Session 1: How Does The Human Mind Really Work?

Once you have an understanding about the different components and mechanisms of the human mind, it will give you the foundation to be able to understand exactly where your inner voice is coming from, then later, how to connect to it and communicate with it!

In this session we will learn about:

If at any time you need help or have any questions regarding this Session, you can email me at Jennymolan@y7mail.com and I will get back to you within 48 hours with an answer to your query. You are not alone!

Right, lets get started...

Session 1 - Section A: Levels of Awareness

There are three levels of awareness within the human mind, as defined by Sigmund Freud, the famous Austrian neurologist and founding father of Psychoanalysis, and they are the Conscious, the Pre-conscious and the Unconscious (often referred to as the Sub-conscious). The differences are outlined below:

The Conscious Mind

The conscious mind consists of whatever you are aware of at this particular point in time eg the topic we are discussing right now, or thoughts like how comfortable or warm you feel. At the back of your mind might be 'I'm getting hungry' or thoughts about something you may need to do later on this afternoon. Things in your conscious mind are readily retreivable and you have a full awareness of them.

The Pre-Conscious Mind

The Pre-Conscious mind contains material that is just beneath the surface of awareness. For example, what you had for dinner Thursday last week, or the name of that person you bump into that you haven't seen for quite a few years. It also knows everything you know about yourself.

In time, information sinks out of the Conscious mind into the Pre-Conscious mind as it becomes less and less important for the information to be known. This is to allow the Conscious mind room to hold more useful, relevant or recent information. The human mind is able to hold a massive amount of information, but it does not have the capacity to hold all that you know in the Conscious mind alone. The retrieval system might get a bit disorganised or muddled up if it did! Especially as you got older and learnt more and more.

Luckily, it has the ability to 'compartmentalise' pieces of information. These compartments are the different levels of awareness. Information that over time sinks into the Pre-conscious is still retrievable if it is needed, even though you may not have accessed that information for years. It just may take a little time to retrieve it, or for it to 'come back to you'. When you bump into that friend you haven't seen for years, you might find yourself clicking your fingers and going 'Ummmmmmmmm', but eventually the name will pop back into your head.

The Pre-Conscious mind sits between the Conscious mind and the Unconscious mind.

The imaginary line between the Pre-Conscious and the Unconscious mind is called the 'Threshold'.

The Unconscious Mind

The unconscious mind contains thoughts, memories, desires etc that are well below the level of conscious awareness eg a trauma from your childhood. It holds, in fact, everything that you DON'T know about yourself. In other words, what your ego has decided that you aren't supposed to know! But as well as containing things that you have never had a conscious awareness of, your Unconscious mind also holds things that have fallen out of the Conscious/Pre-Conscious - memories that we have forgotten, things that we have seen or heard that we didn't take much notice of, and habits and tendencies or things that we have repressed (more on that in a later session).

You may have heard of cases where people who are hypnotised can, for example, recall incredible detail about a car accident that they witnessed, such as the number plate of the two vehicles involved in the accident, and the detailed description of the surrounding scene and the drivers. When asked details while they were in their Conscious state, they weren't able to recall the information, but under hypnosis, they could. The infomation was in their mind, but it was in their Unconscious mind, not their Conscious mind, so they had no conscious awareness of it.

Luckily, there are other ways of finding out what is in your Unconscious mind, without having to resort to being hypnotised, as you will find out by competing this course!

While some information (such as those things that we have seen or heard and not taken much notice of) do not have that great an influence on us, other things that are in our Unconscious minds exert an incredible influence on us, especially negative thoughts or beliefs that we have formed. They, in fact, have quite devastating consequences on our lives! (as you will see in the Section D: Beliefs). So it is vitally important, if we are to live an enlightened life where we can live to our full potential, that we find out what is in our Unconscious, and gain a Conscious awareness of it so that we are able to deal effectively with it, and stop it affecting our lives.

Consciousness Levels image Think of the three levels of awareness of the human mind as if you were looking into a body of very deep water. The water around the surface is clear, and anything floating in it can be seen easily. This represents the Conscious mind. As you look deeper into the water, into the murky depths, it is not so clear, it is very hard to see, it is quite dark and anything in the water at this depth is also very hard to see. This level represents the Pre-Conscious mind. Right down in the deep, deep water, way further down than you could ever see, way further than you can even go in a submarine, it is pitch, pitch black. You can't see anything at all. This represents the Unconscious mind.

Moving something from the Conscious to the Unconscious is called 'Disowning'.

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