In The Beginning

Chapter 2 Part 3

Way back when, in the time of Cave Dwelling and dangerous beasts, we Humanoids lived precarious lives. Everyone, and especially those with Hunting or Foraging duties and skills, had to be always fully aware of their surroundings because they were considered prey for tigers, lions, bears or whatever flesh-eating critters were around, not to mention rival tribes spoiling for a fight. To say our very early ancestors were very much in the Now or Present, would be an understatement! At the first sign of any possible danger their Fight or Flight systems would instantly kick in.

For me this is an example of our Ego in action or at least it was back then when our world was just a bit different. The Ego would keep us alive; it would use its inbuilt software, in this case the Fight or Flight System, to warn us of any potential dangers, and we would be instinctively on stand-by to act if necessary. It kept us safe and alive for millions of years and each species of Hominid had the same ‘Protection System’ as the vast majority - if not all - of Nature around them.

Fast forward some six million years plus and our Ego is still trying to do its primary job, to warn and protect us, however there’s less requirement to do so, at least not in normal everyday situations. The problem is, our Ego hasn’t been told to stand down and over all this time it hasn’t been trained in anything else, it’s still on High Alert. So how did we get from accepting our Ego to now rejecting it?

I believe this started when we - as in all or most of Humanity - decided we’d had enough of the nomadic life and chose to stay put and settle down. Now the Ego didn’t have as much to do because, apart from the daily hunt for dinner and gathering the side dishes, the Ego was a bit restricted when it came to sensing any danger and the like.

Later, when Farming became the norm our Ego was all but redundant when it came to protecting or warning us about dangerous animals or marauding tribes. Now the only dangers were rabbits and other creatures eating the crops! Some areas still had wild animals to contend with, just as they do today, and there were still volcanoes and some weather-related landslides or rockfalls to watch out for on occasion but, for the most part, it was cultivated fields and later the forming of communities, villages, towns and cities, nations and empires. 

By this time a new element was added, Fear, or rather the heightened type of Fear, the exaggerated and irrational Fear we see so prevalent today. Our Egos accepted this new version of Fear as it was linked to what it was already doing and reacted accordingly. We, not realising the difference, also started reacting accordingly. We started to develop habits and superstitions based on some real - but minor - experiences and others we made up as we expanded upon and embellished the stories we told around the campfires. This was the equivalent of a kind of Virus, a Malware.

Returning to the computer analogy, every Operating System gets updated from time to time with the latest safety features, new apps, the odd bug fix and so on. Over time the initial Hard drive gets a makeover and upgraded to a newer, better, faster version. Whether Apple, Microsoft or whoever, they all have their updates, usually every few years or so.

Isn’t that a bit like us growing up? When we’re born, we usually have everything we need to survive and thrive at that time although I recognise that it’s not always like that and parenting becomes even tougher as a result.

We breathe, eat and drink, poop and pee, move, test and use our lungs regularly, make sounds which become speech in time and hear, feel, and smell. We are born instantly learning and growing from the get-go, just like a computer hard drive, and we adapt to our surroundings, start to identify sounds and smells as well as senses and feelings, both internal and external.

When our Sight comes online we start to explore our new surroundings more and more, adapting, identifying, learning who’s who, what’s what and so it goes on throughout our formative years, childhood, puberty, adolescence, and adulthood. And all the time our bodies are growing, changing, adapting until the time comes when the aging process slows us down and things stop working so well and, despite the odd repair, eventually stop.

Just like an old computer for which the parts are no longer available or no longer has the capacity to accept new upgrades, we return to where we came from. Therefore, whilst here in this physical environment we are essentially Biological Computerised Life Forms, a higher version of all other Organic Life around us, at least in theory.

What role does our Ego play in this analogy? It’s the Biological Program, the Organic Intelligence that keeps everything running in the background, sorting out the myriads of messages and filing memories we receive from both internal and external sources in our ‘Folders’.

It’s managing the Hard Drive and accessing all the programs needed for the day to day running of all the ancillaries. It’s the Managing Director, the CEO, the President of ‘You Plc’, ‘You Ltd’, ‘You Inc’.

It’s the underlying original program, the Operating System, upon which all other programs are based upon and fitted to. And we haven’t updated it since birth as individuals or collectively since our Species came into existence. Oooh scary, isn’t it?  

This is the equivalent of trying to use a computer which has been loaded with the Windows 95 version of the Operating System to download images, stream videos, open Apps etcetera using modern internet connections: it won’t have the processing speed or capacity to work and would be overloaded and simply crash. Or try downloading today’s version of Social Media onto an early Smartphone and see what happens. Probably very little if anything!

Our Ego is no different. Whereas our brains have been developing nicely and can usually adapt to new features, our Ego needs to learn the new stuff too, but we haven’t been consciously teaching it and that’s where the imbalance kicks in.

For most it’s as if their Ego hasn’t matured, for others it’s stuck in puberty and highly sensitive, and for yet others it’s an unpredictable Wild Child. Yet how often do we hear that we should be in touch with our Inner Wild Child? 

Another analogy of how the Ego is operating in today’s crazy world is a Traffic Management Control Centre who keep an eye on all the main roads using thousands of external CCTV cameras which constantly scan the Motorways and Highways from all sorts of angles for anything which would interrupt the flow of traffic. The Ego is similar in that respect because it’s constantly scanning for danger which, from its perspective with all the excessive fearmongering currently being propagated, is on the increase in this modern way of living. It also scans for opportunities to fulfil our habits, pleasures, thoughts, narratives and more.

Through all that noise it tries to warn us of possible dangers such as that bunch of teenagers looking suspicious over there or the way that person in the pub looked at you as if looking for trouble or helping you avoid obstacles as you bury your face in your phone.

However, unlike the guys in the TMCC who can go home after their shift, your Ego is constantly on High Alert, probably even when you’re asleep! So, the big question has to be: ‘How do we rectify this imbalance?’

By implementing the Gratitude Principles, you will be able to start updating your Ego - retraining it if you like - so that it operates using 21^st century plus ‘software’ and at the same time you will also be learning how to overcome any unwanted habits, traits and other inner conflicts.

We also need to realise that there is no actual separation between us and any other Higher Beings, God, Allah, Shiva, Spirit or whatever, only our thinking makes it seem that way. The truth is we are all One. One Force, One Energy, One Community which we will explore in Chapter 12.

First though we are going on a little trip to early twentieth century Japan to meet the man responsible for introducing Reiki to the world and we’re doing that because the Gratitude Principles have their basis in Mikao Usui’s Reiki Precepts, and it would be remiss of me if I didn’t give him a ‘Shout Out’.

Until Next Time,

Namaste,

Jeremy R Scott