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The Fourth Instinct: The Call of the Soul
A popular author and television personality explores how developing our Fourth Instinct, which leads toward self-knowledge, spiritual meaning, and can transform life, showing how to fulfill our better impulses. 40,000 first printing. $40,000 ad/promo. Tour.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1994
6 people are currently reading
165 people want to read
About the author
Arianna Huffington
65 books876 followersArianna Huffington is the chair, president, and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post Media Group, a nationally syndicated columnist, and author of fourteen books.
In May 2005, she launched The Huffington Post, a news and blog site that quickly became one of the most widely-read, linked to, and frequently-cited media brands on the Internet. In 2012, the site won a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting.
She has been named to Time Magazine's list of the world’s 100 most influential people and the Forbes Most Powerful Women list. Originally from Greece, she moved to England when she was 16 and graduated from Cambridge University with an M.A. in economics. At 21, she became president of the famed debating society, the Cambridge Union.
She serves on several boards, including HuffPost’s partners in Spain, the newspaper EL PAÍS and its parent company PRISA; Onex; The Center for Public Integrity; and The Committee to Protect Journalists.
Her 14th book, Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder was published by Crown in March 2014 and debuted at #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list.
In May 2005, she launched The Huffington Post, a news and blog site that quickly became one of the most widely-read, linked to, and frequently-cited media brands on the Internet. In 2012, the site won a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting.
She has been named to Time Magazine's list of the world’s 100 most influential people and the Forbes Most Powerful Women list. Originally from Greece, she moved to England when she was 16 and graduated from Cambridge University with an M.A. in economics. At 21, she became president of the famed debating society, the Cambridge Union.
She serves on several boards, including HuffPost’s partners in Spain, the newspaper EL PAÍS and its parent company PRISA; Onex; The Center for Public Integrity; and The Committee to Protect Journalists.
Her 14th book, Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder was published by Crown in March 2014 and debuted at #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list.
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June 25, 2023
A PROPOSAL TO EVOLVE BY FOLLOWING OUR SPIRITUAL INSTINCTS
Author Arianna Huffington wrote in the introductory chapter of this 1994 book, “we are all prodded and prompted to look inward, to follow an instinct that will lead us to spiritual fulfillment… it breaks into our everyday reality and demands attention or whispers in the still, small voice of the soul trying to be heard above the static of our busy lives… It was the voice of what I call the Fourth Instinct. And it speaks to us with the power of the forgotten truth on which every major religion … is based… Our Fourth Instinct, like the legendary lost city of Atlantis, has long lain buried in our common culture and in ourselves. Biologists, psychologists and social scientists have tried to define us exclusively through only three instincts… of survival, the drive toward self-assertion and power, and the sexual urge. They are the instincts that tie us to our animal past. Only when we awaken to our Fourth Instinct, the instinct that links us to our future, do we take the next step in our evolution, toward an understanding of life’s true meaning.
“The Fourth Instinct… enable[es] us to overcome alienation and achieve community. It leads us to inner peace and outer harmony, reconciling our first three instincts with our spiritual purpose. To follow the Fourth Instinct is to obey the law of human development. It is a universal law, but it expresses itself differently in each individual. Indeed, there are as many paths to wholeness aw there are those who would walk them, threads through the labyrinth of life that we can follow to the center of ourselves and of all existence. The charge of our Fourth Instinct is to move us from the tyranny of our fight-or-flight mechanism to the liberation of a practical spirituality that transforms our everyday life… when we choose to listen to the Fourth Instinct and live under its reign, we will have fulfilled the promise on the back of every dollar bill: … ‘a new order of the ages.’” (Pg. 13-14)
She asserts, “Those addicted to political salvationism clearly cannot shake of the conviction that no endeavor … can succeed unless it is sponsored by the State. But the rest of us are coming to the realization that deep cultural change cannot be imposed from distant quarters… Lasting social change unfolds from inside out: from the inner to the outer being, from inner to outer realities. I can change nearly everything about myself… but until we care for the soul of the community, we are merely tinkering at the edges. This is a law of life as immutable as the law of gravity… The most promising aspect of the turning point we are in is the growing recognition of these inner realities. We cannot go back to a world where duty, honor and self-discipline were inherited values, unquestioningly accepted. But neither can we go forward on the magic carpet of the sixties, seeking liberation from responsibility… regardless of the consequences for everyone else.” (Pg. 35-36)
She observes, “The source of our discontent is lodged in the Fourth Instinct. The impulse for spiritual fulfillment is as deeply imprinted within us as the drive to live, to master our environment and fill it with our children. In the same way that physical systems embody information and purpose, our Fourth Instinct embodies our search for transcendence ad communion.” (Pg. 43)
She suggests, “Ultimately, only the Fourth Instinct can redeem the aggression inherent in the will to power of the second. By connecting man to the true source of his power, the Fourth Instinct eliminates the experience of powerlessness---a key element in the drive, the ‘absolute necessity,’ for power, whether felt by Alexander the Great to conquer the world or a Wall Street executive driven to take over one more company.” (Pg. 51)
She states, “We come to many moments in our lives when we cannot stifle the Fourth Instinct. It demands we pay attention…. There are the moments that pin us to the ground with sharp questions. We look at the course of our live and at those we love, we see crushing pain and loss and we are slammed into the wall with doubt about the meaning of life. Ironically, it is in these moments that the journey toward our own soul is the venture that can no longer be postponed.” (Pg. 95)
She laments, “For all the Fourth Instinct’s desire to bring things together, to make connections and find unity, our second instinct and our almighty intellect insist on setting things apart. It is the pervasive division of inner and outer reality … the material against the spiritual, the secular against the sacred, the natural against the supernatural.” (Pg. 102)
She explains, “Religion is man’s response to God; we come together, we bow our heads, we celebrate the spirit in song and prayer. But religion is also God’s response to man, a channel for revelation and reconnection which is, after all, what religion means not only etymologically… but essentially…. Spirituality our sense of God and our search for Him, has been with us since the sixth day of creation, the day we were made in God’s image. The Fourth Instinct longs for an active relationship with the divine. For thousands of years and millions of seekers religion has served as the thread back to these spiritual essentials.” (Pg. 132)
She asserts, “Science begins with doubt in its search for certainties, and it is this doubt that makes the religious mind uneasy… Religion may begin with our love of God, but true science ends there. In the very process of demystifying the world, we discover a new mystery, recognizing and celebrating God in everything.” (Pg. 172)
She observes, “Man is going to evolve. It is our destiny. As in any evolution, parts of us will die in order for other parts to be born. Choosing at each moment the feelings, attitudes and values---acceptance, cooperation, caring, loving, forgiving---that will be the building blocks of the emerging reality is what it means to choose to evolve. At each moment we can choose to behave as natives of this new reality and co-creators in our evolution.” (Pg. 200) She adds, “When we choose to evolve, we choose to communicate---with ourselves, with each other, with God. And when we communicate, we share not just information, but ourselves. In times of tension and hurt, our survival instinct urges fu to withdraw and withhold, waiting on cue to fight or flee. The Fourth Instinct insists that we remain vulnerable and take the risk of expressing what is true even when we fear disapproval.” (Pg. 202-203)
She concludes, “America began with a clear vision of the future… Now, after all the glorious achievements and tragi dad ends of the last two centuries, we have reached the point where we can make this vision a reality. We need only a critical mass of pioneers who will choose to follow the voice of our Fourth Instinct---to answer the call to meaning and manifest spiritual truth in our lives, and to answer the call to service and put giving and caring for our communities at the center of the day. Then values like responsibility, forgiveness, gratitude and compassion will be practiced with the same frequency that they are preached. It is a big dream, but a dream based on the inner reality of our Fourth Instinct---a reality whose time has come.” (Pg. 248)
This book will appeal to people with progressive (or even ‘New Age’) spiritual views.
Author Arianna Huffington wrote in the introductory chapter of this 1994 book, “we are all prodded and prompted to look inward, to follow an instinct that will lead us to spiritual fulfillment… it breaks into our everyday reality and demands attention or whispers in the still, small voice of the soul trying to be heard above the static of our busy lives… It was the voice of what I call the Fourth Instinct. And it speaks to us with the power of the forgotten truth on which every major religion … is based… Our Fourth Instinct, like the legendary lost city of Atlantis, has long lain buried in our common culture and in ourselves. Biologists, psychologists and social scientists have tried to define us exclusively through only three instincts… of survival, the drive toward self-assertion and power, and the sexual urge. They are the instincts that tie us to our animal past. Only when we awaken to our Fourth Instinct, the instinct that links us to our future, do we take the next step in our evolution, toward an understanding of life’s true meaning.
“The Fourth Instinct… enable[es] us to overcome alienation and achieve community. It leads us to inner peace and outer harmony, reconciling our first three instincts with our spiritual purpose. To follow the Fourth Instinct is to obey the law of human development. It is a universal law, but it expresses itself differently in each individual. Indeed, there are as many paths to wholeness aw there are those who would walk them, threads through the labyrinth of life that we can follow to the center of ourselves and of all existence. The charge of our Fourth Instinct is to move us from the tyranny of our fight-or-flight mechanism to the liberation of a practical spirituality that transforms our everyday life… when we choose to listen to the Fourth Instinct and live under its reign, we will have fulfilled the promise on the back of every dollar bill: … ‘a new order of the ages.’” (Pg. 13-14)
She asserts, “Those addicted to political salvationism clearly cannot shake of the conviction that no endeavor … can succeed unless it is sponsored by the State. But the rest of us are coming to the realization that deep cultural change cannot be imposed from distant quarters… Lasting social change unfolds from inside out: from the inner to the outer being, from inner to outer realities. I can change nearly everything about myself… but until we care for the soul of the community, we are merely tinkering at the edges. This is a law of life as immutable as the law of gravity… The most promising aspect of the turning point we are in is the growing recognition of these inner realities. We cannot go back to a world where duty, honor and self-discipline were inherited values, unquestioningly accepted. But neither can we go forward on the magic carpet of the sixties, seeking liberation from responsibility… regardless of the consequences for everyone else.” (Pg. 35-36)
She observes, “The source of our discontent is lodged in the Fourth Instinct. The impulse for spiritual fulfillment is as deeply imprinted within us as the drive to live, to master our environment and fill it with our children. In the same way that physical systems embody information and purpose, our Fourth Instinct embodies our search for transcendence ad communion.” (Pg. 43)
She suggests, “Ultimately, only the Fourth Instinct can redeem the aggression inherent in the will to power of the second. By connecting man to the true source of his power, the Fourth Instinct eliminates the experience of powerlessness---a key element in the drive, the ‘absolute necessity,’ for power, whether felt by Alexander the Great to conquer the world or a Wall Street executive driven to take over one more company.” (Pg. 51)
She states, “We come to many moments in our lives when we cannot stifle the Fourth Instinct. It demands we pay attention…. There are the moments that pin us to the ground with sharp questions. We look at the course of our live and at those we love, we see crushing pain and loss and we are slammed into the wall with doubt about the meaning of life. Ironically, it is in these moments that the journey toward our own soul is the venture that can no longer be postponed.” (Pg. 95)
She laments, “For all the Fourth Instinct’s desire to bring things together, to make connections and find unity, our second instinct and our almighty intellect insist on setting things apart. It is the pervasive division of inner and outer reality … the material against the spiritual, the secular against the sacred, the natural against the supernatural.” (Pg. 102)
She explains, “Religion is man’s response to God; we come together, we bow our heads, we celebrate the spirit in song and prayer. But religion is also God’s response to man, a channel for revelation and reconnection which is, after all, what religion means not only etymologically… but essentially…. Spirituality our sense of God and our search for Him, has been with us since the sixth day of creation, the day we were made in God’s image. The Fourth Instinct longs for an active relationship with the divine. For thousands of years and millions of seekers religion has served as the thread back to these spiritual essentials.” (Pg. 132)
She asserts, “Science begins with doubt in its search for certainties, and it is this doubt that makes the religious mind uneasy… Religion may begin with our love of God, but true science ends there. In the very process of demystifying the world, we discover a new mystery, recognizing and celebrating God in everything.” (Pg. 172)
She observes, “Man is going to evolve. It is our destiny. As in any evolution, parts of us will die in order for other parts to be born. Choosing at each moment the feelings, attitudes and values---acceptance, cooperation, caring, loving, forgiving---that will be the building blocks of the emerging reality is what it means to choose to evolve. At each moment we can choose to behave as natives of this new reality and co-creators in our evolution.” (Pg. 200) She adds, “When we choose to evolve, we choose to communicate---with ourselves, with each other, with God. And when we communicate, we share not just information, but ourselves. In times of tension and hurt, our survival instinct urges fu to withdraw and withhold, waiting on cue to fight or flee. The Fourth Instinct insists that we remain vulnerable and take the risk of expressing what is true even when we fear disapproval.” (Pg. 202-203)
She concludes, “America began with a clear vision of the future… Now, after all the glorious achievements and tragi dad ends of the last two centuries, we have reached the point where we can make this vision a reality. We need only a critical mass of pioneers who will choose to follow the voice of our Fourth Instinct---to answer the call to meaning and manifest spiritual truth in our lives, and to answer the call to service and put giving and caring for our communities at the center of the day. Then values like responsibility, forgiveness, gratitude and compassion will be practiced with the same frequency that they are preached. It is a big dream, but a dream based on the inner reality of our Fourth Instinct---a reality whose time has come.” (Pg. 248)
This book will appeal to people with progressive (or even ‘New Age’) spiritual views.
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