Tag Archives: subconscious mind

Chuck’s Place: The Inexhaustible Wealth Of The Subconscious Mind

We reap what we sow, so watch the words you put into your head…
-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

I have been a serious student of the psyche for the past 50 years. By my early 20’s I had amassed a substantial portion of Jung’s Collected Works, some of which I’ve yet to fully read!

I’ve spent an equivalent amount of time immersed in the shamanic world of Carlos Castaneda, which provided me the tools and knowhow to explore the energy body, what religious traditions have called the Soul.

Both Freud and Jung explored the therapeutic utility of hypnosis, which accesses the power of the subconscious mind. Ultimately, they both abandoned hypnosis in favor of more reliable outcomes obtainable through their new discipline of psychotherapy.

Ancient knowledge of the power of trance and suggestion can be found in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Hindu literature is filled with warnings about the power of suggestion to control and manipulate human behavior. One is coached to choose one’s guru wisely.

Beyond these concerns about the potential limitations or abuses raised about hypnosis, the more fundamental truth that hypnosis reveals is that the human mind operates largely through the power of suggestion. What we tell ourselves and truly believe is what we become. Our lives are run by autosuggestions that we deliver, or take in from others, to our subconscious minds

Joe Dispenza’s book, You Are The Placebo, is a testament to the power of belief and autosuggestion to heal. The placebo effect is what truly heals. If you truly believe something can happen, it will. Mainstream scientific experiment emphasizes placebo as evidence that something didn’t work, rather than absolutely marveling at, and delving into, the power of the mind to make something happen.

Healers and philosophers of  the 19th and 20th century New Thought Movement in America believed that Christ was a teacher who emphasized the divine in all individuals versus a divinity unique to himself. They culled the secret to his healing power in biblical stories: an individual must believe within themselves that they can be healed, and only then shall it come to pass. The secret: the placebo effect.

As surmised by New Thought practitioners, the power of this simple truth so threatened religious institutions that they withdrew the notion of divine power from humans and instituted the reigning power of dogma, with dependence upon institutions outside the self being the only way to be guided in wisdom and healing.

We are currently living through a time of unraveling, where core beliefs that have sustained the human race for centuries are being replaced with new beliefs, suggesting a whole new world. The role of the thought police, in controlling what can be stated, written and talked about, is increasingly evident. Suspending all judgment, it is truly a remarkable example of how suggestion and belief create a world.

The subconscious mind has the absolute power to manifest a physical reality, for better or for worse. Although it is largely suggested to by the accumulated wisdom of the instincts and the archetypes, the subconscious is powerfully impressed upon by the beliefs and desires of the conscious mind. Thus, the inexhaustible wealth of the subconscious mind is best accessed through a mature conscious mind.

The ultimate check on how we exercise our power of suggestion is karma. The divine power of the subconscious mind will acquiesce to any belief impressed upon it, but it does not control the outcomes of these effects. We reap what we sow, for better or for worse.

The subconscious mind records and stores every bit of experience we have had in this life, as well as in past lives, and, at the deepest levels, the entire history of the universe and beyond. Edgar Cayce provided diagnoses and healing prescriptions for thousands of  unknown patients while in trance. Everything is accessible if one believes it to be possible.

In shamanic recapitulation one can access all the details of a forgotten life, as one intends a healing journey and trusts the guidance and promptings of the subconscious mind.

The subconscious mind is our greatest means of invisible support. If we approach it with faith and gratitude for all that it does for our physical and mental bodies, we are surely to be supported in the changes we seek.

Never to be underestimated is the power of the conscious mind, which is solely responsible for the life it suggests and manifests through its suggestions to the subconscious mind.

Please note that my affirming always the suggestion of the greater good is hardly the shallowness levied at positive affirmations somewhat in vogue now as expressed in the phrase toxic positivity. What I have outlined here is a paradigm shift in the understanding of the structure and dynamics of the psyche which highlights the power of divine action taken by the subconscious mind in response to human desire and true belief. That action is undeniably real and with it comes the divine responsibility to be in alignment with the truth.

Intend always the greater good, for self and other,
Chuck

Chuck’s Place: The Real War Of Now Is Within

Let the reconciliation begin…
-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

Opposition within our human mind is being reflected, and physically enacted, in all the destructive events currently unfolding on the human playing field. Thought is the prime cause of physical reality. What we believe is what comes to be.

This opposition in mind is rooted in two rival attitudes within the conscious mind. In one corner is the rational mind that holds that seeing is believing. Logic is law, and observable reality is the only fundamental truth.

In the other corner is a conscious attitude that believes in supernatural powers inherent and programmable in the subconscious mind. This attitude does not dismiss the value of the rational mind but broadens it to include a conscious relationship with the spiritual dimension of the subconscious mind.

A conscious attitude that embraces the existence and power of a subconscious mind is the enemy of rationality. Nietzsche expressed simply the truest belief of the rational mind: “God is dead.” Reason has no place for unseen powers and spirituality. Reason lives in a material world—period. Beyond physical life is lights out.

Everyone is challenged with these two attitudes. Who doesn’t turn to material solution when confronted with a physical issue? Who can state, with certainty, that unseen spiritual forces exist and can change physical life? These conflicting attitudes are in a war without compromise. As reflected outwardly, we see no war on the current human stage  amenable to compromise.

Perhaps the greatest institution of rational thought and scientific discovery in the modern world is Harvard University. Look at the current full-throttle attack on Harvard, as well as all similarly established institutions of higher learning.

Of course, we can point to actual personalities causing this standoff, but at the deepest level this struggle is the physical expression of the battle raging within the human psyche for control and exercise of the human mind. The irrational is deeply challenging the rational at the university level.

Pure reason’s arch rival is called the power of suggestion, which holds that through the employment of conscious suggestion to the subconscious mind, physical reality is impacted. In this paradigm, the subconscious mind is imbued with divine power and is in divine obligation to manifest the word, or intent, impressed upon it by the conscious mind.

This warring backdrop of mind is actually an evolutionary struggle in a developmental process of maturity of our collective mind. At the early stages of human evolution the subconscious mind was the only mind that directed life, through manifesting instinctive suggestions impressed upon it. This level of control still largely runs the systems of the human body.

With the advent of consciousness came the rational mind with its ability to override the automatic instincts lodged in the subconscious mind. Reason gradually took dominance over decision making, which, through its unknown power of suggestion upon the subconscious mind, generated our current world of dominant rational belief. This dominance of the world’s mind by reason is now flagrantly being challenged upon the world stage, and we are all experiencing it.

The developmental stage we are currently embroiled in insists that the power of reason and spiritual potential be reconciled. Many a journeyer into the deeper realms of the collective unconscious has been overwhelmed by encounters with non-ordinary reality at the subtle energy dimensions of our being.

I personally, as a young boy, was terrified nightly by the disintegrative impact of such encounters. Had I not my rational mind’s ability to create a structure that allowed me to navigate the vastness of infinity, my fragile ego would have surely disintegrated into nothingness.

Paranoid schizophrenics are telling the truth when they say that television characters are speaking directly to them, as they are experiencing the synchronous interconnectedness of all things. Unfortunately, the impact of such a broader view overwhelms their narrow ego foothold upon reality and they succumb to psychosis, flitting about in infinity without a captain at the wheel of their floundering ship.

Without reason we are severely handicapped at the spiritual dimensions of our being. With only reason, we can never know and experience the fullness of all that we are.

We also need conscious reasoning to assume responsible control for the suggestions we submit to our subconscious mind. The world at present is experiencing the effect of impulsive suggestions controlling the world’s subconscious mind, manifesting incessant changing realities on a minute-to-minute basis. The power of the subconscious mind is available to deliver both balance or chaos.

The developmental challenge at the moment is for the rational mind to choose right action in its directives to the subconscious mind. This is bringing truth to power. We are all challenged to choose the greater good over the equal potential of choosing all for self-interest only.

Be empowered to realize that the outer state of things has its roots in the inner state of things. We all have the ability to solve the state of the outer world by solving the state of the world within. And as you explore your inner powers be like a true alchemist, share your findings with no-one. When we share our beliefs and experiences we invite the thought police.

Just as the world of journalism is losing its ability to express free speech, when we share our experiences we invite the reactionary beliefs of someone else’s conscious and subconscious minds, which then impacts our own subconscious. We are then barraged telepathically, as well as outright verbally, with beliefs that instill doubt or burden us with the hostility of others.

When engaging the power of your own subconscious mind, tell your rational mind to suspend judgment. Allow that mind to release its grip as you relax the body and become groggy. Then state your suggestion and allow your imagination and emotion to impress your subconscious with its desire.

Note your results privately over time. As you discover the validity of the process via your results, your rational mind will step up to the plate and embrace the greater truth of its former rival attitude. This is how these two attitudes are reconciled. Ask your growingly confident rational mind to stay suggestive only to the intent for the greater good for all.

This reconciliation of warring attitudes within will ultimately reflect in a changed world without, as we evolve consciousness to further include all that we truly are.

To reason and beyond,
Chuck

Chuck’s Place: Replenish The Body With New Thought

Try on some new thoughts…
-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

Thoughts issue from the mental or spiritual plane of our being. Our mind, or spirit, is located in our energy body, or soul, and is intimately connected to, and oversees, all the operations of the physical body. Thoughts have an energetic momentum that profoundly influences our physical body.

 Our ego mind, though actually of spirit origin, is so deeply identified with the material world, that it simply cannot believe in the primacy of spirit behind physical life. To entertain this spiritual perspective, as suggested in this blog, suspend temporarily the judgment of the material mind view and open to an insinuation of spirit from your higher mind.

The world is so reflecting to us at this time how rapidly changing thoughts are dismantling and reshaping our material reality. Long held medical, environmental and economic beliefs and truisms are being eliminated with the stroke of a pen. This is a grand scale example of how the force of a spirit, as exercised through thoughts, is reshaping our material world.

The big question is how the material world will carry and sustain the demands of these radically demanding thoughts. As individuals we are equally challenged to contend with the impact of our own thoughts upon our physical bodies.

 Spirits choose to enter an earthly life to test out their thoughts in a material playing field. Choice of family and physical circumstance provide the materials to mold a physical life to embody the thoughts it seeks deeply to explore through a human life. Our physical lives are thus our spirit’s laboratory for discovery and growth. Spirits may actually need a physical life to advance in their more subtle dimensions of existence.

For a spirit who lacks the experience of emotional attachment and the maturation and refinement of love needed to advance on its spiritual plane of existence, an earthly life in time, space and the dense energy of physical relationships can provide all the necessary materials for advancement.

As a spirit works its way through the developmental stages to mature love in physical form, it will materialize or attract to it a plethora of relationship experiences to refine its experience of love and relationship  from its crudest to its most sublime form. This subtle energetic achievement of refined love will allow it to deepen its spiritual horizons in infinity.   

Of course the truth is that we need spirit to advance our life in physical form as well. Spirit, or the mind, generates the thoughts whose substance builds the body. Yes, we build muscle and physical skill through physical exercise and repetition, but we equally generate those physical results through their repetition in the imagination. This is the action of suggestion from the conscious to the subconscious mind. It is the subconscious mind that materializes spirit intent.

Not only are our bodies shaped by our own thoughts but also by the thoughts of others who are attracted to our thoughts and moods. If we are burdened with our own negative thoughts and absorb the negative thoughts of others, our bodies, the physical representatives of those thoughts, will reflect the weight of those burdens upon our slumped shoulders and the sad, depressed feelings impressed upon our wrinkled brows.

In order to replenish our bodies we must allow for new thoughts to saturate our minds. May these new thoughts be for the greater good of self and other. Like attracts like. When we bathe in positive, loving thought, we magnetize our energy to draw to us people, circumstances and outside thoughts that reflect our state of mind. This also has the effect of detaching us from others whom we may have attracted from our prior negativity. Thoughts, people and spirit entities drop away when they find no sustenance in our current positive thinking.

Of course, we must contend with the ruts of old thoughts that have been habitually stored in the automatic functioning of the subconscious mind. These habits are the triggers associated with old thoughts. The good news is that the subconscious is always open to suggestions in the form of spirited new thoughts.

However, before the subconscious abandons an old directive it will test your resolve and patience through seeing your reaction to old triggers. Don’t get caught. Prove your sincerity. Firmly tell the old thought to get lost, but most importantly, emphatically and often, state the new thought. And then, with unswerving faith in the power of one’s new thought, calmly follow its yellow brick road to completion.

Try this one: My body reflects my spirit. My spirit is completely healthy, wealthy and wise. My deepest spiritual desires are realized in human form. Everything is possible.

Chuck

Chuck’s Place: It is Change In Desire, Not New Rules, That Cures

The Spiritualization of Desire…
-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

Stop having to stop anything. We get hooked on this materialist imperative for the obvious reason that our senses provide a constant barrage of physical impressions that dominate our attention and mental consideration. We are led to believe that if we are to improve our lot we must change something physically.

In this scenario, our spirit, in its ego form, takes charge and insists upon a new schedule of defined behaviors that will advance it toward its goal. Inevitably there is habitual resistance toward this stated intent, but ego basks in the power of its determination as it pushes through.

The shadow of resistance might lie dormant as ego flexes its muscle, but inevitably there is a coup that overthrows the best of ego intentions. Ego intent is no match for desire. The fire of desire will reign supreme until the fuel that feeds it runs out. That fuel is the spirit of the lower mind that is identified with the denser energy of the physical body, as well as all things physical. Its battle cry is, generally, “More!”

It may be that we want desperately to truly change a behavior and, in fact, must to stay healthy. But in order to achieve this in a sustained way, the change must come at the level of spirit, not from efforts directed at the physical plane, which ultimately terminate in defeat.

The needed change is the refinement of the spirit of desire that issues from the lower self of the physical body and ultimately rises to the higher Spirit self that resides, in the transparency of truth, at the immortal dimension of our being. We experience that elevated dimension from the truth of our heart, the clarity of our intuition, and in our partnership with the divinity of all that is through the portal of our subconscious mind.

To avail itself of the power of this divine relationship, ego does well to focus its attention on suggestions to its subconscious mind, rather than focus on new rules for physical behavior. In this scenario, an influx of spirit energy from a higher plane of self is released to effect a greater spiritualization, at the coarser plane of the physical body.

Specifically, the ego could ask the subconscious mind to lift its desire for a particular behavior, and transform its energy into a changed expression for the greater good of self and other. How might such a transformation feel?

Say, for example one was dealing with a sexual addiction. Under the compulsion of such desire, one spends most of one’s day trying to secure objects to serve as a release for this desire. These casual hookups have no connection except the mutual desire for sexual release. Sexual desire at this level is at its coarsest—physical contact for physical release.

If one were to strongly and consistently demand that the subconscious engage its energies to lift this compulsion, the first effect might be the experience of a reduced actual desire, or physical neutrality, at exposure to a possible object for release. What one then confronts is more the old habit of thought of desire, but not actually the compulsion itself.

In this scenario, the ego is charged to make the choice to accept this gift of grace, and not purposely try to activate the desire for habit’s sake. The ego is asked to be the adult that has been provided with grace by its Higher Self and choose to stay in the peace of this actual moment. This is not a new rule, it’s simply being where you actually are in that moment. Ancient habits may require many rounds in this choiceful cycle.

The actual spiritual lifting of this coarser sexual desire might ultimately refine it into the experience of true loving connection and cherished sexual union in a committed partnership, with a true soulmate, versus mere release with an indiscriminate playmate.

Obviously, these transformative stages are relevant to the refinement of all compulsive desires. These might include food, wardrobe, substances, perfection, negativity, the getting of attention, rage, self-importance—the list is endless. Life in human form is life in the refinement of spirit, from the coarser to the finer, the ticket for spiritual adventure and advance.

The technology for this advancement rests in spirit relationship. This includes spirit at the physical level, spirit at the mental level of the ego, and spirit at the level of the divine in the relationship between the conscious and subconscious minds.

Forget approaching change with a new set of rules for the body. Get instead to the spiritual heart of the matter. With love and demand, ask and you shall receive. Be receptive to grace as it arrives as it will, every day, in some way.

An equanimity mantra from Jan, said slowly, with emphasis on “I am”:

I am at peace.
I am at peace.
Within and without,
I am at peace.

An equanimity mantra from Chuck:

Everything is Meditation.

Only the best,
Chuck

Chuck’s Place: Taking Responsible Command Of The Dual Mind

The dual mind is inseparable…
-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

The mind, though dual in function, is but one, inseparable mind. Half of it, known as the conscious mind, exists in the light of consciousness. The other half, known as the subconscious mind, lives in the darkness of unconsciousness. And in that darkness it is connected to everything beyond our conscious awareness, including infinity itself.

These different locations of mind perform complementary, yet vastly different, mental functions. Understanding their differences, yet most vital and intimate relationship, is key to the realization of one’s full potential.

With the bright light of consciousness the conscious mind is afforded the awareness to observe, study, reason, judge, decide and take action in life. Such exercises of its will allows it to override both common sense or instinctual impulse as it charts its own course.

This freedom to exercise one’s intent is akin to divine prerogative and comes with enormous responsibility. Conscious decisions are causes which become the effects of manifest reality. Consciousness is free to act both in its own self interest alone, or for the greater good of all. It is the responsibility of consciousness to choose wisely.

This responsibility is extremely crucial because it is the subconscious mind that, without reflection, produces the outcomes to the suggestions it receives from the conscious mind. The divinity of the subconscious is its supernatural ability to indeed make manifest the many whims of its intimate partner, the conscious mind.

The subconscious mind has access to both the personal unconscious of individuals as well as the collective unconscious of humankind. It remembers everything beyond the scope of conscious memory. If we are trying to solve a problem, it reaches, via association, into the annals of human history and brings forth images and knowledge to memory, dream, or intuition, that often provide consciousness with the missing piece of the puzzle of its current struggle.

Notice, however, that this process has nothing to do with logical thinking. The subconscious mind associates; it doesn’t think. Thinking is purely the process of the conscious mind. Furthermore, the subconscious mind, once it is impressed by a suggestion, manifests that suggestion via a pathway of events that often completely defies logic. This is the reason for the caveat to all autosuggestion: don’t attach to the outcome.

I conjecture that the subconscious taps, via association, the pool of collective wisdom available to it that best fits the accomplishment of its mission to fulfill its working orders, the suggestion from the conscious mind. It charts, via feeling, its course.

This might involve many preparatory events that clear the way for the expected manifestation of its goal. It is often only in hindsight that we can appreciate the role of seemingly unrelated or counterintuitive events that actually provided the foundation for the desired result.

This ability to often miraculously create is applied to any suggestion the subconscious attaches to. It trusts implicitly the vetting process of the conscious mind to decide upon a suggestion. Its role is to create, not judge whether a suggestion it is given is good or evil. It will not argue with the morality of a suggestion; it spends all its energy on manifesting what it is told is needed.

If we don’t have leadership within the conscious personality that suggests to the subconscious outcomes for the greater good, we become burdened with bearing the outcome of poor decisions. This is the law of cause and effect, the karma of all thought and action. We certainly can see this mirrored in the outer world now, where the creative forces of manifestation are being directed by tenuous leadership, creating tremendous instability all throughout the globe.

The conscious and subconscious minds are indeed a royal couple who are responsible for the full course of our human life. The royalty of consciousness is its ability to direct. For maximum, sustainable success, this requires great humility and the ability to think for one’s self by suspending judgment and determining what is truly right for self and all.

The subconscious mind, our inner miracle maker, can do anything. This is its gift.  When the conscious mind provides its intimate partner, the subconscious mind, with the gift of suggestions grounded in love and the greater good, we take best command of our dual mind for the betterment of all.

For the betterment of all,
Chuck