The Spiritual Signal to Noise Ratio of Life

Let's represent life on a metric of amplitude over frequency regarding the existentially emotional experience of it and the identity to it thereby.

"Noise" is the part of the signal that exceeds the bounds of "acceptable" ranges of amplitude for "functional" signal transmission and reception for a given recipient.

So a mild noise issue would look something like:

Where the green is within threshold bounds and the red is out of bounds.

An "ideal" signal would look like:

Where all is within the acceptable range, and transmission is accomplished at the lowest possible amplitude needed to require the transmission; essentially, super efficient.

(We'll call this Buddha-like; or any such figure which has attained some kind of tranquility in a culture's mythology.)

Signal out of bounds is itself not entirely a problem; however with a high rate of frequency of going out of bounds - then it is a problem.

Where signal is out of bounds, the recipient is incapable of translating that portion of the signal into its relevant channel (the "green" area).

This acceptable range is variable depending on the transmitter and receiver's capacities; different transmitters and receivers are capable of different thresholds.

When a signal goes out of bounds, there is an after-the-fact (meaning after reception by the recipient) system in place for attempting to regulate the issue: referred to as an Automatic Gain Controller (AGC).

Essentially, when too loud, turn down input (Amplitude). When too soft, turn up input (Amplitude).

An AGC is artificial in the sense that it is not an adjustment of the signal itself, but the reception of it.

As an example of such, In Neuro-psychology, a variety of medications exist which boost or inhibit neuro-transmissions or chemical responses (the most famous self-medicated variation of this is marijuana, which acts as an inhibitor to synaptic relays by piling up fatty tissue around the synapses).

In an ideal world, the signal broadcast itself would be adjusted so that it met within range of the recipient's channel capacity, but it can be rather difficult to accomplish a societal shift to effectively adjust such existential signal regulation for a mass on a mean; considering subjectivity (though monastic societies are an example of controlling the signal itself).

This leaves either an AGC approach, or a redefinition of the recipient's channel capacity.

In the former, periodic adjustment modules are needed (for instance, meditation, church services, retreats, etc...) [essentially, respite, buffers, capture effect {creating a second equally amplified transmission while reducing attention to the first}, or noise cancellation {creating a second equally amplified transmission with an inverse phase of the first}], while in the latter (increasing capacity) an overhaul of the existential identity of the individual and their identity of reality is needed (dogma, theology, "world-view", or other existential identifications of "how life is"...essentially) to change the perception of the incoming signal which was previously carrying existentially emotional amplitudes beyond their capacity for "channeling" into translatable and tangibly relatable information (essentially, changing perspective so to widen their tolerance or acceptance).

Ergo, my take on religion is essentially: "noise" control.

The above specifies to emotion; which is a very large sensory system in human beings and runs in rates of amplitude and frequency.
Adrenaline during perceived danger, for example, is a massive emotional response that raps heavily upon the system.
The "stress" upon the system for someone living daily with the possibility of death is racketing.

On the flip-side, if you are from a society of general accommodation and relative luxury, then your religion may focus on provoking exhilaration, rather than inhibiting it.

Other systems that have been used encourage exhilaration in means of rivaling dystopian impressions of ones society; "providing joy", as some call it, rather than inhibiting a given set of emotional sensations, or boosting others in their absence.

In America, secular (meaning, regardless of theological roots) adoption of a variety of meditation systems into religious practices is growing as more people continue to take part in these practices outside of their religious settings and find them effective in providing a moment of calm or respite in a society that is currently on overdrive for activity of any given individual within any given day.

Japan cites the same, and is now strongly investigating employing secular (same meaning as previous use) meditation facilities on mass more than is currently present as their own university research has shown to them that their people respond by lowering suicide rates (a pretty substantial issue currently) in districts where such are established and individuals quickly draw to these locations regularly after the work day before heading home to "reset", as it were.