Imagine that you have finally gotten your pilot’s license and plan to fly your family to Disneyworld. You gather your family and luggage into the plane, call the tower for directions, and take off. Once at flying altitude your plane veers toward a forest. You can do nothing to control your plane and it crashes in the trees. It is found later that someone hacked into your plane’s computer and guided you into the trees by remote control. Your unconscious mind is like the remote control.

From birth we form beliefs and attitudes and make decisions to control our lives. Over the years we make new decisions on how to control our lives and therefore leave the old behind. Old beliefs, attitudes and methods become forgotten memories that are stored in the unconscious mind. The emotions that accompany them are stored like indexes for those forgotten events. Much later in life we decide on a course of action that triggers the old memories and the unconscious mind takes control of the current event. The unconscious mind is more powerful than the conscious.

How do we know when the unconscious mind has taken control? Let’s say that you are married and you and your mate get into arguments that never end. You argue over the same things again and again. You think you have one settled when one of you says something else and the argument starts up again. This is good evidence that something you say triggers an old memory and that emotion upsets you currently and keeps the argument going.
Lane A Stokes
CounselingServicesAtlanta.com