Dreams and Your Unconscious Mind

Dreams and Your Unconscious Mind
by R. John MacDonald

If a person had completely forgotten about a friend whom he had not seen for a dozen years and that former friend were to suddenly appear in front of him by accident, we could say then that the mode of his consciousness, regarding that mental content, that is his hitherto forgotten friend, had been transformed from one of "unconsciousness" to cognitive consciousness.

In simply terms, the word "cognition," from which "cognitive" is derived, is a reference to that which is consciously known, that is, known to the extent that the knower knows that he knows. In contradistinction, to cognition, "feeling" or intuition, as a mental state, does not allow us to be fully "knowledgeable" of something that is the object of our attention. Levels of consciousness are very significant in respect to dreams but for now let's return to our example of the forgotten friend.

It may be quite possible, with some people, to never again recall that particular person whom they had forgotten about if that triggering, chance event, of meeting him, were to never happen. The strange paradox, when that happens, is that we have not actually forgotten about that person, rather he has simply resided in another "compartment" in our mind and brain. In other words, the mental content has not been lost or erased, as might be the case in respect to one who suffers an incident that inflicts brain damage. Instead, that mental content simply requires a triggering mechanism to be reactivated. Certainly the term "reactive" implies that something already exists in a "dormant" state as opposed to that thing being freshly created. But if it already exists on the one hand and yet it is obviously not in the conscious mind then we might ask "where is it?" The only reasonable explanation is that it is in the preconscious mind. What is the preconscious mind?

The preconscious mind is before, that is prior to, consciousness as the "pre" in "preconscious" implies. It is the state in which the knower does not yet know that she knows. It is very interesting that we refer to "feeling" or "feelings," as opposed to knowing, in that our bodies are really the vehicles of our feelings. Furtherly, it is when we are not finally sure, that is do not have certain knowledge, that we refer to ourselves having a "feeling" about something. Again, consider the words "before" and "pre" - if we draw a correlative correspondence with this, in the vein of mapping it out as a locale, then we might say that the general body comes before the brain-mind complex in the same way that the "feeling" comes before the thought. The correlation includes intuition being prior to cognition.

If, during sleep, our cognitive minds become deactivated, then it seems to fit, that our psychic energy is then, more free to base itself on or in our bodies. And, of course, part of the human body is the brain, wherein memory content is stored. The relevancy of the foregoing in respect to dreams is that a reference to the brain does have real substance, that is it does make sense in respect to the preconscious. Certainly the brain is a sort of storehouse or warehouse for the preconscious contents of our minds but extending on that, the brain is actually directly a part of our body, unlike the mind. And it is with the body that we have a basis for the experiences of our minds, for example, we see with our eyes and hear with our ears and taste with our tongues, etc. The body is a thing and it experiences things. Now, in consideration of sleep, virtually everyone would agree that the conscious mind shuts down when we sleep. Now it seems quite apparent that we continue to think - but with what? Here enters the preconscious mind. The conscious mind is intimately tied in with the brain and the brain is part of the body. The body is the instrument through which we experience the world and the contents of our experiences are things and thus the language that the preconscious would do it's thinking in is the language of experience and that language is the language of things. In fact our dreams are incredibly pictorial, in other words they are filled with images of things, things that we experience, at least in component parts, in our daily lives. Even if we see elephants that fly in our dreams we are still getting content that, at least in component part, exists in our daily lives, i.e., we witness birds flying and we can see elephants in documentaries on TV, for example. The preconscious, quite apparently just combines those things in a sort of free play. What is this "free play?" Certainly it is not mechanical - rather, quite apparently, it is creative. Unlike a machine, which is a mechanical process, anything creative must have some type of consciousness and it must be self-reflective - you and I are self-reflective because we know that we exist, unlike the chair that we sit on which has no sense of it's own existence.

In other words we are self-conscious. So the preconscious then is both creative and self-conscious. Is it easily identifiable, in the same sense that I know the communicator is myself, when I communicate? This is where it gets a bit tricky because it is not quite as simple as equating our preconscious with ourselves and simply then to say it is just myself communicating at another level. If you frame it that way then you have problems with the "other level." In fact if the other level is brought into play in an inappropriate way then you can end up with inflation of one's (conscious) Ego, which may actually equate to a mental illness. This type of "inflation" can actually be likened to an empty, flat and stable balloon, which, when inflated with helium, may then simply float away randomly and be at the mercy of the changing winds.

In similar principal, if we think of the content of our dreams, it is not very difficult to appreciate the degree of apparently whimsical construction and random direction of the dreams, that is they may not appear very meaningful or goal-oriented. But more than that, our dreams assume, at times, astoundingly "magical" scenarios where we might occasionally do things, in the dream state, that suggest that we may even defy the laws of nature and, in that sense, dreams are definitely of a "superhuman" nature. A person in a psychotic state can feel that he or she has the same limitless powers as well and may even believe that they are superman or superwoman. We cannot say then that our whole experience of our preconscious is simply our regular selves, that is as functionally normal in respect to our environment and in relation to environmental objects and that that functional behavior is simply in another state.

What else then might constitutionally contribute to our preconscious minds? There are two other constituent parts that factor in very importantly. Firstly, there is what psychology calls the "collective unconscious" and that term simply refers to what belongs to all of us. There are values which are universally shared across cultures and throughout different historical periods. Those universal values are easily seen and appreciated in consideration of experiences that are characterized, for example, by love, hate, murder, theft, the will to live, habitation, protection, learning, etc. - value complexes that are universal to everyone in all cultures.

We share, experience and feel these values on a communal or social level. No individual is responsible for a volcanic eruption, for example - even if he or she were to own the mountain that erupted they would not be held criminally responsible for that sort of act of nature. It would be a collective experience. Another aspect of the preconscious is what is referred to as the "transpersonal." The word "trans" means "across" (to move across) and thus the reference is to that which is across all individuals, so to speak and what is above and beyond all individual persons, as individuals. We can't really perceive the total affects of what individual actions will have on the community in which we live - but one of the most essential concepts behind the idea of the transpersonal is that Life Itself provides the overriding intelligence that sees how each individual person fits in the broader scheme of things. So it seems quite apparent that the preconscious, in respect to dreams, has somewhat of a universal or social role to play in the individual's experience. Why might this be?

The simple reason is that dreams apparently attempt to balance out what might otherwise be a scenario of selfishness that an individual person might be engaging in. That scenario might be corporate business situation or may just be interpersonal in nature, as with a particular marriage but the same principle may apply in it's own particular way as illustrated through the language of the dream, that is, that an adjustment may be needed or the individual or group may be heading towards destruction.
- Continued next issue. -

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