Hidden beneath the conscious mind, beneath our rational, decision-making intellect and wit, there exists a vast ocean of intelligent awareness, the driving force that guides us through our lives without ever so much as showing itself to us.
Forever looming just beyond the reach of our conscious minds, the unconscious holds the keys to our true personality. It holds the blueprints and the programs, the script and the agenda, the cogs that run the complicated organic machine that you call “me.” This hidden part of our mind is a nearly infinite network of psychological treasures that goes by completely unnoticed throughout the course of most people’s lives.
Despite its vital importance, the unconscious only presents itself to most people through dreams, artistic endeavors, and imagination. This makes it difficult to observe, let alone communicate with and understand.
This article will begin to touch on the unconscious mind. Thousands of books have been written on the subconscious in an effort to explain its multilayered complexities, so don’t expect us to delve too deeply into the topic. Nonetheless, by the time you’re finished with this article, you should have a basic grasp of the subconscious mind and how it functions.
What Is the Subconscious? The Three-Level Mind Model
The subconscious mind can be a difficult concept to grapple with for somebody who has never explored it before. One of the best models for helping somebody understand the subconscious is Sigmund Freud’s concept of the three levels of consciousness. These levels are:
- The conscious
- The subconscious (or preconscious)
- The unconscious
In our daily life, our conscious mind occupies most of our awareness. All of it, in fact. This is the part of your mind that you use, intentionally or unintentionally, to think, make decisions, solve problems, come up with ideas, and so on. It’s the front seat of your awareness, and it’s pretty much all that most people think of when they consider their minds.
However, there’s a lot more going on in your mind than what you can observe with your conscious mind.
Beneath the level of ordinary awareness is an expansive sea known as the subconscious. The subconscious mind is much larger, deeper, nuanced, and more holistic than the conscious mind. Anything that passes through our conscious awareness leaves a psychic impression. These impressions are all stored in the subconscious.
Subconscious information can be accessed with the conscious mind. Memories, for example, are a form of information that can be retrieved. The subconscious is a vast storehouse of past experience.
Beneath the subconscious is the realm of the mind where the real mysteries are held: the unconscious.
If the human mind were an iceberg, the conscious mind would be represented by the small peak that rises above sea level. The subconscious and the unconscious are represented by the massive, hidden bummock that supports the tiny peak but remains unnoticed by those passing by — and even by that which it’s supporting.
The unconscious mind holds our deep-seated beliefs, the patterns of our personality and psyche, the archetypal personality traits that guide our existence, and various other aspects of our being. Everything in the unconscious is monumentally important. It’s the primitive glue that keeps our personality core held together.
Understanding the unconscious is important for anybody who wants to truly understand themselves because it is within the subconscious that most of our true being resides.
The Subconscious & Unconscious Throughout History & Culture
People have dealt with the unconscious and subconscious mind in lots of different ways throughout history. Because the subconscious mind is not something that you can physically see or touch, nor is it something that you can directly communicate with, it’s fascinating to see the different ways that cultures and individuals have learned to relate to it.
It’s first important to note that the subconscious mind is only one of the many terms used to describe this very broad and multifaceted aspect of our human identity. The term subconscious is, in fact, relatively new, having been first used by Pierre Janet in the late 1800s. Janet is one of the founding fathers of psychology who produced the term in an effort to unify the many different hidden, psychological components that cultures have learned to work with throughout the years.
The conscious mind is rational. Its processes and thought patterns can be observed and understood. The unconscious, on the other hand, is the opposite. It is non-linear, imaginative, spontaneous. Its primary substance is composed of symbols and images rather than thoughts and words. As such, the only way that one can communicate with it is by using these symbolic devices.
Myths, Legends & the Subconscious
The most common way in which various cultures have communicated with the unconscious is through the symbolic use of myths and archetypes. These symbolic experiences, cleverly disguised as stories, use profound imagery to communicate directly with the unconscious.
The substance of our hidden mind was explored in great detail by legendary depth psychologist Carl Jung. Jung unearthed a number of foundational truths about the human psyche that revolutionized the modern approach to psychology.
Through the observation of his patient’s dreams, Jung discovered that the subconscious mind communicates using many of the universal images and symbols found in myths and legends across the world. He realized that these myths and legends were actually a form of psychological guidance and coined the universal symbols archetypes.
These tales communicate directly with the subconscious mind through the use of archetypal patterns, preparing it for the difficulties faced during our personal and spiritual development. They are perennial tales that are applicable to humans of any age and time, capturing immensely personal moments of transformation that we all go through at different stages of our journeys.
Spiritual Traditions & The Subconscious
Many spiritual traditions also held the subconscious in great reverence, mostly those that took hold in the East. Buddhism and Hinduism, for example, offer a great number of teachings on the subconscious mind and its influence on our daily lives.
Many of these traditions have their origins in India, where the Indo-European language of Hindi also first arose. The Hindi term that translates most closely to subconscious is avachetan man, and its definition is nearly identical to the English meaning: “psychic activity just below the level of awareness.”
Hindi is, comparatively, a relatively new language. The writings of Buddhism and Hinduism were originally penned in Sanskrit, a tremendously powerful language that is said to be a direct transmission from the Universal Creator. Sanskrit words are often multi-layered and symbolic, which makes them notoriously difficult to translate into English.
The closest Sanskrit word for subconscious is chitta, its most literal translation being ‘memory.’ Derived from the root chit, meaning ‘to be conscious,’ chitta is the subconscious mind or the ‘stuff of mind.’ It is where the human being stores samskaras: mental impressions, recollections, and psychological imprints. Much like modern psychology tells us, it is where the mind retains all of the psychic reactions and responses to the world at large.
The subconscious chitta is further divided into five stages:
- The restless ksipta
- The torpid mudha
- The distracted viksipta
- The focused ekagra
- The restricted niruddha.
Learning to recognize the different states of the subconscious mind and their effects can be immensely useful. Much like it helps to know the weather before going sailing, so too does it help to recognize the state of your subconscious mind before working with it.
The Subconscious & Unconscious In Modern Times
The power of myth and legend was first outlined in detail by Joseph Campbell in the book, “The Hero With a Thousand Faces.” He pointed out that most of the world’s most famous and timeless plays, films, books, and stories are all basically telling the same story. This story is a deeply resonant archetypal story that reflects a timeless human experience.
The classic hero fighting the dragon at the threshold, for example, may represent our own battles against our inner demons. Once the archetypal hero slays the dragon, they can retrieve the treasure — perhaps a damsel in distress, perhaps a lover that we could not have won had we not conquered our demons, perhaps a nugget of wisdom that can help us transform — and return home.
These stories, when considered personally, represent the activation of certain psychological powers, or archetypes. It is only by accomplishing difficult tasks or overcoming obstacles that we can transform our subconscious minds and grow as individuals.
Carl Jung was one of the first psychiatrists to stress the importance of activating subconscious archetypes for the complete development of our mental, emotional, and spiritual health. Archetypes that are not activated cannot share their power with us, or worse, their shadow side may exert its power over us unawares.
The Warrior archetype, for example, can be observed in action when people remain decisive, courageous, and willing to seize opportunities and forge a path for themselves. The Warrior can detach themselves from their emotions and act pragmatically for the greater good. However, the shadow aspect of the unintegrated Warrior can turn this detachment into cruelty, intimidation, excessive force, and even sadism.
Rituals, Rites, & Archetypal Activation
Historically, these archetypes were activated through rituals that were called rites of passage.
In Sanskrit, the word sanskara is used to describe rites of passage. The word means literally “putting together, making perfect, getting ready,” or “a sacred or sanctifying ceremony.” The term sanskara can also refer to character traits or dispositions that exist as imprints on the subconscious mind. These traits can be developed and perfected through ritual training.
Rites are challenging ordeals that are often painful—most often physically and always psychologically—that individuals were made to endure at significant periods during their personal development.
For example, many tribal boys were forced to go through a very difficult ordeal before they were allowed to pass into manhood. The specifics varied from culture to culture, but the theme was generally one of being torn away from the nurturing, motherly influence and being thrown harshly into an unfamiliar environment to fend for oneself.
In our society, rituals like this are considered barbaric and unnecessary. However, the result of the lack of rituals and rites is that members of our society lack many of the defining characteristics that are associated with a fully developed psyche.
For example, there is no defining moment at which the modern boy is championed as a man. Many people in our society have only a shaky definition of what it even means to be a man. Graduation ceremonies, 18th birthdays, and first drinks at a bar are feeble imitations of the male’s longing for initiation into manhood that can only be provided by activating these primal archetypes.
Psychedelics and the Subconscious.
Psychedelic drugs have the very unique ability to help people engage with their subconscious minds.
Psychedelics open a bridge that allows for the conscious perception of unconscious ideas. For example, one who closes their eyes after ingesting psychedelics often sees a myriad of images playing on the inside of their eyelids. These images reflect the contents of the subconscious which are ever-changing, fluid, and seemingly unrelated.
Because psychedelics create this link, they also allow us incredible opportunities to transform our unconscious minds. One of the reasons that psychedelics can produce such profound, long-term changes in such a short time is because they allow people to work directly with this typically unreachable aspect of our being.
During a psychedelic experience, people often will fluctuate between emotional extremes. As they explore the various stages of the emotional spectrum, they also become capable of recognizing different states of being and how they influence their subconscious.
For example, when one is feeling fear, the imagery projected into their psychedelic experience often takes on a malevolent tone. When feeling joy and love, the related imagery is often bright, warm, and inviting.
Learning to work with the imagery of the subconscious—whether under the influence of psychedelics or not—is an extremely important skill for anybody who wishes to consciously control or communicate with the deeper aspects of their personality. Intentional or otherwise, by the end of a psychedelic trip, the user has usually made some sort of permanent change through their communication with their subconscious.
However, most people are unaware that this is actually what they’re doing, instead seeing the trip as nothing more than that: a trip. Even with this approach, though, people often produce positive psychological changes by battling negative or hostile images and attempting to replace them with more benevolent ones.
Psychedelic Experiences as Rites & Myths
In a society that is entirely devoid of rites and rituals that help people connect with their subconscious, psychedelic experiences are more valuable than ever.
The importance of the psychedelic experience takes on an entirely new level of depth when you realize that it is basically a firsthand retelling of the mythic hero’s journey, enacted in real-time. As one works to slay their own inner demons and replace them with more wholesome feelings and symbols, they can rescue their damsel in distress from their own personal limitations and fears.
The psychedelic experience in itself can function as a rite of passage. After ingesting a psychedelic, users are pulled away from the familiar sensations of their everyday lives and thrust into an unknown and potentially frightening world.
Here, they encounter all manner of unexpected things as their subconscious mind projects all sorts of imagery out into the trip. By the end of the trip, users have become comfortable and familiar with the experience and have grown as a result.
The complete arc of a myth or legend can take place entirely within your own mind, and the transformation and personal growth can ensue as a result. However, while the foundations for growth can be set in motion psychologically, it is only by taking action and seeing your new self in motion that these changes can be made permanent.
Conclusion
The subconscious and unconscious aspects of the human mind may remain hidden from our awareness, but they contain the most important components of our psyche. It is here that we hold the primitive aspects of our personalities, our deepest desires, beliefs, and wounds.
Learning how to communicate with the subconscious is no easy task, but it can be immensely rewarding. Learning how to transform the subconscious mind through the activation of archetypes and the use of psychedelic medicine is one of the most rewarding experiences a person can have.
