Hi Everyone,

Today, I’d like to explore the HUMAN PSYCHE: How Mind and Soul rule your life. Why do I say that and why is it important to know your psyche?

Well, in case you hadn’t noticed, the core message on the home page of my website is:
“When you understand the workings of your psyche, what drives you to think, feel and act the way you do, your breakthrough is imminent and…

Your life can be amazing!”

Clearly, I believe that understanding the psyche is key to attaining the awareness and knowledge necessary for transformation and unless you’re already enlightened, then transformation is an integral part of creating a deeply fulfilling life.

Your psyche is the non-material aspect of your existence and operates as an organ of your body. In other words, your psyche is a non- material organ and psychology is the study of that organ, like biology is the study of your physical organs. As such, it can be healthy or it can be diseased.

The term “non-material organ“ has two aspects. “Non-material“ refers to the fact that the psyche is not visible; not something that can be perceived empirically, by your 5 senses. Rather it is ontological, which means it is intrinsic to the nature of your being and can only be perceived by your 6th sense, if advanced.

The reference to psyche being an “organ” is because it is inseparable from and belongs to your body; it is as vital to your existence as your vital physical organs. However, your physical organs are located within your body. Your psyche is an organ that is not physically located within your body, however, its effects, strongly influence your physical being.

So what are the components of this non- material organ called your psyche and where is it located?

Let’s start with a very basic dissection – the psyche, is essentially broken down into the mind and the soul, as opposed to the body.

In terms of location: The psyche is non-local. It is part of the field of consciousness and as such it is everywhere and anywhere. It is within you and outside you. It is in each cell of your being; it is in your brain function but it is more than brain function; it is in the air you breathe; it is part of the fabric of universal intelligence.

Your soul contains and accesses information relevant to the unique self that you are from Universal Intelligence or the “Quantum Soup”, as Deepak Chopra calls it. That information shapes your unique psyche and your unique psyche interacts with everyone else’s unique psyche in both its individual mission and a universal mission. As the Course in Miracles says “All Minds are Joined”.

In terms of structure, again the Psyche is composed of 1. your soul; and 2. your mind, as subsets of the Collective Soul and Universal Mind, unique yet part of the whole symphony of existence.

Let’s take a look at Soul.

Soul

There is a plethora of philosophical, literary, metaphysical, religious and new age discourse on the study of the soul. I won’t deign to venture into that conversation as an authority on the nature of the soul, but rather I’ll share with you what I have distilled over the years and what I believe soul to be.

Your soul is your life force that contains within it, not only the spirit that gives life but also the compass, the map and the guidebook to fulfilling your purpose in this life time and all others. The wisdom contained in your soul is cumulative and timeless. It assists your mind and body to navigate the challenges of life for the purpose of your soul growth and that of the collective soul of humanity. The soul contains within it the blue print for your mission in life.

Your soul speaks to you in spiritual language that you must study in order to advance your soul growth and thereby the collective soul growth. Spiritual practice, spiritual teachings and communion with the Divine, supply the soul with the spiritual resources it requires and enhance access to the divine energy the soul draws from to guide you. The soul uses its resources and wisdom to communicate with the mind and body and help you define your mission; persevere in your mission; and overcome your challenges by learning your life lessons well. The soul carries forward all the wisdom it gains in this lifetime into future lifetimes and advances the psycho-spiritual evolution of humanity.

Understanding and being aware of your soul function helps with
existential issues like the meaning and purpose of your life. It helps you to see the Divine design of your life. It also operates as a compass or GPS, so you can draw on this whenever you feel lost, particularly when you are going through the dark night of the soul. The soul is the light within that dark night guiding you to the next phase of your spiritual journey. So when feelings of hopelessness, despair, futility, boredom, loneliness and bewilderment are plaguing you, understanding the soul aspect of your psyche is incredibly helpful. Developing the skill to communicate with the soul through spiritual messages and deep intuition, also puts your capacity to rule your life and find happiness and fulfilment at a whole new level. Jung’s work is particularly helpful as a starting point.

Let’s look now at the other component within the Psyche:

The Mind

Paul King, Neuroscientist from UC Berkeley explains the mind as that aspect of the psyche which contains consciousness (awareness); memory; personal identity; sense of personal agency (voluntary control over actions); introspection, and the ability to control your thoughts.

According to Freud, the human mind has three levels of awareness or consciousness.
These three levels are the Conscious, the Subconscious, and the Unconscious. Working together they create your reality.

Carl Jung, in his model of the Psyche, added another level to this structure, he split the Unconscious into the Personal Unconscious and the Collective Unconscious.

The Conscious mind is that part of your mind that contains your thoughts, perceptions and all the mental processes that you’re aware of. That means whatever you know, you see, you hear, you sense, you perceive. It’s your knowledge, it’s your thoughts and it’s your perceptions. Nothing mysterious or hidden there.

The Subconscious contains thoughts and feelings that you’re not currently aware of, but which can easily be brought to “mind”, or awareness. It exists just below the level of consciousness, before the unconscious mind. The subconscious is also called the pre-conscious. Freud said it’s like a mental waiting room, where thoughts remain until they ‘succeed in attracting the eye of the conscious’ .

The Unconscious aspect of the Mind is the deepest; it’s the largest and the most influential layer of the mind. It comprises mental processes that are not easily accessed by your conscious mind, and you don’t even know that they’re there. Nonetheless, they influence your judgements, feelings, decisions and behaviours, in fact they influence every area of your life.

Freud described this like an iceberg, with the most important part, being what you can’t see, in other words, what lies beneath the surface is what can bring down the Titanic .

The Unconscious contains all sorts of significant, extremely powerful and also extremely disturbing material. It acts as a repository of primitive wishes and impulses and also our shadow, which can be the magical yet denied aspects of ourselves, as well as shameful ones. Our mind employs a range of defence mechanisms to avoid unconscious desires,motives and feelings that are too confronting or painful.

This is why we do inner work; this is why we process underlying issues; this is why we interpret our dreams; do childhood regression therapy, guided visualisation into our subconscious and then into our unconscious; why we journal and free associate and pay attention to triggers and over- reactions and slips of the tongue (or Freudian slips).

The goal of psychoanalysis and all these processes and techniques, is to reveal the use of these defence mechanisms, to remove them safely and to make the unconscious, conscious. Why? Because if we don’t then we can never live an authentic life. Because if we don’t, then these forces create pathologies in our psyche- we are repressed, our passions denied, we develop depression and other disorders and that’s what makes our non- material organ: our psyche diseased, the repressed issues that are hidden in our unconscious and the denied hopes, dreams and passions that are quarantined there.

Jung agreed with Freud about the significance of the unconscious, but he divided the unconscious into two layers: the Personal Unconscious and the Collective Unconscious.

The Personal Unconscious is that reservoir of material unique to you as an individual, your long forgotten memories from childhood; past traumas; repressed urges, denied passions, unacknowledged dreams and other shadow aspects of yourself. Personal Unconscious means personal to you.

The Collective Unconscious, however, is a deeper and broader level of the psyche which contains the accumulation of inherited psychic structures and archetypal experiences for the collective, in other words, for the whole of humanity rather than the individual.

Every person shares the Collective Unconscious with the entire human race, as Jung puts it: the “whole spiritual heritage of mankind’s evolution, born anew in the brain structure of every individual”.

The Collective Unconscious is the matrix of all psychic occurrences. Its the Matrix. It comprises within it, the psychic life of our ancestors right back to the earliest beginnings and all the archetypes. Archetypes aren’t memories but rather, images with universal meanings that are apparent in each culture’s use of symbols. Universal symbols such as the Great Mother, the Wise Old Man, the Shadow, the Tower, Water, the Tree of Life, the Circle, the Mandela and many more. Archetypes are symbols that help the Soul communicate with the Mind. It’s how the psyche interrelates. They are like the innate designs for humanity living in the collective unconscious and the unique soul has to guide each individual and the collective soul has to guide humanity by reference to these universal symbols or blue prints.

So let’s sum up, how all these aspects of your mind interplay with each other and with the soul and therefore dictate the functions of your psyche and the direction of your life.

Conscious is what you’re aware of; Subconscious is what you do automatically or you can recall with some effort; Personal Unconscious is where you’re personal traumas, memories; deep seated fears, urges and desires are hidden from both yourself and others. You access your personal unconscious through a variety of psychotherapeutic techniques; Free association; ink blots; guided visualisation; art therapy; dream work; breath work; deep processing; hypnosis; childhood regression work; certain types of cathartic journalling to name a few. The Collective Unconscious is where the story of humanity resides. It’s full of symbols and universal themes and archetypes. It can be accessed through dream interpretation; altered states work; work with the archetypes; shamanic work; tarot; intuitive work; certain forms of psychoanalysis; certain types of journalling practices and a variety of metaphysical practices.

The soul mediates between all 4 levels of the mind and directs each level to do its role in fulfilling your soul purpose. If your mind is full of unresolved trauma and unconscious influences that are negative, your soul will seek to purify this but will go through much suffering. If your unconscious is full of creative power, intuition and insight from the ages, your psyche will be less troubled and your soul will advance in its purpose with less angst.

The goal of transformation is to do just that – understand the structures and workings of your psyche so you can release the trauma and engage your creative power and magic.
I hope this helps you understand the workings of your psyche, as this is the key to knowing how to work with the different aspects of your mind and soul to facilitate transformation.