Chapter Seven

EGO AND EMOTIONS

EGO:

Ego is a primal aspect dedicated to "me" and is linked to our emotions, directly influencing our brain. It is a tool for survival originally developed during the era of Atlantis. Ego is an evolving principle of a human until at last it merges within a Mind. It usually is more active in the slower vibrations.

It is not a personal Ego, but an Ego-experience. Ego participation is the epitome of darkness within the emotional aspect of a human until it is brought to a point of enlightenment within the Mind. It is neither bad nor good. It simply is and renews itself each time a Mind takes a new physical body. It relates to the central measurement of reality that a body gives to a brain. The Ego-influence goes unconscious when a Mind detaches itself from the physical body at the moment of death.

It evolved as a gift. It is a taskmaster, one of authoritarian dictatorship, and is evidenced in all personalities as something that most of us deep within ourselves dislike. It is born in fear and says, "I want. I desire. I need. Fulfill me. Give me what I want." It is a demanding aspect, and it is only in what it demands that higher consciousness is lacking.

As a baby, it helps to keep the body alive for when hungry, the baby cries demanding food. When the baby needs attention, it cries to be held. When a baby is in pain, it lets everyone know by screaming. As a baby grows into childhood, it demands those necessities that will fulfill the child and, at the same time, help her/him to develop more fully.

It is the urge within that pressures us to compete, whether for grades, those of the opposite sex, jobs, a place in society, or love. Egos help us to develop into individuals who will do whatever is necessary to make our bodies comfortable by whatever means are at hand. It is when we become slaves to our Egos that we find ourselves in trouble because Egos out of control trample over others. Those with big Egos fight to be the leaders. If our Egos dictate our actions, we are in total service to ourselves, sometimes within the family unit.

For those utilizing metaphysical practices, it is most difficult when asking for guidance to distinguish between Ego-voice and Mind-guidance voice. With practice and in time we can usually identify when our Egos are screaming. Egos speak in most loud, frightening, judgmental and demanding ways. Thoughts stemming from Egos will be those of judgment of others and self--Thoughts that keep us from receiving joy, laughter and spiritual satisfaction. Egos will keep Minds in the sensate world as Ego-gratification is through the senses. Most material desires are of an egoistic nature.

All fear originates in the Ego-emotions. It is the only level of awareness that believes that its beginning and ending is of the body and physical plane. Fear is on an emotional level that affects the physical body, not of an higher awareness, but to an Ego it is an indication of other levels of reality that an Ego misperceives as being the diminution of self. An Ego believes that it will disappear and be nonexistent if it allows a whole being to experience within other realms of existence.

Part of Ego fears stem from what we accept of others’ judgments of who we are versus that which our Higher Selves call us to be, and although not obvious, may make us feel uneasy. Egos, attempting to maintain the status quo of their persona, fear for their own existence and fight mightily to remain in control.

In the struggle with Egos, we can become the observer-selves, the ones who watch the conflict between Ego and Mind. It is a classic battle. The observer-selves will be our referees. If our Egos gain more power than is rightfully theirs, by development of our observer-selves, we consciously may decide by using the gift of free will to: not do or to do, change Thoughts, actions, or move in new directions by choice, not out of unconscious reaction, which is what Egos control. With the development of the observer-selves, we can gain full control of our Egos, and they will serve our needs as we move into higher consciousness in our Minds.

At that moment we begin to question all that has been given as truth in our lifetime and look at it from a higher perspective. And know what it is that we feel about our Egos, observe them, and at the same time, listen to the voice of our Minds (higher consciousness), which call for expression of beauty, joy, truth, peace and love.

If our Egos are so controlling and powerful, how do we develop our observer-selves? We look at the situation as if we are standing on the sidelines watching a movie. We observe what is going on in our lives at the moment, and simultaneously there is another part of us that is unemotionally analyzing the events. Does this sound impossible? Actually it is easier than what might be thought.

The first time I was able to do this I was in a romantic situation, which at the time I felt was sort of ridiculous in that I was acting more like a teenager than the middle-aged woman I was. I found myself being two people: one part of me was looking at this silly older woman and her antics, and the other part of me was truly enjoying the antics as this aging capricious woman. After that I found that I could use the same technique in serious situations.

The key is that as the observer-self, I do not allow myself to become emotional or involved. I simply observe my actions like I would watch a movie. But on this other level, I am feeling and doing.

It takes desire and practice. It actually is that simple.

Individually, when we analyze a situation, we can see more clearly how the Ego part fits into the scene. It is not that we are to kill our Egos (which is what they fear most), but we are to gain control of our Ego-brains by merging our Ego experiences into our higher consciousness. We do this by communicating with our Ego as if to another person. Do this out loud to make it more real.

We discuss the issue, comfort our Egos, and remind them of what role they play in our lives. Reassure our Egos that we love them as much as any other aspect of our beingness, and we have no intention of killing them. But we do intend that our Minds shall control. We encourage our Egos to come on journeys and adventures into other realms that before had seemed to be places where our Egos would disappear.

By utilizing our more enlightened desires and understanding, we take control with our entire Minds. And we must be patient! Our Egos have been in control for many years and it will take continual working with our entire being to finally merge them within our whole Minds. We take the role of being gentle, loving, understanding parents who have walked into a situation of our Egos (children) finding themselves confronted by the unknown, a reality they have never experienced in their waking state. With understanding we may comfort, educate, hold, and encourage the children to allow themselves freedom, acceptance, and creativity.

When we hear the voices of our Egos and they describe to us who we are, as Egos have done in all of our incarnations, Egos will come to know at the highest level who we are, i.e. beauty, truth, freedom, power, courage, joy, love and more. They will understand that we are Spirit. We are not only created with the vibrations of Spirit, but in our ultimate essence are Spirit.

It requires that we strive to know this, not just intellectually, but through the vibrations of our hearts. We must feel it, know it, and witness it working in our lives. Recognizing Spirit in others removes totally any doubt that we may have about ourselves.

EMOTIONS:

Some type of quantum leap occurred when we were created out of primary energy and we on Earth developed emotions. We are sentient beings and emotions are an essential aspect of our essence. Emotions are strong feelings that register in our bodies by way of our Ego-brains, and register also in our Minds.

Conditioning of our emotions commences immediately upon our entering the fetus in the womb. Our brains receive information through our sensors of sound and feeling, and we can sense the emotional vibrations of our parents, especially the mother through being tied together by the umbilical cord. In the recommended reading section at the end of this book is referenced an Internet site about the life of a fetus, who after birth was named Tulkitoes. According to the man who produced this website, this is the true story of one such baby.

After birth our emotions are now being crystallized by the birth pangs of Ego to survive as initiated by hunger, physical discomfort and a need to be held and loved. Only recently we realized how the first two years after birth can make or break us later in our childhood and adult years. From the time of our last four months in the fetus stage through the first four years of childhood, events, mental conditioning, and emotional exposure with others help to mold us.

We not only react emotionally, but the physical organs of our bodies emotionally respond. Our feelings can totally affect our lives to the point of maintaining our good health or sicken us unto death. It is true that we can "die of a broken heart." Emotions of love, hate or fear can cause our hearts to flutter or palpitate. Fear can cause acids to increase in the gastric juices. Most alternative health books speak of this emotionally induced, physical distress as did many of Edgar Cayce’s readings.

Psychologists state that two emotions are the basis for all other emotions: love and fear. Upon these two are predicated all sentient awareness. Love encompasses all of the aspects of: Compassion, passion, empathy, sympathy, parental love, self-love, romantic love and agape until we reach the heights of love as displayed by our great spiritual leaders, which is Unconditional Love.

Experiencing all of the variations of love polishes our facets like those of a fine diamond until we, without effort, begin to understand, and Unconditional Love flows out from us wherever we are and towards whomever we see.

We generally believe that all forms of love flow out from our hearts and hence, art shows the heart as being symbolic of love. Actually love flows out from our entire being through energies emanating from us and is not confined to one area. At the time we may feel as if our love is flowing from our hearts. What does it matter so long as it flows?

A surprising aspect of Unconditional Love is that it is not a sentient expression. It is a recognition that there is no separateness between anyone, anything and Spirit. There is an essence of the heart that simply is open and loving, and healing energy flows out towards all life forms, whether human, animal or plant. It is pure life force!

For those of us who are experiencing this or are striving hard to reach this stage or this sense of completeness, this flowing out is not existent at all times. It is like a faucet--we turn it off and on; not because we intentionally turn it off, but because our own emotional state can be such that it partially blocks our Minds so that there is no flowing out. We are locked in our own unproductive emotions of the moment.

Relative to emotions rooted in fear, we have the usual ones of anger, depression, revenge, hatred, jealousy, lust, possession, control, self-defeat, victimization, terror, loneliness, aloneness and abandonment; ones that we all have felt and know so well.

When analyzed we can realize that most of them involve a loss, which basically is fear. It is healthier for our bodies to express these emotions outwardly, but often when we do, we can expect a turbulent response from others perhaps in the form of chaos, hostility and even repulsion. As an example if we slap another, we may get slapped back. If we speak sharply to another, we may get a sharp retort. To keep the peace, modern society demands that we control and hide such actions and reactions.

Likewise we may draw to us the very situations and people that we desire to bypass. Like draws alike for like vibrations match. What we emit through our emotions, if not received elsewhere, returns to us.

Our emotions, hand-in-hand with our Egos, are expressed in certain cells of our brains and can influence our Thoughts. If emotions are of a loving quality, whether about others or us, they in turn create Thoughts, which energy flows toward the object of our attention. Likewise, if emotions are dark and disturbed, they create Thought energy that flows to wherever our attention is directed. If we block our emotions (either because there is a traumatic event involved that we choose to forget, misremember or repress, or because intellectually we know it is not correct thinking), this blocked energy will injure us, even to the point of death. This may be difficult to accept, but it is true. We also may carry emotions in from a simultaneous lifetime that can create illness for us in this life.

When dealing with negative emotions such as anger, greed, selfishness or lust, any attempt to overcome only means that we have suppressed or repressed emotions. They are still hiding deep within like an octopus whose tentacles are waiting to clutch and pull us under. It is healthier and more beneficial to seek our repressed emotions, examine them and acknowledge their existence. We may then determine how to transmute their influence by seeing them in a new light, from a different perspective, and replace them with more positive emotions until we feel renewed. One day we realize that we no longer react in the same manner as we once did.

If we continue to play old tapes by remembering certain painful events, recalling old emotions, or reliving the ordeals, then we have reseeded this darkness within. Once again they will spring forth. Emotions are energetic and vibrant, whether loving or fearful.

Another creative approach is to try on the other’s shoes. We visually recreate the scene and the other’s state of mind, as if we are the other, and endeavor to acknowledge different points of view and different truths. When we can do this, we become the other. We are one and compassion within our heart frees us. We are comfortable, at peace and it will show in future contacts with these people.

All of us after becoming adults harbor some resentment towards our parents for situations in which we feel that they did not provide adequately. This may be emotional or physical; sometimes it is simply a matter of not providing enough loving attention. We remember what happens during our childhood in the immature manner in which we received the impression as a child, resulting in what may seem to us to have been traumatic. Our parents can’t even remember the incident. Counselors continuously work on these childhood memories, especially where it concerns the mother as it appears that in the early years the mother is necessarily closer to the baby/child. It is during these years that adverse memories can lock us in a deep, dark closet.

I had such memories. I knew that my mother loved us and to the best of her ability strived to give us what we needed. Yet an indescribable disquiet nudged me regarding her where at times I felt anger, but could not glimpse the cause. As a mature adult, for my own enjoyment I wrote my life’s story as truthfully as I could remember the events, including other members of my family. Then I went back and inserted the dialogue and thoughts of my mother as I believed them to be, based on her perspective and what I knew about her from neighbors.  She died when I was a teenager. I then repeated the same procedure as it pertained to my father and sister. I experienced release as it allowed me insight into each member of my family by discovering their desires, traumas, disappointments and challenges.

Often mental health practitioners utilize this technique. We can never know whether the shoes are too tight until we wear them.

In painful situations where others have deliberately inflicted harm on us, whether individually or collectively as in war, it is extremely difficult to transmute our self-destructive emotions into positive ones. One good way is to remind ourselves that we set out the plot before incarnating, and recognize that we are only responsible for our own actions and emotions. We may be able to ameliorate the intensity of any harm from others by releasing them to their own karma and divine self by saying, "I bless you. I release you. I send you on your way. I forgive you, as I also desire to be forgiven for any like acts that I may have inflicted on others in any lifetime." We only can change our own perspective. We cannot change that of others.

There is an important aspect that I feel should be brought to light. In the past, Christian religions have advocated in any situation to "Let go and let God." Psychologically this may encourage us to disregard our own responsibility in the melodrama and fail to realize the true meaning. This is a matter for deep personal consideration.

In most of the metaphysical classes I have attended, it quickly came to light that most of the class members had great compassion and tolerance of others, including others’ actions, but none for themselves, and this included me for many, many years.

We have no love of self. There is a deep area within that believes God can love everyone else, but not "me." That I am not worthy of love, and when we are burdened with such an emotion, it is almost impossible not to have low self-esteem, a terrible inferiority complex or in some cases, a grandiose sense of self.

An extreme in either case cuts us off from the love of God for we will never believe that God loves us until we can love ourselves. There is a subtle something in us that correlates God and us as one.

Years ago a clairvoyant during a reading said to me, "God loves you too, Joan." I could scarcely believe it. God could love me! I felt so overwhelmed that I cried and cried that God could love me. I felt God could love everyone else, but not insignificant me.

Now why do so many of us have this sense of not being loveable by God? What has brought this about? It seems reasonable to conclude that for many lifetimes we have been programmed to believe that we were born in sin, will die in sin, will always have to fight evil, need someone else in the form of a prophet, or avatar or priest to either intercede for us or die as a sacrifice for our evil ways.

Were these teachings promulgated to control the masses? Binding us emotionally in such a manner might be considered by some to be a form of evil in itself, even black magic.

Be that as it may, communication has en-lightened us (lighten up) and now the time has come to rise above all of this programming and become who we truly are, Spirit having a physical experience.