Until recently, I never really understood why humans slaughtered their own species. Why there was a Holocaust; why some 50 million were killed in China and Russia to further the interest of communism; why untold numbers of women should be tortured and killed by a church inquisition; or why two world wars in the 20th century. And even now, the conflict between nations, threatening the world with weapons of mass destruction. While, on a more personal scale, the abuse and violence in our streets and in our homes. And the greed and the merciless drive to accumulate more possessions and power. I often wondered what is it that drives humans to abuse, overcome, kill and steal from each other.
In the course of researching my book, ‘HAPPINESS GENES Unlock the Positive Potential Hidden in our DNA’, I became acutely aware of the state of human unconsciousness and behavioral genetics. It was a shocking revelation to me, to come to the realization that the vast majority of humans were under the control of a destructive unconscious mind. A mind mainly constituted of instincts, habits, and life experiences which play out a continuous stream of mind chatter of the past and future. It became apparent that our unconscious mind, conditioned by our survival genes, is the root cause of competition for resources, violence, wars, and greed.
And if this is the human condition, is there any escape? Are we bound to suffer through the domination of our ‘caveman’ genes, until weapons of mass destruction determine our destiny? Is this scenario the evolutionary process of the survival of the fittest, played to the nth degree? Or if ‘survival of the fittest’ is the cardinal evolutionary rule, can it be used for human favor rather than destruction?
How our mind works
Attempting research on the scientific explanation of how our mind works indicated that there were more questions than answers. However, spiritual teachers have long taught that if you watch your thoughts and emotions, you will soon see how it works. I was well aware of the mental chatter that usually bounced around in my mind. I was also aware that these thoughts often were accompanied by emotions of worry and fear, and so from time to time, I tried to stop my mind from its persistent thinking, by meditation or focusing on some object. But soon after, the random thoughts returned streaming across my mind and taking my attention away from the present moment. And sometimes I realized I wasn’t even present, my mind was wandering around in my past memories or future projections. Continuing to witness my thoughts I realized that all my future planning to avoid pain and increase pleasure, was an illusion which never came true, a projection of my unconscious mind. When I was not watching my thoughts, I was on autopilot, while my mind endlessly played and replayed the data from my mental hard disc.
In doing my research, I became aware of neuroscience testing that indicted that our primitive unconscious mind was about 90% of our mental psyche and had tremendously more data processing capability then our conscious mind. Our conscious mind evolved much later in evolution, estimated at about 10,000 years BC. It was about that time, motivated by agriculture that humans evolved from tribal to community living, necessitating cooperation versus competition. It was also in that period, that it is conceived that the evolution of consciousness lead to the first conception of a God.
Becoming more conscious
If we define unconsciousness as an automatic stream of thoughts about the past and the imagined future, then it follows that if we only think about the present, we are using our conscious mind. We use our conscious mind for such as; problem solving, creativity, cooperation and altruistic acts. In other words, we are using our mind as a useful tool, rather than our mind using us. The conscious mind is the ultimate means to ‘survival of the fittest’, not by competition and by violence, but by altruistic acts, such as compassion, love of neighbor and such. While consciousness is relatively new in evolutionary terms, it can be shown that altruism existed long before human consciousness, in animals and even bacteria, suggesting its genetic nature. It is by using our conscious mind that we have the power to overcome the conditioned reflexes of our unconscious mind, and take control of our destiny.
After achieving more consciousness, you will be able to use your mind to activate epigenetic mechanisms that modify genetic expressions., such as your ‘survival caveman genes’. This permits moving down the genetic hierarchy scale to lesser priority genes, and unblocking the expression of your happiness genes.
Everyone wants to be happy, but since the great majority of people are directed by their unconscious mind, they are unable to choose the joy of natural happiness that comes from selfless acts, because the unconscious mind is totally selfish. Natural happiness is independent of external circumstances. It comes from the inside our DNA and is always available when we are in our conscious mind and expressing our happiness genes. The essence of our conscious mind is centered on altruism. Not that pleasures can’t be enjoyed, but with the understanding that they are always dependent on outside conditions or people, and as such, subject to change and frequently pain. Natural happiness is the joy that is unconditional; it is always there for the taking, simply by expressing your spiritual genes.
