How Does the Subconscious Mind Work?

This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "The Law of Success" by Napoleon Hill. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.

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How does the subconscious mind work? How do the contents of your subconscious influence your life outcomes?

According to Napoleon Hill, the author of The Law of Success, your subconscious mind creates your life experiences because it’s connected to the higher consciousness. So, you can only attract the experiences, ideas, and people into your life that are on the same wavelength as the contents of your subconscious.

Here’s how your subconscious mind creates your reality.

Your Subconscious Mind Creates Your Reality

How does the subconscious mind work? According to Napoleon Hill, the author of The Law of Success, your subconscious mind interacts with higher consciousness—the force that creates and manages all experiences across the entire universe. This higher consciousness has three distinct traits:

It’s the source of all knowledge, containing all the thoughts ever released by conscious beings.
Its energy permeates and connects all matter in the universe.
It synchronizes all interactions that take place in the universe.

Hill explains that, through its connection to higher consciousness, your subconscious mind can potentially connect to and attract any idea, person, or circumstance into your life. However, the impressions your habitual thoughts leave on your subconscious mind restrict its connection only to the ideas, people, or circumstances that reflect the conclusions your conscious mind has formed about you. These conclusions include how you feel about yourself, your expectations, your hopes, and your fears.

To clarify Hill’s thoughts on how your habitual thoughts restrict your experiences, let’s explore how your subconscious mind attracts ideas, people, and circumstances in more detail.

How Your Subconscious Mind Receives Ideas

Hill explains that your subconscious mind receives all of your thoughts and ideas through its connection to higher consciousness. Though higher consciousness is the source of all knowledge (because it contains the collective thoughts of humanity), your subconscious mind can only access thoughts and ideas within higher consciousness that are consistent with your habitual thoughts.

Example: You’re a struggling writer and you habitually feel insecure about your creative abilities. Your continual lack of self-confidence imprints upon your subconscious mind, causing it to conclude that you aren’t creative enough to become a successful writer. Even though higher consciousness contains an infinite number of creative ideas, any one of which could potentially help you succeed as a writer, your subconscious mind can’t access them. Instead, it only attracts ideas that make you further doubt your creative abilities.

How Your Subconscious Mind Attracts People

Hill states that, just as your subconscious mind restricts the thoughts and ideas you can access from higher consciousness, it also limits the people you attract into your life. He explains that the energy of higher consciousness permeates all conscious beings and connects them telepathically. Through this telepathic link, your subconscious mind orchestrates interactions that cause certain people to show up in your life. However, though higher consciousness has a telepathic connection to all conscious beings, your subconscious mind can only telepathically link to and attract people who reinforce your habitual thoughts.

Example: You habitually think that you’re unlovable and you imprint this sentiment upon your subconscious mind. Even though higher consciousness has a connection to many people who could potentially love you, your subconscious mind can’t telepathically link to them. Instead, it only links to and attracts people who reinforce your lack of self-love—such as those who also suffer from low self-esteem, partners who mistreat you, or friends who take you for granted.

(Shortform note: Research hasn’t yet revealed evidence that people can connect telepathically or mentally attract each other. However, researchers have had some success in using technology to engineer telepathy. For example, one research team developed a way to transmit a “hello” message from one person in India to three people in France. The greeting wasn’t spoken, typed, or texted. Instead, the communication happened between the brains of the participants using a combination of electroencephalography (EEG) sensors and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS).)

How Your Subconscious Mind Creates Experiences

Hill asserts that your subconscious mind creates all of your experiences through its connection to higher consciousness. He explains that the energy of higher consciousness permeates and connects all matter in the universe. Through this connection, higher consciousness orchestrates interactions and governs everything that happens in the world. However, though higher consciousness has a connection to everything—giving it the potential to create any type of experience—your subconscious mind can only connect to and create experiences that reinforce your habitual thoughts.

Example: You habitually fear that you’re not good enough to succeed in your career and you imprint this fear upon your subconscious mind. Even though higher consciousness has the potential to help you achieve career success in numerous ways—for instance, by attracting professional connections or creating opportunities for promotion—your subconscious mind can’t connect to and create these experiences. Instead, it can only create experiences that reinforce your fear of failure—for instance, by limiting your career opportunities to low-paying or unfulfilling positions or causing you to make errors that hinder your chances of promotion.

How Does the Subconscious Mind Work?