Fearbase: Fear as Primary Displacement Mode, Systemic Switching, and the Architecture of Return to Safety

Fear is not an interruption of normal operation — it is the organism's primary displacement mode, the state in which most animals exist most of the time. Fearbase is the chronic low-level fear activation above S0. Fear operates as a master switch: turning off PFC executive function, digestion, reproduction, long-term immunity, growth, empathy, and planning; turning on cortisol, muscle tension, pain suppression, hypervigilance, and tribalism.

The return protocol is vagal: slow nasal breath → vagal activation → HPA suppression → fearbase decreases → S0 accessible.