The subconscious mind is a highly complex topic, so there is no simple way for you to understand or deal with your subconscious mind. There are many teachings (in psychology, self-help and spirituality) that will tell you that they have a simple and easy program for helping you overcome all your problems. However, once you begin to understand the subconscious mind, you will see why there is no quick-fix. You will also, however, see that there is a viable long-term path to transcendence.

As explained elsewhere, there are four levels of the subconscious mind, corresponding to the identity level, the mental level, the emotional level and the physical level. Furthermore, these levels form a hierarchical structure, meaning that nothing in the physical mind can override what is in the emotional mind and so on. Why is this important? Well, if you are to master your life, you need to take command over your subconscious mind. The reason being that for most people, it is the subconscious mind that determines how they react to most situations. And the subconscious mind is nothing more than a sophisticated computer.

Creating a computer program

Consider a common life experience. If you repeat a certain action enough times, you create a “computer program” in the subconscious mind that can now perform the action without your conscious mind being engaged in it. One example is riding a bicycle; once you have learned it, you never forget it. You might not ride a bike for ten years, but once you get on a bike, the subconscious computer program takes over.

The important point here is that if you are exposed to a certain situation enough times, and if you react the same way each time, then the subconscious computer will create a program based on the assumption that you always want to react the same way to similar situations. And once such a program has been created, it will lie dormant in the subconscious mind, waiting for a situation that triggers it into action. Once that happens, the program will now take over your reaction to the situation, and it will do everything in it power to neutralize your conscious will power. Which is why so many people feel they have no conscious ability to override these reactionary patterns.

The real problem here is that many of these programs were created in the past, either in past lives or in childhood. As an example, consider a common program. As a child, you were exposed to an authority figure, such as a parent or teacher, who was verbally abusive towards you. You built a subconscious program based on you submitting to the abuse without defending yourself. This was a reasonable reaction for a child, who had very limited options, because you could neither speak out nor walk away from the situation. Yet once the program is in the subconscious computer, it will stay there for lifetimes.

So when you – as an adult or lifetimes later – encounter an authority figure who is verbally abusive, the subconscious program is triggered, and you now respond the same way you did when the program was created. The problem here is that as an adult you have better options than as a child. You can indeed speak out or walk away, but the program is not based on these options, so it can only continue to repeat the same reaction indefinitely.

The way out

The only way you can break out of the pattern is to use your conscious mind, and this is where most people get trapped in an approach that is either not very effective or actually adds to their problems. This approach is that you seek to use your conscious will power to override the subconscious programming. This is indeed possible, but it comes at a cost.

Let us look at a concrete example. A man has a subconscious program that makes him believe he is inferior, and whenever a situation triggers this belief, he feels unbearable emotional pain. Yet because he believes there is no way to avoid the pain, the only option he can see is to dull his mind so he doesn’t feel the pain as much. So he takes a drink or uses other means of escape, which of course leads to other situations that trigger his sense of inferiority.

The man finally has an experience that makes him realize he cannot continue to drink, and he makes a firm decision to stop drinking. So he uses his conscious will power to be alert for the impulse to drink, and then he overrides it before acting upon it. In the beginning, this requires a herculean effort, but after a while it becomes easier. The reason is that the man has now created a new subconscious program designed to override the previous program.

The obvious drawback is that the original program is still in the subconscious mind. The new program can override it in situations that the man has so far encountered, but at any time he could encounter a new situation where the old program is able to override the new one, so he lapses back into drinking.

Is there an alternative approach? Obviously, and it is to use the conscious mind’s ability to peal back the veil of the subconscious mind and examine the original program that makes the man feel superior. Once this program is seen for what it is, it will be seen to originate from a decision. And once you see that the decision is dysfunctional, you can use your conscious mind’s ability to replace it with a better decision, whereby the original program is dissolved.

This truly is a viable approach. In fact, it is the ONLY viable approach to permanent progress towards self-mastery—which is the foundation for mastering your circumstances in the material world. The only slight drawback is that this is not a quick-fix. It takes time and it takes effort—but first of all it takes a willingness to look into the subconscious mind and to make better decisions.

Understanding what it takes to transcend subconscious programs

Let us again look at the man who responds to an inferiority complex by drinking. The drinking is a physical action, and it may be triggered by a subconscious program in the physical mind, a program that actually triggers his physical body into craving the numbness brought about by alcohol. And although this craving can be difficult to deal with and may require physical measures, it was originally triggered by a program in the mind. And each mind program starts with a belief, which is why the higher way to overcome the program is to make the belief conscious—and then change it consciously.

At the physical level, there might be various beliefs that all seem to justify or necessitate taking a drink in order to get some relief. Yet at the bottom of them will be a sense that you are powerless to escape the emotional pain, so the only way out is to not experience anything. Once you realize this, you can see that this program is based on the belief that you cannot escape the emotional pain. In a sense, this is correct, because at the level of the physical mind you cannot resolve or stop the emotional pain. However, the Conscious You is NOT the physical mind; it is more than the physical mind.

Once you recognize this, you can reason that if the pain starts at the emotional level, you can push back the veil and take a conscious look into the emotional body. If you can resolve it there, then there will no longer be emotional pain and thus no reason to dull your mind.

There is, of course, one drawback to this approach, and it is that when you start consciously looking into the emotional mind, you will encounter the emotional pain stored there, and it can be both scary and overwhelming. In fact, many people will go into the emotional mind only because something (such as drinking) has caused so much emotional pain that they are willing to endure the extra pain in the short term in order to change their lives in the long term.

However, what transcendence tools offer you is another option. As explained previously, a subconscious program starts with a belief that acts like throwing a boulder into a stream. Mud, rocks and debris will start accumulating behind the boulder, so that from downstream you cannot even see the boulder. However, the “debris” in the mind is simply energy. This energy originally came from your spiritual self , but it was given a lower vibration (misqualified) by the limiting belief.

When you start looking into the emotional mind, you will first encounter a pile of emotional energy, and it will either overwhelm you or prevent you from seeing the dysfunctional belief hiding behind the pile. What transcendence tools can empower you to do is to raise the vibration (transmute or requalify) this energy. By doing this, you can go into the emotional mind without feeling (as much) pain and you can much more easily uncover the underlying belief.

As one who has tried both traditional and untraditional therapy, I can assure you that using transcendence tools can dramatically enhance anything else you do.

However, before I get ahead of myself, let us complete the process. Once you uncover a limiting belief in the emotional mind, you will see that it is actually based on an impulse coming from the mental mind. For example, the emotional mind might believe that in certain situations, you clearly are inferior, and thus there is no other reaction than to feel bad about yourself.

Yet you can now begin to examine this belief, and you will find that it involves a certain sense of having no other option, of feeling stuck. You can then begin to examine where this belief comes from, and this will take you into the mental mind. Again, you will encounter some misqualified energy, but instead of feeling emotional pain, it will cause you to feel doubt and confusion. And again, this energy can be dissolved by using transcendence tools.

Eventually, you can uncover the deeper beliefs in the mental mind, and they will often relate to a world view in which there are two kinds of people: those who are superior (authority figures) and those who are inferior and thus can never actually rise above their current position.

You can then begin to ask yourself where this belief comes from, and this can take you to the identity level, the deepest level of the mind. This is where you will likely uncover a belief that you are a fundamentally limited and powerless being. You might find the belief that you are a human being, with all the limitations that implies. You might also find a belief that you belong to a lower class of beings who are subservient to other beings.

Again, you will encounter certain very dense and heavy energies, but they can also be transmuted. And once you begin to question the beliefs you encounter, you can become aware that you are the Conscious You, and you are an extension of your I AM Presence. As such, it gives no meaning to evaluate yourself based on a relative, dualistic scale with inferior and superior. You are a unique being, and in uniqueness there are no comparisons. You can also become aware that you are a spiritual being, who cannot be affected by human limitations.

Obviously, there are many dysfunctional beliefs at the four levels of the mind, and they have been built up over many lifetimes. You will also have to deal with the collective consciousness, which has also been built up over a long time. Nevertheless, by being persistent and by using all means available (such as therapy and self-help techniques beyond transcendence tools) you can indeed make progress. And considering that the subconscious beliefs have been built over many lifetimes. it truly is amazing that you have the potential to overcome all of them in one lifetime—if you truly apply yourself to the process.

How the ego complicates the process

It is helpful to be aware that the ego will complicate this process, if you are not aware of how the ego works. The basic problem is that the ego can have power over you only as long as it can stay hidden from your conscious awareness. And where is the best way for the ego to hide from you? In the subconscious mind, of course. Which means that the ego will prefer that your subconscious mind stays SUB conscious.

There is a very important discourse in which Jesus explains how the ego will make many decisions for you, but there are some decisions that only you can make. It is important to keep this in mind, because the only way to neutralize the ego is to realize that in the past, you decided that there were certain decisions that you did not want to make—and thus you allowed (even created) the ego to make those decisions for you.

The only way to break the grip of the ego is to consciously decide that you are willing to make these decisions. Yet the original decision to not make decisions was caused by the fact that in certain situations it seemed like there was no good decision, and thus no way to avoid negative emotions. With transcendence tools you can neutralize the emotional energy, and by seeking greater attunement with your higher self, you can become able to see more options, so you realize there is always a decision that leads to growth.

The carnal mind

In order to complete the picture of the subconscious mind, we need to look at an element which the ascended masters call the carnal mind. This name indicates that it is a level of the mind that is related to the functions of the physical body. For example, you do not have to consciously tell your heart to beat or your cells to produce protein. Imagine having to be consciously aware of the function of each of the trillions of cells in your body, having to tell them what to do. You would never have any conscious attention left over for actually doing anything with your physical body, let alone enjoying life.

So, in a sense the carnal mind is simply like a supercomputer that controls the functions of the enormously complex physical body that our Spirits use as a vehicle for expressing themselves in the material world. The problem is that the supercomputer can actually take on a life of its own, as you might have read in some science-fiction books.

The bottom line is this: The carnal mind is a computer that is designed to help you use your physical body. Yet if you do not pay attention – and of course, none of us were brought up with this knowledge – the servant might actually become your master. And that definitely will not facilitate your spiritual growth.

In many religious and even some spiritual teachings, the physical body is portrayed as being evil or at least the enemy of your spiritual growth. This is not what the ascended masters teach. They teach that the physical body is a vehicle for our spiritual growth, and as such we should honor it and take care of it. However, we also need to not allow the body and its desires to run our lives.

We do this by being aware that the computer that runs the body is not actually able to think. Thus, it simply runs programs, and it will continue to run them until our conscious mind sets limits. For example, the body has certain basic needs, and the carnal mind will seek to fulfill those needs without any humanitarian or spiritual considerations.

For example, one basic need is protection, and to the carnal mind, there is nothing wrong with killing or in other ways neutralizing anything that seems like a danger, including other human beings. You will see some dictators or crime bosses that indiscriminately kill anyone who is perceived as a threat—without ever considering whether the perception is realistic. The reason is that such people have allowed the carnal mind to take over their lives—at least in this aspect.

Another example is food. The carnal mind will eat any food that is available or that it likes, and it will eat as much of it as it can. It cannot restrict itself, and that is why you see some people who overeat or eat unhealthy foods—their carnal minds are running their lives.

Another basic need is propagation. The carnal mind has no limit to how much sex you can have, and it is actually programmed to seek as much sex as possible and with as many different partners as possible. Thus, you see some people who think they are sophisticated because they go beyond the traditional pattern of having only one sexual partner, but they simply don’t realize that their lives are being run by the carnal mind.

How do you avoid having your life run by the carnal mind? It will happen as part of the process of going into the subconscious mind. The carnal mind is meant to be your servant, meaning you define the boundaries for how you will allow the carnal mind to deal with sex, as an example. Yet some people did – at some point in the past – decide that they did not want to make conscious decisions about this, so they let the carnal mind take over. Yet behind this was a belief, and once you uncover the belief, you can take control away from the carnal mind and again set your conscious boundaries.

Next: Knowing the components of self can transform your life experience