Highly Sensitive People

Highly sensitive. Twenty percent of something like one hundred animal species (that have been tested so far) including humans fall into this category. So chances are excellent it is a survival adaptation. It is, in all tested species, evenly present among males and females. Highly sensitive is characterized by Depth of process (how intensely one observes things), a propensity for Overstimulation, strong Emotions, and Sensitivity to one's environment. Because we love acronyms, it is collectively coined "DOES."

Someone posted a graphic about it months ago that got me curious. It said something about how the highly sensitive weren't freaks - they had the OG genes. They were the top hunters, the sentinels, the visionaries, mystics and leaders of our not so distant past. They were tuned in.
That graphic affirmation was likely based on this body of research, which comes up with the 20% of the population model regardless of how the research is conducted or in what country and language, and so far, regardless of what species.

Speaking in terms of humans. If highly sensitive children have a nurturing childhood they tend to flourish and make positive contributions to society and the lives of others. If not, it's a crap shoot, and they make great candidates for serious depression and all the self-destructive behaviors that tend to go with it. However, if said same people get help, they also stand a really good chance of recovering. Perhaps because that heightened sensitivity allows them to perceive genuine support? I'm speculating here. And probably not badly.

And what of the other 80 per cent? They just don't experience things quite as intensely...or remotely as intensely, perhaps. They may literally not see color as vividly. Their experience of empathy is more reserved. Their thought process about any given thing may be more linear. Their emotional experiences are going to involve a more immediate radius. They can probably watch horror movies without being scarred for life.

And that explains a lot about our times, doesn't it? Which brings me back to the concept of the Highly Sensitive 20% having the survival genes. And being valuable. And not just as artists, musicians and poets. Being valuable because the gift of heightened perception is actually a great human asset, and a great leadership asset. (With the down-side of leaving you feeling like a peeled grape more than occasionally). And since animals don't share our egos, their highly sensitive twenty per cent must be the top of the gene pool.

So all you peeled grapes...put down the whatever. Time to rise. Life has always been full of man-made turmoil. I saw something earlier today about how if you were born in 1900 and made it to the age of 75 you would have lived through WWI, the Spanish flu, the Great Depression, additional economic collapse, WW2, the Korean War, Viet Nam, the Cold War and the Cuban Missile Crisis, and some other things. (My dad served in WW2, Korea, and Viet Nam. Don't ask me how. He never talked about it). If 80% of the population has a low reserve of empathy, the other 20% has to find a functional way to balance that.