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Esoteric Psychology II - Chapter II - The Ray of Personality - Some Problems of Psychology
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 [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 inharmonic in his surroundings. These tendencies, when allowed to rule unchecked, can lead eventually to a serious state of ego-mania, for ego-mania is outstandingly a problem of integration. All these difficulties can be obviated and offset if the man can be brought to realize 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 recognize 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 [439] aspects of the man are now consciously recognized, 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, glamoring 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: The upward surging of the subconscious self into the lighted area of consciousness, The play and force and recognitions of the immediately conscious self. The downflow of the superconscious self, the soul, carrying inspiration, higher knowledges and intuitions. These words - subconscious, conscious and superconscious - need definition, for the purpose of this treatise; they [440] are bandied about so freely and mean different things according to the school of psychological thought to which the student belongs.
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