PREFACE1
Paul D. MacLean’s triune brain model was introduced to me in 1984. It was part of an in-service training for the staff of an alcohol treatment agency where I was working as an outpatient alcohol counselor. MacLean was a neuroscientist and chief of the Laboratory of Brain Evolution and Behavior at the National Institute of Mental Health. He developed a new evolutionary approach to understanding the human brain. He believed that our brain contained elements of our evolutionary past from reptiles, older herd mammals, and newer primate mammals. Those three “layers” of neural development become one brain in human beings: a triune brain. Consequently, with our inheritance of ancestral brain types, we also inherited ancestral behaviors.
MacLean understood that the brains of extant species have been significantly modified from their evolutionary ancestors. But it was the similarities that remained that were helpful to understand human behaviors within an evolutionary context. The quadrune mind asks, “How is it neurologically possible for human beings to cold-heartedly condemn fellow human beings to a lifetime of suffering—to generations of suffering—for the petty purpose of money, power, and privilege for themselves?” The quadrune mind perspective is that there is enough similarity among the brains of ourselves, primates, mammals, and reptiles to account for the complete range of “human” behaviors (minds), from the callous disregard of all life to one’s self-sacrifice for strangers.
When neuroscientists threw out MacLean’s triune brain bathwater,2 they also threw out a genius neurophilosophy-of-mind baby. This book is about introducing you to that baby. I hope that you will come to believe this new way of thinking about human nature has a promising future and you will wish to help it grow strong.
I am not attempting to make an authoritative argument to convince you that the quadrune mind is the greatest approach to understanding consciousness and human nature ever devised. My daughter, Kerri, and I have made our best arguments for the model on our website,3 including our blog posts. As a non-scholar in neuroscience, philosophy, and theology, I appropriately do not feel qualified to make an authoritative argument for the quadrune mind based on professional specialization. I just happen to be the person “chosen” by these ideas to be their host.4 With a Ph.D. in applied behavioral studies and experience as a licensed psychologist, I might describe myself as a “human behavior generalist.”5 Or, even though my undergraduate degree is in psychology, it was my philosophy minor courses that I really loved and are part of my life-long interest in philosophy, 6 so I might identify myself as a “citizen philosopher.”7
This book describes a new, intriguing, and potentially more productive way to understand human nature. I provide expanded endnotes, including material from internal and external resources to supplement this content. I hope you will become part of humanity’s on-going fascinating—and existentially necessary—task of learning who we are, or could be.
I am also expressing a rant.8 A rant is an angry cry for desperately needed help.9 I’m angry that there are people who take pride in, and brag about, their self-serving vices. They celebrate being rude, violent, and closed-minded. These actions are presented as being honest, righteous, and principled. I’m angry that cold-blooded wealthy power elites and their servile underlings congratulate themselves for crafty business and political actions that lead directly, and knowingly, to the sickness and deaths of working people and their families, as well as indirectly and knowingly, to the industrialized degradation of their air, water, soil, and food. I’m angry that all fanatics believe they can be as vicious as the fanatics of the other side because their own viciousness serves the “right” causes.
I am crying out desperately because it looks like in the 21st century that Malthus, Hobbes, and Machiavelli10 (a disturbingly powerful consulting firm with influential offices around the world) have been employed to help us destroy ourselves more efficiently than ever. This may not be the reality, but it currently seems that way to me.
And I need help because no matter how convinced I am that I have good ideas about the big topic of consciousness, I am still overwhelmed by the suffering in my near world—not to mention the global suffering I read about almost every day.11
My hope is that humanity will not be soon destroyed but become stronger, not just to survive, but stronger and wiser. After all, I believe there should be a good reason for humanity to exist. For example, I believe we can learn to be lifetime healers in this suffering world.
This book is for adults who are dissatisfied with both trivialized ethical standards and frail moral relativism,12 but also reject the reassuring confidence of religious dogmatism. In this book I argue that spiritual consciousness is an inherent quality of the healthy human brain and the essence of human nature. But first we need to know what human nature isn’t.
FOUR MINDS, FOUR NATURES
Perhaps you’ve had the experience of telling an adult to “Quit acting like a baby!” Or, “Don’t be so childish!” Or perhaps, not quite as dramatically, “You’re not a teenager anymore. Get a job. Grow up, and move out into the real world.” (Not necessarily a place an adolescent would feel safe or prepared to be in.) Usually, the person’s behavior does not change even though you told them in no uncertain terms to “grow up.” The problem is not that an adult is acting like a baby, being childish, or still living like an adolescent; it’s just the opposite.
People do not grow up “naturally.” Becoming an adult just takes time, but becoming a Grownup takes skillful parenting, nurturing friends and family, and a fair amount of good luck and, helpfully, the absence of bad luck. We do not act badly because, as adults, we occasionally act immaturely. We act badly because we are trying to act like adults with damaged, immature minds.
APPENDIX A: “How Would You Describe Human Nature?” Survey Sample
I asked a few people in a nonscientific survey to describe human nature, their age, gender, and a brief self-description. Some responses may have been edited for privacy. In a few cases I was unable to transcribe a word or short phrase. Surveys were conducted in the Oklahoma City area from September 2023 to November 2023. Surveys are presented in the order they were conducted. Age is in bold for text orientation within longer responses.
People are born in ignorance and grow into stupidity. —90; Male; American, Homo sapiens sapiens. I refuse to include Oklahoman.13
A real mish-mash of convoluted thinking and emotions. —80; Male; A retired librarian but not a retired skeptic.
Nature is leaves, human is me. —29; Female; I’m resilient, good natured, which makes me chuckle, not knowing what human nature is. I’m funny, willing to do what is good no matter the cost, maybe the word is integrity.
Chaotic. Animalistic. “Some humans ain’t human” is from a John Prine song. —77; Male; Misunderstood.
Animalistic, like survival. —37; Female; Nature person, maker, sensitive, giving, animal lover.
Generally, most of the time everybody just wants to live life, enjoy their family, the majority. Then there are ones who just want to cause trouble, maybe because they were troubled, so they trouble others. But most people just want a normal life. —61; Male, only gender I can be; Generally happy, hate it when people are mad at me, try to please people. Hard working. Always try to look out for other people. Good father.
Heavy question for the end of a long day. I don’t know. Some of it is conditioned to think about. I don’t know. A lot of different things, different rituals. If people are in an emergency, then help each other out. Then there are other things like mob mentality. Similarities in human nature, just humans, how just exist in the world. Different things in different cultures. Humans in tandem with nature. Europeans force their will on nature, create dams where there shouldn’t be dams. —53; Female; What you see is what you get. I’m the kind of person who allows other people to be who they need to be. Allow people to be different, life is more interesting. Laid back but perfectionist, not as much as in the past. Still a lot to work on. Definitely a collaborator.
Oh my God. OK. It’s difficult because of wars, the types of government. Hate behavior done to groups of people in the name of religion. Pretty dark about human nature because of atrocities. Vacillate between giving up on human nature, don’t because of a lot of good people. How do you help the people on the good side of human nature against the people who are more on the negative side of human nature? Human nature has not done well. Good and bad. Bad people do damage to the people on the good side of human nature. Huge concern that we are going backward in treatment of blacks. Never treated Indians well. Progress going backward makes me sad. Concerned a lot about people who get into power. Bent toward criminality, find ways to legally take money and lives of people. Passionate, not really optimistic. Increase in neo-Nazis. I live in a country that had dictator Franco. Near Germany. My heart is broken by the treatment of people. People who do horrible things in the name of Christianity. Jesus would not be happy about the atrocities done in his name. —73; Female; Concerned about the welfare of others. I spent my life trying to help others become the best persons they can become. I’m certainly humanistic. Goal is to take better care of myself. Still care a great deal about others. Always see potential. Always better. I believe in God, always have. See God as a positive energy that connects us all. Sort of Buddhist. Not practicing. Am Episcopalian, not so judgmental. Intellectual. Buddhist kind of philosophy.
Many self-centered and evil. Can be motivated for religious reasons, true altruism. Left to their own devices, use means, violent, to achieve goals, get most of the resources, keep others from getting what they want. Seems universal. Just heard about Catholic priests abused 200,000 children. Makes me sick. Part of me wants to say human nature is inherently good, but too many examples of doing evil. —57; Female; 57-year-old white woman. Daughter. Loves to learn. Does the best to help others. Caring, super involved in church.
Uh, let me think. A combination of behaviors and characteristics and traits that we possess due to nature and nurture. Elements of negative behaviors. Grow up with or see one day, leading to care for others. —36; Female; I am independent. Professional career as an independent arts maker but also identified with lots of other things as well not related with art. Jewish. Family. Faith. Doing good deeds. Mitzvot, in Hebrew means “commandment.” Like the “10 commandments” everyone knows, but many more than that.
They’re stupid. Human nature seems, some destroy everything, like nature. Most people, like oil, minerals, they destroy the planet just to get to it. Money, all about the money. Not care about the planet, animals. Human nature goes back to money, how much money can I make. Not even about family anymore. Not care about my children, my neighbor. Instead of destroying things, help preserve things. Human nature did to the buffalo, almost wiped out. Animal species destroyed by human nature. Look what they did to Indians, Palestinians. Germany did to the Jews. Human nature kills things. Sad. —59; Male; Myself? Oh, would say down to earth. Care a lot about things. Care a lot about people, just get frustrated with them. Care about the environment, not destroy things. Treat people nice until they treat me bad. I don’t care about race, gender, religion. I’ll treat everyone the same. Think I’m a good person because of that. A lot of people hate rich people. I don’t hate them. Glad their making money. Just where they destroy or ruin people to advance their money and destroy the person. Stupid. Having money, owners and executives, millions of dollars. They lay person off because downsizing. Why have all that money? Just to say all the money I have. Destroy lives.
That’s a hard question. I don’t know. I think human nature is partially from, what do you call, nurture and environment. Have a lot of genetic stuff, but more environment. More about parenting. How raised, and support. You think if happy environment and interact with nice people, then you’re kind. Sometimes one bad experience can scar for life. It’s bad today. Lucky grew up when we did. —61; Female; Describe myself? I like my career. Late bloomer. Not find out what to do until 50s. Struggled a lot to get where I am. Happy where I got. Not feel like an overcomer. I should have figured it out sooner.
GLOSSARY
Adolescent intellectual (cognitive) mind: A developmental stage of the brain that becomes neurologically available at about 2 years of age. In the healthy brain this mind becomes dominant during adolescence. In the afflicted brain it may not become the dominant mind. Also referred to as the “new (primate) mammalian mind.”
Adult: A person who has legal adult status but is not spiritually mature.
Antihumanization: An action taken against someone that obstructs the person’s opportunity to become more humane.
Childish emotional mind: A developmental stage of the brain that becomes neurologically available between 15 to 18 months of age. In the healthy brain this mind becomes dominant during childhood. In the afflicted brain it may not become the dominant mind. Also referred to as the “old mammalian (herd) mind.”
Fetal/newborn somatic (reflexive) “mind”: A developmental stage of the central nervous system, but is not included in the four human minds model because it does not support intentional, goal-directed behavior. The “mind” becomes neurologically available at about 8 weeks gestational age/6 weeks conceptional age. This “mind” becomes dominant pre-birth. Also referred to as the “pre-reptilian (somatic) mind.”
Grownup: A person who is spiritually mature, a Human. In earlier quadrune mind, aka “neurospirituality” writing, “angel” had been used to designate the fully human spiritual level of consciousness.
Grownup spiritual mind: A developmental stage of the brain that becomes neurologically available at about 3 years of age. In the healthy brain this mind becomes dominant during adulthood. In the afflicted brain it may not become the dominant mind. Also referred to as the “Human mind.”
Human: A person who is spiritually mature, a Grownup. Contrast with “human” uncapitalized, which refers to people who are not spiritually mature, but are still human beings.
Human nature: Behaviors, emotions, and cognitions that appear exclusively, or to a much greater degree, in human beings than in any evolutionary ancestor.
Humane: A person who is not fully spiritually conscious but is moving toward authentic Human nature in behavior, emotion, and thought. Also, refers to compassionate behaviors, emotions, and thoughts that are morally good, but may not reflect the fully spiritual consciousness of a Grownup.
Infantile behavioral mind: A developmental stage of the brain that becomes neurologically available between 2 to 4 months of age. In the healthy brain this mind becomes dominant during infancy. Also referred to as the “reptilian” mind.
Parenter: A person who uses healing skills to help an afflicted adult move toward spiritual maturity.
Pre-Human Mind: Any of the three minds in an adult that normally develop before the Human spiritual mind: fetal/newborn somatic (reflexive) “mind,” infantile behavioral mind, childish emotional mind, and the adolescent intellectual (cognitive) mind.
Quadrune: “Four-in-one,” as in the four dissociated minds of the human brain integrated as one mind with a dominant prefrontal cortex.
Subhuman: The parts of the central nervous system that are evolutionarily older than the prefrontal cortex: the neocortex, the limbic system, brainstem, cerebellum, and spinal cord. These structures of the brain support the pre-Human minds.
Triune: “Three-in-one” referring to Paul MacLean’s three brains in one model of the human brain.
- To read the entire book, visit https://quadrunemind.com/acting-like-adults/
- See Farley, P. (2008, Autumn). A theory abandoned but still compelling: In Paul MacLean’s triune brain, primitive emotions overruled conscious thoughts. Yale Medicine, 43(1), 16-17. “‘Paul never traveled with the herd,’ said Thomas R. Insel, M.D., director of the National Institute of Mental Health, who worked alongside MacLean for 10 years at the Laboratory of Brain Evolution and Behavior in Poolesville, Md. Insel remembers his colleague as irreverent and uninhibited….
“The theory saw its fullest expression in MacLean’s 1990 magnum opus, The Triune Brain in Evolution, which was based on wide-ranging anatomical studies of brains in animals as diverse as alligators and monkeys…. The theory’s conceptual beauty and intuitive appeal lent it enormous staying power….
“But according to Terrence Deacon, Ph.D., an expert on the evolution of human cognition at the University of California, Berkeley, subsequent research has revealed that MacLean’s basic premise… that brain systems were added by accretion over the course of evolution—was mistaken….
“Nonetheless, Deacon said, the force of MacLean’s personality gave his ideas a special resonance. ‘His death represents the passing of an era, because he was really the model of the move towards understanding the brain in evolutionary terms,’ said Deacon. ‘A lot of our contemporary advances ride on top of his work…. [W]e don’t often give credit to the false starts that really push us along the way.’”
- Quadrune Mind: A Neurospiritual Guide to a Purposeful Life. quadrunemind.com. https://quadrunemind.com/.
- Gilbert, E. (2015). Big magic: Creative living beyond fear. New York: Riverhead Books. Elizabeth Gilbert describes ideas as sentient entities that choose promising human hosts to instantiate them. Gilbert writes as though this is not a metaphorical argument. In fact, thinkers and other creatives have expressed similar notions. For example, “People don’t have ideas. Ideas have people,” usually attributed to Carl Jung, but probably more in line with the philosophy of psychoanalyst, Wilfred Bion. My reading of Bion is limited to Bion, W. (1983). Attention and interpretation. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. For example, Bion states that the “thought” and the “thinker” exist independently of each other: “In symbiosis the thought and the thinker correspond, and modify each other through the correspondence. The thought proliferates and the thinker develops. In a parasitic relationship between thought and thinker there is a correspondence…” [Pages 117-118]. In general, I believe that Bion’s psychoanalytic ideas, wherever they may come from, are quite consistent with the QM model of spiritual consciousness. And, his book has much insight to offer for our contemporary world, especially his discussion of “thinkers,” “lies” and “truth.” Even so, I understand Gilbert much better than I understand Bion.
- For a business example, but one that seems relevant here, see Genberg, P. (Council post: 2021, June 3). The value of being a generalist. Forbes Business Council. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2021/06/03/the-value-of-being-a-generalist/?sh=5697bd322fc8. “A generalist is a dabbler, an explorer, a learner — someone with broad knowledge across many topics and expertise in a few….
“Broad experience has its benefits. Generalists have a more diverse collection of knowledge to draw from, so they can see connections and correlations that specialists might miss….
[A similar effect has been shown by novice chess players who have made moves—because the didn’t know any better—that have caught masters off guard. The quickly efficient minds of the masters can be “blind” to some innovative moves. The masters have too much experience with little room for the unexpected].“Generalists also tend to have a higher level of situational awareness and can see the bigger picture. Where specialists tend to have a high degree of awareness in their own area, they may not be great at understanding areas outside their fields. They need a generalist, a big-picture thinker, to bring it all together.” [Or, as Mark Twain said, “We’re all ignorant, just about different things].”
- I give a brief description of my deep appreciation of philosophy in the blog post QM, Wisdom, and the PhD Degree. https://quadrunemind.com/2020/04/07/qm-wisdom-and-the-phd-degree/. After I resigned my psychology license in 2014, I told Kerri that I was going to look at university courses offered in philosophy that I might take. She said I would be disappointed because the classes now were not like the courses that I took in the 1960s. She was right. The titles of the courses were mostly unintelligible to me. I could not see how they related to understanding the human condition.
- Brogaard, B. (Posted 2019, November 21). World philosophy day takes philosophy out of the academy:
Continuing the tradition of public philosophy. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-superhuman-mind/201911/world-philosophy-day-takes-philosophy-out-the-academy. “[L]ike most academic disciplines, academic philosophy has become increasingly specialized and inaccessible to the general public over the years….
“That wasn’t always the case. In Ancient Greece public philosophical debate played a crucial role in educating the youth and bringing social problems to the attention of the critical public, politicians and policy-makers….
“The tradition of public philosophy has been resurrected in various forms throughout the centuries but has recurrently been brought to a halt because of its potential threat to traditional values and policies….
“Regrettably, philosophy today is a far cry from what it once was. Its isolation from the rest of the world makes it look like an excuse for introverted narcissists to perform intellectual mind games in oversized armchairs and earn a living by doing it. This could not be further from the truth. Philosophy is meant to have an impact on society by poking holes in existing ideologies and policies….
“Philosophers can learn a thing or two from scientists who have already taken a big step in this direction. Most scientists have long ago realized that citizen involvement may help make real scientific progress. Amateurs eager to contribute to scientific research are commonly referred to as ‘citizen scientists.’” [The American Philosophical Society awards several medals and prizes for outstanding achievements in areas of specialized interest. Personally, I think it would be a good idea for the American Philosophical Society to establish a “Citizen Philosopher Award” to be presented in recognition of an outstanding contribution to philosophy, the “love of wisdom,” as it relates to the lives of the general public. The person should be unaffiliated with any academic philosophy department or professional organization of philosophers. It could be awarded as merited. Such an award would be good for the public and good for the Society. I believe it would be the most important award the Society could grant].
- “’Well, do you try to make people think?’ I say, ‘No. That would be the kiss of death.’ What I want to do is to let them know that I’m thinking.” —George Carlin. George Carlin’s American Dream. HBO. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_L3mDG9r4I. [George Carlin is my genius rant hero. This book is my thinking about the state of humanity. It’s up to you whether or not these ideas are worth keeping in mind].
- An “angry cry for desperately needed help” may underlie populist social demonstrations by the Left or the Right, especially violent ones. However, the help being demanded may be of a very different nature. On the one hand, demonstrations may be to oppose the systemic discrimination, exploitation, and dehumanization of one group of people by another, while opposing demonstrations may be the demand to have the “right,” “freedom,” and “liberty” to continue systemic discrimination, exploitation, and dehumanization of one group of people by another.
- Kagan, D. (2002, February 3). Saber rattling for Democracy. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/03/books/saber-rattling-for-democracy.html. A review of Robert D. Kaplan’s Warrior Politics: Why Leadership Demands a Pagan Ethos. “Kaplan, the author of many books of travel and political reportage, rejects the proclaimed differentness of today’s world from the past: it is not ‘modern’ or ‘postmodern,’ but only a continuation of the ‘ancient.’ It is a world with which the ancient Chinese, Greek and Roman philosophers could have coped and to which they would have applied their salutary tradition of ‘skepticism and constructive realism.’”
[Kaplan is right that the modern world is not different from the ancient. That is, he confirms the quadrune mind model’s view that the dominant pre-Human minds of “ancient” times still dominate the world. However, rather than accepting that observation as proof that human nature cannot progress beyond our political history and must be dealt with as it has been, the QM philosophy of spiritual consciousness says we can make the world a better place. See Kerri’s blog post QM as a Melioristic Model: (We Make the World Better)]. https://quadrunemind.com/2021/04/02/qm-as-a-melioristic-model/.
For a recent, scholarly updating of social contract theories of human nature by evolutionary social scientists, see Seabright, P., Stieglitz, J., & Van der Straeten, K. (Published online 2021, January 20). Evaluating social contract theory in the light of evolutionary social science. Cambridge University Press. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/evolutionary-human-sciences/article/evaluating-social-contract-theory-in-the-light-of-evolutionary-social-science/6B44A9CA0EF90B80CDA08EDE2661297B. “We conclude that social contract theorists severely underestimated human behavioural complexity in societies lacking formal institutions. Had these theorists been more informed about the structure and function of social arrangements in small-scale societies, they might have significantly altered their views about the design and enforcement of social contracts.” [The authors compare the definitions of human nature made specifically by Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau. These definitions can be interestingly understood from the quadrune mind perspective. For example, instead of describing contrasting “human natures,” as the philosophers thought they were doing, they are better understood as describing the natures associated with the three developmentally immature minds, which exist “below” our true Human nature].
- Greville, F., Lord Brooke. O wearisome condition of humanity. In A. J. M. Smith (Ed.). (1967). Seven centuries of verse: English & American from the early English lyrics to the present day (3rd. ed.). New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. “If Nature did not take delight in blood, / She would have made more easy ways to good” (p. 96, lines 17-18). [As people have long observed, “nature” is a battle for survival that can be bloody. However, with the advent of Homo sapiens, it has become the responsibility of humans to find “more easy ways to good”! We are the first beings that can place humane stewardship above bloody survival in the service of the well-being of all living things].
- For example, it’s OK to “kill” another human being in a “just” war because it is not really “murder.” The quadrune mind model argues that “moral” reasons for killing are never justified spiritually. Moral arguments that we rebut on spiritual grounds include the Religious/Legalistic Argument, the Patriotic Argument, the Sectarian Argument, and the Love Argument. For details, see our blog post QM and Moral (But Not Spiritual) Arguments for Killing Other People. https://quadrunemind.com/2021/01/05/qm-and-moral-but-not-spiritual-arguments-for-killing-other-people/.
- My 90-year-old former professor, Donald, recently expressed this spontaneous, earnest opinion of human nature. He has given me permission to cite him. The purpose of the quadrune mind model is for us to help each other replace our “ignorance” with constructive awareness and “stupidity” with compassionate wisdom. In any event, his comment inspired me to conduct my informal, in-person survey of people’s descriptions of “human nature,” for which I am grateful to him. I thought it might be interesting to compare the answers with the respondent’s age, gender identity, and self-description.