Subconscious Or Conscious?
Based on a conversation I had with a friend during a rather long lunch break.
Today I have been thinking about what warrants conscious or subconscious thought.
Everyone knows what conscious thought is; if you didn’t, you probably wouldn’t be conscious. On the contrary, the term “subconscious” is vaguely defined at best, and the definitions are vast.
“Existing or operating in the mind beneath or beyond consciousness” Dictionary
“Psychic activity just below the level of awareness” Dictionary
As you can see, the definitions in the dictionary don’t give much detail themselves to what the subconscious is, or what it does. So what is the subconscious all about? I’ll give the views of some others then give my own view on what the subconscious most likely does for us.
Some don’t believe in the subconscious at all as such. They just believe that we have a kind of selective conscious mind, and that all involuntary actions are controlled by a certain part of the brain known as the cerebellum. This includes heartbeat, breathing, digestion, pupil dilation etc. This is all well and good, but the cerebellum doesn’t just control nerve impulses. It also regulates our balance and sensory perception, and controls our motor nerve activity when we make a conscious decision to move. Basically, it is a control center for the nervous system, translating the movement signals from the brain into electrical signals that run through our motor nerves and cause our voluntary muscles to contract. The cerebellum has a large part in both voluntary and involuntary actions, and so I don’t think it can be called a “subconscious”.
The other extreme is that all of the 90 – 95% of your brain you don’t use is your subconscious, or in some cases “full of untapped potential and undiscovered abilities” (Uri Geller, Mind Power, Introduction). It’s a common belief that humans only use between 5 and 10% of their brain for conscious thought. This doesn’t mean that the rest is kept from us by our subconscious minds! The common misconception about this statement is that humans use 5 – 10% of their brain. The truth is that humans use 100% of their brain. Different parts of the brain may be consciously active at different times, while others may be hanging dormant, but we will use all of it at some point. If the brain takes on a particularly stressful task then brain activity will increase phenomenally. This large “unused” area of the brain isn’t unused because we have lost our ability to use it, it isn’t even unused! So, if we have conscious control over the entire brain, there can’t be any subconscious there. There’s no room for it.
I have an analogy on how the brain works. I’ve had it for a while, but never applied the idea of a subconscious to it. Here is the analogy as it stands:
A computer has ROM and RAM. So does the brain. All the information you have ever learnt, all the skills you have built, all the sensations you’ve felt, everything is stored in the ROM of your brain. All this information can be instantly recalled into the RAM of your brain in the form of memories. We also have a list of braintop programs to our disposal – Microsoft has paint, Brainsoft has Imagination. Microsoft has its office suite – Brainsoft has logic and common sense (built for perfect integration!). If you understand how computers work, it can give you a pretty amusing analogy of how your brain works too. All the empty space on your hard drive? More room for data. All in “empty space” in your brain? More room for memories. But where could the subconscious fit into this?
I’m no believer in psychic abilities, untapped power or superhuman abilities that let you shoot bouncy balls out of your ears… or something. I really can’t see where a subconscious would fit into a system like this, but that may be because my analogy is off. Any suggestions?
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User Comments
Gravy
On February 19, 2008 at 6:14 am
Egh! My brain hurts! I’m shutting down for the night!
Jarff
On March 5, 2008 at 6:57 am
Wicked, I agree with most of that!
Carol
On May 29, 2008 at 4:45 pm
I think conscious attention serves as an executor. The conscious mind operates to manage and execute the goals we make intentional. Because conscious attention is limited (to managing one goal at a time?), all the rest of the operations necessary at a given time are assigned to subservient control systems that can function independently of the conscious executor. Those systems thus operate at a “subconscious” level. Of course, the executor can, at any time, decide to take control of one of the other systems it had previously assigned to subservient controls, and make it consciously managed rather than subconsciously managed. Thus, there are not “conscious or subconscious minds” located somewhere, instead they represent styles of management that can shift into different modes. Multiple sites (or pathways) of neural activation would be involved in either case. Does this make sense? That is my stab at how, to me, both conscious and subconscious mental activity are meaningful concepts.
Carol again
On May 29, 2008 at 4:55 pm
Ok – here is a computer analogy – conscious mind is like actively using one software program while others are left running in the background (subconscious).
Darren
On July 22, 2008 at 7:37 am
I like the computer analogy, but the question then becomes ‘who designed the operating system’?
CollapseDev
On November 24, 2008 at 6:57 am
Cool PC Theory But There Is One Major Flaw, Memory Does Not Exist In The Brain ( Hardrive ) – If You Dont Beleive Me Look That Up, The Closest You Will Get Is Parts Linked To “Stamping” Memory But No Actual Location.
The Body Is Alive, The Brain Does Not Control The Body, On The Contrary Tis Vice Versa!
I Myself Dislike A Subconscious Mind, You Are Correct In Saying Evidence Is Close To Nil.
The Designer Of The Operating System Is The Soul, Look On The Nutrino On Google, That Is The First Acclaimed “Soul Particle” For The Attributes Of “Ghost” Like Properties.
You Really Should Start Taking An Interest In Out Of Body Experiences – Try Some & You Will Know The Truth – As Long As You Dont Get Drained In The Fantasy Side.
I Have Been Doing OBEs For Some Time Now & I Have Learnt Alot.
A Better Theory For Memory Would Be Quantum PCs, I Red In A Paper That In The Possible Future A Single PC Would Be Able To Store All The Information In The Universe By Using Quantum Particles That Travel Through Dimensions….A Truely Big Leap & New Evidence “Suggests” That Memory Is Located Outside Of The Body – This Is In Fact Correct As Evident By My Findings – Isnt That Cool!
Trenton Womack
On October 11, 2009 at 12:13 pm
I Think Through All Of The Glammer, And Material Things That Your, Conscious Will Experience, The Conscious becomes corrupted, Wanting More And More, Without Your Conscious Actually Knowing.
The Subconcious, which i belive is the brain, the brain works everything in the entire body, it makes you see, it lets you feel, it even lets the conscious live. The Human Brain Can Capture And Remember Every Sense The Body Experienced Perfectly, The Conscious, Or Your Mind Thoughts And Will, Get To Cought Up In itself.
This Is Where Things Get Complicated, The Subconscious Should Be Able To Just Release The Chemicals To Make The Conscious Do What It Wants, What The Brain Thinks Is Better For Survival. If Humans Developed Through Natural Selection, And Evolution, Eventually, The Perfect Human’s Minds Would Be Entirely Subconscious.
The Mind Cannot Be Perfect Now Becauce Your Conscious Can Be Influenced So Easy, It Can Evn Trick Itself. If My Hypothoses Is Correct, Sometime In The Next Four Hundred thousand To Seven Hundred And Fifty Thousand Years, Human Being Will Be A Absolutely Perfect Race, With No Corruption.
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