When the Soul feels curious to understand how the experience in this blue planet works, it must borrow a special suit which is the combination of three bodies: physical, emotional and mental. This human suit resembles an animal’s suit, as they both have a physical body with senses to absorb information from the physical dimension, an emotional body with polarity in order to discern between the dangerous and the reliable, and a mental body to save the information perceived through the physical and emotional bodies. This information is classified in categories inside the mind: pain and pleasure, fear and security, good and bad. The only difference between the animal and the human body is that humans have a more developed neocortex. The neocortex is the top layer of the cerebral hemispheres, and because it is more developed in humans, it allows the Soul to be aware. This gives the Soul the freedom to choose between sleeping –which means identifying with the material, the emotions and the beliefs, or waking up –which means losing the identification with the suit. When the latter is chosen, the Soul starts taking control of the mind in order to turn it off when not needed and on when it is needed. Animals don’t have this freedom, they are subjected to identifying with the suit and to obeying the beliefs stored in their mind. Beliefs that are nothing more than memories lived in the past.
Ask yourself: how many social, cultural and religious beliefs have you stored since the day you were born? And then, add in all the beliefs you have carried with you from your past lives. If you group them together you will know your ego. Your ego is the personality created from the combination of all the beliefs stored in your mind, which –of course –can change over time, transforming your personality in the same way.
Maria and infidelity
In order to understand how beliefs work, let’s suppose that Maria has experienced the suffering of past infidelities. Her mind has only stored information about feeling unloved and betrayed in the sentimental field, and her mental voice reminds her: “all men are unfaithful, men are hurtful, relationships generate suffering”, etc. As a result, fear is always activated as a behavior in her relationships: the same fear a dog feels when it sees the newspaper he’s been beaten with when he pees on the rug.
If, for example, Maria had a boyfriend who actually was faithful, her mind would never understand it. It would go on to say: “if he’s late to pick me up it’s because he is having an affair, if he doesn’t answer the phone it’s because he’s with another woman”, etc. A dog would respond in this same way if its owner decided to use the newspaper to reward him instead of punishing him. For the dog, the newspaper will always mean punishment. It doesn’t matter how much his master tries to teach him that now the newspaper has a positive meaning. For the dog, the newspaper will be a warning sign probably for the rest of its life.
Maria’s ego will behave in a way that follows the beliefs the mind contains. However, these beliefs can be refuted once the Soul takes control through the observation of the mind. This happens upon reflecting on the fact that the Soul is not the mind, and that she has the freedom to turn it off when it isn’t needed to live in the present, or back on when information from the past is needed to make a decision.
The ego is the mind and the Soul is all consciousness. The mind is a computer and the Soul has the option to control it.
The ego was born to survive and to suffer, the Soul, to play and understand.