The Unconscious is everything that we are not fully conscious of. Just think for a moment about all your physical processes in your physical body that happens outside of your conscious will. The beat of your heart, the flow of blood around the body, the chemical processes going on in the digestive system, the release of hormones to manage cell growth and repair. Think about the neural pathways in the brain that operate for the length of your lifespan quite automatically and also whether you are asleep or awake. All these processes are happening because of the Unconscious. Now consider the mental and intellectual processes that are happening, how this information is received through the sense organs and how the brain processes this in order to for you to reflect about, think about it, consider whether it is right or wrong or consider questions to further explore and deepen your understanding. Again the Unconscious is working outside your conscious will to do this.
Even deeper still consider the traumatic experiences in your life and how the brain stores them outside your conscious will and even memory in order to help you maintain some level of functionality in your life to do and achieve the things you need to. The Unconscious even operates your defence mechanisms to protect you from facing many of your habits – addictions may sublimate the difficult feelings you have about rejection. Defences and self-defeating behaviours may also protect you from facing old situations and people in your life – avoidance, procrastination, projection, addiction, repression and denial all operate outside of our conscious awareness so we don’t have to deal with difficult memories, situations and traumas.
We may know people who criticise others in order to insulate them from criticising themselves. And some people may criticise themselves instead of confronting those who bully and control and manipulate. All these mechanisms and tendencies are managed by the Unconscious.
The Unconscious mind may be often perceived as containing nothing but Shadow and all these defence mechanisms but it also contains what Carl Jung called the ‘buried treasure’ for deeper than all these surface reactions and repressions is the light of the Self, a greater sense of being and life and light that encourages and inspires us with this built-in wisdom and love. It shines its light into the shadow of our unconscious. It reveals the truth in our lives and new ways of being. It solves our problems and offers different perspectives. Calm reflection, introspection, meditation, contemplation, either done in the company of this hidden Self or in the company of a therapist, inspiring person, elder, wise person or enlightening book, podcast or video. All external figures, people, situations in our lives are only reflections of what lies in the Unconscious whether that is shadow or light. Cast the light of the ‘buried treasure’ into your shadow and the truth will be revealed.
You can read more about this by reading the work of Jordan Thornton on YouTube:
