About the Subconscious Mind

By Betty Moore-Hafter

Have you ever been driving on the interstate and found yourself in your own world for a little while, "spaced out", not even noticing the last exits you passed? It's as if you somehow drifted from your concentration on the task of driving and moved into your inner mind. You may have been daydreaming or pondering a problem or just 'floating along' with the music on the radio. And yet, you were still driving safely and, if the brake lights of the car in front of you had come on, you would have snapped to alertness. Congratulations! You have just had an experience of the subconscious mind. As a matter of fact, you have just been in a light state of hypnosis.

While the conscious mind is rational and logical, home of our will-power, our plans and goals, the subconscious mind holds our imagination and creativity, memories and past programming, habits, emotions, and deep core beliefs. The conscious mind is only the tip of the iceberg, while the "inner mind" or subconscious is a much vaster realm, the true source of our feelings and behaviors. And so in any battle between the conscious and the subconscious minds, guess which one will win? An example: Right now, I'm going to ask you not to think of chocolate cake. Don't think of chocolate cake, especially the really moist, dark kind with the rich fudgy frosting…" Did you obey the rational part of the request…"Don't think of this?" Or did you get a vivid image of the cake, maybe enough to make your mouth water?

So what actually happened in the interstate example? When you 'spaced out', you simply relaxed the control of the conscious mind so that you allowed the subconscious into your awareness. You might have been imagining pleasant possibilities (daydreaming) or unpleasant ones (worrying), or perhaps a new thought or creative inspiration came to mind. But who was driving the car? You were actually on 'automatic pilot' through another part of your subconscious, the part that holds your habits. Since driving is a habitual action for which you are well-trained, you really don't have to think about it consciously unless something unusual is happening. And you naturally came back to full conscious awareness as soon as you realized that you might miss your exit or needed to pay attention to anything else.

Hypnosis is no more mysterious than this. When in hypnosis, you will be deeply relaxed but aware and in control at all times - and just as in the interstate example, you could come out of the 'inner focus' any time you wanted to. Many people remember their whole session. And even though there are techniques to help people go into deeper and deeper states, even a light state of hypnosis allows for good results. Whatever level of relaxation is most natural to you is all that is necessary.