Have you ever wondered why you did some things in the past without really knowing why? That's your subconscious mind at work--. Have done something differently from your every day routine, and experienced something good happening? That's your subc. mind directing your action. What ware some of your experiences?
I think that while there is quite a difference between subconsious and consious, I think that the line is blurred. They aren't two seperate entities but a continuum.
I'm going to call the combination of consious and subconsious the "consiousness." It's the part that is seperate from involuntary action like breathing and heart beating. Basically it's everything you've learned. The "top" or "surface" or "outer layer" of the consiousness is the consious, the part where you make decisions. We try to base the decisions on logic, but sometimes emotion (the obvious part of the subconsious) gets in the way and at all times the goals of the subconsious are being projected on to the consious's alleged logic.
Some things are quite simple. The more you repeat an action, the more "normal" it becomes and the deeper it sinks into your consiousness. (ie, it becomes subconsious). If you want to stop or start doing something, your consiousness has to get in the habit of overriding the subconsious urges. Say, if you want to stop smoking, the first few cigarettes are easy because you know you want to stop smoking. But your subconsious is still in the habit of smoking (a habit is, by definition, subconsious). So at that point your consious has to start working against your subconsious. You have to get in the habit of ignoring your habit. This can be accomplished by thinking something else, chewing gum, or whatever. Once you are in the habit of not smoking, it is no longer consious and your subconsious actually takes care of fighting the urge to smoke. Eventually the urge will disappear.
The deeper something is in your consiousness, the more consiousness it takes to understand it. There are some things ingrained so deep inside that it is impossible, or damn near impossible to dig up and understand. The deepest point, I believe, is what we call the "soul." It drives everything. Sometimes your consious needs to fight your subconsious, but if, in the end, your conscious actions do not reflect your inner soul, you will be in what I call a "decayed human state." Your mind will be split and you will fail at the things you hold dearest.
You [your consious] are your own [your soul's] worst enemy.
Scientists have done experiments that show the conscious part of the mind "thinks" after the subconscious has acted.
I'm presuming from this that the conscious is an afterthought or an echo giving us the illusion that we are consciously controlling ourselves when in reality it is the subconscious that controls EVERYTHING we do.
Consciousness is kind of like a passenger in a car driven by the subconscious. The subconscious is making all the decisions ie, turn left, stop, speed up, etc while the conscious thinks it's driving because it doesn't realise it's sitting in the back and using a toy steering wheel.
h@ts said this in post #7 : Scientists have done experiments that show the conscious part of the mind "thinks" after the subconscious has acted.
I'm presuming from this that the conscious is an afterthought or an echo giving us the illusion that we are consciously controlling ourselves when in reality it is the subconscious that controls EVERYTHING we do.
Consciousness is kind of like a passenger in a car driven by the subconscious. The subconscious is making all the decisions ie, turn left, stop, speed up, etc while the conscious thinks it's driving because it doesn't realise it's sitting in the back and using a toy steering wheel.
You are right on the button. That is exactly my take. Write on .
The subconscious could well be capable of controlling the mind and body without any help from the consciousness. Musicians and sports stars see the conscious part of the mind as a burden and train and practice to eliminate it, so they can get into the "zone" as they call it. Once they start becoming aware of the conscious part and think for instance how well they're doing it, they blow it.
Anyone who's driven a car on a long journey has probably had the experience where the conscious mind goes skipping off on all kinds of irrelevant flights of fancy and you are no longer consciously there behind the wheel.
This experience can be quite a shock because suddenly you realise that you have been unaware of even being in a car let alone driving it and yet you didn't drive off the road.
Dekka00 said this in post #11 : well what i meant was, can your consious mind control your subconsious?
Not if the conscious activity of the brain is just an echo of the activity of the subconscious.
Why humans developed consciousness is anybodies guess because we seem to function better without it - as in the example I used earlier, musicians lose themselves while playing music, meaning they are only aware of the music and no longer aware of themselves.
02-07-2004 08:14 PM
