Do I Have a Bully Buddy in My Brain?

The intent of this book is to help young people to creatively avoid and resolve conflict from a potential threat before it becomes physical using mental self-defense. The intent of this book is also to create an intelligent understanding of the fight or flight survival instinct of the primitive reptilian brain in coping with human conflict so it can through this insightful awareness not react offensively when the threat is only an imaginary one.

These people are truly extraordinary and their thoughts should be considered as we design the new exhibits. Their message is in part that all creatures have a "flight or fight" instinct that is set in place instantly by frightening experiences. This is in turn perpetuated by exposure, actual or imagined, to any creature that even resembles the object of their fear. The actions of others, and propaganda, strengthen these responses. I talked with these people about their successes in Liberia rehabilitating child "soldiers."

The term “reptilian” refers to our primitive, instinctive brain function that is shared by all reptiles and mammals, including humans. It is the most powerful and oldest of our coping brain functions since without it we would not be alive.

Letter to the New Mexico Holocaust & Intolerance Museum Board of Directors, dated August 6, 2008, by the Museum’s Director Harold Foley 

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