We firmly believe that we’re a single individual, but we’re actually a multiplicity. We do not possess a definitive individuality, but we are a psychological multiplicity. Our subconscious mind is not a single entity, but rather a sum of many psychological aspects or “psychic aggregates”. We rarely find ourselves as a single individual. Our personality is constantly shifting and moving as various aspects of our psychology express themselves.

We could say that within each of us there are many different people. We’re not the same person that we are at work as we are at home. You’re not the same person as you are with your significant other as you are with your in-laws or as you are with your kids or as you are with your friends. That’s what we do as humans. We’re like chameleons, constantly changing our colors to adapt to various circumstances.

We have different moods, behaving differently in different circumstances and situations, and around different people. The whole concept of a “mood” is just describing a particular aspect of our psychology. “I was in a really bad mood yesterday.” What that really means is “I was exhibiting a certain aspect of my subconscious” such as anger, frustration, depression or whatever.

We’ve all done something bad and looked back on it embarrassed, wondering why we did it. It could be getting angry and lashing out at somebody or doing something very silly or irresponsible. For example, we quit our job because of anger and regret it later when the anger is replaced by embarrassment.

Later you look back on it thinking “Why did I do that? What was I thinking?” The answer is the “you” at the time is not the same “you” that later looked back on it feeling ashamed and embarrassed. The fact is it was a different aspect of your psychology that was exhibiting itself.

When we identify with anger we get angry and act based on that anger, which means we lash out or we say hurtful things or throw things or punch holes in walls. When that aspect of our psyche is gone, it’s replaced by a different aspect that’s now ashamed and embarrassed of what’s it’s done.

Because of this concept we are always indecisive and changing our mind. For example, this may be a reason why a lot of couple’s “fall out of love”. One day we’re madly in love with somebody. This was “the one”, but the next thing we know we’re over that person and now love somebody else. Every time we change our mind that’s one aspect of our psyche replacing itself with another.

Another classic example is going to the fridge for a snack and reaching for a chocolate cake, and then something else comes to your mind saying “I could really go for a bag of chips right now”. Then you can’t decide between the cake and the chips. This is an example of 2 opposing aspects of our psyche. We’ve all done stuff like that before.

The idea of being hypocritical and contradictory is another aspect this concept. When we judge someone else and say “I would never do that” and then the next thing we know, we find ourselves doing just that. Perhaps in high school we criticized someone we knew for doing drugs or drinking underage. Then sometime later we ended up giving into peer pressure and did drugs at a party. That was one aspect of our psyche that said “no, I would never do that” and another aspect that said “screw that, I’m doing this!”

Each aspect of our psychology essentially operates with a “mind of their own.” Each one of our thoughts is directed from one particular aspect of our psyche in an attempt to get us to identify with it. Whenever we react to a circumstance, that’s just one aspect of our psyche manifesting itself.

Each aspect of our psychology fights for supremacy and wants to be in control. That’s why we see our personality as such a dynamic and shifting thing. If there were a hundred people in a car all fighting for the steering wheel, what kind of course do you think that car would take? It would just drive all over the place, kind of like our thought process.

We get angry and we identify with anger. Now anger gets control of the car and is steering it where it wants to go. When anger gets bored and says “I’m outta here” and leaves the car stranded somewhere else and we realize “where am I? How did I get here?” Then another aspect of our subconscious comes forward and takes the car and steers it somewhere else. The consciousness should have control of the wheel, but it’s stuck at the back sleeping. It’s the various aspects of our subconscious that direct the course of our life.

That’s the whole concept of the Plurality of the Subconscious. The entire time that process is going on the consciousness remains asleep. We instead identify with the various aspects of our subconscious and let them direct the course of our life.

Our mind has a conscious part and a subconscious part. Anytime you’ve ever made a voluntary effort to focus or concentrate or pay attention, that was your conscious mind. Anytime you’ve made an effort to be mindful of your surroundings, that was your conscious mind.  Anytime you’ve ever made an effort to be aware of where you were and what you were doing, that was your conscious mind.

The subconscious mind is different. The subconscious is very mechanical and automatic.  While the conscious mind requires a voluntary effort from you, the subconscious mind just acts on its own. The subconscious is reactive and has us reacting to circumstances. The consciousness is passive.

Our subconscious mind is made up of a ton of components or psychological aspects or “psychic aggregates”. We do not possess a definitive individuality, but we are a psychological multiplicity. Because of the subconscious no person is continuously the same. We’re never the same person. We’re constantly shifting. Our personality is very fluid. We’re constantly changing and adapting as various aspects of our psychology come in and out.

We change our mind because one aspect of our psychology is replaced by another. We react in situations and then regret what we have done when certain aspects of our psyche replace each other. We can’t make up our mind. When we make up our mind we change our mind. We are full of contradiction and hypocrisy.

Our subconscious can essentially be broken down into anger, envy, lust, gluttony, laziness, pride, greed, and fear. Each of these is seen as the head of a legion of many more aspects of our psychology. It’s like each one of those categories is the captain of a giant army. Anger might be the general, but underneath anger might be hate, bigotry, discrimination, impatience, annoyances etc. Gluttony would include overeating, as well as addictions, such as drugs and alcohol. Greed might include attachment to money and material things. Fear includes all major anxieties and phobias, as well as little worries and concerns. Essentially, all aspects of our psychology can be grouped under one of those categories.

Our consciousness is essentially “trapped” within the various aspects of our subconscious that we have. Every aspect of our psychology that we have whether it be envy, anger, fear, lust, they all have our consciousness “trapped”.

Consequently, the subconscious controls our lives and causes us to sleep profoundly. The irony of being human is right now you’re saying “well I’m not in bed, I’m not asleep.” The irony is right now you are asleep, but firmly believe to be awake. Life is a continual dream. It’s full of distraction.

We find ourselves constantly bombarded with thousands of thoughts everyday. We can’t keep track of all these different thoughts. We’re constantly thinking about errands we have to run, chores we have to do, our plans for the weekend etc. While we’re doing that we’re never in the present moment.

Our consciousness lives in the present moment.  Anytime we put ourselves into the present moment, we’re activating our consciousness. The subconscious is constantly trying to take us out of the present moment. It’s dragging us back into the past, reliving memories and experiences. Or it’s pulling us into the future so we can worry and plan and plot. It generates those thoughts and images so we can identify with them and stay out of the present moment. It continuously distracts us in an attempt to keep us out of the present moment and prevent us from working with our consciousness.

When we work with our consciousness, we’re essentially “feeding” it, and “starving” the subconscious.  The subconscious wants to be fed. It wants to be in control of our personality. When the subconscious is in control then we’re “feeding” it, and allowing it to sustain itself.

The consciousness is almost like a seed within us. It starts to germinate when we are born, but without light, food, and water the seed cannot grow beyond germination. If we planted that seed in the some dirt and watered that seed and placed it near a sunny window, that seed would continue to grow.

Let’s say there’s another seed in that soil, the seed of a weed. As our plant starts to grow and develop, so does the weed. The problem is the weed grows faster than our seed. So the weed takes all the water and nutrients from the soil and because the weed grows faster, its leaves shade our little plant.

So every day we water the weed, make sure it’s free of bugs and fertilize it. And that weed keeps growing into a giant weed. We totally forgot about that consciousness. That’s what happens with humanity. That weed that we grow and develop is the subconscious.

If we give our seed the right conditions it will grow and transform us. We have to realize at some point that the weed is not our plant. If we pull that weed out of the soil and go back to tending to our seed, it would continue to grow and develop, leading to an awakening of the consciousness.

We have to work on our psychology to remove or control that which prevents the consciousness from growing, the subconscious. The keyword is “work” on our psychology. This isn’t going to happen automatically. We’ve been identifying with that weed for so long that we don’t know what the consciousness is. We’re so disconnected from it that we forget that it’s even there.

Imagine yourself in a crowded room and in the corner is a small child. That small child represents the consciousness. The problem is other than that child in the room there are a hundred other people. And those people are shouting and getting in the way. We can’t even notice that child in the corner. We’ve even forgotten that it’s there. We’re too busy noticing all those other voices clammering for our attention.

The average person has between 30-50 thousand thoughts in a given day. All those different thoughts are like different people screaming for our attention. We end up identifying with the loudest person and then stop and listen to what they have to say and have a conversation with them. We’ve forgotten about that small child in the corner. Now if we could shut up every one else in that room (i.e. meditation), turn off every other voice, we could focus on that small child and hear what it has to say.

Because we spend the whole time identifying with our subconscious, our consciousness never gets fed and doesn’t grow. There’s a Native American fable about an Indian chief talking to a child about a white wolf and a black wolf constantly at war for dominance. This is analogous to our consciousness and subconscious being constantly at war for domination of who we are as a person. The child asks the chief “which one wins?” The elder responds “It depends which one you feed.” We all have that choice.

Every time we identify with anger and we surrender to it, then we’re feeding and sustaining it. Anytime we identify with fear, then we’re feeding that fear, and we’re causing this viscous cycle where these things just keep growing and growing. The more times we feed it, the stronger it gets, and the more it wants to recur. So the more it generates thoughts and images in our mind that cause us to identify with anger and fear.

All the aspects of our subconscious are triggered by various circumstances. Most of our behaviors, the thoughts, the emotions, and the actions are simply reactions. If someone insults you, you get angry. If someone compliments you, you feel happy. You get caught up in traffic, you get angry. You find some money on the ground, you get happy. That’s what our emotions are for many cases, just simply a reaction to circumstances.

The circumstance could be a person saying or doing something, or an inanimate object, like a traffic jam for example. “I am late, therefore I am angry. That’s the equation. Why? Well, because I’ve reacted that way my entire life. That’s the way I’m programmed through previous experiences and behavior, and education and upbringing, society. That’s the way I’m supposed to react.”

A lot of our emotions and our thoughts follow a pattern like that. That pattern has been developed over the course of our lives by the type of parents we had, the area that we grew up in, the people we went to school with, the experiences we had. All of our life experiences have molded these sets of equations of A + B = C. And we carry hundreds of different equations within us, where the “equals” part is just a different aspect of our psychology.

So, all kinds of different aspects of our life are affected by various aspects of our psychology. The course of our life is like a car just flying all over the place with different people fighting for the steering wheel. The whole time there’s that consciousness, the one who should be driving the car, but can’t even get near the steering wheel.

We put ourselves on a pedestal and think that we’re “perfect” or we’re fine. We excuse behaviors in ourselves that we wouldn’t tolerate for a second in other people. We spend so much time criticizing and judging other people, and never direct that at ourselves. We never get to know who we really are. That’s one of the difficult things about being human and examining our own psychology. If we want to transform ourselves we really have to hold up that mirror and look at the reflection staring back. And not a lot of people want to do that.

That’s where the technique of self-observation comes in. Self-observation is holding up that mirror and really studying what’s there.

We must observe ourselves and try to get to know the different aspects of our subconscious mind. Just like the moon has a dark side that you never see, your psychology has a hidden side that you can’t see. Imagine a dark cave with a small candle. That small candle represents the consciousness and it illuminates a very tiny area. And because of that there are all kinds of stuff that can hide in the darkness. We want to develop that consciousness and turn that candle into a huge spotlight that shines everywhere leaving nowhere for the subconscious to hide.

We have to discover what aspects of our psychology control us the most? What aspects of our psyche appear regularly? What triggers them? What problems do they cause us? When you look back over a particular day what emotions were there? What thoughts were there? What triggered them? Where did they come from? What were the results of those thoughts or emotions?

Observation is the first step in working on our psychology, and the next step is comprehension, really understanding everything about that particular aspect of your psychology. This includes how it works, what causes it, where it comes from, and the different formulas that allow it to happen. Once you fully understand a certain aspect of your psychology, then the third stage is changing it, essentially controlling it or “removing” it from your behavior.

1. Observe it.
2. Understand it.
3. Change it.

Our daily life is like a psychological gymnasium where we can essentially “work-out” or “exercise” our consciousness. Every situation we find ourselves in is an opportunity to learn something and perfect ourselves. Every situation in our life is an opportunity to observe, comprehend and change an aspect of our psychology.

The social interaction of life is the perfect mirror in which we are able to discover ourselves. In social interactions hidden aspects of our psyche come out spontaneously and if we are in a state of alertness we can see them. So our friend comes over in a car. If we’re paying attention we can see “that’s jealousy I’m feeling right now. Why should I feel like this? This is my friend. I’m supposed to be happy for them.”

We must be alert like a sentry in a time of war. We have to be waiting for the manifestation of a particular emotion or a particular thought. So if we really want to get to know anger or envy, then we must swear to be “conscious of the different manifestations of anger that occur during the day. I am going to be prepared and waiting for them to happen.”

Eventually we want to observe ourselves in action from instant-to-instant, moment-to-moment. That’s the goal. That’s a state of continuous consciousness. That’s going to take some practice to be constantly aware of our thoughts, feelings, and actions. That’s something we’ll develop over time. Right now we just have to look at what aspects of our subconscious cause us the most problems in our lives and those will be ones that we will start to observe.

The goal of awakening the consciousness is controlling and changing the various aspects of our subconscious mind, and “freeing” the consciousness. Recall the story of Aladdin and the lamp. Aladdin was an average person who found a brass lamp where a magical genie was trapped within. Aladdin rubbed the lamp and allowed the genie to escape. The genie was able to transform his life, and make him happy, and grant him wishes. This story is like an analogy for the concept of the consciousness and subconscious.

Awakening of the consciousness is eliminating the subconscious and freeing the consciousness, allowing the consciousness to grow. It’s ripping that weed out of the soil, cleansing the psychology. It’s choosing not to identify with anger, envy, greed, fear, lust, but identifying with our consciousness. It’s kicking all the noisy people out of the room and focusing on the small child in the corner, listening to what it has to say, allowing it to guide the course of our life. It’s taking hold of that ship’s wheel and steering it in the right direction. It’s no longer allowing the wind and the waves to determine the course of our life, no longer being a victim of circumstance.

This can only happen through conscious work. It’s not going to come unless we work on ourselves. The awakening of the consciousness isn’t going to happen spontaneously someday. It comes through a slow process of working directly on our psychology. It doesn’t come overnight.

We have to struggle against the subconscious. It is unnecessary for us to continue to live in misery. It’s really a choice that we can make. We can choose to fight against the subconscious. We can choose to develop the consciousness.

We think we are in control of our lives, but a lot of the things we do are merely reactions. We simply react to situations. We react to other people. We react to the circumstances of life. If somebody insults us, then we get angry and upset. If someone compliments us, then we feel good. If we’re stuck in a traffic jam while driving, we react in anger and impatience. If someone cuts us off on the road, we get angry.

We like to think we’re in control but in many cases we’re under the illusion of control. We’re not even in control of our own mind. We like to think we are, but if we ever try to meditate or quiet our mind, we quickly discover how difficult that is to do. We get continuously assaulted by an endless stream of thoughts, images, and memories that keep us continuously distracted. Consequently, we find ourselves in a perpetual dream-like state. Our consciousness is asleep.

As we begin to observe ourselves we will uncover a hidden side of ourselves. By definition the average human being has a large portion of their psychology that’s hidden from them. Just like the moon has a dark side, our mind has a side that we’re not aware of. That’s the definition of the unconscious or subconscious.  The subconscious is this massive section that we are completely unaware of what’s happening.

Unfortunately for us, the subconscious is the source of a lot of the impulses, drives, emotions, thoughts, feelings, and reactions that we have. When we start observing ourselves and start becoming “conscious” of our own thoughts, feelings, and actions, we uncover the whole hidden side of ourselves that we were completely unaware of. This is something that happens through the process of self-observation.

We will discover that we are unable to control certain aspects of our mind.  Anger and depression and anxiety are all very hard to control. Nobody wants to experience these, but they’re not so simple. You can’t just “snap” out of it or tell yourself to “get over it”. These are very difficult states or emotions that take a lot of effort to overcome.

Emotions such as anger, lust, envy, fear, and depression all seem to operate with “a mind of their own”. It’s like each one of them represents a different person inside of us. How many times have we lost our temper with someone and found ourselves having to apologize later. We end up saying “I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me. I don’t know what I was thinking. I didn’t really mean it.”

The next question is if you “didn’t really mean it”, who meant it then? How did it happen? What came over you? Where did that reaction come from? What part of your psychology produced that behavior? If it was directed at a loved one, someone you care about, then why would you want to say hurtful things to them or do hurtful actions to them? Where exactly did that behavior come from?

We have all kinds of things like that happening throughout our lives, but we never really stop to question where and why? What is anger exactly? Why did I exhibit that emotion? Where did it come from? What triggered it and what kind of effects did it have on my surroundings, the people around me. These are the types of questions that we don’t ask, but we will start to ask when we begin studying ourselves.

We have so many behaviors that we just accept and take for granted. We judge and criticize everyone around us, but very rarely do we judge and criticize ourselves. One of the most important aspects of working on psychology is to take all that effort used in judging and criticizing other people and direct that internally. Rather than questioning “what’s their problem? What are they acting like that for?” Instead direct that inwards when we find ourselves in a similar situation.

We’re like a small ship tossed about in the stormy waters of the ocean. These uncontrollable aspects of our psychology become the wind and the waves of our ship. They control and manipulate most of our lives and actions.

We all know people who have problems with anger or addiction or lust or envy, and end up complicating all kinds of aspects of their lives. We’re usually able to see their problem and always question “why can’t they see what they’re doing? Don’t they understand the consequences of their actions? Can’t they see that they’re always single because… Can’t they see that they’re broke and have no money because… Can’t they see they’re unemployed because…” That’s always clearly visible in other people but something we rarely see in ourselves.

These “uncontrollable” aspects of our psyche are the cause of the suffering and misery that we experience; the unpleasant things in life, the difficult circumstances and experiences that we wish we didn’t have.  When we look at a difficult circumstance of our life and figure out what happened, we usually see it’s the result of these uncontrollable aspects of our psyche.

There is a continuous search for pleasure to escape from misery. Because we’re under the influence of all this negative stuff like anger, fear, and depression we have a continual search for pleasure as an escape from the misery. That’s why as a society we become so materialistic; we look for this “happiness” from somewhere else. The happiness can’t come from within because we have all this negative stuff there, so we look for it in cars and houses and jobs and money, forms of entertainment etc. Some people go as far as drugs and alcohol as an attempt to find that pleasure or “happiness”.

We constantly find ourselves shifting between pleasure and pain, highs and lows. We’re constantly going from being really happy and enjoying something to being depressed or upset. We’re like a pendulum, constantly swinging from one extreme to the other as we find ourselves transitioning from the high points to the low points. This is an unbalanced way of living that can cause all kinds of problems psychologically.

It is unnecessary for us to continue living like this. We can choose to start working on our psychology. This blog will act as a practical guide for anyone suffering with any kind of psychological problem or just looking to improve their mental health. It will feature various tips and tools and techniques that will help you understand and control various aspects of your mind.

The contents of this blog should help you to transform yourself in a practical, positive manner. It’ll help you to transform from a stressed out, nervous-wreck into a calm, relaxed, tranquil person. It’ll help you change from a timid, insecure person into a bold, confident person. It’ll help you change from an angry, wrathful, tempered person into a kind, easy-going, patient person.

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more content to come.