Do our habits here affect our higher selves? (Blog)

[Erin Pavlina]

Use this thread to discuss the following entry from Erin Pavlina's blog:

Do our habits here affect our higher selves?

[{aspiring_to_clarity}]

Thanks, Erin. This post was very timely.

[XeutonMojukai]

I found this very helpful for me...

I've had visions of choosing my life path *before* incarnation since around 3rd grade.

And since then, I've also had visions of being able to choose either a life of wanton desire or a life of difficulty and hard work for worthwhile results after a long time.

I've also now realized that I've lost the path that I chose at that crossroads, which was the hard work.

I feel like I know exactly where to start, and I'm ready to do what I need to do.

I even know exactly what to do about it today, right now, which is rare but again symbolic of the truth of this moment .

Thanks, Erin. Once again, you've done something very special for at least one person here.

~ David

[seeker5]

Erin,

I found the post interesting.

However, after reading it, I was unsure what the exact answer to the topic of "Do our habits here affect our higher selves?". I'm going to guess the answer is no, but that's just my guess because I couldn't find the direct answer in the post.

I still enjoyed the article though.

[Erin Pavlina]

The person who asked the question gave me the title which I appreciated, but perhaps after answering the question I should have altered the wording of his original question. But mainly what I'm wanting to say is that our behavior here does not indicate what kind of higher self we are... have... er, are.

[seeker5]

Originally Posted by Erin Pavlina

The person who asked the question gave me the title which I appreciated, but perhaps after answering the question I should have altered the wording of his original question. But mainly what I'm wanting to say is that our behavior here does not indicate what kind of higher self we are... have... er, are.

Thanks for the clarification!

[Algernon]

Originally Posted by Erin Pavlina

But mainly what I'm wanting to say is that our behavior here does not indicate what kind of higher self we are... have... er, are.

How does ascension factor into all this? Would a more ascended Higher Self, being more powerful, tend to have a stronger connection to the physical incarnation / ego?

Are there any situations in which the Higher Self would not want the ego to have a conscious connection to It?

What is the connection between the subconscious mind and the Higher Self? Do they have different "agendas"?

In dreams, lucid or otherwise, how much is controlled by the subconscious, and how much by the Higher Self? What is to stop my Higher Self from entering a non-lucid dream and introducing himself? "And by the way, if you haven't figured it out yet, this is a dream, and you're going to love what I'm about to show you ..."

Yeah, I know. Keep dreaming, right?

[Dan.Linehan]

I guess my guestion is this: if the higher self is not affected by bad habits, and also not affected by good habits, how does it grow or evolve? How does someone's life plan affect it at all?

[Erin Pavlina]

I have had a lot of contact with my higher self during lucid dreams. I was often tested in my dreams. "Try again..." or "Try that another way, Erin"

In my lucid dreams I don't see my ego or subconscious. in regular dreams I sure do though.

Subconscious mind is created from your physical body, not your ethereal self. I think the real goal is to bypass the subconscious and go for the superconscious. always be conscious (even while sleeping )

[Erin Pavlina]

Dan, not sure I understand the question. how does someone's life plan affect the higher self?

The higher self helps plan out the maze and puts the major life events in there with the help of the Rishi (for lack of a better term).

The incarnated self goes through the maze, twisting and turning this way and that, hitting upon certain lessons and missing others.

[Dan.Linehan]

Originally Posted by Erin Pavlina

Dan, not sure I understand the question. how does someone's life plan affect the higher self?

The higher self helps plan out the maze and puts the major life events in there with the help of the Rishi (for lack of a better term).

The incarnated self goes through the maze, twisting and turning this way and that, hitting upon certain lessons and missing others.

So, how are our higher selves affected by the lessons we learn? If we learn all the lessons we are supposed to, is the higher self better off for it somehow?

[Algernon]

Thanks, Erin, for the reply, and for the post (and all your posts) in general. I especially enjoy your writings on lucid dreaming and on the Higher Self. When combined, so much the better.

In "How to Meet your Higher Self" you wrote:

If you can manage a lucid dream, those are excellent vehicles for reaching your higher self. The next time you find yourself in a lucid dream, ask your higher self to appear and have a conversation.

And in this thread:

Originally Posted by Erin Pavlina

In my lucid dreams I don't see my ego or subconscious. in regular dreams I sure do though.

In your podcast on lucid dreaming you said:

The second benefit to lucid dreaming is that you can bypass all the symbolism in your dreams and find out exactly why you're dreaming what you're dreaming. If your subconscious is trying to tell you something, why not ask it directly? I remember one time I was having a dream that I was back in grade school and I couldn't remember where my classroom was. Haven't we all had that dream? I became lucid, marched into the principal's office, and said to the startled dream workers, "Okay, everyone just stop. I want to speak to the person in charge of this dream." They tried to maintain the illusion, but I was firm. "Look, I know I'm dreaming, so you can just stop all this nonsense. I'm not in fourth grade. I know I'm a grown woman. Now I want to speak to the person in charge." And you know what? The dream workers disappeared and someone else came out of the principal's office, smiled at me and said, "Well, all right then, let's talk." And I spent the rest of the dream talking to my subconscious directly about what it wanted me to know. When does that ever happen in waking life?

You were lucid in that dream. So was it really your subconscious that you talked to, or was it your Higher Self? (Did you perhaps say "subconscious" in the podcast just because it is a more widely known term, and less likely to cause confusion?)

Is the subconscious "at odds" with the Higher Self, in the same way that the ego often is? Does the subconscious have the ability to keep the Higher Self out of "regular" dreams, an ability which is weakened when lucidity is attained?

How can the subconscious be made to be more in line with the Higher Self than with the ego?

[Erin Pavlina]

Yes I said subconscious because that's the term most people associate with the underlying nature of a dream.

Dan, yes, as we experience life here, and learn lessons our higher self evolves.

[Dan.Linehan]

I guess I was picturing it like this: If we have bad habits / do bad things while we are here, it affects our higher self negatively somehow. And if we learn the lessons that we are supposed to then it helps the higher self evolve somehow.

But apparently being "off-track" doesn't hurt the higher-self, so that's good to know. 'Cus it seems like a lot of people are off track. More than I would have guessed.

I guess the higher self isn't really human per se? And possibly manifests into different planes than just this one?

[Lallymac]

Dan, that's a dam good question. What is our higher selves?
A couple of months ago I would have given an answer similar to Erin but having finished reading Tolle's 'The Power of Now' and Renard's 'The Disappearance of the Universe' I'm not so sure.
Is the higher self the aspect of ourselves that is at one with God? If so, there are no lessons to learn. That part of us is complete and guiding the lost part of us back to completion.
Renard's concepts in relation 'A Course in Miracles' places all aspects of physicality as a holographic illusion created by the ego. All our past, present, future, lives have already been played out and the experience we're having right now is an action replay that offers us an opportunity to recognise the egos fear based illusionary constructs, forgive ourselves for buying into the illusion and accept the complete love offered by our higher selves that marks our return back to the source.
Good, bad, right and wrong are all ego constructs. Guilt keeps us hooked into the illusion from one lifetime to the next. The higher self continually prompts us to wake up and smell the roses. The higher self is uneffected by the dramas of the physical illusion because it knows none of it is real.
Lallymac