 |
| Analogies for Subconscious Activity |
Analogies for Subconscious Activity
Your mental processes and routines are encapsulated in neural networks, and signals passing through these networks correspond to your thoughts. When your mind is stimulated by, and then engaged in analyzing new input, all the relevant pathways are activated. However, in your conscious mind you are only aware of activity in the particular pathways that comprise the focus of your attention (the items in your in immediate-term memory).
An operating-system analogy
In the operating system analogy, your conscious thoughts correspond to the current program displayed on the monitor, and your subconscious thoughts correspond to all the other background programs that are running at the same time. Your inherited and learned mental behaviours are stored in neural networks, analogous to the computer programs in an operating system. Initiating and executing a mental behaviour is equivalent to calling up a program and following its instructions.
The forest-pathway analogy
In this analogy, your neural networks correspond to pathways through a forest. Your conscious mind corresponds to the pathway that you are currently travelling, while your subconscious mind corresponds to all the other paths around you.
A single pathway might correspond to a concept, a relationship, or a behaviour pattern. Some primal pathways have existed from the day you were born, and are well-travelled. Other primal pathways are hard to reach; they are overgrown and hidden by brambles. Many new pathways are created as you encounter life’s experiences during your formative years. Other pathways are created as you deliberately construct and rehearse new thoughts.
As you travel along any given pathway, environmental stimuli are constantly suggesting alternate paths to follow. Every moment of thinking presents a variety of new pathways to choose from. You can take a well-worn pathway, a path that detours around a rugged hill, a pathway that passes by a refreshing spring, or you can set off on a new route through the trees. The path that you do choose becomes the focus of your attention and thus becomes your conscious thoughts. All the other pathways that you happen to cross along the way, and nearby pathways that you can glimpse through the trees correspond to your subconscious thoughts. As you divert your thinking from one pathway to another, the new pathway becomes your new centre of consciousness.
The forest-pathway analogy requires one extra feature – if you receive an external stimulus, you are able to jump across the forest to a new pathway related to that stimulus. If someone asks you about your 12th birthday, if you hear something on the news, or if you detect a long forgotten sound – your conscious mind can jump to any pathways linked to those stimuli.
The forest-pathway analogy has some very interesting implications for clear thinking.
1. Building neural pathways, through experience and with training, increases the capabilities of both your conscious and subconscious minds.
2. While the general process of building pathways occurs over a lifetime of learning and thinking, specific new pathways can be built through repetition and rehearsal.
3. You can access some of your subconscious thoughts by altering your focus of attention. Then your new focus of attention enters your conscious mind and your old thoughts fade into your subconscious.
How can this analogy of a few pathways through some trees capture the intricacies and complexity of all your thoughts? The analogy becomes more realistic if you envisage a forest the size of the Amazon jungle and you have the ability to zip along trails of any length in the blink of an eye.
Your mental processes and routines are encapsulated in neural networks, and signals passing through these networks correspond to your thoughts. When your mind is stimulated by, and then engaged in analyzing new input, all the relevant pathways are activated. However, in your conscious mind you are only aware of activity in the particular pathways that comprise the focus of your attention (the items in your in immediate-term memory).
An operating-system analogy
In the operating system analogy, your conscious thoughts correspond to the current program displayed on the monitor, and your subconscious thoughts correspond to all the other background programs that are running at the same time. Your inherited and learned mental behaviours are stored in neural networks, analogous to the computer programs in an operating system. Initiating and executing a mental behaviour is equivalent to calling up a program and following its instructions.
The forest-pathway analogy
In this analogy, your neural networks correspond to pathways through a forest. Your conscious mind corresponds to the pathway that you are currently travelling, while your subconscious mind corresponds to all the other paths around you.
A single pathway might correspond to a concept, a relationship, or a behaviour pattern. Some primal pathways have existed from the day you were born, and are well-travelled. Other primal pathways are hard to reach; they are overgrown and hidden by brambles. Many new pathways are created as you encounter life’s experiences during your formative years. Other pathways are created as you deliberately construct and rehearse new thoughts.
As you travel along any given pathway, environmental stimuli are constantly suggesting alternate paths to follow. Every moment of thinking presents a variety of new pathways to choose from. You can take a well-worn pathway, a path that detours around a rugged hill, a pathway that passes by a refreshing spring, or you can set off on a new route through the trees. The path that you do choose becomes the focus of your attention and thus becomes your conscious thoughts. All the other pathways that you happen to cross along the way, and nearby pathways that you can glimpse through the trees correspond to your subconscious thoughts. As you divert your thinking from one pathway to another, the new pathway becomes your new centre of consciousness.
The forest-pathway analogy requires one extra feature – if you receive an external stimulus, you are able to jump across the forest to a new pathway related to that stimulus. If someone asks you about your 12th birthday, if you hear something on the news, or if you detect a long forgotten sound – your conscious mind can jump to any pathways linked to those stimuli.
The forest-pathway analogy has some very interesting implications for clear thinking.
1. Building neural pathways, through experience and with training, increases the capabilities of both your conscious and subconscious minds.
2. While the general process of building pathways occurs over a lifetime of learning and thinking, specific new pathways can be built through repetition and rehearsal.
3. You can access some of your subconscious thoughts by altering your focus of attention. Then your new focus of attention enters your conscious mind and your old thoughts fade into your subconscious.
How can this analogy of a few pathways through some trees capture the intricacies and complexity of all your thoughts? The analogy becomes more realistic if you envisage a forest the size of the Amazon jungle and you have the ability to zip along trails of any length in the blink of an eye.
