Great article and video. I agree the left brain should be left for logic and right brain for intuition but once one becomes evolved through deep work, meditation, etc. the observer faculty, which uses calm rational thinking can apply reason to analyze the emotional response. Of course this comes with time and discipline.
As you mention in the article, I am one of those individuals who've been conditioned to ignore their instincts from a young age, and it has cost me dearly, over the years.
I struggle to recall a time when I acted on instinct and felt relief or gratitude at having done so. Wish I could say that's just a product of poor perspective, rather than a lack of evidence.
The bulk of my existence has been counter-instinctive; the consequences have been too subtle or karmically muted to register until much later, after it's all been tallied up, weighed and measured.
How do you register the occasional spike of innate "wrongness" against a permanent background haze of the stuff - or give due consideration to emotional responses you've taught yourself to be skeptical of in environments where all your inner resources are tied up with maintaining a facade? How to discern if that's the instinctive faculty waking up from too long a spell of dormancy, or if it's just a symptom of having entered mid-life?
Much easier to dismiss the otherwise inexplicable panic when you're young and the consequences won't come home to roost for years or decades to come...
Your grandfather's story is a powerful one, and I only wish there had been more like it in circulation when I was younger: introverts cut off from the limited wisdom of their own elders can only put so much stock in fictional accounts before they invariably strain credulity.
The work of researchers like McGilchrist in revealing the "rational" left brain to be - in several key respects - the more idiotic of the two hemispheres, seems all the more invaluable as we enter a time of increasing danger and heightened novelty.
I'm curious if there have been times in your life when you've acted on those instinctive fears and later come to regret it?
There isn't a time I remember where I followed my instinct/intuition and regretted it. But then again, I cannot dismiss selective remembering.
Emotions can be over powering and sometimes convince you that your intuition wants it. Especially when love or lust is involved. Recognizing the "wrongness" is like a matter of training. Hard to describe without being in someone's head.
It seems you are quite aware of yourself actually. I appreciate you sharing these details. Starting a journal is always a good idea. Overtime things connect (well usually). Let me know how it goes.
Just watched your video: our ancestors didn't have maths or science when we evolved our intellect. As Copilot put it our brains evolved for (i.a.) "Social Interaction: The need for cooperation, communication, and social structures within groups likely drove the evolution of more sophisticated cognitive abilities. Living in social groups required early humans to develop skills for understanding and predicting the behavior of others, which would have been advantageous for survival and reproduction."
Great article and video. I agree the left brain should be left for logic and right brain for intuition but once one becomes evolved through deep work, meditation, etc. the observer faculty, which uses calm rational thinking can apply reason to analyze the emotional response. Of course this comes with time and discipline.
That is true. Only after deep work and meditation can one analyze emotions. Thank you for the feedback.
Yes, instinctive fear is a great term.
Emotional fear, so weaponized against us.
I live in instinctive fear of this society, having lived its embrace of vicious killing.
A wonderful article, highly recommended.
Thank you.
As you mention in the article, I am one of those individuals who've been conditioned to ignore their instincts from a young age, and it has cost me dearly, over the years.
I struggle to recall a time when I acted on instinct and felt relief or gratitude at having done so. Wish I could say that's just a product of poor perspective, rather than a lack of evidence.
The bulk of my existence has been counter-instinctive; the consequences have been too subtle or karmically muted to register until much later, after it's all been tallied up, weighed and measured.
How do you register the occasional spike of innate "wrongness" against a permanent background haze of the stuff - or give due consideration to emotional responses you've taught yourself to be skeptical of in environments where all your inner resources are tied up with maintaining a facade? How to discern if that's the instinctive faculty waking up from too long a spell of dormancy, or if it's just a symptom of having entered mid-life?
Much easier to dismiss the otherwise inexplicable panic when you're young and the consequences won't come home to roost for years or decades to come...
Your grandfather's story is a powerful one, and I only wish there had been more like it in circulation when I was younger: introverts cut off from the limited wisdom of their own elders can only put so much stock in fictional accounts before they invariably strain credulity.
The work of researchers like McGilchrist in revealing the "rational" left brain to be - in several key respects - the more idiotic of the two hemispheres, seems all the more invaluable as we enter a time of increasing danger and heightened novelty.
I'm curious if there have been times in your life when you've acted on those instinctive fears and later come to regret it?
Maybe I'll start a journal...
Thanks for writing.
There isn't a time I remember where I followed my instinct/intuition and regretted it. But then again, I cannot dismiss selective remembering.
Emotions can be over powering and sometimes convince you that your intuition wants it. Especially when love or lust is involved. Recognizing the "wrongness" is like a matter of training. Hard to describe without being in someone's head.
It seems you are quite aware of yourself actually. I appreciate you sharing these details. Starting a journal is always a good idea. Overtime things connect (well usually). Let me know how it goes.
Just watched your video: our ancestors didn't have maths or science when we evolved our intellect. As Copilot put it our brains evolved for (i.a.) "Social Interaction: The need for cooperation, communication, and social structures within groups likely drove the evolution of more sophisticated cognitive abilities. Living in social groups required early humans to develop skills for understanding and predicting the behavior of others, which would have been advantageous for survival and reproduction."