The Reticular Activating System (RAS)

Have you ever learned a new word and then suddenly you hear it everywhere? That is your RAS at work! It is a part of your brain that acts like a bouncer at a club. It only lets in the information that you told it was important. If you look for reasons to be sad, the bouncer lets in all the sad things. But if you look for reasons to be happy, the bouncer starts letting in all the good things you used to miss. You get to decide who the bouncer lets in!

You get to decide who the bouncer lets in. Your brain processes two million bits of information per second. You are conscious of about forty. That means a bouncer is standing at the door of your awareness deciding what gets in and what stays out. And you trained the bouncer. Not on purpose. Through repetition. Through worry. Through focus. Through habit. If you spent ten years worrying, the bouncer is world-class at finding threats. If you spent ten years creating, the bouncer is world-class at finding opportunities. Same world. Different guest list. You cannot change the world. But you can change the bouncer's instructions. And the bouncer changes the world you see. This is not magical thinking. This is neuroscience with a velvet rope.

The RAS filters ~2 million bits/second down to ~40 bits of conscious awareness. Conscious intention reprograms the filter. This is not magical thinking. This is neuroscience with a velvet rope.

SOUND: Hearing your name whispered in a loud crowded room: the bouncer recognizing VIP information.

SMELL: Smelling your favorite food from all the way down the street: the nose filtering for what you told it to prioritize.

TASTE: Finding the one ingredient you love in a soup full of things: the tongue searching for what you declared important.

TOUCH: Suddenly feeling your socks only after you think about them: the body proving it was filtering them out until you asked.

SIGHT: Seeing the car you want to buy on every street corner: the eyes spotting what the RAS put on the guest list.

BODY: Knowing exactly where your hand is to catch a ball without looking: the body executing a priority the RAS approved.

Music: Morningbird by Forest Sun

Music: Burning Down the House by Talking Heads

Part of Perception & The Filter — CONSCIOUSNESS — Education Revelation