Personal Existence and the Relationship Between the Subconscious and Self-Conscious Mind

Posted On December 6, 2019 / Written by Dr. Linda Gadbois

What we refer to as our personal (bodily) existence comes through our ability to perceive ourselves as a “whole reality”, rather than a fragmented part of an even greater reality that exists independent of us. Our perception of reality is formed as a manifestation of the relationship between the subconscious and self-conscious aspects of our mind. All things within the manifest world are produced and maintained through polar aspects of the same mind, both of which function as a “whole” in order to produce what we experience as both our body and the outer reality in which our body lives and grows. Both of these aspects of our mind exist as modes of universal consciousness necessary in order to create experience. We can only acquire “knowledge of our self” by way of our own self-created experiences.

Our material reality is produced by the even larger planetary mind of the Earth’s soul as Nature and the subconscious that’s inherent in all living things. What we refer to as the subconscious is a “field of universal intelligence”, also known as instinct, that all life on Earth draws on in order to function as a unified whole. We are born into the subconscious of the Earth’s plane as the means of manifesting in physical form in order to experience our self and create ourselves through the nature of our experiences. What we form as our personality on the material plane has no actual separate existence from all of humanity while in the material plane because we all share the same subconscious mind and act cooperatively to produce as a collaboration. What we refer to as the mind is an invisible field of encoded information that naturally acts to give rise to an entire Eco-system as a consistent and congruent version of reality.

Our subconscious is an aspect of the Earth’s collective unconscious and is what informs and gives life to all of Nature and what we traditionally call our lower self or animal soul of pure instinct. Our subconscious as our lower self is driven primarily by emotions, passions, and impulses, as a form of instinct. When we live out of a primarily unconscious state, we’re shaped by a constant form of emotional reactions that come in an automatic fashion and don’t require thought and reasoning as a decision making process that’s acted out in a self-aware fashion by active use of will. While we can tend to think that our “self-aware” mind “is” our higher, conscious mind, the fact is it’s a fundamental part of our subconscious that’s birthed fully within the physical body of the material plane. The entire lower plane of material manifestation is of the subconscious which acts to birth the self-conscious aspect of the same mind through a growth process that moves us from an experience of unity to one of perceived separation.

The self-conscious aspect of the material mind (the one most think of when using the term “mind”), forms our outer awareness of reality and of our “self” as an inherent part of that reality. This is the aspect of our mind that that only knows itself “as” (or through) our body. As we form an experience of our “self” as a “body and personality”, we identify with our own experiences. As we experience our self through our material existence and come to know ourselves as the personality of our body, we create a form of false identity, that’s commonly referred to as the ego. This is a false identity as an illusion or “false image” of ourselves, and is what causes us to perceive ourselves as a mortal being that “dies” with the body. Due to the fact that this temporary existence ends with the death of our body, we become fearful of dying.

While our soul is within the Earths plane all self-awareness comes as an awareness of our body and the outer reality produced by the collective unconscious of the Astral Plane (Earth’s atmosphere). We all exist within the consciousness of the Earths Soul (collective memory as a unified field of information that all life draws on in order to exist) of Astral (star) Light. What we refer to as the mind is synonymous with the soul, and is what acts to form a reality that functions as a whole idea with different aspects playing specialized roles in creating the same thing. What we experience as our outer reality is a hologram formed internally at the unconscious (collective) level that’s projected outward as a lens we look through that sorts and organizes all the information available in the astral field to form a reality that’s somewhat unique to us. While submerged in the collective unconscious we perceive the outer reality as being separate and independent of us, when the fact is it’s being created by us at the unconscious level. Material reality (made up of a matrix of organized light) is contained fully within the subconscious of the group mind as a self-perpetuating, self-regulating, and self-sustaining system.

Higher Consciousness

All reality exists through a dynamic interweaving of multiple planes and levels of vibratory densities that coalesce to form a unified experience of ourselves as a reality. All reality as we’re capable of knowing it exists within us as a mental construct produced, held in place, and orchestrated by our higher, creative mind. The higher plane of pure consciousness oversees this one and consists of ideas (archetypes) in their potential state. Our Soul is what acts as a medium that draws ideas down from the higher plane through a form of sympathetic resonance, and adapts them to the existing reality as a means of modifying and evolving it into a new stage of development. The Soul is the medium that exists between the upper, universal plane of potential, and the lower plane of manifestation. The process used for taking an idea in it’s potential state as a kind of prototype, and modifying it to produce a personalized version, is laid out for us through universal laws and principles that serve to provide us with a form of instruction for how to use our own mind in a much more empowering way.

In the most basic sense, the entire universe is mathematical in nature and acts to create and sustain all life through laws and principles that form a dynamic creative process. Our mind as our soul works by way of these same laws as the means for creating itself as a whole reality. All ideas originate from universal archetypes that contain everything that’s needed to produce that idea as a “whole reality” and lays the foundation necessary for creating as a certain “type” of experience. As we draw an idea into our mind we begin developing it in our imagination by how we define it using sensory details. We integrate that idea into our existing creation by reshaping it to be congruent and harmonious with our everyday life. Once adapted to our existing mental model, we create a series of mental filters that adjust our perceptual lens that we “look through” in order to perceive as a reality. Once an idea is incorporated in a logical and intuitive manner it becomes a natural part of our outer world.

We use our mental model as a holographic blueprint for interpreting the events of our life to give them meaning. The meaning we give things shapes how we experience them through the story we tell ourselves about them. Our story about things formed out of the meaning we give them, is what creates our reality in a consistent and intuitive way. What we refer to as our Higher Self is the creative aspect of our mind and soul as a mental paradigm or seed formed out of accumulated memory that projects into the lower plane forming our “lower self”. It remains fully present within the higher or middle plane, and as it descends into the material planes of manifestation, divides itself into polar aspects which are necessary to create itself as both a self and other, and as a inner self within an outer reality, both of which are formed out of the same essence and pattern. Duality is a necessary foundation for creating experience. We can only “know” something through an experience of it that brings realization. Knowledge of ourselves as something or someone specific only comes through how we “experience” ourselves within a certain type of story-line. We first produce our reality as an ongoing story we’re always in the process of telling ourselves, shaping the events of our life into a specific type of experience. We then absorb our self-made experiences and form them into “memories” of our self. Our soul is comprised of memory formed out of its own creations.

The personality of our body is formed out of the accumulated experiences produced by and then acquired through a subconscious existence on the lower plane of illusion. While in a manifest state of existence we naturally perceive ourselves as being our body, and believe our personality is “who we are” as a higher, cosmic soul. This image we form of ourselves is produced by a form of soul-amnesia as mistaken identity, commonly referred to as our ego or false self. Just as our self-conscious and subconscious are extensions of each other, they’re both an extension of our Higher Self and Mind. The self-conscious mind is formed as the culmination of mental activities originating in cosmic memory. Just as we draw on a field of intelligent powers within the material plane through intuition, which is similar to instinct, where our perceptions and behaviors are driven by emotional impulses that replace intentional decisions, we can also use our subconscious as a receptor for drawing on the higher plane of archetypal ideas that allow us to create outside of the group mind in an original and individual manner. Our subconscious is the means through which our Higher Self introduces ideas that are developed into visions for creating in our imagination.

As we change our perception from a personal perspective to a more universal one, our personal consciousness (ego) is obliterated through a higher realization. When we begin realizing that our entire reality is being created by our subconscious mind as a means of creating experiences of ourselves that can be utilized to facilitate our own conscious evolution, we begin seeing all of reality as a reflection of inner aspects of our own psyche that normally remain hidden and unknown to us. Transformation takes place in the phase of conscious awareness when the pairs of opposites that create the illusion of separation are blended harmoniously and thereby neutralized as a single awareness that’s comprised of all elements of both the inner and outer perception of reality. This principle is demonstrated by the fact that all complementary colors when mixed together are neutralized as various shades of grey.

The Trinity and the Law of the Triad

There are several models that are commonly used to illustrate the law operating in the Triad as the threefold nature of the mind and soul, and the reality they produce. Most of these ideas are illustrated using the concept of a man (husband), woman (wife), and child (combination), a person with three heads or faces, and a guardian angel (divine being) governing and watching over a couple as a man and woman who are lovers. The male image represents the self-conscious aspect of outer-awareness, the female represents the subconscious aspect of the inner awareness, and the child as the regenerated personality that forms a new and unique whole as a combination of both. The symbol of a triangle and it’s points illustrate the orientation of the three aspects of the mind within two planes or levels of existence that are actually different parts of the same thing, with the higher mind forming the peak and the two lower minds the foundation as the rays of the higher. The Higher-Self is the Divine Breath or cosmic fire that directs the creation of the lower plane by seeding and impregnating the subconscious (of both the individual and group mind) with an idea as a metaphor that’s self-perpetuating.

What’s referred to as the 4 Elements of Esoteric Sciences represent modes of consciousness that all work together to produce the Astral Body as the spatial blueprint (hologram) of material reality. Light comes from the Sun as electrified plasma that enters into matter, which is magnetic and organizes it into a coherent field as a vapor or mist. The action of heat on water causes the water to evaporate and become air, the moist substance of breath. As water is heated it’s molecules become excited and it begins vibrating at a faster rate and transforms into an invisible mist. As it rises upward it forms humidity as oxygen, and accumulates into cloud formations on a higher region of the same plane. This symbolizes the higher will’s ability to organize the particles of matter into distinct patterns based on how its charged with a vibratory frequency as a pattern that’s self-assembling. Breath is specialized in sound as an inner voice that becomes the basis for outer speech, both of which issue forth from thought as an idea. Sound, like light, is 7-fold in nature as 7 tones that naturally vibrate the 7 colors of the rainbow, which reveals the hidden nature of light that normally remains invisible to us (to our physical senses). Sound as an instrument of creation (vibration) is commonly represented by an angel blowing a trumpet, which is an instrument that uses sound vibration to “construct” (assimilate), to shatter (destroy) and to levitate (transcend).

Sound as an inner voice is how our Higher Self communicates with us and is translated into sensory form as thought, which is turned into pictures within our imagination and lays the foundation for all of our actions. As we conceive the message as an idea in seed form (archetype) from our Higher Self, which often comes as a form of inspiration or through dreams, it provides us with a new pattern as a pathway that ultimately liberates us from the illusion of separation. Not separation from others within our reality, but from the higher aspect of our mind that’s acting to produce the entire reality in which we’re submerged as an unconscious aspect of our own creation. In a like manner, our subconscious will also take in the verbal suggestions or thoughts from other people within the material plane and use them to construct a personal reality of the same kind. When we lose contact with our Higher Self or never establish an intimate connection with our true source of power, we simply use the ideas of other people as a form of hypnotic suggestion and lend our will to cooperatively participate in co-creating their reality while mistaking it for our own.

The 7 tones that comprise the musical scale are harmoniously organized into a composition that produces a corresponding effect in the 7 stars (chakras) of our etheric body by calibrating their vibration through sympathetic resonance. Sound organizes light into patterns as internal images that invoke an equivalent emotional response. Emotions are the motivating force of the subconscious and form the universal pattern into a unique variation by how it’s adapted to the current situation and conditions. It introduces a new idea that acts to influence our existing model into a new configuration as a variation. It forms first internally as a metaphorical image in the imagination, which provides the subconscious of not only the individual but also the group mind in which the individual is a part with a directive for creating externally as a correspondence where it can be witnessed by the self-conscious as an experience of itself. We first project our reality as an expansion of our inner thoughts and imaginings, and then we absorb it through the experience it creates. While we tend to view the masculine and feminine aspects of something as opposites that contradict each other through opposing natures and functions, they are actually the same thing that both expands and contracts simultaneously as a means of producing the outer as a shadow of the inner.

Material reality is symbolized by a square which has 4 lines composed of right angles to each other. When turned at a 90 degree angle, it forms a diamond shape, which represents the Tetrad (4) that is birthed as a reflection of the Triad (3) through the Vesica Pisces (Dyad), which is also called the womb of the universe. The Triad represents the 3-fold nature of the mind, and the Tetrad represents material reality which comes as a direct reflection and downward projection of the mind. When the Dyad is orientated vertically from upper to lower instead of side-by-side in a horizontal movement, it represents the mind being given an idea as a mental impression from the higher plane in the form of a “seed”. As the seed gestates it’s developed through prolonged concentration into a modified version that can easily be incorporated congruently into the existing reality in a way that makes sense as a natural progression. This idea is represented by an equal armed cross formed by 2 diametrically opposing lines that form 2 pairs of right angles. A square can be divided into 9 equal squares (3 aspects each with a 3-fold nature) that form a cross in the center using 5 of the squares. 9 = completion of an ideal, and 5 = adaptation as a modification that produces a variable, and 4 = material reality that’s comprised of both visible and invisible parts of the same thing.

5^th Dimension of the Astral Plane

On the Astral Plane of the 5^th dimension, all things are the reverse or polar opposite of the physical conditions of the 4th plane. Polarity is used as the basis for communicating between planes. The subconscious of the lower plane can only be utilized by the conscious mind of the upper plane when the self-conscious of the same lower plane isn’t actively directing the subconscious with thoughts of a passionate nature. On the material plane the self-conscious is made passive in order for the subconscious to be free to receive the influences from the Higher Self. The Higher Self can’t communicate directly with the self-conscious mind of the material plane because it’s active and and therefore can’t act as a receiver. It’s only by reversing polarity and making the self-conscious thinking mind silent, and therefore passive, that we can receive thoughts from the active aspect of our Higher Self on the higher plane of the super-conscious. This is why most communication only takes place through dreams and while in meditative states.

This process of reversed polarity of the two material minds allows the subconscious to be impregnated with a new idea as a projection from our higher consciousness. All ideas from the 5^th dimension exist in their potential state and are self-perpetuating. They work to form the reality that’s ideal for evolving the personality of the body in the most beneficial way possible. A new idea being birthed as a reality is represented by the child as the offspring produced by a new combination of qualities and complementary patterns. When we allow ourselves to be guided by our higher consciousness, which is universal in nature and acts to create our entire reality on the lower plane, we evolve ourselves to a higher state of true self-awareness as a higher, divine being. This is illustrated through the idea of returning to a child-like state of innocence, before we were conditioned by others and society, where our personality is regenerated through an injection of universal consciousness that comes from a higher plane that’s overseeing and creating the entire lower plane.

The Perpetual Intelligence of our Higher Self

Our Higher Self plants an archetypal idea as a metaphorical theme in our mind that’s self-organizing. Any idea translated into a sensory reality in the imagination vibrates at the frequency of the idea as a metaphorical pattern. A vibratory pattern, like all living systems, is 3-fold in nature, and not only has the pattern as a metaphorical template inherent in it, but also a self-assembling mechanism that organizes light into the reality of the idea. It undergoes a process of adaptation that specializes it into a unique variation by growing it in our personality in its current state and level of development. It introduces an idea that serves as the means for evolving us to a higher level of self-awareness through the experiences created as an expanded form of self-expression. We only evolve based on our ability to create in unique ways. All transformation comes as a process of growth and development that’s naturally facilitated through our ability to incorporate new ideas by building them into our perception of reality.  

A universal archetype as a metaphorical idea forms into a unique pattern through a growth and development process, much like a seed that’s planted in fertile soil grows by being nourished by the warmth and energy of the sun (symbol of our Higher Self). It works through resonance as sympathetic induction to organize the reality of the idea as a specialized variation that brings a new kind of experience that provides us with a new awareness of ourselves. We create ourselves by creating the reality we use as the means of experiencing ourselves.  As we receive instruction from our Higher Self as a unique pattern for creating as a reality, it grows us through the experiences it produces and the realizations that come as a natural outgrowth. We only grow through the incorporation of new ideas that become a part of our reality and form how we experience our self in relationship with that reality. They cause us to stretch and move beyond the normal limits set in place by our formative conditioning.

The Self-Perpetuating action of the Mind

There’s two basic ways we act to draw in ideas with our material mind. Our material mind consists of the two lower aspects of our bodily consciousness in which the self-conscious is an outgrowth or offspring of our subconscious mind and serves to “witness” the reality created by our subconscious. Our subconscious is the feminine aspect of our mind that’s passive, receptive, and acts to create our entire material reality, first by gestating an idea in the womb of the imagination as a holographic form that’s magnetized with sensation, causing it to vibrate at the frequency of the archetypal form. Then, once it’s formed into a detailed internal reality through a process of adaptation, it begins vibrating at the complementary frequency necessary for assembling the elements of the outer world of the group mind into the same thematic idea (holographic principle of creation) on a larger scale. Our thoughts are perceived as transparent scenarios projected onto an invisible screen or lens that we then look through as the means of seeing the same idea all around us as a coherent reality. The mind creates through fractal patterns that manifest on different scales and levels simultaneously.

We’re always either drawing ideas as information out of the atmosphere around us (horizontal plane) formed by the group mind of created ideas, or we absorb them from the higher plane of archetypal ideas and use them as the means of creating in a unique and innovative manner. We either run the same thoughts through our mind in a redundant and habitual manner, usually acquired through our conditioning and what we’ve been taught as the ideas of others, or we tune into the plane of our Higher Self, silence our habitual rambling thoughts, become fully present in direct experience, and allow thoughts to be spontaneously interjected into our mind from a neutral and universal perspective that are non-personal in nature. This means they aren’t generated by our habitual mind as a means of replaying memories of the past in order to use those same type of ideas to create in the present. All “ideas” are symbolic metaphors that are thematic in nature, which is what allows them to be used over and over to produce new variations based on how they’re adapted to new situations.

We have to silence our conditioned mind in order to become a vessel for our higher mind to consciously inhabit and create through. As we begin experiencing ourselves through the intelligence and awareness of our higher mind, we begin experiencing ourselves in new and more profound ways. As we create new experiences we identify with those experiences, and evolve ourselves accordingly. We only retain subconsciously what we become a part of as an experience that unites the inner with the outer, and ultimately the upper with the lower. Once we step into the reality of ourselves as our divine nature we become multidimensional beings that exist fully within a higher level of consciousness. We no longer perceive separation and realize through direct experience that there’s really only one of us. This experience of ourselves is expressed in the Hermetic axiom, “as above so below, and as within so without, in the wondrous workings of the One Thing”. And what Jesus was referring to when he said “when the outer becomes the same as the inner, and the inner becomes the same as the outer, you’ll have entered the kingdom of heaven.

Dr. Linda Gadbois

Transpersonal Psychologist, Mind-Body Health Consultant, and Spiritual Teacher