What Is the Ego and Is It Bad?
The ego is a psychological mechanism by which we find identity and through which we understand our world. Ultimately, it is similar to some type of operating system which brings the ability for interaction between our personal selves and our environment. In this sense, it lies somewhere on the spectrum of consciousness. But is the ego a functional gradient of that spectrum and does it represent our highest possible degree of consciousness?
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Ego Analogies
The ego is our individual representation here in this realm of time and space, or as my friend Roland Achenjang, author of Who and Why You Are refers to it, our own personal avatar. Just as we must enter a digital game environment, not as our True Self, but through a character, our metaphysical nature comes to this earth in need of a representative that we experience the “game” of life through. This presupposes that we cannot experience this finite world in our formless, eternal, infinite, unbound reality of the True Self. We experience this place locally through ego and the local self though our true essence is non-local and universal.
But like our game avatar, our ego-self is severely limited relative to our true nature. It has a distinct set of characteristics and relates to a limited world via a stringent set of assumptions. While we as the game player might be able to creatively imagine this artificial world and our ability to freely do anything within it, we are ultimately confined in the actual experience of the game to our representative character. By experiencing life through that character’s perspective we are bound to its individual viewpoint and immediate context although our “Higher Self,” experiencing the game through us from afar, may have access to overhead maps, greater background or knowledge of the game, or so on. The avatar’s experience will always be far more limited than that of the game player (who’s own understanding is even less than that of the game maker).
The avatar itself—if it could have any awareness at all—will always believe it is running the show, completely autonomous and distinct from any other influence. It would believe in a complete paradigm of separation for it has this unique experience and presumes every other character has their own set of unique experiences. But the game player, the Higher Self, has a much more expanded view. Of course, the analogy gets fuzzy because in “real life” we are the game players and we are generally playing from our own distinct vantage points as well and with self-motivated, personal agendas of winning the game.
The relationship between the ego and the Higher Self can be seen in yet another way. If in the future, humans can travel among galaxies we might imagine that we would have mobile command centers by which we find new worlds and send teams of people down from to explore. These orbiting bases would conceivably have all of the technology to view an uncharted planet remotely via drones or to otherwise have the ability to see the “big picture” of the makeup of the atmosphere, the density of the soil, or the characteristics of the terrain. As they orbit above they can maintain a global perspective. But to truly begin to understand the planet better they must arrange an away team to be the “boots on the ground.” This team will be able to gain a new perspective which the command center (and ultimately the greater federation headquarters back on earth) could never have.
But while the away team’s experience is more personal and adaptive to the physical world they have begun to explore, they do so with a diminished sense of awareness and connection with the base they just left. Conceivably, if the planet was deemed suitable for occupation and the orbiting base left for another planet, all sense of connection might eventually be lost. Even if it took generations, the terrestrial dweller’s accumulated, conditioned experiences would become passed on without a direct remembrance of their beginnings on the planet. In time, people would go about living a less conscious life, perceiving disconnection with a greater order and carrying out their days with a lower level of awareness of any greater connection to their originating Source.
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The Limitations of Ego
The ego has some positive function, then, but it does have limitation. To experience this life in ego we must pull out of our infinite, eternal, essential nature and take on physical and psychological form. We must do so as we could not expect to be without limitation in this realm of time and space. In terms of another analogy, this might be seen as similar to the Christian theology of God coming to earth in the form of a man. In order to experience this world, Jesus had to shed the infinite, eternal, form-less for the finite, time-bound, and form-full nature of human reality.
It is difficult (actually, quite impossible) for the ego to maintain the bigger perspective of our true identity and the nature of the universe. This is because the ego comes at life from the viewpoint of separation. The ego maintains that we are each individuals, fully isolated from each other, from our environment, and from a greater cosmic order. This introduces problems for the species as we have become reactionary, operating from a position of fear or insecurity, or prone to conflict in order to either protect or promote our unique positions. The separation-belief forces us to restrict our perspective to “me” versus “you.”
The ego is also inherently UN-conscious. While I stated earlier in the opening paragraph that the ego is on some gradient of the scale of consciousness, this is only because it does grant us the ability to have some understanding of self and of our environment and allow us to interact as such. But, in ego, we also have the tendency to act without full awareness of our consequences for certain actions. We become conditioned to habitual patterns of thought and behavior without much additional scrutiny. Humanity has been on an autopilot mode for some time now, perpetuating certain activities without question. We can see this propensity in operation, for instance, in our continuing oppression of or lack of compassion toward various people groups or our on-going environmental impacts across the globe. We have continued to do things the same way because “that is how it’s always been done.” However, to remain unconscious for a long enough period of time, we might say, ultimately leads to death.
The ego does not necessarily grant us the full, or even correct, picture. The MO of ego has become to usurp our full awareness, constricting and distorting our true view of reality. The effect is that we do not understand our true identity (and certainly not our power) nor do we truly understand the nature of this spiritual universe in which we live. We are left to experience this “game of life” not knowing our true capabilities as a player or even the rules of the game. In this, we are individually and collectively struggling. Humanity is losing the game.
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The Need For Collective Ego Transcendence
While the ego has had a functional role in humanity’s evolution, allowing us greater capacity for thought and reason and motivating us to advance our positions in light of a fundamental belief in separation, such tendencies are now becoming detrimental. The ego is quickly becoming our undoing.
In the expanded consciousness that is accessible beyond the limiting effects of the ego, we find the extropic tendencies of higher energy, intention and the ability to impose order, and a cure to our inner psychological turmoil. Prior to the human ego, all species and ecosystems thrived in a state of sustainable balance. There were no limitations to prevent the tendencies of consciousness to enable equilibrium and to inspire evolution.
Why can it be stated with such certainly that it was consciousness which provided such effects? Because the ego and higher consciousness are antithetical to one another and it can be clearly demonstrated that ego—left to its own devices long enough—supports chaos, unsustainability, and eventual entropy. By way of reason, it stands that the realization of opposite results, then, should be considered to be the effect of greater consciousness.
The nature of this expanded consciousness, as experienced by ego transcendence, is one of expression and expansion. While humanity currently maintains an inner focus on self, in greater consciousness we grow to see ourselves as connected with each other, with the universe in which we reside, and a greater cosmic order. It is freeing, rather than restraining.
We face at this time a decision as a species, perhaps the only time any species upon the face of the earth has had the capacity to do so. We also, maybe more so now than at any other time in our history, have the means to act on that decision in the manner required to reinstate our evolutionary potential. It is almost as though this possibility of greater consciousness has come to us, as if the universe itself is righting us and initiating a quantum leap we have done little to deserve.
Humanity is beginning to awaken. Some are beginning to transcend into a higher state of consciousness, seeing the ego for what it really is—an outmoded psychological construct that aided humanity at one time but is now being shed for something light years beyond. The unconscious, dominate ego was a necessary stage of our evolution but its useful life has ended. The universe itself is shifting our consciousness in this New, Aquarian Age, allowing humanity to ascend to new heights and new potential.
At this transitional phase, the unconscious ego is no longer a helpful mechanism. It is true, however, that an ego held in greater awareness can certainly be an effective tool for progress. Such integration will continue to propel our evolution, combining the Aquarian traits of technology and consciousness. It is this transmuted ego, and not the previously dominate version, along with our expanded consciousness, which becomes useful for us as we march forward into the future. In the tradition of Someone whose level of consciousness is far greater than mine, Behold, the former things have passed, all things are becoming new.
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Next Steps
If this blog has resonated with you please share the link with those who might find it equally interesting or share it on your social media channels. Humanity is in a critical stage of its development, walking the razor’s edge between destruction and ascension. The most crucial activity we can be involved in is to raise awareness of the possibility for expanded consciousness (achieved as we collectively move beyond our egoic paradigm) to allow us to #EvolveHigher.
As well, please download and distribute the small ebook listed in the sidebar of any page on this website. It is free to download and requires no email address. What Is Transpersonal Extropy describes in detail the ways in which the ego of humanity drives our impending doom as well as highlights the “extropic” nature of expanded consciousness to bring about greater order, energy, and expansion as mankind becomes an evolved, enlightened species.
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Aaron Force is a blogger from Seattle, Washington. He writes to educate others about the nature of an expanded consciousness to evolve humanity. Aaron unexpectedly experienced his own profound awakening and ego transcendence in 2015 and soon understood that the qualities of his own experience (a greater expansion and evolution in his life) could be applied to mankind collectively.