Sub-Personalities

Individually we are a plurality as well as a unity. This is true of us as Souls, that have many levels and spheres, as well as the mind ... as we have seen already. It is also true of our personality. This is far from being one 'thing'.

It is a common teaching in many esoteric systems that we have three fundamental powers, each has its own path. These powers are thinking (mind), feeling (heart) and willing (will). The last of these (will) is the least studied by psychologists.

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A simple experiment.

If someone takes a piece of paper and writes the answer to the question "What do I want?" giving a fresh answer each time, a long list results, with answers ranging from "an ice cream", "a large house of my own", "a fulfilling marriage", "to see India", "to see my daughter settled", and so on. We can generate many answers if we do not censor... and it is an interesting experiment to do. More difficult is to narrow the long list to ten and then five prime wishes. That involves choosing.

When I was training in Psychosynthesis, we did this, and then five people sat around us, reading the wishes out. We sat in the middle, eyes closed, listening.

The experience was excruciating... uncomfortable. This is because the wishes are often mutually incompatible as they stand. And hearing them read is like being within one's own mind when it's in a spin.

Each of these wishes, the five or the ten or more, spring from a different sub-personality. If you play with this you can find quite distinct 'beings' inside that have their own way of thinking, have characteristic feelings and different motivations.

Part of emotional maturity I believe, is recognising this reality at least in outline. Then we know with some impulses that arise they are just a sub-personality ... not central to who we are. A 'part of us' not our core. We gradually recognise these parts. When we do, we get choice. We can decide to act in accord with a fragment of who we are, or we can choose not to.

Powerful sub-personalities that have dominated parts of our lives often have their root in childhood and interactions with our parents and siblings. We may find that they exert  far too much sway in our life. Gradually we can recognise this, and so choose otherwise. Of course if the pattern is deep and if it relates to what felt at the age of - say - six, to be a life and death matter, then detaching from it can prove difficult.

Managing who we are, elegantly, is a life skill that never really is finished with, as, at each stage of our life we are faced with different challenges.

Finding how to respond to these in real time is not easy for anyone. Placing our consciousness at Soul level ... aligning with our higher self ... certainly helps. Indeed it really only is from that level we act as a unity rather than a part.