Spiritual Awakening: Growing Out of the Darkness© Dick Rauscher June 2004

INTRODUCTION
There are many philosophers, writers, theologians, sociologists, and spiritual teachers who believe that through the growing global information network called the internet, we are witnessing a global awakening of human consciousness. As these neural connections grow in number and in their ability to transfer information between individuals of different cultures, religions, and ethnic backgrounds, this neural network looks more and more like a global mind. Teilhard deChardin calls this the emerging noosphere.

This global awakening in human consciousness is evident in the growing number of people around the world who are demonstrating for human rights, the cessation of war and military force to solve world problems, the need to control population growth and eliminate world hunger, the dangers of global warming, the growing extinction of plant and animal species, the uncontrolled use of limited fossil fuels and other natural resources, the looming global shortages in fresh water, and the growing gaps between the rich and the poor.

The human species is indeed beginning to wake up but we are running out of time. We must learn to think differently, and we must learn how to do that very quickly. We no longer have the luxury of hitting the snooze button and getting another fifteen minutes of sleep. The problems we are awakening to are too dangerous to ignore. Each of the issues listed above represent a growing threat to the survival of our world as we know it. It’s not a case of if they will become a crisis, it’s only a matter of when. Their combined impact on the fragile global economy will be significant if not catastrophic.

Fortunately, we can learn to think differently.

AWAKENING
There are currently two significant academic disciplines capable of offering the concepts and insights required for this transformation or awakening of human consciousness.

The first is the study of human psychology. Researchers in the field of human development and psychotherapy have made great advancements in both our understanding of the reactive primitive ego residing in every person, and in the psychological skills required for humanity to mature emotionally and evolve into a more conscious and compassionate species. The basic principles of good mental health need to be taught in our schools so that the next generation of children grows up knowing more of the skills required to build a cooperative, compassionate global community.

The second field of study is that of spirituality. I am not referring to religion and theology. Religions relate to specific faith beliefs and often reflect a significant example of the primitive ego’s rigid thinking process. Spirituality is the life supporting part of all religions regardless of their particular theological beliefs, and it is the essential ability to love unconditionally inherent in every human being. Spirituality is awareness and our ability to pay attention to the experience of life itself; not knowing religious doctrines about it. It is knowing what we need, not what we want.

Both of these disciplines have the ability to teach us how to pay attention, how to awaken to reality and live fully in the present moment with what is. They teach us how to become self-aware; how to explore the beam in our own eye before we worry about the speck in our neighbors.

We do not awaken and become self-aware until we have learned how to transcend beyond the primitive ego of the inner child. We do not become spiritual until we accomplish the transformation of the primitive ego of the inner child into that of a mature, awakened adult. The primitive ego is not capable of an authentic spirituality.

AWAKENING THE PRIMITIVE EGO
The primitive ego of the inner child is essentially a non-spiritual being capable of manifesting a “conditional” pseudo-spirituality, but only when others agree with its beliefs. The primitive ego is a unique, independent, solitary self that identifies itself essentially as simply a physical body limited to its five senses.

The primitive ego has virtually no self awareness, no sense of purpose beyond “self”, and lives by the motto of “do unto others before they do it unto you”. Archie Bunker is the archetype of the primitive ego.

We develop an authentic spiritually only when we have achieved a level of self-awareness that allows us to awaken from the rigid, black and white darkness of our infantile narcissism and move into the diversity and “not- knowing” maturity of the middlepath ; consciously embracing the unity, the oneness, and the mystery of the invisible dimensions of reality. Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, and Gandhi are all archetypes of the awakened ego.

In psychological terms, the unconscious template or hard wiring for the operating system of the inner child’s primitive ego is the schizoid-paranoid position of early infancy; a stage that is never permanently transcended (Melanie Klein 1892-1960).

In this first stage of human development the infant learns to split the world into good and bad, employs the psychological survival mechanism of projection, and relates to self and others as part objects.

According to Klein, the infant ego is driven by primitive phantasies and fears of vulnerability which result in a primitive survival of the fittest mentality; a need for power and control. To achieve a feeling of safety and control, the infant splits the world into pleasure and pain, retains the safe/good/pleasure, and projects the dangerous/bad/pain into the world/mother. The template for all further cognitive and emotional development is now in place.

For the next 7 to 8 years, the primitive ego of the developing child continues to mature, but it lives in a place of relative darkness consumed by deep anxieties that come from the infant’s fear of powerlessness and vulnerability.

The primitive ego is reactive to anything or anyone it perceives to be threatening. It creates unending conflict by continuing to split the world into good and bad, projecting the bad into others, and then, through the process of projective identification, it becomes critical and judgmental of those bad parts of itself that it is projecting into the other. Its spirituality is a pseudo-spirituality based on a “conditional” love.

Over time, as a child grows and matures, it slowly develops the ability to reduce splitting, experience self and others as whole objects, and significantly moderate the unconscious tendency to project unwanted aspects of the self into others. In other words, the child learns how to own its own feelings and begins to develop an authentic spirituality grounded in a less “conditional” love.

As I have worked to develop the Primitive Ego Theory of Human Development over the last twenty years, it has been my experience that very few individuals seem able to mature in consciousness beyond the primitive ego of the inner child; that most adult humans are simply children living in adult bodies.

Because I believe that the future evolution of the human species will not happen biologically, but rather through the conscious evolution of our reflexive consciousness. I am very optimistic about the human species’ ability to awaken and mature emotionally, cognitively and spiritually.

There are many modern theorists such as Erik Erickson, Elliot Teriels, Carol Gilligan, Edward deBono, as well as the actual spiritual experience of countless enlightened spiritual teachers and mystics throughout human history, that indeed support and affirm the ability of the human species to mature and grow in consciousness and self-awareness.

Specifically, I believe that Jean Piaget’s well known Theory of Human Development, and Kohlberg’s Theory of Human Moral Development are two of the more important developmental theories that clearly illustrate and support the premise that human cognitive, moral, and social consciousness is a developmental learning process available to anyone interested in growing in self-awareness and spirituality.

Unfortunately, at this point in the evolution of human consciousness, very few individuals have fully awaken and achieved a sustained level of human development beyond that of the primitive ego of the inner child. A sustained, authentic spirituality based on a deep self-awareness is very rare.

Without growth in self awareness there can be no authentic spiritual growth.

In other words, because the primitive ego has very low self awareness, most humans, regardless of how “religious” they claim to be, are literally unable to manifest a sustained or authentic, spiritual consciousness.

Philosopher Ken Wilber believes that most of the current “spiritual growth movement” does not represent an authentic spirituality; it is simply our culture’s worship of individualism reflected in the area of spirituality. This individualistic spirituality has resulted in a random collection of individual spiritual experiences; each one claiming to possess deep spiritual insights.

In other words, we have lost the spiritual grounding that comes when basic spiritual principles are openly accepted and honored by the larger community.

To create a compassionate global community will require a global spirituality that transcends the local tribal mentality of our current world religions. An authentic global spirituality must represent the local tribal beliefs of all our current world religions, but at the same time it will need to reflect the spiritual consciousness, dreams, and goals of the larger global human community.

To accomplish this goal, an effective global spirituality must be based not on specific local religious beliefs, but on an overarching, universally accepted set of basic principles, skills, and mature thought processes required to build any cooperative community.

AUTHENTIC SPIRITUAL GROWTH
As the shamans and mystical teachers of every religion have taught for thousands of years, authentic spiritual growth is the result of growth in self awareness. When one begins to grow in self-awareness, that person is said to have awakened. Awakening therefore is simply the ability to pay attention to our beliefs, our opinions, our prejudices, our behaviors, our assumption, our tendency to split the world into good and bad, our tendency to project the bad, our need to be in control, and most of all, our never ending need to be right.

If it is possible for us to awaken and grow in self-awareness into a sustained authentic spiritual consciousness:

• Why are most of us still operating out of the primitive ego of our inner child?

• Why do some individuals awaken and others don’t?

• What is different between a person who has awakened and one who hasn’t?

• What are the spiritual “signs” that indicate an individual has truly awakened?

The questions above are obviously too complex to cover adequately in this short newsletter article, but let me offer some thoughts and insights emerging from my years as a psychotherapist working on the Primitive Ego Theory of Human Development.

A conscious awakening from the unconscious primitive ego is a specific, measurable, observable event; a definable moment in the life of any individual. It is the moment we begin to pay attention to what we have known to be true for a long time.

In other words, awakening is typically preceded by a growing awareness that there has to be more to life than money, achievement, power, success, possessions, and control; a realization that all of the possessions that we have worked so hard to achieve are not bringing happiness or meaning to our lives. There is often a growing realization that we feel personally isolated and lonely; that we live our lives surrounded by other people, yet we do not feel connected.

Awakening is almost always marked by a growing realization that we do not, and cannot, control the world around us, that we do not have answers to even some of the simplest questions of life, and that our lives are exhaustingly busy and overwhelmingly complex.

We become aware that much of our life has been spent totally unaware of the “now”; asleep to the present moment, lost in regrets and guilt from the past that we cannot go back and change, and consumed by fear and worry about a future that rarely seems to actually happen. There is often a deep sadness or grief over all the years that we were not present and involved in the day to day events of our life; a sense that we “missed” them; an awareness that we have lost our grounding in life.

As these feeling begin to emerge in our consciousness, we are presented with an important choice. Do we stay awake and continue to pay attention, or do we become overwhelmed by the feelings and go back to sleep.

Unfortunately, most people give up hope at this moment and go back to sleep; helplessly mired in the swamp of depression as their primitive ego struggles once again with the self-esteem destroying illusion of a self-perfection that is somehow attained only by working harder. Unfortunately, some choose to move into addictions and despair; into a hopelessness that slowly drains away their spirit.

For a few however, this becomes a moment of true awakening. Despite significant feelings of anxiety and depression, they report feeling called by a deeper wisdom that compels them to face reality; an awareness that they have come to a point where they can no longer ignore the painful realities of their lives. They are no longer willing to let their lives be run by their primitive ego; essentially the emotional and cognitive mind of a child in second grade.

These awakened persons say that when we are able to accept and fully embrace these painful realities and still continue paying attention to them regardless of the grief and despair we may be feeling, there will be a profound moment of transformation, a “felt shift” in the way one sees the world. They describe it as a sense of awakening; a sense of emerging from a long sleep. They are no longer simply an ego in a physical body limited to only five senses. They are now able to embrace the mystery, the not knowing of life. They become the listening observers of life. They begin to pay attention, and become self-aware at a depth they never knew even existed.

Some individuals report this as a single moment of transformation; as suddenly having a profound sense of awakening. Others report it to be a much slower process; that even though they were not aware of an awakening at any single moment in time, they did become aware over time that they had indeed somehow awakened to a new awareness of reality. This latter experience seems to be the more common experience of personal transformation and awakening.

MANIFESTATIONS OF AN AWAKENED CONSCIOUSNESS
Regardless of how a person experiences the moment of transformation from unconscious primitive ego to an awakened consciousness, what begins to be manifested into the world from that moment, the signs that demonstrate that a person has truly awakened, will be the same for every individual regardless of faith or religious beliefs; including those persons who believe themselves to be non-religious, or non-spiritual.

The awakened person has begun a spiritual journey into self-awareness; a lifetime journey into the authentic spirituality of “not-knowing”. The primitive ego’s conditional love based on rigid beliefs and absolute truth has been left behind.

In other words, rigid beliefs or a claim to possess the absolute truth on any subject is conclusive proof that a person is still working out of his or her primitive ego and has not yet awakened spiritually. As a result, they are still projecting criticism and judgment, and continuing to create conflict in the world.

When rigid beliefs and absolute truth are abandoned, the awakened person will begin to manifest compassion, cooperation, and unconditional love. The life denying criticism, judgment, and conflict created by the conditional love of absolute truth will begin to diminish. These are the gifts of spiritual awakening that spiritual teachers like Jesus and Buddha talked about.

But spiritual teachers and human development people both warn that there is a powerful reality that must be understood. The conditional love and judgmentalness of the primitive ego does not suddenly disappear at the moment of spiritual awakening.

Just because a person has awakened, it does not mean that there will be a sudden flowering of authentic spirituality and unconditional love. It does not mean that the primitive ego has gone away. The primitive ego is the ego of the inner child; it is simply old brain. Until a person gets a lobotomy, the primitive ego of old brain will always be present and eager to run our lives.

As the mystic Anthony DeMello reminds us, “anyone can wake up, it’s learning how to stay awake that is difficult”. The conditional love and judgmentalness of the primitive ego will begin to diminish only when the high level of self-awareness described above has been achieved.

Awakening is only the first step.

The mystics remind us that a person who claims to “know him/herself” is usually a very shallow person. The deep self-awareness that leads one into a sustained, authentic spirituality capable of manifesting unconditional love requires a lifetime of self-discernment, meditation, contemplation, and self-attention.

SUMMARY
To briefly summarize, for a person to grow spiritually they must first awaken and grow in self-awareness, but spiritual awakening is only the first step toward ego maturity and an authentic spirituality. In other words, any growth in self-awareness is authentic spiritual growth, but to transcend the primitive ego and achieve a sustained, authentic spirituality requires a deep level of self-awareness.

The skills required to grow in self-awareness come most clearly from modern teachers of human development, and from insights offered by the spiritual teachers and mystics of every religion since the birth of human consciousness.

Since spiritual growth requires growth in self-awareness, and since the ultimate goal of authentic spiritual growth is to reach enlightenment and live in the present moment fully aware of what is, then the evolutionary goal of human consciousness is simply to achieve a level of self-awareness that will result in an enlightened, unconditionally loving, compassionate global community.

Awakening and growth in self-awareness are clearly the most important tasks facing humanity in the 21st century, and we are running out of time to deal with the growing crisis’ of a human culture that insists on using the thinking process of an unawakened primitive ego.

The primitive ego of an enlightened person does not somehow disappear during the journey to enlightenment, the enlightened person simply no longer has a significant relationship with the ego; the ego no longer matters. The essential self is no longer identified with ego, the self is now pure consciousness simply in co-creative unity or at oneness with the Consciousness of the universe.

Spirituality is life affirming, the primitive ego is life denying. The only question that matters to one who has awakened to a sustained authentic spirituality is “what difference does my spirituality make to the poorest, most powerless, unimpowered person or creature on the planet?” What difference does my awakening make to the evolution of the human species and the generations of life yet to be born on this tiny living planet?

These are the questions that more and more people are asking themselves as they awaken from their sleep.

PERSONAL COMMENTS:

For those of you who are counting, you already know the April and May issues of the Stonyhill Newsletter never made it to the publisher.

Between cabin fever, my mother breaking her second hip in two months, preparing for a spiritual growth workshop that ended up getting cancelled, and a wonderful two week vacation on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, the Newsletter ended up on the back burner.

On the positive side, I had eight weeks to think about the Primitive Ego Theory of Human Development and time to develop several conceptual models that will be used in upcoming Newsletter articles.

These visual models will help to clarify the role of the primitive ego and illustrate more clearly how humans mature through a process of authentic spiritual growth toward maturity and enlightenment.

In this issue of the Newsletter I will be discussing the subject of spiritual awakening; what it is and what it isn’t. The article will help you determine whether you personally have experienced an authentic spiritual awakening by identifying several specific developmental markers.

The article and the spiritual practice of the month will both offer insights on how to remain awake if you have already experienced a spiritual awakening.

As I remind my readers each month, I look forward to your comments and thoughts as I attempt to clarify the Primitive Ego Theory of Human Development© in articles published in this Newsletter.

Several readers have asked if I could add more footnotes in the feature articles. I tend to think very conceptually so the early roots of the ideas presented in the Newsletter feature articles and the articles published on the Stonyhill web site are not always clear in my mind.

However, I understand the importance of citing my sources, so when I can, I will increase the use of footnotes in my articles. I will also make certain that the bibliography on the Stonyhill web cite (www.stonyhill.com/Stonyhill Institute.htm) is kept current for those of you looking for additional reading material.

The feature article in Issue #7 contained an Addendum A that illustrated the contrast between a religious institution created by primitive egos and one created by enlightened egos. Many readers missed the reference and the link that automatically took you to the Addendum A. If you’re interested in reading Addendum A, a copy of Issue #7 can be found on the Stonyhill Institute web cite (www.stonyhill.com).

Both clergy and mental health readers commented that they found the Addendum A a helpful illustration toward understanding the thinking process of the primitive ego in both themselves and their parishioners/clients.

Thanks for your patience during my recent disassociation. It feels good to be back at the computer and writing again……..and digging in the dirt planting flowers and pulling weeds. That sounds like a metaphor for life doesn’t it!

Namaste
Dick Rauscher

Spiritual Practice of the Month:

Spiritual practices are simply exercises we incorporate into our day to day life to tame our primitive egos. Our primitive ego is primarily concerned with success, attention, being right, insisting on the illusion that it is a separate and independent “ self”, defending its many black and white beliefs, and avoiding the pain of criticism. As such, our primitive ego is a very poor listener; nor is it in the moment with the other person.

When we are working out of our primitive ego, we often find ourselves caught in a duel-ogue rather than a dialogue when speaking with others. We spend most of our “listening time” preparing what we are going to say next, getting ready to defend our beliefs, and yea-butting what we perceive to be criticism.

GOALS OF THE STONYHILL NEWSLETTER

We live in a world filled with conflict and violence. Everyone agrees that something has to change.

At Stonyhill, we believe it makes no sense to espouse the values and morality of peace while continuing to use the primitive paradigm of vertical power called survival of the fittest; a paradigm of violence and domination.

We must learn how the unconscious judgments of the primitive ego bring the seeds of conflict and a sense of “otherness” into the world. If our personal goal is to do no harm to others or the world, then our thinking must become more conscious.

We will become what we think about, thus we must learn to think differently because authentic spiritual growth is achieved only when we grow in self-awareness. Traditional mainline religions are based on primitive tribal consciousness; they are not currently structured to offer effective global solutions to the challenges facing us in the 21st century. We must learn to develop a global spirituality.

Stonyhill is an educational Institute dedicated to exploring, writing, and offering workshops on the integration of modern psychological insights with the ecumenical spiritual wisdom of the mystics. We embrace and teach middlepath spiritual disciplines, middlepath consciousness, and a middlepath spirituality.

The middlepath is simply a place of ego emptiness; a place of not knowing…….a place where the awesome diversity and complexity of wholeness are embraced….…a place where the love and compassion of Jesus, Buddha and all the great spiritual teachers of history are encountered.

We will evolve as humans only as we become self-aware and increase our ability to love. Building a compassionate global community is the most important goal of human consciousness in the 21st century. A compassionate global spirituality is no longer just an interesting philosophic idea; the future of the human species may very well depend upon our ability to create it. The danger that we could destroy ourselves as a species has never been greater.

The Stonyhill newsletter is written each month for counselors, therapists, clergy, and individuals interested in spiritual growth and the formation of a non-violent global community through growth in human consciousness.

Welcome.

Stonyhill Institute of Spirituality and Psychotherapy
235 Italy Hill Turnpike
Naples, N.Y. 14512
Phone: 585-781-4000
Web: www.stonyhill.com
E-mail: Rausch3333@Stonyhill.com
Copyright© Dick Rauscher 2003

QUOTES

Rushing from task to task, responsibility to responsibility is inherently destructive to spiritual growth. To grow spiritually we must increase the silence in our lives. Silence flows into our lives when we simplify our lives and slow down. Simplicity does not mean selling our possessions and living the life of the aesthetic. It simply means learning to focus on one thing at a time, developing the skill of carefully listening to others and not interrupting them, and taking large blocks of time to simply sit and be in the moment.
Dick Rauscher

We are being integrated into one interactive, inter-feeling body by the same force of evolution that drew atom to atom and cell to cell. Every tendency in us toward greater wholeness, unity, and connectedness is reinforced by nature’s tendency toward holism. Integration is inherent in the process of evolution.
Barbara Marx Hubbard

The mystics, and now the quantum physicists, are stating that there is no other-ness in the universe, only unity, and unity is simply any pair of opposites. In other words to walk the middle path of unity and avoid other-ness we need to carefully define the extreme black and white ideas and beliefs of any issue. If we embrace the ideas or beliefs on only one side of the issue, and ignore the ideas and beliefs on other side, the mystics warn us that we will create pain, suffering and violence. They remind us that since all things are created by God, there is truth in all things. Thus to have Truth on any issue requires that we embrace the ideas and beliefs found on both sides of any issue. This is called, learning to walk the middle path. It is important to note that compassion, peace, happiness, and love are found only on the middle path.
Dick Rauscher

There is no solitude without silence. True, silence is sometimes the absence of speech---but it is always the act of listening.
Catherine de Hueck Doherty

Upcoming Spiritual Growth Workshops:

The spiritual growth workshop “Creative Relationships: The Heart of Spiritual Practice” will be offered at the Bath UMC on September 12th and 13th. This spiritual growth workshop will be facilitated by Dick Rauscher and will focus on our ability to be more gentle and caring in relationship with others. Participants will explore why so many relationships end in conflict, and they will learn the essential spiritual practices that must be a part of their lives and their relationships with others if they want to increase happiness in their lives. All spiritual growth is a growth in self-awareness. The power of a creative human relationship is it’s ability to help us become more self-aware.

This workshop is appropriate for family relationships, marriage partners, pre-marital partners, church family members, business colleagues, parents, or any persons wanting to improve their communication and their relationship skills with others.

Comments from participants of previous Stonyhill workshops:

• “Words seem to fall short to express how deeply this material resonates. I’m just grateful for this entire experience.”

• “It was in simple, clear presentation. It shows such understanding of people!”

• “Presentation was delivered in a manner and at a speed that could be easily digested. Time and attention was given to questions and interpretations without criticism.”

• “You have a real gift of opening things up for people to look at in a totally different light. You have the ability to describe traits of individuals and use your teachings to benefit people in both their relationships and personal lives.”

An application for this workshop can be downloaded from the website or by calling 585-781-4000. This workshop will be limited to 30 people so be sure to apply early.

Visit the STONYHILL INSTITUTE ARTICLES for additional articles on the integration of spirituality and psychotherapy.

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