Sense-of-identity subsystem

Remember that any state of consciousness is a system the parts interact with each other to form a particular pattern. Thus, changes in other subsystems that might not be directly involved in one of the four psi transmission routes we have examined may still have important effects on psi functions. Consider, for instance, the functioning of our Sense of Identity subsystem. We all possess a variety of identities that change rapidly with various situations and emotions, but when a particular identity is functioning, it tends to organize the rest of our mental functioning into a consistent pattern. 

On the other hand, consider the case of many psychics, who do have a socially acceptable (within a subculture) role of being psychic. Regardless of whether or not they deliberately enter a d-ASC, under the appropriate circumstances, they take on the role of psychic, and the Sense of Identity subsystem tends to maximize those functions of consciousness that fit into the role of psychic and enhance psi functioning. We can, in a... 

This automatic response to suggestion affects your Sense of identity subsystem. Ordinarily it is your own "voice" inside you that tells you to do a thing that you then do. Now the hypnotist s voice takes over this role, and your sense of self begins to include the hypnotist. The special modulation from this subsystem that constitutes the ego sense (discussed later) is added to the stimuli that would ordinarily be perceived as the voice of an outsider. Psychoanalysts call this the transference element of hypnosis, especially when some of the transference involves parental transferences onto the hypnotist. The deliberate or implicit encouragement of identification with the hypnotist s voice is an application of patterning forces. 

Much of the functioning of the Sense of identity subsystem (discussed later) occurs via the Memory subsystem. You sense of who you are is closely related to the possession of certain memories, if the "this is a memory" quality is eliminated from those memories so that they become just data, you sense of identity can be strongly affected. 

The primary function of the Sense of identity subsystem is to attach a "This is me" quality to certain aspects of experience, to certain information in consciousness, and thus to create the sense of an ego. Presumably semipermanent structures exist incorporating criteria for what the "This is me" quality should be attached to. However, the functioning of the Sense of identity subsystem varies so greatly, even in the ordinary d-SoC, that I emphasize the extra informational aspects of the "This is me" quality rather than the structures underlying it. 

Another major function of the Sense of identity subsystem is the exact opposite of its usual function a denial of the sense of self to certain structures. Because certain of our personal characteristics and mind structures are considered undesirable and/or evoke unpleasant emotions in us, we create blocks and defenses against perceiving them as parts of ourselves. Many of these interdicted structures are culturally determined, many are specific products of personal developmental history and are not widely shared in the culture. So we deny that we have certain characteristics or we project them on to others I am not quarrelsome, he is ... 

These large shifts in ego sense in d-ASCs may later modify the ordinary d-SoC functioning of the Sense of identity subsystem, when things you firmly identify with in the ordinary d-SoC are experienced in a d-ASC as detached from you, your conviction of their permanence is undermined and remains so when you resume your ordinary d-SoC. You are then receptive to other possibilities. 

Finally, because of its enormous ability to control emotional and attention/awareness energy, the Sense of identity subsystem can at times constellate the entire structure of consciousness about particular identity patterns, just as can archetypes (in the Jungian sense) arising from the Collective unconscious can. 

Fourth, a person s identification is ordinarily very high, complete, with each of these identity states. He projects the feeling of "i" onto it (the Sense of identity subsystem function discussed in Chapter 8). This, coupled with the culturally instilled need to believe that he is a single personality, causes him to gloss over distinctions. Thus he says, "I am angry," "I am sad," rather than, "A state of... 

An identity state is a specialized version of the ordinary d-SoC, a structure acceptable to consensus reality (ignoring obviously pathological identity states). The extrainformational "This is me" quality from the Sense of identity subsystem added to certain contents/structures constellates the energies of consciousness around them and produces an identity, a rolef21 that a person partially or completely identified with for the time. The identity "eats energy."... 

In analyzing the nature of altered states of consciousness some years ago, including ordinary functioning in our ordinary state, I designated one of the components or subsystems of consciousness as the Sense of Identity subsystem. 

A classical technique in the spiritual psychologies for escaping from samsara is the cultivation of nonattachment, learning to "look neutrally" on whatever happens, learning to pay full attention to stimuli and reactions but not to identify with them. The identification process, the quality added by the operation of the Sense of Identity subsystem discussed in Chapter 8, adds a great deal of energy to any... 

Another major function of the Sense of Identity subsystem is the exact opposite of its usual function a denial of the sense of self to certain structures. Because certain of our personal charac-... 

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