The Soul, The Negative Ego, and Group Consciousness

Unlike the negative ego, the soul is not interested in exploiting other people for individual gain. Its agenda is not limited to the desires of the personality. It does not want to shine by shaming someone else. Its true interest lies in uplifting everyone so that we all might benefit. The soul’s strategy is strongly focused on establishing group consciousness. Its game plan is straightforward. If we play together, we win together. If we heal together, we can change the world.

The Soul’s Plan

We cooperate with our soul’s plan when we clear our karma and open the necessary space in our system for the soul to come forward and shine in our life. The soul is the door to unconditional love. Whenever unconditional love is present, everyone feels whole, uplifted, and em- powered, the equal of everyone else in the group. Love is inclusive. Love makes winners of us all. Love changes the world.

The Negative Ego’s Plan

The negative ego’s game plan is quite different. Its strategies are divisive and center on this timeworn theme: If I win, you lose, and if you lose, then I get to feel better, bigger, and more important than you. The negative ego’s game is devoid of unconditional love. It is full of hostil- ity and exploitative maneuvers whose sole intention is to fulfill its desires, often shaming and humiliating other people for its own gains. The negative ego wants to dominate everyone and be at the top of the heap. It mistakenly thinks it can substitute “being on top” for being whole and fulfilled. What the negative ego fails to recognize is that being on top does not automatically make you whole, happy, or fulfilled. What you were before you got to the top of the heap, you will be after you get there. Power, wealth, and notoriety are not the antidote for having an empty core.

The Soul and the Long-term

The soul knows that it has had previous incarnations and may well have future ones. It knows that we come here, time and time again, until we learn the lessons that we must and transform the toxic energies we carry in our body into a clear and vibrant light. The soul’s concern is for the long-term: Will what we do in this lifetime advance our long- term growth or hinder it?

Helping other people helps our growth. Kindness, forgiveness, and a generous spirit count. These qualities accelerate our growth and help us transmute whatever rage, resentment, and hatred we may experience within ourselves or encounter from others. Being stuck in negative emotion separates us from our soul, encumbers our progress, and holds us back.

The Negative Ego and the Short-term

Unlike the soul, the negative ego’s concern is for the short-term, this lifetime. It has a short-term focus because that’s all it thinks it has, one lifetime to get what it craves and then the grave. It wants to get everything it can in almost any way it can. It is ruled by desire and greed. It functions in ignorance of the Law of Consequence and has little, if any, consideration for the long-term repercussions of its actions. If death is the end of everything, thinks the negative ego, then what possible further consequences could there be for what I have done?

Ignorance however, is not a shield and will not protect the negative ego from the long-term consequences of its actions. Sooner or later those consequences will come home to roost. We never outwit or outrun the Law of Consequences.

Unlike the spirit which lives in clarity and peace, the negative ego lives in constant worry. Because it feels separate and alone, fear is never far away. It is the first emotion the negative ego feels when it faces the unknown. The spirit, on the other hand, has a conscious realization of its own eternal continuity. It is centered in the Divine light. The real challenge of life is to find that center.