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The Dominant Role of the Unconscious in Human Experience
The Gifts of the Great Unconscious:
“Fragments of REM thoughts linger as ‘gifts’ during our sleep.
Coming to us from somewhere very deep.
Surfacing as timely messages for us to keep.
From the depths of the unconscious to take a leap.
To bring to consciousness rare wisdom to reap.”
The transcendent function of the unconscious in human experience, in human imagination, and in human behavior is infinitely and overwhelmingly overpowering.
This super mysterious dominant power guiding humanity is called by some “Tao” and referred to obliquely as “The Way” or that which otherwise cannot be named. When it is ‘named’ it is personified universally with the attribution of “10,000” names; and with the proviso that the tao that can be ‘named’ is not the Tao. From an empirically objective perspective, these “10,000” things may be recognized as archetypal formulations of the objective psyche (the “10,000” aspects of our psychological multidimensional selves).
By discernment, then, the unconscious is to be recognized psychologically and regarded heuristically as the artistic muse of all creative genres of the human imagination.
Unbeknownst to us in a very direct way, it is the impulse and the impetus for every human thought and action.
It is the agency that governs our biological behavior from the first breath of life we take, to our very last.
Driven mainly by our unconscious motivations, we exist and even flourish largely on autopilot; mostly for every aspect of our behaviors, both during our sleeping, and in our moments of optimal wakefulness.
Let us acknowledge this psychological fact: The Unconscious is the Master of our psyche; and our Consciousness, ruled largely by our presumptive ego, is the Emissary, ever seeking foolishly as agent, to overthrow its Master.
What do empirical studies in the sciences have to say about this matter?
Current neuroscience research by McGilchrist, Stewart, Marchiano, and Lee (2021) provides data that show the following:
“The unconscious [realm of neural activity] is
absolutely vast compared with the conscious.
One particular paper (“Episode 189 —
“A Well-Aligned Mind”) says that 99.44% of
brain activity is unconscious.”
Implicitly this research results indicates that a mere 0.5% of human behavior is consciously determined.
Observing this seeming imbalance in the human psyche, the eminent Swiss psychiatrist, Carl G. Jung, in his empirical analysis of the psyche, has proposed and argued that the major role displayed by the unconscious in human behavior is heuristically for the purpose of achieving wholeness in the human psyche towards the goal of a therapeutic union of the conscious with the unconscious.
Carl Jung describes this goal in psychological terms as the individuation process; literally, the goal of having the psyche ideally attain a state of no longer being divided (qua, become “individuated”).
This is clearly a lifelong journey of the soul by which an individual, mainly unconsciously, seeks to become a unique, whole, and complete person psychologically by integrating unconscious contents into consciousness — a task that is never completed. Carl Jung describes it this way:
“If the individuation process is made conscious,
consciousness must confront the unconscious
and a balance between the opposites must be
found. As this is not possible [rationally]
through logic, one is dependent [emotionally
and affectively] on symbols [e.g., provided
richly, vividly, and expressively in dreams,
religious tales, world mythologies, pictorial
imagery, art, folk and fairytales, etc.] which
make the union of the opposites possible.
They are produced spontaneously by the
unconscious and are amplified by the
conscious mind.”
(Carl Jung, CW 11, par. 755)
By placing this composition or polemic in a larger context, this general observation can be made.
The pervasive unconscious, manifested universally in human behavior as the Jungian hypothesized mythopoetic “Collective Unconscious” (known otherwise as the objective psyche), is mediated by a host of mechanisms.
These include archetypes or universal symbols and patterns of thought, behavior, and emotion that influence human experience and action.
These include shared memories or instinctual patterns that shape our behaviors and beliefs unconsciously across generations.
These include cultural expressions or recurring themes and motifs expressed in literature, in myths, in dreams as “living narratives” and which universally reflect unconsciously shared human experiences.
Collectively and universally we are undoubtedly more similar internally in DNA composition than we we are or appear to be different outwardly. Stated differently, as a human species, we are quantum entangled.
Ultimately, these mechanisms that we have mentioned here, include inherited instincts which can be determined to be biological drives that guide our behaviors that are unconsciously related to our survival and our reproduction as a species.
Collectively, then, these mechanisms illustrate how our unconscious behaviors, both individually and universally, influence, to as much as 99.5% of our routine life, our thoughts, feelings, and habits, transcending our 0.5% conscious personal experiences; and even our artificially and technologically constructed cultural boundaries.
Yes, indeed. The role of the unconscious in human experience, in the human imagination, and in human behavior is infinitely and overwhelmingly overpowering. We are more unconsciously driven than we are so consciously.
Putting it All Together:
Research information from neuroscience directs us towards the indomitable role of the unconscious in governing human behavior and actions; and the equally impressive information from the field of Jungian analytical psychology pertaining to the overarching objective of the human psyche to strive unwaveringly and consistently so towards the teleological objective of integration of ego consciousness with the autonomous unconscious, supports that conclusion.
This concerted activity of the collective unconscious for teleological equity or integration, offers for humanity instructive insights into its dynamic role, function and purpose. Its transcendent function is universally attested in various genres, including myths, legends, religions, folk and fairytales, literature in general, poetry, the arts, classical and sacred music, and theatre; and law and morality ( however deliberately or unconsciously so recognized) in the lives of mankind; and in the lives of all of nature.
This concerted focus of attention is also intended to inform all of humanity of our common collective entanglement; and even more so, of our legacy as an inquisitively wandering living species; always conjuring up mythopoetic stories, generation after generation, from ancient times to the present, spawned by the collective unconscious; echoing the ancient decree of the Delphi maxim for mankind to “Know Thyself!” For this possibility to ever occur, as the psychoanalyst Carl Jung has declared, “consciousness must boldly confront the unconscious” via the medium of the universal archetypes — a lifetime task and an offering for therapeutic transformation and transcendence.
The power of the unconscious is fundamental, indomitable and unparalleled; inspiring both the discipline of science, in awe of the universe, and religious beliefs, in awe of the numinous. As the physicist Albert Einstein is noted to have written (a sentiment echoed by Carl G. Jung), “He to whom the emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand wrapped in awe, is as good as dead —his eyes are closed.” In Einstein’s view this sense of the “something greater and more mysterious than ourselves” is the root of religiousness and of a meaningful engagement with the world, even if this occurs to humanity on a collective unconscious level. This sentiment of the awe of the numinous is also amplified biblically in Proverbs 9:10, which reads, “The fear [reverend awe] of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom.”
No wonder, in Biblical Hebrew literature, the words for Divine Power or “God” can be transliterated in metaphysical language variously as “El” or “Eloah” or as “Elohim” with the latter a plural term referring to a Divine Assembly of magisterial powers and
sovereignty. It is this latter collective term that arguably is referred to intuitively by the psychiatrist Carl Jung (the son of a country pastor in the Swiss Reformed Church) as the indelible universal function of the hypothesized “Collective Unconscious” manifested fundamentally as a governing “First Cause” in human consciousness.
Pondering that there are different stages of consciousness, the Upanishads of Eastern metaphysics, spirituality, and philosophy refer to this phenomenon of the collective unconscious in archetypal language as the fundamental manifestation of Brahman (as the infinite; as ‘That’ from which all existence precedes and to which everything returns). This overarching power manifested in reality is discerned in the Book of The Holy Bible as the universal Power or Divine God revealed as being collectively omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient.
The Gifts of the Great Unconscious on Reflection:
“Bearing their gifts they descend on us.
Universal figures that we should trust.
From the Great Unconscious chthonic couriers.
Visionary energies displaying primary powers.
Underworld messengers offering us reflections.
Archetypal magistrates for humanity’s corrections.
Seeking a balance of the Outer with the Inner.
Of ego consciousness with the Great Unconscious.”
About this poem
The statement that humans are more unconscious than they are conscious suggests a belief in the vast, enigmatic realm of the unconscious mind, which governs much of our behavior, thought, and emotion. This belief is supported by the understanding that the unconscious mind includes all mental states and internal biological operations. Ultimately, the psychological goal, on a universal level is, as Swiss psychologist Carl Jung declares, to integrate unconscious contents into consciousness. A SPECIAL NOTE: I offer this composition as an innovative genre of creative polemical writing that I choose to describe as Prose Encapsulated Poetry (PEP), an hybrid literary form of prose poetry that is intended especially for the inquisitive, open artistic mind. more »
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View full analysis »SchemeA BBBBB C X D D E A F F C GAXXA H A E X AAIJJXXJXJIIXX X X D K G X L L I FD F X X HA X D AXMMKKFA
Characters9,791
Words1,543
Stanzas34
Stanza lengths1, 5, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 5, 1, 1, 1, 1, 14, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 8
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"Poetry.com" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LTD, 2026. Web. 8 Oct. 2026. <https://www.poetry.com/>.
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