THE EGO - THE CREATION OF ILLUSION - CONFUSION - CRISIS - FEAR or ANXIETY

!!! (-*-) David Bohm : 
THE EGO - THE CREATION OF ILLUSION - CONFUSION - CRISIS - FEAR or ANXIETY - 
Ego begins with the creation of illusion. How does this happen? Man evolved from an animal. His thalamus (central brain) is not so different from that of animals. Now, the animal’s brain is more or less adequate for his normal surroundings. Thus, if he is afraid, he runs. If he is angry, he fights. But in man this thalamus is now surrounded by an intelligent cortex that can create illusions. These illusions can either be pleasant or frightening to the thalamus. When they are pleasant, the thalamus sends a signal to the cortex to produce some more of the same. When they are frightening, an urgent and disturbing signal is sent out, and the cortex is unable to function properly. Confusion results, and the cortex gets busy creating new illusions until the thalamus is satisfied. But reality is always bursting in, so that a man in the state of illusion is always being presented with crisis after crisis, and eventually tends to get into a state of chronic fear or anxiety. It is no use blaming the poor thalamus, as it was never prepared for living in an environment consisting mainly of the cortex. Nor can the cortex help it, because it cannot function properly if the thalamus is always sending out urgent signals that mix it up. Thus, it no longer tries to see what is true and what is false. Perhaps the above problem can be solved only if the whole mind understands what is happening, and sees through the mechanical character of the signals from the thalamus, as well as the illusory character of what the cortex “cooks up” to keep the thalamus quiet. To see this will amount to a psychological mutation in man. In other words, man is already a totality, physically speaking, in his mind. But because he does not realize this in his awareness, the thalamus and cortex each operate as if they were independent “minds,” presented with problems from “outside.” In this way, each confuses the other, in contrast to an animal without much cortex where the thalamus by itself functions sensibly. When man realizes his actual totality, then he will be a totally different being, since the thalamus and cortex will work together in an integrated whole, giving rise to a feeling of love, and an act of understanding. (This may perhaps be the totality of understanding.) - The Essential David Bohm edited by Lee Nichol