The Inner Ego

From Session 119 of The Early Sessions of the Seth Material (volume 3):


"I will indeed speak concerning the inner ego, which is the organizing principle within the subconscious, but which looks into other worlds; towards worlds in which it has its origin, and does not have awareness of itself or possess self-consciousness within the physical universe. Its attention and focus is, rather, directed elsewhere, so that it appears to be dormant. But it is not.

"It is the ego or directive consciousness behind all personified aspects of the subconscious; in dormant fashion however, and contrary to Jung's propositions, within the subconscious and in those personified aspects of it will be found remnant memory personalities of past reincarnated selves. They may be called shadows and yet they are not powerless. The inner ego, the directive organizer of the subconscious, also is the part of the self which is familiar with activities and methods of which the outer ego is ignorant. It is this organizer who directs not only the movements of the physical body from within, but directs from within those intimate survival mechanisms, without which the physical body could not exist, and upon which the existence of the outer ego is so dependent.

"It is this inner director who maintains all of these functions, and who is responsible for the physical health. It is this director to whom you must communicate when health fails. There are ways of doing this which we will discuss at a later date. It is this inner director who chooses the dream symbols in such a way that they will be meaningful to all layers or areas of the subconscious, and who is responsible for the amount, rate and type of subconscious data which is given to the outer ego by means of the intuitions.

"If the outer ego would be content to work on an equal basis with its inner counterpart, then many severe difficulties would be sidestepped.

"The outer ego, being of later development, is jealous of its position and would have all knowledge at its fingertips. This is impossible. It cannot stand to have anything hidden, but the very mechanism of its own behaviour is hidden from itself, and it knows only the feel of its own surfaces.

"In many respects it is a reflector, the surface of the self looking outward. While this is necessary, the whole remainder of the self could not be left to an organizer or caretaker who did not focus his attentions within the depths but sat, as it were, on the front porch of the house, leaving the inner workings unattended. The outer ego does not want to meet the inner ego. The outer ego does not want to admit the existence of the inner ego. As the eye cannot see its own pupil without a mirror, so the outer ego could not even see itself, were it not that the inner ego hides in the depths of all reflections.

"When the outer ego, from the surface of its consciousness, reflects the outer world, it sees reflections of the inner ego which are the images within its own eye; and as the self creates matter subconsciously within its own eye, and as the self creates matter subconsciously and not consciously, and as the self creates matter in line with inner and not outer expectations, so then does the ego, in viewing the material universe, come face to face with the face of its own inner ego; and the outer ego cannot escape from this inner self.

"Scientists have glimpsed the complications of the human body. They have scarcely glimpsed the complicated realities of the mind. If it were understood that the areas of the subconscious are indeed populated by many and various sub-personalities, then they would not wonder that the human body is sometimes so besieged with ailments, or that the dominant personality so often appears in contradictory terms.

"The subconscious is not a cellar piled high with explosives, rocking at the foundations of the ego. The subconscious contains a collection of diverse, varied and vital personalities who represent the losers when the time arrived to send one of them to the topmost level, or to the surface of the self.

"The choice was made and is always made by the inner ego, who does this appointing according to his knowledge, or its knowledge, of the personality's qualities. Any of these subconscious personalities could have learned in some fashion to cope with the outside world as well as the present dominant ego, but for various reasons of inner development they could not be so trusted.

"These sub-personalities are not unconscious to themselves. They are conscious of themselves, but they are not conscious of themselves in relation to other selves. They are conscious of needs and drives, and of their existence. They are different from the inner ego or director in that the inner ego is conscious not only of itself, but of the outer ego, and is aware of the existence of the outer world, although not too much concerned with it unless the whole self becomes jeopardized through the actions of the outer ego.

"The inner ego knows when to apply safety valves, and is aware of the danger before the outer ego is alerted. The inner ego is concerned with maintaining the foundations and balance, which is very important, of the whole self, and it is open to messages from the overall entity. The inner ego receives messages through the inner senses, and is aware of realities which the outer ego cannot afford to recognize because of its specialization. In some important aspects the outer ego is supposed to represent to some degree the subdominant personalities who still dwell in the subconscious. When the outer ego is narrow, and poorly represents these subdominant personalities then they rise up in arms, and when conditions are favourable attempt to express themselves through a momentary weakness on the part of the dominant ego. But without even doing this they may momentarily take over or express themselves through a single function, such as speech or motion, while the outer ego is blissfully unaware.

"The consciousness had its origin in the subconscious, from which it sprang. The consciousness was not at one time the centre of the subconscious. However, the inner ego was always the centre of the subconscious.

"As the self became more involved with objectivity, the subconscious, of itself, began the formation of the consciousness, which evolved as portions of it became specialized for the purpose of out-terialization

"The centre of consciousness, that is the centre of outward consciousness, the outer ego, is finally chosen by the inner ego after certain portions of the inner self show greater tendencies for objectification; these portions of course grouped around one of the subconscious sub-personalities which then wins out to become the outer ego, the manipulator for and the spokesman for the whole self.

"This outer ego, among its purposes, has the duty of expressing not only itself but to a lesser extent those various hidden personalities which compose the subconscious. In larger terms and in more comprehensive terms, the whole self, the whole field of the complete subconscious and inner self, reaches back to the entity. There is no end to the past projection or existence of the subconscious of any given self; and though it is not understood in your field, there is no end to the forward thrust of the subconscious of any given self."