Once we have identified our culture as the force that drives human functioning out of its evolutionary process and back into old survival patterns, then the question is, how can we change the culture to assist with our evolution, individually and collectively?  In the past we have tried to change the culture through our political actions and laws, our religious doctrines, and movements against some “thing.” But once again, these structures produce a “separation” sociology and therefore a separation pathology. The pushing against something increases its resistance to change.

The attempt to do what is right and change the system is the same phenomenon as the culture using fear to manipulate or influence people. Politicians state that if you don’t elect me, then the world is headed for a rough time. Religious doctrines state that if you don’t believe as the church believes, then you will not have everlasting life.  Laws state that if you don’t follow the rules, chaos will ensue and punishment will be the consequence. Society states that if you don’t dress like the majority of people, spend money like the majority, or work like the majority do, then you are a failure. All these constructs have fear of “the other” at the root and drive for change.

 

Chilton describes the culture as the “synthetic counterfeit of transcendence.” This occurs when the culture uses the transcendent function of the frontal lobe (which contains our ability to reason) to enhance the defense mechanism of the fight-or-flight response of the reptilian brain. The culture uses structures such as the important job, the reputation, and having the right family, the right house and the right car, and the definition of success as a means to present a false sense of security to an individual.  Culture uses fear tactics, such as , if we don’t achieve these things, we will not survive, or if we do survive, we will not be happy as a means to keep humanity in the fight-or-flight aspects of functioning and thwart any evolutionary growth of humanity toward its true transcendent nature.

 

The culture thus becomes a force field that directs humanity and its behaviors, and those behaviors are actions that do not produce real change within an individual or within the culture. Each individual within their culture continues to react to situations from fight-or-flight brain patterns. For an individual to do otherwise—which is to find an inner silence and to not take action from a stance of fight-or-flight—means that individual is acting outside of the culture’s control, and this becomes a threat to the culture.

 

As discussed in Part One, the cultural system, based on its rules, will challenge any attempt that an individual makes to change his or her self and to try to change the culture. The rules of the system are based on fear, which typically results in the increase of that individual’s (or group’s) suffering through fear. Society will cast the individual out by such means as refusing to give him or her a promotion, denying him or her the car and the house, denying the individual success, as based on the culture’s definition of success. The individual who suffers these consequences and is unable to transcend them will move into fight-or-flight responses, becoming angry, defiant, and self-righteous, or feeling helpless, beaten, and tired. These internalized, victimized feelings are reflected in violent ways such as fighting within families and relationships, intensifying dramas, victimization of the poor and the mentally ill, and war.

 

An individual cannot feed the system by pushing against its doctrines with a fist raised high in the air, nor can an individual feed it by acquiescing to its doctrines and relying on manipulation through an appearance of vulnerability as an attempt to manipulate outcomes from within the system. These individuals will lose. Our inability to rise and transcend the culture’s limitations and constraints leads all of us to our violence. 

 

The culture defies our species’ natural attempt to evolve, and to live within these constraints is to require humanity to rely on the ancient reptilian survival parts of our brain. As discussed earlier, individuals who are living from the reptilian part of the fight-or-flight responses brew violence. The culture creates violence, feeds on violence, and depends on violence. Individuals do use the frontal lobes of the brain for logic, reasoning, and creative endeavors, but rather most of these areas  promote higher levels of defensive mechanisms. The only way to break away from the culture’s force field is to withdraw one’s energy from the system. Doing this requires an individual to drop his or her defense mechanisms and to remain in his or her vulnerability with compassion. This activates the brain’s frontal lobes, and the individual can take new actions to address what the situation needs.

 

Part Three: How individuals can transcend from violence into compassion within a cultural system and How I used those techniques in the hostage situation.