Today we’ll look at the Reticular Activating System’s process of Deletion

Deletion is quite simply not allowing information to enter your neurology that would otherwise enter as a result of experiences noted by your five senses.

To fit in with your day today, you may like to listen to the 4.18 minutes AUDIO.

Large amounts of data are instantly blocked from entering your minds to avoid sensory overload – you aren’t aware that this is happening.

Everyone selectively pays attention to different experiences that occur within the same environments.

I’m sure you’ve experienced that two people can see the same event, but each remembers different salient points, and may not agree on certain ‘facts’ about the event.

You experience what you focus on, as does everyone else, but as mentioned in the previous sentence, we all focus on different things.

Logically, you cannot focus on what you delete, can you? Therefore, you never ‘see it’.

Now, if an event, a piece of knowledge or a circumstance is one that has aroused your attention, you’ll pick up on everything related to it.

It’s like you’ve suddenly become a funnel for that topic and you siphon in everything you can about it.

BUT if it’s not on your radar screen, the opportunity can be staring you in the face and you won’t see it.

That’s what happens when you take an interest in something, and get madly involved with it.

Then, months later, when something reminds you of it, you realize that you haven’t done anything with this ‘passionate interest’ for quite a while and you say: “Oh, yes, I used to do that.

Wonder whatever happened to it?”

What happened was, you lost focus on it.

Remember the conscious mind can only handle max 114 bits of information at a time.

If you found a new ‘passionate interest’, even if it’s within the same subject area, what you were working on gets deleted to make room for this new ‘passion’.

This deletion process also happens with people you know as well.

If you know a person in a certain context, eg at work, and you meet up with that person at a sporting match, dressed quite differently, you may not ‘recognize’ that person, as your RAS is not associating that person with that environment.

Have you ever said: “I can’t believe it, I know that person so well, but I can’t think of her name”.

Your eyes, your visual sensory channel, are picking up the information but the information is not hitting you consciousness; it’s being deleted.

You’re seeing them in a different place from where you are accustomed to seeing them.

Now you see, you’re not forgetful, you’re not getting doddery, it’s quite normal.

Blame it on your RAS.

No, seriously your RAS is doing its job very well, without its functioning like this, in your favour, you would go nutty.

So in summary, focus on what you want and not, on what you don’t want.

Because, you have to be careful, ‘someone’ is listening in – and that ‘someone’ is your RAS.

Focus, focus, focus on what you want to make your dreams come true in all areas of your life.

Setting Goals helps you maintain that focus.

Next time: the NLP process of Distortion