In a recent Embodied Processing class, the instructors described our body as the subconscious mind. While I find this a little imprecise, they went on to explain that this is because our body is an expression of the subconscious mind, which also runs it. That is true (via consciousness).
And indeed, the mental body (kosha) surrounds the entire body. I’ve commented that we experience the mind as “in the head” because of the concentration of our senses there. But there’s also the conscious mind-brain interface there too, as they observed.
The rest of our mind is subconscious and running on automatic. Even with the size of the mental body surrounding the physical and a little way out (it varies), we can see the subconscious mind is much larger than the conscious part. It’s also much faster as it runs programs.
I’ve also pointed out that, in human development, we shift our focus of development to the mind in the age 4-6 range. After that, we forget everything prior. The teachers pointed out that this is because we’ve shifted from somatic and emotional experiencing to mental. The mind can’t access the memories of other koshas (levels). But the body can access its memories. This is a key detail for somatic healing – body awareness. Being with or in the body.
The identity wanting to protect us from our early trauma amplifies this inability of the mind. We can often now process what we didn’t have the tools for as a child. But the body and mind are not on the same page. The subconscious can feel like someone else resisting or pushing us.
As we clear our unresolved history, the magnificence of the subconscious mind becomes clearer. With the help of cosmic intelligence, it’s running the show. It processes vastly faster than the conscious mind and simultaneously takes care of maintaining the body, cellular reproduction, digesting food and distributing nutrients around the body, processing our sensory inputs and choosing the relevant signals, managing memories, breathing and flowing oxygen in and around, and so much more.
Science has found that the subconscious runs a few seconds into the future, such as in predicting where a fast ball will arrive. We can seem to make a quick conscious decision that was actually processed by the subconscious slightly into in the future.
It even drives a lot of our conscious mind. Our unresolved junk drives the “monkey mind,” noise driven by more subtle activity seeking resolution.
The vast majority of the habit patterns we’ve laid down in the subconscious are very useful. We remember how to talk, walk, ride a bike, read, drive a car, operate machinery, make dinner, play a musical instrument, and so much more.
Just a few habits can get laid in there that need to be corrected for the best quality of life. Suppressing our unresolved trauma and unmet needs, for example. Or habits of thinking that diminish us.
Our sense of self determines our relationship with all of this. If we’re in the personal me, we’re identified with the identity and at the mercy of our unresolved baggage. When we shift to the cosmic Self, we break that binding and can neutrally observe the dynamics. Trauma never affects the Self. That makes it easier to resolve what remains.
But it doesn’t make us superhuman. We remain human. But that’s a blessing, as we have the vehicle to evolve rapidly and to enjoy the fullness of life.
Davidya
So do you still think our body is the unconscious mind? Unclear to me in this article as to where is the subconscious mind coming from, if it’s not mental and it’s not precisely in the body, then where is it?
Hi Lynette
Sorry if that was unclear. I wasn’t agreeing with that, but agreed with further clarification by the instructors.
We have one mind. It surrounds the whole body and is throughout the body. However, there are parts of the mind that are conscious and parts that are subconscious.
A lot of it is subconscious for good reason. Our awareness would be overwhelmed if we were conscious of all the body processes, all the time. However, there are some things we put there that are less healthy. To process them, we sometimes have to make them more conscious so they can be experienced and resolved.
Mind functions like a field. We experience reverberations in the field as thoughts.
Fascinating, David, thank you!
A question appeared in my mind: Who or what evolves…?
Hi Jose
Great question. Essentially, it’s the jiva or soul that is evolving back to it’s source. The whole branches out like a tree into points of experience so all the details can be unfolded, then it brings all that back into the roots. Thus, both the point and the whole grow.
Another question came: What is the whole in the big scheme of things…how is that related to Pure Divinity?
Hi Jose
“Whole” is relative to the stage of development. What it means can vary some.
In Unity, the integration of subject and object creates a sense of Oneness, that is a wholeness.
Brahman is better described as Totality due to it’s radical inclusiveness.
And Divinity is Divinity. Greater than totality. There isn’t really an English word for that.
In the context of my response, I’m referring to the wholeness of global consciousness, a universal awareness. That’s basically a Refined Unity perspective.
Evolution takes place in the field of time and space in consciousness. Brahman and ParaBrahman can’t be said to evolve as there is no time for a process to unfold in and a completeness that needs nothing more.
thank you!
Well, that was uplifting…at least it hit me that way, not sure why.
Thanks, D.
Hey George
It may not have been the content but the “carrier wave” that brought it in.
🙂
Hi David,
I have one distinct visual memory from when I was a little over 2 years old, what would that be qualified as? An impression? The memory itself isn’t anything significant, but it was during a significant life event (my paternal grandfathers passing) that I know now made a big emotional impression on me.
And this is deja vu correct? ‘Science has found that the subconscious runs a few seconds into the future, such as in predicting where a fast ball will arrive. We can seem to make a quick conscious decision that was actually processed by the subconscious slightly into in the future.’
Hi Jenifer
Sounds to me like an emotional memory aka an impression in the emotional body. Either a) you’ve resolved that, so it no longer has a charge for you. Or b) the emotional impact is still suppressed – the comment implies you didn’t learn of it’s importance emotionally but through the mind later. Like from a family member talking about it.
Right – a pro baseball player has to start the swing before the pitcher has released a fast ball. Generally, this happens subconsciously, but if it becomes conscious, we can experience a deja vu moment when we experience the future, then the actual event shortly after.
If there’s a longer delay, there’s another process in play, like intuition or a records memory.
Thanks for this clarification, you’re right, the importance of it *was* brought to my attention through asking a family member about it, and I was able to resolve it emotionally, but I think what I’m asking is *how* would I have a visual memory at 2 years old if, like you said, everything before 4 is tossed out? I distinctly remember the first time I got reminded that I wasn’t experiencing something for the first time, around 4, that I’d visited a place before, and marveling that it was possible to forget an entire experience and get to experience it again for the first time (though that never happened again).
Just curious, memory is fascinating.
And what do you mean by records memory? The Akashic? And would that be a future event?
Thank you David 🙂
Hi Jenifer
OK – to be clear, we don’t lose our memories. We lose access to them when we shift into the mind. To access emotional memories, we have to be in the emotions. Ditto for somatic memories, in the body. They can be full sensory memories, but the emphasis is a bit different for each. Feels like some big ones can be multi-layered.
The difference at 4 was probably in the shift from somatic to emotional, then to mental. (All of this can be seen in the EEG. Each produces a different frequency.) Our past gets left behind so we can be present.
The other thing is whats called synaptic pruning. The brain is quite exuberant at making connections in the first few years of life, We soak it up. But then, it prunes a large % of those connections that are not being used so the brain works faster. Those dropped connections make accessing the related experiences a little harder.
One of the challenges people can have after waking up is that our memory system prioritizes memory based on emotional charge (importance). When we become more neutral, nothing much makes an impression so our memory becomes less reliable. We have to make memories more consciously, with attention. A little further on and the greater richness of the heart opens up. Thats a whole other ball game.
Even if we’re not conscious of the akashic records, we can sometimes call a memory out of it. The trick with memory is it’s stored in the collective, along with some meta data associating it with us. It takes a degree of integration for the layers to sync and work.
Akashic records include all time, so past and future.
If you search memory here, you’ll find lots of articles where I’ve explored the topic in different ways.
🙂
Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. Okay, this makes sense. And so fascinating!! Thank you for expanding 🙂
🍁