Reference: “All It Is” Chapter 10: “Sensory System”
Thursday, January 5
Walton: Good morning, Mr. Mighty Machine!
David: Whew, boy! You’re starting strong this morning, aren’t you!
Walton: I wanted to address you with all the appropriateness of today’s discussion.
David: I’m a machine?
Walton: My, this should go very quickly! Yes, indeed, you ARE a machine. A very specially built one, I may add. But then, so is everyone else built on this planet. So feel special, but not TOO special!
David: I am guessing not too far from Planet of the Apes, right?
Walton: Close indeed. But we will point out a couple of differentiating factors, to keep your still-healthy Ego intact.
David: Then, lay it on me, Professor Punchline.
Walton: Did you read last night’s assignment about the human Sensory System? And did you see any references to that comparison?
David: I scanned most of it, but did catch the italicized words: “In its simplest definition, the human body is an energy/information-processing machine, perceiving vibrational information and both storing and responding to that information.”
And now, for another famous quote, “You’ve got some ‘splainin’ to do!”
Walton: A very common, and appropriate, analogy for the Sensory System, is a Computer system. Not the whole system, mind you, just the central components.
David: So let me guess the basics: Computers have an Input part, an Output part, and the monkey in the middle is the Processing part. How am I doing so far?
Walton: I like the fact that you have already accepted your Inner “Monkey in the Middle” component! What are known as “peripheral devices”, like keyboards and mice and cameras are required to obtain information, or, in PTP terms, Energy signals. And out the back, we run monitors, disk drives, and robots. The 5 Sensory System “microphones” receive energy in the environment and convert it into electromechanical and electrochemical signals, waveforms, messages, to the rest of the body for interpretation and eventually a response. The Receivers of signals/stimuli. And those five energy receiving microphones would be …?
David: How about the five senses, for $1000?! Sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch!
Walton: We have a winner on “The Price is Life”! And the mission of Mr. Machine is to collect, store, and respond to life’s Energy-filled environment. In other terms, “Input data, calculate data, and output data.”
David: Those three phases match the three steps in the stickman figure drawings on that page.
Walton: In the words of the iconic philosophy band, Moody Blues: “And now to suit our great computer, you’re magnetic ink!”
David: And in the words of the quite ancient philosophy singer, Doris Day: “Is that all there is??”
Walton: First of all, remember that humans consist of THREE interacting Systems. The Awareness System acts as an Overseer of all that occurs to the human. And the soon-to-be discussed Belief System acts as the Response Coordinator to whatever energy messages have been stored and processed within the confines of that Sensory System programming.
David: If I remember correctly, the supplemental lines of the Moody Blues “In the Beginning” song are these:
“Of course you are my bright little star,
I’ve miles and miles of files,
Pretty files of your forefather’s fruit
…
I’m more than that, I know I am, at least, I think I must be.”
Walton: And it finishes with this supportive admonition:
“There you go man, keep as cool as you can.
Face piles and piles of trials with smiles.
It riles them to believe that you perceive the web they weave
And keep on thinking free.”
David: A pretty comprehensive summary of what we are discussing here, correct?
Walton: Yes, correct. But we haven’t yet covered the nature of the piles of files, which is the Belief System, and then the Awareness-based perceiving of the web of those limiting beliefs. All things in their due time, grasshopper machine. The Sensory System is a giant information-processing machine, with Awareness like the programmer feeding it data.
David: “Dance, mailman, Dance!”
Walton: Ah, “Cheers” memories! (Chuckles) It is a dance, David! Awareness initially guides the steps of the body, or Sensory System. But, as we shall soon see, eventually the young growing human organism turns discordant, the life pattern thrown off by an unwelcome third player.
David: Who’s the third player? The Belief System?
Walton: Ah, you’re a quick learner. Yes, the intruder is the Belief System. It’s like a tangled web we weave from past experiences, thoughts, and emotions, spun over the Awareness. It imparts its own interpretations of the input and stored data, distorting the signals, shaping the final human responses.
In more purely technical terms, and I quote from your homework page, “the Sensory System (SS) is the same as the human body; the physical and measurable vehicle through which Awareness attends to its sole “task”/ability of observing physical existence (and sometimes some non-physical existence). The SS is the complete physical human organism, including every aspect of physical and electrochemical activity, from sensory input, to electrochemical impulse transference, to eventual motor-muscular response mechanisms. The human body is an information-processing machine, perceiving vibrational information and both storing and responding to that information.”
David: What do we do about that intruder, if, indeed, we are able to do anything at all? How do we break free? How do we turn the Awareness System back into the true conductor of our life?
Walton: You’ve already taken the first step, David. By asking questions, by seeking understanding. Every moment of conscious observation, every choice made with Awareness and Awakeness weakens the Belief System’s grip over you. We will be referring to this as the great “Belief Barrier Battle.”
For now, just learn that the Sensory System is a marvel of engineering, a tapestry of neurons and synapses woven into a creative pattern of perception. It’s the bridge between your Awareness and the physical world, the translator of the universe’s whispers into tangible experiences.
David: But when you say that it’s like a machine, Input, processing, output,… it seems almost cold, clinical, calculated, down to the very binary level… ones and zeros.
Walton: True, but think of it as a playful machine. It craves exploration, the thrill of discovery. Those five senses, like eager fingers, reaching out to touch, taste, smell, hear, and see the world in all its vibrant chaos.
David: But it’s not just about receiving, is it? It stores, too, like a vast library of memories.
Walton: Precisely! Each experience, a ripple in the fabric of your being, etched into the neural network.
The Awareness observes, the Sensory System perceives and stores those perceptions, and finally, the Belief System interprets and commands. And within that interplay lies the potential for breaking free from the limitations of either system and embracing the full spectrum of human experience. At some point in time, out of your own curiosity, look into the “Myelin Sheath,” “Oligodendrocytes” and the wonderful “making of memories”! To the best of my current experience, oliodendrocytes have not been included in any popular song lyrics about love and memories. Maybe a side challenge for you and your band?
But for now, are you ready for a couple of fairly easy exercises, to re-connect your inner and outer self to the Super-powered Sensory System?
David: All systems go, and on high alert.
Walton: I guess we’ll find out if that is true! This first seemingly simple exercise is called “External Awareness.” To pull this off, use each of your five senses, one at a time, and repeatedly ask yourself: What else do I see/hear/feel/taste or smell? Once you name something, anything, keep asking that same question. But just pick one sense for now, don’t mix them up.
David: Sounds easy enough. Where’s the challenge?
Walton: The challenge is in determining the difference between the sensory system that picks up the stimulus, your awareness system that chooses what in the environment to focus on, and your belief system that will be very tempted to pick something that doesn’t fulfill the requirements of that task. Like including what you think about as you do the exercise.
For example, if you see one of the church pews, ask yourself things like “How did it obtain the label ‘pew’?” “How long is it, and how did you determine that number?” If you call it a particular color, is that a measurable, universally accepted label? Is its purpose in a church service connected to any past experiences you have had in a church setting, or with kneeling for long periods of time? You are seeking to distinguish the sensory observation from the issues or memory connections to the things you sense.
Sounds pretty easy, right?
David: Maybe not so much any more.
Walton: Give it a shot, and we’ll see what you got!
{David conducts this exercise for about 15 minutes with items freely visible within the church sanctuary.}
Walton: How’s the Sensory System working now? Are you Awake and Aware yet?
David: The biggest challenge seems to be the difficulty of separating the raw sensory impressions from the labels and concepts attached to those sensory impressions. For example, you had already previously mentioned to me that colors are simply labels, and not necessarily the raw impressions upon the senses. Yes, each color has a measurable wavelength frequency assigned to it that could indeed measure that sensation. But the word labels that we placed upon those colors are not in any way absolute. A person who is color blind detects the exact same item with their sensory system, but would not place the same specific colored label on it. They perceive the same item, but assess it differently. So, no absolute truth there.
Walton: A very good start! Did you have trouble or a challenge with anything else?
David: I know that you know the answer to that. Everything I looked at had a label placed upon it. And that label does not describe the sensory impression of the thing. A book label, like a book called the “Holy Bible”, has hundreds or thousands of beliefs and non-measurable impressions connected to it. Just the fact that we are both in a church sanctuary itself is rampant with tons of non-sensory beliefs connected to it. So, I guess, yes, I was able to detect the difference between a sensory impression like a smell or a sight or a touch. But immediately upon perceiving that thing, a belief of some kind of label or memory was attached to every item. Like automatic inspection and connection machine that we really are!
Walton: Very good work there, David! The main idea of the exercise is to recognize that the sensory system, which is just the body input and storage and output, is not the belief system. Today’s study is the sensory system. Tomorrow’s study will begin with the belief system, a whole different and strange animal to deal with.
David: Got anything else for me to deal with or process or practice today?
Walton: There is a fairly simple variation of the exercise you just did. I call it: ”Go Ahead and Be a Baby!”. And for this exercise, you get to use your imagination to pretend what it would be like to be a brand new baby just born and placed on this planet, for the first day or two of its lifetime. Does it have any beliefs? Does it know any labels or words? Does it have anything to connect its very simple sensory system too?
David: Let me project just a little bit here in advance: does the baby know that it is a baby? Does it know anything at all? Does it know that it has a mother? I remember reading some psychology articles that mentioned that the baby has no concept of self or ego at all! All these had to be learned during the course of experiencing a world full of potential pleasurable or painful events, and the survival needs programming that is associated with them. It doesn’t know distance, or depth, or emotional feelings, or that it is even a separate organism from its environment. That one freaks me out totally! It doesn’t yet know that it is a thing!
Walton: Yes indeed, that is where I hoped you would be able to go with this exercise. Once in a while, it humbles us to pretend that we were ever that organism on its first day of earthly life, belief-less. And yet possessing a high probability that it is totally aware, not conscious, but aware. It still has an energy system that led to its physical creation. And it still has a sensory system that will very quickly begin to react to potential pain or potential pleasure. But that original peaceful look upon its face, especially when the eyes first opened, is one of the most amazing events in its brand new life. Unblocked. Unstuck . Unencumbered by the unnecessary energy programs that it is about to start storing in its nervous system and body tissue. But then stand back and watch out: here comes the memory-making machine!
David: So is there any further part of this exercise that I am going to continue doing with this?
Walton: This exercise is almost like a very special kind of “healing by releasing” meditation. At some point, sit down somewhere with no distractions or no expectations. Make sure you are very comfortable with all of your muscles relaxed if possible . Maybe even lying down . And repeat the name of the exercise “go ahead and be a baby”. Try to imagine what a baby does or doesn’t think, does or doesn’t yet feel, a self or ego that does not yet even exist. No sense at all of “I Am.” It can be a very cleansing exercise for you. This provides you with a glimpse of the energetic pathway along which you return to that state that the psychologists call “tabula rasa”, or “clean and clear state.” Awake, and still Aware!
David: I bet that if I try this while lying down, it may be a very good sleep inducement aid as well!
Walton: A very logical assumption indeed, seeing as babies seem to enjoy the sleeping behavior during more of their day than anything else! Sleep deep, my young baby David! And tomorrow we will begin the total disruption of yourself and ego by examining the world of your belief system!
David: And thank you, of course, for such an inspirational farewell statement ….
*****