Every minute, our brain processes a large array of information, controls all processes in the body, monitors hormonal balance, blood sugar, temperature, heart rate and many other functions. In addition, he manages to work on solving problems, many of which we do not even know about. The thing is that our subconscious is engaged in all these various activities, leaving to the share of consciousness no more than 4% of the brain’s work.
The subconscious is not only omnipresent, but also shrouded in mystery, so it can easily be blamed on all our failures, complexes, fears and causes of internal conflicts. Even doing some kind of outright stupidity, we can with a clear conscience blame the subconscious for this. Like, we didn’t know what we were doing, it’s his fault. Let’s see what the subconscious is and whether it can be controlled.
Subconscious: a look into the depths of the psyche
Very conditionally, our psyche can be divided into two levels:
- First, this is the level of consciousness, that is, those thoughts that we are aware of, plans, beliefs, ideals, moral principles and memories that emerge from the depths of memory. But this is only the very tip of the iceberg.
- The second level, much more extensive, is the subconscious – the sphere of unconscious processes.
What is the subconscious
Why is the division of the psyche into two levels conditional? Because there are no levels in the psyche. This is just a figure of speech. It is simply convenient to call the ancient subconscious, not connected with the work of the mind, the lower level, which is UNDER consciousness. So it seems like a kind of deep dark failure, where, as in the throat of a volcano, images, instincts, vague desires, reflexes are boiled and mixed in order to only occasionally break out to the upper level in the form of unexpected bursts of insight, intuition, and a brilliant solution.
But this is just a kind of romanticization of the subconscious. Our psyche is one, and you and I forget that, in addition to bright thoughts and dark desires, there are also complex mechanisms that control our body, support its vital activity, provide comfort and the ability to think, solve global problems, make outstanding discoveries and create magnificent works of art.
All these complex mechanisms of life support and information processing are controlled by the subconscious. So it is more correct to call the subconscious the sphere of activity of our psyche, but it is customary to call it a level, and we will not break the tradition.
Many researchers of the human brain believe that it is the subconscious mind that controls our behavior, and conscious, rational control provides only a superficial polishing. Well, the mind also explains to us why we acted in one way or another, but even with this it does not always cope.
For example, you met a person and immediately felt sympathy for him. Why? You yourself cannot explain. And this subconscious of yours was able not only to quickly process the non-verbal information transmitted by a person (gestures, the nature of movements, pulse and breathing rates, the smallest eye movements and changes in facial expressions), but also concluded that it can be trusted, and sent the finished resume to your consciousness.
Or another example. Crossing the road, the man was thoughtful, but somehow managed to jump aside in a moment in front of the rushing car. This triggered a reflex, which was also controlled by the subconscious.
Have you ever thought about how you walk? Have you controlled which leg to place and how, which muscle to contract first and which second? Of course not. Your consciousness is not up to this, it is preoccupied with more global problems. And the control of movements is in charge of the subconscious.
Therefore, I would seriously think about the question of what is the main control link in our psyche: consciousness or subconsciousness.
Subconscious and unconscious
The relationship between these two concepts is still controversial among psychologists of different directions. The term “subconsciousness” was first introduced by the French psychiatrist Pierre Janet at the end of the 19th century. Z. Freud used the word “subconsciousness” to characterize unconscious processes in the human psyche, but after a while he replaced the term with “unconscious”. But this is not an easy replacement, since the content of the second concept is somewhat different.
At the level of the unconscious, from the point of view of Z. Freud, there are desires, needs, repressed instincts, repressed from consciousness, more precisely, from the level of “I”, which are condemned by society, and therefore cannot be directly satisfied by a person. The unconscious has an impact on human behavior, sometimes quite strong, and is the source of various behavioral problems, fears, complexes and even mental illness.
That is, the unconscious is not the same as the subconscious. Most Russian psychologists clearly distinguish between these two concepts and often even talk about three levels of the psyche: consciousness, unconsciousness and subconsciousness. The subconscious is understood as a sphere of unconscious processes by a person, and the unconscious, as a kind of repository of mental phenomena displaced from the level of consciousness and, possibly, transformed.
Subconscious functions
Considering that by the age of 20 or so years, the human brain accumulates a volume of information comparable to the Great Britain Encyclopedia, preserving, processing and integrating it into activities requires considerable effort. And we do not even notice them, since the subconscious is engaged in this. The function of processing and storing information in the form of sensory images is an important duty of the subconscious, but far from the only one. And every year more and more such functions are being discovered.
In fact, the subconscious mind takes over all the tasks of controlling our body, giving the consciousness the opportunity to reflect on high, dream and plan. The following most important functions of the subconscious can be distinguished:
- Managing a variety of unconscious processes, from hormone production to walking.
- Maintaining self-regulation processes, for example, body temperature at 36.6 °, blood pressure, respiratory rate, heart rate, etc.
- Activation of mental and physiological processes in an extreme situation. For example, an increase in temperature when a virus enters the bloodstream or the release of adrenaline into the bloodstream during a danger.
- Ensuring a comfortable existence of the organism. The subconscious mind sends signals to a person warning against possible threats, generating, for example, fear of heights, darkness, confined spaces. It also prevents you from leaving your comfort zone. Laziness is also a product of the subconscious, which “believes” that the body should not waste energy if there is no vital need for it.
- Controlling the emotional sphere – the subconscious mind paints the dry logic of the mind with fireworks of bright feelings.
- Maintain useful activity. No wonder they say that thoughts are material. Any idea supported and accepted by the consciousness is perceived by the subconscious as a guide to action. And the subconscious begins to tune our body (both mentally and physiologically), in search of a way to implement this idea.
- Maintaining the creative process. It has been proven that creativity is possible only when the subconscious is connected to the work of consciousness.
- Predictive function or foresight function. A lot of information is stored and processed in the subconscious, and the result of this processing reaches the mind as a vague premonition, intuitive insight or images of dreams.
- Assessment of non-verbal signals and expressive reactions of the interlocutor, which is necessary in the process of communication.
These are by no means all the functions of the subconscious, but only the most noticeable ones. It is difficult to study them in more detail and deeply – the subconscious is a very modest and secretive object. Suffice it to say that by controlling the entire work of our body, it only sometimes allows us to spy on some of its processes.
How to look into the subconscious
It is impossible to directly establish contact with the subconscious, as well as to control it. At least, this is from the field of esotericism and mysticism, and not psychology. But you can still look into the kitchen of this mysterious area of our psyche. Sleep is a kind of door there.
Dreams are games of the subconscious
Sleep is not just a necessary rest for us, its functions are much broader. And when the consciousness falls asleep, many processes in our body are activated, including the subconscious. The sleep of the mind opens the door to this sphere of the psyche, and we can see a kaleidoscope of images, strange, amazing, and sometimes scary or delusional.
Dreams carry information about what is happening in the subconscious, and it, in turn, sends us signals, hints at some important processes or possible events in the future. Deciphering these signals is not at all easy, since the subconscious mind uses completely different encoding methods that are incomprehensible to our mind. Many psychologists tried to unravel these codes, and the most famous works in this area belong to Z. Freud and K. Jung.
Often people are looking for a clue to the chaotic, fantastic images of dreams in a variety of dream books. But this is a useless exercise. Are our dreams connected with reality? Undoubtedly. After all, it is from the real world that the subconscious receives information and in a dream shares with us the results of its processing and analysis. But the visions sent by our subconscious have nothing to do with dream books compiled by someone.
Nevertheless, you can learn something from dreams, guess about hidden processes or foresee some future changes in the body, which the subconscious already knows about, but we do not yet. But for this, a simple desire is not enough, you need to be especially careful and use specially developed techniques.
Insight – a breakthrough of the subconscious
Contact between the mind and the subconscious can also occur in the waking state. This is a situation where the subconscious mind is connected to the search for a solution to a complex problem. At this level, there is a mass of various information to which consciousness has no access. The subconscious mind processes it, analyzes it, and then the finished solution is sent to the sphere of conscious processes. The very moment a clear response appears in the brain is often perceived as something supernatural. Just now, everything was incomprehensible and vague, when suddenly a clear and distinct solution to the problem arises.
This way of knowing the essence of the phenomenon is called the method of insight – insight or insight. There are well-known examples of insight: the discovery of the law of universal gravitation by Newton, the periodic table, seen by Mendeleev in a dream. But the first of the described cases was the solution by Archimedes of the problem of measuring the volume of the golden crown. It came to the ancient philosopher when he was taking a bath.
In order for the subconscious to connect to the solution of the problem, a combination of several conditions is needed.
- A difficult problem that cannot be easily solved.
- A strong, literally irresistible desire to solve it.
- Persistent and prolonged mental work, which creates a strong focus of excitation in the cerebral cortex, which leads to the connection of the subconscious resources to the search for a solution.
- Temporary inhibition of the work of consciousness, which reduces its control and makes it possible for a person to realize the decision of the subconscious. A decrease in the activity of consciousness manifests itself in different ways: sleep, contemplation, meditation, a thoughtless state of rest, when all thoughts are absent.
That is, when our consciousness temporarily fades into the shadows, the subconscious has the opportunity to transmit important information to us about solving the problem. This is how the birth of discovery can take place. But it may not happen, our subconscious is too unpredictable.
Thus, the subconscious, although hidden, contacts the consciousness. But it can be difficult to catch the moments of contact and even more so to realize them. There are people who better feel the signals of their subconscious and trust them. They say about such people that they have a highly developed intuition.
