Sri Aurobindo
Letters of Sri Aurobindo
5. Planes and Parts of the Being
It is the external consciousness, the inner consciousness, the superconscient that are meant1. The terms waking, dream, sleep are applied because in the ordinary consciousness of man the external only is awake, the inner being is mostly subliminal and acts directly only in a state of sleep when its movements are felt like things of dream and vision; while the superconscient (supermind, overmind, etc.) is beyond even that range and is to the mind like a deep sleep.