The PIFTB Cycle
There is no doubt that humans are at the top as far as being the most intellectual capable animal on the planet. But are humans at the top of their game intellectually? Another question to consider is why are humans this intelligent anyway? Since many species of animals that have existed for millions of years, virtually unchanged, such as sharks and crocodiles, tends to be on the low end of the IQ scale. Humanity has existed for just a fraction of that time, and already many believe that humans are the biggest threat to human survival; but that is a discussion for another time.
It is important to understand that the human brain, like many things we see across nature came about as an additional feature, not a replacement to pervious natural survival traits. Science shows us that the human brain is divided into three different sections, one built upon the other. The lowest part of the brain is also the most primitive. It should come as no surprise then that this section of brain also manages the basic automatic functions of our bodies, such as breathing, blood pressure, hormone balance, etc.
I want to also point out that these functions are extremely important to our continued survival still to this day.
So this story really begins back when the only living things on earth were single celled organisms. At the time ALL life activity was purely chemical in nature. As cells advanced, they developed the ability of limited motion, even the ability to hunt other organisms. These organisms obviously did not possess any type of nervous systems and no intelligence to guide their behavior. It is also obvious that any organism that did not participate in life reinforcing activities, that is activities that either enhanced survival such as finding food or did not threaten survival such as avoiding being eaten, soon passed away as evolutionary dead ends. As life evolved and became more capable, in lock step with these enhanced capabilities controls needed to evolve that kept the actions of individuals of the species limited to only preforming life reinforcing activities. After all if every individual in a species just performed random actions, that species would soon perish. As I mentioned, since life at this time was far too primitive to have a nervous system, these controls needed to be bio-chemical in nature. So from earliest of time, levels bio-chemicals and primitive hormones controlled behavior of life.
As life became more capable, more mobile, developing nervous systems capable of receiving external information through the creature’s senses, and more importantly capable of processing this information and making decision, the stronger the survival need of the species to ensure that the individuals continued to practice life reinforcing activities. This resulted in the evolution of very strong, nearly irresistible controls we observe in animals and today call instincts. Instinct is enough in a world that doesn’t change, but as we all know, life and the world at large does change. Other species invade your area, environmental changes, etc. It stands to reason that species that develop superior processing capabilities that support life reinforcing activities have a survival advantage. The key here is to understand the importance of maintaining these life reinforcing activities.
The next concept I need to cover is perception. Perception is the understanding or comprehension of the input of the senses. For example, we see that primates would react in fear and run at the sight of something moving in the grass toward them. Why, because the perception was they were being hunted by a predator. Unfortunately humans have not only had to worry about predators and the environment, but they had to worry about other humans.
So it is important to understand these factors to explain the concept of the PIFTB Cycle. PIFTB stands for Perception, Instinct, Feelings, Thoughts, and Behavior. The PIFTB Cycle, is as the name implies, a cycle. Our senses, eyes, ears, nose, etc… input information to our brain. Using our experience, education, and these inputs, we interpret this data in our subconscious and often without conscious thought make a judgment as to what is unfolding before us. This perception triggers our instincts, which we experience as feelings. These feelings STRONGLY influence or thoughts which lead to the actions, both conscious and automatic, we do.
Now, our actions are observed by others, especially those we actually interacting with. This data is interpreted by these others starting the PIFTB Cycle anew. Once we the people we are interacting with have gone through the cycle, we view their action which starts the cycle once again within ourselves. This cycle unfolds over and over from moment to moment within our lives. Environmental input can be from TV, news reports, radio, music, weather, and much, much more.
This reminds me of a story – A friend of mine years ago would pre-view the newest movies to decide which one was the most romantically positive. He would then take his date to that movie because he believed it strongly influenced the attitude of his date, and claimed it was critical in getting a second date or more. So I put this question to my readers; could the manipulation of the setting control the attitude of his date and influence her behavior towards a second date (or more)?
One thing I need to point out that is not occurring in the manner as we normally think. In the PIFTB Cycle, human intellect is used to interpret the data we receive and shape our perception. Obviously if an individual of species is really good at interpreting a situation it gives them a much greater survival advantage. But notice, intellect is really not normally used as a factor in determining the action or behavior of the individual. It is something perfectly within the capabilities of a person, but unless we receive specific training to do so (like military who are taught to charge into an ambush and gun fire in order to survive it), it is not the way we normally operate. Our actions or behavior normally supports our feelings, which are a result of an instinctive reaction to our perception.
So, here are at Dragontamers, one of our goals is help people see and acknowledge the PIFTB Cycle so that can obtain freedom from it.
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