Typology systems categorize people according to observable or intuited traits. Since we are talking about primarily false-self behaviors and subjective projections, why would we even delve into these mostly intellectual constructs? What can analyzing unconscious human behaviors tell us that would be useful for Self-transformation?
First, an understanding of typologies can mirror back to us insights into our own self-destructive behaviors. Self-knowledge is never wasted. In other words, we cannot know too much about the mind which functions or fails to function at the center of thought, emotions and behavior. Since our goal is to transcend the identity associated with mind, body and emotions the more we know about what we don’t want to do, the better. And finally, typologies provide details about the relative strengths and weaknesses of human behaviors both conscious and unconscious. Forewarned is forearmed.
Typology and Identity will be a very brief sampling of a few major typologies to indicate the fundamental relationship between these typologies and Simple Reality. Both the intellect and intuition will be center stage in this fascinating look at more sources of human identity. It is time for deepening our understanding of both the false self and the True self using classification systems that focus on the influence of identity. In each of several systems of typology we will see our identity’s behavioral traits clarified as we recognize our “type.”
How can we use these insights? They can help break down our delusions regarding the “other” since it can help us appreciate human differences and embrace those behavioral traits we have in common. In a personal sense they can reveal our strengths and weaknesses, i.e. what we need to work on and work with.
Nothing happens until something moves. Albert Einstein
The paradigm shift involves change, it involves movement, it involves energy. Either consciously or unconsciously emotions and feelings, intellect and intuition, reaction and response all involve the expression of energy. Greater self-understanding will help ensure that our expressions of energy are in service to creating consciousness rather than more fear.
CHAKRA TYPOLOGY
A chakra is an energy center located along the spine and is symbolic rather than having actual physiological correlates. One typology that contains the energy centers of the false self and the energy centers of higher consciousness is that of the seven chakras of the Indian yoga system which recognizes that most people in the world are unconscious and devoting their energies to their false self survival strategy. “For most people in the Western universe,” says Ram Das, “in fact most people in the world, almost all of the energy is located either in the first, second or third chakras.”
The three lower chakras as we move upward from the base of the spine correspond to the security, sensation and power centers of our survival strategy and then continuing to move upward we reach the heart chakra. At the heart chakra we begin to have intuitive insights that suggest the possibility of awakening. Here we become aware of the collective unconscious and Jungian archetypes. As the heart is opened (compassion) we have the choice to advance to the higher (5th thru 7th) chakras.
As we learn to direct our energy upward by choosing response over reaction we navigate the symbolic sea of awakening. “The fifth chakra is related to the perception of subtle states and higher levels of awareness. The sixth chakra is related to the perception of truth and the development of wisdom. The seventh chakra is related to unification of the individual and the universe.”
Western psychologists have developed models that correspond to the chakras which also act like a map guiding Self-transformation. Any movement beyond the third chakra is rare in the Western world. Even Jung did not venture beyond the fourth chakra because he was unwilling to let go of the illusion of the separate “me” of the personality called Carl Jung.
Freudian psychology is second chakra (sensation) centered in that human behavior is described in relation to sexual desires and sensual gratification. Alfred Adler, a contemporary of Freud, focused on the third chakra and the need for power to understand human motivation. The transpersonal psychology growing out of Jung’s theories is centered in the fourth chakra where the process of Self-transformation begins. Few Westerners are able to commit to this process of Self-transformation, that is, until they immerse themselves in Simple Reality
A modern iteration of the Chakra typology is found in Ken Keyes Jr.’s Seven Centers of Consciousness found in his book Handbook to Higher Consciousness.
- The Security Center: This programming forces your consciousness to be dominated by your continuous battle to get “enough” from the world in order to feel secure.
- The Sensation Center: This Center is concerned with finding happiness in life by providing yourself with more and better pleasurable sensations and activities.
- The Power Center: Your are concerned with dominating people and situations and increasing your prestige, wealth, and pride—in addition to thousands more subtle forms of hierarchy, manipulation, and control.
- The Love Center: You see yourself in everyone—and everyone in yourself. You feel compassion for the suffering of those caught in the dramas of security, sensation and power. You are beginning to love and accept everyone unconditionally—even yourself.
- The Cornucopia Center: To the degree that you still have addictions, the perfection lies in giving you the experience you need to get free of your emotion-backed demands. The world becomes a “horn of plenty” that gives you more than you need to be happy.
- The Concious-Awareness Center: Your Conscious-awareness watches your body and mind perform on the lower five centers. From this Center of Centers, you learn to impartially observe your social roles and life games from a place that is free from fear and vulnerability.
- The Cosmic Consciousness Center: At this ultimate level, you are one with everything—you are love, peace, energy, beauty, wisdom, clarity, effectiveness, and Oneness.
INTROVERT/EXTROVERT TYPOLOGY
The father of modern typology is C. G. Jung and we begin with his description of the most basic and simplest of the typologies. “The introvert’s attitude is an abstracting one; at bottom, he is always intent on withdrawing libido from the object, as though he had to prevent the object from gaining power over him. The extravert, on the contrary, has a positive relation to the object. He affirms its importance to such an extent that his subjective attitude is constantly related to and oriented by the object. The object can never have enough value for him, and its importance must always be increased.”
Extrovert
Jung makes clear the extravert’s susceptibility to the illusion of form. “…he never expects to find any absolute factors in his own inner life, since the only ones he knows are outside himself. Like Epimetheus, his inner life is subordinated to external necessity, though not without a struggle; but it is always the objective determinant that wins in the end….Not only people but things seize and rivet his attention….It is the same with his interest: objective happenings have an almost inexhaustible fascination for him, so that ordinarily he never looks for anything else. The moral laws governing his actions coincide with the demands of society, that is, with the prevailing moral standpoint….The extraverted type is constantly tempted to expend himself for the apparent benefit of the object, to assimilate himself subject to object.”
The extrovert is obviously enthralled by the illusion of P-B and hence a poor candidate for Self-realization. “This is the extravert’s danger: he gets sucked into objects and completely loses himself in them.”
We have learned that the intellect is a formidable barrier to experiencing Simple Reality. When the extravert relies heavily on the intellect we have the extraverted thinking type. “When thinking holds prior place among the psychological functions, i.e. when the life of an individual is mainly governed by reflective thinking so that every important action proceeds, or is intended to proceed from intellectually considered motives… This type will…make all his activities dependent on intellectual conclusions which in the last resort are always oriented by objective data, whether these be external facts or generally accepted ideas…. His moral code forbids him to tolerate exceptions; his ideal must under all circumstances be realized, for in his eyes it is the purest conceivable formulation of objective reality, and therefore must also be a universally valid truth, quite indispensable for the salvation of mankind…. all those activities that are dependent on feeling will become repressed in such a type—for instance, aesthetic activities, taste, artistic sense, cultivation of friends, etc. Irrational phenomena such as religious experiences, passions, are often repressed to the point of complete unconsciousness.”
The extrovert is at a disadvantage when it comes to achieving Self-reliance because he is other-directed and a conformist. The turning inward required in meditation is more of a challenge for the extrovert as well. “The psychic life of this type of person is enacted, as it were, outside himself, in the environment. He lives in and through others; all self-communing gives him the creeps.”
Introvert
The introvert orients himself not by objective data as does the extravert but by subjective factors. He is the subject and all things outside of himself are the object. “He holds himself aloof from external happenings, does not join in, has a distinct dislike of society as soon as he finds himself among too many people. In a large gathering he feels lonely and lost.”
The introvert, for obvious reasons, is at an advantage compared to the extrovert in turning inward and seeking Self-reliance. “For him self-communings are a pleasure. His own world is a safe harbor, a carefully tended and walled-in garden, closed to the public and hidden from prying eyes. His own company is the best. … Thus the psychic life of this type is played out wholly within.”
The introvert finds his own false self survival strategy threatening and resists to some degree the tendency to seek security, sensation and power. The extrovert, on the other hand tends to more easily embrace false self behaviors.
