Instinct for Transcendence - from SydHappyGuy

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At about 2pm yesterday, I got this email from SydHappyGuy with the simple subject line (yet one of my favourites) - 'Thought you'd like this...'

"Arianna Huffington, editor in chief of the award-winning online newspaper The Huffington Post, spoke to us about the deep human yearning for transcendence that she calls the “fourth instinct”:

Most psychologists and biologists look at human behavior in terms of three instincts: survival, sex, and power. I believe, however, that you cannot understand human behavior without recognizing a fourth one—the instinct for transcendence, the instinct to connect to the part of us that goes beyond our materiality and survives our death, that connects with our soul. That's what explains our search for meaning, whether it drives us to art or to religion or to altruistic behavior that cannot be explained purely in terms of self-interest.... You could say that the fourth instinct drives the evolution of consciousness—and the evolution of consciousness is the foundation of everything."

The Instinct for Transcendence is a concept I'd never heard of, but one that's truly beautiful to me. And, in retrospect, it's probably been the driving 'instinct' guiding most of my actions in life - especially the ones I haven't been able to explain.

As I told Mr T in my reply,

"Madame Synesthesia is a manifestation of that instinct in me."

Thanks for thinking of me and being so spot on.

All you need is soul.