ON and OFF switch - awareness v automation

[gone]

Last week I was in a store and I went to the check out with one small item (a pack of 6 tomatoes), on putting them on the conveyor belt the lady at the till said 'Sorry for the wait'.. I hadn't waited, there was no one else before me.
She picked up my one item and said 'Do you want some help with your packing'.. I was really tempted to say 'Yes' but I was in a rush, I wonder how she would have reacted had I had the time to say yes.. then wait for her to ring the bell and wait for an assistant to arrive to pack my one item, or maybe she would have said something instead. I don't know, but it made me think how we're on automatic for a large part of the time.

I wondered about an ON and OFF switch with makes us alternate between being on (aware) and being off (automatic).. I wondered what controlled this ON and OFF switch that we must have. I thought I was largely on OFF but yesterday I walked into a Subway (sandwich store) and went the wrong way around 'Where you going'.. my friend said and directed me to be served, which I'd completely walked passed oblivious.
Some time later I realised I had done that because on entering into the subway it was laid out exactly like my local subway so I just expected the service area to be the same arrangement, but it wasn't.. It was the other way around, I hadn't thought about this or I would have thought to look, it was automatic, I was automated.

So what's going on when this process takes place?

(this subject may be scraping the barrel but the topics are pretty diabolique in here of late)

[sakoz]

You don't see the connection with what I post about? ( You the missed the facts of the new store lay out in favor or your expectation from your local store, think that a isolated incident?)
Your example is a perfect 'complement' (parallel). I look forward to SWM's reply.  ( "Told you so", really fits here). It's best when you 'discover' this for yourself.
Your subliminal EXPECTATION of the store layout with your local store is a "jem" of a example; you gave your 'thought image schemata' PRECEDENCE  over visible FACTS? Well I dare say, you of all people. And you complain about me repeating, now you see why; it's because you just proved you "don't get it yet". It IS a serious 'problem' and a don't mean to single you out; it's all too common, we CAN do something about it. Thank you for 'owning up to it'.

[gone]

sakoz your language towards me is somewhat derogatory. of course I get it, what I don't get is where you are going with it, you say the same thing over and over and here again you say the same thing, I get it, so does everyone else, we're already aware of this of course, as I was, I gave an example to explore further, you have not shed any new light on the subject but again repeat what you always say.

Why did the cashier say 'Sorry to keep you waiting' when I hadn't been waiting? Why did she ask if I needed help with packing my one item? Because that is her script, she says it to everyone regardless of weather they've been waiting or not.

I'm not interested in overcoming this, or as you say DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.. I quite like who I am and I DON'T WANT TO CHANGE.. things like that in the store & the subway make life interesting to me. Why would I want to change that?
I just want to understand WHY and what purpose does it serve. The lady was in SCRIPT mode. I was in MAP mode. The map information was logged quite unconsciously, I'd remembered the layout of the place without even consciously committing it to memory, I find that quite incredible and not something to overcome but something to celebrate, surely. And surely deserve further exploration

[SWM]

smells like flame bait.

anyway this is a normal trance experience, repetative and monotonous tasks induce a trance state, the trance state involves a shift in the focus of attention which in these two examples is limited consciousness of the objective experience. in place of the objective experience both subjects were engaged in acting out their preprogrammed unconscious roles.

the purpose served is different for each of the above examples.

the purpose for the cashier is to limit contact with / exposure to the external reality, in a way creating a fantasy to escape the mundane.

@sakoz this is deletion.

the purpose for psychomother is to limit the amount of thinking effort required to fulfill the task, psychomother has a pre-programmed operation to run in subway, this program has been run sucessfully before. she can use her conscious mind to think about other things while she can run the programme with out any attention to the external world.

@sakoz this is generalisation. 

[sakoz]

psycho-mother; How many times have I said; "One can LOOK at a rope and SEE a snake."  You LOOKED at the new store but SAW your old one, a clear case "believing your image is real", you even reacted to your image.
You say you 'like' your dysfunctional learned habits? Then please refrain from reading any and all of my posts. You will find they disrupt your complacency.

The placebo effect is beneficial , it's the nocebo effects I'm trying to alert readers to. Do you know the difference between placebo and nocebo?
Pre-programmes, taken for granted, most are useful like SWM says , but the people that say; "I thought the gun was empty". (in USA is still 'happening' all too often) rely on pre-programmes in situations uncalled for.
Ask  SWM why so many people seek therapy? In virtually every case they 'operate' from dysfunctional programmes that I refer to as "unwittingly believing some of their images are real."

[gone]

yes swm it makes sense what you write about using limited amount of thinking space, yes why give a something the same amount of though/attention when you've done it before that would be crazy would it not, like learning something twice or everytime you encounter it, it just wouldn't work, we'd never learn, now I can see why this works, it's the brain being resourceful. Even though it can decieve us, like an optical illusion I guess, so simple.

Sakoz, this is my post, how can I refrain from reading your post when you are replying to my topic. To be honest I kind of know what to expect, so like the subway I don't give your post much attention anymore because even if they're not the same, I expect them to be. So I glance over them but barely read them. Yes how many times have you wrote about the rope and the snake, which I guess proves my point. TOO MANY TIMES you have wrote about the snake and the rope and wtf sees a rope as a snake anway? that's a shit analogy if ever I heard a shit analogy that's it. Only people who expect to see snakes have a chance of seeing a rope as a snake, I've never seen a snake in my life, why would I think a rope is a snake? I imagine less than 000.0001% of the population of the world could mistake a rope for a snake.
I have come to think you're a shilling short of a pound.
So maybe I should say please kindly refrain from posting in my topics if you don't want me to read your replies.

[sakoz]

O.K. so noted, this last one. ( in your posts)

[SWM]

resourcefulness yes, the brain is operating in an efficient way as possible. your brain has the ability to perform thousands of tasks simultaneously and unconsciously. the conscious mind is extremely limited and clumsy in comparison. when we have performed a task consciously and had a positive result the program is written. rather than repeat the task of writing a new program for every similar task the brain uses programs already written for other tasks and applies them to the task at hand. hope that makes sense.

however this can cause problems if it is happening to much.

there is a high correlation between the tendency to generalize and depression. i.e. the world is a bad place, i am a bad person, the future is hopeless.

i have not seen any research but i imagine there is also a similar correlation between distortion and anxiety disorders.
i.e. the danger is percieved to be greater than it actually is, the individual perceives themselves to have deficit to cope with the danger.

[gone]

resourcefulness yes, the brain is operating in an efficient way as possible. your brain has the ability to perform thousands of tasks simultaneously and unconsciously. the conscious mind is extremely limited and clumsy in comparison. when we have performed a task consciously and had a positive result the program is written. rather than repeat the task of writing a new program for every similar task the brain uses programs already written for other tasks and applies them to the task at hand. hope that makes sense.

however this can cause problems if it is happening to much.

Yes that makes complete sense.
I have recently become aware of this, in recent times I've been working in a large group 'construction' (yes my talents stretch to joinery too), and when I was aware of what I was doing & my environment and thinking about what I was doing I found it difficult to perfom, when I just got on with the task in hand I performed really well, I could alternate between these states.
I choose the automated one for the most part and while doing some work I had to keep stepping over a large plank of wood, I went away & returned 5 minutes later & someone had pushed back the table I was working on but I didn't realise it had been moved and on stepping over this plank of wood (that wasn't wood anymore but the edge of stage) I stepped into fresh air & plumeted 8ft to ground still with drill in hand :-(
It was a miracle I got up unscathed and unbrused, I must have fell just right.  But this is another example, where I'd become use to stepping over a plank I no longer looked to see if it was a plank. I'm not usually clumsy and that was a rare event which I still find funny, but I've certainly become aware of performing tasks and the difference in conscious/unconsicous applications.
Just yesterday I came across a piece of text that said something similar - but with regards to religion. It's here for anyone interested. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090304160400.htm

[SWM]

Just yesterday I came across a piece of text that said something similar - but with regards to religion. It's here for anyone interested. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090304160400.htm

it is an interesting conclusion.

[HexHammer]

Many people will rely on long term memory if avaliable, thus we will now and then act "irrationally" because we let our subconciousness decide in a situation where we expect and precive familiarity.

[gone]

I could simplify this concept by saying when walking down a street there are two ways to walk down that street.
1. to be aware you're walking down a street, to observe the trees, houses, sky, pavement etc
2. to be thinking about what to make for dinner, go over a conversation one has had or think of a solution for world peace.

If one walks down the street in 1. mode they are sort of 'in the moment' and conscious and the switch is ON
If one walks down the street in 2. mode they are sort of 'somewhere else' unconsciously functioning and the switch is OFF

[gone]

Ups I forgot to add above I wonder if:

mode 1. ie: being aware of the environment using senses of smelling the lilac trees, feeling the warmth of the sun on our skin, observing the colours and constructions of where we are..  etc

is primariliy functioning on our 'reptilian brain'

and

mode 2. Thinking, wondering, emotional states and not being aware of where we are.. etc

Is primarily functioning from our 'human brain'...

Is this alternate state of consciousness or ON/OFF as I described it..  a state of functioning from either the inner reptile brain and/or the human outer brain??

[HexHammer]

I would belive it's partially from the reptile brain and CNS.