AN ETHEREAL VIEWER

You too can live as regally as the lilies in the field, without a care for the morrow, when you realize that the flesh and blood organism, which skims this page is not you. This very moment, millions of photoreceptor cells in your eyes scan the black and white pixels on this page. Other neural systems identify their signals as words, locate their meanings and search through a lifetime of memories to make sense of each sentence. Within the span of a heartbeat, numberless action potentials fire electrically to enable billions of neurons to comprehend the final meaning of what you read now. And, you are that mysterious and intangible entity, which mirrors that understanding. Your nervous system does all the work. As deftly as it makes the lily bloom, nature manipulates all these processes without an ounce of effort from you.

The transmutation point, where an electrical impulse enters the boundaries of your ethereal awareness was revealed by the famous experiments of Benjamin Libet. These were deceptively simple experiments. He timed the neural cues in subjects while they voluntarily pressed a button. Each time they decided to press down, they were also to note the location of a dot on a computer screen, which changed its position every 43 milliseconds. The exact moment of a conscious decision to act, was compared to measurable activity in the system for the initiation of that muscle movement. After many experiments with many subjects, Libet discovered that activity in the motor areas began 350 milliseconds before the subject consciously decided to press the button.  Since the motor activity began earlier, it was evidently the “will” of the system, which decided to press that button. 350 milliseconds after motor activities had been initiated by the system, you mirrored that awareness.

HEAR YOUR OWN WORDS

It is not the intangible you, but the system, which decides to move even your little finger. It is the same with your speech. You become aware of it only after your system speaks. Within the blink of an eye, it gathers ideas, locates words, arranges them grammatically and moves your muscles to enable speech. You become aware of your choice of words only after they are uttered. Just as naturally as lilies bloom in the field, your words of love, or anger originate from one of the many inbuilt intelligences within your brain. Without your awareness, those intelligences manage your circulatory and digestive processes. An invisible coded intelligence manages your immune system to protect you from infection. You exist as an intangible awareness of a very limited portion of the myriad processes, which click and whir in the background.

You inhabit a massively knowledgeable machine, into which nature has accumulated, over millions of years, unbelievably large lodes of operating instructions. At the moment of conception, in a single fertilized human egg, the coded DNA instructions alone contain information equivalent to about six billion chemical letters, which could be recorded in a thousand 500 page books. In a grown human body, with the DNA in each cell containing a sequence of over 3 billion chemical nucleotide bases, the total of those codes in the body would fill the Grand Canyon fifty times over with 500 page manuals! Actionable biochemical instructions, which can fill cubic miles of books, manage your every activity, not you. Even your thoughts demand vast galaxies of subterranean knowledge.

CUBIC MILES OF WISDOM

INSTANT DELIVERY

Massive knowledge in nerve cells manage everything you do. If you are an artist drawing a cartoon, many intelligences participate. Unique entities determine the defining lines of the conceit, or the discomfort of your subject. Other visual entities know the effects of line, perspective, shadow and texture. The true miracle of your mind is the speed with which multiple intelligences exchange code in many dimensions to manage each activity in your life. You merely observe, while your system transfers the whimsical tilt of a nose on to paper in a single deft stroke.  You have almost no awareness of the complex and timely knowledge of the world, which is translated millisecond by millisecond by the system on to paper.

Walter Freeman, the famous neurobiologist summed up the mystery: “The cognitive guys think it's just impossible to keep throwing everything you've got into the computation every time. But, that is exactly what the brain does. Consciousness is about bringing your entire history to bear on your next step, your next breath, your next moment.” The secret is that your nervous system uses combinatorial coding to store cubic miles of data within your nerve cells and uses intuition, an elimination algorithm, to instantly extract the best and most appropriate answer from that information. You exist merely as a slow witted observer, while your system whirs and clicks.

MASSIVE DATA PROCESSING
THROUGH
COMBINATORIAL CODING
AND
THE INTUITIVE ALGORITHM

COMPLEX PROCESSES

Your are an observer of an intuitively controlled brain, which can effortlessly dwarf the systems of a modern space station. Imagine that you are in a space ship, sailing through cosmos. Picture yourself in the cockpit of the ship, watching a virtual reality screen, which displays its current status and strategy, represented as sensations, feelings and emotions, piped into you through sensors. You are a spectator, with a brief millisecond memory, who trusts and experiences the current stresses and the currently displayed game plan. In effect, you live the experiences of the ship. But, remember, you are not a player in this complex drama, but a mere observer. In that offbeat awareness lies the key to your serenity.

The great ship carries vast coded archives of routines from millions of years of experiences of achieving varied objectives. Each moment, it dynamically applies these routines, choosing from one of many differing strategies. It switches controls between many pilots, each dedicated to a particular strategy. One navigates aggressively. Another follows defensive tactics. Yet another seeks relaxation of the stresses of the voyage through play. Yet another jealously seeks to be the best ship in the fleet. Still another is caring and protective of the fleet. The emotions of anger, fear, laughter, envy, or love define some of the focused strategies of these competing pilots.

PARALLEL STRATEGIES

OVERRIDING CONTROLS

In real life, specific organs in the limbic system, in the mammalian part of your brain, are activated for fear, anger, guilt, or love. This region is the strategy hub, where, outside your awareness, these pilots follow the status of the ship and search cubic miles of manuals for ways to achieve the objectives of their individual tactics. While it is home to a range of competing and conflicting strategies, the hub will only allocate controls of the ship to a single pilot. The chosen pilot selects a predefined mode of behavior and primes the whole system to adjust to that strategy. If you have to walk down a plank, five hundred feet above ground, the defensive pilot will urgently signal its fear. Registering those frantic signals, the strategy hub will switch control to that pilot. With fear in control, the ship will stiffen you into immobility, instantly suppressing your simple ability to stroll on a plank.  Instead of walking you would prefer to sit down and hold the sides.

Even while fear can debilitate you, love can inspire you to achieve impossible tasks.  The impact of love has been vibrantly recorded by history. Love is patient and kind. Love suppresses the emotions of anger, irritability, jealousy and rudeness. The deepest desires of the person are subdued, giving way to an intense awareness of the needs of the loved one. Past wrongs are forgotten and forgiven. Love persists in spite of problems, keeping faith in the loved one. In essence, love ennobles you. Your behavior is decided by the pilot who takes charge of your ship. You are merely a helpless observer of the current strategy, whether it be fearful retreat, aggressive attack, or jealous outburst. It would seem that you are destined to be the impotent victim of an emotional roller coaster. But, there is hope, because the system has the power to rescue you and deposit you in peaceful waters.

LOVE
PROGRAMMED GRANDEUR

COMMON
SENSE

PROGRAMMED WISDOM

Superior to the impulsive pilots in the mammalian regions, Common sense (CS), a venerable human level pilot, resides in the prefrontal regions of your brain. Originating as an investigative entity with millions of years of evolutionary knowledge and experience, CS occupies cortical regions recently augmented to house your new human level competence. It is the highest intelligence in the ship. Sages from ancient times have sung praises of the unique CS viewpoint, untouched by emotions and impregnable to the cuts and thrusts of capricious fortune. It exists as pure perception, which sees both success and tragedy as similar situations. Being a purely rational intelligence, that pilot is untouched by the worries and fears of its lesser colleagues.

With CS in charge, your ship will not be dominated by its perceived stresses.  If, your nervous system plunges with lightning speed into anger, you need not become angry.  CS can calmly watch that anger and still it. When this pilot takes charge, you will not feel fearful, angry, or jealous, but will be calm. Your ship will be wisely guided, even if you face a sea of problems. But, there is a catch. Since the ship's strategy hub inexorably switches control to the most vociferous pilot, the serene but timid CS is seldom given charge. That is why the animal pilots within you periodically drive you to distraction.

OVERRIDING SWITCHES

THE POWER OF INVESTIGATION

Fortunately, a survival quirk in the control system can empower CS and envelop you in serenity. Because of the pivotal importance of investigation to survival, CS has the power to still other pilots, when it is in its inquiry mode. So also, only the CS circuits can direct attention inwards.  A decision to become aware of your thoughts and emotions immediately places CS in command. Such focused attention can still an irksome emotion. The knot of fear, or the flush of anger fades, if CS observes it. When you practice such awareness, your mind can gradually become calm.

But just a wish to become aware is not enough. You need practice to ride a bicycle, because your motor systems must comprehend the concept of balance. So also, self awareness requires practice. The timid wish signals from CS will be continually over ruled by the insistent cries from competing pilots - you are late for office, or the phone is ringing. So, to succeed, CS should pick tranquil periods to listen to your thoughts and to recognize your emotions. That is why sages from the past advised you to choose quiet solitude to meditate and become aware of the chatter within your mind.  With habit, CS will learn to recognize tangible internal voices.

LEARNING A NEW SKILL

COMMON
SENSE

SPOTTING YOUR INNER WISDOM

The initial recognition of the emotional outcries of a pilot will grant you an “Aha” moment of discovery. You will suddenly realize that CS is the pristine you. The rash impulses from other pilots to strike out wildly, or to sink into the depths of despair belong to lower level animal systems! They are not adult inputs, but primitive evolutionary responses to situations. They are beneath you. Each time CS recognizes such an interruption, that lesser emotion will be stilled. Gradually, as CS becomes increasingly familiar with such voices, the emotional chatter in the background will diminish.  As their strident signals wane, the ship will grant persisting control to CS. Being a neutral intelligence, CS will use intuition to select the best possible answer from everything you know. That answer is not distorted by fear, anger, or envy. You will begin to perform at your best.

CS will also be empowered, when it comprehends your vulnerable observer status. Even when your anger wells up, CS will know that, while you are imprisoned in the current viewpoint, it is not the truth. Beginning to trust its own pure wisdom, CS will transport you into a calmer world, where nothing bothers you. You will avoid being emotionally drained by rude colleagues or missed flights, because CS will reliably produce unemotional responses based on everything you know. You can do no better. As Jesus said, the glory of a flower comes without effort. For thousands of years, sages have praised the benefits of surrendering to the pure, calm wisdom of the common sense, which resides within you.

SURRENDER TO A DEEP WISDOM