems that people are normal. Rational. But now turn the TV on and listen to the news. Or read the news on Google. Or talk with friends. How will you react on doing these things?
In several ways. First – you’ll become numb with amazement at what people get up to. Secondly- you will fall into a state of anxiety or silent rage at what is happening.
And thirdly, well – you get tired of these two reactions and just stop hearing. Or more precisely, you hear, but stop reacting. You’ve become weary of it. So you just watch a moronic show on TV instead.
And what’s in the news? The same as what’s been happening for the last several thousand years. Somewhere someone has been killed. Somewhere else people are dying of hunger or elsewhere people are spending billions of pounds just to provide themselves with amusement.
Scientists are joyfully creating new means of exterminating people – this is the primary focus of science and industry. Reassuring themselves that “we must defend ourselves”, even though we’re not under attack..
Nature groans from our exploitative relationship to it, and has already begun to protect itself from humanity through climate change. People are preoccupied with their own affairs, completely ignoring the needs of nature. For example, everyone wants to drive around in a huge, powerful cars. But few people think about the fact that the atmosphere is being actively poisoned. We need to make money, so should we cut down the jungle and plant rubber trees? No problem. And so on.
Although apparently people have reason, nobody looks ahead. Everyone needs a quick result, without thinking how future generations will survive. So we’ve got the greenhouse effect with its climate change, tsunamis and other delights.
And so on.
In general, everything looks fine. But in reality, the Doomsday Clock, which shows how many minutes are left before the nuclear cataclysm, shows that, from the end of 2017, we’ve only got 2.5 minutes left. Even as far back as back as 1991 it indicated 17 minutes.
So it can’t be said that humanity as a whole behaves rationally. As individuals, people behave decently, but as part of a crowd of 7 billion people they become stupid. The “crowd effect” is a real phenomenon, you’ve clearly fallen under its influence yourself.
And as individuals people only have a veneer of respectability. What’s going on in them or their family is only known to a few people, principally psychologists (and police officers), and the author knows about this from his practice.
And sometimes you yourself are confronted with your own or someone else’s inadequacy. Of course, you mustn’t overstate your own inadequacy – after all, you’re a rational person. But everyone else – they’re simply ghastly! As psychologists say, there aren’t any normal people, just people who haven’t been examined. And there are lots of them!!!
A pertinent anecdote
– Are you going to Greece? It’s forty degrees in the shade there.
– Yes, but you don’t have to go in the shade.
In general, people do not use their obvious ability to think rationally, to anticipate the consequences of their actions and avoid negative results.
Or they do use it, but only to plan what food and drink to take with them on an upcoming picnic.
And everything else is done under the influence of God knows what.
From this book you will just find out why people behave so erratically, despite the opportunity to act in a more considered manner.
And get the tools to at least make your life a little less thoughtless and a bit more predictable.
If that’s what you need.
So get started on your reading and then on applying the knowledge acquired to yourself.
Part 1. How do intelligent people create an insane world?
That we live insane, completely insane, deranged
lives, these are not words, not a comparison, not an
exaggeration, but the simplest statement of what is.
Leo Tolstoy
From the aphorism above, one must conclude that one and a half centuries ago a very serious man had already assessed our world as insane. As you yourself are aware, the situation has only got worse since then.
The author of this book has been developing a technique called “The Rational Path” for about 20 years. Some are delighted by it, others despise it, others quietly lift materials from it and pass them off as their own their own – life is diverse in its manifestations.
In this book, the basic ideas of the method of the Rational Path are presented in the most accessible possible way. Read it and apply them to yourself. Don’t just enjoy it , then chuck it away. But please don’t get anxious about it, because that gives rise to various problems – chapter 1.3 will address these.
Here I will only note that my books have been republished continually over the last almost 20 years – which indicates that they have some meaning. And benefit, because they’re not just detective stories or novels.
The first part of the book will be devoted to examining how we create various difficulties or problems for ourselves. Some of the materials will seem familiar to you or even banal, some absolutely new, some just made up.
Read, try out, apply the received information to yourself. If it coincides with what is taking place in you, then change your reality using the tools in the second part of the book. And since only you and no one else has created the reality in which you now find yourself, it’s certain that everything will turn out the way you desire.
But you don’t know exactly how you created it. Read and learn a lot of interesting things about yourself.
1.1 How do our two brains tear us apart?
Yesterday I finally seemed to make sense of things…
I woke up today – ah no: I was just drunk.
Unknown author
So, you’ve read this far. Which means you accept that all is not well with our world. Of course, you’re fine, but lots of other people are obviously in need of treatment.
And you understand that they think the same about you.
Why does this happen? Let’s get to the bottom of it.
How many brains do you think you have?
Probably you’ll immediately say one. In your head, inside the skull.
If you think about it for another ten seconds, you might say that the spinal cord is also a brain of sorts. So it turns out there’s at least two – you were taught that in school.
In fact, the situation is much more complicated than that. Some authors have even found an “abdominal brain” in a human – no doubt you might have one if you’ve got a big belly.
Talking seriously, there is such a field of science – neurophysiology. It’s an area of general human physiology and is concerned with the study of our nervous system.
Neurophysiologists have long since established that every person has two different brains inside his skull.
The first is the ancient brain – the Reptilian brain. It’s estimated that it appeared in animals 40 million years ago. Its function is to aid the survival of a living creature in dangerous conditions. This is the ancient, caveman brain, responsible for the animal part of our natures.
The second is the Neocortex, or New Brain. It’s estimated to have emerged only 40 thousand years. It’s this brain specifically which is thought to be responsible for our intellect, logic, creativity, language. It’s precisely this which distinguishes us from other animals, which are controlled solely by the Reptilian brain. It accounts for our Reason, mind, logic, rationality, etc.
The new brain is divided into two specialized hemispheres – right and left. No doubt you’ve heard about them.
It almost as if 40 thousand years ago some unknown experimenters planted the seeds of the New Brain in our ape ancestors, and the result is what we are today. A living being called “man”, who is controlled by two independent brains.
Figure 1. Two brains in one skull
True, some experts assert that we also have a Limbic brain that controls our emotions. But later on you’ll understand that this is not a separate independent brain, but simply an emotion-generating system, which directs a person’s behaviour.
That is, we have one body, but it’s controlled by two independent brains, each of which solves its own problems.
Or, to put it differently, inside each of us there are two independent centers which make decisions about what we should do and how we should act. And at any one time, one of these centers is dominant.
That is, people are either more rational, or more instinct-driven – depending on which control center is dominant. Both of them consider their thoughts and actions to be completely correct.
Which is why our lives are so chaotic.
Why does no one know about this?
In fact, lots of people have heard about the Reptilian brain. But nobody knows about the influence it exerts on human behavior. Why is that?
There are historical reasons for this.
The science which studies human behavior is psychology. It studies the higher neuronal activity of human beings – their beliefs, convictions, experiences. Their mental disorders.
But psychology does not concern itself with the instincts, which are the domain of the science of ethology. Although the founder of psychology, Sigmund Freud, once wrote: “I discovered that man is an animal “, this discovery was not supported or understood by his followers.
The science of ethology studies the instincts, but does not concern itself with the study of man, only with birds and dogs. So in any clinic, apart from a veterinary clinic, you’ll find a psychologist and psychotherapist, but not a specialist in Ethology.
But man has both an animal and a rational side to his nature. And in different people it is manifested in different proportions.
What is the function of our Reason?
So, we have two brains, each with problems it needs to solve.
What is the function of our New brain, or Reason, or First decision-making centre (though it would be more correct to regard it as the second as it’s much younger)?
The mind is responsible for our speech. Initially a baby has its own personal language, which the people around him don’t understand. So it has to listen to what people are saying and somehow recognize their words. Over time, after up to two years, the child’s Reason processes data about the system of information exchange of the adults around him, and he starts using the language of his parents
Reason is responsible for decision making. We are quite often required to make a decision. What to eat for breakfast (lunch, dinner, afternoon snack, break, etc.)? What to wear? Where to go after work (on a day off, on holiday, etc.)? What to watch on TV? What to buy? And so on.
These decisions are taken by our Reason. The Reptilian brain also plays a part in these processes, but only to avoid any risks which the decision might involve. But the decision itself is a matter for the New brain.
Decision-making is energy-intensive. Recall the effort required when faced with a choice – what dress to buy (for women) or which car to choose (for men)?
In order to avoid unnecessary effort and waste of energy, our mind has contrived to have ready solutions for all events.
It automates any action which is repeated several times. And as a result we do the action without thinking.
Without the involvement of our Reason. This is called an HMB – an habitual model of behavior.
The most obvious example is a car journey along the same route. In the first week you have to concentrate and consciously select the route. And after that, all your actions during such a standard journey are imprinted on your memory, and then executed without the participation of your Reason. You can make phone calls, learn a foreign language and so on, whilst your limbs control the movement of the car.
And only when an exceptional situation arises, such as an accident or road works, does Reason take back control of the driving of the car and look for an alternative route.
Where are these fully prepared behavioural programs stored? At the physiological level, they are nodes in the neural network of our Neocortex (New brain). But such a description is too complicated, so in what follows we’ll assume that all prepared behavioural programs are stored in our subconscious.
Over the years many thousands of prepared behavioural programs, whether complex like HMB’s or very simple, have accumulated in the Subconscious. We call them our convictions, beliefs, habits. Our Reason uses these behavioural programs in frequently recurring situations.
And in our lives we go from one prepared program to another without using our Reason. We wake up, wash, get dressed, have breakfast, go to work and so on – we do all this by following these prepared templates (HMB’s). Thought is only required when non-standard situations arise (the usual food for breakfast isn’t available, so we need to activate our Reason and work out what we can eat from the food which is there). Some people live for years without becoming conscious (that is, without using the mind to make non-standard decisions).
Relax. Since you’re reading this book, that doesn’t apply to you!
That is, we use our Reason to make decisions in situations for which there are no prepared decisions available.
It happens most often at work, where there are many non-standard tasks and situations.
It happens at home, but less often. For example, when you want to cook pasta, and don’t have all the necessary ingredients.
Or when you’re thinking about who to have sex with, when you don’t have a permanent partner. And so on.
You can read about the tasks and functions of Reason in more detail in the book “The Open Subconscious. How to influence oneself and others “[1].
Now let’s make a start on trying to understand the Reptilian brain.
What is the Reptilian brain responsible for?
The second decision-making centre is our Reptilian brain. It’s responsible for our survival. The survival of you personally, as well as that of your species in general.
It is customary to describe the behaviour of the Reptilian brain in terms of the Instincts. But it’s not that clear-cut, as they can be taken to include instincts such as hunger or the desire to sleep. We are not interested in such physiological needs, which are merely reflexes.
We are interested in the behavioural aspect of the instincts. How they affect our behaviour and our decision-making.
All the behavioural manifestations of the activity of the reptilian brain can easily be related to three instincts:
– The survival instinct,
– The instinct of procreation,
– The herd instinct.
All these 3 instincts serve the main task – the survival of you and me, and the continuation of the human race.
The survival instinct puts pressure on us to behave in a way which raises our social status. The higher the status, the safer we are – leaders, as is well known, are the last to die.
The instinct of procreation determines our love- and sex-lives, which result automatically in babies. The more of them, the better – in that way the continuation of the family is guaranteed.
The herd instinct demands that we keep to “our own”, dividing people into tribes according to different characteristics – family, nation, religion, politics and so on. Help your own, kill strangers – this cave-man logic of survival governs the behaviour of millions of people in today’s world.
Note that in itself the activity of the Reptilian brain is quite clear-cut and purposeful. But it is more convenient for us to divide its actions into three groups corresponding to the three instincts. So it’s hard to say if we have instincts in reality, or whether it’s just a way of describing those aspects of our behavior which are under the control of the Reptilian brain.
That is, people have a quality, instinctuality, which is not taken into account by psychologists or any other specialists in the human soul. And the level of instinctuality can be high and low.
The influence of the Reptilian brain on human behaviour depends on how dangerous the person’s environment is. If you live in conditions in which there is a shortage of food, lack of medicine, military conflict, a harsh natural environment, then your instincts will be strongly activated and will strongly influence your behaviour. Your level of instinctuality will be high.
If you live in an absolutely safe environment, where you have a stable income, your own accommodation, savings for the future, good medicine, honest police and so on, then there is nothing particular to be alarmed about. You will have a low level of instinctuality and high level of rationality. In the main you will make decisions under the influence of Reason.
Your Reptilian brain falls asleep and ceases to protect you. So that when there is a danger, you are not ready to recognize it and protect yourself (this has happened to inhabitants of European countries in recent years).
People living in dangerous conditions have a high level of instinctuality, which causes them to make totally different decisions.
We’ll discuss the effect which the Reptilian brain has on our behaviour in more detail in the next chapter. And now let’s return to the title of our chapter – what problems do our two brains create?
How do our two brains tear us apart?
All the insanity of our world is due to the fact that, under the influence of two brains (or two independent decision centers), people make different decisions in identical external circumstances. That is, your decision might be completely normal to you, whereas other people might evaluate it as insane. Let’s give an example.
Suppose you are a young woman. The circumstances of your childhood were not very favourable (there wasn’t enough money, your parents were constantly having conflicts, the family broke up, etc.), your Reptilian brain has been activated, you have a high level of instinctuality. Your instinct for procreation demands that you urgently have a baby, or even two or three.
You frantically search for someone to marry, and (behold, a miracle!) – you fall in love, and your chosen one falls in love with you. He is slightly older than you, quite successful, socially integrated, thinks with his head more than his procreative organs.
Naturally, you immediately raise the question of having children. And he, appealing to rational logic, suggests waiting for three years, until you buy an apartment – at the moment you’re living in rented accommodation. But for you that is unacceptable (the Reptilian brain urgently needs to continue the family line) and you start to insist. He resists and tries to explain to you how difficult it will be to get an apartment with a baby. It is clear that he’ll be appealing to your Reason, but you’re controlled by a completely different brain. Perhaps your family will survive, but relationships within it will be far from those you had when you married.
And this is what happens in a multitude of cases. One person wants quiet, another wants lots of guests and relatives. One wants to have a lot of money to show neighbors and acquaintances how wonderful he is, the other doesn’t understand the point of all this showing off. One wants as much power as possible and holds on to it at any cost, another considers power as an opportunity to realize his ideas and will calmly give it to another person, if appropriate.
In general, what is normal and natural for one person, might seem insane to another. And they both seem to themselves to be right, as decision making is determined not only by Reason, but also by the instincts.
Here it is worth noting several features of the Reptilian brain.
The Reptilian brain does not look to the future
The reptilian brain is quite simple in its reactions. To think, to plan, to foresee consequences is the work of Reason. But the Reptilian brain solves its problems without thinking about the consequences. It does have a sort of logic, of course. Approximately at the level of a not so bright 11–12-year-old.
Let’s explain with an example.
The reptilian brain often comes to the rescue when we are in a difficult situation and can’t find a way out of it. The Reptilian brain considers this situation as a danger and attempts to help us eliminate it.
It can only help us by acting on our body.
Remember in your childhood, when you really did not want to go to school, but you just couldn’t bring yourself to play truant. You tortured yourself trying to come up with an explanation for your parents as to why you shouldn’t go to school. And suddenly you came down with a fever, which you announced to your parents, and, with a clear conscience, you stayed at home.
Who produced your fever literally out of “nowhere”? Your Reptilian Brain. It thereby saved you from the need to solve an unsolvable problem.
This ability to solve problematic situations through illnesses of unknown origin persists in many people, even into adulthood. And bringing on a sudden fever is not the only way of doing it.
For example, a wife who realizes that her husband is about to go out and meet another woman, suddenly succumbs to an illness which is unknown to doctors. As a result, the husband is compelled to stay with her –as he can’t bring himself to leave a sick woman on her own (although, of course, that doesn’t stop all husbands).
But this help from the Reptilian brain is not always justified from a rational point of view.
Here’s an example of a real situation: at training session a woman says that she’s been suffering from bleeds for about 10 years, and doctors can’t help. Then, it transpires from an analysis of her situation that she’s been living for many years with a husband she secretly hates, but does not want to divorce (children, property, a sense of security). The only thing which has caused her intense stress has been the obligation to satisfy the conjugal rights of her husband. Then suddenly she had a bleed, and her husband was deprived of sexual relations until such time as she recovered. Which still hasn’t happened after 11 years, although she’s persisted with treatment for the condition. She had failed to overcome her inner dissatisfaction with her husband, and, by means of the illness, the Reptilian brain helped her avoid stressful sex with her husband.
Similar situations are not uncommon. But people never think that they’ve brought about their illnesses themselves in order to resolve some other problematic situation.
We’ll examine what other problems the Reptilian brain causes us in the next chapter.
Here we note that these two brains have areas of convergence and certain mechanisms for correcting their actions.
A model of the way human behaviour is controlled
To better understand these ideas, let us turn to a model of the way human behaviour is controlled, as illustrated in Fig.2.
Fig. 2. A model of the way Man is controlled
Of course, the man in this picture looks rather odd, but that’s the reality.
As you can see, there are two independent decision-making centers in our skull – our two brains.
Put simply, our Reason, activated in the Neocortex, is responsible for our logic and imagination. In this book only the functions of the left hemisphere of the brain (Neocortex) are considered; we’ve yet to touch on the right hemisphere – there are enough problems without it.
The activity of our reptilian brain is manifested through the three instincts.
In the lower half of this model the subconscious is represented in the form of a basket. In this basket are stored our knowledge, experience and convictions. Sometimes we put our goals in it, if we make the effort.
Our Reason and Instincts constantly turn to the subconscious, each with their own tasks.
Reason turns to the subconscious to obtain necessary information and prepared solutions. And it downloads new experiences, new convictions, new HMB’s into the subconscious.
The Instincts turn to the subconscious to check on whether our important or very important expectations (idealizations) are being fulfilled.
We will consider all this in detail in the remaining chapters of the book.
And now let’s sum up our first results.
RESULTS of the chapter.
- It turns out that each of us has two independent decision-making centres in our skull – two different brains. They do not duplicate each other, but solve completely different tasks, and often compete with each other for our resources.
- Our new Brain (Neocortex) allows us to have what animals do not have – speech, the ability to analyze and draw conclusions, to plan, to create new ideas and subjects, and so on. This is our Reason. It’s something that animals don’t have.
- The work of Reason is very energy- intensive, so Reason has learned to quickly automate all recurrent processes and execute them automatically. The creative powers of the mind are only utilized when we need to perform a non-standard action.
- The second brain is the ancient Reptilian brain. It takes charge of our security and survival. It does this by imposing on us required behavioural programs, which we call Instincts. Or it solves its problems by acting directly on our bodies.
- All the activity of the Reptilian brain can be conveniently described in terms of three instincts:
– the survival Instinct,
– the instinct of procreation,
– the herd instinct.
- The Reptilian brain does not have the ability to look into the future; it solves its tasks “here and now”. It’s not interested in what happens later, that’s not its function. Planning and foreseeing consequences is a function of Reason.
1.2 The tricks of the Reptilian Brain
I fancy him, I fancy him I fancy him,
For me he’s the best possible guy,
I fancy him, I fancy him I fancy him,
And that’s all I can say in reply
Words from a song
“I fancy him, and that’s it! So you can stick your advice and scare-mongering!”. Familiar situation? Most people experience it. The unpleasant consequences of such an infatuation are long-lasting. Hopefully it’s not happening to you.
In former times the bride and groom would be chosen by the parents, without haste and with forethought. And such families stayed together and were happy, they didn’t want passionate love. But today everything’s changed.
“I love him! And it doesn’t bother me that he doesn’t belong to my social circle and hasn’t had the same upbringing, that we have nothing in common. The main thing is that I love him! “. A family with no future is created.
The Reptilian brain solves its local problem
Which of our decision-making organs impose such behavior upon us?
Reason? – no, it would have long since have decided to keep clear of such a suitor.
There’s also the Reptilian brain, with its own local task – to produce offspring. Accordingly, it selects a future father of the girl’s children according to its own criteria, which include the mechanism of sexual passion, so that after two or three years, they’ll manage to conceive baby, or maybe even two.
How the family will live on after that – the Reptilian brain doesn’t concern itself with that question. That’s not its task, which is to protect you and continue the family-line. Anything else is of no interest to it.
This is an aspect of our make-up. The more dangerous the world around us, the more instinct-led we are. And the more strongly the Reptilian brain imposes on us the programs of behavior it considers necessary. For example, to have more children – to ensure that some will survive whatever happens..
Let’s take a closer look at how the Reptilian brain manifests itself in different spheres of our life.
To better understand what effect our Reptilian brain has on us, we will describe its actions in terms of three instincts
Tricks of the instinct to procreate
The family is an instrument for the preservation of the species. It’s possible to give birth to a child without a family, but it is quite difficult to bring up a child on one’s own, at least for 6 out of the 7 billion people living on the planet. So the Reptilian Brain binds a man and a woman together to form a family by means of mutual attraction, love and passion. Moreover, the selection of partners proceeds according to the criteria which the Reptilian brain has developed over millions of years of evolution.
For girls, everything is simple. You can only love a man/boy, who is manly, self-confident and sets himself above the social conventions. There are other conditions as well.
Of course, there’s also “motherly” love. This is when a woman has withdrawn from the competition for a high-value husband and decided to make do with a man she’s superior to. He hasn’t got any admirable qualities, but he might be a useful economic asset. And he might occasionally be good in bed . We won’t consider this option.
It is clear that the man must occupy a higher social position than a young woman (he has to be on a pedestal). There’s no point loving a man who is ineffectual or prone to doubt all the time, he wouldn’t be much good at solving the problems of family life. Although in practice an ineffectual man might have a decent job, and be a faithful and reliable husband. But this is only understood by Reason, which has no control over people’s love-lives. So a young woman’s “Reason” might lead her to marry a banker, whom she sincerely loves as her gallant protector.
Aphorism on this theme
Personally, I‘ve never met people who learn from other people’s mistakes, so whether you warn them off or not, they don’t get the message. Young women will continue to fall in love with charming jerks. Cameron M.
But that’s when they’re still young. In recent years, for slightly more mature women, the criteria for selecting a “worthy” suitor have completely changed, and instinct has begun to take into account the social achievements of the man (occupation, income).
For men as well the criterion for choosing a loved one is far from simple. Of course, a man would very much prefer to start producing offspring with a good-looking and physically attractive woman. But at the same time it is very important to enhance your status in the eyes of others – this requires the brightest and most sought after young woman. This is already a requirement, not of the instinct of procreation, but of the survival instinct. This is why men are particularly interested in beautiful women – they all want to outdo their competitors. And thereby enhance their social status in the eyes of others.
Love is a state of joyful excitation that paralyzes Reason’s ability to realistically appraise a possible spouse and influence the choice. Children need to be produced as quickly as possible, so there’s no point messing around – just fall in love and get started!
After a while (usually within in 2-3 years), the last embers of the fire of passion die down (the more passionate the relationship, the faster this happens), and a normal family life begins. The couple’s passion fades and they suddenly discover that their chosen one does not measure up to what they’d hoped for. So each spouse starts making attempts to mould the other to their expectations, with all the problems which that leads to. This will be the subject of the next chapter.
Aphorism on this theme
They’d been happy for a long time, and then they met each other.
In general, if a woman experiences suffering because there is no possibility having children, it’s because the Reptilian brain is tormenting her.
But the unconscious choice of a spouse can itself lead to a lot of problems.
For example, if a man and wife have different levels of instinctuality, there in for a lot of surprises.
Imagine a situation in which a highly rational man has fallen in love with an emotional and passionate girl with a substantial measure of eastern blood – an indicator of a high level of instinctuality. They’ve created a family, everything seems fine. But the herd instinct of the wife demands continuous socializing with relatives, friends, dealing with their affairs, solving their problems and so on. The house is turned upside down, there are endless guests, ‘phone-calls, his wife is always busy with something. At first the husband thinks that this’ll soon end and they’ll begin to live a normal life. And then he realizes that this is how it’ll always be. And there are already two or three children in the house, so he’s trapped…
This is just one example of the problems arising from the fact that people do not understand the hidden mechanisms governing the behaviour of people closest to them. In fact, there’s a multitude of them. Some of them are described in the book “Sex as joyful psychotherapy for very busy uncles and aunts.”
Another example. A woman has chosen the most successful suitor from those who want her hand (and body) in marriage and married him. But if she is not completely satisfied with her choice, she actively continues to keep two or three former suitors interested and on a “hot” reserve list. If a new suitor appears on the horizon who is more successful than her husband, she won’t have a problem leaving her husband and moving in with her new man. You can say a lot of different things about her behavior, but it’s not a question of morality or money-grabbing. This is completely normal behavior for an instinct-led and self-confident woman. Her instinct requires her to hold on to the most successful man and she obeys that command. Morality and standards of behavior are a matters for reason, whereas love is governed by an entirely different organ, as you already know.
Aphorism in the theme
For a woman it’s not enough to find a man; she also has to convince him that his dream has come true.
Unknown author
In other words, the instinct to procreate creates that beautiful feeling we call love. All human beings share in it. Love is the motive behind the creation of a plethora of beautiful paintings and sculptures. 99% of all pop songs reflect the suffering caused by this frustrated instinct. For women, it’s an over-arching theme: I love him, he loves another, what do I do? For men: I love her, but she hasn’t yet responded – what can I do?
Remove the instinct to procreate, and the whole performance will immediately cease, since there is nothing more to sing about.
Or, to put it more precisely, there’ll still be patriotic songs – but they belong to the domain of the herd instinct.
Jealousy also is a manifestation of the activity of the Reptilian brain. Usually behind jealousy is the fear of losing a loved one. This fear manifests itself in the form of the wildest actions aimed at preserving the relationship. As you know, the result is quite the opposite. But the Reptilian brain is completely unconcerned about the consequences; it needs to solve the current problem. And it’s not responsible for the relationship.
Why does no one love me?
Incidentally, falling in love is the result of the activity of the procreative instinct. And this instinct in a man can only respond to a woman who is strongly feminine and is interested in having a family. This doesn’t normally present girls with a problem when they’re young, so they fall in love with ease and get married.
As they get older and have success in a career or business, women’s interest in having children diminishes.They need a man, but more for status, security, sex, sharing the financial burden and so on. They might look great, but the procreative instinct of men does not select them because they’ve fallen in love with them. No one falls in love with them, no matter how physically attractive they are.
True, the survival instinct of men might select them – to enhance their status in their own eyes or in those of men around them. But that’s by virtue of being a lover rather than a wife. That means that for such women, in order to make themselves more attractive as someone who can create a family, it is necessary to strengthen their “female side” – this is taught in many of the trainings.
Anecdote on this theme
– Dad, tell me, how do you catch crazy people?
– With the help of make-up, a beautiful dress and sweet smiles, son.
And what about highly rational people?
In the highly rational native inhabitants of Central and Northern Europe, the instincts have almost ceased to function as they’ve become redundant. The life of these people is safe, so the Reptilian brain is practically asleep, no one needs protecting. Here decisions are taken on the whole by Reason, which respects other people, regardless of their level of development, instinctuality and other personal characteristics.
Hence the tolerance of the views of others, allowing other people to live as they want, including acceptance of homosexuality, and so on. In highly instinct-led people, homosexuality is a sign of the degeneration of the species, so it’s harshly persecuted.
When a highly selective European woman has a choice: to have a dog or a child she’ll have to bring up for the next 20 years, she’ll often choose the dog. But pleasant manifestations of instinct such as falling in love and sex are still totally accepted. True, people don’t usually experience unbridled passion; everything is decided by agreement or the need to have enjoyable sex.
Aphorism on this theme
Sex is the most comical thing I could do without laughing.
Woody Allen
It’s true that in recent years the excessive tolerance of Europeans has led to the immigration of hundreds of thousands, even millions, of highly instinct-led inhabitants of Asia and Africa. As a result, the indigenous population of Europe has felt threatened, so the herd and other instincts have began to revive in them, which has manifested itself in the growing popularity of nationalist parties.
Anecdote on this theme
The husband (instinct-led) shouts at his wife: Idiot! You’re an idiot!
The wife (rational) calmly answers:True! If I’d married a king, I’d be a queen now instead.
So let’s consider what problems the herd instinct creates for us.
The tricks of the herd instinct
The herd instinct is manifested in the unconscious division of all people into “us” and “them”. And in the ensuing support of “us” and hostility to “them”.
The division into “them” and “us” can occur according to a multitude of criteria. First and foremost, they are defined by family and kinship ties. Then there is division according to skin-color, nationality, religion, place of residence, political party, belonging to a small group (say all gays), fans of some team, fans of a musician, possession of a certain company’s smartphone and so on.
If it’s important for you to belong to any of the above groups of people, then your Reptilian brain is awake and actively “directs” your behavior.
What problems does the herd instinct create for us? Lots.
Religious, political and other forms of fanaticism have taken over the world; thousands of people die in religious wars.
A person who relates to a group of people defines his place in it, his level and his importance. He feels like an insignificant member of a large herd. As such what can he do? Nothing. So people who feel themselves an minor element of a large community, surrender most of their rights to the top, to the leaders. Those at the top have a lot of knowledge and ability- let’s leave decisions to them.
You can read in more detail about the manifestations of the activity of the Reptilian brain in politics, business and other spheres of life in the book “The Impossible is Possible. 7 principles of a successful life “.
At the level of everyday life, the herd instinct requires that you support “us”. Test yourself on the topic of instinct.
Let’s say a situation has arisen where a close relative or child has broken the law, but not seriously. What would you do?
In a highly rational country they immediately turn to a lawyer, and he defends your relative in court.
What do people in a highly instinct-led country do? A court of law is not particularly trusted, so it’s best not to risk going to court. Who could be of help? Probably, a friend or relative of yours, who occupies a position of authority or works in a law enforcement agency. You call on / ring him, and he receives your request calmly. If he has enough authority, then he’ll help you. This is normal, you’re one of “us”, how can he not help?
Similarly, at the level of everyday life, the herd instinct motivates you to harm “the other”. In the market you can be short changed or sold defective goods. To the seller you belong to “them”, so he doesn’t have any qualms about swindling you.
Or the agent trying to sell you a flat “forgets” about its drawbacks and exaggerates advantages. For the agent you belong to “them”, so he doesn’t have any worries about being devious.
And advertising? For the sellers the buyers are virtually the enemy, so lying to them can be great fun.
Anecdote on this theme.
A Russian motorist went for drive in the Caucasus mountains. On one particular day he got lost whilst driving in darkness and mist. Suddenly he heard a dull thud. He stopped, got out of the car and saw that he’d knocked down a ram. It’s dark all around, there are no houses in sight and no sign of anyone. What should he do? Just leave? Dump the ram on the road? Or take it with him?
After some hesitation, he decided to take the ram with him. He opened the boot and began to lift the ram in. The ram is big and heavy and different body parts keep falling out, now its head , then its legs.
At a certain point, he heard a cough. He looks and sees a local standing there, leaning on a stick and examining his load. The situation is unpleasant, he had to say something. As soon as he opened his mouth, the local loudly interrupted him: “Bloody hell! ” Don’t bother saying you’re taking it to hospital!”
It’s obvious that you’ll always lie if it benefits you rather than your enemies.
Incidentally, an enormous number of films are built on scenes of violence. This is shameless exploitation of the herd instinct – you unconsciously join “us” and begin to fight internally with “them”, desiring the victory of “us”. Your Reptilian brain, which does not distinguish violence on the screen from violence in real life, creates in you an intense emotional experience for the sake of which you watch such films from the safety of your home.
A large number of sports (mostly team) are also built on the exploitation of the survival instinct and the herd instinct. You begin to “suffer”, that is, empathize with your “own” team and experience a sense of outrage when “they” win. As you know, some fans’ get so carried away emotionally, that they come to blows with the “foreign” fans.
Computer games, which involve an endless battle, also exploit (and, of course, trigger) the survival instinct.
In general, a huge amount of money is made exploiting the instincts of human beings. Smart people get involved in all this as well and talk about nothing but excitement and emotions. In reality it’s simply exploitation of the animal (instinctual) side of our natures.
Let’s turn to the last of the instincts.
Tricks of the survival instinct
The instinct of survival changes our states in the event of a real (or imaginary) danger. But about this in the next chapter.
At the social level, instinct requires a man to rise as high as possible on the social ladder – it’s safer there. In the case of military operations, for example, it’s the people at the bottom who die first, whereas the leader (or the president) is protected till the last possible moment.
Hence, the higher you ascend the power structure, or the more money you earn, the safer you’ll be (you certainly won’t die of starvation).
That’s precisely why a large number of men in highly instinct-driven countries try to earn as much money as possible. The Forbes list consists mainly of rich people from America, China and India, Arab countries and Russia. In highly rational Europe, there are virtually no new billionaires – it’s considered a strange occupation to spend your life earning more money than the rich man himself or his family could possibly spend.
If you don’t manage to get on the Forbes list, then you can enhance your status by showing off an expensive watch, a prestige car or a wife from some catalog of beauty contest winners. At least a local contest.
Aphorism on this theme
When I saw that this guy had dented my wing, I told him to go forth and multiply. But not in those words. Woody Allen
But money and power are not the only means of standing out and enhancing your status. You can enhance your reputation by being victorious in various other kinds competition. It might be a sport, preferably one involving a risk to life – then you’ll look even more worthy. And get an adrenaline rush as well. Assuming you survive, of course.
But you don’t need sport to compete. You can aim at being the one who has the most extra-marital sex, or drinks the most alcohol, or is best at playing cards and so on.
The Reptilian brain also controls any of your purchases which involve risk. And the risk might not be obvious – for example, it might be the risk of feeling like a gullible idiot or wasting money on pointless or low-quality goods.
In general, the Reptilian brain is a consistent and remorseless opponent of any change, with its unpredictable consequences. If you don’t change anything, you don’t need to worry. It’s precisely this brain which inhibits millions of people from changing jobs, moving house, opening their own business and so on. Instinct will always be against any change, which is why changing anything requires effort.
But that’s not the last of our troubles. So let’s move on to the next chapter.
Meanwhile, let’s bring together the results of this one.
RESULTS of the chapter.
- People fall in love as a result of the Reptilian brain’s concern to continue your species –this is the instinct of procreation. The choice of who to fall in love with is produced by the Reptilian brain in accordance with criteria developed in the process of natural selection. And of course also taking into account who are possible choices.
- For women, the criterion is proof of a man’s importance. But instinct iteslf does not require of the man a specific demonstration or real confirmation of his superiority.
- For men, the sexual attractiveness and looks of a woman are very important. The more beautiful a woman is, the more in demand she is – the winner gets a prestigious prize and the respect of other men.
- For the man’s procreative instinct, the woman’s femininity is very important – this quality guarantees to this instinct that she will want to produce offspring. A beautiful but rational woman represents prestige sex, but the procreative instincts of the man are not in a hurry to get him to fall in love with her.
- The herd instinct provides security by unconditionally obtaining help from “us”.
- The unification of people into “herds” proceeds from religious, political, national, territorial and many other motives.
- Feeling himself as an element of a “herd”, a highly instinct-led person unconsciously surrenders his rights and the opportunity to make decisions for himself to the head of his community. That is, he invariably votes for him without thinking.
- The survival instinct dictates to men that they occupy the highest possible position on the ladder of social success – it’s safer there.
- If you haven’t achieved anything of real note in society, you can fake it by showing off expensive possessions, your prestige wife and other “status symbols”.
1.3 How do emotions create problems for us?
There’s one thing worse than dogs fighting: one dog not answering the calls of another
Woody Allen
Let’s continue looking at the tricks of the Reptilian brain.
You have a good idea what emotions are. More precisely, you’re experiencing them all the time.
There are good ones (positive) and bad ones (negative). We’re pleased by good emotions, but would like to get rid of negative ones. But hardly anyone can do it. Unless, under the guidance of yogis, you’re continually meditating. But then you wouldn’t be reading this book.
That is, negative emotions poison your life. And it’s this you want to free yourself of.
Who do you think causes the mood swings we call emotions?
Reason ? No, it merely processes information and makes informed decisions. And quite slowly at that.
The Reptilian brain reacts to this signal much faster. True, the Reptilian brain has a very limited range of possible responses. In fact only two.
It can either arouse or inhibit you. And that’s all. But with that rapidity which is an active component of Oriental martial arts.
How does this happen? You come to work, you’re in a good, relaxed mood. You’ve been asked to call in on your supervisor, who announces that circumstances have arisen which mean you can’t go on holiday in July as planned, but only in November. And you’ve already got visas, booked tickets, and your husband (wife, loved one) has agreed the date of your holiday with you. Everything was agreed, and suddenly this slap in the face!
What will you feel? Most likely, a strong inner protest, irritation or even anger. Maybe you’ll get into an argument with your boss, but your chances of changing his decision are remote.
This is a standard reaction of arousal.
Or you might immediately lapse into despair, apathy, hopelessness. Especially if this holiday is tied up specifically with plans you had for the future, for example. And now they’ve collapsed. In that case, you will have an inhibitory reaction.
A story on this theme.
According to legend, when Julius Caesar was recruiting for his warrior-guard, in the course of discussions he unexpectedly insulted them (in other versions he threatened them). And he observed the reaction. If the warrior blushed (that is, his blood boiled with anger and a desire to take revenge), he accepted him in his guard.
If the insult made the warrior turn pale (conceal himself, freeze), then he was rejected.
Why it is that some people go red when threatened and others turn pale, is still not well understood. But people who go red have more problems.
Here, what is important is that an event has occurred and you’ve reacted to it. Emotionally.
What is emotion?
So emotion is your reaction to certain events. And it manifests itself in a change in the level of excitation of your body.
One might even define it as follows: an emotion is an energetic response of the organism to the occurrence of an event.
Anecdote on this theme
If you want your underwear to arouse emotions in your husband, hang it out on his computer monitor.
That is, when communicating with the boss you’ll experience either arousal or inhibition. What creates this reaction in you? Your Reptilian Brain. To protect you from the sudden danger represented by your manager.
In other words, our Reptilian brain control our states.
It doesn’t do this randomly, but in accordance with a specific algorithm which has evolved in it over millions of years.
Here is a simplified version of the algorithm:
Figure 3. Simplified algorithm for the generation of emotions.
How does an emotion arise in us according to this algorithm?
Something happens (Event, Situation, Reality). The reptilian brain quickly receives information about it along neural pathways from the eyes, ears, etc. Equally quickly, it compares what’s happened to what was supposed to happen in such a situation and how (our Expectations). And reacts accordingly.
Moreover it reacts in the same way to any type of event. Whether it’s something really taking place around you or inside you, or something you’ve dreamt or seen in the cinema, or something imaginary.
In any of these situations, the Reptilian brain will only receive a signal about what is happening along the neural pathways, and will give its response to this signal. It has no way of distinguishing a real event from an imaginary one, or from a picture on a TV screen. Nature has not made provision in the Reptilian brain for mechanisms of discrimination between reality and image, since the cinema itself has only existed a little over a hundred years. That’s why we like to watch movies and other performances – you experience the emotions of heroes, but without any accompanying danger.
So, how does the Reptilian Brain behave in response to the information it’s received?
There is no divergence – there’s no point bothering
If something has happened, and it corresponds to your expectations (your picture of the world, your convictions, beliefs, experiences, habits), then there is no cause for concern, everything is under control. The Reptilian brain doesn’t react, your state does not change.
Reality exceeds expectations
If reality has turned out to be better than you expected, the Reptilian brain gives the command for arousal, which depends on the extent to which reality has exceeded your expectations.
The more reality has exceeded your expectations, the greater your joy. For example, if you turn up for your pay, and you receive what you’re owed, you remain in a state of equilibrium. If you’re given your pay and a bonus, you’re quite pleased. If you’re suddenly given a HUGE prize – you experience a surge of joy. And then more joy.
In parallel, the Reptilian brain commands the limbic system to put you in a state of joy. The limbic system activates the necessary glands, and a complex of hormones enters the blood, producing a state of joy.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen very often.
Reality does not coincide with expectations
More often than not Reality does not coincide with our Expectations. The Reptilian brain treats this situation as dangerous, and takes measures to defend you.
This is movement down the arrow labelled “no.”
Defensive measures are of two types – attack or hide (go red or turn pale).
And that depends on how the Reptilian brain assesses its ability to influence the situation. The making of this decision corresponds to the node: “Can I put it right?” in the algorithm Fig.3.
When we hide
To start with “Hide”: this corresponds to the lowest branch of the algorithm. This is the way the Reptilian brain responds to the situation when it understands that it can’t change the situation by force.
This usually happens when there’s no adversary. For example, an economic crisis has ruined your business, but there is no specific culprit you can take to task.
Or your loved one has jilted you and taken up with another woman, with no chance of getting him back, so it’s useless getting into a rage.
Or you’ve been swindled out of a large amount of money, but you do not know who did it.
Or someone close to you has suddenly died or has a fatal illness, but there’s no one to blame.
Or you’ve struggled long and hard to get another person to satisfy expectations which are very important to you (e.g.save your husband from drunkenness), but you haven’t succeeded. Everything is useless, and you’ve lapsed into despair.
That is, a drop in your energy-level occurs in situations where something happens that you strongly disagree with, but you can’t influence it in any way. In that case, the Reptilian brain dramatically reduces your energy-level. Why?
So that you don’t direct the triggered energy against yourself and thereby lose your life – that life in which something you find completely unacceptable has happened, but in which you’ve no one to fight against but yourself.
This state of reduced energy is called “depression.” We’ll talk about it in the next part of the book.
On the way to this state, you may experience emotions of varying levels of intensity – sadness, despondency, melancholy, doom, despair.
Anecdote on this theme
Depression – this is when your start worrying about the plight of the principal actress after watching a porn film.
And now we will consider what happens when the Reptilian brain thinks that it can change a situation by force.
When we become aroused
The reaction of the Reptilian brain corresponds to the middle branch of the algorithm in Figure 3, where it believes that the situation can be corrected. To do this, in a split second it puts you into a state of arousal so that you’re ready to counteract the danger. It gives you an additional energy charge so you can use force to defend yourself. And at the same time restore justice – as you understand it.
The level of your arousal will be proportional to the divergence between reality and expectation. The greater the divergence, the greater your level of arousal. It’s customary to designate these intermediate states as distinct emotions: discontent, irritation, anger, rage, fury.
Here’s a very simple example. Your child comes back from school with poor marks. When you find out about it, you’ll most likely have a fit of temper. The reality of poor performance diverges from your expectations (the child should perform well at school). The Reptilian brain perceives this situation as dangerous, and immediately mobilizes you to fight the danger. You are aroused, and from a position of strength, you tell the child how he should improve. In fact, you intimidate him, and if he is young enough, he’ll be frightened by your anger and will improve his marks.
The same thing happens when you get angry with your husband (wife), parents, boss, subordinates and so on. You try to intimidate them so that fear will make them behave as you want.
In an environment with cave-man mores this ploy works. Whoever is the strongest and most brazen is always right. If you dither or think too long, you won’t survive – that’s how natural selection works.
But in a modern civilized society, it’s not often that you can make use of your arousal to solve a problem by force. Are you really going to beat your boss up, so that he’ll reverse his decision on your vacation? The maximum that you can do is have an argument with him. And get rid of a little bit of the energy that’s built up inside you.
But the Reptilian brain, guided by its long experience, gives you an impulse of energy which will make sure that you’ll win in physical struggle. (Remember how hard you hit yourself if you get bitten by a mosquito). But with the boss you’ve merely had an argument. Or even kept quiet and suppressed your anger.
Hence all the problems.
Emotional Blocks
When you say to yourself, “Okay, calm down, everything’ll sort itself out” and try to calm down, your Reptilian brain understands this unequivocally. According to its cave-man logic, you didn’t get into a fight simply because there are more of them and they are stronger today.
But tomorrow, circumstances may turn out differently, and you’ll need the strength to win. And at this moment you might be tired and not able to win. Therefore, it’s better to save the energy triggered inside you for future fights.
And on the command of the Reptilian brain, the energy triggered for the fight is deposited in the body in the form of compressed springs, but formed from the muscles of the body rather from metal.
In our methodology, these energy charges are called “emotional blocks”. They’re real microspasms, which are deposited in specific places in your body.
With each large increase in energy-level, another emotional block is created.
These emotional blocks are deposited in different parts of the body depending on what has provoked them. For example, the block which is”charged” up for conflict with a husband or wife will be in one place in the body. The block for fighting yourself in another. The block for fighting with parents – in yet another, and so on.
A block charged up for fighting against oneself is usually created by means of the emotion of guilt, that is, discontent with oneself (an attack on oneself). For example, it might be created by the anger at the “extra” kilograms which cling to you and which you can’t get rid of. So you attack your body.
There are also blocks which are”charged up” to fight bosses, subordinates, clients, work, money, traffic jams, the government. And multitude of other people or objects that elicit your displeasure.
All these blocks are positioned in your body and create at least 5 problems.
You suffer from an energy deficit
When one and the same thing repeatedly provokes the same emotional response , all the emotional blocks “charged up” against the person or situation are deposited in one place in the body. As a result, the original emotional block grows into one huge block.
When there are many such blocks in the body, they create obstacles to the flow of our vital energies through the body. Those that flow through us along the “wonderful meridians” and are used in acupuncture, for example.
As a result, you suffer a decrease in energy-level. The head works well, but you don’t have the energy to realize your plans. Usually this happens after the age of 40, and has been called the “mid-life crisis”.
Anecdote on this theme
– Darling, could you vacuum the room?
– I’m so tired that even my hands are shaking.
– Fine, then go and shake the carpet.
If you make special efforts and remove emotional blocks from your body, then the whole “crisis” will evaporate. At the same time you’ll look several years younger (externally and internally) without the aid of cosmetics.
You become ill
Any emotional block is a real muscle spasm in your body. When there are many such spasms, and they are located in an internal organ, then this organ becomes diseased. Initially you go to the doctor and tell him about the pain you’re experiencing. He carries out tests and says that you have a “psychosomatic illness”. And suggests you see a psychologist. Or come back when your psychosomatic disorder becomes a real disease.
That is, almost every large emotional block gives rise to a disease. I remind you that a large block is formed as a result of either an intense emotional trauma caused by betrayal, treachery, etc. or years of conflict or hidden discontent.
If you are involved in sports or regularly undergo massages, then you’ll remove some of these spasms. But only from those parts of your body accessible to the masseur.
The emotional blocks that are located inside the chest or skull can’t be removed by massage. And they can give rise a variety of illnesses.
If you cleanse your body of emotional blocks, some illnesses go away without further intervention. Not all, of course, because illnesses have many other causes.
Emotional blocks control your behavior
After you’ve been arguing with someone for a long time, a huge emotional block is created in your body, “charged up” against this person.
This block behaves like a person with independent thoughts – in psychology this is called a “subpersonality”. This very “subpersonality” is created and has only one task – to intimidate your adversary and, as a result, correct it/him/her (as in the example of the child – we frighten him so that he’ll perform better).
If, for example, you’ve been arguing with your husband for the last 10 years about his small salary (or his addiction to beer, etc.), then you’ll have developed in your body a huge emotional block, the purpose of which is to intimidate your husband so he’ll start earning more (or stop drinking beer).
Sometimes this ploy works. But rarely.
Anecdote in the theme
In the middle of a quarrel a husband threatens his wife:
– That’s enough of telling me what to do! Now I’m off to a bar with my friends. I’ll drink beer and maybe pick up a girl. I’ll get drunk and arrive home late. And guess who‘ll be taking my shoes off?
– An anatomist!
When you attack your husband from a position of strength, his Reptilian brain already senses danger and instantaneously goes into a state of arousal. And he’s already starting to frighten you from his position of strength, so that you’ll correct yourself and change in the way he wants: become unaggressive, respectful and so on.
It is clear that both of you have the best of intentions – to help your loved one to change for the better. But you’ve chosen the coercive, cave-man approach to realize them, and the results obtained are the opposite of what you wanted.
As a result, no one changes. But then the emotional blocks, having received another injection of your energy, become stronger and more active.
And, like watchdogs for the Reptilian brain, they’re already beginning to monitor the behaviour of your adversary. And as soon as your adversary makes a mistake, the Reptilian brain, since the emotional block is replete with the required energy, is activated, and attacks. With the help of your body, which your Reason can’t control when it’s in an aroused state.
As a result, you start getting embroiled in conflicts against your will. You begin to see only inadequacies in the person you used to be close to and loved. All of his virtues are forgotten – the Reptilian Brain is looking for any opportunity to attack him.
Moreover, at the level of Reason, you could long since have realized the futility of the whole struggle and the need to end it. But if you did not translate this decision into a correct internal setting such as “From now on, I’ll leave it to my husband to earn as much as he can. Henceforth, I’ll give up any say over his income”, the situation will not change. Expectations regarding your husband’s income remain, the frustration of those expectations continues, the emotional block remains – as a result, you’ll get embroiled in conflict with your husband again and again.
Most likely, this will lead to discontent with yourself – you’ve failed to improve your husband. And you’ll start attacking yourself as well, hence feeding the emotional block which is charged up for the struggle against yourself.
Such is the rich inner life of instinctive people.
With rational people it’s all tranquility and calm. They sit down, discuss and carry out whatever they’ve decided. But with instinctive people it’s not like that. They sit down, talk, and then do the opposite. And why carry out the agreements – after all, the negotiators belong to another tribe, our enemies. And who fulfills agreements with the enemies?
Emotional blocks prevent you from changing
Another calamity caused by emotional blocks is that they prevent you from making conscious changes.
Let’s say you don’t have enough money. Every time you have to pay for something, you rebel inside. Especially when you don’t have enough money (and when do you?).
And what’s the essence of this internal rebellion? You want to grab some money and intimidate it so it’ll never escape your clutches again. And will stay with you for good. The usual logic of intimidation. But the problem is that very few people manage to make money and suss out how to get on good terms with it. Or at least they just scare it off. Judging by the constant changes to the Forbes list, money behaves pretty capriciously, and very few people manage to tame it.
In the end all these internal protests lead to one large emotional block, “charged up” against money. Its main task is to grab money and intimidate it so it doesn’t escape from you.
But then you suddenly decide to increase your income yourself. Find a new job or open your own business. That is, increase your income without intimidating money. If this happens, then the meaning of the existence of the emotional block will be lost, and the Reptilian brain will remove it, as it’s become redundant.
So a strong internal opposition to your attempts to change your relationship with money begins. You’re constantly being distracted from your idea of increasing your income; your attention keeps shifting to other things. You are assailed by endless doubts or fears which hold you back. Make no mistake, this is the Reptilian brain, aided by the emotional block and the survival instinct, going all out to thwart your intention to change your relationship with money.
As is well known, most business ventures fail; only 5% succeed, whereas 95% give up without reaching the desired result.
If at the outset you remove the emotional block “charged up” against money, then you’ll be significantly more successful at acquiring it. The same applies to changing jobs, getting married, having a baby, and so on.
But that’s not all.
The endless flow of thoughts in your head
Most people have endless conversations, showdowns, planning future actions and similar “chatter” running in their heads all the time. They sap your energy and don’t allow you to rest or think about tasks which face you.
Some philosophers have come to the conclusion these are the machinations of the mind and should be completely abandoned.
In fact, it’s all quite simple.
What is an emotional block? This is a concentration of energy left after losing a struggle. Something happened, you were aroused, but didn’t fight. As a result, the energy triggered remained in your body in the form of an emotional block, which strives to bring to a conclusion the task for which it was aroused. This is done by mulling over the causes of the defeat and planning future actions leading to victory. And all this happens in your Consciousness.
To understand this strange collection of words, let’s introduce one more general model of the control of human behavior. More precisely, of the control of the human body, which is an executive organ.
The general structure of functioning of a human being can be represented by the following conditional model, shown in Fig.4.
Fig.4 Model of the control of the human body.
As you know, if you turn off the organs of control, then the person is simply transformed into body that will continue to live so long as he’s somehow provided food (a person without consciousness). But it’ll just be a body, without thought or the ability to act.
When a person is alive and healthy, his body is controlled by several organs.
Above all, by Reason (Neocortex). It allows us to function in a mode which enables us to make new decisions and carry out standard actions.
Reason carries out its decisions through Consciousness. It is the organ that translates our thoughts into words. We perceive ourselves through Consciousness.
But Reason is not always present in our Consciousness. A lot of the time it is absent from Consciousness, which is then exploited by other organs of control. They take over this vacated Consciousness and from there give us certain commands, or just occupy it.
For example, you already know that you are also governed by Instincts. How do they do it? By means of a group of hormones they can create in your body specific states (love, hate, hope, etc.). To achieve this, the Reptilian brain merely needs to give the right command to your limbic system.
But our states always need to be confirmed by specific thoughts, explaining the reasons for their occurrence.
That is, when instincts create in you a passionate desire to multiply, it is confirmed by thoughts such as “I want love. I want to get married. I want a child “, which are thrown into your Consciousness by your Reptilian brain.
Such detailed plans for the future are typical of women, of course. Men usually just have one thought which is quite simple: “I want to multiply.”
That is, Instincts throw thoughts into your Consciousness and confirm them with the appropriate states.
Aphorism on this theme
Consciousness only takes over those areas which instinct has abandoned. Emile Durkheim
And we also have Emotions. They are generated by the same Reptilian brain, but for a different reason. There are two possible ways emotions control us through Consciousness.
The first is by triggering an urgent response. Something has happened which is at odds with expectations which are very important for you. Your Reptilian brain discovers this divergence and instantaneously puts you into an aroused state, which we call emotion.
At the same time, there arise in your Consciousness outraged thoughts about what needs to be done. You tell your child threateningly that he has to do better at school. You tell your husband threateningly that he shouldn’t be looking at other women. You tell your boss threateningly not to violate your rights (although this usually just “about yourself”). And so on.
That is, in a moment of strong emotion, your Reason is paralyzed and has no access to Consciousness. And it (and the body) are completely controlled by the Reptilian brain.
Another way emotions control you is less fast.
Your body is saturated with emotional blocks thirsting for revenge. At the first opportunity, they’ll seize your Consciousness and start planning their future actions. Or analyze why last time you didn’t achieve the result you wanted.
This is the endless and uncontrolled flow of thoughts in your head.
Oriental teachings recommend meditation to free yourself of this flow of thoughts. That is, to forcibly stop the flow of thoughts. To achieve complete quietness in those moments when your Consciousness is not occupied by Reason, you need to meditate for 5 years or even 10. This was possible when meditative practices were created thousands of years ago, when life was slow and no one was in a rush.
Today we live in a different world, and we want to silence the chatter in our heads much more quickly. This is quite possible with just a couple of months work with techniques of cleansing the body of emotional blocks. You’ll find out about this in the second part of the book.
Now we need to bring to a conclusion the story of the usual tricks of the Reptilian brain, which make our life unpredictable and strange.
And sum up the Results so far.
RESULTS of the chapter.
- Emotion is an increase in the energy-level of the organism in response to events taking place.
- Moreover, the events could be real or imaginary; they could occur in a dream or on a TV screen.
- An emotional response always occurs in accordance with an algorithm developed by the Reptilian brain in the course of evolution.
- If the Reptilian brain thinks that you can influence the situation, it puts your body into an aroused state so that, from a position of strength, you can take action against the transgressor of your expectations.
- In present-day conditions, it is usually not possible to use all energy which has been triggered for physical struggle, so some of it is stored in the body to achieve victory in the next fight.
- This stored energy is deposited in the body in the form of a muscle cramp, a bodily spasm called an “emotional block”.
- When a person has an emotional response, which is very intense or keeps recurring over a long period, to one and the same issue, a large emotional block is formed in the body, which creates the following 5 problems for us:
– Your energy-level decreases;
– You succumb to illnesses triggered by spasms in specific parts of your body;
– Emotional blocks control your behavior;
– Emotional blocks prevent you from making changes;
– Emotional blocks create an endless and uncontrolled flow of thoughts in your head.
- When the emotional block is erased, the energy-level is restored, certain illnesses pass, you regain the opportunity to make the necessary changes, the uncontrolled flow of thoughts in your head ceases.
- And, most importantly, you escape from an exhausting and unnecessary struggle, and have the opportunity to live consciously and effectively in the future.
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