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Keep A True Lent
Chapter 12
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[Keep A True Lent]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
Conscious Mind and Subconscious Mind
Chapter 12
WE ARE ALL well acquainted with the conscious mind. Through
its use we establish our relations with the outer realm and
recognize our individual entities. Indeed, there are some
who claim that the conscious mind is the only mind there
is. They are simply holding a thus far undiscovered country
to be undiscoverable. Of such persons as these Cardinal
Newman spoke when he said that they "are only possessed by
their knowledge, not possessed of it." But in due season
they will awake and respond to the call of Spirit to "come
up higher."
The subconscious mind is the vast, silent realm that lies
back of the conscious mind and between it and the
superconscious. To one who does not understand its nature
and its office, it is the "great gulf fixed" between his
present state and the attainment of his highest desire, his
good. The subconscious may be called the sensitive plate of
mind. Its true office is to receive impressions from the
superconscious and to reproduce them upon the canvas of the
conscious mind. Man, however, having lost the consciousness
of the indwelling Father as an ever present reality, has
reversed the process and impresses the subconscious
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from the conscious mind. In this way the former is made to
register impressions of both good and evil, according to
the thought held in conscious mind at the time the
impression is made. And since it is the purpose and the
nature of the subconscious mind to reproduce, or to throw
upon the screen of the conscious, the exact impression that
it has received, the conscious mind is thus made to express
two sets of opposing ideas. No enduring structure can be
built by one who is "a double-minded man, unstable in all
his ways."
Man must go back to his Source and let its clear light
flood his whole being with Truth. He must lay aside forever
the idea of serving two masters and must look to the one
Master, even Christ, the spiritual consciousness within.
Jesus said that He came not to destroy the law, but that
the law might be fulfilled through Him. It is the mission
of every man born into the world to fulfill the law of
Being; one can do this work only by working from cause to
effect.
"Be subject therefore unto God . . . Draw nigh to God, and
he will draw nigh to you." It is a comfort to know that we
do not have to make the entire journey alone back to the
Father. We read that when the prodigal son was coming back
to his father, "while he was yet afar off, his father saw
him, and was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell on
his neck, and kissed him."
The superconscious mind is ever ready to pour
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forth the divine blessing, quick to respond to the call of
the conscious, which it meets on the middle ground of the
subconscious. Spirit is omnipresent, but man has hedged
himself about by a world of illusion of his own creating,
and through its mists he cannot see the Father, or catch
the light from the superconscious mind. Jesus came to give
us conscious control of the intelligence and the power
necessary to dispel these mists, in order that "the true
light, even the light which lighteth every man, coming into
the world," might shine full upon us. Thus we see that the
superconsciousness sends its rays of intelligence and power
first into the consciousness, and that through their
influence man is led to seek the kingdom within, where all
things are added to him.
The superconscious mind lifts up, or regenerates, both the
subconscious and the conscious, transforming them into the
true image and likeness of God. The conscious mind must be
faithful during this transformation. It must look ever to
the superconscious for all direction and instruction. It
can of itself do nothing with assurance, because the Spirit
of wisdom rests in the superconscious.
The subconscious exists for the benefit of the conscious
mind, but unless regenerated it thwarts the efforts of the
conscious at every step, so that "ye may not do the things
that ye would."
The subconsciousness is sometimes called memory. One whose
subconscious mind has not been systematically trained, or
awakened, is often heard
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to say that he has "a poor memory." Sometimes he tries to
recall a word or a name that he knows "as well as he knows
anything," but he cannot speak it. Several days later,
perhaps, when there is no longer any desire to recall it,
the word "comes to him." The subconsciousness has
reproduced it, but the process has been slow.
The subconscious mind can be trained by the conscious to
work systematically and reliably, but the conscious mind
must be faithful and consistent in creating the impressions
that it seeks to make upon the subconscious.
For five years after learning typewriting a stenographer
used the sight method. Then the advantages of the touch
system (typing without looking at the keys) were impressed
upon her and she desired to learn that system. At first she
did not believe that she could do it, because she was so
"used to the other way" and was engaged in active work,
with no time for practice. But the desire continued, and
before long an opportunity came. She obtained a different
position, where there was leisure for practice. She had
daily association with an enthusiastic student of the touch
system and she was encouraged in every way. For about six
months she devoted her conscious mind to remembering the
keyboard and to controlling the movements of her fingers.
Eventually the subconscious mind was so impressed with a
knowledge of the right movements and the right positions of
the fingers that it regulated them of itself.
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"Thought is quicker than vision" was her motto during the
tedium of practice, and she has proved it to be true. If
she strikes the wrong key she knows it instantly without
having to look at her work, and she has been heard to say
that her fingers express her thoughts much better than her
tongue, because they have had so much attention and such
persistent drill. Of course, the fingers can do nothing of
themselves, because mind is the only actuating power.
The subconscious mind is also known as the heart, and the
many references to it in the Bible show that its nature and
its office were well understood by the writers of
Scripture. "Keep thy heart with all diligence; For out of
it are the issues of life," indicates the importance of the
proper development of the subconscious mind. Man cannot,
however, keep his heart, or control the expressions from
his subconscious mind, without the aid of Spirit. The
superconsciousness reaches to the depths of the
subconscious and sets free the energies bound in error
thought; that having been done, man can easily reach and
mold the subconscious, in harmony with divine ideas. The
regeneration of the subconscious is not the work of the
conscious, but of the superconscious mind acting in harmony
with the conscious.
The Spirit of God, speaking through Ezekiel, commands,
"Cast away from you all your transgressions, wherein ye
have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new
spirit." This command is to the conscious man, or mind. But
later the Spirit of
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God says, "A new heart also will I give you, and a new
spirit will I put within you," thus signifying that the
whole mind must be embraced in the regeneration. There must
be perfect co-operation of the three phases of mind in
order to produce the perfect man. "I, Jehovah, search the
mind, I try the heart, even to give every man according to
his ways, according to the fruit of his doings." "Purify
your hearts, ye double-minded," says James. We purify our
heart when we turn conscious attention within and the pure
ideas of the superconscious mind come forth to meet our
call. "He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit." When
we seek the superconsciousness and make conscious
connection with it we harmonize all the forces of mind and
body; we lift up the subconscious until a complete,
conscious unification of the three phases of mind is
affected and we become established "in singleness of . . .
heart." We can say with the Psalmist, "His heart is fixed,
trusting in Jehovah." We fear nothing, for we know that we
draw on the divine ideas in God-Mind and that they all are
good.
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