The following are some current thoughts inspired by a friends question regarding whether or not my persona (ego) realises it must “die” and become assimilated as part of the journey of personal evolution.
My view of the persona (and ego) is partly derived from Psychosynthesis, although what I express here is my own personal view, developed through experience and reflection.
I don’t see the persona as a whole and complete entity unto itself. It is a “mask” that we show to the world, but it is a composite or collection of various parts of our personality (ie. subpersonalities). As such, it is not uncommon for people to have different personae (masks) for different occasions – in one sense you could say “living a double life”. For many years I never revealed to most people I knew my interests in the occult. Only other people involved in the occult knew of my interests and involvements. So I showed a very mundane exoteric persona to most people who were friends or work colleagues.
It is clear to me that the persona or ego is not dependant on being a specific way all of the time. It is factors slightly deeper that give rise to it. For instance, from Psychosynthesis terminology, subpersonalities working as a group or conglomerate are what actually gives rise to the persona or ego. While there are predominant parts which we tend to “live out of” it is also possible for us to polarise, and go into the opposite subpersonalities and therefore change our ego and persona. An example would be the powerful and authoritarian businessman who goes to a dominatrix and lives out a persona of a powerless and weak submissive who desires to be controlled.
It is true that all these parts (subpersonalities) fear their own loss of identity, or synthesis within a highly functional and holistic persona. What needs to be remembered though is that changing a part, or combining it with it’s opposite doesn’t mean annihilation – it means transformation. It has been liked to a caterpillar’s metamorphosis into a butterfly, where the old form is destroyed and a new form emerges.
All our subpersonalities are important and valuable. It isn’t that we need to destroy and get rid of them. The problem is that they are out of balance. They have been compared to the mutinous crew of a ship (the ship’s captain being the Self). They have their strengths, but when the polar opposite is suppressed or weakened things are disproportionate and out of balance. When some kind of crisis or shift occurs, then a person will find themselves operating out of the weaker polar opposite that is normally suppressed, and struggling due to this part being underdeveloped. It would be analogous to consider someone only using their right arm to work with, and allowing the muscles of the left arm to waste away or never develop. Then one day they injure their right arm, and must now rely on the left. Because it has never been developed, everything is a struggle as this arm is weak. Beyond this, the injury may never have occurred if both arms had have been used together – synthesis.
The above said, on a deeper esoteric level there sometimes has to be a willingness to undertake the challenges of one’s magical path. It is easy to understand the analogy between being a warrior and undertaking spiritual development, as there must be a fierce determination to succeed against the (perceived) odds, and not quit when the going gets tough.
It can be understood from a magical perspective that no amount of breaking apart and purify the parts of the individual psyche will lead to or cause spiritual death. There is the alchemical interpretation of the letters I.N.R.I. (usually “Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum” translating to “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews”) as “Igni Natura Renovata Integra”, which is variously translated as “All of nature is renewed by fire”, “Fire Renews Nature Completely”, or “through fire, nature is reborn whole” (contrast this with some of the sayings, attributed to Jesus, relating to fire in The Gospel of Thomas). What is meant is that the essence of a thing is not destroyed by fire, rather it is reborn whole. So the perceived destruction of the ego/persona is really a process of renewal that will lead to a rebirth of a whole individual (again consider some of the sayings in The Gospel of Thomas).
This fits in with the school of thought that says the Kingdom of God is here now. In this scenario the whole and “perfectly balanced” psyche is already here, only we do not see and recognise it. The internal Garden of Eden is in perfect order, and offers us eternal life and sustenance. Perhaps it is the “fire” which is needed to burn up the illusionary projections of dysfunction and non-wholeness. It is certainly fitting with Psychosynthesis and various occult doctrines that the Self and especially the Higher Self are present within us, at a higher or deeper level than we are are normally aware of. The Higher Self is really the macrocosmic blueprint of our psyche’s potential, while our Self is the microcosmic manifestation of this within our current lifetime. It is trauma, and a naturally tendency towards polarities within our causal reality, which give us a perception of dysfunction and opposition as the only form of existence we have. However, this is all only one level of existence and experience.
At my present stage of development I still experience the fear of the parts of the psyche who sometime sense an impending doom – a metaphorical Sword of Damocles hanging above them, threatening their existence. However, it is important to keep in mind that these parts cannot die. They can only be transformed – as death itself is only a transformation of energy, not a final end itself. These parts will continue to exist, as functional elements within the totality of the psyche. They are not, even now, separate in a spacial sense. They can be considered as delimited and defined, much the same as the Psychosynthesis Egg Diagram depicts the psyche as an egg with permeable divisions, rather than concrete separations. The yin/yang diagram likewise represents unity of the yin and the yang, both contain the seed of the other.
I don’t believe that even after the “death” of the ego or persona, or an understanding and embracing of one’s place within the whole, that the individual identity is completely sublimated into the “All”. We are already part of the “All” and our separation from it is an illusion that we project out onto the world. Things are only out of balance, or perhaps comparable to having all the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, but not yet having put them together to see the bigger picture. Once the pieces are in place, then the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts, however the parts still form the whole.
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For more information on Psychosynthesis you can check out the following websites:
- Inner Path
- The Will Project
- Southern Psychosynthesis Community Network
- Psychosynthesis – Two Not 2
- Psychosynthesis Books
- Psychosynthesis Online
No related articles.
Greetings, Teacher,
As Above, So Below.
Regarding your above thoughts, it occured to me,when you speak of the “Egg” image of the “mind,” it reminded me of the image of the birth of the Universe(s)pictured as an elliptical shape (an egg), if you will, giving birth to Ma’at, Mother of Forms.
So the mind holds within it your various universes, as Ma’at both birthed and was birthed by Herself(the Universes).
Well, this thought really turned into an Ourobourus!
For what it’s worth, anyway.
Thoughtfully,
Andrea
Miranda999@sprint.blackberry.net
Hi,
I have had this idea on my mind for a couple of months now. the death of the ego, the dimish of the illusion. Given the the Pyschosynthesis structure it is understandable that you do not agree with the idea that the ego can die. a huge reason for this is that you do not recognize the ego as suchs. Not to delive into the psychosynthesis logic further, and i am not saying it doesn’t make sense (the parts that I have read and think i understand struck a core), however there is a part of ‘the death of the ego’ that to me should have more emphasized, namely that the death of the ego is a very instrinsic part of the magical path. In all fairness you addressed this part briefly as well but for me, and the development i am currently at , the realization that a part of me must ‘die’ to give the whole a better change to grow is a fundementally scary realization in any spiritual quest. once you realise that the mistakes that you have made over the years are basically repeating errors and you realize after reflective meditation that the results behind every incident has the same cause. then a profound set of changes take place that cannot in all honesty be stopped, you have pushed yourself on a collision course with parts of yourself of which you know they wont make it, but what makes the journey so insane is that you don’t know what’s going to happen or even when its going to happen (let alone how its going to happen). you are in a very real sense flying blind. not because your literary blind but because the senses that do ‘see’ the spiritual heading need to be developed and matured…..and it is at that development stage when doubts, uncertainty and articulated fears creep up out of the desolate cellars of the mind. And knowing on an intellectual level might help you try to relativate these extremely unpleasant moments but then at that moment in that bedroom in the middle of the night the ‘knowing’ that this is simply a transformation is honestly, me articulating a hope, a very real very fiery hope that this is simple a phase that I need to go through at that moment in timespace.
what i am trying to say is that there is a point in every persons development when he/she realizes that fear and uncertainty is inevitable for a time. And he/she can only hope that ‘the fire will transform all’.But there is no real knowing there…its hope that i shine against the fear of death of myself together with the destruction of my Ego. The real knowing will come after.(I hope :) )
Hi Alexander,
Thanks for your comments. To be clear, Psychosynthesis (as outlined by Assagioli) doesn’t actually define the ego or use it as a term or concept. My Psychosynthesis teacher taught that the Psychosynthesis equivalent to the ego would be a group of subpersonalities, as mentioned in the article. It is important to remember that arguments over ego, persona, self, etc., can easily become arguments in semantics. Think particularly in the term death. What does death mean to you? To me, there is no “death” per se; there is a transformation of energy. I do not believe that parts of ourselves “must ‘die’” – I believe that they must be transformed. It may seem like death. Or what we experience we may call “death” – perhaps because we don’t know how else to describe it. When experiencing a transformational event, I don’t think it matters whether we ‘know’, ‘believe’, or ‘hope’ that it is simply a phase. If it didn’t effect us to our core, then it probably wouldn’t be sufficient to bring about transformation. From my experiences, once you’ve been through a number of transformational events you will ‘know’ that you will survive, and you will know that you will learn and grow from the experience, although doubt and fear can still lurk in the background.
Additionally, I had a quick look for a Psychosynthesis definition of the ego. In his article, Seven Basic Constructs of Psychosynthesis, Douglas Russell suggests that:
“to define, ‘ego’ psychosynthesis can turn to psychoanalysis: ‘ego’ is the aspect of the individual which is adapted to society. It consists of various functions, habits and defenses. It is comprised of conscious and unconscious contents of the personality.”
This fits with the concept I suggest that the ego is a collection of subpersonalities. These can be transformed, but I don’t believe they can be destroyed. Only in a cup-half-full, cup-half-empty argument can we say that the transformation into something more beneficial is death.
Hi,
I just finished two articles on psychosynthesis. according to the author (Douglas Russell) there is an ‘ego’ concept in the psychosynthesis framework, however that is not really the point of this blog. Much more interesting is the scope and lucidity of this thoughsystem. I am intrigued by it actually, especially the practical aspect of it. I have been doing yoga for several years now, and do a daily routine for more than 3 years… I have been going deeper into the mystery (not just yoga )since…well honestly since I could think, I have read several philosphical texts and several ‘new age’ texts as well. but they seemed either to academic to be practical and new age stuff seemed to lack the analytical grounding one needs to be didactically relevant. And here is a guy who lives 50 years ago who basically developed a system that seems logical at closer reading, at least to me. I do need to read more on the subject to see the deeper distinctions better.
Do you recommend any good books on the subject?
Which reminds me, I have one recommendation for you, this thoughsystem has a planetary shift as its basis (or end result, that depends on your perspective). I have read several ‘channeled’ works on the subject but I am not entirely convinced on this subject, mostly i read them like fairy tales not as ‘truth’, for that I prefer more grounding and less speculation for now, David Bohm was a physicist and groundbreaking in the field quantum physics. I assume you have heard about the film ‘what the bleep do we know’ and other quantum ‘dilemma’s’. However, the writings of david bohm were set a decennium sooner. Its much less spectaulair and much more indepth and profound. There are several text availible on the net. And all his book are concerned with the nature of thought, what is it? How do we act on the basis of thought and how do we change it if its destructive? and all focused on how a planetary shift of awareness couldbe possible and scientifically has a basis as well.
I can talk a fair amount on these subjects as you undoubtly have noticed. So let me leave it for now.
Regards,
alexander