Let us now consider the phenomena of will and its relationship to 

the unconscious mind and the body's nervous system. In this post 

Freudian era the concept of pre-conscious and unconscious mind 

are part of the culture.

These areas of mind constantly motivate us into actions and 

emotional responses without us being consciously aware of 

the mentations causing them. Only in dreams do the majority 

of us participate in and have some recall of the unconscious 

areas of our mentality.

It is generally supposed that the unconscious mind is somewhat 

subordinate and inferior in a primitive bestial way to the stream of 

conscious thought which embroiders our sensual experience of 

the world.

This view is wrong. 

The unconscious is not a mere rubbish tip of repressed desires 

and emotions.

To those skilled in meditative and contemplative practices it reveals 

itself as a cornucopia of inspiration and creative energy. Admittedly,

 it is necessary to penetrate beyond the clutter of pre-conscious 

desire, fear, and guilt which are the conditioned responses of a deluded 

self, but if we had the ability to dive,or to be more accurate, soar 

beyond the mere pre-conscious and dream realms we would discover 

a Superconscious containing the keys to ultimate Self Realisation.

If we take the trouble to coolly witness all our daily actions and 

responses to regular life situations we shall find that they are all 

largely habitual i.e. we don't have to think or concentrate much 

on the task in hand.It all takes place habitually, on semi-automatic 

so to speak. The mind is busy doing something else, making plans,

dreaming dreams of pleasure or pain, fear or fame, or just chattering 

away at some nonsense or other. There is an element of schizophrenia 

in all our daily doings or so it would seem.

The very unorthodox Sufi teacher G. I. Gurdjieff used to point out 

that we cannot really "do" anything. In view of this split between 

what we are supposed to be doing and what is actually taking 

place it is astonishing that we can manage to create anything 

worthwhile at all or even to stay alive.

Yet miraculously we do stay alive, and we do not in the main have 

to think about it at all unless our existence is immediately threatened 

by danger, exposure and starvation etc.

How does this miracle come about? It arises as the result of 

a process of conditioning.

Everything that happens in our bodies unconsciously i.e. through 

the media of sympathetic and para-sympathetic nervous systems 

and associated endocrine glands originally happened some time in 

the past aeons of our evolution as the result of a conscious act of 

will or effort.

These conscious acts repeated time and time again cut a recorded 

groove into the depths of our being, each intelligent response 

becoming memorised and habituated on a deep unconscious level, 

creating in fact the automatic reflexes of the automatic nervous systems 

and associated glands and adding new unconscious "bits" of information 

to the DNA codes of each living cell with every adaptive act or thought.

We are the manifestations of Mind. All the biological processes 

are the result of mind action at every level, and where mind has 

been, memory remains, unconscious perhaps but memory 

nevertheless going right back to the year dot and earlier.

I once had the good fortune to be nursing a young man who had 

fallen upon his head from some scaffolding. He was unconscious 

upon admittance to hospital and remained so for some three hours.

When he finally awoke he seemed completely disorientated as 

to who or where he was or what was happening to him. He had no 

understanding of what was said to him and signified his confusion 

with questioning  looks and grunts. Eating utensils baffled him yet 

he took food from my hand when offered.

He began to explore the top of the bed, moving confidently in 

perfect imitation of an ape, supporting his weight upon the balls 

of his feet and the knuckles of his hands and not on the flat of 

his hands as a human baby crawls.

There developed the possibility that he would leave the bed altogether 

and go loping off down the ward and, as words were of no avail and 

he being a robust young man cot sides were fixed to the bed.

When he needed to urinate he would move to the foot of the bed, 

squat upon his haunches and piss all over the pulse and temperature 

charts with little grunts of satisfaction.

Towards the evening he began to tire and eventually fell asleep. 

Upon waking he was once again the the amiable lucid relief milker 

his friends and relatives knew, albeit a trifle bruised. He had little 

recollection of the details of his accident and none whatsoever 

of his previous antics on the ward. Yet there was something so 

spontaneous and authentic in his going ape that it was obvious 

tome that he was living out memories of behaviour that lay well 

beyond or before his present human existence.

Where is all this leading to? Let me repeat: Our material bodies 

are the result of the operation of the mind. Everything that happens 

in the unconscious i.e. autonomic areas of our physical being is 

the result of past repetitions of conscious will and action.

Everything that happens in the preconscious areas of our mind is 

the result of all past actions, thoughts and emotional responses,

and at a deep level to which the unregenerative individual ego has 

little access, spreads a store consciousness or as Jung put it, a

Universal Unconscious in which all states of being are contained 

and infinitely expanded. On another level, so near and yet so far

from our usual impedimented outlook shines the pure intelligence 

of Enlightenment known to Northern Buddhists as the Dharma Kaya 

or Body of Truth.

This may all sound a little high flown but it is true nevertheless.

However we are here primarily concerned with our health and the

threat of impending systems senility, therefore we must be practical 

and select that which is most potent for our needs.

Will is what it is all about. Practically speaking, unless we 

consciously inject a good dose of old fashioned will into our bodily

functions they will inevitably decline. Athough the sympathetic 

and para-sympathentic nervous systems are superb examples 

ofbiological programming they will eventually become moribund 

unless constantly reinforced by the use of concentrated attention 

and will.

I can alter my heartbeat at will without the use of feedback 

machines or the like.

If will can overcome the natural reflexes of the Bundle of his which

is the heart's neuro/muscular pacemaker then it follows that all the

automatic nervous functions can be brought under some conscious 

control, for that is how they came about in the first place.

We live in a decadent materialistic society where comfort and 

luxury are the desired goals. In other words we wish to bring all our 

desires to fruition without effort of mind or body.

Nowadays, aided by the crutches of medical science we can 

hope to live some three score years and ten and then some more,

but there is a good chance also that we shall become fodder for the 

old folks home unless we pull ourselves together and do something 

about it.

However, let us not get solemn or po-faced about things.

How many children do we know who are solemn?

Yet in play and learning children perform prodigious feats of will 

as fun, with unadulterated joy.

So likewise we can relax, drop any grinding solemnity and begin 

to cultivate the realisation that being alive is fun.

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