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Your Survival Machine is not who you are. People are not their Survival Machines. But we all have a Survival Machine.
Your Survival Machine is an accumulation of identifications you picked up along the way as part of yourself.
It's the collection of different aspects of your psyche and mental structure that covers what it takes for you to survive as a creature in this world.
It includes very primal parts, like your so-called "lizard brain," and the functions that affect you and your actions: to lick and sniff stuff that leads you to live another day.
And it includes your most sophisticated social maneuvers, learned from your grandma, on how to control your parents and siblings.
It is what helped your ancestors survive the patriarchy, generations of evil emperors' conquests, slavery, wars, dictatorships, or democracies, until they brought you into this world.
And all the nuances of behavior that helped you make it through high school without being socially trampled so badly that you wouldn't want to be part of this world.
And it includes sophisticated parts that were just discovering about as "Mind machines".(more on that will be shared in the future.) There is so much to learn about "Survival machines" yours and others.
The "Survival Machine" part of you is designed for survival as a social and human being.
It is different from your Being (your soul part), which can make authentic, heart-centered, feeling-based, beyond-reason decisions.
Your Survival Machine is like a sophisticated robotic mechanism that keeps things as you know them best for survival.
It's how you think about the world in a way that makes sense, that makes the world relatable and manageable, so you wouldn't go insane.
It includes your beliefs about the world, your opinions on things, your stories about how reality works and what it is (even if the story is that reality is an illusion or a simulation).
Your Survival Machine is the way you're used to doing things.
For example:
You always (notice the word "always," which hints at the Machine) do things this way.
You always put a lot of salt on your food.
You always like your coffee this way.
You always drive like this.
Techno is what you like.
Liking cars is who you are.
This is how you dance.
You are "this kind" of person, and not "that kind" of person.
You are an introvert.
You are a pragmatic person.
You are an empath.
In modern culture we learned to Identify with our Survival Machine as "who we are".
But as we grow, we discover its totally not who we are.
Our heart and other important parts are located elsewhere.
AS our journey of transformation advance we learn we can look at our Survival machine, learn it, and even use it. instad of it running us.
Your Machine
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐮𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐥 𝐌𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞'𝐬 𝐩𝐮𝐫𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐞:
To create structure and repetitiveness that is expected, so your physiological structure can move through the chaos of the world, you slowly build your Survival Machine.
For example: All your friends were playing capture the flag outside, and then someone from your team left you alone.
You had feelings of fear, sadness, and anger, and you decided that from now on, you would "take care of yourself."
You became a Lone Wolf.
That old decision was forgotten, but the strategy became ingrained in who you are.
It became part of your Machine. One of its edges.
Today, when you go abroad and stay at a hostel, you keep your distance.
You stay friendly and nice, but you never quite feel like part of the group.
The old survival strategy that has been dictating your life ever since is still there.
Your unknown limit. Your glass ceiling.
With each survival necessity, your Machine develops different survival strategies.
More about these different survival strategies below.
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𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐎𝐮𝐭
For most of us, when we do—or need to do—something that is too far outside our Machine, we react in a certain way.
For some of us, walking barefoot through an airport is just "too much." "Too crazy." "I will never do it." (Notice the word "never," which also hints at the Machine.)
For some of us, it's driving too fast or too slow.
Wearing something too sleazy, or too slutty.
Or, on the other hand, being too proud.
I am saying "too" because the Machine can handle a bit of wandering toward its edges.
Going to a nature party with Goa trance and watching everyone might be something your Machine can handle.
But going onto the dance floor and jumping for eight hours straight might be too far outside it.
After one or two parties, your Machine slowly stretches.
What seemed out of the question a month ago becomes new territory to explore.
Now you're in the air, dancing with the light-up people.
It is a wise, playful move, if you're in the business of transformation, to notice when something is on the edge of your Machine—and do it.
It keeps you away from the numb areas of the Machine that put you to sleep.
For example, doing only your routines for a whole year.
It makes you feel alive.
Which is more fun.
If you work with clients, you'll notice that offering something too far outside their Machine creates resistance.
It triggers the Machine.
Red alerts in the air.
Beeping horns.
The security team cavalry of opinions and beliefs comes to the rescue.
"This is just who I am." (Notice the word "just.")
When we try something that is too far outside the Machine in the name of transformation, it usually doesn't work.
It often comes from the irresponsible part of us, rather than serving the purpose of transformation.
For some people, this looks like adopting the opposite survival strategy.
"I tried to succeed as a rock 'n' roll star. It didn't work. Being a good lawyer is the right thing to do."
"I tried to be a bad girl for years. Now, in my 30s, I'm going to be proud and tell people wearing tank tops that they're half naked."
"Believe me, brother. I've been where you are. Now I found Jesus."
Your
Machine
Is like a box
confining you
It might scare your Survival Machine to even consider its existence.
For most people, the Survival Machine is like a glass ceiling over an ant farm. Unnoticeable. Unconsciously limiting.
They will never see it, never think about it, never even notice the difference between their Machine and who they are.
This doesn’t mean you should see people as their Machines.
It means you can start distinguishing and connecting more with their Being than with their Machine. This is an experimental art that can yield very tasty fruits in the realms of connection.
You may have spent your whole life having conversations from inside your Machine:
I’m right, you’re wrong.
What’s your opinion about that?
No, I really need to know what you think about this.
What were you like as a child? Do you like Diet Coke or regular?
Do you prefer Hershey’s or gummy bears?
What’s your favorite place?
And so on…
The Survival Machine is a system of past impressions, everything you collected in order to survive. Unlike other ego states that feel alive and can evolve, heal, and shift, the Machine is rigid, already formed, and carried around like dead weight.
And yet, your Survival Machine is a very complex mechanism, one that has been studied for decades across many disciplines. In fact, much of what we know in the West as “Buddhism,” Zen, and other “no-mind” paths are essentially different approaches to handling the Machine.
If you are reading this in your first few years of researching your Machine, congratulations. You still have a few more years ahead to explore its major aspects. Only to realize, eventually, that it’s not all that interesting. It can be amusing to notice it in yourself and others, and helpful in not getting hooked. But at some point, relating from your Machine feels like petting someone’s hand with a remote control. It misses all the touch.
At some point, you may want to experiment with the Connect practice of “sitting your Machine.” Let it sit on the bench, like a backup player on your team, and only call it in during extreme cases of needing to actually survive.
Other than that, the Survival Machine is a point of research, a reference, but definitely not the one you want in your opening team. For that, you have your Being.
Working with you Machine to grow
Your Survival Machine can be an obstacle to your growth or a stepping stone to sit on.
When you are weary from a demanding adventure, your Machine knows exactly what you need to return to your comfort zone and rest.
When you look at your Machine enough times, it becomes expected and obvious. You can then see other people’s Machines and learn how to work with their Machines in the service of your bright principles. Especially to navigate with your clients’ Machines.
01
Notice you Machine
Your Survival Machine has many corners, edges, buttons, and mechanisms. Take a look at the picture on top and see how much is included in it.
Just be with these different facets of your Machine, and see how they determine your world, your life, and your survival.
You can find a fun game, for example, catching each other with a teammate every time you say "Always," "I never," "I am used to," "I like," "I dislike," "for me," "I," and ask who is speaking.
Or which "I" is speaking.
Then you can practice catching yourself when your Machine is speaking.
Noticing it without judgment, without beating yourself up, as an explorer, can be a highly fun and growth-oriented experiment.
02
Shrink your Mind Machine
Now that you have a sense of your Machine, when it is speaking, and how it sounds,
you can start practicing shrinking your Machine and speaking not from it.
From your Being, from your heart.
You can experiment by yourself, or grab a trainer to take you through this experiment for the first time.
When your Machine shrinks, everything outside of it becomes possible. Different dimensions of perception, possibilities, and adventures your Machine couldn’t let you approach before.
03
Talk from you Machine
Now that you're an expert talking without your Machine, practice going back again and talking from it.
This might serve you in creating "Culture to Culture" conversations.
Maybe to establish connection with someone, not speaking from your Machine would freak their Machine too much. If your Machine doesn't mind and you're here for connection, that skill might serve you.
As long as you don't believe your Machine speaking. And remember:
You are NOT your Machine.
Where does the Machine -work lead you?
An adulthood initiation path includes Machine work. To help you detach from the old belief systems the Machine possesses and move through a liquid state where you can be reborn as the phoenix, bird of sand,
and rise from the ashes renewed.
Transformation is a path that takes many distinctions about Machines. It doesn’t exclude Machines but navigates with them, takes care of their expansion, and helps them go liquid and transform.
If your Machine limited you in taking action in a certain direction that was in your heart, for example, talking to the next person you need to talk to while your Machine freaked out about it,
or going to a country with sanitation levels that challenge your Machine, or working with a team member that hooks your buttons.
An expanded and flexible Machine keeps you more agile and able. Also a more fun human being to be around. I guess your Machine probably likes people with more fluid Machines, doesn’t it?
Do you sometimes take drugs or find friends that will force some Machine relaxing?
Expanding your Machine with experiments becomes almost like a hygiene practice. There is no gold, and no one can reward you for it.
But your team will definitely appreciate you.
Also, you can probably get to know more of your Shadow Guide, whose job is to guard your Machine.
More on that here.
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