The experience of the self gives a sense of concentrated power at rest, yet ready to express itself dynamically either in the mastery over all elements and forces of the personality or expressed through creative activity.
By Roberto Assagioli, From the Assagioli Archive Florence. Translated by Gordon Symons. Original title: Il Mistero Del Sé
If the self is a reality, the central reality of our being, it may seem surprising that it should remain so unknown in general, so unrealized add even, theoretically, denied. The explanation may perhaps be found to lie in the fact that normally we identify ourselves with our psychological contents, and chiefly with our sensations – both those coming from the external world and those coming from our bodies.
Throughout our manifold experiences there persists a sense of self-identity, but it remains practically subconscious, or one takes it for granted without stopping to realize its implications. In order, therefore, to acquire a clear, definite consciousness of the self, we must set up special and favorable conditions in our inner psychological laboratory and there perform the experiments needed.
Before describing these experiments, it is well to take up some other points.
Those who have a religious faith or who adhere to a spiritual philosophy should be, and are, in a certain respect, in a better position for understanding the self. We find, however, that they too miss such an understanding in practice, just, or almost as much as, those who are more materially-minded.
Religious persons believe in the soul but their conception of it is frequently hazy and abstract. They think and speak of having a soul, which is quite different from the direct realization of being a living soul, that is, a spiritual self. They curiously neglect to take into practical consideration that great reality and they forget and ignore it most of the time. For many of them the soul is a mere Sunday recollection! In this they are more inconsistent than outright deniers and agnostics.
There exist certain believers whose faith is more real and whose spiritual values are more practically realizable. But even these have not, in general, a much clearer realization of the self. Their conception of the soul tends to be one that is passive and submissive. They consider it as distinct from, and dependent on God up to the point of being liable for eternal damnation. In this attitude they appear to be inconsistent with their creed, which maintains that the soul is made in the image and likeness of God.
Among philosophers there have been Kant and others. who have, in their systems, admitted the existence of a transcendental “I” distinct from the empirical “I”; yet even in their case it remained a theoretical assumption, an abstract entity, having no direct influence on their personal lives.
Some of them have so stressed the universal character of such an ego, that it lost all individual connotation.
In the religions and philosophies of the Orient, we are forced to acknowledge that the self has received much greater attention and appreciation, and that methods and techniques for its direct apprehension and for the manifestation of its qualities and powers have been indicated and practiced.
We believe, therefore, that it is not only legitimate but a duty to take into consideration etc.
While therefore, it becomes not only legitimate but imperative to take into consideration and to utilize their contributions, we find, however, that even in the Orient, certain characteristics of the self were frequently missed. This has been due to the theoretical emphasis stressed by Hindu philosophers of the identity existing between the individual self (Atman) and the universal self (Brahman), and of the practical emphasis upon liberation from all individual distinctiveness. This aspect has been still more emphasized by Western critics of the Oriental philosophers and religions who by neglecting the positive aspects of spiritual realization altogether, have seen fit to interpret the union with Brahman, or the attainment of Nirvana, as complete annihilation of the individual self. The fallacy of such interpretations is proved, besides other considerations, by the simple fact that the Buddha, after having attained Nirvana, began to preach and to wander through India for some fifty years.
[some] …have seen fit to interpret the union with Brahman, or the attainment of Nirvana, as complete annihilation of the individual self. The fallacy of such interpretations is proved, besides other considerations, by the simple fact that the Buddha, after having attained Nirvana, began to preach and to wander through India for some fifty years.
Such differences and contradictions appear baffling at first, but they can be explained by a deeper consideration of the problem. The experience of the self, especially in the beginning, is neither “pure” nor complete. It is at first gradual and partial, and so we shall see, it occurs at two different levels. We should not be surprised, therefore, that the experiences and the consequent reports of various individuals reveal great diversities and that even the same individual can have different experiences at different moments. The same also happens, to a much greater degree than is commonly realized, concerning the observation of external and concrete objects. The same landscape is experienced very differently by a farmer, a scientist or a painter, and even by ourselves – at different times, according to our attitude and mood.
Rather than making us doubt the existence of the self, the study of diversity, characterizing its experiences, helps us to understand its true nature.
In the beginning, the most surprising and confusing fact is the often-negative character of the first experience of the personal self. The loosening of the ties which ordinarily bind the self to various other elements of the personality and to the external world, including other human beings, creates a sense of deprivation, of lack of support, loneliness and powerlessness. This experience has two phases: the first consists generally in a sense of separation from the external world, which is a normal and necessary step in the realization of self-consciousness, or, “individuation.” (This phase has been clearly developed by Erich Fromm)[1] The other aspect of the process of individuation is a growing sense of aloneness. The primary ties offer security and basic unity with the world outside oneself. To the extent to which the child emerges from that world it becomes aware of being alone, of being an entity separate from all others. This separation from a world which in comparison with one’s own individual existence is overwhelmingly strong and powerful and often threating and dangerous, creates a feeling of powerlessness and anxiety. So long as one was an integral part of that world, unaware of the possibilities and responsibilities of individual action, one did not need to be afraid of it. Then one has become an individual, one stands alone and faces the world in all its perilous and overpowering aspects.
The second and deeper phase is that of realizing the difference between the self and the contents of the self’s inner world. The subject, no longer merged in, and identified with a partial aspect of his personality, such as a dominant drive, a special function, or a particular role in life, finds himself at the center of a world of conflicting inner forces: urges, needs, desires, aspirations, questionings and doubts. The self feels confused, bewildered, frightened by these forces which appear to be menacing and which it feels unable to control. The self feels at the mercy of irrational forces emerging from the unconscious, left by itself in a strange inner world which it does not know, and in which it feels helpless.
This experience bears a close analogy to that which primitive man underwent when his complete identification with the outer world began to break down, and he believes himself to be at the mercy of many unknown powers often hostile and destructive, which he had to placate through sacrifice, magical rites and taboos. (cf. Frazer etc.)
The rather humiliating conclusion which can hardly be avoided is that modern man is in a correspondingly primitive, savage state in his inner world. The result is the anxiety and the desperation which characterize so many modern men and women, which existentialists’ conceptions have so widely spread in our day.
This condition is so painful and at times, unbearable to those who experience it, that many searches eagerly, even frantically, for release from it. Generally, they try to find release through escape, that is, either through trying to revert to their former condition or by looking for new supports, new ties, and a new identification. Thus, they are apt to fall either into new kinds of conformity to social modes of life, or submit to new forms of authority. In both cases, the price they pay for the relief from anxiety and insecurity is nothing less than a partial or complete renunciation of their individuality, which amounts to real mutilation and crippling and in any case to an arrest of their inner growth.
Another form of escape resulting in these mutilations which are, more exactly, forms of repression, is that of escape into illness: directly into a neurosis, or indirectly, into some of the countless kinds of psychosomatic troubles. Freud and others have shown how the structure of neurosis possesses the character of a defence mechanism. Indeed, some of the complicated mannerisms and observances displayed by patients of “compulsion neurosis” bear a great resemblance to primitive rites of self-protection and exorcism of which popular superstitions are more or less modified remnants.
The other solution, which is the only constructive and satisfactory one, consists in passing from the negative to the positive realization of the self.
A clear and full experience of the self gives, at first, such a strong sense of self-identity that it is felt as something sure, permanent, unchangeable, and indestructible. It is realized as such an essential reality that all other experiences and so-called realities appear, when compared to it, as changing, impermanent and of less value and significance. Such a realization is accompanied by a sense of inner independent, self-reliant security, which is deeply satisfying and gives rise to a feeling of peace, serenity and quiet joy.
A clear and full experience of the self gives, at first, such a strong sense of self-identity that it is felt as something sure, permanent, unchangeable, and indestructible. It is realized as such an essential reality that all other experiences and so-called realities appear, when compared to it, as changing, impermanent and of less value and significance. Such a realization is accompanied by a sense of inner independent, self-reliant security, which is deeply satisfying and gives rise to a feeling of peace, serenity and quiet joy.
Another characteristic belonging to the realization of the self is power. It is a sense of concentrated power at rest, yet ready to express itself dynamically either in the mastery over all elements and forces of the personality or expressed through creative activity.
This explains why the majority of people (some psychologists included!) have never had the opportunity of becoming acquainted with their own self, and thus they tend to doubt, and even to deny the existence of the self. But there are some who under exceptional circumstances, or as the result of their own efforts, have attained to that higher consciousness and have acquired a profound and unassailable certainty of the existence of the real Self, of the Soul.
Indeed, one proof of the existence of the real self, is given by its activity.
The law which governs the association of ideas, the mechanical action and reaction on one another of the various psychological factors are quite insufficient to account or the higher operations of the soul. Reasoning, constructive imagination, moral judgment, choice, sets of will, imply an activity which is synthetic, directive and creative. But this activity is not displayed in the everyday self; in the light of ordinary consciousness, we become aware only of its results and fruits.
The poet who feels an unknown force dictating within his inspired verses, the mystic to whose rapt and astonished consciousness are revealed the power and grandeur of the soul that loves and wills the highest good, the patriot who hears the voice of conscience imperiously pointing the way to sacrifice for the defense of his country: all those who have felt an inner force operation on their ordinary consciousness, a force which is at one with their highest aspirations, with their most individual feelings, do recognise that it is an emanation from the real “I”, a manifestation of the true self.
If we reflect upon that mysterious Being in ourselves, and on its wonderful powers, the ancient inscription of the Delphic Oracle, “Know Thyself”, requires a new and deeper meaning. The discovery of this inner Centre, gives us the strong basis on which to reconstruct our personality. It gives us the light, the wisdom to plan and perform this task; it equips us with the power to achieve synthesis.
It is a most fascinating task, because we are dealing with the very living substance of our being.
[1] Fromm, Erich Escape from Freedom, Rinehart and Co. Inc.; New York, 1941 pg. 29.
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