Chapter VII
THE SUBCONSCIOUS MIND
W. John Murray
Mental
Medicine
Divine Science Publishing Assoc.
New York, 1923.
[135] In the
science of mind it is doubtful if anything of greater importance has
been brought to light than that vast submerged storehouse of memories
which modern psychologists speak of as the subconscious mind. One
likens it to that infinitely greater portion of an iceberg which is
under the water, while all that appears is a more or less scanty
surface. Another speaks of it as that great depth of the ocean of mind
which maintains its perpetual calm despite the turbulence which may be
occurring on the surface; while another speaks of it as a sort of
phonographic disk, which receives impressions only to repeat them again
when proper conditions are provided for the repetition.
Innumerable
instances are on record to prove that, independent of the conscious
[136] mind, the subconscious mind may receive impressions which it will
carry out with infallible exactitude. It is because of this that
hypnotized subjects, when all conscious objections to the absurdity of
things are inhibited, carry out those suggestions which are made to
them and which cause them to act as if they were swimming on dry land
and climbing up ladders where no ladders exist. These phases of
undoubted phenomena would be of no real value in themselves were it not
for the fact that they point to something higher and more useful than
themselves.
We know that
the conscious mind of the individual is the smallest part of the
thinking entity and that it is largely, if not exclusively, limited to
that form of information which reaches it through the avenue of the
senses, while the subconscious mind is open to impressions from three
sources. First of all it is impressed by what is conveyed to it by
objective things; then it is impressed by what reaches it from that
stream [137] of thought which is spoken of as "race belief;" and then
again it is impressed by those thoughts which have been generated by
all the high and holy thinking of the spirits of "just men made
perfect."
We are told
that the subconscious mind never initiates; that is, it never starts
any train of reasoning on its own account; but follows whatever is
conveyed to it from any of the sources above mentioned. This is why it
has been likened to a phonographic disk which receives impressions only
to give them back again on demand, and this whether these impressions
are harmonious or discordant; for the office of the subconscious mind
is not to select but to serve. When this is better understood we shall
be more careful of the thoughts we think and the suggestions we permit
to find their way through the conscious mind into the subconscious. We
shall be on our guard against the suggestions which come to us from
what we see, such as advertisements of patent medicines, which not
infrequently cause the susceptible [138] to fancy they have the malady
for which the patent medicine is recommended; from what we hear in the
form of conversations about recent operations; and what we read in the
papers concerning deaths, divorces and disasters of various names and
natures.
Physicians will
be more careful and considerate concerning their all too frequently
outspoken diagnosis of certain cases as "incurable," especially within
the hearing of the patient. One day it will be considered unethical to
look hopeless in the presence of an invalid. A physician's smile of
encouragement will be worth more than all his drugs to his patient,
while his increased success in the art of healing will undoubtedly add
to his income. A hint to the wise in the profession is sufficient.
Older physicians have seen their so-called incurables get well and
remain well so often that they are somewhat loath to use the word
incurable any longer. Materia medica is not the last word, for there is
that mysterious thing the doctors call vis medicatrix natura
which [139] does strange and unaccountable things, amazing the doctors
as well as delighting their patients.
Vis
medicatrix natura may be only another name for that which the
modern psychologist calls race subconsciousness; that vast reservoir
which contains all the thoughts of the race since time began; just as
individual subconsciousness contains all the forgotten as well as
remembered thoughts of the individual. What we call instinct in the
sick animal, which causes it to select such food and herbs as make for
restoration, may be nothing other than general subconsciousness welling
up to meet some particular need.
Animals and
young children do not oppose subconscious promptings as a rule. Adults
reason themselves away from these suggestions as a result of the bias
of an education, which has not, until recently, taken the subconscious
into consideration. And yet, see what great things are attributable to
its processes! The most vital processes of [140] man's organism are
controlled by subconscious thought. It is the subconscious which forms
bones, nerves, and muscles, and reforms them as old cells give place to
new ones. It is the subconscious mind which governs circulation,
assimilation, digestion, breathing, etc. It is to subconscious
processes that the action of the liver, lungs, and heart are due. Why
should not man learn to co-operate consciously with the subconscious?
Is it that he has persuaded himself that this is not possible, or may
it be that he has never given any thought to it at all?
We do not feel
that it is enough for us to have a muscular system. We are convinced
that this muscular system needs to be exercised in order to retain its
vigor and elasticity, and we do this exercising consciously and
deliberately. We do not feel that it is enough for us to be provided
with intellectual capacities. We strive with intellectual capacities.
We strive to expand these capacities through study and a keen desire
for information, both of which are exercise for [141] the mind, as
walking and other things are exercise for the body. In the same way we
should not feel that it is enough for us to have a subconscious mind,
for unless we make some use of it we might as well not have it.
If you have
ever been in a foundry you must have been interested in that part of it
which is given over to the casting of things. Here is a huge box in
which is kept great quantities of sand, and here are many other boxes,
or frames, into which this sand is put in order to receive the
impressions of those patterns which hang on the walls. When these
patterns or moulds have been made in the sand, the box is then tightly
closed, and through an aperture in the top of the box the molten metal
is poured, finding its way into the depressions made for it by the
patterns. When the metal has become cold it is taken out in such forms
or shapes as the patterns are intended to produce. The pattern of the
elephant does not come out as the design of a dog, nor that of the dog
[142] as the elephant: each is true to its own particular form. It is
the same with consciousness and subconsciousness. Consciousness is
constantly pouring liquid thought into the receptive sand of the
subconscious mind, and there it assumes the form of the mental picture
of perfection, or of imperfection, as the case may be.
The liquid
thought of fear will not assume the solid shape of courage; neither
will the liquid thought of disease assume the solid form of health;
formless thought like formless metal will assume the shape of that into
which it is poured.
Every thought
we think, if we think it persistently, tends to create the prototype of
that which will surely come to pass, unless we reverse the process. The
subconscious thought "I am ill," it is like an order given to a
faithful servant which will be carried out faithfully and at once, or,
if you say or even think, "I am well," everything within you [143] will
tend at once to carry out this idea. "As a man thinketh in his heart
(subconscious mind), so is he" (in his body and in his affairs).
Chapter
8
Mental Medicine
Table
of Contents
(Formerly at Northwoods Divine
Science Resource Center)
