The Eight-Circuit Brain
Basic Definitions and Functions
© 1985-2012 Antero Alli
updated 2/13/2012
Intelligence is a word commonly confused for intellect alone and I.Q. (Intellectual Quotient) without regard to numerous other functions of Intelligence beyond, but also inclusive of, intellect. The 8-Circuit Brain model, as first developed by Timothy Leary ("Info-Psychology") and then advanced by Robert Anton Wilson ("Prometheus Rising") and myself ("Angel Tech" and "The Eight-Circuit Brain"), posits eight interacting "brains" or functions of Intelligence that are refered to in this model as "circuits". I have distilled the basic definitions and functions of all eight circuits below, along with a primer of how the upper and lower circuits intertact with, and act on, each other. - A.A.
THE FOUR SURVIVAL CIRCUITS
AND HOW THEY'RE INTEGRATED
C-1 Physio-Biological Intelligence; the will to survive
INTEGRATION: the degree of confidence earned and
maintained
to assure one's physical survival
C-2 Emotional-Territorial Intelligence; the will to power
INTEGRATION: the degree of emotional confidence earned
and maintained to assure personal strength and autonomy
C-3 Symbolic-Conceptual Intelligence; the will to reason
INTEGRATION: the degree of mental confidence earned
and
maintained to assure one's problem-solving skills and sanity
C-4 Social-Moral Intelligence; the will to socialize
INTEGRATION: the degree of social confidence earned
and
maintained to assure one's capacity for interpersonal interaction
THE FOUR POST-SURVIVAL CIRCUITS
THEIR SOURCES AND SHOCKS.
C-5 Somatic Intelligence of Body Wisdom and Five Senses
Sources: whatever triggers the experience of rapture, communion
with nature, tantra (yoga, meditation, ritual), charisma, second wind,
falling in love (endorphins) and the expanding presence of being
here
now. The Shock of Ecstasy and Bliss (the absence of suffering)
C-6 Intuitive-Psychic Intelligence of the Brain, Spine, & CNS
Sources: whatever triggers the experience of the energetic body and
its aura,
the second attention, intuition, clairvoyance and other psychic
abilities, ritual magick, reality selection, direct perception of the relative
nature of reality. The Shocks of Uncertainty and Freedom (the absence
of
false assumptions, certitudes and dogmas)
C-7 Mytho-Genetic Intelligence of DNA and the Planetary Entity
Sources: whatever triggers the experience of ancestral and past life
memories, autonomous archetypes, synchronicity, planetary (Gaia)
mind, cosmic consciousness.
The Shocks of Indivisibility and Cosmic
Unity (the absence of dualistic consciousness)
C-8 Quantum-Nonlocal Intelligence of Subatomic interactions
Sources: whatever triggers the experience of near death, out of body
states, the dreambody and dreamtime, lucid dreaming, communion
with Void, the mystery of singularity. The Shocks of Death and
Impermanence (the absence of ego identification).
THE THREE SUB-PHASES
HOW INTELLIGENCE CAN BE INCREASED
These eight functions of Intelligence can be accessed through any experience allowing for their full absorption, integration and transmission. These three sub-phases reflect the funtioning of our most basic biological unit of intelligence: the neuron. All three sub-stages are necessary for the advancement of intelligence in each circuit. If you only absorb, nothing can be integrated; if nothing can be integrated, whatever we absorb, we regurgitate and parrot by endless references to other people's quotes and research. Each of the eight levels express distinct ways in which this 3-stage process can occur, ways that do not necessarily apply to other levels. For example, C-2 emotions do not follow the same “logic” as C-3 ideas and visa versa.
SHOCKS, ANCHORS AND VERTICAL CONNECTIVITY
Each of the eight circuits exist within each individual at various degrees of expression and latency. They can be viewed and approached in a linear sequential "evolutionary" way and/or in a nonlinear "radial" way; both vantages carry their own values. I think it would be erroneous to assume any one circuit to be "better" or "worse", or "higher" or "lower" than any other. Look at them as symbolizing simultaneously existing states of consciousness working together as a dynamic changing whole.
To view these circuits hierarchically, by positing any circuit as superior or inferior than any other, only feeds the emotional plague, a term proposed by Wilhelm Reich for the neurosis marked by irrational insistence on beliefs and ideas that depend on a dissociation of mind and body.
Though there are countless ways these eight functions interact and/or act on each other, what I have found most interesting is how the first four "survival" circuits and the second four "post-survival" circuits can act on each other in very precise two-way vertical connectivities. I refer specifically 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, or how we might better absorb and integrate those shocks.
1/5; 2/6; 3/7; 4/8
The Vertical Connectivities
Without a supple and resilient foundation (circuits 1-4 integrated), any significant force of expanded consciousness (circuits 5-8) can destabilize us in varying degrees of personality disintegration and disassociation. However, once the survival circuits can be more fully integrated and embodied, they can also (re)stabilize us by helping us absorb and integrate the shocks delivered by sometimes traumatic post-survival experiences.
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 a safer and more creative guideline to the high seas of consciousness research.
LINKS TO MORE 8-CIRCUIT BRAIN MATERIAL
ANTERO ALLI
click for bio
VIDEO CLIPS OF ANTERO DISCUSSING EIGHT- CIRCUIT MODEL
Excerpts from the Daniel Kottke interview on THE NEXT STEP
ROBERT ANTON WILSON ON THE EIGHT CIRCUITS
8-CIRCUIT BRAIN -- THE DVD
Lecture by Antero Alli; Esozone in Portland OR, 2008
"ANGEL TECH" (book on the 8-circuit brain)
by Antero Alli; Original Falcon Press
EIGHT CIRCUIT BRAIN ONLINE COURSE
an 8-week course of study and practice with Antero Alli
THE EIGHT-CIRCUIT BRAIN (book)
Navigational Strategies for the Energetic Body
by Antero Alli (Vertical Pool Publishing 2009)
ANTERO'S PODCAST INTERVIEWS
On the 8-Circuit Brain and ParaTheatrical ReSearch
The NeuroPharmacy of the Eight-Circuit Brain
Antero revisions the circuits as "trances" and their catalysts
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
Alli Books in print and Alli Films on dvd