When we understand something, we’re better able to take advantage of its features or qualities. I’m sure some of you have a VCR you’re unable to program. Perhaps a camera or computer with enough bells and whistles to create a symphony and you’re only able to make it play “twinkle, twinkle little star”? At least with gadgets, we’re able to look at an instruction booklet to figure things out. Unfortunately the human mind comes with no such manual. However, behaviorists have come up with a concept or a model of the mind. Would you like to better understand your subconscious mind and how it controls your behavior, your motivation, and your ability to set and achieve goals? I’d like to share the Theory of Mind with you.
The Conscious Mind retains and remembers the events and feelings of only the last hour and a half – just 90 minutes. Awareness is one of the functions of the Conscious Mind. The others are logic, reason and willpower. Information or message units enter the Conscious Mind from the environment and the body. However, the most influential source of message units comes from the “knowns” in the Subconscious Mind.
The Critical Area of Mind is part Conscious Mind and part Subconscious Mind, and contains memories of approximately the last 24 hours. This area of the mind, developed from birth to approximately 8 years old, is where we analyze information based on education and conditioning. Before this Critical Area of Mind is developed, everything we experience just is. We accept it all as Truth. About the time we begin to question Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy, the permanent filter has been installed.
The Critical Area of Mind first analyzes and then releases the information, or message units, into the Modern Memory Area of Mind. This occurs when sleep takes place or when consciousness is in abeyance, as in the hypnotic state. When you sleep, the accumulated message units are immediately dropped into the subconscious mind. Some are allowed to go into Modern Memory; others are discarded through dreams.
The Modern Memory Area of Mind is Subconscious Mind. It holds memory from conception to the present. If the Critical Area of Mind accepts information, it becomes a “known” in the Modern Memory.
A “known” is something that has been learned or experienced before; you understand it and are comfortable with it. An “unknown” is just the opposite. Because it is strange to you, it creates psychological and physiological reactions that are unfamiliar. These reactions threaten the body and the brain and the resulting fear brings pain. The “known” gives pleasure only because of the absence of pain. It will be accepted by the Subconscious Mind because it has been experienced before. A “known” can be a negative or a positive. It might not be a pleasurable experience but it represents pleasure because it is “known”. Motivation comes from “knowns” in Modern Memory. These positive and negative “knowns” create your lifescript.
The Primitive Area of Mind is subconscious mind. It includes all primitive memory, including genetic heritage and evolved learning and conditioning. It operates the survival mechanisms of life triggering the fight/flight reaction when needed. It also controls the autonomic nervous system which operates the automatic functions of the body such as heart beat, respiration, digestion, cell reproduction, growth and healing.
Now that your Conscious Mind is overloaded with message units, consider that your Subconscious Mind has everything under control. It has been busy with the extraordinary job of keeping you alive, and is now in the process of analyzing the information as it creates a new network of “knowns” in your Modern Memory. This process will be completed when the Conscious Mind becomes unconscious during sleep.
When the Conscious Mind is asleep, it is not capable of receiving. It is only dropping the message units into the Modern Memory and venting them through dreams. In hypnosis, the Conscious Mind is not unconscious, so it is able to receive as well as drop and vent message units. The release takes place instantly and the venting process begins through hypnotic suggestion.
A suggestion given in the hypnotic state is much stronger than one given in the conscious state because it moves quickly from the Critical Area to the Modern Memory. Hypnosis creates a path that allows access to the Subconscious Mind. It can create changes in your behavior by changing your “knowns”. It can replace pain with pleasure. It can re-write your lifescript.