The complexity of the human brain and its many divisions in the health and medicine world are all distributed, and maintained, via the brain and its many different functions.
The central nervous system, the endocrine system and its corresponding glands and the 12 cranial nerves, all interact with the environment in which you currently reside. This complex system of plexuses, glands, chemical reactions and intracranial activity, all correspond, to enable the human to function, with optimal capacity. These specific regions of the human body, have a direct and profound impact on fear conditioning and fear control.
The brain produces more than 50 identified active drugs. Some of these are associated with memory, others with intelligence, others are sedatives. More than 100,000 chemical reactions go on in your brain every second!
The Brain is divided into sections, the hind brain, which includes the brainstem, including the thalamus and the cerebellum. Often referred to as the reptilian brain, incorporating our survival instincts, fight or flight conditioning. The functioning of the thalamus and brainstem is to sort incoming and outgoing messages. The cerebellum controls muscular movement. Its main purpose is survival and maintenance of homeostasis.
The reptilian brain controls movement, circulation, hunger, breathing, movement and reproduction. It is concerned with territory, social dominance and the fight flight mechanism. In addition to real threats, stress can result from fact that the sub conscious cannot differentiate between reality and imagination. The behaviours of the reptilian brain are largely unconscious and automatic, highly resistant to any change.
The mid brain, which comprises mainly of the limbic system, amygdala, and hippocampus; often referred as the mammalian brain, associated with feeling and memory instincts. The mid brain is the emotional regulation and sensory information highway. The limbic system is the mainframe for all emotional regulation and memory storage. The hippocampus incorporates the mammalian brain, which is involved in emotions, memory formation, and long term memory, connecting events with feelings and controls the hormones and temperature. Sometimes its referred to as the visceral or feeling brain. Like the reptilian brain, it operates largely on a sub conscious level, without any sense of time. The limbic system is active in situations that arouse fear, anger, frustration, and pity. By linking emotions with behaviour, this aspect of the brain adds a layer of control to the automatic responses of the reptilian brain. The mammalian brain is dominant when relating to another.
The mid brain incorporates three of the four ventricles, the left and right ventricle look like a wishbone around the amygdala which is also filled with cerebrospinal fluid that connects along the spine, CNS and PNS. The third ventricle inside the mid brain houses the pineal gland, the seat of the soul and the fourth ventricle, is about an inch below, located at the back of the throat, attached to the vagus nerve – which is the only nerve in the brain that is connected to the heart, stomach and other organs directly. These four ventricles work hard to elicit the conditioned response set by earlier experiences.
When confronted with a situation, the mammalian brain searches its stockpile of past experiences for information on how to react. The sub conscious will go back to the earliest time of experience, to check what the response was at the time and responds similarly. In a nutshell, the current reaction replicates the response and emotional age of the response, triggered by the early situation or first trauma.
The forebrain, which comprises of the two hemispheres and four lobes, – parietal, occipital, temporal and frontal. Often regarded as the neocortex, the thinking part of the brain, where we use language, reasoning, logic and forward planning. It makes logic speech and writing possible. The neocortex enables executive decision making, purposeful behaviour and allows us to see ahead to plan for the future. It has specialised areas that make sense of, and also process information, received from the senses. This brain operates on a conscious level. This is the social brain!
How does this correlate to emotion! Neuropeptides! When an event happens in our life, our related belief systems create a perception – a decision about the event. This then sends an electrical signal through the hippocampus (in our brain) which produces the chemicals that match our perceptions. These chemicals, called peptides, are then distributed throughout our body. This creates the emotion that matches our perception about the event. There is a peptide for anger, sadness, love, happiness and every emotion we experience.
Emotion is energy, which we feel. Energy vibrates to emit a conduit or reaction that allows the flow of vibration or energy, to materialise.
Energy is the essence or cause, emotion is the effect, or response.
Some people are more responsive to explosive energy such as anger, others are more responsive to gentle emotions such as tenderness and compassion. The energy is designed to work with your thoughts and feelings. What you think will inevitably impact on your body. For example, if you were attach a heart monitor to your pulse and watched a graphic movie or listened to a powerful story, it is without doubt that your pulse will change, even though your body has not moved. Your mind is generating thoughts and responses for your body to process the new information.
When the reptilian brain responds in fear, the body reacts to a previous experience in the body – racing heart, sweaty palms etc. The emotion responds by firing up and activating the ventricles that responded to the sensory stimulus, then begins processing a reaction to the vagus nerve in the amygdala (emotional brain) which then directs the flood of chemicals (adrenaline) to plexus centres in the body. Once this fear pattern has been conditioned and programmed by repitition, to react to experiences that evoke the same emotion, the person is then held by internal bondage to traumatic and possibly, unconscious earlier experiences. Which is perfectly orchestrated by the reptilian brain!
The reptilian brain – Fight, flight or flee – rules the body, again!