/Nexus - 1302 - New Times Magazine/pages/0030/image.png)
Page Content (OCR)
Before the evolution of the conscious mind, the functions of animal brains consisted only of those that we link with the subconscious mind. These more primitive minds were simple, stimulus—response devices that automatically responded to environmental stimuli by engaging genetically programmed instincts or simple, learned behaviours. Animals do not "consciously" evoke such behaviours, and in fact may even be oblivious to them. Their behaviours are programmed reflexes, like the blink of an eye in response to a puff of air or the kick of a leg after tapping the knee joint. The Conscious Mind: The Creator Within The evolution of higher mammals, including chimps, cetaceans and humans, brought forth a new level of awareness called "self-consciousness" or, simply, the conscious mind. The newer, conscious mind is an important evolutionary advance. The earlier, subconscious mind is our "autopilot"; the conscious mind is our manual control. For example, if a ball comes near your eye, the slower conscious mind may not have time to be aware of the threatening projectile; yet the subconscious mind, which processes some 20,000,000 environmental stimuli per second versus 40 environmental stimuli interpreted by the - Ls conscious mind in the same second. will S u bcon SCIOUS M I nd cause the eye to blink. (Ngrretranders, — Vjsualising the information-processing powers of the conscious and subconscious minds: 1998) Consider that the image of Machu Picchu (above, top) is comprised of 20,000,000 pixel The subconscious mind, one of the most dots, each representing a bit of information received by the nervous system in one second. powerful information-processors known, How much of that information enters the conscious mind? In the lower picture, the dot specifically observes both the surrounding represents the total amount of information that is processed by the conscious mind. world and the body's internal awareness, (Actually, the dot is 10x more than enters consciousness; | had to enlarge it because it was reads the environmental cues and immedi-_ barely visible.) In contrast, the powerful subconscious mind processes all the remaining ately engages previously acquired (learned) iM¢oming information (the black area) in the same second. behaviours—all without the help, supervision or even awareness Today, you get into the car, turn the ignition on and consciously of the conscious mind. review your shopping list as the subconscious mind dutifully The two minds make a dynamic duo. The conscious mind can engages all the complex skills you need to navigate successfully use its resources to focus on some specific point, such as the party through the city—without your even once having to think about you are going to on Friday night. Simultaneously, your subcon- the mechanics of driving. scious mind can be safely pushing the lawnmower around and I know I am not the only one out there who has experienced successfully not cutting off your foot or running over the cat,even this. You are driving and having a delightful discussion with the though you are not consciously paying attention to mowing the passenger sitting next to you. In fact, your consciousness gets so lawn. . . oe caught up in the conversation that somewhere down the road it The two minds also cooperate in acquiring very complex d ; that you haven't even paid attention to your drivin. behaviours that can subsequently be unconsciously managed. awns on you ; you nave ve Pal toy , | 8 Remember the first day you excitedly sat in the driver's seat of a for ive minutes. After a momentary start, you realise that you are car, preparing to learn how to drive? The number of things that still on your side of the toad and steadily moving along with the had to be dealt with by the conscious mind was staggering. While flow of traffic. A quick check of the Tear-view mirror reveals that keeping your eyes on the road, you also had to watch the rear- and —-_- You did not leave a wake of crumpled stop signs and smashed side-view mirrors, pay attention to the speedometer and other _—‘ Mailboxes. If you weren't consciously driving the car during that gauges, use two feet for the three pedals of a standard-shift vehi- time, then who was? The subconscious mind! And how well did cle, and try to be calm, cool and collected as you drove past it do? Although you didn't observe its behaviour, the subcon- observing peers. It took what seemed to be a long time before all scious mind apparently performed just as well as it was taught these behaviours were "programmed" into your mind. during your driver education experience. Mind Conscious Mind Today, you get into the car, turn the ignition on and consciously review your shopping list as the subconscious mind dutifully engages all the complex skills you need to navigate successfully through the city—without your even once having to think about the mechanics of driving. I know I am not the only one out there who has experienced this. You are driving and having a delightful discussion with the passenger sitting next to you. In fact, your consciousness gets so caught up in the conversation that somewhere down the road it dawns on you that you haven't even paid attention to your driving for five minutes. After a momentary start, you realise that you are still on your side of the road and steadily moving along with the flow of traffic. A quick check of the rear-view mirror reveals that you did not leave a wake of crumpled stop signs and smashed mailboxes. If you weren't consciously driving the car during that time, then who was? The subconscious mind! And how well did it do? Although you didn't observe its behaviour, the subcon- scious mind apparently performed just as well as it was taught during your driver education experience. NEXUS 29 FEBRUARY — MARCH 2006 www.nexusmagazine.com