CHAPTER III CONSCIOUSNESS This is an important chapter because it deals with the quality that makes us what we are as individuals. Our consciousness. The sense of being 'I' that we all possess. Of course, we are all aware of being 'conscious' but we may not be aware of what consciousness constitutes! As to what really does constitute consciousness, well, down through the years some very perceptive people have given a lot of thought to that question and, inevitably, they produced a very large quantity of paper supporting their views. It was ever thus. Don't worry. We aren't going to get into the subject in any great depth because in the first place I am sure you will be able to grasp the contents of this chapter without an extensive background in the subject. You can always read up on it at your local library later if you wish to do so. Among the various aspects of consciousness that have been listed by researchers is, first of all, our subconscious. Next is our normal every day consciousness (the mental state you should be in while reading this book!). Then, different researchers have allocated to each of us a number of different states of consciousness such as the Id, the Ego, Super Ego. Super-conscious, Deep Mind and a Racial Consciousness. It's getting pretty crowded in there! Don't worry about all these aspects of consciousness. Most of them are of no particular interest to us and as a matter of fact they are mostly different names for the same thing. So, for the purposes of this chapter we are going to take a pretty pragmatic position on what our consciousness really is. We have to do this in order to supply ourselves with a working platform for the immortality concept. Assume then that your consciousness consists of only two different aspects. The conscious mind and the subconscious mind. I believe we can all agree that our mind possesses at least these two dimensions. The conscious mind, which is our normal everyday waking consciousness, is analytical, rational, reasoning and logical. It is what allows us to function normally on a day- to-day basis in the here-and-now in which we reside. It is the conscious mind that enables us to interact with the society of which we are both a part and a product of. The subconscious mind is entirely different, although thoroughly complementary. It is the rear-echelon support system for the conscious mind. As such it does not possess any of the qualities and capabilities of the conscious mind. Rather, it supports and complements them. It is the seat of the emotions and the storehouse of information. It is intuitive rather than logical. It controls the vital functions. It monitors and controls your heart beat and the circulation of the blood. It regulates your digestion, assimilation and elimination of waste products. It transforms your food intake into tissue, muscle, blood and bone. It never sleeps and it is always available. In spite of these rather obvious differences in function, there is at all times a constant interplay , an exchange of knowledge plus constant communication between the conscious and the subconscious. Obviously, in a well integrated personality, there absolutely has to be, even if we do not fully comprehend the extent of such communication or the complexity of the subconscious itself. As I previously stated, the subconscious is a storehouse of information, but it is a lot more than just a storehouse. It constitutes a means for gathering information, storage, retrieval and dissemination of such information. A sort of biological supercomputer. Your computer stores external input onto a disk or hard drive, from which it is possible to retrieve that same information at a later date. You do the same thing with your subconscious mind. The biggest difference between you and a regular computer is that the regular computer is not aware and your subconscious very definitely is! The following is an example of the subconscious/conscious cooperative mechanism in action. Your initial exposure to an unknown substance or situation may very well be fraught with danger to you as an entity. Your logical, conscious mind very carefully examines the substance/situation. In cooperation with the subconscious, the experiences and accumulated knowledge of a lifetime are brought to bear upon the substance/situation/ Next, an analysis is made based upon the safety - value - taste - tactile sensation - result - action taken - response - action required - inherent danger of, and a thousand other variables. The substance/situation is then dealt with in the best possible manner as indicated by the conscious/subconscious minds working in conjunction. If the substance/situation is lethal and the analysis is wrong, then the entity or organism (which could be you or I) can come to a pretty abrupt end. Incorrectly deducing a possible life threatening substance/situation is very definitely a no-no in terms of the continued survival of the entity or organism. We will assume that in this instance that the substance/situation is checked, analysed and examined in all its aspects and the analysis is proven correct. Once accomplished, the conscious mind advises the sub-conscious that this has been done and that any further deduction made which is based upon the examination of this particular substance/situation may be accepted as a truth. In its turn, the subconscious accepts the evaluation of the conscious mind without question and files all the relevant information way as a 'TRUTH' for future retrieval. Had the conscious mind advised the subconscious that this was not the case, then the information would be filed under a 'FALSE' tag. In any future situation involving a similar substance/situation, even if the conscious mind had forgotten the outcome of the original instance, the subconscious would ensure that the conscious mind would be made aware of the initial outcome. This interchange between the two aspects of consciousness takes place at high speed and we are for the most part unaware of the interplay. To summarize, the conscious mind makes the initial decision that a fact is either 'TRUE' or 'FALSE' before allowing the information to be filtered into the subconscious. Once such a conscious decision is relayed to the subconscious and been accepted, the subconscious will act upon it (insofar as the subconscious is capable of acting) according to its 'TRUE' or 'FALSE' classification. Such action may be immediate or at some unspecified future date. I should point out that the subconscious does not appear to have the same concept of time as does the conscious mind. Immediately might mean the same thing to both aspects of consciousness, however, I believe that a statement such as 'At some future time,' might imply a different time delay to both. The subconscious is quite literal. You have to watch that! Anyway, this particular role of the conscious mind (allocating a 'TRUE or 'FALSE' classification to incoming stimuli) has been known for a long time. It has been named the Guardian, the Censor or the Critical Faculty and one or two other names. For our purposes we shall stick to one name, the Censor. The need for such a Censor is obvious. Even today, life is not especially kind to our species. It was even less kind in the earlier stages of our evolution as human beings. Without such a protective mechanism we would never have evolved past being something else's next meal! So, what each and everyone of us possesses is a nice, tight, automatically functioning mental mechanism. It governs the incoming information, grades and verifies it against the standards of a lifetimes experience allocates it a 'TRUE' or 'FALSE' status and then files it away for future use. Fine and dandy. What, then, do you suppose would happen if this mechanism were to be bypassed. Purposely, deliberately and after due consideration? Information would still be processed, but without the cooperation of the conscious mind, it would be randomly filed and should the situation remain like this, i.e., only half of the mechanism (the subconscious) functioning, then the organism would probably cease to exist fairly suddenly! If the conscious mind were to be bypassed and replaced with an exterior authority capable of making decisions in much the same manner as the conscious mind, then any decision made by this authority would be accepted by the subconscious as 'TRUE' or 'FALSE' as indicated to it by the exterior authority! What's the point of all this? Well, the point is that if certain information can be routed to the sub-conscious classified as 'TRUTH', and yet such information was not filtered through the conscious mind, it will still be accepted as 'TRUTH' by the subconscious and acted upon! The subconscious mind has the capability of controlling many of the functions of our bodies, right on down to the molecular level! Now you stop right here and think about this, particularly in relation to the cellular and sub- cellular components of our bodies! It means that cellular and sub-cellular component can be manipulated by the subconscious. Something already governs cellular component behavior, now we can control the governor! Even the genes responsible for the aging effect can be controlled. What undreamed of potential lies here!