Three Levels of Consciousness

In this article I will be talking about the three levels of consciousness (or the three levels of brains!) and a few interesting facts about them.

Here’s a video of me and Mom talking about this (a fun 22 minutes!):

And you can click here for slides that I made also talking about this subject.

Summary:

The three levels of consciousness, or the three levels of brains, are Lizard Brain (basal ganglia), Monkey Brain (Paleomammalian Brain), and Human Brain (Neomammalian or Rational Brain). First is Lizard Brain. This is the oldest type of brain, also the most primitive. Its main specialties are food, water, mating, and danger. Deep breathing calms you down because it triggers a nerve in the back of your throat that basically says to Lizard Brain and Monkey Brain, “Chill out”. LB (Lizard Brain) is also pretty unique in that it is the very core of your brain! The other levels of brains are “wrapped” around LB. Every animal has some form of LB.

Next is Monkey Brain. It is the second most primitive, and its main specialties are LB’s specialties, social skills, and emotion. MB (Monkey Brain) is wrapped around Lizard Brain, and in turn, Human Brain is wrapped around Monkey Brain. MB and LB are more focused on the present, with almost no regard for the past or future at all. Several animals, including dogs and elephants, have this brain type.

Lastly is the most complex and recent type of brain, Human Brain, or HB (these aren’t their actual names or acronyms, we’re just using them for sake of ease). Its specialties are abstract thinking ( “Abstract thinking is the ability to understand concepts that are real, such as freedom or vulnerability, but which are not directly tied to concrete physical objects and experiences. Abstract thinking is the ability to absorb information from our senses and make connections to the wider world.” - Google Search), memory, future thinking, and decision-making. Only humans have this brain type.

I hope this article/video/slides was useful in understanding the three levels of brains and their individual uses.

Resources:

Mom

Dad

Google