The Biology of Belief - Bruce H. Lipton [75]
The Subconscious Mind:
I Keep Calling and No One Answers
While the “thinking-self” nature of the conscious mind evokes images of a “ghost in the machine,” there is no similar self-awareness operating in the subconscious mind. The latter mechanism is more akin to a jukebox loaded with behavioral programs, each ready to play as soon as appropriate environmental signals appear and press the selection buttons. If we don’t like a particular song in the jukebox, how much yelling at or arguing with the machine will cause it to reprogram its play list? In my college days, I saw many an inebriated student, to no avail, curse and kick jukeboxes that were not responsive to their requests. Similarly, we must realize that no amount of yelling or cajoling by the conscious mind can ever change the behavioral “tapes” programmed into the subconscious mind. Once we realize the ineffectiveness of this tactic, we can quit engaging in a pitched battle with the subconscious mind and take a more clinical approach to reprogramming it. Engaging the subconscious in battle is as pointless as kicking the jukebox in the hope that it will reprogram its play list.
The futility of battling with the subconscious is a hard message to get across because one of the programs most of us downloaded when we were young is that “willpower is admirable.” So we try over and over again to override the subconscious program. Usually such efforts are met with varying degrees of resistance because the cells are obligated to adhere to the subconscious program.
Tensions between conscious willpower and subconscious programs can result in serious neurological disorders. For me, a powerful image of why we should not challenge the subconscious comes from the movie Shine. In the movie, based on a true story, Australian concert pianist David Helfgott defies his father by going off to London to study music. Helfgott’s father, a survivor of the Holocaust, programmed his son’s subconscious mind with the belief that the world was unsafe, that if he “stood out” it might be life threatening. His father insisted he would be safe only if he stayed close to his family. In spite of his father’s relentless programming, Helfgott knew that he was a world-class pianist who needed to break from his father to realize his dream.
In London, Helfgott played the notoriously difficult Third Piano Concerto of Rachmaninoff in a competition. The film shows the conflict between his conscious mind wanting success and his subconscious mind concerned that being visible, being internationally recognized, was life-threatening. As he labors through the concerto, sweat pouring from his brow, Helfgott’s conscious mind fights to stay in control, while his subconscious mind, fearful of winning, tries to take control of his body. Helfgott consciously forces himself to maintain control through the concerto until he plays the last note. He then passes out, overcome by the energy it took to battle his subconscious programming. For that “victory” over the subconscious, he pays a high price: when he comes to, he is insane.
Most of us engage in less dramatic battles with our subconscious mind as we try to undo the programming we received as children. Witness our ability to continually seek out jobs that we fail at, or remain in jobs we hate, because we don’t “deserve” a better life.
Conventional methods for suppressing destructive behaviors include drugs and talk therapy. Newer approaches promise to change our programming, recognizing that there is no use “reasoning” with the subconscious tape player. These methods capitalize on the findings of quantum physics that connect