In our unconscious mind we cannot distinguish between a wish and a deed.
Sigmund Freud
Reprogramming Your Mind
Soul and Spirit, conscious and subconscious mind: how do these two aspects of mankind’s dual nature interact? How do we get programmed to the various concepts that govern our lives, and how can we reprogram our minds to eliminate negative ideas so that we may live happily and productively?
Of course Spirit flows through both aspects, but it is partially shut off from our conscious awareness by what we will call a psychic barrier, or psychic censor, preventing us from having complete contact with our subconscious. But this barrier is permeable, like a sieve that a person might use to sift flour, because the soul can never operate entirely independent of Spirit, and its manifestation is always the result of the interaction between the two parts. Because this barrier isn’t solid, we often get messages from our inner self, in the form of intuitive insights, dreams, or precognition of events.
It is because this psychic barrier exists that individuality is possible. If this division of consciousness were not there, we would all be the same and have no distinct personality, nor self-awareness. Certain differences in temperament would exist, as they do in the animal world, due to genetic predispositions, but there would not be a sense of identity, a self-image, or rational thinking, all of which are aspects of our personality.
As stated earlier, soul is the individualized aspect of our personality, the part that originates the ideas that will manifest in our life, or accepts these ideas from others. These concepts then lodge in our subconscious mind, and it is the subconscious that carries them out. Soul, therefore, is the thinker. It can also be considered the originative, “masculine” aspect of the self, because it accepts ideas from the environment, and implants them in the subconscious mind.
Spirit, the subconscious, is the doer, the receptive, “feminine” aspect, since it receives the ideas from the conscious part of the mind and proceeds to carry them out. (This division is the same whether a person is male or female.) As a comparison, in the world of labor, soul is the foreman, and Spirit the laborer who carries out the orders. To use a technology metaphor, Spirit is the hardware part of the computer that has the motherboard, and soul is the software that you program to tell it what you want it to do. If you want to write a letter, you use a word processing program but, if you want to keep track of your investments, then you will install a financial program that has a spreadsheet. It’s the same creative principle at work in the realm of the mind as in the biological world: the masculine, originative soul impregnates the feminine, receptive Spirit with an idea, and the creation that results from this interaction is the physical expression, or behavior.
Let’s say the soul looks out the window and, seeing that it’s a pleasant day, originates the idea of going for a walk. It can consciously think up this idea, but actually has no power to carry it out since it doesn’t know which muscles are involved in the simple act of taking a step. For instance, if you wanted to get up from a chair and had to do it using only your conscious mind, you wouldn’t be able to do so. In fact, we’re not even aware of which muscles we use first in the simple act of rising from a chair. We’ve all seen pictures on television of the enormous difficulty a disabled person has in learning to walk again. He or she has to be taught which muscles to move in order to take a step, and it’s a laborious process when done with the conscious mind. What we normally do without being aware of it, is turn our idea over to Spirit, the receptive, formative aspect of our personality, which then activates the many muscles involved. Walking is the behavior that results from this interchange.
Definition of Mind
We have discussed the subconscious and the conscious aspects of our personality, but what is mind? Although we must necessarily use the word “mind” as though it were a noun, it’s actually not a thing; it is a function, a process; it has no existence in and of itself. Mind is a term used to describe the action of the cells, neurons, synapses, and chemical processes of the brain. It is the information-processing activity of the brain. Mind is simply the name we have given to the interaction between soul and Spirit— the process of thinking. Mind, therefore, is not like the soul, which is the organizing factor within the personality and is an entity in itself. But the mind is a temporary, fleeting phenomenon dependent entirely upon stimuli from the internal and external environment. Since it is not a thing but a process, it really should be a verb, such as “minding,” rather than a noun (see Figure 4, following page).
In order for the process of thinking to occur, an impression must be transmitted to the soul, which we receive through one or more of our five senses, and that information is automatically transmitted to Spirit Within. To understand how this works, we must accept the scientific theory that we actually don’t see, hear, smell, taste, or touch “things,” but everything in the universe is really a vibration or a certain wavelength, which our brain interprets as a particular object or sensation. For example, you look out your window and see the neighbor’s cat lounging on the front lawn. Spirit matches that visual impression with one of the patterns in its vast data bank and flashes that back to the soul, which is then able to interpret the particular vibration (or wavelength) that it has picked up through its perceptual senses, as a cat. This interaction between conscious and subconscious is instantaneous, of course, and is the process we call thinking.
According to science, what occurs is that the firing of certain neurons in the brain reaches a “critical level of awareness,” which causes a person to become conscious of a particular vibration. She then translates that vibration according to whatever is in her memory bank that resonates to it. Each part of the brain is always at a certain level of alertness. There are always some neurons firing somewhere in the brain, even when we’re sleeping. The cells are in a constant state of vibration. When certain neurons fire above a specific critical level, the neural processes are consciously experienced, and we have a thought about something. We could say that the amplitude, or strength, of the vibration of particular cells and neurons increases when coming in contact with stimuli that resonates to their particular vibration, and we become consciously aware of it. Mind is the name given to this activity of the brain cells; therefore it is that portion of your consciousness above a critical level of alertness or vibration at a given time. When you are asleep none of your brain cells are vibrating above this level and, therefore, you are not consciously aware of anything.
Let’s say you’re strolling down Main Street and pass a bakery. Stimuli will be received through your olfactory sense, or sense of smell. At that moment you pick up a vibration that will be in resonance with certain cells of your brain related to that stimuli, and neurons will begin firing. When their amplitude (or volume) becomes heightened above a critical level, you will have a thought that there is fresh bread baking in that store, and then you will have to decide whether or not to go into the store and buy some.
Every experience we have ever had is impressed somewhere on electrochemical cells in our brain. This is our storehouse of memory, akin to an enormous data bank. Every time the soul is consciously aware of a stimulus the subconscious instantly activates its storage system, and fires the associated brain neurons to identify the experience so that you can interpret it for what it is. In the 1930s, Dr. Wilder Penfield, a Canadian neurosurgeon, performed some interesting experiments at McGill University in Montreal, during open-brain surgery on his patients. As he touched the cerebellum of the conscious patient with electrodes, he asked them to report what they experienced. They reported remarkably vivid memories, and the smallest shift of the stimulant would generate distinctly separate thoughts. Penfield mapped the location of each memory as he scanned the brain with his probe and, whenever he went back to that particular location, the same memory would reappear.1 In Penfield’s account of a young woman, he stated, “she had the same ‘flashback’ several times. These had to do with her cousin’s house, or the trip there . . . a trip she had not made for about fifteen years, but made often as a child.” This experiment proved that the brain is a fabulous recording device, and everything we have ever seen, heard, smelled, touched, or tasted is imprinted on our brain cells forever. Whenever something reactivates those cells, we get a mental picture duplicating the original experience, although it may be somewhat distorted because of the accompanying emotions at the time.
But what happens if you hear about, or see, something of which you have no knowledge? Since an impression has been registered on the cells of your brain, Spirit will simply provide you with a related, or associated picture, based on past programming so that you can make a determination of what it is, or what it is similar to. In essence, it’s an educated guess.
How Our Minds Become Programmed
Only the conscious part of the “mind” has the ability to distinguish between constructive and destructive ideas, an ability not always used wisely, for too often people unwittingly originate or accept negative concepts that eventually will impact or control their lives.
Let’s begin the process of reprogramming our mind to constructive thoughts by examining the way negative concepts lodge in our subconscious. An understanding of this will enable you to reprogram Spirit with the concepts you want in your life, and to eliminate negative ones you may have already acquired.
Inductive Reasoning and Deduction
The conscious part of our mind has two types of processes available to it: induction and deduction. The subconscious, on the other hand, is more limited and can only use one process: deduction. This fact is of enormous importance in understanding how the mind works, because these processes operate quite differently (Figure 5, below).
Inductive reasoning, solely a function of the conscious mind, involves analyzing, judging, and selecting, as when you assemble a number of disparate ideas and compare them. This involves thinking, a function only of the conscious mind. For example, when you enter a meeting room, you choose a place to sit by using inductive reasoning. You may want to sit by a window, or near a friend, or in a comfortable chair, or close to the speaker. You examine the possibilities, analyze them, and select the one that best suits your criteria. This is induction and obviously involves thinking.
Deductive functioning, which does not involve reasoning, can also be used by the conscious mind, but it is the only method available to the subconscious. This fact is tremendously important for reprogramming the subconscious because deduction doesn’t involve thinking. It simply accepts the ideas or premises given to it, and then draws a conclusion from them. Right or wrong, it doesn’t matter to the subconscious. The evidence that the subconscious mind functions deductively is dramatically demonstrated through hypnosis. In this altered state of consciousness, a hypnotist talks directly to the subconscious mind of a subject without interference from the rational, conscious portion, which has been temporarily suspended.
As has been well documented, in the hypnotic state, subjects can produce phenomena that would be difficult, if not impossible, during their normal, fully conscious state. They have, for example, been observed to maintain cataleptic postures for hours without discomfort, to enjoy a glass of vinegar thinking it’s tea, and to have needles stuck in their flesh without bleeding or feeling pain, among other unusual phenomena. These abnormal effects are produced because, in hypnosis, the subconscious of the subject accepts the suggestions of the hypnotist without reasoning or questioning them, testifying to the receptive, passive, unquestioning, nonanalytical, deductive nature of the subconscious mind.
In order to reprogram our minds to positive concepts, we must have an understanding of how Spirit, or the subconscious, operates. Generally speaking, deduction starts with given premises, and leads to a conclusion. A premise is simply a statement; it can be true or false. Two premises, a major and a minor one, plus a conclusion deduced from them, form what is know in logic and metaphysics as a syllogism. The conclusion is colored, of course, by whether the premises are true or not, but the important point is that a conclusion can only be drawn from the given data.
Here is a classic example of a syllogism:
Major premise: All trees have roots.
Minor premise: An oak is a tree.
Therefore: An oak has roots.
There is no thinking involved in this process. It’s just the logical deduction from the given premises, and this is exactly how our subconscious operates.
When the soul originates certain premises, or accepts them from others (such as a parent), it turns them over to Spirit, which draws a conclusion and operates on the basis of that conclusion, whether the premises are true or false. Since Spirit cannot judge the accuracy of the premises or reject them if they are false, it has no choice but to accept and implement them. Obviously, if you give your subconscious false premises, you will get an erroneous conclusion, which will eventually manifest in your life. If you give Spirit premises that are harmful or destructive to you, you will be harmed or even eventually destroyed by the conclusion you force it to act out. Remember, Spirit cannot reason—that is solely an ability of the conscious mind.
Let’s look at a few samples of injurious syllogisms that are so commonplace we often incorporate them into our subconscious without thinking about the consequences.
Major premise: My father had a heart attack.
Minor premise: I am just like my father.
Therefore: I will have a heart attack.
Major premise: Mommy says I’m stupid.
Minor premise: Mommy is always right.
Therefore: I’m stupid.
Major premise: If you get your feet wet, you’ll catch a cold.
Minor premise: My feet are wet.
Therefore: I will catch a cold.
Major premise: Women can’t earn a lot of money.
Minor premise: I’m a woman.
Therefore: I can’t earn a lot of money.
This is how negative concepts are programmed into the subconscious mind, and Spirit has no choice but to carry them out, no matter how harmful they are. Because of the importance of this truth, always remember that Spirit cannot reason upon your ideas. It has no ability to analyze or evaluate them, but can only accept your orders, constructive or destructive. Therefore, correct programming of the mind must begin at the conscious level.
Your personality is much like a highly sophisticated computer. Except for automatic biological processes, the soul is the programmer and must program data into the subconscious before it can receive output. In order for the deductive process to begin, the subconscious must be given input in the form of premises, which are the data it receives from the soul. These premises are ideas that you originate yourself, or ones that you accept from others, such as your parents, teachers, clergy, partner, and even advertisers in print and broadcast media. If, therefore, your life is a mess, you ordered it! Either you programmed your subconscious with negative ideas, or someone else did it for you, and now it’s manifesting in your life. But, understanding how the personality functions, you can reverse the process and reprogram your subconscious mind to the positive ideas that will make your life successful and fulfilling!
You may be wondering how Spirit, which cannot reason and originate ideas, can give you direction and guide your life. You must ask it for help first. You have to tune into it, and then it will respond. Spirit doesn’t need to originate answers for you; it already has all the answers in the great storehouse of wisdom that psychiatrist Carl Jung called “the Collective Unconscious.” When you are ready and know how to ask for it, it will select the appropriate answer, and present it to you in the form of intuitive insights, visions, or dreams.
Understanding how the mind functions, we must be very careful about the ideas we allow to become lodged in our subconscious. If you are wise, you will learn to keep eternal vigil over your soul in order to reject the myriad negative ideas with which we are all constantly bombarded. And, if you now have a number of negative concepts lodged in your subconscious disturbing your life, you will find that the techniques for transformation covered in the remaining chapters will help you to dislodge them. You have the power within you right now to reprogram those ideas and create for yourself whatever type of life you want!
1. Kelly, Kevin. Out of Control, Addison-Wesley, N.Y., 1994.