Consciousness and its relation with subconscious mind: The mystery probed
Krishanu Kumar Das
June 18, 2021 preprint DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/tcfn4 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Citations | 1 |
| Key points | Argues that consciousness is a feeling equivalent to molecular tendency, evolved to guide complex molecular reactions, and not a divine attribute; any organism that can feel is conscious, with human consciousness the highest developed form. The author also proposes definitions distinguishing conscious from subconscious mind and reviews literature on whether the subconscious can act autonomously or be primed for goals. |
Abstract
What is the nature of consciousness? How is it related to subconscious functioning of the mind? What drives our conscious and subconscious mind? Is your mind yours? i.e., is there a free will? – If I tell you to read the telephone directory from cover to cover (without any incentive), not missing a single word – you will probably get some idea about the answer of that question. If we deeply think, our consciousness as well as mind’s functioning is equivalent to molecular tendency. It is like sodium's affinity to react with water to make a stable compound. There is no need to import divine attribute upon consciousness. But can we say ‘sodium is conscious’? – not in the way by which we feel our very subjective consciousness. Then why our consciousness evolved? It evolved to guide an array of complex molecular reactions that accidentally trapped into a cycle within our earth’s microcosm. Consciousness is a part of this cycle, though not always essential in this cycle. Consciousness is a feeling; just like some primitive organism felt pain to avoid noxious stimuli, or felt hunger to be attracted to particular molecules. Any organism that can feel, we can say it is conscious, though it may not experience conscious intellectual workings. Human consciousness is the highest developed form of the feelings that can feel sensory perceptions as well as intellectual workings and others. In this article we have also defined our subconscious mind and how it differs from conscious mind. There are a good number of questions regarding our subconscious mind. Is it more powerful than our conscious mind? Does the drive that works for conscious mind work for subconscious too? We all experience somehow the presence of our subconscious mind, but where in the structures of brain it resides? Can subconscious be autoactivated and act on its own? Can subconscious create its own goal? Or can its activities be primed for a goal? In this treatise, we reviewed different literatures and tried to give answers to these questions to demystify the nature and realm of activities of our conscious and subconscious mind.