Love and the Three Levels of Consciousness

Under the current mental health paradigm the cognitive brain is deemed to be the most powerful part of the human brain. Therefore most treatment plans for mental disorders focus on this part of the brain only. This book will explain how the brainstem sensations, acting through the power of love, is actually the most influential and intelligent part of the human brain. This knowledge turns a lot of what we think we know about the human condition on its head, and in the future should form the basis of a whole new paradigm in understanding and treatment. Throughout human evolution the brain can be thought of as evolving in three separate stages. The earliest and most ancient brain is our brainstem, which deals in sensation only. That means for a long time during our evolution we managed to live by sensing ourselves and our environment we lived in. In other words the internal communication process or 'language' of the brainstem is through sensation only. Later our limbic system evolved and its language is 'feeling'. The limbic system grew out of and sits on top of the brainstem (see front cover). The brainstem with its sensations and the limbic system feelings combine to form what we can think of as our social brain. Much more recently, in evolutionary terms, the cognitive brain evolved as part of the larger cortex, and is known as the prefrontal cortex. The cortex as a whole sits like a cover over the two earlier brains, and the language process of the prefrontal cortex involves thought and speech as we generally know it in its present form. In current scientific terms this overall structure is known as the triune brain. This book will show how early emotional trauma is registered as a painful sensation in the lower brain. The need to repress this pain (for survival reasons)from conscious awareness leads to a disconnection between the cognitive brain and the social/emotional brains. The disconnection between our three distinctly different levels of functioning is proving to be a fatal flaw. It allows humans to function from a cognitive or thinking position without the essential input from the deeper sensing/feeling brain areas that have so far been responsible for guiding our successful evolution. Importantly the disconnection between brain areas is also the root cause of nearly all mental illness, and the reason why humans have so much trouble relating to each other in loving ways.