Our local Faith and Science study group has recently spent a lot of time discussing psychology, mind, and consciousness from various perspectives. It is clear that there is a wide range of views on these subjects, and that, while scientists have made great strides in neurobiology, brain structure and mental functioning, the "hard problem of consciousness" remains a profound mystery. Indeed, even defining what constitutes "consciousness" is fraught with difficulty.
I will not resolve any of these aspects, of course, but from pondering our studies, I have collected some ideas about what individuals can do to explore their own consciousness. Not to worry, none of what follows involves danger, drugs or otherwise major changes in consciousness. These are simply ways to look at how you remember your past, to collect words about how you think, and to try out a few exercises in self-awareness; that is, exploring your mind by thinking about thinking. I hope they will help some get a better grip on their own thinking processes.
1. Remembering the Past:
Thinking about events from your past, choose one that is clear in your mind, not too positive or negative, yet memorable. How are you recalling it in your mind? Is it verbal, as in speech or words, or is it visual as in a still image or a short movie sequence? Some people are verbal thinkers and some are primarily visual, while others mix these modes. As you recall this event, where are you in the memory? Are you experiencing it first person - through your own eyes or ears - or do you see yourself in the third person, as someone hearing or watching you as it happened? Here too, different people perceive their memories differently.
Most people are aware that our own memories are sometimes deceptive and play tricks on us, leaving us feeling unsettled, especially when the memory seems so clear, although proven wrong. Next time you are corrected or discover your memory error, think about what precisely you remembered wrongly, and where might that error have come from? Were you making it up as in wishful thinking, filling in a gap between the parts that are correct, or did you truly believe it happened that way? For instance, I have a lousy memory for verbal exchanges. I rarely remember the actual words, but think I have the gist of the conversation. Then someone will correct my faulty understanding, revealing my inner assumptions or preconceptions.
How much of your own memories do you think are accurate, and how do you know? Most of us have (seemingly) good memories for some things, and poor memories for other sorts of things. In my case, I remember concepts and numbers that were relevant to my career, but am terrible with peoples' faces and names.
2. Searching Your Mind:
Speaking of memories, how do you find yours? Do past events come back instantly in full detail, or do you have to dredge them out slowly by bits and then piece them together? As you go over the memory, do further details fall into place, or do they seem utterly lost. Does a photo of the place or event trigger more details or associated memories? When someone else is recalling a shared memory, does that improve yours for the same event? When someone mentions a memory you cannot remember, but should, do you somehow search around in your mind for it, or try to tie it into something you do recall?
How do you proceed with a memory search? What does it feel like to search your brain for something? What is happening in your mind or head as you search? Do you talk to yourself? Do you see your memories as a library or disk drive you are searching through? Or is it more like a cluttered, dingy, dusty basement, with random stuff piled up and fading off into the distance. Is there some method to your searching or do you just mentally browbeat yourself trying to force out the memory? Do some approaches work and others not so much? Putting words to your mental processes can be difficult but also, perhaps, revealing.
3. Word Searches:
Everyone searches for words at times, especially when trying to compose something in writing. The worst is struggling for a word while in conversation. The thoughts come together into sentences and roll out of your mouth smoothly, until you hit a mental block and are left hemming and hawing hoping the correct word will come to mind. While typing or writing, you might get stuck suddenly, knowing there is a word for the concept you're thinking of, but unable to recall it. You can think of its definition, and maybe even some similar, but not quite right words, but the right word remains hidden from your mind. You press on as best you can, perhaps using other words, but later, the word will pop into your head, often unexpectedly. How does that happen for you? And then, is it actually the correct word you were looking for, or does it turn out not to be quite what you wanted?
What mental process do you go through while searching your mind for the elusive right word? How do you dig around in your mind for a particular word? You know that you know it, but somehow cannot bring it to mind. It is hidden somewhere in your subconscious. Think about how do you know that you know the word even if you cannot "find" it? Do you have clues, such as begins with a "c", or do you get stuck cycling through "it's sort of like this" thoughts? Then does it seem close "on the tip of your tongue" and then slip away again? What does that process and your progress toward remembering say about your mind and its mental processes? Then, what feeling or "aha" thought comes when the word magically appears in your head again? Is it a happy rush, "ah there it is", or an "of course, dummy" thought? What do you do next if you are away from the work that needed the word? Do you subsequently forget it and have the same difficulty recalling it again?
4. Mental Development:
A lot can be learned about psychology by observing child development, either from your own past, or by observing yours or others' children - how they learn and do things, like observing, controlling their hands, crawling, talking, walking, etc. New-born babies must be born scientists, observing the world they come into, then automatically formulating mental models or theories about that reality: what are those things waving around before me? Oh I can control them, making them move (my hands). Or how to understand all those contrasting colours, lights and shadow edges and how they change (the room around). Then there are the sounds, some of which seem familiar from earlier (in the womb), others repeated, but so many new. And then feelings of pain, pleasure, contentment, discomfort, etc. So much to perceive or experience and then to integrate.
Each child's mind has to figure out what to make of all this, putting it together into a complex set of overlapping models about reality that they can use to understand their expanding world and to develop further, with additional inputs and correctives. Later on there is the example of children learning to talk and form sentences. For instance in English they learn that past tense words end in the "ed" sound, so initially the past of "go" becomes "goed". Only later, with feedback, do they learn "went" and other irregular verbs. Can you think of any other aspects of child development that reveal something about how their minds work? Sometimes the adults around the children can almost see the gears turning in the child's head as they think through some concept or new datum. As you think back to your own childhood, do you remember any times when you had an "aha" thought about the world around you or your relation in it? Or how about having a firm idea about something that later proved false?
Still thinking back to your own childhood. What are your earliest memories? Are they visual and/or auditory? Is there action and/or dialogue? Are the memories complete, or just a few vague perceptual wisps or emotional content? Indeed, are they actual memories, or are they maybe just memories of memories, of your previously having remembered them? How "real" are they to you now? Are there feelings associated with those memories, and do you still feel those? Do you still interpret or understand the memories as you first experienced the events, or have you adjusted how you see them, based on later maturity and understanding about them?
5. Thinking in Your Sleep:
Dreams have been studied at length by psychologists and non-scientists for centuries, and there are numerous theories on why we dream and what our dreams mean, if anything. Our dreams usually fade upon wakening. How does that feel like for you as you wake up and notice the dream slipping away? And if you want to remember a dream, how do you mentally capture it so that you can remember it well enough to share later? What do your dreams mean to you? Do you like dreaming? How coherent and logical are your dreams? Do they make sense during the dream, or even later when awake? If you speak two languages, do you dream in both of them? Are the other people in your dreams from your past or your present? Can you wake yourself up from a bad dream to stop it? Or perhaps you have lucid dreams - ones that you consciously control?
This raises questions about falling asleep and waking up. As you fall asleep are you aware of doing so, or do things just go quiet and empty and then you are asleep, unknown to yourself? Is it sudden or gradual, easy or difficult to fall asleep? Do you feel like you are losing aspects of your mind or sinking into a lower consciousness level? If something brings you back to consciousness as you are falling off, are you aware that you were asleep? On the other hand, when you cannot sleep, do you know the reason why or is it just not happening? What seems to be keeping you awake?
In the morning, when you wake up, is that sudden or slow, does your awareness sort of gather and develop, come in pieces, or is it there all at once? If you wake up to an alarm or radio, does that first enter your dream for a few seconds, or is it instantly clear what is happening? When first awake, are you groggy and fuzzy-headed? If so what does that feel like and what do you do mentally to dispel it? What is in your mind during your waking? Do your dreams begin to mix with reality or do you slip in and out of consciousness, perhaps in part or at different levels? It's not easy paying attention as you fall asleep or wake up, but if you try, you might get some insights into your mind.
6. Learning Something New:
Learning a new or different skill or procedure - such as riding a bicycle - at first is somewhat difficult and needs your full attention, concentrating on every aspect. You make a lot of mistakes but figure out how to correct them. Then it slowly gets easier and certain aspects start to become automatic, and finally, habitual: you can now do them without thinking about the details. The question to ponder is, how does that work in your mind? What are the mental stages in learning something new?
People talk about "muscle memory" for physical skills, but mostly it seems when you learn you are somehow training your subconscious in this new task or set of actions. An analogy would be writing a software subroutine for your brain. At first you need to look at everything in detail to get each step right, then as you improve, pieces of it seem good and finished, while others need more work or correction (debugging?). Finally, the routine seems good and you store it away somehow below the conscious level, and set your mind on other things. When you need to use that learning again, it comes up and starts to work, running smoothly with little conscious effort, especially if you have used it often. Of course the mind is not some software operating in the brain's hardware (or wetware), but it is an interesting analogy. Think about how you consolidate and settle some learning or practice. How does that proceed for you?
One clear example is driving a car. After years of doing so, it seems almost automatic, requiring no conscious effort. The next time you are driving along a straight highway, look down and watch your hands on the steering wheel. Are you consciously controlling them or do they just steer the car by themselves? Of course you shouldn't try this, but if you were to close your eyes for a few seconds, what would your hands then do? Clearly there is a feedback loop from your visual perception of the vehicle's position and direction on the road, to your hands constantly adjusting the steering wheel to maintain a steady state. Just as clearly, that feedback loop does not pass through your consciousness. Indeed, if you consciously tried to control your hand motions, you would likely become a danger on the highway!
While driving normally, you can engage your conscious mind in totally different activities such as singing a song or holding a conversation with your passenger. Indeed, there have been times when I was so engrossed in a conversation that I drove right past my highway exit. It seems that my conscious route planning forgot to set an "interrupt" for my subconscious driving. Other such "interrupts" that bring driving back up to the conscious level include a sudden stoppage up ahead, a funny noise from your motor or tires, or a pinging from your control panel. In such ways the act of driving shifts up and down through the layers of your consciousness.
This process of learning something new and then committing it to subconscious behaviour is, of course, essential for humans. It would be impossible to live if every perception and action response had to be consciously managed and initiated. Yet aside from a few basic non-conscious abilities, almost everything we do every day was learned at some point in our life and most of it has been committed to our subconscious. Our conscious thinking then makes decisions - such as what route to drive - and then sets some sort of supervisory routine, with suitable fail-safe interrupts, in place to keep track of what we are doing, while allowing our conscious mind to do something else.
7. Non-Conscious Thinking:
Psychology teaches, and we have noted above, that a lot of mental activity (AKA thinking) goes on subconsciously. However, psychology seems to have difficulty defining and explaining our subconscious, its differing levels, and the interactions among them and our conscious selves. We do many things by rote (unthinkingly) or while thinking about something else (e.g. while driving), paying little conscious attention to the fully automatic parts. We are largely unaware of most of the perceptions our brain receives constantly: those feelings in our body as we sit reading a book, the familiar background noises around us, the well-known visual surroundings at home as we do chores, etc. We are usually unaware of all the things around us that are "normal" to our minds.
There must surely be multiple levels of awareness or consciousness. Some are fully automatic and we ignore them completely unless some sort of "interrupt" brings them to our awareness. Other levels are monitors or supervisory, working off in a "corner of our mind" to make sure the automatic stuff is going well, such as keeping to the side of the road while riding a bike. Some we watch for, ready to take action while doing other things, such as waiting for the light to change while stopped in our car. The conscious levels too may differ. Some are just going about our normal tasks, planning and sequencing what to do minute by minute. The highest level may be concentrating so closely on something that we tune out the other levels.
Just as there are "subroutines" that you let your subconscious self perform, There may be other tasks you purposely delegate to your subconscious at some level. For instance, a problem worries you, so you decide to "sleep on it". Or you may consciously turn away from something disturbing, allowing your subconscious to process it so that you can handle it better the next time it comes to mind. What does it mean to bury something deep in your subconscious? How do you think about levels of consciousness in your own mind. Are they distinct or is it a continuum from totally unconscious up to full concentration?
8. Streams of Consciousness:
Sit or lie down in a quiet place, away from distractions. Quiet your mind away from urgent or current issues, relax, close your eyes and just let your mind wander. Where does it go? After a few minutes, stop and then "rewind" and recall where the stream took you. Do you track this stream from the start, or backwards from the end, or out of order? Is it easy or hard to remember what you were thinking? Then, think about the changes or shifts in the thoughts during the stream. What caused them, did you consciously shift back and forth or did they just happen? Did you leave loose ends behind and move on, or complete some other thought first? This exercise could be the start of meditation or introspection: thinking about your own thinking.
From a different perspective, when you are concentrating on a task or some demanding mental activity, do you get distracted easily, or do you get so far into it that you lose track of what is around you? Perhaps both of these apply at different times? What is it that distracts you or draws you out of your reverie? Can you learn (i.e. teach yourself) to be less distracted? Does practice in concentration help you do it better?
Alternately, when focused on a task that is not going well, like worrying or waiting frustrated, try distracting yourself by consciously thinking of something else, perhaps something pleasant like a memory, or more enjoyable task. Is that easy for you to do? Can you be in charge of where your thinking goes in a controlled and chosen way, or does your mind seem to go where it wants regardless of your will? How well can you discipline your mind? What does that even look like?
Here is a mental exercise in consciousness control. While sitting or lying still - it may help to reduce distraction by closing your eyes - focus your attention on one part of your body, feeling any sensations from there: the touch, warmth, any little pain or pressure. For example, can you zero in on the 4th toe on your left foot and hold your awareness there? Can you then shift your attention to your right shoulder? Is there any part of your body, internal or external that you cannot access in this way? And how closely or narrowly can you focus? Sweeping your conscious awareness in this way, from the top of your head, slowly down through other parts of your body to your toes, is one way to relax, feeling the tension and stresses flow away. This can also be an effective tool to shift your awareness away from a painful part of the body. By focusing on the normal feelings elsewhere, minor aches and pains that bother you may seem to fade to insignificance or become more tolerable.
9. Language and Consciousness:
The connection between consciousness and language is fascinating. Some people seem to always have a running commentary in their head - talking with (or to) themselves. Some psychologists think that language is essential for consciousness, but that may be too simplistic, especially if they don't say what they mean by "consciousness". Other people seem to think in images, "seeing" plans and actions unfold in their minds ahead of time. For example, anyone who knows internal combustion engines, upon hearing the word "crankshaft", will get an instant image in their mind, whereas it is not easy to describe one of those in words. What sorts of non-linguistic thoughts do you experience? Do your mental images come with word labels or verbal descriptions, or are they silent in your mind?
When washing dishes, we don't usually think to ourselves, "pick up brush, scrub plate in this way, turn on rinse water, place plate in rack" and so on, we just do it. We are conscious that we are doing it, while thinking other thoughts verbally in our head as we proceed: singing along with some music, carrying on a conversation, or worrying about your kid being out late. Presumably the dishwashing (once you have mastered it) is non-linguistic thinking somehow. But can you think consciously without anything verbal going on in your head? Can you choose to do that or does it just happen in between other thoughts? Can you consciously turn off your internal dialogue? Can you be conscious without language?
10. Musical Mystery:
Psychologists are intrigued by how music makes memories so much stronger and easier to remember. While memorizing a prose paragraph is usually difficult - a task high-school students hate - most of us can remember the tune and lyrics of songs from decades ago, without even trying hard. Even songs we didn't care for or may only have heard a few times pop into our heads and we can sing parts of them. Somehow the tones and rhythms of music augment the memory process. This association has apparently been used by some to improve their memories.
It seems that most people can remember significant parts of more than a thousand songs they have heard in the past. And most of us have had the experience of an "ear worm"; a song that comes to mind and then won't leave us alone! It turns out that our musical preferences are usually set in our late teens and early twenties - perhaps one reason why older people don't like current music styles. It seems likely that most of the songs you remember forever were learned before you were 30 years old. Is that true for you? What is the earliest song you learned and still remember?
11. Changing Consciousness:
Have you ever experienced "altered states of consciousness" or any sort of "raised consciousness"? Some people have had such experiences, with or without help from drugs, meditation, etc. If so, how was it for you? Can you describe it to yourself or to another person, or was it so enigmatic and ethereal that words do not suffice? Or maybe you forgot what it was like as soon as it was over?
If you have not had any such experience, you could still try to observe yourself when drunk, high on drugs, sleep deprived, or excited about something. What can you report about that state of mind? Were there changed perceptions, different thoughts, a new outlook, or any supposedly "mind opening" aspects to it? Were those true changes or just shifts in perspective? Could you remember them clearly afterward or did they fade? Clearly chemicals, environment and various situations can change our consciousness: fight-or-flight reaction, adrenalin rush, oxytocin / dopamine / serotonin / melatonin, etc. each can affect our mood, feelings and attitudes, and hence, our consciousness as well as behaviour.
12. Philosophy of Mind:
To wrap up this post, what is your philosophy of mind? Are you a brain that thinks ("mind is what the brain does"), or are you a mind with a brain (mind is more than the cells in your head)? This gets into deep metaphysics, but is worth thinking about. What about the mind-body duality? Is your mind separate from your body or just the thinking "wetware" part of it? Do any of your thoughts come from elsewhere? E.g. gut feelings, ancestral awareness, insights from the blue, dreams, or even cosmic consciousness. When all is written and talked about it, consciousness and the human mind remain a profound mystery.
Each of us is free to explore our own thoughts and conscious processes and draw our own conclusions. Many more mental exercises could doubtless be appended here. Can you think of any additional ones yourself? It is interesting to delve into how we think and how the mind behaves under normal and novel conditions. Did you learn anything in reading this, or was your consciousness "raised" in any way with these exercises? In any case, I hope some of these experiments and descriptions helped you understand yourself a little bit more.
