A Glossary of Spiritual Identities
Ego, Self, Soul, God, & More: Who Do You Want to Be Today?
[Updated April 3, 2022] How to know your ego, self, higher self, soul, spirit, and God/Source.
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I POSTED this meme (“You are always only talking to yourself” ⬇️) on my Facebook page. The simple reason I believe this is true is because, despite how diverse our experiences are, we are all “One”. At our highest level of consciousness, there is no one else we can talk to.
The problem is, of course, that we seldom feel that we are all One.
“Who Am I?” — A Complete List
ONE of the key, fundamental questions in spirituality is “Who am I?”.
The reason this is such an essential question is that the more you ask, the closer you get to the deepest part of yourself, which is your Soul.
There are different ways of mapping the path from our outer-self to our deepest inner-self. This is the one I use. A few concepts are in more that one level, depending on how we define them. The Higher Self, for example, is in both level 4 and level 7. I use bold to show what I consider a core idea for each level.
- Outer Ego / Social Self / Physical Body / Surface Thoughts & Spoken Words / The Id (Freud) / Physical Universe / Physical Reality / Annamaya Kosha / The 3rd Dimension or Density / Waking Reality >>
- > Personality / The Ego (Freud) / Inner Self / The Character / Psychological Self / Surface Beliefs / The Doer / The Story / Deeper & Unspoken Thoughts >>
- > Astral Body / Energy Body / Self / Emotional Body / Deeper Self / Intuition / Ghosts / Aura (inner layers) / Subtle Body / Prana Body / Pranamaya Kosha / Dream Body / Individual Subconscious / Awakening / Dream Reality / The 4th Dimension or Density>>
- > Mental Body / Causal Body / Higher Self / True Self / Aura (outer layers) / The Superego (Freud) / Deep Sleep / The Observer / Self Realization / Manomaya Kosha / The 5th Dimension or Density >>
- > Individual Soul / Consciousness / Beingness / Enlightenment / Awareness / Soul Self / Essential Self / Higher Intelligence / Turiya / Atman / Vijnanamaya Kosha / Deep Sleep Reality / The 6th Dimension or Density >>
- > Soul Groups & Families / Spirit Guides / Angels / Future Self / Collective Subconscious / Gaia >> — The word “Spirit” appears in levels #6 to #9 with slightly different definitions in each.
- > Oversoul(s) / Spirit / Entity / Higher Self / Higher Consciousness / Universal Consciousness (Freud) / Parent-Soul-Being / Archangels / Anandamaya Kosha / Ascended Masters >> — People put the Higher Self anywhere from level #4 to #8. It is relative, as there is always something “higher” from where you start.
- > Universal Soul / Universal Mind / Source of All Knowledge / Pure Consciousness / Pure Awareness / Pure Knowing / True Self / Chittamaya Kosha / Real Self / Essential Being / Essential Nature / The Unified or Quantum Field / The I Am (Presence) / Unity Consciousness / Full Realization / The Witness / Pure Beingness >> — This is also the origin level of the Vital Life Force / Kundalini / Prana / Qi-Ki, which is the energy enlivening all lower levels
- [9a] > God as a Thing: The Absolute / Source / All-That-Is / Prime Creator / The “I” / Great Spirit / God / Consciousness / Tai Chi / Yin Yang / Sophia / The Universe as Everything (pantheism) / The Universe and More (panentheism) / Paramatman / Saguna Brahman [9b] > God as Not a Thing: The Unmanifested / The Formless / The Witnessing (without a witnesser) / Wu Chi or Wuji /The Void / Emptiness / Atmanamaya Kosha / No-Thing / Source / Nirguna Brahman
- > Para Brahman (beyond Brahman) / Divinity / The Divine / God Beyond All Universes / The 0th Dimension — Some say that levels #1 to #9 apply separately to each universe in a multiverse model. So #10 would be that which is beyond all universes and is the source of multiple universes. Others, however, say that multiple universes are created as low as level #7.
Use this list with caution because teachers and teachings have different definitions and put things in different places. “True Self”, for example, can go at almost any level in this hierarchy. The placements I show are based on my knowledge (which is limited) and judgment.
In another example, I have heard teachings that say we are “Spirit” comes through a “Soul” to have a “Physical Body” experience. And I have heard we are a “Soul” coming through a “Higher Self” to have a “Physical Body” experience. For one the Soul is the interface between the Physical Body and higher realms, and for the other it is the Higher Self that does that.
Also, I use 2 categories for the highest level (#9 above): God as a Thing [9a], and God as No Thing [9b]. Most people do not consider this difference and freely mix the terms above when speaking of God/The Absolute/The Unmanifested. Even I do that because it is easier than trying to explain the difference repeatedly.
A definition I like seems to combine [9a] and [9b]. It is that “We are Nothing being everything and Everything being nothing” (Ken Madden, YouTube link, though other Radical Nondualists also say this). Everything means everything on this list (pantheism). Nothing means “No Thing”, because nothing really exists — it is all an illusion. But we are both (panenthism perhaps). Our human mind cannot understand that Zen koan-like idea, which means it is probably true.
(I update the list above periodically. If you know of some key concepts I am missing, please let me know. Thanks.)
Although each of these levels may seem very distinct, there is no obvious line between them, except maybe at the level of God, where one moves from the manifest/relative/phenomenal realms for forms to the unmanifested realm of the formless.
For all the others, we gradually transition from one level to the next. The categories above show the trajectory of that transition. The need to create categories is a human characteristic that does not exist at deeper levels of experience.
Seth/Jane Roberts said:
“It must, once again, be realized that there is no particular point where ego begins or ends. There is no particular and definite line between the ego and the personality and the inner self. They must merely be discussed in such terms. There is, believe it or not, no particular and specific and definite boundary between what is self and not self. If we isolate such portions of reality for the sake of discussion, such isolation is artificial, and in no way affects the nature of reality itself.” - Seth/Jane Roberts, The Early Sessions, Book 3, session 146, April 14, 1965
What is most important, and confusing, is that we maintain our identity, our feeling of “I am” and “this is me”, through every level of self, from the Outer Ego to the Universal Soul. Some definitions see that sense of self is the ego. I believe it disappears on the God/Source level, but I could be wrong.
For more on “who am I?”, see:
For more on the soul, see:
The Outer Ego
THERE are many definitions of “ego”. The model above uses the term “outer ego” to more clearly define the ego as that part of you that is defined by others. It includes what society and others expect you to be, how others expect you to behave, and how you believe you “should” think and act in this incarnation.
We formed our Outer Ego mostly in early childhood. It enables us to act in our physical and social world by forgetting that our true nature is beyond the physical.
Thus, the Outer Ego is embedded fully in physical reality. It attempts to understand reality by dividing things and then comparing the differences. This form of logic works well in helping us to navigate and discern physical life on Earth.
Our ego’s ability to divide and compare all aspects of our world also enables us to experience the great diversity that our planet offers, from the highest highs to the lowest vibrational lows.
For example, it is from the perspective of the Outer Ego, that we have Dark Night of the Soul experiences, where we feel everything is wrong and out of place, especially “me”. We are basically dividing and separating our self from the entire world. This is how the ego attempts to understand itself.
The ego’s process of dividing and separating our self from others and our world might be the furthest manifestation from the “Oneness” of God / Source that is possible.
For more on the ego, see:
Going Into the Self
GOING into one’s self is moving in the opposite direction of the Outer Ego. That path is like peeling an onion. There is layer upon layer until you get to the last layer and then nothing remains.
As one goes deeper, the following changes apply:
- Reality is less diverse and more simple the deeper one goes.
- Time becomes more flexible and almost disappears at the deepest levels.
- Desires become fewer and weaker, as the ego and personality weaken with each deeper level.
- Intelligence, awareness, and energy/love (sat, chit, and ananda) all increase in clarity and strength.
- Happiness and contentment increases the less ego centered one is.
- Manifesting is more powerful the deeper one goes — “instant manifestations” are possible at the deepest Soul level.
- Separation becomes less as individuality dissolves into collective forms of consciousness and Oneness — at the Universal Soul level there is only one consciousness that is the same for every being and entity in the universe.
“You are Always Only Talking to Yourself”
Something like cosmological map presented above is shared by most all New Age belief systems these days. We are each unique individuals at lower levels, and we are all connected and one at higher levels. We are each an individual manifestation of the Universal Soul and God.
Another way to put this is that each of us is God/Source pretending to be a separate being. One definition of “awakening” is coming to realize that we are our Individual Soul first, and a body/mind/ego second. A higher level of awakening is the experience that we are all One (sometimes called Unity Consciousness).
Yet another way of understanding this is that the world is a mirror of your inner-self and you are only ever looking at yourself. If you see devils, if you see alternate dimensions, if you encounter disagreements, then say hello to yourself.
From that perspective of the Universal Soul/Mind, which is who we truly are, we are always and only talking to, and interacting with, itself. This applies to the people we meet and the environments we interact within — we are all One.
That was the principal message of my meme.
Navigating Separation & Oneness
Being totally separate (Outer Ego) or totally one with everyone and everything (Universal Soul/Mind) are the two extreme levels of the model above.
There are also intermediary levels, such as the soul groupings that we are a part of. We often have close incarnational relationships with our soul family siblings from those intermediate levels (although in the end all levels dissolve into the Universal Soul).
Separation comes easy for us in the 3rd Dimension, because, as noted above, that is what our Outer Ego has learned from infancy on.
There is nothing wrong with “pretending” that we are all separate and talking to others who are not us. We came into this Earth incarnation to experience separation in a deeper way than we could in other levels or dimensions of reality.
Experiencing Oneness is much more challenging. For most of us, we do not even know it is possible until our adult years. And some of us spend a lifetime trying to achieve that Oneness.
That is because if we knew Oneness our entire life, we could not experience all that physical reality offers. We could not experience love/hate for another, for example.
But many of us have had glimpses of Oneness and Unity Consciousness — enough to stoke our desire for more. That, in itself, is one of the great experiences of physical reality — to move from separation to Oneness.
In the end, though, there is great comfort and wisdom to gain in our experiences of separation. But we need to know that we are more than our ego. We need to understand the illusion of our ego’s separation from others and our planet. We need to connect with each other from the deeper levels of ourselves.
Related
- The original title of this article was: “Ego, Self, Soul, & God: You Are Always Only Talking to Yourself”.
- For more on the Spiritual Dimensions of Reality, see this collection of articles:
- For more on The Many “Yous”, see this collection of articles:
Note that in the 2 collections above, the articles are behind the Medium paywall. For paywall-free access to my articles, go to www.AlanLew.com, linked below.
Contact
- I am not financially affiliated with any of the people or products discussed in this article.
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- Written in collaboration with my Energy Group/Higher Self. This is our perspective of the truth and not the whole truth of reality.
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