ENERGY: An action potential, a differential of force between two poles. Energy in animals builds up by virtue of a bipolar, two-brain makeup each with its own divergent agenda just as if they are two terminals in the body/mind as an emotional battery attracting ionized charged particles. The tension can be defined as such, the Big Brain seeks stasis; the little brain seeks input. (Thus, all physical, hormonal and neuro-chemical energies are funneled through this divergent agenda into a whole body state of tension. The body/mind is displaced by stimuli which thereby augment the underlying state of tension that must seek release. This means that the confluence of all this energy functions as a virtual “force” of attraction toward that which can render relief/release. The body/mind becomes a displaceable medium, like a standing pool of water, an elastic membrane or like the space/time continuum. Thus whatever one can say of gravity, one can say of emotion and vice versa.) The Big-Brain-in-the-head projects energy, the little-brain-in-the-gut absorbs energy. The B-B is the predatory polarity; the l-b is the preyful polarity, two halves of one circle.

CONSCIOUSNESS: Energy that reliably repeats itself by reflecting back on itself. It is therefore a circle, a circle is the means by which energy becomes information (energy traveling in a circle, or wavelength, is energy coming-into-form – - > in-form-ation). This is not as simple as it first appears because since consciousness is energy that reliably repeats itself, it must therefore create circuits with the external surroundings and therefore, given the reality of friction and fractiousness on planet earth, these circuits sustain themselves by always adding energy to the network. Thus we observe the evolution of complexity and ultimately, self-consciousness and self-awareness as the highest expression of energy reflecting back on itself.

INFORMATION: Nobel laureate Dr. Gell-Mann in his book “Quark and the Jaguar” states: “Basically, information is concerned with a selection from alternatives, and it is most simply expressed if those alternatives can be reduced to a sequence of binary choices, each of which is between two equally probable alternatives.” However I feel this is a classical view of information. The most basic definition of information is that because consciousness requires energy to reflect back on itself, the easiest way to do this is to create a field of mutual attraction around a midpoint so that all entangled particles are part of an auto-tuning/feedback dynamic to sustain the circle. Therefore all animals are motivated first and foremost by a virtual “force” of attraction so that they revolve around a midpoint. The most basic form of information is the network that sustains and regenerates itself by constantly adding new energy. Information requires a network because the easiest way to create a field of mutual attraction is by virtue of components being attracted to each other. Organisms attracted to each other in such a way that adds energy to the network is the most fundamental definition of information. Thus we see that animals are always attracted to energy in consonance with the fundamental motive of the network to add energy, and are self-organizing into complex social structures in consonance with the fundamental definition of information. Energy is motion. Form is motion that repeats itself. Consciousness is a form of energy that reliably repeats itself. A circle turns energy into form. It takes a network to make information.

EMOTION: A monolithic (dull) “force” of attraction caused by a release from a state of tension instituted in an animal’s constitution by virtue of an animals’ two brain makeup. Furthermore, it is a source of momentum that requires a discrete amount of motion in order to render a null value. Emotion comes first, and then the physical aspects arise on its template. Emotion is consciousness’ interface with the physical dimension. As the physical embodiment of the laws of nature, it is the operating system of animal consciousness so that life forms can respond coherently in the natural realm, which is likewise organized according to the laws of nature. As a “force” of attraction, emotion is always positive.

UNRESOLVED EMOTION: Energy is always conserved, it cannot be destroyed; it simply changes form. This law of conservation in conjunction with the principle of conductivity means energy can be the basis of memory because if energy moves according to a principle of conductivity, then the byproduct of resistance to such movement can serve as a record of such an event. Unresolved emotion is a physical record held in the body of the resistance experienced (no matter how slight) to the expression of emotion. The body of every animal serves as a data bank of resistance in regards to every experience it’s ever had, a track record of how things rate according to a standard of emotional conductivity. So while pure emotion as a current of energy can be likened to a current of water which requires a constant source to sustain its flow: unresolved emotion can be likened to water in its solid state, ice, and unlike emotion, it is cumulative. One can not hold on to emotion, but one can hold on to unresolved emotion. Unresolved emotion is how information of an emotional content is transmitted reliably through time, and is how animals receive information over distance. By this I mean, one animal can observe another animal that is acting prey-like and this can release unresolved emotion in the observers’ body and render it sensual over a distance just as if energy had been transmitted over distance as a wave.

RESOLVED EMOTION: The resolution of unresolved emotion is facilitated by becoming aligned and synchronized with a triggering agent of unresolved emotion. Resolved emotion can be likened to water in its gaseous state, a feeling of contentedness and well-being that is ephemeral and the most fleeting form of emotion. Unresolved emotion can only be resolved by a feeling, not by a thought. Only the heart can resolve unresolved emotion.

TRAITS: Emotion moves from a place with a higher concentration of energy to a place of a lesser one just as heat radiates from a warm object toward a cooler one. The relative heat values of two objects are their most primordial “traits.” The predator trait reflects the projection of emotion, and as an external influence on other animals, resists the expression of energy toward it thereby reflecting energy back at it, whereas the preyful trait absorbs the projection of emotion and conducts the expression of energy directed toward it. All complex traits (even personality) elaborate upon this primordial platform.

DRIVE: Emotion plus stress (triggering of physical memory) strengthened by sexuality and guided by Feeling is Drive. Drive seeks to make contact with object of attraction and resistance to contact is converted to a stronger force of attraction by Temperament, or Heart. Drive follows the path of highest resistance, whereas instincts, habits, fear follow the path of least resistance. Drive is how the animal does nature’s work of evolution.

THOUGHTS: The capacity to compare one point of view to another; or one moment to another: and all the concepts that follow from such a platform.

EMOTIONAL CENTER-OF-GRAVITY: When emotion meets with resistance, unresolved emotion (stress) is formed and this accretes around the physical center-of-gravity as the physical memory of an emotional experience. The e-cog is projected onto complex objects of resistance in order to induce a feeling.

FEELINGS: These are the emotional circuits. Emotional circuits are not contained within any individual. (Note that autistics have trouble with eye contact because this accesses the e-cog and so they have difficulty creating emotional circuits and going by feel. Autistics work off the mental aspects of emotion that are part of how the higher aspects of the nervous system execute the emotional phenomena.) When the emotional center-of-gravity is projected onto objects of resistance because the emotionally entangled parties recapitulate the principle of emotional conductivity in each other through their synchronized actions and mannerisms, (as object of resistance they first triggered each others’ unresolved emotion and by virtue of being prey-like they simultaneously attract each other’s emotion, in other words, they cause energy to reflect back onto the other and then give it the opportunity to move toward them, this is the circle again), all motion of affiliated parties eventually average out into a state of suspension, a wave function, and this FEELING when fully formed takes up residence in the heart. (This is why our hand irresistibly moves to the middle of our chest when we feel moved, whereas meanwhile emotional researchers are always focused on the brain.) All true feelings feel good because they add energy to the network. Feelings are an auto-tuning/feedback dynamic that implement the principle of emotional conductivity.

HEART: Heart is a circle; it is the source of a true feeling. When a feeling is fully formed; the movement of entangled “parties” thereby inflects and add energy and nuance to the original feeling just as if it is a chord being plucked and so that the feeling continues to elaborate and evolve into complex social structures. In other words, there are quite literally, heart strings. Feelings elaborate like light waves propagate. In other words, the heart pumps waves. Heart is an engine of light.

EMOTIONAL CONDUCTIVITY: The Brain-to-gut connection creates a “virtual” action potential in the body/mind so that on one fundamental level, consciousness functions as an emotional battery. Composed in this manner, the body/mind turns environmental inputs into emotionally ionizing events, in other words, physical energy becomes consciousness subject to the principle of emotional conductivity. A stimulus energizes the Brain in the head and this sensation of disequilibrium then needs to be “brought to ground” by being absorbed in the gut, i.e. converted into a smooth, wave action of the intestines, peristalsis. This is the principle of emotional conductivity: nerve energy of the Brain “grounded” internally within the digestive system by bringing external objects of attraction “to ground” and which thereby calms the physical organism. All complex objects of attraction either amplify or short circuit this internal connection.

SEXUALITY: The processing of the emotional center-of-gravity so that it can be reflected back and forth and onto a common object. In other words, two individuals are sensualized in a complementary way so as to form a circle in their behaviors and in their manner so that feelings can evolve between them because their mutually complementary mannerisms and actions recapitulate the principle of emotional conductivity.

TEMPERAMENT: Behaviorally, it is the mechanical aspect of heart, just as physiologically the heart organ is the mechanical pump of blood. Temperament is the capacity in an animal to perceive the predatory aspect relative to the preyful aspect and hold both in the same frame of reference around a midpoint, e-cog, in order to perceive a being composed of primordial traits, (Prey/Predator) and magnetic traits, (E,W,N,S). In the absence of this, instincts, habits (and in humans) thoughts end up running the show.

PERSONALITY: A defensive response to the movement and/or vibration of the emotional center-of-gravity.

FEAR: Fear is not emotion. It is a nervous sensation that results from the collapse of an emotional state of attraction. It is as close as the central nervous system can get to emotion and so it has been confused as such. Fear serves as a registration tag for deposits of unresolved emotion in the body/mind as an emotional battery.

SOCIABILITY: The purpose of sociability is to externalize the internal wave functions of the body/mind into an external wave function which is observable as a current of synchronized actions. This reconstitutes a wave function which is a circle, and motion along a circle becomes information so that any physical material object or environmental energy that is incorporated into that wave function is now part of consciousness in service to its evolution. Physical objects and energy thereby become information and thus are capable of causing motive, i.e. creating an external action potential between beings that seek to possess such objects. Social behavior is a wave function that repeats itself by constantly creating new action potentials as psychic motive.

HEART: The third self-contained, electro-chemical dynamo within every animal, the seat of the auto-tuning/feedback dynamic itself: the faculty of adaptability, sociability, the place in the body/mind where the energies of balance and hunger confluence and the divergent agendas of the two brains are reconciled by feeling the midpoint (the null or averaged-out value of all motion) around which all emotionally entangled parties orbit and thereby recapitulate for one and the other the principle of emotional conductivity so that unresolved emotion can be resolved. In this state, heart beats synchronize individual actions.

Related posts:

1. Why We Push
2. Glorious Accident?
3. Distinctions Between Emotion and Feelings

A brief primer on emotion:

Emotion is energy. And as pure energy, before it becomes entangled in the higher processes of the nervous system and either elaborates into a feeling, or at the other end of the spectrum collapses into an instinct, it functions as a monolithic force of attraction, just like gravity. Whatever can be said of gravity can also be said of emotion.

The most important thing to understand about emotion as energy, and this will prove the hardest thing to accept given all the pejorative meanings that have built up around our understanding of emotion, is that emotion can only be positive in both meanings of that term, in the sense of being pleasurable and also as something tangible, concrete. In other words, emotion is like gravity in that it always functions as a force of attraction. Behaviorally this means that an animal cannot be attracted to something noxious, something that makes it feel bad, and it cannot be attracted to something abstract, such as a human concept of fairness, jealousy, territoriality and the like. (I’m not saying that animals aren’t capable of responding to what we think of as “negative” simply that they’re not attracted via pure emotion to something negative or something intangible; just as for example objects of mass are not attracted to objects that don’t have mass. We will discuss later what constitutes a “negative” in an animal’s mind.) So emotion is a monolithic pull of attraction, there aren’t many emotions just as there aren’t many forms of gravity, there is only one. The strength of the attraction depends on the degree of “emotional displacement” when an animal notices something changing in its surroundings, and also the “emotional mass” of the stimulation in question. When an animal’s emotion is displaced, an animal senses this as an internal, visceral pull toward the object of attraction and when the animal is able to move in full accord with the strength of this pull, the animal feels good. Animal consciousness is this simple, and yet the interconnectedness between all living things which immutably flows from this theorem will nevertheless prove capable of explaining the intricate complexity of animal behavior.

Fear is not emotion because there is no such thing as a negative emotion. If fact, fear as universal and as deep seated in the subconscious as it might be, is not even elemental. Rather, fear results from the collapse of a positive feeling: in other words something becomes unpleasant only if there is a removal of a pull of attraction, and the more sudden the occasion of its removal, the stronger the sensation of collapse and the more intense the fear. There can’t be fear without the collapse, and there can’t be a collapse without the pull of attraction. Furthermore if emotion is held back for some reason, (and these “reasons” are often due to fear) then a force builds up proportional to the strength of attraction, just as for example the force behind a dam is directly proportional to the volume of water trying to flow downhill.

Question, if the dam were to fail resulting in a flood of great destruction, what was the cause; the river or the dam? Likewise, if someone were to fall off the roof of a building we don’t ponder whether there was too much gravity that day. So just as there’s no such thing as “bad” gravity, there’s only energy that becomes dangerous because it builds up so much force by being held back, that it can overwhelm the available pathway and then move in an unchanneled way. Whereas in contrast, as long as energy can move through high capacity channels, we keep fast to the earth and are safe to lead happy, productive lives. Thanks to gravity.

Likewise, what we perceive of as negative emotion is merely emotion that is being held back until it can’t be held back anymore and the resulting instinctual behavior can be as dangerous as stepping off the roof of a building or being downriver from a bursting dam. But to repeat, the problem isn’t emotion; it’s the build up of force which then moves in an un-channeled manner because emotion was denied its natural movement by fear. Therefore when we see someone acting irrationally, impulsively and dangerously, it’s incorrect to say that the person is being emotional. The accurate characterization is that the person is acting instinctually and in defiance of pure emotion.

There are two ways emotion can be held back. One is due to fear. Fear is an instinct, it is not emotion. Fear is as close as the central nervous system can get to emotion and so it’s been confused as such because the two can occur virtually simultaneously. But this linkage is a profound misinterpretation. When emotion is held back by fear, the animal builds up a “charge” and will almost invariably respond in a load/overload dynamic, similar to an electrostatic shock being transmitted from one electrical pole to another. These emotional short-circuits serve a agenda apart from sociability and are not maladaptive in regards to the limited environmental niche an animal evolved to fit. However, good dogs do “bad” things because in mankind’s world of incessant change, when the dams erected by fear fail as fail they most often will, all the dog seeks is relief from an internal pressure and the hardwired reflexes that are subsequently triggered always travel the path of least resistance and the dog will roll over whatever gets in its way. (I’m thinking here about an owner reaching under the bed to retrieve a glove from a dog that’s retreated there.) Seeking relief by way of instinct imposes the past on the present. (The dog was smacked as a puppy by someone’s hand that it now sees as reaching toward it. Ouch!)

Emotion can also be held back by a feeling. A feeling is not a dam, it is a channel. It knows no time and it elaborates in the immediate-moment in perfect accord with the energetic parameters of the situation and in order to perfectly suit the “future” potential implicit in the originating pull of attraction. It’s like water “knowing” to rush uphill into a pipe because of the suction from a spout far away downhill. A true feeling is guided by release rather than relief and becomes refined into very exquisite elaborations. A feeling is based on movement of the temperament and adds energy to the system whereas an instinct is based on vibration of the nervous system and drains energy from the system which is why an animal has to pause and recharge. Because a feeling encompasses a future potential, when emotion is released by a feeling given that the moment feels right; this feeling guides this energy into a harmonious manner of making contact with the object of attraction. The release of a feeling works according to the principles of emotional conductivity and thereby generates information coherent to the moment and as a matter of fact, in abject defiance of instinct.

Relief from fear and the release of a feeling affect an animal in fundamentally different ways. When seeking relief, the dog cannot feel what another is feeling because it is preoccupied with an overwhelming internal pressure that it experiences as centered in its head. This pressure makes an animal feel disconnected from what it’s attracted to, as well as from its own body. Its mind is clouded as if its brain is immersed in an electrostatic field like a thundercloud about to discharge. Not coincidentally there is an electrical intensity (vibration) in its physical and vocal expressions. Relief works through a load/overload dynamic that leaves the individual with less energy than it began with, if not altogether enervated. Interestingly, the central nervous system with electro-chemical potentials arcing across synaptic gaps works on just such a cascade load/overload effect which is why instincts hardwired into the brain likewise follow such a schema. It is remarkably easy to look at an animal and recognize whether its behavior is “electrical” in its nature and thus know exactly what is fundamentally going on inside the animals’ mind.

In contrast, the experience of release is a steady state dynamic that leaves the individual emotionally energized at the end of the encounter, even if physically exhausted. When emotion is held back by a feeling, because the dog nonetheless feels energized, it feels connected to the object of its attraction even though it has not yet made actual physical contact. At all times during the interaction the potential for new energy can be sensed and this induces a dog to self-modify its behavior and manner in order to complement and become synchronized with the object of its attraction. A dog learns to move its body in such a way that the object of attraction increases makes it feel better. This is an auto-tuning feedback loop of exquisite intelligence and in such a state a dog’s body language is characterized by a supple, magnetic quality, and again it’s easy to see this. The release of a feeling is felt by the dog in its heart rather than in its head and in contrast to the way energy works in the nervous system, the heart works on a steady state dynamic, which is why the flow and pressure of blood is uniform throughout every vein, artery and capillary in the body.

Therefore given all of the above, blaming the nature of a dog (which is in reality blaming emotion) for a violent or destructive act would be akin to blaming the river for running wild when the dam that was built to hold it back fails.

As long as we are willing to acknowledge and work with the energy which draws our dog to our side and not arbitrarily build dams in its emotional waterways, our dogs’ feelings will give us a safe, happy and productive companion. Thanks to emotion.

Related posts:

1. Final Post Of 2009
2. Why Do Dogs Do Everything in a Circle?
3. Definitions

For this and other reasons, behavioral science has called into question the popular wisdom that dogs wag their tails out of friendliness. The definition that behavioral science prefers (and which an energy model finds wanting) is that a dog is wagging its tail as a submissive overture to a superior member of its pack. For example, if one observes an inferior wolf approaching a superior one, tail-wagging is a pronounced feature of his body language.

But this isn’t wholly satisfying either because when adult wolves regurgitate food to their cubs, the cubs’ tails are wagging and so are the adults’. Are the adults being submissive to the cubs and the cubs to the adults all at the same time? That seems like a confusing scrambling of signals and it’s my experience that the nature of behavior is never that ambiguous.

The recurring theme of this blog will be to make the point that submission and dominance, while expedient, convenient, and seemingly reasonable means of making sense of canine behavior, can’t really accommodate the data. For if a dog is showing submission to a human out of respect, why then would he bite such a person? Such paradoxes plainly call into question the traditional scientific interpretation.

A thinker on dogs who I respect quite a bit, (although once again lacks a model for what’s going on inside the dog’s mind), is Desmond Morris. For our current purposes I call on his book Dogwatching wherein he writes at length on the phenomenon of tail-wagging. He states: “The only emotional condition that all tail-waggers share is a state of conflict. This is true of almost all back-and-forth movements in animal communication. When an animal is in conflict it feels pulled in two different directions at the same time. It wants to advance and retreat simultaneously. Since each urge cancels the other out, the animal stays where it is, but in a state of conflict. Essentially the animal wants to stay and wants to go away. The urge to go away is simple–it is caused by fear. The urge to stay is more complex.”

I agree that tail wagging indicates a state of conflict, there is an inherent momentum pulling/pushing the dog forward, but something is causing it to hold back as well. A state of attraction in conflict with fear: this is why dogs wag their tails.

It also needs further elaboration, for example, if we consider a dog who we can be sure is never going to bite anyone but who nonetheless is wagging his tail, what possible fear might there be for this dog in a situation where it’s only about to be petted, or fed, or any other number of pleasurable experiences?

The full answer to that question will be covered in an upcoming article entitled, “The Nature Of Fear”. However, Desmond Morris’ assertion that the the urge to go away from the person or dog because of fear, is simple, is mistaken. Fear is a little more complex than he has presumed. But putting that dynamic aside for the moment, for now I would simply like to elaborate on Desmond Morris’ insight by going a step deeper into the phenomenon of the friendly dog wagging his tail.

Tail wagging is indeed a state of conflict. But the conflict is arising from the following condition: it is the state of the body vibrating with more energy than the body at that moment is able to conduct given whatever action is currently available to it. In other words, there is more energy trying to go through the pipe, the dog’s body, then the pipe can accomodate. Wagging the tail is the body’s physiological response for dissipating the excess energy. And while it would feel better to the dog if its body could process the energy in a straightforward active range of behaviors, for example by making hearty physical contact, but for a number of reasons which we’ll discuss when we consider the nature of fear, it can’t. Hence the state of conflict with the tail going a mile-a-minute beating out the energy just like the utility meter spinning at high speed on the side of a house .

Related posts:

1. Why Do Dogs Zoom-zoom-zoom Around the House?
2. Why do dogs chase their tails?
3. Why do dogs roll over in “submission?”

The opportunity for the release of fear occurs when the dog feels safe. That fear is being is expressed is why one can observe in such a dog a tell tale “scoot” in its hind end with a tucked tail and hunched in hindquarters as it corners and gathers itself for the next fly by. It looks just as if the dog is being chased by an imaginary predator close on its heels nipping at its tail so that it has to zig and zag to keep away from it.

You can see the identical behavior in cats that find themselves out in the yard, a gust of wind kicks up a leaf and the cat zoom-zoom-zooms until it finds itself up a tree and “safe.” Another example of the behavior can also be found in a litter of dogs. One puppy isn’t comfortable engaging in the group scrum with all the head knocking going on in the pile, and so not being able to participate directly but feeling just as energized as the others nonetheless: it races around orbiting the litter because it’s afraid to make direct contact.

Needless to say, the worst thing an owner can do is encourage this kind of behavior or play chase because now they are becoming the very embodiment of the imaginary predator. This will come back to haunt them in one way or another as we shall see when we plumb the nature of fear and the role it plays in nature.

Related posts:

1. Why Do Dogs Wag Their Tails?
2. 7 Steps to a Stress-Free Vet Visit
3. Why Are Dogs Attracted to Human Beings?