Survival mechanism: A function of the lower brain

I just now finished my vacation with family in two contrasting places, one in Shimla , a calm & cool place and another one in Juhu, the busiest suburb of Mumbai.

I would like to share my experience in the wilds of the Shimla. One can encounter beautiful forests around Shimla if one moves away from the center of Shimla by 5 kms. We.We accidentally found a nature trail near the resort in which we stayed. The trail started from the Taradevi railway station and extended all the way to the Tara Devi temple located on the top of the mountain. The 3 km trail took us deep into the forest. Usually, people reach these temples by roads.

The outside view of the nature trail

We didn't have any idea that we need to go through the forest to reach the temple. As we progressed through, we started to realize that we were heading into the jungle. As we moved further, we did not encounter any other fellow human being. It was really a different feeling to completely get isolated from human civilization. All that we encountered were the wild trees, flowers & bushes. We were able to hear the sounds of crickets, birds. Otherwise, it was dead silent except for the sounds of our own footsteps on the twigs & dry leaves.

The trail sometimes split into multiple paths & we could have easily lost the track of our destined path. Fortunately, the GPS helped us to locate our precise spot in the jungle. As we progressed further, on the back of my mind, two things flashed in my mind of the potential dangers. One was the possible danger of some miscreants & another was the potential danger of encountering wild animals. In both cases, it was certain that we could not avail any help.

Beautiful Wild Flowers

In spite of all these thoughts running in the background, there was a sense of beautiful connectivity that happened in the silence of the forest mainly due to the nice cool weather, the fragrance in the forest and mild breeze touching the body. It appeared that we were part of one creation along with the butterflies, birds, insects, the tall trees, the flowers and the forest. As we got connected with this nature & as we progressed further into the forest, even the trail appeared to be the greatest engineering marvel .otherwise, without the trail, we could have easily lost our path in the forest.

The inside view of the nature trail

 In the midst of the loud sounds of our own footsteps on the dry leaves, we were able to hear a clear distinct hissing sound. As we progressed further, we encountered a snake and it was crossing our path. We stopped & the snake also sensed her threat & we both were in direct contact with each other. We did not know whether the snake was poisonous or not but it appeared to be a very venomous snake. Since, it occupied our path, we expected the snake to move away from our path & it was reluctant to move. When we threatened it by pushing the dried leaves, the snake’s survival mechanism came into the scene & it started to coil & freeze her movement. We waited for some time to let her become calm & it began to move away from the path, after it realized there was no danger to it.

Meanwhile, we were able to feel the functioning of our own survival brain. Our sensitivity especially, the sense of sight & sense of hearing were at the peak. We got an instant boost in our energy level. Once, we crossed the snake, we covered the rest of our journey at double the speed due to the instant supply of energy due to the danger.

                                (Watch the video to see the survival mechanism of the snake)

It was really a nice experience to test the functioning of the threat mechanism, accumulation of energy and activation of sensations of the lower part of the brain.

In real life situation, this mechanism is activated all the time as we perceive any incident as a potential threat. In most of the cases, the threats that we encounter may not be as real as in the wilds. In fact many of the modern life style diseases like heart attack, High blood pressure, diabetes etc are caused due to the frequent activation of this survival brain. If one empowers himself by engaging the higher faculties of brain like the power of discrimination to stay away from slipping into this survival mode very often ,then one can have better healthier life.