A model of the brain in eight circuits
according to Robert Anton Wilson and Timothy Leary
THE EIGHT CIRCUITS:
- Bio-Survival
- Enotional-Territorial
- Laryngeal-Manual
- Socio-Sexual
- Neurosomatic
- Neuro-Electric
- Neurogenetic
- Neuro-Atomic
BIO-SURVIVAL
(Autonomic) (physical Intelligence)
- Level of Reality: Invertebrate
- Drug Trigger: Opiates
- Function: Mother-Child bonding
- Circuit #:384
- Gurdjieff Center: Movement Center
- Life form: Uni-cellular
- Dimension: forward-back
- Description: "baby-brain"; fight-or-flight
- [Instincts:] Passivity, safety, nourishment
- Medium: the organism (Bios)
Some humans never become aware of any level of reality beyond
this one. There is no reason to call them human.
EMOTIONAL-TERRITORIAL
(Power) (emotional intelligence)
- Level of Reality: mammalian
- Drug Trigger: alcohol
- Function: fighting, politics, pack-forming
- Circuit#:192
- Gurdjieff Center: False Emotional
- Life form: vertebrates
- Dimension: right-left
- Description: "toddler brain"; rule-or-be-ruled
- [Bias:] self-expression, status, power
- Medium: belief systems (memes)
Some humans (ideologues and fanatics) see this as the supreme
level of reality. It is the most attained by most politicians and
military leaders.
LARYNGEAL-MANUAL
(Semantic, Dextero-Symbolic) (conceptual intelligence)
- Level of Reality: paleolithic
- Drug Trigger: cocaine
- Function: learning, skill, creativity
- Circuit#: 96
- Gurdjieff Center: False Intellectual
- Life Form: hominids
- Dimension: up-down
- Description: "ego status"; tool-making, problem-solving
- [Worldview:] paying attention, mapmaking, naming, articulation
- Medium: conceptual frameworks (paradigms, metamemes)
This is the level of reality at which most academics and
intellectuals operate. Reality consists of nails; we must find the right
hammers.
SOCIO-SEXUAL
(Domestic) (social intelligence)
- Level of Reality: civilized
- Drug Trigger: norepinephrine
- Function: hive-unity, society, parenting
- Circuit#: 48
- Gudjieff Center: False Personality
- Life Form: Humankind
- Dimension: past-future
- Description: "social self"; transmission of culture
- [Ethos:] adolescence/individuation; adulthood/maturation;
collectivization/socialization
- Medium: code of ethics (ethos)
Attained eight thousand years ago, this level of reality
("culture") may be the one at which humanity is stuck, unaware anything
lies beyond...
: Here lies the CHAPEL PERILOUS.
Beyond here you may have to SMI2LE. Because if you do
not escape the gravity well of the planet, use your
HEAD, and extend your life, you may not be able to
activate the higher four circuits.
NEUROSOMATIC
(Hedonic) (Sensory intelligence)
- Level of Reality: hedonic
- Drug Trigger: marijuana
- Function: hedonic engineering: Tantra, Yoga, etc.
- Circuit#: 24
- Gurdjieff Center: Magnetic center
- Life Form: Free-fall (cosmic migration)
- Dimension: Linear-cyclic
- Description: "free floating"; the turn-on
- [Pleasures:] Rapture, ritual, charisma
- Medium: the five senses
Aesthetes, epicureans, space travellers, and libertines
discover the awakened possibilites of the higher circuits - but then
often forget that such pleasures are a means, and not an end.
NEURO-ELECTRIC
(Metaprogramming, Psychotronic) (Psychic Intelligence)
- Level of Reality: Psionic
- Drug Trigger: peyote
- Function: neurologic: precognition, ESP
- Circuit#: 12
- Gurdjieff Center: True Emotional
- Life Form: I squared (intelligence exponentiated)
- Dimension: here-there
- Description: "metaprogramming"; awareness of possibilities
- [Perspectives:] clairvoyance, reality selection, precognition
- Medium: CNS (central nervous system)
People attaining this level of reality may become aware of
the contingency of their particular reality-tunnels; but may not see the
way OUT. Knowing that reality is a Glass Bead Game, they may lose their
vision in the sparkle of the beads.
NEUROGENETIC
(Evolutionary) (Mythic intelligence)
- Level of Reality: Immortal
- Drug Trigger: LSD
- Function: DNA awareness, ecological symbiosis
- Circuit#: 6
- Gurdjieff Center: True Intellectual
- Life Form: Immortality
- Dimension: life-death
- Description: "collective unconscious"; species-memory
- [Collective unconscious:] synchronicity, alchemy, astrology
- Medium: DNA & Gaia (the Planet)
At this level, one becomes aware of Intelligences besides
their own. Such Intelligences may be Higher or Lower; but they are
certain to be Alien. Synchronicity begins to overcome the Law of
Accident. Planetary noosphere becomes visible.
NEURO-ATOMIC
(Metaphysiological) (Spiritual intelligence)
- Level of Reality: Cosmic
- Drug Trigger: Katamine
- Function: cosmic engineering
- Circuit#: 3
- Gurdjieff Center: The Essence
- Life Form: Cosmic union
- Dimension: microcosm-macrocosm
- Description: "extraterrestrial unconscious"; cosmic mind
- [Being:] Paradox, dreaming, factor 'X'
- Medium: subatomic mysteries (quantum reality)
This is the level of the Bodhisattva and the Taoist Immortal,
and of it, only they can speak.
It is said by Antero Alli that this system provides the basis for Angel
Tech. The left hemisphere is tech and the right hemisphere is the
Holy Guardian Angel. Under such a system, each circuit is also a
grade, and the goal of each student is to have Absorbed, Organized, and
Communicated each grade. This is why Schools exist.
Steve Mizrach, aka Seeker1
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