What is Real?

Reality is a funny old thing. The universe that we see, hear and feel is a tiny percentage of what is actually there. Take for example vision. Humans have the ability to perceive wavelengths of lights between 390 (Violet) -750nm (Red), with the most clarity at 555nm. The wavelength 555nm is right smack dab in the middle of the green portion of the spectrum.

This range makes up the most necessary colours we need to operate and survive in our natural environment. We haven’t always had this ability though, or rather we have, but we lost it, and then re-gained it again. Contrary to what most people think Evolution isn’t a straightforward gaining process, sometimes if an adaptation becomes superfluous to needs (and thus costly to maintain) it can be ‘evolved out’. Our ancestors (not Human) actually went through stages of acquiring colour vision when it became a survival advantage, and then lost it when it was not (during a stage where our ancestors were mainly nocturnal), and then re-gained the ability when it once again gave our ancestors an advantage.

Most mammals still haven’t regained a large range of colour vision, whereas other species of animals can see wavelengths outside of the Human range of perception. Bees and birds for example, can see in the ultraviolet range of light, which is totally invisible to us. Yet these species take advantage of it to navigate their world. However ‘invisible’ and ‘does not exist’ are not two interchangeable terms. The reality of different life forms is no less, or more real, than each other. Reality simply ‘is’ whether we can understand and appreciate it or not.

Perception is a key process in how much, or how little of reality you can interact with, how much you can control, and how much it can control you. Your perception of the world influences ‘your’ reality.

In the past few years the research into stress and health has been growing rapidly, especially in the field of genetics and epi-genetics. Many papers have demonstrated that there is a direct link between the stress response and health. The key word here is response, which we will get to in a bit.

There are different forms of stress: physical, chemical and emotional, all of which can profoundly alter your reality, for better or worse. But here we will concentrate on emotional (or psychological) stress.

The term stress isn’t inherently negative (or positive), but the common understanding usually falls more to the former of the two expressions, which is another evolutionary safety mechanism we shall not explore here. Emotional stress comes in two forms: positive stress, which many people do not know about, is called eu-stress, and negative stress, which many DO know about, is called dis-tress. They are two sides of the same coin; however, it is the distress side of the coin that is most linked to ill-health and disease.

Stress like all other emotions, does not exist in any object or situation. Some people have a terrifying fear of cats (Ailurophobia), whereas others (usually ladies of middle-age and beyond) have an obsessive love for them (Ailurophilia). The emotion of fear (or love) has no physical existence at all, except in a person’s expression of the emotion. And that emotion, be it fear, love, excitement etc is created by the ‘meaning’ that a person gives (or attaches) to that object or situation. Emotions therefore are generally created by memory and triggered by environment.

So if you change your perception (or the meaning you attach to something) you can change your emotional response to pretty much any object or event.

And so a recent study is proving. Researchers at Penn State University, as part of a much larger study, surveyed 2000 people, once a day over 8 days, at two points 10 years apart. The survey covered such things as the use of their time, their moods and any physical health symptoms they had felt in the previous 24 hours. They also asked about their productivity and any daily stressful events they had experienced, such as being in a traffic jam, having a row (quarrel) with somebody, or looking after a sick child.

As well as the data collected from the surveys, the researchers also collected data on the participant’s cortisol (one of the key stress hormones) levels throughout these days.

The study was cleverly designed to not only look at short term stress reactions, but also how this could possibly manifest a decade later. And the study showed an interesting result; people who become upset by daily stressors and continued to dwell on them after they had passed were more likely to suffer from chronic health problems -- especially pain, such as that related to arthritis, and cardiovascular issues -- 10 years later.

The key finding of the paper was that it isn’t stressor ‘exposure’ that caused the chain of processes that led to ill health, but rather stressor ‘reactivity’.

Think about a time when you’ve been driving, if you’ve been doing it long enough chances are that at one time or another you’ve probably had a near-miss (near-hit really?). When this happens there usually is an automatic reaction of fear and often anger. The more enlightened amongst us, almost immediately, realise that they are unhurt, calm themselves and continue along their path in life in quiet serenity.

Those who do not realise this, allow the fear and anger to remain and build, sometimes to the point of what is called ‘road rage’. Not only do they occasionally hurt others, but every…single…time…they hurt themselves. Here’s how.

Your brain wasn’t always as it is now, but unlike many items in history that no longer exist and require speculation of their once upon a time existence, our heritage is still firmly in place and fully visible with the right approach.

If you slice a brain straight down the middle, separating the left and right sides (or for the squeamish use an MRI scanner), a lot of our history is revealed. These images are plentiful on the internet, so do a search for a visual representation of these structures; look for what is called a ‘mid-saggital section’.

The brainstem (pons and medulla oblongata) is our most primitive brain; it’s a mass of nerves that unlike our brain today, formed the entire brain of our ancestors. The medulla’s primary function is to stimulate the vacuuming up of food and reject the bits that might cause us problems, although we now call these gagging, vomiting, coughing and sneezing. Together with the pons, the brainstem is the fundamental structure involved in breathing, and heart function. This relatively simple nervous system supports a very basic form of life; essentially eating, pooping and a bit of locomotion.

As we evolved, additional components and layers were added to these basic structures, the next component being the cerebellum. The cerebellum adds to the brainstems function by providing the ability to further control the body’s function, especially in regards to movement. The cerebellum allows for further refinement in motor control such as co-ordination, precision and timing of movements.

Just in front of the cerebellum is the forebrain which contains the R-complex, so called because they first evolved in the (r)eptilian brain. This area of the brain is responsible for instinctual behaviours such as aggression, dominance, territoriality, and ritual displays. It still serves the same purpose in reptiles, and us, today.

Above and surrounding this area, are the paleo-mammalian and neo-cortex. The R-complex plus the paleo-mammalian complex are commonly (but not quite accurately) grouped together as the limbic system. The limbic systems adds to the above R-complex behaviours with additional feelings of motivations (drives) and emotions surrounding love, hate, joy, sadness, hope, despair and sexuality. The neo-cortex adds to this further as does the cerebral cortex.

The cerebral cortex is what most people in the public consider to be the brain; it’s the wrinkly, cauliflower looking bit that most of us know comes in two half’s (hemispheres). It is the area of the brain that is involved in producing functions that most people would recognise as what makes Humans ‘Human’. It plays a key role in memory, attention, perceptual awareness, thought, language, and what we call consciousness.

The ancient structures of our brain have been within our genetic lineage for around 60 to 200 million years, depending on the structure. The cerebral cortex in contrast has only been around for 6 million years. And the Human version of the cerebral cortex is thought to have occurred only 150,000 years ago in our evolution.

Because most people don’t consider the components and layers under the cerebral cortex when thinking about the brain, they also don’t realise the powerful influence these structures have on the newer evolved structures and therefore function (perception being one) of the brain. As a result of their deep seated rooting, the primitive structures hold a lot of sway, and can easily over-ride the higher functions of the recently evolved Human parts of the brain. If you let it.

If you need persuading of this primitive brain ability to distort perception, consider the use of substances that are commonly called social drugs such as alcohol, nicotine, or more potent drugs such as cocaine, amphetamines and other chemicals. These substances all work by tapping into the primitive parts of the brain, so while under the influence the feelings of confidence, fear, panic, ease, rage, and pleasure can be amplified. But because the primitive brain in intimately linked into the higher brain, the perceptions of the user also becomes distorted as a consequence of these more fundamental changes. So distorted thoughts occur in response, which is different for each individual based on their personal memories and make-up. Sometimes these perceptions can be experienced as heightened pleasure and ease, and others depending on the past and current state of the individual can be rather more unpleasant such as paranoia or abject terror, amongst others.

This happens because anything that alters the input’s into the brain, be it a chemical substance, a thought or a programmed perception changes the neuronal function of your brain, the sum of which absolutely governs the way your body functions and the thoughts that you experience as consciousness.

A final example, just to clarify how tapping into the primitive brain can profoundly distort your perception of reality, is the chemical lysergic acid, colloquially known as simply ‘acid’. ‘Acid’ is an extremely potent chemical, that can cause an extreme change in the chemical functioning of your neurons so that the user experiences altered thinking processes, synesthesia (the stimulation of one sense causing an experience in another, such as seeing sounds or hearing movements) and altered sense of time. Reality hasn’t changed one bit, only the user’s perception of it.

Now, it’s not a one way door, it certainly swings both ways. The primitive parts of the brain can definitely influence the higher functions but so can higher functions feed into the primitive structures. And once triggered they (the primitive brain parts) cause not only altered thought processes, as described above, but rapid and powerful changes to the functioning of the rest of the body (for which they were originally evolved), which left uncontrolled will certainly lead to ill health and disease.

But being Human we are not as directly tied into moment to moment stimuli as more simple life-forms. As suggested before, we can understand that emotional (psychological) stressors do not exist in any object or event. The stressor lies in the meaning we attach to it. So by deciding to attach a different meaning we can alter our perception of reality and our response to it, so that it not only doesn’t harm us, but if we attach the right meaning can actually be advantageous to our reality and our existence within it.

By controlling your perception of life and how you respond to life events, you can open up doors that either seemed locked or did not appear to exist at all. The potential within most Humans is vastly untapped, yet we all have the ability to claim this prize if we so choose. And therein lies the crux, it all starts with a choice.

Learn to make the right ones.

Reference:

Annals of Behavioral Medicine 2012. DOI: 10.1007/s12160-012-9423-0