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| The Subconscious Mind at Level I |
The Subconscious Mind at Level I
Subconscious activity at Level I is associated with functions typical of the hindbrain, Freud’s id, and MacLean’s reptilian complex. These include the survival functions needed to keep the body alive and functioning.
Maintaining the body
Your subconscious at Level I maintains breathing and heart rate, digestion, normal sleep, response to minor infections, response to minor damage, and monitoring of the environment for unusual events. All this activity normally takes place without any conscious control. On occasion and with focused effort you can modify these activities to some extent. For example, you can slow down your rate of breathing but you cannot stop it. You can relax and breathe deeply to facilitate sleep, but few of us can consciously decide to fall asleep at a given moment. You might be able to focus on tightening muscles near a minor laceration to reduce bleeding, but you cannot consciously will all bleeding to stop.
Basic physical skills
In addition, any basic physical skills that you have practiced and mastered such as crawling, walking, running, and keeping your balance, are under the control of your subconscious at Level I most of the time. Mastery means you can utilize that skill without having to consciously think about the details.
The subconscious mind at Level I also controls and activates a number of more subtle everyday activities.
You are typically using Level I skills when you turn your head to locate source of a sound; sniff the air to seek the source of an unusual odour; or blink to lubricate and clean your eyes. Level I skills help you use the relative angles of your eyes to estimate the distance to objects. If you happen to detect the bending of individual hairs on your arm, you interpret those signals as a small creature moving over your arm.
Your subconscious skills at Level I are also expert at detecting and interpreting subtle variations in facial expressions and body language. You can usually interpret a person’s mood with a quick glance at their posture and expression. The angle of a person’s head indicates where they are looking. You know people are becoming more interested as the pupils of their eyes dilate.
Your subconscious skills at Level I can also detect pheromones that indicate the sexual energy of a person. Those skills also bring up your arms quickly to shelter your face and head from any perceived blow, and to pull back your hand from an object that is too hot, too cold, or electrically energized.
Subconscious activity at Level I is associated with functions typical of the hindbrain, Freud’s id, and MacLean’s reptilian complex. These include the survival functions needed to keep the body alive and functioning.
Maintaining the body
Your subconscious at Level I maintains breathing and heart rate, digestion, normal sleep, response to minor infections, response to minor damage, and monitoring of the environment for unusual events. All this activity normally takes place without any conscious control. On occasion and with focused effort you can modify these activities to some extent. For example, you can slow down your rate of breathing but you cannot stop it. You can relax and breathe deeply to facilitate sleep, but few of us can consciously decide to fall asleep at a given moment. You might be able to focus on tightening muscles near a minor laceration to reduce bleeding, but you cannot consciously will all bleeding to stop.
Basic physical skills
In addition, any basic physical skills that you have practiced and mastered such as crawling, walking, running, and keeping your balance, are under the control of your subconscious at Level I most of the time. Mastery means you can utilize that skill without having to consciously think about the details.
The subconscious mind at Level I also controls and activates a number of more subtle everyday activities.
You are typically using Level I skills when you turn your head to locate source of a sound; sniff the air to seek the source of an unusual odour; or blink to lubricate and clean your eyes. Level I skills help you use the relative angles of your eyes to estimate the distance to objects. If you happen to detect the bending of individual hairs on your arm, you interpret those signals as a small creature moving over your arm.
Your subconscious skills at Level I are also expert at detecting and interpreting subtle variations in facial expressions and body language. You can usually interpret a person’s mood with a quick glance at their posture and expression. The angle of a person’s head indicates where they are looking. You know people are becoming more interested as the pupils of their eyes dilate.
Your subconscious skills at Level I can also detect pheromones that indicate the sexual energy of a person. Those skills also bring up your arms quickly to shelter your face and head from any perceived blow, and to pull back your hand from an object that is too hot, too cold, or electrically energized.
