Threat & Safety
Through a study of physiology, psychology and philosophy, this topic explores the perception of danger and how the human organism responds threat.
What is fear? Can I control it? Is that even desirable? How do we feel fear in the body? What are emotions? Can we measure emotion? Is there an emotional opposite to fear? Is it safety, or something else?
These were some of the questions explored in this extensive topic.
Detecting threat
By defining constructs like emotion and valence, the first task was to establish a context and a language to address this complex topic.
Recognising that psychological experiences are strongly influenced by the state of the body, the group then explored the specifics of how we detect threat & safety. This led us to researching Stephen Porges’ concept of “the sense of safety”; from our very first days of life, we relate to our environment within the context of what is safe and what is unfamiliar and therefore threatening.
Top-down and bottom up strategies
An important question explored by the group was that of top down vs bottom up self-regulation. Namely, in the context of risk, it always wise to consciously change and control my emotions?
Understanding emotion as the currency of a system working to keep you alive, and recognising that intuition sometimes offers information that the conscious mind does not know, it becomes clear that there is no universal answer to the question of whether you should trust your gut.
These questions created a context for conversation about how the conscious and unconscious parts of the psyche interact; a line of investigation expanded on in the subsequent topic: movement and the unconscious.
Research projects
To further explore the subject matter, group members were tasked to produce their own research material. One project that stood out was Daniel Peter’s Standing meditation at height.
In a rigorous fashion, Daniel explored his fear of heights through breath work, gradual exposure and recording biometric data.
You can read through Daniel’s project by following the link below.