The Three Main States of the Autonomic Nervous System

Almost everything that defines us emerged in the eternity before consciousness.

Our movement patterns and emotional reactions are creations of a time in which no thinking existed. They are stored subcortically, in those regions of the brain that we share with the earliest vertebrates. There lies an archive of geological time. Earth history within us — layer upon layer, like sediments made of nervous tissue. Consciousness is a wafer-thin crust. Our emotional reactions are results of evolutionary adaptation — formed, shaped, refined long before consciousness developed. The early layers of being human lie in the subsoil of the brain, where the brainstem and the limbic system secure the oldest functions of life: breathing, hunger, fear. These regions are organic fossils. They preserve movement patterns, drives, and affects that originate in prehistory.

What I do every morning is archaeology. I open a time window and entrust myself to the geological momentum of our existence.

Above the subcortical areas rises the cerebral cortex — the place of consciousness, reflection, and language. It is barely a few millimeters thick — a crust of neurons spreading over the primordial layers of the nervous system. And yet it is this layer that looks at the past, that turns back upon itself and recognizes that it rests on ancient structures. When we act, feel, decide, consciousness draws from this arsenal. No thought arises independently of evolutionary patterns. In every impulse, a fin twitches that once pressed itself into the mud of a Devonian pond.

The Awakening of the Crust

Consciousness is a late phenomenon. It covers the old landscape of the nervous system like a neural skin. Beneath it, primordial life continues to pulse — the automatic rhythms of heartbeat, breathing, hunger, and fear. All of this carries the memory of a world in which thoughts did not yet exist. With the expansion of the cerebral cortex came self-referentiality. For the first time, an organism could not only react, but become aware of its own reactions.

Consciousness did not create a new world. It began to see the old one and realized that what thinks within it is itself made of layers: reptilian brain, mammalian brain, cortex, neocortex — an organism thinking about its own prehistory.

Within this layering lies a peculiar tension. Consciousness wants to understand, organize, narrate. Yet its foundations are not linguistic, but rhythmic, instinctive, emotional. Every thought is permeated by currents that reach deeper than logic — by atavisms that cannot be put into words. The crust thinks, but the subsoil feels. Consciousness shines, but its light comes from the darkness beneath. The awakening of consciousness is not a victory over nature, but its most refined continuation — the Earth’s conversation with itself.

What interests me — for example — is the development from tail fin to reptilian tail to the anatomical status quo, in which everything that came before still lives on. We are an echo of our evolutionary genesis. At the same time, we are archaeologically revealing. From the tail fin of early fish emerged the tail of terrestrial vertebrates — an instrument of balance. With the transition to land, fin rays disappeared, but the spine continued, and the rudder became an anchor. In early mammals it still swung freely; in great apes it began to atrophy, until in humans only the coccyx remained — a pitiful remnant of the old dynamics.

Yet this rudiment lives on. Within it pulse movement memories, rhythmic oscillations that once flowed through the body. Whoever listens inwardly can perceive them: that subtle spiral force that originates in the pelvis and plays through the body like a quiet melody. It is as if the body still carries the echo of the fin within it — an inner wave that once propelled us through the Precambrian ocean.

Many structures of the human body are based on blueprints that already functioned in our prehistoric ancestors. Evolution optimizes proven solutions over long periods of time. One example is the skeletal structure of the arm: humerus, radius and ulna, carpal and metacarpal bones, phalanges. This arrangement appears in similar form in mammals, reptiles, and in some fish-like ancestors. Evolution modulates structures. This is why we can use our hands in countless movements, even though they originally served primarily for locomotion in water.

Examples

The spine originates from four-legged ancestors. The S-shape is an adaptation to upright walking — a design compromise.

Palate arches and teeth — Our jaws come from the mammalian blueprint, but do not perfectly match modern dietary habits, hence dental misalignments.

Appendix — Originally a digestive organ for plant-based nutrition, today often unnecessary, but anatomically still present.

Evolutionary Circuits

Evolution acts like an archaic engineer who repeatedly makes small modifications to an old framework — often clever, sometimes awkward. Four hundred million years ago, in the Devonian, the Age of Fishes, ray-finned fish and armored fish dominated the seas. Near the shores lived the lobe-finned fish (Sarcopterygii). The fins of these swamp divers were muscular stubs that could brace against surfaces. From this lineage, in a marginal evolutionary event, emerged a skeleton with humerus, radius, ulna, and hand bones — the basic plan of our limbs.

In the deepest layers of our brain are evolutionary circuits — structures such as the limbic system and brainstem. David Sinclair calls them “primeval circuits,” because they regulate fundamental functions: heartbeat, breathing, fight-or-flight responses. These systems usually operate below conscious perception and provide automatic rapid reactions to environmental stimuli.

The subcortical impulse acts beneath language, where perception is still movement. A heartbeat accelerates before the thought “danger” arises. A body recoils before it understands. A smile forms before it is decided upon. Only afterward does the cortex awaken — not as the initiator, but as the narrator of what the body has long known.

The Three Main States of the Autonomic Nervous System

Stephen W. Porges’ Polyvagal Theory describes how the autonomic nervous system (ANS) differentiates between stress and relaxation. The American neurophysiologist and psychologist identifies three hierarchical response patterns — depending on nervous system layers and their assessment of safety and threat.

The Ventral Vagal State — Social Connection

Mediated by the myelinated ventral branch of the vagus nerve. Active when safety is perceived — in moments of calm, trust, and co-regulation. Here the organism opens to the world: facial expression, voice, and heart rhythm move in synchrony. The human being is connected — to themselves and to others.

The Sympathetic State — Mobilization

Controlled by the sympathetic system. Active when danger is perceived or performance is required. The body mobilizes energy. Heart rate and breathing accelerate, attention sharpens. It is the state of fight or flight — a departure into the world, driven by drive and vigilance.

The Dorsal Vagal State — Freeze and Withdrawal

Mediated by the unmyelinated dorsal branch of the vagus nerve. Active when threat becomes overwhelming and neither flight nor fight is possible.

The organism withdraws. Pulse and breathing slow down, consciousness becomes clouded. It is a state of internal shutdown — a primordial protective program that preserves life through withdrawal.

Additional Core Elements

Neuroception

The nervous system constantly and unconsciously scans for safety or threat — without cognitive evaluation.

Hierarchical Model

The states follow an evolutionary sequence. Under threat, social connection is first deactivated, then the system shifts into fight/flight, and finally into freeze.

Co-Regulation

Safety often arises in relationship — through voice, facial expression, and posture of other people. This activates the ventral vagus.

Only in the ventral vagal state are fine motor control, balance, breathing integration, and social interaction fully accessible.