Outside of sleep and dreaming, the subconcious mind has important work to do. Modern culture has a highly rationalistic belief system that tends to downgrade the subconscious. We like to think we are in control, that our conscious minds have all of the answers, and that we are pretty well aware of our subconscious motives and beliefs. However, the conscious mind is actually very limited and unaware of subconscious processes. In fact, conscious efforts frequently get in the way of subconscious processes, and people often have problems because the conscious mind is trying to solve a problem that the subconscious can solve better. The subconscious is smarter than the conscious mind, and often has a much better solution to the problem than the patient or the hypnotist. In certain states of hypnosis and meditation, the patient gains greater access to subconscious resources.