Me:
> This sounds to me like a theory of the relationship between the
> conscious and unconscious mind. In order for it to be proven
> 'true', one would need to become consciously aware of the
> unconscious mind, in order to consciously know which way it's
> going... but if one is consciously aware of the unconscious,
> well, then the unconscious is no longer unconscious... this
> leads me to think we're just working with a different level
> of consciousness, but not at the level of UNconsciousness,
> which is, by definition, outside of consciousness.
Eva:
> Not necessarily--it is possible to see evidence of what's going
> on in the subconscious without being directly aware of those
> thoughts. For instance, through dreams, physical symptoms without
> known medical origin, slips of the tongue (or fingers), doing
> things you 'didn't mean to', etc. It is also possible to become
> conscious of such conflicting thoughts after the fact, and only
> then realize why you weren't achieving your goals.
It nonetheless remains your choice to interpret such phenomena as
'choices made by the subconscious', and, in particular, to say
that the unconscious mind has some 'direction' that it might want
to go in. As for myself, I do not think the subconscious has a
direction. I would suggest that it is more like the operating
system in a computer, and consciousness is some program. When we
sleep, or don't do anything for a while, the OS runs a screen-saver
(we dream).... if we turn off the computer (i.e. die), the OS
doesn't really care, even though some artificially intelligent
program (consciousness) could 'care'.
- JPS
- jschneid@hanoverdirect.com