The Eight-Circuit Brain
encapsulated and interpreted by Antero Alli © 2007
updated 7 July 2008
THE SURVIVAL CIRCUITS
THEIR
FIXATIONS AND ANCHORS
C-1 Bio-Survival Intelligence...the will to survive
fixations: food, shelter, self-preservation, material goods, safety and security
anchor: degree of physical confidence earned and maintained to assure survival
C-2 Emotional-Territorial Intelligence...the will to power
fixations: self-defense, territoriality, status, ego-strength, emotional honesty
anchor: degree of emotional confidence earned and maintained to assure status
C-3 Symbolic-Conceptual Intelligence...the will to sanity
fixations: problem solving, map-making, technology, linguistics, system theories
anchor: degree of mental confidence earned and maintained to assure peace of mind
C-4 Social-Moral Intelligence ...the will to socialize
fixations: belonging, friendship, domestication, sexual and tribal identity, ethical codes
anchor: degree of social confidence earned and maintained to assure social loyalties
THE POST-SURVIVAL CIRCUITS
THEIR CURRENTS AND SHOCKS
C-5 Somatic-Sensory Intelligence via the Body and Five Senses
Currents: rapture, communion with nature, body wisdom, tantra (yoga, meditation, ritual), charisma, second wind, falling in love (endorphins).
The shock of Ecstasy and Bliss (absence of suffering)
C-6 Intuitive-Psychic Intelligence via the Brain, Spine, Central Nervous System
Currents: the light body or aura, direct perception of intuition, clairvoyance and other psychic processes, sex magick, reality selection, neuro-relativity (non-conceptual).
The Shock of Uncertainty (absence of falsely assumed certitudes)
C-7 Mytho-Poetic Genetic Intelligence via the DNA matrix of all life forms
Currents: ancestral and past life memories, realms of autonomous archetypes, persistent synchronicity, planetary (Gaia) mind, cosmic consciousness.
The Shock of Indivisibility or Cosmic Unity (absence of dualistic consciousness)
C-8 Quantum-Nonlocal Intelligence via Invisible Subatomic interactions
Currents: near death experiences, the dreambody/dreamtime, lucid dreaming, authentic out of body experiences, communion with Void, the mystery of singularity.
The Shock of Impermanence (absence of the amnesiac sleep of ‘living forever’)
THE THREE SUB-PHASES
HOW INTELLIGENCE CAN BE INCREASED
Each of these eight functions of Intelligence can be accessed and actualized by any experience that allows for their full absorption, integration and transmission. These three sub-phases reflect the tertiary phases of our most basic biological unit of intelligence: the neuron (alternative terms: receive/digest/eliminate, experience/process/communicate, study/interpret/articulate). All three stages are necessary for the advancement of intelligence. If you only absorb, nothing is integrated; if nothing can be integrated, you regurgitate (repeat) whatever you are absorbing. When experience is integrated, it can be shared and communicated in one’s own way; without integration, real communication is often replaced by “parroting” external styles and trends or, simply rendered mute.
SHOCKS, ANCHORS AND VERTICAL CONNECTIVITY
I see each of these eight functions of Intelligence existing within each individual at various degrees of expression and latency. They can all be viewed in a linear sequential "evolutionary" way and/or in a nonlinear "radial" way; both vantages express valid truths. I think it would be erroneous to assume any one circuit to be "better" or "worse", or "higher" or "lower" than any other, as they all symbolize simultaneously existing states of consciousness working together as a dynamic changing whole. I also think that to view them hierarchically -- as if any circuit is superior or inferior than any other -- perpetuates the cultural amnesia and any religious indoctrination preserving the Body-Mind schism. Lies! Lies! Lies!
Though there are countless ways these eight functions interact and/or act on each other, the area I have found most interesting so far addresses how the first four "survival" circuits and the second four "post-survival" circuits act on each other through precise two-way vertical connectivities. I specifically refer to how the upper circuits act on the lower circuits as distinct shocks and how the lower circuits act on the upper circuits as stabilizing anchor points, or integration of those shocks. The specific vertical connectivities addressed here:
1/5; 2/6; 3/7; 4/8
Without a supple and resilient foundation (circuits 1-4 integrated), any significant force of expanded consciousness (circuits 5-8) can leave us destabilized at varying degrees of personality disintegration and disassociation. Once the survival circuits can be more fully experienced, integrated and embodied, they can also better serve to (re)stabilize the personality to better absorb and integrate the shocks delivered by any activation of the post-survival circuits.
Upper circuit post-survival shocks stimulate growth and development in the four survival circuits, just as the survival circuits (once integrated) can help substantiate the more ephemeral and subtle states symbolized by circuits five through eight. If monitored and tended to, all eight circuits can be made to work together in more meaningful ways to serve the dynamic changing whole they are expressions of. By tending to the specific verticalities shared between upper circuit shocks and lower circuit anchors (1/5; 2/6; 3/7; 4/8), the 8-Circuit Brain model can offer safer and more creative guidelines to the high seas adventures of consciousness research.
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LINKS TO MORE 8-CIRCUIT BRAIN MATERIAL
Antero interviewed on the Eight Circuits
by Mike Gathers, 10/10/07 and 3/1/08
Something About SHOCK
Ideas on the nature of shock in relation to the eight circuits
The NeuroPharmacy of the Eight-Circuit Brain
Antero revisions the circuits as "trances" and their catalysts
Tim Leary, Robert Anton Wilson, Gurdjieff
multiple translations of this model
an overview of multiple interpretations
courtesy of Steve Mizrach and The MindWarp
The Origins of the 8-Circuit model
where and who Leary inherited it from
ANTERO ALLI
click for bio
Books in print and Films on dvd