The Evolution of Human Consciousness

The Evolution of Human Consciousness, the Emotions and Depression.

A Rest Stop From Depression and Thoughts of Suicide

Evolution:
The Specialization and Generalization of Species
(Continued)

Formation of Constructs

Why are mammals able to learn from their environment while the reptile is bound to primarily genetic responses? What addition to the base reptilian brain made it possible to add environmental input to the basic genetic response? The answer lies in the formation of the Pons, that mammalian brain area nestled on both sides of the upper part of the medulla oblongata, the basic brain common to all reptiles and mammals.

The Pons is instrumental in the formation of constructs, the filters which relay environmental input into the appropriate areas of the brain. Constructs are genetically programmed and added to or changed at night when we are asleep during REM (rapid eye movement) and NON REM periods of 'sleep work'.

Environmental input is much too complex and varied for our brain to assimilate and incorporate it appropriately in real time. This is especially true for infants, where they spend half of the time sleeping with very active REM and NON REM brain activities. In fact, many of the constructs of personality and intellect are formed during sleep before we are fully conscious and aware of self at age 2 or 3.

Sleep work involves retrieval of emotionally indexed data from short term memory, assignment of appropriate hormones or chemicals for both physical patterning and emotional responses by the hypothalamus, adding to basic emotional constructs in the limbic system, adding to the constructs of self and intellect in the cerebral cortex, and finally adding to the social and moral constructs in the frontal lobes. The process is entirely orchestrated by the thalamus (that area of the brain associated with our affect, or state of contentment and well-being).

Dreaming is but a brief window of conscious awareness opened during sleep work when we first awake. If there is no construct being worked on when we wake, there is no dream remembered.

Prioritized Emotions

In order for the pons and sleep-work to incorporate environmental input into our base genetic constructs, the input must be prioritized. If the biological unconscious mind is to insure the survival and procreation of our being in a more complex environment, it must set priorities so as to determine what is most important to our continued existence and our possible procreation.

The biological unconscious mind receives input from the environment by means of the five senses; hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting, and touch. This input or stimulus is categorized, indexed, stored and retrieved in accordance with a hierarchy of importance to our basic survival and procreation. The hierarchy is determined by our prioritized emotions.

The emotions are a conscious awareness of a hormonal response or a chemical change. The biological unconscious mind makes us aware of those processes for which it needs additional feed-back from a complex environment beyond which the five senses are able to supply. Therefore consciousness is actually the sixth sense.

Emotional priorities are set in accordance to their importance to our basic survival. Most significant, that which will override all other input is the experience of pain. Pain is the precursor of that which would threaten our continued existence. In humans, emotional priorities are much more complex and refined. Pain is refined to include anticipation of pain (fear), hate and anxiety. Procreation includes not only sexual tension but love, caring and nurturing. These refined emotional priorities guide the formation of the constructs that comprise our ego, where we set priorities in the definition of the self and what is important to our personal continued existence.

The prioritized emotions are the precursor to human consciousness.

Human Consciousness

Human consciousness transcends any degree of consciousness seen in early humans or present in the animal world, because of two factors. First, at some point in our history we became aware of the passage of time. And secondly, we gained an awareness of self, as different and distinct from all other things and beings. The awareness of the passage of time and the awareness of self likely happened somewhat concurrently. They are both the result of the refined prioritized emotions and the resultant genetic constructs becoming increasingly more complex. The human conscious mind evolved as a result of increased stress caused by the ever increasing complexity of the primates and early human social interaction.

What is the historical evidence of the transition from living in a world controlled by nature, to a world controlled by human consciousness and the concurrent awareness of time and of self? The transition from hunter-gatherer to herder-farmer is evidence of the knowledge that what I do today will affect what happens to me tomorrow. I no longer have to live day-to-day, now I can store food grown and have it available when food is scarce. Historical evidence of this transition would also closely follow the early history of paganism, if indeed such a record existed. Paganism was an attempt to gain understanding and to maintain control of our fear and our emerging expectation of future events, including our eventual demise and what happens to us after we die.

The function of the conscious mind is threefold. One, is to give the unconscious mind feedback from a complex environment above that which the other five senses can supply. Secondly, the conscious mind is the unconscious mind's window to the future. Finally, the conscious mind is charged with the responsibility of interacting with a complex environment for the purpose of relieving stress (problem solving). This includes securing a mate, sustaining sustenance and social interaction. It is the basis of our human intellect.

Heightened consciousness (refined emotional awarness) precedes intellect. We must become aware that something unique exists before we can study it and learn from it. In an ever changing and increasingly complex social environment such as that witnessed with each step up the mammal and early human evolutionary ladder, the unconscious mind was forced into more and more complex interaction. Hence, complexity mandates adaptation. Adaptation begins with increased awareness facilitated by refined emotions. The capacity for refined emotions in turn enables intellect. Intellect then begets complexity, and the cycle continues.

Human consciousness is a heightened awareness necessitated by an increasingly complex environment. Consciousness is facilitated by three functions which address the past, the present and the future.

Filtering - Using the genetic logic of the past as changed by environmental input, in order to appropriately respond to present stimulus. (formation of increasingly complex constructs)

Focus - The ability to concentrate on that which is most essential, at the present time, to our continued survival and/or procreation as determined by our prioritized emotions.

Expectation - The basic drive or anticipation which motivates us to do that in the present which will insure that we continue to exist in the future.

Expectation

The biological unconscious mind is charged with maintaining control of our being for the purpose of survival and procreation of the individual and of the species. This is determined by our genetic history, as changed by environmental input. The unconscious mind needed consciousness in order to survive in an increasingly complex environment. Yet if the unconscious mind relinquished some control (giving the conscious mind a modicum of free-will), it would also need to insure that the conscious mind was motivated to fulfill the unconscious minds mandate of the survival and procreation of the individual and of the species. That motivation or drive can be termed expectation.

In the animal world the functions of expectation are purely genetic and are triggered by the cycles of the natural environment. In humans, increasingly it is our conscious expectation which determines when and with whom we mate, how we interact in social settings, what station in life we achieve, etc. It is the force which drives our attempts at dominance, securing the highest relative position in the social order which our genetic and environmental history will allow.

Expectation gives us motivation and vitality, it is the driving force behind why we explore new worlds, both on this planet and in the vast expanse of the universe. It is why we strive to better ourselves, to gain knowledge, accumulate possessions and amass wealth.

Expectation is future and positively orientated, it is such a pervasive and necessary part of our continued being that all societies have envisioned some form of life after death. We do not want to think that our death is a final end because we then lose expectation in the future and therefore our motivation in the present is diminished or lost.

Any force in life or in nature must have a counterforce, otherwise that force would consume its universe. Matter has anti-matter, evil has good, etc. Likewise expectation must be tempered, it cannot be allowed free reign. If it were otherwise, all confrontations for the right to procreate would end in the death of one of the participants and all competition for a higher relative position in the social order would end in the death of the loser (and ultimately the death of all but one). But that is not the case, expectation is moderated by the depressive response enabling the vanquished to survive in a subordinate stance.

The Depressive Response

The depressive response is initiated by the unconscious mind when the conscious mind losses control of the emotions and expectation turns negative. There are a number of ways in which expectation and the depressive response helps the unconscious mind maintain control of the individual and collectively the species.

The behavior which has been termed the fight or flight response comes to mind. This is where we fight as long as our expectation is such that we think we can win or gain advantage. We resort to flight when our expectation turns negative, the depressive response is triggered and we retreat in order that we survive. This helps us to survive when threatened with a predator or antagonist. It also keeps us from all killing each other in order to become top dog.

The forces of expectation and the depressive response are indeed responsible for the subtleties and the complexity of dominate and subordinate interaction in any social gathering. Expectation motivates us to become all that we are able to become, the depressive response helps us to realize what we are. This same interaction helps us to realize our relative position in the social order.

The depressive response is also very helpful when we are subjected to inordinate loss. When we loose a loved one, our health, our financial status, our relative position in the social order, or any other traumatic loss, we loose a large part of who we are and how we define ourselves. Our view of the future becomes obscure. The depressive response protects us from excessive emotional output until things are relatively normalized thru the passage of time and problem solving by the conscious intellect.

It must be noted that the depressive response may last indefinitely, it is not a solution, but an interim reversible process which continues until a solution is forthcoming. If a solution (conscious problem solving resulting in reduction of stress) is not found, the depressive response will continue or it may even worsen into a state which we commonly term clinical depression (where the conscious mind is unable to find solutions and cannot control the emotions).

Pathology of the Depressive Response and Expectation

There are times, quite often actually, when the natural depressive response and expectation become dysfunctional and possibly a destructive force. Dysfunction of the depressive response is termed clinical depression, where the individual conscious mind is no longer in control of the emotions. Less often recognized (it is many times viewed as a positive trait) is the pathological form of expectation, termed mania. Some people vacillate between the frantic euphoria of mania and the dysfunction of depression, which is termed manic depression or bipolar disorder.

The inability of the conscious mind to provide solutions which relieve undue and unresolved stress results in a loss of control of the emotions. Positive expectation is diminished. The unconscious mind then initiates the depressive response, a dampening of many body and mind functions in an effort to protect us from our uncontrolled emotions. The depressed conscious mind continues to seek solutions, yet is many times unsuccessful in our complex and often abusive society.

Depression causes emotional pain which is meant to motivate the conscious to seek solutions. Barring intervention (therapy) or a drastic change in life situation, the depressed conscious mind is forced into providing alternative solutions which help control the emotions and relieve the pain. These alternative solutions might include;

Suicidal ideation - if we imagine that we are dead, the pain is gone
Self mutilation - physical pain diverts from emotional pain
Alternative personalities - create a person who is not subject to pain
Masking - using alcohol and/or drugs to hide from the pain
Anorexia and Bulimia - mask with the obsession of body image
Preoccupation with the cause and the cure of depression - latching on to anything which holds promise of relief

These, and many other, alternative solutions do provide temporary relief, yet they are highly addictive, as they give positive reinforcement to the unconscious mind. Although these alternative solutions provide relief, they do not end depression, in fact they actually worsen depression because they all eventually cause additional environmental and personal stress.

In order to end depression one must decide to end this addictive process. Intervention is needed which will include a possible combination of medications, cognitive therapy, and behavior/mind modification techniques. It is import to immediately start with reversing the addictive process of the unconscious mind. Emotional Thought Stopping and other behavior modification techniques end the positive reinforcement given the unconscious mind by the dysfunctional alternative solutions. This is not easy, as many of these addictions may have started at a very early age.

The unconscious mind must, by whatever means, relieve stress at the time of inception in order to maintain control of the emotions. It is imperative that we provide alternatives coping strategies to deal with stress which do not cause further depression. As the conscious mind is beginning to provide solutions which are now meant to end depression, the unconscious mind will then begin to reverse the depressive response.

Conclusion

It may be that the high incidence of the affective disorders in our increasingly complex society is partly a function of an accelerated rate of slight genetic mutations. Our being is searching for solutions which will help us relieve the constant stress that we subject ourselves to in our modern society. The emerging generalized form of Human Being will most likely incorporate the prior specializations of dominate right and of dominate left hemispheres of the brain and link the two more efficiently. This will result in a heightened consciousness and a subsequent increased capacity for intellect. Let us all hope that those good people will eventually find a way to improve the state of our being.