The Daily Repression of Enlightenment

Does morality aid you in repressing your baser instincts? Does your religious creed assist you in being a better citizen by inhibiting your primitive drives and instincts? Obviously, this is good, however, the problem is that you may be repressing more than you think.

According to Freud, the ego is primarily concerned with thwarting primitive sex and aggression impulses and drives through various psychological defense mechanisms. This is advantageous to society because if the ego did not repress or defend against our primitive, sexual and aggressive impulses, civilization as we know it, would basically not exist.

However, the ego tends to obstruct not only unconscious primitive impulses, but also super-conscious or Deep Spirit impulses as well. Many of the ancient wisdom traditions claim that super-conscious impulses are more primordial than our most primitive instincts and drives because they existed prior to birth of the physical body. Deep Spirit impulses exist outside the bounds of time and originate from a non-empirical Source that does not participate in your perceived physical reality. This is based on centuries of wisdom traditions and the reports of theoretical or quantum physics are starting to correlate with those ancient traditions.

The ego interprets these Deep Spirit, or Higher impulses, ('Higher' meaning not concerned with the body) as threat and simply lumps them together and represses them into the unconscious along with threatening primitive bodily impulses.

Although both types of impulses are consigned to the nether regions of the unconscious, the Higher impulses are much more threatening to the ego-self and are therefore, repressed to the deepest layers of the unconscious. Thus, we have a collective and individual tendency to acknowledge the existence of our unconscious primitive instincts, yet seem completely oblivious to the instinctual drives of a Higher Self. This is because the consequences to the ego for cutting-off primitive impulses pale in comparison to the consequences for allowing consciousness of Deep Spirit impulses.

Although these Higher impulses may be apparent in random acts of kindness, or in courageous altruistic acts ("a selfless concern for the welfare of others") in which individuals risk their own lives to save others that they have no connection with. It is interesting that usually only in episodes of extreme fear, does the ego fail to restrict the unconscious Deep Spirit impulses. Maybe this is why God is more easily found in “prisons cells and foxholes.”

More often, we learn of individuals who perform some “evil” primitive deed as their ego allows primitive sex or aggression impulses to pass through into the conscious mind to be acted out in the world. Some even cultivate such primitive impulses and live as deviants or criminals all their life.

Yet, less often do we learn of those who have cultivated a continuous correspondence with Deep Spirit impulses within the depths of the unconscious. In the few times when this has occurred, we have come to refer to these individuals as “spiritual masters,” with names like Christ or Buddha. This is because, from their teachings that originate through correspondence with Deep Spirit, we tend to resonate with the message, no matter how unrealistic, and consider it Truth. Although the conscious mind fails to understand why it resonates with information that often, on face value, seems strange and ridiculous, many often devote their lives to following the teachings of these "masters."

We are only barely aware of these super-conscious impulses that have been resigned to the deepest levels of our own unconscious. Nevertheless, although we may resist deeper Truth, as proclaimed by the masters, we can never avoid it completely, because it is always within us and we can never be without it.

The ego resists these super-conscious impulses…

… through psychological inhibition or egoic defense mechanisms. We simply inhibit Deep Spirit impulses the same as we inhibit primitive physical impulses. Both are fearful and threatening to the ego. However, Deep Spirit is more threatening since it signifies an eventual end to the ego. Essentially, society requires that the primitive impulses be repressed and inhibited in order to maintain social order.

However, our eventual ‘awakening’ requires that the super-conscious impulses be allowed access to consciousness and no longer be inhibited. This dual function of the mind tends to result in a great deal of fear and confusion for the ego.

So how do we differentiate between repressing primitive, as opposed to super-conscious, impulses? In the answer lies a paradox, since it IS the super-conscious impulses that will guide that differentiating.

Somewhere along your path to awakening (which started at birth), the super-conscious impulses have frequently escaped inhibition. This is comparable to the times when primitive physical impulses have tended to rise-up from the unconscious to appear in consciousness and this usually occurs in relation to sex or aggression, but is quickly inhibited by the ever vigilant ego. If we act out primitive physical impulses, this can result in guilt or remorse and the reinforcing self-directive to increase repression or inhibition to avoid the potential for future acting-out of the primitive.

Yet, when super-conscious impulses appear in consciousness, no matter how briefly, there is the desire to prolong or even renew the impulse. Yet, this prolonging becomes very frightening to the ego that has no correspondence with Deep Spirit and can only fear what it does not know and what it inaccurately believes rejects IT (contrary to the fact that Deep Spirit is unaware of ego and actually does not reject anything).

The appearance of Deep Spirit impulses in consciousness may actually be a catalyst for life long spiritual seeking. This is because impulses from this Source tend to create an experience much deeper and protracted than any physical pleasures that might be interpreted from primitive impulses. All of this seems rather serendipitous, as there is no real way to recall episodes when the super-conscious impulses, long repressed in the unconscious, were finally allowed to be experienced. This is because upon experiencing super-conscious impulses, the ego tends to immediately interpret these experiences in ways that allow ego to make sense of them (the "dumb-down" effect). Obviously, this distorts and skews the experience, as the ego tends to correlate and compare these experiences with normal empirical world experiences.

SUPER-CONSCIOUS IMPULSES AND EVERYDAY ENLIGHTENMENT

This is why a recent comment by the Crazy Pianist really resonated with me. He stated that maybe there was a possibility that “we experience enlightenment most of the time without even noticing it.”

Yes, the concept of "everyday enlightenment" does appear to be highly plausible. The problem is the ego's need to repress the enlightenment or super-conscious impulse.

One of the most famous Freudian defense mechanisms is referred to as “Reaction Formation.” Reaction Formation is when we feel an impulse to do something and judge it as undesirable and then move in the complete opposite direction than what the impulse signifies.

“An interesting example of reaction formation is one displayed by men who are afraid of any signs of softness, which they equate with femininity, in their makeup. They try to cover up their feminine tendencies by being especially hard and masculine. As a result they become caricatures of masculinity rather than real men.” Or “A mother who is afraid to admit [to herself] that she resents her children, may interfere so much in their lives, under the pretext of being concerned about their welfare and safety, that her over protection is really a form of punishment” (“A Primer of Freudian Psychology” Calvin S Hall, 1979, p.93).

All of our lives we are experiencing super-conscious impulses, the same as primitive human impulses. Yet, the ego, so adept at defending itself against unwanted impulses, represses the primitive impulses that could harm us, but also the Deep Spirit impulses that could save us.

Therefore, it becomes imperative that we dis-inhibit and terminate our repression of super-conscious impulses, but still deny conscious access to primitive bodily impulses.

Many believe that accessing Deep Spirit impulses requires a teacher in the world to guide us to experiencing these super-conscious impulses, which have been repressed for so long in the unconscious.

However, the paradox is that you cannot recognize and meet the teacher of the super-conscious, without Deep Spirit impulses informing and guiding you to that teacher. Otherwise, the teachings are only babble to the uninformed mind and the teacher is rejected.

You actually teach yourself....

...Yet, the ego recognizes that if you were to access Deep Spirit impulses on your own, you would quickly learn that you have no use for the ego. Therefore, the ego convinces you that you are much too weak and feeble to learn of Deep Spirit on your own and therefore, you must be taught from someone more wise and knowing than your ‘self.’ This is a delaying tactic.

Although you can and will learn from a teacher, and many do (since there is an inherent connective-unity making student and teacher of ONE MIND) this merely delays accessing the Truth in you, by requiring a mediator who must teach you techniques and methods of accessing the deepest regions of your own unconscious through use of the teacher's correspondence with those deepest regions.

Nevertheless, many will go “within,’ completely on their own.

They will have learned what I write about, long before this writing and have been living lives directed and informed totally through Deep Spirit impulses. They will write books, create blogs, talk with others, etc, etc, to incite the Deep Spirit impulses of others and build upon their own correspondence "within."

This will slowly generate a Deep Spirit Movement in which many will interact with the world from Deep Spirit and nothing else. Some will be conscious of the origin of this new and improved interacting, while other will not know why, but will interact from those impulses anyway, simply because it feels unmistakeably right.

This is referred to as “the evolution of collective consciousness”...

... and it requires that everyone participate and it is certain that everyone will participate eventually. For many, 'time' is still a factor. The Truth of Deep Spirit is an equality that excludes nothing, but requires everything join it for it to be Truth.

Of course, since it is Truth, and Truth is always certain and never uncertain, everyone must already be participating, although their egos refuse to inform them of that participation. Therefore, even though some don’t know it yet, they joined the movement a long time ago!

Happy Trails!
mikeS