Ask: Questions about consciousness, ego structures, and Jung's archetypes, Part 2

 (This questioner [CS] had many questions, which are answered in last week’s and this week’s articles. I present each question and then its answer.) 

“How are we to understand the 10 year restructuring  process given the recognition that time is a  ‘structure of ego’ that ‘seems to grant reality to consciousness’? Can the seeming reality consciousness of ego be understood in relation to what Jung refers to as the symbolic archetypes of collective unconsciousness where there is a shared unconscious belief system expressed within linear constructs of time and space across which the trajectory of life, birth and death appear to unfold sequentially…"

I have been told that there is a ten-year process that follows a shift in consciousness from ego- to Spirit-consciousness like I experienced. I suspect it is more a de-structuring rather than restructuring process. However, as I described, I do not experience it as time passing, but rather that I am still as this process seems to occur beside me. This is in line with my experience of standing outside consciousness (Christ) as I watch the seemingly individual consciousness represented by Liz go through this experience. So, to what is left of ego in Liz, and perhaps to other egos, it seems like there is time and a process.

As I pointed out last week, I am not familiar enough with Jung’s teaching to comment on what in my experience may line up with it.

 

"Given the expression of Reality that informs Liz's personality in the seeing of residual ego structures, and that ‘the ego’—what we know to be the false identity and its defense structures that is the ego—'is gone’—what are the structures that still remain beyond the ‘person’ distinguished from the ego."

No expression of Reality informs Liz’s personality. Liz’s personality is an expression of consciousness, which is an illusion. Spirit informs consciousness and has brought to light ego’s structures. These structures are thoughts and beliefs that consciousness is real. They made up the former experience that Liz and her life in a material world are real. I suspect they are very individualized ideas that lead to experiences this consciousness once would have said was “me.” They are difficult to describe as they are unique to this mind, and I cannot convey the experience of “me” that used to be here.

 

"The analogy of an army of occupation likened to the ego’s occupation of mind, and the understanding given that Spirit and ego ‘cannot both occupy consciousness’, how does this correlate with the ‘borderlands’ described in the Course and our understanding that ideas never leave Source?"

 The “borderland” referred to in A Course in Miracles refers to the process of “salvation” where one vacillates between ego and Spirit for a long while. As I described before, the borderland in ego-consciousness is where you vacillate between the two thought systems as ego responds with a “backlash” to your experiences of Spirit. And if you cross the border into Spirit-consciousness, you are in a new borderland where ego’s structures are undone by Spirit as you move away from the border and into the real world.

If you are to cross the border, you will have experiences indicating this, such as a sense of “dying”, and related experiences, which is ego’s interpretation of what is about to happen.

“Ideas leave not their source” (T-26.VII.4) means ideas come from either Spirit or ego. Spirit recognizes It is the source of Its ideas. This is called extension. But ego projects away its thoughts, making it seem ideas come from outside the mind. (Projection = extension + denial) This is why ego and Spirit cannot occupy the mind at the same time. They are diametrically opposed systems.

 

"In this sharing about the ego and its remaining structures, how can we view the experiences of Liz as a teacher of God in the stages of Trust Development outlined in the Manual for Teachers?"

 Liz is in the Period of Unsettling.

 

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If you have a question the answer to which you feel may be helpful to others, send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered in this newsletter/blog.