P: PERCEPTION

It is easy for me to wax lyrical about the human body’s design. My graduate research was in Immunology and I still remember the first line of my Master’s thesis presentation: “The human body is equipped with a complete arsenal for the destruction of foreign forms.” My major professor wanted me to remove the line, telling me it sounded like a 1960’s reel-to-reel science film, but I proudly left it in—because I really meant it! Study, for me, was focused marveling!

When it comes to the area of perception, there is no shortage of material for wide-eyed wonder. Our five senses each have mechanisms of data processing that are sheer miracles of design. And the systems report in biochemically to that computer of gray and white matter at the top of our head—a marvel of efficiency that yields for us a workable vision of the world. Our brains synthesize our very own inward hologram of reality, orchestrating the intake, continually tweaking as new data comes in from the sensors. No wonder David said, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made, and that my soul knows well.” Meditator that he was, the shepherd who would later be king revealed through his writings that not only his perception of God, but also of himself, was appropriately filled with wonder.

Perception is a science, but it is also an art. The curious intake organs are composed of cells and structures capable of incredible finesse. Rods and cones in the eyes are fitted out with appropriate chemistry to process color and light. The delicate structures of the middle and inner ear convert pressure waves from sound into distinct percussive realities we can understand (you literally have a “drum” in your ear—how wild is that?). The somatic neurons placed throughout the skin relay messages electrically and immediately to the spinal cord and evoke a response often without even bothering the brain. It’s a veritable symphony of wild informational synergy! (It’s Stravinsky more than Bach, maybe!)

In the data-rich, over-stimulated world in which we live, however, one aspect of perception is of particular interest (especially because of the role it seems to play in attention deficit disorder). We are so incredibly capable of taking in data that we need our attention filtered. The processing must include the tuning out of the unimportant, or irrelevant data. The RAS (reticular activating system) is the system in your brain responsible for that. When you perk up at the sound of your name paged at an airport, while you have tuned out every other name or announcement, the RAS has done its job. It is also the RAS’s handiwork when you see the car you are interested in buying everywhere on the road as if everyone else had suddenly bought one ahead of you—they didn’t; you just tuned in to what suddenly became “yours”, at least in terms of desire!

The RAS focuses our attention on things that WE deem significant—there is a strong element of choice, but, note: this choice is not a direct choice to focus the attention! It is a much more global desire-based intoxication, which seems far more “heart” than “head”, if you will permit me to use that model! Perhaps this is where most people fail in trying to focus their busy brains: they try to focus their thoughts in the moment, dealing with small pixels of attention while our attentive abilities are already stretched to the limit! In the struggle to tie down the loose ends of ever-wandering consciousness, efforts to drill down toward what is important can meet with frustration. It seems as if increased pressure on one small thing in the vast sea of consciousness makes the surrounding brain terrain labeled “urgent” all the more, not less, noticeable!

So here’s a key to directing the focus of your daily perception, and it is going to sound very “Yoda-esque”. Don’t “try” to focus; just fall in love and let the built-in filters of the RAS take hold. Replace fevered efforts of focus with the free-fall enjoyment of passion and pursuit! When you are smitten with love, no one needs to tell you to focus on the object of your affection, for the thought of him/her filters out through the signal processing of every day! When you find yourself wrestling with focus in perception, cut that Gordian knot of struggle and rediscover the power of your mysterious heart to guide your attention. Fall in love all over again with your own passions, your destiny, your identity, your GOD! Let your focus flow FROM your heart THROUGH your brain (tell your head to outsource!).

The miracle of all perception, and of all humanity, as well as the thing that keeps me in hot pursuit of truth, is that it is NEVER just attainable through objective data alone! The universe has a way of squirming out of too much “pinning down”! This element of mystery is beautifully illustrated by the role our expectations play in our perceptions: We assemble the world we long to see! The universe runs not just head-matters but also heart issues! Love, a choice and inclination of the heart, has biochemical, and organizational, effects on the rest of my life. I am marvelously programmed to fall further in love with what I set my affections on (provided I leave them there, but if they have slipped, there is a “reset” button)! I am wired to flow as a unit toward what my heart longs for!

As the coach famously said to the high jumper trying to break his own record, “Throw your heart over the bar and the rest of you will follow.” It can be true for our attention and focus as well. A favorite Proverb: “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for out of it flow the issues of life!” My translation: Set your passions without measure and then watch your genius design facilitate those passions as your God-wired filtering directs your attention to the details of the big picture you are pursuing. Those are not just motivational psychobabble words: I’m convinced through years of living. When you are looking for the good, you find it, not with effort and struggle, but with trusting flow. And I must throw in just one more quote from that Book of Books, but from the New Testament this time, “To the pure, all things are pure….” Titus 1:15 New frontiers await our perception.