Becoming Who You Are with the Intelligence of Self

SELF-DEVELOPMENT WITH INTELLIGENCE: THE AWARE EGO

NEWS FLASH: The “sclerosis” or psychic fossilization is not inevitable. Two factors lead us in the opposite direction:

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• The ability of complex systems to reorganize when the critical threshold of disorganization or inadequacy has been reached; environmental pressures can bring about a modification in our responses. And so at times, a crisis situation transforms an Average Joe into a hero.
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• The human aptitude to step back and observe one’s actions and modify them accordingly. We are not only “homo sapiens”, knowing man, but we are also “sapiens sapiens”, man who knows that he knows. Distancing ourselves from something lets us bring in new information which will counteract entropy and system breakdown.

THE THREE LAWS OF CONSCIOUS EVOLUTION

Conscious development occurs according to three laws which are dynamic in nature; they are actions of the psyche, which are, if not always conscious, at least explicit. For this reason, we will use verbs to indicate them:

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• Identifying or Naming,
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• Disidentifying or Unhooking,
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• Integrating and Rebalancing the Opposites.

Identifying or Naming

Until we can name the things that surround us, and the things that happen within us, we have no way of understanding or acting. This is as true in the world of the psyche as it is in all other areas of knowledge; nothing is possible if we cannot perceive, identify, and name what makes us act, both consciously and unconsciously.

It is such a fundamental truth that if we hadn’t put this principle into actual practice, we would never have come this far. We would have no way to share and exchange ideas. In other words, the first step of development consists of identifying how we function and mapping out one’s own psyche.

Disidentifying or “Unhooking”

The difficulty with the Operating Ego is not in what it knows how to do; it does some things very well, and we would never dream of preventing it from pursuing a particular course of action. The difficulty is that it wants to do everything, or even more directly, it puts itself in our place – the Auto-Pilot mistakes itself for us. When we say “I” (for example “I’m like this or I’m like that..., I like this or that.., I don’t like this or that...”) with force and conviction, it’s not us speaking. It is rather that, unknown to us, our Auto-Pilot has moved in and taken control.

At this point, we need to dissociate the “Aware Ego” from the “Operating Ego”; we need to make our manual controls accessible and not always be operating in automatic mode. We need to discover if there really is a pilot in the plane or if, as in A Space Odyssey 2001 (Clarke/Kubrick†), Hal the computer is going to hijack the controls!

Dissociation is undoubtedly the most difficult part of self-development, but it is also the key stage. It can require strong methods and provoke very intense emotions.

Integrating and Rebalancing the Opposites

At this stage, we have created space to gradually integrate the opposite pole. Our goal is not to struggle and develop one pole to the detriment of the other; nor do we want to exercise the opposite pole in some type of psychic “mind building” similar to “body building”. Once the Operating Ego has loosened its grip and let go a little, some space opens up for the opposite pole. I can finally put a hand on each shoulder and “embrace the opposites” rather than be pulled every which way on an inner battlefield.

From this time onward, I can no longer project onto others what I deny in myself; I can no longer hold others responsible for what belongs to me. I start by identifying what arises in me before I blame someone else. And even more importantly: I consider those who irritate me as someone doing a good deed, because they point out clearly what I still have to learn. In fact, we should set up an altar or statues of those who bother us: they are the masters to whom we should pay homage.

This is truly a lifelong discipline, a permanent learning curve. No dodging the issue, no mask to hide behind; one question alone to answer: “Right now, who in me is speaking, thinking, judging, taking action?” It makes us dream of a world in which all individuals would assume their share of responsibility and where anathema, excommunication, and fatwah would no longer be practised!

However, that doesn’t mean that everything is equal, that there is no good or evil; our capacity for discernment remains, and it is now even more effective since it is no longer tainted with our projections. Discernment is the role of the Aware Ego.