Hi,
Does the conscious, subconscious mind have seats in the body and if so where are they?
I once read in a New Thought book that the subconscious mind has its seat in the solar plexus chakra.
I thought they would be suituated in the brain or frontal lobe like the superconscious mind.
Thanks
C
—cyril paul coakley, ireland
Dear Cyril,
There are probably a number of ways of explaining this. As I understand it, the conscious mind is experienced through the mid-brain, the functions that relate to us processing information through the senses and responding to the world around us.
Swami Kriyananda has described the subconscious mind as including the functions at the back of the brain (especially the limbic system) and the astral spine. What is meant by the subconscious being located in the astral (or energetic) spine is this: We carry within our spine vortices of energy (vrittis) that relate to all the unfulfilled desires and karmas from our past (this life and previous lives).
All these vrittis influence our behavior and personality through the subconscious mind. The vrittis settle in the spine according to how heavy they are. Heavy, materialistic desires sink to the lower chakras; more refined desires go to the higher chakras. In this way, i can imagine the subconscious could be partially centered in the solar plexus.
The physical heart has been discovered to contain as many (or almost as many) nerve cells as the brain, so the heart may fit into this picture in some way, also.
Joy to you,
Anandi
