Today’s Current Working Definition of the Ego
The ego, as I understand it today, has no contact with the Spirit or Heaven World, and therefore, to the ego, this world is the only one that is real; the Heaven World does not exist.
The ego is born after birth, usually at around two years of age, when the child hears its first “no”. Its desire is being thwarted, and its mind doesn’t understand, so it searches for a reason.
It cannot fathom that it might be the parent’s fault, because the parent has been its God, its Rescuer, its Protector, so it doesn’t even consider that this is because of the adult.
There is only one other person who could be responsible: me, or the child itself. So, the child says to him/herself, “I must be bad”. And the ego is born. Then, every time the child’s desire, or want, is refused, the child draws the same conclusion: “I am bad.” Or “I am wrong”, as it begins to understand that there is such a thing. Until, or unless, these false beliefs, generated initially by the mind of a 2-year-old, are consciously examined by the Self, the personality will retain each false belief, and act accordingly, creating more and more unnecessary pain and suffering for itself.
If it is not understood, before we die, we will have it explained to us once we get to the Spirit or Heaven World, but this does not happen JUST BECAUSE WE DIE. For those who do not believe in an after- life, they never reach the higher planes of consciousness where the ego dissolves; instead their egos continue to control them on the lower astral planes, that are just above the earth plane. This is why it is so important for each of us to seek to understand the ego, and how it manifests in our lives. It is created, and activated with each negative judgment about incoming information, from one or more of our five senses.
Here are some other tidbits (in no particular order) from a number of different people about the ego that may prove helpful in your understanding of it. Again, please take what applies to you, or rings true, and leave the rest in gratitude for their willingness to be vulnerable in the hope that it would help someone else on their spiritual journey……
Ego ONLY gives FALSE information…Always!
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Ego, and its manifestation of negative judgments, has been called Society’s Laws.
“The commonly-shared thought system of the world is the thought system of the ego. It is based on perceiving a world of separation, guilt, fear, attack and unhealed relationships. .It is a world…where sooner or later we believe bad things are bound to happen to us; and that our unhappy experiences from the past will repeat themselves in the future. It is a world in which relationships are often troubled and short-lived, and the way we handle disharmony in our relationships is to get out of them. It is a world that believes in judgment, unforgiveness, and punishment; a world in which others are seen as guilty and responsible for our problems. …” G. Jampolsky
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Ego ‘seems’ to seek approval, acceptance or love from those ‘it’ is seeking to receive from.
“I just realized that I used to “love” others, to hug them, to show affection, when I felt sorry for them, to rescue them from their pain and suffering, not aware that I was also judging them as inferior to me. My intentions were pure, but still not healthy for both of us. I was realizing this when I realized that I felt sorry for my mother because of her level of helplessness and powerlessness over her emotional self; and because of this, she had hoped I could be her salvation, as I had believed I could be. What an enormous lesson for both of us.”
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The evolution of the ego and the rational mind is part of the development of Mankind. Our humanity is not the final form for the human kingdom, but preparation for a future state, just as Man of the past was a preparation for Man of the present.
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Biggest fall-outs from following my ego: I lost faith and trust in myself, and in others. I lived lies, and I told them to myself and, therefore, to others.
Until I lived out my false beliefs, I couldn’t see that they were false beliefs. The self-awareness about the ego didn’t present itself until I was in my 50’s. Until that age, my ego was always my trusted, faithful, loyal, accurate, knowledgeable, valued, respected, and reliable inner Authority – the aspect of myself I believed was my” inner voice”. I know this is true for most people. It is why so few are able to utilize their psychic abilities.
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To recognize when your ego is in control, first determine where the incoming information is coming from: The Heaven/Spirit World or your ego/mind. Clue: Ego is activated by negative judgments, and only from this source.
If it’s from the ego/mind: Detach. Drop your consciousness down into your body, and ignore your ego’s voice in your head.
If the information is from a Source other than your own mind, process it. Seek to understand it with the intention of making changes. Spirit gives us information because they are aware that we are suffering from a character defect that needs attention/correcting. They are giving us the opportunity to do just that..but they cannot ‘correct’ it for us. They can, and will, however, make us aware of it.
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If you don’t know the origin of the incoming information: do nothing until you do know…Or, in other words, wait patiently for a sign/idea from The Other Side which is their suggestion or recommendation. Now, trust this information, taking immediate action accordingly, no matter how frighten it might make you feel. Beneath the fear, you will (hopefully) feel that it is the right thing to do. The feeling is there, but without practice, it is not always ‘felt’..
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Ego manifests as one of these four feelings: fear, guilt, doubt or shame. So, always note your intention or motive. Ego is first a thought, which produces one of these feelings. As soon as you know this, you begin to gain some control over your actions. You always receive a “warning sensation” before you act, and cannot heed its advice. Your ego overrides it with rational thoughts.
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The inner world of the ego seems very real, and as if there is no way out of it. It is a world in which we have given all of our power (ability) to those in Authority…to a human being, just like ourselves.
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It is the World of Society..a world created by those in power and authority..and it teaches us as children to seek these same positions within society to feel successful, fulfilled, “somebody”. It teaches that our values should be those of money, status and notoriety. It is populated by people that do not know of God and His Love, His Power, His Wisdom; because they suffer and they do not understand why God allows it.
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When you are feeling vulnerable and/or seeking to attack someone else who is showing their vulnerability, it’s another sign that your ego is in power over you, and that you are identified with it.
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Will is another word for ego.
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You are NOT ALONE” even though your ego thinks you are.
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Your Spirit Representative or Higher Self always forewarns us of an impending mistake that will give us a karmic debt and pain, BEFORE it is too late and you act on it.
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It is when you are unable to follow, or recognize it for what it is, due to skepticism, disbelief, or ignorance or lack of experience in being able to act on it in time that pain and suffering follow, and your prayers for relief are not answered. Your prayers will not be answered when you are paying off a karmic debt incurred in a past life, either, because you have signed up to experience it this time, because often karma is incurred out of ignorance..or fear…and to pain and suffering are the only things powerful enough to force the ego to back down and surrender. This is the purpose of pain and suffering. Once again, pain is the direct result of ignoring the warnings from our Inner Voices, which is often a ‘felt’ sense or the Voice of Conscience.
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One of the most difficult things to do once you have chosen to surrender your personal will to that of a Higher Power is the waiting for the guidance from the Universe., choosing to be powerless over the situation, even though it is frightening, which also creates anxiety, generated by the ego, as it works hard to get you to quit. Mastery of ego is definitely an alchemical process.
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To endure the hardships from the ego, while it fights for its own life, mastery of the ego must be consciously chosen as a way of life and accepted as a alchemical process, as it requires more than one lifetime to accomplish. Someone said it took Buddha 100 lifetimes to master his ego.
For More Info …See The Ego and How It Came Into Being.