Illusions of the Mind - Ego and the Higher Self

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An ego collapse or loss is the exact point where the psyche no longer knows how to deal with the situation at hand. The subsequent reaction produced is often a complete loss of self-identity. For most it is something that happens daily, although we tend to only notice collapses which are extremely prominent in our psyche. For the most extreme ego deaths, a more readily used terminology exists in normal psychology: mental breakdown.

Because of the term mental breakdown and the associated stigma, an ego collapse has become a thing to be feared and for most avoided at all costs, as it suggest a delirious self where the person in question no longer exists in any intractable sense. When we hear the word mental breakdown we imagine someone spasming on the floor or "losing their shit". To a degree this is true. And yet a collapse can underline something much more profound.

The definition of collapse is: To fall down or inward suddenly; cave in.

In the instance of a collapse or loss, the ego usually does one of two things; It produces an attack which becomes an extremely powerful overreaction, or withdraws and produces a non-reaction.

In both cases it adjusts and adapts. It does this by skewing what is and adjusting itself not to what is going on, but moulds a situation to fit its own pre-preconceptions and beliefs. In other words, in most cases it does not accept what is, but looks for ways to justify its own already existent point of view and further deny what is. In the case of a collapse, the Ego is never actually gone.

Let’s first examine why such a thing occurs.

The initial breakdown or collapse manifests due to the inability of the ego to accept what is. That which is becomes too out of bounds of the every-day perception upon which the ego has so far functioned. The conditioning patterns upon which the ego operates cannot produce a reaction. Non-acceptance of what is, in other words, not accepting things as they are, triggers a dissonance where the ego needs to effectively shrink into a more basic self, and reset. It will adapt, attack, defend, hide, or a combo of up to two or more of these reactions (and more) in a very short span of time.

For a person to realize what is actually happening and what it underlines, a collapse needs to happen again, and preferably again. However many times it takes.

At some point it brings a subtle feeling in anyone who has undergone a series of collapses.

It portrays the illusory nature of the ego.

Or more precisely, it brings the awareness of the Self identifying wholly and completely with it.

The Ego is and will remain a social-conditioning pattern. A telescope with a narrow view of assessment that feeds the rest of the organism whatever it needs to survive in any given situation.

When you try to go beyond the ego as a way to test yourself by doing something opposite of what you thought the ego might do, you find yourself wondering if the reaction produced was in fact ego-driven in some subconscious way. This portrays the strength of the illusion; but also presents a stronger problem which the ego will resolve in a very cunning way.

For those more spiritually inclined, the Ego will, instead of recognizing itself as illusory and exposing its weakness to the one it controls (You), create what most call a Higher Self. The ego will develop the Higher Self through incredibly subtle means of self-deception and self-confirmation. It will actively seek out minds with the same attitudes and knowledge of the Higher Self to confirm itself in the individual psyche. The Ego will seek minds to shape itself and lean itself upon in order to give the concept of the Higher Self (which it created) validity through acknowledgement. It will guide a person through levels of confirmation to make him or her believe in the illusion of the Higher Self, while still being the ego in disguise.

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