What’s Getting Through Your Sensation Filter?
Neuroanatomy of Intuition - The Reticular Activating System
I love reconciling dualities.
Rather, I love chasing the potential to reconcile dualities 😁
I recognize that duality is not something we can…‘escape from’, per se. However, we can gradually shift (alchemize) our perspective and refine our understanding of duality in a way that releases rigidity and insecurity and welcomes openness and truth.
One of my favorite ways to do this is by examining immaterial, or spiritual experiences and looking for an understanding of such things through science and logic.
I do this to understand the spiritual (not debunk the spiritual). I do this to connect and create understanding between the poles and transmute their contents (not to create a hierarchy). ⚖️
The data we’re exposed to informs intuition, and our intuition sifts through the data we’re exposed to.
Now, to ground this conversation- let’s talk about the reticular activating system 🧠
The reticular activating system (RAS) is part of the brainstem and plays a significant role in discerning our intuitive impulses.
• The RAS is where visual, auditory, tactile, and taste senses first enter the brain and it serves as a filter for how these stimuli are interpreted by our conscious mind.
• Physically, the structure of the RAS, like the entire nervous system, is largely determined by experience. Neurons that fire together wire together. The more you experience a particular behavior, thought pattern, emotion, etc. the more likely you are to continue experiencing it.
• We can reprogram this filter by consciously choosing interpretations, emotions, thoughts, and behaviors that move us in the direction of our choosing.
Humans receive about 11 million bits of data PER SECOND.
We consciously process about 50 bits 🤯
What determines those 50 out of the 11 million?
In large part, the RAS does; how it’s been cultivated (trained) determines where our focus lands and what information we’re biased towards.
Let’s imagine a strainer, like the one you put spaghetti in to drain after it cooks. Now, imagine that the holes in the strainer aren’t uniform. Imagine this strainer can look an infinite number of ways, in the shapes and sizes of its holes, its colors, and its overall size. This metaphor is similar to the function of your RAS. And you are the one with the most control over the type of strainer in your brain.
What do you want your strainer to catch?
The physiology and individual-specific functions of the RAS are determined by exposure to stimuli. My shorthand for this - “input = output.”
What stimuli are you exposing yourself to? To what degree are these the result of habit, training, childhood, and/or trauma? Do these stimuli or ‘inputs’ match what you want your ‘output’ to be?
For example…
What music are you listening to? Are these lyrics supportive of your ethos, desires, intentions, etc.? What emotional states do the underlying music, rhythm, etc. inspire in your body?
What information do you absorb when looking at screens? What emotional states does this information inspire? Is the information reinforcing your forward-facing direction or compounding limiting habits from the past?
What are your food and drink habits? Is how you consume nutrients and what you consume more or less of a priority for you? How does your body feel about your food and drink habits- nourished, cared for, rushed, rejected, avoided, neglected, etc.?
Who are you spending the most time with? What are the regular messages they tell you, explicitly and implicitly? Do you want to be more or less like these people? Remember - we’re the average (income, emotional state, health status) of the five people we spend the most time with.
Notice that there are no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answers to the questions above. There are only honest and dishonest answers. Sometimes, of course, ‘I don't know’ is the most honest answer we have in a particular moment.
It’s important to bear in mind, especially if you’re ‘very far’ from where you want to be, that change takes time, consistency, and repetition. Balanced levels of grace, patience, understanding, and self-compassion grease the wheels of your vehicle on this journey.
The function of the RAS and resulting phenomena are why techniques of auto-suggestion are so powerful. Auto-suggestion, or self-suggestion, is simply repeating to the self something you desire to encode in your subconscious mind. One could also argue that unconscious auto-suggestion is happening constantly, whether one is ever aware of it or not. This is, of course, how we become ‘programmed’ to be who we are.
Examples of auto-suggestion:
Affirmations
Mantras
Statements of intention/vision statements
Visualization practice
Anything repeated consistently over time
Once we become aware of our great power to change ourselves, we can take advantage of it! We can begin asking, “What 50 bits of data do I want to consciously catch each second?” “When I daydream, what do I want to daydream about?” “How can I train my mind, brain, emotions, and body to focus on what I WANT to be focused on, instead of experiencing a barrage of up to 50 bits of data that is contributing to a life I don’t want to live?”
Of course, it takes time and effort to reprogram learned patterns. The bright side is YOU HAVE THE OPTION TO DO SUCH A THING.
The more this sinks in- the reality that, while pain might be mandatory, suffering (reliving the same pains over and over instead of learning from them) is optional- the harder it is not to take more responsibility for the self and exert the influence that each of us (and only each of us) has to change our own lives.
A simple way to take more responsibility for yourself: discern what you truly want. Discern this desire with the belief that your desires are benevolent and that there is a path that is supportive both for you and for the systems you are a part of. Create your desire with words and/or pictures- write it, speak it, video it, draw it- and permit yourself to refine it as many times as you need to.
FOCUS ON WHAT YOU WANT AND CULTIVATE BELIEF AND GRATITUDE THAT YOU HAVE EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO BUILD THAT LIFE YOU DREAM OF 🔥
Over time, your RAS will accommodate this new program, and those 50 bits you’re consciously processing will be the ones you need to notice to make the choices that bring you one step closer to that dream.