THE PHILOSOPHY OF MIND AND GENETICS:  ALTAF HUSSAIN

London – 24 April 2000 

‘The mind, it may be understood encompasses conscious (sha ur), Sub conscious (la-sha ur) and sub-sub conscious (taht-ush-sha ur). The Treasure -trove of entire knowledge remains locked safe and secure in the mind of human beings. If somehow, the dormant part of mind becomes active or activated, then the Homo sapiens can take advantage and make best use of this hidden wealth of knowledge, said Mr. Altaf Hussain, while addressing the Study Circle, yesterday in London, at MQM International Secretariat. In continuation of a series of earlier lectures on ‘life after death’, ‘conscious and sub-conscious’, ‘genetic engineering’, Mr. Altaf Hussain, elaborating his views on conscious, sub-conscious, dreams and spirit through this discourse observed, ‘human thought emanates from conscious, travels to sub-conscious and then takes its abode in the sub-sub conscious- the archive. In the same way, whatever a human being witnesses, hears and feels or whatever knowledge he acquires through exogenous impact, immediately reaches the conscious from where it trickles down and stored into subconscious and sub-subconscious. Mr. Hussain added, ‘ Similarly, the genes transferred from the parents to the new -born, brings forth with it in its trail all the experiences, thoughts, beliefs, knowledge and other memories of his ancestors. The introspection, retrospection, beliefs, thoughts, experiences, emotions thereinafter are transmitted through genes to the new born and get accumulated and stored in the subconscious and sub-subconscious. Consequently, the sub conscious and sub-sub-conscious becomes the repository of all the experiences, vision and knowledge stored by the human mind from the very inception of Homo sapiens while undergoing an evolutionary process.

Mr. Hussain elucidated further, ‘ the sub-conscious and sub-sub-conscious of human being are just like archives, where the sea of knowledge is stored. The conscious too has a capacity to store information, but compared to sub-conscious and sub-sub-conscious, it is very limited. Whenever, due to some inexplicable reason, the sub-conscious and sub subconscious become active, some of its stored information and thought travel to and accumulate in the storeroom of conscious. Elaborating, he told, ‘ when the man indulges in introspection, he actually enters the domain of ‘conscious’ and thereby unleash the knowledge and information which had been accumulated from his sub-conscious or sub-subconscious. It may thus be said that introspection or retrospection induces the knowledge and information to emerge from the bottom of the sea to the seashore. But it is a strange phenomenon. Sometimes the knowledge and information which is retrieved from  ‘la sha ur’ (sub conscious) or ‘taht-us-sha ur’ (sub subconscious) and transferred to ‘sha ur’ (conscious), when revealed, exposed, surfaced or discussed, is neither believed nor accepted by the people. It goes beyond their comprehension simply because they are depending on their ‘sha ur’ (conscious) which is devoid of that treasure of knowledge which has come from the sub-conscious or sub-sub-conscious of the person who has brought this idea, philosophy and thought to the sha ur (conscious) of his audience. So whenever people are confronted with a new philosophy, idea or thought, they consider it to be impossible, without substance or rather a phantom and the person who produces it is dubbed as lunatic, deranged, insane or ignorant. They thus refuse to listen and accept the new ideas and thoughts.’

Dwelling upon his theme, Mr Hussain observed, ‘ it is an irony that though all such ideas and thoughts, which are not acceptable to these people, do exist in their sub-conscious or sub subconscious, but unfortunately not transferred to their ‘sha ur’ (conscious), and that is the reason for their outright rejection of such innovative ideas and thoughts. However, when a new idea, dogma, thought or philosophy undergoes the stage of experiments, put to test and found true, pragmatic and universal in its application, those very people who were adamant to listen and accept, are left with no option but to accept the truth. But still there are people who, despite the experiments and proven tests, refuse to accept such an idea, belief or thought. It is pity but a hard fact that they are no better than bigoted illiterates/(jahil-e matlaq), and are left centuries behind in the race of human knowledge and advancement. However, those who accept the innovative proven ideas are called men of letters and literates and excel in the field of knowledge and informatics. In other words they are termed as developed and progressive nations.’

Mr. Altaf Hussain said,  " In the present day world nations that have transformed the ideas through demonstrations/experiments into the arena of pragmatism have undoubtedly reached the pinnacle of modern technology and have gone far ahead on the road to progress, whereas nations that failed to accept new ideas and concepts have remained backward, subservient and un-developed".  Citing Albert Einstein, Mr. Hussain said, " that his theory that energy (E) equals the product of mass (m) and the square of the velocity of light(c) or E=mc2 was not accepted rather rejected by those who used the medium of conscious. But as soon as experiments were made and the formula was put to test it was proved that whenever mass is multiplied by the square of the velocity of light it is converted into energy.

Mr. Hussain thus said, " whatever, theory had been propounded by Einstein, was actually locked into sub-conscious of all of us, but because of some exposure or confrontation (whether introspective stage, the state of sleep, or some other frame of mind) this formula emanated from Einstein’s sub-sub conscious, travelled to sub-conscious and subsequently ensconced within the parameters of his conscious who produced it before the world as a piece of research. This very formula on the other hand remained dormant within the sub-conscious of all of us, because it could not be activated through some conscious or un-conscious act, or accident, so it never reached the domain of ‘ sha ur’ (conscious).

Mr Hussain cited two more instances. He said, " The fall of apple from the tree to the ground, produced some vibrations (accidental interaction between sub- subconscious, subconscious and conscious) in his sub-subconscious, which led Isaac Newton to propound his ‘theory of gravity’.  ‘Dolly sheep’ too surfaced’ but it too had a long gestation period. The idea of cloning existed in the taht-us sha ur (sub subconscious) of all of us, but one scientist retrieved it from his taht-us-sha ur (sub subconscious) to his conscious (again through inexplicable cause/effect relationship) and produced his theory before the world. The idea gained currency when experiments were made and cloning became a reality".

Mr. Hussain also referred to the verses (specially Al Hadid) of Holy Quran, wherein Allah says, " We have made clear Our revelations for you, that haply ye may understand". He added that Allah has His manifestations on earth and skies and this may be interpreted as that there is also wealth of knowledge in the la sha ur (sub conscious) and taht-us- sha ur (sub subconscious) of man, which may be sought through his flight of imagination whether on earth or the heavens. It is a historical fact that man has been conquering whatever is on earth and the heavens, when he retrieves the knowledge from sub-sub-conscious or sub conscious to his conscious."

Mr. Hussain continuing his discourse, said, ‘the phenomena of Sha ur (conscious), la sha ur (subconscious) and taht us sha ur (sub subconscious) could be compared with a large organized office, with record room and the archives. The current case files relating to day-to-day operations are kept in the cabinets of the main room of the office. The cases, which are no longer required to be dealt with currently, are transferred to the steel cabinets of record room. When sufficient time elapses and these case files cease to be important or relevant in the context of current or near-future issues, for safe custody are then removed and consigned from record room to the heavy cabinets of archives.  Files, however, could always be retrieved from the archives, when the bureaucrat or his successor   through an impulse, inspiration or perception makes efforts to be benefited/educated by the stored precedent/knowledge. His search yield results and he comes out with a solution of the current problem by invoking the precedents, which stayed dormant in the archive. The office of the bureaucrat having current files in his cabinet may be equated with sha ur (conscious). In such a case sha ur (conscious) can only have access to current theories, events, knowledge or experiences. But if through some unknown forces sha ur (conscious) storms the brain, then the ideas, beliefs or knowledge, which were stored in sub conscious or sub subconscious, like a capillary action, would come to surface  (conscious). Thus whenever, any person tries to recollect or refresh his memory, he scratches his head and makes strenuous efforts just to make a search of the events or thoughts, which are stored in his subconscious or sub-sub conscious, exactly like the bureaucrat who moves from his office and goes to the record room or to the archive to retrieve the case-file.

Mr Hussain said. " Sleep’ has many stages- nap, slumber, doze and deep sleep. One dreams only when he is in a deep sleep. And deep sleep is a state of unconsciousness when human’s body almost becomes a dead body. During this state of deep sleep or unconsciousness, the spirit or soul remains active and though it does not leave the human body but its connection or relationship with the body gets blurred. The conscious part of the mind also sleeps with the body, but sub-conscious and sub subconscious remain active. It must be recalled and remembered, that soul/spirit is energy in the same way as the thoughts are in the mind. So the soul and thoughts in la sha ur (sub conscious) or taht us sha ur (sub subconscious) combine at one wavelength. This combination of soul with subconscious and sub subconscious generates dreams. Dreams in the trail bring forth the events which were witnessed by the person in his lifetime, and which were never experienced or seen before by him."

Throwing further light on state of unconsciousness or rather sub consciousness, when body is asleep, while soul remains active Mr. Hussain said, " During deep sleep the sub-conscious remains active and thus any act committed while a man sleeps is done unconsciously. For example, a man would never scratch the injured portion of his body, howsoever, the itching may be. But during the sleep, the itching sends the signal to the conscious part of mind, which too is asleep for scratching. This signal then automatically is redirected to subconscious as a result of which the hand moves and scratches the injured part.

Explaining the role of subconscious, Mr Hussain added that many a times a person before going to bed, decides in his mind that he would wake up at say seven o’clock. And exactly at 7 am he gets up, why? The reply is simple. When he resolves to wake up at 7 am, the message is recorded by the sha ur (conscious). When he goes to bed, this message is passed on to subconscious, which does not sleep with conscious. As soon as it strikes seven the sub-conscious sends the signal to conscious to get up. So the man wakes up at the appointed time.

Reverting back to the archival state of sub-conscious mind, Mr. Altaf said, " The sub-conscious and sub- sub conscious are divided in innumerable parts- each component has its own faculty. The wealth of knowledge, transferred through genes, remains locked in watertight compartments- discipline wise, in the sub -conscious of human mind. And when, under certain stimulus, accident, overt or covert act, or impetus the component that houses fine art or poetry is activated, the man becomes, Ghalib, Mir Taqi Mir, Tagore, Goethe and Shakespeare.  Similarly man becomes Picasso or Einstein, if the faculty of painting or science in the subconscious is stimulated through some measure." Mr Hussain also said, " Man may also become a prominent artist, or a painter or a scientist on the basis of his conscious, but he cannot achieve the genius of Picasso, Ghalib and Einstein, as he could not have the access of that store of knowledge which had accumulated in the sub-conscious.

"What stimulates the faculty(s) of the sub-conscious", Mr Hussain said, " could be one’s desire, wish, dedication, association, perseverance and or encouragement. For example, if someone desires to be a poet or that he wishes to express his sentiments or views through the medium of poetry, (idea of which takes birth in his conscious) the desire is transmitted to that faculty of la sha ur (subconscious) or taht us sha ur (sub subconscious) which relates to fine arts, and with some efforts he starts saying poetry.  Once he starts saying poetry which is appreciated and applauded by the public, he gets encouraged and this encouragement provides stimulus to seek more knowledge from the sub conscious. Consequently he attains eminence in poetry."

Concluding his address, Mr Hussain said, " All over the world a measure has been devised to test the wisdom, knowledge or intelligence of a person and it is called IQ or Intelligence Quotient. This only explains the axiom that IQ varies proportionately with the transfer of the quantum of knowledge from the sub conscious and sub subconscious. An incremental stimulus and transmission of knowledge from the repository of subconscious to conscious increase the IQ. The factor, which stimulates the transmission process, is again caused the way a child is brought up. A child who grows under the lap of the mother and is too much protected with no option to exercise his own discretion will have low IQ than the child who is brought up in an atmosphere where he exercises his free will and acts independently. Thus independence, free will and curiosity develops the IQ of the child and enables him to develop his faculties with optimal results."