The subconscious mind is the store house of all memory. (See my 12^th house article). Not just of this life, but also of all previous lives. But for now, we will deal only with memories of this life. The memory of the general category (say "dog’s") comes to mind. All dogs are four legged creatures with tails and paws, etc. Horses also have 4 legs and tails, but they have hooves instead of paws. You don’t know this at birth. This knowledge is acquired through life’s experience. You simply learn to tell the difference through your ability to classify things into different categories. This process becomes automatic. You cease going through generalities of horses, cats and dogs to determine what a particular specimen is. You immediately know. But when you first learn what something is, you determine what it is by knowing what it is not. All of this is a process which takes between the conscious and subconscious mind. Because only a small portion of our mind is used for conscious functioning, this interplay between the two levels of the mind is ongoing. The conscious mind continually draws from the subconscious facts and uses them in everyday situations.

But your subconscious mind also contains emotions associated with the idea you are attempting to identify. A concept can have only three kinds of associations; positive, negative or neutral. If you have been attacked by a dog, you will be reluctant to approach a strange dog. But, if you have had only pleasant experiences, with dogs, you will approach much more readily, without fear. If you do not care one way or the other, you will be indifferent to the dog. Remember, a lot of our memories are not pure thought, like two plus two equals four. The majority of them are, in fact, charged with emotion.

Feelings can surface and determine our behavior. For example, we may have been bitten by a dog as a child and have generalized that fear to all domestic animals, producing an irrational fear of cats as well as dogs. You may not even remember having been bitten. The aversion may be all you are aware of.

When hypnotized, the original association is made conscious. Aversion to animals and rear of elevators or enclosed spaces, etc. are better relieved when we know their origin.

Association happens when things occur in the same place or at the same time. All associations (good and bad) are stored in the subconscious. Therapists, like Sigmund Freud, believed that recall of the original trauma is adequate to relieve current symptoms. Other schools of psychology regard mere recollection as insufficient to alleviate physical effects and only produces a change in manifestation. Learning the root cause for an unreasonable fear helps eliminate it rather than just making the condition different (like fearing cats now, instead of dogs). You must discover the causes of behavior to get rid of it. Just like the root must be pulled up for a weed to be permanently removed from your yard. Since all memory is stored there, the subconscious must be accessed to produce a real change.

Despite a happy mood, the subconscious may trigger sudden depression because of an association with a trifling detail in, say, your environment. A particular song may remind you of a "lost love". You slowly sink into depression because you allow memories of the "lost love" to reach the conscious mind. But, understanding the reason for such association and learning the cause of your unhappiness allows you to modify your feelings.

Remember, your subconscious mind can be accessed through hypnosis, dreams, trance states or meditation. When you access the subconscious mind, the majority of information you receive will be symbolic. Whether it comes in the dream state or in meditation, the symbols will be varied and you will have to interpret them, which is the function of the conscious mind.

The use of affirmations affects the subconscious mind by replacing old worn out tapes with better news. For example, I believe that: 1) by working with God and my higher self I can manifest all I want on the material plane. 2) I am a child of God and I am filled with his light and his love. 3) In all of my thoughts and deeds, I will seek to be a good person. Of course, you can make up your own affirmations to help you. If you are having difficulty with self-confidence, you can say something like, "I can do anything I desire and I will become a better person with every passing day".