The architecture of human experience. From the avoidance of suffering to the suffering of avoidance - Florin Panoiu

INTRODUCTION / 7

1. ORDER AND CHAOS / 13
• Nature and emerging structures / 25
• Brain structures and functions / 45
• Internal compasses / 80
• The roots of consciousness / 109
• Four psychological functions / 112

2. PICTOGRAMS OF CONSCIOUSNESS / 130
• Reality - an interface / 134
• Causality - a two-way street / 150
• The ego, a useful illusion / 158
• Free Will and Intentionality / 167
• The mental model / 177

3. NATURE DAY - CULTURE / 204
• Human nature / 204
• The engine of cultural evolution / 216
• Dissociation and integration / 233

4. OPPORTUNITY AND RISK / 271
• The mirage of comfort / 281
• Comfort zone / 284
• Safety zone / 289
• The obstacle, an opportunity / 297
• Internal conflict / 310
• Pathological attitudinal systems / 322
• Fear, an ally / 325
• Puer Aeternus - refuge in inaction / 328

5. SAFETY ZONE PATHOLOGY / 333
• Personality disorders / 333
• Anxiety / 340
• Psychophysiology of stress / 349
• Diversion of the dopaminergic system - superstimules / 354
• Defensive mechanisms / 359
• Procrastination / 366
• Negative avoidance spiral / 370
• Vaicareala / 374
• Depression / 375

6. SYNTHESIS / 381
• An overview / 381
• The model of human experience / 391
• Principles and therapeutic interventions / 398
• From the heights of heaven / 439

Year 3.8 x 109 BC You are a chain of amino acids and the universe is water, nitrogen, carbon dioxide and other substances, light and temperature. Too much or too little of each can destroy your structure. Luckily for you, until now the conditions have remained unchanged but from now on bad luck makes things start to change. Some things become too intense, others too weak.
Lightning came from nowhere and reconfigured your entire architecture - you can barely recognize yourself. But this time too you were lucky because your new configuration is adapted to the new conditions. But these conditions do not remain unchanged, they seem to be in a continuous transformation and, maybe you were lucky with that lightning but it is not known how long you are lucky. In any case, you were so lucky that you now have a configuration capable of replication, so make a copy of yourself so that, if it still flashes, at least one of you will be lucky. But you find that this copy of yours is not exactly faithful, somewhere a mistake crept in. Sure, you have a lot in common, but it has something different and that difference allows your brother to grab some substances from the environment - lipid molecules - that he combines, building a kind of coating.
He looks a little weird and you can't help but laugh at his appearance. But as time goes on, you find that he is getting better and better, while you are more and more affected by molecules and particles.
swarming around you. At one point, hit by such a particle, you see yourself reconfigured and your new structure now lacks the ability to have children. All you have to do is wait for the lucky lightning, risking being hit again by bad luck and envying your brother who has since become very prolific. Around him now hangs a myriad of clones of his, some more faithful, others with quite serious mistakes that, through their funny character, make his hair stand out and sweeten your helplessness and despair.
Time passes, conditions change, the place you are in has become impossible and medium-term weather forecasts are not at all favorable. An unsuccessful copy of your brother, the one with the scourge, that tail in perpetual vibration so that the poor form of life must turn in circles just to stand still, is the only one of you who can leave there, alone which can be saved. Now no one laughs at her funny scourge, everyone would like one. Saying goodbye and hardly parting with his loved ones, Codita set out alone to explore the universe in search of a place where conditions are favorable, carrying in its genetic structure parts of each. If he is lucky, he will find a better place where, multiplying, he will bring his loved ones back to life in new forms - he will save them.
We make a leap in time, somewhere in the year 2.5 x 10⁶. After many millions of years of evolution through natural selection, you are a primate and live in trees with the few in your group who have survived. You are living proof of Codita's exploratory success. He and his people live in every cell of yours and you are a new, sophisticated form of them, a form they have put on to continue to exist. But it is not known for how long. Constantly harassed by eagles, snakes and panthers, the leaves and ants that are common food have become insufficient for survival. You have to find a solution, otherwise you will be history, just like the other 99% of the forms that life has taken so far. The solution, however, is not here, in the tree, but down in the thick grass of the savannah, far from the edge, where, earlier, some lions left behind the remains of a zebra after a lunch prematurely interrupted by thunder. It's not something you've eaten before, but if lions have it on their menu for so long, it may not be as bad as it sounds. The others, paralyzed by fear, do not even want to hear. But you, overwhelmed by an enthusiasm coming from nowhere, dare and, catching the right moment, descend from the tree then, with a heart like a flea, you tiptoe to the leash, grab it and drag it back. Feast! Ok, maybe it wasn't exactly a delight and it was a bit difficult to chew but it calmed the hunger of the whole group. In a quarter of an hour! Your loved ones are saved (at least for now) thanks to your foray into the unknown. And for the audacity and altruism you have shown, your people are seriously thinking of erecting a statue for you. They will do it but it will take them some time, so have a little patience (about two million years). Until then, the dynamism of existence makes the hours short and the years long.
We make a new leap in time, to the present day. You are now a human being with an organism composed of organs which, in turn, are made up of cells. Each cell is a distant descendant of Codita and her predecessors. You are living proof of the success of the exploration that Codita began 3.5 billion years ago and you represent the way Codita saved her loved ones. Through you, Codita continues to exist, along with everyone else, her exploratory spirit being what enlivens your existence. Now you are a very complicated chain of the same amino acids of that time, with a sophisticated coating and equipped with modern versions of Codita's scourge and with the purpose of exploring the universe in search of a better place to save everyone, to bring them back to life in new forms. You are an evolved primate who, since the zebra event, has developed sophisticated strategies to secure the adaptive advantages, which have propelled you to the top of the food chain. Regardless of the level of sophistication, however, you are a new form of the same essence.
The foray into the unknown is the fundamental drama of life, illustrated in all possible forms of expression, from mythological stories and belief systems, fairy tales, ballads and novels to the little things of everyday life. We continue the adventure of life, we explore unknown territories, we face often dangerous obstacles, hoping to save our loved ones. "We will not never forget ”,“ We ​​will carry you in our souls ”,“ I will make you proud of me ”,“ I will not let you down ”,“ I promise you that ... ”are just a few ways in which we express one and the same thing, ways in which Codita's adventure continues. Whatever I want, want or need that has ever existed, any thought, idea or feeling, any realization of civilization, all these are manifestations of the life force that drives the adventure of life. During this adventure we literally create the universe. We are exploratory in search of the favorable context for the manifestation of human potential.
A fundamental force constantly pushes us in this direction, always directing our steps towards unknown territories. During this journey we transform, we become more and more what we are able to be, at the same time transforming the way we look at the world and, through this, the world itself. The field of consciousness becomes wider with each step of our journey, encompassing more and more of this universe whose shoulders it rests on, as if the ultimate goal were a self-conscious universe.
But sometimes this natural movement of life is sabotaged. We don't always manage to be Codita. Sometimes we are "the others." We do not always find the strength to sacrifice our current comfort for an uncertain future comfort and sometimes we oppose with all our being this vital movement and then we suffer terribly. The hours lengthen and the years shorten.
So many people are wasting their lives today, stolen by the mirage of the comfort offered by meaningless preoccupations, in a world where, more than ever in the history of our species, the opportunities for the manifestation of human potential are practically limitless. The docile attitude towards the fear of the unknown pushes so many in the financial comfort of a boring, routine, sterile job, in the "comfort" of the familiarity of a toxic, abusive relationship, in the comfort of the small pleasures of life, from TV series to all kinds of vices and in all sorts of other situations and contexts of diluted and cloistering life.
We live in a world where complex systems of support and security, unimaginable in the ancestral past of our species, ultimately aim at the comfort of the individual: medical systems, pension systems, social insurance, nurseries, public homes and schools, police and so on Even if they are far from ideal, they have not always existed, our ancestors having to manage without such a thing. The incredible technological progress of the last hundred years has radically transformed the world through discoveries and innovations on all levels of existence, simplifying travel and transportation, communication, access to information, entertainment, food, innovating treatments for incurable diseases, etc. The poorest man today would rightly be envied by the archaic man. From a historical perspective, we live in the most comfortable times. When we go for food we are not in danger of being eaten by leopards or bitten by snakes, there is no risk of returning empty handed and suffering from hunger for another 2-3 days. When we quench our thirst, we do not risk being swallowed by a crocodile or chased by a rhino. When we sleep, we do not risk being taken by surprise and attacked by a hostile tribe. However, the entire evolution took place in such conditions. This is what the daily routine of life has looked like for billions of years. The comfort of today is due to these ancestors who, in those harsh conditions, took enormous risks for every step taken towards the current civilization.
All the transformations of the world so far have brought us so close to everything we could have ever wished for, that we often fall prey to the illusion that we have all the prerequisites for happiness. This perspective has given rise to an increasing tendency to make happiness a goal in itself. This tendency is all the more vicious as it causes us to avoid the discomfort with the price of suffering to live in opposition to life. We avoid risk and kill opportunity.
This suffering following the illusion of comfort, whose spectrum extends from simple boredom and inner emptiness to disabling psychiatric and organic pathologies, is installed insidiously through mechanisms acquired during the long adventure of life, whose purpose is precisely to preserve the body. and whose influence we are seldom aware of. Through their gripping force that resides precisely in their obscure character, these mechanisms can divert exploration, orienting it towards dead lines whose ends we sometimes fatally hit. Avoiding the discomfort of risk exposure is the equivalent of refusing experience which, despite the immediate anxiolytic effect, is the refusal to participate in life and can have only one result. But certain life experiences can reorient us, shedding light on how we are led by forces in the shadows.
Life experiences are like switches that change our direction, training us towards new opportunities, not always excluding possibilities and alternatives and at the same time opening new and new directions, thus imprinting a unique path to the existence of each of us - destiny is rewritten with each experience.
Basically, we are explorers looking for the meaning of this adventure. We need a binder to ensure the continuity of the experience of small and large successes, linking them in an articulated story that justifies and motivates the effort and suffering inherent in exploration. By seeking it, we pave the way for the fulfillment of human destiny, finally realizing that through our creations we become our own creators.
In the spirit of the idea that a deep understanding of things can change man, during this work I will try to penetrate the basement of things as much as I can, with the promise not to deliberately abuse the right to make mistakes, boredom and loses some of the readers along the way.