The issue is that, somewhat worryingly, the term “conscience” is often used in literature as if it implied something more than just the qualities of experience. Dijksterhuis and Nordgren, for example, argued that “it is very important to understand that attention is the key to distinguishing between unconscious thinking and conscious thinking. Conscious thinking is thought through with attention. This implies that if a thought escapes attention, then it is unconscious.
But is mere inattention enough to confirm that a mental process lacks the qualities of experience? Couldn't a process that escapes the spotlight still appear to be something? One way to comprehend how conscious and unconscious minds work is to observe what is known as a slip of the tongue. Many of us have experienced what is commonly referred to as a Freudian slip at one point or another. These erroneous statements are believed to reveal underlying, unconscious thoughts or feelings. The visible is the conscious, while what lies lower and deeper are the subconscious and the unconscious.
