of it. The sensation essentially bursts through your other filters.

Do this now. Close your eyes and pick an area on your arm to focus on. Now, allow your awareness to take in every sensation that is there. You may feel movement of arm hairs, the gentle touch of a breeze, or even a “curiosity” about, “Is that an itch I feel?” as you zero in on a partic

In this moment, every cell of your body is receiving information. Each takes in sensations from its immediate external environment and also from its internal environment. Each cell sends that data to your brain, whose job it is to assimilate the information it receives and then direct the rest of the organism that is you to, both locally and systemically, respond.

Of the billions of sensations that are being processed in your body at any one time, you are consciously aware of about 20. The brain’s duty of assimilation is no less important than its role as a filter to make sure that you don’t experience everything at once.

Strychnine’s (rat poison) mechanism of action is that it strips away the ability of the brain to filter out information. The affected being, experiencing every miniscule sensation in its body, becomes overloaded and dies by seizure. LSD, oddly enough, works on the same principle – it temporarily dissolves filters -- though on a much more limited basis. We cannot function without these filters.

Right now, each cell of your skin, for example, is registering the pressure that its surroundings exert on it. For some it is air, for others, clothing and still others register the pressures exerted by every nearby hair follicle. Each of these cells, individually, go unnoticed until enough of them experience enough pressure that you, the being who is composed of these cells, suddenly becomes aware of it. The sensation essentially bursts through your other filters.

Do this now. Close your eyes and pick an area on your arm to focus on. Now, allow your awareness to take in every sensation that is there. You may feel movement of arm hairs, the gentle touch of a breeze, or even a “curiosity” about, “Is that an itch I feel?” as you zero in on a particu

pond.

Of the billions of sensations that are being processed in your body at any one time, you are consciously aware of about 20. The brain’s duty of assimilation is no less important than its role as a filter to make sure that you don’t experience everything at once.

Strychnine’s (rat poison) mechanism of action is that it strips away the ability of the brain to filter out information. The affected being, experiencing every miniscule sensation in its body, becomes overloaded and dies by seizure. LSD, oddly enough, works on the same principle – it temporarily dissolves filters -- though on a much more limited basis. We cannot function without these filters.

Right now, each cell of your skin, for example, is registering the pressure that its surroundings exert on it. For some it is air, for others, clothing and still others register the pressures exerted by every nearby hair follicle. Each of these cells, individually, go unnoticed until enough of them experience enough pressure that you, the being who is composed of these cells, suddenly becomes aware of it. The sensation essentially bursts through your other filters.

Do this now. Close your eyes and pick an area on your arm to focus on. Now, allow your awareness to take in every sensation that is there. You may feel movement of arm hairs, the gentle touch of a breeze, or even a “curiosity” about, “Is that an itch I feel?” as you zero in on a partic

f the brain to filter out information. The affected being, experiencing every miniscule sensation in its body, becomes overloaded and dies by seizure. LSD, oddly enough, works on the same principle – it temporarily dissolves filters -- though on a much more limited basis. We cannot function without these filters.

Right now, each cell of your skin, for example, is registering the pressure that its surroundings exert on it. For some it is air, for others, clothing and still others register the pressures exerted by every nearby hair follicle. Each of these cells, individually, go unnoticed until enough of them experience enough pressure that you, the being who is composed of these cells, suddenly becomes aware of it. The sensation essentially bursts through your other filters.

Do this now. Close your eyes and pick an area on your arm to focus on. Now, allow your awareness to take in every sensation that is there. You may feel movement of arm hairs, the gentle touch of a breeze, or even a “curiosity” about, “Is that an itch I feel?” as you zero in on a partic

xample, is registering the pressure that its surroundings exert on it. For some it is air, for others, clothing and still others register the pressures exerted by every nearby hair follicle. Each of these cells, individually, go unnoticed until enough of them experience enough pressure that you, the being who is composed of these cells, suddenly becomes aware of it. The sensation essentially bursts through your other filters.

Do this now. Close your eyes and pick an area on your arm to focus on. Now, allow your awareness to take in every sensation that is there. You may feel movement of arm hairs, the gentle touch of a breeze, or even a “curiosity” about, “Is that an itch I feel?” as you zero in on a partic

of it. The sensation essentially bursts through your other filters.

Do this now. Close your eyes and pick an area on your arm to focus on. Now, allow your awareness to take in every sensation that is there. You may feel movement of arm hairs, the gentle touch of a breeze, or even a “curiosity” about, “Is that an itch I feel?” as you zero in on a particular area. This point is you can make a choice to have that area of your experience be the localization (focal point) of your consciousness. What you are doing is filtering out most of the other sensations you may be experiencing in favor of that experienced by one area of your body.

There are filters of sensation and filters of perception as well. Have you ever spent time with someone and had a hard time being with them because they reminded you so much of, for example, an abusive other? Perhaps you had trouble “seeing” that person for who they were. You were actually experiencing that person through the filter of your past experience.

Once you recognize that your interpretation is based on something that was, rather than something that is, you are able to remove those filters and concentrate on the moment in front of you, without the distortion of past associations.

At any one time, we do have a significant amount of choice in where we localize our consciousness through the filters we use or remove. Of course, “where our consciousness is located” is a metaphor. But still, it rings true that, in the instance of a bee for example, when that bugger sticks that stinger into your skin, for all you know your consciousness IS right in that patch of skin. Every bit of it! And until you realize that the person in front of you is not that abusive other, you will tend to react protectively.

The point I wish to