Therefore we can say the false personality hijacks aspects of the mind for its own purposes, always to perpetuate itself. Self Importance then runs the show. Let us review the concept of self Importance for a moment. At first it may not seem obvious how the false personality is the same as self importance but in fact they are the same. False personality or ego is determined to survive at all costs and sees itself as in danger and separate from every other thing in the universe. It functions according to fight or flight and is strongly identified with the human body that it feels it must control or die trying. It is immensely fearful and terrified of losing itself in the boundary less essence of the Tao or All that Is.  The false personality is capable of banding together temporarily with others for group self-preservation. It can identify with tribes, factions, self interest groups, organizations, corporations, nation states, religious affiliations and the like as group survival identities. However in the end it is by definition disloyal and untrustworthy and it will turn on a dime if it believes its personal survival is threatened. In a word, you can never ever trust it and it will gladly kill you in the service of trying to preserve itself just like the Aids virus kills its host.

The term Self Importance, used by shamans refers to that part of people that is focused on self-preservation and disconnected with the larger universe. It refers to selfishness, greed, arrogance, self-centeredness, preoccupation with self worth, being special, being OK, fitting in or not, being weird, and anything about self that focuses attention myopically instead of on the big picture.  Self importance includes self attack, self criticism, feelings of unworthiness, self destructiveness, victimization, guilt, envy, jealousy, self loathing, calls for attention, and anything that causes the person to focus on their own personality identity instead of Spirit. Shamans consider these things to be self-important and those in the know understand that such activity is catastrophic to freedom and personal power.

This preoccupation with self importance run by the false personality uses the mind to perpetuate painful dramatic scenarios about winning and losing, conflict, suffering, illness, death, attacks by negative spirits, threats and the like. The natural conclusion of all this mind activity is that the universe is a very dangerous place where one must defend their tiny territory at all costs or risk total loss. This has led to endless efforts to pile up wealth, physical power and strength, influence, and control over as many others as possible. In the more insane delusions it has led to people actually believing they could take all their mundane supplies into the life beyond death where they could enjoy eternity with their gold, servants, virgins, armies, and power.

Shamans and mystics correctly identified that this preoccupation with self-importance was forever a booby prize, a false treasure that produced no power or freedom at all in the long run. They were more interested in the lasting and true power associated with freedom and they correctly realized that this could be had only by letting go of the values of the false personality. They knew then that the ultimate battle would be fought with self importance and that it would be a worthy opponent indeed because it would masquerade as themselves hiding as their own identity much as the HIV virus has done in recent times. They also understood that true power could only come from associating with the most powerful force in all the universes, the Great Spirit in all its manifestations.

Now I mentioned earlier that the false personality is perfectly capable of hijacking the mind for its own purposes in order to make and project delusional realities filled with isolation, conflict, and megalomania. These delusions are perpetuated by all the people who fall under the spell of the false personalities’ self importance and who begin to hatch their own fearful dreams in sync with it. Recall that this is the same tool that Spirit uses to create light and connection.

Now when a person is under the spell of self-importance, the world they live in is a world projected by it, a scary and dangerous place where they can be truly victimized because that is the name of the game in that universe.  There is fear, depression, anxiety, stress, disease, death, and suffering. Sounds pleasant doesn’t it? Yet this is the world most people opt for most of the time.

When a person wakes up from that delusion and begins to experience the world projected by Spirit, it is a dramatically different place even though it may look physically similar for the time being until that too vanishes. In fact it is safe, beautiful, filled with love, radiating with light, and a place where healing is instantaneous.

Now lest you think that there are dual universes or that dualism is the nature of things, let’s clarify this. There is only one true essence of all that is and that is Spirit. However there appear to be other universes run by false personality but these are of course, false or, in other words, not real. The true universe is non-dual or only one, the false universes vanish like darkness that vanishes when you turn the light switch on. They only seem to be so. Shamans and mystics know this so they don’t take what is false very seriously. In fact they can often be seen to chuckle at things that cause distress for others making them appear sacrilegious.

The task of a shaman is to have a foot in both worlds, The world of Spirit and the false worlds of self importance.  They need to be able to move back and forth between them at will so that the shaman can be of service to those lost in the nightmare. They use helping spirits or tutelary spirits to assist them in their task of translating the powers of the Spirit universe into healing the disease orientation of the self-importance universe. The ultimate effect of this work is to render null the latter’s influences and restore wholeness and unification from the former. The only danger for the shaman is the risk of falling into delusion during the process and becoming sedated and entranced by all the myriad seductions of self-importance and its distractions, all low frequency phenomena. This can and does happen causing shamans to fail in their task. The great many conflicts and jealousies between shamans is another distraction of self-importance that can prevent a shaman from performing impeccably. The shaman or mystic must be able to visit the lower frequency universe without actually identifying with it, a worthy task.

Whatever is true for shamans and mystics is true for you as well even though you may not recognize it. When under the influence of self-importance your world is dangerous and you are terribly vulnerable to the menaces you have produced through your own thinking processes. Worry, anxiety, discouragement, depression, anger, and all the negative emotions associated with negative thoughts will wreak havoc on your experience by making your worst fears come true. By stepping into another universe, the reality of Spirit, you eliminate all dangers and negative results because you are instantly taken care of by the power of spirit. That is how it works.

The challenge is this. How do you move from one universe to the other with ease? Most efforts to do so fail because when you are in the low frequency universe of self importance it is difficult to work up enough juice to get yourself over to the other high frequency one. It is as if you were drugged and trying to drive your car; hard to do. When you feel discouraged, depressed, and anxious you are not exactly in a favorable position to shift gears. In fact you are more inclined to move even further under the control of self-importance, something that takes advantage of your plight and says. “ Aha, it is no use. You are screwed forever so you better listen to me. I can get you where you want to go. Work up a little more hate, anger, and so on and you will come out on top of those bastards keeping you down. Kill them and you will win.” Of course this is guaranteed to sink you deeper in the muck.

So what you need is a portal, a wormhole to get you through to the other universe where your techniques are likely to work fabulously. These are a series of shamanic steps to get you there. 

The steps

1. First you need to correctly identify the world you are in. You need to know beyond the shadow of a doubt that when you are feeling badly you are in the booby prize universe run by the bad guys manipulating you into feeding them more food. This would be the universe of self-importance.

2. Step back and say, “This is not really me and it is not true of who I am and what I want. In fact it does not really exist.” In a word you dis-identify with it.

3. You need to state unequivocally to self importance “You have no power over me.” You are refusing to give power to the universe made by self-importance and it begins to lose its influence immediately.

 
4. Next discover your neutrality. You need to find some compassion for yourself and forgive yourself for having made and then gotten lost in this world of self-importance. As the I Ching says, “No blame.” In other words you step back from the separation inducing practice of judging yourself. A sense of calmness and relief begins to take over.

5. Now call in a powerful helping Spirit. This can be a great master such as the Buddha, Jesus, Yogananda, Milarepa, Mama Cuna, Quan Yin, or whomever you wish to help you. It may also be a helping spirit in the form of a totem animal or plant spirit as long as it is one that works as a messenger for Spirit on a regular basis for you and for many. Thank this spirit for coming even though you may not be sure it is there and tell this spirit your dilemma or what you need help with. Then state unequivocally that you trust it will help you to move to the universe being created by Spirit. Don’t be hyper vigilant looking for signs it is working. You will receive some help no matter what.

6. If you seem to be struggling with a seeming impossible problem that you have not been able to solve then create a mental altar dedicated to Spirit. An altar is a portal into another universe, the infinity of the Spirit world. An altar is also a symbol and projection of the heart. It is a portable center of the universe, where you can do powerful work. You place your impossible problem on the altar and sacrifice it, that is, give it to Spirit to solve, eliminate, or dissolve. You may ask your helping spirit to act as a messenger carrying this situation to the altar and then to Spirit. Visualize this strongly. Wash your hands of it there and then.

7. Next focus on the portal of your heart and feel the shift. Focus on gratitude for the help you are getting.

8. Now by this time you should be feeling a slightly or greatly different frequency as the case may be. You are no longer in the universe of the false personality and self-importance. Look around. The world may look the same but you will feel differently. In the shaman or mystics’ world you have actually shifted from one universe to another. Your intellect will argue with this saying that all you have done is felt a little better but be careful because that perspective is really the false personality trying to retake the ground it has just lost, a last desperate attempt to take control. Ignore it.

9. Now apply any techniques you have learned to help you make further gains. Use self-hypnosis, meditation, concentration, visualization, and you will be much more effective than trying to do these things in the other low frequency universe.

Now I realize this may sound like wishful thinking or self-delusion to think you have changed universes. What is a good upstanding rational citizen like you doing thinking these crazy notions? Have you lost your mind or gone soft in the head? Hopefully you have, because whatever you were doing that was so rational before didn’t work out so well did it? Are you really willing to argue a case that usually meets with failure with the successful experiences of the most powerful shamans and mystics of all time? You are of course free to do so but you might just be willing to entertain that you do change universes and change them all the time as the physicists are now suggesting. As your mind focuses on something, instantly the particles of the universe line up to create that very thing. When you take your mind off it, it becomes just a possibility, a wave if you will. Are you really that powerful that you can create whole universes? Shamanically speaking the answer is “Absolutely!” Can you use that power to make yourself completely miserable a la self-importance? Yes! Would it be better to use that tremendous power to align with even greater power in the universe? That is of course for you alone to answer.

originally posted: 07/02/2007