Wow, rich discussion here. So many associations came up while reading this. First, I appreciate the parallel between the idea of a lower and higher brain and the AV being the lower brain. It makes sense in that the AV is about impulse and craving. Also, the discussions about why we drink (or drank). The lower brain could drive this in terms of survival, or misinterpreting pleasure as good and pain (or suffering) as bad. So, some of us drank because we were in pain. For me, drinking wasn't problematic until physical and emotional pain became overwhelming. Also, the idea that alcohol provides a certain kind of magic or mystical sense that things are "right." So, drinking is kind of an adaptive behavior (lower brain) that works until it no longer works. Like the woman who was sexually abused as a child and who overeats to be less attractive to men (consciously or unconsciously - there is a well established correlation between obesity and childhood abuse).
But separating the higher and lower, keeping them distinct, seems problematic. I related to the idea of shouting down the AV in early sobriety. But meditation changed this. Tsultrim Allione's book Feeding Your Demons taught me to nourish the AV rather than fight it. By accepting the voice and listening to it, I developed a certain kind of compassion for it, and the fight subsided (along with the cravings).
The AV is still there, but it is simply part of my awareness, not something to suppress or something with which to pick a fight. It's part of me and I accept that. Chogyam Trungpa talked about "uniting heaven and earth" which is about bringing the inscrutable dragon of wisdom down and into our bodies and lifting our bodies into the heavenly realm of wisdom. It's about integrating body and mind. It's about integrating rather than separating lower and higher brain.
In meditation I often get the feeling that thoughts are not my own; that they come from elsewhere. This is akin to saying that thoughts can come from the prefrontal cortex, logical and directed, or they can release themselves from the reptilian brain, or the deep, lower brain, into consciousness. Where the hell did that come from? Is that a memory or fantasy?
Trungpa says the key to the process is the development of fearlessness. Through fearlessness we embrace our shadow self with our conscious self while accepting impermanence and the realization that self is, at a deeper level, an illusion. Read the titles in the Newcomers threads and you'll always see words like afraid, terrified, scared...
Recovery is a journey that involves the development of fearlessness. Some get this from faith, but those of us who, despite perhaps even wishing we could summon faith in God do not or cannot have this experience, must develop a different kind of faith. It's a faith found by letting go rather than holding on. It's a faith grounded in an acceptance of hopelessness rather than clinging to (false, perhaps) hope. It's a faith that tells us that all we really have is the moment, and ultimately the rest is either digging up the past or wondering and worrying about the future.
So, in the interest of marrying heaven and earth, of uniting body and mind, of integrating the lower and higher self or brains, I would suggest next time you feel the urge to argue with your AV, instead try listening to it, accepting it as part of the authentic self, learn from it, and make it your friend. Love thy enemy, so to speak, because we are our own enemies and we are our own healers.
Enjoy the weekend!