A model of the brain in eight circuits

according to Robert Anton Wilson and Timothy Leary

THE EIGHT CIRCUITS:

  1.  Bio-Survival
  2.  Enotional-Territorial
  3.  Laryngeal-Manual
  4.  Socio-Sexual
  5.  Neurosomatic
  6.  Neuro-Electric
  7.  Neurogenetic
  8.  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...

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WARNING: 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.

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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.

Seeker1