Human Evolution
For million of years, humans and pre-humans evolved exclusively as hunter-gatherers, living solely by hunting wild game and eating wild plant foods such as fruits, nuts, seeds, and tubers. It was only about twelve thousand years ago, when agriculture and animal husbandry methods were invented and began to spread, that any other lifestyle began to be possible for us. Although there has been some evolution in the past twelve thousand years – such as the spread of a genetic mutation that allowed people to digest milk as adults – all of the known genetic changes that have appeared during this time appear to have been relatively minor and superficial. So our brains and bodies are almost exclusively designed for a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, although only a tiny percentage of human beings still live, in scattered pockets of the world, as hunter-gatherers.
Addictive behavior is so extraordinarily common today almost solely because modern life confronts us with radically unnatural circumstances that we are simply not biologically well-equipped to deal with. The enormous disparities in wealth and status found in modern life, for example, have almost no parallel in our evolutionary history as hunter-gatherers. Before the invention of agriculture, such enormous status differences – except in rare cases – simply did not exist. Because we evolved primarily to live in hunter-gatherer bands, which are remarkably egalitarian, we are not well-equipped biologically to have strong feelings of "less than." A great deal of evidence suggests that people are far more prone to various psychological disorders when they feel they are "beneath" or "less than" other people. The Answer Model proposes that various unnatural aspects of modern life trigger feelings of "less than" in many people, which throw them into survival mode and make them highly prone to various emotional, behavioral, and substance addictions.
Addictive behavior is so extraordinarily common today almost solely because modern life confronts us with radically unnatural circumstances that we are simply not biologically well-equipped to deal with. The enormous disparities in wealth and status found in modern life, for example, have almost no parallel in our evolutionary history as hunter-gatherers. Before the invention of agriculture, such enormous status differences – except in rare cases – simply did not exist. Because we evolved primarily to live in hunter-gatherer bands, which are remarkably egalitarian, we are not well-equipped biologically to have strong feelings of "less than." A great deal of evidence suggests that people are far more prone to various psychological disorders when they feel they are "beneath" or "less than" other people. The Answer Model proposes that various unnatural aspects of modern life trigger feelings of "less than" in many people, which throw them into survival mode and make them highly prone to various emotional, behavioral, and substance addictions.
Homeostasis
Fortunately, evolution has also equipped us with an almost magical capacity that acts to bring us back into psychological and physical balance, or homeostasis, whenever we become distressed or out-of-balance. The ancient biological drive to homeostasis, which is a fundamental principle in biology, is probably the most powerful force in all living things. In simple organisms, like the single-celled diatom shown in the photograph to the left, the homeostatic drive acts at a cellular level to automatically restore the proper balance of minerals and nutrients within each cell. But in humans, the homeostatic drive also involves complex emotional states and the decisions that those emotional states influence and inform. The Answer Model proposes that the True Self – or the authentic self – is a manifestation of the ancient biological drive to homeostasis and that it maintains homeostasis both at these higher emotional levels, and also at the lower cellular levels. All addiction patterns and behaviors, on the other hand, arise from the "false self," and dysfunctionally drive us away from biochemical and psychological balance.
The Answer Model suggests that the modern human psyche is fractured between two "magnetic" forces: one that arises from the false self, and that compels us to derive dysfunctional biochemical payoffs from out-of-balance, survival-mode states, such as unnecessary pain and anxiety; and one that arises from the True Self and that leads us to seek payoffs that are released by healthy, homeostatic states, such as love, emotional connection, healthy eating, healthy sex, and play. The survival-mode states that addiction uses to deliver unhealthy biochemical payoffs will, for example, inhibit playfulness in both humans and other animals. In human beings, the primal play instinct that is seen in nearly all animals has been expanded into every conceivable realm, including humor, art, literature, and music. The Answer Model teaches people how to overcome addictive patterns by becoming more conscious of how those patterns operate. Overcoming addictive patterns allows us connect to our authentic selves so that we can derive healthy payoffs from states such as pure play and states of "flow," in which we are fully absorbed in something that is profoundly satisfying to us.
