FromChapter 13: Personal Essence and Object Relations Theory

Weare presenting here a perspective that is supported by a wealth ofexperience—,in fact, by all the spiritual experience of mankind—,that innerintegration can go beyond the mind, and into the realm of Being. Our goal hereis not to demonstrate the truth of this spiritual experience, for this ishumanity's common knowledge, but to demonstrate in detail the relationshipbetween this experience and ego development. The connecting factor is thedevelopment of the Personal Essence, which is both personal and within therealm of Being.

Incontrast, object relations theory utilizes the concept of psychic metabolism,but with a few partial exceptions (such as the work of Michael Balint andFairbairn) restricts its application to the content of the mind. Most writingsindicate that when early experience is metabolized it becomes integrated intothe structure of the ego.

Sincethis field does not include the concept of Being, it does not take intoconsideration what we consider to be the ultimate goal of ego development. Thusego development is seen as occurring in a completely different realm fromspiritual transformation, which is not addressed at all. These assumptions arewhat underly the mistaken belief in the gulf between the man of spirit and theman of the world.

ThePersonal Essence can be seen as the integration or absorption of personalityinto Being, as the synthesis of the man of the world and the man of spirit.However, it is more accurate to see it as the ultimate product of egodevelopment. In other words, ego development and spiritual enlightenment arenot two disjoint processes but parts of the same process. The understanding ofthe Personal Essence shows how they are linked. This point is a radicaldeparture from the understanding of both traditional spiritual teachings andmodern psychology. It unifies these two fields into one field, that of humannature and development.

Toexplore further the consequences of our perspective, we will look more closelyat the process of absorption, expanding our investigation beyond the adult egostates we have so far mainly considered. Our question here will be, what arethe conditions needed for the absorption of ego into Being?

Wehave identified secondary autonomy as one such condition, showing that therelinquishing of the defensive aspect of any ego identity is always only partial.

Wehave also explored how it is possible to go farther, seeing that just beforethe process of absorption begins, the remaining general but subtle defensiveposture of an identification system can dissolve. This indicates that forabsorption to occur the process of secondary autonomy must be complete and notonly relative. Absorption occurs only when personality completely surrendersits defenses. When personality (any identification system of ego) ceases allresistance, it is readily absorbed, and a transformation occurs that ends inthe emergence of the Personal Essence. So the transition from ego to Beinghinges on the abandonment of defense. This mirrors the age-old spiritualunderstanding that surrender leads to enlightenment and realization.

Wehave observed that abandonment of defense can happen at any age, not only inadulthood. This means that the experience of the Personal Essence can occur inchildhood, which we earlier reported having observed. It also explains why someindividuals begin to have memories of it after they recognize it in adulthood.

Ifwe look at the question of absorption from the beginning of ego development,recalling that identification systems arise out of internal representations...