Subsystems of consciousness

In analyzing the nature of altered states of consciousness some years ago, including ordinary functioning in our ordinary state, I designated one of the components or subsystems of consciousness as the Sense of Identity subsystem. 

Figure 8-1. Major subsystems of consciousness and principal information flow routes.

This is a way of saying that our perceptions are highly selective and filtered, that there is a major subsystem of consciousness, Input-Processing discussed at length later, that filters the outside world for us. If two people have similar filtering systems, as, for... 

This is an illustration of a particular situation and reaction being processed through the system within our ordinary state of consciousness, but it does not illustrate the overall nature of that ordinary state or show the limits of the variability of functioning within particular subsystems that the pattern of our ordinary state imposes. 

Remember that any state of consciousness is a system the parts interact with each other to form a particular pattern. Thus, changes in other subsystems that might not be directly involved in one of the four psi transmission routes we have examined may still have important effects on psi functions. Consider, for instance, the functioning of our Sense of Identity subsystem. We all possess a variety of identities that change rapidly with various situations and emotions, but when a particular identity is functioning, it tends to organize the rest of our mental functioning into a consistent pattern. 

On the other hand, consider the case of many psychics, who do have a socially acceptable (within a subculture) role of being psychic. Regardless of whether or not they deliberately enter a d-ASC, under the appropriate circumstances, they take on the role of psychic, and the Sense of Identity subsystem tends to maximize those functions of consciousness that fit into the role of psychic and enhance psi functioning. We can, in a... 

A fourth way of stabilizing a d-SoC, limiting stabilization, consists of interfering with the ability of some subsystems or structures to function in a way that might destabilize the ongoing state of consciousness, it limits the range of possible functioning of certain subsystems. 

This greatly restricts the variety of input to the system, inhibits thinking about various stimuli that come from scanning the environment, and in general takes attention/awareness energy away from and reduces the activity of the various subsystems of ordinary consciousness. 

Naranjo and Ornstein 39 describe the meditative statel 71 of consciousness that can result from concentrative meditation as a discrete state characterized as "voidness," "blankness," or "nothingness." There seems to be a temporary nonfunctioning of all psychological functions, in some sense, difficult to deal with verbally, awareness seems to be maintained, but there is not object of awareness. The appearance of this meditative state seems to be sudden and to clearly represent a quantum leap. The practice of meditation quiets down the various subsystems, but there is a sudden transition to this pattern of voidness. 

Finally, because of its enormous ability to control emotional and attention/awareness energy, the Sense of identity subsystem can at times constellate the entire structure of consciousness about particular identity patterns, just as can archetypes (in the Jungian sense) arising from the Collective unconscious can. 

This ends our survey of the main subsystems of states of consciousness, it is only a survey, pointing out the major variations. Much literature already exists from which more specific information about various subsystems can be gleaned, and much research remains to be done to clarify our concepts of particular subsystems. Particularly we need to know exactly how each subsystem changes for each specific d-ASC. 

An identity state is a specialized version of the ordinary d-SoC, a structure acceptable to consensus reality (ignoring obviously pathological identity states). The extrainformational "This is me" quality from the Sense of identity subsystem added to certain contents/structures constellates the energies of consciousness around them and produces an identity, a rolef21 that a person partially or completely identified with for the time. The identity "eats energy."... 

The systems approach providers a conceptual framework for organizing knowledge about states of consciousness and a process for continually improving knowledge about the structures/subsystems. The ten subsystems sketched in chapter 8 are crude concepts at this stage of our knowledge and should eventually be replaced with more precise concepts about the exact nature of a larger number of more basic subsystems and about their possibilities for interaction to form systems. 

The concept of dissociation may supply an answer. Some structures/subsystems may form a (semi-) independent entity from the rest of the system, so that more than one d-SoC can exist simultaneously in one individual. Thus, some aspects of william are structured into a d-SoC I loosely call void consciousness other aspects are structured/patterned into a kind of consciousness that can (at least partially) observe what the void consciousness part is doing, can understand my questions, and can reply to me. is this Observer discussed in Chapter 11, or a dissociated series of subsystems forming a d-SoC, or what Grappling with this sort of question forces confrontation with some basic issues about the nature of consciousness. 

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