Are 90% of Our Thoughts Subconscious?
The idea that around 90% of our thoughts are subconscious is a familiar refrain in spiritual teachings, cognitive psychology, and self-development discourse. Yet such a statement, while seductive in its clarity, demands a more nuanced and layered examination — one that honors both the complexity of the psyche and the invisible architectures of the soul.
It is indeed true that a vast portion of our inner experience is governed by the subconscious mind. However, reducing it to a fixed number like 90% risks oversimplifying a far more stratified reality — one in which automated reactions, inherited patterns, ancestral trauma, and energetic imprints subtly collaborate to shape what we mistakenly assume to be conscious thought.
What Does It Mean to Say “Our Thoughts Are Subconscious”?
In psychological terms, the subconscious refers to the layer of mental activity that operates outside the immediate field of awareness: the territory where childhood beliefs, defense mechanisms (such as denial or repression), implicit memory, and internalized relationship models reside.
From a neurological perspective, much of our cognition is indeed automated. The brain prefers familiar pathways (through neuroplasticity) in order to conserve energy. Consequently, most of our day-to-day thinking is simply recycled fragments of previous thoughts, fears, social comparisons, or conditioned desires, triggered by cues we’re not even aware of. Research in cognitive neuroscience (see Bargh & Morsella, 2008) suggests that the vast majority of our decisions and reactions are initiated automatically, long before our conscious will has a chance to intervene.
Are We Thinking, or Being Thought?
That is the pivotal question. Across spiritual traditions — from the Sufi mystics to the Gnostics — we find the idea that thoughts do not belong to us, but rather exist as vibratory fields of information within a collective matrix, tuned into by each individual according to their internal frequency.
In the realm of karmic constellations, it becomes clear that a person often carries thoughts that are not their own: beliefs of abandonment, guilt, or self-sabotage transmitted energetically from a parent, an unresolved trauma, or an ancestral imprint. These infiltrate the psyche through cellular memory and subtle information fields, generating repetitive mental loops that one misidentifies as personal.
So… Is It 90%?
It’s a useful metaphor — but not an empirical truth. It would be more accurate to say that the majority of mental content activated in an ordinary day is repetitive, automated, and largely unconscious. The precise percentage is less important than our capacity to become aware of these patterns and unbind them.
The Key: The Inner Witness
Accessing a state of witness consciousness — through practices such as meditation, energetic unbinding, mirror work, or intuitive journaling — enables the reprogramming of the subconscious. This is where inner alchemy begins: the transmutation of subconscious thought into conscious intention, a form of mental grace. Soul contracts become visible. Karmic codes are rewritten. And the authentic voice of the Self begins to emerge — no longer drowned out by inherited echoes.
In conclusion, the question is not what percentage of our thoughts are subconscious, but rather: how much of us is actually present within the thoughts we are having? And this is perhaps the most important shift — from being thought… to being awake.
✴︎ With Grace,
Adrian Băjenaru Constantine
Karmic Energy Healer, Qibbala Creator, Author
📚 Reference:
Bargh, J. A., & Morsella, E. (2008). The unconscious mind. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3(1), 73–79. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6916.2008.00064.x