We are living in a time in reality that feels confusing to our idea of Self on many levels. When someone calls a person egotistical, they mean that this person is conceited and Self-absorbed to the point that they do not care about others. I personally often hear people refering to The Ego in reference to the crisis of Self within a Sea of Selfies easily drowns into when going on to the internet.
So what is 'The Ego' anyhow? Does it even actually exist? Is it Our friend or foe, or both? Why do we only talk about it like it is 'bad'? Do we need to destroy it in order to 'become spiritual' or to simply be a balanced and happy person.
I personally, although I have been always interested in and have studied psychology, had a harder time grasping the concept of 'The Ego' in its relationship to the sea of Self vs. External World. Something about it simply did not quite click for me...why would something we have developed through the evolution of 1,000's of years be 'bad'?
Freud's Diagram
First of all, when many people refer to 'The Ego', they are often actually describing a phenomenon that would be better described by Freud's concept of 'The Id'. You may have heard someone say that So-and-So has a 'Big Ego', when in fact, what they mean to say is that they have a large 'Id' and that their Ego is not effectively doing its job in negotiating the Id's demands within societal constructs of what we perceive to be acceptable and desirable behavior. This concept is based on the thought-forms being channeled and developed by Sigmund Freud in the early 1900's and later altered and expounded upon by Carl Jung around the same time.
"One might compare the relation of the ego to the id with that between a rider and his horse. The horse provides the locomotor energy, and the rider has the prerogative of determining the goal and of guiding the movements of his powerful mount towards it. But all too often in the relations between the ego and the id we find a picture of the less ideal situation in which the rider is obliged to guide his horse in the direction in which it itself wants to go."
(Sigmund Freud, 1933, New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis)
Although Freud's concept of the 'The Id' was primarily based on the idea of repressed sexual desires and impulses (which Jung disagreed with), from a greater perspective, 'The Id' could also represent what Spiritual and Mystic philosophers have often refered to as 'The Animal/Beastly Instinctual Nature of Man' to have his unrefined psychic and energetic and thus 'spiritual' needs to be met. What is deemed to be an 'Instinctual Desire' is determined by processes of collective thought/experiences, and thus societal perceptions and standards--ranging from picking one's nose in public, to having emotional melt-downs in public, to strangling someone, to even committing suicide. This is another way in which Freud and Jung's work diverged, as Jung believed that the Ego and Persona were more driven by the latter, rather than mere sexual impulse.
Freud's idea of The 'Superego' represents the set of morals and core beliefs which one adopts, which then drives the Ego in what feels appropriate. These are the beliefs that often cause us to feel internal conflict when we feel bad for 'playing hooky' and calling in sick to work when we really are just needing a day to preserve our sanity. Or which make us feel bad because we don't want to do something that our friend really wants us to do, or honestly when we hurt someone's feelings incidentally by just going with our own flow, taking care of our own Id. Part of the Superego is conscious and a large part of it is sub-conscious. The sub-conscious aspects of the Super-ego is what causes us to practice a 'Limiting Belief'.
"The poor ego has a still harder time of it; it has to serve three harsh masters, and it has to do its best to reconcile the claims and demands of all three... The three tyrants are the external world, the superego, and the id."
(Sigmund Freud, 1932, New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis)
As you can see from the Freud's concept, the Ego is also what allows us to have a conscious awareness of our 'Self' as a separate individual, rather than perceiving our 'Self' as a part and whole of a larger, complex organism of the human race.
The corroboration of the Ego as it meets the needs of the Id is what produces our actual experience of perceived reality. This interaction and the perceptions which ensure are in turn what produces the eroticly wild experience of the electromagnetic frequencies we experience as emotions both internally of the mind and body and as these frequencies also emit externally from the body, and as we communicate with perceived 'others'.
"Towards the outside, at any rate, the ego seems to maintain clear and sharp lines of demarcation. There is only one state — admittedly an unusual state, but not one that can be stigmatized as pathological — in which it does not do this. At the height of being i n love the boundary between ego and object threatens to melt away. Against all the evidence of his senses, a man who is in love declares that "I" and "you" are one, and is prepared to behave as if it were a fact."
(Sigmund Freud, 1929, Civilization and Its Discontents)
More information on Carl Jung's perspective of the Ego's relationship to the persona and Self may be found at www.jung.org .
First of all, when many people refer to 'The Ego', they are often actually describing a phenomenon that would be better described by Freud's concept of 'The Id'. You may have heard someone say that So-and-So has a 'Big Ego', when in fact, what they mean to say is that they have a large 'Id' and that their Ego is not effectively doing its job in negotiating the Id's demands within societal constructs of what we perceive to be acceptable and desirable behavior. This concept is based on the thought-forms being channeled and developed by Sigmund Freud in the early 1900's and later altered and expounded upon by Carl Jung around the same time.
"One might compare the relation of the ego to the id with that between a rider and his horse. The horse provides the locomotor energy, and the rider has the prerogative of determining the goal and of guiding the movements of his powerful mount towards it. But all too often in the relations between the ego and the id we find a picture of the less ideal situation in which the rider is obliged to guide his horse in the direction in which it itself wants to go."
(Sigmund Freud, 1933, New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis)
Although Freud's concept of the 'The Id' was primarily based on the idea of repressed sexual desires and impulses (which Jung disagreed with), from a greater perspective, 'The Id' could also represent what Spiritual and Mystic philosophers have often refered to as 'The Animal/Beastly Instinctual Nature of Man' to have his unrefined psychic and energetic and thus 'spiritual' needs to be met. What is deemed to be an 'Instinctual Desire' is determined by processes of collective thought/experiences, and thus societal perceptions and standards--ranging from picking one's nose in public, to having emotional melt-downs in public, to strangling someone, to even committing suicide. This is another way in which Freud and Jung's work diverged, as Jung believed that the Ego and Persona were more driven by the latter, rather than mere sexual impulse.
Freud's idea of The 'Superego' represents the set of morals and core beliefs which one adopts, which then drives the Ego in what feels appropriate. These are the beliefs that often cause us to feel internal conflict when we feel bad for 'playing hooky' and calling in sick to work when we really are just needing a day to preserve our sanity. Or which make us feel bad because we don't want to do something that our friend really wants us to do, or honestly when we hurt someone's feelings incidentally by just going with our own flow, taking care of our own Id. Part of the Superego is conscious and a large part of it is sub-conscious. The sub-conscious aspects of the Super-ego is what causes us to practice a 'Limiting Belief'.
"The poor ego has a still harder time of it; it has to serve three harsh masters, and it has to do its best to reconcile the claims and demands of all three... The three tyrants are the external world, the superego, and the id."
(Sigmund Freud, 1932, New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis)
As you can see from the Freud's concept, the Ego is also what allows us to have a conscious awareness of our 'Self' as a separate individual, rather than perceiving our 'Self' as a part and whole of a larger, complex organism of the human race.
The corroboration of the Ego as it meets the needs of the Id is what produces our actual experience of perceived reality. This interaction and the perceptions which ensure are in turn what produces the eroticly wild experience of the electromagnetic frequencies we experience as emotions both internally of the mind and body and as these frequencies also emit externally from the body, and as we communicate with perceived 'others'.
"Towards the outside, at any rate, the ego seems to maintain clear and sharp lines of demarcation. There is only one state — admittedly an unusual state, but not one that can be stigmatized as pathological — in which it does not do this. At the height of being i n love the boundary between ego and object threatens to melt away. Against all the evidence of his senses, a man who is in love declares that "I" and "you" are one, and is prepared to behave as if it were a fact."
(Sigmund Freud, 1929, Civilization and Its Discontents)
More information on Carl Jung's perspective of the Ego's relationship to the persona and Self may be found at www.jung.org .
Jung's Diagram of the Self
Although, Freud and Jung's constructs are just two fairly similar ways of perceiving the construct of human consciousness in regards to the 'Me' vs. 'You' experience of reality, they tend to the most widely accepted views globally, yet to date. I could go further into the details of Freud and Jung's theories in this article. However it would get quite long, so I will leave it to you to satiate your desires for researching those theories as you wish.
Indeed, Freud and Jung's perspectives tend to be an intellectualized version of a very mystical and psychic phenomenon that has long been addressed by Shamans, Healers and Philosophers since Ancient Times and yes, prior to written records. How well the Ego does its job will also determine level of trauma experienced when the individual is placed in an environment which is deemed undesirable. It will also determine whether repression will occur.
The Id and the Superego, while some are watching the child in the supermarket aisle having a temper tantrum, call 'beastly' and treat as merely instincts that need to be properly channeled through discipline, represent in actuality, our raw potential with which to draw from and refine as and however we please. Concepts of the Id are often in reference to Dream work and the actively powerful psychic energies of the human creative potential. There is a card in our modern Tarot deck which actually describes this exact aspect of our path to consciousness, a concept felt and utilized long before Freud walked the earth. This card is called The Moon.
Although, Freud and Jung's constructs are just two fairly similar ways of perceiving the construct of human consciousness in regards to the 'Me' vs. 'You' experience of reality, they tend to the most widely accepted views globally, yet to date. I could go further into the details of Freud and Jung's theories in this article. However it would get quite long, so I will leave it to you to satiate your desires for researching those theories as you wish.
Indeed, Freud and Jung's perspectives tend to be an intellectualized version of a very mystical and psychic phenomenon that has long been addressed by Shamans, Healers and Philosophers since Ancient Times and yes, prior to written records. How well the Ego does its job will also determine level of trauma experienced when the individual is placed in an environment which is deemed undesirable. It will also determine whether repression will occur.
The Id and the Superego, while some are watching the child in the supermarket aisle having a temper tantrum, call 'beastly' and treat as merely instincts that need to be properly channeled through discipline, represent in actuality, our raw potential with which to draw from and refine as and however we please. Concepts of the Id are often in reference to Dream work and the actively powerful psychic energies of the human creative potential. There is a card in our modern Tarot deck which actually describes this exact aspect of our path to consciousness, a concept felt and utilized long before Freud walked the earth. This card is called The Moon.
Rider-Wait Deck - The Moon XVIII
The Moon also represents the part of our Id that gets repressed by the Ego, in cooperation with the Superego's Limiting Beliefs. This is what Jung came to expound upon as The Shadow, both on an individual and a collective level. The Shadow also emerges when a perception of a trauma creates a type of 'Emotional Quantum Entanglement' with the Self. You will not find this exact term in most other professionals' work, as it is a personal observation in working with The Shadow and Inner Child work. This entanglement is akin to a snapshot version of the Self ( Inner Child)which gets trapped in time, continuing to experience a traumatic emotion incessantly without relief of processing and releasing this trapped version of Self back into the full present.
A person who is experiencing 'Emotional Quantum Entanglement' continues going about their life in the present, they will continually experience this trapped emotion being triggered by external stimulus and then keep coming back up in various ways that seem unrelated to the past. An entangled emotion is effectively throwing their past into the future, and therefore making zis future certain by Law Of Attraction. This is an idea you will find presented by a number of teachers. This "Skip in the CD" as Teal Swan coined it is our emotional body's way of calling us to process, unprocessed information that feels bad to us. This is an area which, while it has been addressed by Shamans and our Dreamtime since beginning of time, has in modern times come more into vogue due to the research of popular psychology and spiritual philosophers/teachers alike. Teachers and psychologists have a variety of techniques with which they address The Shadow.
Christians have long described this experience as 'Being lost in our Sins,' when in actuality, we are feeling lost in our Contrast of the cross-hares of The Superego, The Ego and The Id. Many of us who have grown up Christian or Muslim or Hindu or even Buddhist will feel such a pull on our Superego, that even after we reject the belief system of our childhood, we will still experience feelings of guilt, loss, and that we are somehow bad and going to hell, or that we are a shameful to our family and heritage or ancestors. It can be challenging to thoroughly sift through the measures of the sub-conscious to effectively alter these beliefs to form 'Positive Beliefs' that actually serve the functioning of the Ego. It would seem that most people have a difficult time forming a 100% positive correlation between these aspects of consciousness as we are responding to the external world, forming relationships and families, forming a sense of personal and greater purpose, and setting and accomplishing goals.
What most impending belief systems and philosophies have not taught us is the Truth concerning our relationship to Self. I asked Jung to help me write this article (even if I did focus more on the Freudian construct). Ironically I found the following anecdote on Jung.org...
A Native American myth recounts that the Creator gathered all of creation and said, "I want to hide something from humans until they are ready for it. It is the realization that they can create their own life and their own reality..." The eagle said, "Give it to me; I'll take it to the moon and hide it there." But the Creator said, "No, one day they will go there and will find it." Then the salmon said, "Give it to me; I'll hide it in the bottom of the sea." "No," said the Creator, "they'll get there too." Well, the buffalo came and said, "Give it to me; I'll bury it in the plains." The Creator said, "No, they will get there. They will cut into the skin of the earth, and they will find it even there." But then Grand Mother mole came, the one that has no physical eyes to see on the outside but has spiritual eyes and the capacity to see on the inside, and she said, "Put it inside them; they'll never find it there." And the Creator said, "It is done."
Here is where my work as MeTa MeLa, here and now, builds upon the foundation of my predecessors and peers. In my writings and techniques, you may find similarities to other teachers, psychologists and spiritual philosophers works and techniques, and this is not to copy their work, but rather to further chisel and develop concepts and technologies that we as a Collective have channeled in order to assist humanity in its discovery of Self. While I do believe that writers, philosophers, scientists, inventors, and artists should take credit and prosper from their work, we are a Collective who is channeling a great plethora of thought-forms which have ensued by a plethora of Beings throughout the Ages. And in that regard, the leaf must give creedance to the bough and the trunk, just as they give creedence to the leaf in return.
Additionally, we are living in a Age of high contrast and suffering amongst humans on this planet. If it is true that this suffering is caused by the contrasting forces which form the personal and collective Shadow, the time is now to act in response and embrace to this shadow. The timeliness and urgency of this need is an issue I will leave later to address. But my point leads to the fact that while professional competition serves its function, the time for integration for Our humanity is imminent and the ball is ready to drop. That is why I choose to utilize my faculties, gifts and knowledge to do all that I can to assist us in our further development of Emotional Technology, not only for integration of the unconscious, but in preparation for the vast technological potentials of Our future.
It is my understanding now that the part of this big, daunting Id that Freud had pictured dipping down into the dark, murky and very negatively painted unconscious mind represents a vast unknown that science and psychologists really know very little about and that spiritual philosphy delves into undauntingly. But then, why is it that in Western society, we leave it to them to deal with when we become depressed or mind becomes uncontrollably split?
But what is behind this dark veil, represented by The High Priestess in the Tarot deck?
The Moon also represents the part of our Id that gets repressed by the Ego, in cooperation with the Superego's Limiting Beliefs. This is what Jung came to expound upon as The Shadow, both on an individual and a collective level. The Shadow also emerges when a perception of a trauma creates a type of 'Emotional Quantum Entanglement' with the Self. You will not find this exact term in most other professionals' work, as it is a personal observation in working with The Shadow and Inner Child work. This entanglement is akin to a snapshot version of the Self ( Inner Child)which gets trapped in time, continuing to experience a traumatic emotion incessantly without relief of processing and releasing this trapped version of Self back into the full present.
A person who is experiencing 'Emotional Quantum Entanglement' continues going about their life in the present, they will continually experience this trapped emotion being triggered by external stimulus and then keep coming back up in various ways that seem unrelated to the past. An entangled emotion is effectively throwing their past into the future, and therefore making zis future certain by Law Of Attraction. This is an idea you will find presented by a number of teachers. This "Skip in the CD" as Teal Swan coined it is our emotional body's way of calling us to process, unprocessed information that feels bad to us. This is an area which, while it has been addressed by Shamans and our Dreamtime since beginning of time, has in modern times come more into vogue due to the research of popular psychology and spiritual philosophers/teachers alike. Teachers and psychologists have a variety of techniques with which they address The Shadow.
Christians have long described this experience as 'Being lost in our Sins,' when in actuality, we are feeling lost in our Contrast of the cross-hares of The Superego, The Ego and The Id. Many of us who have grown up Christian or Muslim or Hindu or even Buddhist will feel such a pull on our Superego, that even after we reject the belief system of our childhood, we will still experience feelings of guilt, loss, and that we are somehow bad and going to hell, or that we are a shameful to our family and heritage or ancestors. It can be challenging to thoroughly sift through the measures of the sub-conscious to effectively alter these beliefs to form 'Positive Beliefs' that actually serve the functioning of the Ego. It would seem that most people have a difficult time forming a 100% positive correlation between these aspects of consciousness as we are responding to the external world, forming relationships and families, forming a sense of personal and greater purpose, and setting and accomplishing goals.
What most impending belief systems and philosophies have not taught us is the Truth concerning our relationship to Self. I asked Jung to help me write this article (even if I did focus more on the Freudian construct). Ironically I found the following anecdote on Jung.org...
A Native American myth recounts that the Creator gathered all of creation and said, "I want to hide something from humans until they are ready for it. It is the realization that they can create their own life and their own reality..." The eagle said, "Give it to me; I'll take it to the moon and hide it there." But the Creator said, "No, one day they will go there and will find it." Then the salmon said, "Give it to me; I'll hide it in the bottom of the sea." "No," said the Creator, "they'll get there too." Well, the buffalo came and said, "Give it to me; I'll bury it in the plains." The Creator said, "No, they will get there. They will cut into the skin of the earth, and they will find it even there." But then Grand Mother mole came, the one that has no physical eyes to see on the outside but has spiritual eyes and the capacity to see on the inside, and she said, "Put it inside them; they'll never find it there." And the Creator said, "It is done."
Here is where my work as MeTa MeLa, here and now, builds upon the foundation of my predecessors and peers. In my writings and techniques, you may find similarities to other teachers, psychologists and spiritual philosophers works and techniques, and this is not to copy their work, but rather to further chisel and develop concepts and technologies that we as a Collective have channeled in order to assist humanity in its discovery of Self. While I do believe that writers, philosophers, scientists, inventors, and artists should take credit and prosper from their work, we are a Collective who is channeling a great plethora of thought-forms which have ensued by a plethora of Beings throughout the Ages. And in that regard, the leaf must give creedance to the bough and the trunk, just as they give creedence to the leaf in return.
Additionally, we are living in a Age of high contrast and suffering amongst humans on this planet. If it is true that this suffering is caused by the contrasting forces which form the personal and collective Shadow, the time is now to act in response and embrace to this shadow. The timeliness and urgency of this need is an issue I will leave later to address. But my point leads to the fact that while professional competition serves its function, the time for integration for Our humanity is imminent and the ball is ready to drop. That is why I choose to utilize my faculties, gifts and knowledge to do all that I can to assist us in our further development of Emotional Technology, not only for integration of the unconscious, but in preparation for the vast technological potentials of Our future.
It is my understanding now that the part of this big, daunting Id that Freud had pictured dipping down into the dark, murky and very negatively painted unconscious mind represents a vast unknown that science and psychologists really know very little about and that spiritual philosphy delves into undauntingly. But then, why is it that in Western society, we leave it to them to deal with when we become depressed or mind becomes uncontrollably split?
But what is behind this dark veil, represented by The High Priestess in the Tarot deck?
Rider-Wait Deck - The Priestess II
It is my personal and spiritual experience that has led myself and many others to believe that the psychicly active contents of the Unconscious Self are in actuality a deeper identity beyond the Conscious Id/Ego and Persona. Many hold feelings and beliefs that they retain memories of experiences from other/past identities and lives. Ive even heard spiritual teachers harshly criticize those making such claims, that they are simply in denial of aspects of their current lives, and blaming their traumas on something that feels more grandiose and self-important to them. Teal Swan teaches that trauma does not come from other life experiences because we are karmically cleared between lifetime gates. Why is it, for example, that most people who are vocal about having past lives choose to report only important people, such as Cleopatra, Saibaba and Elvis? One thing is for certain, that this area is subject to debate between those who have claimed to have access through experiences of the interdimensional realms and the Akashic Records (the aetheric layer which documents all of existence and lifetimes). These are all topics which I will happily address in further blogs.
But when it comes back to our original topic of the Ego and whether or not it is undesirable, it is important we take an unconditionally loving perspective. The Ego is what allows for the creatively expansive human experience. It allows us to have an individuated experience of Source (or God) perceiving itself. It negotiates between the version of Self that is Source and the version of Self which is individuated into personae. (as is also taught in Kabbalistic tradition)
When I look out across this modern world and I see the sea of Selfie-crisis mode, I feel utter compassion for a people who are trying desperately to see the Self and thus realize themselves as truly and uniquely worthy and able to use their Free Will to create a reality that is truly their choosing. Instead, they feel crippled by an evolutionary technology that has turned against itself, due to 1,000's of years of programming from Beings that could not make up their mind whether they would rather have humans bow down to them, or to surpass them in glory and splendor for the sake of the Cosmic Evolution of Source itself.
Ironically, when someone calls someone egotistical now that I have consciously awakened into my Sovereign purpose with free will, I feel mercy toward someone who's ego was warped by parents and society into having a dwarfed sense of understanding to their relationship of Oneness with the world around them.
Please look forward to my next blog in which we will continue to explore Our relationship to the Self, Shadow/Inner Child work, as well as present techniques for uncovering our personal sense of worth and purpose, and deciphering and connecting to the resonance of your own personal alignment.
With Unconditional Love through Holographic Heartscape,
MeTa MeLa
It is my personal and spiritual experience that has led myself and many others to believe that the psychicly active contents of the Unconscious Self are in actuality a deeper identity beyond the Conscious Id/Ego and Persona. Many hold feelings and beliefs that they retain memories of experiences from other/past identities and lives. Ive even heard spiritual teachers harshly criticize those making such claims, that they are simply in denial of aspects of their current lives, and blaming their traumas on something that feels more grandiose and self-important to them. Teal Swan teaches that trauma does not come from other life experiences because we are karmically cleared between lifetime gates. Why is it, for example, that most people who are vocal about having past lives choose to report only important people, such as Cleopatra, Saibaba and Elvis? One thing is for certain, that this area is subject to debate between those who have claimed to have access through experiences of the interdimensional realms and the Akashic Records (the aetheric layer which documents all of existence and lifetimes). These are all topics which I will happily address in further blogs.
But when it comes back to our original topic of the Ego and whether or not it is undesirable, it is important we take an unconditionally loving perspective. The Ego is what allows for the creatively expansive human experience. It allows us to have an individuated experience of Source (or God) perceiving itself. It negotiates between the version of Self that is Source and the version of Self which is individuated into personae. (as is also taught in Kabbalistic tradition)
When I look out across this modern world and I see the sea of Selfie-crisis mode, I feel utter compassion for a people who are trying desperately to see the Self and thus realize themselves as truly and uniquely worthy and able to use their Free Will to create a reality that is truly their choosing. Instead, they feel crippled by an evolutionary technology that has turned against itself, due to 1,000's of years of programming from Beings that could not make up their mind whether they would rather have humans bow down to them, or to surpass them in glory and splendor for the sake of the Cosmic Evolution of Source itself.
Ironically, when someone calls someone egotistical now that I have consciously awakened into my Sovereign purpose with free will, I feel mercy toward someone who's ego was warped by parents and society into having a dwarfed sense of understanding to their relationship of Oneness with the world around them.
Please look forward to my next blog in which we will continue to explore Our relationship to the Self, Shadow/Inner Child work, as well as present techniques for uncovering our personal sense of worth and purpose, and deciphering and connecting to the resonance of your own personal alignment.
With Unconditional Love through Holographic Heartscape,
MeTa MeLa