3.7 THE
CONSCIOUS, Sub-Conscious and the
SUPRA-CONSCIOUS
"
Beyond and above in the control hierarchy, the position of this single administrative
selfmetaprogrammer and his staff, there may be other controls and controllers, which,
for convenience, I call supraself metaprograms. These are many or one depending on
current states of consciousness in the single selfmetaprogrammer.
These may be
personified as if entities, treated as if a network for information transfer, or realized
as if self traveling in the Universe to strange lands or dimensions or spaces."
...............Dr John C Lilly
"When a systematic devaluation of the
unconscious is carried out, then the un-
conscious doesn't quite work with the person
anymore, but against him"..Jung
This article brings into focus the distiction between elements of human
awareness that affect the stream of consciousness and the directions
it takes. This has been considered necessary because a very crucial
distinction
exists between sub-conscious operations and the effects of
the awareness that lies beyond the conscious : the supra -conscious.
The fact is that the operations of both are sub-liminal, but their
characteristics are so different, contrasting and even opposing that
the whole effort of self - analysis becomes pointless unless a being
can sort out to some extent the control source ( sub or supra )
from which a thought has emerged into the conscious.
( Sometimes there may well be an element of both )
"
Just as early Buddhism recognised no gods because it had to free itself
from the inheritance of nearly two million gods, so must psychology, if it is
to develop further, renounce so essentially negative an approach to the
unconscious as Freud's." ......C. G. Jung
In other words the
thread of the Supra-conscious runs through every life
form in a world, in an instantaneous non-physical connection, that can be
called the web of life.
The essential animating element of the
supra-conscious, that contains in it
all the real and aesthetic knowledge of the entire world is called here as
the SPIRIT.
Life in any world is created and sustained by this Spirit.This Spirit in its
creation of the world, devolves itself in its constituent beings, who then
hold the power through their actions either to sustain the Spirit or
to dissipate it.
Once the Spirit's animating capacity is exhausted, the world comes to
an end although the aesthetic essence remains to restart a new cycle.
Pure Being and Spirit are the same.
"Consciousness
in itself has a being of its own which in its absolute uniqueness
of nature remains unaffected by the phenomenological disconnexions"....Husserl
3.7.1 CONSCIOUS and SUB CONSCIOUS as NEURAL FUNCTIONS
This then signifies that the normal consciousness is secondary to the Supra - ConsciousBeneath the
normal consciousness, operates a huge set of programs whose operations
are basically an automaton - a mechanism whose function is to control the survival
and survivability of the physical or the biological being.
These operate mostly without being detected or acknowledged by the normal
consciousness, as they are mostly supposed to anyway, since they primarily handle
the routine functions for the biological aspects of the being. Those operations that
are active but undetected by the conscious, or consciously willed, are called here
the SUB-CONSCIOUS.
However,
apart from the routine functions, the operation of these sub-conscious
programs does radically determine our overall behavior patterns,since the initial
control hierarchy is derived from these inbuilt routine functional programs, and
thus our normal consciousness derives its primary control structure from these
programs.
Therefore it is being stressed here that the sub-conscious mostly determines our
conscious behavior that we then take for granted because of an unwillingness
to critically examine one's own behavior or thought patterns and particularly
so, the underlying control mechanisms.
3.7.2 CONFLICTS Of The Sub and Normal Consciousness
Many times these sub-conscious
operations do come into conflict with the normal
consciousness, since the normal consciousness does derive its control also from
the external world, ( not only from internal patterns of control )
for instance,
social patterns or norms of behavior.
Unfortunately, most of these conflicts are not resolved in a beneficial manner by
the normal consciousness, since an inherent operating sub-conscious program is
to take the path of least resistance or pain, so usually the shortest and least
painful path is taken in order to resolve the conflict.
However the shortest path invariably proves to be
only a temporary patch and
the same or similar conflict pops up again and again and unless the conflict is
resolved at its root level, and the negative effects of this conflict will continue
to dominate the conscious behavior.
3.7.3 CRISIS AND RESOLUTION
Most
conflicts are resolved in a manner that provide for stable operation of the
structure, and it is this factor alone that plays a key role. For stable operation
comes at a price - the possibilities of growth and transcendence become
more and more limited, till only a crisis then causes a revaluation and
restructuring.
A crisis that may be externally caused or internally caused - by the
Supra-conscious.
Now
the most important point here is that most of the critical conflicts and such
resultant battles take place internally, that is, within oneself, and the sad fact
is that most people do not deal with this aspect at a conscious level at all.
The sub-conscious therefore becomes the dominant controlling factor
that
then subsequently determines our behavior and choices.
3.7.4 From the Sub Conscious control into the Conscious
Deeply
hidden sub-conscious critical operating control programs can be
observed and then over-ridden, reprogrammed or neutralised by :
1) The force of one's Will.
2) By the force of moral power.
3) By the force of one's death.
4) By unknown elements of the supra-conscious
5) Neutralised by meditative procedures
6) By the observation of these by the conscious.
7) By the analysis, integration and reprogramming
of these by the conscious.
8) By hallucinogenic drugs like LSD.
These same can also
apply for the supra-conscious to manifest
itself, however, the supra-conscious cannot be reprogrammed,
only integrated and refined by creative action.
Of all these
possibilities, the effectiveness of which can vary greatly from one
individual to another, the self-analysis method is the most powerful one. The
meditative procedure can effectively neutralise the hold of the sub-conscious,
but in the process a significant loss of functional value of the rational -
intellectual process is affected or sacrificed.
The only way
to efficiently deal with the sub-conscious is to use every possible
opportunity to bring its operation to a conscious level where its effects can be
observed by the conscious operating system, and its deeply hidden connections
can possibly be found and dealt with or neutralized. Without doing this, the sub
conscious will always have a dominating role, hindering the process of self-
development.
To bring
the critical sub-conscious programs to a conscious
level to be dealt with and reprogrammed is the goal of self- analysis
or the art of
stalking oneself.
3.7.5 Integration with the Supra-Conscious
On the other extreme of the control hierarchy and of the utmost importance to
one's real self is the Supra-conscious but which remains hidden in the background,
its activity that resembles a dream-like state is also in one way similar to the
sub-conscious insofar that its operation as and when it occurs goes undetected
by the conscious, but in most other aspects is dis-similar as well as contrary to
the sub-conscious.
It is the
mysterious, yet the essence, of consciousness. It contrasts almost totally
with the sub-conscious. It cannot be comprehended by the conscious, only noticed
in its effect, in its wake. It cannot be conceptualised, for its function is to remain
hidden, out of any direct control, or manipulation by the conscious. It is not a
property of the nervous system, yet it can affect the nervous system profoundly.
Whereas the sub-conscious needs to be controlled by the conscious, as a general
rule it is the supra-conscious that needs to control the conscious, but only so when the
sub-conscious has been mastered by the normal conscious. So we have an operating
structure for the sub-conscious and an operating structure for the conscious that need
to be UNIFIED,
whereas the supra-conscious is independent of these structures and
must remain free of the control of these structures that is, the structure must have
evolved to the extent of having a control
provision for the manifestation of the
Supra-conscious.
The Supra-Conscious
is very subtle in its operation, since it is
sensitive and its control
is independent of neural structures, whereas it manifests to
the normal consciousness
through the neural structures and thus becomes subject to its interpretive mechanisms
determined by existing programs and metaprograms. The
only thing common between
the sub and the supra is that the initiation operation
of both goes mostly unnoticed and
unacknowledged by the normal consciousness, the effects are consciously recorded.
Thus self-analysis attempts to bring the operation of the sub-conscious to be acknowledged
and controlled by the conscious, it is the process of self-observation that attempts to
bring
forth the supra-conscious to manifest itself to
the conscious so as to be appropriately
interpreted and so that the conscious instead of being controlled by the
sub-conscious is
thereby under control of the Supra-Conscious under critical conditions.
The Supra-Conscious ,
although always present, is realised through the integration process
with the conscious.Therefore it can be said that the Supra-Conscious manifests itself
through
the special conditions of the conscious, and if not well integrated, it can only manifest
in an
inhibited state of the sub-conscious, or a highly emotional state, or is glimpsed
occasionally
under certain unusual states of the normal consciousness.
The point here is that there is no specific key or method or procedure to the
Supra-Conscious,
however a proper order of the sub-conscious and a free state of the conscious are the
general
steps in the direction of the Supra-Conscious, the manifestation of which, and its
appropriate
interpretation by the conscious, then becomes indicative of the direction, methods and
modalities for the conscious to follow.
NEXT PAGE No 18 : The art of Self Analysis