What Lies Beneath

It has been said that true wisdom is knowing what you don’t know. The ancient philosopher Plato famously remarked, “I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.”

But what if we were turn that idea around and ask “what do we know that lies beneath the surface of our awareness?” In other words, what do we not know, that we know?

A popular author once remarked that his experience with psychoanalysis failed because, in his words, “I have no sub-conscious.”

While the subconscious mind may not exist the way Freud envisioned it, science informs us that subconscious brain activity is very real. In that respect we all have an active, sub-conscious mind. The modern view in neuroscience is that the activity of the brain is in some ways like an iceberg. The small portion of activity that is available for awareness and introspection is like the tip of that iceberg. The rest lies far below…