Journal of Sacred Work

We have a predator that came from the depths of the cosmos and took over the rule of our lives. Human beings are its prisoners. – Carlos Castaneda (1925-1998)

The highest form of cognitive thinking is our decision to love others. – Erie Chapman

   When actor/director Mel Gibson (with Diane Sawyer, left) recently erupted with his ugly barrage of slurs against Jews he claimed that alcohol made him do it. When white comedian Michael Richards (Kramer on "Seinfeld") launched a terrible tirade against a pair of black hecklers at one of his shows, he offered his tense mood as a defense. When surgeons throw scalpels in fits of anger, they often blame nurses instead of taking personal responsbility.
   In these cases, and in countless other mis-steps that happen each day, human beings are experiencing the dark power of Castaneda’s "predator." They are victims of a short-circuiting in their brains that gets them in trouble with society. These occurrences may also reveal something important about how our minds function. Awhile back, I learned about some of the research about what may be going on for these people – and for most of the rest of us when we "lose it"…

   The phenomenon may not excuse hostile behavior, but it can be helpful
in understading and treating it and it may help us in our quest to
learn how to love & to be a little less judgmental toward others. The research, which I heard on National Public Radio, changed my thinking on how our
minds operate and it may do the same for you.

   Many have heard the simple idea that our
thought process is divided between urges generated by our
primitive, or "reptillian" brain, and our cognitive, or more human, thought
process. The reptillian brain is responsibile for all those things some of us like to
blame on the devil.
   Our most hostile urges, the theory asserts, arise from the most ancient part of our brain. This region is
located toward the lower part of our heads. Our cognitive, or more human
process, is located in the neighborhood of the pre-frontal cortex. It
is this part of the mind that is the target of civiliziing forces and
education.
   I know all of this echoes Freud’s trifold idea of the id, ego, and superego. The reptilian/cognition split is an even more
convenient construct for addressing the kind of behavior change we seek
in caregiving because it helps us understand why cognitive thinking is
so critical to our humanity.

    Carlos Castaneda (left) believed he was citing an ancient shaman when he wrote the words quoted above. He attributes great power to the "predator" in controlling our lives and we may assume the predator he is referring to is the reptillian part of our thought process.
   It’s our reptile brain that creates selfish thinking. The primitive part of minds is the source of fundamental appetites, drives, and desires. It is fueled by the body chemistry of our hormones and expresses itself in some of our darkest behaviors.
   To avoid seeming and acting as animals, we develop our critical thinking and our ethical judgment. As we do this, we are working to calm the base instincts that are also a part of our human nature. The best aspects of various religions seek to support us in our cognitive effort to manage the primitive within. Yet for great art and great caregiving to emerge from us, we must often engage the passionate energy whose wellspring begins in our animal nature.
   The highest form of cognitive thinking is our decision to love others. The reptile brain promotes personal power and fights love. It urges us to think only of our own needs and its needs can be gargantuan. Our primitive side tells us we are fools to love others beyond ourselves. But our best thoughts, generated toward the front of our brain, tell us the reptile brain is wrong.
   Under normal conditions, the cognitive brain dominates. Many things can shut down cognitive thinking. Among them are the aforementioned "shortcircuiters" of alcohol and stress. For some, alcohol dissolves the sense of appropriate boundaries. Sober people (including the ones that pass judgment on ones who misbehave in "weaker" moments) operate with the full use of their cognitive powers. This is why the behavior of those under the influence of drugs or alcohol looks so stupid and reprehensible in the light of clearer thinking. After our body chemistry returns to stasis, we are often baffled by our own misbehavior.
   Less obvious but equally startling can be our actions when we are under stress. For many, stress shuts down cognitive thinking. This explains why couples in love can start shouting at each other. Stress overpowers their cognitive thinking. The shouts arise from the reptile brain. When we feel threatened or are seeking control we can’t get, the predator within us takes over.
   It is the responsibility of leadership in healthcare environments to understand this phenomena and to create conditions where caregivers have the best possible chance of sustaining cognitive thought processes. Arguments among staff may disrupt clear thinking. This is not to say that passionate debate is bad because it isn’t. It’s to say that passion may disturb relationships and cause the kind of temporary destabilization that leaders must restore.
   The angry surgeon needs to learn methods of keeping his or her cognitive thinking in tact so that it can restrain the reptile within. The leader prone to volatility needs to learn the source of this explosiveness in order to head it off early. And the rest of us need to engage in regular rituals of meditation and prayer so that we may nurture the humanity that, after all, distinguishes us from other animals – including reptiles.

Caregiver’s Exercise:  I hope you will reflect on both yesterday and today’s exercise and examine your own life in the context of behavior change. Together, the two essays hold the essence of most of the world’s wisdom on the causes of our thoughts and actions. Constructive engagement with these ideas combined with your personal commitment to become a person of good will are the basis of every important forward step in our life journey toward the land of love.

-Erie Chapman