Techniques for direct access to your own subconscious?

[Clear]

What methods and techniques do you use or recommend for direct access to your own subconscious?

 

[HellenaHex]

Meditation, hypnosis, hypnagogia, trance work, dream work, lucid dreaming, and certain beats or sounds such as alpha wave music, nature sounds, and binaural beats can. various hallucinogens if used responsibly. Hot tea or hot bathes. For some heat can cause them to go into an almost high or hypnagogic state. Free writing or art can. You just can’t put a lot of conscious thought into and need to just let flow.

 

[Clear]

Thanks but I'm looking for something specific and directed that goes beyond the retinue outlined. Usually that level of trancework is a two person thing as you need an operator to aim the subjects awareness but I'm wondering if any of the adepts here have found ways of generating this state, solo?

 

[AlfrunGrima]

Thanks but I'm looking for something specific and directed that goes beyond the retinue outlined. Usually that level of trancework is a two person thing as you need an operator to aim the subjects awareness but I'm wondering if any of the adepts here have found ways of generating this state, solo?

I almost never did trancework with another person and typically reach trance as a result of autogenic training. You can learn it yourself with the Silva method. Look on YouTube on Silva meditation from Mindvalley. (there are other/ older videos with the same meditation) After doing the process more often with the video you should be able to doing it yourself without video. It is a learning process and you have to do it often. I worked through that process 6 days a week for a period of 9 weeks. From there I tweaked the process and I am able to go in trance within a few minutes. ( I am a firm believer of longer periods with daily training)

 

[Ziran]

What methods and techniques do you use or recommend for direct access to your own subconscious?

2 techniques: one is individual, the other is with a partner.

Individually, for direct access to the subconscious during a waking state, train the mind to view its surroundings using the entirety of the field of vision. In other words, it's watching the world thru a wide lens including the peripheral vision.

I've been doing this for 25+ years. It's a really good technique. The subconscious is far more observant, particularly in the peripheral, than most appreciate. Intentionally including the peripheral view while walking around doing mundane activities, in turn, naturally, includes the subconscious ( to a degree ) within the conscious mind.

As a pair, beleive it or not, access to the subconscious is cultivated thru Torah study. But it doesn't need to be Torah. The Torah provokes the subconcsious mind with many unanswered questions. Any mysterious text with unanswered questions works as well.

When learing as a pair, I instruct my study partner ( my student ) to interrupt me with any questions or comments regardless of what they are. These interruptions, I tell them, are very important, particularly the small and the silly ones. I tell them, "it will feel like a little tap-tap at the shoulder or the heart will skip-a-beat, or maybe something else. Whatever it is, I want you to interrupt me." Then we learn. At first the student is shy, but I'm watching their gestures very carefully. Any tiny little thing, produces a pause in the learning and we talk about it. These interruptions are training the indiviudal to develop sensitivity to their higher self. I want my students to be on-the-ready, listening for when their subconsious notices something important.

The individual practice cultivates in general; the partnered practice cultivates in particular. Cultivating In general and in particular.... is cultivating above and below ... that sets the stage for something magical to happen.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

( please forgive the typos and misspellings )

 

[AbammonTheGreat]

What methods and techniques do you use or recommend for direct access to your own subconscious?

Hypnosis is the most effective and "clinical" tool ive been able to find in my quest for the simplest way to train beginners. But any of the dream practices deal with this. Lucid dreaming, astral projection, specifically WILD was my favorite tool for years. But dream training is alot more work than beginners want to do so hypnosis became the tool I use with people at the very beginning of their journey.

 

[ElectricEgregore]

I think it is all about decluttering and eliminating to build a new state of mind in the long term.

Getting rid of all kinds of distraction and choices in the daily - from input to the choices of food, clothing, mood (meaning tying mood to action).

Basically embracing boredom. Sitting with yourself in an 'empty' room. Nature preferably. Notice how looking into the trees shuts off thoughts.

Gyoji is the hardcore variant of it, the monk routine of doing the same thing at the same time every day -
this way one comes into the state that Buddhists and some yogis describe as 'doing without doing' or doing without attachment.
When you always practice there is no question if or when you would practice.

That would be the way to reach a balance of subconscious and conscious.

Breath is key to reach states easily that can be created through other actions as well - all things trance. Hypnosis also creates these states.
Sexuality is a good metaphor for this as well as breathing - choosing a rhythm that is different to the normal state of mind (which btw in modern times has to be fought for through the aforementioned elimination of distraction) and changing the rhythm in cycles.

Many people that are a bit 'adhd' need movement to calm the monkey mind - be it yoga or dance, burpees or a walk.
I think breath is one of the easiest non invasive ways, like maybe also fasting. Of course we all know there are ways and plants and so on that open the mind for re-programming, that would be the invasive way.

In short i would say - Rhythm is the answer, repetition of breath, sound, movement, routine, dream dairy, painting and drawing, writing -
there are some writing techniques that surrealists use to come up with poetry that connect the subconscious with the 'hand':

Automatic writing -
-Write continuously without censoring or editing.
-Let thoughts flow faster than your logic can judge them.
-Don’t pause - the 'nonsense' is the gold.

Dream Journaling -

• Record dreams immediately after waking.
• Extract recurring images, emotions, or words.
• Use fragments as raw poetic material.

Hypnagogic Rift-

• Capture thoughts in the half-sleep stage between waking and sleeping.
• Keep a notepad by your bed; this is where surreal imagery thrives.
• Also used by Dali and Edison for 'lucid microdreams.'

Stream of consciousness writing-
-Unlike automatic writing, this allows minimal structure or grammar.

• Observe your inner monologue in real time.
• Helps detect recurring archetypes or suppressed emotions.

Cut-Up Technique a la Burroughs-

• Physically cut written text and rearrange it.
• Reveals hidden narratives and subconscious patterning.
• Works powerfully when combined with surreal imagery.

Collage and Assemblage-

• Juxtapose unrelated words, images, or objects.
• Symbolic 'collisions' mirror subconscious associations.
• The irrational becomes the architecture.

Symbolic free association-

• Pick a random word or image - write every thought that arises.
• Don’t aim for meaning -aim for momentum.

Mirror or shadow dialogue-

• Write a dialogue between yourself and your shadow, reflection, or alter ego.
• Let the 'other' voice speak its truth.

Sensory deprivation and overload-
-Silence, blindfolds, repetitive sounds, or flashing lights can open deep perception.
- The subconscious responds to altered sensory input.


Trance or repetition states-

• Repeat a word, gesture, or movement until meaning dissolves - similar to mantra
• From this liminal void, intuitive phrases arise.

Tarot or symbol deck writing-

• Pull random cards; use their symbols as triggers for imagery or narrative.
• Allows archetypal depth to surface naturally.

Surreal prompts-
- Start from paradoxes: 'The moon bled in the telephone.'
-These bypass logic and activate visual and emotional subtext.


To write as they did basically you don’t polish -you surrender. Just like with psychedelic substances - you let go and allow the irrational to take over. Let your mind wander and your hand follow. Write before thought catches up. Record your dreams before they fade. Rearrange the fragments until strange new meanings surface. Listen to coincidences, let random words, symbols, or objects dictate direction.
Getting out of the way so that what’s hidden can speak. When syntax breaks, when logic dissolves, when the dream and waking world blur -that’s where the subconscious begins to write through you.

 

[Asteriskos]

What methods and techniques do you use or recommend for direct access to your own subconscious?

Some good ideas here, I would also recommend that you do some serious work with Liber MMM the neophyte syllabus in Liber Null & Psychonaut!

 

[Sabbatius]

What methods and techniques do you use or recommend for direct access to your own subconscious?

Are you looking for something more specific like a certain sub-practice in Neuro-Linguistic Programming?

 

[Shalux]

Are you looking for something more specific like a certain sub-practice in Neuro-Linguistic Programming?

Do you have experimented with such techniques? With any effects? I, for one, am curious about it and would love to read more from you on this.

 

[Clear]

Thanks for the responses. The logic is that the subconscious creates the reality we live and that, in turn, is based on beliefs that were etched during formative experiences which created protective mechs etc... Jung stated that what isn't bought to awareness within manifests externally as "fate" and how the process of introspection can change this. Now:

The most intense traumas and such things are either preverbal or etched beyond the depth of conscious awareness using screen memories or missattribution etc. Ordinarily these states are accessed via hypnosis or dissociative drugs under guidance. What I am wondering is if anyone here has managed to get down to this root level access? If so, how?

This is, as far as I can tell, the real real of true occultism as the aim of any initiation system is gnosis and shifting reality with it by releasing these old patterns permanently and encoding new systems of being. This is the point of the psychopomp and ritual settings. Underneath all of it, however, is the depth subconscious and I would like to know if anyone has developed a technique of directly accessing it and being able to recode new beliefs.

I do believe this is quite possibly the key to everything. Beliefs are like nested structures built around emotion to which we attach a narrative but the preverbal is the most intense as it contains ancestral influences, epigenetic factors and a lot more hence why you see mothers with bad marriages beget daughters who exhibit the same things ergo it obviously works well in the negative and thus should be able to be leveraged for good instead. Issue is that the above is unconscious absorption done whilst the mind is developing and impressionable after which it erects a shell of the false self that constantly refs these events to reality test.

Trying to "manifest" like a lot of pop culture suggests is akin to trying to scratch a movie of you if your body itches. Looking at accessing this numinous state of resonance which many call the I Am presence for a full on reality recode.

 

[ElectricEgregore]

There was a time when humans had no separation between poetry and song, song and movement, dance and acting - it was all one ritualistic act around the fire.

What I wanted to add is the use of masks. Paraphrased from an essay from Alkistis Dimech:


The mask creates a distance to the social self. It dis-inhibits movement and action.

It was also traditionally seen and treated as bridge between the personal and divine.

Mask rituals often have to do with transformation and transition (like we all had 3-5 years ago).

Weirdly enough the mask eclipses the personality of it's wearer, but it gives another face at the same time.

It is the living paradox - just like the subconscious. Seen/unseen, mundane/secret, man/woman

David Napier wrote in his work 'Masks, Transformation and Paradox' - that the face/mask (greek prosopon)
becomes the intermediary between inner and outer oppositions. Creating an in-between state or liminality.

So the mask is a medium to express the unspeakable. Embodying the knowledge.

It's easier to get in trance wearing a mask, letting go with a mask on.

There the other parts of ritual to come closer to the subconscious come to play -
movement, repetition and exhaustion, creating possession like states.

I also found the thought interesting that out body itself could be seen as a mask of our inner reality.



To answer your post:

Beliefs are like nested structures built around emotion to which we attach a narrative

Emotion + repetition = real for the subconscious. Forgot where I got that from but it stuck with me.
I think the confines of our 'formative hard wiring' are indeed very powerful and are chronic - chronikos -Cronos (Saturn) - long enduring, in strong confines, executing a law of the cosmos. Like in astrology in magick there is the concept of strengthening other planets aspects to balance it out. Maybe one could draw inspiration from the corresponding planetary attributes, their corresponting spirits, and embody them. So invokations of the matching spirits, principles, angels, demons etc could be an idea.

Like in manifestation, which is basically an atheistic magick-light for the masses, it's similar to overall behavior one has to get right to make magick work. So embodying something until it is normal, and the 'when and how' the desired outcome will occur becomes irrelevant.

So picking the desired outcome, then imagining a specific visual representation of reaching it (like for example a loved one jokingly mentioning 'did you remember we used to...') and connecting this vision with the emotion of this moment as strong as possible, and then neutralize and normalize it, stay in the embodiment, so only make decisions from the point of view of this assumption being true etc. Basically mirroring the process of any ritual where you let go of the results. That would be the whole manifestation/magick part.

I just wanted to point to the embodiment part, fitting the mask and performance topic.
Through the embodiment one could manipulate oneself - no freedom in action, just in assumption.
Meaning embodying the desired outcome as a state of mind - as a rule that would be 'If I'm x my actions would be y'.
So you can choose your x, but the y must be the rule then to embody it.

That being said, I guess it is a mix of accepting these formative experiences, going into the pain in hypnotic states, and the redefining them through assumptions - like acceptance, redefining the relationship to the experience, embodiment of the 'current more powerful state' compared to the childlike state of being at the mercy of circumstance and so on. I think bringing more physicality into rituals and triggers in the daily could help - like folk magick practices that are closer to our physical, that 'prove their reality' to us every moment.

I think often times we come into grey areas with this topic as it goes into borderline human experiments here - many of these topics are either not as well understood or guarded by gatekeepers. The whole topic of multiple personality disorder is to this day not treated with seriousness by the vast majority of psychologists. In my oppinion one could draw much inspiration from therapy methods of multiple personality disorder and hypnosis/ NLP techniques. Triggers in all auditory forms, visual, smell with for example essence bottles on can carry, typical reality check like things from lucis dreaming etc. Also going full on delulu mode could work in this case, like listening so silent subliminals all the time, creating strong rules for daily routine to monk like degrees, strenghtening new patterns- epigenetics.

I tend to like the little risky self experimentation, but how could i recommend anyone shitting their pants on ayahuasca or 'creating stronger experiences and memories' than the traumatizing ones? As with these deeper forms of trauma therapy we come closer to the realms of psychiatry, like you said, dissociatives and so on. But we can also make use of our natural supply and some techniques mentioned here - but your feeling is accurate, the programming you are talking about goes very deep.

Also the work with some entities and for example the tree of death are usually described as 'dissolving and recrystalizing the self'. So work with some demons could be compared to shadow work for the daring.

I feel the problem in most parts of the world is that there are only some supervised psychedelic/dissociative therapies that do one part - the 'school/pharma industry' legal part - dissolving, but no 'recrystalizing'. So the programming is missing. Some organizations are actively working towards a better system of holistic supervised psychedelic therapy approaches. The other side would be the god-tier intuitive 300th generation shaman that guides you - but also leaves the re-organization of mind to your 'rational mind' that does not even exist at this point.
In my oppinion there could be a fruitful combination of the staff or the principles of all needed factors to re-mold the mind- the schooled doctor, the experienced shaman, the hypno therapist ( maybe add some magick into the mix).

I'm crazy enough to do experiments on myself, but that's nothing I would generally advise & my trauma is maybe not as heavy as other ones.

I think the work with the more demanding spirits are already embodiment- you can only reach your own desired change if you play by the rules of a good honorable relationship where you do your part & so the magick works.

 

[Sabbatius]

Do you have experimented with such techniques? With any effects? I, for one, am curious about it and would love to read more from you on this.

Will make a thread on this.

 

[Shalux]

Excellent! Thanks!!