In the mind-wandering discovery by Killingsworth and Gilbert, over a quarter million data points showed that people were not focused on what they were doing for about 47% of their waking lives and the less focus they had, the more unhappy they were. Decades of research show that nearly half of daily life consists of automatic behaviors executed without conscious decision-making. Unconscious automatic brain activity precedes conscious awareness by about half a second, and in most cases will help keep you consciously oblivious to half of your waking life. There is a default setting that our nervous system goes into whenever we lose focus and wander.

Scientific studies have identified it as the default mode network. This is what Buddhism calls ignorance and Gurdjev called waking sleep. Many spiritual traditions have diagnosed the human condition as one of chronic inattention and have taught various practices to remedy this problem and help us wake up. But this chronic inattention is big business for authoritarian governments, which is why there has been so much invested into covertly programming the subconscious mind with media. If people are content to live half their life unaware of themselves, then a governing system will manage their lives for them as they see fit.

The unconscious brains of billions are programmed to make predictable choices without ever activating conscious awareness and critical thought. And that’s old-fashioned compared to the latest neural implant science. The claustrum is a thin irregular sheet of neurons present in both hemispheres of the brain and has more biodeirectional cortical connectivity than any other structure. It is believed to be the conductor of the orchestra that binds together all sensory streams into a unified conscious experience. In the Kobesi study of 2014, the electrodes were placed between the left claustrum and the anterior insula of a patient who is conscious and performing tasks.

When they turn the electrode on, the 14 hertz signal caused an immediate shutdown of conscious awareness. The patient had a blank stare and was unresponsive to commands, but continued to perform their automatic behaviors. Once the switch was turned off again, the patient experienced immediate recovery with no memory of the interruption. If consciousness can be switched off with a 14 hertz signal and most people are already operating unconsciously half the time, the implications for autonomy are profound. Focused self-awareness brings more happiness and success, and for regular practitioners, much more. Meditation experts have significantly changed their own brain structure and are operating on levels unattainable to those with a wandering mind.

But for the beginner, this higher consciousness is achieved with the simple practice of becoming fully aware of whatever you are doing at any given moment. This is expressed succinctly with the Zen proverb, before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. A significant amount of the population is mostly running on autopilot and making decisions based on subconscious triggers, and there isn’t much you can do about that. But if you truly want freedom, the default zombie mode of thinking must be overridden through regular daily practice. It doesn’t cost anything, and you can start right now.

Chop wood, carry water, means whatever you are doing, do it with presence. Like Thich Nhat Hanh famously wrote, daily chores are not chores, they are opportunities to practice mindfulness and experience the miracle of life by being fully present. When everything we do is done with intention, only then can we claim to have agency over our own self. And without that agency, there will be an authoritarian state to administer it. Greg Reiss reporting. The Reiss Report is now fully funded by my Substack subscribers. Subscribe today and support my work at gregreiss.substack.com. Thank you for watching.

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