/Status of the Surroundings
The foundational question a living organism asks is that “Is the potential of this which I am sensing of a beneficial or detrimental nature?”
/Self vs. Non-Self
Protecting one’s self requires being able to make the distinction between self and non-self. Protection requires weapons to address that which, at the boundary of the organism, is perceived as noxious, but also the means to control these weapons so that they do not result in “friendly-fire” incidents. When an organism’s ability to make this distinction is compromised, which is linked to hypervigilance as discussed in the section on Freeze/Contraction, autoimmune issues arise. These can express as a range of pathologies from RA, Fybromyalgia, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Gluten Sensitivity, etc.s
/Viscera
In our species, this type of protective response occurs throughout our system but is especially relevant to the function of our viscera, which dynamically regulates the interactions at the interface between our microbiome and the Intestinal Wall. Gut issues are linked to hypervigilance for threats at this physiological layer. This is discussed in more detail in the section on the:
Metabolic Core.
/Vigilance vs. Hypervigilance
/OPEN RECEPTIVE, CLOSED PROTECTIVE
/INFLAMMATION
/Boundary Sensing
As organisms swing from an operational to a protective state their normal functions shut down, and the available resources are reallocated to protection. Boundary sensing is discussed as a primary sensing modality in this paper:
BOUNDARY SENSING
META READING
Our Immune System is one layer of many that describe the evolutionary progression of protective responses. There is a discussion of this progression here:
MEANS AND METHODS
An overview of protective mechanisms as expressed in our species:
PROTECTION
An overview of the archetypes for which protection serves as a special case:
ARCHETYPES
An overview of all of the models dissecting the human experience presented on this website:
EVOLUTIONARY PARADIGMS