Chapter 12
CONSCIOUS
MIND AND SUBCONSCIOUS MIND
Charles Fillmore
Keep a
True Lent
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 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 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 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.
"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 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.
