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| Harnessing Your Subconscious |
Harnessing Your Subconscious
“Over the years I have evolved methods to force my subconscious to do all this – the really hard work – so I, sitting up here in the conscious, sunlit penthouse, enjoy the benefits of the labors done in the dank, moist basement.” (Gregory Benford, In Alien Flesh, p94, 1986 [a collection of science fiction stories])
As early as 1860 the German physician and physicist, Hermann von Helmtoltz, proposed that we are unaware of the majority of our mental activity. According to the four-part model of the mind developed above, the majority of your mental activity occurs in your subconscious. And your subconscious mind obviously performs varied and vital functions, otherwise you could never survive.
How much influence can your conscious mind exert over your subconscious mind? Can you find ways to enhance the direct exchange of information between your conscious and your subconscious? Can you make better use of your powerful subconscious mind in your conscious deliberations? An improved flow of information would provide the potential for better conscious control of your neural processes, and the ability to modify your habits and to think more clearly.
There are few studies that directly measure the properties of the subconscious. Thus, attempts to harness the subconscious are often speculative in nature and much of the discussion in this section is based on anecdotal accounts.
Without realizing that you are doing it you already use a variety of strategies, approaches, and practices to harness your subconscious. Your subconscious monitors all sensory and memory input, monitors your conscious thoughts, and observes the resultant signals sent out to your body. If you had the ability to deliberately flag conscious thoughts as important for your subconscious to analyze, then that would improve communications in that direction. And if you could enhance your ability to detect messages from your subconscious, then communications in the other direction would also be improved.
“Over the years I have evolved methods to force my subconscious to do all this – the really hard work – so I, sitting up here in the conscious, sunlit penthouse, enjoy the benefits of the labors done in the dank, moist basement.” (Gregory Benford, In Alien Flesh, p94, 1986 [a collection of science fiction stories])
As early as 1860 the German physician and physicist, Hermann von Helmtoltz, proposed that we are unaware of the majority of our mental activity. According to the four-part model of the mind developed above, the majority of your mental activity occurs in your subconscious. And your subconscious mind obviously performs varied and vital functions, otherwise you could never survive.
How much influence can your conscious mind exert over your subconscious mind? Can you find ways to enhance the direct exchange of information between your conscious and your subconscious? Can you make better use of your powerful subconscious mind in your conscious deliberations? An improved flow of information would provide the potential for better conscious control of your neural processes, and the ability to modify your habits and to think more clearly.
There are few studies that directly measure the properties of the subconscious. Thus, attempts to harness the subconscious are often speculative in nature and much of the discussion in this section is based on anecdotal accounts.
Without realizing that you are doing it you already use a variety of strategies, approaches, and practices to harness your subconscious. Your subconscious monitors all sensory and memory input, monitors your conscious thoughts, and observes the resultant signals sent out to your body. If you had the ability to deliberately flag conscious thoughts as important for your subconscious to analyze, then that would improve communications in that direction. And if you could enhance your ability to detect messages from your subconscious, then communications in the other direction would also be improved.
