El pecado de la ira es una de las emociones más poderosas y destructivas que puede experimentar un ser humano. A lo largo de la historia, desde Moisés hasta los guerreros espartanos, se ha reconocido la necesidad de controlar este impulso violento. En la tradición cristiana, Dante Alighieri situaba a los iracundos en el cuarto círculo del infierno, donde su castigo era desgarrarse mutuamente en un ciclo eterno de sufrimiento. Este enfoque resalta la gravedad del pecado de la ira, considerándolo no solo como una falta moral, sino también como una forma de posesión demoníaca, relacionada con la figura del demonio Ammon en la demonología.
Sin embargo, en la era moderna, la ciencia ha comenzado a arrojar luz sobre el origen de la ira. Los neurocientíficos han identificado la amígdala como el centro donde se procesa esta emoción, sugiriendo que la ira podría estar más vinculada a reacciones químicas y neuronales que a influencias sobrenaturales. Esta dualidad nos lleva a cuestionar si el pecado de la ira es una cuestión de moralidad, salud mental o ambas.
El entendimiento contemporáneo de la ira implica un enfoque holístico que considera tanto las enseñanzas espirituales como la psicología moderna. En esta exploración, se nos invita a reflexionar sobre cómo gestionar la ira de manera constructiva, evitando así que se convierta en un pecado que "mata" no solo a los demás, sino también a nosotros mismos.
**Hashtags:** #PecadoDeLaIra, #Neurociencia, #ControlEmocional
**Keywords:** pecado de la ira, Moisés, guerreros espartanos, Dante Alighieri, cuarto círculo del infierno, demonio Ammon, emociones humanas, amígdala, salud mental, control de la ira.
Sin embargo, en la era moderna, la ciencia ha comenzado a arrojar luz sobre el origen de la ira. Los neurocientíficos han identificado la amígdala como el centro donde se procesa esta emoción, sugiriendo que la ira podría estar más vinculada a reacciones químicas y neuronales que a influencias sobrenaturales. Esta dualidad nos lleva a cuestionar si el pecado de la ira es una cuestión de moralidad, salud mental o ambas.
El entendimiento contemporáneo de la ira implica un enfoque holístico que considera tanto las enseñanzas espirituales como la psicología moderna. En esta exploración, se nos invita a reflexionar sobre cómo gestionar la ira de manera constructiva, evitando así que se convierta en un pecado que "mata" no solo a los demás, sino también a nosotros mismos.
**Hashtags:** #PecadoDeLaIra, #Neurociencia, #ControlEmocional
**Keywords:** pecado de la ira, Moisés, guerreros espartanos, Dante Alighieri, cuarto círculo del infierno, demonio Ammon, emociones humanas, amígdala, salud mental, control de la ira.
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TVTranscript
00:00There are seven major sins, and we can all be tempted by them.
00:09These are death-dealing sins that will have a severe damage effect on our spiritual life.
00:16Lust, envy, gluttony, laziness, greed, anger and arrogance.
00:25According to Christian theology, to commit one of these mortal sins, one only needs to desire it.
00:32The scriptures say that sin is paid with death.
00:38Behind each of these sins there is a hidden story that explains why they became mortal.
00:44The seven major sins have had a huge impact on history, society and our souls.
00:54You cannot transgress the laws of God without paying a high price.
01:04And the worst of all, the one that incites to kill, is anger.
01:12The seven major sins are an important Christian conception, although they do not really appear in the Bible.
01:18They appeared in the deserts of Egypt more than 300 years after the New Testament was written.
01:30In the year 375 AD, the Christian monk Evagrius Ponticus retired to a Christian monastery.
01:39There he began to catalog the temptations of the soul and created a list of the most dangerous.
01:46Evagrius considered that he could reduce it to eight terrible temptations.
01:51Of them, anger was the worst of all.
01:56Evagrius believed that the worst consequence of anger was that it blinded men.
02:01So he wrote,
02:03A man with anger cannot see the light, and the prayer of a furious person is the abomination.
02:10The seven major sins would not be codified until the year 590 AD,
02:16when Pope Gregory the Great studied the list of Evagrius and changed the temptations for mortal sins,
02:23reducing the list to seven.
02:31For Pope Gregory, anger was not only a sin, but it was also very harmful to the soul.
02:38Anger is a very expensive luxury that only men of a certain wealth can afford.
02:48Anger was defined as a desire for revenge.
02:51The Bible describes its effects on numerous occasions.
02:57Three biblical narrations show the evolution of the sin of anger.
03:03In Genesis, the first book of the Old Testament,
03:07no one seemed as irritable as God himself.
03:12In chapter 6, God was furious with his creation and decided to eliminate it.
03:21I am going to exterminate man and the living beings that I made on the face of the earth.
03:27And he sent such a terrible rain for forty days and forty nights, burning the earth.
03:34God only allowed a just man to escape, Noah.
03:41In chapter 11, God unleashes his anger again, only this time more precise and moderate.
03:48The people of Babel had built a tower that was going to reach the heavens.
03:53God took it as an offense and, angry, created the construction of the towers,
03:57dispersing the people all over the earth.
04:00This time, instead of killing all species, he punished only humanity.
04:06Sometimes God becomes very furious, and then you have to be careful,
04:11because he destroys the people and the families.
04:16Finally, in chapter 18, God finds again that men have sinned,
04:21but this time he only punishes the perverse cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
04:29A furious God makes it rain fire and sulfur on them.
04:35This time he was more precise in his anger.
04:38He did not punish all living beings or humanity, only Sodom and Gomorrah.
04:44According to theologians, there is a message in the wrath of God.
04:52The wrath of God shows his great concern for the way of life of men,
04:59the same as when parents get angry because their children do something wrong.
05:04These stories are about how we live together inside.
05:07It's a form of control in a way,
05:09to direct people toward proper diets, proper activities,
05:12and to explain the events that are going on around us.
05:19The Old Testament is full of stories about the brutality and atrocities of humans.
05:25In the Genesis, it is said that there was a man,
05:29who was killed by Abel at the hands of Cain,
05:32and the attack of King Saul against David in the Book of Samuel.
05:36These stories were not written for the weak of heart,
05:40but are examples of the mortal consequences of anger.
05:44In Exodus, the second book of the Bible,
05:47the Ten Commandments appear,
05:50giving an important turn to the way of understanding sin.
05:54The great innovation of the Ten Commandments,
05:57and the thing that distinguishes them from the pagan cultures that predate the Bible,
06:02is that God cares how I treat you.
06:05In pagan cultures, God cared how I treated God.
06:13In Judaism, and subsequently in Christianity,
06:16God relates to himself through his actions.
06:20And sin is a violation against God,
06:23whether he is directed against himself or against you.
06:29The Fifth Commandment says,
06:31You shall not kill.
06:33The Christian Fathers consider that this is a clear message
06:36of the serious consequences of anger.
06:41Ironically, the bearer of the Ten Commandments, Moses,
06:44is a very religious man.
06:47In Exodus, Moses saw how an Egyptian mistreated a Hebrew slave,
06:51and in an attack of anger, he killed the Egyptian.
06:56Later, in Mount Sinai, Moses returned with the two tablets of the Law,
07:00and found the Jews worshiping a golden calf.
07:05Furious, he broke the stone tablets at the foot of the mountain.
07:09And it's this very kind of anger that if you lose control,
07:12there can be very harmful consequences.
07:15In this case, he broke the tablets of the Law,
07:18and they had to be replaced once again.
07:23But in both cases, God did not punish Moses,
07:26but took advantage of his anger to show him the dangers of sin.
07:31In Exodus, Moses saw how an Egyptian mistreated a Hebrew slave,
07:35and in an attack of anger, he killed the Egyptian.
07:39The interesting thing about this story is that Moses was very angry,
07:43because it is a part of human nature.
07:46We all get angry at times,
07:48and to deny that is psychologically unhealthy,
07:51and is unrealistic.
07:53So, in this way, we understand that Moses' anger was perfectly human.
08:00The vision of anger in the Old Testament
08:02reflects the Jewish cultural tradition.
08:06In the Hebrew Bible, anger leads to sin.
08:10So, when anger leads to cruelty, or to violence,
08:14or to oppression, or to persecution,
08:18then anger is a sin.
08:21But when anger is just an emotion,
08:23felt by an individual and has no consequence,
08:26it is painful and harmful, but not sinful.
08:32The sin of anger acquires a new aspect in the Gospels.
08:37One of the first narrations of the Gospel of St. Matthew
08:40deals with the terrible consequences of the anger of Herod.
08:46There is the story of the birth of Jesus.
08:49Herod, king of Judea, had heard of a prophecy
08:53about the birth of a new king of the Jews.
08:56The possibility that this king would take over his throne
08:59made him furious.
09:02Herod was very angry,
09:04because he feared that when the new king of the Jews was born,
09:08he would be taken away from power.
09:11As he could not find him,
09:13he mounted a chain and decreed the killing of the newborns.
09:18And in this way, to eliminate the future heir to the throne.
09:22The story is known as the killing of the innocent saints.
09:27The Gospel says that Herod
09:29sent to slaughter all the two-year-old children of Bethlehem and the coast.
09:36Jesus survived because his family had fled to Egypt.
09:43Of course, for us, the Jews,
09:45it was a very difficult task.
09:48Of course, any account
09:50that has to do with the slaughter of babies
09:53is so horrific in our understanding
09:56that we have a particular kind of revulsion to that kind of account.
10:18The answer for the believers is in Satan.
10:24Satan was at first a dark and secular figure,
10:27but in the New Testament he evolved
10:29and became someone much more terrible.
10:32The tempter of humanity,
10:34the origin of the evil of the world.
10:39In the Old Testament, Satan is a rather minor character,
10:43but in the New Testament,
10:45he becomes an extraordinary demon.
10:48Satan becomes the father of lies,
10:50and Satan is the one who lures us to sin.
10:55Two of the great temptations
10:57that Satan incites in humans
10:59are fury and revenge.
11:01But Satan faces his great enemy, Jesus,
11:04who promulgates a new commandment against the sin of anger.
11:16It is believed that the seven major sins
11:18are the antecedent of hell,
11:20and the most violent and bloodiest of them all is anger.
11:27In the Old Testament, God was furious
11:29when he said in Deuteronomy,
11:31Revenge is mine.
11:36In the New Testament, the figure of Satan
11:38emerges as a demonic incarnation of sin,
11:41especially that of anger.
11:45The counterpoint to Satan's fury
11:47is Jesus, who adopts a radically different approach to anger.
11:54Jesus seemed to take the command
11:56such as the Ten Commandments,
11:58and he seems to wrench it off the intensity.
12:01Around the year 30 AD,
12:03in the Sermon on the Mount,
12:05Jesus encourages his followers to put the other cheek.
12:09A surprising advice,
12:11especially for Jewish society,
12:13about the brutal occupation of Rome.
12:20He's giving them a way to respond
12:22with dignity and self-worth in that kind of a context.
12:25And that's why, from Tolstoy to Gandhi
12:29to Martin Luther King Jr.,
12:31those kinds of words have been words
12:33that have deeply motivated us
12:35as a way of expressing ourselves
12:37with dignity and resolution
12:39without resorting to fury and violence.
12:43In the New Testament, the figure of Satan
12:45emerges as a demonic incarnation of sin,
12:47especially that of anger.
12:49Jesus seems to take the command
12:51such as the Ten Commandments,
12:53and he seems to wrench it off the intensity.
12:55Around the year 30 AD,
12:57in the Sermon on the Mount,
12:59Jesus encourages his followers
13:01to put the other cheek.
13:03Around the year 30 AD,
13:05in the Sermon on the Mount,
13:07Jesus encourages his followers
13:09to put the other cheek.
13:11It's a powerful moment to think about
13:13that innocent person who is suffering
13:15the torment on the cross.
13:17It's an incredible kind of statement about how
13:19we might be able to rise above vengeance,
13:21rise above anger.
13:27The condemnation of anger
13:29is not exclusive to Christianity.
13:31All religions point to anger
13:33as a serious sin,
13:35although each one does so
13:37from its own particular perspective.
13:41Rabbinism says that anger
13:43is like a boiling pot.
13:45Once it overflows,
13:47you have no idea what's going to happen
13:49or who's going to burn.
13:53Islam considers anger
13:55as a serious sin.
13:57The Prophet told his followers
13:59that the best of us
14:01is the one who takes the longest
14:03to get angry, and the worst
14:05is the one who takes the longest
14:07to get over the anger.
14:09In Christianity,
14:11there are several opinions
14:13about anger.
14:15For Protestants,
14:17and throughout our history,
14:19anger can be a sin,
14:21but not in itself,
14:23but what you do with it.
14:25The Church says
14:27that we all have passions,
14:29and passions lead to sin.
14:31You cannot
14:33destroy the passion
14:35or kill passions.
14:37It can be purified,
14:39redirected, and transformed.
14:43But all Christian doctrines
14:45coincide in one thing.
14:47Sinners who do not dominate their anger
14:49will be condemned to hell.
14:55Hell is the opposite of heaven.
14:57It is the eternal home of sinners.
15:01Most believe that Jesus
15:03referred to hell
15:05as the Garden of Eden.
15:11But in the New Testament,
15:13Jesus referred to the place
15:15where the condemned go
15:17with the word, Gehenna.
15:19Gehenna was a well
15:21on the outskirts of Jerusalem
15:23where the garbage was burned.
15:25Jesus used it as a symbol
15:27of what awaited the sinners.
15:29You can have your joy today,
15:31but who knows what awaits us
15:33after death.
15:39Hell was the place
15:41where the condemned were punished.
15:43The different religions
15:45defined and explained
15:47how hell was committed.
15:51According to Protestantism,
15:53it is not that God
15:55is burning people
15:57because he is angry.
15:59It is something much worse.
16:01It is people falling in on themselves
16:03forever and ever.
16:09The Orthodox Church
16:11adopts a philosophical approach.
16:13The Eastern Church
16:15says that God does not send anyone
16:17to hell.
16:19Those who condemn themselves
16:21go to hell.
16:23One of the great teachings
16:25of the Eastern Church
16:27is eternal mercy,
16:29but in Christianity,
16:31hell is not a destination forever,
16:33but a place of learning.
16:35The Koran describes
16:37eternal fire as something ungrateful,
16:39but there is a psychological element as well.
16:41We have the opportunity
16:43to redeem our faults there
16:45and improve our character.
16:47As bad as hell may be,
16:49when we are purged,
16:51we will enter heaven.
16:53Perhaps the most impressive description
16:55of hell
16:57was that of the Italian author
16:59Dante Alighieri
17:01in the year 1320 AD.
17:03The way he represented the condemned
17:05would catch the attention
17:07of the Christian world.
17:11In The Divine Comedy,
17:13Dante recounted a journey
17:15in which he descended
17:17to the nine levels of hell.
17:19Some of his descriptions of hell
17:21are so shocking
17:23that they caught the public
17:25for years.
17:27Dante's journey is terrifying.
17:29He classifies the condemned
17:31according to their sin.
17:33In each case, the punishment
17:35is adjusted to the crime.
17:37The punishment for the wrath
17:39is found in the fifth level,
17:41in the waters of the Cenagoso
17:43Estigia River,
17:45where those dominated by wrath
17:47hit each other mercilessly
17:49in order to escape the river.
17:51Dante describes his furious
17:53attempts to destroy the others.
18:01Dante's vision of hell
18:03guided the thinking of Christianity
18:05for centuries,
18:07although most of the details
18:09came from his mind,
18:11not from the scriptures.
18:13The Christian interpretation
18:15of hell would evolve again
18:17with the medieval demonologists
18:19who catalogued the occupants
18:21of hell.
18:23In 1598 AD,
18:25the German bishop and witch hunter
18:27Peter Winsfell compiled
18:29a detailed hierarchy
18:31of demons.
18:33He believed that each of the seven
18:35capital sins was associated
18:37with a particular demon.
18:39Winsfell claimed that the demonic
18:41prince of the sin of wrath
18:43was Amon.
18:45Probably,
18:47the name came from the sun god
18:49of the Egyptians,
18:51worshipped in times in the pyramids
18:53around 1550 BC.
18:57Winsfell described the demon
18:59of wrath as a monster
19:01spitting fire,
19:03with crow's beak and snake's tail.
19:05He tempted men
19:07with power and destroyed them
19:09with his own wrath.
19:11Peter Winsfell
19:13believed that there was another
19:15demonic entity that also controlled
19:17wrath.
19:19And this was none other than
19:21the powerful king of hell,
19:23Satan.
19:27Wrath is intimately
19:29related to Satan.
19:31Wrath that is misdirected
19:33can lead to violence
19:35and can even lead to murder.
19:37And so it's probably
19:39the most powerful emotion.
19:41Because of all the demons,
19:43Satan is the most powerful.
19:47For centuries,
19:49fear of Satan and the eternal fire
19:51were the main way
19:53to understand sin.
19:55But today,
19:57many believe that those old fears
19:59of going to hell matter very little.
20:03We all know a little more
20:05about the nature of the universe,
20:07what is up there and what is down there.
20:11But there are those who believe that wrath
20:13has led to a much more diabolical concept,
20:15war,
20:17which is the representation of hell
20:19in real life.
20:27The seven capital sins
20:29do not appear in the Bible,
20:31but the Church speaks of them
20:33to help the faithful to act correctly.
20:37And the sin of wrath
20:39is the worst of all,
20:41because it triggers violence,
20:43bloodshed and death.
20:47Wrath has evolved
20:49with religious history,
20:51but it has always been a human emotion.
20:53The whole question is
20:55how can a sinful emotion
20:57be considered a natural emotion,
20:59to which the Bible responds
21:01saying that it has different degrees.
21:05For humanity,
21:07the cause of wrath is war.
21:11I think anger definitely
21:13provokes war,
21:15and also that it prolongs it,
21:17because it generates a chain reaction
21:19that sometimes you don't know where it ends.
21:23The connection between wrath and war
21:25is older than the Bible itself.
21:27It appears in one of the first
21:29epic works in the world,
21:31the Iliad.
21:33The Iliad tells the story
21:35of the Trojan War.
21:37According to tradition,
21:39it was written by the Greek poet Homer
21:41approximately in the 9th century
21:43B.C.
21:45But it narrates events
21:47that could have occurred
21:49about 200 years earlier.
21:51The first words of the work
21:53clarify its argument.
21:55Wrath.
21:57It's about the wrath of Achilles.
21:59It's about the wrath of Achilles.
22:03It's about how he behaved
22:05and also how he led him
22:07to his own destruction.
22:11As the work develops,
22:13the Trojan War
22:15comes to a dead end
22:17due to the wrath of the Greek hero Achilles.
22:21His wrath was not directed
22:23against the enemy,
22:25but against Agamemnon
22:27and Briseida.
22:29Achilles abandoned the fight
22:31and let the Greeks
22:33suffer a terrible defeat.
22:35He got angry again
22:37and fought again
22:39only when his close friend Patroclus
22:41died at the hands of Hector.
22:43For centuries,
22:45the story of the Trojan War
22:47would be a lesson
22:49on how wrath leads directly
22:51to selfishness, dishonor
22:53and finally death.
22:55The Greek warriors
22:57would take these teachings very seriously.
22:59The Spartan soldiers
23:01have been considered
23:03the best fighters in the ancient world.
23:05They became legend
23:07for their heroic fight against the Persians
23:09in the passage of the Thermopylae.
23:11However, the approach of the Spartans
23:13to combat was not orthodox.
23:17We know that before
23:19the Spartans entered the battle,
23:21the commanders
23:23hired artists
23:25to play calm
23:27and smooth music
23:29to create a calm atmosphere
23:31and that they were relaxed
23:33at the battle.
23:37The explanation is that
23:39the Spartans had to be
23:41brave in combat
23:43and for this they did not need anger.
23:47To fight better the enemy,
23:49the Spartans tried to be calm
23:51and not dominated by fury.
23:57The sin of anger
23:59continued to evolve
24:01when Christianity became
24:03the dominant religion of the Roman Empire.
24:05At that time,
24:07much was said about the sin of anger
24:09and its relationship with war.
24:11Some believed that war
24:13was only justified
24:15if it was to protect the innocent.
24:17Others said that if the anger
24:19was only justified,
24:21then the law of God was wrong.
24:23But in the Bible
24:25there is no clear message
24:27about this.
24:29On the contrary,
24:31history abounds in examples
24:33of terrible wars
24:35that began due
24:37to strong religious discrepancies.
24:39People have never lacked
24:41a justification to kill.
24:43If they are religious people,
24:45they use a religious justification
24:47At present,
24:49the point of view on anger
24:51is similar to that of the Spartans.
24:53William Baudet,
24:55first sergeant of the Marines,
24:57participated in three combat shifts.
25:01When we get ready for combat
25:03we do not talk about the enemy
25:05to excite us as if it were a football game.
25:07We do not even care about the enemy.
25:09I only care about my Marines.
25:11If we are well prepared,
25:13no matter who we fight,
25:15it is unnecessary to consider the enemy
25:17an infrahuman.
25:19Sergeant Baudet does not want
25:21anger in the battlefield.
25:25Once I had to pick up the hand
25:27of one of my men
25:29who was 100 meters from where he died.
25:31Did I get angry?
25:33Of course I got angry.
25:35But I had to focus
25:37on something else.
25:39I told myself that it was too much
25:41and that now I had to fulfill my obligation.
25:43If we let emotions
25:45dominate us in combat,
25:47we are dead men.
25:51So that anger does not influence
25:53in combat, the recruits
25:55of the Marines are continually subjected
25:57to a very strong tension,
25:59starting from the first day.
26:01In this way they learn
26:03to dominate their emotions.
26:07Honestly, whenever I have
26:09entered combat, I have not seen
26:11a Marine of the United States
26:13lose his temper.
26:15I've never seen it.
26:19Baudet believes
26:21that by controlling anger,
26:23his soldiers have an advantage
26:25over untrained troops.
26:27I've seen insurgents
26:29lose their nerves
26:31and start running in the open.
26:33They shot, they were furious
26:35and they thought they were going to become heroes.
26:37But it's not like that.
26:39They are dead.
26:43Men have argued
26:45for thousands of years
26:47if killing in the battlefield
26:49is a manifestation of anger.
26:51For Baudet,
26:53that's not the point.
26:57Every time I go into combat,
26:59I believe every single time
27:01that I do it, I believe that it was right.
27:03People may think that it's murder,
27:05but it's not.
27:09Even with the scholars of religion,
27:11there is a missing key element.
27:15What makes soldiers not murderers
27:17is their lack of animosity
27:19towards the enemy.
27:21They gain nothing by killing them.
27:23Murder is committed
27:25when you hate someone
27:27or you want to steal something from them
27:29and that's why they kill you.
27:31The sin of anger may not have
27:33much to do with the justification
27:35of a war.
27:37Murder is committed
27:39when anger arises
27:41and leads to a homicide.
27:43Although it may seem strange,
27:45letters and neurologists
27:47agree that sometimes
27:49murder is explainable.
27:53The seven capital sins
27:55were described by the Church
27:57to help us reach Heaven.
28:01The worst of all these sins,
28:03the one that ends up
28:05in bloodshed,
28:07is the sin of anger.
28:11Throughout the history of America,
28:13there has been a perfectly acceptable reason
28:15to explain that anger ends up
28:17in murder,
28:19the so-called passion crime.
28:25Generally, we think that
28:27passion crimes are related
28:29to romantic relationships
28:31or marriages.
28:33In these cases, it is very common
28:35for anger to lead to
28:37brutal violence.
28:43It was in Washington,
28:45in 1859,
28:47when the passion crime
28:49appeared publicly for the first time.
28:51It was by the hand of the rich
28:53and respected congressman,
28:55Daniel Sickles.
28:57He discovered that his wife
28:59was having relations with
29:01the son of Francis Scott Key.
29:05He was so furious
29:07that he took out his pistols
29:09and went to kill her.
29:13Armed with two pistols
29:15and accompanied by his best friend,
29:17Sickles looked for Philip Key
29:19in the streets of Washington.
29:23He shot him once in the chest
29:25and when the wounded begged him
29:27to spare his life,
29:29Sickles shot him twice more.
29:35The shots were made
29:37so close to the White House
29:39that President James Buchanan,
29:41a friend of Sickles,
29:43could hear them.
29:45Sickles confessed immediately
29:47and was imprisoned.
29:49He was accused of first-degree murder.
29:51However, he was defended by a team
29:53with the best letters
29:55and several prominent politicians.
29:57The main argument
29:59of Sickles' defense
30:01was a transitory madness.
30:03It was argued that it was possible
30:05that a person could not temporarily
30:07distinguish between good and evil
30:09and that after the crime,
30:11suddenly, he could distinguish them again.
30:15The jury absolved him,
30:17but the public was more outraged
30:19because Sickles forgave
30:21and reconciled with his wife
30:23than for the unorthodox sentence.
30:27He was the first person
30:29in American history
30:31who successfully defended himself
30:33based on a transitory madness.
30:35I think he should have done time
30:37and plenty of it before what he did.
30:39But you get the feeling
30:41that many people feel
30:43that this kind of anger is understandable
30:45and they can imagine
30:47that they would do the same
30:49if suddenly they were confronted
30:51with the fact that their spouse
30:53was unfaithful.
30:55Sickles' sentence would have
30:57a great and long repercussion
30:59in American legislation.
31:01In Texas, it was legal
31:03for a long time to kill
31:05the wife's lover
31:07if they were surprised
31:09to have sex with someone else.
31:11The reason is that the husband
31:13would be justifiably furious
31:15and overwhelmed with anger.
31:17Any person
31:19could kill then
31:21in circumstances similar.
31:25Some believe
31:27that the transitory madness
31:29is just a cunning trick,
31:31a legal lagoon
31:33for the moment
31:35when one succumbs to anger.
31:41Nowadays,
31:43scientists are beginning
31:45to examine the origin of anger.
31:47The brain receives a lot of information
31:49both from the inside of the body
31:51and from the outside.
31:53Inside the brain
31:55there is the amygdala
31:57that filters all that information
31:59and asks one question.
32:05Is this a threat?
32:07Something that I have to worry about?
32:11Dr. Ruben Gold
32:13has pointed out the amygdala
32:15as the main instigator of anger.
32:17This lobe
32:19the size of a nut
32:21triggers the brain
32:23with an uncontrollable rage.
32:25Once there is a sense of danger
32:27there is a cascade of responses
32:29in the body
32:31such as changes in heart rate,
32:33blood pressure,
32:35sweat, etc.
32:37that make the person
32:39to fight or flee.
32:41The amygdala
32:43is a primitive part of the brain.
32:45It exists because the brain
32:47is composed of layers
32:49of millions of years of evolution.
32:53Those old brains
32:55are still active
32:57inside your own brain.
32:59In this way
33:01there are parts of the brain
33:03that react like a dog
33:05and others that react like a crocodile
33:07and there is another part
33:09that reacts like monkeys.
33:11The amygdala
33:13creates an answer
33:15to the stimuli to fight or flee.
33:17But in human beings
33:19another part of the brain
33:21has also evolved,
33:23the frontal lobes.
33:25This area that we see
33:27in the frontal part
33:29is the orbital frontal region
33:31that serves as a brake
33:33to the amygdala.
33:35If we imagine that the amygdala
33:37is the engine that responds
33:39to threats,
33:41then the frontal lobe
33:43is the brake.
33:45If the amygdala is right,
33:47then a person overwhelmed
33:49by anger literally suffers
33:51a transitory madness
33:53until the amygdala
33:55is again controlled.
33:57An example,
33:59the murder in 2003
34:01of Betty Dodge
34:03at the hands of her son James Asick.
34:05At the time of the crime,
34:07Asick, an adult with mental problems,
34:09had gone to live
34:11at his mother's house.
34:13Asick told his son
34:15to leave.
34:17That made him panic
34:19and take a statue
34:21that was close
34:23and break it
34:25on his mother's head,
34:27hitting her repeatedly
34:29until she was dead.
34:31Then he went out
34:33and turned himself in
34:35to the police.
34:39During the trial,
34:41he needed Dr. Gur's help
34:43to assess Asick's mental capacity.
34:45He did a full neuroscan
34:47of his brain
34:49and found that he was missing
34:5130 to 40% of the tissue
34:53of the frontal orbital region.
34:55When the amygdala
34:57said it was in danger
34:59and should attack,
35:01it did not have enough tissue
35:03in the frontal region
35:05to stop it.
35:07There are better ways
35:09than attacking
35:11what someone may think
35:13is the source of your fear.
35:15The jury agreed
35:17with Dr. Gur's testimony
35:19and declared that James Asick
35:21was innocent
35:23due to his lack of sanity.
35:25He was admitted
35:27to a psychiatric hospital
35:29because some said
35:31that James Asick
35:33was unable to control his anger.
35:35The organ that controls
35:37our behavior is the brain
35:39and his brain is damaged.
35:43But when the angry person
35:45is in prison
35:47or in a psychiatric hospital,
35:49the damage is already done.
35:51Is there a way to treat human anger
35:53before it reaches the critical point?
36:01The seven capital sins
36:03have served as a warning
36:05for centuries.
36:07And although the sins of lust,
36:09greed, envy, arrogance,
36:11gluttony and laziness
36:13have consequences,
36:15perhaps those of anger
36:17cause more deaths.
36:19When we are angry
36:21we lose control
36:23and in this way
36:25we tend to physical violence.
36:27When we fall into the hands
36:29of anger
36:31we lose ourselves.
36:35But ironically,
36:37part of the temptation
36:39to fall into anger
36:41is that it produces pleasure.
36:43It can bring people
36:45all the way to euphoria,
36:47especially men.
36:49It's often good
36:51to feel angry.
36:55Despite the centuries
36:57that have passed
36:59trying to control anger,
37:01today appears
37:03everywhere.
37:07I would like to believe
37:09that faith can stop violence
37:11and help us contain anger.
37:13But the United States,
37:15which has the highest rate
37:17of religious assistance
37:19has the highest rate
37:21of murder.
37:29The concept of the sin of anger
37:31has evolved over the centuries.
37:33Christianity affirmed
37:35that those who committed this sin
37:37faced the eternal fire of hell.
37:43But there are some sinners
37:45tormented by anger
37:47even in this life.
37:49I was in a relationship
37:51and things didn't go well.
37:53I didn't know what I was doing
37:55and I bought 8 liters of gasoline,
37:57I broke some windows
37:59in the apartment where I lived,
38:01I sprayed her car with gasoline
38:03and I burned it.
38:05It exploded in flames in the garage
38:07and the whole place had to be evacuated
38:09and I could have killed hundreds of people.
38:11I snapped
38:13and I beat him up enough
38:15to go to court.
38:17I spent 5 years in prison.
38:19There are people
38:21who don't try to dominate their sins
38:23through confession and repentance
38:25but try to control their anger.
38:27It is well known in society
38:29that the expression
38:31controlling anger
38:33has become popular terminology.
38:35Anutza Bellissimo is a specialist
38:37who has treated thousands of people
38:39with anger attacks.
38:41In modern society
38:43anger is a serious problem.
38:45Just look at the statistics.
38:4718,000 assaults per week
38:49in the United States.
38:51Of course,
38:53I understand that anger is definitely an issue.
38:57Bellissimo says that anger
38:59is not a mortal sin,
39:01but an inappropriate behavior.
39:03I do not believe
39:05that we can get rid of anger.
39:07I feel that anger is a very necessary human emotion.
39:11For me,
39:13anger is a red flag,
39:15a way of understanding
39:17that I face things
39:19that I'm not dealing with.
39:21Experts say
39:23that the key to overcoming anger
39:25has little to do
39:27with controlling anger
39:29and much more
39:31with personal relationships.
39:33If I tell my patients
39:35that anger destroys
39:37the relationship with their wife
39:39or their children,
39:41that seems to work.
39:43The most important thing
39:45for humanity
39:47is to maintain a relationship,
39:49to talk to each other
39:51and know how to behave.
39:55According to tradition,
39:57the sin of anger is punished
39:59with eternal fire.
40:01But Bellissimo believes
40:03that the religious approach
40:05to the sin of anger
40:07is not useful in the current world.
40:09I have never been able
40:11to intimidate my students
40:13who have suffered
40:15an access of anger
40:17But some differ
40:19from that opinion.
40:21One of those people
40:23is Howard Storm,
40:25who believes he knows
40:27the demonic power
40:29of the sin of anger.
40:31In 1985,
40:33Howard Storm was 38 years old
40:35and he was an art teacher
40:37with a serious problem of anger.
40:39I never hurt my wife
40:41or my children,
40:43but I yelled at them
40:45and broke everything
40:47I had at hand.
40:51But on a trip to Paris,
40:53Howard Storm had to be
40:55urgently admitted to a hospital
40:57due to a perforation
40:59in the intestine
41:01that almost ended his life.
41:03He was semi-unconscious
41:05and seemed to be
41:07among strange people.
41:09At first I heard people
41:11calling me by my name
41:13because I was very sick
41:15and they had to operate on me.
41:17They answered that I was in a hurry,
41:19that they knew me well
41:21and that I had to go with them.
41:25Semi-unconscious,
41:27Storm dreamed
41:29that he was going
41:31down a very long corridor.
41:33Suddenly, without warning,
41:35they began to hit him
41:37everywhere.
41:39Only then did he realize
41:41that he was going to die.
41:43I defended myself
41:45as hard as I could.
41:47I fought as hard
41:49as my strength allowed me.
41:51I tried to prevent
41:53being scratched
41:55and bitten.
41:57They hit me
41:59everywhere.
42:03There is no way
42:05to describe it.
42:07The words fear, terror and panic
42:09are not adequate.
42:13At one point,
42:15Storm, an atheist
42:17did something that
42:19would never have happened to him.
42:21He began to pray.
42:23And then,
42:25a ray of light appeared
42:27that freed him from his attackers.
42:29And he was found again
42:31in the hospital bed,
42:33conscious again.
42:35Howard Storm
42:37believes that there is only
42:39one explanation for his experience.
42:43I think
42:45what happened to me
42:47is that I had the opportunity
42:49to feel what hell was.
42:53As soon as
42:55he recovered, Storm
42:57changed his old way of
42:59facing anger.
43:01Since my near-death experience,
43:03I have never felt
43:05that anger again
43:07that made me lose control.
43:09I have not felt it again.
43:13Whether Storm's experience
43:15was a trip to hell
43:17or simply a hallucination,
43:19it had a profound impact on him.
43:21He transformed his way
43:23of behaving with his wife and family
43:25and changed his emotions.
43:27Storm says that his Dantean experience
43:29reminds him of medieval anger
43:31that can be beneficial for others.
43:35One of the things that forces me
43:37to be totally honest
43:39is that I don't want anyone
43:41to go to hell.
43:43God has sent me to prevent
43:45people from going to hell.
43:47The sin of anger
43:49has evolved over the millennia,
43:51from the anger of a just God
43:53in Genesis to the forgiveness
43:55of Jesus in the Gospels.
43:57From the infernal punishments
43:59to the judicial processes
44:01that try to control this sin.
44:05Is anger the most serious
44:07of the seven capital sins?
44:09The answer may not matter
44:11because, after all,
44:13we all have to be judged,
44:15some by our peers,
44:17others by someone superior.
44:19And for those who suffer
44:21the torment of anger,
44:23this sin may be enough
44:25to make them suffer hell on earth.