Internal and External Cause

The Two Streams of Movement That Shape a Life

Cause is anything that initiates movement in the chain of experience.
In Integration, cause expresses itself through two distinct streams:

the causes that shape us
the causes we generate

Understanding both is essential for coherence, freedom, natural responsibility, and integration — without implying that any response is required.

External Cause

What arises from the world.

External causes originate outside the self and move through experience.
They are the conditions we inherit, encounter, or collide with — the reality we did not choose but must meet.

External cause includes:

childhood environment
cultural, structural, or systemic forces
relational dynamics
loss, shock, change, or tragedy
illness, injury, or physical limitation
economic or political constraint
other people’s actions or behaviour
anything the world does that impacts us

External cause is:

not chosen
not controllable
not personal
not moral
not a lesson
often overwhelming
always consequential

External cause sets conditions, not commands.
It shapes the moment — not the required response to it.

Internal Cause

What arises within.

Internal causes originate from the self — from the nervous system, memory, biology, temperament, history, and consciousness.

Internal cause includes:

sudden emotion
an activating memory
a protective thought or impulse
withdrawal or shutdown
a projection or assumption
a nervous system pattern
a moment of clarity
the choice to act or the choice to be still

Internal cause is:

not always chosen
not always conscious
shaped by history and nervous system
deeply influential
the basis of natural responsibility (never moral duty)

From the moment we exist, we generate causes.
This does not make us guilty — it makes us participants.

The Meeting Point: Effect

Freedom appears only here.

We do not choose the cause — internal or external.
By the time awareness arrives, the cause is already in motion.

Effect is where freedom appears:

in how we meet what arises
in the space between reaction and choice
in the bandwidth of what becomes possible next
in the option to move, or the option not to

Nothing in the architecture requires a response.
Freedom is non-directive.
Coherence returns with or without action.

External cause shapes conditions.
Internal cause shapes patterns.
Freedom shapes orientation.

The Self as Both Cause and Effect

The ongoing exchange.

Every human life unfolds as a continuous relational loop:

the world acts → external cause
we respond → internal cause
the world responds to us → new external cause
awareness interprets → internal cause again

We are shaped by forces we did not choose,
and we shape reality through everything that arises within us.

This duality forms the foundation of natural responsibility —
not moral obligation, but the simple fact that we live inside the effects we create.

How Integration Works With Both Causes

Coherence

With external cause: seeing what happened without story.
With internal cause: seeing what arose without identification.

Distortion

With external cause: misreading reality.
With internal cause: misreading self.

Truth

With external cause: direct contact with reality.
With internal cause: direct contact with experience.

Responsibility

With external cause: responsibility within conditions.
With internal cause: responsibility for effects.

Freedom

With external cause: bandwidth inside constraint.
With internal cause: openness inside response.

Integration

With external cause: meeting circumstance cleanly.
With internal cause: meeting self cleanly.

Nothing in this list implies a required behaviour.
These are descriptions of movement — not instructions.

Unified Statement

**Every person lives inside two streams of cause:
the causes that shape them, and the causes they generate.

External cause creates the conditions of a life.
Internal cause creates the movements that continue it.

We do not choose the cause — we choose how to meet the effect.
Freedom lives in that meeting.
Integration begins there.**