The Life Cycle of the Amoeba - Stage Four

Stage Four - Flight from danger

The amoeba has now reached the stage where it is able to sustain itself and to respond to other stimuli in the environment. The most pressing of external stimuli is danger, and encountering danger is the next phase of development. Let us imagine that, an evolutionary aeon further in the primordial soup, an amoeba is under attack from a predator.

The urge for flight is perceived in the back; here we have a momentum away from a given source of stimulus, whereas in Stage Two, that of desire or appetite for something in the front of the amoeba, the movement was towards it. The Bladder and Kidney meridians embody the urge for flight, and these are the meridians of the back. This strong source of movement originating from the back provided Masunaga with the key word in his catchphrase describing the activity of this stage "impetus".