When Instinct Died, Disease Was Born
- Madhukar Dama
- 1 day ago
- 8 min read
PART 1: The Great Betrayal: When Humans Severed Instinct
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INTRODUCTION
There was a time when man walked in rhythm with the earth.
He rose with the sun, rested with the moon, ate when hungry, drank when thirsty, slept when tired, and fasted when sick.
He needed no manual for living.
His body was his guide.
His instincts were his map.
But then came the fall.
Not a fall from grace.
Not a fall from intelligence.
But a fall from instinct.
And that fall — subtle, silent, respectable —
gave birth to thousands of diseases.
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I. WHAT IS INSTINCT?
Instinct is the deep, wordless wisdom written into every living being.
It is the compass of survival —
A silent intelligence that guides a bird to migrate,
A dog to lick its wounds,
A deer to flee fire before it sees the flame,
And a baby to cry when it needs warmth or food.
It doesn’t consult experts.
It doesn’t overthink.
It simply knows.
To live by instinct is to live without lies.
To live by instinct is to be in harmony with what you are.
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II. HOW HUMANS LOST IT
Humans began to distrust instinct the moment they began to idolize thought.
We invented agriculture, clocks, schools, religions, empires —
all systems that told us when to eat, how to sleep, who to love, and what to believe.
The body said: “Rest.”
The schedule said: “Work.”
The belly said: “Enough.”
The culture said: “More.”
The heart said: “I’m sad.”
The society said: “Be strong.”
We silenced the voice within,
and tuned in to everything else.
This betrayal was celebrated as discipline, achievement, progress.
But the cost was enormous.
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III. SYMPTOMS OF THE SEVERING
Once instinct was dismissed, the diseases arrived —
Not overnight, but generation after generation.
1. We overeat
Because we no longer feel hunger — we feel cravings, schedules, emotions.
2. We don’t sleep well
Because instinct sleeps with the stars, not with screens or stimulants.
3. We medicate pain
Instead of letting instinct use pain as a messenger to slow down, change, or heal.
4. We fast with fear
Whereas animals fast instinctively when unwell, we call it weakness or suffering.
5. We seek knowledge instead of wisdom
Instinct is wisdom. Modernity is an obsession with data.
6. We give birth and parent by manual
Not by touch, rhythm, presence, or knowing.
7. We no longer know what’s “enough”
In food, love, noise, work, ambition. Instinct knows. Intellect doesn’t.
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IV. THE DISEASES THAT FOLLOWED
Diabetes from scheduled overeating
Depression from ignoring emotional instinct
Hormonal chaos from disrupted light cycles
Infertility from synthetic lifestyles
Cancer from ignoring signals for decades
Addiction from chasing stimulation over stillness
Gut disorders from artificial diets
Mental illness from severed connection to body and nature
These are not punishments.
They are cries from the body — begging to be heard again.
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V. CAN INSTINCT BE RESTORED?
Yes, but not through force.
Instinct cannot be re-learned. It must be uncovered.
It’s already there — beneath the clutter.
Begin by subtracting:
Remove the noise: screens, clocks, chemicals, and fake foods.
Remove the lies: “You must,” “You should,” “You can’t.”
Then listen:
To your tiredness. To your belly. To your skin. To your breath.
Then trust:
When you feel full, stop.
When you feel sleepy, lie down.
When the sun rises, step out.
When pain comes, sit with it. Don’t silence it too soon.
Slowly, the inner compass will return.
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VI. WHY MOST WON’T DO IT
Because instinct requires surrender.
It doesn't flatter your ego.
It doesn’t give certifications.
It doesn’t make you rich.
It doesn’t make you better than others.
It just makes you alive.
Which, ironically, is what most are afraid of.
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CONCLUSION
The modern human is not sick — he is disoriented.
Not lost in the world, but lost within himself.
Because he no longer trusts the oldest, deepest truth: his own body.
Healing is not about adding new systems.
It’s about returning.
To rhythm.
To hunger.
To stillness.
To breath.
To instinct.
---PART 2: THE DIALOGUE WITH MADHUKAR
Title: The Day I Realised I Betrayed Myself
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[Setting: A warm afternoon in the Western Ghats. The scent of wild turmeric floats in the breeze. A tired man in his 40s, wearing branded sports shoes and a smartwatch, climbs up a narrow path to Madhukar’s mud home. His name is Ajay. He suffers from acidity, insomnia, and a constant inner anxiety he can’t name.]
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Ajay:
Madhukar… I’ve read all the books, taken all the supplements, seen all the top doctors.
But I still feel like a ghost in my own body.
What am I missing?
Madhukar (smiling, stirring herbs in a clay pot):
You have memorized life. But you’ve forgotten to live it.
Ajay:
But I follow a routine. I eat every three hours. I sleep exactly six and a half hours.
I meditate. I do yoga. I journal.
Madhukar:
You’ve outsourced your instincts to instructions.
Ajay (confused):
What do you mean?
Madhukar:
Do you eat when you’re hungry or when the clock says it’s time?
Do you sleep when your eyes close on their own, or when your app tells you to “wind down”?
Do you fast when your body wants stillness, or only on Shivratri?
Ajay (after a long pause):
I don’t remember the last time I felt truly hungry.
Or slept because I was sleepy, not exhausted.
Madhukar:
You have become the only animal that distrusts itself.
Even a street dog knows when to rest. Even a cow knows when to stop eating.
You — the most intelligent animal — have become the most confused.
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Ajay:
But isn’t instinct... primitive?
Madhukar:
Instinct is original.
It is intelligence without noise.
It is the wisdom that told your ancestors when to plant, when to rest, and when to mourn.
Ajay:
But we’re modern. Isn’t this progress?
Madhukar:
No. It’s just complexity.
You have not progressed. You have escaped your nature.
And now you are ill because you are lost.
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Ajay:
So what do I do now?
Madhukar (points to a chicken pecking in the garden):
Observe her.
She wakes with the light.
She eats when hungry.
She dust-bathes when itchy.
She rests in silence.
She does not need a course on “self-care.”
Ajay:
But I can’t live like a chicken.
Madhukar (grins):
Then live like a human who trusts his body again.
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Ajay:
How do I return?
Madhukar:
One subtraction at a time.
Throw away one rule.
Skip one pill.
Delay one meal — just long enough to feel true hunger.
Walk barefoot, once.
Sleep without a plan, once.
Feel the sun, not through glass, but through skin.
Every small return adds up.
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Ajay (softly):
I think I’ve been afraid… of losing control.
Madhukar:
Instinct isn’t loss of control. It’s loss of confusion.
It doesn’t make you a beast.
It makes you whole again.
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Ajay sat quietly for a long time. He removed his smartwatch, laid it beside a rock, and walked barefoot to the stream. It wasn’t a ritual. It was a return.
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Let’s now explore one main factor that caused humans to deviate from their instincts.
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THE MAIN FACTOR: THE INVENTION OF CONTROL
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WHAT IS IT?
The moment humans began to control the environment, the body, and each other —
we stepped out of the natural flow and began managing life instead of living it.
Control is the root.
Instinct thrives in surrender. Control thrives in fear.
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HOW DID IT BEGIN?
1. Agriculture:
When we began storing grains, we lost the natural hunger-fast cycle.
We started eating by availability, not instinct.
2. Timekeeping:
The sun and moon no longer dictated rest or movement — clocks did.
We began sleeping, eating, working against the rhythms of our bodies.
3. Domestication of Self:
We domesticated animals.
Then we domesticated children.
Then we domesticated our desires, feelings, needs — until we forgot they ever existed.
4. Punishment of Spontaneity:
Crying became weakness.
Hunger became gluttony.
Stillness became laziness.
Every instinctive act was rebranded as uncivilized.
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WHY CONTROL DESTROYS INSTINCT
Instinct is a wild river.
Control is a dam.
We began distrusting the natural intelligence inside us:
“Don’t trust your cravings.”
“Don’t trust your emotions.”
“Don’t trust your gut.”
“Don’t trust your children.”
“Don’t trust your body.”
Instead: Follow the plan. Obey the chart. Take the tablet.
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MODERN VERSIONS OF CONTROL
Diet plans
Alarm clocks
Prescribed exercise
Productivity schedules
Medication regimes
School routines
Parenting manuals
Fertility calendars
“Wellness” gadgets
Each of these might seem helpful —
but most are just control mechanisms replacing instinct.
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THE CONSEQUENCES
We eat when we’re not hungry
We work when we’re exhausted
We suppress emotions with pills
We fear silence, so we binge noise
We mistrust sickness, so we over-medicate
All because control says:
“Your body is unreliable. Your nature must be managed.”
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THE WAY BACK?
Let go of one control at a time.
Wake without an alarm
Eat only when hungry
Fast when unwell
Cry when you need
Rest without guilt
Parent without programming
Trust without data
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Here is the Dialogue with Madhukar
Title: The Man Who Tried to Control Everything
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[Setting: A cloudy afternoon. Madhukar is on his haunches, planting turmeric near a stream. A man in his late 30s, Ravi, stands nearby. He is lean, restless, with a visible twitch in his right eyelid. He wears a fitness band, carries an air purifier in his bag, and sips from a BPA-free measured water bottle.]
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Ravi:
Madhukar, I do everything by the book.
My water is filtered. My food is organic. I sleep at 10. I wake at 6.
I track my bowel movements.
Still… I feel like I’m dying inside.
Madhukar (looks up, smiling gently):
You’ve become a machine trying to be perfect.
That’s not health. That’s fear in disguise.
Ravi:
But isn’t structure necessary? Without control, isn’t life chaotic?
Madhukar:
Control is a beautiful servant. But you’ve made it your God.
And no God should make you this anxious.
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Ravi:
So what do I do? Let go of everything?
Madhukar:
No. Just one thing.
Stop managing life like a project.
Let it breathe. Let it mess up. Let it surprise you.
Ravi:
But if I don’t control it, won’t everything fall apart?
Madhukar:
It already has. That’s why you’re here.
Not because you lacked control —
But because you never allowed instinct to speak.
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Ravi (sits down, puts his gadgets aside):
How did it come to this?
Madhukar:
It began when man stopped trusting the earth.
He plucked before ripening.
Built walls against weather.
Scheduled what used to flow.
Controlled birth, death, emotion, hunger — until only machinery remained.
Ravi:
But without control, won’t we become animals?
Madhukar (softly):
And what’s wrong with animals?
They sleep when tired.
Eat when hungry.
Fast when sick.
Grieve when sad.
They heal — because they obey instinct.
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Ravi:
So you’re saying the real illness is… my addiction to control?
Madhukar:
Yes.
You’ve built a cage around yourself made of instructions, protocols, apps, reminders, alerts.
And now you wonder why you can’t breathe.
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Ravi (quietly):
I don’t even know when I started doing this.
When I stopped feeling hunger.
When I started drinking water because an app told me.
When I stopped trusting my sleepiness and started tracking it instead.
Madhukar (tearing off a leaf and handing it to him):
This leaf doesn’t know anything about macros, sunlight angles, or optimal growth schedules.
But it’s alive. Because it listens.
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Ravi:
So I just… listen?
Madhukar:
You begin by not ignoring.
When you feel tired — don’t delay rest.
When you feel full — don’t finish the plate.
When emotions rise — don’t label or bury them.
That’s instinct knocking again.
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Ravi (a tear rolls down):
I thought I was being disciplined.
Turns out, I was just terrified.
Madhukar (nodding):
Most control is just a costume for fear.
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[Ravi took a deep breath. Not measured. Not planned. Just instinctive.
It was the first healing action he had done in years — and it wasn’t on any to-do list.]
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