Gaining Access to the Subliminal Consciousness

It is one thing to gain an intellectual understanding of the concept of the subliminal consciousness. However, this does not provide a real experience of nor true knowledge about the action, influence and impact of the subliminal consciousness on our lives. The question then arises, whether and how it is possible to become conscious of, to gain a real awareness of, the action of the subliminal consciousness, and how to distinguish this action within oneself.

Just as the sun controls our awareness during the day, such that we do not actively relate to and experience the massive universal creation, but rather remain fixated on the external world around us that impinges on us constantly with the sense impressions, demands and expectations that arise in that external experienced reality, so also, the subliminal consciousness remains outside our conscious awareness so long as we center our focus on the mental-vital-physical complex that inhabits that external world. In order to appreciate the experience the action of the subliminal consciousness, therefore, it is necessary to relax the control and focus of the surface being. There are a number of ways to accomplish this.

The Mother points out that when we sleep and enter the dream state, we unleash the power of the subliminal because the conscious mind has withdrawn its control and focus for the time being. As we develop an increasing connection to the awareness of the dream state, therefore, we are able to gain a deeper understanding of the subliminal. This is not done through some kind of discipline of trying to stay artificially awake during the night (which simply succeeds in creating a sense of fatigue in the mind, life and body) but rather, through using what we wake up with from our dreams, and quietly working the thread backwards to recall and appreciate the entirety of the dream sequence.

There are other methods. As we systematically withdraw from the surface being and move our consciousness inwards, we can take the poise of the witness of the nature, and from that poise, without becoming actively entangled in the external impressions, we can begin to bring calm to the mind. Various forms of meditation and yogic practice work to accomplish the quietude in the mind that allows the “mind-stuff” to gain a sense of stillness. By detaching ourselves from the desire-soul, we can observe the impressions made upon the mind-stuff, the emotional being and the vital and physical levels and see that these impressions come from a place that is normally subliminal to us. We can utilize this methodology to see the influence of people, circumstances and pressures on our surface being, as they impinge upon the subliminal levels or our being.

The Mother notes: “The best way is to go there; once you go there you understand what it is. And it is not difficult; one goes there constantly in dreams, very easily, without any effort.”

A disciple inquires: “How can we understand that we have gone there?”

The Mother answers: “If you remember, you understand. If one remembers the kind of difference of impression one had: one has a certain impression, and when one returns one feels something like a disconnection, the impression is different, even the point of view one had about things is different. Well, if one remembers this, one understands. if one is in the habit, one can even while speaking or doing something, perceive very well — above all when speaking or thinking or reflecting on something — a second layer which is behind, much vaster, in which things are organised much more synthetically (not positively understandable) than in the outer consciousness. If one reflects just a little and looks at oneself thinking, one can see this at the back very well, one can see the two things moving together like this (gesture)… like the formulated thought and the source of the thought which is behind. And then when one thinks, you see, one has a feeling of being like this, enclosed in something; whereas, there, immediately one feels that one is in contact with many other things; and it is much greater.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Our Many Selves: Practical Yogic Psychology, Chapter 2, Planes and Parts of the Being, pg. 67