Soul Clumps?

[Questioner]

Firstly, I apologize for the length of this post.

If you had only one point of view to represent, it could have been done in one line!

What you say does make sense, and there are several possible reasons. You have found a really terrific site to discuss this with people who will take your concerns seriously, and introduce you to spiritual concepts that they have found useful.

Here are the possibilities that I can think of.

For many people, different aspects of their own personality are separate, unintegrated fragments. Gurdjieff had much to say about the concept of "many I's."

It seems to me this concept is that within our bodies and minds, there are multiple sub-entities that jockey for control. Whichever is in charge at the moment proclaims "I" as though it had continuity.

Most of these parts come from emotionally intense experiences in which we felt we had to be better, or more compliant, or more forceful, or something other than we were, to be safe and loved.

When confronted with the inconsistencies that came about due to another fragment having control previously, it says, "I don't have any idea why I did that!" but it really means, "that wasn't me, the fragment you're talking to right now who's in charge now!" Gurdjieff proposed a solution: develop an Observer who can simply notice the parade of thoughts, feelings and actions that endlessly pass by. Over time, the Observer can develop the capacity to take action as a unitary individual.

I don't have the reference handy right now, but there are some psychologists who suggest you might like to have a "party" that gives each part of you a chance to speak freely about their hopes and concerns, what they want to offer and what they will not accept. You can be the moderator, and say, for example, "Speedy wants to act right now, and Cautious wants to be thorough; can they agree that we'll take one week to make our best plan, and then implement it with whatever we have within one week?"

A second possibility is that you suffer intrusions of other people's energy or ideas. Some of the voices or viewpoints that present themselves as parts of you, might actually be leftover portions of other people's ideas which infected you. This is also common for a lot of people, especially the voices of parents, teachers, or other authority figures. Some questions you could ask each voice: "Who are you? What do you want? Where do you come from? Who or what do you think I should serve? If I listen to what you have to say, will you then leave? If I invited you to stay and help me, would you do that?"

A third possibility was discussed by Napoleon Hill in Think and Grow Rich. He suggested that the human brain is a transmitting and receiving station for patterns of energy, which are the physical form of thoughts. He suggested a meditation exercise in which you invite the people who represent the ideals you value most to an imaginary conference in which you are the moderator. Mr. Edison, what invention would you like to add here? Socrates, what philosophical point is important at this time?

A fourth possibility is that you are doing spiritual channeling without awareness. Look for my thread on "Carla's challenge" and if this seems relevant to you, read her book!

A fifth possibility is that there is spiritual interference or "psychic greeting" from entities wanting to distract you from your best path of evolution. They introduce confusing ideas which tempt you from your own self-chosen focus. There are some discussion threads about that here, such as the parasite thread.

I see that there are some other thoughtful suggestions for you here from other forum members as well.

Do any of these ideas resonate with you?