Always wonderfully inspiring.

If I may inquire further on this issue, I am confused about the meaning of conscious. We all daily produce a great deal of behavior of which we are not consciously reflective of while doing it, such as running, dribbling a basketball, even often driving a car. But it seems that we should not claim to be unconscious while producing these behaviors, or that they are, in Freud’s terms, subconscious behaviors. For many of these behaviors we specifically spend hours, if not years, in developing the skills to not be “conscious" of these behaviors. Playing a piano, or any instrument, competing in professional-level sports, and so on, require vast amounts of "non-conscious" behavior and if any if that vast amount of skill is missing we consider it amateur behavior. So, what does conscious mean or not mean?

I ask this because free will is usually defined as behavior that is motivated by conscious intention. But where does that leave practiced skilled behavior. Athletes and actors, and even Jay Leno, have spoken about being in the “zone”, during which they are not “consciously" present.  Leno has said that sometimes he isn’t present while performing in front of an audience and only realizes that he is not there when he “wakes up”. He says that he then listens to what he is saying so that he can find his place consciously and continue. 

I am wondering if our requirements for autonomy might put too much weight on consciousness. Philosopher Jean Paul Sartre relied faintly on psychiatrist Jacques Lacan for questions of psychology, and Sartre defined consciousness as reflective and unreflective, purposely rejecting Freud’s terms. But in my readings of current writings I often find that distinction represented as conscious and unconscious. So I am lost. Or am I of two minds on this?