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The History of Getting What We Want and the Reptile Brain

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digest food, have sex, and perform basic bodily functions. If you form your hand into a fist and punch the air above you, your reptilian brain is allowing you to attack the air. If you form the same fist and try to punch yourself in the face, your reptilian brain is protecting you from an attack on yourself. The reptile brain is the most important of the three human brains because all decisions must pass through the reptile brain to be carried out by the body.

Since all human decisions and thoughts must pass through the reptile brain to be acted on by the body, man is always on some level, a reptile. He is self-preserving; he is looking out for his needs first. He wants to protect his resources and propagate his genes through the survival of his offspring. No matter what a man tells you his motivation and intentions are, no matter how benevolent or beautiful the ideas, the mission, or the purpose, the reptile brain is always lurking beneath the beauty. No matter what a man says is his motivation, ultimately his reptile brain is preserving him and his interests—not necessarily yours!

Does this mean that all men are bad? Not at all; there is beauty in humanity. There is love, compassion, art, science, altruism, spirituality, charity, generosity, creativity, and a myriad of other positive sides to humanity. However, for the purposes of this book, and for the purposes of you getting what you want, we must understand that beneath the beauty lies a beast. The beast is human nature and the reptile brain. When we peel back the thin veil of civilization, and the thin veneer of beauty, we will see the inhuman side of human nature.

“Talk is cheap, and money buys the whisky” is an old saying that differentiates between beautiful words and ugly actions. Any man can say beautiful things, but ultimately when we watch a man take action, we find out if his actions match his beautiful words. A man’s tongue will use his neocortex to paint beautiful lies in your mind, while his reptile brain will show you the ugly truth. This book is about acknowledging the beauty of humanity while trusting the reptile to be a reptile. In the words of Sigmund Freud, “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.”