THE SCIENTIFIC LANGUAGE OF THE TRIUNE BRAIN

Paul Maclean, the former director of the Behavior and Brain Evolution Laboratory in The National Institute of Mental Health of Bethesda, Maryland, USA, has developed a theory on the triadic brain based on laboratory experiments. According to Maclean, the human brain is a system of three formations independent but, at the same time, interdependent, radically different in functions and in physicochemical structure, each of which represents a leap in evolution. Each of these three structures has its own special intelligence, its own subjectivity, its own sense of time and space, and its own memory and motive functions.

These three brains act simultaneously and are synchronized as a system of incredible organic and functional complexity. The nature of this system is defined by the relationships among its components which produce an indivisible and dynamic unit. The quality of all human activity depends on the delicate balance of this system.

The first of this brains, and the most primitive, is the basic brain representing our reptilian heritage. Its functions are related to survival. It is the intelligence of vital impulses, movement and action. It is the archive of ages, the root of compulsion. With the passage of time another brain develops, the limbic brain, which includes the limbic system that regulates emotions, feeding, escape and avoidance of pain, struggle and search for pleasure. It controls the functions of vital organs and shapes bodily expression. It is the source of desire as well as empathy and compassion. At a greater stage of evolution a third and, thus far, last layer appears: the neocortex brain or human brain which provides a basis for rational thought, associative and intuitive. It discerns, chooses, decides, orders, invents, creates, and peers into God´s existence.

A VISION OF MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES

Elaine de Beauport, President of the MEAD INSTITUTE for Human Development of New York, is totally dedicated to the study of functions of the three brains, the recent contributions of neurology and to the further understanding of human behavior. In her book “The Three Faces of Mind: Developing Your Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Intelligences”, she lays out the case for the existence of multiple capacities or intelligences in each of the brains which act simultaneously and in close interaction in the origin of behavior. She points out the obstacles impeding the development of man and teaches practical methods to attain a better use of the three brains.

Her work is based on her many years of academic and research experience in the field of education, in the theories of MacLean and Sperry, on the new Physics and on the most recent studies on behavior as the expression of the functions of the three brains. She tries to demonstrate that the solution to behavioral distortion problems and to those related to deficiencies lies in activating and integrating the potential of each and every one of the brain structures and lead responsibly to its functional balance. She conceives the brain as a system of energies which range of vibration goes from the slowest to the most subtle in an infinite array of possibilities. Each brain and intelligence are not static elements but rather energies in movement and in constant flow. The integration of all these intelligences in an organic whole and the possibility to access them when necessary would be the key to appropriate action.

The individual, master of such a capability, has the required functional level to achieve the desired transformation. The new man will be capable of contributing the impulse required in every circumstance for the adequate evolution of the Self and that of his surroundings. Also to let dormant intuition vibrate and reach contact with the finest of energies, that of the highest vibrations which is the source of Light and Vision.