b. PROBLEMS OF INTEGRATION
One of the first things which happens when a man has succeeded (alone or with academic psychological aid) in healing or bridging certain cleavages is the recognition of an immediate sense of well-being and of demand for expression. This in its turn, brings its own problems among which are these:
A sense of power, which makes the man,
temporarily at least, selfish, dominant, sure of himself and full of arrogance.
He is aware of himself as facing a larger [Page 438]
world, a wider horizon, and greater opportunities. This larger sense can bring,
therefore, serious troubles and difficulties. This type of person, under the
influence of this extension of consciousness, is often beautifully motivated
and actuated by the highest intentions, but only succeeds in producing
inharmony in his surroundings. These tendencies, when allowed to rule unchecked,
can lead eventually to a serious state of egomania, for egomania is
outstandingly a problem of integration. All these difficulties can be obviated
and offset if the man can be brought to realise himself as an integral part of
a much greater whole. His sense of values will then be adjusted and his sense
of power rightly oriented.
A tendency to over-emphasis may also show
itself, turning the man (as a result of integration and a sense of well-being
or power and capacity) into a fanatic, at any rate for a time. Again with the
best motives in the world, he seeks to drive everyone the way that he has come,
failing to recognise the differences in background, ray type, point in
evolution, and tradition and heredity. He becomes a source of distress to
himself and to his friends. A little learning can be a dangerous thing, and the
cure for many ills, particularly of a psychological nature, is the recognition
of this. Progress can then be made on the Path of Wisdom.
The over-development of the sense of
direction or of vocation, if you like to call it so, though the two are not
identical, for the sense of direction is less definite than the recognition of
vocation. In the schools of esoteric psychology, a phrase is sometimes used in
connection with this sense of direction or inner guidance which runs as
follows: "the bridging of the gaps induces a man continuously to run
across the bridge." Certain aspects of the man are now consciously recognised, and the higher of these constantly
attracts him. When, for instance, the gap between the astral or emotional body
and the mind has been bridged, and the man discovers the vast field of mental
activity which has opened up before him, he may for a long time become
materialistically intellectual and will tune out as far as he can all emotional
reactions and psychic sensitivity, glamouring himself with the belief that they
are, for him, non-existent. He will then work intensively on mental levels. This
will prove only a passing matter from the point of vision of the soul (e'en if
it last an entire incarnation or several incarnations); but it can cause
definite psychological problems, and create in the man's perception of life,
"blind spots." However, much trouble is cured by leaving people
alone, provided the abnormality is not too excessive.
Once the fact of the soul is admitted, we
shall see an increasing tendency to leave people to the directing purpose and
guidance of their own souls, provided that they understand what is happening to
them and can discriminate between:
a. The upward surging of the subconscious
self into the lighted area of consciousness,
b. The play and force and recognitions of
the immediately conscious self.
c. The downflow of the superconscious
self, the soul, carrying inspiration, higher knowledges and intuitions.
I use the term subconscious to signify the
entire instinctual life of the form nature, all the inherited tendencies and
innate predispositions, all the acquired and accumulated characteristics
(acquired in past incarnations and frequently lying dormant unless suddenly
evoked by stress of circumstance) and all the unformulated wishes and urges
which drive a man into activity, plus the suppressed and unrecognised desires,
and the unexpressed ideas which are present, though unrealised. The
subconscious nature is like a deep pool from which a man can draw almost
anything from his past experience, if he so desires, and which can be stirred
up until it becomes a boiling cauldron, causing much distress.
The conscious is limited to that which the
man knows himself to be and have in the present—the category of qualities,
characteristics, powers, tendencies and knowledges of all kinds which
constitute a mans stock in trade and of which he is definitely aware or of
which the psychologist is aware. These are displayed in his window for all to
see, and they make him what he apparently is to the outer onlooking world.
By the super-conscious, I mean those
potencies and knowledges which are available but which are as yet uncontacted
and unrecognised and, therefore, of no immediate use. These are the wisdom,
love and abstract idealism which are inherent in the nature of the soul but
which are not yet, and never have been a part of the equipment available for
use. Eventually, all these powers will be recognised and used by the man. These
potencies and realisations are called in The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by the
interesting name of "the raincloud of knowable things." These
"knowable things" will eventually drop into the conscious aspect of a man's nature and become an integral part of
his intellectual equipment. Finally, as evolution proceeds and the ages pass
away, they will drop into the subconscious aspect of his nature, as his power
to grasp the super-conscious grows in capacity. I might make this point clearer
to you if I pointed out that just as the instinctual nature is today found
largely in the realm of the subconscious, so in due time, the intellectual part
of man (of which he is at this time becoming increasingly aware) will be
relegated to a similar position and will drop below the threshold of
consciousness. The intuition will then take its place. For most people, the
free use of the intuition is not possible, because it lies in the realm of the
super-conscious.
All these movements within the realm of
consciousness,—from the subconscious to the immediately conscious and from
thence to the super-conscious—are essentially crises of integration, producing
temporary situations which must be handled. I would like here to point out that
when an individual becomes aware of the higher aspect of himself which is
demanding integration and is conscious of its nature and of the part which it
could play in his life expression, he frequently becomes afflicted with an
inferiority complex. This is the reaction of the lower, integrated aspects to
the higher one. He experiences a sense of futility; the comparison which he
makes within himself of the possible achievement and the point already attained
leaves him with a sense of failure and of impotence. The reason for this is
that the vision is at first too big, and he feels that he cannot make the
grade. Humanity today has made so much progress upon the path of evolution that
two groups of men are thus powerfully affected:
1. The group which has recognised the need
for bridging the cleavage between the emotional nature and the mind and has thus, through their integration,
reached the level of intelligence.
2. The group that has already bridged this
cleavage and is now aware of a major task which is the bridging of the gap
between the personality and the soul.
These groups include a very large number
of people at this time; the sense of inferiority is very great and causes many
types of difficulty. If, however, the cause is more intelligently approached
and handled, it will be found that the growth of a truer perspective will be
rapid.
(Alice Bailey, Esoteric Psychology, Vol. II, pp. 437-42)
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