Chemical Scale - Overview

This is the first in a series of articles about the Chemical Scale.

Understanding the Chemical Scale is an important part of learning how to fight your spiritual battles. We win our spiritual battles when we continue to make choices dictated by our value system, what matters most to us. We lose battles when we allow our moods to make our choices for us. Learning how to recognize what level you are at can help you understand what techniques are necessary to win a battle. It can also help you recognize when you are under attack earlier in the battle, which often makes it easier to win. Like learning almost any skill, this takes effort and practice.

What we refer to as the Chemical Scale is something that describes how "stoned" or how "past feeling" (1 Nephi 17:45) someone is. It goes from 0 to 10, with 10 being the moment where the person does something they believe to be wrong, or that they have committed not to do. In other words, this is how people who are usually intelligent and self-disciplined end up doing something contrary to their value system.

From a more science-y perspective, this is how energy moves from the prefrontal cortex of the brain (where planning, judgments, values, and moral decisions are made) to the middle portion of the brain (where all that matters are things like food, water, reproducing, sleep, etc.).  At each level of the Chemical Scale, the judgment/value center of the brain loses energy and the basic drive (natural man) part of the brain gains power.

It may be helpful to think of the chemical scale as one of those large funnel-shaped coin donation wells that you see at malls and museums. You place the coin on the little ramp, then let it roll around the large plastic funnel. At first, the coin stays near the top, making large circuits that are relatively slow. The coin gradually rolls further in, moving faster and faster. Eventually, the coin is completely horizontal, moving so fast around the small throat at the bottom of the funnel that it blurs into what looks like a ring instead of a coin. Then, the coin drops out of sight and with a small "clink" is out of your possession for good.

Before the coin is released down the ramp, it is within your full control and your choices are determined by your values. Once the coin begins its journey around the funnel, biochemicals enter your system that will begin to pull your mental energy away from the moral-based decision area of your brain back towards the "animal brain." Unless something interrupts the coin as it rolls around the funnel, it will drop through the bottom and be lost. Similarly, unless you do something to interrupt the chemicals dripping into your system, you will find yourself doing something against your value system.

It is easiest to learn about and understand the individual levels of the Chemical Scale in reverse order. We will start with the most obvious and work backward to the most subtle. You can also view them in levels of difficulty. It is easiest to win a battle at Level 0, it is too late to win at Level 10 because the battle has already been lost.

The levels in the Chemical Scale are:

10- Crash

9-6- Spiraling out of control

5- "Forget it!"

4- Irrational conversation

3- "Dude!" moment

2- Unedifying emotion(s)

1- Chemical spill

0- In control

Level 10 is when you actually do the thing you know is against your value system. We'll use a relatively common example. Let's say you are trying to be more conscious about what you eat and how much. You have set the goal to not eat snacks or treats while you are at work. Today a coworker brought homemade chocolate chip cookies (or some other treat that you really enjoy) and they invited everyone to have some. They set the cookies on your desk because your workspace is near the center of the office. After trying hard to resist for a while, you give in and eat a cookie even though you have committed to yourself that you wouldn't. "The Crash" does not occur until you have eaten a bite of the cookie. All of the fighting and resisting occurs in the earlier levels and any guilt or remorse will happen later. "The Crash" is simply the event of doing something you believe is wrong, or that you committed not to do. At this point, the fight is over and the battle is lost. Now you have to learn from the loss and begin to fight again. 

Explained another way with the coin donation funnel from earlier, this is when the coin drops down through the hole at the bottom of the funnel.  The coin/battle is gone and you now have to look towards the future and what you will do with your next coin.

In levels 9 through 6 you are just spiraling out of control, but have not yet actually eaten the cookie or done the thing against your value system.  This is when the coin is deep within the funnel and is rapidly picking up speed, but hasn't dropped through the hole yet. There is not much in these levels to discuss. It is possible to come back from a Level 6, or even a Level 9, and win but it almost never happens. Winning at these levels almost always requires external intervention, often both divine and mortal.

Each of the other Levels will be explored in depth in their own article. Next, we will focus on Level 5, the "Forget it!" moment.

If you'd like me to be your coach and help you put these principles into action, click this link to schedule a time to meet. onidah.youcanbook.me