Psychology and Compartmentalizing Consciousness
By Rin Otori
Historically, psychologists have coined many terms to describe this aspect of the mind associated with spiritualistic phenomena. These terms have been adapted and used extensively in literature on occult and spiritualism. Often, these terms are used interchangeably, sometimes correctly, but more often incorrectly. To assist the students here, I have compiled a brief explanation of these different terms related to the mind and consciousness. In addition, I will provide some background information on the origins of these terms.
The Objective mind and the Subjective mind
As a result of observing various psychic phenomena, Thomas J Hudson concluded that humans possess, in addition to his ordinary everyday consciousness, mental abilities and mental processes of which they are unaware. As a result of his work, he proposed a theory that every human being has two minds. Hudson's theory is based on his observations of various psychic phenomena, such as telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition.
Objective mind: The objective mind refers to the part of our consciousness concerned with the everyday world. In other words, it is the part of our minds that allows us to interact with our environment and navigate through the complexities of daily life. We use this part of our mind to perceive and understand the world around us and to make decisions based on this understanding.
Subjective mind: The subjective mind is a former name for the more commonly used term subconscious mind, or that part of the mind unaware of its existence. In essence, it is the part of our minds that contains memories, thoughts, and feelings that we do not have access to or are unaware of. Additionally, it is responsible for our automatic behaviors and responses.
Subconscious Mind vs. Subliminal mind
After Hudson, a school of experimental research arose to devise and apply tests to determine whether the subjective mind could explain all spiritistic phenomena. Several influential psychiatric researchers, including Oliver Lodge and William Crookes, became convinced that the personality survives in the afterlife. During this time, the term "Subconscious mind" was adopted as a more appropriate term for what was previously termed the "Subjective mind.".
The new term was created by joining the Latin term limen, meaning "threshold," and sub, meaning under, to represent states of mind below the threshold of everyday awareness.
Until Freud's time, the term "Subliminal mind" was also commonly used to describe the subconscious mind. It was, however, mistakenly believed by many metaphysical writers that it denoted the "sublime" in the lofty sense and that it was not only separate from but superior to the subconscious mind.
According to their imaginations, but not those involved in the scientific study of this topic or to genuine occultists, there existed three minds: the Objective Mind, the Subconscious Mind, and the Subliminal Mind.
The Unconscious Mind
The coming of Freud and the vast literature on psychoanalysis that followed him introduced a new terminology. What was once called the Subconscious Mind is now called the Unconscious Mind.
To summarize, Objective Consciousness is merely a portion of the mind manifested through the physical brain. Lastly, Subjective Mind, Subconscious Mind, Subliminal Mind, and Unconscious Mind are different terms used to describe the same thing.