Human Nature & the Evolutionary Process, Part 4

Cellular Memory
Something we can attribute our programming to is cellular memory. The mechanism of cellular memory patterns actions and behaviors into our subconscious, without our conscious help. This process is always happening. It is our natural learning system, and without it we wouldn’t be able to survive. Whatever we repeat, we remember on a deep level — whether these actions are physical, mental, or emotional. We see this on its simplest level when a young child mimics the behavior of others. After just a short time of mimicking, the child exhibits this behavior automatically, without thinking. This is why the multiplication tables are taught through repetition; eventually, children remember the answer without having to think about it. This is how long-term learning works. Cellular memory is what allows long-term learning. It is also what often keeps us trapped in habitual, non-productive behaviors. And, it can also enable us to tap into the positive forces of evolution and overcome old, negative, conditioned patterns of thinking and behavior.

Cellular memory is distributed throughout the body; much cellular learning happens in the brain, but much happens in the rest of the body as well. Nerve impulse travels between ten and three hundred feet per second, depending on the diameter of the nerve cells along the pathway. If reflex memory were stored entirely in the brain, its signals wouldn’t be able to reach the limbs quickly enough. A lot of reflex memory is stored in the spine. Otherwise, none of us would be able to appreciate the beauty of an arpeggio on the piano or the artistry of Roger Federer on the tennis court — the communication between the player’s head and hands would take too long. All of the cells involved in a muscular response are permanently affected by repetitive learning, and contribute to the response. This is also true with mental and emotional responses.

Recent research in neurobiology shows that a substance called myelin coats neurons as a kind of insulating agent. This insulation thickens as an action is repeated. Neurobiologists believe that this insulating process works to keep a strong signal between neurons by preventing electrical impulses from leaking out. The thicker the myelin, the faster and more accurately the signals travel. This is the physiological process that results in cellular memory.

The problem is that over the years we have programmed many negative behaviors – or as I prefer to call them, less-than-optimal responses— into our cellular memory. And when certain actions or behaviors are ingrained in our cellular memory, it becomes more difficult, though not impossible, to change them.

On one level, we are amazingly complex beings who can speak a multitude of languages and create mind defying inventions and masterpieces of art. On another level, we are incredibly simple beings, much like Pavlov’s dogs, whose repetitive behaviors etch patterns into our cells, for good and ill. It happens automatically.

We have all heard that we are creatures of habit; this is our cellular memory at work. With a computer, we type something in to the hard drive once, and it’s there whenever we wish to access it. For humans, it takes a certain amount of repetition until something is patterned. With cellular memory, however, there is no delete button. Once something is in the cells, it is there for life, unless we pattern something else in, which unfortunately takes an even more concerted, yet identical effort.

Deeply Programmed Behavior
Competitive behavior has been deeply wired into most people’s cellular memory. The fact that many people find it difficult to imagine an alternative to competitive behavior shows how deeply programmed this belief has become. Psychologist Alfie Kohn has observed: “That most of us fail to consider the alternatives to competition is a testament to the effectiveness of our socialization. We have been trained not only to compete but to believe in competition.” Along these lines, sociologist David Riesman has stated, “First we are systematically socialized to compete — and to want to compete — and then the results are cited as evidence of competition’s inevitability.”

A great example of this socialization is in youth sports. Before children’s minds have developed to the point where they can think independently for themselves, they are put into competition against one another. Of course they are going to believe that being competitive with each other is the way life is — because the authority figures in their lives are telling them that this is how it is, and so it seems natural.

This competitive belief is so much a part of our being that it is like air to us. It is all around us, so familiar that we often can’t see it, so ingrained that we instinctively reach for it, imagining that our survival depends upon it. Few people question the rightness, effectiveness or inevitability of competition. Like oxygen, we can’t imagine living without it; unlike oxygen, we can actually thrive without it.

Another factor accounts for people’s reluctance to shift from an unhealthy competitive model to a healthy but unfamiliar non-competitive model. Most of us naturally resist change, are reluctant to take risks, and wish to avoid uncertainty. We tend to stick with what is familiar even if it isn’t working well for us. This is the why people stay in abusive relationships, unpleasant and unsatisfying jobs, and continue to repeat ineffective behaviors.

Yet healthy change almost always involves some discomfort and resistance. For a variety of reasons, old patterns die hard. I will show in the following chapters that, despite any difficulties that may arise in the process of changing from a competitive to a non-competitive system, the benefits of making the shift will be extraordinary and culturally transforming. Millions of people over many generations have been “defeated” and turned off to learning by our competitive educational system. It is time to undo that harm by changing the system that inflicts it.

I will also show how the Effortless Learning program has proven that we can learn and excel in a non-competitive environment; undo old limiting physical and psychological habits and patterns and replace them with new positive ones; have more fun in the learning process; and even go on to succeed in a competitive environment if we so desire. A non-competitive learning model will help adults transcend the damage done by years of immersion in an unhealthy competitive system. It will keep children from ever being subjected to this damage, and in the process will produce great champions, and a healthier human race.

In the end, whether competition is part of human nature or not isn’t as important as the fact that we have the ability to alter our programming and fulfill our greater potential as individuals and as a species. This book suggests that a different kind of learning can replace an old, outdated, limited program with a new more healthy and effective program for learning and for living. Before we examine the benefits of non-competitive learning and the solutions this approach offers, it is necessary to fully illuminate the issues and problems with the current competitive system.