From Whence We Came

The Ancestral Mind: Reclaim the Power
by Gregg Jacobs, Ph.D.

Why, at a time we're better off materially and live longer than any generation in history, are depression and stress reaching epidemic rates? As Dr. Gregg Jacobs argues, emerging scientific research suggests our emotional well-being is suffering due to our overreliance on the Thinking Mind - the rational, verbal, self-conscious part of ourselves. In the course of history we have gradually become severed from a deeper, older part of our humanity. Dr. Jacobs offers a practical program for re-engaging with this indelible part of our being, explaining how to access life-enhancing positive emotions while minimizing negative ones; connect with a more intuitive intelligence and foster a deeper, expanded sense of daily awareness; and achieve a more integrated concept of self through a closer harmony of intellect and emotion.

If you look at all the things money can buy today, there's no question that we're better off than any generation in history.

In the industrialized world, we're blessed with an abundance of choice in every aspect of life. We have PalmPilots and cell phones and e-mail to help us work more efficiently. We have CD players and wide-screen TVs for wall-to-wall diversion, and a cable channel for every conceivable interest. We have comfortable cars outfitted with all sorts of gadgets, and, theoretically, at least, we could jump on a jet on any day of the week and be anywhere in the world in a matter of hours. We have so much food that we struggle to stay thin. We have safe homes whose climate can be controlled at the touch of a finger. We have a life expectancy a good forty years longer than the average person a century ago.

So why aren't we happy?

With all these toys and gadgets and conveniences, with all these luxuries available to us, why is there so little satisfaction in our day-to-day living? Why do we hear such a litany of complaints from comfortable, middle-class people, all variations on the theme of "I have no time for myself"? Why do so many of us describe our lives as being under "constant pressure" with "too much to do"?

In short, why do we feel so frustrated and so frequently stressed?

As a psychologist working in one of the world's most prominent mind/body clinics, I can tell you that if you experience such problems they are not "all in your mind." Thirty years after the emergence of mind/body medicine, it's estimated that 75 to 90 percent of all health-care visits still result from stress-related health problems, and that stress is costing American industry a conservatively estimated $150 billion dollars per year in absenteeism, company medical expenses, and decreased productivity.

Sleep problems. Digestive disorders. Headaches. Anxiety. Depression. Anger and hostility. Alcoholism and drug abuse. Heart disease. Such stress-related conditions have become epidemic in an affluent, high-tech culture that prides itself on running twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Most us have suffered from one or more of these maladies, and for many of us, the symptoms of stress themselves become chronic, and thus another source of stress.

The four best-selling drugs in the nation today are for stress-related health problems: ulcer medications, hypertension treatments, tranquilizers and sleeping pills, and antidepressants. As a nation, we spend an astonishing $650 million per year on sleeping pills alone. Four million Americans abuse prescription drugs, and are addicted to tranquilizers, stimulants, or painkillers. One of the great ironies of modern life is that, despite the new global connectedness brought about by the telecommunications revolution, we feel increasingly disconnected from ourselves, from others, and from our world. This disconnect is the source of a chronic anxiety. Many of us sense that something is missing in our lives and that, in our hectic existence, focused on getting and spending, on having more and achieving more, we've come to neglect our emotional well-being.

The consequence is an emotional malaise that has undermined our capacity for health and happiness and left us feeling drained as well as confused about how to find meaning. Prozac has become today's vitamin; television today's tranquilizer; and loss of simple joy in life an all-too-common predicament.

An Ageless Treatment for Modern Times

I have a prescription for changing this sorry state of affairs. In this book I want to introduce you to an extraordinary, scientifically validated program for improving emotional well-being, reducing illness, easing stress-related symptoms, and countering many of the stress-related causes of death in modern society.

This program is not the type that involves behaviors like eating wisely and exercising conscientiously. It is, rather, an approach that actually feels good, and has immediate results. Over time it can bring back the pleasure in living that so many of us have lost. It accomplishes this by enhancing mind/body control, and by producing a mental state that both minimizes unhealthy negative emotions and promotes powerful, life-enhancing positive ones.

If such a device for increasing our inner peace and our sense of well-being were developed today and locked behind an ironclad patent, its inventor could get very rich. But the fact is, the source of these benefits is older than humanity itself. We don't have to adopt something new to improve our lives; what we need is to reengage with a very, very old, very powerful mechanism that has been lost in all the clutter and noise of our modern, technological existence.

And the best part is that this potent antidote to the ravages of stress and enhancement to health and positive emotions actually lies within us. It is a neglected and even disparaged part of ourselves that I call the Ancestral Mind.

We are all familiar with the part of our brains that is the Thinking Mind, the rational, conscious part that processes information, solves problems, and generally helps us make our way through our everyday lives. Western civilization has been built on it, and we have it to thank for most of our material comforts. For all its benefits, however, it is the Thinking Mind (TM, for short) and its products that are also responsible for most of our stresses. Making matters worse, the modern world of commerce is predicated on the belief that the TM is our only mind. We've lost sight of the fact that there's another part of ourselves that is accessible to us as a resource for comfort and balance and relief.

The rise to dominance of the Thinking Mind, and the consequent subversion of the Ancestral Mind (AM), is a story as old as human history, but it entered a new phase about four hundred years ago.5 It was at about this time that the French philosopher René Descartes uttered his famous phrase "I think, therefore I am." The West was entering the Age of Reason, which gave rise to the Industrial Revolution, which in turn was the foundation for the modern world as we know it today.

© 2003 Penguin, a division of Penguin Putnam, used by permission.

About the Author

Gregg D. Jacobs, Ph.D., is assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, senior research scientist at Harvard's Mind/Body Medical Institute, a research scientist at the Laboratory of Neurophysiology at Harvard Medical School, and the author of Say Goodnight to Insomnia.