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The Nature of the Subconscient Level of Consciousness in Man · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  European culture takes credit for discoveries that it makes,
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  despite the fact that societies in other parts of the world have
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  long known about these things. Thus, Europeans discovered
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  America while disregarding the fact that it was already
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  populated with numerous tribes of indigenous people and had
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  been visited by Scandinavian Vikings much earlier than the
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  European discovery. Similarly, European
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  psychological researchers have, over the last 100 to 200 years,
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  discovered the existence of a subconscious level that is the
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  storehouse of memories, traumas, experiences, et cetera, which
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  can trigger habits, complexes, traumatic reactions, or
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  unexpected uprisings or outbursts of feelings, emotions,
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  or responses that were outside the awareness or control of the
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  conscious mind. An entire science of Western
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  psychology has arisen, with key proponents such as Freud
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  fixating on the role of embedded complexes in developing the
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  personality and life experience of individuals and the ability
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  of dreams to provide clues to what is taking place in this
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  subconscious realm. CG Jung went further by showing
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  that certain archetypal experiences were actually part
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  of a collective unconscious that could arise across numerous
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  individuals under a variety of circumstances.
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  Some researchers began to experiment with ideas such as
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  operant conditioning or Pavlovian conditioning by
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  attempting to train or influence the subconscious elements of the
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  being to respond automatically to certain externally generated
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  stimuli. And more recently, many have
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  touted the idea that through the use of subliminal suggestions,
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  sleep, induction of information, and the power of affirmations,
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  substantial changes can be affected in the subconscious
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  level and thus lead to powerful results for the external life
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  and personality. All of these things, however,
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  have long been known and described in one form or another
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  in ancient cultures that have focused on tapping into the
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  expanded ranges of consciousness outside the conscious waking
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  level that we utilize as we operate in the external world.
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  In particular, various yogic disciplines have developed forms
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  of this knowledge and put much of it into practice.
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  Sriorobindo in particular codified this into a clearly
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  defined overview of the various levels of consciousness in man,
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  and he has described the subconscious level and its
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  action at some length, Sriorobindo notes quote.
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  We mean by the subconscient, that quite submerged part of our
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  being, in which there is no wakingly conscious and coherent
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  thought, will, or feeling or organized reaction, but which
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  yet receives obscurely the impressions of all things and
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  stores them up in itself. And from it too, all sorts of
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  stimuli of persistent habitual movements, crudely repeated or
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  disguised in strange forms, can surge up into dream or into the
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  waking nature. For if these impressions rise up
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  most in dream, in an incoherent and disorganized manner, they
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  can also and do rise up into our waking consciousness as a
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  mechanical repetition of old thoughts, old mental, vital and
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  physical habits, or an obscure stimulus to sensations, actions,
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  emotions, which do not originate in or from our conscious thought
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  or will, and are even often opposed to its perceptions,
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  choice, or dictates. In the subconscient there is an
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  obscure mind full of obstinate Sanskaras, impressions,
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  associations, fixed notions, habitual reactions formed by our
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  past, an obscure vital full of the seeds of habitual desires,
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  sensations, and nervous reactions.
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  A most obscure material which governs much that has to do with
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  the condition of the body. It is largely responsible for
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  our illnesses. Chronic or repeated illnesses
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  are indeed mainly due to the subcontinent and its obstinate
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  memory and habit of repetition of whatever has impressed itself
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  upon the body consciousness. But this subconscious must be
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  clearly distinguished from the subliminal parts of our being,
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  such as the inner or subtle physical consciousness, the
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  inner vital or inner mental, for these are not at all obscure or
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  incoherent, or I'll organized, but only veiled from our surface
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  consciousness. Our surface constantly receives
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  something inner touches, communications or influences
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  from these sources, but does not know for the most part whence
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  they come. 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 35 to 36.