Who’s running the show?

The subconscious mind is an astonishingly powerful information processor that can record perceptual experiences (programs) and forever play them back at the push of a button. Interestingly, many people only become aware of their subconscious mind’s push-button programs when their own “buttons are pushed” by the actions of others.

  Actually, the entire image of pushing buttons is far too slow and linear to describe the awesome data processing capacity of the subconscious mind. It has been estimated that the disproportionately larger brain mass providing the subconscious mind’s function has the ability to interpret and respond to over 40 million nerve impulses per second (Norretranders, 1998). In contrast, the diminutive self-conscious mind’s prefrontal cortex only processes about forty nerve impulses per second. As an information processor, the subconscious mind is one million times more powerful than the self-conscious mind.