Unconscious Processes

Consciously speaking! ….on the Unconscious

I have been ruminating on various aspects of Unconscious processes for last few days.

The process of exploring the unconscious began with certain observations. My study group discussed what unconscious means to each one of us. The answers varied from “the unawares behaviour” to “gut feeling” to “instinct or intuition” to “something that is underlying to the existential” to “a given process that is unconscious till one is aware of it and is willing to explore”. Interesting mix of expressions! Here, as I write, it strikes me that the meaning is expressed in terms of personal unconscious and nothing that talks about unconscious group processes.

I was introduced to the concept of unconscious processes sometime in December 2007, when I had attended a session on dreams. This covered one aspect of unconscious. Dreams, in my opinion, are expressions of an individual in his/her most fluid state. Dreams happen when one is not physically in a state to analyze i.e.is not fully conscious and is not processing data. The thinking and functioning brain is asleep and the sub-conscious surfaces. I am not too fond of dreams, as I tend to wake up feeling restless the next day. I have tried to note down my dreams and re-visit them to explore deeper to find meaning in it. However the attempts have not added to my learning, so far. In fact, I dream when I have upset stomach and the dreams are often a weird ride through my past and present, consisting of many people and locations. With exception of three dreams, that I remember vividly, there is nothing to look forward to. The ones that I do remember are noted in my memory with dates and details. I see the same dream like a motion picture time and again. The space and location that I am in, in the dream gives me a sense of calm and space. I have noted that I often visit these dream locations when I have met with success or on completion of complicated tasks. So, if I were to interpret it, I would say that this particular location might be my personal haven, a place to retreat and relax, a place that gives me peace.

Two of my close friends have recently shared their experiences of unconscious processes with me. I received both these experiences differently. In one of the cases I felt myself traveling along with my friend on his journey into the unconscious and felt a sense of homecoming when he concluded.

On the other hand, the second narration brought goose bumps to my arms. I felt awed by the magnitude of the experience. I feel that such experiences are possible when one is deeply connected with self and the other. I was also reminded of a similar experience that my mother had shared with me. In both cases, there was transition from one life to another. A stage, I believe where energy is transformed and hence is at a peak in its active performance. The experience hence, seems ethereal. This takes me to my favorite belief that energies of the universe are here to guide me and hold me. It depends on my willingness to be guided and my capacity to hold, how much of this energy is experienced by me. It also leads me to a conclusion that IT(energy) exists, whether it is seen and experienced by me/us or not.

Coming back to the exploration, I was asked, “Why do you want to look at the unconscious?” I realized that it was the mystery and aura surrounding the word that had drawn me to explore. I have often heard PDP and professional members say that there is something unconscious happening here. But, they have rarely explained what they mean by it. In absence of exploration/understanding/explanation, I am inclined to think that this word and expression is being used as some kind of a process for scoring a point over the other/s.

I feel that there are two aspects of unconscious. One is the unconscious of the person. That, which is unknown and is yet to surface within a person! The journey from unconscious to awareness is when the person becomes more and more of his own self.

Second aspect is that of some unconscious processes happening within a group. For example, in a lab nearing the closure invariably someone talks about a death and the group shares experiences around the same topic. Someone attempting to explain what the meaning of unconscious processes is, quoted the above example to me. There might be several such instances of unconscious processes happening within a lab, a family, a society and a group of people. Like in a family expecting a baby, everyone is tuned in to the needs of a pregnant mother, spoken or unspoken.

Freud and Jung are two names that I have heard in conjunction with the concept of unconscious. So I hit the net to find data on unconscious. There are books and more books & papers written on the subject. Interestingly, most of the reading material refers to unconscious of a person. Almost all the reading material refers to the work done by Freud and later by Jung. There is little or no reference to the unconscious processes in T-groups. The reading material describes such processes at most as collective behaviours exhibited by groups. These are often reported back as observations on group behaviour, which becomes a trigger for personal exploration.

Hence, I am left with a thought that when someone says that there is unconscious at play, they are actually referring to their own unsettled, unaware state of mind.