The Nature of the Subconscient Level of Consciousness in Man

0:02 European culture takes credit for discoveries that it makes, despite the fact that societies in other parts of the world have long known about these things. Thus, Europeans discovered America while disregarding the fact that it was already populated with numerous tribes of indigenous people and had been visited by Scandinavian Vikings much earlier than the European discovery. Similarly, European psychological researchers have, over the last 100 to 200 years, discovered the existence of a subconscious level that is the storehouse of memories, traumas, experiences, et cetera, which can trigger habits, complexes, traumatic reactions, or unexpected uprisings or outbursts of feelings, emotions, or responses that were outside the awareness or control of the conscious mind. An entire science of Western psychology has arisen, with key proponents such as Freud fixating on the role of embedded complexes in developing the personality and life experience of individuals and the ability of dreams to provide clues to what is taking place in this subconscious realm. CG Jung went further by showing that certain archetypal experiences were actually part

1:33 of a collective unconscious that could arise across numerous individuals under a variety of circumstances. Some researchers began to experiment with ideas such as operant conditioning or Pavlovian conditioning by attempting to train or influence the subconscious elements of the being to respond automatically to certain externally generated stimuli. And more recently, many have touted the idea that through the use of subliminal suggestions, sleep, induction of information, and the power of affirmations, substantial changes can be affected in the subconscious level and thus lead to powerful results for the external life and personality. All of these things, however, have long been known and described in one form or another in ancient cultures that have focused on tapping into the expanded ranges of consciousness outside the conscious waking level that we utilize as we operate in the external world.

2:45 In particular, various yogic disciplines have developed forms of this knowledge and put much of it into practice. Sriorobindo in particular codified this into a clearly defined overview of the various levels of consciousness in man, and he has described the subconscious level and its action at some length, Sriorobindo notes quote. We mean by the subconscient, that quite submerged part of our being, in which there is no wakingly conscious and coherent thought, will, or feeling or organized reaction, but which yet receives obscurely the impressions of all things and stores them up in itself. And from it too, all sorts of stimuli of persistent habitual movements, crudely repeated or disguised in strange forms, can surge up into dream or into the waking nature. For if these impressions rise up most in dream, in an incoherent and disorganized manner, they can also and do rise up into our waking consciousness as a mechanical repetition of old thoughts, old mental, vital and physical habits, or an obscure stimulus to sensations, actions, emotions, which do not originate in or from our conscious thought

4:17 or will, and are even often opposed to its perceptions, choice, or dictates. In the subconscient there is an obscure mind full of obstinate Sanskaras, impressions, associations, fixed notions, habitual reactions formed by our past, an obscure vital full of the seeds of habitual desires, sensations, and nervous reactions. A most obscure material which governs much that has to do with the condition of the body. It is largely responsible for our illnesses. Chronic or repeated illnesses are indeed mainly due to the subcontinent and its obstinate memory and habit of repetition of whatever has impressed itself upon the body consciousness. But this subconscious must be clearly distinguished from the subliminal parts of our being, such as the inner or subtle physical consciousness, the inner vital or inner mental, for these are not at all obscure or incoherent, or I'll organized, but only veiled from our surface consciousness. Our surface constantly receives something inner touches, communications or influences from these sources, but does not know for the most part whence they come. End Quote Reference Sri

5:50 Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Chapter 2, Hidden Forces within pages 35 to 36.