The Ego

Normally we are convinced that we are just one person on the inside.  And that we react the way we do to the events of life since… “that’s just who we are”

However, when somebody makes a profound study of their psyche, they can see that they are multiple in their psychological make up.  As if a sum of many people live inside them, jostling each other to be in charge of the senses, the attention and the consciousness.

When reading these lines, the reader might assume that we are talking about an individual with “multiple personality disorder” but we are in fact referring to an everyday person.

According to the Gnostic psychology, every individual is somewhat ‘fragmented’ in his psychology.

Let’s look at two examples to demonstrate this:

Let’s imagine that the driver of a car drives down the road and reaches a traffic jam. This has been caused by a big car crash where several people involved have died. The first thing that comes to this person’s mind is “what has happened here?” And after this thought, it’s common that the person will feel impatience, even to the point of desperation, especially if he is already late for work.

In fact the accident is at the side of the road.- it’s not actually causing the traffic jam, The cause of the backed up traffic is the curiosity of the drivers who slow down to take a look.

So our driver, impatient and desperate to get away from the jam, continues his slow drive down the road until he reaches the accident. There’s a given moment when he forgets all about being late for work and about his impatience and slows down even more to satisfy his curiosity, causing an even bigger tailback.

So are we sure that we are always the same person?

Another example:

Peter marries Jane swearing his eternal love for her.

The years go by and they build a life together, they have children and all seems to be going well. Then one day, Peter starts to feel attracted to a work colleague. At first, everything seems under control but as the months go by, the attraction and desire become too much and they begin an affair.

First contradiction: Peter feels guilty about his double life, but at the same time he’s unable to stop the affair.

When he is at home he convinces himself to end it, but once he’s out of the house, the only thing he can think about is seeing his lover again.

Which of the two is Peter, or is he both?

Second contradiction: finally, Jane discovers Peter’s affair and there is a big showdown.

As soon as he realizes that Jane knows,  Peter feels like he has been split in two by lightning. His heart thumps in his chest, its beats get irregular and he’s in shock. Thoughts run through his mind: “I’ve lost my house, my car, my wife will remarry and I’ll have to share my children with some guy, who is bigger, stronger and better looking than me, I’m finished, I’ve lost everything.”  So he promises to end the affair and for the next three months he cries to Jane that he is truly sorry, that he was a fool and that she is the only one he ever loved.

Analysis:

1. How can we be doing something that we know to be wrong, which can only end in catastrophe yet not have the strength to stop?
2. Apparently, the truly sorry Peter is the same one who swore his eternal love for Jane when they married, but is he really the same?

How can two contrary aspects be the same?

That’s why  Gnostic Culture, based on the recognition of the thoughts, emotions, actions and instincts that flow from the subconscious area to the conscious and vice versa, concludes that the human being is multiple in his psychology.

Every psychological aspect that has its own way of thinking, feeling and acting, we call “ego”.

So we can say that we have many “Egos”, each one struggling to remain in the conscious side of our psychology for longer.

This may seem crazy, but an experienced meditator can hear these psychological selves conversing among themselves in the subconscious areas of the mind and verify their existence ‘with his own eyes’.

You can verify what we are saying here for yourself in a simple way, by learning the technique of ‘Self-Observation ‘.

The technique of ‘Self-Observation‘

This is where we go about our normal life with our family, in society, at work, etc. and at the same time we observe our emotions, thoughts and attitudes. And so, we begin to discover within ourselves certain harmful elements, like anger, greed, jealousy, ill will, etc.

It’s then that we find out that we are not the saints we thought we were, and in reality we have subtle elements of great perversity within us, and that even if we have been able to live an exemplary life on the outside, we still have those negative aspects inside.

One of the goals of the Gnostic Culture is to teach us how to discover who we truly are.

There is a saying that ‘forewarned is forearmed’. So for instance in Peter’s case, he could have seen where his desires were taking him before he got involved in an affair that nearly destroyed his family.

Or in the first example, our driver could have asked himself…why should I get so stressed out if it’s not going to get me there any quicker? Is getting stressed going to make me arrive sooner?

Within each person there exists an “inner light“… that is consciousness.

Gnosis teaches us that to have a fulfilled life we have to eliminate those elements, not just hide them, because this is the only way we can truly improve our life and our environment. If we really want our life to change, it has to start from the inside. This is why Gnosis teaches techniques and practices to make a real change in ourselves so we can have the happiness we so long for.

So the Gnostic Culture brings light where there is only darkness. We invite you to go more deeply into these studies, to make a positive change in your life, a change that lasts.