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: The term subconscious refers to the instinctual life of the person, the inherited tendencies, the innate predispositions, the unformulated wishes and urges which drive us into activity, plus the suppressed and unrecognized desires, unexpressed ideas which are present, though unrealized. It includes the memories acquired and emotional patterning learned from trauma in this life and the acquired and accumulated characteristics garnered in past incarnations. The subconscious nature is like a deep pool from which a person can draw upon all of the learning and practical intelligence from experience. Though the subconscious provides us with its life-supporting waters and illuminating zen-like straight knowledge it also carries our more primitive, instinctual, and unsocialized impulses and feelings of sexual lust, desire for power, anger, rage, racial 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, and even cataclysmic cultural conflict.
Brain Makes Good Unconscious Decisions Researchers have shown that the human brain — once thought to be a seriously flawed decision-maker — is actually hard-wired to allow us to make the best decisions possible with the information we are given.
Who’s Minding the Mind? In a recent experiment, psychologists at Yale altered people’s judgments of a stranger by handing them a cup of coffee… new studies reveal a subconscious brain that is far more active, purposeful, and independent than previously known.
Vital Signs: Perceptions; The Education of the Subconscious Paying attention may be overrated. Researchers have found evidence that people learn some things without trying and, in fact, without even being aware that they are paying attention.