We have written hundreds of essays contending that we all have a choice of two identities, namely the True self and the false self. Our True self lives in the present moment, does not identify with the physical body nor the mind and does not react to what is happening in the world of form.
Most of our species, on the other hand, were born into a narrative in which they inherited an identity that often has them behaving like schizophrenics. Schizophrenia is a long-term mental disorder involving a breakdown in the relation between thought, emotion and behavior, usually leading to faulty perception, inappropriate actions and feelings, withdrawal from reality and personal relationships into fantasy and delusion and a sense of mental fragmentation. We could also say that the self-destructive behavior common in the human community has us behaving like sleepwalkers or zombies. Many people reading this essay will deny that they behave this way and or will say that they never really had a choice as to their identity due to nature and/or nurture. This is not true and if you click on the link below we will continue to shine the light of consciousness on both our true and false identities.
To show how powerful the content of our story is on our behavior, specifically on what we believe to be true, consider the influence of the stories we encounter in films. The number of full-time exorcists in the Roman Catholic Church in the U.S. has risen to ten from only 1 in 1990. Michael W. Cuneo, a Fordham sociologist, in his book American Exorcism: Expelling Demons in the Land of Plenty, found a curious explanation for that growth. As recently as 1960 Cuneo found that exorcism was rare in the U.S. “But in 1973, ‘The Exorcist’ changed that. The movie, recently released, spurred an onslaught of movies dealing with demon possession and Satanism. By the mid-1980s, there was a proliferation of exorcisms done by evangelical Protestants.” (1)
As the level of fear increases in the human community, the level of energy available to the false self also increases. This fear-driven energy affirms the existence of Paradigm B, the worldview in which our self-destructive behavior finds support. “In January 1999, the Vatican issued a revised Catholic rite of exorcism for the first time since 1614, essentially reaffirming that Satan exists.” (1)
Robert Louis Stevenson wrote the Gothic horror story The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) wherein Dr. Jekyll could choose an evil alternative persona. We know that evil per se doesn’t exist but we do have the choice of two identities which will determine how we behave in our everyday lives. Many of us choose a Mr. Hyde-like identity many times during the day without realizing that this is clearly not the only nor certainly not the best choice available to us.
Click on the link below to continue the process of considering this all important choice.
Insight # 165:
“The ego [false self] feels it can create its own strength, its own love, its own security—whatever it needs. However, the compensations it uses only mimic the essential qualities, and rather than originating from essence [True self], they are rooted in defensive avoidance of life’s pain.” (2)
Link:
- “Cosmic Collision” in this blog or in print version, Who Am I? The Second Great Question Concerning the Nature of Reality (2013), by Roy Charles Henry, pages 45-46.
References:
- Fountain, John W. “Exorcists In Demand Across U.S.” The Denver Post. November 28, 2000, page 4A.
- Malik, Karen, “Essence.” Shambhala Sun. Boulder, Colorado, May 2006, pages 32-33.
