Funny, I was just pondering this last night - how I often realize this phenomenon immediately after it occurs, and feel helpless when I realize it. It's like two minds, one that is moving my hands to pile mangoes into my face, as the other is telling me to save some mangoes for later (they're very hard to stop eating). But on a more serious note, now that I realize I realize it, I realize it a lot.

I once got too enthusiastic about eating mangoes and my face learned that the skin contains urushiol like poison ivy.

I find this simultaneously fascinating and disturbing; once you have someone using this, they become a hitherto-impossible human-AI hybrid, where their mind is now a fusion between the two, completely unnoticed to the user.

Even though the conscious brain doesn't always directly control motor skills, I wouldn't call it "merely an observer". It's your consciousness that decides your goals and beliefs; the rest of the body "learns" those things and is then preconditioned to react accordingly.

But they are separate systems. Harsh experiences (traumas) can teach your body some bad lessons in such a way that not even your conscious mind can overcome. In these situations, you can't "think your way out" of these traumatic consequences in, say, a talk therapy session; you need to deal with the body directly/somatically to recover instead.

> It's your consciousness that decides your goals and beliefs; the rest of the body "learns" those things and is then preconditioned to react accordingly.

Quotation needed.