"gut feeling" that some situation is unsafe, when the conscious mind would otherwise have blissfully ignored the danger.

I think of my conscious mind as being useful in areas that I'm focusing on and paying attention to, and almost useless in everywhere that I'm not.

My subconscious and automatic responses, on the other hand, seems to be much better at dealing with things that I'm not noticing (like breathing, keeping my feet moving in a reasonable manner, etc). However, I don't know enough neuroscience to know if my subconscious actually focuses on some things and not others.