Some experts believe this theory is an over-simplification. Much of the research leading to this theory, at least initially, was obtained from epileptic patients who had the left and right sides of their brains surgically disconnected for medical reasons. In normal people, there is considerable feedback between both sides and, in special cases, one side can acquire the capabilities of the other. We will not use this model in this course.

We will consider the “Triune Model” of the brain developed by Dr. Paul MacLean, Chief of the Laboratory of Brain Research and Behavior, National Institute of Mental Health. The Triune model is based on three stages of evolution, the “Reptilian,” “Mammalian,” and “Cortex.” Each stage represents a different type of mentality geared to the needs that prevailed at the time. Each is a separate computer with its own special intelligence, subjectivity, sense of time and space, and memory. For our purposes, it is convenient to combine the first two parts, which are by far the oldest parts (the reptilian and mammalian parts) and call it the subconscious mind.

Reptilian

The first stage of the brain evolved 250 million years ago and is called the “reptilian brain,” or the “brain stem.” It stopped changing 250 million years ago. Thus, the reptilian brain in man is essentially the same as in all reptiles. It is involuntary, impulsive, and compulsive; it contains programmed responses that are rigid. This part of the brain is paranoid for self-preservation. Paranoia is useful for keeping an eye out for enemies or, more to date, for cars when crossing the street. This part of the brain does not learn from experiences. It just tends to repeat its programmed behavior over and over.

The reptilian brain evolved for survival. It controls basic functions necessary for life, including heart rate, breathing, fighting, fleeing, feeding, and reproduction. It has no feelings.

Mammalian

The mammalian brain evolved about 50 million years ago. The mammalian brain in man is also essentially the same as in all mammals. This part of the brain contains feelings and emotions. It is playful and the source of maternal care. Mammals tend to their young; reptiles usually do not.

The mammalian part of the brain provides us with feelings of what is real, true, and important to us, but it is inarticulate in communicating these feelings to the conscious mind. Important features are that the subconscious mind (1) is the source of feelings and derives information in terms of feelings, and (2) derives its value system by experience, that is, experience with emotional impact.

Cortex

The third stage of development is the “cortex.” It is the conscious part of the mind. According to Carl Jung, the famous psychiatrist, it is about 40,000 years old and is still evolving. Some contemporary researchers think it is older. An important feature of the conscious mind is that it does not begin to develop until about age three and is not fully developed until about 20 years of age. These ages vary between individuals.

This late development is one reason we have so many negative and counterproductive programs in our subconscious minds. When the emotional part of our brains was developing in the early years of our lives, we did not have a rational, mature conscious mind to filter out negative programs and select positive ones we will need as adults. To make matters worse, we are not now aware of most of these programs because they were developed at such an early age we have no conscious memory of them.
In contrast to the subconscious mind, which evolves its value system through emotions, the conscious mind evolves its value system through rational interpretation of experience.

Because of these vast differences, “...the three brains are often dissociated and in conflict.”

Ken Keys stated it well: “Although our cerebral cortex has more processing capacity than any computer ever built, unfortunately the new brain isn’t wired into the old brain with the monitoring feedback, and control circuits that we need for optimal functioning. Thus the new brain, the conscious mind, will analyze problems and come up with rational solutions, often without the vaguest idea what is taking place in the old brain, the subconscious mind, which is governed by nonrational feeling...that is the crux of our problem. The poor communication between the old and new brains creates problems in everyday life. For example, the old brain can bypass the thinking brain’s control systems and act out intense emotions that have been bottled up in the unconscious for decades...often making mountains out of molehills. The new brain, operating in present time, realizes that the person has strength, competence, and self-worth, yet the unconscious continues to trigger ineffective, inappropriate responses to life’s challenges based on negative childhood programming.”

Size

The subconscious mind makes up an estimated 92% of the total brain. The conscious mind comprises the remaining 8%. Thus, the conscious mind is puny compared to the subconscious mind.

Sight

The conscious mind sees with the eyes. It perceives outside experiences that are taken into our minds. It is your conscious mind that sees this printed page.

The subconscious mind, on the other hand, has no contact with the outside world. It is blind. The subconscious mind does not see any more than a computer sees. Consequently, the subconscious mind does not know the difference between real and imagined. This last statement is important and will be repeated again and again. It is not conjecture; psychologists have verified it in laboratory experiments.

The subconscious mind relies on sensory input. Thus, it responds to reality and imagination in the same way. For example, when you dream of a monster, your body responds the same as it would if the monster were real. The “fight or flight” mechanism jumps into action and pumps adrenalin into your blood stream. Your body responds by sweating, increased heart rate, etc. In reality, there is no monster and no real threat.

Communication

Most thoughts in the conscious mind are communicated by an inner or outer voice. Most, although not all, thinking uses a voice, and a voice uses words. The conscious mind communicates predominantly with words. That is one reason a large vocabulary is important. Words are the tools of thinking.

The subconscious mind has limited vocabulary and is not as articulate with words. Most people do not dream in words. The subconscious mind communicates predominantly with images and feelings. For example, you (your conscious mind) might say, “I am frightened, but I do not know why,” while your subconscious mind might produce a dream in which a monster chases you.

Functions

The conscious mind controls the voluntary functions. For example, I can consciously move my arm up or down. I can walk over here or there. These are conscious actions.

A critical factor is that the conscious mind can only do one thing at a time. It cannot do two things simultaneously. Someone may argue that they can read and watch TV at the same time. If you really become aware of what you are doing at an instant, you will see that you are either reading or watching TV. To do both requires that you quickly switch back and forth.

Recall the first time you tried to pat yourself on the top of your head and, at the same time, rub your stomach in a clockwise motion. You could not do it at first; not until you very quickly shifted one function to your subconscious mind. Then it became easy. Then when you were instructed to reverse the functions, that is, to rub the top of your head and pat your stomach, it again became difficult. It may have only taken seconds to learn one function and relegate it to your subconscious mind, in which case, doing both at the same time again became easy.

A recent article in the New York Times reported a scientific study that showed people cannot consciously drive and talk on their cell phone at the same time. In other words, you are doing one or the other consciously, but not both simultaneously. Using magnetic resonance images of brain activity, the scientists found the brain has a finite amount of space for tasks requiring attention. One scientist commented that when you really want to listen to someone on the phone, you close your eyes.

Another article in a newspaper reported a mother who was so rapt in a cell phone conversation she got off the bus without her four-month-old baby.

A simple experiment will prove that your conscious mind can only do one thing at a time. Pick up a light object such as a pen. Will yourself to drop it. Easy! To drop the pen you had to make a conscious decision when to drop it. Now hold the pen and continue saying to yourself, “I can drop it; I can drop it...” on and on. If you truly concentrate on the one thought, the thought that you can drop the pen, then you cannot make the decision when to drop the pen. If you cannot make the decision when to drop the pen, then you cannot drop it. You cannot continuously think, “I can drop the pen” and at the same time consciously think “Now, I will drop the pen.”

Think about when you learned to drive a car. Many of us learned in a car with a stick shift. The first lesson went like this. You turned the key on. The car lurched and the engine died because we forgot to put the gear in neutral. You started the car again but it died because you did not give the engine more gas. You were thinking of turning the key. You started the car again and gave it some gas. You shifted gears only to hear a clash. You had forgotten to push in the clutch. Now you pushed down on the clutch pedal and shifted into first gear. You let off on the clutch and the engine died. You did not think to give it more gas. Finally, the car started moving and your dad screamed, “Look out!” Oops, you were not steering; you were thinking of shifting gears.

Learning to drive is a good example of how difficult it is for the conscious mind to do many things at once. However, after you relegated one function after another to the subconscious mind, driving became easy—it no longer required conscious effort.

Hitting a golf ball is another example. When you are learning, there are too many things to think about during the swing. A beginner’s swing is awkward and often jerky. After you transfer each step to your subconscious mind, you do not have to think about your swing at all. In fact, thinking about your swing (a conscious mind activity) interferes with it.

The subconscious mind, in contrast, can do trillions of functions at the same time. We do not have to conscientiously think to breathe, perspire when we are hot, digest our food, fight foreign bodies, release insulin, and on and on. This subject is discussed again in the next lesson when we explore the subconscious mind as a computer.

Your subconscious mind constantly communicates with all of the cells in your body, and the cells, in turn, communicate with your subconscious mind. To learn more of this fascinating subject read Molecules of Emotion by Candice Pert, a pioneer in the new medical field of psychoneuroimmunology.

Cognitive Process

The conscious mind is logical. It has the ability to think, think abstractly, reason, criticize, analyze, judge, choose, select, discriminate, plan, invent and compose, use hindsight and foresight. It uses both deductive and inductive reasoning.

Your conscious mind, for the most part, filters the impact of input to the subconscious mind. Everything gets into the subconscious mind, but the conscious mind can influence the effect, or power, it has over the subconscious mind. As stated earlier, the conscious mind does not begin to develop until the age of three and it is not fully developed until about the age of 20. You did not have this filter during your critical, early formative years. Thus, you have a lot of garbage in your subconscious mind that is counterproductive to your health, peace of mind, and productivity.

The subconscious mind, conversely, is not logical; it is the feeling mind. It is the source of love, hatred, anguish, fear, jealousy, sadness, anger, joy, desire, etc. When you say, “I feel...” the source of the feeling is the subconscious mind. Think of an extreme example, such as rage. A person expressing deep rage exhibits strong emotion, superior strength, is highly illogical, and has poor (conscious) recollection of his or her carrying on afterward.

The subconscious mind reasons inductively, from the specific to the general. If you tell it you are clumsy, it will find a way for you to do something clumsy. Usually inductive rationale is not logical.

The conscious mind thinks of words objectively. Objectively the word “mother” means a female parent. The subconscious mind, on the other hand, is subjective and adds connotations to words. When you hear the word “mother,” all kinds of feelings are aroused. These feelings come from the subconscious mind.

Will, Power, and Willpower

The conscious mind has a sense of awareness. It knows persons, places, conditions, and things. The conscious mind knows that it knows. It contains knowledge that we are ourselves and we are here.
Importantly the conscious mind has will. Will is the ability of the conscious mind to initiate and direct a thought or action. Will supplies the direction of your thinking. Human beings have free will.

Ah! But the subconscious mind has the power! An article in Psychology Today, August 1974, stated that, “...we discovered the brain is a source of electrical energy; it can do electrical work.” Your brain produces about 25 watts of power. The subconscious mind transmits this energy as urges, emotions, impulses, nervous twitches, etc.

This energy in the subconscious mind is inexhaustible; your brain functions 24-hours-a-day, all of your life.

The wonderful thing about using the subconscious mind is that it is effortless. No conscious effort is required to use your subconscious mind. Conscious effort, no matter how well intended, only impedes the subconscious mind.

Doing something with the conscious mind requires effort. Remember how learning something for the first time took effort? For example, it took a while to learn to tie a shoestring. It is complicated the first time or two. Imagine if you had to write out all the steps clearly enough so that someone who had never seen a bow could tie one.

Once tying a bow became habit—in other words, the task was relegated to the subconscious mind—it became easy. So easy, you do not have to think about it when you are doing it. In fact, you probably do not even remember tying the laces in your shoes because you did it subconsciously.

A high-jumper interviewed on TV after he set a track record said, “I do not remember my record jump, but I knew when I started to jump that I would be successful.” He did not remember because he was jumping unconsciously. He let his subconscious mind take over. The subconscious mind can do all the operations without mental effort. Had he jumped using his conscious mind, it would have been an effort and he would not have done nearly as well.

The best book on this subject is The Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Gallwey. Do not be turned off by the title if you are not a tennis player; just mentally cross out “tennis” as you read and insert any other word you want. Gallwey articulately describes how the conscious mind cannot do a task as difficult as hitting a tennis ball (or driving a car or hitting a golf ball) well. Whereas, the subconscious mind can do a difficult task, and do it effortlessly and perfectly when not interfered with by the conscious mind. That is the trick—keeping the conscious mind out of the way.

So, the conscious mind has the will and the subconscious mind has the power. When the conscious mind and subconscious mind are in harmony, you have willpower. You are “single-minded.”

But when the conscious mind and subconscious mind are in conflict, there is no willpower. You are “double-minded.” Your conscious mind cannot directly overpower your subconscious mind and “will” it to do something.

Emile Coué (1857–1926) was highly successful in Europe in curing a variety of ills. He believed in gabbling (talking quickly and indistinctly so the conscious mind would get bored and not pay attention) an affirmation until it sank into the subconscious mind and became completely accepted by it. You’ve probably heard one of his familiar affirmations, “Every day, better and better in every way.”

Coué said, “When will and imagination are in conflict, imagination always wins.” That is to say, when the conscious mind and the subconscious mind are in conflict, the subconscious mind always wins. The subconscious mind wins because it has the power (it has electrical and chemical power), and it is bigger.

When an overweight man wills himself to go on a diet, and if he does not change his subconscious desire for overeating, eventually his subconscious mind will win out. He will gain back any weight he lost. He may will himself not to eat that delicious dessert, but the urge from the subconscious mind will win. He will eat the dessert and he will eat it effortlessly.

Your task is to learn how the subconscious mind works and use it to your advantage. The subconscious mind has the power to dominate, but it is not as smart as your conscious mind. You are going to learn how to make it your personal genie, not your master.

Memory

The conscious mind has a limited memory and most of it is short-term. The subconscious mind, in stark contrast, has virtually infinite memory. You are probably thinking it does not seem that way to you. Well, it is true. You have enough memory for everything you have experienced in your life. It is your recall that is fallible.

Control

When your conscious mind and your subconscious mind are in conflict, your subconscious mind wins, but only if you do not know how to control it. You are going to learn how to influence and control your subconscious mind so it does not control you. You are going to make it your genie! Your conscious mind is meant to be the master, and your subconscious mind is meant to be the genie.

The conscious mind can stimulate the subconscious mind into action, change habits, reverse negative thinking patterns, improve our physical and emotional health, and our conscious mind can even influence our involuntary functions.

A few decades ago, thinking in the Western world was that control of involuntary functions was impossible. The Western world now knows that controlling involuntary functions such as blood pressure, heart rate, and circulation in a given area of our bodies, is possible.

The following chart sums up the differences between conscious mind and subconscious mind:

 

Comparison of the Conscious Mind and the Sunconscious Mind
Characteristic	Conscious Mind	Subconscious Mind
AGE	New	Old
SIZE	Small	Large
SIGHT	Sees	Blind
COMMUNICATION	Words	Images, Feelings
COGNITIVE PROCESS	Logical	Illogical
MATURITY	Mature	Immature
TIME	Past, Present, Future	Present
WILLPOWER	Will	Power
FUNCTIONS	Voluntary	Involuntary
FUNCTIONS AT ONE TIME	One	Trillions
MEMORY	Limited	Unlimited
CONTROL	Master of the Subconscious Mind	Body and Behavior Your Genie

Alpha Conditioning

Your mind can be lead into the alpha state by sitting in a comfortable chair and listening to a relaxation routine read by someone else, or recorded and played back. The routine usually takes about ten minutes.
You will want to go into the alpha state many times each day to give your genie instructions. It would not be practical to depend on someone else to read the routine, or to play a CD every time you wanted to go into alpha. You need to condition yourself to simply take a deep breath, count down from three to one, say to yourself the word “ALPHA,” and be in alpha. It is that quick and that simple—after you are conditioned. Conditioning exercises are given at the end of each lesson.