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Jayasree Srivastava's avatar

Thank you for this wonderful essay Veronika. Explorations about what constitutes the self are perhaps the most necessary and fascinating enquiries. I’d like to share a poem I wrote several months ago:

The Elusive Self

Who is it that sees

From behind my eyes?

Who is it that hears

Through my ears?

What is this self

That I cling to so fiercely?

How shall I explore

The boundaries of my being?

My cells containing stardust

Are slightly outnumbered by

Microbes that call my body home

Only because trees breathe out

Is my in-breath made possible

Preoccupied as I am in thoughts

Their origin leaves me confounded

My dreaming avatar seems grand

Living a life utterly unlike mine

And yet I’m dogged by certitude

That I’m defined by this body

To which I attach a name

Tag on parentage and ethnicity

Often describe my personality

In answer to “Who are you?”

Only when touched by moments of grace

Do I notice I am an enwebbed

Assemblage of ecosystems

Where yesterday and tomorrow

Dance on the edges of now.

https://jayasreesrivastava.substack.com/p/the-elusive-self

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Veronika Bond's avatar

Oh, thank you Jayasree, for such a profound, multilayered response. I'm sure Socrates would agree wholeheartedly!

And this poem, which speaks to all three ~ the self, the ego (What is this self

That I cling to so fiercely?) and the alter ego (My dreaming avatar seems grand

Living a life utterly unlike mine) ~ and beyond ✨ 💗🙏

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Deborah Gregory's avatar

Wow, what a fascinating exploration of the self, selves and alter egos! Through my Jungian lens, I whole-heartedly embrace the idea of multiple, archetypal selves and love delving into the many facets of who I am. This newsletter is such an engaging read - blending history, psychology and creativity into a 'story of the self' that feels both fresh and thought-provoking.

I love our synchronicity! Inspired by this and another post I read this morning, I’ve decided to let one of those other ‘selves’ take charge of my writing my next post and bring chaos and creativity beyond my usual introspection. What a great writing prompt I’m thinking! It’s a win win situation, I get to explore my alter ego! Thank you, Veronika – right, I’m off to the Land of Oz!

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Veronika Bond's avatar

Thank you for your Jungian lens, Deborah 🙏 💕

Of course, Carl G.J. was one of the greats who set us off on this path of exploring through the many and mysterious channels of the mind... Thank you Carl 🙏 💕

Ohh, I look forward to meeting your alter ego in the Land of Oz! Have a magical writing adventure 🧚🏽 🪄 ✨

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Love-Eyes SD's avatar

Wow Veronika, your article popped up in my inbox and I couldn't stop reading, although I had other things to do 🤣🙈 Thank you for this wonderful mind,-tickling article. I wonder what Eckart Tolle says about the self, somehow I kept having his voice in my ear while reading 🤣. It's again so obvious how cloaked the meaning of words are in so many ways. Thank you for bringing together all the different teachings, that's so good to see them all in one place. We can only see ourselves with others as mirrors, I agree with that and I think the closest person to being a friend for us is the one who kind of mirrors our soul. I think that's maybe our misunderstanding with the word "selfish" as well, to be a good friend to ourselves is most important, but the word selfish has a bad reputation. People say: Don't be selfish but mean "Do what I want you to do" which actually is true selfishness. 🤣 Thanks for your words!

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Veronika Bond's avatar

Sorry about the distraction 🤭

Eckhart Tolle distinguishes between true and false self. He calls the ego 'false self' and describes the 'true self' as a 'deeper sense of presence' or as an 'awareness through which everything can be known'.

I must admit that in my explorations here I haven't looked at Tolle's work at all, only mention him in passing in part 2. I find his interpretation somewhat lopsided and particularly negative in relation to 'ego' (I think you'll see what I mean in parts 2 and 3)

I like to take in the larger view through the history of the words themselves and try to listen to what they are telling me (filtered through the minds of many).

Thank you for mentioning the word 'selfish' here, for some reason, I haven't focused on that yet, but will see if I can incorporate it in part 3. I think it's an important point you are making 🙏 💕

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Marisol Muñoz-Kiehne's avatar

Anthropocene teems

with selves, selfies it sure seems.

In Symbiocene?

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Veronika Bond's avatar

Great question 💚🙏

symbio-elves and selkies? 🧚🏽

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Philip Harris's avatar

Veronika

Somehow I missed this in early March. Good to read, and the comments.

Proto-German self / pronoun brought some lines of poetry to mind: Ruth in Keats 'Nightingale' and Hardy,s bird in 'Selfsame Song, but I forgot about Shakespeare's Sonnet 15. There are others. A persistent word for a persistent identity, though Hardy of course has to include the long ago mortality of the original singing bird.

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Veronika Bond's avatar

Thank you Philip 💚🦉 🙏

so glad you found it

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Susie Mawhinney's avatar

I am fascinated Veronika, working in an environment daily that is obsessed with self = selfies, as Jamie says, filters free of charge to eradicate all that is considered unwanted/untrendy/unsexy and therefore really not self at all, it is refreshing to be reminded of the origins... of the real self or indeed that an alter ego is present within or indeed without as in the friend. "“Friendship cannot exist except among good men,” I wholeheartedly agree with De Amicitia, the trick is knowing those that are true and those that, as you say are simply 'wannabes' with dishonest or ulterior motives! I very much like Sterns theory on the layered self, that it is present at birth and evolves with age.

I look forward immensly to part two... 🙏🏼💞✨

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Veronika Bond's avatar

All of a sudden, given the opportunity to see the selfie-obsessed environment you work in and are exposed to, I recognise that all this obsession with 'selfing' is in reality an attempt to jump out of one's own skin and into another, to escape from the self that is perceived as inferior, not good enough, and present an imaginary but ultimately surreal 'flawless self'. Thank you so much, Susie, for lending me your lens on this piece 💕🙏 ✨

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Simone Senisin's avatar

Hi Veronika, My study of world religion is only skin deep and harks back a few decades to studying the philosophy of religion. Nevertheless the Taoist perspective of self being an 'extension of the cosmos' resonates with how my body feels into messages it receives. Of course, my understanding of self is central to what I accept as our Soul essence and its human form being a creative expression of — self? The notion of Selfhood appeals to me, that our identity, sense of self brings the other in, our 'experiences and relationships'. To be revisited of course. Thank you for these insights to spark our curiosity.🙏💜😊

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Veronika Bond's avatar

Thank you for your valuable perspective too, Simone 💙 🙏 ✨

I think it is so important what you point out about 'what appeals to you', in other words what makes sense to anyone of us in the moment, what resonates at all levels of our being. We can't just throw 'selfhood' or 'ego' overboard because some religious or philosophical master comes along and says so. In my observation that in itself can often be an expression of a 'fragile ego', rather than 'true self'.

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Simone Senisin's avatar

Thanks Veronika, l totally agree with your comment about ‘selfhood’ and ‘ego’ … a spiritual bypass of sorts, the ‘fragile ego’ of the ‘self’ proclaimed master. 😊🙏💜

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Jamie Millard's avatar

It’s definitely a “selfie” generation. Smiling for a camera that looks skin out. Filters available free of charge to smooth out the lines and layer up the lies. The meaning of the mirror has changed.

No self? Higher and lower selves? Maybe a ladder of selves? Lenses? Cosmic ripples? Alter egos the instagram of 19th century psychology? A costume or an attempt to look in deeper? Hermeneutics. Interesting that Maslow had “Transcendence of self” at the top of his pyramid, but this never got any momentum in the literature. We live in to the questions of self.

Why do I get excited when I see “series” with your writing! Thanks Veronika 🙏❤️

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Veronika Bond's avatar

Wonderful Jamie! Thank you for this perspective:

"The meaning of the mirror has changed." ~ how would Snowwhite's wicked stepmother have coped?!

"Alter egos the instagram of 19th century psychology?" 😅

"Maslow had “Transcendence of self”..." looks like we still have a long way to climb to the top of that pyramid.

Thank you truly 🙏 ♥️ 💃 for your excitement!!

This is another of my 'mini-series' that stretched from a single wordcast, wanting to be more than I originally had in mind 🤔💭 and I, of course being me, myself and I, couldn't resist to give it wings... 🦅 ... flying into the questions of self, ego and alter ego...

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