Thursday, March 28, 2019

HE AIN'T NO REPTILE

Two "practices" of evolution are that 1) everything that changes is based on whatever happened before, and 2) pre-existing and functioning structures and functions are often converted to something that was never done before -- sometimes that changes everything.

Cranial nerve Number 10 is like that.  It's double, both taking in and directing out.  Also called the vagus nerve, the pneumogastric nerve or simply CN X, it is the longest cranial nerve in the body, reaching from the brain down through the body with high-speed effectiveness.  "The vagus nerve is so named because it “wanders” like a vagabond, sending out sensory fibers from your brainstem to your visceral organs. The vagus nerve, the longest of the cranial nerves, controls your inner nerve center—the parasympathetic nervous system."  Google has not quite caught up with Dr. Porges' research on the polyvagal theory about the 'Social Engagement System.  (Maybe it needs a snappier name or slogan, like "we're in this together.")

The tenth cranial nerve connects brain direct to gut, heart, lungs and maybe indirectly to a lot of other vitals, the things a lie detector records.  (They're called vitals for a reason --if they get out of homeostasis, life is no longer possible.)  It's also the nerve system that makes us mammals by damping down the impulse to murder our own babies as though they were prey; and makes us human by allowing empathy to bind us into cooperating groups based on common understanding and purpose."  

Both influences are so recent that some people slip back into deadly parenthood and only a percentage of humans are capable of real empathy, which came out of a happy infancy supported by a care giver.  That's a major third characteristic of evolution: it is the product of shaping by the environment.  Whatever capacity it has pushes against what is around it.  Protecting children and sharing affinities is what makes us human.  If the capacity is organically missing or the environment prevents it developing, empathy will be missing.  Children will be at risk and relationships cannot form.  It's not a matter of wealth.  The refugees coming north tenderly hold their babies against them.

"Theory of Mind" refers to one animal's ability to predict what another will do.  Based on predator/prey interaction, it tells the fox where the rabbit is likely to go and tells the rabbit what the fox will do.  The "fight or flight" famous choice is present in reptiles, which also have a choice to "freeze" that is near death.  The mammal nerve action can do more.

I'm too new to these ideas and possibly there is not enough research to tell us what and how to switch the reptilian system to mammal response, but the answer must be in that one third of the vagus nerve.  Two crucial functions are important.  One is the "vagal brake" which is a direct inhibition of the violence left over from predation, either the prevention of violence against children or the "berzerker" reflex in which all restraint is lost in battle or survival.  The other is empathy, which must be closely related.

It seems obvious that the plots of our entertainment and news, the strategies of our politicians, and the structure of our cybergames. are building on our reptilian love of predator/prey Theories of Mind.  Also, it is notable that the body's direct interaction with the world outside the skin, the wisdom that comes from the senses' understanding and seeking both the joy and the pain of being in relationship with simple existence.  Perhaps as a reaction, we sometimes seek at least sympathy for those who are hurt, restored from danger, burdened by hardship.  We have an oddly focussed curiosity.  But it takes extremes to break through what we take for granted without participation at least through identification.

Having said this, it becomes clear that our practice of allowing our leaders to be sequestered in environments that are sensory-impoverished, encourages them to stay with "Theory of Mind" and to behave with reptilian disregard for suffering, reducing it to numbers:  how many people suffer, on a scale of one to ten how serious is it, what is the cost?  People and nations become prey.  What mitigates against that?

A story about an invasion or rebellion tells about a soldier intent on capturing a woman. Both were "civilized."  The man had an upraised club and was gaining.  The woman's shoe came off and she instinctively stopped.  The soldier's behavior was transformed as he too stopped and picked up the shoe, courteously handing it to the woman. Then they resumed fox-and-rabbit.  In that place and moment, culture was stronger than violence.  We need to know much more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kNn775nktU  I like this rough, tentative vid of thought happening.  Grannon is the only counselor in the vast tsumani of counselors who comes out of a force and then abuse sort of paradigm explored by empathy.  I love it that he's sometimes confused, tentative, funny, and often very insightful.  Those who are incapable of empathy will hardly be able to sit and watch.  If you don't watch as many Aussie films as I do, you might have problems with his accent, but the more you listen the easier it will get.  The good thing about Richard is that he's so animated, you can often read his face. He ain't no reptile.

The other major insight from this polyvagal system is that the nerves that serve the face, the breast, the muscles of speaking and seeing, work together to be a vocabulary, an alphabet, that the empathic can read and produce.  It can be very subtle or it can be frank and open.  It's the part of Grannon we are watching via camera.  If I had a clientele of "at risk," traumatized, only partly empathetic, kids, I think they could still connect.  


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