A model of the brain in eight circuits

according to Robert Anton Wilson and Timothy Leary

THE EIGHT CIRCUITS:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Bio-Survival
Enotional-Territorial
Laryngeal-Manual
Socio-Sexual
Neurosomatic
Neuro-Electric
Neurogenetic
Neuro-Atomic

BIO-SURVIVAL
(Autonomic) (physical Intelligence)
Level of Reality: Invertebrate
Drug Trigger: Opiates
Function: Mother-Child bonding
Circuit #:384
Gurdjieff Center: Movement Center
Life form: Uni-cellular
Dimension: forward-back
Description: "baby-brain"; fight-or-flight
[Instincts:] Passivity, safety, nourishment
Medium: the organism (Bios)
Some humans never become aware of any level of reality beyond
this one. There is no reason to call them human.
EMOTIONAL-TERRITORIAL
(Power) (emotional intelligence)
Level of Reality: mammalian
Drug Trigger: alcohol
Function: fighting, politics, pack-forming
Circuit#:192
Gurdjieff Center: False Emotional
Life form: vertebrates
Dimension: right-left
Description: "toddler brain"; rule-or-be-ruled
[Bias:] self-expression, status, power
Medium: belief systems (memes)
Some humans (ideologues and fanatics) see this as the supreme
level of reality. It is the most attained by most politicians and
military leaders.
LARYNGEAL-MANUAL
(Semantic, Dextero-Symbolic) (conceptual intelligence)
Level of Reality: paleolithic
Drug Trigger: cocaine
Function: learning, skill, creativity
Circuit#: 96

Gurdjieff Center: False Intellectual

Life Form: hominids
Dimension: up-down
Description: "ego status"; tool-making, problem-solving
[Worldview:] paying attention, mapmaking, naming, articulation
Medium: conceptual frameworks (paradigms, metamemes)
This is the level of reality at which most academics and
intellectuals operate. Reality consists of nails; we must find
the right hammers.
SOCIO-SEXUAL
(Domestic) (social intelligence)
Level of Reality: civilized
Drug Trigger: norepinephrine
Function: hive-unity, society, parenting
Circuit#: 48
Gudjieff Center: False Personality
Life Form: Humankind
Dimension: past-future
Description: "social self"; transmission of culture
[Ethos:] adolescence/individuation; adulthood/maturation;
collectivization/socialization
Medium: code of ethics (ethos)
Attained eight thousand years ago, this level of reality
("culture") may be the one at which humanity is stuck, unaware
anything lies beyond...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------WARNING: Here lies the CHAPEL PERILOUS. Beyond here you may have to SMI2LE.
Because if you do not escape the gravity well of the planet, use your HEAD,
and extend your life, you may not be able to activate the higher four
circuits.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------NEUROSOMATIC
(Hedonic) (Sensory intelligence)
Level of Reality: hedonic
Drug Trigger: marijuana
Function: hedonic engineering: Tantra, Yoga, etc.
Circuit#: 24
Gurdjieff Center: Magnetic center
Life Form: Free-fall (cosmic migration)
Dimension: Linear-cyclic
Description: "free floating"; the turn-on
[Pleasures:] Rapture, ritual, charisma
Medium: the five senses
Aesthetes, epicureans, space travellers, and libertines discover
the awakened possibilites of the higher circuits - but then often
forget that such pleasures are a means, and not an end.

NEURO-ELECTRIC
(Metaprogramming, Psychotronic) (Psychic Intelligence)
Level of Reality: Psionic
Drug Trigger: peyote
Function: neurologic: precognition, ESP
Circuit#: 12
Gurdjieff Center: True Emotional
Life Form: I squared (intelligence exponentiated)
Dimension: here-there
Description: "metaprogramming"; awareness of possibilities
[Perspectives:] clairvoyance, reality selection, precognition
Medium: CNS (central nervous system)
People attaining this level of reality may become aware of the
contingency of their particular reality-tunnels; but may not see
the way OUT. Knowing that reality is a Glass Bead Game, they may
lose their vision in the sparkle of the beads.
NEUROGENETIC
(Evolutionary) (Mythic intelligence)
Level of Reality: Immortal
Drug Trigger: LSD
Function: DNA awareness, ecological symbiosis
Circuit#: 6
Gurdjieff Center: True Intellectual
Life Form: Immortality
Dimension: life-death
Description: "collective unconscious"; species-memory
[Collective unconscious:] synchronicity, alchemy, astrology
Medium: DNA & Gaia (the Planet)
At this level, one becomes aware of Intelligences besides their
own. Such Intelligences may be Higher or Lower; but they are
certain to be Alien. Synchronicity begins to overcome the Law of
Accident. Planetary noosphere becomes visible.
NEURO-ATOMIC
(Metaphysiological) (Spiritual intelligence)
Level of Reality: Cosmic
Drug Trigger: Ketamine
Function: cosmic engineering
Circuit#: 3
Gurdjieff Center: The Essence
Life Form: Cosmic union
Dimension: microcosm-macrocosm
Description: "extraterrestrial unconscious"; cosmic mind
[Being:] Paradox, dreaming, factor 'X'
Medium: subatomic mysteries (quantum reality)
This is the level of the Bodhisattva and the Taoist Immortal, and
of it, only they can speak.
It is said by Antero Alli that this system provides the basis for Angel
Tech. The left hemisphere is tech and the right hemisphere is the Holy

Guardian Angel. Under such a system, each circuit is also a grade, and the
goal of each student is to have Absorbed, Organized, and Communicated each
grade. This is why Schools exist.