In The Master Key part 18, line 32. Haanel says, “The incentive of attention is interest; the greater the interest, the greater the attention; the greater the attention, the greater the interest, action and reaction; begin by paying attention; before long you will have aroused interest; this interest will attract more attention, and this attention will produce more interest, and so on. This practice will enable you to cultivate the power of attention.”
This made me think of the reticular activating system also known as the RAS. “It is a primitive network of nerve cells and fibers that is part of the mammalian brain located in the brain stem.
The RAS has two portions: one is the ascending RAS which is connected to the cortex, hypothalamus and the thalamus, and the other one is the descending RAS which is connected to the nerves. Both play a very important role in the human body.
Perhaps the most important function of the RAS is the control of consciousness; it is believed to control the ability to consciously focus attention on something. In addition, the RAS acts as a filter for all of the sensory inputs that we receive, helping to prevent the senses from being overloaded.
The RAS decides what is and what is not important to us and what we need to pay attention to. The “filter” sits between the subconscious and conscious minds and is programmed by the conscious mind. It is this ability to program the filter that makes the RAS so important in helping us to maintain focus and to achieve a goal.” Excerpt out of The 30 Laws of Flow.
The RAS has one job and one job only. Its job is to filter information; and it is superb at what it does. This is your filter of the world. We are constantly exposed to, and bombarded by so much information, data, stimuli and even opportunities, that if we consciously tried to register it all, process it all and think about it all, we would literally go crazy.
We would be in a constant state of ‘overload’. So, the RAS (which is VERY good at what it does) constantly filters out ‘extraneous’ and ‘superfluous’ information and data. It’s like a “Spam Filter” for your mind.
The crucial question then becomes: How does the RAS determine what it needs to filter out? The RAS is constantly asking three questions in order to decide “what you need to know and be aware of”:
- “Is it my responsibility?”
- “Is it important?”
- “Does it match my version of ‘the truth’?”
Whatever information, data or stimuli you are exposed to must satisfy all three questions. It’s not the best two out of three. It is not a democracy or majority rules. It must satisfy ALL THREE criteria before the RAS will allow you to be aware of it – that includes any opportunities that you come across.
So, when you are working on your definite major purpose, or any goal for that matter, it needs to be very specific. This helps the reticular activating system because without that direction, the RAS doesn’t know what it is looking for.
The whole Master Key Experience journey is really supporting our reticular activating system to achieve whatever we specifically desire.
To your success.
Charlene
Also check out my post on concentration
Great post Charlene. So informative as I had never heard of RAS before. Keep up your journey.
Glad you liked it.
Yes the RAS is so important, and many people don’t know about it. Thanks for sharing with us.
You’re welcome
Thank you for great Post on the Reticular Activating System and in particular the 3 criteria that must be met before information becomes available to the conscious mind.
You’re welcome
As usual, Charlene, you have a great way of presenting these helpful information and connecting them to what we are learning in MKE. I loved reading it!