Subconscious- First steps
If we want to talk about the subconscious, first we must understand what
it is.
Scientists and many intellectuals studied the subject, and we gathered
some of their conclusions:
Sigmund Freud
divided the human mind into three parts:
Conscious daily thoughts such as simple or complex tasks,
concrete information about the reality in which the person lives, for
example:" I have two kids, I love my wife", and changing daily
thoughts, desires and feelings.
Preconscious is referring to thoughts and memories from the
recent and more distant past. They are not repressed and are therefore
available for recall and easily capable of becoming conscious and can be easily
drawn. When it comes to memories from the recent past like a month ago, they
may be recalled very clearly. As for memories from a more distant past and
especially from childhood, specific memories will be sent to the conscious and
will focus on particular details of the event in question.
The unconscious is a reservoir of memories which functions defensively.
In there, will be memories the person is not willing to deal with on a conscious
level and therefore are stored in the area from which they cannot be recalled.
Events stored at an unconscious level shaped the personality of the person as a
child, especially in early childhood. They directly affect the behavior and
feelings of the person.
Carl Jung one of the disciples of Freud expanded the concept of unconscious
and talked about the collective unconscious. It is proposed to be a part
of the unconscious mind. Carl Jung emphasizes on the effects of the society in
which the person lives and how this can affect its psyche as well as its unconscious.
Jung also organized this concept into different archetypes and collective
representations.
Viktor Frankl was also a student of Freud, expanded the notion of
unconscious and added to it the spiritual dimension of the human mind. He addressed
differences between good and evil, the bright side and dark side of the soul
and pointed out our constant need to experience both parts as well as our
desire to connect to the divine source within us.
Joseph Murphy- American psychology researcher, named the
subconscious "the infinite intelligence", and suggested that a man
has the power to create his own reality through his thoughts along with the
unconscious mind.
Milton H. Erickson claimed the subconscious to be an
inexhaustible pool of resources, a source of creativity responsible in a large
part for our daily activities as well as the person's personality.
Arian Lev deeply investigated the subject and discovered that
people are characterized by certain behaviors and events that repeat themselves
without the person understanding why this is happening to him. According to
this approach, beliefs have been burned in the subconscious by the person as a
child until ten years old. As an adult the person is still driven by these same
beliefs.
As children we look at
the world and burn behavioral and emotional settings. The child learns
primarily settings from his parents as well as from the society in which he
lives. These settings will be related to main issues such as sexuality, love and
basic needs, as well as secondary issues.
Those same beliefs that were burned in the child's memory will create
conditionings. Conditioning by definition is an act carried out automatically,
when something triggers it. That is to say: a specific event = specific
behavior or emotion. If a particular emotional experience was burned in
the subconscious following a certain event, each time a person will encounter
such an event, he will unconsciously experience the same emotional and
behavioral pattern.
An example of conditioning known to everyone is related to relationship.
Today many people are experiencing difficulties in this area. The following
belief may be common to a lot of people saying: "Every time I love
somebody, he does not love me back, and every time that the other part is
interested, well I am not."
This pattern may be very frustrating since a person wishes to be in a
relationship although is not able to. The source of this pattern lies in the
subconscious. As
For example, this same person may have wanted when he was a two-year-old boy, something
simple – he wanted his mother to take him in her arms. At this same moment the
mother was cooking, and replied softly: "My darling mom is busy right now,
I will hug you in a bit"; the boy insisted, pulled her leg and so she took
him away. The child then has learned that Mom (symbol for love from a woman)
actually rejected him. He felt her love and experienced it as rejection. When
the child grew up, became a man, and experience the same situation with women, the
same pattern which has been burned at two years old will appear
as a conditioning: love = rejection.
Another example of a prevalent conditioned behavior is related to eating
disorders. For eating in childhood is related to basic needs. There is no
living without nutrition and during our childhood the food comes to us from the
circle of people surrounding us, as the most significant figure in this regard
is of course the mother.
There is a basic need in helping the child to live. For example a girl
goes in the morning with her mother to the kinder garden. As sometimes happens
to a child, she does not want to separate from her mother, and the teacher
takes her up and tell the mother – “It's okay I'll take care of her, you can
go”. The mother leaves and at that moment the little girl felt abandoned from the
first person she expects to be provided with basic needs, she feels love for
her mother, and her experience is about abandonment. As a result she engraved into
her subconscious a conditioning called- Love = abandonment. The
teacher then gives the child a biscuit, just a little something to distract
her. The child eats the biscuit and then really feels distracted.
This same child might suffer from eating disorder when she grows up since
this behavioral pattern has been burned in her subconscious and is related to the
conditioning- love = abandonment.
Whenever she’ll
experience this conditioning she will compensate it by eating. She won’t
be aware of the cause but will unconsciously repeat this pattern again and
again and experience additional events in which she will meet with feelings of
abandonment which will lead her to food. She’ll quit many work places and won’t
be able to settle down, she will feel like a failure-and then will eat. In
love relationship, men may either constantly leave her or she’ll leave them
first. She will then feel disappointment and loneliness-and eat.
She’ll be really fearful
and anxious that people around her may constantly leave her as an additional
pattern resulting from this conditioning, and then calm herself with food.
She’ll feel that her world is totally collapsing when it happens, and then feel
strong emotions of guilt and anger every time she won’t be able to overcome
this emotional eating habit.
She won’t
understand why this is happening; she’ll only feel enchained in this emotional
pattern, nor will she be aware of the primary event that has been burned in her
subconscious as being the source of it.
The Arian Lev Method
knows the way to release these conditionings. It enables to get back in time
directly to this initial event. This same child that experienced this initial
memory is located in the deep levels of the subconscious.
It is possible to
go back to this memory and uncover this targeted memory that is locked in the
depths of the subconscious, withdraw the information for it to become
conscious, by guided imagination, when the patient is in a state between sleep
and wakefulness (alpha waves), when connected to his entire body. The patient is
all focused on the initial event, through sensory experiences such as taste,
shapes and colors. She is then capable
of reviving the memory from the child's emotional point of view. She expresses it and thus releases it from his defensive system.
Following this, we change the child's
screenplay and reprogram the subconscious. It is like "teaching" the child
that the event had happened differently.
For example a
child experiences rejection from his mother. The event will be "fixed"
by seeing the event in his mind's eye when her mother responds to her needs- holds
her and kisses her, saying she loves her and accepts her. The
subconscious programming will switch the conditioning from love =
rejection to love = acceptance.
It is
important to note-When the patient leaves the session he remembers what happened in the
initial event. He remembers the emotions expressed, he remembers that he "fixed"
the image, according to the method, and then will concentrate on the reprogrammed
event in order to accelerate the implementation of the new conditioning.
After a short
period of time (each has its own pace), we start to note a significant change
in the patient's life. The new conditioning love=acceptance is
now burned in his subconscious.
He starts to
experience more and more events related to acceptance. He accepts himself as he
is; he is able to attract into his life the love of a woman since he is able to
accept it and let her love him back. The change then appears in other domains of
his life such as in the economic sector, he'll gain more money, since he is
open to receive. If he is looking for a job, work places and companies will
want to hire him. The person will experience love and acceptance from others, like
family and friends. He is now open to accept
love and won't reject it no more.
The four
steps
The connection
phase: This
is the first phase of therapy by the Arian Lev Method. In this phase the patient
will connect to himself, to his body, to his feelings his thoughts and then
become more self-conscious. This step is essential so the patient will be able
to get to the next phase in which he will release the conditioning by
connecting to his deepest emotions.
The releasing phase: Only after the person is
connected to himself, can he start the releasing process and release the root
conditioning.
The discovery
phase: The
patient discovers his new self when driven by the corrected conditioning,
realizing the way the change operates in his life such as how differently he behaves,
feels and responds to life situations.
This step is very
important to the healing process since the person goes through a significant
internal change in a relatively short period of time.
The implementation
phase: The
last step in which the person applies his real inner desires. He is able to
summon to his life the reality he wants when behaving and feeling safe and connected
to himself. The inner conversation with himself will be easy and clear. The
internal blocking conditionings don't define him anymore and they don't rule
his life. The patient is in controls of his life.
We assume that he
will behave to himself and his surrounding the same way we behave to children as
adults.
When the child
learns negative settings, these ones won't serve him and he will live out of a
gap between his desires, his inner potential and his reality.
In this phase the
adult learns to love and accept himself, even though various events from his
childhood may say initially otherwise. He is now open to giving and receiving love
from the Universe.
Here lies the
secret.
Along the ten
last years, The Arian Lev Method was applied on around than 5000 patients who
completed the process and went through the four phases of the therapy. Their
lives changed significantly.
In addition, Arian
Lev also wrote a thesis on the subject.
The Golden Rule- "Love thy neighbor as thyself"
It is only possible to truly love when the love comes from within.