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What is the Subconscious Mind
The subconscious mind is the part of mind "beneath" the conscious mind, the storehouse or recorder of all experience (whether remembered consciously or not) - the holder of past impressions, reactions and desires. Also, the seat of involuntary physiological processes. - Hinduism Dictionary
Lower or unconscious mind that registers every perception, experience, reaction, and feeling and sensory stimuli like a computer and makes it available to the conscious mind. Some feel it is what is called the soul - New Age Spiritual Dictionary
The level of consciousness where illusion is generated, it is the subconscious. - Zen & Buddhism Dictionary on Manas
A view of the mind in five parts: conscious mind, subconscious mind, subsubconscious mind, superconscious mind and subsuperconscious mind.
The tendencies, potentialities and latent states which exist in the subconscious and unconscious areas of the mind. Are built up by the continued action of the thought-waves. - Sanskrit definition
The subconscious is a force that can only be recognized by its effects it expresses itself in the symptom. Unconscious thoughts are not directly accessible to ordinary introspection, but are supposed to be capable of being "tapped" and "interpreted" by special methods and techniques such as meditation, random association, dream analysis, and verbal slips (commonly known as a Freudian slip) - The psychoanalytic view.
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Whos Minding the Mind? - Article by: BENEDICT CAREY
( from the New York Times)
In a recent experiment, psychologists at Yale altered peoples judgments of a stranger by handing them a cup of coffee. The study participants, college students, had no idea that their social instincts were being deliberately manipulated. On the way to the laboratory, they had bumped into a laboratory assistant, who was holding textbooks, a clipboard, papers and a cup of hot or iced coffee and asked for a hand with the cup.
That was all it took: The students who held a cup of iced coffee rated a hypothetical person they later read about as being much colder, less social and more selfish than did their fellow students, who had momentarily held a cup of hot java.
Findings like this one, as improbable as they seem, have poured forth in psychological research over the last few years. New studies have found that people tidy up more thoroughly when theres a faint tang of cleaning liquid in the air; they become more competitive if theres a briefcase in sight, or more cooperative if they glimpse words like dependable and support all without being aware of the change, or what prompted it.
Psychologists say that priming people in this way is not some form of hypnotism, or even subliminal seduction; rather, its a demonstration of how everyday sights, smells and sounds can selectively activate goals or motives that people already have.
More fundamentally, the new studies reveal a subconscious brain that is far more active, purposeful and independent than previously known. Goals, whether to eat, mate or devour an iced latte, are like neural software programs that can only be run one at a time, and the unconscious is perfectly capable of running the program it chooses.
The give and take between these unconscious choices and our rational, conscious aims can help explain some of the more mystifying realities of behavior, like how we can be generous one moment and petty the next, or act rudely at a dinner party when convinced we are emanating charm.
When it comes to our behavior from moment to moment, the big question is, What to do next? said John A. Bargh, a professor of psychology at Yale and a co-author, with Lawrence Williams, of the coffee study, which was presented at a recent psychology conference. Well, were finding that we have these unconscious behavioral guidance systems that are continually furnishing suggestions through the day about what to do next, and the brain is considering and often acting on those, all before conscious awareness. Dr. Bargh added: Sometimes those goals are in line with our conscious intentions and purposes, and sometimes theyre not.
Priming the Unconscious
The idea of subliminal influence has a mixed reputation among scientists because of a history of advertising hype and apparent fraud. In 1957, an ad man named James Vicary claimed to have increased sales of Coca-Cola and popcorn at a movie theater in Fort Lee, N.J., by secretly flashing the words Eat popcorn and Drink Coke during the film, too quickly to be consciously noticed. But advertisers and regulators doubted his story from the beginning, and in a 1962 interview, Mr. Vicary acknowledged that he had trumped up the findings to gain attention for his business.
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Whos Minding the Mind? - cont. Pg 2
Later studies of products promising subliminal improvement, for things like memory and self-esteem, found no effect.
Some scientists also caution against overstating the implications of the latest research on priming unconscious goals. The new research doesnt prove that consciousness never does anything, wrote Roy Baumeister, a professor of psychology at Florida State University, in an e-mail message. Its rather like showing you can hot-wire a car to start the ignition without keys. Thats important and potentially useful information, but it doesnt prove that keys dont exist or that keys are useless.
Yet he and most in the field now agree that the evidence for psychological hot-wiring has become overwhelming. In one 2004 experiment, psychologists led by Aaron Kay, then at Stanford University and now at the University of Waterloo, had students take part in a one-on-one investment game with another, unseen player.
Half the students played while sitting at a large table, at the other end of which was a briefcase and a black leather portfolio. These students were far stingier with their money than the others, who played in an identical room, but with a backpack on the table instead. The mere presence of the briefcase, noticed but not consciously registered, generated business-related associations and expectations, the authors argue, leading the brain to run the most appropriate goal program: compete. The students had no sense of whether they had acted selfishly or generously.
In another experiment, published in 2005, Dutch psychologists had undergraduates sit in a cubicle and fill out a questionnaire. Hidden in the room was a bucket of water with a splash of citrus-scented cleaning fluid, giving off a faint odor. After completing the questionnaire, the young men and women had a snack, a crumbly biscuit provided by laboratory staff members.
The researchers covertly filmed the snack time and found that these students cleared away crumbs three times more often than a comparison group, who had taken the same questionnaire in a room with no cleaning scent. That is a very big effect, and they really had no idea they were doing it, said Henk Aarts, a psychologist at Utrecht University and the senior author of the study.
The Same Brain Circuits
The real-world evidence for these unconscious effects is clear to anyone who has ever run out to the car to avoid the rain and ended up driving too fast, or rushed off to pick up dry cleaning and returned with wine and cigarettes but no pressed slacks.
The brain appears to use the very same neural circuits to execute an unconscious act as it does a conscious one. In a study that appeared in the journal Science in May, a team of English and French neuroscientists performed brain imaging on 18 men and women who were playing a computer game for money. The players held a handgrip and were told that the tighter they squeezed when an image of money flashed on the screen, the more of the loot they could keep.
As expected, the players squeezed harder when the image of a British pound flashed by than when the image of a penny did regardless of whether they consciously perceived the pictures, many of which flew by subliminally. But the circuits activated in their brains were similar as well: an area called the ventral pallidum was particularly active whenever the participants responded.
This area is located in what used to be called the reptilian brain, well below the conscious areas of the brain, said the studys senior author, Chris Frith, a professor in neuropsychology at University College London who wrote the book Making Up The Mind: How the Brain Creates our Mental World.
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Who's Minding the Mind? - Pg 3
The results suggest a bottom-up decision-making process, in which the ventral pallidum is part of a circuit that first weighs the reward and decides, then interacts with the higher-level, conscious regions later, if at all, Dr. Frith said.
Scientists have spent years trying to pinpoint the exact neural regions that support conscious awareness, so far in vain. But theres little doubt it involves the prefrontal cortex, the thin outer layer of brain tissue behind the forehead, and experiments like this one show that it can be one of the last neural areas to know when a decision is made.
This bottom-up order makes sense from an evolutionary perspective. The subcortical areas of the brain evolved first and would have had to help individuals fight, flee and scavenge well before conscious, distinctly human layers were added later in evolutionary history. In this sense, Dr. Bargh argues, unconscious goals can be seen as open-ended, adaptive agents acting on behalf of the broad, genetically encoded aims automatic survival systems.
In several studies, researchers have also shown that, once covertly activated, an unconscious goal persists with the same determination that is evident in our conscious pursuits. Study participants primed to be cooperative are assiduous in their teamwork, for instance, helping others and sharing resources in games that last 20 minutes or longer. Ditto for those set up to be aggressive.
This may help explain how someone can show up at a party in good spirits and then for some unknown reason the hosts loafers? the family portrait on the wall? some political comment? turn a little sour, without realizing the change until later, when a friend remarks on it. I was rude? Really? When?
Mark Schaller, a psychologist at the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver, has done research showing that when self-protective instincts are primed simply by turning down the lights in a room, for instance white people who are normally tolerant become unconsciously more likely to detect hostility in the faces of black men with neutral expressions.
Sometimes nonconscious effects can be bigger in sheer magnitude than conscious ones, Dr. Schaller said, because we cant moderate stuff we dont have conscious access to, and the goal stays active.
Until it is satisfied, that is, when the program is subsequently suppressed, research suggests. In one 2006 study, for instance, researchers had Northwestern University undergraduates recall an unethical deed from their past, like betraying a friend, or a virtuous one, like returning lost property. Afterward, the students had their choice of a gift, an antiseptic wipe or a pencil; and those who had recalled bad behavior were twice as likely as the others to take the wipe. They had been primed to psychologically cleanse their consciences.
Once their hands were wiped, the students became less likely to agree to volunteer their time to help with a graduate school project. Their hands were clean: the unconscious goal had been satisfied and now was being suppressed, the findings suggest.
What You Dont Know
Using subtle cues for self-improvement is something like trying to tickle yourself, Dr. Bargh said: priming doesnt work if youre aware of it. Manipulating others, while possible, is dicey. We know that as soon as people feel theyre being manipulated, they do the opposite; it backfires, he said. And researchers do not yet know how or when, exactly, unconscious drives may suddenly become conscious; or under which circumstances people are able to override hidden urges by force of will. Millions have quit smoking, for instance, and uncounted numbers have resisted darker urges to misbehave that they dont even fully understand.
Yet the new research on priming makes it clear that we are not alone in our own consciousness.
We have company, an invisible partner who has strong reactions about the world that dont always agree with our own, but whose instincts, these studies clearly show, are at least as likely to be helpful, and attentive to others, as they are to be disruptive.
How to Hypnotize Yourself Using the 'Best Me' Technique
Source: WikiHow.com
The "Best Me" Technique is a form of hyperempiria, or suggestion-enhanced experience, which involves your whole person in the content of a suggested event.
Every letter in "Best Me" corresponds with an element of suggestion, and these elements can be applied in a variety of ways: to place yourself into self-hypnosis, to pre-experience the accomplishment of a goal, and to end your self-hypnosis session.
It's the versatility and the thoroughness of these elements that makes the "Best Me Technique" of self-hypnosis distinct from meditation and visualization exercises. Instead of merely picturing something in the mind's eye, the Best Me Technique enables us to paint upon the canvas of experience almost any masterpiece we may desire.
This article will show you how to use "Best Me" suggestions to pre-experience the rewards of future goals now, at full strength in the present when they are most needed for motivation, reducing or eliminating the need for will power. (It's also a great way to relax and fall asleep or take a power nap!)
6 Steps to Hypnosis
1. Unless you actually intend to do so, choose a time when you are not too sleepy or tired, so that you are not likely to doze off.
2. Find a quiet place with subdued lighting, where you are not likely to be disturbed for at least half an hour.
3. Turn off your cell phone or pager, if you have one, and take the telephone off the hook or put it on answer mode with the ringer turned off.
4. Sit down or lie down in a position which will enable you to relax deeply. If you should find yourself becoming uncomfortable during the session, it should not disturb you to gently adjust your position in order to keep yourself as comfortable as possible.
5. Guide yourself through the elements of the Best Me Technique. After reading over the following script a couple of times to get the idea, go through the steps of the Best Me Technique yourself, using words and images with which you feel most comfortable, and at a pace which allows you to get the most out of the experience.
Just as we combine words and pictures on wikiHow pages in order to communicate more effectively, we often pair words and images together in hypnosis in order to strengthen the effect of our suggestions. The present example uses imagery of a boat rocking you gently back and forth to help you relax as you go through the elements of the Best Me Technique in your mind, but not everyone responds equally well to the same images.
Regardless of the words and images you actually use your purpose is not to achieve a trance (which only a few people actually do), but to put yourself into a relaxed and pleasant frame of mind where your imagination can operate more effectively.
How to Hypnotize Yourself - Page 2
Belief systems: Imagine that it's a warm summer afternoon, and that you're lying on the deck of a small boat which is safely tethered at the edge of a shallow bay, about a hundred feet from shore. If you accept, believe each detail of the scene as you describe it to yourself, without trying to think critically, your imagination will allow you to experience the situation just as if you were really there.
Emotions: Let your body absorb the peacefulness which is all around you, as the boat rocks you gently back and forth and the sun shines warmly down, driving out all of your worry, all of your tension, and all of your care, and leaving you filled with perfect, infinite, boundless peace, calm, and tranquility.
Sensations and physical perceptions: Feel the cool breeze upon your skin, and savor the freshness of the pure, salt air. Listen to the cries of the birds in the distance, and the sound of the water quietly splashing against the side of your boat as it rocks you gently back and forth, and that warm, golden glow of the sunlight relaxes you completely from head to toe.
Thoughts and images: It's so calm, and so peaceful there on the deck of the boat, that all you want to do is keep drifting, and dreaming, and floating on, and on. Then, you can just drift on into, peaceful, state of self-hypnosis by silently counting from one to ten, repeating the following thoughts in time with your breathing after each count: "Sinking down, and shutting down, sinking down, and shutting down, sinking down, and shutting down, shutting down completely. And the deeper you go, the deeper you are able to go. And the deeper you go, the deeper you want to go, and the more enjoyable the experience becomes." And so on, up to the count of ten.
Motives: At this point, you can either keep repeating these suggestions to yourself until you drift off to sleep, or you can use the building blocks of the Best Me Technique to pre-experience the rewards of a future goal. If you are a student enrolled in a degree program, for example, you might proceed somewhat as illustrated in the breakdown which follows this section, using words of your own choosing to provide the greatest meaning. As you proceed through each step, take a moment to clarify and intensify it in your mind, so that you feel each portion of the experience as strongly as possible.
Expectations: As you go through each step, believe it will happen, expect it to happen, and feel it happening, just as strongly as if you were willing it into being at that very moment. The exact number of repetitions is not as important as the clarity and conviction with which you feel like you are willing your convictions into existence.
6. If you are inclined to doubt whether or not you have achieved self-hypnosis after a few minutes, you probably have.
* Decades of research have shown that people vary considerably in their responses to hypnosis. For many people, there is no such thing as a "hypnotized" feeling.
* An induction procedure is like the theme music to a motion picture or a television drama. It allows us to shift our thinking from a strictly logical mode of thought to a more flexible, more imaginative way of looking at the world. And we can all do that!
How to Hypnotize Yourself - Page 3
Experiencing the Rewards of a Future Goal
1. Choose the goal. This example illustrates the accomplishment of a specific goal: graduation. You can increase the incentive value of the Best Me Technique still further by pre-experiencing other rewarding aspects of your goal, such as celebrating at a graduation party with friends and family, or relaxing on the deck of a cruise ship as you treat yourself to a much-deserved vacation after your goal has been achieved. You may also want to pre-experience the rewards of sub-goals along the way, such as completing a unit of study, presenting a paper, or passing a major examination while overcoming the stress that goes with it, secure in the knowledge that you are on the way to a pre-determined and inevitable success.
Of course, the Best Me Technique can also be used to enhance performance in other areas, such as singing, dance, athletics, creative writing, motivating yourself to work out, or starting your own business. It may also be a helpful part of a program to lose weight, become a non-smoker, or to rid yourself of other forms of addiction. Just make sure that you only focus on one goal per session, rather than making up in a "laundry list" of things to pursue. Having too many goals at once might tend to interfere with your ability to clearly focus your imagination on the rewards of goal attainment.
2. Take all the time you need in order to thoroughly pre-experience the attainment of your goal, using whatever order and wording you prefer, as long as you include all of the "Best Me" steps. Allow yourself to experience each step as strongly as possible, but don't just daydream. You can tell how well you are doing in your BMT experience by how good it makes you feel.
(B) Imagine yourself in the future, at the very moment they are handing you your diploma.
(E) Feel the admiring looks of your friends and family upon you, and enjoy to the fullest your sense of pride and accomplishment as you grasp the cherished document.
(S) See it happen, hear it happen, and feel it happening, as you allow yourself to experience this thrill of achievement throughout every part of your body, from head to toe.
(T) Visualize this goal so clearly that it feels as if you were actually willing it into existence.
(M) Let yourself believe that you are headed toward a certain and inevitable success.
(E) And as a result, you are able to act, think, and feel as if it were impossible to fail.
Concluding Your BMT Session
1. When you have finished, you can simply allow yourself to drift off into a natural sleep, or you conclude your self-hypnosis session by using suggestions similar to the following. (You don't need to memorize them, as long as you include each step of the Best Me Technique in a way that you feel comfortable with.)
Belief systems: Whenever you are ready, you can silently think to yourself that you will gradually emerge from self-hypnosis as you silently count from one to five, telling yourself that by the time you get to five, you are going to be back in the everyday state of consciousness in which we spend most of our waking lives.
Emotions: You are going to be feeling thrilled and delighted by the exciting experiences you have had.
Sensations and physical perceptions: Your entire body will feel happy, rested, and refreshed.
Thoughts and images: Your mind will be clear and alert, and you will easily be able to concentrate on anything that you have to do.
How to Hypnotize Yourself - Page 4
Motives: And each time that you return to these peaceful dimensions of self-hypnosis, you will find a deep, inner core of peace and happiness at the very center of your being, that nothing can weaken, nothing can dislodge, and nothing can overcome, which will give you the faith and the strength that you need to accomplish your goals, and turn each new day into a thing of wondrous beauty.
Expectations: And because you can unconsciously sense your own needs better than anyone else, each time that you return to these blissful dimensions of multimodal trance, it will improve your life in many different ways and on many different levels, some of which you may already be aware of and some of which you may not yet realize.
2. Now you can silently count to yourself from one to five, telling yourself that at the count of five you will be back wide awake and feeling wonderful, using words like this: Five. Beginning to return now, as your mind begins to return to its normal level of functioning. Four. You will be smiling, happy, and confident as you prepare to resume your life's adventure. Three. Coming back more and more now. Two. Almost back. One. You can open your eyes now, feeling wonderful. You can open your eyes now, feeling wonderful.
The Power of the Subconscious Mind - by Richard Kimball (http://www.buildingasuccessfullife.com/)
Have you ever fully appreciated that marvelous tool for success that each and every one of us has at our command?
It is our mind. "All the resources we need are in the mind." - Theodore Roosevelt -
In the novel "Terminal Man" by Michael Crichton, it mentions that at that time (1972) the largest and most expensive computer had the same number of circuits as the brain of an ant. To make a computer with the capacity of the human brain would require the size of a huge skyscraper. Its energy demand would be the equivalent of a city of a half a million.
I know computers have come a long way since 1972 but it shows the tremendous capacity of the human mind.Did you know our conscious mind is only one-sixth of our brain's thinking and power? Our subconscious mind represents five-sixths of our thinking and power.The whole mind, conscious and subconscious, possesses the power to solve any problem that may come up, or provide the necessary ways and means through which we can achieve our ends.
The conscious mind holds only about 7 pieces of information in short-term memory. Your sub-conscious mind, however, stores all the knowledge you have ever acquired. Everything you have ever read, heard, thought or imagined is held within its immense memory.
Brain researchers estimate that your unconscious mind outweighs the conscious on a scale of ten million to one. This is the source of your hidden, natural genius. In other words, this part of you is much smarter than you think you are. This is where the great artists, writers, and poets to get their inspiration.
Albert Einstein - "The intellect has little to do on the road to discovery. There comes a leap in consciousness, call it intuition or what you will, and the solution comes to you, and you don't know how or why."
"I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."
The subconscious mind is useful in two ways. The first way involves receiving information, solving problems, and receiving inspiration. The second way deals with programming your mind to supercharge your confidence, your self-image, and your desired beliefs. This can take a little time at first but like many things gets easier with practice.
Programming your subconscious works best through visualization. Pictures and symbols are by far the most effective way of impressing your subconscious. Speaking of symbols and pictures, this is why dreams are largely symbolic in nature. While you sleep your mind processes information and presents it back in the form of symbolic pictures.
What's great about your subconscious mind is that it never rests. Whatever goal or problem you give your subconscious, it will work on continually, day or night.Whatever you think and ponder about deeply with strong emotion makes a strong impression on your subconscious. This is why you also need to be careful. Excessive worrying and negative self-talk can also make strong impressions. You want your subconscious mind to be a goal achieving, success mechanism, not a failure mechanism.
7 Questions To Tap Into The Limitless Power Of Your Subconscious Mind by Saleem Rama
When you map out what you want, you let go of the trivial tasks that clutter up your thoughts.
When you focus on achieving a definite major purpose, your life will assume an energy and unity
that will be exhilerating. Self-discipline will appear spontaneously.
You can prime your subconscious to tell you what you really want in your life.
Here are a seven questions you could ask yourself to be clear on your major definite purpose in life.
1. Questions about your interests. What do you enjoy doing? What things do you do well? Can you isolate one of these things that you enjoy and do well and make it into a definite major purpose? What is your magnificent obessession? What gifts do you bring to this planet? How would you like to be remembered?
2. Questions about meaning. Why do you want to do this? How will it bring out the best in you? How will it benefit others? How will it sustain you? Can you make money at it?
3. Questions about resources. What resources do you need? How much time and money do you need to start? What do you need to learn? Do you need to go back to school? Do you need to join an organization? Do you need to purchase special equipment? Do you need to move to another city to find the best opportunity?
4. Questions about support. Who can help you? Who is an expert in this field? Do you need to learn from their books? Do you need to attend a class they are offering? Do you need to spend time with them in person?
5. Questions about persistence. How can you stay true to your mission? How will you motivate yourself when things go wrong? How much endurance do you have? How will you resist the temptation to give up when obstacles arise?
6. Questions about completion. When will you achieve this goal? What steps might be involved? How long do these steps take? How will you know when you've finally achieved your dream?
7. Questions about models. Who else has done this? How did they do it? How long did it take? Did they have more or less opportunity than you when they first started?
When you have your moment of inspiration, which will occur because of your focussed attention, you can write out a contract to yourself. In this contract, state your major definite aim and the time you expect to acquire it.
Now read your statement to yourself-twice a day, out loud, with passion and conviction. This procedure will activate your mind to come up with answers and it will motivate you to take action.
Although this process is easy to understand and simple to apply--don't underestimate it. When you awaken your subconscious mind, you awaken powerful thoughts and feelings that will propel you to the future you desire. You will be able to change any limiting situations. You will be able to transform your life. Life is too short to be miserable, too short to deny yourself the life of your dreams.
You can keep this energy of vital purpose alive by reading your self-promise to yourself upon arising and before going to bed.
http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Saleem_Rana
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