Question

what are your thoughts on Consciousness and Subconscious in today's society ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consciousness
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subconscious

what do you think are their place in the modern world and in future human evolution ?

i'm just curious to see what people think , don't need big elaborate answers or fancy words, can still be precise though

Answer 1

The affects of both are the same in our society as they have been throughout history, they are the mental processes in which humans experience their world and culture/society. In regards to todays society specifically, we are of the notion that we have an understanding of them that can be used for our benefit. I don't think we fully realize that human cultures have been doing that for the whole of human history, in civilizations and in tribes. It's just that in tribal cultures, the concious/subconcious was an active part of their own culture, whether they could articulate that or not. The difference now being that we can articulate it to ourselves as an observable fact of our psyche. But consciousness and unconsciousness have always be a part of the human condition, what happens socially/culturally defines the health of those psyches.

My personal thoughts are that our unconscious mind (sub-concsious) is the part of our psyche that is the blackboard of our behavior. Confucious said that any child born is of the same nature, being human but that what will define the difference in them as they grow is their upbringing, what's written on their blackboard. I think what's missed is that we are born with questions on that blackboard that need to be answered by experiences in life, experiences that will meet the needs we have as humans on a behavioral level, an unconscious level. Our society and culture today does not create an environment where the things we need to know about ourselves, especially on that unconscious level, are answered. When those needs are continually unmet/unaddressed, people grow to have an unhealthy understanding of themselves on a conscious and subconscious level. When they are met, people are healthier in this regard. The conscious and sub-conscious are as anything else on earth, they need to be fed and fed well, if they are not a very unhealthy individual is developed and they are a unfortunate example of the kind of neglect that can seem to define the human condition.

In regards to evolution....I suppose we shall see. Good question by the way.

Answer 2

I really like your insight on the subject , especially the idea that these process needs to be fed. Tell me if i misunderstood but if i wanted to put examples on things that feed these process, would , discipline logic and focus be some for consciousness and spirituality (not religion) and creativity be some for unconsciousness ? Thanks for the answer though

Answer 3

You haven't misunderstood at all. :) You make a differentiation between what the conscious and the unconscious would need to both be fed, that's a perspective I'm continuing to pursue and it has solid traction. They're both different parts of our psyche that make up the living whole. What is conscious in the human condition would respond to discipline, logic and focus; in that i would expect that we would find behavioral needs being intentionally met, mainly through the relationships we have with others that understand the need for intentional "feeding". There's alot to be said for intentionality when it comes to meeting our inherent behavioral needs, without out it so many are left neglected. But a child that has its behavioral needs intentionally/consciously met does not have the scars of neglect but develops maturity and a strong self-identity. So I would say, yes, you are correct in your understanding. What is unconscious in the human condition would (and does) respond to the spiritiual and the creative; it's those things that seem to speak to the innate talents in us, the things that come naturally to us as individuals. Those seemingly unintentional developments are as vital as the intentional ones, but if the unintentional/unconscious is neglected then the behavioral damage can be just as severe as if it were intentional. It's an unfortunate fact that most of our generation (I'm 33) lives with that kind of unintentional neglect. So, again, you're right on track with that.
To offer an example, from the perspective a man, a boy needs intentional/conscious development from a mature father figure/'s to be able to grow and develop into his own masculinity, some of the best examples I've found are in tribal cultures. There is a natural and conscious/unconscious process of a boy growing into a man that has a strong self identity, and if that process is denied then the boy (as most of our generation has experienced) does not identify with his natural masculinity and he suffers from an "undiagnosed" identity crisis. The behavioral needs of the masculine part of him have not been feed but have been starved our of him. Tribal cultures make it a very intentional part of growing into the masculine world that a boy knows when he is crossing into the world of men and a boy has defining pride in that, a pride that is a healthy and necessary part of his identity. Part of that masculine development is also what he experiences from a spiritual and creative process, the things that he is able to confidently learn about himself, about his identity that he will have of himself for the whole of his life. It's here that he's able to learn the truest things about himself and this is also a feeding process of his behavioral needs. Don't take me wrong on this, it's not about machismo (a silly notion of our society) but of the identiy of masculinity in human nature. There are very important and vital identities for women of the feminine human nature that are neglected by our society/culture and the women of our generations are burdened with effects of that neglect. A woman needs that kind of healthy behavioral feeding as much as man does, that's what makes it human nature. It's an undeniable need amongst every living human to be able to truly identify with themselves, as woman and as man.
I truly hope this confirms that you're on the right track with your reasoning and not just a long winded answer. There's much that I'm afraid we don't understand of what our human condition needs...exploring the conscious and unconscious of our psyche gives us insight to that. We don't need to neglect that, it's too important to us now and our coming generations.

Answer 4

i agree a 100 percent with the fact that the subconscious part is too neglected especially with recent generations because i think our society as evolved in a consciousness based system as everything needs to fit in a "palpable" box, but its actually limiting us as humans. Because this unconscious aspect is part of us and needs to be used/developed. I think I've understood your example and references to tribal tribes with man and women identity (which gave quite a bit to think about) and believe that evolution as made us lose a lot of "instinct" that was giving us a better balance in general, but we are still evolving, and as human is still a very young specie i believe evolution might give us many new features that bring back this balance (we might just be in a transition phase). To go back to the conscious/unconscious reflection I think, but, again, this is pure speculation as i am not that much documented on neuroscience and psychology research, that conscious and unconscious are in fact linked together and interact with each other, with this in mind something could consciously become unconscious or the other way around thus maybe one of the next step for humans is to fully understand those too process and learn to use them together. Again thanks for the great answer ( it does help my reasoning), and sorry if my use of words isn't always precise i'm not a native English speaker also a bit younger (20).

Answer 5

MLL...no worries on your english, haven't had any troubles in understanding your points. I wouldn't have guessed based on how you've written that english wasn't your first language. This is a long response, but I like where you're going with your thinking on this.

You're absolutely right about that, the conscious and the unconscious are (and always will be) innately connected. What we experience in the conscious world does determine what our unconscious draws its conclusions on, its determinations about life/the world and our own place in it as individuals and as a group. For example, a culture's mythology is taught and told through conscious stories, an intentional telling; but it's what is gleaned from those stories that affects the subconscious, what a people unintentionally learns and believes about themselves. To use an example most people would be familiar with...the global cultures of both the East and the West have in their mythologies a concept of sin as part of human nature, a notion that builds into the unconscious a view that there is something inherently wrong with humanity, with the human condition. This can be seen in Christianity/Judaism/Islam as "original sin", since these major religions pull their creation story from the same source. Buddhism retains the notion of an "imperfect human nature" and that through the 8 Fold Path imperfection can eventually be made perfect. The conscious acknowledgement that we have "imperfect/sinful natures" have a very devestating impact on our unconscious belief about ourselves. It gives our unconscious/sub-conscious a negagtive self-image, a self concept that leads us to believe in a fundamentally flawed human nature. If our conscious decisions are influenced (as has been observed in many different social upbringings) by what our unconscious believes, then we unintentionally believe ourselves to be inherently flawed creatures incapable of being anything but sinful and therefore must wait on either salvation/works or evolution to change that nature in us.

I don't disagree with you, evolution may very well in time change our human nature. But until that time, we do have a conscious choice as to what we will believe about ourselves and our human nature and what we will pass on to the next generations subconscious. There's no reason to pass on a concept like original sin to the next generation. I don't like it, but what previous generations have believed about themselves since the Fertile Crescent has determined what I have believed about myself on an individual level, as much as it has affected every man, woman and child of our generation. Most people wouldn't state it that way, but if they were to articulate what their subconscious believes about themselves, they would find they've been given a culture and a mythology that doesn't hold humanity in very high regards. It's what we decide to do with the recognition of how we neglect ourselves and our behavioral needs that will determine what's developed in the coming generations.