Applied Happiness Coaching

The Ascending Reticular Activating System

The Ascending Reticular Activating System [ARAS – herein to be referred to as RAS] is a section of the brain closest to the midbrain. It is a gateway in the superhighway of neural pathways in our consciousness. This group of ascending pathways originates in the fourth ventricle in the rostal pons (near midbrain), and has the ability to control whether sensory gates are either open or closed based on chemicals released, and electrical traffic.

The neurons that travel this road are mostly acetylcholinergic (elemental chemical in the CNS, PNS, ANS, and the only chemical in the somatic nervous system, or sensory system). These neurons work up into the thalamus, and all signals are then translated into information the brain and body can interpret and use. Acetylcholine, by itself, cannot influence the neurons of the thalamus by turning them on or shutting them off. However, ACh sensitizes them and thereby manipulates other channels and signals to pass or stay put. By closing a hyperpolarizing potassium channel, it can slightly depolarize thalamic neurons.

What the hell does this all mean?

It means that when Acetylcholine travels through the RAS, it makes the thalamus more sensitive to sensory input. Welcome to one of the goals / attributes of methylenedioxy-N-methamphetamine, (MDMA) or Ecstacy / E / X / XTC. What this means is that a natural chemical in your body – one you do not need drugs to acquire, can change the channel in your brain, so you experience the same world with a new set of sensory sensitivity. This is because it is the transportation system of the Reticular Formation in your brain.

The reticular formation is the part of the brain that is directly involved in actions such as waking/sleeping cycles, and filtering incoming stimuli to discriminate irrelevant background stimuli. It is essential for governing some of the basic functions of higher organisms. Reitan, (1959) suggests that sensory input alone is not sufficient for perception, and that the reticular formation and ARAS is the key to decoding sensory information. The reticular formation and ARAS can influence sensory input at several points, such as the receptor, inside the sensory nucleus of the thalamus, and in the cortex of the brain.

Again, what on Earth does this mean?

The ARAS and reticular formation (RF) are key pieces in changing the world around you, but influencing your senses, and changing what kind of stimuli arouses you. You can change the way your brain interprets the stimuli around you, by activating the RAS/RF. “A number of workers in a UCLA group, as well as others, demonstrated that stimulation of certain cortical sites produced cortical arousal (Segundo et al. 1955a,b; Adey et al., 1957; Kaada and Johannessen, 1960). This effect was shown to be mediated by a corticoreticular influence that activated the ARAS; that is, the cortex does not possess the ability to arouse it-self without the mediation of the ARAS. An everyday understanding of this corticoreticular influence would be the increased arousal produced by the daydreaming of stimulating thoughts” (Siegel, 2002).

Essentially, you can activate this system, and change what gets in and stays out of your consciousness, by thinking about something you want or do not want. If you focus on something, daydream about it, worry heavily about it, its presence will be recognized in the world around you – thus, bringing you what you think about. If the world around you is made up of billions of bytes of information, and the brain can only compute 150, the RAS/RF is in charge of what 150 you get to interpret. If you continue to influence that decision, your brain will notice that stimuli in the energy around you, and let you experience it. This becomes habitual (another basic function controlled by the RF – thalamus connection), because when you actually experience it, you release chemicals that naturally induce more sensory requests.

In other words, you dream about what you want, and your brain allows you to see and experience what you want- which causes you to feel joy and appreciation, and those chemicals influence the RAS/RF to continue on its course of delivering the stimuli you like. A habit is formed – a habit of joy and appreciation, and faith, and confidence because experience has “taught you that you can do/be/have anything if you really focus on it.” And therein lies the entire mission of our lives.

“We can be and do and have anything we desire if we focus on it, and experience the joy of having it even if it’s not in our lives yet.”

Our bodies are physically equipped with the necessary hardware to manipulate our reality. It’s not a hoax, and it’s not a self-help cliché. It’s science, and it can be tested, measured, and chemically proven. All you need to do is think about what you desire, and soon you too can take to the skies, and reach whatever dreams lay before you.

Reitan, R.M. Effects of brain damage on a psychomotor problem-solving task. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1959, 9, 211-215.

Siegel, J. The Neural Control of Sleep and Waking. Biomedical and Life Sciences, 2002, 2, 55-60.