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The Power of the Inconscient and Subconscient Levels in Our Lives · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  Our physical bodies operate complex functions without active
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  oversight or intervention of the mind.
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  We are essentially in the dark as our organs function, as our
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  immune system automatically responds to pressures, as
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  breathing, brain function and much more go on absent our
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  supervision or control. For the most part, it is true
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  that certain functions can be affected when we turn conscious
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  attention to them. But even this level of
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  intervention is limited and rare.
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  We remain very much at the mercy of the physical systems that
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  operate the habits, instincts and reactive processes that
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  govern our physical lives. We also are generally unaware of
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  how illness enters our system and what, if anything, we can do
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  about it. Internally, we actually utilized
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  the power of the subcontinent when we train our bodies to
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  respond through what is called muscle memory.
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  In fact, the intervention of conscious thought in such a
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  process can be disastrous, as was noted by a world class
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  gymnast who withdrew from a recent Olympic competition when
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  she indicated that her mental process was interfering with the
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  body's trained capacities which led to potential catastrophic
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  results were she to continue in that state.
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  On the level of the life force, we do not generally perceive
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  either the direct active influences pressuring our
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  response on a day-to-day basis, nor the many stored up actions
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  which get triggered by specific sense sights, sounds, events or
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  locations. Much of what we do is based on
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  encapsulated responses stored deep in our memory and only
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  accessible to us for the most part when a triggering event
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  occurs. It was this level of triggered
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  responses and suppressed energies that influence the
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  psychological profile of individuals that interested
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  Freud and LED to his development of his theories of
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  psychotherapy. CG Jung went further to identify
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  a collective unconscious where vital forms, beings, and
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  archetypes were accessible to all human beings and to a great
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  degree govern the way we respond to situations.
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  Similarly, on the mental level, we capture through our senses
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  tremendous amounts of data, most of which does not rise to our
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  conscious awareness. It does, however, impinge upon
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  our mental process and influence decisions we make.
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  We receive subtle influences from our surroundings, from our
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  family, friends, peers, teachers and the society at large and its
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  mores and ways of looking at and evaluating things.
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  Much of our decision making process is in fact guided,
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  directed or controlled by forces about which we tend to have
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  little or no awareness, Shriorobindo observes Quote.
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  The superficial observation of our waking consciousness shows
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  us that of a great part of our individual being and becoming,
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  we are quite ignorant. It is to us the inconscient just
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  as much as the life of the plant, the metal, the earth, the
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  elements. But if we carry our knowledge
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  farther, pushing psychological experiment and observation
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  beyond their normal bounds, we find how vast is the sphere of
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  this supposed inconscient, or this subconscient in our total
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  existence, the subconscient so seeming and so-called by us,
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  because it is a concealed consciousness, and what a small
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  and fragmentary portion of our being is covered by our waking
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  self-awareness, we arrive at the knowledge that our waking mind
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  and ego are only a superimposition upon a submerged
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  A subliminal self. For so that self appears to us,
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  or more accurately an inner being with a much vaster
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  capacity of experience. Our mind and ego are like the
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  crown and Dome of a temple jutting out from the waves while
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  the great body of the building is submerged under the surface
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  of the waters. End Quote Reference Sri
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  Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Chapter
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  2, Hidden Forces within pages 29 to 30.