Animorphs - A Crash Course in External Impulses

I‘d bounce in my seat as my mom parked the car. Barely able to contain my excitement. As soon as the car stopped moving, I’d burst out the door and race to the front doors of our neighborhood Barnes and Noble. From the entrance, I’d beeline toward the “Young Adults” section, hang a sharp right and stop in front of a wall that held my favorite series — Animorphs. These books made me into a science fiction fan, and, looking back, I think they were where my fascination with the mind began.

The premise is outlandish, after all, we’re talking about 1990’s literature where the heroes are just starting high school. But once you accept that five kids are the heroes, then it’s an easy step to accept that they are bestowed an alien power to morph into any animal that they touch in order to fight against a secret invasion of Earth by alien, mind-controlling slugs. Really, it’s “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” updated to a more modern time. Over fifty-four books, Jake, Rachel, Marco, Cassie, Tobias, and Ax (a good alien) fight a guerilla war against the mind-controlling Yerks. Almost every month, a new book would come out, and mom dutifully drove me to the bookstore; where I repeated my mad dash to that section of the store.

I loved those books, but they were intense. Dealing with family strife, personal sacrifice, disability, torture, and death. While I loved all the characters, I most identified with Tobias, the unlucky Animorph who, in the first book, breaks the one rule about morphing — never stay in a morph for longer than two hours, or you can never morph-out. Tobias gets stuck in the body of a red-tailed hawk, and spends the entirety of the series living in the forest and dealing with the instincts of a hawk.

What fascinated me the most was that even though the characters could morph into animals, they were always susceptible to how the animal’s instincts or strong motivations. When Jake morphed into a tiger, for example, he had to constantly battle the desire to hunt. When the entire team morphed into ants to sneak into a secure facility, they were almost overwhelmed by the strength of the queen’s mind instructing them on what to do.

Almost half of one book was dedicated to Tobias’ challenge of learning to eat raw meat because that what he needed to do living in the body of a hawk. Toward the end of the series, the group gets Jake, their leader, to morph into a dolphin, which was the most fun they had in any morph when he was depressed. Rachel used her experiences morphing into a cat to help her in a gymnastics competition. Feeling the sure balance that a cat has instinctively, she was able to perform better than her usual on the balance beam.

These books were my first experience with the perspective that the mind can be influenced by external thoughts and feelings, even if it feels like those thoughts are coming from within. They were my introduction to psychology and helped me understand that even though I might have felt like a “loner,” the friends that I did have would always be a huge part of my wellbeing.

I collected the 54 canonical books, and the 10 or so expansion books over some years. When I was twenty, I decided to donate all of the books to the newly established school library at the Ron Clark Academy, where I had been helping teach lacrosse. Before donating, I wanted to experience the story of my youth one more time, and I read all of the books once more over a week.

The writing and the story structure weren’t as amazing as I remembered. Yet, I was still sucked into this world where the protagonists had to deal with the stress of fighting an alien invasion, managing their schoolwork, and not getting lost in the minds of the animals into which they morphed. I feel that these books are part of the reason why I love learning about the mind and cognition, and why I still have a deep desire to help young people better manage the stresses of their daily lives.

Are you feeling overly stressed and want to calm down within a minute? Here’s a short video about how to easily trigger the Mammalian Dive Reflex in your body, and get your heart rate down to a more relaxed pace.