Spell-checking Dr. Freud

TRUTH
is
SIMPLE,
illusion
is
complex

(davidWELLENS, Spiritual Networks, Complex)

Sigmund Freud's theory of the ego got so famous because it was as intuitive as it was simple. The scientific process of enlightenment is to become aware of previously unrecognized behaviors that were partly imprinted by society and our parents (super-ego), and partly a remnant of our million year-long evolutionary process from beast to man (the "it"). So if you picture a giant ice-berg drifting in the sea, the "it" is the process that lies beneath, whereas the ego is the scientist standing on the ice-blog, trying to grasp what is going on below the hood.

Einstein once said we should make a theory as simple as possible, but not any simpler. The missing dimension in Freud's theory is the spiritual realm, but we can add it by allowing room for the "IT"; the mystic and mysterious that we can awaken to.

Consciousness can understand processes that were previously just taken for granted. Yes, we can grasp why we feel afraid, horny or hungry in particular situations. We can understand how our parents and friends biased us, and we can even have insights regarding our religious super-ego.

Let me give you just one example of a religious super-ego that applies for me anyway. I tend to get sad when friendships, marriages or work-arrangements break. I somehow take it as a symbol of ONENESS when people hang out with each other for life. But life doesn't work that way. Marriages break, friends grow apart, and people have to move jobs whether it is voluntary or involuntary. Today I am still sad when it happens, but I follow the SIGNS of the WAY and no longer stand in the way when friends want to move on.

So obviously Dr. Freud has given us a tool-kit that has meaning for the scientific mind and spiritual travelers alike. Yet, from a spiritual perspective, he didn't spell-check his theory. He believed that with insight, searching and discovery, "consciousness" - ego as he calls it - expands over time where more and more sub-conscious processes get understood and assimilated. 

We spiritual travelers lose much sleep over our consciousness per se. It may expand over time, or it may not. True enlightenment is to awaken to the "IT" in our life. To put it in davidWELLENS terminology, TRUTH is SIMPLE, we just have to find "IT".