I spent last week contemplating the instinctual animal side to human nature. This contemplation came up as part of a larger contemplation on why people want what they want so intensely that they are willing to endure all manner of physical suffering to get it.  Personally this relates to my frustration of day in and day out telling people not to eat sugar or seed oils because it will destroy their health.  Nine times out of ten the response is "but I like it."  So they keep right on eating it.  Literally, if they like something the thinking part of their brain shuts down and they become ruled by their animal brain.

This part of your brain lives at the top of the brain stem.  It does not think in the sense of having abstract thought and it has no sense of time.  It functions on instinct.  It is the animal survival part of our brain that controls our fight or flight response to fear.  It also carries our primary pleasure drives.  It craves three things: food, sex, and social dominance.  It is the same part of brain activity that we share with all other animals.  Interestingly, the size of that part of our brain is the same as most other animals.

This is the seat of our primary animalistic drives.  It gives us the drive to be alive.  It is the underlying source of our fleshly desires.  Being such a fundamental part of our being it is central to our feeling of okness.  Satisfaction of it's drives are identified within us as pleasure.  When we are meeting our desire for food we feel good.  When we meet our desire for sex we feel good.  When we gain status, position, and power over others, we feel good.  This is what we are all wired to want no matter who we are.  Food, sex, and power equal not just survival, but the ability to thrive to the animal part of our brain, and it rewards us with feeling good when we meet its wants.  

So I am busy in the office talking to the thinking part of the patient's brain, the part that can understand such things as future consequences for choices made today, and the animal midbrain answers back "But I like sugar!"

For me to contemplate such things means I have to deeply listen to these same midbrain voices within myself.  If I can't hear them well, I have to look at any behaviors in my own life that speak of those voices in action and pose the question "What do you really want?"  One by one I have to dismiss the stories, reasons and excuses I have made up to answer that question until I get down to fundamental answers like "I want it because I want it."  Now I am down to the animal level in my own brain.  Here I can imagine situations and scenarios to see how that part of my brain responds.  By watching my animal brain's responses to opposite situations and conflicted scenarios I gradually begin to understand the rules it operates under.

The biggest realization I made about my own animal brain (and by inference other's animal midbrains) is that it really does just want what it wants.  It has no rhyme or reason and never thinks of consequence, it just wants what it wants.  It feels good when it gets it (or is in hope of getting it) and feels bad when it doesn't.  It can't be reasoned with, nor does it understand negotiation.  It can be fooled very easily because it is simple. How many times have I been fooled by something that I thought I really wanted only to find out once I actually "got" it that it ended up being terrible?  (E.g. relationships - food - social settings)

I have come to appreciate why the philosophers of many ages considered our greatest challenge to be overcoming our lower bestial nature so that we could live as enlightened humans.  Their main tactic was to selectively ignore the urgings of the animal brain by labeling them as sinful urges prompted by Satan.  Considering how difficult the animal brain is to work with because of its uncompromising and simplistic hedonistic demands, simply ignoring them may be a valid answer.  But will this leave us without pleasure in our lives?

Spirit provided me with a timely answer to that question in the form of a scientific report I came across today.  The lead into the article included this line: "Philosophers have long distinguished two basic forms of well-being: a 'hedonic' form representing an individual's pleasurable experiences, and a deeper 'eudaimonic' form that results from striving toward meaning and a noble purpose beyond simple self-gratification."  
The research was looking at the impact of various feeling states on our genetic structure.  Different feelings turn on certain genes while turning off other genes.  Much research had already been done on which genes get turned on or shut down during times of unhealthy stress.  And there was already research that suggested that pleasure improved health.  The researchers wanted to find out just what genes got altered during pleasure and did it matter what kind of pleasure was involved?

The results were unexpected and astounding.  It was found that even though hedonic (self-serving) pleasures felt good and felt the same as eudaimonic (higher purpose and connectedness) pleasures the impact on our genes is very different.  Hedonic pleasures triggered the same gene responses that unhealthy stress triggered while the eudaimonic pleasures triggered the opposite gene responses.  Wow!  Animal brain pleasures trigger gene responses for increased inflammation and decreased immune responses while higher brain pleasure decreased inflammation and improved immune function.  So even though they may both feel like one and the same pleasure, they are not!  They in fact have opposite impacts on the body.  I am not sure where this will lead me, but it really puts a whole new twist on pleasure seeking.

We assume that pleasure is good because it feels good.  But this research shows us quite the opposite is often the case.  We can understand that the pleasure from cocaine, or sugar, or alcohol is not really good for us even though it may feel good at the time.  Now we can directly measure on a genetic level that self-centered self-serving pleasure damages us on the deepest levels.  However pleasure that is derived from our shining participation with life through connection and a higher purpose to our expression repairs us and builds us up - what a tremendous validation for the teachings of most world religions.  Our very genes are telling us to be noble or suffer the consequences of pain and death.

So what can we do with the hard-wired in hedonistic animal drives we all have?

These animal drives are like the chaotic energy and fire inside the sun.  It is driven to express itself.  Like the energy in a can of gasoline, it can simply explode and waste that energy or the energy can be contained and used to power a car.  We can use the driving animal desires within us to fuel our growth into noble humans in much the same way we tame a wild horse to become an efficient form of transportation.

We have to make friends with the energy of our midbrain desires rather than try to suppress it like the Victorian English did.  The "I want what I want" energy can be utilized to power virtues within us like courage and persistence.  It can be used to propel us into the world of connection with others and self-expression.  It needs a good container and guide like the car engine and the horse.  This is the job of our higher brain - the neocortex.  Here we develop the beliefs and stories that can guide and give noble meaning to and for our deeper animal drives.  The lust for sex can be transformed into meaningful relationships.  The drive to consume can be transformed into industry and accomplishment.  And the quest for dominance and power can become empowered development of community.  Building this transformation is why I created Heartflow and Gracework .

For me, this is the purpose of life - the transformation of our base human drives into virtues.  Genetics now agrees with me.  When we upgrade our pleasures into noble pursuits our genes turn on to heal us.  When we allow our pleasures to remain debased our genes make us suffer.  Things are starting to look pretty clear.  The excuse of "But I like it" just doesn't fly.  Not only does it not fly, but also it automatically carries its own punishment.  We all know this intuitively.  We know that when we do things that are strictly for hedonic pleasure that there is a price to pay.  We just ignore it.

I would proposition that ignoring the consequences of self-centered pleasure denies our spiritual purpose for being alive.  The bumper sticker that claims "He who dies with the most toys wins" is a lie.  The sticker should read "He that grows up to become virtuous and noble wins."  You get to keep your virtues when you die and move on.  Everything else is wiped away.

Yours in the light,

David      

Skinny Muffins

Tuesdays and Fridays

7 Deadly Sins of Happiness

Here is a nice little article pointing out that happiness is a state of mind and comes from within.  It focuses on common behaviors we often engage in that destroy our happiness like thinking someone else needs to change for you to be happy, or comparing ourselves to others, or even just watching the evening news.  

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Garlic reduces lung cancer risk   by 44%

In this study even smokers were found to reduce their chances of lung cancer by 30% by eating raw garlic twice a week.  This was an associative study so it does not prove cause and effect, but the associations were high and the study involved almost 6000 people. 

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Dishwasher Cooking

 "I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday."

~ Abraham Lincoln  

About Dr. DeLapp

Dr. DeLapp has been a philosopher, non-force Chiropractor, medical intuitive, and health innovator for over 30 years.  He began experimenting with  medical intuition in 1972 while studying physics at UC Davis.  In addition to physics he designed and completed an individual major in the philosophy and psychology of education.  Shortly after he choose to pursue a career in the only truly health oriented profession available at that time, Chiropractic.  He graduated with honors in 1981 with his doctorate and opened a private practice. 
Since that time he has continued his research into the effects of consciousness and learning on health. 
He developed the Biomagnetic Retraining system for correcting movement abnormalities. 
Since 1991 he has focused on developing a powerful system for uncovering and assisting the mind-body connection in health and personal growth.  The in-depth coaching, guided by the subconscious direction from the body, is called Heartflow and the simpler mind-body retraining for health and unfoldment he has named Gracework.  Both are available at Fair Oaks Health.

Dr David DeLapp DC
Chiropractor

Ellen Flowers FGM
Spiritual Life Coach

 

 

 

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 Is there a sweet that is not poisonous?  Yes!


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