THE LOGIC OF SLEEP-LEARNING: Page 13

and dexterity with which we perform many actions, make us unconscious of these actions. This same ease and speed, the sleep-learning people feel, is attainable in many areas of mental training. Much of our knowledge lies beneath the surface of our consciousness, ready to be recalled when the need arises. It would be impossible for us to function if everything in the mind were always present in our awareness. Selectivity and concentration would be seriously hampered by the distraction of too many ideas, for our brains record every impression, every thought we ever had, every action we have performed. This record is permanent, and affects us all our lives. It remains in the subconscious, ready to be associated with a conscious idea, in a process of which we are completely unaware. Consciously we may forget a great deal, but all the memories, all the ideational and imaginative capacities, are there in our subconscious. They flash into our conscious minds suddenly and without effort or we are able to remember them consciously by association. This subconscious selectivity of material for our conscious minds is the key to concentration of attention, during which we absorb consciously that which we have focused on, but exclude all other impressions of our senses. We exclude them, that is, from our consciousness, but the subconscious will notice and absorb them. The subconscious is able to supply the information when it is needed, if the necessary conditions of relaxation and receptivity are present. Relaxation and receptivity to suggestion are the principles behind sleep-learning. They make it possible for