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Arthanari Chandrasekaran

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What is the relationship between conscious and subconscious?

Are they inter-related or have their own boss who controls them individually.

Topics: Collective Consciousness brain science
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    Helen Hupe 30+

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    Sep 15 2012: Through therapy we can probe the unconscious and it really humbles one. I know because I have been through it.
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    Allan Macdougall 30+

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    Sep 15 2012: The personal subconscious (or unconscious) is a reservoir of personal experience accumulated over the course of our individual lives, which silently (but profoundly) influences who we are and how we react in certain situations.

    The collective unconscious is hypothesised as being a more primordial collection of 'predispositions' that are common to everybody, and which have evolved at species-specific levels.

    The conscious cannot directly will the unconscious into any tangible form. The only way to gain any glimpse of what our own unconscious world is about, is to somehow 'switch off' the dominant, distracting noise of the conscious. We can do that with certain meditation techniques, listening to music, being in nature and daydreaming. The unconscious is also visible in our dreams, but it can be very fleeting and hard to remember, once the conscious mind starts to kick in as we wake.

    I agree with you, Marla, about the role of the unconscious in creativity. As an artist myself, I have as much of an interest in the psychology of "the zone" as I am in the causes of "creative block". In both extremes, I'm fairly convinced that the conscious mind is implicated - manageably subdued in "zone" and too prominent in "block".
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    Craig Patterson 10+

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    Sep 14 2012: It's the difference between the object and it's shadow. They mirror one another in radically different ways, yet there is always a connection typically found in the unconsciousness. Carl Jung said, "Enlightenment isn't about imaging figures of light, but about making the darkness conscious". Consciousness can probe subconsciousness with effort, intention and checking the ego at the gate.
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    Asad Khan

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    Sep 14 2012: The Car is a Subconscious and his Staring is Conscious. Without staring to make any direction of Care is not possible.
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    Feyisayo Anjorin 50+

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    Aug 18 2012: I see it like the relationship between the tip of an iceberg, and the iceberg's real size.
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    Marla Mitchnick 200+

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    TED StaffTED AttendeeAssociate
    Aug 17 2012: We are unaware of our subconscious processes but they drive us so powerfully in so many ways - and in my experience they take over the creative process, ie when I get "in the zone," that non-verbal space of highly productive action and associative connection making... We are a very odd species, that we need to hide such knowledge from our conscious minds in order to be comfortable!
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    James Zhang 30+

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    Aug 16 2012: No idea, but this would be a good time to look up Sigmund Freud's written works

    • Kaylee Laudick

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      Aug 17 2012: Freud is still studied because his work was critical to the development of psychology although since none of theories can be scientifically proven they really are not considered the answer to questions such as this in modern psychology.
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    Gerald O'brian 50+

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    Aug 16 2012: They are one.
    Conscious concerns the part of the neural activity we think we are aware of.
    Subconscious concerns the part we are unaware of.
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      Arthanari Chandrasekaran

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      Aug 17 2012: So that means they are different.
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        Gerald O'brian 50+

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        Aug 17 2012: It means that everything is subconscious until you've got some awareness about it.
        It's just a definition. The only difference between the two parts of an iceberg is that one is underwater and one isn't.
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          Arthanari Chandrasekaran

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          Sep 11 2012: "two parts of an iceberg is that one is underwater and one isn't."

          This statement makes perfect sense, definitely one point that can highlight the difference so vividly.
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