The Eight-Circuit Brain



Definitions, Functions, Vertical Connectivities

© 1985-2019 Antero Alli

updated 8/26/2019









Intelligence, a word commonly defined as intellect alone along with its classical measurement, the I.Q. (Intellectual Quotient) test. However, this definition fails to recognize other functions of Intelligence beyond, but also inclusive of, intellect. The 8-Circuit Brain model, as first developed by Timothy Leary ("Info-Psychology") and then advanced by Robert Anton Wilson ("Prometheus Rising") and myself ("Angel Tech" and "The Eight-Circuit Brain"), posits eight interacting functions of Intelligence. The Eight-Circuit Brain presents a symbolic system, a diagnostic grid that can be used to track and interpret a greater variety of experiences and states of consciousness. No actual 'circuits" exist in the body per se; the term "circuits" symbolize a spectrum of eight interactive areas of human experience.



In the list below, I have distilled basic definitions and functions of all eight circuits along with a primer on how upper and lower circuits can interact with each other. I've also included how circuits 1-4 represent a specific area of identification - how and where we identify ourselves. Circuits 5-8 include specific shocks that activate the states of consciousness these circuits represent. All eight circuits are posited here as equal in value, without any imposed hierarchical standards of any being "inferior" or "superior" to others. All eight circuits refer to states of consciousness functioning at various degrees of latency and integration within the individual -- in nonlinear (simultaneous) and linear (evolutionary) modalities. - A.A.







THE FOUR SURVIVAL CIRCUITS

IDENTIFICATIONS AND INTEGRATIONS



C-1 Physio-Biological Intelligence; the will to survive

IDENTIFICATION: with the physical body and all things material

INTEGRATION: the degree of physical confidence earned and maintained

to assure physical survival, shelter, safety, well being, biological health.



C-2 Emotional-Territorial Intelligence; the will to power

IDENTIFICATION: with emotions, status, and ownership of property

INTEGRATION: the degree of emotional confidence earned and maintained

to assure ego strength, personal territory, and independence.



C-3 Symbolic-Conceptual Intelligence; the will to reason

IDENTIFICATION: with concepts, ideas, theories, and beliefs

INTEGRATION: the degree of intellectual confidence earned and maintained

to assure skills in problem-solving, communication, and learning (education).



C-4 Social-Moral Intelligence; the will to interact with others

IDENTIFICATION: with family, groups, sexual orientation, morality & ethics

INTEGRATION: the degree of social confidence earned and maintained to assure

attractiveness, interpersonal relations, sense of community, moral compass.







THE FOUR POST-SURVIVAL CIRCUITS

THEIR SOURCES AND SHOCKS



C-5 Somatic Intelligence of Body Wisdom and Five Senses

IDENTIFICATION: with the experience of getting high and feeling happy

Sources: whatever triggers the experience of process over outcome, rapture,

ecstatic communion with nature, tantra (yoga, meditation), charisma, second wind,

falling deep in love (endorphins),and any expanding presence of being here now.

Shocks: Ecstasy and Bliss (absence of self-created suffering)



C-6 Intuitive-Psychic Intelligence of the Brain, Spine, & CNS

IDENTIFICATION: with the Central Nervous System and the Body Electric

Sources: whatever triggers the experience of the energetic body and its aura,

the second attention, intuition, clairvoyance and psychic abilities, ritual, sex magick,

relativistic perception. Shocks: Uncertainty (shattering of assumptions, certitudes

and dogmas)



C-7 Mytho-Genetic Intelligence of DNA and the Planetary Entity

IDENTIFICATION: with the Planet, all Living Things, Ancestral Gestalt, DNA

Sources: whatever triggers the experience of ancestral and past life memories,

autonomous archetypes, synchronicity, planetary (Gaia) mind, cosmic consciousness.

Shocks: Indivisibility (absence of dualistic consciousness)



C-8 Quantum-Nonlocal Intelligence of Subatomic interactions

IDENTIFICATION: with Void as true nature; dreambody/dreamtime/astral plane

Sources: whatever triggers the experience of near death, out-of-body states,

lucid dreams, conscious dreamworking while out of body, unity with Void, singularity.

Shocks: Death and Impermanence (absence of ego identification).







THE THREE SUB-PHASES

HOW INTELLIGENCE CAN BE INCREASED



All eight functions of Intelligence can be accessed through full absorption, integration and transmission of each of the eight areas of experience symbolized by the circuits. These three sub-phases reflect the tertiary function of our most basic biological unit of intelligence: the neuron. All three sub-stages are necessary for the advancement of intelligence. If you only absorb, nothing can be integrated; if nothing can be integrated, whatever is absorbed merely regurgitates; we end up parroting other people's experiences, mass media associations, what we read in books, etc. Each of these eight levels of experience have their own distinct ways of knowing and defining intelligence that do not necessarily apply to other levels. For example, C-2 emotions follows different processes than C-3 thinking .



SHOCKS & ANCHORS

Each of the eight circuits exist within each individual at various degrees of expression and latency. It would be erroneous to assume any one circuit as "better" or "worse", or "superior" or "inferior" than any other. Better to look at all eight circuits as symbolizing a spectrum of consciousness simultaneously working together in a dynamic changing whole. There are countless ways these eight functions interact and/or act on each other. The specific dynamics I have been researching involve how the "survival" circuits (1-4) act as anchors to stabilize the shocks from experiences symbolized by the four "post-survival" circuits 5-8. In addition, I have seen how upper circuit experience acts on lower circuits as catalysts for growth and development. Here's how I've seen the lower circuits and the upper circuits paired up in this anchor/shock theory:





1/5; 2/6; 3/7; 4/8



VERTICAL CONNECTIVITIES

Without a supple and resilient foundation (integration of circuits 1-4), any significant force of expanded consciousness (circuits 5-8) can destabilize us in a number of ways. Once the survival circuits can be more fully integrated, enough inner stability and strength develops to help absorb the shocks of upper circuit experiences, ie., the shocks of C-5 Ecstasy, C-6 Uncertainty, C-7 Indivisibility, and C-8 Impermanence. Upper circuit post-survival shocks stimulate growth and development in the four survival circuits, just as the survival circuits (once integrated) can help substantiate and bring into manifestation the expanded consciousness and accelerated energy states symbolized by circuits five through eight.



MORE 8-CIRCUIT BRAIN LINKS













June 10, 2015 Podcast with Antero

The eight circuits, paratheatre, Leary, Chapel Perilous



THE EIGHT-CIRCUIT BRAIN: AN ONLINE COURSE

Next 8-week session starts March 20, 2020



EIGHT CIRCUITS OF CONSCIOUSNESS -- THE DVD

Antero Alli at Esozone in Portland OR, 2008



"ANGEL TECH" (1986 book on 8-circuit brain)

Original Falcon Press



"THE EIGHT-CIRCUIT BRAIN" (2009 book)

Navigational Strategies for the Energetic Body

Original Falcon Press, Second Edition 2014



VIDEO CLIPS OF ANTERO DISCUSSING THE CIRCUITS

Excerpts from the Daniel Kottke interview on THE NEXT STEP



Alli Books and Alli Films

