The Life Drive

There is something called “Life’ that is in us and all other living things.  Life distinguishes all living things from the non-living world of rocks, earth, air, sand, and all other things in the non-living world.

In the collective and individual human mind, Life comes to us from our vision-based right brain.  Of course, Life goes much deeper into life History than our right brain….but, the closest touch our mind has with the Life Drive comes to us from our vision-based right mind.  Vision has led Darwinian survival on this planet for 570 million years, and Life has been both the drive and the objective.

We can treat Life as an unknown black box and use it as a beacon to guide us. In fact, that is exactly what our species has done ever since we emerged from the vision-based animal world.  Our earliest ancestors, who began to acquire knowledge with our developing left brain, must have been awe-struck by the power, harmony, beauty, size, and wonders of the world that surrounded them and in which they were inescapably immersed.  We have been in awe of our surroundings from the beginning and recognized some sort of an ultimate force behind them.  We are still in awe.

God became the symbol and representative of the ultimate force of Life.  This seems a fact and matters not whether you adhere to a belief about God.  God does represent the ultimate force behind Life.

Belief in God is one way of seeking the force behind Life.  The Islamic civilization and, to a lesser extent, Western Civilization, seek the truth about Life through God.  The West also uses science in its quest to seek truth in Life.  However, science is left brain and cannot be in touch with Life to the same depth as the right brain.  Eastern civilizations seek truth in Life by seeking Tao, enlightenment, harmony with Nature, etc.  This is simply another way to seek the truth in Life.

Life success, so far as we know, is governed by Darwinian struggle to survive.  Darwinian “survival of the fittest” is the strategy that Life uses to survive and succeed.  This seems irrefutable given the scrutiny of more than a century of science. But there is something in Life that drives the Darwinian survival.  Something inside Life drives it to survive.  All forms of Life, including homo Sapiens, have an intangible Life Drive that propels each species into the Darwinian struggle for survival. 

All life forms contain the Life Drive and are pursuing its direction or goal – whatever that is.  Our species, although it has been immensely successful, is still in a Darwinian survival quest.  Our major Civilizations, which represent the current organization of the collective mind of our species, are oriented towards the Truth in Life.  The West, which engages the left brain more than the others, has been painfully shown that it must include a strong orientation towards the Truth in Life that comes from our right brain.

What is the Life Drive that we seek or towards which we are oriented?  We cannot know exactly what it is.  However our species, even after the addition of our wondrous left brain, remains oriented towards the Ultimate Truth about Life that comes to us from our right brain.  Darwinian survival of any species depends upon survival of the group.  The sense of “group” is deeply embedded in vision-based cognition.  It is not a coincidence that our greatest satisfaction comes when we satisfy or meet group needs. 

Survival of the species depends upon meeting the group needs…this is a part of all animals, we humans, and, indeed, all forms of Life.  We can feel the Life Drive coming to us from our vision-based right brain.