I want, I want - Yet What Do I Need? |
These new ideas of a triune nervous system are revealing an inner reality beneath our object oriented and projected observations. The Polyvagal Theory has revealed the neural innervation of a 'social engagement system' based on the muscles & nerves of the head and face, suggesting a third branch of the autonomic nervous system. It seems we are hard wired for social engagement and indeed our very sense of a humanness is dependent on unconscious 'feedback' from other brains & nervous systems, creating what neuroscience now calls 'affective states.'
Other research suggests that the thinking mind is secondary to movement, that the motor cortex within the brain is the real seat of psychoanalytic notions of a pre-conscious. Discovery of 'mirror neurons' suggest that despite our capacity for intelligent inquiry and design, we may still be bound by an instinctive nature which is driven by the metabolic needs of energy & movement.
The brains activity began about 500 milliseconds before the person was aware of deciding to act. The conscious decision came far too late to be the cause of the action. It was as though consciousness was a mere afterthought - a way of 'explaining to ourselves' an action not evoked by consciousness. Peter Levine "In an Unspoken Voice"
Emotional expressions are associated with changes in blood flow and temperature in sub-cortical areas.
Allan N Shore "Affect Regulation and the Origin of the Self"
Worth its weight in Smiles? |
"Oh well, whats money worth compared to her expressions of pure joy, the like I've never felt before?' I remember thinking. Her radiance reminded me of the movie 'Avatar' and "unobtainium" and when she looked at me quizzically I said, 'Your the real unobtainium, Darling!'
Euphoric states are perhaps the most appititivly compelling experiences available to life forms.
Affect Regulation and the Origin of the Self: The Neurobiology of Emotional Development
We pride ourselves on our 'objective logic' secure in the belief that we know the nature of our reality, yet as I've tried to point out here, there is much to our internal reality and motivation that cannot be objectified. In my wanting of a BMW car or Sasi's want of a diamond ring, are we expressing the reality of hidden metabolic processes needed to affect life enhancing energy states?
Princess Sasiprapha |
"Biologic homeostatic models characterize regulatory mechanisms which maintain activity of a system around set points with specified ranges, thereby permitting the system to adapt to shifts in internal organismic needs and external stimuli by triggering feedback structures which inhibit or excite specific metabolic and physiologic processes." Affect Regulation and the Origin of the Self (P, 359)
In good old Freudian terms, do we 'project' our life sustaining organic needs onto inanimate objects, forgetting Moses Biblical advice about the worshiping of false objects? Do we want the object or desire the sensations it evokes, especially those glittering objects onto which we project the need for "Euphoric states, perhaps the most compelling experiences available to life forms."
In "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" The Queen possesses a magical mirror, an animate object that answers any question, to whom she often asks: "Mirror, mirror on the wall / Who in the land is fairest of all?" Is this old fairy tale a metaphor for the recently discovered mirror neurons of the motor cortex, and the part they play in the feedback signals required for affective states, a mirrored reflection of our internal reality sensed through the emotive expressions of others.
What is the true nature of Being Human?
"We are exquisitely social creatures. Our survival depends on understanding the actions,
intentions and emotions of others. Mirror neurons allow us to grasp the minds of others
not through conceptual reasoning but through direct simulation.
By feeling - not by thinking" _Giacomo Rizzolatti
intentions and emotions of others. Mirror neurons allow us to grasp the minds of others
not through conceptual reasoning but through direct simulation.
By feeling - not by thinking" _Giacomo Rizzolatti