The subconscious has a somewhat sinister reputation and is often referred to as the “shadow.” It is usually seen as the repository of our unresolved trauma and the source of our primitive and libidinal impulses. This is true, but not the complete truth; the subconscious gives us access to embodied experiential wisdom and can be a source of light and joy. Understanding the positive resources of our subconscious can broaden our understanding and develop a new appreciation for the wisdom, practical knowledge, and guidance of this important dimension of our consciousness.
Definition Of The Subconscious Mind: In defining the subconscious it is useful to delineate the many aspects and multiplicity of its domain to see its composition, structure and disposition. It encompasses the most basic biological component, the body, with all of the physiological and neurological components including the autonomic nervous system to ensure its survival and adequate functioning. This rich relationship of the body to our emotional life has been illustrated in the works of Candace Pert and the audiobook Your Body Is Your Subconscious Mind. [[1]] [[2]]. It includes the emotional predilections and psychological inclinations of genetic, family and cultural origins. It incorporates the instinctual life of a person and those deep urges, drives and unvoiced emotions which compel individuals to act. It is the repository of memories, experiences, skills, emotional patterning and traumas acquired during the course of one’s life and accumulated characteristics garnered in past lives, as posited by some researchers.[[3]] [[4]] Memories include a significant mental and even philosophical component of beliefs about yourself and the world and how it operates. “ from which a person can draw upon” all of the learning and practical intelligence from past experience.[5] Though the subconscious provides us with its life supporting waters, illuminating gut level common sense and Zen like straight knowledge, it also carries our more primitive instinctual impulses and unconscious feelings such as fear, sexual lust, desire for power, anger, rage and racial and gender hatred. These powerful forces within are often completely obscured from consciousness because of our individual and societal suppression. This “shadow” element of the subconscious can be very harmful and even dangerous when habitually repressed and projected and can generate much psychological pain, mental disturbance, irrational hostility, environmental damage and even cataclysmic cultural conflict. In contrast to the challenging elements it is important to recognize that the subconscious also embodies many positive elements such as creativity, spontaneity, flow states, playfulness and tenderness.
[1] Pert, C. B., & Pert, C. (2000). Your body is your subconscious mind (p. 0). Boulder, CO: Sounds True. [2] Pert, C. B. (1997). Molecules of emotion: Why you feel the way you feel. Simon and Schuster.[3] Knight Z. The Healing Power of the Unconscious: How Can We Understand past Life Experiences in Psychotherapy? South African Journal of Psychology. 1995;25(2):90-98. doi:10.1177/008124639502500204 [4] Mills, A., & Tucker, J. B. (2014). Past-life experiences. In E. Cardeña, S. J. Lynn, & S. Krippner (Eds.), Varieties of anomalous experience: Examining the scientific evidence (pp. 303–332). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/14258-011 [5] Bailey, A. Esoteric Psychology Vol 2, p 440.
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