Quotations in this passage in italics are Edward Wilson from Newsweek’s excerpted passages of The Social Conquest of Earth. Newsweek, April 9, 2012.
When in experiments black and white americans were flashed pictures of the other race, their amygdalas, the brains center of fear and anger, were activated so quickly and subtly that the centers of the brain were unaware of the response. The subject, in effect, could not help himself. Wilson’s example refers to black and white, but his writing addresses all kinds of social groupings in which we are each embedded.
The case he describes is an example of the way feeling tones operate. Feeling tones are more prevalent than we are aware. We don’t necessarily act on these automatic responses. We have in fact also learned behaviors that may prevent action on the automatic responses. However, with a mature meditation practice the awareness of the original feeling tones can be developed. We can increase the capacity for recognizing automatic responses and unfolding tendencies before we take action (even mental action). And, especially good news, the developing capacity for recognizing feeling tones impacts positively future feeling tones.
Wilson goes on to say that …When…appropriate contexts were added…two other sites of the brain integrated with the higher learning centers, the cingulate cortex and the dorsolateral preferential cortex, lit up silencing input from the amygdala. Thus different parts of the brain have evolved by group selection to create groupishness, as well as to mediate this hard wired propensity. He refers to this social organizing and identification process as a higher function, necessary for survival, a group mechanism that comes into play and puts the need for self-preservation below the impulse to protect the group.
Training in recognition of feeling tones may go further. Not only can higher brain functions come into play, but the hardwiring may eventually be modified through mature mindful awareness…not changing the immediate response, but creating conditions for different responses in the future – and thereby influencing our evolutionary consciousness.
It strikes me that in spiritual practice we are trying to broaden the group to include, not only our own groups, our own species, but all living things. Through a committed awareness practice (concentration and insight) we uncover a natural heartfelt friendliness toward all living beings. This heart quality is not something we need to create, but it does take time and skill to uncover. We break through by accepting that the mind is limited by its conditioning, that it is naturally set to see things from its personal perspective (and is therefore naturally deluded), and by learning to see more simply, seeing things clearly just as they are, and at increasingly subtle levels.
As awareness expands, we recognize that we all have prejudices. The challenge is to be willing and able to see them and to learn to access the very subtle early automatic and amoebic-like reactions. Where are you most sure there is no prejudice in you? It might be a good idea to start by examining these most defended positions.