The Conscious and the subconscious Mind

The conscious mind has no memory capacity and deals only with the present situation. It represents a merely twelve percent of the entire mind’s capacity and can hold or be concerned with only a single thought at a time. It has control over the nervous system and though it is responsible for all the reflex actions of our muscles, it is active when we are awake helping in our decisions, analyzing, rationalization and in making processes.

The actions which often take place are derived from the past subconscious experiences one has come across in life thus enabling them to make an appropriate decision and initiate correct action in any given situation. The subconscious mind, on the other hand takes up the remaining eighty eight percent of the brain’s capacity which is our autopilot and acts as a store house of things that are currently not in the conscious mind.

It stores up all of life’s experiences, beliefs, skills, situations, experiences, images, etc: one has encountered in life down the ages. It also controls the autonomic nervous system namely our heartbeats, breathing, glands and organs but does not have the reasoning capacity or to reject anything. It has a perfect memory and is able to recall any instances, incidents or even glimpses one has come across during a passing phase of life

The four states of awareness that the brain goes through is called the brain wave state, which can be measured with the help of sophisticated medical equipment namely the Electroencephalograph machine or the EEG. This equipment is capable of measuring the electrical activity taking place in the brain and helps to ascertain at which level of awareness a particular subject has reached.

While awake and alert, our conscious mind is active and ready to analyze any given information and if indulging in a difficult task that may need concentration, then our brain is said to be in the Beta state. When we tent to relax, then our brain wave cycles also gradually begin to relax. When the relaxations tends to get deep enough, our brain then enters the Alpha state which is referred as the meditative state, or the Zen state, the trance state, or the daydreaming state.

While actually sleeping we are really not awake though we are aware of things around us like hearing people talking or hear noises that may be coming from a distant. In such cases, our conscious mind has fallen asleep though our subconscious mind stays in control of our Autonomic nervous system. When we are further relaxed, we fall into a light sleep which is the Theta state and then we gradually fall into a deep which is known as the Delta state.

All individuals pass through the four stages whenever we fall asleep and move back in reverse order when awake. When drugs are used to fall asleep, our brain moves straight from the Beta state to the Delta state missing out on the Alpha and the Theta state and the continuous use of these drugs could affect the Nervous system causing health problems which may tend to lead to withdrawals and depression. Medical science states that one should go through the Alpha state regularly for proper functioning of our system.