The capability of your subconscious mind (SCM) is far beyond what you think it is. Many experts claim that most of us use only ten percent or even less of our mind’s capacity.
What do you understand by conscious and subconscious minds? The part of your brain that you are aware of is your conscious mind. On the flip side, the part of your mind you are unaware of is your subconscious mind.
Recent discoveries in the new field of psychoneuroimmunology (study of the interaction between psychological processes and the nervous & immune systems of the human body) show that the brain is not confined within the cranium—it actually extends throughout the body. Mind and body are no longer two distinct entities. Your mind can control, directly or indirectly, the body and vice versa.
Result of Conflict and Collaboration
The crux of using your subconscious mind is to appreciate how different it is from your conscious mind. Even though the conscious mind and subconscious mind exist in the same body, they have vastly different characteristics.
Let’s understand this through an interesting analogy, consider the huge difference between men and women. Besides the physical differences, there are emotional differences and, as a result, men and women interact differently. Most men are goal-oriented and want to work out their problems alone. Most women are more into relationships and feelings. They need to talk to someone who just listens. These are valid differences, but even if you do not know this much, men and women can still talk and get along. At worst, if the differences are too large, they can go their separate ways.
But your conscious mind and subconscious mind cannot be separated. And, if they do not work together, the results can be harmful. Results can be, for example, poor health, destructive relationships, and inappropriate behavior, such as poor eating habits and temper outbursts.
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Childhood Programs Continue!
The subconscious mind contains the software for your involuntary functions, emotions, and habits. Most of your habits and emotional conditioning were programmed in early childhood before you had mature faculties to make proper decisions. Many were programmed haphazardly and usually by parents, teachers, peers, TV, and, recently, perhaps, computer games.
Sigmund Freud said, “We learn as children how we react emotionally and this is carried into adulthood. When we are children, we do not have the faculties that we do in adulthood. We do not know what we are going to need in adulthood to cope. Therefore, as adults, we (often) react like children.”
These old programs are still influencing, if not controlling, your behavior even though many are counterproductive. Some may even be destructive. When you understand the subconscious mind and a few laws it obeys, you can change these childhood programs. You will become the master of your genie i.e. your Subconscious mind (SCM).
Extraordinary Feasts by SCM
Recently while reading the book ‘The Genie Within Your Subconscious Mind’ by Harry W. Carpenter, I came across the below excerpt about extraordinary feats performed by ordinary peoples.
The subconscious mind has largely untapped potential. A few observed feats of which the subconscious mind is capable, are listed below. If these ordinary people, with ordinary subconscious minds, can do these feats, then you and I can do them. But to do them, we must rely on our subconscious minds, not our conscious minds. The conscious mind cannot make your body do these feats. The conscious mind has to know how to tap the subconscious mind to do them.
The following feats were performed without drugs or prayer. In addition to the following examples, there are miraculous healings of the body, such as spontaneous remissions of cancer or other diseases attributed to prayer.
Let’s start with stage hypnotists. Most of you have had an opportunity to see one perform. Essentially, all they do is plant a suggestion in the subconscious mind of the subject (any individual). But the results, to our conscious minds, seem extraordinary.
- Hypnotic subjects can exhibit extraordinary strength. I have a picture from a national newspaper that appeared many years ago of Johnny Carson suspended between two chairs. Kreskin, the well-known mentalist (he refuses to be called a hypnotist), planted a suggestion in Carson’s subconscious mind that he was super strong and that he could keep his body rigid. He had Carson place his head on one chair and the soles of his feet on another. Carson remained rigid even when someone sat on his stomach. If it was not for the fact that his subconscious mind accepted the suggestion, Carson could not have performed this feat. (Do not do this. You could strain a muscle.)
- Impressive examples of the power of the subconscious mind have been reported in medical journals in cases of patients with multiple personality disorders. Multiple personality disorder occurs when, due to severe psychological trauma, a person develops more than one personality to cope. Cases have been reported in which one personality:
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- Has asthma while another personality—in the same body—does not have asthma. Incidentally, cases of patients in which the doctor (one case was reported by Carl Jung) found that the asthma was due to a traumatic experience associated with breathing. Thus, the subconscious mind is capable of creating asthma. So one would assume it is also capable of eliminating it.
- Has a high IQ, while another has a low IQ. This is not so impressive because it is easy for the subconscious mind to make anyone act dumb.
- Is drunk, but when the person changes personalities, is sober. This is impressive because the subconscious mind, it seems to me, has to alter the chemistry in the brain.
- Is right-handed; the other is left-handed.
- The following experiment demonstrates the effect our attitudes and beliefs can have on our bodies and health. In 1985, a Harvard professor, Ellen Langer, conducted an experiment that showed people could become younger. The professor recruited 100 people over 70 years old in the Boston area. She sent them on a 10-day vacation to a resort where she arranged the decor to resemble that of the 1950’s, a time when the subjects were decades younger. She played 50’s music, displayed 50’s magazines and newspapers, and had the subjects dress as they did in the 50’s. The professor also instructed the 100 people to “act as if” they were back in the 1950’s.
Physical and psychological tests were performed on the 100 subjects before and after the 10 days. In every category, the subjects tested younger. What changed? What took years off their apparent age? The only cause was a change in their thinking. Their subconscious minds accepted the concept of being younger.
- Your conscious mindset limits you. When you rid yourself of these limits and let your subconscious mind take over, you can do things you thought impossible. Fifty years ago, experts wrote papers explaining why the human body could not run a mile in less than four minutes. Everyone, except Roger Banister, thought that running a mile in less than four minutes was impossible. When Banister broke the four-minute barrier in 1954, other runners duplicated the feat within months. What changed in these other runners? They did not magically become better conditioned or alter their running style. They changed their belief! Now they knew a four-minute mile was possible, and if Roger could do it, they could do it.
- Vasily Alexeev, a world-class Russian weightlifter, could not lift 500 pounds though he routinely lifted 495 pounds. In 1974, his coach played a trick on him to prove a point. He put 500 pounds on the bar and told Vasily the bar had 495 pounds on it. Thinking it was only 495 pounds, Vasily lifted the bar as usual. After Vasily was told he had lifted 500 pounds, he changed his belief and was able to do it in competition.
SCM Dominate Over Conscious Mind
When an overweight man wills himself to go on a diet, and if he does not change his subconscious desire for overeating, eventually his subconscious mind will win out. He will gain back any weight he lost. He may be not willing to eat that delicious dessert, but the urge from the subconscious mind will win. Now he will eat the dessert and he will eat it effortlessly.
Your task is to learn how the subconscious mind works and use it to your advantage. The subconscious mind has the power to dominate, but it is not as smart as your conscious mind. You need to learn how to make it your personal genie, not your master.
“Just keep your conscious mind busy with expectation of the best.”- Joseph Murphy
