Mind the RAScal

A light bulb went off in my head when I heard about the RAS (Reticular Activation System). This is the filter in our brain responsible for what we perceive and experience. As it turns out, this filter is activated by our anticipated pleasure or perceived fear. Suddenly I understood the different personality styles at play. The alpha personalities who can zoom into the gist of an argument with a laser-like focus, it is all thanks to a powerful RAS; but alas, as spirituality has warned us for eons, desires and imagined fears often induces us to trample on love and spirituality because they are simply not in focus at that time. That’s why the RAS should better be referred to as the RAScal.

My overdeveloped RAS made me successful in economics and finance. I could zoom into the essentials of a discussion like a laser and make a snap decision whereas others were baffled by all the information out there. I was certainly born with a big picture perspective, but it was probably also the fear to end up like my depressed father, or the revolt of the Leo in me to end up like my docile mother that instilled the desire to succeed. Whatever the magic sauce at play was, it put me on the map in schools and professionally for decades. Alas, when I became an author I needed to develop the opposite strength, an eye for the detail rather than the laser-like focus zoom into the spiritual Aha-realization. So I had to surround myself with people who would have an attention for detail for editing, technology, marketing, videos, etc. That’s exactly what I did and my work took off!

Do me a favor, drop everything right now and become aware of your surroundings. I sit in a conference room right now waiting for the best session to start with a few people chatting behind me. Music is playing. The coffee cup is standing next to me. I still have the flavor of the black hazel nut coffee in my mouth. My fingertips are still warm from holding the cup just a moment before. Do you see, I could go on, and on, and on. Every second we are bombarded with millions of impressions all registered by our subconscious. The RAS filters everything out according to what we want to see. Some have an eye for the wild flowers, others have an eye for the prey, all based on the prevalence of the RAS. Can we in fact learn to reprogram our perception? Yes! My own spiritual journey proves that we can. The RAScal stands in the way of perceiving God, but God can make Her Presence known to us if we want to see Her by showing us the Way.

If our RAS is activated by anticipated pleasure and perceived fear, all we have to learn is to follow the energy of the situation at hand, not the way we want to see it. That’s what Lao-Tzu effectively observed and described in the Tao Te Ching, or simply, ‘the Way’. The Bible calls the same Force ‘not my will but Thine’. The beauty of my experience has been, you don’t have become stoic and try to override your desires and take the pain like a man. Appealing as this life philosophy sounds to our spiritual intellect, which is just another fancy word for our ego dressed up in spiritual clothes, it doesn’t work! Our subconscious cannot be fooled, it will always be on the look-out for what we know deep down inside is meaningful to us. No, go after your dreams, and find ways to protect yourself from your fears to the best of your abilities; the Way will always show you how. God looks out for us, there is always a possibility to combine our  passion and spiritual purpose. Over the years our filter or focus will shift to the energy of the Now. I know that this is the case because it happened to me.

Never mind the RAScal, just be smart and let God show you what is meaningful at every priceless moment.