Ring-Ring, It's Your RAS Calling.
“God doesn’t speak to us out of a voice of fear, but through the voice of courage and a sound mind.”
I’ve been hearing a lot about “listening to the voice of god/source/the universe” recently; and, though I did write a similar article on this topic previously*, I thought I’d take it on again with fresh and more learned eyes.
What is the "voice of god”, you ask? Is it realistically the voice of some invisible man up in the sky speaking to you in order for you to enact his will? Likely not. Think about it, without a properly-functioning and perfectly intact Cerebral Cortex, how could we interpret anything about the world around us? At the end of the day, you are still required in order to make god a reality (because life is just a story we tell ourselves). God (source, or the universe), may be a universal truth, but it doesn’t come into the realm of reality until our minds make it real. No mind, no reality—because reality is a subjective experience.
Any relatively skilled meditator will know by now that you can actually access “insights” on your way towards the highest level of meditation (Samadhi); more specifically, around the Dharana and Dhyana zones. For the un-initiated, this may come in the form of asking yourself a question in order to get an answer.
[Thought Experiment: why is it that we know the EXACT thing our friend should do in a time of crisis, but we never turn this same analytical, problem-solving eye to ourselves in our own times of crises? Well, that’s the whole truth behind the ancient axiom, “be still and know.”]
Having been a part of many Guided Meditation sessions now (these don’t particularly focus on total absorption—aka Samahdhi—and typically hang out around the Dharana and Dhyana zones), one of the cornerstones of most Guided Meditation sessions is speaking directly to your “Inner Child” and asking them a question about something you aren’t consciously aware of in your mind.
The thing about asking questions directly to yourself, much like asking them to a friend or trusted colleague, is you often get an answer. This “Honest Answer” (so to speak) is your Subconscious Mind articulating to your Conscious Mind what you should have known, but have forgotten, and are yet to remember.
What is your Inner Child, you ask? Your Inner Child is the un-jaded, objective and innocent part of yourself that still sees through the eyes of Curiosity and Wonder. When we were very young, unlike today, we saw the world through a more innocent lens. Granted, this was because our Prefrontal Cortex wasn’t fully formed yet, and we didn’t “learn” enough about the surrounding world to build up strong enough walls, also known as Social Constructs and Preconceptions, to guide our every action.
Why is it that we don’t run a red light, even when no one is around to see it? Social Constructs telling you that you’ll get a ticket if you break the law, and Preconceptions that “there must be a cop hiding somewhere!”
Circling back to this idea of the voice of god speaking to us (humorously described as “god speaking to you through a bumper sticker” at times), there’s this interesting function carried out by our brains called the Reticular Activating System (RAS). Essentially, what this brain function does is it helps guide our Active Awareness (aka Consciousness) toward whichever Input Stimuli our Subconscious Awareness deems worthy of paying attention to.
It’s the same function that governs things like: when your dentist appointment is coming up, all of a sudden you start seeing dentist signs everywhere. Or, a friend tells you about the new model of Tesla and you start seeing that same model drive past you everywhere on the road.
Would you have noticed those same Input Stimuli if you hadn’t been consciously primed beforehand? Yes and no. You might have still seen those same Input Stimuli (the dentist sign or the Tesla car), but you wouldn’t have paid much attention to them because it wasn’t deemed important enough by your RAS. Thus, you would have seen it, it would have entered into your Working Memory, then you would have quickly discarded it because it wasn’t necessary to have been overly-focused on.
Want me to prove it to you? Take a moment to listen for a sound that you can hear outside your window or in the room that you’re currently sitting in. Did you notice that same sound while reading this article? Most likely yes, but you didn’t realize it till I pulled your attention towards it. Essentially, your brain filtered that sound out of your Working Memory because you were using most of that “drive space” to pay attention to what it is that I was saying.
Coupling your newfound understanding of how the RAS works, and the voice of your Inner Child, is it any wonder now that you’re often being “compelled”, “called”, or “seeing signs” to go do that thing you’ve always wanted? To take part in that yoga class? To eat better food? To go on vacation? To get your life back in order?
It’s simply you (your Inner Child) speaking to you (your Conscious Mind) through your RAS (Reticular Activating System).
Now, I know what you’re thinking: that’s all well and good, but can the RAS actually get out-of-whack and cause you harm? It definitely can, leading to a whole host of other mental problems like Phobias and Anxiety. But I leave fixing that stuff up to Tara Rawana*—I’m only here to enlighten.
-manage your mind, manage your life; understand your mind, understand your life.