Fundamentals of Consciousness in Psychology

Consciousness is defined as the awareness of the outside world and internal mental processes, including thoughts, feelings, and perceptions.
It functions as a monitoring system to focus on survival-critical stimuli while ignoring others.
It serves as a control system for planning, initiating, and guiding behavioral and cognitive activities.

Consciousness exists on a continuum, with the waking state being the most common.
Conscious level: Mental processes and events an individual is aware of at any given moment.
Non-Conscious level: Processes totally removed from awareness, such as blood pressure.
Cognitive Unconscious: Includes the Preconscious/Subconscious (events easily brought into awareness, like yesterday's lunch) and the Unconscious (repressed memories or impulses that influence behavior indirectly via dreams or slips of the tongue).

Automaticity: The habituation of responses that initially required focus but now require less conscious control.
Gut feelings/Hunches: Mental processes based on previous experiences that guide actions without explicit awareness.

An Altered State of Consciousness (ASC) occurs when there is a significant shift from ordinary waking patterns of mental functioning.
Key states include sleep, dreams, meditation, and hypnosis.
Psychoactive Drugs: Categories include Depressants (e.g., Alcohol), Opiates (e.g., Opium, Heroine, Morphine), and Stimulants (e.g., Cocaine, Ecstasy).
Interpretations of these states, such as hallucinations or drunkenness, are often culture-dependent.

Subliminal Messages: There is no evidence for "mind control"; effects are short-lived, limited to simple judgments, and behave similarly to a placebo effect.
Psi Phenomena: Explored via Parapsychology, these include Psychokinesis (PK) and Extrasensory perception (ESP) variants: Telepathy, Clairvoyance, and Precognition.