How many of you believe in Higher Self?

Hi there & !!


So How many of you believe or not believe in Higher Self?
Have you found it?

What did you do to get in touch with your Higher self? Care to Share?
Thank You!

My opinion is:-
I am not certain but I sure believe in one.
I may or may not have 'touched & go' my higher self. I , so far do not have a positive ID on that one!!

I lean towards Eckhart Tolle's teaching when the 'EGO' is the one interacting with the surrounding and in any given moment, the 'higher self' is the one doing the 'watching' those interactions.

Yeah, It yak-yaks a lot.
Is that the one generically called the conscience? .....may be not! B'cos our conscience is subjective and not always correct and just holds the rule book for us.
It RATIONALIZES! not good enough to be a Higher self, in my Opinion.

Well, in the end,
I got nothing.....


.....@QQQQQQQ0

Great topic caterpiller!

My thoughts are this:

We all have "higher selves" that are much more aware of the truth of all things than our conscious bodies that rely on consensual reality for perception.

We become closer to our "higher selves" when we can remove ourselves from consensual reality. This is essentially what shaman do. They step outside of time/consensual reality and live or exist in both worlds. The ability to do this, and to maintain a singular existence with the divine "all that is", is what gives them the ability to accomplish the legendary feats of our worlds mystics: bilocation, teleportation, remote viewing, spontaneous healing, et. al.

Aside from all that, I also believe that our higher selves determine what kind of incarnation we are going to have. They make contracts with other "higher selves" to help give a particular type of experience. This does not mean that we do not have free will or choice. We have choices in how to react to certain experiences. But have you noticed that when your reaction tends to be more negative, or you don't resolve the problems that arise from an experience, that experience tends to repeat itself? Basically We (we is capitalized as I'm referring to our higher We or self, the divine self) determine what our life experiences will be. Then we (our consensual reality self) have free will in navigating through these experiences.

But what this ideology does for me, is helps me to reconcile why terrible things happen to people. If you think about it, if I decide I need to experience being murdered so that I can have more respect for life and its experiences. That I want to learn how to truly live with humility, respect for life, and how not to suffer, the best way to do that is to experience something so horrible that you would be shocked into learning. So if I set this experience up for myself, I need a conspirator. I need someone to murder my consensual reality self. So someone will sacrifice that particular incarnation to agree to murder me. Or perhaps being the murderer will create the experience they need for the lesson they need to learn.

In any case, I believe that no matter what happens, life unfolds perfectly. And the explanation of a higher self as I gave above allows me to believe this in totality.

Love and Light,

Andy

[quote="Thaak"]Great topic caterpiller!

Thank you, Andy! This Q has been plaguing me for a while!

We all have "higher selves" that are much more aware of the truth of all things than our conscious bodies that rely on consensual reality for perception.We become closer to our "higher selves" when we can remove ourselves from consensual reality. This is essentially what shaman do.

OK, How do we do the 'removing thing' that you suggest?
Does it not take a while? Don't you have to be practicing something?
Do you need guidance for that? How does one recognise the 'Higher self'? Is it hard to do?

I constantly hear 3 versions of the higher self.
1. People like Frank Arjave Petter don't believe in one,
2. People like Tolle simplify it and say TaDa, here it is! Like the explanation I gave above.
3. While People like the Shamans and from ancient texts and You, give us an intimidating route to the elusive Higher self. It feels like I have to cross 1000 moutains and 1000 valleys on a donkey!

They step outside of time/consensual reality and live or exist in both worlds. The ability to do this, and to maintain a singular existence with the divine "all that is", is what gives them the ability to accomplish the legendary feats of our worlds mystics: bilocation, teleportation, remote viewing, spontaneous healing, et. al.

STOP,
How can 9 syllables in between quotation marks give me so much grief?
(Hey, We need a head banging on the wall emoticon, Please!)
I look at the words, "all that is" and I want to scream! so simple even 4 year old can read, I read it but I don't understand.

I've been eyeing the shaman dudes, they seem to rock it all!...like they seem to DO more than just heal..
(Memo to myself :- Need to check them out..)

Aside from all that, I also believe that our higher selves determine what kind of incarnation we are going to have. They make contracts with other "higher selves" to help give a particular type of experience.

Yes, I have come across this explanation before. This assumes life after death and in a process after death, when this contract action takes place.
Beliefs in Karma & predestination, Predictable Future...can also can be weaved into that,
Sure, I can accept that as an explanation,

So does that mean that when one is alive, it is hard to recognise the higher self?
Actually Why do we need to be in touch with our higher self. Let the dude do it's job!

But what this ideology does for me, is helps me to reconcile why terrible things happen to people.

Oh God, Yes!
I cannot take it when terrible things happen to people and it makes me angry and frustrated to this day.. I am sure for most people. ....and this is the only explanation available for now!

Yeah, I hear the example you gave me. Makes sense to me. I have learnt this before and it pacifies me, helps me rationalize why things happen when they do. I am glad to hear it again from you, my lessons were wearing off.

The dang lessons come back again & again until we learn, don't we..
( Psst.. Where do these teachings come from? )

In any case, I believe that no matter what happens, life unfolds perfectly. And the explanation of a higher self as I gave above allows me to believe this in totality.

Life unfolds perfectly?
Hmmm....
Not for me yet, Got ta have my 60% Kona+ 40%Columbian coffee first,
Then may be I'll agree with you.

Thanks for the Brain Food, L & L to you too!


@QQQQQQQQQ0

Ultimately, I have had the same questions you have now. And the answer I keep getting back intuitively and through my shaman teacher, is that you just keep practicing.

Much like weight lifting. You just practice and the "muscles" of your spiritual powers will become stronger.

And how do you know when you've removed yourself? If you have to ask the question, you haven't.

What do you do? Well my teacher says that all you need to do is meditate and create a period of time (20 minutes) a day, where you focus on silence of mind. If you can reach true silence, you will eventually start to feel the ecstasy and joy of oneness.

"all that is" yes, that troubling small simple phrase that means much much more than most three word phrases could ever mean. I've elaborated a bit on other threads, but essentially, "all that is" is the universe. God. Or whatever your term for God happens to be. ULE, Goddess, Allah, Spirit, Creator, et. al. If this creation energy is part of everything, then we are all part of it. It is within us all the time. When you remove yourself from dualistic thinking (it is separate from me, and I need to find a way to connect with it to feel its power) and realize that we are actually all one, then you can start to merge your consciousness into the one.

That can be done through the simple 20 minutes a day meditation I suggested above. Any meditation could work as well.

For the moments that you realize your oneness, then you have stepped outside of time and consensual reality. There are a few people who live in this place or moment. The rest of us just keep having to practice until that one day when the brief fleeting moments of joy become longer and longer until we can call upon it at will, indeed live in that moment.

It isn't hard work. It isn't difficult to do the practice. The difficult thing is allowing yourself to surrender to the practice. That is something that I still struggle with.

Much like weight lifting. You just practice and the "muscles" of your spiritual powers will become stronger.

What do you do? Well my teacher says that all you need to do is meditate and create a period of time (20 minutes) a day, where you focus on silence of mind. If you can reach true silence, you will eventually start to feel the ecstasy and joy of oneness.

For the moments that you realize your oneness, then you have stepped outside of time and consensual reality. There are a few people who live in this place or moment. The rest of us just keep having to practice until that one day when the brief fleeting moments of joy become longer and longer until we can call upon it at will, indeed live in that moment.

It isn't hard work. It isn't difficult to do the practice. The difficult thing is allowing yourself to surrender to the practice. That is something that I still struggle with.

Dear 'Handy man' , I mean, Andy!!!

I am officially saving and printing this reply for future reference, THANK you so much for the uber cool reply!
Now,
I got a KR question, can you 'fix' it for me?
it'll be under 'kundalini cleansing' topic, Please & Thank you,

@QQQQQQQQ0

namaste,

a glimpse of the higher self is attained when you are one with yourself, looking inwards. it is a trance like state while doing reiki or meditation. for us mortals it does not last long. may be a few seconds to a few minutes. ancient saints etc could be in this state for hours.

now if there is a higher self then there is a lower self and i think we are the middle self. a combination of the good and the bad ?????? any comments on this ????/or should we start a new topic on the different types of selves.

renu

renukakkar wrote:namaste,

a glimpse of the higher self is attained when you are one with yourself, looking inwards. it is a trance like state while doing reiki or meditation. for us mortals it does not last long. may be a few seconds to a few minutes. ancient saints etc could be in this state for hours.

now if there is a higher self then there is a lower self and i think we are the middle self. a combination of the good and the bad ?????? any comments on this ????/or should we start a new topic on the different types of selves.

renu

I don't look at the lower self as bad (or the higher self as good actually.)

Freud defined the psyche in Id, Ego, and Super Ego. The Ego is our conscious reality. The Super Ego is the subconscious higher functions and mental processes. The Id is the instinctual preternatural part of our subconscious.

I liken our selves to those. The middle self (Ego) is our conscious soul. The higher self (Super Ego) is the consciousness that exists outside of consensual reality. The lower self (Id) is our primal self. Emotion, instinct, reaction without thought. It is only through our lower self that we can connect with our higher self.

I would like to acheive 20 minutes
of silence in my busy head. I have yet to
acheive 5 minutes of un-interupted meditation.
If folks want to try meditation start off with
a simple task of a minute then continue to reach
a goal of say 20 minutes, a time that i have not
reached. I keep chasing thoughts away that enter
my meditation time

according to the late J. Murphy Ph.D D.D....

The subconcious mind cannot reason like your conscious
mind. The subconscious mind does not have the ability
to argue /dispute what it is told . If you give it wrong
info,it will accept it.

We all have thoughts and beliefs that control what
happens in our lives. visualization and the Reiki
system are part of those subconscious moments. I
believe that to reach our higher self we need to
understand, how the conscious /subconscious work
& react to our power of suggestion.

JUICY INFOs!!

thehungrycaterpillar wrote:JUICY INFOs!!

Nice avatar. have you settled on this one?

Nice avatar. have you settled on this one?

ROFL!

Thanks,
No, Not yet!!
But I do like the flowers...

[quote="thehungrycaterpillar"]

Thaak wrote:Great topic caterpiller!

Thank you, Andy! This Q has been plaguing me for a while!

<snip>

But what this ideology does for me, is helps me to reconcile why terrible things happen to people.

Oh God, Yes!
I cannot take it when terrible things happen to people and it makes me angry and frustrated to this day.. I am sure for most people. ....and this is the only explanation available for now!

<snip>

In any case, I believe that no matter what happens, life unfolds perfectly. And the explanation of a higher self as I gave above allows me to believe this in totality.

Life unfolds perfectly?
Hmmm....
Not for me yet, Got ta have my 60% Kona+ 40%Columbian coffee first,
Then may be I'll agree with you.

Thanks for the Brain Food, L & L to you too!


@QQQQQQQQQ0

Let's have some logic here, please. How can life unfold perfectly, and at the same time, good/bad things happen?

IMHO, there is no such thing as bad or good. Everything simply is what it is. And yes, life unfolds perfectly (there is no perfect or imperfect), because it is what it is.

There is no "you" and "me". Or to put it more clearly, the concepts (generated by your brain) of "you" and "me" that we like to identify with are just that, simply concepts. There is only Consciousness. All the rest is mental artifact. Consciousness does not judge.

In light of all the above, "I" would have to say, no, there is no higher self or lower self or middle self or any other self, because there is no "self", period!

Love and Light,

"Garry"

chi_solas wrote: I would like to acheive 20 minutes
of silence in my busy head. I have yet to
acheive 5 minutes of un-interupted meditation.
If folks want to try meditation start off with
a simple task of a minute then continue to reach
a goal of say 20 minutes, a time that i have not
reached. I keep chasing thoughts away that enter
my meditation time

according to the late J. Murphy Ph.D D.D....

The subconcious mind cannot reason like your conscious
mind. The subconscious mind does not have the ability
to argue /dispute what it is told . If you give it wrong
info,it will accept it.

We all have thoughts and beliefs that control what
happens in our lives. visualization and the Reiki
system are part of those subconscious moments. I
believe that to reach our higher self we need to
understand, how the conscious /subconscious work
& react to our power of suggestion.

There's two (at least) ways of meditating: 1) structured meditation 2) unstructured meditation.
When you attempt to do something specific (structured), it's hard for beginners to stay focused for any length of time. Yes, thoughts will enter you mind. But just acknowledge that they're there, and then let them go, returning back to the focus of your meditation. Don't scold yourself. Don't get frustrated. Just continue for the amount of time you have set aside.

To do unstructured meditation. Just sit! Whatever happens, happens for the length of time that you're sitting there. Do this regularly. Sooner or later, without effort, the mud will begin to settle and you will be having a nice meditation. :-)

Love and Light,

Garry

papakeri wrote:
Let's have some logic here, please. How can life unfold perfectly, and at the same time, good/bad things happen?

IMHO, there is no such thing as bad or good. Everything simply is what it is. And yes, life unfolds perfectly (there is no perfect or imperfect), because it is what it is.

There is no "you" and "me". Or to put it more clearly, the concepts (generated by your brain) of "you" and "me" that we like to identify with are just that, simply concepts. There is only Consciousness. All the rest is mental artifact. Consciousness does not judge.

In light of all the above, "I" would have to say, no, there is no higher self or lower self or middle self or any other self, because there is no "self", period!

Love and Light,

"Garry"

chuckle... at first it looked like you were going to snarkily disagree with me... but then I read further, and it appears you do agree with me on "life unfolding perfectly." Although you are correct, the word perfect has a judgmental connotation.

As for no higher, middle, or lower self?

Well let's examine that. On the surface, we have a consciousness that spans the unseen world, the preternatural world, and the world of consensual reality. Our mind creates these mechanisms so that it can extrapolate its place within its medium. In this case, the medium of consensual reality, our middle self, or ego, must create a mechanism to be an uniqueness within the reality. The same could be said for independent action (not the act of "doing" but rather the independence of an action taking place without thought.) Decisions are made from somewhere in how we will exist within consensual reality. That higher consciousness could be considered our higher self.

But once one realizes that everything is one, and we live in that space or moment of oneness, then the need to define higher, lower, middle self, or for that matter the difference between consensual reality and the unseen worlds, really becomes unimportant.

I suppose it is trying to define oneness to a culture who largely has a separatist mindset. Not easy.

papakeri wrote:

chi_solas wrote: I would like to acheive 20 minutes
of silence in my busy head. I have yet to
acheive 5 minutes of un-interupted meditation.
If folks want to try meditation start off with
a simple task of a minute then continue to reach
a goal of say 20 minutes, a time that i have not
reached. I keep chasing thoughts away that enter
my meditation time

according to the late J. Murphy Ph.D D.D....

The subconcious mind cannot reason like your conscious
mind. The subconscious mind does not have the ability
to argue /dispute what it is told . If you give it wrong
info,it will accept it.

We all have thoughts and beliefs that control what
happens in our lives. visualization and the Reiki
system are part of those subconscious moments. I
believe that to reach our higher self we need to
understand, how the conscious /subconscious work
& react to our power of suggestion.

There's two (at least) ways of meditating: 1) structured meditation 2) unstructured meditation.
When you attempt to do something specific (structured), it's hard for beginners to stay focused for any length of time. Yes, thoughts will enter you mind. But just acknowledge that they're there, and then let them go, returning back to the focus of your meditation. Don't scold yourself. Don't get frustrated. Just continue for the amount of time you have set aside.

To do unstructured meditation. Just sit! Whatever happens, happens for the length of time that you're sitting there. Do this regularly. Sooner or later, without effort, the mud will begin to settle and you will be having a nice meditation. :-)

Love and Light,

Garry

Garry, I'm still working on mindfulness
thanks for reminding me to just sit and
let the mudd settle. with that in mind
I know that, that is just a thought

once upon a time I watched people meditate
they just sat and looked professional. Then
I listened to Jon Kabat Zin talk about how
to meditate. Jon is Professor of Medicine
emeritus at the University of Massachusetts
Medical School,where he created and directed
the world-renowned Stress Reduction Clinic.

"where ever you go there you are"

There's two (at least) ways of meditating: 1) structured meditation 2) unstructured meditation.
When you attempt to do something specific (structured), it's hard for beginners to stay focused for any length of time. Yes, thoughts will enter you mind. But just acknowledge that they're there, and then let them go, returning back to the focus of your meditation. Don't scold yourself. Don't get frustrated. Just continue for the amount of time you have set aside.

To do unstructured meditation. Just sit! Whatever happens, happens for the length of time that you're sitting there. Do this regularly. Sooner or later, without effort, the mud will begin to settle and you will be having a nice meditation. :-)

Sweet!!!

As for no higher, middle, or lower self?

Well let's examine that. ..........

............I suppose it is trying to define oneness to a culture who largely has a separatist mindset. Not easy.

~~~~~signal lost~~~~~~~~~


never mind, This is Ph.d material!

"Higher self" seems be used by some folks
as a buzz word in place of God. "Higher self"
usage has a tone of superiority that can be
intimidating & a put down to those who do not
seek the spiritual realm.

The divine is within us all. The divine perhaps being our higher self?
Accessing it takes concious effort at first. It means shedding the things that hold us back. When we are at one with ourselves thoughts of higher, lower or anything in the middle self need not concern us, we just are.

Hiya mate,
You've hit on something i've been thinking about for a few days now. If we look to our 'higher self' for things and disregard our everyday self, are we not saying that we are fragmented/not as one, and more importantly, we're actually continuing to feed this seperation by excluding our everyday self, and just going by what our 'higher self' says?

Take care
Wayne

chi_solas wrote:"Higher self" seems be used by some folks
as a buzz word in place of God. "Higher self"
usage has a tone of superiority that can be
intimidating & a put down to those who do not
seek the spiritual realm.

Agree with you hear. I don't like the term myself, though do use it to easily describe something i'm speaking about.

With Reiki, what i've saw has happened, is that somehow folks have equated the 'higher self' to be an aspect that's in charge, or at least, ought to be. With the term 'lower self' by implication, seems somehow irrelevant.

Well, next time i feel like a Coors, on a hot day like this, i don't care what my higher self wants, i'll stil drink it, and it's goooooooooood. hehe, .

Take care
Wayne

Milarepa wrote:Hiya mate,
You've hit on something i've been thinking about for a few days now. If we look to our 'higher self' for things and disregard our everyday self, are we not saying that we are fragmented/not as one, and more importantly, we're actually continuing to feed this seperation by excluding our everyday self, and just going by what our 'higher self' says?

Take care
Wayne

I think you have expressed it well there Wayne and IMO spot on.

Anybody knows where the concept of higher self originated ? (whether you believe it or not)
I know ancient Indian texts like the Upanishads talked about them.

Hey Wayne, aren't you a J.K fan??? What does he say???
E.Tolle explains the concept in his own way. I know Frank Arjava Petter doesn't even believe in one.

I still think it is not a religious concept more like a philosophical and spiritual concept and I am curious because it is described differently by different belief systems...
Hmmm...nice research topic!

I am assuming Dr.Usui and Mrs.Takata didn't care for it either? I think the Kundalini people ( those who have activated it or working on it) believe in them a lot..

I am going to see if I can get some material either 'for' or 'against' !




(watch me use these smilies to death!)

chi_solas wrote:"Higher self" seems be used by some folks
as a buzz word in place of God. "Higher self"
usage has a tone of superiority that can be
intimidating & a put down to those who do not
seek the spiritual realm.

Yeah, I think so, they do use it like a buzz word...

But,

I wonder if they are misinterpreting the concept!? ...and using it in a wrong context?
I find it interesting and challenging...
I am goin' digging.........

Folks, I am going to start asking people from different religions and backgrounds to see what the 'sam heck' this HS is all about!

(ok, what smiley have I not used yet??)
let's see...

&

( I shall find or invent reasons to use these guys!!)
Muha..hahaa....haa!