On Humoring Your Subconscious

The subconscious is vast, it knows so much more than the thinking I, but often has its own agenda. Understanding your subconscious is what our spiritual path is all about. The dark stuff that is hidden in the basement is, step by step, carried up into the light where it disappears. Similarly, as you begin to understand what your secret life quest really is, which happens to be hidden in your subconscious as well, you become so much more powerful.

It really gets interesting when the subconscious and the thinking I clash. This is where addictions and pernicious habits come in. In the morning the thinking I decides that something like the experience last night will never happen again, only to find that at night Mr Hyde comes out again and shows the finger to Dr. Jekyll.

There is a little trick that you can employ as you try to rid yourself of this struggle. The subconscious works very differently than the thinking I, all it really needs is a nod of acknowledgement that it exists. Just offer it a symbol, a token that it is there and that it will leave you, the conscious I, in peace. Perhaps you know the expression modus vivendi, i.e. a state that allows both parties to coexist. Find this modus vivendi that works for you.

Please note, however, that acknowledging the dark force inside yourself is very different from giving in to it. If you give the dark force a finger it will swallow you entirely. But based on my experience you will always find a creative way to keep the dark force at bay without picking a fight with it.