_ Unconscious Activity  


We know that all processing of emotional memory, its recorded experiences, the primal reactions, encoding and taloning takes place in the limbic system. All limbic system activity is unconscious – that is, it takes place in a way that is entirely separate and distinct from the rational processing abilities of our brains and minds. In neurophysiological terms, affect encoding is not influenced or effected in any way by the rational centres of the brain, the polymodal (cognitive) cortex of the brain. This, of course, points up that affect taloning and encoding has no rational basis and cannot be analysed at any time later in life. It exists only a reactive feeling memory at unconscious level.

                Millions of words have been written about “the subconscious,” the “unconscious mind” and its relevance to our experience. Material “repressed” in the subconscious was, of course, the basis of Freud’s propositions and teachings; Jung’s theories of the collective unconscious have gained traction in our society, and most therapeutic approaches hold to some definition about how the “subconscious mind” fits in with the scheme of things.

                The sheer fact persists, that unconscious means un-conscious. There’s no such thing as a “knowing” of one’s subconscious or unconscious mind. The moment a cognitive construct (idea) related to the “subconscious” comes to our awareness, it is no longer subconscious.

                So, we do not define the “unconscious” or the “subconscious” in terms other than that part of the non-aware processes of the brain and mind that create our emotional reactive self, store the information and access it at a later time