information to later be consciously referenced and utilized in our experience. Everything you know
is stored in this part of your mind, from your learned behaviors to all your past experiences.
As I’ve mentioned many times across the channel, the subconscious mind is like a book of you.
It keeps track of every single experience you have, every thought you think, and every emotion
you feel – and it has been doing this since the day you were born. It is like your own personal
data bank which stores everything that makes you individually unique, such as your beliefs,
skills, hobbies, and general knowledge. The world as you know it is but a projection of
your subconscious mind. It is your version of reality. It is what makes you, you.
But how does this part of our mind work? How does it perform all these tasks without any
conscious guidance? We could talk about Freud’s iceberg analogy for days on end,
but it still offers an extremely limited perspective of such a complicated concept.
In this video, I want to examine the subconscious
mind by using the analogy of modern-day computer technology.
Modern day computers and our subconscious mind have so much in common
that it provides us a tremendous way to improve our understanding of this part of the mind.
Even at the core of their functioning, computers and our brain use the same algorithm,
which looks like this: Input + Processing = Output. But although these two devices
run off the same algorithm, they use it in different ways.
When you pull up an online search engine and type a question or topic into the search bar,
you are providing the computer with its input variable. From there, the search engine begins
the processing phase by scanning its vast data base and using key words, key phrases,
or tags – also known as Search Engine Optimization – to locate the most relatable information.
For the output, the search engine will gather all of this relatable data
and return it back to you in what is known as the search results. This is how Google uses
the algorithm of Input + Processing = Output to provide us with such an amazing tool, for example.
Our mind uses this same algorithm but in a different way. The input variable of our equation
comes from our surrounding environment, or external stimulus. Our five senses contain sensory
glands that become stimulated by our environment and spark the initiation of this algorithm within
our mind. From there, just as Google processes its vast database seeking information that corresponds
to what has been entered into the search bar, we take this conscious input and refer to our own
vast database, known as the subconscious mind, to find the most appropriate way to respond
to our input. When the most familiar information is found, our subconscious mind returns that
information to us in the form of a thought. Just imagine getting a whiff of food with an
amazing smell and then finding your stomach growling. This is an example of how our mind
uses the Input + Processing = Output algorithm to create the thought and experience of hunger.
It becomes obvious right away that our mind and modern-day computer technology function
in similar ways, but it’s not until we examine each variable of this algorithm
individually that the real magic is uncovered.
Input One of the most obvious advantages of
the human brain when being compared to computers is our ability to create and receive input on a
conscious level. Even when we are using computers to find the answers to questions we can’t conjure
up with our mind, we are still supplying the computer with the input variable of the algorithm.
For Google to begin its processing phase and come up with any answers,
us humans must provide it with the input variable of its equation,
which is when we type something into the search bar. Until then, Google’s enormously vast data
base is completely useless. Well, our enormously vast database, or our subconscious mind, would
also be completely useless without our ability to consciously activate it through sensory stimulus.
What good is our subconscious mind without a conscious experience to respond to? What good
is Google without an active user searching its database? What good is a horse without
a rider? Our horse, being our subconscious mind, always has a rider, which is our conscious mind.
Google’s horse on the other hand, being its database, has no continuous rider.
Processing After we type our search inquiry into the search
bar, Google uses things like tags and key words to track down only the most related information. The
use of these key words and phrases is known as search engine optimization. For example, if you
go to YouTube and search “On the Mind”, my channel will pop up immediately in the results. From your
search phrase, the algorithm assumes you want to know more about the mind. By locating the name of
my channel and the key word “mind” all over my content; in the titles, throughout my videos,
and in my channel description, YouTube’s algorithm assumes it contains a lot of information about the
mind. Well in the same way that Google uses these key words and tags to categorize information,
our brain uses things such as thought patterns and triggers to do the same.
Just imagine a person in your life that causes you to think a lot of negative thoughts. Most of the
time you are around this person, they do something to send you into a bad state of mind. Now when you
are around them, even if they don’t do anything to inflict this state of mind on you, your mind
still goes to that negative place. Just as Google has paired my channel with the key word “mind”,
your subconscious mind has paired this person with a negative thought pattern. And just as I can use
the hashtag “mind” and have YouTube’s algorithm show my content when someone searches for the
mind, the thought of this person triggers this negative state of mind within you. The algorithm
of your mind has deemed this negative response the correct output when this person is the input.
Output The output variable for computers are the search
results and the output variable for the mind is what we call a thought or idea. If we use the same
example of a specific person triggering a negative thought pattern in your subconscious mind,
we could say that the sight or thought of that person is the input, your negative thought pattern
being triggered is the processing variable, and the negative thoughts themselves are the output.
The real advantage of our mind is highlighted in this variable of the algorithm. You see,
when a computer gives us our output in the form of search results, it is tracking down
information that already exists, not creating anything new. These results are returned to us
in the form of pre-existing data. Our mind on the other hand can create new ideas.
When the mind gives an output, that output is not limited by the information that already exists in
the subconscious mind. Unlike computers, our mind is capable of mixing and match this data in ways
we don’t quite understand to generate new ideas. As an extension of the human mind, computers allow
us to organize and sift through data like never before and they are an extremely powerful force.
But the true power of the mind is found in its ability to generate new ideas, and computers