Our Subconscious Intentions

2007-07-12T23:58:00.000-07:00

Your client’s subconscious intentions

By Hugo Rodriguez

We all accept that self-defeating or negative thoughts are harmful. But not everyone understands the real reason for this. To appreciate why, you need to first comprehend why inner intentions exist and how they are actualised.
The sole purpose of life is to reach specific objectives, and inner intentions aim at reaching those objectives (Rodriguez H; 2006). This is a circular process involving conscious thoughts and interpretations, which when fed into the mind are transformed into our hidden motives - all hidden intentions have the purpose of building a repertoire of responses to achieve what we need to progress in life.
If you think about a problem, you are unwittingly creating an expectation – that something will go wrong – and your subconscious “achieving-mechanism”, anticipating this, implements strategies to fix it. That is, when your mind considers the problem, it automatically also considers the solution to the problem. And this is where much suffering is created. If the problem doesn’t still exist, your inner mind needs to first create it to then apply the solution. What’s the point of generating a strategy to fix something without having something to fix?

You cannot have an intention to solve a problem if there is no problem. When you think negatively you are asking your mind to solve a problem that still doesn’t exist, so it first needs to generate an intention to create the problem to then satisfy your conscious intention of solving it.
(Please refer to the book: “What do I want? How do I get it? A complete guide to Effective Thinking and Mind Power” for a full description.

This is the very reason people encounter preventable misfortunes or difficulties. They are unwittingly asking their own mind to create difficulties that it can then fix.
Apply this concept for example to the old view, which Freud already endorsed more than a hundred years ago: "Accidents do not exist. They are created subconsciously.” This view recognises that fortuitous events are planned, and that nothing occurs for no-reason. Read carefully the hypothetical story of Miss M below; it will open your eyes about this powerful inner mechanism.

Miss M was a very anxious driver who simply hated those who violated traffic laws. When on the road she was always on the look for drivers who had done something unlawful; her attention was focussed on detecting violators and in her own mind she would criticise them vehemently. She was indeed obsessed with the thought that “bad” drivers should be punished; this thought became a fervent wish.
As Miss M persisted dwelling on this wish, the “goal-achieving-machinery” in her inner mind proceeded to manufacture a hidden intention: “unlawful drivers must be punished.” And in order to achieve this objective, it looked for appropriate means to reach it. There were several competing options; take their registration numbers and report them, shout at them, wait for an accident and act as a witness to bring them to justice, and finally, there was the option of catching them on the act by forcing an accident so they are punished. All these strategies were manufactured at her subconscious levels, and she was obviously completely unaware of them. Her inner mind ‘decided’ that the most appropriate strategy was to catch an unlawful driver on the act, and the easiest way was to provoke an accident. And it went to work towards this goal.
Miss M was driving across an intersection on the right lane behind some other vehicles. She noticed that traffic lights turned yellow and then red as she was reaching the other side. Suddenly, she decided to change into the left lane and as soon as she did, a truck crashed against the back of her car. Very confused and disorientated, Miss M was trying to comprehend how come she didn’t see such big vehicle behind her; she recalled that when the lights turned red there was no vehicle on her rear vision. Little did she know that the accident had been caused by her inner mind working on this pre-set objective. Miss M’s conscious mind was aware that the left lane was empty and safe to take, but she was unaware that her subconscious mind had picked-up other cues, vital to either provoke or avoid the accident: it had detected faint subliminal signs of the incoming truck going through the red lights, and it decided that this was an appropriate opportunity to fulfil the objective of “punishing an unlawful driver.” It immediately prompted a reaction in Miss M to move lanes in front of the truck precisely at the moment when it was reaching her. Her hidden intention was immaculately accomplished; Police charged the offending driver. Miss M however was lamenting her misfortune and the injuries she sustained, completely oblivious that her own inner intentions had been its orchestrator.”

Just like in the example of Miss M, where her hidden motives caused her accident, your clients exhibit feelings, behaviors and thoughts that are your best guide to identify the hidden intentions leading to their difficulties, upsets and ultimately, their symptoms.
The process of identifying your client’s subconscious motives requires a sharp detective eye, but once you have developed this skill, therapeutic intervention becomes a lot clearer and directional – you are able to determine your therapeutic goals more precisely and how to guide your client towards symptom resolution. The book “What do I want? How do I get it? A complete guide to Effective Thinking and Mind Power.” contains a good description of these subconscious processes as well as the cognitive techniques to modify them. Click here for a preview of this book.

If you are interested in Mind Power and how it can be used conjointly with CBT, the article below contains useful information.

http://cbtandmindpower.blogspot.com/

References:
Rodriguez H; “What do I want? How do I get it? A complete guide to Effective Thinking and Mind Power”, Zeus Publication, 2006