Episode 141: What is Instinct? From Where Does it Come?

orig of this info? Does it mean that there is a god that there is an intelligent design. If not, well, what is the source of instinct, because we toss that word around a lot, Well, why does an animal behave in a certain way? It's just instinct? Oh okay, end of story, end of discussion. Just an instinct. Yeah, but we're talking about more or less a blob of cells here. You know, with DNA, the scientists will say, we put this under a microscope. It's a physical thing, and yet

when it evolves and develops, it has this behavior. This is actually I think this topic is so important that I'm almost intimidated to try to explore it because I don't think I can do it accurately. So let's just start with the ban shall we. Let's go to the internet, and let's just read what the basic you know, like Wikipedia sort of standard definition is of what instinct even is.

We'll start here. Instinct is the inherent inclination of a living organism towards a particular complex behavior, containing both innate That means inborn and learned elements. That's kind of interesting, but it says The simplest example of an instinctive behavior is a fixed action pattern also known as a fat FAP. A fixed action pattern in which a very short to medium length sequence of actions without variation are carried out in response to a car corresponding clearly defined stimulus. Now,

don't worry that if that didn't make perfect sense. It's a very clinical way of looking at it. So it says any behavior is instinctive if it is performed without being based upon prior experience, that is, in the absence of learning, and is therefore an expression of innate biological factors. So, for example, sea turtles newly hatched on a beach will instinctively move toward the ocean. A marsupial climbs into its

mother's pouch upon being born. Other examples include animal fighting, animal courtship behavior, internal escape functions, and the building of nests. Though an instinct is defined by its invariant innate care characteristics, details of its performance can be changed by experience. So for example, a dog can improve its listening skills by practice. Okay,

so let me pause for a second. So what they're basically saying here is that a behavior is instinctive if it is performed without being based upon prior experience the absence of learning. But an instinct can, however, be augmented with learning, so it can be changed. But that's kind of getting off on a bit of a tangent. Let's stick with the good old fashioned, pure definition of what we're talking about here, a behavior performed without being based

upon prior experience or learning. Instincts are inborn, complex patterns of behavior that exist in most members of the species and should be distinguished from reflexes. So again, and I'm going to pause here, an instinct is not the same thing as a reflex. They say. A reflex is a simple response of an organism to a specific stimulus, such as the contraction of the pupil in response to bright light, or the movement of the lower leg when the knee

is stapped. So a reflex is just like one reaction that automatically happens based upon a stimulus, whereas an instinct deals with the complex behavior that occurs the absence. Okay, I don't want to I don't want to get too too deep here because this is a podcast. But basically

it says that we're not just talking about animals. However, most people do talk about animals when they talk about instincts, but instinctual behavior in humans also occurs and we're going to get to that in a minute, because I think that's especially interesting. How much of how you behave is based upon instinct and stuff that you haven't even really thought about and perhaps that you could modify. And this is almost like programming. You hear people talk about a

human be getting a download and being programmed. Well, that's kind of what we're talking about here. And it also makes you wonder how far does this go. But let's take a look real quick at the origin of all this. There was a French scientist named Jean Henri Fabre who was born in eighteen twenty three died in nineteen fifteen, said to be the first person to study small animals

and insects. It and he was looking for this thing called, you know, instinct, And I guess he was the one who was talking about, you know, the unconscious response to external conditions. And he concluded that a significant difference between humans and animals is that animals cannot reason. Now that's what he said. You know, I guess, you know, we could go down this whole philosophical roote of like, well what is reasoning? But I think you get the idea

of what he's what this guy was saying. He came to the conclusion after observing how insects and wild birds continued to repeat a certain behavior in response to a novel situation, and said that while these instinctive behaviors appeared complex, the insects and animals did not adjust their behavior despite it not helping them necessarily in a novel situation. So the following are some instinct and animal behaviors that Fabrae observed and labeled instinctive because he said these do not

involve reasoning. One is maternal instincts, the attraction to a mother figure. One is metamorphosis. We all change, you know, it's not just caterpillars and butterflies. We all change. Mimicry, the tendency to copy something. Playing dead. Now, that's interesting, isn't it, because you could apply that to a lot of different scenarios. Yeah, it could be the possum playing dead. But you hear about people playing dead also when they realize that, like they're in a really dangerous situation. And

then there's this thing called taxis. Let's see, what is that? The movement of an organism or response to a stimulus such as light or the presence of food. Okay, So anyway, so he kind of like got this whole line of scientific inquiry going on, and then there's a whole list of other scientists who came along, and we're trying to draw other conclusions. One scientist was talking about facial expressions.

For example. One scientist concluded that it was interesting to look at the facial expressions of babies trying to avoid and we're talking human babies I think here trying to avoid unpleasant emotions because there was something unpleasant in their mouths, like they didn't like the taste of something. And then of course the scientists say, well, this is just a product of natural selection. Okay, fine, even if it is natural selection, what is the origin of this and how

is that thing passed along? We're almost up on our first break time here, and when we come back, I want to talk a little bit specifically about how that humans exhibit instinctual behavior and you know what some examples of this are, And then of course we're gonna dig, like I say, even deeper into this idea that maybe nothing that is a behavior that we all have in

common can just spontaneously emerge. Maybe there is some intelligent source behind all of it, and maybe maybe it's continuing to develop in all of us and some people have more of it than others. Oh boy, maybe I've bitten off more than I can chew in this one. We'll see. But anyway, hey, I wait to know. I am planning on doing a giveaway where I give away all kinds of cool free stuff very soon to subscribers of my

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Congenital means from birth congenital preparedness for developing fear of snakes and spiders was found in six month old babies. Wow, isn't that intriguing? I and I don't want to, you know, take the time to go into the study of that. But huh, so you have an instinct in most cases to be afraid of snakes and spiders. Well, I got that instinct. I wonder if everybody gets it and some people overcome it, or if some people just don't have it.

But that's that's intriguing. I can see why because even though they may not be as dangerous as we think, there's there's something there that there's something telling us inside stay away from that. Number two is the cry is believed to be a manifestation of instinct the infant cannot otherwise protect itself for survival during its long period of maturation. Okay. Number three, the herd instinct is found in human children and chimpanzee infants. So that's how that seems to be

something that unfortunately sticks with most people for life. Don't you think the herd instinct to just do what everybody else is doing? And I realized that in most cases that that works for you. But with the advent of modern technology, maybe it's time for the instincts to change a little bit because it's too easy to find a herd that's on the wrong track. But so then, you know, here's another one. Hygiene behavior and humans suggested to be

partly instinctive based on emotions such as discussed. Let's see next year, we have the maternal bond. Next is self preservation and then fight or flight. Okay, I think we can all relate to fight or flight. Next we have cooperation that has been considered a social instinct necessary for the future survival of people. This is interesting. How about

this one? Resistance toward change is the difficulty experienced by a person when they are trying to push against the suggestions made to change behavior or accept treatments regardless of whether it will improve their condition or not. And then that it kind of conflicts with this other instinct that

humans have adaptive behavior. Adaptive behavior to environment is an inherited, innate phenotypic Characteristic examples are mating searching for food, situational awareness establishing a pecking order, and vocalizations.

let's look up intuition and see what that is. Here's the definition. Intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without recourse to conscious reasoning or needing an explanation. Well, that

sounds like the same thing, doesn't it. Different fields use the word intuition in very different ways, including, but not limited to, direct access to unconscious knowledge, unconscious cognition, gut feelings, inner sensing, inner insight, to unconscious pattern recognition, and the ability to understand something instinctively without need for conscious reasoning. But intuitive knowledge tends to be approximate. So whatever this thing called instinct or intuition is, it seems like that

we all have it to some degree. And if we are always evolving, as even the most materialistic scientists say, well, then instincts should be constantly evolving as well. So is this where we get into the realm of psychic perception? And is this evolution of instinct and intuition more advanced in some people than others? For example, anybody can throw a ball, not everybody can be a professional baseball player. Anyone can strum a guitar, not everyone can be a

rock and roll star. Anyone can actually sing, not everyone can sing well. Okay, So yet we know that you can tap into and develop your instincts and intuitions, and some people may simply be more apt to be able to take their intuitions and instincts and develop them. Does this mean that it all goes back to some initial source of intelligence that is being transmitted through our genes. I tell you something, I've never done this before. I

looked up intelligent design. Have you ever done that before? I was really surprised at what it says here. Wikipedia says intelligent design is a pseudo scientific argument for the existence of God, presented by its proponents as an evidence based scientific theory about life's origins. Now, let me stop for a second again. I've never looked up what an intelligent design to me just meant more of a vague idea that there is a pattern, there's an architecture of

the universe. I never realized that if you looked it up, the first word it would basically use as pseudo scientific. Now that is meant to be an insult to intelligence, which I actually think if you know the history of humankind, the word pseudo scientific can be quite flattering because that you could take any great scientists today and put that scientist on a time machine and send that scientist back to the Middle Ages, and that scientist would be burned

at the stake for being a heretic. At very least they would say you're a pseudo scientist. They really wouldn't because that terminology didn't exist. But it's the same thing. Sometimes it's actually flattering to be called a pseudoscientists because a lot of people who talk about themselves as scientists actually have no real grasp of what the scientific method is,

at very least they don't use it. But they call themselves scientists and call other people who might actually be using the scientific method pseudo scientists because it's a put down and it's an insult. And I'm surprised is that this term intelligent design has been associated with that, and it goes on to say, well, this is connected to a Christian think tank, and look, I didn't know that.

But if that's the case, I still think that it's a very interesting term that can be used outside of that context, because we may be talking about the idea here that there is some organization to the universe, whereas the idea of God is a very subjective and nebulous thing. Like you can view God in a lot of different ways. God the Father, God, the Mother, God, the Thing, the Energy, the all being, the Almighty, the Great Architect. So let

me just ask you this. You know you have instincts, So do your instincts tell you that there is a God and that you have a spirit? Some people say they have the opposite instinct, a belief in atheism, that that is not the case at all, that this is all just some kind of process that's played out. Well, how about you, now, I think you can tell my

personal instinct is that there is a God. I don't define that God because I think God is incomprehensible and that I also my instinct makes me believe that we each have an immortal spirit and that this world is filled with spirits. Many of them unseen, and that this world is a classroom in which we are supposed to learn something. So you do a good job and you try your best to constantly learn to be a better person. And I think that that goes back to some original

information that was passed through my genes. But you know what, what do you think that's what's important? How do you what is your instinct to tell you? Where does that even come from? This intelligence? When we come back from this break, I ask a question on Facebook. I said, what is the best piece of advice you've ever gotten and who gave it to you? And when we come back, I'm going to give you some of those pieces of

advice from people all around the world. And then, oh, yeah, you know me, I have plenty of other goodies for you. I'm Joshua P. Warren. You're listening to range things on the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast AM Paranormal podcast Network, and I will be back after these important messages. Don't go anywhere.

tocoastam dot com to send us your recording. That's Coast to coastam dot com.

help those changes along. But if we just take it all the way back to the very beginning, can we can we believe that something comes from nothing? That kind of defies everything we know about the fact that energy can be neither created or destroyed. I know we're digging into some concepts that are close to infinity, and again, this is stuff that we can't understand. I believe it goes beyond the human brain to grasp and so we should not close off any options when considering the possibilities.

But if we have intelligence, even if it's in the form of some spontaneous instinct, and it's yes, it's changed and developed, but still does it just come from nothing? Can something come from nothing? I don't think.

corresponded a lot, and she's quite prolific. And she recently got onto Facebook and she asked her friends on Facebook. She says, what is the best piece of advice you've ever gotten and who gave it to you? And I thought, you know, that's an interesting question, and I'm going to ask the people who are Facebook friends that as well, and I'm going to steal that from her, and let's

just see what kind of feedback I get. So I'm just going to go down and just sort of jump around a little bit, and I haven't prepared much for this, and let's just see what kind of feedback that we have here. What do you think about some of this stuff? Let's see here. Vance Pollock says, sometimes a good day writing poetry is striking out a line you wrote yesterday. That's from George Garrett. Chris Hensley says to not take life super serious and enjoy your time here for why

you can. Your ego is not who you truly are. He says that was told to him from DM t Entities. David Kleman says, my grandfather he always said, travel in the middle of the road of life and you will always have more happiness and fulfillment. Always travel in the middle of the road. I guess that has a lot to do with the idea of always in moderation. My sister Jessica Warren said, an African man at Epcot Center when I was a teenager said to me, never look

down upon anyone unless you are picking them up. Kim Brookes said, if you truly believe in something, stick your toes firmly into the dirt and stands your ground. She said that was told to her by her ex mother in law because she divorced her son. Victoria Kira said, my grandmother, my mama always say if you don't don't listen, you have to feel. She says, turns out that's been applicable in many situations in life. Marie Barrager says, don't put your meat where you get your bread and butter.

My mom gave me that advice. Molly and Kasden said words don't tell you about a person, They show you with their actions. She got that from a CB that named Freddy. Stephanie Key said, think twice about doing anything. You know. That's all very interesting, isn't it very interesting? Maybe one of these will resonate with you. Let's see some of the things that Marie d. Jones folks told her.

but just hang in there. Ralph Holman said, my friend John Donahey said, wherever you go there you are sort of existential bit of wisdom there. Janet d let's see Janet m defeat, said her dad. Boy A lot of people talk about their dad giving them, said her dad said. Don't let somebody else's bs become your bs. Okay, well, I'll just read one more. Laryn Scranton said, my sixth grade teacher told us do not touch anything you do not want to buy again. I think there's probably some

wisdom in that. Right. Well, that's just you know, some stuff to think about. Hopefully, hopefully that will that will all bring you some little bit of wisdom that you can reflect upon, and you're perhaps at a time of confusion or need because my goodness, speaking of scientists, even the greatest scientists just don't know what the heck is going on right now. Here's this story that was posted at coast tocoastam dot com from Unexplained Mysteries dot com,

and uh, it's quite intriguing. The headline here is does the Earth reside within the depths of a black hole? By T. K. Randall? And it says that might sound unthinkable, but is our universe simply the interior of a black hole that is situated within another universe? Now I understand where you're like listening right now and you're like, what is it? What is this? What is this guy talking about? So here's basically the idea. What ultimately happens to everything

that gets consumed by a black hole? Well, it's it's a mystery, you know. They say it's all compressed into this infinitimally small point in space. But does it then emerge somewhere else? Is the inside of a black hole like a universe unto itself? Is it possible that we

are inside of one? Right now? Physicists have been trying to understand the nature of our universe for centuries, but one theory that has not really been discussed much is that Earth, and by extension, our entire universe, is actually situated inside of a black hole, which is itself located within another universe. Like Russian nesting dolls. Perhaps universes can exist inside one another and black holes are the key. Is it true that if you get sucked into a

black hole you're just spaghettified? You know, you've seen that, You're just like, you know, shredded or do you just pop out? So look, this is one of those stories that, uh, you can just go on and on with it. But it may be the case. And you know, there are so many weird things that are flying around us all the time that we can't explain, you know, whether or not these could be parts of a multi dimensional or

inter dimensional thing. You know. John Carter, he is a guy, he's a friend of the show, and he lives in Canada and he makes a lot of great UFO videos UFOs worldwide. He just recently published this new book called the UFO Identification Handbook Preventing Misidentifications, and it has a SkyWatch Journal included, and it's got a whole bunch of information about me and Mobius and Jason Saraci. It's really interesting.

If you go to Amazon dot com and you may have seen this on my social media, and you look up the UFO Identification Handbook Preventing Misidentifications by John Carter c R t Er, you can read all these stories about this, you know, from this guy who's an expert, who's breaking down for you all the bizarre things that are flying around out there and how you can compare them to what we now know to be you know,

modern stuff like drones and everything. But look, I don't mean to go off into all kinds of crazy directions. As a matter of fact, when we come back from this brig, I want to read you at least one or two spooky stories. But I also want to squeeze in this special little mental manner that I do once in a while that my wife Lauren just loves. It's called it's time to make my wife mad. You know,

I hope she doesn't listen to this. She probably will, But sometimes I use my podcas cast to try to try to get a point across in my relationship we'll see if it works. I'm Joshua pe Warren. You're listening to Strange Things on the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast AM Paranormal Podcast Network, and I will be right back. Don't go anywhere.

And I do this segment sometimes at the end of the show I call a mental manna, which just gives me an opportunity to just talk about whatever kind of random things are are on my mind. And so I have this philosophy that if I do this segment once once in a while called it's time to make my wife mad. The idea is that if I, if I ridicule Lauren on this podcast, then our relationship will be better and she will love me more. And I'm sure that I mean, Am I right? Ladies? Doesn't that make sense?

I'm joking. I'm joking. Please do not send me hey emails. No, No, honestly, honestly, I've Lauren and I have been together more than half of my life, and we both tease each other and and I it's a kind of relationship where we have a great sense of humor. And if I were a stand up comedian then she would not mind a bit if I got up there and told, you know, wife jokes and stuff like that. But so what I actually do, however, is sometimes I bring up some kind of a marital issue.

Because I could sit here and tell you, like, oh, let me tell you how much I love my wife, nobody wants to hear that. No. Instead, I want to bring up a conflict that we have and let's see if we can we can get your feedback here and settle this and see who's who's right and who's wrong. Okay, are you ready? Well, Lauren and I we are always hanging out. Of course, I mean, we're together way more

than I believe most married couples are. We don't have kids, so you know, anytime we're gonna be focused on another person, that's usually each other. And so anytime we go out to I don't know, a restaurant, a store, especially like a restaurant though, because we get to a lot of

restaurants together. So when it comes time to leave, we'll we'll always go to the to the bathroom before we leave, which is a good piece of advice, by the way, because you never know what's gonna happen, if you're gonna get stranded on the side of the road or stopped in traffic or anyway. So we go to the bathroom. I go to the men's room. She goes to the

lady's room. So then here's what often happens. I will come out of the men's room and I'm standing there waiting for her outside of the lady's room, and I wait and I wait and I wait, and I go, man, I hope she's okay in there. And sometimes, now this has got to be pretty extreme, but sometimes I will even open the door of the lady's room and just say Lauren, and then at some point she will call me or shout to me and say she is at

the front door or possibly even in the car. This whole time, I'm standing outside the lady's room and she has abandoned me. She's gone all the way out, and see like, to me, that doesn't even cross my mind. When I come out of the bathroom, I figure I'm just waiting for her. And then I go out and I say, Lauren, I can't believe that, you know, you just ran off to the you know, and left me. And she goes, Do you think I'm gonna say, I'm not going to stand in front of the bathroom? She says,

that's weird. I'm like, no, it's not. People do that all the time when a couple goes to the bathroom. In my mind, and this is again, this is instinct to me. If you go to the bathroom and then you come out, you just stand there and you wait for the other person outside the bathroom. She says, Nope, that's too weird. So now I never know when I come outside the bathroom if she's still in the bathroom or if she's on the other side of the property,

because she finished at lightning speed. She thinks that her thoughts on this is normal, and I think that my thought on this is normal, and I think that it's respectful to wait outside the bathroom and nobody's going to care when you wait for the other person. But you know, she has the opposite opinion, and she's just not willing to budge on this, and you know, I guess she's not willing to budge. I guess eventually I'll have to just acquiesce. But you know, sometimes you might get a

call or a text and it doesn't come through. So I don't know. I'm just gonna like leave it up to you. If you want to give me your opinion on that, you can email me or message me through social media and maybe we can settle this situation of like what are you supposed to do in that situation? So you see, it's not that bad. It's actually kind of interesting, isn't it. So there is my mental manner.

Time to make my wife man okay before we have to go, let me go to emails and let me see if I can read a creepy story or two. How about that. This is from David, who is an entrepreneur in Michigan. He said. I was living with a woman friend and walked past a bay window in her living room. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw an old woman sitting outside at her patio table, and when I tried to look directly at her, she was gone. I told my friend about it, and she

asked me to describe the old woman. I told her. She wore a fancy dress with flowers on it with lace along the edges. She was wearing a brooch and had her grayish white hair in a bun. My friend smiled, led out a little chuckle, and then got up and a few minutes later came back with a picture. And when she showed it to me, goosebumps shot all over my body. It was the old woman, her mother, just as I described. I love stories like that, where it's

like instant verification. Welcome to the club. You've seen a ghost, all right? Let me squeeze in one more from Christopher Anton. He is a mechanic in Fresno, California. When I was nine years old, my two brothers and I were playing hide and seek. We were outside with our parents and they were doing yard work because nobody was in the house. I figured that would be the best place to hide, so I ran inside and vanished into the living room closet. As I was standing in the very back corner, I

felt something hit my leg. I wondered what I had knocked over, so I turned on the light, but nothing was there. The area around me was clear, so I didn't think much about it and turned the light off and went back to the very back corner. Well. Suddenly, a large hand grabbed my ankle and pinned it against the corner. My stomach was in my throat. I opened the door and grabbed onto the door jams. I had one leg out and the other leg being pulled into the corner of the closet. I looked to see what

had me that. I was only able to see half of my leg as the rest was in complete darkness. Finally I managed to break free. I ran across the street and sat on the curb, staring at the house. At that moment, it occurred to me that if it was the devil I had encountered, this meant he was real. This initially scary epiphany, however, meant that God was real too. Wow, that's an interesting way of looking at it, huh. Thank you,

Christopher and David. Yeah, I guess you know, maybe maybe that's part of it, right, Like you have negative experiences to awaken you to the idea that if bad things are real, then good things are real as well, and that will help inspire you to go towards the good things. It's like putting your hand in a flame. It seems like a bad thing because it burns you, but it actually is a good thing that you feel that pain because it tells you to move away from it. You

get this information, you get these indications in life. It's always a matter of perspective and context, isn't it. Well, Okay, you know what time it is. It's time to end the show, and I'm gonna do it with our original good Fortune tone. If you have a glass of water, you might want to put it in front of it and then drink it after. But anyway, close your eyes, take a deep breath, relax, and enjoy the good Fortune tone. That's it for this edition of the show. Follow me

on Twitter at Joshua P. Warren. Plus visit Joshua Pwarren dot com to sign up for my free e newsletter to receive a free instant gift and check out the cool stuff in the Curiosity Shop all at Joshuapwarren dot com. I have a fun one lined up for you next time, I promise, So please tell all your friends to subscribe to this show and to always remember the Golden Rule. Thank you for listening, thank you for your interest and support, Thank you for staying curious, and I will talk to

you again soon. You've been listening to Strange Things on the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast am Paranormal Podcast Network.