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The term subconscious is used in many different contexts and has no single or precise definition. This greatly limits its significance as a definition-bearing concept, and in consequence the word tends to be avoided in academic and scientific settings.

In everyday speech and popular writing, however, the term is very commonly encountered as a layperson's replacement for the unconscious mind, which in Freud's opinion is a repository for socially unacceptable ideas, wishes or desires, traumatic memories, and painful emotions put out of mind by the mechanism of psychological repression. However, the contents do not necessarily have to be solely negative. In the psychoanalytic view, the unconscious is a force that can only be recognized by its effects—it expresses itself in the symptom. Unconscious thoughts are not directly accessible to ordinary introspection, but are supposed to be capable of being "tapped" and "interpreted" by special methods and techniques such as meditation, random association, dream analysis, and verbal slips (commonly known as a Freudian slip), examined and conducted during psychoanalysis. Carl Jung developed the concept further. He divided the unconscious into two parts: the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious. The personal unconscious is a reservoir of material that was once conscious but has been forgotten or suppressed.

The idea of the "subconscious" as a powerful or potent agency has allowed the term to become prominent in the New Age and self-help literature, in which investigating or controlling its supposed knowledge or power is seen as advantageous. In the New Age community, techniques such as autosuggestion and affirmations are believed to harness the power of the subconscious to influence a person's life and real-world outcomes, even curing sickness. Skeptical Inquirer magazine criticized the lack of falsifiability and testability of these claims.^[1] Physicist Ali Alousi, for instance, criticized it as unmeasurable and questioned the likelihood that thoughts can affect anything outside the head.^[2] In addition, critics have asserted that the evidence provided is usually anecdotal and that, because of the self-selecting nature of the positive reports, as well as the subjective nature of any results, these reports are susceptible to confirmation bias and selection bias.^[3]

The word "subconscious" is an anglicized version of the French subconscient as coined by the psychologist Pierre Janet. Janet himself saw the subconscient as active in hypnotic suggestion and as an area of the psyche to which ideas would be consigned through a process that involved a "splitting" of the mind and a restriction of the field of consciousness.^{[citation needed]}

The "subconscious" and psychoanalysis[link]

Though laypersons commonly assume "subconscious" to be a psychoanalytic term, this is not in fact the case. Sigmund Freud had explicitly condemned the word as long ago as 1915: "We shall also be right in rejecting the term 'subconsciousness' as incorrect and misleading".^[4] In later publications his objections were made clear:

Thus, as Charles Rycroft has explained, "subconscious" is a term "never used in psychoanalytic writings".^[6] And, in Peter Gay's words, use of "subconscious" where "unconscious" is meant is "a common and telling mistake";^[7] indeed, "when [the term] is employed to say something 'Freudian', it is proof that the writer has not read his Freud".^[8]

Freud's own terms for mentation taking place outside conscious awareness were das Unbewusste (rendered by his translators as "the Unconscious") and das Vorbewusste ("the Preconscious"); informal use of the term "subconscious" in this context thus creates confusion, as it fails to make clear which (if either) is meant. The distinction is of significance because in Freud's formulation the Unconscious is "dynamically" unconscious, the Preconscious merely "descriptively" so: the contents of the Unconscious require special investigative techniques for their exploration, whereas something in the Preconscious is unrepressed and can be recalled to consciousness by the simple direction of attention. The erroneous, pseudo-Freudan use of "subconscious" and "subconsciousness" has its precise equivalent in German, where the words inappropriately employed are das Unterbewusste and das Unterbewusstsein.

"New Age" and other "fringe" modalities targeting the "subconscious"[link]

As outlined above, psychologists and psychiatrists exclusively use the term "unconscious" in situations where many laywriters, particularly such as those in metaphysical and New Age literature, usually use the term "subconscious". It should not, however, be inferred from this that the orthodox concept of the unconscious and the New Age concept of the subconscious are precisely equivalent. Psychologists and psychiatrists take a much more limited view of the capabilities of the unconscious than are represented by the common New Age depiction of the "subconscious". There are a number of methods in use in the contemporary New Age and paranormal communities to try to directly affect the latter:

• Affirmations
• Autosuggestion
• Binaural beats
• Hypnosis
• Subliminal message

See also[link]

Thinking portal

• Consciousness
• Collective unconscious
• Preconscious
• Rapid eye movement sleep
• Non-rapid eye movement sleep
• Slow-wave sleep
• Unconscious mind
• American Psychology Association

Transdisciplinary topics

• Philosophy of mind
• List of thought processes

Notes and references[link]

External links[link]

• A Reader's Guide To Pierre Janet: A Neglected Intellectual Heritage
• Who’s Minding the Mind?

This article relies on references to primary sources or sources affiliated with the subject, rather than references from independent authors and third-party publications. Please add citations from reliable sources. (February 2010)

Bruce Harold Lipton (born October 21, 1944) is an American developmental biologist, who is best known for promoting the idea that genes and DNA can be manipulated by a person's beliefs.^[1] He teaches at the New Zealand College of Chiropractic.^[2]

Biography & Education[link]

Lipton was born in Mt. Kisco, an affluent town in New York. In 1966 he received a B.A. in Biology from C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University and then his PhD in developmental biology from the University of Virginia in 1971.

Academic Work[link]

In 1973 he taught anatomy as an Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin School Of Medicine before coming to St. George's University School of Medicine, where he became a Professor of Anatomy for 3 years. From 1987 to 1992 he was involved in research at Penn State and Stanford University Medical Center. Since 1993 he has been teaching in non-tenure positions at different universities.^[3] His publications consist mainly of research on the development of muscle cells.

Books[link]

• 2005 The Biology of Belief – Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter & Miracles
• 2006 The Wisdom of Your Cells - How Your Beliefs Control Your Biology
• 2009 Spontaneous Evolution: Our Positive Future and a Way to Get There from Here (co-authored with Steve Bhaerman).

Other Work[link]

Lipton has appeared on several radio shows as well as The Elaine Smitha Show^[4] and The Joe Rogan Experience podcast^[5] episode 165.

In addition to his appearances on radio and television, he has been a speaker at the Institute of Noetic Sciences's 13th international conference,^[6] the Spiritual Science Fellowship International Conference,^[7] and various other conventions.^[8][9]

Lipton was also featured on the documentary Kymatica by Ben Stewart (released in 2009) discussing the concepts of love and fear in their relation to the body.

Awards and honors[link]

• 2009 Goi Peace Award ^[10]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Nature, Nurture, & the Power of Love: Conscious Parenting (part 1 of 2)
• Nature, Nurture, & the Power of Love: Conscious Parenting (part 2 of 2)
• Bruce Lipton - The New Biology - Where Mind and Matter Meet 1of 2.avi
• Bruce Lipton - The New Biology - Where Mind and Matter Meet 2o f2.avi
• Genetics, Epigenetics, and Destiny - Interview with Dr. Bruce Lipton
• The Great Lesson The Great Lesson: A New Film About Mind and Body: Featuring Dr. Bruce Lipton

Samantha James is an American dance musician from Los Angeles. She released her debut album, Rise, in 2007 on Om Records, which features production work by Sebastian Arocha Morton (aka ROCAsound). The title track from the album was released as a single and has reached #1 on the US Billboard Dance charts.^[1] Because of that, her debut album Rise ended up in the ”iTunes Top 100 Best Selling Dance Album.” Samantha James's music frequently appears in makeup artist (and personal friend) Michelle Phan's videos.^{[citation needed]}

Life and career[link]

Being a granddaughter of David Rose, Samantha grew up with different types of music. During her teens, she became heavily involved in the underground dance scene in LA. At the age of 13, Samantha's mother Melanie Lee Rose died of breast cancer after an 8-year long battle with the disease.^[2] And so after 8 years of working on her music she met Sebastian Arocha Morton (Sting, Vikter Duplaix, Fischerspooner).^[3] When she met Sebastian she was determined to be different than other artists. After a while Samantha and Sebastian came up with a mix of soulful and electronic music and continued on that path.^[4]

Her friend Dave Curtin discussed with Samantha what would be a good label for Samantha's music and came up with Om Records. When they contacted the label and sent them a demo of her song "Rise", she was signed on to a single deal. After a while she was signed to do a full-length album.^[5] When she released her first single named "Rise" in 2006, it hit the #1 on the Billboard Club Chart making her debut album "Rise" end up in the ”iTunes Top 100 Best Selling Dance Album.” Shortly after releasing her debut album she toured around the world.

In 2009 Samantha announced on her Myspace that she was working on a new album named "Subconscious".^[6] Samantha later stated that just before Rise was released, her father died and she took some time off before commencing writing new songs for the new album. On the new album she worked with producer (and old school friend) Shane Drasin since Sebastian was busy working on other projects.^[7] On June 22, 2010 James released her second album.

Samantha also released a song "Wings of Faith" dedicated to Japan, due to the tsunami in 2011.^[8]

Discography[link]

• Rise (2007)
• Subconscious (2010)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Samantha James on Om Records
• Samantha James on Facebook
• Samantha James on Myspace
• Samantha James on Twitter
• Samantha James on Discogs

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