Sub-Consciousing - William Atkinson

0:00The 10th lesson, Part 1. Subconsciously. In the 9th lesson, we called your attention to the fact that reasoning was not necessarily conscious in its operations, and that, in fact, a large part of the rational processes of the mind are for formed below or above the field of consciousness. And in the 8th lesson, we gave you a number of examples illustrating this fact. We also gave you a number of cases in which the subconscious field of the intellect worked out problems, and then after a time passed on to the conscious field of the intellect, the solution of the matter. In this lesson, we purpose instructing you in the methods by which this part of the intellect may be set to work for you. Many have stumbled upon bits of this truth for themselves, and in fact the majority of successful men and women who have attained immanence in any walk of life have made more or less use of this truth, although they seldom understand the reason of it. Every few Western writers have recognized the work of this plane of the mind.

1:01They have given us full and ingenious theories and examples of the workings of the instinctive mind, and in some cases they have touched upon the workings and operations of the interwitional planes, but in nearly every case they have treated the intellect as something entirely confined to the conscious plane of mentation. In this they have missed some of the most interesting and valuable manifestations of subconscious mentation. In this lesson we will take up this particular phase of mentation, and trust to be able to point out the way to use it to the best advantage, giving some simple instructions that have been given by the Hindu teachers to their students for centuries past, such instructions of course being modified by us to conform to the requirements and necessities of the Western student of today. We have taken the liberty of bestowing a new title upon this phase of mentation. We have thought it well to call it subconsciousing. The word sub of course means under below, and the word consciousing is a favorite term employed

2:02by Professor Elmer Gates and means receiving impressions from the mind. In a general way, subconsciousing as used in this lesson may be understood to mean using the subconscious mind under orders of the conscious mind. By referring to our eighth lesson we see mentioned made of the case of the man who indulged in unconscious rumination, which happened to him when he read books presenting new points of view essentially opposed to his previous opinion. You will note that after days, weeks, or months he found that to his great astonishment the old opinions were entirely rearranged and new ones lodged there. On the same page you will see mentioned the case of Sir William Hamilton who discovered an important law of mathematics while walking with his wife. In this case he had been previously thinking of the missing link in his chain of reasoning and the problem was worked out for him by the subconscious plane of his intellect. On the same page and the one following is found the case of Dr. Thompson who gives an interesting

3:02account of the workings of this part of his mind which caused him at times to experience a feeling of the uselessness of all voluntary effort coupled with the feeling that the matter was working itself clear in his mind. He tells us that at times he seemed to be merely a passive instrument in the hands of some person other than himself who compelled him to wait until the work was performed for him by some hidden region of the mind. When the subconscious part of the mind had completed its work it would flash the message to his conscious mind and he would begin to write. On page 178 mentioned is also made of the great French chemist Bertolo who relates that some of his best conceptions have flashed upon him as from the clear sky. In fact the eighth lesson is largely made up of the examples of this kind and we asked a student to reread the same in order to refresh his mind with the truth of the workings of the subconscious mentality. But you will notice in nearly all of the cases mentioned that those who related instances

4:03of the help of the subconscious mind had merely stumbled upon the fact that there was a part of the mind below consciousness that could and would work out problems for one if it could somehow be set in operation. And these people trusted to luck to start that part of the mind in operation. Or rather they would saturate their conscious mind with a massive material like stuffing the stomach with food and then bid the subconscious mind a sort, separate, arrange and digest the mental food, just as the stomach and digestive apparatus digest the natural food. Outside of the realm of consciousness or volition. In none of the cases mentioned was a subconscious mind directed specifically to perform its wonderful work. It was simply hoped that it might digest the mental material with which it had been stuffed in pure self-defense. But there is a much better way and we intend to tell you about it. The Hindu yogis are rather those who instruct their pupils and Rajayoga, give their students directions whereby they may direct their subconscious minds to perform mental tasks for them,

5:09just as one may direct another to perform a task. They teach them the methods whereby after having accumulated the necessary materials, they may bid the subconscious mentality to sort it out, rearrange, analyze and build up from it some bit of desired knowledge. More than this, they instruct their pupils to direct and order the subconscious mentality to search out and report to them certain information to be found only within the mind itself. Some question of philosophy or metaphysics. And when such art has been acquired, the student or yogi rest assured that the desired result will be forthcoming in due time and consequently dismisses the matter from his conscious mind and busy himself with other matters. Knowing that day and night, incessantly, the subconsciousing process is going on and that the subconscious mind is actively at work collecting the information or working out the problem. You will see it once the great superiority of this method over the old, hit or miss, hope

6:10it will work plan, pursued by those who have stumbled upon bits of the truth. The yogi teacher begins by impressing upon his students the fact that the mind is capable of extending outward toward an object, material or mental, and by examining it by methods inherent in itself, extracting knowledge regarding the object name. This is not a startling truth because it is so common everyone employing it more or less every day. But the process by which the knowledge is extracted is most wonderful and really is performed below the plane of consciousness, the work of the conscious mind being chiefly concerned in holding the attention upon the object. We have spoken of the importance of attention in previous lessons, which it will be well for you to reread at this time. When the student is fully impressed with the details of the process of attention and the subsequent unfoldment of knowledge, the yogi proceeds to inform him that there are other means of obtaining knowledge about an object by the employment of which the attention may

7:11be firmly directed toward the object and then afterwards hell there, unconsciously that is, a portion of the attention or a subconscious phase of mentation which will hold the subconscious mind firmly upon the work until accomplished, leaving the conscious attention and mentality free to employ itself with other things. The yogis teach the students that this new form of attention is far more intense and powerful than is the conscious attention, for it cannot be disturbed or shaken or distracted from its object and that it will work away at its task for days, months, years, or a lifetime if necessary, according to the difficulty of the task, and in fact carries its work over from one life to another, unless recalled by the will. They teach the student that in every one's life there is going on a greater or less degree of the subconscious work carried on in obedience to a strong desire for knowledge manifested in some former life and bearing fruit only in the present existence.

8:14Many important discoveries have been made in obedience to this law, but it is not of this phase of the matter that we wish to speak in this lesson. The yogi theory is that the subconscious intellectual faculty may be set to work under the directions of orders given by the will. All of you know how the subconscious mentality will take up an order of the will or a strong wish that the person be awakened at a certain hour in order to catch a train or in the same way how the remembrance of a certain engagement at, say, four o'clock will flash into the mind when the hands of the clock approach to start at hour. Nearly everyone can recall instances of this sort in his own experiences. But the yogis go much further than this. They claim that any and all faculties of the mind may be set going or working on any problem if ordered there to by the will. In fact, the yogis and their advanced students have mastered this art to such a surprising extent that they find it unnecessary to do the drudgery of thinking in the conscious field

9:18and refer to relegate such mental work to the subconscious, reserving their conscious work for the consideration of digested information and thought presented to them by the subconscious mind. Their directions to their students cover a great deal of ground and extend over a long period of time, and many of the directions are quite complicated and full of detail. But we think that we can give our students and abbreviate it and condensed idea in a few pages of the lesson. And the remaining lessons of the course will also throw additional light on the subject of subconscious mental action and connection with other subjects. The yogi takes the student when the latter is much bothered by a consideration of some naughty and perplexing philosophical subject. He bids the student, relax every muscle, take the tension from every nerve, throw aside all mental strain, and then wait a few moments. Then the student is instructed to grasp the subject which he has had before his mind firmly and fixately before his mental vision by means of concentration.

10:23Then he is instructed to pass it on to the subconscious mentality by an effort of the will, which effort is aided by forming a mental picture of the subject as a material substance or bundle of thought which is being bodily lifted up and dropped down a mental hatch way or trap door in which it sinks from sight. The student is then instructed to say to the subconscious mentality, I wish this subject thoroughly analyzed, arranged, classified, and whatever else is desired, and then the results hand it back to me. Attend to this. The student is taught to speak to the subconscious mentality just as if it were a separate entity of being, which had been employed to do the work. He is also taught that confident expectation is an important part of the process and that the degree of success depends upon the degree of this confident expectation. In obstinate cases, the student is taught to use the imagination freely until he is able

11:24to make a mental image or picture of the subconscious mind doing what is required of it. This process clears away a mental path for the feet of the subconscious mind which it will choose thereafter as it prefers to follow the line of least resistance. Of course much depends upon practice. Practice makes perfect, you know, in everything else and sub-consciousing is no exception to the rule. The student gradually acquires a proficiency in the art of sub-consciousing and thereafter devotes his time to acquiring new facts for mental digestion rather than bestowing it upon the mechanical act of thinking. But a very important point to be remembered is that the willpower back of the transferred thought material, which willpower is the cause of the subconscious action, depends very greatly upon the attention and interest given to the acquired material. This mass of thought material, which is to be digested and threshed out by the subconscious mind, must be well saturated with interest and attention in order to obtain the best results.

12:28In fact, interest and attention are such important aids to the will that any consideration of the development and acquirement of willpower is practically a development and acquirement of attention and interest. The student is referred to previous lessons in this course in which the importance of interest and attention is explained and described. In acquiring the mass of thought material, which is to be passed on to the subconscious digestion, one must concentrate a great degree of interest and attention upon each item of thought material gathered up. The gathering of this thought material is a matter of the greatest importance and must not be lightly passed by. One cannot hastily gather together all sorts of thought material and then expect the subconscious mind to do its work properly. It will not. In fact, and the student proceeding upon any such erroneous supposition is doomed to disappointment. The proper way to proceed is to take up each bit of thought material in turn and examine

13:28it with the greatest possible interest and consequently the greatest attention and then after having fairly saturated it with this interested attention, place it with the pile of material which after a while is to be passed on to the subconscious mentality, then take up the next bit of material and after giving it similar treatment, pass it along to the pile also. Then after a while when you have gathered up the main facts of the case, proceed to consider the mass as a whole with interest and attention, giving it as it were a general treatment, then drop it down the trap door into the subconscious mind with a strong command, attend to this thought material, coupled with a strong expectant belief that your order will be obeyed. The idea underlying this treatment of the thought material with interest and attention is that by so doing a strong mental image is created which may be easily handled by the subconscious mind. Remember that you are passing on thoughts for the subconsciousness to act upon and that

14:29the more tangible and real these thoughts are, the better can they be handled. Therefore any plan that will build these thoughts up into real things is the plan to pursue, an attention and interest produced just this result. If we may be pardoned for using a homely and commonplace illustration, we would say that the idea may be grasped by the illustration of boiling an egg, whereby the fluid white and yolk become solid and real. Also the use of a shaving brush by a man by which the thin leather is gradually worked up into a rich thick creamy mass is an illustration. Again, the turning of butter is a favorite illustration of the Hindus, who thus call the attention of their students to the fact that thought material, if worked upon with attention and interest, becomes thought forms that may be handled by the mind just as the hands handle a material object. We ask you to think of these illustrations, for when you once grasped the idea that we wish to convey to you, you will have the secret of great thinking powers within your

15:31grasp. And this power of subconsciousing is not confined along to the consideration of philosophical questions. On the contrary, it is applicable to every field of human thought and may be properly employed in any and all of them. It is useful in solving the problems of everyday life and work as well as to the higher flights of the human mind. And we wish every one of our students to realize that in this simple lesson, we are giving them the key to a great mental power. To realize just what we are offering to you, we would remind you of the old fairy tales of all races, in which there is to be found one or more tales, telling of some poor coplar or tailor or carpenter, as the case may be, who had by his good deeds gained favor with the brownies or good fairies, who would come each night when the man and his family were asleep and proceed to complete the work that the artisan had laid out for the Morrow. The pieces of leather would be made into shoes, the cloth would be sewed into garments, the

16:32wood would be joined and nailed together into boxes, chairs, benches, and what not. But in each case, the rough materials were prepared by the artisan himself during the day. Well, that is just what we are trying to introduce to you, a clan of mental brownies, loving and kindly disposed toward you, who are anxious and willing to help you in your work. All you have to do is give them the proper materials and tell them what you want done, and they will do the rest. But these mental brownies are a part of your own mentality, remember, and no alien and foreign entities, as some have imagined. A number of people who have accidentally discovered this power of the subconscious mind to work out problems and to render other valuable service to his owner have been led to suppose that the aid really came from some other entity or intelligence. Some have thought that the messages came from friends in the spirit land, and others have believed that some high intelligence, God or his angels, was working in their behalf.

17:32Without discussing spirit communication or divine messages in both of which we believe with certain provisional reservations, we feel justified in saying that the majority of cases of this kind may be referred to the subconscious working of one's own mentality. Part 2 Each of us has a friend in our own mind, a score of them in fact, who delight in performing services for us, if we will but allow them to do so. Not only have we a higher self to whom we may turn for comfort and aid in times of deep distress and necessity, but we have these invisible mental workers on the subconscious plane, who are very willing and glad to perform much of our mental work for us if we will but give them the material in proper shape. It is very difficult to impart specific directions for obtaining these results, as each case must depend to a great extent upon the peculiar circumstances surrounding it. But we may say that the main thing needed is to lick and shape the material, and then pass it on to the subconscious mind in the manner spoken of a few moments ago.

18:36Let us run over a few cases wherein this principle may be applied. Let us suppose that you are confronted with a problem consisting of an uncertainty as to which of two or more courses to adopt in some affair of life. Each course seems to have some advantages and disadvantages, and you seem unable to pass upon the matter clearly and intelligently. The more you try, the more perplexed and worried do you become. Your mind seems to tire of the matter and manifest a state which may be called mental nausea. This state will be apparent to anyone who has had much thinking to do. The average person, however, persists in going over the matter, notwithstanding the tired condition of the mind and is evident to his taste for a further consideration of the subject. They will keep on forcing it back to the mind for consideration, and even at night time will keep thrashing away at the subject. Now this course is absurd. The mind recognizes that the work should be done by another part of itself, its digestive region in fact. It naturally rebells at the finishing up machinery being employed and worked, unsuit it for

19:38it. According to the subconsciously plan, the best thing for the man to do would be for him first to calm and quiet his mind. Then he should arrange the main features of the problem, together with the minor details in their proper places. Then he should pass them slowly before him in review, giving a strong interest and attention to each fact and detail as it passes before him, but without the slightest attempt to form a decision or come to a conclusion. Then having given the matter an interested and attentive review, let him will that it pass on to a subconscious mind, forming the mental image of dropping it through the trap door, and at the same time giving the command of the will. Attend to this for me. Then dismiss the matter from your conscious mind by an effort of command of the will. If you find it difficult to do this, you may soon acquire the mastery by a frequent assertion. I have dismissed this matter from my conscious mind and my subconscious mind will attend to it for me. Then, endeavor to create a mental feeling of perfect trust and confidence in the matter,

20:42and avoid all worry or anxiety about it. This may be somewhat difficult at the first trial, but will become a natural feeling after you have gained the confidence arising from successful results in several cases. The matter is one of practice, and like anything else that is new, must be acquired by perseverance and patience. It is well worth the time and trouble, and once acquired will be regarded as something in the nature of a treasure discovered in an unexpected place. The sense of tranquility and content of calm and confidence that comes to one who has practiced this plan will of itself be worth all the trouble, not to speak of the main result. To one who has acquired this method, the old worries, fretting, and general stood up feeling will seem like a relic of barbarism. The new way opens up a world of new feelings and content. In some cases, the matter will be worked out by the subconscious mind in a very short time, and in fact we have known cases in which the answer would be flashback almost instantly,

21:45almost like an inspiration. But in the majority of cases, more or less time is required. The subconscious mind works very rapidly, but it takes time to arrange the thought material properly and to shape it into the desired forms. In the majority of cases, it is well to let the matter rest until the next day. A fact that gives us a clue to the old advice to sleep over an important proposition before passing a final decision. If the matter does not present itself the following day, bring it up again before the conscious mind for review. You will find that it has shaped itself up considerably and is assuming definite form and clearness. But right here, and this is important, do not make the mistake of again dissecting it and meddling with it and trying to arrange it with your conscious mind. But instead, give it attention and interest in its new form and then pass it back again to the subconscious mind for further work. You will find an improvement each time you examine it, but right here another word of caution, do not make the mistake of yielding to the impatience of the beginner and keep on repeatedly

22:49bringing up the matter to see what is being done. A bit time to have the work done on it. Do not be like the boy who planted seeds and who each day would pull them up to see whether they had sprouted and how much. Sooner or later the subconscious mind will of its own choice, lift up the matter and present it to you in its finished shape for the consideration of the conscious mind. The subconscious mind does not insist that you shall adopt its views or accept its work, but merely hands out to you the results of its sorting, classifying and arranging. The choice and will still remains yours, but you will often find that there is seen to be one plan or path that stands out clearly from the others, and you will very likely adopt that one. The secret is that the subconscious mind with its wonderful patience and care has analyzed the matter and has separated things before apparently connected. It has also found resemblances and has combined things here to foreconsidered opposed to each other. And sure it has done for you all that you could have done with the expenditure of great

23:51work and time and done it well. And then it lays the matter before you for your consideration and verdict. Its whole work seems to have been in the nature of assorting, dissecting, analyzing and arranging the evidence and then presenting it before you in a clear systematic shape. It does not attempt to exercise the judicial prerogative or function, but seems to recognize that its work ceases with the presentation of the edited evidence and that of the conscious mind begins at the same point. Now do not confuse this work with that of the intuition, which is a very different mental phase or plane. This subconscious working just mentioned plays an entirely different part. It is a good servant and does not try to be more. The intuition on the contrary is more like a higher friend, a friend at court as it were, who gives us warnings and advice. In our directions we have told you how to make use of this part of the mind, consciously and knowingly, so as to obtain the best results and to get rid of worry and anxiety attended

24:53upon unsettled questions. But in fact, every one of us makes more or less use of this part of the mind unconsciously and not realizing the important part it plays in our mental life. We are perplexed about a manner and keep it on our minds until we are forced to lay it aside by reason of some other demand or when we sink to sleep. Often to our surprise we will find that when we next think of it, the matter has somehow cleared up and straightened itself out and we seem to have learned something about it that we did not know before. We do not understand it and are apt to dismiss it as just one of those things. In these lessons we are attempting to explain some of those things and to enable you to use them consciously and understandably instead of by chance, instinctively and clumsily. We are teaching you mastery of the mind. Now to apply the rule to another case. Suppose you wish to gather together all the information that you possess relating to a certain subject. In the first place it is certain that you know a very great deal more about any subject

25:57than you think you do. Stored away in the various recesses of the mind or memory if you prefer that term, are stray bits of information and knowledge concerning almost any subject. But these bits of information are not associated with each other. You have never attempted to think attentively upon the particular question before you and the facts are not correlated in the mind. It is just as if you had so many hundred pounds of anything scattered throughout the space of a large warehouse, a tiny bit here and a tiny bit there, mixed up with thousands of other things. You may prove this by sitting down sometime and letting your thoughts run along the lines of some particular subject and you will find emerging into the field of consciousness, all sorts of information that you had apparently forgotten and each fitting itself into its proper place. Every person has had experiences of this kind. But the work of gathering together the scattered scraps of knowledge is more or less tedious for the conscious mind and the subconscious mind will do the work equally well with the

26:59wear and tear on the attention. In fact it is the subconscious mind that always does the work, even when you think it is the conscious mind. All the conscious mind does is to hold the attention firmly upon the object before it and then let the subconsciousness pass the material before it. But this holding the attention is tiresome work and it is not necessary for it to expend its energies upon the details of the task. So the work may be done in an easier and simpler way. The best way is to follow a plan similar to the one mentioned a few pages back. That is to fix the interested attention firmly upon the question before you until you manage to get a clear vivid impression of just what you want answered. Then pass the whole matter into the subconscious mind with the command, attend to this and then leave it. So the whole matter off of your mind and let the subconscious work go on. If possible let the matter run along until the next morning and then take it up for consideration.

28:02When if you have preceded properly you will find the matter worked out, arranged in logical sequence so that your conscious attention will be able to clearly review the string of facts, examples, illustrations, experiences, etc. relating to the matter in question. Now many of you will say that you would like this plan to work in cases in which you have not the time to sleep over it. In such cases we will say that it is possible to cultivate a rapid method of subconsciousing and in fact many businessmen and men of affairs have stumbled upon a similar plan driven to the discovery by necessity. They will give a quick comprehensive strong flash of attention upon the subject, getting right to the heart of it and then will let it rest in the subconscious mind for a moment or two, killing a minute or two of time in preliminary conversation until the first flash of answer comes to them. After the first flash and taking hold of the first loose end of the subject that presents itself to them, they will unwind a string of information and talk about the subject

29:07that will surprise even themselves. Many lawyers have acquired this knowledge and are what is known as resourceful. Such men are often confronted with questions of conditions utterly unsuspected by them a moment before. Practice has taught them the folly of fear and the loss of confidence at such moments and has also impressed upon them the truth that something within them will come to the rescue. So presenting a confident error they will manage to say a few platitudes or common places while the subconscious mind is most rapidly gathering its materials for the answer. In a moment, an idea passes before his conscious and eager attention, sometimes so rapidly that it is almost impossible to utter them and low the danger is over and a brilliant success is often snatched from the jaws of an apparent failure and defeat. In such cases the mental demand upon the subconscious mind is not voiced in words but is a result of a strong mental need. However, if one gives a quick verbal command, attend to this, the result will be heightened.

30:13We have known of cases of men prominent in the worlds affairs who made a practice of smoking a cigar during important business interviews, not because they particularly cared for tobacco but because they had learned to appreciate the value of a moment's time for the mind to gather itself together as one man expressed it. A question would be asked or a proposition advanced suddenly demanding an immediate answer. Under the watchful eyes of the other party, the question party tried not to show by his expression any indication of searching for an answer for obvious reasons. So instead he would take a long puff at the cigar, then a slow attentive look at the ashes on its tip, and then another moment consumed in flicking the ash into the receptacle, and then came the answer slowly. Well, as to that or some other words of that kind, prefacing the real answer which he had been rapidly framed by the subconscious mind in time to be uttered in its proper place. The few moments of time gained had been sufficient for the subconscious mind to gather up its

31:15materials and the matter to be shaped properly without any appearance of hesitation on the part of the answerer. All of this required practice of course, but the principle may be seen through it all and in every similar case. The point is that the man in such cases set some hidden part of his mind to work for him, and when he begins to speak the matter is at least roughly licked into shape for him. Our students will understand of course that this is not advised to smoke cigars doing interviews of importance, but is merely given to illustrate the principle. We have known other men to twirl a lead pencil in their fingers in a lazy sort of fashion, and then drop it at the important moment. But we must cease giving examples of this kind, lest we be accused of giving instructions in worldly wisdom instead of teaching the use of the mind. The impressive pause of the teacher before answering his pupils question is also an example of the workings of this law. One often says, stop, let me think a moment, and during his pause he does not really consciously

32:20think at all, but stares ahead in a dreamy fashion while his subconscious mind does the work for him, although he little suspects the nature of the operation. One has, but to look around him to realize the importance and frequent application of this truth. And not only may the subconscious mind be used in the directions indicated on proceeding pages, but in nearly every perplexity and problem of life may it be called upon for help. These little subconscious brownies are ever at our disposal and seem to be happy to be of service to us. And so far from being apt to get us in a position of false dependence, it is calculated to make us self-confident. For we are calling upon a part of ourselves, not upon some outside intelligence. If those people who never feel satisfied unless they are getting advice from others would only cultivate the acquaintance of this little home advisor within them, they would lose that dependent attitude and frame of mind and would grow self-confident and fearless.

33:23Just imagine the confidence of one who feels that he has within him a source of knowledge equal to that of the majority of those with whom he is likely to come in contact and he feels less afraid to face them and look them fearlessly in the eyes. He feels that his mind is not confined to the little field of consciousness, but is an area infinitely greater containing a massive information undreamed of. Seeing that the man as inherited or brought with him from past lives, everything that he has read, heard or seen or experienced in this life is hidden away there in some quarter of that great subconscious mind. And if he will give the command, the essence of all that knowledge is his. The details may not be presented to his consciousness, often it is not for very good occult reasons, but the result or essence of the knowledge will pass before his attention with sufficient examples and illustrations or arguments to enable him to make out a good case for himself.

34:26In the next lesson we will call your attention to other features and qualities of this great field of mind, showing you how you can put it to work and master it. Remember, always the eye is the master, and its mastery must always be remembered and asserted over all phases and planes of the mind. Do not be a slave to the subconscious, but be its master. Mantrum or affirmation. I have within me a great area of mind that is under my command and subject to my mastery. This mind is friendly to me and is glad to do my bidding and obey my orders. It will work for me when I ask it and is constant, untiring and faithful. Knowing this, I am no longer afraid, ignorant or uninformed. The eye is master of it all and is asserting its authority. I am master over body, mind, consciousness and subconsciousness.

35:29I am I, a center of power, strength and knowledge. I am I and I am spirit, a fragment from the divine flame. End of the tenth lesson.