Re: Warrior-Magician-Lover-King and the Neurobiological Development of Becoming Fully Human ...
[Considerations of Magical Models, The Neurobiology of the Magical Child and Joseph Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey”]
Too bad you missed the most recent module of the Mytho2/8 program in the UK I think you would have found it fascinating. I developed an idea posed by Joseph Chilton Pearce in this book the “Magical Child” regarding neurobiological development in regard to the MythoSelf® Process model. This idea is based on quite substantial research into brain development in utero as well as afterwards up to about the age of twenty years or so. Then I mapped this over to the somatic/semantic (cognitive) forms that we use to promote this development and integration, what I’ve called “conscious evolution” for many, many years now.
In essence what you’ve laid out here as a “magical model” of the “Warrior-Magician-Lover-King” follows directly along with the neurobiological development that Dr. Pearce lays out that I refer to above. The human fetus’ brain develops forward from the brain stem or medulla oblongata along with the “hind brain” (CNS and peripheral nervous system) towards the “fore brain” or cerebellum/cerebral cortex (including the prefrontal cortex). The brain is pretty well developed at birth with the exception of the prefrontal lobes which develop significantly much later on (beginning at about fifteen to twenty years of age and continuing to develop at least through the age of thirty on average). What Dr. Pearce strongly references is that the brain must develop fully from the previous developmental stages to become fully developed at adulthood. If an early stage is not completed or fully developed the following development will suffer for it.
Now let’s do a little mapping shall we?
- Warrior – Brain Stem - Medulla Oblongata/Limbic System – reflex, instinctive, primal response ... sensory/motor skills integration ... i.e.: an impetus to action
- Magician – Right Hemisphere/Left Hemisphere – new learning, whole-form thinking, synthesis ... analysis, independent, deconstruction/reconstruction ... highly cross integrated through the corpus callosum ... capable of both isolated and systemic thinking in regard to outcome
- Lover – Cerebellum – relationship, judgment, interaction ... emotional response ... interpersonal considerations, contextual response
- King – Prefrontal Lobes – abstract/imaginative thinking ... future planning, outcome oriented ... can override the system and create “feed-forward” loops
This follows exactly along the path outlined by Dr. Pearce based on his neurological research. The Brain Stem – Medulla Oblongata developing rapidly and near completely by age one to two and continuing to integrate and develop incrementally through age seven at least. The Limbic System’s development kicks in strongly at age one and continues developing significantly through at least age eleven, it is well developed at age three (especially some of the sub-modules of the limbic system like amygdala response, i.e.: threat/anger/violence response). The Right Hemisphere development kicks in strongly at age four and continues rapidly developing and connecting with other brain modules through age fifteen - part of the key development of the right hemisphere is its interconnectivity with all other parts of the brain system. Then the Left Hemisphere’s major development begins around age seven (this is often regarded as the beginning of the end of “magical thinking”), significant leaps in independent, abstract thinking occur as the left hemisphere develops – including the ability to think in terms of manifesting in the world. The Cerebellum begins a rapid growth and developmental period at age eleven (around puberty) and leads to significant increases in the ability to make sense of both relationships and one’s place in the world in regard to others, in addition there is major growth in the ability to “read” people. At age fifteen the prefrontal lobes begin to develop and open fully, with this development future planning and the sense of destiny begin to develop as well, the individual becomes increasing capable of considering through-time implications and consequences in and on the system.
Beyond the “labels” Warrior-Magician-Lover-King, the system develops along a continuum for humans coming of age. What’s interesting about this from within the MythoSelf® Process model includes the idea that the organizing paradigm at each developmental stage is the individual or personal mythology. Then there’s the realization that people don’t necessarily complete the development of each stage either fully or with complete integration before the next phase of development has begun. This often becomes the work of a MythoSelf® Facilitator – to assist in the completion and integration of the developmental process of the individual, and then the individual in relation to their contextual surroundings. Additionally, the major theme of the MythoSelf® Process model is how this material is expressed and integrated in the body-mind system with the primary experience held somatically and triggered semantically. Updating the system and moving it forward towards the prefrontal lobes development becomes a theme of advanced MythoSelf® training. The allows the individual to both integrate their personal resources and themselves within the system that they occupy. From there they can begin to organize themselves and their actions in the world to generate the outcomes for themselves and others they are associated with (both near and far within the system as they choose) against the “match and fit” paradigm of the mythology they organized for themselves. This mythology, when free of the impositions and limitations of the inhibitory learning of their past, is the sense of “being” in relation to who they are endlessly “becoming.” In order to fulfill this mythology they must not only be present to the way they organize themselves in regard to the system, but also the way they organize the system in regard to themselves.
This last bit is the chasm even advanced MythoSelfers face as they develop along the evolutionary continuum offered in this model. What’s required is both the surrender to the experience of their lives and also the building of the capacity to hold the form intended regardless of the onslaught of evidence to the contrary. I’d suggest to you that this is a Mytho8 level consideration for most folks, and not for a “proper” discussion here and now. However, what’s interesting is how Joseph Campbell also seems to point to exactly the same developmental continuum without the neurobiological references, using mythological/symbolic references instead to pave the path.
What we’re doing here (in the MythoSelf® Process model) is to organize a “how-to” form to evolve along this continuum that integrates the somatic and semantic development in a particularly effective methodology that can be applied regardless of the evolutionary stage of development the individual is experiencing. The ability to go beyond the theory and research about “how come” with regards to neurobiological development and evolution to “how-to” is a significant factor of attention, focus and action in this model. Understanding for instance the specific ways to lead the system away from the inhibitory form to the excitatory form and the impact that has on learning and updating in the system is one example of the model’s form. Generating the updating in regard to systemic referencing rather than cognitive referencing so the default response becomes systemic is another. To bring the neurobiological form forward with this kind of exactitude requires a massive and deep learning that is itself integrated into the learning of MythoSelf® Facilitators.
I’d love to know if this matches and fits to your experience as well now that I’ve laid it out explicitly for you.
Best regards,
Joseph Riggio, Ph.D.
Architect and Developer of the MythoSelf® Process
PS – Program information and descriptions of the Mytho2 – MythoSelf® Facilitator’s Training program are available at http://www.mythoself.com ... open programs are running in both California and England now, get the full details at http://www.mythoself.com/Programs/Mytho2_-_MythoSelf__Facilitator_Training_Program_Description.asp
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