Forums IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ Beyond Human Concentration

I can't help but feel the "conscious mind" is unfairly getting a bad rap nowdays. Especially in the accelerated learning circles, it seems that the conscious mind gets blamed for just about all our difficulties and limitations. Its said to be slow, distracted, uncreative, biased. . . blah blah blah. Everything seems geared to somehow get around this dull bastard.

Well, its all too often that something is actually criticized for its best qualities due to a basic misunderstanding of its real purpose and true nature. And I happen to think that this is what's going on with the negative opinion of the "conscious mind".

At the rist of jumping too soon to a somewhat unsubstantiated claim, I'll assert that the foremost qualities of the conscious mind are the capacities for concentration and self-reflection. Self-reflection being dependent on concentration, I'll essentially only deal with this quality.

The next thing I want to suggest is the seperation of the word "conscious" and the word "mind". A person in deep meditation, a person lucid dreaming, or a person on an LSD trip are certainly conscious but not of the same part of the mind as when in a regular waking state i.e. consensus, sensory reality. So we can be conscious of many parts of the mind, we just get stuck in the linguistic, sense oriented, logical area by default. The arguments related to this area aren't really important right now, what is important is to understand that we are conscious beings and can be conscious of that fact.

So how does concentration fit in to all this rambling? Well, we are always conscious of something, aren't we? Concentration is simply the ability to hold that "something" in our immediate consciousness for a prolonged time with intensity. Let me clarify that I don't consider concentration to be a function of the mind. It would seem to be primarily a function of consciousness. You don't just concentrate on a thought afterall. You can concentrate on practically anything (external objects or internal objects). Isn't concentration really a matter of holding your awarness on something, your undivided attention? Its about silencing mental and sensory distractions and focusing on only one thing.

So how does this exonerate the poor old conscious mind? With the systematic development of concentration to a high enough degree, its the only self-help tool you'll ever need. Focus on an image, concept or thought strongly enough and you can pretty much activate any ability, release any potential, achieve any goal, create any dream, solve any problem or become whatever you desire.

[This message has been edited by Pratibha (edited June 07, 2001).]

Hi Pratibha!

I've experienced so many serendipities in my life that when I suddenly find someone today who has an insight concerning the power of concentration and the "conscious" mind, which is quite similar to mine, I am not so surprised. I agree with you, Pratibha, concerning the potential found in developing concentration. I, too, think that if there is only one aspect of myself that I can and should improve and develop, it should be concentration. The key to success in most(or maybe in ALL)human endeavours is concentration. But I also believe in balance. Concentration and balance should go hand in hand. One should balance developing one's mind's ability to concentrate and to be "free, receptive and open" to ideas, random images(etc). Even when one endeavours to be in the latter state of mind("open, receptive"..), one must CONCENTRATE(forgive the caps) on one's inflowing stream of images, random ideas etc. On the other side of the coin, when one attempts to concentrate on an inward or outward object, one should be OPEN and RECEPTIVE to the object of concentration, so as to let the object fill your consciousness, without you forcing it. Ahh.. whenever I come across these truths, I wonder at the beauty and complexity of the workings of Man, Mind and Universe, all being creations of God.

Pratibha:
I don't know what books you are getting that idea from. I've covered most of the most authoritative writers in Accelerated Learning and none of them give the conscious mind a "bad rap."

Anna Wise in her book points out that the brain wave pattern you want is the one you need at the moment. In fact there are often a combination of brain waves present most of the time.

What i have gleened from the books i've read is that Accelerated Learning is just that because of whole brain thinking and studying. Whole brain includes all 3 dimensions: laterality, focus, centering. This just means that it includes the left/right; top/bottom; front/back parts of the brain.