Is ego the source of all fear?

[Forestluv]

@Jack River  ♥️ ? 

[DrewNows]

58 minutes ago, Serotoninluv said:

During meditation, step outside the story of thoughts and observe. Where do thoughts arise from? There is no you writing the thoughts. 

As jack says I understand this

there may not be a me who writes the thoughts but the me which thinks it does is one in the same mechanical process 

What about fears we believe to be instinctual. Take the example of someone who’s afraid of heights or someone who faints when they see blood. 

Unconcsious beleifs which create a reaction out of fear 

[Forestluv]

11 minutes ago, DrewNows said:

there may not be a me who writes the thoughts but the me which thinks it does is one in the same mechanical process 

Yes, and the limbic system is within the machine and provides energy to help fuel the process. There is no “instinctual” and “non-instinctual” fear. It’s integrated.

[DrewNows]

So you’re saying animals have the same sort of fears as we do but they aren’t divided or perpetuated? 

[DrewNows]

@Serotoninluvjust reread what you had written and it makes sense now. Appreciate the info ?

[Forestluv]

18 minutes ago, DrewNows said:

So you’re saying animals have the same sort of fears as we do but they aren’t divided or perpetuated? 

That’s a really interesting way of looking at it. It threw me for a loop because I’m trying to integrate the material and immaterial. ? 

I would answer “yes” , in a sense. Animals don’t have the capacity to develop an ego even remotely close to humans. Humans have a highly evolved frontal cortex and DMN. If we agree that an ego is necessary for the subjective experience of being divided, then yes - animals would not have that subjective experience without that input. So any fear that is dependent upon that human-level ego wouldn’t be experienced in animals. However, those ego-related fears that are only experienced in humans are still influenced by the more primitive limbic system. 

I’d say that humans and animals share some rudimentary fears. And humans also have unique fears - yet those uniquely human fears are dependent, in part, on the redumintary limbic system. 

 

[Jack River]

@DrewNows @Serotoninluv

? 

Edited January 29, 2019 by Jack River