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Religion, Practice and Science of Non-Violence
animals, for instance in cats. It has been shown that the experimental removal of the cerebral cortex in a cat, makes it hyperexcitable to fighting. Stimulation of the hypothalamus through an inserted electrode elicits strong anger reaction. These two observations indicate that an intact cerebral cortex represses anger which is initially produced through hypothalamic stimulation. (In the natural state the original stimulus for anger reaction comes from outside which in turn stimulates the hypothalamus).
Further studies along these lines have helped to tell us what happens when a noxious stimulus is applied to an animal. It stimulates the hypothalamus. From there some stimulation goes to centres controlling voluntary muscles involved in scratching and body posture. A larger share goes to the sympathetic nervous system, and to the adrenal gland which in turn activates several internal organs. The heart beats strongly and rapidly, digestion stops, and blood, under high pressure, is directed towards the skeletal muscles. These responses put the animal in readiness to deal with an emergency requiring great physical activity.
Continued use of emergency reactions during the course of everyday living often leads to irreversible tissue changes e.g., the chronically angry person may eventually have a permanently elevated blood pressure. It has recently been shown that constant tension, anxiety and anger cause high levels of catechalamines, especially noradrenaline in the blood during the greater part of the day. This results in the mobilisation of free fatty acids in amounts greatly in excess of the oxidative needs of the tissues, so that some of them get deposited in the arterial walls causing atheromatous narrowing of the arteries including that of coronary arteries of the heart. Excess of the free fatty acids in the blood also predispose these narrowed arteries to blocking, and to consequent heart attack.
Control: It has been shown by behavioural scientists that every species is adapted to a way of life. Structure, physiology, emotions and mental abilities are all integrated and make possible specific behaviour of that species. Just as it is easy for man to learn speech or tool-use because the basis for these abilities has been built into the brain by selection and evolution, so it is easy for man to learn to be aggressive and to
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