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The Unconscious Mind by Gary Trotta |
We exist in a kind of illusion. We believe, as President George W. Bush once said, “I am the decider.” We believe that we consciously make decisions about the world around us and that is how we successfully survive our lives. But this is not exactly true, because most of what goes on in our brain is on the unconscious level and above the security clearance of the conscious mind. That’s right, you make decisions on a multitude of past experiences that you probably don’t even remember, and a billion stimuli or impressions from the outside world that you were not even aware you saw, or heard, touched, tasted or smelled. A recent experiment had men viewing pictures of women and rating them as to how attractive they were. Half the pictures were of women with eyes dilated, and these rated consistently higher, but the men could not explain why. We actually have programs burned down deep and hardwired into our brains that instinctually guide us through the world and contribute largely to our decision making process, and these program are belong to the unconscious mind. Babies, when they are born, are pre-programmed to recognize faces. Take a nose, mouth, eyes, hair and jumble them up and they are of no interest to the newborn, but in the correct configuration they’ll get that toddler's attention every time. Research tells us that divorce is most common in around the 3rd or 4th year of marriage. Hormones that promote bonding in males and females during the first year of marriage like oxytocin and vasopressin are most prevalent in these initial years, but then start to taper around year four. The survival idea here is to allow a newborn sufficient time to develop in the protected environment of its mother and father.
Have you ever heard of a chicken sexer? Well female chicks are of great value because they will grow up to lay those great eggs we like to color during Easter, and eat throughout the rest of the year. But the male chicks are not so valuable. Enter the professional chicken sexer. These are the people that can tell the difference between these fuzzy little creatures right from the “get go”. They hold the chicks up with an eye on their rear end (called venting) and make the critical determination. What’s most amazing is they can not tell you how they can tell the difference between a male and female chick, they simply know.
Why is any of this important? It is important because we believe we are consciously deciding on everything in our world, when the reality is our decisions are really a result of our conscious mind and a multitude of other systems dwelling within our unconscious. That’s right, there is not just one unconscious mind guiding us but a team of unconscious rivals all trying to sway our opinion towards their own specific objective. Take that delicious second piece of chocolate cake you’re deciding whether or not to consume but fear the extra calories will grow on you. The anticipation of another delicious mouthful has stimulated your Nucleus Accumbens with in the pleasure reward system in your brain. Your Hypothalamus weighs in to tell you how hungry you actually are, memories of how much you like chocolate cake flood the hippocampus, while your frontal cortex wrestles with how immoral it would be to have yet another bite. This is really a simplification, because there are many brain systems involved in this decision. It is true that we will finally come to one conscious decision and act, but don’t be fooled, your brain and its multitude of unconscious systems has played a major role in that final decision you believe to be your own.
Source: All of the above information came from one source, a book I highly recommend entitled Incognito, by David Eagleman
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