The Genie Within: Your Subconscious Mind (8 page)

The subconscious mind reasons inductively, from the specific to the general. If you tell it you are clumsy, it will find a way for you to do something clumsy. Usually inductive rationale is not logical.

The conscious mind thinks of words objectively. Objectively the word “mother” means a female parent. The subconscious mind, on the other hand, is subjective and adds connotations to words. When you hear the word “mother,” all kinds of feelings are aroused. These feelings come from the subconscious mind.

WILL, POWER, AND WILLPOWER

The conscious mind has a sense of awareness. It knows persons, places, conditions, and things. The conscious mind knows that it knows. It contains knowledge that we are ourselves and we are here.

Importantly the conscious mind has
will
. Will is the ability of the conscious mind to initiate and direct a thought or action. Will supplies the direction of your thinking. Human beings have free will.

Ah! But the subconscious mind has the power! An article in
Psychology Today
, August 1974, stated that, “...we discovered the brain is a source of electrical energy; it can do electrical
work.” Your brain produces about 25 watts of power. The subconscious mind transmits this energy as urges, emotions, impulses, nervous twitches, etc.

This energy in the subconscious mind is inexhaustible; your brain functions 24-hours-a-day, all of your life.

The wonderful thing about using the subconscious mind is that it is
effortless
. No conscious effort is required to use your subconscious mind. Conscious effort, no matter how well intended, only impedes the subconscious mind.

Doing something with the conscious mind requires effort. Remember how learning something for the first time took effort? For example, it took a while to learn to tie a shoestring. It is complicated the first time or two. Imagine if you had to write out all the steps clearly enough so that someone who had never seen a bow could tie one.

Once tying a bow became habit—in other words, the task was relegated to the subconscious mind—it became easy. So easy, you do not have to think about it when you are doing it. In fact, you probably do not even remember tying the laces in your shoes because you did it subconsciously.

A high-jumper interviewed on TV after he set a track record said, “I do not remember my record jump, but I knew when I started to jump that I would be successful.” He did not remember because he was jumping unconsciously. He let his subconscious mind take over. The subconscious mind can do all the operations without mental effort. Had he jumped using his conscious mind, it would have been an effort and he would not have done nearly as well.

The best book on this subject is
The Inner Game of Tennis
by Timothy Gallwey. Do not be turned off by the title if you are not a tennis player; just mentally cross out “tennis” as you read and insert any other word you want. Gallwey articulately describes how the conscious mind cannot do a task as difficult as hitting a tennis ball (or driving a car or
hitting a golf ball) well. Whereas, the subconscious mind can do a difficult task, and do it effortlessly and perfectly
when not interfered with by the conscious mind
. That is the trick—keeping the conscious mind out of the way.

So, the conscious mind has the
will
and the subconscious mind has the
power
. When the conscious mind and subconscious mind are in harmony, you have
willpower
. You are “single-minded.”

But when the conscious mind and subconscious mind are in conflict, there is no
willpower
. You are “double-minded.” Your conscious mind cannot directly overpower your subconscious mind and “will” it to do something.

Emile Coué
³
(1857–1926) was highly successful in Europe in curing a variety of ills. He believed in gabbling (talking quickly and indistinctly so the conscious mind would get bored and not pay attention) an affirmation until it sank into the subconscious mind and became completely accepted by it. You’ve probably heard one of his familiar affirmations, “Every day, better and better in every way.”

Coué said, “When
will
and
imagination
are in conflict, imagination always wins.” That is to say, when the
conscious mind
and the
subconscious mind
are in conflict, the
subconscious mind
always wins. The subconscious mind wins because it has the power (it has electrical and chemical power), and it is bigger.

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
will
himself not to eat that delicious dessert, but the urge from the subconscious mind will win. 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 are going to learn how to make it your personal genie, not your master.

MEMORY

The conscious mind has a limited memory and most of it is short-term. The subconscious mind, in stark contrast, has virtually infinite memory. You are probably thinking it does not seem that way to you. Well, it is true. You have enough memory for everything you have experienced in your life. It is your
recall
that is fallible.

CONTROL

When your conscious mind and your subconscious mind are in conflict, your subconscious mind wins, but only if you do not know how to control it. You are going to learn how to influence and control your subconscious mind so it does not control you. You are going to make it your genie! Your conscious mind is meant to be the master, and your subconscious mind is meant to be the genie.

The conscious mind can stimulate the subconscious mind into action, change habits, reverse negative thinking patterns, improve our physical and emotional health, and our conscious mind can even influence our involuntary functions.

A few decades ago, thinking in the Western world was that control of involuntary functions was impossible. The Western world now knows that controlling involuntary functions such as blood pressure, heart rate, and circulation in a given area of our bodies, is possible.

The following chart sums up the differences between conscious mind and subconscious mind:

COMPARISON OF THE CONSCIOUS MIND
AND THE SUBCONSCIOUS MIND

ALPHA CONDITIONING

Your mind can be led into the alpha state by sitting in a comfortable chair and listening to a relaxation routine read by someone else, or recorded and played back. The routine usually takes about ten minutes.

You will want to go into the alpha state many times each day to give your genie instructions. It would not be practical to depend on someone else to read the routine, or to play a CD every time you wanted to go into alpha. You need to condition yourself to simply take a deep breath, count down from three to one, say to yourself the word “ALPHA,” and be in alpha. It is that quick and that simple—after you are conditioned.
Conditioning exercises are given at the end of each lesson.

Alpha conditioning is easy. It just takes a little practice. Some people can condition themselves in a few sessions; others take a little longer. Closing your eyes and relaxing tends to induce alpha. Relaxation is often associated with heaviness and warmth. Once in alpha, you can condition yourself to return to this state quickly any time you want.

SELF, DEEP RELAXATION

The conditioning exercises presented in these lessons are similar to procedures called by different names. The most common is self-hypnosis. I would like to call it something else because the word “hypnosis” has negative connotations. Hypnosis is often associated with mind control or being make a fool of in front of an audience. That is unfortunate. First of all, nobody really knows what hypnotism is. Kreskin, a well-known “mentalist” (he refused to be called a hypnotist), offered $100,000 to anyone who could prove conclusively the existence of a “hypnotic trance.” Nobody ever claimed the money. Kreskin never puts anyone in a trance yet he is highly successful in planting suggestions in subconscious minds.

Ernest Rossi states in
The Psychobiology of Mind-Body Healing, 1993:
“Since the inception of hypnosis more than 200 years ago it has been impossible to find general agreement among professionals on just exactly what hypnosis is. No definition or empirical test has ever been devised to accurately assess whether or not a hypnotic state even exists!” Some experts claim there is no such thing as a hypnotic trance or hypnotic state.

So let’s not be concerned about what this method is called. “Self-Alphamation” (I just made up that word) would be a good descriptive word but no one would know what I was talking about. These exercises are
simply ways of going into
the alpha state
so you can plant suggestions in your subconscious mind.

An added benefit when you practice deep relaxation is that you will sleep better. Better sleep has been shown to improve health, memory, and disposition. Many people who practice deep relaxation find they need less sleep.

PROCEDURE

There is nothing magic about the routine. The routine can be done in infinite ways. You can start, for example, by relaxing muscles from the feet to head or vise versa. Any procedure that gets you to relax is good. The aim is to relax so that your conscious mind loses interest, gives up control, and sinks into the background, and at the same time, to coax your subconscious mind to the surface. Once you are in alpha, you can then use your subconscious mind to relax your body even more than you ever could when in beta using your conscious mind.

You can have someone read the routine to you or you can record it and play it back. A CD containing this routine is also available.
⁴

Some self-help books describe tests to determine whether you are truly in an altered state.
Do not test yourself
. Do not doubt that you are in alpha. Should you fail the test for
any
reason, even just one time, this failure could destroy your confidence. Just act as if you know you are going to succeed and you will. Have the right attitude. Expect to relax and go into the alpha state. Be confident.

Just let go. Do not use any conscious mind activities, namely, critiquing the words, judging whether you are going into
the alpha, etc. Use subconscious mind activities, namely visualization, daydreaming, and staying in the present. Do not think about something that happened yesterday or even ten minutes ago. Do not think about something that may happen ten minutes from now. Keep your mind in the
now
.

Audio aids are available to assist your subconscious mind into alpha. The best, in my opinion, is simply a metronome sound at 10 cps (mid alpha) or 5 cps (mid theta). This method is used by Silva International, El Paso, TX, in courses taught worldwide. Some music and sound recordings are helpful, examples include selected Mozart works,
⁵
and primal sounds produced by Jeffrey Thompson.
⁶

Important statements that will be given to you near the end of the routine are listed below. You should know what you are being conditioned to.

       •   Distractions only tend to make me go deeper into alpha.

       •   Each time I practice going into alpha I go deeper and deeper.

       •   Each time I practice, I go into alpha faster and faster.

       •   Each time I practice, it is easier and easier.

       •   My subconscious mind accepts only positive, healthful suggestions.

       •   Each time you touch your thumb and forefinger together you are reminded to relax and remain poised.

There is also a suggestion that any time you say or think the phrase “3...2...1...ALPHA,” you will return to the alpha state. After enough practice, you will not need to go through
the ten-minute relaxation routine to go into alpha. You will simply say to yourself, “3...2...1...ALPHA” and you will be there.