I was watching a TV program some months ago about a biologist working in Central America who was dedicated to protecting the panther species from extinction. During the program I heard him make a comment that upon reflection I found had embedded in it seeds of wisdom that not even he was aware of. The comment went something like this (of course I'm only paraphrasing what he said): "As the population of panthers decreases the ensuing future generation of animals that they feed on grow up not knowing fear". In other words the fear reaction is the result of the trauma that goes with having one's life threatened, which I agree with. He followed this up by saying that this state of "no fear" was clearly an abnormal one. In other words he was saying that these anmials were in an abnormal state because they had not yet experienced the trauma of having had their lives threatened and thereby had not developed what some might consider a form of post-traumatic stress disorder. That is like saying that the traumatized state was the normal one and the non-traumatized state was the abnormal one. I would like to ask you for a moment to put yourself in the place of these animals and reflect upon where you'd rather be. That is, would you prefer to be traumatized or not? I'm sure the answer is clear. Who wants trauma? Well no one of course. If we look at the human species we notice that we too have similar negative reactions (a post-traumatic stress disorder of sorts) to threats to our survival i.e. worry, fear, anxiety, paranoia, insomnia and stress. We label these as "negative", without thinking why we do so. Why "negative"? If they are so useful to us why not "positive"? Well, because the word "negative" connotes things like: undesirable, unwanted, unwelcome, uncomfortable, In other words these reactions are "not what we want inside of us". Well why are they there inside us at all? Well for the same reason they are in the animals, because of centuries of repeated trauma. The trauma and whatever generates it has been so ever present in the history of humanity that we as a species have developed what I call a "Collective Human Post-traumatic Stress Disorder". Now, because we "all" have the propensity to exhibit the symptoms of this problem ie. worry, anxiety, fear etc. we have come to believe that they are normal, a part of what it means to be human and even that they are "beneficial" to us. So just say to yourself, if you wish: "It's beneficial for me to have my life threatened or for me to be traumatized every once in a while". Does that make you feel good? Likely not. So why is it that the logic of this biologist's argument is never questioned? Well because we've all bought into, without question, Darwin's scientific argument that says that these emotional reactions exist naturally in nature i.e that this is the natural and normal course of nature. Well if that were so then how is it that these animals could experience a state of no fear at all, ever? Also why is that as an individual or animal we appear to prefer a state of no trauma and therefore of no worry, no anxiety, no fear etc? Unfortunately Darwin failed to recognize that trauma and the ensuing emotional stress reactions that follow from it are not desirable by humans or animals. I'm sure if they could talk to us the animals would verify this. After all isn't that the reason they run from their predators in the first place? So if you follow me so far, I am saying that we need to reassess the Darwinian doctrine that "Survival of the Fittest" is the natural order of things. If one looks around at the world one readily notices how buying into this as an acceptable way of being is leading to needless, saddening violence, death and destruction. In my heart I do not feel this is what is meant to happen here nor who we are meant to be. What about you? What would happen on this planet if all the trauma were to end? Would we, like these blessed animals also not start to remember who we really are i.e. Beings of Love, Innocence, Beauty, Peace and Compassion? |
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