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Ego and Id

The Ego and Id form the cornerstone of classic Freudian psychology and represent different and competing survival mechanisms that enabled the human species to adapt and survive through the millenia. The Ego manifests in the form of a competitive and destructive survival mechanism that separates one from others where the Id manifests in the form of empathy and compassion that is a derived from the interconnectedness of all things. Todays society is very much ego driven and is responsible for much of the problems we see in our modern world. The ego has become an outmoded and counterproductive survival tool, much the same way as our genes are programmed to store fat in times of need being maladaptive in the modern context. As we move as a society and a species closer to survival mechanisms based on the id, collective subconscious and intuition manifested as compassion and empathy for others and our environment have a greater probability of success and continued survival for our species and the living planet. In this respect the archetypes and collective subconscious of Jungian psychology may be more amenable to the goals of harmony and global individuation. Towards this end “The whole purpose of religion is to facilitate love and compassion, patience, tolerance, humility, forgiveness.” –H.H the Dalai Lama

Are we Separate from the world around us?

The distinction created between oneself and others first mom and dad then other aspects of ones reality forms the basis for the ego. The Ego is a projection of our awareness as we see ouselves to be. This projection further separates us from others and the world around us. The concept of ego has come to represent many things in North American culture. In a colloquial sense the ego represents an inflated sense of ones own importance. From a metaphysical perpspective the ego is the representation of a force that pushes out of awareness all the other conisderations of those who come into contact with this energy field. It is a competeitive, exclusive, devisive, self-centered energy that is out of phase with other forms of energy or awareness. In this model, awareness itself is an energy field and when the ego is present this enegy field is out of sycn with the underlying oneness of all things.

Ego as a survival mechanism

The psychological term ego represents more of an identification of one’s consciousness or awareness. The corollory to the ego from a Freudian perspective is the Id, which represents the subconscious that which operates at a level below our everyday understanding and cognitive functioning. The classical representation the ego and id are that of an iceberg with the ego represented by that which is visible above the water and the Id the mass that lies beneath the waves where the bulk of its form exists. These structures of human consciousness have evolved over hundreds of thousands of years for the purpose of ensuring our survival as a species. At a deeper level Jung’s collective subconscious represents the common underpinning of human understanding and operates at the level of archetypes. This metaphysical order represents the interconnectedness of humanity.

The ego in many ways represents the animalistic instincts we have developed for survival. The need to protect ones physical form from harm through accident, illness, or violence. This protectionism extends from ones self to ones family, , friends, tribe, and nation. The ego of an individual is nested inside the ego of the family, the ego of the clan, the ego of the tribe, nation and race. The need to eat to survive engages the ego to forage for food, hunt for food, store food for times of drought or cold, disease or natural disaster. When food is in short supply the ego unnests at each level of its manifestation. Rival clans or tribes fight for survival in competition for fertile lands, sources of fresh water, and productive hunting grounds. As food, shelter, water and other necessities of survival run further scarce, clans within a tribe will start to fight, then famalies within the clan will fight, and then family members will fight. This extends to mating habits as well. The competition for the best mate is an all consuming compulsion for most of humanity, that is never completely and fully extinguished after mating and pairing occurs. This anamalistic tendency for survival at the extremes of human experience are manifestation of the ego in extreme circumstances.

These instincts have successfully perpetuated the species and for much of human existence these extremes have more common than not. The ego as a structure has been very efficient at separating nations from one another, from creating distinctions between clans and establishing class structure among families and within the family unit. This separateness is the driving force behind the ego. The differential created between the act of separating ones self from others is the source of the energy that is projected outward in waves extending in all dimensions that forms the ego based awareness or consciousness. It creates a protective energy field that pushes out all other forms of energy including love and compassion. This is manifested at the individual level, a the level of the family, clan, tribe, and nations.

Compassion is the new mode of survival

Where does compassion fit into this scenario? It has been suggested that the ability to feel empathy and compassion are also survival instincts. This ability to to feel empathy may relate to the Id the subconscious. Arguably empathy is an emotion and may reside at the level of the ego, however I would put forth that the source of empathy stems from out interconnectedness, our part of the whole and the idea of collective unconscious. That our core at a level not present cognitively we intuitively are aware of the connection we have with all other living things and this resides at the level of Freud’s Id or Jung’s collective subconscious. The ego has become an outmoded and counterproductive survival tool, much the same way as our genes are programmed to store fat in times of need being maladaptive in the modern context. As we move as a society and a species closer to survival mechanisms based on the id, collective subconscious and intuition manifested as compassion and empathy for others and our environment have a greater probability of success and continued survival for our species and the living planet.Compassion and empathy are the most important and undervalued commodities of modern times. Great thinkers of past and present have described compassion as follows:

Compassion is the keen awareness of the interdependence of all things. –Thomas Merton

Compassion is the ultimate and most meaningful embodiment of emotional maturity. It is through compassion that a person achieves the highest peak and deepest reach in his or her search for self-fulfillment. –Arthur Jersild

Compassion is not sentiment but is making justice and doing works of mercy. Compassion is not a moral commandment but a flow and overflow of the fullest human and divine energies. –Matthew Fox

Koan: We as human beings are separate from the world around us.

When we are born and brought into the world we exist on a level of survival and dependence on our mother and father to nurture, protect and guide us through life. As our senses awaken and our brain starts to develop and understand the principles of cause and effect we acquire the notion or idea of our own identity and we realize our dependence on those that love and care for us. We learn that when the hand attached to our arm jerks and hits a bowl of mashed peas and carrots it falls to the ground with a satisfying splat. After this happens a few times we start to realize that we made this chain of events happen and we can make it happen again. When a baby realizes that the intent to make this chain of events occur resides inside his or her volition this is the moment of awakening to the “I”, the self is created and the ego begins to develop. This is a form of awareness or enlightenment that every infant undergoes and changes the nature of the world they perceive around them. This seminal event also creates the distinction between ones self and the others. These issues of early childhood development also introduce fundamental topics of debate including nature vs. nurture, and the idea of tabula rasa and the debate regarding enrichment theory vs. differentiation theory. The interesting point here is that both enrichment and differentiation theory are based on the assumption of an objective reality. Many mystics, Buddhists and other philosophers would argue against objective reality or is our reality our own creation.

The distinction between one’s self as an infant and others (mom and dad) also creates the distinction between one’s self and the chair we are sitting on, the toy we are chewing on, the food we are eating, the air we are breathing, the photons hitting our retina, the sounds waves hitting our eardrums, the trees and flowers outside the window, the birds sweetly singing. The creation of “me” and “I” is the creation of “mind” and also the destruction of the interconnectedness to all things. In the tradition of zen the goal is to return to the state of “no-mind”or the point at which a baby has not differentiated itself from the rest of existence. This points to one of the major under recognized issues in society being our disconnection with the natural world. The idea of reconnecting with nature has been cited as a cure for many of our societal woes including mental disorders, greed, and the destruction of the natural habitat of the human species.

The reality that we perceive with our five senses is all that exists for many people. The seemingly absolute nature of the experiences of sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell frame our everyday existence. We take these experiences or bodily sensations for granted. They exist all around us, are there when we wake up, as we have our morning coffee (or alternative beverage), as we commute to work, as we interact with friends and colleagues sharing in the same experiences of the physical manifestation of the world. These sensations and the thoughts, feelings, and emotions they evoke are with us the entire day and are with us as we close our eyes to sleep. This is our shared reality.

In our efforts to control and harness the world around us we have used technology originating in our earliest attempts in agriculture to shape our experiences and interactions in the world for survival, comfort and pleasure. As our technology becomes more sophisticated we create experiences in a virtual realm that continue to approach the actual experiences of reality. In order to achieve this we have to use enormous amounts of ingenuity and resources to create worlds and experiences that become manifest in a different medium. As these models approach reality the costs and complexity of these systems increase at a geometric rate towards infinity. We have as a society in our struggle to recreate reality through physical manipulation of our world and planet will reach a point at which will have consumed the very reality which we are striving to create when it exists in all its splendor before us. We are in the Promised Land but cannot see it for our eyes.

Computers, video games, electronics, wireless communication, audio, video and other technologies continue the relentless pursuit of perfectly and flawlessly representing reality. The complexity of the systems and tools becomes infinite and the costs become exorbitant. Just ask anyone who has recently bought and tried to set up a high-end home theater system.

So here is the paradox. How can we continue to create technologies and systems that strive to recreate reality or even envision better realities for humanity and still protect that with which we feed the machine?

This is the inaugural post of mystikegg.com. The goal of this blog is to share my insights on expanding awareness and consciousness, self-actualization, god-realization, dream manifestation, transcendentalism and what I would like to call modern mysticism.