Elements of Human Nature: Systemic Overview

My previous post on human nature is a little dated and takes the counselor’s moral viewpoint. This post takes advantage of my continuing research and shifts to a systems approach.

The manifested behavior of humans at large sometimes needs a little explanation. While we cannot reduce human complexity to a small snack for the mind, we can cut this tough steak into chewable bites. Today’s post constitutes just one bite you should mentally masticate for awhile and contemplate the implications. We inform the mind so that it knows how to respond to the demands from a higher power.

At the lowest level of human existence is the bulk of signals we all “appetites” and is associated with emotions. In essence, the biblical view is scientifically correct in placing your emotions and sentiments in the gut. What seems to remain almost a medical secret is that your guts have a mind of their own, quite literally. There is a nexus of nerves, a node of processing down there amongst those lower organs at the bottom of your spine, which takes signals from all of them. By becoming aware of this, you can begin paying proper attention to all the marvelous things it can tell you about yourself.

Of course, that depends on the health of your guts. That is, if your stomach is choked with processing a bunch of crap, your lower brain cannot process all those signals with any useful clarity. I’ll defer to Sister Wildcucumber for details on how to better manage your gut health. For now, let me toss out some quick generalities that I use: no modern wheat or GMO foods, no artificial sweeteners, no carbonated beverages, fermented foods good, wild foods good, etc. When you eat, your stomach itself needs some consideration, too. If your stomach has been crippled up and abused by modern allopathic medicine, we can still hope for making the best of a bad situation, but do keep an open mind to ancient wisdom about your guts.

The point is that we already have a lot of points of failure in communicating clearly with our inner selves that we don’t need to make things worse by neglecting the foundation of self-knowledge. We make jokes using the word “ass” as a metaphor for the rest of our bodies, but that brain down at the bottom of your spine is no joke.

At the other end of the spine is the standard mind-brain our culture recognizes. In fact, our culture pretends that this is all that matters. I’ve already written so much about this it fills books. In the future this blog will see the term “quantum reasoning” regularly because the term assumes paying attention to input from the whole spectrum of human nature.

Within your mind is a receptor for that bottom brain, and it often registers as emotions. At least, that’s what we are used to believing. The signals from your butt-brain can be a lot more nuanced and useful, but only when you get used to the idea. Your brain is supposed to process input from the various sources and estimate the best way to proceed, then organize and implement the actions indicated. We already know our minds can take input from the senses, and can reason in both concrete and abstract terms to arrive at some useful organization of things.

What almost no one in the West recognizes is that the heart also has its own brain. Further, that brain in your chest is inherently superior to the one in your head. It can handle all the things necessary for living that your brain cannot. Your heart can read all those invisible fingerprints God left on Creation, and is the only faculty in humans that can understand His character and His will. He does not communicate directly to your intelligence except in the most rare occasions, but communicates directly to every human via the heart all day, every day.

Even if you do not believe in God, it is your heart alone that is capable of grasping the fundamental nature of reality. The heart corrects and guides the intellect, so making the most of your human faculties also means making your mind subject to your heart. That also means a huge mountain of work in our Western culture getting used to the idea.

For Christians, your heart is the only part of you capable of touching the Spirit in your spirit. While we could deduce from the Bible that the heart is the seat of the will, it is much more than that. The Bible refers endlessly to the power of the heart-mind to understand God’s will, but by implication, that includes everything He wants to say through His Holy Spirit living in you.

We have much more to say about this, but I’ve already covered enough to choke most people with exceedingly high demands. I dare say the majority of people who read this won’t be able to do much with it. I’ve been faithful to God’s calling on my life in trying to put it within reach.