What is the Ego?

This term ‘Ego’, is one of the most commonly used terms in Spirituality and Psychology along with other heavy hitters such as Self, Synchronicity and Spirit but what does it actually refer to? There are so many contexts in which it can be used, so where do where start? 

In the most general sense, it is a functional seemingly solid 'sense of Self' constructed by a rapid series of  thoughts, symbols and ideas which give the illusion of a me, an I. Like an old slide projector in which "the real man is a series of momentary men" each one different from the other, seemingly bound yet split into segments, or "now points." Each segment being reinvented and relabeled as our sense of identity evolves. 

This being said, if someone asks you to "show me your 'Ego', your 'I'..." you will probably point to the 3 pound lump of tufu in the middle of our skull, or begin to talk about your memories of who you are or your role in society as a parent, a daughter, a child or a business man or an athlete. Yet do these roles reveal your true Identity? Ask yourself a few questions, and pause after each one;

"If you are who you think you are, then who are you when you are not thinking about yourself?"

If who you are what is in your mind, then what are you when you are in a deep state of dreamless sleep?

"If I am I because I am I, 

and you are you because you are you, 

then I am I and you are you. 

But if I am I because you are you 

and you are you because I am I, 

then I am not I and you are not you!"

If you are your body, then who are you if you loose all your limbs?

Feeling confused... or feeling a strange sense of spaciousness? don't worry, we can play with word symbols all day and still come no closer to pinning down exactly what "you" are, and if anyone tells you they can, then they are even more confused than a baby in front of a mirror. Below I have provided a few short contextually flexible ideas referring to this symbol known as the “Ego”. Enjoy yourSelf hehe.

A Latin word literally meaning “I”

“The MENTAL REALM split into BELIEVING and DESIRING”. 

- Bertrand Russell (The Analysis of Mind)

"The Ego is a conditioned repetitive moment. It is all that is made up in the mind.” 

 - Alan Watts

“The ego is nothing but a resistance to what is”

 - Adyashanti

The Self (atta) is a wave

Not Self (anatta) is the ocean.

Conditioned Consciousness

Self Consciousness

The illusory Sense of Self

Social Identity, “Me”, “I”

The Illusion of Separateness.

The misplacement of our centre in outward objects (materialism, spirituality, religion, family, social identities)

A filtering system for your senses. 

“The Ego is Electromagnetic energy + kinetic energy”

Our Ego is made up of our;

• Judgments
• Opinions
• Beliefs
• Ideas
• Perceptions

It is strengthened by Fear and perpetuated by development of;

• Ignorance
• Greed
• Hatred

“What is meant when we say the word “I”? It is myself, my personality or my “Ego”. What is it? It is your image of yourself. Its composed of your learned experience, what people have told you that you are. Its an idea, its your thought about your Self. An organism doesn't exist as an isolated thing anymore than a flower does not exist without the dirt from which it arises. In this way we are not separate from the vast social environment in which we have grown.”

- Adyashanti

“Nothing in the structure of thought is ultimately true. This doesn’t mean its not useful it is a tool, a wonderfully useful tool however it has usurped reality and created its own reality. We find our self image within this “Ego”, within our thoughts.”

- Adyashanti

Tat Tvam Asi (That art Thou)

Sat Chit Ananda (Truth, Knowledge, Bliss)

Philosophy noun (the 'I') (in metaphysics) 

The subject or object of self-consciousness; the ego. 

(My commentary on the above...How can the ‘I’ be a noun? A noun is solid, fixed and when it comes down to it, people aren’t fixed...) 

Psychology (Freudian) 

The part of the mind that mediates between the conscious and the unconscious and is responsible for reality testing and a sense of personal identity.” It is the The seat of reason, judgement and “common sense”.

Dream Poems

with a large bird

above me

i am walking

in the sky

i entrust

myself

to one wind

my feathers

sailing on the breeze

honouring your brave men

like them

believing in myself

i am like the spirit

waiting

in my lodge

making me very old

     
~ Native American Wisdom  from the Anishinaabeg people ~


Photo: Michael Nau

Meditation and the Brain

"As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives."

 

                                                                  ~ Henry David Thoreau

Right now we find ourselves at a particularly prescient moment in the fields of medicine and psychology. A ‘tipping point’ instigated by the collision of the paradigms of Western science and Eastern mysticism.  Through this contemporary convergence of contemplative practices and neuroscience, scientists have been attempting to discover the complex mechanisms by which our brains can influence our biology. This has led to huge advances in our understanding of the effect that behavioral or 'mental interventions' can have upon the body. These studies of mind-body relations are no longer pseudo scientific ideals being espoused by alternative health care practitioners but are now becoming widely accepted in the mainstream scientific community. This field of study is known specifically as Contemplative Neuroscience and focuses on the physical and psychological changes in brain function and structure that are induced by contemplative practices such as Meditation and Yoga. Contemplative neuroscience is predicated by the large body of literature on Neuroplasticity. The term neuroplasticity refers to the ability of the brain to make changes in itself. It maintains that, “the brain is the key organ which is built to change in response to experience”. In this essay I will provide some brief examples of the many studies which have shown that contemplative practices can induce changes which endure our cognitive and emotional habits as well as the physical makeup of the brain. 

In 2007 a study called "Mindfulness meditation reveals distinct neural modes of self-reference" by a Norman Farb and his team at the University of Toronto broke new ground in our understanding of mindfulness from a scientific perspective. Through the study they were able to distinguish two distinct pathways within the brain, the Narrative Network and the Direct Experience network. The narrative network is the network involved in planning, daydreaming and ruminating, (basically when you are thinking about yourself and other people). This network is active during most of our waking moments and uses areas of the brain such as the Medial Prefrontal Cortex, along with memory regions such as the Hippocampus. They found that these regions were distinctly different from the areas of the brain which are activated under the Direct Experience Network, the network involved when you are not thinking intently about the past or future, other people, or yourself. Rather, you are experiencing information coming into your senses in present time. They noticed that areas such as the Insula (the only region in the brain which is specifically linked to the peripheral organs) and the Anterior Cingulate Cortex (which is a region central to switching your attention), were more active during periods of meditation. The Farb study showed us that there is a whole other way of experiencing experience and since then a series of other studies have found that these two circuits, Narrative and Direct Experience are seminal in our understandings of the effects of behavior upon the brain. 

Exponents of Buddhism have long considered that the brain and the heart are inextricably connected and that the heart is the source of the generation of compassion in the body. Richard J Davidson, professor of Psychiatry and Psychology at the University of Wisconsin Madison, is a multi award winning scientists and avid spiritual seeker who has been conducting extensive research on this brain / heart connection since the mid Nineties. He believes that; “There is no more effective way to produce specific changes in the brain than behavioral or mental interventions”. It seems the 14^th Dalai Lama also regards the importance of this research as he has supplied about a dozen Tibetan Buddhist monks to Dr Davidson and his team for extensive clinical research since 1996. The results of one particular study concluded that in the course of meditating for tens of thousands of hours, the monks had actually altered the structure and function of their brains. (Davidson, R.J. & Harrington A.) In a striking difference between expert and novice meditation practitioners, the former showed a dramatic increase in high frequency or Gamma waves in areas of the brain such as the the Insula and Right TPJ (which are both involved in the generation of compassion and regulation of emotions). The changes in the Insula were also strongly mirrored by cardiac changes which suggests that that is an important link between ‘neuro-cardiac coupling’ and meditation. Not only does this supply us with a model for a future alliance between Buddhism and science but also provides the scientific community with more incentive to regard studies of consciousness and meditation in a different light. 

Examples of how meditation as influences psychological changes are most notable in research conducted with chronically depressed patients where an 8 Week Mindfulness Based Therapy program (MBCT) of 2.5hrs a week proved to offer protection against  relapse/recurrence equal with that of antidepressant drugs.  (Segal ZV, et al. 2010)  

As noted earlier, the brain circuits transformed by meditation play a key role in not only changing our psychological perspectives but also positively affecting the body’s peripheral biological systems. In an 8-week Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBCT) program carried out in a work environment on twenty five healthy employees, the researchers found that brain activity was altered and the level of change in brain activity predicted the level of increase in antibody response to an influenza vaccine. (Davidson RJ, Kabat-Zinn J, Schumacher J, et al, 2003). 


In a similar study MBCT was used to buffer the effects of psychological stress on the development of inflammation in the skin (Rosenkranz et al, 2003) Both these studies suggest that meditation can reduce stress induced immune responses and in effect have a significant impact upon our ability to recover from illnesses. 

The integrative convergence of ancient contemplative practices and neuroscience has opened up entrance for a new  paradigm to enter into the last refuges of our inner selves. The field of psychology seems to sit in this liminal space, while it is pulled into the mystery beyond the doorway of passage it is almost equally drawn the other way by the laws of old an Newtonian / Cartesian philosophy. In order for the current Western medical/ psychiatric model to make the next necessary leap into a new era it is important that we honor the synchronicity we are discovering in both overlapping fields and adopt a more integrative, humanistic angle in treating disease. The critical time is now. It is no longer necessary to define illness within the atomistic categories of pathology but to think in terms of the unique processes of the individual person. At the same time as we move forward, it is essential that studies of spiritual experience can incorporate rigorous scientific method so as to help the wider biomedical and psychological community understand and appreciate the importance of including spiritual qualities in medical care. It is my hope that through incorporating the mind back into medicine we may take more responsibility for our own health, and be lead further away from the pharmaceutical dependence in which our health care system currently resides.

Annotated Reference List

1. R.J Davidson. A. Lutz. “Buddha’s Brain: Neuroplasticity and Meditation” IEEE Signal Processing Magazine Jan 2008

2. Davidson, R.J. & Harrington, A. (Eds.). (2001). “Visions of compassion: Western scientists and Tibetan Buddhists examine human nature”. Oxford: Oxford Press.

3. Segal ZV, et al. (2010). Meditation As Good As Medication? Arch Gen Psychiatry, 67(12):1256–64.

4. Davidson RJ, Kabat-Zinn J, Schumacher J, et al. Alterations in brain and immune function produced by mindfulness meditation. Psychosom Med. 2003;65(4):564-570.

5. Rosenkranz, M. A., Jackson, D. C., Dalton, K. M., Dolski, I., Ryff, C. D., Singer, B. H.,

Muller, D., Kalin, N. H., & Davidson, R. J. (2003). “Affective style and in vivo

immune response: neurobehavioral mechanisms.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 100 (19), 11148-11152.

Benefits of Meditation

• Decreases stress related cortisol (Tang et al.2007)

• Strengthens the immune system (Davidson et al. 2003; Tang et al. 2007)

• Helps a variety of medical conditions, including cardiovascular disease, asthma, type 2 diabetes, PMS, and chronic pain (Walsh and Shapiro 2006)

• Helps numerous psychological conditions, including insomnia, anxiety, phobias and eating disorders (Walsh and Shapiro 2006, Evans et al, 2008, Schreiner & Malcolm, 2008)

• Research conducted with chronically depressed patients where an 8 Week Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy program (MBCT) of 2.5hrs a week proved to offer protection against relapse/recurrence equal with that of antidepressant drugs. (Segal ZV, et al. 2010)  

• Young people in need (children and youth involved with child protection and/or mental health systems) can benefit from mindfulness practices as it helps with emotional regulation and social coping skills that can improve aspects of their self-awareness, self-esteem, and resilience. (Coholic, Diana A. 2011)

• Herbert Benson M.D, director of the Mind/Body Centre at Harvard University, has shown through extensive studies of the physiology of Mediator's, decreases in heart rate, breathing rate, metabolism and blood lactate level, and demonstrated that their blood pressure is lower than the “normal” population.

• Increases activation of left frontal regions which in effect lifts mood (Davidosn 2004)

• Increases grey matter in the insula (Holzel et al. 2008; Lazar et al.2005), hippocampus, (Luders et al. 2009) and prefrontal cortex (Lazar et al. 2005) reduces cortical thinning due to aging in prefrontal regions (Lazar et al. 2008) improves psychological functions associated with these regions, including attention (Carter et al. 2005, Tang et al. 2007), compassion, (Lutz, Brefczynski-Lewis et al. 2008) and empathy (Lazar et al. 2005)

• Reduces stress induced immune response and in effect greatly increases our ability to recover from illness. In an 8-week (MBCT) program carried out in a work environment on twenty five healthy employees. The researchers found that brain activity was altered and the level of change in brain activity predicted the level of increase in antibody responses to an influenza vaccine. (Davidson RJ, Kabat-Zinn J, Schumacher J, et al, 2003).  In a similar study MBCT was used to buffer the effects of psychological stress on the development of inflammation in the skin (Rosenkranz et al, 2003)
• Another small, cross-sectional study (Evans et al. 2008) reported a significant decrease in anxiety and depressive symptoms in participants who completed an eight-week group course of MBCT.  

• An Australian study conducted in 2006 (Schreiner & Malcolm, 2008 ) involved a ten-week mindfulness meditation course. The findings suggested a significant decrease in anxiety, depression and stress. The decreases were more pronounced in those with severe rather than those with moderate symptoms. 

Photo:aloshbennet