The Subconscious

Most people accept that we have a conscious and a subconscious mind and during our waking day we explore and interact with the world we perceive as external to ourselves through a combination of these minds and also with the collective mind. The conscious mind examines new experiences in order to classify and file them as programs in the subconscious so we have a way to spontaneously deal with such experiences whenever they occur again in our lives. Once the experience has been stored in the subconscious we don't need to consciously go through the same thinking procedure each time the same kind of experience occurs.

We perceive everything outside of our bodies as separate from us that includes physical things and experiences. When we first came across a rock we took it for granted that we are not the rock and the rock is separate from us. We examined the rock and gave the name rock so from then on in every similar object is filed under the the name rock and our reaction to this experience is then stored in the subconscious. If however our first experience of rock is to have one thrown at us then of course the rock experience takes on a different meaning and is stored in a different way. It is still however filed under the same name held by the collective mind but ours will be associated with a program that most will not share.

By classifying and filing our experiences in this way we build up a store of programs in the subconscious and each is activated spontaneously by recurring experiences which means that as we get older we spend more time subconsciously reacting to the world rather than consciously doing so as many people would have us believe. There is tendency for us to live our lives in autopilot somewhat like the pilot of an aeroplane who only takes command in times of danger or when faced with unfamiliar circumstances.

Most people are unaware that most of what they think, say and do is subconsciously motivated and has very little to do with deliberate conscious thinking. It is difficult for someone who has been thinking about something in the same way all of his life to suddenly entertain another way of viewing the same thing. The violent reaction new ideas receive from so called intelligent people never ceases to amaze me.

I recently posted an idea in HubPages Forums which I titled The Power of Words to Change the World and included a link to a less than 2 minutes video clip on YouTube to visually demonstrate what I meant by my statement. The violent reaction I received from a fellow hubber is evidence of how closed some people become to entertain anything that does not fit their subconscious programs. Even when I attempted to engage in discussion I was told by this same person “So far, since knowing you from the first time we met, this has to be the dumbest thing you've said.”

Here is a link to the forum post: The Power of Words to Change the World http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/76853

Now this is a person who states in his profile “Yes, there happens to be a chance, that you will disagree. And, should you disagree, then I hope you would be a big enough person to rationally discuss anything you do not like.”

There can be no rational discussion with people who are living on autopilot and especially when those same people then claim to be the authority on truth.

I have no feelings one way or another about this individual but I am thankful for this encounter with him because it serves very well to illustrate the ideas I put before you here in this article.

You will also note that all the while I dealing with that hubber's aggression I am having a very stimulating conversation with another hubber on the same thread who states very clearly from the onset that he is willing to entertain discussion on this unfamiliar way of looking at things. You can see from these parallel discussions discussions two completely different realities created by each person's choice of words.

An opinion or idea is just that, an idea until such time as enough people share the same idea in which case it then becomes a belief and eventually classified as fact. Once an idea has been labelled as fact by the collective mind then it will be defended tooth and nail by anything that might threaten its status. All of this happens subconsciously and we are at the mercy of forces that are acting below the level of our conscious awareness and all the time we are imagining that we are in control and rational! Seen in this perspective doesn't it make you wonder if you would not have been one of those people in the crowd calling for the crucifixion of Jesus had you been alive then?

Unless we teach ourselves to question consciously everything we think, say or do then we are at the mercy of these subconscious forces and don't even know we are. Most of what we know is based on classifications we have made as children and are as adults still spontaneously reacting to those same classifications we created as children. Isn't it time we woke up and rather than resting on imaginary laurels wouldn't it serve us better to see people as our brothers and sisters and entertain the ideas they have to share as simply an opportunity to question our own and realise that the world we imagine as real may not be as cut and dry as the ego presents it.

The subconscious mind takes care of all the things we don't need to be consciously aware of like our heart beat, breathing and a myriad of other bodily functions that would otherwise take up all our thinking and leave normal living impossible. The subconscious programs like walking, talking and driving are programs you have deliberately created and and so now you do all of those things automatically without having to analyse them the way you did when you first started to learn how to do them.

The subconscious mind also stores how we view ourselves and the world and when that is not open to change then we have conflict within and without. Hypnosis is actually a very effective way to call the subconscious dogs off and allows us to entertain ideas we would normally dismiss out of hand. This does not mean that you will automatically take on these new ideas as you ultimately are the highest authority in your own life and you are the one who chooses to believe or not believe what you wish.

It is the subconscious mind that is the power behind your life and hypnosis provides you with facility to examine your beliefs and question them without you feeling threatened.

This is the first in a series of hubs I intend to write on this subject and hope that I have at least created an environment with this hub that encourages open questioning of ideas and makes some of you think about beliefs you have held sacred up to now about yourself and the world and above questioning.

I highly recommend the book The Power of the Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy.