The tantalising potential of instinctive energy

We are ‘head people’. By that I mean that our lives are driven by our heads; by thinking, by brains. We are born vividly experiencing, but our life in society and in ‘convention’ gradually numbs us into an existence based largely on the thinking brain… 

We may choose to involve our bodies more with sports, walking or other very physical activities, but most of our lives will be spent thinking, worrying or being otherwise preoccupied rather than consciously experiencing.

And yet, our heads – more specifically our brains, sit on top of a vastly complex life-support system that ‘grows’ from the ground up; we might say grows from the ‘earth’ up. In a material sense, our bodies are ‘what we are’, but our sense of ‘being’ locates itself in the head by habit – though our being-ness extends through our bodies.

The general awareness of our bodies fades – except when there is pain; and then the association is anguish, not celebration.

We are made of the stuff of the earth. The material of our planet – some of it left over from the explosions of ancient, dying suns – makes up our bodies, There is no other source. The organic molecules that came to make up our form had a long evolutionary journey of their own.

Organic molecules evolved, pre-life, with an imperative to become more ‘organised’ and eventually formed self-replicating molecular structures. These were condtioned by ‘evolution’ to become larger and more sophisticated groupings whose primary ‘drive’ was and is to persist – to survive.

These persistent molecules are the basis of organic life on Earth, We know them as RNA and DNA. They form the blueprint for our inherited bodies, and they are the micro-level factories with which our bodies make the proteins that keep our cells alive and renewed.

Everything that we are has the instinct to survive at its basis. Survival is persistence of the creature. When our lives – our own persistence – is threatened, all the niceties and culture of the layers of brain that came later in evolution are dropped in favour of an overpowering’ need to continue to exist – to live.

Sadly, in societies that are heavily stressed, the elements of survival erupt through the thin layers of cooperation formed by society. Competition in business, for example, is ruthless and brutal, and its thinking resembles the behaviour of a reptile rather than that of a caring and sharing society.

Acts and movements of cooperation, where the common good is paramount, are the fruit of the neo-cortex layers of our brains and our associated civilisation. They are constantly beset by high-energy attacks from, say, populism; which feeds on the lower instincts of ‘me first’ and the deliberate pedalling of untruths to make people feel they were ‘right all along’.

This primary survival drive that conditions all future drives, such as those that govern sexual and social actions, is housed in the upper parts of our brain stem, at the top of our spine. Above this the other, more ‘social’ components of our brain structures live. The primary concern of the latter stages of our brain history is largely concerned with our need to cooperate, intelligently, with others – the Social Instinct.

We can consider ourselves to have ‘three floors’ in this corporate headquarters. The upper brain-stem is the ground floor, and as we have seen, is concerned primarily with ‘me’ and survival and other forms of continuation.

Above the brain stem is the Limbic Brain, also known as the reptilian brain. Cold-blooded and lacking in feelings, this provides us with the instantaneous reactions that keep us alive, but is not concerned beyond its own needs. Reptiles are solitary creatures. They even abandon their young – as eggs, once laid. The life of a reptile is one of constant reaction. From this, we get our ability to defend ourselves in a crisis, but that is normally on the basis of ‘me’.

The sexual drives as we know them also originate in the reptile (limbic) brain. Sex is ultimately concerned with union, but fuelled by powerful desire originating in our more primitive components.

The layers above the limbic are often called the ‘Mammalian Brain’. The young are suckled and lovingly assisted to maturity. There are feelings. Mammals live in communities, gaining strength from working together. Society forms in the mammalian kingdom. 

Why is all this important to know? Surely it’s just ‘how we are’ and unchangeable?

A new vision is emerging that has the potential to dramatically modify our view of instincts and their ability to consciously advance mankind’s evolutionary journey.

Instead of being considered as ancient survivors from our distant past, we can see a new potential in the further development of these guardians of our physical lives, one that brings an ocean of creative energy to our conscious service.

Mysticism is essentially holistic. Its primary vision is that all LIFE is One. When our soul enters matter for life’s journey, it gradually loses its knowing of oneness as it gets lost in its life in the world. However, the instincts gifted to the body from the long history of planetary life are the primary ‘feed’ from the life-force into the daily life.

As our personality develops, it is deeply conditioned by the particular mix of instincts acting on us. Each human is unique in this respect. It may seem far-fetched to entertain the idea of being able to further evolve our own instinctual survival, sexual and social drives, under our own efforts. But this may be surmountable…

By bringing full consciousness to our instincts, and ‘watching them at work’ we can begin to reprogram much of their activity – particularly the negative and reactive side of it. The key to this seems to be making the process a ‘peak experience’ with enough power to ‘re-wire’ negative parts of how instinctual history.

Instead of being rejected as ‘wild and untamed’, the instincts, nurtured in this way, can release into our lives a vast reservoir of life-force for our conscious and creative use.

Ironically, such ideas were put forward by the philosopher Gurdjieff in the 1940s. Only today are we catching up with his vast understanding of how we are made and what potential lies before us.

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©Stephen Tanham 2024

All photos taken and processed on an iPhone 12 ProMax.

Stephen Tanham is a writer-photographer and mystical teacher. He is the founding Director of the Silent Eye, which offers a monthly Zoom, based gathering of companions, each one on their own, unique journey to deeper knowledge of self and Self.

There is no charge to attend these meetings.

Guidance will be provided to each person joining the group in the form of questions and answers. In this way, understanding and companionship are deepened in a caring and sharing environment.

There is an optional extension of this work in the form of monthly studies into the nature and facets of our personalities, how to examine them and the finding of the keys of return in each of the facets.

There are two blog streams:

http://www.thesilenteye.co.uk

(mystically-oriented writing)

and

http://www.suningemini.blog

(general interest, poetry, humour and travel)

Contact: STEVETEMEQ@gmail.com.