The mechanism of repression, or more broadly those of defense, do not function via censorship, that is, by controlling what can pass across a border, but by altering the way in which consciousness functions. It is something like tuning a receiver to a certain frequency, or picking a particular voice out of a cacophany. Alternative neighbouring voices are not removed but merely attenuated, a kind of feedback loop holds attention on the selected thread. If the selection as to what will be brought to the foreground is a functional one made through the feedback mechanism, then it is also subject to the many different variables such as belong to such a feature. Apart from the need to exceed a threshold of coherence, there is the breadth of the window and the sharpness and stability of the central focus. Compare dreaming mind with waking mind, for example you see that the window is far wider and the contents sharper but more evanescent - all this because attentional feedback works differently. As well as this, there are changes in the band to which it can be tuned, which correspond roughly to the (psychological, not political) sense of the terms higher or lower consciousness. The point to see consciousness as a means and not as the end, means that mistakes itself for the end. It makes sense to ask, What is conscious through you? because it is not self-evident at all.