Words
As Animals acquired the predictive use of Time, they were able to not only be vigilant for potential threats in the present moment, but also for potential threats that may occur, conferring an immense advantage over those creatures unable to anticipate danger. The concept of survival is predicated on predicting survivability. This predictive ability is retained in our species, and when well balanced enables avoidance of anticipated threat, but when overactive (what is described here as hypervigilance) results in our experience of feeling anxious
/TACTICAL
/HPA AXIS – HEAD-SPHENOID
ATLAS/AXIS AND VISION
/VISION
Tunnel vision
Brain dynamics of visual attention during anticipation and encoding of threat- and safe-cues in spider-phobic individuals
/BODY ARMORING
INSTINCT: [RAGE/TERROR] Perceived threat initiates either a Fight or Flight response, which requires that the animal has a sophisticated motor system. The choice is based on our motor capabilities relative to the perceived threat. Freeze needs to be suppressed to enable this range of actions. Think of when you have been startled, and then reacted with some action (perhaps anger). This is an attribute of Vertebrates (as well as other lineages diverging from Animals). This neurophysiological layer is our Sympathetic Nervous System and Adrenergic biochemistry (HPA Axis) which we experience as Safety in Doing.
Fear/Anxiety is an expression of our cognitive mechanism of forecasting. Fear is different from Fight/Fight, which is an action-based response to a perceived threat in the present moment – action must be taken now. Fear/Anxiety is the prediction of threat at some future moment. Although our fears can seem very real, when viewed from this perspective as an expression of our forecasting abilities, it becomes apparent that fear is an illusion – the product of a trick our lineage picked up to manipulate the dimension of time to our advantage.
SYMPATHETIC NERVOUS SYSTEM
DOING ARCHETYPE
LOCOMOTIVE CORE
VERTEBRATES
META READING
Survival is one layer of many that describe the evolutionary progression of protective responses. There is a discussion of this progression here:
MEANS AND METHODS
An overview of protective mechanisms as expressed in our species:
PROTECTION
An overview of the archetypes for which protection serves as a special case:
ARCHETYPES
An overview of all of the models dissecting the human experience presented on this website:
EVOLUTIONARY PARADIGMS