The scriptures talk about the mind and the heart, which are
our mental and emotional cognition and processes. The mind is our
consciousness, or conscious mind, and the heart is our subconscious. Nephi
understood that we have a subconscious part of our psyche and he spoke to his
own subconscious, calling it by the names of ‘soul’ and ‘heart’, with his
conscious mind, as if he were trying to program his subconscious mind – “Awake,
my soul! No longer droop in sin. Rejoice, O my heart, and give place no more
for the enemy of my soul.” (2 Nephi 4:28). Nephi may have learned this method
of speaking to the subconscious from the Psalms. A few of the Psalms speak to
the subconscious, such as this one – “Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that
is within me, bless his holy name.” (Psalm 103:1).
We can also think of the conscious mind as our will
power. Psychologists and other scientists have found that the subconscious mind
controls between 85 and 99 percent of our behavior, while the conscious mind or
our will power only controls the remaining 1 to 15 percent. This is what one
scientist has said about the will power of the conscious mind and the
subconscious mind:
“In contrast to the power of the
conscious mind, the subconscious mind is a million times more powerful an
information processor. Also, as neuroscientists emphasize, the conscious mind
provides 5% or less of the cognitive activity during the day. Ninety-five to
ninety-nine percent of our behavior is directly derived from the subconscious.
Hence the use of the word ‘power’ in the concept of will power, it takes significant
effort for the conscious mind to keep tabs on the subconscious behavior.
Positive thinking is primarily effective if the subconscious supports the
conscious intention.” (Mind over Genes:
The New Biology, by Bruce Lipton)
“This war [for righteousness and
truth] is a war that has to be fought by all of Heavenly Father’s children,
whether they know about it or not. But without a keen knowledge of the plan of
salvation, and without the influence of the divine Light of Christ to bring us awareness,
this war is being fought subconsciously, and therefore its battlefronts are not
even known to us, and we have no chance to win. Wars in the inner self that are
fought subconsciously, with unknown battlefronts, lead to defeats which also
hurt us subconsciously. These defeats are reflected in our conscious life as
expressions of misery, such as a lack of self-confidence, lack of happiness and
joy, lack of faith and testimony, or as overreactions of our subconscious self,
which we see then as pride, arrogance, or in other forms of misbehavior—even as
acts of cruelty and indecency.” (Truth is
the Issue, General Conference 1993 - https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1993/10/truth-is-the-issue?lang=eng)
Elder Busche also said that “without Christ, this war
within us is lost.” Christ works with our subconscious and conscious minds, or
with our hearts and minds. He knows everything about our subconscious selves,
much of which we don’t even understand ourselves. He is the advocate of our
conscious motives and our subconscious motives. The subconscious heart is the
battleground where the devil often fights against us and God “and inviteth and
enticeth to sin, and to do that which is evil continually.” (Moroni 7:12). Jesus
told the Nephites during his post-resurrection visit to them that the devil “stirreth
up the hearts of men to contend with anger” (3 Nephi 11:29).
Our subconscious hearts are not negatively affected solely
by the devil. We are told about “the pride of your hearts” (Mormon 8:36), the “fears
in your hearts” (D&C 67:3), and advised to “let not thine heart envy”
(Proverbs 23:17). Pride, envy, fear and anger can cause our heart to not be “right
in the sight of God” (Acts 8:21). These negative emotions and attitudes, along
with “the influence from the other part of me, ‘the flesh,’ with its selfish
desires and foolishness”, which are contrary to “the original ‘real me,’ the
child of God, in its innocence and potential”, (Truth is the Issue) can motivate and cause us to commit sin.
In addition to subconscious negative emotions and
attitudes and the subconscious desires of the body, our hearts can be
detrimentally affected by the poor lifestyle choices of our ancestors – “visiting
the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth
generation” (Numbers 14:18). The devil also seeks to negatively influence
entire cultures at the national or societal level – “for Satan is abroad in the
land, and he goeth forth deceiving the nations” (D&C 52:14). He also seeks
to negatively influence cultures at the family level, which gives him power to
deceive us – “And that wicked one cometh and taketh away light and truth,
through disobedience, from the children of men, and because of the tradition of
their fathers.” (D&C 93:39). Our societal and family cultures have a direct
impact on our subconscious, as well as conscious, motives for our behavior. The
devil and his servants may also get into our hearts, causing all kinds of
damage. Aaron, one of King Mosiah’s sons who went on a mission to convert the
Lamanites to the Lord, taught King Lamoni’s father the gospel. His response to
hearing the gospel was to ask “what shall I do that I may be born of God,
having this wicked spirit rooted out of my breast, and receive his Spirit, that
I may be filled with joy, that I may not be cast off at the last day?” (Alma
22:15). The old king of the Lamanites recognized that he had a wicked spirit or
devil dwelling in his breast or subconscious mind and wanted it removed. Part
of Christ’s mission is to “cast out devils, or the evil spirits which dwell in
the hearts of the children of men.” (Mosiah 3:6).
Christ’s saving knowledge includes knowledge about all of
these negative influences on our subconscious motives. To summarize, these detrimental
subconscious influences, or desires to do evil within our hearts, include
persistent negative emotions and attitudes, the desires of the flesh, ancestral
curses, mainstream culture, and evil spirits. These forces and desires are not
a product of the true, divine nature of our spirits. The apostle Paul explained
the inner struggle between his innate, good nature and the forces of sin this
way – “Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.”
(Romans 7:17). (Note that he describes sin as if it were an intelligent entity
or force that causes wrong action as opposed to the wrong action itself.) The
intelligent force of sin gets into us early in life – “And the Lord spake unto
Adam, saying: Inasmuch as thy children are conceived in sin, even so when they
begin to grow up, sin conceiveth in their hearts, and they taste the bitter,
that they may know to prize the good.” (Moses 6:55). These evil influences are
also described as the evil treasure of our hearts – “and an evil man out of the
evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil” (Luke 6:45).
Not every subconscious influence on our behavior is
negative, detrimental, or evil. “A good man out of the good treasure of his
heart bringeth forth that which is good” (Luke 6:45). It is possible to have a
heart that is right before the Lord (see D&C 39:8). A heart that has
negative influences in it may be healed by the power of Christ, because he was
anointed specifically to “to bind up the brokenhearted” (Isaiah 61:1) and to
heal “all that were oppressed of the devil” (Acts 10:38). Christ defends us
because the reasons that we commit sin are often subconscious and not a product
of the true, divine nature of our spirits. Through a combination of his power
and our faith and repentance, we may experience a mighty change in our hearts so
that we have no more desire to do evil (see Mosiah 5:2). Remorse of conscience
is removed and replaced with joy and “peace of conscience” (Mosiah 4:3).
No comments:
Post a Comment