The 3 Selves

The idea of the three selves encompasses many explanations for our consciousness. One psychologist said that when we are born, the mind is a tabula rasa (a blank slate). That is right; the conscious have racial memory, like a group consciousness or great unconscious. That is right; that is the basic self. Others say that we have total knowledge and awareness. They are also right; that is the high self.

There are three levels of consciousness that are part of our make-up: the high self, the conscious self, and the basic self. Here are brief descriptions of each:

The conscious self makes the conscious choices, gets up in the morning, drives the car to work, watches television, studies the reports, talks to friends, and so on. It is the part of you reading these words.

The basic self has responsibility for bodily functions, maintains habits and the psychic centers of the physical body, and handles prayers from the conscious to the high self. Much like a four or five-year-old child, it tries to assert its desires and wishes upon the conscious self.

The high self functions as the spiritual guardian, directing the conscious self towards those experiences that will be for its greatest good. It has knowledge of the life destiny agreed upon before embodiment and attempts to fulfill it.

The Conscious Self

The conscious self is the “captain of the ship and can ignore or override both the basic self and the high self. This conscious aspect is the one most apt to get caught up in the illusions of the imagination, mind, and emotions and the glamour of the physical world, thus creating situations that may delay the Soul’s evolvement. The conscious self usually functions out of the mouth, and to direct the conscious self, all we often need to do is keep the mouth shut.

When a human consciousness inflicts itself upon another human consciousness—when it creates harm, hurt, pain, etc., through physical action, thought patterns, verbal expressions, dishonesty, deceit, financial fraud, emotional control patterns, or any other way—it is held accountable for that and will be given the opportunity to clear the action and bring it into balance.

No one has the right to harm or hurt another in any way, and when that happens, the action must be balanced. It is the law of cause and effect: if you cause imbalance, the effect is that the imbalance is returned to you as its creator, and you get to make right. This, in essence, is the action of karma. It is a just and fair action, and it is the creation of karmic situations that institutes the action of reincarnation.

The Basic Self

You may know there is another level within you that you may have a hard time explaining in words but that you can get very involved with. For example, you might find yourself picking up something that you do not want or need and putting it in your pocket. Why did you take it? Or you may “put your foot in your mouth” or lose your temper and then wonder, “Why on earth did I do that?” Many of these things come from below the conscious level, which is the level of the basic self. You could relate it to an animal instinct or to the areas of memory, habits, or emotions. The basic self is all of these things and more.

The basic self will act primarily to preserve the body. It will resist anything that will harm or hurt the body or that will cause destruction to itself. As an energy form, it is physically located in the stomach area. This can be the butterflies or knots in the stomach, the hurt and depression. It can also be the excitement, fun, and enthusiasm.

The basic self can be masculine or feminine, and you can also have more than one basic self. For example, a woman can have a female and/or male basic self, and the same is true for a man.

The term “inner child” is used a lot but it is not the same as the basic self. The inner child is more of a psychological description and is often used to refer to a person when they were a child. For example, people speak of “healing the inner child,” which usually means healing memories of experiences a person had as a child.

The High Self

The high self can be from any of the lower realms (astral, causal, mental, or etheric), and its physical location is usually about six to eight inches above the person’s head. The high self can also be masculine or feminine. For the most part, the high self will act in the best interests of the Soul’s progression and evolvement, and it will direct the human consciousness into those experiences it needs for its education.

The high self expresses the feelings of great inspiration and lofty ideals; it can create the desire in you to lift mankind in your arms and save everyone. Those moments when you see everything in the world in love, beauty, and harmony, those moments when everything is right and perfect, come out of the high self. Your will and the Father’s will are one, but it is really that you are following the direction of your high self and fulfilling your destiny here on the planet.

Working with the Three Selves

When a child is conceived, the basic self enters and starts making the child’s body in the mother’s womb. The high self, conscious self, and Soul hover around the mother, and the Soul and conscious self generally enter the child’s body when the child takes its first breath. Both the basic self and high self still know the person’s karmic plan at that time.

Then, when the child is around seven to eight years of age, the “veil of forgetfulness” for the basic self falls. From this point on, the basic self no longer has a complete working memory of the life plan, and the high self carries it. The plan is still with the basic but is dormant, and the basic self depends on the conscious self to direct it. It can get upset, feel hurt, betrayed, let down, and confused or can bring disease to the physical body if the conscious self does not communicate with it and direct it.

The relationship between the basic and conscious selves can be delicate. The basic can run things if the conscious self relinquishes responsibility. For example, the basic self can steal and make the conscious self feel guilty. Then if the conscious self represses this, this repressed energy can become a block between the high self and the conscious self. Because the high self is usually the communicator with Soul, the person may be blocking himself or herself from God.

The key thing to remember about the basic self is that it needs good, loving guidance. Have you ever walked around hand in hand with a little child? If you let go of them, they are kind of lost, and they come back and grab your hand. Basic selves function like that. They come back and grab your hand. They want to be more counseled, more guided, to have more direction. They want to be close and feel like you are there. If you do not do that with your basic self by giving it good, clean, clear direction, nurturing, and holding, it will start to look to somebody else for it. Then you may look at yourself and say, “I have a lousy life, I need a relationship,” because your basic self is out looking around, but it cannot find anything because it does not have the ability to recognise it when it sees it.

Connect with the basic self. Keep talking to it, praising it, and loving it. If it does something wrong, you say, “That wasn’t on target. Let’s just do that once more.” And the basic says, “Wow! Watch me, watch me!” and it hits the target. If you then say, “Well, you’re supposed to hit the target,” that is not what the basic wants. Instead, you say, “Wow! You hit the target! Great shot! And now we have to have more great shots.” You give it a vision. But if you move off that first target to another one, you have to tell the basic self, “I’m going to move off that target to this other one.” If you do not tell it—if you do not continually give the basic self clear direction—you will be moving someplace else, and it will still be back with the first one, and then both of them can get messed up.

The basic self loves to do and complete. So if you say you are going to do a certain thing (read a book, go back to school, balance your checkbook, travel in Europe, etc.) and then do not do it, the basic self still has energy tied up in that thing. So you need to say clearly and specifically that you are done with it if you are not going to do it. Broken agreements can be a big block between the conscious self and basic self and can undermine that relationship; then the basic may feel betrayed, confused, or let down, and you may not have all the support you need to accomplish things in your life. So be loving, clear, and responsible about what you say and do.

Alignment

You want to come into alignment – basic self, conscious self, high self. And your purpose is spiritual: how to get more of your Soul awareness functioning as you, instead of your ego functioning as you. This is something you discover just by living.