In the previous presentation, I began to look and what constitutes human consciousness. Psychology has segmented our consciousness into a number of concepts but it basically boils down to two components. The bit you are conscious of and the bit you are not. Esoterics goes further and says that consciousness can be divided into five components. There is your waking consciousness. Above and below this are your super-consciousness and your sub-consciousness that you can have access to. These three units of consciousness are collectively known as your meta-consciousness. Esoterics then goes further and says that a human monad has a deeper sub-conscious and a higher super-conscious part to its being. These two areas of consciousness you do not have access to at present. If you ask me what the deeper sub-conscious holds, I would say all your memories to the point when your monad first entered the universe. That is a long time ago and in a galaxy far, far away! Your higher super-consciousness goes all the way up to the ABSOLUTE and you can’t get higher than that! Where esoterics and conventional thought part company completely is that esoterics states that our consciousness does not reside in our physical brain. This is just a junction box to transfer our conscious thoughts and feelings from our higher subtle bodies.
In this presentation, I wish to focus on what constitutes the human sub-conscious. From an esoteric point of view, the sub-conscious is the activity of the subtle bodies that do not make it into waking consciousness. Our sub-conscious memory records every detail that is processed and it is stored in our five envelopes of incarnation. What is even more mind-boggling to consider, is that our sub-conscious stores the complete memories of all our past lives. These number in the tens of thousands. That is an amazing about of data. It is recorded in a level of detail that we were never conscious of at the time the events were being recorded. For purposes of this presentation, when I use the term sub-conscious, I am referring to that part of the sub-conscious that is part of our meta-consciousness unless otherwise stated.
Our short-term memory lasts for seconds, while the thought-form is still active. Long-term memory is recorded by the triad in the subtle bodies of the monad. To be precise, in the permanent atoms (48:1 & 49:1) and the mental molecule (47:4). We all have perfect memories, 100 per cent in fact. What we don’t have is perfect recall. We are not able to trace the pathways leading back to these memories unless we consciously reinforce them. Memories often pop into our minds when we are reminded of something. It should be noted that good memory recall is not linked to soul development.
There are three categories of long-term memory. The first of these is when memories pass through our consciousness in our current incarnation. These memories are best unlocked by associating one memory with another or a name or place. The second example is when sub-conscious memory does not make it into our waking consciousness at the time of recording. There is no way to recall these memories as there is no active pathway to them. Finally, there are latent memories that are also from previous incarnations, which have been laid down like tree-rings. These memories are triggered by encountering similar experiences in this lifetime. Deja vu is an example of places visited in previous lives or when we have out-of-body experiences.
I remember having a very powerful triggering of a latent memory when I was five years old. I lived in Karachi at the time and we were under air attack by Indian bombers. This was not an attack on civilians. They were targeting the docks, but when the air raid siren went off, we rushed under the stairs of our concrete houses. This was considered the safest place. I remember looking at the anti-aircraft flak pouring into the skies before taking my position under the stairs. I was absolutely terrified and imagined a carpet of bombs landing, one after another. How could I even have a concept of what carpet bombing was? It was not even the type of bombing that was occurring at the docks. Now you are going to have to take this on spec, but my mother later told me that I had communicated with her prior to my incarnation and had mentioned that I had been severely brain-damaged during the Blitz on Coventry during the Second World War. I died shortly thereafter in a children’s home. The current bombing was my trigger and the latent memory was from a very recent incarnation.
Latent memories can be made known through instinct. This can be positive as well as negative, as you can also remember incorrect knowledge or beliefs. Highly charged traumatic memories, including phobias and irrational fears, are another example of latent memories.
Memories are passive and must be actively sought. The conscious mind is not good at recalling memories, as it is such a small part of the meta-consciousness. Old memories are stored deep in the sub-conscious. Trying to recall memories with your waking consciousness is often futile. If you wish to remember from this part of your stored experiences, you have to allow your meta-consciousness to use your mental body. To achieve this you have to stop trying. On a personal note, when I lose something and this is a frequent occurrence, I do find that the best way to locate the object again is to stop looking!
Hypnosis
Hypnosis has the ability to bring meta-consciousness to the fore, accessing both sub-conscious and super-conscious memory banks. However, a word of caution. Accessing memories from the emotional envelope run the risk that you could be conjuring up your desires and passing them off as a memory. In the case of the mental plane, you could just be constructing fantasies. Remember, the mental plane is where you construct thoughts. So are you recalling something or inventing it?
The sub-conscious memory contains all the memories from your very first experience in the Human Kingdom. These also include your out-of-body experiences. These occur mostly when you are asleep and are discussed further in future presentations. Putting hypnosis to one side, your subconscious memories and abilities manifest through your instincts, knowledge and abilities. These you have acquired in previous incarnations. Remember that bloke Mozart we talked about?
Patterns & Habits
Your sub-conscious obeys your waking conscious mind. This means that if it receives no fresh instructions, it uses old patterns and habits. To learn quickly, we tend to group experiences by patterns. You witness this with children. A child sees a dog. It is furry. All other furry animals are therefore a dog. Your subconscious contains a vast array of mental and emotional patterns. If a new pattern arrives and matches a stored set and no new instructions are received, you get an automated response. This is why you find yourself repeating patterns of behaviour that you wish you didn’t. It is a sobering thought that about 90 per cent of human behaviour is automated and goes unchallenged. On the one hand, this is a good thing, as you don’t really want to learn how to drive a car every time you get into it. On the other hand, your response to your mother-in-law may need slight adjustments.
Mental and emotional patterns are formed sub-consciously but through training and practice, you can form new ones. Our lives would be impossible to live without the ability to create patterns of behaviour. These patterns help us learn and we have other patterns to compare them to. Once you have learnt to ride a bike, you not need to think about it any further. You have the ability to rapidly plan an alternative route to your journey or return a tennis ball that is flying towards you at 140 miles per hour. Another very useful skill is reading words by just seeing the first and last letter. Well, that at least is the theory. The variety of words I manage to make up using this skill is not necessarily very helpful!
These patterns of behaviour would not be able to enact themselves, especially through our physical bodies, if it was not for the fact that our bodies are made from tertiary matter. If you remember, tertiary matter has evolved its consciousness to a point where it has a memory and can remember simple processes. Your subconscious may know how to ride a bike, but it is your muscle memory that allows you to actually achieve the feat with grace and artistry. This is real teamwork in action and should make us ego-centric monads more humble. We may think we are masters of all we survey. In reality, most things are happening automatically, without much input from us at all. This is the excuse I use when I raid the cookie jar.
Negative Patterns
Mental and emotional patterns can have negative aspects and we should be aware of them. Patterns create and reflect our aspirations but these aspirations can be rooted in disappointments. They can surface and become a source of disagreement when others hold different viewpoints to yourself. This can also raise a strong emotional response in you that is visible, such as flushing. On a visit to Syria to plan a development project, I was interviewing the manager of a Catholic dairy! Yes, there are catholic dairies in Syria. One of my many hidden talents is palmistry and I noticed this manager had a ‘murder’s thumb’. This shaped thumb indicates a personality that has extreme difficulty in controlling their temper. Every time I asked a question, the man would grimace, puff up and look like he was just about to explode. I quite literally felt I was facing a life-threatening situation after asking each question. This was a very good example where such patterns are completely out of control. Good thing I did not tell him that his milk was sour!
Sub-conscious impulses are executed automatically and so are difficult to notice and resist. These patterns work against us in the long run and we need to refresh them. Having said that, I would not have wanted to be the person to tell the Syrian dairy manager that he had an anger management problem!
If we over-rely on patterns, we become automatons. This is most clearly noticeable as we age and our responses just become stock answers. Dealing with my elderly relatives, I feel that ‘Elvis has left the building’ and I am just listening to a tape recording. There is a reason for this. As a monad approaches the end of an incarnation, it begins to focus much more subjectively within itself and less objective through its senses into its environment. It is preparing to quite literally leave the building. This leaves those tertiary molecules in charge, linked to a sub-conscious memory bank of programmed answers.
Negative patterns result in negative behaviours such as guilt, anger and prejudice. Vices and addiction also result from such negative patterns. Fear is a negative pattern that really hinders our development. This is a pointless emotion. If something ‘bad’ is going to happen to you, then this is linked to your karma. There is no point in hindering paying off the debt. Having said that, if I was being chased around the room by a man-eating crocodile, the payment of debts would be the last thing on my mind.
Stored Patterns
Alas, most of our patterns in our sub-conscious have developed without conscious effort. They just arise because we are not paying attention. The result is that we end up building new negative patterns or reinforcing old ones. Realising you have a negative pattern and its detrimental effects on you is not enough. We need to build stronger positive patterns. If we look at our life to date, most of the patterns we have developed are from this lifetime. However, there are some patterns that are carried over from previous incarnations. These patterns are stored in our subtle bodies and accompany us from life to life. This is a sobering thought. If you have a tendency to over-indulge in this lifetime, no matter what that proclivity is, unless you stem its effect on you in this lifetime, you end up facing it again later. Therefore, the best course of action is to purge yourself of that negative aspect consciously. This allows you to ascend the consciousness ladder.
Skandhas
Skandhas are traits, also known as patterns that include tendencies, habits, predisposition and talents. They are semi-permanently stored in molecular form in tertiary matter. In this manner, these molecules are then attached to the permanent atoms in our triad. This means the permanent physical atom, 49:1 in the etheric envelope. The permanent emotional atom (48:1) in the emotional envelope and the mental molecule 47:4 in the mental envelope.
These skandhas, because they are carried over into future bodies, must be cleansed as much as possible in every lifetime. This, as you can imagine, does not happen and this is why we are such a mess. These skandhas affect the composition, capacity and effectiveness of our subtle bodies. In this manner, they can restrict or reinforce our development.
You may be seeing another pattern here. These skandhas relate to the manifestation of our karma and the destinies open to us in a lifetime. This is our whole life situation. This includes our physical, emotional and mental health. We have touched briefly on the blueprint that our physical bodies are constructed from. These blueprints are coloured by our skandhas. When we are presented with a body to incarnate into, the form that the body takes is linked to which of our skandhas are activated by the Lords of Karma. They can only work with the building material you supply them by your previous endeavours.
Alter-Ego
Every good person contains a bad person inside themselves unless you take active control of your consciousness. This is often referred to as your alter-ego. What is this ego? It is a large and powerful cluster of sub-conscious patterns or skandhas. They hide within our subtle bodies, waiting to reveal themselves to us, often at the most inopportune moment.
There is hope, however. Our negative past only rears its ugly head if we stimulate it with our negative thoughts, emotions or deeds. ‘Like attracts like’ as the saying goes. Live positively and attract those patterns. The alternative is to relive millennia of bad habits.
The sub-conscious is linked to our three lower chakras. These are connected to the traits of survival, desire and instinct. These traits we share with our animal past. To move our game along, we need to transfer our life energies to our four higher chakras. The chakras themselves are dealt with in detail in future presentations. Until we achieve this feat, the dormant sub-conscious past that we all possess can rear up and overwhelm us. This is because the subconscious is more powerful in most people than the waking consciousness.
Solutions
Lose not your hope but stride boldly into your future. All is not lost. We can actively strive to take control of our lives by being aware of our thought. Not just having them, but being conscious of having them. In this manner, we minimise the reinforcement of negative traits and habits.
Energy follows thought. This is a truism that is often spoken but rarely understood or acts upon consciously. Through this capacity, we can reinforce everything our mind attends to. Dwelling on the past strengthens old pattern. Leave the past where it belongs, in the past. It is not the easiest thing to do, but when you catch yourself falling back into your past, actively stop yourself.
Forgiveness
Being able to forgive is a vital part of any monads development. Not just others but more importantly yourself. This is directly linked to letting go of the past. Forgiveness allows you to rid yourself of guilt, regret, hatred and vengeance. We have talked about egregors, those synthetic entities created by humanity. We feed our thoughts into them and they reinforce our thoughts by feeding them back to us. Well, your skandhas are your own personal egregors, carried within your subtle bodies from incarnation to incarnation.
There is no injustice in the Universe. It is 100 per cent fair. What befalls us is our own doing. How can we hold a grudge against others for helping us pay our dues? Think about that?
In the next presentation, I wish to go on and look at our super-conscious awareness or lack of it. It promises to be a more uplifting topic.