In what way is the preconscious mind like a state of mind?
Your preconscious mind is definitely not your conscious mind. Your conscious mind wants to control, to restrict, to dominate, to make judgments, etc.. It is the default state of mind that we live in most of the time. Your preconscious mind is rarely up front showing off what it can do. It is more like a primitive, animal mind that is based in instinct. It is the part of the brain that reacts split seconds before your conscious mind to sensual input from the environment around you and causes nanosecond spontaneous electrochemical (that is, energy driven) responses in your body’s processes and movements. When you hear a loud sound or a bug suddenly hits your face, your body responds split seconds before your cm can make sense of it. These responses are not conscious in the sense that they come from a thought process or any ideational intention. They are responses that the body’s own level of intelligence generates.
This is a level of consciousness that is free of the inhibitory restraints of the conscious mind. In a sense it is your body speaking before your cm can capture the moment and stifle it with self-reflection, second guessing, or self-monitoring. It is this nanosecond period of time in which your preconscious mind functions completely. It exists in the constant interaction between sensory input and muscular response. It is possible to enter into that nanosecond stream of time and remain there for as long as you wish. It is similar to maintaining a state of being continually in the present moment.
Some people talk about it as an alternate state of mind. Musicians and free style rappers who improvise (make up musical and word phrases on the spot spontaneously without written music or words in front of them) often talk about being in the “zone” or “flow” when they are in this state of creativity. There is no judgment or calculation in this alternate state. It is all about letting whatever is in you flow out freely. What comes out is true; it has integrity; it is natural. It is not manipulated to fit some preconceived idea or intention that the conscious mind wants to impose on it. It just is. There are ways to get into this alternate state of mind.
What has just been described above also matches Abraham Maslow’s peak/flow experience. He is the founder of the self actualization movement in psychology. He and his followers discovered that people who have achieved this self actualized life have a unique set of experiences when they are in this flow state. Their experiences include such elements as: control in flow, effortlessness, altered perception of time, melting together of action and consciousness, and the autotelic quality of flow-experience. This is just one more window that allows us to view what happens in your preconscious mind.