Acting on Instinct
Some years ago, I became fast friends with Helly Black. She is one of my closest friends. Maybe my best friend. We practiced karate together and talked - a lot (ask anyone who knew us both at the time).
We both like to read and exchanged various books. She introduced me to Laurens van der Post and his semi-autobiographical novels about growing up in rural South Africa.
While van der Post is a somewhat controversial figure, I didn’t care at the time. I followed Francois Joubert through his developing friendship with Xhabbo, Peter through his experiences on a whaling ship and into a Japanese prison camp in WWII.
I didn’t care about van der Posts’ role as spiritual advisor to Prince Charles. I cared about his friendship with Carl Jung, his emphasis on forgiveness withing being a prisoner of war.
This trip took me down a Campbellian rabbit hole, leading to depth psychology and eventually Gnosticism.
A major category of curiosity in me that seems to stem from this time of life is - fascination about the concept(s) of Instinct within us - the Sapiens.
The fundamental curiosity was this. We look at non-sapiens (ie, the Animal Kingdom) and comfortably accept the expression of Instinct in their behaviour.
We act with no surprise when one of our fellow Sentient Beings somehow ‘know what to do’. I’d pondered this watching our family dog (Krypto the Red Cattle Dog) had her first litter of puppies. As a dog showing a decent amount of amusing-silly behaviour, she know exactly what to do with her puppies.
Sure, this is going on around us all the time. Critters with what appear to be genetic memories somehow ‘knowing what and how to do stuff’. The experience with Krypto was personal, as she was our family dog when my children were quite young. She proved to be an amazing mother. Outstandingly, she ‘knew’ that neighbourhood kids could be trusted with her pups.
Dad bread hereford cattle in large numbers on his farm. He’d speak to me about the outstanding skill of certain cows. While they all knew ‘what do do’, some were exceptional.
If you’ve lived with a litter of puppies, you might have noticed (as I did, after it was pointed out to me), that you’ll be able to tell quite a bit about the puppies ‘nature’ by observation.
What about Human Instinct?
Web searches can be both great and useless. If you are determined to find some credible writing, you can keep trying, keep searching, reading and following links… you might eventually find some gold.
Try finding some academic papers on genetic memory. I have. Tried and tried and tried again.
I found essentially Nothing (same result trying to get to the bottom of ATP function in photosynthesis )
There is plenty to ponder on this topic. If you are a parent, you will have some experience to talk about. You have these small Sapiens living with you. You are probably Making it Up as you go along. Feeling guilty for Doing it Wrong. Reading books that suggest that Right or Better way to be as a parent.
How about the base of attraction that led you to a partner with whom you had a child? What’s going on Instinctually there?
So, what’s going on for me about this, right now. This topic has been at rest in me for some years/decades. Like any transient thought, if it’s important, it will come back.
Perception and Subjectivity
About 5 years after my middle life fascination for human Instinct arose, I found myself studying philosophy, social psychology, human development and energy accounting (permaculture drove all this interest, founded in energy dynamics). I began subtle practices and stumbled in and out of Herd membership with society around me (contact me for a copy of Green Crash - my trip from modern to post modern world views)
Now 15 years after my Permy days, things have shifted again, in that my post-post modern stripes are outnumbering my early Green perspectives.
I’ve rarely spoken openly of the role of Integral philosophy in my life story. I was keen to only share it with people who show an interest, remembering my initial skepticism to Luminaries in general. Many of those who shared my enthusiasm for Integral 15 years ago have ‘moved on’. Critics have long stopped accusing Ken Wilbur of Shark Jumping, having moved on to more juicy character attacks.
Integral is still foundational to my thinking. People who have grokked it are everywhere - just today, Daniel Schmachtenberger and Zubin Damania’s brilliant podcast on Saving Civilisation makes dozens of casual references to Integral. Many of us have Integrated Integral so to speak.
So, what’s that done to my perception? Well, an autopoietic process of Witnessing arrived in my Daylight world that can treat my beliefs as Object (see I Dragged Myself Out of Bed)
My Perceptions seem very different these days. I can (and do) pray to the God of my childhood programming and am happy to deliberately take things on Faith, so to speak…
And Subjectivity? Well, I still use the term in conversations where I sense an adversarial attitude to the word Spiritual - I can say “Think of it as your ultimate Subjectivity”. This seems to tame even the most rabid atheist.
So, do I walk through the world in a non-dual trance of acceptance and surrender in my Daylight hours? No, I still stumble and fall back into older modes of consciousness. I’m happy to continue the Gratitude Acceptance Surrender practice and allow it to myelinate brain proteins and enforce internal beliefs concurrently.
There’s a long way to go on the GAS . I’ve experienced a Shift in perspective over the last year, feeling ready to leave many emotional patters (and even long-term and familial relationships) behind.
And it’s time now to tune back into Instinct, with a set of more subtle perspectives.
Instinct at work
I feel that ‘my instincts’ have served me very well thus far. One might argue that instincts are best run like Gnostic beliefs. Ride a motorcycle instinctually and you with ‘Just Ride’
My grok of Instict is completely compatible with the archaic Daemon or Guardian Angel. I’m not exactly on my own here. Let me recommend James Hillman’s The Soul’s Code who’s ‘acorn theory’ could easily be referring to a genetic memory.
I’m recalling the safe section of the BMW R1150 that I owen. The safety section opened with (I’m paraphrasing) “to be safe on the motorcycle you must develop your sixth sense”. I kid you not.
So, I hope to explore the subtle aspects of Instinct at work in my life and espouse some ideas in various media.
But, there’s another Angle to the Angel here.
Instinct at Work
I’m borrowing form Steven Dubner’s play on words in his podcast titled People I (mostly) Admire.
Instinct might be a non-conscious domain and layer two of Campbell quoting Kant
- The best things can’t be told because they transcend thought.
- The second best are misunderstood, because those are the thoughts that are supposed to refer to that which can’t be thought about.
- The third best are what we talk about.
…But. I think our Instinct’s play a significant role in our Work. I’m mixing big W and little w works here. I suspect that common perception will get that I’m talking about Instinct in the Workplace, as in, an adjunct to our interactions that occur in our ‘jobs’. You know, your interface to post-industrial revolution? How you earn Monopoly Money to interact with the computer game called Banking? That Work.
My most recent ‘jobs’ came with a large package of Instinctual behaviours. I can’t write too much detail about them publicly as I have no wish to offend (or even speak ill) of people who are playing “the main game” as it’s often perceived.
You know… the game where we reflect our mammalian Maximum Power Principle see Winners are Losers as a perverse desire to store up Game Tokens (records in bank accounts and on public ledgers) and justify it in the following ways:
- I’m just providing for my kids (I’ve done lots of this one in the past)
- It’s the Only Game in town
- I’ve been poor. I’ve been rich. Rich wins.
- All the progress of modern times is built in entrepreneurial agency. I’m just doing my part.
- If I hold dollars in a bank account, I can react quickly to social and economic changes and reposition myself/my family to new conditions (I’ve been tossing this one out there recently)
These are just common examples. They are far more palatable than “I’m a 2020 version of a chimpanzee - I’ll play this Game has hard as I can because all is fair in Love, War and Business. Just be grateful that I don’t rip your head off, as I would have done if I still was a chimp.”
The Exploration of Instincts at work and at Work
I’d like to continue an exploration of this. I hope to record conversations with people all over the demographic perspective and explore the more subtle side.
One of the first of these conversations will be about farming and Instinct. I plan to do that in the next few weeks.