Do Humans Have Instincts??

[Boerseun]

We are beings of instinctual light energy .. Yes :)

Proof = (?)

[ronthepon]

Uhhh... whats that?

[HappytheStripper]

Proof = (?)

 

Step in front of the mirror .. how do you see yourself ?? Well don't be too hard .. the proof is the reflection that stares back at you ..

 

Read up!! The reflection is actually light energy .. interfaced ..

 

If evolution which I am assuming to be true .. is correct .. we evolved from animals .. instincts and all ..

 

Do you need to see it to believe it for yourself ?? Keep looking .. one day you will know it!!

 

Kind Regards

 

Ashley ..

[ronthepon]

I still don't get the meaning of instintual light energy.

[HappytheStripper]

We are light beings .. with instincts ..

 

We use these instincts not as a matter of thought .. more as a matter of reflex .. prompted by external influences ..

 

Survival of the fittest I think is a statement that sums it up .. !!

[MagnetMan]

We are beings of instinctual light energy .. Yes :confused:

 

Precisely! All else is an intricate, brilliant, dream.:confused:

[HydrogenBond]

Humans have a set of natural instincts. These are modified by the cultural environment until they become less natural, often to the point they appear not to exist. For example, if one started with two puppies from the same litter, and made one puppy a house dog and the other was left outside so it could fend for itself, the outside dog, without a lot of human intervention would make use of its natural instincts to survive. The inside dog would form aberrated instinct dependant on the cultural environment created by the owner. It may become a neurotic baby for the owner.

 

After a few years, swap the two dogs with the inside dog left out and the outside dog left in. The inside dog left out will wail, because it no longer knows how to function in the natural environment. The inside dog will be happy to be in, but will be looking out the window trying to get back out. It is not really comfortable being natural in an unnatural environment.

 

If you left an open door so they could come and go, the outside dog will prefer be outside while the inside dog will prfer be inside. They will peak into each other's world but be more comfortable in their own.

[HydrogenBond]

This last post indirectly answered the question of whether humans have instincts. We are born with natural instincts. The baby knows enough to suckle to eat and cry when hungry even before it is conscious of the world around it. If anyone has been around young children, they go through a change when they begin school, with the little free animal sacrificed in exchange for new social constraints. They lose their original impulsive innocents and become more aware of social protocol, both good and bad. When children enter adolescence, they become awakened sexually. All the turbulence of adolescence is this natural instinct coming in contact with temporal programming and social expectation.

 

Although the natural instinct is changing, it remains the foundation, with social instinct building upon the natural instinct foundation. Although natural instinct is collective human, i.e, same for all humans, the social instinct is more temporal and cultural. Social instinct makes us unique and distinct in space and time. While natural instinct is how we are the same with other humans from the beginning of humanity.

 

Theoretically, if one build social instinct from the ground up, without deviating too far away from natural instinct, while taking the best that the modern world can offer, there would only one human family in the world.

[Boerseun]

I've read that humans have three natural fears:

The fear of falling, of darkness, and of loud noises. It makes sense to me in a kooky way, but if this is the case, it should be instinctive, no? Obviously, it varies in degrees - you'll get a guy who walks a tightrope in the dark near a blasting zone, but there seems to be some truth to it...

[Moontanman]

True some of that.

 

But I'm talking instinct. Stomach growling - you know you need food. (and you can consciencely Not eat or drink or screw)

thats pursuit of maintaining Homeostasis, blood sugar levels..

 

I'm thinking...

Like Salmon instinctually return to the streams they are spawned from.

 

Migratory Birds who follow a Magnetic Flight pattern.

 

Stuff you DO NOT think about. It simply happens WITHOUT thought!!!

 

???

 

Wheres Tormod and Clay when you need them?? :eek: :lol: :hihi:

 

I have always been able to guess the time and direction with out any outside clues. Is that instint? Of course theres the old, my end stinks but it doesn't tell me anything!

 

Michael

[Qfwfq]

Instinct is essential to survival when experience isn't of help. Drop a baby into water that's too deep for it to stand in and you can be sure it'll start to swim. That isn't experience. Species such as ours need instinct less as they learn, that's why it's harder to show humans have them; you can argue any reaction is acquired unless you're sure the person hadn't some previous experience. Further, the more a species relies on learning the less strongly instinctive each individual's behaviour will become as it ages.

 

How do we know the salmon is not acting reflexively?

A reflex is peripheral nervous system. A muscular contraction triggered by a rather elementary sensory input. Complex behaviour on the basis of recognizing something in surroundings is not the peripheral nervous system.

[InfiniteNow]

A reflex is peripheral nervous system. A muscular contraction triggered by a rather elementary sensory input.

I perhaps chose my word inappropriately. Thanks for noting this.

 

Complex behaviour on the basis of recognizing something in surroundings is not the peripheral nervous system.

I'm curious what you determine to be complex behavior. The collective neural stimulation of our bodies is rather complex indeed, even if some signal aggregates result in local muscular group contraction. Local pain response systems themselves are immensely complex interplays of systems.

 

I'm relatively confident that you and I are on the same page, that it's important to distinguish local reflexive motion from behavioral change attributed to "instinct," but I found the absolutism in your quote requiring of clarification. If you'd care to elaborate, I think it would prove beneficial to the dialog at hand. :)

[Michaelangelica]

I remember a charming story of John Steinbeck's in his rambling book "Travels with Charley"

He says he was in a boat emporium standing next to a nice wooden boat when he noticed most males would come up to the boat an rap on the hull with their knuckles/fist. Like knocking on a wooden door. He was fascinated by this strange behaviour and stood there for an hour watching a steady stream of people knocking on the boat.

So where does that behaviour come from?

John Steinbeck hypothesized that it might go back to very early racial memory of boats where a 'knock' could tell you if the boat is sound or rotten. As lives depended on the soundness of the boat, this "knocking" was a good test.

 

 

Smell reactions too, I think, can be instinctive. Pheronomes, of course; but Taronga Zoo in Sydney has a "Jungle Cave" that goes around the back of the lion's cage and you can get quite close to the lions. The deeper you went into the cave the stronger the smell of lions. I am far from claustrophobic (having spent lots of my youth caving) but I was overwhelmed by an intense, irrational fear and had to run out of the cave.

 

I'm sure it was the smell of "predator" that triggered this irrational behaviour.

But where did it come from?

They were the first lions I had met at close quarters.

Racial memory? or Jung's "collective Unconscious"?

[Queso]

The lion was really the only major predatorial threat to man kind for a LONG time. Tribes had to overcome their fear of the lions, and when one would come within proximity of the tribe, many men would shields and spears would go off and surround the lion entirely in a circle.

The lion would then pick who he had to charge, and that man would spear the lion, killing it.

This went on and on for thousands of years. Probably even longer.

 

I'm sure there are instincs buried deep in your DNA (or wherever they come from) in regards to lions.

The smell of a lion would probably turn me into Warrior mode.(Thank you Tae Kwon Do)

I'm very sensitive to pheromones, and never smelled a lion.

(In this life)

[crrider94]

Hmmm... I don't know... maybe like walking toward the edge from the roof of a 10 story building and realizing you should back up before you fall... Even children back up.

 

humans have reflees.

one quality of an instinct is you don't have the choice to do the opposite.

if backin up was an instinct, then there would be no such thing as anyone jumping off of a roof.

it is a reflex because we have a natural fear of heights. its a reflex.

people have jumped off roofs before in suicide, and some base jumpers... if it was an instinct, this would be impossible.

us wanting to eat... reflex.

us breathing.. reflex

we have the choice to stop it.

we have the choice to not eat or breath... therefore, no instinct

[crrider94]

Babies cry when hungy? Why? Is that learned? No, it's an inborn tendency to respond in a particular way.

 

We suckle at our mothers nipple... didn't have to be taught that one.

Smile when nice people are around us.

 

 

I am having a tough time thinking of references to what babies do without having been taught, but I think that's your angle if you're to prove your point.

 

Maybe some of the parents out here can help out with some examples (that is, of course, if they agree that humans have instincts and that the behavior of infants is an adequate way to demostrate this)

 

a baby crying is a reflex. not an instinct. it is not an inborn tendency.. you people have to realize.. just because that babies do things without being taught, like breathing, it's not an inborn tendency.. is a reflex... it's a response.. not an instinct!

[sman]

a baby crying is a reflex. not an instinct. it is not an inborn tendency.. you people have to realize.. just because that babies do things without being taught, like breathing, it's not an inborn tendency.. is a reflex... it's a response.. not an instinct!

 

Reflexes are instinct...I'm allright with that. But surely there are instincts that are not reflexes. The alternative is a blank slate model of human nature. We are the sum of our experiences and nothing more - except for reflex. Is this your proposition?