The Unconscious Mind - Ecotrain's Question of the Week

This week @ecotrain prompted us to dive into greater depths than what we're normally familiar with. In fact, the QOTW is asking us to explore what we actually cannot know at all, since it lies beneath the surface of our awareness: The Unconscious Mind.

For being mostly hidden from us, the unconscious makes up a huge part of our mind. This is why it's often compared to an iceberg, floating mostly under the sea, or an ice cube in your kombucha, with only its top sticking out a bit. Although we're not aware of it, its functions are essential to our life, shaping all our experiences, filtering our memories, and ultimately being responsible for how the world appears to us. That is not just a lot, it could almost be said it is everything... well, almost. But let's take these step by step.

Creator of our Universe

In the beginning energy and matter were created. Now the matter was formless and empty, only the Unconscious was hovering over the waters.

Honestly, none of us remembers an actual beginning. At some point we were just all there: mommy and daddy, maybe bro and sis, teddy and those funny characters hanging above my crib. And in the middle there was me. Where did we all suddenly appear from? Later on I learned that we had been all there for a while, but I just hadn't noticed. Or in fact I had, but I didn't know I had. Wow!

It was the Unconscious that took a good look at mommy, daddy, and even those guys above the crib. It sorted through them, tirelessly computing all the information, and making sense of them and preparing the Conscious me to emerge.

But even once I looked around and saw that we all were there, the Unconscious didn't stop working. In fact, its true job was just starting. It had to take every sound, every sight, smell, taste, touch, not to mention the whole spectrum of emotions, and make them palatable for my young mind. And as I was growing, these sensations just got ever more complex, adding to the already great responsibility of the Unconscious.

But it kept working relentlessly, filtering everything around us. There is no part of this world that made it into our minds without having been checked by the Unconscious first. Most of it may even have been altered by it. There may be a much greater part of the outside world that did not pass this clearance. So we can safely say, that the world we know is not the way it actually is (if there is even such a thing), but instead how our Unconscious wants us to see it. Meaning, our entire world is a creation of our Unconscious mind.

Protector of our Mind

Instead of condemning the Unconscious for this censorship imposed upon us, we should appreciate it for protecting our mental well-being. Though we can't know for certain the full magnitude of all the information pouring into us from all sides, at all times, we may get an idea if we imagine spinning in circles very fast in the middle of Times Square. All those lights, those signs, those sounds, those people, everything, everywhere... it's simply overwhelming!!! Now I don't claim to know, but I believe if we sat in an empty room with white walls, but our Unconscious filter turned off, we would be bombarded with way more information.

The other illustration that comes to my mind when thinking of how the Unconscious is helping us, is the limitless relativity of all things. If I say "Did you see that huge bird land on the roof this morning?" it probably made sense to you. You may have even imagined a falcon sitting down on the top of a red-tiled gable roof. However, you may as well ask: Which roof? or even At what time this morning? as well as How huge was the bird? Without he Unconscious you would ask all of those questions, plus What's a 'bird'? How do you define 'land'? What do you mean by 'roof'?* and even Who is 'you'? Why 'this'? And I'm sure, I'm just scratching the surface here.

Granter of our Wishes

Far from being merely a babysitter we're not even aware of, the Unconscious has a much more important duty: it fulfills wishes, listens to our prayers, and realizes amazing things for us. After all, it is part of us, created and keeps creating our world for us, working tirelessly for our well being. Granting a wish here and there should not be a big deal.

Whenever we make a wish, meditate, or pray, we are addressing our Unconscious, asking for something. Maybe you want to find a good blogging platform where your postings get lots of views. Or maybe you want your boyfriend to shave that stubble off his face. Whatever it is, once you tell the Unconscious, it goes to work right away. All it has to do is reorganize the information that you receive, and you just may "stumble across" Steem, as you're looking into cryptocurrencies anyway. Wow, what a miracle!

The other example is even more spectacular, where it might get in touch with your boyfriend's unconscious, causing him a dream of sweet kisses all over his clean shaven face. The next morning he just might take the razor to it. Can the Unconscious do such a thing? Well, think about it: our mind, conscious and unconscious alike, is the workings of electrical activity in our brain synapses, resulting from electrons shooting out of atoms, into adjacent atoms, and so on. These vibrations are not locked into our skulls, but are all around us, affecting all the people and things, etc. Remember the Times Square example? So why not? Even though I have no definite proof, I would be surprised if this wasn't the case.

Deciding With the Conscious Mind

So the Unconscious creates our world, shapes and re-shapes it for us, decides what we get to see, and helps us fulfill our desires. Is there actually anything else outside of it?

The obvious answer is our Conscious mind. Having been given all the information it needs, it's up to the Conscious mind to do something with it. If the Unconscious is the great relativity, the Conscious is the absolute. The Unconscious blurs the lines between all and none, whereas for the Conscious there is only one.

One has to take the world, one's own version of it, and cut and slice it according to one's understanding. Choices have to be made, directions must be decided on, in order to interact with this material world. Being so universal and relative, the Unconscious could never do that, nor should it. Instead of just analyzing life, one has to go out and actually live it: Climb that tree, eat that papaya, swim in the ocean, catch that fish, start that fire to fry it, and afterwards, get on Steem to write a cool post. Yeah, we could never do that without our Conscious mind, or without the Unconscious, for that matter.

All images are from pixabay.