Some years ago I was pondering
Civil War battles and in particular what could possibly motivate men to make a
charge knowing there was an almost 100 percent certainty that they would die.
This saying came to my mind: “We consistently overestimate our level of
consciousness, and we consistently underestimate our level of unconsciousness.”
This was the only way I could make sense of it; there was something besides the
rational conscious mind propelling those men to their doom.
Over the years this insight has
seemed more and more powerful to me. I think it can be applied in a general
fashion. Most of us think we have a lot more control over our thoughts and
actions than we really do. In fact, this is where the belief in free will comes
from; we think we consciously choose our thoughts and actions.
Of course it’s easy to
understand why we would have this bias. We are only aware of what is in our
conscious mind, so we think that’s where all the action is. However,
neuroscientists are now establishing the power of our unconscious mind and the
limitations of consciousness. This may sound like a bad thing at first, but
when you begin to understand how it works, you can learn how to harness the
unconscious mind to your advantage.
