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And so with many acts which we performed only with the greatest care and trouble at first, but which afterwards we were able to perform almost automatically. The woman who runs her sewing machine—the painter who uses his brush—the workman who uses his tools—the operator who runs his machine—all found their work required all their care and attention at first, but now, the details of the work having been mastered, the work seems to be performed almost automatically—involuntarily—almost running by itself. Many a time have we been in a brown study and forgot the steps we were taking, and all at once when we awoke from our day-dream we found ourselves at the door of our home, the accustomed path having been followed unconsciously. I have seen men in a so-called “absent-minded state” cross crowded streets, passing before teams and carriages with the utmost carefulness and intelligence, who were totally unconscious of what they were doing, and who would look startled when told of the risks they had run. I have been told by skilled workmen that no man thoroughly understands his work until he can do it almost automatically. A man performing the same task every day acquires the “knack” of doing it, with scarcely a trace of conscious effort, or conscious attention. And yet no one would think of asserting that his fingers or hands, of themselves, possessed sufficient intelligence to do the work undirected by the brain. The unconscious impulse comes from the brain working on the sub-conscious plane of effort, and the work is directed just as intelligently as if the entire consciousness was focused upon it. This of course can only be done after the mind has acquired the habit of performing that particular task. Let something go wrong with the machine, and immediately the mind slips back to the conscious plane and undertakes the correction of the trouble.

The subconscious plane of the mind is practically the habit plane. As I have stated in the previous chapter, the subconscious plane of the mind can manifest only (1) something which it has previously learned from the conscious plane; (2) something which has been imparted to it by suggestion from another mind; (3) something which has been communicated to it from another mind, by means of thought-waves, etc.; (4) something which has been communicated along the lines of heredity, including impulses transmitted from generation to generation, from the time of the original vibratory impulse imparted by the Primal Cause, which impulses gradually unfold and unsheath, when the proper state of evolutionary development is reached.

The commonest habit of thought or motion may be along subconscious lines, and the same is true of some of the manifestations of the newly awakened superconscious faculties (of which we will speak later). The subconscious plane is a curious mixture of high and low; wisdom and foolishness; superstition and the highest philosophy. It is a storehouse of all sorts of mental furniture, tools, playthings, and what-not. On this plane may be found a curious conglomeration of wisdom and folly passed on from our consciousness, inherited from our ancestors, and acquired from those with whom we come in contact. This collection is being continually added to.

And this is not all. Every once in a while some superconscious faculty is awakened, perhaps only temporarily, and not having grown sufficiently to be taken up by the consciousness, it must manifest along sub-conscious lines. This has caused some writers to speak of the sub-conscious plane of the mind as the Soul, the “higher mind,” etc., etc. Seeing genius and inspiration manifested along sub-conscious lines, they have imagined that there was a separate mind possessing all the higher faculties of the mind, and which they called the “subjective mind,” the “sub-conscious mind,” etc., etc. They were so carried away with the higher manifestations that they entirely overlooked the foolish, petty, nonsensical things to be found there—entirely forgot that their so-called “higher mind” was constantly amenable to suggestion and auto-suggestion from the conscious mind of the owner or of some other person. They did not seem to consider that the lower faculties of the mind manifested upon the sub-conscious plane, as well as the highest.

The sub-conscious plane of the mind, therefore, is very much what it has been made by past conscious thinking. A well-known writer, Henry Wood, of Boston, has compared it to “a reservoir or cistern into which there is flowing a small stream of conscious thinking.” This being the case, it will be seen that the utmost care should be preserved in keeping the stream pure and clean. If one’s mind has been polluted by allowing a stream of negative thought to pour into it in the past, the remedy is to be found in so changing the quality of the in pouring stream that it may be as clear as crystal, and the body of water in the cistern may gradually become clearer and clearer, until it is as pure and clear as the stream itself. And the greater the quantity of clear thinking we pour in, the sooner will the cistern be relieved of its foulness.

This is where auto-suggestion plays such a prominent part in the re-building of character, and in the development of the man. The auto-suggestions form a steady, strong stream pouring in and clearing the muddy waters of the mind. Whether we call them auto-suggestions, or affirmations, or statements, or declarations, it matters not. They are all the same thing, under different names.

There has been a dispute between students of the subject as to whether Man’s knowledge came to him first through the sub-conscious plane and then reached the conscious, or whether he acquired knowledge through the conscious plane and then passed it on to the sub-conscious. Many good arguments have been advanced by both sides. Personally, it seems to me that both sides are right. Many things that a man knows came to him by the use of his conscious functions of the mind, and were afterwards passed on to the sub-conscious or habit plane. Other things came to him, owing to the unfoldment of super-conscious faculties, first manifesting along sub-conscious lines, and then passing into the field of consciousness. Then, after having been well mastered, the knowledge was passed back to the habit-plane, or sub-consciousness. Man often “feels” that a thing is so, before he “sees” that it is true; then after he “sees” it, and accepts it intellectually, he passes it back again to the “feeling” plane, stamped with the seal of approval of the “seeing” plane of mentation. I think that this will be plainer to you after you have read the chapter on the Super-conscious faculties.

As Man advances on the Conscious plane, his store of Sub-conscious knowledge becomes to a great extent the result of his own Conscious mentation, and less the result of the thoughts and suggestions of others. A man of limited reasoning ability—one who uses his Conscious powers of thinking but little—has a Sub-conscious store almost entirely composed of impressions which he has obtained from others. The suggestions and thought-impulses of others go to make up nearly his entire stock of knowledge. He has thought but little himself—in fact, scarcely knows how to think for himself, and depends almost entirely upon others for his mental concepts. As Man advances in reasoning powers he thinks out things for himself, and passes along the result of that thinking to the great sub-conscious store-house. And such a Man realizes what he is—feels and recognizes the existence of the Real Self, and begins to create on the thought-plane. He is no longer a mere automaton—he has begun to act for himself. And as he progresses this power grows. He makes use of the Sub-conscious plane of thought, but he fills the store-house with new, fresh, impressions and conclusions, and gradually but surely eradicates the old negative, erroneous impressions that formerly filled his Sub-consciousness. A strong, vigorous, positive thought, sent fresh from the Conscious plane, will neutralize a dozen negative thoughts that have been lodged in his Sub-consciousness and which have been doing much to drag the man down, and keep him down.