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Understanding and Managing the Subconscious Part of the Being · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  The idea that significant events or forces can take place within
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  us during sleep or in the twilight range between sleep and
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  waking is something that has been part of human understanding
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  for thousands of years. In particular, dreams, a
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  particular form of the sleep state where the consciousness is
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  attending and in some cases participating actively, have
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  been explored to some depth in modern Western psychology.
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  The work of Freud broke ground with his study on the
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  interpretation of dreams. Jung went further to describe
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  what he called the collective unconscious, which holds
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  archetypal images that are a bedrock of how we experience and
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  understand the world and our lives.
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  What has been clearly recognized, however, has not
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  been clearly and adequately defined and understood.
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  Sri Aurobindo has provided A paradigm for understanding the
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  different parts of the being, and in particular, he has
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  explained the subconscious as a distinct part of the being that
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  has its own characteristics and relation to the rest of the
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  being. The subconscious is a part of
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  the being not generally under the direct control of the
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  conscious mind. If we use the analogy of what we
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  see in our focus in the external world during daytime and during
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  night time, we may be able to appreciate the difference.
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  When it is daytime, our entire view is circumscribed and
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  focused on the world around us. We do not see, nor do we
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  generally pay attention to the universe beyond our planet and
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  its ecosphere at night. However, when we are no longer
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  held captive within the framework of the external
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  planetary view, we can see the stars, the planets, the moon,
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  and understand that there is a larger reality, mostly
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  subconscious or unconscious to our normal focus that far
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  exceeds and has mysteries we have not breached in our daily
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  lives. Turning then to the subconscious
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  part of the being in our individual lives, when the act
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  of mental awareness of our day is withdrawn into sleep, the
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  control it exercises over what we attend to and how we respond
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  to those things is essentially withdrawn.
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  The subconscious acts as the repository of impressions,
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  sensations, and all manner of suggestions and reactions that
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  we experience in our lives, whether we consciously attend to
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  them or not. These things are encapsulated
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  and remain dormant until triggered, which can happen by
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  any new impression or sensation that opens up that encapsulated
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  impression and input from a force or energy that is in our
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  psychological environment, or through an undigested
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  experience, emotion or thought process that we carry into our
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  sleep from our daytime lives. It is in this way that things we
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  have actively rejected in our external lives may suddenly
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  arise in this mostly unguarded part of our lives.
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  Trioro Bindo has noted below how this mechanism works and what we
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  can do to begin to manage it. While he focuses on the control
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  of negative impressions and experiences arising, it must be
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  noted that there is also a very positive side to the mechanism
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  of control he outlines. If we focus our attention before
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  we sleep, on our deeper aspiration, on prayer, on a
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  turning of the mind and emotions to the objectives we seek to
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  realize in our lives, this can influence the subconscious.
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  As we flood the subconscious with these positive impressions,
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  they can awaken and act in sleep.
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  Many secrets report having experiences of their teachers or
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  their guru, or some inspirational event occurring
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  during sleep or dream, including receiving regular teachings from
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  a guide or teacher. People also report that if they
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  send a suggestion to their subconscious prior to sleep to
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  work out a solution to a particular issue or concern,
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  they frequently awaken with a new insight or understanding
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  that helps them resolve the issue.
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  Research into sleep learning shows that certain types of
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  learning can be programmed to occur during sleep as well.
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  The field is wide open and there is an entire text on the Yoga of
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  sleep and Dreams. The Night School of Sadhna
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  compiled by Doctor de La from the writings of Sri Ovindo and
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  the Mother that explores these questions at considerable
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  length, Sri Ovindo writes quote. These thoughts that attack in
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  sleep or in the state between sleep and waking do not belong
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  to any part of your conscious being, but come either from the
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  subconscient or from the surrounding atmosphere through
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  the subconscient. If they are thoughts you had in
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  the past and have thrown out from you, then what rises must
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  be impressions left by them in the subconscious, for all things
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  thought, felt or experienced leave such impressions which can
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  rise from there in sleep. Or the thoughts can have got out
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  from you into the environmental consciousness, That is an
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  atmosphere of consciousness which we carry around us and
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  through which we are connected with universal nature.
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  And from there they may be trying to return upon you.
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  As it is difficult for them to succeed in the waking state,
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  they take advantage of the absence of conscious control in
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  sleep and appear there. It is to be hoped that as you
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  have rejected them, they will not come again.
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  But if they do, then you must put a conscious will before
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  going to sleep that they should not come.
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  A suggestion of that kind on the subconscient is often
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  successful, if not at once after a time, for the subconscient
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  learns to obey the will put upon it in the waking state.
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  End Quote reference Shiro, Bindu and the mother looking from
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  within. Chapter 5.
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  Attitudes on the Path, pages 155 to 156.