The Mammal Brain is believed to be the seat of our value judgment, and thus has a great influence on behavior: it decides whether the higher brain has a “good” idea or not, based on whether it “feels” true and right or not, in other words, it subordinates logic to feelings. Since the Mammal Brain still tends to be dogmatic and paranoid and because of its tendency to hedonistic, pleasure seeking and pain avoiding behavior, its judgment of what is “good or bad” is mostly based on rationalizing desires instead of “thinking”.
For example, to use my earlier “broccoli vs, cookie” example, a young child, who has not yet have the ability (or limitation) of the complex rationalization of an adult, “thinks” and behaves mainly from the mammal brain’s point of view: I am hungry. I like the taste of cookies. I do not like the taste of broccoli. I want cookie.
She does not yet “think” rationally: I am hungry, and I prefer the taste of cookie to broccoli, but I know that cookie has a lot of sugar and sugar is not good for my health. Broccoli has lots of vitamins and good nutrients. I will eat the broccoli.
But, she also does not think this way: I will not eat cookies, because they will make me fat. If I am fat, no one will like me. I need to be skinny in order to fit in. Come to think of it, I will not eat the broccoli either. I am a bad person, for even thinking of eating all that food. I will starve myself to death.
And, she does not think: No one will ever love me, because I am fat. I am a looser, and I am not strong enough to stick to a diet or to exercise. I will always be fat, what is the use? Food is my friend. I will eat the whole box of the cookies, because I want to feel better.
The mammal brain “acts, feels, and behaves” like a stupid cow sometimes, and can’t muster enough thinking or problem solving skills to leave a burning barn, even if the gate is open, unless is directed and practically forced by a sheep dog. The mammal brain however is also the one who compels the loyal dog to run into a burning building, in order to save its master. It might “tell” us that starving ourselves to death is a good idea, in order to fit in, in order to be loved, but it is also the one responsible for us for the irrational, but heroic act of jumping in front of a moving car, or a speeding bullet to save our loved ones.
Literally in the middle between the reptilian and thinking brain, the mammalian brain is greatly influenced by both, and acts as a bridge, translator, negotiator and mediator between the two.
By becoming aware of how our emotions and memories form, their influence on our thinking and behavior, the way we perceive, create, interpret and react to our inner and outer reality, we can change the way we think, feel, the way we act, they way we react, we can change our experience of reality, in fact, we can change our reality.
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