By Joseph A. Bailey, II, M.D.
While starting in the mid-1970s to mentor struggling Black boys (i.e. those with Enslaved Minds) I was intrigued with their mysterious "certain sameness" in thinking patterns and ways of dealing with life in general. To hopefully discover its core, over the next 35 years I extensively studied Ancient African history (particularly around 5500 BC), African American Slave history, and contemporary Black American history. Satisfaction finally came on July 22, 2008 when it dawned on me to ask the right question: “What happened to the free African’s mind at the moment the fishnet was thrown over him/her in Africa?” That answer accounts for the "seed" which has branched into innumerable devastating daily living problems for tens of millions of Black People--a seed cultivated by the terrible Americas' slave trade and subsequent racism--a seed whose "strange fruit" often displays today as poor academia, a gang-oriented mindset, morbid obesity, and "The Negro Diseases" (those which shorten Black People's life span). Hence, this "Brain Switch" discovery can potentially help millions of Black victims whose "Mental Maafa" (immeasurable catastrophe) was and continues to be generated by evil and sadistic Europeans. Simply reverse it! The single most important effect of the fishnet was to immediately convert the normal thriving mind of each enslaved African into a "Fight, Flight, or Fright" emergency (Ancient Brain) survival mode. Associated with this Brain Switch have been ever mushrooming philosophical, spiritual, work, social, and custom disconnections from African Tradition. The effects of enslavement resulted in mental disorganization, chronic turmoil, "no doubt" hopelessness, and despair. Out of these effects + the Brain Switch have emerged every conceivable mindset/behavior pattern designed for self-preservation, self-protection, and enduring. After a few months the Emergency Instinct Brain mode down-graded to an Urgent Brain mode as new survival customs were being built into lifestyles. These mindset/behavior patterns continued throughout the hour-glass stricture of African American slavery and were culturally transmitted through the Struggling Tunnel connecting the Slaves quarters with today's inner cities.
Since my instant supposition was that the Brain Switch and the permanent use of their Emergency ("fight, flight, or fright") Brain accounted for my Mentees’ mysterious forms of thinking and behaving, it was urgent to learn more details of the Ancient Brain. In perusing the literature, it was amazing to discover "experts" consistently lumping into the Ancient Brain an assortment of incompatible thought/ behavior combinations. Examples of incompatibility with the Ancient Brain's normal role of orchestrating survival, self-preservation, and self-protection requirements included such incongruities as: “slavish conformance to old ways of doing things; racism; obsessive compulsive actions; aggression; territoriality; deception; the idea that might is right and winner take all; the equating of control with survival; and the serving as the center of the body’s vital functions (e.g. breathing, heart beat).”
It seemed evident to me there must be subdivisions of the Ancient Brain to separately account for instincts, a person’s “Dark Side,” and of whatever ranges in between those two. Thus, although authorities say humans have a Triune Brain (three brains-in-one), I propose the Ancient Brain has three unique subdivisions--the Instinct, the Brute, and the Omnibus, respectively--which would make for a "Quintaune Brain" (five brains-in-one). Furthermore, the Instinct Brain (what to do in emergencies without thought) is associated with the "Alarm Centers" of Fear and Rage. To a somewhat lesser degree, so is the Omnibus Brain (instincts with thought). The Brute Brain is of a different breed within this family of five and accounts for evil and sadistic deeds, as demonstrated by the European captors and today's racists. Ref: Bailey, Unlocking Minds of Black Boys; Bailey, Mentoring Minds of Black Boys.
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