This meeting happened just before Mauritius went on lockdown, and we met a couple living in London from different countries.

The guy was in the army of his country and was previously deployed in Afghanistan. We were having dinner when the discussion drifted to wars and PTSD.

I always believed that if you inflict trauma on another human being, it is only natural to come back to you. So I said that to him, explaining my views on PTSD.

He looked at me thoughtfully and paused a few seconds, considering what I had just said.

I have respect for those guys. The power and the machines we have are so far superior to what they have, and there is actually no way they can win, but they still figure out ways to fight back. Sometimes I am surprised by their ingenuity and resilience.

I was listening, and he continued. What hurts me the most and gives me agony is to see one of my fellow soldier friends injuries and death. I feel helpless, and that is what I believe is the real source of trauma and pain.

I know why humans feel the pain of members of the in-group more than out-group. I was thinking.

It was my turn to talk.

You know, human brains have a specialized area called the fusiform gurus. Its purpose in life is to recognize faces, trigger emotions, and tune them to match the face you see.

It helps the mother and child bond and leads the parents to think their child is unique and make sacrifices.

People with a disease called capgras syndrome lead them to think their mother is an imposter.

This thinking comes from the fact that they recognize the mother’s face, but since the part of the brain is damaged, it does not trigger the corresponding emotion.

The fusiform gyrus is the organ that tricks each one of 7 billion people on earth to feel their life is unique and special in some way and make them sacrifice and fight for what they perceive to be their family and their group.

Different organs do the same function in ants, turkeys, seagulls, and penguins, etc.

So when you see your friend suffer, it triggers more powerful emotions than someone else whose face is not wired to your brain yet. In reality, your friend does not have a single atom that is different from anyone else in the world. We are all clones fooled to believe we are unique.

We continued the dinner, and we continued walking and talking just outside the house at the garden leading to the beach. At one moment, he paused and came closer to me. He is much taller and bigger than me, and for a moment, I got scared. The thought that I might have offended him by saying his friends were not special came to my mind.

He leaned forward and hugged me and said, thank you, what you told me about the brain makes sense and makes me feel I have a better understanding now.