In one sense, it seems fair to say that biologic drives supporting survival shaped the evolution of our brain and motivate our behavior; but this drive-based vision is tenable only as an abstraction and reflects the idea that evolution is shaped by purpose or motive rather than unfolding opportunity. All life forms – almost all without any nervous tissue – must consume energy and reproduce to survive; so this need does not explain the development of nervous tissue. To understand the forces that are actually responsible for our behavior, it is necessary to identify the special circumstances that led to the evolution of our brain.
Evidence suggests that brains evolved because some organisms, unable to meet energy needs through photosynthesis, gained an advantage by orienting to the environment to better find food in the world around them. In this context, the brain can be understood as a sensory information processor designed to maintain orientation. Granting this possibility, the ongoing need to maintain orientation is the immediate force shaping our behavior. Innate biologic drives supporting appetite and reproduction did eventually emerge because they promote survival, but only in the context of orientation, and only after the brain began to evolve. Because these drives are secondary, not the primary determinants of behavior, in many situations the need to maintain orientation can support behavior that works against the typically recognized life supporting drives.
The main sources of information supporting spatial orientation are gravity and light. According to Orientation Theory two major sensory systems have evolved to capture and process this information, and they have never fully integrated with the result each creates a distinctly different representation of reality and different patterns of information processing. We establish an identity, or sense of self, in each of these worlds. One self is tied to an external light-based reality and operates in a largely dependent posture while the other is linked to an internal abstract gravity-based sense of space and maintains an independent posture relative to the object world. The dependent external self is driven to survive but the independent self is capable of disregarding life imperatives. Remarkably, the capacity to ignore these dictates makes free will a reality despite biologic determination.
This liberty, however, comes at a price – not only because it can promote the decision to risk life – but also because the two sensory systems and the two selves can come into conflict, fostering psychological distress and under special circumstances, evenmajor mental illness.Orientation Theory explains how gravity and light and the sensory systems gathering the information they provide, shaped the evolution of our brain and continue to shape our behavior. Tying behavior to a biologic foundation, this theory explains how various forms of major mental illness are linked to each other across a spectrum of normal difference in sensory function and points to the possibility that man’s brain keeps both light and gravity-based time. The implication is that temporal disorganization may be the final common pathway for the expression of many of the different forms of major mental illness.
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