Get Ready and Prepare for the Journey

It is critical to understand the intended meaning of a word. Other interpretations could lead to a misunderstanding of the message and can "take you out" of the journey. Whenever necessary, words are defined to make sure we are on the same page.

One Ego trap to be aware of is thinking that you already know something or that some idea is wrong. That trap takes you out of the journey.

To get the most out of your experience, let go of your judgments and travel with an open mind. There will be plenty of time for judgment at the end of the journey.

To prepare for the journey, it is important to: know the assumptions (which are the foundation for the journey), understand critical terms and get important Navigational Tips.

Assumptions

We have 2 selves: the Ego self and the Essential Self.

Colin Wilson's (true) story demonstrates this point. Colin Wilson's parents were working-class people in England. Colin was very intelligent and wanted to be like Albert Einstein. When he was 16 his parents lost their money and he had to quit the school he was attending. He got very depressed and decided to kill himself by drinking acid. Then he had an insight. He suddenly realized that there were two Colin Wilsons. One was a stupid idiot and the other was the real Colin Wilson. And the stupid idiot wanted to kill them both.

The two selves possess two different ways of thinking: dualistic and wholistic

The two modes of thinking are entangled , collapsed together. The Ego mode of thinking, and therefore, the Ego self, is dominant (in the foreground). This condition has the effect of making the Essential mode of thinking, and therefore, the Essential Self, invisible. Invisible in the same way the 3-D image in the magic eye picture is hidden from view until you develop a different way of seeing. (If you have not seen a magic eye picture , go back to the About the Journey section and click on the link near the top to access the Magic Eye Picture.

1.  Distinguishing these two modes of thinking reveals the Essential Self separate and distinct from the Ego self. Each mode of thinking structures a different perception of reality.

2.  The Ego mode of thinking creates our perception and experience of conventional/consensus reality. The Essential mode of thinking structures a distinctly different, nonconventional view of reality, a view from another dimension, like shifting from a 2-D to a 3-D image. Jon Kabat-Zinn calls this shift a rotation in consciousness, a shift into "Orthogonal Reality"

3.  Distinguishing the Essential mode of thinking from the Ego mode, brings into existence THE FREEDOM TO CHOOSE a new way of seeing, being and doing.

4.  The Ego self and the Essential Self have different fields of energy (frequency bands/energy levels), like A/M F/M radio.

5.  The circumstances in your life and in the world provide an opportunity to "rise above" the Ego mentality and see with new eyes.

THESE ASSUMPTIONS ARE NOT MEANT TO BE BELIEVED, BUT TO BE EXPLORED: TRIED ON LIKE A PAIR OF SHOES TO SEE IF THEY FIT BEFORE BUYING. THIS JOURNEY IS DESIGNED TO GIVE YOU THE OPPORTUNITY TO TRY THEM ON.

Read More

Critical Terms

Essential Self is the name I chose to refer to that part of us that resides Beyond Ego. Other names I could have chosen Include: Natural Self, Spiritual Self, Original Self, True Self, Nonlocal Self, Soul.

Ego is the name I chose to refer to that part of ourselves that is the constant little voice in our head.  Other names I could have chosen include: programmed self, conditioned self, local human, little woman/rebel woman

Distinguish (verb): the act of bringing into existence something that was not there before by separating things into different groups according to their attributes/ characteristics. This is a powerful tool that will be discussed in more detail in the section,  Climbing the Mountain of Distinctions

(Distinguishing is one of Landmark Education's tools. It is brilliant and powerful. This website could not exist without this tool)

Context: The framework that forms the setting for an event, statement, or idea in terms of which it can be fully understood and assessed. The two modes of thinking each have a different frame or context that determines how our inner and outer landscapes are interpreted; a frame that contains a system of beliefs, a paradigm, that structures how "reality" is interpreted.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Dimension: A level of perception. The two modes of thinking occur in different dimensions ( as in2-D vs 3-D). To use a metaphor: the Ego mode views the football game from the perspective of sitting in the grandstand. The Essential mode views the game from the perspective of being in a blimp high above the grandstand.

 

Energy. On this journey the word energy is used to point to our inner state of being. It is the vibrational frequency of the inner landscape. When we feel happy, we are vibrating at a particular frequency, in contrast to the energy vibration we feel when we are sad. The vibrational energy we feel in our bodies changes as our context and thoughts change.

 

Possibility: a realm of being, a dimension, a domain, a frequency/vibrational level, the realm of creative energy. (A concept from Landmark Education)

Transformation: the act of making a huge shift. Not a change, but rather a quantum leap.

Shifting from the Ego context to the Essential context can create a transformational shift from one frequency band of energy to another. This concept will be explored in the section, Distinguishing the Ego's Energy Field.

                    

Click on Climbing the Mt. of Distinctions to get to the next part of the journey.