The Singer’s Mind

The Unconscious Mind

It is scientifically proven that the unconscious mind is scientifically unprovable.

Why?

It is not accessible, for one. Secondly, it must not exist, at least in the sense of what we think in terms of it being a mind, per se.

Do you mind?

The activities of the brain and how it is interfacing with the control of bodily systems and functions are detectable, but not easily observable.

Why?

We don’t have the tools to observe it in detail, if it is there, and is to be classified as a “mind” or as part of our mind.

The art of singing is 100% mental, or spiritual.

If your physical body has been trained for singing, it can “go on automatic” and not be an impediment to your artistic expression.

Mechanism, it could be called; or, multi-mechanism describes brain functions of which we are unaware. Somehow it regulates your body temperature, your breathing, your metabolism, and everything else having to do with health and life, unless it breaks down of fails in some way. It wasn’t taught to do these things. It is a mish-mash of chemicals, receptors, electricity and transmitters and synapses and more.

When there is an injury or an illness, some mechanisms and almost robotic-like parts fly into action.

White blood cells get made and go zippy zap to infection sites. How do they know to do this?

How do they know where to go, and why are more created when they are needed and how and why?

Do white cells have GPS or a guidance system to make the journey? How are white cells programmed and why would they do their kamikaze missions?

Do white cells have intelligence or a brain? 

The Subconscious Mind

Something is between the alleged subconscious and the conscious. In reverie, you’re sort of half awake and half asleep and you can see, feel, and hear dreams starting and at the same time be aware of your physical surroundings. In two places at once, almost.

Imagination lies where? Is it conscious, subconscious, or in between?

(Singers should definitely have artistic imagination, you know!)

Are there multiple layers of awareness, rather than two or three?

Maybe layers are not an adequate explanation.

Are there layers to a singer?

Is the mind in your brain?

Where is it?

Can it be surgically removed or even located?

Where is the imagination located? Is it in the brain?

Do you exist in your brain or outside of your body altogether and maybe just interface in your own unique way?

Where do these questions come from and where are the answers?

The Conscious Mind

If I am writing some questions and I am aware of this activity, then I must be in the present moment and also it must be my conscious mind. Is it solely and only the conscious, or is there more?

Where do we store information, analogous to a computer’s hard drive? Is information in the mind or in a file of some sort which is accessible to the conscious mind? How can it be the same thing, if it can be accessed through memory? Where is memory located and where is the control mechanism which goes to access memory data?

You have awareness through some senses and also can be focused on one or a combination of senses, all at the same time. How do you do that? Who or what is running the show?

What is going on with your mind when you sing?

If you have trained your voice properly, you are expressing yourself artistically and musically and have so much control that you can improvise and ad lib as far as your musicianship will allow.

Thoughts And What else?

You have thoughts, ideas, opinions, considerations, and beliefs about every single thing that you put your attention on.

What is controlling when, how, and where you put your attention?

The simple answer is you. You could say, “I”. Where is that located and is Freud’s label of “ego” descriptive, all-inclusive or even accurate at all?

People tend to want to label and classify and enumerate and describe things and give them names, but that doesn’t mean that they are correct. Is it an attempt to gain profound understanding, or to avoid having anything other than a label to tag the thing that we think we are talking about? Are we trying to avoid knowledge and understanding? Learning is sometimes hard, but research is harder.

Is the subconscious mind really there? Does it affect your singing?

“There’s an under-mind, all psychologists agree – an unconscious which does a lot of the heavy lifting in the process of thinking.” – So wrote Tom Stafford in BBC’s online “Future”article of February 18, 2018.

Who is Tom? On Twitter, we find this: Cognitive Scientist at the University of Sheffield, UK.

He has stated that all psychologists agree that there is an “under-mind”. Does it do the “heavy lifting in the process of thinking”, and how do we know this to be true? He could be correct. I don’t know.

Do all psychologists agree? Were all consulted? Was there a survey? How was that done? Was it done?

Just because people believe something is so, doesn’t make it so. It doesn’t matter if it is a few or many people, for that matter. There are still some around who believe that the world is flat and is not shaped like a ball, a sphere. This is not, in and of itself, evidence or proof of anything.

Some experiments have been done to attempt to prove the existence of the subconscious, but are they looking at the right thing in the right direction, and are they really measuring the actual activities of this level of the so-called undermind?

Arrogance Fuels Ignorance

I’ve had many discussions with a physician, who is also a former researcher, regarding living cells. He told me that “we” know everything that is in the cell and how it all functions and interacts with other cells in a living organism.

I questioned that and still question that, but with a reason. The simple fact is that until a microscope was built and used to enlarge the view of anything placed in it, there was no way to observe the microscopic.

Over time, developments have increased the observable, including using electron microscopes.

Instead of light, an electron microscope uses a stream of electrons to illuminate or reveal the object being observed and are much more powerful than light powered microscopes. This is a huge advancement for observation, but wait. There’s more. It still is observation at the atomic level.

How is observation done at the subatomic level and how might that yield things yet undiscovered about cells and of life itself.

At CERN, spectral imaging is used and is starting to be utilized by the medical profession in radiology.

It’s not just the physical which is involved in imaging, there is also the observation and measurement of energy which shed some light, as it were, on more potentially usable information in a scan.

There is more to learn and more to see, but if we think we have all the answers, it’s nothing more or less than simple arrogance fueling ignorance.

You can know nothing at all and still be a great singer.

Some people do need to be instructed, though.

Maybe 99%?

Future

Starting from the assumption that something unobserved may exist, such as the 9the planet, ostensibly altering objects orbiting the sun in the Kuiper belt, through it’s gravitational pull, may not reflect the reality of its existence.

The same goes for the nebulous aberrations attributed to a thing called the subconscious mind.

Measurement and verification of its existence may not have yet been done, sufficient to prove its existence, much less, structure and function of the subconscious or unconscious, if they do indeed exist.

Ideas, feelings, prejudices, hypotheses, biases, and opinions are not always or necessarily scientific. Many can get in the way of making art.

Minds are very complex things and hopefully the functions and operation manuals will be widely available for the good of us all.

What do I think?  I think it is more important that I think, than what I think. 

 I question nearly everything at first,  I do think that.

Maybe it is best for singers to try to just be present in the present moment and to not worry about all the inner workings of the mind and just express through the art of singing.

The mental game of singing is winnable.