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from The Meaning of Life: Ascending Jacob’s Ladder by Hazy Notion
The root of the English word ‘emotion’ means to move up or to move out. To move a reluctant donkey along a mountain path two accessories are useful. The first is a carrot dangling in front of the donkey's nose to give it a reason to reach forward. The second is a sharp stick to prod into the donkey's behind to encourage it to move away from something. Similarly, there are two polarities of mind energy which act as complementary tools to encourage an identity to express itself and evolve. The carrot and the stick represent the complimentary motivators of attachment and aversion, desire/fear. They are the positive/negative emotional polarities of identity.
The positive polarity of the emotion, in the form of desire, encourages the identity to express itself by reaching forward to attain and hold onto something. Meanwhile, the negative emotion, in the form of fear, drives the identity away from the opposite of that which is desired; an attachment to warmth produces an equal and opposite aversion to cold.
This polarisation means that at any given point on the Spectrum there are two opposing emotions available. The situation can be grasped by imagining a cross. The vertical line represents upwards and downwards potential on the Spectrum, while the horizontal line represents a range of emotional expression within a given level of consciousness.
Figure 9 Status Polarities
The higher one goes on the Spectrum, the more refined the emotional polarities become. Each new Theme refines and modifies the quality of emotion.
Figure 10 Self and Mind Polarities
A person whose identity is functioning on the level of Survival of Self, and who has become fully conscious of this level, will have a horizontal emotional range between the compulsion to sustain personal existence, at one polarity, and the terror of death at the other. One Theme up the Spectrum on Fertility of Self the emotional polarities are refined into the more moderate motivators of desire and fear. That is, a desire for sexual expression and the opportunity to procreate, complemented by an equal and opposite fear of sexual rejection and infertility.
One further step up the Spectrum to Status of Self and the emotions have been further refined to a will/anxiety polarity. Finally, a more evolved person, whose identity has risen to Survival of Mind, will function with an emotional oscillation between love and courage.
There is clearly a problem in using common English words for a precise technical purpose like this. But these words are only intended to convey an approximate idea of the principle at work.
The relief a person experiences as a result of the emotional quality being refined by the evolutionary process is, of course, the principal incentive to evolve. The higher one goes, the better one feels. Given the choice who would not exchange compulsion and terror for love and courage?
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