In 1956, George A. Miller published his famous article “The Magic Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Ability to Process Information.” In essence, this means that our conscious mind can handle between five and nine “chunks” of information simultaneously. So we can keep a 7-digit phone number in our awareness for a couple of seconds unless we write it down or commit it to memory. Once it’s memorized, it’s in our subconscious mind and different rules apply for our unconscious mind.
Our conscious mind can handle seven plus or minus two pieces of information simultaneously.
It is good that our unconscious minds are not limited. Our unconscious mind can handle millions of bits of information simultaneously. If our unconscious mind could only handle nine pieces of information simultaneously, it would say OK, 1) Let’s keep the heart beating 2) Let’s better keep the digestion going 3) Gotta remember the blood flow. 4) Oh yeah, let’s process the images coming in through the eyes. 5) Yes, some nasty bugs, keep an eye on the immune system. 6) Better to be aware of how the little toe of the left foot feels. 7) You must remember to process those sounds, the mother-in-law could be saying something important. 8) What is that smell? 9) There is still a remnant of the lunchtime taste in my mouth 10) Oh oh breath, I must remember that – oops, what was the first item on the list again.
Our conscious mind can handle a thread of information; our unconscious minds can handle a massive and ever-increasing flood of information.
Our unconscious mind keeps track of everything that happens in and around our body simultaneously. In terms of information flow, our conscious minds can handle the equivalent of a trickle from a faucet. By comparison, your unconscious mind can handle the equivalent of flowing over Niagara Falls. For example, every time someone says something to you, your unconscious mind simultaneously triggers all the associations he has with that word, analyzes the context, and immediately sends the correct meaning and interpretation to your conscious mind. Imagine trying to do that consciously!
You may have heard of near-death experiences, where a person’s entire life flashed in front of them. Maybe these are mind blowing. However, it is an impressive amount of information in a few seconds, regardless of whether it is real or a hallucination. Wilder Penfield was the famous pioneer neurosurgeon who was the first to create maps of the sensory and motor cortices of the brain. He reported in his article “Mechanisms of Memory” that some of his patients (less than 5% of them) re-experienced full vivid memories of their past when certain neurons in the temporal lobe were stimulated, but modern neurosurgeons have not replicated this. The only reliable thing about memory is that it is unreliable.
When a person’s entire life flashes in front of him, it is an impressive amount of information in a few seconds, no matter if it is real or imagined.
Einstein said that “The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.” Time is relative to how fast we move. Our internal concept of time is relative to what we are experiencing. If you were to stop for a second and think of a time when you were terribly bored, and just when you thought it was over, they started something else… Time seemed to pass slowly, didn’t it? However, the time on the clock passed at the same speed, since you were probably not traveling near the speed of light. Now stop and think of a time when you were having wonderful fun and notice how time seemed to go by so fast, even though the time on the clock was going at normal speed. The contraction and expansion of time are functions that your unconscious mind already knows how to do.
What if you could make time seem to slow down when you really enjoy what you’re doing? (Perhaps you have already had an intense romantic experience or experiences where time seemed to stand still!) What if you could make time seem to go faster when things are unpleasant?
Clock time is relative to speed. Perceived time is relative to what you are experiencing. When you’re bored, time seems to slow down. As you enjoy the experience, time seems to pass quickly.
Using hypnosis, it is possible to combine the powers of your unconscious mind to
- do many things at once
- extend time
What this means is that you can do a lot of things in your imagination, in a short period of time, and it can feel like a lot of time has passed in your consciousness.
And you can learn how to do it with the hypnotic sleep course. Check out www.hypnoticsleepin.com!
