If someone were to ask you to list the different forms of consciousness you would probably respond with: active consciousness (being awake and alert), sub-conscious, and unconscious.
When we consider these three forms of consciousness we tend to think of them from a very simplistic point of view and in relation to our own state of “being conscious”. Lets explore these forms of consciousness from a slightly expanded perspective.
Active Consciousness: We can probably agree in a general sense this is being awake and alert or aware of our surroundings. I don’t want to split hairs with technical medical examples such as: ‘If someone is epileptic and having a seizure are they really conscious? They could be awake but are they really alert and aware of their surroundings during the seizure?’ When we are in a state of active consciousness we are aware of our surrounding environmental conditions, we are receiving and actively processing and interpreting input from our sensory system and acting on that input. Our active consciousness is like a radio receiver “listening” for signals; it is a conduit between the physical world around us and our functioning mind. Our active consciousness and mind work together when we process information, determine courses of action, or any other aspect of our decision making process. Our active consciousness doesn’t initiate anything on its own, our mind does that. It just makes it possible for our mind to function in that manner.
Sub-Conscious: Our sub-conscious is an auxiliary to our active conscious; it is constantly “working” even when we are asleep. One role our sub-conscious provides is that of our “inner voice” which we often refer too as just our “conscious.” It is that “feeling” we get when we know we should or shouldn’t do something. In situations like this our sub-conscious is that link between our moral values and our mind… it sends us subtle hints trying to help us do the right things. Another role our sub-conscious performs is like that of a background processor, constantly performing tasks… like when we have one of those “ah-ha” moments. When you’re with friends talking about a recent movie and none of you can remember who the main actor was… then several hours later the actor’s name pops into your head when you weren’t even actively thinking about it; when out of the blue you suddenly remember something you need to do; you remember where you put something you couldn’t find earlier; or wake up suddenly remembering something “important”. These are instances of when our sub-conscious is working in the background independently of our active conscious.
Unconscious: I believe the value and function of this form of consciousness is largely ignored by most people. Like our sub-conscious, our unconscious is constantly working, 24/7 and we are almost completely unaware of it. Our unconscious is not the state we are in when we’re asleep or if we get “knocked out.” Our unconscious is the active state of consciousness of our body. What I mean by that is our body is in a constant state of active consciousness but we are almost completely “unconscious” of it. Think of it from this perspective, every second of every day regardless if we are awake or not, until we die, our body is actively conscious of every aspect of its status and condition. When we get the flu or catch a cold our body is aware of it long before we even begin to show signs that we are even sick. Our body starts going to work all on its own, our immune system kicks in and starts producing more white blood cells and our body temperature might increase… all of this happens without any active involvement from us. While we are asleep our unconscious is hard at work communicating with our body making repairs and keeping systems in balance. Our unconscious is probably our most active form of consciousness.
When we think of consciousness in this manner it becomes an interesting topic when we consider the notion of the consciousness of the world around us….