21A: Pain = Avoidance of Dark

Pain: an evolutionary mechanism

What is this Pain that we are speaking of so casually, as if everyone knows what we’re talking about? It is a high level symbol, supported by many other layers of approximation. Let us digress for a moment to explore the roots of Pain.

Somewhere along the way some of us Life Forms were given nerve cells that register pain. This was a survival mechanism. It is easily seen that this mechanism would be passed on from organism to organism, as it registered when the organism was in physical danger and needed to be administered to. Those who didn’t have it perished more frequently than those who didn’t.

Emergence of Nerves that communicate Pain

While it is easy to understand the evolutionary advantages of pain, the emergence of the first pain cell and the emotional reaction to it is a little more complicated. Those of a scientific bent might prefer to say that pain cells evolved to facilitate survival. An educated guess could be made as to why this might happen. We, however, prefer to say that pain cells emerged to facilitate survival. We feel it important to differentiate the processes of evolution and emergence for reasons we will explore shortly.

While scientists resist Emergence because it smacks of creationism and God, they are just on the other side of the same coin. Science worships the Form of Matter and calls it God - While Religion worships the Form of Spirit and calls it God. There is no conflict. They are just different aspects of Being. Either way, obsession with Form separates one from the nameless function of Being - rooted in Direct Experience and aligned with Bliss.

Returning, we Beings have evolved to avoid pain as a means to survival. What is the origin of the experience of Pain? Let us return to the beginning for some answers.

One of the first miracles was the living Cell - Life - perhaps an emergent feature of the combination of matter and solar energy - perhaps a divine orchestration - either way it is way beyond the human capability to understand.

Pursuit of Light and Avoidance of Dark

A feature of this first bit of Life, this single celled organism, as opposed to the Matter from which is was spawned, was the tendency to follow the Light that was the source of its animation. This tendency to pursue the Light energy, which is the source of our Vitality and Life, evolved to be called Pleasure. (Note that Life emerged, while Pleasure evolved.)

In an opposing fashion the avoidance of the Dark energy came to be experienced as and called Pain. The pursuit of the Light/Energy, which is at the heart of Vitality and Life, is the quest of every Living Being. Conversely, the avoidance of the Dark arose naturally, in opposition.

While simple at first, this pursuit of Light Energy, called Pleasure, and the Avoidance of the Dark Energy, called Pain, became more and more complicated as the single celled creatures organ-ized themselves and then organs reorgan-ized themselves into bodies, which formed organ-izations of living things - All to facilitate survival in larger and larger packages.

Light => Pleasure: Dark => Pain

Initially the quest for the Light and avoidance of the Dark was just a primordial urge, which facilitated survival, by providing the vital energy necessary for Life. Gradually, however, as the organ-izations of cells became more complex, nerve cells emerged and then evolved to give the Organism a more intense feedback. The experience of Pleasure and Pain became more than an urge. It came to be connected with a complex response of these advanced organizations of organizations of organizations of cells.

Humans Emotions associated with Pleasure and Pain

In the early days of microorganisms these responses were purely physical. But then gradually, as self-reflective consciousness emerged in the Human organism, this pleasure and pain began to be connected with and experienced as emotional pain - the emergent connection between Mind and Body with its own motivating nervous system.

In summary: First came the Cell with its urge to pursue Light and simultaneously avoid the Dark - an inherent mechanism - essential for survival. Then came more complex organ-izations of these Cells, all pursuing the Light and avoiding the Dark on more and more complex levels until finally we Humans experience Pain and Pleasure emotionally. (It is no wonder that we attribute pain and pleasure to our Corporations. This is simply the next emergent step in larger organizations.) Pain & Pleasure begin with one celled Life as a simple urge - a relatively instinctual response - and culminates with a complex neurotic obsession by the time it reaches the human level.

On the most general level Life pursues Pleasure and attempts to avoid Pain.

 

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