Symbols—the Language of the Subconscious Mind

Information from the higher mind comes into our awareness through the medium of our subconscious, or global mind. Whereas our conscious mind operates in the world of three dimensions, our global mind operates in the four dimensional world of memory, possibility, and perspective.

This sounds complicated and maybe a little boring, but these concepts are keys to heightened self-awareness.

These three aspects of mind shape the all-important present moment. They form the context of our awareness, and they do it behind the scenes or our conscious, thinking mind.

So what are these three aspects and how do they work? Let’s take them one at a time, and afterwards we will see how they relate to the practice of meditation.

Memory

Memory is the glue that holds the body of our experience together, giving our sense of reality cohesiveness and meaning. It forms the raw material out of which we construct our reality. Memory is self-referential and self-selective, meaning that it interprets new data in terms of what it already possesses, and it selects out of that data those things that most closely match previous experiences. It is the conservative side of our nature, seeking to preserve the status quo, using it as the foundation for further experience. New impressions that do not readily assimilate into the base are held aloft until further matching impressions can be added to them. When enough impressions have gathered to form a cohesive, meaningful structure of their own, that larger structure will then seek a place in the body of the known, even if only as a possibility. All of this works together to provide a starting point from which the mind can interpret the experiences it receives through the senses and general impressions from the universal mind.

Possibility

Our habits conspire to keep us in our ruts, but the spirit continually looks for new opportunities for creative expression. If we are in fact created in God’s image, then creativity is part of our divine inheritance. This is partly because of our biological need to adapt to rapidly changing environmental conditions, but it also stems from our deep appreciation for harmony, beauty, and symmetry. Order out of chaos. The Divine Urge. Art. These give life its forward momentum. They make the universe want to get up in the morning. Simply preserving the status quo, keeping the planets in their orbits in a kind of cosmic maintenance routine would bore anyone to a quick demise, even God. The real purpose of life, our deepest motivation, is the exploration of the possible. It is the flip-side of understanding, for once the mystery is solved, then what? We no sooner figure out how something works than we want to find out what can we do with it.

In this way, each realized potential becomes the platform from which a new evolutionary spiral launches itself, be that a new elaboration of biological diversity or a fresh, new style of music.

Wonder and awe are divine attributes enfolded into the very nature of God, attributes  that we inherited when we were created. The Spirit thrills at self-discovery, and we are the agents of its explorations.

Perspective

This is the aspect of mind that puts the other two aspects, memory and possibility, to work. As in any trinitarian scheme, this third element automatically arises as the other two begin to form. Related ideas and experiences cohere in the mind as they accumulate. Through implication, a web of possible outcomes and elaborations forms an aura around the facts contained within memory, spreading out in all directions.

The facts are neutral, but the possibilities are fraught with meaning, giving the divine urge for creativity exciting opportunities to explore. It is this scope of opportunity that constitutes perspective – it is what the spirit is looking for. If mind were simply mechanical, it would lack motivation. It would be as lifeless as a tape recorder. But mind is alive and conscious; it has direction and purpose, namely self-discovery. And it is this that gives it a “point of view,” or perspective. Its point of view is inherent; it both motivates and directs. It is the Holy Spirit of the mind.