In my life, I have discovered that there are three best ways to meet someone new:
- At work--when you share a similar job description.
- At a drunken party.
- During recess!
If you haven't fallen asleep yet, that means that there's a good chunk of your mind that you are aware of right now. That's your Consciousness, a cute little friend created when the intralaminar nuclei of the thalamus synchronize the impulse patterns of the rest of the brain at a frequency of 40 Hz. Click here to view cross sections of the brain of former Senator George Allen.
As you are probably aware, Consciousness is a notoriously boring playmate that we have no interest in hanging around with today. Fortunately, there is someone else....and she brings way more to your thinking body than you may realize. Like anyone else you haven't met, one of the best ways to become friends is to join her for a little playtime.
(Warning: You'll need to grab a pen/pencil and paper or open Notebook if you want to play all the games.)
Hide and go Seek
Do you know where your Subconsciousness is right now? Maybe she forgot to tell you before she left. No problem. All you have to do to find her is guess. Try to guess where she is right now.
YAY! You found her! Your Subconcious's favorite game is the guessing game. It is what she was literally born to do. In fact, 95% of what she does involves some kind of guesswork. So if you're guessing/going with your gut/following your instincts or whatever you like to call it, it means you've deliberately handed some extra degree of control over to your subconscious mind. Let's play a little math game with her that'll show you exactly what I mean.
Performing Arithmetic
All that tedious, attention gobbling, memory wracking work of addition, division, etc....it's so, so boring. But not to Subconsciousness. She loves to be in control of that kind of stuff. Remember though, she's a guesser--and a good one. So write down the answers to the following problems on your paper (or type them into Notebook), but only write down the answers your gut gives you. Just make your best guesses---no cheating allowed!
1. 38 x 47 = 2. 818 - 499 =
3. 328 + 294 = 4. 213 / 3 =
That was easy, wasn't it? Now check the numbers you wrote down against the real answers at the end of this diary. You may find that your guesses much closer than you thought they would be. Your Subconscious is inherently imbued with mathematic ability.
One example of this can be found in stroke and accident victims who have difficulty consciously performing exact arithmetic, but retain their ability to guess very closely at correct answers to mathematical problems. This is because the areas that perform the conscious, memory loaded arithmetic are separate from those that are used to understand abstract mathematical concepts. According to Dr. John J. Ratey of Harvard University, one of the best ways to improve those abstract abilities is to take music lessons. Incredible!
Getting in Fights
Sick as it is, Subconsciousness loves a good fight, or a good run from a fight as the case may be. She is so enamored with physical conflict that she even reacts to potential threats before even telling the rest of your shared brain what the Hell is going on.
But before we get into all that, take a minute to count your pulse. If you are running Windows, just open up the clock feature, put your fingers to your throat, and count the beats for an entire minute. If you're lucky enough to be in a relationship to a nurse (or a nursing student, like I am) just have him or her do it for you. Be sure to write down the result.
For step two in this game, you'll have to imagine a life-threatening situation. A man dressed in dark clothing comes through your front door carrying a shotgun. Maybe you have small children, your own or those of a relative or neighbor, playing in the next room. There has been a recent spate of home invasions involving rape and murder in your town. Before proceeding to the next paragraph, close your eyes and explicitly imagine the entire event, even to it's horrific conclusion if you can. If that doesn't get your blood pumping, try to picture The Decider himself walking into your living room and getting the ass-kicking he deserves.
Now that you've done that, count your pulse again and write down the answer. Chances are it's jumped by a good 15 to 25 percent. The better you are at the imagination game, the more Subconscious comes to join you, and you can physically feel her presence. Is your heart rate up? Is your breathing deeper? Is your stomach a little bouncy? If so, it's because she has activated your sympathetic nervous system. If you don't like the feeling, no need to worry. As long as your spinal cord is still intact, she will activate your parasympathetic nervous system (when she's sure the danger is gone), and everything will go back to normal. This calming-down process actually takes longer in women than it does in men, possibly because it may take women longer to metabolize the adrenal hormone, epinephrine. This is why your wife, girlfriend, sister, mom, etc. can't seem to stop fighting even though you thought the argument was over. Click here to download or play the NPR episode on this subject.
While we're at it, here's another little ditty you can check out, when you have the time and connection speed for it. Nova on PBS did a pretty good show that helps to explain why and how Subconsciousness gets our bodies involved when we watch sporting events, Jackass, and all that kind of physical junk.
So why does the imagination game work? Because Subconsciousness cannot entirely tell the difference between imagination and reality (btw the orgasm center located in the Septum is subconsciously controlled as well). That's partly why you cannot trust her to make all of your decisions for you. Maybe someone should have broken this down to our good friend George before he invaded Iraq based on his gut instincts, a.k.a. messages from God. The next game demonstrates another good reason.
The Implicit Association Game
Since she loves to guess, Subconsciousness often draws unfair conclusions about the people around us. One of the most commonly known is that a majority of the American population associates light-skinned faces with good things more readily than it does with dark-skinned faces. What is not as commonly known is that thin people are generally preferred to fat people, young to old, and that femaleness is more readily associated with family and maleness with career. What associations does your subconscious make? Open this link (in another tab or window, hopefully) and take a few tests to find out what associations your subconscious might be making for you.
Some people feel bad after they take these tests, believing themselves to be racist, anti-fat people, etc. Don't bother yourself about that. Subconscious associations do not become bigotry until they are consciously accepted, justified, and acted upon. In fact, one of the fastest ways to reduce your association of dark skin with negativity is to watch more sports, especially the Olympics.
Picking out Faces
Faces seem to be everywhere. If you're like me, you can see them in the spackle on your ceiling, in the stucco pattern of your house, and in the clouds too. Faces seem to be everywhere sometimes. But are they really? Here are two pictures of non-biological objects that seem to have faces of their own.
So are there actually faces around the wineglass? Subconsciousness seems to think so. But look at them rationally. These are poor renditions of faces at best.
Notwithstanding the well and/or poorly formed opinions of our Evangelical brethren, the reason you see the face in the smoke coming from World Trade Center is because your good friend, the Subconscious, is using the fusiform face area of your shared brain to pick them out. She does this every waking moment (and probably a few sleeping ones) whether Consciousness wants her to or not. The most important thing to remember is that the faces you see around you are still nothing more than her best guesses.
Which brings us to our final game--in my opinion, the best one of all.
Blindsight
When people misuse the term "Blindsight" it really gets my goat. Contrary to what I've seen at DailyKos, it is not a description of decision making within the Bush Administration. Blindsight actually refers to a disability that demonstrates an amazing neurological phenomenon.
You see, the chunk of your brain that interprets visual details and sees colors has a straight shot to the rest of the cortices that come together to create consciousness. You are consciously aware of visual details because that section is literally part of your Consciousness mechanism.
But the part that shifts your eyes and tracks objects is entirely in the realm of Subconsciousness's control. You might be visually picking out the wings and body color of the fly on your toast, but it's her job to follow it with your eyes after it takes off.
A person with Blindsight has sustained damage to the conscious sections of his or her visual cortex, but the subconscious sections have remained in working order. Thus, when an object is thrown in front of the patient, his or her eyes can be observed to track it, and when the person is asked to guess at its final location, he or she will usually be far more accurate than chance would dictate.
For our last game, you will have to enable javascript (if it is disabled on your browser) and visit this link. Follow the instructions, play the game, and write down your results. Be prepared to post your results when you get back!
That's all for today! Of course, we could all spend years studying and discussing the whiles and mechanics of Subconsciousness, and still be just getting started. Hopefully, though, you've learned a little bit more about yourself today, and made a good friend while you were at it. By knowing her better, you will be better able to understand your own snap judgments, along with those made by the people around you. Along with that you will discover that there are times when you must ignore your Subconscious and think consciously, and other times when you must devote to her your complete trust. Most importantly, remember that your mind is complex, intelligent, and beautiful.
Answers to the Arithmetic Section
1. 1786 2. 319 3. 622 4. 71
Return to problems.