Essay 4 - Why Humans Seek Intensity

Let’s explore what it means to have a closed gate. These are the people typically associated with ADHD - they have the hardest time assimilating. They seem willful in their mischief; as if being annoying - on a good day - or a genuine hazard - on the most extreme days - is fun and enjoyable. They are the risk-takers and thrill-seekers. They are often described as people of extremes - the middle ground being completely overlooked. On the other hand, they can be creative, intelligent, charming, motivated, and pioneers. Why does it sometimes appear that there are (at least) two different people living in the same body?

Hartmann correctly points out that they are, in fact, starving for stimulation. That’s why, he says, they go for bungie jumping, skydiving, and speeding on the highway; they need to feel alive by risking their lives. But, is there really much risk in these activities? Are they attempting suicide? Is skydiving that much more risky than, say, flying in airplanes departing Boston’s Logan International Airport for LAX? Or, might these Hunters be attempting to satisfy a deeper need? (Like the need often felt by the Hunter to make outrageous statements to get a reaction from the reader.)

In our endeavor to answer those questions, we came to realize that the need to “feel alive” is not the force that drives the Hunter. Remember, the gates of the Hunter are closed - Hunters seem to go around intentionally doing things that will intensify their lives. Consider the senses: touch, taste, smell, hearing, vision - we mention the so-called “6th”, or “animal”, sense because we feel it is crucial to the human condition. We use our senses to relate to the world around us; our brains work tirelessly to identify the people and things with which we interact. One would be hard pressed to argue that vision is not the single most important sense used in the identification and classification of our lives.

For Hunters, however, very little is identified or classified unless it directly interacts with them - that is, the Hunter’s interest will not be piqued unless the visual input being received from an object is “louder” than the input from surrounding sources. Hunters require very specific stimulation to catch and hold their attention. How many times have we witnessed the Hunters in our lives pacing around the house in search of some misplaced object? They move quickly from room to room, never really stopping to consider where they last saw or used the object in question. It’s as if they are trying to “flush out” the object, so that they can get a fix on it. Since a wallet, or keys, won’t bolt out in an attempt to get away, the Hunter has a difficult time picking it out from all the other objects just lying about.

That takes care of Hunters, but what about Gatherers? Why do many VGs seek intensity as well? Consider a sensitive VG with wide open gates - these are the people that experience sensory overloads, as many have speculated. Thus, such VGs would meet the characteristic of a “highly sensitive person” and, therefore, tend to withdraw to a less intense environment.

However, some VGs also seem to meet Thom’s definition of a “closed-faucet” in that they enjoy very intense sensations - provided they can control the level of intensity. A sensitive VG may very well eat red hot peppers, smell pungeant flowers, or have intense sex. By walloping one sense at a time, certain VGs get relief from the sensory overload they typically experience. This is because strong sensory input allows them to block out their other senses which constantly overload them with input.