This article is about the idea that the mind has multiple layers, each with its own role and contribution to our world of experience.

We never consciously perceive any of the 'raw data' that our senses generate. Instead we consciously perceive only our own mind's interpretation of this data. (as discussed in the rejection of determinism essay)

The idea of the onion mind builds upon the concept of visceral, behavioural and reflective perceptions discussed in Concept: 3 levels of perception.

The primitive mind is that part that we share with animals; it is almost unchanging from one person to another. Outside raw sense data (qualia) reaches this first. The primitive mind begins the pattern finding process and passes the incoming signals to the emotional and cognitive centres of the brain. The emotional centre (also primitive) classifies the input as something to be frightened of, something to eat something to mate with, etc. This is purely reactive, and although complex compared to man-made machinery could most likely be predicted in the same way if understood in sufficient depth. Learning cannot realistically be expected to change the primitive, visceral mind.

The next stage is the automatic or learned functions; these include reasoning, skills, etc. This is where things go once you know how to do them; for example driving a car may now be an automatic skill for you. (see Concept: Consciousness and Competency).

This level will also include memory and language. Language is your set of possible concepts. You cannot think a concept that you cannot express in words, so there can be strong influences from education and culture here.

Essentially the conscious mind does not have sufficient processing power to deal with more than 7±2 concepts simultaneously (see 7±2 Concepts). This leads to a process of delegation, whereby frequently repeated tasks are consigned to the unconscious mind to make the consciousness more efficient.

Thus it is worth noting that the unconscious can perform advanced tasks, but is always reactive.

The central part of your mind is consciousness, the part that is, for all intents and purposes, you. This is the part of the mind that makes choices and is self-aware.

The conscious mind is thus where your perception is. The input from the outside world ends its journey in your conscious mind. However, most of the data has not reached your conscious mind (none of it directly). The primitive mind will have simply discarded most of the data as unimportant, if it didn't do this the processing power of the brain would be swamped with irrelevant data. This is why you can be quite happily ignoring what occurs in your peripheral vision (like when you are reading a book on a train), when suddenly something grabs your attention. The data from your peripheral vision was always being processed, but was being dealt with by the lower levels of your mind until it found something it 'thought' it should ask its supervisor about.

Once the primitive mind has had a go, the unconscious mind then attempts to fit the data into your lexicon of concepts (your language) to find patterns and to judge a suitable response.

Two influences can occur here. Firstly, if your breadth of language is limited you can have difficulty comprehending the information with the same speed and mental dexterity. Secondly the commonality of the concept will have an influence. This is simply the way in which the network of the brain works. If concept A often occurs with concept B then the two will have a strong link. This is good because it allows association and thus learning. However, the next time you encounter concept A, concept B will probably be brought to mind whether it is associated in that case or not. This has formed a habit, which can obviously be positive or negative. Either way habits are limiting to comprehension of what is actually happening.

The primitive brain will decide some reactions (e.g. hormone secretion in response to an emotionally charged event) and others will be decided by habit (the unconscious mind).

Thus, not only has the information that has reached you been filtered by the lower levels of the mind and had prejudices introduced, but generally your reaction has already been decided, and may have already begun by the time you know about it!

Once a task has been automated and consigned to the unconscious then it becomes purely reactive, like if someone says to you "How are you?" you will frequently reply without evaluating how you really are.

If you wish to change these habits or improve your perceptions then you will first need to discover how to bring the unconscious into the conscious. One way to do this is to 'observe' your reactions, essentially asking the conscious mind to evaluate the unconscious mind. Introducing new concepts to help allow the conscious mind to see a different viewpoint of the unconscious can help with this. This is, as far as I can tell, is what NLP aims to help one to do.

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