“In a conversation, a friend coined the phrase “danger receptor” implying an organ of awareness that we form and listen to. Long ago, the dangers were of different forms and kinds, by which I mean related to nature, food, community, weather… the sky, and so on.

But this idea is fascinating to me, because we are ordinarily unaware of the foundations from which our common forms of awareness and focus arise. This state means that, for many of us, we are only slightly aware of the possibilities or branches in this forest we can actively participate in (and develop in ourselves). Like most features of our abilities and awareness … be they physical, relational, intellectual, empathic or otherwise… we are ordinarily unaware of our capacities for development, because we feel that our state is ‘given’ by previous endowment, practice, and so on. Most of the developmental branches available to us remain invisible until activated intentionally. In any that are, we are liable to experience ‘explosive’ development, such that we acquire new senses, forms of awareness and ability relatively quickly if we are able to organize the necessary internal assets (motivation, inspiration, passion… concern, etc.).

So it struck me, when my friend coined this phrase, that we organize ‘danger receptors’ and attend them for various reasons and in domains that we may feel compelled to attend. This is in part due to habit, but I believe we can transform that spider-web into a spacecraft… by exploring how we do this, where we do it, and what is actually operating in us that ‘selects’ the domain and form of awareness we direct within in it. Of course, we create domains… and thus could create those of forms unfamiliar, for purposes that are astonishing and beautiful. But if we could even become aware of and interact more intentionally with the formation and activity of our ‘danger receptors’ and consider how and why we attend some domains and ignore others… we might be able to not only disrupt our habits, we can explore terrains of ourselves and our abilities that are exceptionally profound and ordinarily invisible.

Suppose, for example, it was dangerous for us ‘to not be aware of why we organize and are compelled by our danger profiles’. This seems true to me at first glance, though the degree of danger will be understood differently by different persons and according to context. Nor do I wish danger to be understood only as threatening; indeed, it is a kind of inner compass, formed by our way of relating with situations and thought. What I am suggesting then, is that we together learn to explore and transform how and why we assemble, activate and attend our danger sensors, and how other motivations may prove liberating, developmentally profound… and unexpectedly exciting.

Many of us spend a great deal of time in states of fear and inward concern… those of us who do know that, underlying this… is something like ‘an array of danger receptors’ which we form, activate and attend according primarily to habit and our responses to different contexts. The capacity to transform these habits and orientations in awareness is priceless for those of us whose danger senses are more of a deficit than an asset, and may even form feedback loops with themselves… with painful or debilitating results. So what we have here isn’t merely an artful speculation… if we are able to learn and teach these abilities… we would have at hand an invaluable medicine.”

— an anonymous informant