What is subconscious

Discussion in 'General Philosophy' started by Tnerb, Nov 29, 2006.

  1. Tnerb Banned Banned

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    Hello. Those who know me are familar with knack of strange posts. But, in this thread interestingly enough also in the philosophy section I actually intend a singular meaning. It should prove interesting with me as the starter, wondering what the subconscious is, and talk about it, because I am told that I am subconscious man (by dark and mysterious forces, mind you). So. What is the subconscious?

    y Not just ask in the psychology forum? Surely to get some good answers there. .... Well. Go ahead, give me a defination from the dictionary or something (I am kidding).

    What use is subconscious?
    Again, I am not asking for a defination I am asking for a discussion.

    Once and for all and again and again and again, what is the subconscious?
    I am looking forward to a nice thread here for my uses and gainings.
    ....more later surely......
    :bugeye:
     
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  3. baumgarten fuck the man Registered Senior Member

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    Off the top of my head: "Mind-like processes of the brain of which the subject is not directly aware." By this I mean mental operations analogous to those experienced in waking consciousness, but which can only be inferred from observing their effects.
     
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  5. Tnerb Banned Banned

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    I'm a bit busy at the time, Baum, however do note that I will get back to that previous post.
     
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  7. tablariddim forexU2 Valued Senior Member

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    Subconscious creates dreams; remembers tales, commits murders and adultery. It sings and makes music; writes novels of pure fantasy and single sentences of pure wisdom. It sees and it is blind; hears and it is deaf, tastes and has no tongue. It sleeps but is awake; calls but is ignored, is open to manipulation by gods and men; locked but keys exist. Exists and yet is buried.
     
  8. Quantum Quack Life's a tease... Valued Senior Member

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    This is going to be an interesting thread..me t'inks

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    ..[ just subscribing and will post later after some sleep...]
     
  9. Tnerb Banned Banned

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    Thank you, qq

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  10. Tnerb Banned Banned

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    I found http://www.reference.com/search?q=subconscious ...THAT... on dictionary.com after clicking on encyclopedia, to see if the encyclopedia had for subconscious.


    I am first wondering this:
    (I have had this thread topic in mind forever now, and will get back to some of the eariler interesting posts!~hopefully

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    )
    What is the difference between these two words: unconscious. subconscious. Are they the same or do they mean two completely different things? This is very important to me. I am searching for something here, if anyone can freaking tell!

    anyway, t, that was a fantastic dreamy post of what might be what i think it is. baum that was a post which describes and goes into some of the detail and thought, but that about covers that...
    and ...
    damn. forgot

    Edit.
    I believe I have some interesting content on that link above if anyone wants to look it might be interesting. The subconscious is probably something to advoid so there is healthy material there!

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    Last edited: Nov 30, 2006
  11. TimeTraveler Immortalist Registered Senior Member

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    The subconscious, the known unknowns of the mind.

    Sexual innuendo "excitable speech"
    Hot dogs
    Melon
    Which would you rather be served? What size?
    Would you like some milk with that?
    Sexual innuendo

    Now, if you read that, I can predict you are thinking "milk is disgusting!". I'm also able to predict, which food you'd rather be served. The only thing that is unpredictable is the size.
     
  12. TimeTraveler Immortalist Registered Senior Member

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    Nah, my sub-conscious does not commit murders and adultery, but it thinks about stuff like melons, big ones, covered with mlik, all the damn time.
     
  13. TimeTraveler Immortalist Registered Senior Member

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    The sub-conscious is the basic mind, the instinctive mind, the simple mind, the animal brain, whatever you want to call that.
     
  14. baumgarten fuck the man Registered Senior Member

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    Re: Subconscious vs. Unconscious

    The difference is subtle but substantial.
     
  15. Quantum Quack Life's a tease... Valued Senior Member

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    When I hear or read the word subconscious used I tend to think about other words such as :
    Instinctive
    Reflexive
    Subliminal
    Autonomic

    When I have used the word in the past I have usually meant that which is normally beyond deliberate control, that which happens reflexively regarding matters of mind, such as mood, dreams, creativity, originality and improvisation. However there are many aspects of teh mind that can be both deliberate and instinctive depending on the focus of attention at the time.

    For example I often consider the act of breathing to be both subconsciously active and deliberately active.

    There is a threshhold between instinctive breathing and deliberate breathing that is so fine that it is virtually impossible to show when one is either deliberately breathing or instinctively breathing, as an example.
    As soon as you focus your attention on your breathing it becomes a deliberate act but as soon as you focus on something else such as what your hands are doing without regard to the breathing going on it is subconsciously driven or a word I prefer to use these days, instinctively driven.

    Of course breathing is normally a very good indicator of emotional and other subliminal stresses.

    I am sure there are studies using a study groups breathing is monitored as to how their breathing changes as per certain stimuli.

    Emotional or subconscious pressures inducing fluctuations in breathig responses, yet when under deliberate control breathing can be kept reasonably regular depending on the degree of stress present.

    So to me subconsciousness is about mental and bodily functions that are autonomic in nature, or function free of violition, therefore instinctive in nature that in some circumstances can come into the realm of deliberate will.

    It is well known that heart rate and heart tension are heavilly influenced by subconscious stresses in fact it could be suggested that most heart conditions have there genesis in emotional or instinctive behaviours and therefore a by-product of subconscious or subliminal activity and mainly of the intellectual/emotional kind.

    A cardilogist once said to me, "...once the mind [will] gets involved in the heart rate all sorts of shit can happen....."

    I have often stated the belief that conditions such as Schizophrenia and the like are symptomatic of the seriously stressed subconscious being, and have not seen any reason to change that view.

    The act of passively thinking or dwelling or daydreaming and so on are all a part of the subconscius picture.

    So when the subconscious is thoroughly stressed out it is little wonder that emotional states, mood and thought can become aberrant.
     
  16. Dinosaur Rational Skeptic Valued Senior Member

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    The subconscious seems to be analogous to one or more junior executives who do necessary jobs and only notify the CEO when there is an important decision to be made.
    • You become aware of the breathing process when something interferes with it.
    • If you commute to work every day via the same route, you can often get to work without having much memory of the trip. If a car seems to be moving fast and not about to stop when you have a green light you are very likely to notice it. If all are slowing down as they approach the intersection, you might be totally unaware of the cross traffic. The first few times you drive to a new job, you are aware of much of the trip.
    • When you first learn some skill like playing tennis or driving a car, you are very much aware of all sorts of unfamiliar details. When you become proficient, you are generally unaware of the detailed actions.
    The above are suggestive of activites performed by the subconscious (or as I call it: The Junior Executives).

    Many problems occur when the subconsious is somehow trained to do something counter productive like too much booze, too much gambling, drug usage, dangerous thrill seeking behavior, et cetera.

    I remember trying to quit smoking a long time ago. I tried all sorts of methods and was unsuccessful. One day I read an article which suggested that many failures to quit a habit trained your subconscious to cause you to fail. The article recommended picking a date 3-6 months in the future as the time to quit cold turkey. In the meantime talk to your self about the benefits of quitting, but make no attempt to quit.

    The above worked for me. It suggests that the subconscious or junior executive functions of the brain are very competent at achieving goals, but incompetent at choosing goals. All the time I tried to quit, I was essentially telling the junior executive that I really did not want to quit. I had to tell him otherwise over a long period of time.
     
  17. c7ityi_ Registered Senior Member

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    subconscious is when we realize that life is just a movie.
     
  18. Search & Destroy Take one bite at a time Moderator

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    subconscious is anything out of consciousness.

    Take breathing or blinking, for the most part is is subconscious, but sometimes we become conscious of it.

    For the most part it's referenced to mentalese. All that junk going on in your head like "am I going to be late?", "does she think I'm ugly?" etc.

    Some Buddhist text I read said 1/10 of our mentalese is conscious, the rest, sub, with meditation slowly increasing that fraction. I would probably concur with that, for the most part.
     
  19. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    Subconscious is the thoughts themselves, what you percieve when you think about your thoughts are not the original thoughts but the secondary thinking. Thus there is a limitation in what you can comprehend about your mind.
     
  20. Kron Maxwell's demon Registered Senior Member

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    To me, the subconscious is the fundamental part of the human psyche, it's the primitive section that consists of desires, dislikes and emotions. The conscious focuses on the smartest way to achieve a goal, the subconscious focuses on picking the goal in the first place...

    The 'instinctive' part of the mind that everyone refers to is the 'unconscious' in my dictionary.
     
  21. c7ityi_ Registered Senior Member

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    thoughts are like pictures in a movie. pictures create the illusion of motion, like thoughts create the illusion of thinking.

    movies (pictures) don't move. thoughts don't think.
     
  22. Search & Destroy Take one bite at a time Moderator

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    reminiscent of this stream of consciousness theory I read, they used the same analogy.

    Unless you enter a state of pure observation, not interacting with thoughts, then you can see them w/o secondary thoughts. right?
     
  23. Turtle Guest

    I had a car accident yesterday, I don't remember I had but police and others say I run away. I drink 4 beers and a glass of vine, I wasn't drunk. I don't know how I crash my car, run away and how I drive 4 miles in the dark without head lights. Don't remember a thing. Well I knock out windshield glass with my head, but police didn't saw anything. That why I have a headache.

    -Maybe my subconscious was a driver?
     

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