The Default Mode Network

When you are sitting quietly and doing nothing, your brain is actually very busy thinking about you. This part of the brain is like a storyteller that talks about your past and your future. It is where your daydreams live. Sometimes it tells good stories, and sometimes it worries, but it is the place where your sense of I is the strongest. Learning to watch these thoughts is like watching clouds pass by in the sky.

When you are doing nothing, something inside you is telling your story. Learn to watch the storyteller. You are not the story. You are the one listening.

The DMN: a large-scale brain network (posterior cingulate cortex, medial prefrontal cortex) active when not focused externally. Neurological basis for self-referential thought, social cognition, and mental time travel. High DMN activity links to rumination; meditation and flow states quiet it, producing selflessness or oneness. The brain constructs the illusion of a persistent, separate identity.

SOUND: White noise or static: notice how your mind starts making up stories.

SMELL: An old crayon: the DMN instantly pulls up a memory of you from the past.

TASTE: Something familiar from childhood: notice the story your mind tells about it.

TOUCH: Sit perfectly still, feel your weight: watch where your mind wanders to.

SIGHT: Stare at a blank wall and wait for the internal movie to start playing.

BODY: The sensation of drifting when almost asleep: the storyteller loosening its grip.

Music: Changes (feat. Talent) by 2Pac

Music: Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple

Part of Mind & Body — PHILOSOPHY — Education Revelation