Hi all MoQ Discussers
Brian Taylor once wrote:
> > Hello!! la la la
> > I've been thinking for some time now about where human
> > emotions fit into the MOQ. At first I put them into the intellectual category, because
> > they are definitely not inorganic or biological,
David Lind once responded:
> in my theatre work, I've discovered that a large
> part of emotions are biological - we "feel" angry - what does that
> mean? How do you know you are angry? But not only biological - for the
> emotions of fear and excitement produce much of the sdame physical
> sensations in a person - the difference seems to be in the
> "interpretation" of those feelings.
Wen I saw the above "emotional request" by Brian I was not
subscribed, but being preoccupied with the subject I couldn't forget
the thread. At this very moment I am on a summer holiday trip and
was most graciously allowed to bring along my portable as long as
I did not hook up and spent hours...etc. (have now sneaked away
to find a telephone plug :) so I only have Brian's and David's posts
in the machine's memory, and am ashamed to say that I don't
know other people may have had to say on the subject.
It may not come as a great surprise to the Lila Squad veterans
when I air my simplified MoQ in which each level is given one
single "expression" (I call). The complete list looks like this:
INTERACTION - SENSATION - EMOTION - REASON.
In its time I did not impart much importance to this venture but to
my amazement it has taken on an ever greater role in my
understanding of the MoQ, it solves the impossible task of deciding
where this and that belongs in the hierarchy (some may remember
a long thread way back about where a "throne" belonged, if was
inorganic or social?), but before elaborating I must say that one of
the greatest things about the MoQ is that emotions are brought
back to reality - after having spent thousands of years in the
subjective exile of SOM.
Brian wanted to put emotions in the intellectual category, because
"they definitely aren't inorganic or biological", but finds trouble with
that and asks where other people see as their destination. David
thinks that they are partly biological because "the feeling of anger
or excitement produce much of the same physical sensations in a
person - the difference seems to be in the interpretation of those
feelings". This is correct if David equals feelings and sensations, if
so I am in hysterical agreement.
The very idea of the MoQ is the "the added value" up the level
ladder, an inorganic compound have an biological meaning which -
in turn - is laced with a social flavour, and topped off with an
intellectual explanation. One example: At the biological level of
mammals the inorganic stuff we call adrenalin is SENSED by the
body as signal for increased heartbeat plus a lot of other reactions
which makes the animal ready for flight or fight. A gazelle on the
Serengeti Plains experience this adrenalin flood at the sight of a
prying lion, but it's wild eyes and pounding heart does not mean
"fear", or - after having narrowly escaped - that it "hates" lions.
The transition to the social plane is a gliding one, there are animals
that have tight social bonds and may show rudimentary emotions,
but to get the picture clear let's consider human beings. A
dangerous situation initiates the same flooding of adrenalin, but the
bodily reactions are now raised to the quality level of emotions;
Fear, hatred, and a host of more subtle shades enters existence.
An enormous improvement .... but at a price.
An important point here: At the advanced social level of human
beings we now see how an abstract quality is introduced into
existence. The uppermost social pattern (language with it's
imagination-inducing quality) can make the body produce adrenalin
(to stay with my example) that creates emotions in a self-stoking
loop. And ...goodness, it came to me right now ... this solves the
placebo effect which is one of the major platypi of SOM!
But language/imagination isn't Quality's Intellect, we may safely
assume that cave-dwellers spoke as complex (grammatically) a
language as ourselves, yet shivered when listening to tales of giant
beasts and created some additional features. No, Intellect is
REASON!!! To complete my adrenalin example I have read about
an experiment where human "guinea pigs" had this stuff injected.
Those who did not know what it was became very agitated,
panicky almost, but if they were told what to expect the knowledge
removed the fear. It's the same upper level's effect on the lower as
in the previous examples. REASON's ability to distinguish between
what is a subjective and what is objective modify EMOTIONS.
Another enormous improvement ... but again at a price. Maybe
this is the biblical "fall from grace". An animal with no knowledge of
life and death is immortal.
But the Q evolution is open-ended, a 5th level will modify Intellect.
This makes ME shiver and (at times) wish that Pirsig never had
opened this Pandora's Box.
Bo
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