# Evolutionary Drives : Home >[!info] >The 7 Evolutionary drives are the spectrum of needs a human being has to meet to be healthy, ranging from the more biological, to the emotional, to mental, to spiritual. > >They emerged over time through biological evolution, each responding to a change in physiological and environmental change. > >The 7 Drives are: >1 - Health >2 - Comfort >3 - Belonging >4 - Intimacy >5 - Authenticity >6 - Knowledge >7 - Meaning # The 7 Drives, or Needs The human being is not a standalone, distinct species, made on its own day, separate from the rest of nature, like taught in the bible. The "human being" (in this example, the genus Homo) is simply a LAYER of hardware (biological, or body structures) and software (psychological, or mind structures) that emerged on top of an existing mind-body template, the ape. The ape is a layer on top of the earlier mammalian mind-body template. The mammal is a layer on top of the earlier reptilian mind-body template. The reptile is a layer on top of the earlier fish mind-body template. The fish is an aggregation of single celled organisms in complex organization. The single celled organism is an aggregation of organelles working together... And so on. We retain all the major nervous system structures from each of these ancestors of ours. From our cell ancestors we have the peripheral nervous system, which allows us to feel and respond to stimuli. From our fish ancestors we have the spine, and the neural cord it flexibly protects, which centralizes the data of the peripheral nervous system, giving us whole system command. From our reptile ancestors we have the reptilian brain, which helps us navigate life on land physically, know when to fight, flight, or freeze, oversees territoriality, and drives reproductive behaviors (dominance, mating rituals, etc). From our mammalian ancestors we have the limbic system, which allows us to feel complex emotion, and the emotions of others. From our ape ancestors we have the cerebral cortex, and highly developed regions for reading social cues and dynamics, early language (complex vocalization and comprehension of others'), and reading facial expressions. From our early human ancestors (Homo habilis) we have the prefrontal cortex with its ability for abstraction, complex planning, and innovation of behavior (tool use). And from our modern human ancestors (behaviorally modern Homo sapiens) we have a even more profoundly developed and wired pre-frontal cortex that can imagine things that do not exist, communicate with full symbolic language, and be aware of awareness itself... So, every human being born today has within them all the major nervous system structures of each of our direct ancestors. And not only do we have their exterior, biological structures. We also retain their interior psychological structures that those nervous system areas generate. From our cell ancestors, our lowest level of life, we feel an intense desire to SURVIVE. To stay alive rather than dead[^1]. To breathe. To drink water. To eat food. To stay warm. To sleep and not be tired. From our fish ancestors, those swarming swimmers, we feel a pull towards pleasure, and away from discomfort. We have DESIRE itself. Beyond any essential item, like air, food or water, we desire non-essential things that make us feel good for their own sake. We are attracted. We wish to reproduce, to have sex. From our reptilian ancestors, those cold-blooded territory holders, we are aware of hierarchy, dominance, and power and we need to have the most of those things that we can get given our ability. The scaly ones gives us our drive for STATUS. To fit in. From our mammalian ancestors, born of mothers, we get the need to be LOVED. Not just be fed, or comfortable, or respected, but for our emotions to be felt by others, mirrored in them. To be attended to, and attuned to emotionally. To be seen, not physically, but with the heart of another. To feel the feeling of being felt. From our ape ancestors, they who live in rowdy troops, we need to be HEARD. We each have a uniqueness to us. All the previous drives are more or less the same feelings for all people. Here, we have unique things to say, a voice of our own, and we want to be listened to, when we share it. We want to play our unique role in the story of the tribe, be known for our unique gifts. We want to have mastery over those gifts that are native to us. From our early human ancestors, they who could see beyond this material plane, we have the desire to KNOW. That powerful mind of theirs we inherit can see more, and nothing is just what it seems. A stone can be a knife. But a cave could also be the entrance to hell. We wish to know what things are, how they work. We are curious, very curious, into the mechanisms of everything around us, and yearn to be rid of confusion and ignorance. We want explanations for how things work. This none of our earlier ancestors blink an eye at... From our recent, behaviorally modern human ancestors, the schizophrenics of the animal kingdom, we have become aware of ourselves for the first time. We are conscious of our consciousness. We are aware we are alive. That "we're really in this bitch." And that we weren't always aware, our memories trail off at some point, and that we aren't always going to be here, there are others who were here and now are not. Not only do we know we are alive, we know we are going to die. And so we yearn to know what this all means. Why are we here? Why did this world come to be? What is the meaning of this life? What is my purpose here in this world, beyond surviving and reproducing and belonging and loving and creating and knowing? We have a desire to know the big picture, for there to be a moral to the story, to know how everything fits together, not just physically and mechanically, but spiritually. We wish to know be a part of something bigger than ourselves, not just human structures, but in the universe. All these 7 drives live within each of us, all the time, from at least when we become biologically mature at puberty. Right now, you can get in touch with each of them. You can hold your breath for as long as you can and see your body screaming for oxygen (1). You can bite a finger until the pain denies you further (2). You can imagine getting insulted in front of all your friends, having an accident and causing a big scene unintentionally at a fancy restaurant, or missing a winning shot in a game (3). You can remember a heartbreak, or your feeling of loneliness right now (4). You can imagine working a job, wearing something or speaking in a way "that's just so not you" and how weird it'd make you feel (5). You can think of a question that has been bugging you that you want the answer to (6). And you can think of a way of life, worldview or story that you just think is fundamentally and downright wrong, misguided and misaligned with the nature of how the world works (7). In this way you can see you have a need for each of these 7 things. You don't like the opposite of them. You desire their positive state: the health of your body, the pleasure of your senses, the achievement of your will, the fullness of your heart, the authenticity of your voice, the understanding of your mind, and the alignment of your spirit. These are the 7 Evolutionary Drives. These are the layers of mind and body we inherit from our ancestors. [^1]: In the primal sense. This part of our being doesn't have a "concept" of death. It has no idea that death is a thing. It just doesn't want to feel out of breath, dehydrated, hungry, cold, tired, etc. The IDEA of "not wanting to die" as in, stop existing as a conscious entity, comes with the 7th layer of self-awareness.