Mirror of a split mind
“Do not allow the body to be a mirror of a split mind.” T-8.VIII.9:5
Last week, I mentioned that ego is defined differently in A Course in Miracles than Sigmund Freud’s explanation of ego, id and superego. After class, I did a quick Google search and found that the id is our primitive pleasure-seeking impulse, the superego is our perfectionistic moral conscience, and the ego navigates between the id and superego in ways that allow a person to function in society. Obviously, this is a very simplified version. But it struck me that ego, id and superego are an unholy trinity 🙂
What I found even more interesting is that Freud did not actually use the terms id, ego or superego — those words are a translation of Freud writing in German, das Es (the It), das Ich (the I) and das Uber-Ich (the Over-I) into the id, the ego and the super-ego, respectively. In English, ego is the translation of the word “I.”
A Course in Miracles explains the ego is the part of the Son of God’s Mind that mistakenly believes it separated from God. So identifying as “me,” “myself” and “I” is the self-concept thought that keeps reinforcing the belief that we separated from God. Ego is just the Latin word for “I” translated into English. Before the individual “I” is a collective “I”. Before the collective “I” there is no “I”.
Jesus gives us exercises in the early Workbook lessons that show us a world of objects. After a while, it becomes clear that our body is one of those objects. Eventually, we realize our entire sense of self is a thought-object. The collective ego mind (Ken Wapnick called it the “decision-maker” and I use that term also) is the subjective observer/witness/dreamer of objects. “My thoughts are images that I have made.” W-15
Awakening from the ego dream through the forgiveness practice offered in ACIM is the undoing of identification with your personal self. It is a process of becoming aware of the ego, how it operates (“Do not allow the body to be a mirror of a split mind.” T-8.VIII.9:5) and where it originated (“You are the dreamer of the world of dreams.” T-27.VII.13:1
This leads to what some non-duality teachers call ego death and what the Course calls the discovery of inner peace. Each week in class, we look with the Holy Spirit at what the ego made and, hopefully, experience the holy instant — “… a miniature of Heaven, sent you from Heaven.” T-17.IV.11:1 as we unravel our belief in the personal “I” thought. What I call “unravelization” — unraveling naturally leads to realization 🙂
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