Episode 006 - Who We Truly Are

Episode 006: Who We Truly Are

There is a wave in spirituality that starts with the words, “I AM,” It uses the power of convincing the observer behind your eyes to something that you desire. While some would call this delusional brain washing or hypnosis, convincing yourself of things that are not true, something magical starts to happen, it works. We have all heard of the placebo effect and how powerful the mind is to heal the body. This is because the ego is convinced that this pill is going to heal me and therefore the ego lets down its guard and allows the observer, aka your soul or god to work their magic. It works because you are giving up control and you are allowing someone or something else to take over. This works in many applications, but it is important to understand how your mind works to understand why this is possible. So who are we? What are we? and how do we connect with ourselves to become a teamed partnership so that we can obtain the powers to live a more powerful and fulfilled life? Let us try and answer one of the biggest questions a human being can ask, what am I?

Before we continue, we should understand a fundamental law that is at place in the universe; we will, forget. The reason why it is so hard to unlock our true selves is because we forget who we are all the time. There are many forces at work that try and cause you to forget who you truly are by manipulating your ego. It will try and drag you down until we feel exhausted and have nothing left to give. It is important we accept this law as we cannot change it, but we can bend it and do our best to stay in a constant state of self awareness of being mindful but that requires a daily practice to ourselves. So what was the law again? I forgot?

To begin our understanding of what we are it is easiest to teach complex concepts by using an everyday analogy that will help us remember. The best analogy we could use to describe ourselves is any type of fruit or vegetable with layers. So picture if you will, a kiwi fruit cut in half on the short side, with it’s soft fuzzy outer layer and within that there is a sweet green meaty layer that has a gradient between dark green to light green. Then we approach the seed layer with little white dots ahead of black seeds. Beyond this is another green layer that seems to be pushing the seeds outward in a beautiful bursting start configuration. Finally within the very core of the fruit is the white milky center that is semi translucent yet solid white. Now that we have this delicious fruit image in your mind lets turn it into ourselves. On the outer layer is of course the environment the fruit finds itself in. This is the air we breath and the ground we walk on.

The environment is the reality of which we perceive and observe. We spend many years of our early life trying to understand this world we are curious creatures at birth touching and seeing the whole world for the very first time and it is more beautiful than we could have ever imagined. As we grow older however, we develop a skin so to speak, similar to the skin of the kiwi fruit. We understand that our body houses us, and we use it like an interface with our environment.

Next we have the first dark green layer of the fruit of our psyche. This layer is our outward defined layer of who we are. This is the layer that is programed by society, our parents, and everyone else around us telling us who we ought to be. This layer is formed as a basic guide of how to interact with others in this world. As we develop and start interacting with other children, we begin to gain knowledge that not everyone else is like us, we must learn the rules of the current reality to find our place within it. If we think this aspect of our psyche stops developing when we become adults, we are mistaken. As adults that same programing is occurring with entertainment, social media, religion, conventional media, news, politics, family and workplaces. All of these institutions are designed to program you in a particular way to become a drone to the system. This layer does have a lot of power over us to manipulate us and force us to do things that go against our true nature. This might sound scary at first and it is supposed to as fear is often the tool for manipulation but realize that it is an essential part of our development to survive within a system of other similar human beings. It is not a conspiracy it is just how this reality works as we try to work and live together as a society so that it can support as many of us as possible.

We can address many of the topics within this level of the psyche in another episode but one aspect that is important to bring up is, we must understand the system thoroughly for us to navigate within it with the least amount of disruption as possible this is what this valuable layer of our psyche is for. If we cause the system too much pain or we are seen as an instigator the system will destroy us. Although it may seem like a clever idea to want to destroy this part of ourselves it is essential part of our own survival and therefore it is better to become harmonized with it rather than destroy it. We can always reprogram this layer with discipline and challenging work so do not lose hope.

As the dark green of the fruit fades into the lighter colour fruit we get our first look at self. The seed layer represents our personality which can change with time as we grow and that is why the kiwi is a good example as it has so many different seeds at various levels shooting out from the center. We often describe the self with the pronoun, ‘I’ or ‘me’ and its opposite ‘you’ or ‘them’. We quickly realize that we are not what our parents or society say we are, and we develop a sense of self. Another example we could look at is when we were teenagers. At this age we develop an understanding that we are individuals and we do not wish to be confined by what society wants out of us. Therefore, teenagers are seen as rebellious and moody, because they are finally questioning why things are the way they are, not to mention just how crazy the hormone levels are at this time.

Our personality is a conception of identity of who we think we are and is how we show ourselves to the world. This is an incredibly unique human ability, as we develop a whole identity of self that many of us never change or shed throughout our life or some of us like to think we do not change. Our personality is complicated as is constructed of many different seeds of truths, deceptions, traumas, and emotions that all come together to create a sense of me or I. The spiritual community will often associate this layer as apart of the ego. A whole episode can be dedicated to the ego as it is made up of many parts and is the most studied aspect of who we are in the eyes of psychology. The ego is what many people are talking about when they refer to themselves and this is the layer that society especially politics and religion LOVE to penetrate and manipulate. If the previous layer can influence this layer, it will be exceedingly difficult to change. This is often where morality comes in to create sense of right and wrong, self esteem, personality types quizzes, identities, and knowledge. The ego is not necessarily a terrible thing we all have different personalities and have all had very unique lives shaping us as we age. It is society that usually defines what a negative or positive personality trait but we must understand that every ego is correct in the eyes of the universe. There are no right or wrong ego’s or personalities, there is only the illusion of right and wrong but we come again to another law of the universe, we always have freewill. Our actions and choices have equal reactions as a way for the universe to balance the scales. This is what the ancient Egyptians called Ma’at or a cosmic order and justice. We always have a choice between right and wrong it is up to us to accept the choices we have made and move on. We can never infringe on each other free will or the next level gets activated.

Just past the seeds is thin layer of green flesh that house our instincts or primitive self. This aspect of ourself is our animal selves, where much of our survival instincts come from. This layer of the fruit is interested in protecting all the other layers to ensure that our bodies survive and continue living as long as possible. This is where our urges and desires for survival live and it is obvious, we have a lot to thank for this level of ourselves. This is still considered apart of the ego by many people and has ensured that the human race has made it to where it is today. Instincts are unlearned behaviors that just seem to be something that every human being has within their DNA. It is a knowledge passed down through genetics and every animal has their own set of instincts. We can see this in human babies as they inherently know how to swim and hold their breath without needing to be taught. These instincts help us survive but we also depend a great deal on our parents to look out for us as the world we grow up in is often not as intuitive as we think. This aspect of ourselves can override all the other layers if it feels threatened or activated in any way. This layer is often what people say is a trigger. Something that bugs us and causes us to have a rush of emotions, but we don’t even understand why. It is always there its that gut feeling you get when something bad is going to happen and it is an important part of who we are as human beings. We might say if this is the animal side of us then we can’t program it, but we would be wrong. This aspect of ourselves can be programed especially when we are younger and when we experience trauma. It is the flight, fight or freeze reflex and when tied to emotional or childhood traumas it can be triggered in everyday circumstances. Those instincts are ruled by the emotion of fear and using that in the news or in politics can make it seem like the world is ending all the time, which is constantly keeping your instincts in a panicked stated. When we live in a constant state of fear, we allow ourselves to give up our power to society at large or our parents and we never really get to see who we really are at the core.

Before we get to the big finale at the core of who you are there a few other things to go over. I choose a kiwi as an example for a reason. The kiwi has a hard to define barriers within its layers its all a gradient or a blur and this is the same with who we are. All the layers we have discussed this far blend into each other which makes the boundaries hard to define, so although we have just described these layers understand that sometimes reality is a little more complex than these simplistic explanations and that some are going through different situations. We only speak in general terms so that each of us as individuals can relate and ask their own questions. Also, we used the human life as an example to explain the who we are because, well, we are human. Know that each these steps can be developing and changing at any time in our lives.

Another fundamental law of the universe is that everything is always changing. Humans can change at any time of their life and that is what this life is about change and experiencing change because most of us would find life a bore if we only did the same thing at nauseum. Humans like to discover new things and live in a world of constant change. This change upsets the ego because the ego likes things cozy, but the paradox is that the ego is never happy and that is why we need something more. Therefore, to be alive is a gift we get to experience a forever changing world with infinite possibilities, so we are never bored. If we are ever bored this is your core self telling you to change things up and move your energy around.

Churchill is famous for saying, to Improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often. Change is never comfortable and always comes with a cost of loss or pain, whoever you must trust that the universe is always on your side to create the path with the least amount of pain for the change that is essential in your life. As one goes deeper into the fruit a great deal of pressure is being placed on us. The density of all the material on top of us makes it harder to penetrate deeper into ourselves. Society does a particularly good job at trying to change us because it is consistent and persistent at trying to mold us. This is how we change ourselves for the better and create larger changes in society by taking the same tools to shape us into being who we really are.

So, who are we? What lays at the core of the fruit? Well, my friends sorry to be anti climatic but it is not something we can just teach because your ego is too fragile to even believe it. Even if I were to tell you what lay at the center you would not believe, and this is why we must all discover it for ourselves. Remember when we talked about the system fighting to destroy someone who rubs against the system too much? The ego does the same thing and will try everything it can to prevent us from discovering who we are. It does not want to give up the power and control that it has and understandably because it thinks its all that exists and to know that something else exists changes everything. It is enough to let everyone know that there is a layer beyond our ego, and many fear what lays in the dark, but I can tell you one thing. There is a lot of love and light there and we all have the power to awaken ourselves and there is no right or wrong way, but I know I know nothing and that is a beautiful thing.

This is the explorer signing off.