Mind Driver

Which process drives the mind?

By my understanding, there’s 3 basic processes of the mind; Instinct, Subconscious, & Consciousness (further explanation in a post from early last yr; Plane’s of Brains). Control over the steering wheel of the mind seems to vary quite a bit throughout life. At least between conscious control and subconscious processes, they seem to take turns daily, in the driver's seat. They also seem to influence each other to significant degrees, as I further discovered in a post from last week; Sub Ctrl Alt Conscious, and from 2 days ago; Subconscious Update. 

Based on that understanding, it seems that in the moment of conscious thought, consciousness is steering that particular thought, but any time someone is lacking conscious awareness and attention to something specific, the subconscious takes the steering wheel. Besides the subconscious steering during times of lack of focused awareness, it also seems to be steering other reactions, besides the specific focus of conscious awareness, even while someone is being conscious of something. As well, the subconscious seems to be a backseat driver, to steer which conscious thought process begins next, at any time a conscious train of thought finishes. This may give a lot of steering control to the subconscious, but at least there is still potential for conscious thought to correct and reinstruct the subconscious, when it gets out of line, and starts shouting inaccurate directions from the backseat. 

Besides these 2 fighting over the steering wheel, there is a 3rd in the car, wanting to give directions. Instinct may be the 1 that taught either of the others, to drive in the 1st place. Instinct is the preprogramming which your mind started with. It may have been a noob driver while you were a baby and toddler, but without it, the car never would have left it’s initial position. Instinct was necessary to keep you alive, before sufficient knowledge, experience, and memories were learned through subconscious and conscious processes. Besides the basic reactions required to survive as a baby and toddler, instinct still continues to give basic direction throughout your life. 

Similar to the way that the subconscious directs conscious thought, instinct seems to direct the subconscious. Instinct is the preprogramming to strive for anything, or avoid anything. It’s your instinct which steers you in the direction of food when hungry, or toward finding a companion, or acquiring a safe and comfortable place to live. Instinct will also steer you away from something that causes pain, or away from something which causes fear, as a potential threat. Instinctual preprogramming is what causes sensory perception of basic measurements, to be strived for, or avoided. The subconscious uses these basic directions, to then attempt to record more accurate sensory measurements in memory. The subconscious uses the basic direction, to determine positive or negative, for the more accurate measurements (new factors) it saves in memory. 

If you react to something based on positive or negative reinforcement linked with an experience in memory, it is subconscious taking the steering wheel. But often, instinct is still a backseat driver giving direction, or sometimes instinct is the driver’s trainer, using the second steering wheel and pedals in the passenger’s seat. Often, both instinct and subconscious can be driving in the same direction, simultaneously. A lot of the time, something you are driven toward, is something you are pursuing because it’s your preprogrammed instinct, but also because of subconscious experience. Since the subconscious took directions from instinct, in order to save factors in memory for what is positive, it is likely that a lot of the time, they will agree to go toward that same positive factor in life.

Considering that the subconscious directs initial conscious thought, there is also a decent probability that in any given situation, your consciousness will steer you in the same direction as your subconsciousness. Therefore, it seems probable that in a lot of situations, all 3 will be steering in the same direction. But just as the subconscious saves more accurate details of factors in memory than instinct, which can change the desired steering direction, conscious thought also saves more accurate details of factors in memory, than the subconscious. If conscious thought saves a memory of a more accurate detail of a factor, it can outrank the subconscious, and steer toward another factor in contradiction from the subconscious.

There seems to be 3 in the car that all want to drive. Often, they will agree in the direction to steer, but if there’s any disputes, it seems there is a hierarchy of who gets control. If subconscious disagrees with instinct, the subconscious takes authority. But if consciousness is actually in the car at the time, and calculates a better direction, it can take highest authority. It seems there can be agreements, or disagreements between the 3, including potential backseat drivers, but at least consciousness has the ability to assert authority, as the Mind Driver.