“INTERACTIONS WITH THE HIGHER SELF”.

“…one must surrender consciously to the power of the unconscious, in terms of thinking what one should do or of what is generally thought right, or of what usually happens. One must simply listen in order to learn what the inner totality – the Self – wants one to do here and now in a particular situation.”

Carl Jung Man and His Symbols

This post is by a retired medical doctor in his Blog, Spirit of the Beach. Dr Good is a Follower of mysticexperiences.net

It is an introduction to his interactions, direct personal experiences with what he calls his Higher Self:

“I want to outline how the conversation goes, many will not have had the experience, or at least recognised it when it was there. We can go around life thinking to ourselves and working things out in our minds; will the asking of a question and will an answer as something we construct in our conscious minds. My conversation with my Self is not like that, it is as though it comes from another person, but is heard from within. So it can be shocking, or at least not what was expected. Like someone appearing over your shoulder and saying something into one of your ears. I am often left thinking, well I wouldn’t have thought of that and yet it has come from something deep within me, something I do not have conscious control over. I do have control over how I respond.

“Looking back there was a specific occasion when a voice I now recognised as Self interjected my thoughts. I was in my late twenties living a relatively isolated hard-working life and unsure of my future. I asked myself “What is to become of me?” Wondering how I would end up in middle age. To my surprise, an answer came from inside; “You will become Jesus.” I was shocked and disturbed. Though not being Christian I respected the reverence with which he was held and felt the statement blasphemous, a conceit and inflation and distanced myself from it.

“The first time I intentionally looked for this inner guide was in a meditation in 1990 from a book How to Meditate by John (Jyotish) Novak. I had to make a lifestyle decision without sufficient information. I meditated into silence and stillness, and then asked the question – this or that? The answer came clearly – live here, work there. I followed the advice and it turned out well. There followed other occasions where I found I was in difficulty with a decision and I asked in the same way and got an answer, in the same way, followed it and did not regret the advice.

“From the time of the awakening in the late forties, the questions took an existential turn. Who am I, why am I here, what shall I do? “You are as you are.” “Live your life as an example.” “Grow yourself and grow those you encounter.” and often “Continue as you are.”

“When I was having difficulty keeping my career going from an internal motivation standpoint I remember while walking and wondering “What am I going to do about my career.” an answer came “Leave.” I asked the voice “When.” And it said “Now.” At the time it felt shocking going against the work I had dedicated my life to, and now with a family, and no other career options. I also knew that whether I wanted to or not, it was going to happen and I was going to have to face and do my best with it; I was worried. It took nearly three years before I felt compelled to go. When I was considering returning to work (I was on sick leave) I specifically asked whether I should, the voice said “No. It would be purgatory without purpose.” This I took to mean that the purpose of my life would not be served by returning.

“Later that changed again – “I am here, I am with you,” “I am always with you.” to “We are as one.” A gentle masculine voice.

“That is how the relationship with the quiet inner voice has evolved, some differences, some the same, but for the most part a reflection of where I had been at the time. From answering questions to determining how to be, to the proximity of our relationship.

“Sometimes I ask a question and there is no response. Maybe there is no optimal way for me to go, or I have to decide and take responsibility and make use of any associated learning opportunity. This voice has told me that whatever decision I make they will work with that, which is good to know because it is possible to get paralysed by indecision, especially if one is pursuing perfection.

“There are uncertainties; the Self has different manifestations – Jesus figure – Just a voice – Yahweh and other symbols. Where does Satan fit in? And God? There has always been a concern as to the reliability of the entity on the other side but with care, I have never been let down. Other voices can appear in a similar way, and be disruptive, so I have always been guarded. This has made me wary of seeking advice, and of taking it. The work of ego breakdown, and working with shadow figures and the feminine (discussed through this blog) has cleared the ground between us, making the connection easier and clearer. Still, the above quote by Jung comes for me, with a health warning, to be very wary of handing oneself over.

“Self is a reality to me- but what is the reality? The centre of consciousness of the whole? The locus of a divine spark? My experience of Self is of it as a knowing and intelligence that is far beyond my everyday capacity, even beyond that of the great geniuses of culture. It somehow seems to be tuned in to the world I inhabit, as though it constructs it for me for its own purposes. Is this just a set of neurological circuits in my right hemisphere or elsewhere in my body, or is it something beyond that? I want to live from the place of being the best that I can be with my particular array of human limitations. And in the Self is that place.

“The phases of growth have been described by Carl Jung – moral instruction – shadow absorption / transcending – anima or animus (contrasexual inner feminine and masculine respectively) absorption / transcending – integration with Self and then with God. My experience is that these phases are in general terms going on contemporaneously along the way.

“Not necessarily everyone’s way. I have had a particular practice and a particular starting point that has given me a window into the unconscious. I suspect much of the process goes on unconsciously, under the surface of our awareness, and I fully recognise that this is what could be happening in others in the world, unawares.

“What follows this year are short posts of conversations and experiences, mostly with Self, that I have had over the past several years. I want to bring across the nature of these.”