Ego, just as emotion, can be an important gauge for communication with our higher self. Developmentally, the ego allows us to understand how we are separate from the rest of the world. For example, if you burn your arm, my ego will recognize the separatism and allow me to know it is not my arm that has been burned.
Understanding the exact nature of the ego, therefore, is of key importance to personal growth and consciousness evolution. When we learn to step beyond the ego we discover the natural laws of conscious living. We are inherently part of the evolution of the human race. It is each of our responsibility to reach out and ask for what we want spiritually, physically, and mentally. It is this action that perpetuates the evolution of consciousness.
There is research being done in neuroscience today explaining the existence of mirror neurons in humans. Sensory neurons in the brain are activated in response to that person being touched, and a certain proportion of these same neurons also fire when someone watches another person, being touched (mirror neurons) as if the neuron was “reading” the other persons mind or “empathizing”. But the person watching someone else being touched does not normally experience the touch delivered to the other person presumably because the skin on his own hand is sending a null signal (to the non-mirror neuron type sensory neurons) that vetoes the output of mirror neurons. Consistent with this theory, Dr. Ramachandran found that when a patient with a phantom arm watched another person’s intact hand being rubbed, he actually felt his phantom being rubbed. Massaging the other person’s hand appeared to relieve the pain in the phantom, an observation that might have clinical implications if confirmed.” Source: The Man with the Phantom Twin: Adventures in the Neuroscience of the Human Brain, ISBN 0525950230.
Neuro-scientists explain today that mirror neurons in conjunction with the senses, can cause the observer to actually feel the emotions of others. In other words, we experience one thing, while someone else could feel phantom symptoms physically, emotionally, or spiritually or vice-versa. This is not, however, the actual experience of the observer. Such a phenomenon is commonly known as empathy.
The function of the ego is to use empathy and allow us to see within ourselves what needs to be healed. Whatever we think someone else “needs” to do, it is appropriate to recognize we are actually talking about our own progress. This process is known as projection. We, as humans, are masters at projection. Real growth occurs when we understand this egocentric behavior, then use empathy and learn to use it effectively to resolve our own issues. When we recognize this function of the ego along with empathy, we can begin to see our progression and create consciousness around our experience of life. We can learn to use the ego to move into personal awareness. This is one way to live an empowered life.
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