Guest Author - Andrea Gardiner, Ph.D.

If you ever decide to review contemporary philosophical literature that discusses the ego mind, you will find that it is not treated with much favor. It is not uncommon for many philosophers, spiritual or otherwise inclined, to take up a harsh tone with this aspect of the mind. Usually the ego is treated with disdain and is accused of being deceptive and manipulative. It is quite often branded as the Self and much advice is given to the seeking philosopher or spiritual trekker that they are much better off if they aim for a state of “selflessness”. This point of view, however, does not take into account the natural characteristics of the ego and what can be attained when a healthy one is maintained.

The ego mind, much like the conscious mind, is designed to handle the external environment. Its specialty is as a “gatherer” of data and director of thoughts. Also like the conscious mind, the ego is not meant to be purely focused on the external environment. Its gaze and spotlight can be rotated a full 360 degrees. Just as the ego mind (“eye”) looks to the external environment it can do the same with the internal environment. In order for the ego to make apt decisions that serve your purpose it needs to have all the “facts”. Ego consciousness by nature is the logical aspect of Self; it acts on “facts” or information and will not cease until it is able to gather such information.

The Inner Self of you is also in need of information. After all, in order to gather experience and preference it needs the ego mind. It uses this area of the conscious mind to gather all necessary “facts” and make a decision on how to arrive at the expressed want or desire (delivered by your ego personality). The inner portions are as needy for information as the ego mind! The ego mind has at its disposal the insights of the inner portions laid out in the subconscious mind.

As a reminder from previous articles, the subconscious mind is not walled off from the conscious mind. It is really an aspect of conscious mind and acts as a sort of relay station between the Inner Self and more superficial ego mind. Insights that are laid there are readily available and are often picked up by the conscious mind. Very often there is a tendency to believe that unexplained actions or behaviors are lying in some area of the Self, usually the subconscious mind, which cannot be accessed. But we have already explored in previous chapters that this is really not a valid view of the subconscious

Now it is only when the conscious mind is not allowed to gather information from all accessible avenues that it becomes overworked, rigid, and suffers in its abilities. So how does it really become paranoid? Well, the ego, like the rest of your Being knows its own nature. It knows what it is specialized for and does it very well. The ego becomes paranoid when it is asked to perform in ways that it knows it cannot. The most common culprit for this burnout is when an individual places the ego in a role of Creator. Because so much time is spent placing emphasis on the external environment, you begin to identify with it. You also begin to identify with the aspect of your Being which is most closely connected to this reality which is your ego. As a result, you will in a sense appoint this section of Self as lord of the castle over your Being. You attribute to this lord much power and prestige. You will begin to engage it in order to strengthen its abilities. For instance you will tend to give intellectual activities more weight in your mind as opposed to other activities that might be considered creative.

Now remember, the ego is that area of Self that allows your personality to take complete satisfaction in self serving pursuits, and this is not a bad thing. After all, how are you to develop a personal preference from which to make a decision if you do not serve the Self? The ego itself will completely relish in its elevated status. It will begin to drive and compel you to further neglect other aspects of Self and seek out venues that will further its growth and importance in your personal life. So your personality, a derivative of the ego, will give its best in all academic, intellectual, and logical areas of life. You will do this at the expense of the inner portions of the Self.

Eventually, your personality will become dependent on the ego. After all it is the Creator of you and your experiences. It has never led you wrong as far as you can tell and always manages to put you on top of every ego minded pursuit you have ever undertaken. You will see no reason not to turn to your ego for all decisions in life that you must now make. Your ego on the other hand is not designed to handle decision making in the absence of intuitive knowledge. Although it has been enjoying its status as the Creator, it is still aware of its true nature. It knows that such a title is not valid to who-it-really-is.

This is when the paranoia begins. Because the ego knows that it has been placed in a status that it cannot really handle, it will attempt to maintain this title. It will attempt to create and it will reinforce to you that it in fact can. It will direct your thoughts and attention to all of the logical minded feats that were gained under its management. It will restrict your gaze and vision lest you find out what is really going on. Out of fear that it can be given up at any moment, the ego will do anything to maintain power so to speak. Your deeper aspects will not cease in giving information for you benefit, but the ego will be convinced that such information is not reliable and is unworthy of your attention.

The fact of the matter is that the ego conscious mind cannot create. The ego is not where the source of energy resides. When you elevate it to the status of Creator, you unwittingly set this aspect of yourSelf up for failure. It will become as useless as an apple tree believing that it is an orange tree. In the apple tree’s belief that it is an orange tree, it will try in vain to produce results that it cannot. It will measure its worth in terms of how well it can yield oranges. When it cannot produce such results, it will then conclude itself as inferior, all the while neglecting its great potential to be an apple tree. This is in effect what one does with the ego conscious mind when they misunderstand the flow of themselves and over identify with one aspect of who-they-are.