Henri Laborit: "The purpose of a brain is not to think, but to act"
BW Weekly Newsletter, 19 Juli 2023
Good day,
Table of Coontents:
Main articool - Henri Laborit “The purpose of a brain is not to think, but to act"
A few words on why you probably should worry about cortisol, but why you don’t need supplements to balance it necessarily
Mon Oncle d'Amérique (My American Uncle) excerpt, for your good consideration
Bio-Individual Podcast Links
Paid Members Section - Integrating Hara, Vibration, Standing
(MP3 Reading now available for those that can’t read)
Over the last few weeks, I aimed to show how an obsession with the most minor component things is kind of neurotic and fairly ridiculous. How viewing the body as a process is far more critical. That recruiting molecular interventions, from the point of view of vitality, bio-energetics, total well-being, and bio-individual work, was mostly unimportant or a second-tier solution at very best. Since without processes working in the way they should, any such solution to do with the mere precipitates of processes would be simply painting over cracks. In most cases.
Last week we spoke about what I termed loosely process-structure though the lens of a processual view of the body. The body as a hierarchy of processes, as the authors of ‘everything flows’ so eloquently writ upon. This week we should wrap our heads around behavioural elements and how they relate to process in the body, how they impact the orientation of all the things we consider important. Their impacts on our general vital and bio-energetic constitution.
This does not mean giving into instinct and chimping out all the time, although it might mean chimping out sometimes; it does mean mastery over the recruitment of ancient circuitry. So the mind works in conjunction with the body and vice versa, and we're enhanced by most situations not diminished by them.
This outlook is fundamental to the bio-individual philosophy, at least I think it is, since mastery of your reactivity does not simply mean turning the other cheek (like some elements of religion suggest) or breathing into a paper bag for ‘carbon dioxide’, and getting on the therapy recliner when someone says you and what you believe is nothing more than sheer unbridled twattery.
This is one thing people often get wrong about this outlook; because we practice meditation or bodywork, they think, "oh, so they just want to be passive and life-denying". This is an understandable conclusion, but it's completely wrong.
You may have heard Kevin or myself rant about somatic types seeking mastery by going down the squishy-trauma-sappy-feelings, turn the other cheek route. On the other hand, we have the overly stern, ‘aggressive emotions are always excellent’, harsh, hyper-sympathetic emphasis. Both are forms of reactivity with physiological consequences and are usually driven by deep-seated metaphysical beliefs. Beliefs that are unrelated to the large number of varied situations at hand.
Indeed, for a bio-individual, mastery of behaviour for inner and outer situations is paramount since such actions determine success, health and general life outcomes. For most of us, this often means having the skill to act despite ourselves and in our best interests.
For some passive, rage-on-computer-but-not-at-an-akshual-prick-in-real-life younger frens for example, the ability to utilise aggression constructively and with skill in a directed way is a life-changing one. Meaning you need to be ‘letting people have it’ more often on your terms and in a calculated way. If the situation calls for it.
A crucial function of the brain as a conductor is to orchestrate such actions. As we know, as a process, this recruits gorillions of intricate, intermeshed, intertwined dynamic opposites operating in real-time. In certain circumstances, this action becomes impeded, adversely affecting flexibility.
Dysregulation often occurs when innate behaviors, like the instinctive fight or flight response, become unattainable, or when action (in a patterned way or simply acting) serves no purpose, when dangers cannot be foreseen, or when no previous response pattern guides action.
In such instances, a brain system known as the Behavioral Inhibition System comes into play. This powerful system initiates the neuroendocrine reactions we’re all so familiar with. This was first described famously by Walter Cannon in the 1920s. Experiments links can be found here for the more autistic of you:
The Wisdom of the Body
And here come Henri Laborit's intriguing contributions. He suggests that it is more beneficial to adopt an aggressive and active approach, rather than resignation, during a stress event.
With this, Labrorit has inspired this week's newsletter. I was unaware of this gentleman until I read a paper during my recent Reich research. Leading me on a nice little tangent. For us as practitioners, or simply people looking to live effective lives and deal with reactivity, it creates a scientific underpinning for us. A nice little set of rules of thumb for how we should recruit behaviours in certain situations. Or better yet, avoid resignation of all kinds all together.
I suspect this ability to manage stressful situations will increasingly come into style in the not-too-distant future.
Recently, in conversation with a Zen master, I was informed that aggression is sometimes considered by them or him, an appropriate reaction. He said it is possible to invoke mindful aggression should someone ask for it and the situation demands it - if the situation can be made qualitatively better by invoking it. At first, I was surprised to hear this from him, thinking that, like the Buddha he should let a tiger consume him if it was hungry. Not according to this Zen master. So while reading through Laborit's work, this interaction in particular sprang in to my mind.
So what does Laborit and his work tell us about how we should react? Famously, Laborit conducted the experiment he is most known for, involving two rat enclosures connected by a door, each with a wire mesh floor capable of conducting an electric current.
The rats experienced ten minutes of electric shocks daily, while the design of the cages enabled Laborit to manipulate the context in which this occurred, particularly the rats ability to react. He subjected the rats to several scenarios, administering shocks and controlling the scope of reactivity they had access to. As you can imagine, this yielded some interesting behavioural and physiological results and insights. I reproduce them here as per his experiment:
(i) This experimental setup involves a shifting floor where the rat was able to change its position between two cages. The movement of the cages created by the rat triggered the deactivation of electric currents passing through the floor mesh, causing the rat to experience discomfort. However, the rat rapidly learns that changing cages stops the pain, demonstrating simple avoidance behaviour.
(ii) Similarly, the floor tilted in response to the rat's movement, but this time, a light flickered for four seconds prior to the electric current passing through the floor mesh. As a result, the rats learned to move to another cage as soon as it perceived the flickering light, which allowed them to actively avoid the painful stimuli.
(iii) In this situation, the door between the two cages was closed, forcing the rat to endure the pain from the electric shocks without any hope of escape. The rat initially attempted various movements, but over time, it experienced a profound inhibition of its actions, leading to great physical and emotional distress. Weight loss, hypertension, elevated cortisol levels, intestinal issues, these all emerged and to Laborit indicated physiological constriction and resignation. Think of your average empowered office worker.
(iv) Continuing from the previous situation, the door between the two cages is left open after a week of this going on. Despite the newfound opportunity to change its circumstances, the rats remained inhibited, failing to take advantage of the freedom that was available to them.
(v) The final scenario mirrors the preceding one, except for introducing two rats into the electrified cage. Upon realising their inability to escape the pain caused by electric shocks, the rats adapt by standing on their hind legs, thereby reducing the body surface in contact with the electrified floor. Subsequently, they engaged in a physical altercation whilst on their hind legs. They used the upper part of their bodies to attack each other. Surprisingly, this response indirectly aids them as their bodies provide mutual support, enabling them to sustain the upright position for longer periods. After a week, their physical conditions appear relatively intact, with stress mechanisms seemingly unaffected. However, this mechanism only works when the rats are of similar strength. To Laborit, this was reminiscent of Parisian street urchin gang dynamics seen in adolescents facing dire social circumstances.
In these conditions, no arterial hypertension is observed if the animals can actively avoid the shocks (e.g., when the other compartment is open) or fight with another rat. Conversely, if they cannot escape or fight, hypertension develops and persists for a month, with some rats remaining hypertensive even three months later.
In a separate and extended experiment, rats were subjected to unavoidable shocks, which induced physical convulsions afterward. These rats did not develop hypertension. The lack of hypertension was attributed to the impossibility of conditioned learning due to the upheavals. These peripheral vasomotor disturbances are probably and outcome of some of the same ancient circuits we’ve been looking at this subspac, and they might counteract the chronic hyper-tensive responses to being zapped.
So what does all this mean?
If you’ve not guessed already, an outlet for aggression helps prevent the rats from succumbing to a state of resignation. As such, these findings imply potential measures to assist us in facing rubbish situations - that is modern man, and woman, facing twattery from all corners in life. Practically speaking, here’s some takeaways I tooked:
1. Altering the environment if possible - don't get stuck, just leave, annoying girlfriend, bad friend, lousy marriage, shit job with a muppet of a boss - get outta there if you can or if you can’t reframe it.
2. Avoiding intense or chaotic situations where you can. Flow like water.
3. Embracing aggression and mastery of aggressive arts, for some, it's learning the expression of aggression and how to apply it situationally with skill. Which is much easier for some than others. If it hard for you, learn it.
4. 'The Way of the Gang' - you heard it. Form gangs, brotherhoods...cartels. In this world, GAE, this is a psychologically vital action according to this study; I assume most of you can feel that overweening spiritual school marm encroachment of misery - for which little else can be done.
5. Ability to re-frame situations so the essence of the situations shifts in your mind (more on that next week)
6. Ability to master your Autonomic responses, exercising greater control and mastery of your reactivity - as per my meditation course for example. This includes recruiting reactions consciously to get what you want. That are in line with your drives, not out of line with them.
In addition, as we all know from Peterson and his Lobsters or whatever that lunatic rants about, a person's unfavourable social position in the hierarchy intensifies the activation of the stress axis, evident in rats, monkeys, and humans. The research highlights the profound impact of interactive behaviours on emotional and metabolic dynamics. This is the key.
Behaviour is a metabolic process - your mastery of reactivity - think about all of the downstream impacts of how effective you are at facing the world as you are wired to do.
Think about how that MUST be one of the most important things. Hormones are in some sense precipitates of us as a process. How does it make sense to work on the precipitates only that result from us as a processual agent acting in an ecology - when it’s more probably down to you how dominant, skilful and effective we're capable of being. We see it as “well the reason I’m not dominant is because I’m low T or my thyroid has AIDS or whatever the latest things is”. But I say the behaviours themselves can be learned as the prime movers, we’re not static. How skilful are you? This is what the bio-individual path is all about.
It's mostly foolish I believe, unless you’re really rooted, to focus solely on everything other than the processual physiology. Reactivity, and mastery of behaviour, to think some dumb supplement will fix this is really a woefully inadequate bandaid that is not really going to change anything for long. In fact, I would argue that if it does, it's probably mostly you simply reframing your experience with a little bit of hope in a bottle.
Get on board.
2. Cortisol - A Downstream Degenerative Process & Related ‘Mechanism’
I want to have a chat about cortisol seeing this is what the experiments often referred to, and I'm not going to assume all the readers are necessarily up to scratch on this stuff. So what happens chemically? What are the precipitates and their consequences if we embrace a bitch ass processual way of dealing with our ecology?
Cortisol dumps emerge from 2 main stressors. Cognitive strain linked to negative and biased interpretations of the situation. Or a physiological or muscular tension that depletes the physiological reserves of the organism. These two mechanisms operate simultaneously, influencing one another while following distinct causal paths as well.
In humans, the emotions of helplessness and despondency we've discussed that accompanied the rats' exhaustion, typically correspond with depressive sentiments such self-directed anger and feelings of powerlessness. The organism gradually loses its resources if this becomes chronic. Muscle waste products accumulate, resulting in breathlessness and impaired functioning of the arteries and heart (que: breathing interventions!).
Excessive cortisol hampers immune defences while negatively impacting the tissues of the central nervous system as it saturates them through the bloodstream. Initially, this effect stimulates the rapid circulation of ions, particularly calcium, across nerve membranes. However, once this chemical reaction is exhausted, neurons become depleted and, at times, even die due to the process of ionic depolarisation.
Numerous studies have documented reduced hippocampal volume among individuals who have experienced this form of abrupt adaptation. The hippocampus in the limbic system plays a crucial role in memory management and spatial relationships. So cortisol will even make you a retard. Damage to this neurological structure elicits uncontrollable psychological reactions of disorientation. Glucocorticoids also stimulate other brain regions.
They alter the functioning of the frontal lobe, potentially explaining why individuals under stress often make poor decisions. Additionally, they heighten activity in the amygdala, amplifying the sense of fear. The amygdala enhances pituitary activity, whereas the hippocampus can inhibit it. Sounds like all my young male friends.
Consequently, an average individual might resort to various supplements or diet fads. However, it is crucial to recognise that this issue encompasses both regulatory behavioural and physiological aspects. Merely relying on supplements masks the ineffective ways individuals interact with their environment and physiology. It ignores regulating:
Idiotic sub-conscious governing beliefs
Ineffective behavioural patterns
Woeful physiological structure and process in time and space
Poor psychological re-framing ability
Extreme rumination and a debilitating belief in the immutable self
The inability to recruit appropriate behaviours in accordance with the situation at hand
Take all pregnenolone or thyroid you want - it won't fix this, not in the end it won’t.
This serves as another instance highlighting the significance of acquiring skills related to learning, interpersonal interaction, navigating specific situations, and utilising physiological mechanisms to regulate the sympathetic response.
These skills prove vital to each individual's unique biology. Without developing these skills, relying solely on pills will not alleviate debilitating reactivity or improve overall vitality.
It is vital to foster resilience. Never turn the other cheek - unless it fits your aims, and you can laugh heartily afterwards as they fall into your web. That's re-framing and reacting mindfully. Smile like a great white shark.
3. Mon Oncle d'Amérique (My American Uncle)
In addition to the above, this move was made to honour themes in Laborits work. This short segment is worth a watch, as is the entire thing if you have interest and time.\
This film by Albroits, of which a clip can be accessed here, has English subtitles available:
In this 1980 movie by Alain Resnais, Laborit explains several of his ideas. The film was a success in France by all accounts. Laborits ideas in the film were criticised at the time however, as you would expect, and according to what I’ve seen the extrapolations in particular. So take that for what you will.
Here is the excerpt from dialogue in the link above, that you can think upon:
"A being exists only in order to be. That is, to maintain its structure, to remain alive. Animals have to act within a space. And to do this, they need a nervous system. This nervous system allows the animal to act within and on the environment, always with the same purpose - to ensure survival.
The purpose of a brain is not to think, but to act.
There is a first brain, which MacLean called reptilian, the brain of reptiles. It triggers behaviours associated with immediate survival, without which the animal could not survive
A second brain is added to the first and is usually called the brain of memory. Without a memory of what is pleasant or unpleasant, there is no way of feeling happiness, sadness, distress, anger or love. We could almost say that "a living being is a memory that acts.
A third brain is added to the first two: the cerebral cortex. In humans it has developed considerably and is called the association cortex. What does this mean? It means that this third brain associates the underlying neural pathways, which bear the trace of past experiences, and combines them differently from the way they were imprinted by the environment at the time of the experience itself. Humans, that is, are able to create, to generate imaginary processes.
So, these are our three brains. The first two operate unconsciously - we do not know what they have us do. These are the instinctive urges, cultural reflexes. The third brain gives us an explanatory language, which always provides an excuse, an alibi, for the unconscious functioning of the first two brains.
One can distinguish four main types of behaviours. The first is the behaviour of consumption, that satisfies basic needs. The second is a behaviour of gratification—when we experience an action that yields pleasure, we try to repeat it. The third is a behaviour in response to punishment, either by flight to avoid it or by fight to destroy the source of aggression. The last is a behaviour of inhibition: no movement, tense waiting, rising anxiety. Anxiety marks the impossibility of mastering a situation.
When two individuals have different plans or the same plan and compete to carry it out, there is a winner and a loser. One of the individuals becomes dominant over the other. Seeking dominance, in a space one can call the territory, is the fundamental basis of all human behaviours, the motivation of this being wholly unconscious.
So there is no property instinct; nor is there a dominance instinct. There is simply the process whereby, through the nervous system, the individual learns to keep for himself an object or a being that is also wanted, coveted by another being. And the individual knows, through this learning process, that in this competitive situation if he wants to hold onto the object or being, he must dominate.
Through language humans have been able to transmit from generation to generation all the experience they have acquired over millennia
In other words, our instinctive urges and our cultural reflexes will be masked by language, by a logical argument.
Language therefore helps hide the cause of dominance, the underlying mechanisms, and the establishment of dominance. It makes the individual believe that by working for the common good he will experience his own pleasure. Whereas, in general, all he does is to maintain hierarchical situations that are obscured by linguistic alibis, which in a way serve him as an excuse.
Among humans, social laws generally proscribe defensive violence. The construction worker who every day sees a site foreman he detests can't punch him in the face, because someone will call the police. So fight is not an option. But neither is flight. He can't quit because he'd be unemployed and every day of his life, every week in the month, every month in the year, as the years go by, he is subject to inhibition of action. A person has ways of escaping this inhibition of action, by aggressiveness. This is never motiveless; it is always a response to inhibition of action. This leads to an explosion of aggression which is rarely productive but which, in terms of the nervous system, is perfectly explicable.
So, it's worth repeating, this situation in which an individual can find himself, this inhibition of action, if it persists, induces pathological situations. The biological perturbations accompanying it will trigger physical diseases and all the behaviours associated with mental illness.
The unconscious mind is a fearsome instrument. Not so much because of its repressed content
but because of everything that is, on the contrary, authorised(reward) and sometimes even rewarded by the social culture that has been implanted in the brain since birth, of the presence of which the person is unaware. Yet it is the unconscious that guides this person's actions
What is called the personality is constructed from a mishmash of value judgments, prejudices, and commonplaces which weigh heavily and which, with age, become ever more inflexible, increasingly unquestioned.
And when a single brick in the edifice is removed, when the edifice collapses and the person discovers anxiety, then this anxiety will express itself even if it means murder, in the case of an individual, or genocide or war, for social groups. Here we begin to understand by what mechanisms, why and how, through history and in the present, hierarchical scales of dominance are established.
As long as people on this planet remain unaware of how their brain works and how they use it, as long as it has not been said that hitherto it has always been to dominate others, there is little chance that anything will change."
What do you think of this? Do you agree with his interpretation of his discoveries?Leave your comments below…
4. Bio-Individual Podcast Links
Dis Week mang is a continuations of our chat last week. A little more informal, more so throwing around some ideas here and there.
Spoke on Reich, Freud, why we always try to cut down thinkers who make big claims down to size…squishy saccharine feelz types…somatic types and why it’s the same as drug taking.
And much much more.
I censored my language this week. I can’t help it, I’m a convict stock Australian. I’ll try to be better next time.
NOOBTUBE
SPOTTEDFRAUD:
FLAWDIO MP3
WEBSMITE
5. Members only Sekshun - This Weeks Sequencing
I hope you have been enjoying learning to induce vibration as a means of inducing vibrant energetic responses, and inducing a nicer, broader pulsation response to your environs.
A short story from my own week, if you’ll indulge me for a few moments. I faced some challenges that I will not go into specific details for - other than to say they are traditionally things that would induce a great wrath in me, and if I had a button, I would probably elect to end all life on earth.
Part of a challenge in this work is not so much what happens, but our reactivity to what happens. In mastering reactivity, we simply do what needs to be done. As I’ve said, regardless of the wisdom of primitive body war guys, reactivity is very often a debilitating disability. Particularly in our complex civilisation where you can’t go up to someone with a bommy-knocker and blast them in the face with it.
I see in myself, and colleagues for example, that they are in a constant state of low level anxiety-reactivity at every little thing that happens. Boss looking them the wrong way, the usual stuff. Admittedly, it does drive some of them to bigger things, but here’s the thing: they are being driven into it by forces beyond their ken. Let’s think about what that means for our own lives. Sure, they may have success at one level: but how much of that do they even want, really? How much of their pursuits are simply driven out of being an anxious little weasel.
They never seem to be able to enjoy it, there’s always a niggling fear that it all might be just taken away, and so all their energies are diverted into sustaining the lie. For sure, we all suffer from this to varying degrees, some people to a debilitating degree. Part of the power of this work, is overcoming this kind of undercurrent of reactivity: and instead of ‘making choices’ from this place, we create a little free space in ourselves free from all of this.