The Haystack Brain or Triune Brain

Scientist Dr. Paul MacLean, M.D., a neuroanatomist, theorized in 1975 that our one large brain is actually divided into three different brains. Each brain is stacked one on top of the other: the ancient brain, called the reptilian brain; the emotional brain or mammalian limbic brain; and the upper brain, called the rational thinking brain (cerebral cortex). The ancient brain sits on the top of the spine.

This ancient reptilian brain resembles and functions like the brain of the dinosaurs. Sitting on top of this ancient brain is an emotional brain called the limbic system. It is found in other mammals as well. Covering those two brains is a new but slower reacting brain that is less than two million years old: the rational brain (cerebral cortex). Before any information can reach the newer rational brain, it must pass through the other two older brains. If the reptilian brain senses a perceived threat, the reptilian brain reacts to that threat before any emotions or thinking can take place by the other brains. Once the reptilian brain processes and relays any orders to the glands or muscles, then information is passed to the emotional brain. This brain, called the limbic system, colors all messages that pass through it. This coloring is emotional. We laugh and cry because of this brain. This brain will broadly paint any information it receives. If you had an emotional experience, either good or bad, that made you laugh or cry in your past, any like occurrence will be colored the same as that first emotional experience and you can start to laugh or cry with no known reason. The cerebral cortex or upper brain is the brain that you are using to try to understand what I am writing. It is the brain where language is formed and it is the brain that tries to control the other two brains. It is the civilized brain. In Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, we read about life evolving from simple forms to complex forms. Darwin might say that man evolved from a rat-like creature. This evolution was made possible by time, chance and changes to the rat’s form, but the human brain did not evolve. As Dr. MacLean points out, it just added on new parts to some very old parts. Those old parts have not evolved or changed one bit and they are not going to be changed by thinking, reading or higher education. They are fixed. To make it easier to understand the brain’s parts, think of the lower brain as an old house. This very old house has had some major addition built on to it. The original house, with its foundation, was built in 1225 out of rock and heavy timbers. It has a large fire pit and very small windows. Much later, in 1933, the second-story children’s nursery and mother-in-law’s rooms were built above the old house. Last year a third story was built. This is where the entertainment room and library are located, as well as the computer room and music room. Like many homes that have add-ons there have been many compromises made. The major complaint of the owner is that visitors must first walk in through the heavy doors of the old house and up the narrow staircase to the second floor. They then are subject to the customs of emotional greetings, handshakes and hugs, as well as the noise of laughter and crying before they can reach the upper level. Only then can they speak on the meaning of life or watch television. It is our belief in Morgan’s Muscle theory that the old house, called the lower or reptilian brain, perceives and interacts with the muscles and nerves of the human body through a structural form and a functional hierarchy or ranking system. Muscles needed for survival of the brain have a higher priority than muscles that are not needed to survive. This is a totalitarian hierarchy and it is based solely on the reptilian brain’s perceived need for the survival of our species. The rational brain and emotional brain has no voice in the decision. All survival threats encountered by the brain are ranked only by the reptilian brain. This ranking is based on the brain’s perception of its risk of death. Because each human is raised in a different environment and perceives information differently, each reptilian brain reacts to its risk of death differently, making the muscle hierarchy in each of our bodies different. Three people can be walking in the woods and all see the same poisonous snake. One person may run from it, another person may ignore it, and another may kill the snake. We witness in our daily lives different lower brains having different reactions to the same stimuli. What we cannot see is what different muscles are used by the brain for its survival purposes when that old brain reacts to a stimulus. Only the ancient brain knows and records this knowledge on its hierarchical list. Like your muscles, each of your three brains has a form and a function. The brain that oversees your muscles is the ancient brain, which, in Dr. Paul MacLean’s theory, is your reptilian brain. His theory is about three different brains controlling three different functions in humans. According to Dr. MacLean, the basic need to survive is under the control of this lower reptilian brain. The parts of the brain are the medulla, pons, cerebellum, mesencephalon, globus pallidus and olfactory bulbs. All these parts are called the ”R-complex” by Dr. MacLean. This lower brain does not think. Its function is to react, using a threat hierarchy list as a guide. A lizard or a snake only has a reptilian brain. They are being governed only by this brain. They do not cry and they do not plan for their future. They just react. Their brain is like an internal clock. The clock goes off with an alarm any time the brain perceives danger. Your reptilian brain is different from the lizards. It has two functions. First, its function is to keep you alive and, secondly, and most importantly, its function is to keep your species alive. To keep you alive, your reptilian brain manages and controls your heartbeat, temperature and breathing. It also manages your muscles without your participation or knowledge for your survival. Many times during the day, you will not know whether you are controlling your muscles or if the lower brain is in control. This lower brain-controlled state happens during the day for many of us, more often than not when we are walking or driving our cars. This very old brain works day and night to keep us alive. This reptilian brain uses powerful forces to do its work, forces that protect not only ourselves, but also our family, our tribe and our life form or species. Our brain forces work together for our benefit. However, if there is a conflict between the individual force and the other three forces, the individual force will lose. So, when any of these forces come into conflict with the force that protects each of us as individuals, we can be overwhelmed by our very own brain with stress. An example of a conflict between the major force of protecting the tribe and protecting yourselves can be seen in times of war when we, as individuals, risk our lives to protect our tribe. Any that refuse to fight are pushed away, and those that are successful in the risking of their lives for others are made into heroes by the tribe.  Conflicts between on tribe and individuals are revealed by the belief that killing children is wrong, that genocide is wrong and that eating other humans is wrong. If we find that individuals have crossed these lines, we in fact, as a tribe, punish them. When we are in conflict with groups of people, such as our family or fellow workers, we feel the stress. This stress leads to pain. That pain is held in the muscles of our body and is turned into a signal that can be detected. The more conflict or stress we incur between these old brain forces, the stronger pain we have in our bodies. The reptilian brain has been doing its job successfully for millions of years to balance the forces so that we survive as individuals, families, tribes and as a species.

Prehistoric Man 101

Individuals or Parts of a Herd

Many humans want to believe that they are single, self-sufficient, well-educated individuals, living among other individuals that are either less or more self-sufficient and educated than they are. When you view the environment through the eyes of a modern human, this belief could be perceived to be true. However, at a scientific level it is not true, because a true individual, according to scientists, are single animal forms that have little connection to or need for other individuals of their own species.

In lower forms of life, single beings make no contact with each other; they even reproduce asexually. In higher forms, such as apes, the orangutang in the wild lives a solitary life for most of the year, making very brief, one-on-one contact with the opposite sex only during the mating season. This great ape could live its whole adult life in isolation from its own kind and be healthy. The orangutang is a self-sufficient individual; whereas, man is not. We need contact with other humans for our well-being and survival. If we are isolated, we will go mad.

If human life were viewed by little green men from Mars, back when the ancestors of humans walked the grasslands of Africa, long before we discovered fire, long before we hunted, these Martians would say that we were not a group of individuals living together. They would say that our muscle form and our muscle function at that time resembled more the animals that we traveled with: wild cattle, wildebeests and zebra. They would list us among the many animals in the great migrating herds. They would list humans not among the carnivores that preyed on the great herds of the African savanna, but as the lion’s prey.

Back then, our ancestors traveled as part of the great herd. Each animal specie within the great herd ate from its own niche. Zebras ate the coarse grass. Wildebeests ate the softer grasses. Wild cattle ate the low grass. Man ate the tubers, seeds and insects. This way, all the different member species of the great herd were able to survive as they moved in waves across the land. Our ancestors traveled with the herd for the protection and safety that only a herd can give to its members. But how can this be? Are we not great hunters? Have we not reached the top of the carnivore’s food chain? We eat shark. We eat bear. We eat carnivores. Yes, we watched and learned our lessons very well. We are at the top of the food chain, but that does not change the fact that our muscles, teeth and tissues are those of a gatherer, not those of a hunter.

If we look at the muscles and tissues in mammals that are hunters, for example, inside the mouth of an African lion we see 30 teeth. Every tooth in his mouth has a form and a function. The muscles in his jaw are also perfect in their form and function. They will drive his fangs through the thick leathery hide of his prey. Remove any of those teeth and you have lessened his chances of survival. Remove his large incisors that he uses to kill and hold his prey and he will starve to death.

Look into your own mouth. Like the lion, your teeth are in sets. Each tooth has a purpose for being there. They are just the right number, the right size and shape, as are the muscles in your jaw, for you to survive. You will notice that your teeth are not at all like the teeth of the flesh-eating lion. Your teeth are not like the teeth of any predator. You might be able to kill a mouse or small bird, but beyond that, your teeth and jaw muscles do not have the right form and function for killing. Human teeth are made for eating fruits, nuts, tubers and soft foods.

Your jaw muscles are still functioning as they did 100,000 years ago, and your muscular form is the same as your prehistoric plant/ insect-eating mother who gave birth to her likeness, who, in turn, gave birth to her likeness, and so on, until your mother gave birth to you. Same form, same function. Their DNA is your DNA.