When you are faced with danger, it is survival at all cost. The reactionary mode is embedded in your psyche, and it activates instantly in the face of trauma, much like an airbag in a head-on collision. Whenever we are faced with an extremely painful or threatening situation, the conscious mind (the analytical mind) disengages almost instantaneously. Then subconscious mind (the reactive mind) takes over. Your reactive mind is your nurturer B your protector. In the reactive mind’s eye, the dominant emotion is fear. Therefore, the best mode of survival is to close down all resources – until the danger is passed (witness a turtle withdraws into its shell, an ostrich puts its head in the sand, and a snake crawls under a rock). Your reactive mind is the automatic pilot that tells you that if your clothing ever caught on fire that you should stop, drop and roll. It is what chides you when you come to an intersection that you should cross on the green and not in between, and it is what prompts you to assume the fetal position in the event of a crash, physical attack, etc.

Sometimes instead of jumping into action, we get a paralytic shock, because the mind sends out a chemical substance known as endorphin that works like a mental block to dull the reaction of all the nerve endings in the body. This causes them to close down their sensors to reduce the feeling of pain upon impact.

The analytical mind is your defender. Whenever the analytical mind is engaged, it emits an awareness that challenges us to strive to overcome the danger that stands before us. It prepares you to defend yourself by engaging all the psychological and physiological attributes of the human being and send them to the physical elements of the body much like soldiers being sent to the front line in a time of war. This is attributable to the supernatural strength people tend to experience when facing extreme cases of disaster such as being able to rip a door off of a car to save a loved one who is in imminent danger. In psychological theory, they call this the fight or flight syndrome, but even so, it is a misrepresentation of facts. In modern-day civilization, our animalistic ego has been suppressed to the point that we no longer consciously want to engage in battle. Therefore, at the first sign of danger, our first instinct will almost always be to run for cover, rather than to stand up and fight.

The will to fight is the will to survive, and this is a very subconscious reaction to a very conscious dilemma.   It comes as a result of being in a threatening situation devoid of protection and not being able to flee from the impending danger – and not wanting to die.  In those instances when the mind switches, hares may become tortoises, and tortoises may become hares (so to speak). So if you find yourself experiencing temporary blackouts (or freeze outs) don’t beat yourself up over this. It is not a reflection of how good or bad you are. It is the stuff that life is made of. Just think of it as a psychological plan of correction, and know that it is super beneficial to the human psyche because it does work to maintain a mental balance. Like I said, earlier you do have two frames of mind, and they alternate at random without regard to your mind set to bring about whatever thought process is needed for the moment at hand. In any event, let’s not dwell on the psychological aspects of that “syndrome,” except to say that it keeps us in touch with our inner self and keeps up alert and always prepped for danger.

Even now, we have to acknowledge that whatever our religious values or lack thereof, Jesus is the manifold that makes religion a worthwhile cause – Muslims are trying to disprove him, Christians, are trying to prove him, Jews are still trying to identify him, and others just flatly deny his existence outright.   Thank God that he is not a respecter of persons, or the author of confusion. Could you imagine what state heaven would have been in on that bright September morn in 2001, trying to figure out where all those people of various denominations fit in God’s order of accountability? Could you imagine the entry gates at heaven and the length of the check in lines? It would have been pure chaos – JEWS, GENTILES, HEBREWS, CHRISTIANS, AGNOTICS, ATHEISTS, HINDUS, MUSLIMS, PRAGMATICS – and the list goes on, and the check in lines would have spread into eternity, as the heavenly host try to identify and verify each arriving party. My God, what a morning that would have been, had God been mindful of our foolish ways. The Bible tells us that the Church is one foundation and Jesus Christ is Lord. Yet, even in the realm of Christian doctrine, we can’t get it together. It is a mystery that though foretold is still unfolding. So if you find yourself being a little daunted about the gist of it all, be encouraged. Jesus is alive and well, and your hope is not in vain.