The discovery of neural imprinting could be one of the four most important intellectual achievements of the human race. The other three are: the Einsteinian-quanlum-mechanical equations involving space-time-energy; the astronomical location of earth in the highly populated galaxy; and the decoding of the genetic-evolutionary process which makes possible bio-chemical longevity, genetic control and symbiotic communication.

Understanding of the sequential imprinting of the nervous system adds the fourth card to the Psi-Phy deck.

Imprinting is the process by which neural circuits mediating specific neuro-umbilical survival behaviors (along paths of discharge laid out in advance) select the stimulus in the environment, internal or external, which determines the timing and direction and object of the discharge.

The imprint is a neuro-umbilical life-line extended from the nervous system to that energy cluster on the planetary surface that offers material, survival stimuli. Once attached, the larval nervous system is hooked for life - unless retracted by accidental trauma; or retracted deliberately - in which case post-larval contelligence is attained.

The facts about imprinting originally came from the science of ethology, "The comparative study of animal behavior under natural conditions or of laboratory study which utilizes methods and problems suggested by field observations," (William Etkin).

Konrad Lorentz and Nico Tinbergen were recently (1973) awarded the Nobel Prize for their pioneering work in this field.

The most fascinating aspect of the imprinting process is this; the original selection of the external stimulus which triggers off the pre-designed response does not derive from a normal learning process but a short exposure during a brief, specific "critical period" of the animal's life.

The infant body is like a space ship floating on the strange new planet. The imprint is a life-line extended in blind robot fashion groping for hospitable surface to which it attaches and roots - thus creating the reality island.

"If imprinting is not accomplished during the first few days of existence, it will not "take" at any other time. Such an animal will fail to respond appropriately to any other animal, and no amount of association with members of its species will bring out the response." (Etkin.)

It has been found that "if young birds are handled by the experimenter during their first few hours of life, they will thereafter react to him and to other human beings as they normally would to their parents." The groping neuro-umbilical attaches to the first warm, moving body it contacts.

"Most remarkable, indeed, is the fact that when the animal which has been imprinted to a human being becomes mature many months later, it will show courting responses to humans even in preference to its own species. Hand-trained birds commonly display courting behaviors to the trainer's hands."

The implications of imprinting theory applied to human behavior are embarrassing to our rational conceptions of self, ego, conscious choice; indeed, they suggest an ontological helplessness which takes on the dimensions of a Sci-Fi robot tale. The neurological situation is as follows: The human body is made up of many receiving organs and discharge systems which are controlled by the nervous system, a communication network of some thirty billion cells. Each organ of the body is wired by a complex pattern of nerve fibres. Each neuron receives, evaluates and transmits information to as many as 60,000 other neurons. The particular wiring pattern which triggers off each organ and action system of the body is programmed by imprinted stimuli. The specific stimulus which activates each neuro-umbilical survival system is determined by accidental coincidence - the external factors present during the "sensitive period." Human Beings are robots programmed and directed by neural imprints which trigger off standardized discharge patterns in response to accidentally imprinted cues.

The newborn baby is equipped with the behavior patterns necessary for immediate survival: to turn towards the mothering stimulus and suckle. Shortly after birth the baby's nervous system takes a picture, i.e. focuses all the sensory equipment on the soft, warm, milk-producing stimulus and permanently photographs this picture as "survivally good" and safe. If this viscerotonic imprint is not taken because of absence during the critical period of the appropriate stimulus, the basic "survival security" system is not effectively wired-up to human contacts.[1]

A most crucial aspect of neural imprinting is that the four larval neural circuits unfold chronologically. Each of the four neuro-umbilical life-lines is extended in turn when each neural circuit emerges.

For example, before adolescence the sexual circuit is rudimentary. During adolescence dramatic physiological and anatomical changes occur in the primary and second­ary sexual organs. These changes are so pronounced that we might with wisdom speak of a metamorphosis analogous to the transformation of the insect from larva to butterfly. At this time the neural circuit which mediates sexual activity unfolds. There is a critical or "sensitive" period of sexual imprinting. The sexual antennae emerge and blindly scan for a place to root.

The first time the sexual system is fired in all-out response, a sexual imprint is taken. The state of activity of the entire neural system at the time of imprint determines the way the sexual system is wired - i.e. the cues which arouse it. The sensory, emotional, mental and social stimuli form a pattern (sexual climate) which facilitates subsequent arousal and discharge.

The accidental vicissitudes of Fourth Circuit sexual imprinting have been well known to psychiatrists. Early erections and orgasms can create kinky fetishes.

The mechanics and neurologic of the mental symbolic Third Circuit imprint are less familiar. The acquisition of speech and manipulative behavior involves a special imprinting of third brain wiring of laryngeal and manual muscles. Thinking is accomplished by moving the nine muscles of the larynx. During the period when the child is mastering speech, the mental style of the contiguous human models is being absorbed. These models are parents, and, more important, older children. The tender tendrils of symbolic mental activity are extended. This is a most vulnerable period. The mental styles and emotional models of the people in the environment determine whether the child's mind is open, trusting, or withdrawn, rejecting.

The child imprints (wires up) a specific method of thinking. Once this intellectual pattern is imprinted, subsequent education has little effect on the modes of mental manipulation. The eight cognitive modes used by the laryngeal-muscle-mind are described in Chapter 3 of The Eight Calibre Brain. The imprint attaches to the model present at the critical period of extension.

A central concept in exo-psychology is this notion of personal neural-reality, which differs from person to person. Each of us deals with a world which is defined by a unique pattern of neural wires and fixed umbilical life-lines. Just as we can try to understand the emerging stages of human development by analogy to the metamorphosis of insects (since we are too close to the situation to appreciate metamorphosis in ourselves), so we can understand the electro-neural uniqueness of "reality" by considering the consciousness islands of other species.

Consider the snake. Observing with our optical scanners we "see" a mouse run across the floor and a snake turn its head and strike. We assume that the snake "sees" what we see: a furry, brown animal. A study of the snake's neural receptors indicates, however, that the snake uses heat receptors to locate prey. What the snake senses is a neon spot of "warm" moving across its screen. It is robot programmed to strike at "heat."

Human beings often interact across similar "reality" gulfs. They are robot-programmed as differently among the selves as the human and the snake.

Humans vary in the number of L.M. languages they can exchange. Some, the most primitive, communicate only in the oral dialect of their childhood neighborhood and can manipulate only the simple muscle-moved artifacts of village life.

The highly civilized larval has mastered hundreds of L.M. symbol systems. An educated Russian or American can speak and write each other in several languages, cooperatively manipulate a wide variety of mechanical artifacts, professional sequences, scientific codes, sports and game rituals.

In communicating with a larval, once it has been established by non-verbal cues that Circuit 1 is safe and Circuit 2 is cooperative, the next step is to establish which L.M. muscle-thought languages are shared and can be appropriately exchanged. Most larval interactions are brief and limited. Artifact transactions. Buying. Selling. Service performances. Superficial socializing designed to elicit cultural reassurance. Extended L.M. symbol conversations are loaded with complexity because emotional factors inevitably intrude. The giving of information to others is often resented because the possession of information implies power.

The Third Circuit of the nervous system is activated when the young child is in a position of weakness. Those who teach the L.M. symbol systems are adults or superiors. The ability to learn symbols is determined by the emotional context - the person with the information is placed in a superior position over the receiver.

The nervous system is interconnected by means of synaptic links. The synapse is the gap between two neurons across which the nerve impulse flows. The synaptic connection is chemical, just as chemicals "fix" the photographic image on film, so is the neural image of the island-reality "fixed" by synaptic chemical bonds at the time of imprinting.

The robot truth is this: the patterns of neural connection create the picture of reality.

The human nervous system imprints social cues. A child growing up finds a certain stability and consistency in the social cues SHe imprints. Hir parents speak the same language, share rituals with the family next door. This consensual agreement provides the illusion of a "reality" shared with those in Hir culture group. "Sanity" is defined in terms of one's ability to convince oneself that SHe perceives what others do. Festinger and other social psychologists have conducted "cognitive dissonance" experiments which show how easily and naturally human beings distort objective data to fit neural expectations.

Social consciousness is a web of neuro-umbilical fabrication woven by conditioning and continual adaptive distortion.

We believe what we are imprinted to believe. We think that the tiny turf to which our neuro-umbilical life-lines attach is "reality."

The fact of separate, subjective realities based on individual imprints (reality islands) is frightening for the pre-neurological human to accept. We recall the parable of the eight blind men and the elephant. This separateness accounts for the terror that is felt in the presence of an "insane" person. In many cases the person called "insane" or "hallucinating" is actually aware of the neural insulation which separates people and might be considered more sane and accurate than the deluded "normals." Ontological terror is the naive reaction to the discovery that there are other realities beyond one's own imprint and learned neural patterns.

We have used the metaphor of neuro-umbilical life-lines to describe the attachment of the nervous system to local environments via imprint. Security means that the imprinted life-lines are securely fastened to a stable island-reality.

Another metaphor often used by neurologicians to describe the creation and limitation of subjective reality by imprint is the "bubble." Castaneda's don Juan gives a good description of the reality-of-the-imprint which he calls tonal.