We think we are independent and self-willed, totally in control of our actions. Yet, like all animals and other forms of life, we are largely unconscious responders to interior and exterior influences. Our reflexes keep us alive but we are largely unaware of their activities. And even when we focus on a particular reflex-based response we usually cannot prevent or delay it.

Take for example, the reflex that closes or opens the diaphragms in our eyes according to the level of light; or deeper breathing in response to exercise or breathing air with a lower concentration of oxygen. Then there is the suite of reflexes that keep us upright when walking or running, and the rapid withdrawal of the arm when a finger is injured. And of course you can try to prevent urination when your bladder is full, but the emptying reflex will win in the end!

Other animals are as dependent for their survival on reflexes as we are, and most of their behaviour is determined and shaped by reflexes. Life is largely a series of responses to reflexes controlling hunger, sleep, mating, births, rearing young, threats, contact with water, injury and so on. We can be conscious of some of our reflex behaviours and perhaps exert a little control over them, but in the main we sail through life oblivious of the innate activities that keep us alive. Death can be viewed as a complete failure of life-supporting reflexes.

The question is, do reflexes contribute to our behaviour ? How about our responses to meeting strangers, people of different ethnicity or skin colour, angry people, people with severe disabilities, small children, crowds, strong criticism, unfamiliar animal species and insects, strong smells and sounds, thunder and so on. How much of our social interaction is based on unconscious reflexes and how little on learned behaviours? It would pay us to reflect more about our our reflexes.