The Fear Factor: Who’s in charge – Reptile or Mammal?

Today more than ever, world events and especially the media
coverage of those events seem to mainline waves of fear directly into our bodies. Images of violence, shootings and bombings, people drowning and fleeing for their lives, these pictures continually saturate our screens and our minds. No wonder there is such a feeling of despair, confusion and a desperate search for a solution. We want this to stop. We want to feel safe again.

This is when a basic understanding of our bodies nervous system can help us to not only make sense of our responses but can also highlight a way for us to navigate our fear in a way that can help not only ourselves but potentially our future existence.

Within all of our brains and nervous system there exists some fundamentally different ways of dealing with fear. Our brains literally contain our entire evolutionary history; the oldest parts of our brain including the brainstem, can be seen to be reptilian in nature, in that the responses from this part will mirror the same response that a reptile would make; whilst the newer and more evolutionary advanced parts of our brain, our cortex, can be seen to be mammalian in nature and will respond as other mammals would.

Most people are aware of the fight/flight/freeze response yet maybe not so many people may know that this response is actually linked very closely to our reptilian brain. So yes, when we feel fear and want to fight back we are actually being driven by a lower order part of our brain. We literally lose contact with some of our higher capacities such as empathy and compassion and become engulfed by our lizard or reptilian nature. And the important point being- when we’re in this state, being fuelled by rage, it feels great. We feel powerful and strong and it’s the quickest, surest antidote to feeling weak, powerless and filled with fear.

And this is what underpins so much of what we’re witnessing on the world stage right now- from Isis to Trump- we’re witnessing people acting out of a primitive part of themselves. People who have abandoned contact with the higher human faculties- our capacity for empathy, compassion and love- the parts of us that truly make us human and instead are directly driven by fear, rage and hate. For truly no-one in touch with an ounce of human empathy or compassion would be driven to commit the atrocious acts perpetrated in the name of Isis, or make the infamous and divisive statements coming from the mouth of Trump.

And because we also have this same fear coursing through our system and because we also have this ancient fight response embedded deep within our psyche, their call has the ability to awaken something within us- something that can’t cope with the fear and that wants a quick solution, that wants someone to fight on our behalf. We need to recognise this truth or be destroyed by our denial and ignorance. It is not by mocking or sneering these advocates of our ancient responses that we can move forward but first by recognising how they speak to a part that is within all of us; denying this under the illusion of righteous superiority is similar to denying that we all once shat in our pants, it’s an intrinsic part of who we are. Isis and Trump in their own ways are able to speak directly to this aspect of our nature and rouse it from sleep- to offer strength, certainty and honour in the face of terror, powerlessness and uncertainty are extremely enticing propositions, no wonder Trump is able to bring the masses along with him- he speaks an ancient language that they can hear and understand.

So what’s the solution? Maybe firstly to recognise the mechanisms that are at play here- to understand that as Walt Whitman so eloquently states “I contain multitudes” and to notice what part of us is in charge. For as well as the reptilian aspects of our brain we also have mammalian aspects, located in our cortex and it is when we are in contact with these aspects of ourselves that we are able to connect to others, to feel empathy, compassion and love- the parts of ourselves that give our life deeper meaning and purpose; the parts of ourselves that separate us from other animals and make us uniquely human.

So how do we do connect to these aspects of ourselves? Maybe firstly by fully opening to the reality of the world right now- the horrors of destruction and the joys of connection. Not covering over our fears with bombast and rage, with a false sense of certainty; for as much as we all long for the sense of strength and power that the advocates of rage proclaim, deep down we know these claims are made of the same illusory fantasy that fills us when drunk or high, so real at the time yet the inevitable come-down brings us starkly back to earth with a hangover and cringe-worthy shame at the actions we committed. And whilst it may be easy to judge and blame those acting out of these ancient fear responses, to feel a sense of moral superiority and self righteousness we must recognise how this too simply adds fuel to the fire and how meeting judgment with judgment will create just more suffering.

Now is the time more than ever that we are required to ask of ourselves- “Who am I?” “What do I stand for?” “What do I want my world to look like and what will I do to create that?” Let us come together and hold each other in our collective grief and confusion and let us share our stories of our dreams and hopes. Let’s not pretend anymore that we are in control. Let us be adults and be honest about the current state of the world- the joys as well as the pains. Let us be led by the wisest amongst us. It is only by turning towards each other and letting our hearts break open with sorrow that we can open to the dreams that live underneath. Who’ll join me?