257. Transcending the Ego - Modern Mysticism with Michael

Kara Goodwin: [00:00:00] Hello, and welcome to the Meditation Conversation, the podcast to support your spiritual revolution. I'm Kara Goodwin,

And this episode is a recording of a live streamed webinar that Michael Massey and I did on the conscious awakening network on April 18th. We've done this a few times and it's so fun to record these episodes with people listening and participating. If you'd like to be notified when we have these opportunities, be sure to go to Kara goodwin.com and sign up for the newsletter or grab your free meditation on the homepage. 

And that will get you added to the list as well. You can also follow me on Instagram at Kara underscore Goodwin, underscore meditation. And learn about these opportunities. I'll be doing live streams with can at [00:01:00] least once a month with different guests, including Michael, but others as well. So stay in the know and join in. And in this episode, we are focused on the ego. We talk about the important interplay between the ego and the soul. And most importantly, how to tell which one is driving our actions. 

And what the repercussions are. We've had some really wonderful feedback from participants of the webinars. So I know you're really going to get a lot out of Michael's wisdom. And before I start, I want to invite you to check out my sponsors@themeditationconversation.com. I'd love for you to explore best made homeopathic remedies. 

Uh, my son wasn't feeling well last week and I took a couple of remedies from my best made homeopathic first aid kit package. And it really seemed to help him get through the worst of it. What I love about homeopathy is how it works with the chemistry of the body in a natural way. They have remedies for all sorts of issues and you can get lots of great wellness, insights and ideas on their website

The [00:02:00] best made natural products.com. . So use code Kara 10% for 10% off your order and now enjoy this episode

Kara Goodwin: So please, Michael. Okay. Can you 

Michael Massey: introduce yourself? All right. I am, uh, engineer, entrepreneur, and and mystic, if you will. I have a background, graduated from Rose Holman over in Terre Haute degree in mechanical engineering. And, spent, about.

10 plus years or so in, working in telecommunications. Built my own software company in Los Angeles doing,developing, infrastructure for video games. And, and then about 12 years ago or so, my life took a radically different direct. And, it's incidentally crises,can certainly be the catalyst for that.

And I took a [00:03:00] new path, into, shamanism, got into the studying, the healing arts and, expansion of consciousness, et cetera, et cetera. And that's been my primary fo focus, for the last, you. 10, 12 years. of course I can't get away from my roots as being, an engineer. And so I,I love like who I am now, if you will.

And, in that, I try to bring, a blend of science and spirituality together and I helped to kind of bridge, these, these two kind of sphere. 

Kara Goodwin: Beautiful. Thank you. 

 All right. Well, that was a beautiful introduction and I just reiterate what you.

Mention about that blending and that bridging of those two worlds, because I know that in the time that I've known you, that's just helped immensely to be able to take some of these [00:04:00] concepts, some of the things that we hear a lot about in the spiritual community, like energy and frequency and vibration, and, even things, to do with more of the quantum side with timelines and so forth and, How these have like a, where science is with some of these things now.

And, sometimes I get lost with some of the things, some of the places that you take things when you start talking about FI and things like that. But it's still really fun and it's exciting. Well, we wanted to talk about the ego today and the role of the ego and how this contributes to our experience as we're going through these changing times and the challenges that come with these times.

So, Michael, let me hand it over to you. Can you talk a little bit? Let's just do a baseline. kind of overview of [00:05:00] the client climate, like where we find ourselves, maybe somebody's watching this recording in two years and what are times like right now?

Michael Massey: Yeah, it's amazing. If we kind of go back, well, let's see, or not two years, but really you go back, three years or four, three years, let's say, just to the pre pandemic, could we have forecast or would we have any dream? how much life might have changed in three years. 

Kara Goodwin: I know, right? I was thinking, like, I feel, when I look back at myself from pre pandemic, I feel like, oh look, she's so innocent.

Oh, look, it's like, man, you're about to just go through a whole bunch of stuff. I feel like that for humanity, that we all just like, oh, remember that? Yeah, 

Michael Massey: yeah, for sure. Now, so about, I'd say it was about, I don't know, about eight years ago. I started getting into,[00:06:00] I started getting into the, magnetics, and studying that and working with some, technologies involving magnetics and how.

relates to, geomagnetics the magnetic field of the Earth. And so it's just kind of the, an overall kind of context is we have, the magnetic field of the earth, which happens to be in a collapsing state right now. And, and then where we are in terms of this collapsing, magnetic field, which is generally a precursor assigned to, What's called a, a magnetic pole flip, as this is happening.

And then we have a combination of that with, with our solar cycle is basically at a very physical level, is increasing the amount of energy that the planet is. And consequently that is actually we, as residents of this planet are absorbing,just by being here and living here. [00:07:00] And this is coupled with so many 

Cycles from various different planes of existence, spiritual planes, etheric planes, where we see this convergence of all these patterns that are coming together to just increase and accelerate, the, the amount of energy that we have available to us, whether we like it or. And so this overall uptick has created an amplification of things.

So, for instance, we're experiencing this really at a individually and collectively, particularly at an emotional level, where it's not like feelings of hatred is that's not new. but those feelings could be really amplified these days. And so this, and then that creates,people acting based on those emotions.

And so he, we end up with, some school shootings and, some racial atrocities [00:08:00] and then, and or what you call simple things. But I know like incidences of road rage or cut off the charts, things like that. So we have this overall amplification, and that's on a, on the, the the negative side.

Yeah. But on the positive side where, there's more people right now have stepped onto this path of conscious awakening than, we have. Ever seen in recorded history. And and more and more people are finding, and experiencing peak states of love and bliss that, And that's on the positive side.

So there's both of these things that are actually amplifying. And then w we're seeing this just kind of a across the board and it's creating this brilliant, like intense polarities or dualities and, and yeah, we.[00:09:00] 

Oh yeah, of course. Yeah, of course. We got a comment coming in about, yeah, the media is,is inclined to, to manipulate or to, and to further amplify,this, This polarity and we even see it. Some of this is, might be intended and some of it isn't even, necessarily intended. It just seems to be a natural, output, of.

Today is basically social media and you have those various different algorithms. So the content algorithms that we're dealing with in terms of what we gain our information, those algorithms quickly determine are you,liberal? Are you conservative? And then it's gonna keep on serving up more of that content.

of whatever your inclination is. And so you get more and more of that and less of any kind of, opposing views is into your, in, into the content feed. And so what's happening is it's just taking people further and further apart because [00:10:00] they're not seeing both sides of issues.

And this is creating, a stratification there that's, also, is unprecedented and really could only be facilitated in today's modern information age. So all of these factors are coming together in order to,to create a climate or a period of time here where we're trying to figure our way through.

and during this transition period, it's, it could be quite chaotic and it's very difficult to determine what's real and what's true and what's really happening, because there's so much,that's placed on the information and that we're receiving and being fed on a daily basis.

now, this is, so this is the, this is basically the overall climate that we're in right now. And, this notion of going [00:11:00] like, okay, well, what's. what's real and what's not and is kind of at the root of this cognitive dissonance that we're experiencing as a collective effective because we don't know who we are and.

and I'm, again, I'm speaking at a kind of a collective level, and so now, the question of who am I is, this is an age old question and it's, it's been pondered by philosophers and theologians and, artists and writers for centuries.

And millennia. And it's a fundamental question because this has to do with our, our sense of ourself in this. Who am I? And the [00:12:00] answer to that. that's the great, mystery, and I think hopefully by towards the end of this, Our little gathering here, I'll, offer a little bit more of that.

okay. So, that's basically, and I don't think, when I'm, I'm talking about, this is a whole, I imagine that just about everybody who's listening can, can relate to these can be very chaotic times and certainly this is affecting, a great deal of people with, with mental, their mental health and their overall sense of wellness.

and. this is a challenge that we're facing as a people and I know that Yeah, it, 

Kara Goodwin: go ahead. Sorry. Sorry, Michael. I just, it's interesting to take that from like the collective perspective because we do see this, with some, chaos that's happening that gets reported.

And then there's also, the collective is [00:13:00] also made up of individuals. And then there's the individual experience too. And I know that a lot of people, are having like just unexpected things happen and,are having like a lot of turmoil or chaos happening in their lives too.

So it's kind of like that collective and individual piece. And even if we're not seeing it, if we're not paying attention to the news or whatever, we might be feeling it in our own lives or our loved one's lives where. Again, that innocence you ego, like maybe you go back to like three weeks ago or the beginning of the year or this time last year and it's like, oh, look at how innocent and naive and peaceful and blah, blah, blah.

Life was, we were just running around in daisy fields and now where are we? that type of thing. So people may be seeing that also reflected at the individual level. 

Michael Massey: for sure [00:14:00] for. Okay. so that's our, that's our context, our backdrop that we're kinda referring to. And now we wanna hone in a little bit on, onto the ego itself.

And, and, let's start with this question of what is the ego anyway? Gary, you wanna answer that? 

Kara Goodwin: Well, I think of the ego as like the little human, temporary self. 

Michael Massey: Okay. All right. That's a a good way to look at it. And, so we have what we call the ego. Now the ego itself is, I.

Tend to, to prefer to use the term personality cell, just because it's a little more neutral and we tend to, because the [00:15:00] ego has kind of a negative connotation to it. And, there's, we say, oh, somebody's full of ego and. The thing is like, having a large personality is different than having, let's say a wounded personality.

So most of the time when we encounter somebody where we would describe them as having a large ego, we're really saying is that they actually have a, like a wounded ego. And so this is kind of why I just used the term personality self cuz it seems to, so we can differentiate then between what we would, what I would call the soul self.

And the personality self. And in other ways of describing this would be the lower self and the higher self. That's, those, again are labels. and or, you can go with the ego and the super ego. these are all different, words that are an attempts to create a [00:16:00] model or an understanding.

of,who we are now. So the important thing to understand about what the ego. Actually it's a personality itself is a construct. And so this construct is actually formed over a lifetime. we, we make, we come into this world as a soul, and then we actually, over the course of years, We build up a, this personality self.

And so the important thing to understand is that this is something that is built and it is constructed through a variety of both individual choices and then experiences. And as things actually happen to us and. we process those, and then those fold in and then become part of our personality self [00:17:00] now.

But this is something that's, that is built over a lifetime. It's constructed. So is it who we actually are or is it something that we have, and I'm reminded of. You know this. See, if I were to ask you, for example, Cara, are you a human?

Kara Goodwin: I feel like you're tricking me. No. 

Michael Massey: Yes. Alert, alert, alert. 

Kara Goodwin: I do have a human aspect. 

Michael Massey: Okay, so, well, most people, what happens is we identi. If we identify as soon as we go, okay, we include ourselves as having the label human right? Then we would say, okay, I'm human, right? This is now the funny thing about it [00:18:00] is soon as we make that statement, we're actually identifying as this group to this human, but what we really, the truth of who we really are is a soul.

Would you say that a soul. The souls are intrinsically human, or would you say that consciousness is human? No. No. So if we are actually, if we are actually a consciousness that comes into the body, there's not, it's not like that consciousness is intrinsically human. It's not made of human. It's something that then is inhabiting a human form.

And in the, there was a movie, it was a remake of, I think 1950s classic. And that, that came out. I don't know, about 15 years ago. So it was called The Day The Earth Stood Still with Keanu Reeves. And Keanu Reeves is a, he's an extraterrestrial, that it's basically come to earth to evaluate humanity on [00:19:00] whether or not they should be destroyed or saved.

And,when he arrived, he's whisked away by, By the government. They're interrogating him in this room and they ask him, are you human? And he says, my body is, and then do you feel pain? My body does. And so we have here is kind of an example of what a heightened self-aware consciousness.

Its point of perspective on how it views itself within the body, and it understands that the human body. And everything that comes along with it, which includes, the emotional body and the mental body, et cetera. is something that, that it has not something that, it is 

Kara Goodwin: that, that's really [00:20:00] powerful.

Like just thinking about, I think you said that the human body, it's the. The soul is, did you s the soul is encased in the body or the soul is, inhabiting, that's what you said. Yes. Inhabiting the soul is inhabiting the body and then that soul awareness, the perspective of the soul and that there, yeah, there's an aspect that is the human that is related Thank you for that because that's reframing, I love looking at it from that perspective, 

Michael Massey: right?

Of right and to go, okay, well, the soul itself, consciousness itself isn't, is not intrinsically human. Right. but that doesn't mean it would necessarily make sense to, to say, that I am [00:21:00] not. Right, and this would be because well, it's actually the way that Keanu reads his point of perspective.

My body is, so there's, it's the acknowledgement. It's not trying to separate oneself, oh, I'm not human, I'm something else. Right now it's to, to embrace and inhab it and go, okay, well I'm here in human. and it's that point of perspective that is what kind of opens these doors. So just by these entertaining, these very subtle thoughts, what we're doing is kind of opening up little windows for, us to, shift our awareness of self off of.

the ego or personality self and into the soul self. And the soul self is who [00:22:00] we are from, from the day we're born till the day we die and beyond in both directions. and, so incidentally. What is Now, you could say that the soul itself is consciousness and that consciousness exists within a larger ocean of consciousness and some analogies in include like the soul's, like 

You take a cup. of water. Out at the ocean, you have basically the ocean and a cup. It still has all the attributes of the ocean, but it's not the entire ocean. And so the soul itself is when we come in to this world, what we do is we're, we are just as a sole self, [00:23:00] we are absolutely, we're connected to everything, to all.

The whole universe we're connected to, and we can feel that connection and there's no sense of separation between oneself and this greater ocean. It's like the cup of water that when it's still in the ocean. There, there's very little boundaries. It just, it's just an open connection. And then as we construct the ego is, it, is that, is like actually the cup that we're now cupping out the ocean.

And what the way that this works is that the ego itself is built by creating separation. And so we begin as an infant. We're just feel connected to everything around us. [00:24:00] And then as we form this personality self, what we're doing is we're moving things,this, everything connected, and then we're creating discreet states of this is this and this is that.

I am me and this is a coffee mug, and these two are separate. And so this construct is actually, is layering in separation between ourself, others, and the world around us, such that we can interact with things as them being separate. And so over the course of time, what we're basically doing is as the ego grows, it turns off its connection to the rest of the universe in favor of seeing it as something else.[00:25:00] 

And this itself. Isn't necessarily real. It's not the truth of the whole of the universe is all connected. It's actually an individualized experience of all that is through a lens of separation,

and that's just functionally what the ego does, and it's that lens. That actually separates,

Kara Goodwin: I love that analogy of the, having the cup of ocean and the, one thing I do wanna correct is that you said that the cup of ocean water has all the attributes of the ocean, but there are no shark. [00:26:00] Yeah, the cup, so 

Michael Massey: I'm right. There could be very teeny little sharks. You don't know, maybe seahorses.

Okay.

Kara Goodwin: But yeah, that does really make sense and that's really powerful of being that, being part of the ocean. And so is there, are there ways that we can. Help to strengthen our connection back to the ocean in that metaphor. 

Michael Massey: Yeah, actually you just blow the ego up and you'd be done with it.

Kara Goodwin: Okay. And then how do we function as humans? In that 

Michael Massey: case, it's very difficult. And, next to, it's not impossible, but it's darn near it, to function without an ego. So this is one of the things too. So we, and in the past, the old school mystery schools and things, that.

involve really these [00:27:00] really kind of harsh techniques called ego squashy, and which and the idea was to obliterate, destroy the ego. Now, I've, I've tried to do this many times. it's challenging and it's ultimately not sustainable. so one of the things it's, I. And my approach is ultimately is like, okay, what we wanna do here is we want to, to, what happens is to, and what we're about to talk about is, we take the cup of water out of the ocean is to be careful that we don't identify as being the cup.

That's where the, issue tends to arise, and this will lead to suffering, is you actually take a cup out of the ocean. You're actually, you are the, you're the ocean water in the cup, [00:28:00] not the physical cup. And that's where the little, switch in the brain. It gets mixed up when it starts identifying, thinking that it's the cup.

And then at that point then, how connected is the cup itself to the ocean? it's not even of the same matter. It's not of the same assets. And so it's the over-identification with the personality self that is the real issue. And when we're able to liberate ourselves, From identification with the personality self, that's when our breakthrough moment occurs.

That's when we remember who we really are. Oh, I'm the ocean in this cup, and that I am part of this [00:29:00] bigger ocean. And that's what reestablishes the connection and it's through connection that we actually feel alive. And connection itself that's the solution to all of our, mental illness and whatnot.

It's our ability to connect, and when we feel connected, everything else starts to just take care of itself.

So one of the ways that we can do this from like a. In a practice within our own meditation, particularly when we're meditating, is, You take your quiet moment side and and then, you got your thoughts swirling around in your head, and you may have different techniques and tactics of, quieting and silencing their.[00:30:00] 

Is to ask yourself that question. We have thoughts running in our head. is am I the who am I in this equation? Am I the one that's having the thoughts? Am I the one that's listening to the thoughts?

Because most of the time now, everybody's a, there's a little bit of variance and difference in, how people's internal mental dialogue goes. But if I know, at least for myself, most of the thoughts that I'm having, there's a verbal narrative associated to it, and it's in my voice. But is that, am I the one that's speaking or am I the one that's Listen,

And once we can understand that it is a soul self that is the one that is listening, and it is the ego or [00:31:00] personality self that is talking. And that's our own internal dialogue that we're having with ourself. And so when the one that's talking, one of the things that I've learned to do is. If I didn't feel good about what is being said, then it's like 

I'm just changing the channel. It's like, okay, keep talking until you say something that I agree with. That's, What's coming from the soul? Okay. I'm like, okay, I, all right, keep saying the same thing again. I don't that doesn't feel right to me and I just keep cycling through different thoughts until actually tell my ego, self actually says something that's actually really true.

And then as soon as that happens, I feel it all the way through and I feel connected. And I would go, okay, now what we've just done is we've taken this [00:32:00] personality self. We put it into its proper place. It doesn't get to dictate how things are. What I want it to do is to actually to, is to conform to the truth of who we are.

hopefully that makes. Yeah. 

Kara Goodwin: I love that. Like cycling through and then when's there a hit? Yeah. That by yourself exactly. Is being expressed through those 

Michael Massey: thoughts. Yep. You just keep cycling. Cycling through. You go next, next, next, next, next, next, next, next, next. Just keep going until, I mean, it's kinda a brute 

Force kind of approach, to, to reprogramming the ego or modifying the construct of it. But it does work. It does work 

Kara Goodwin: well. There's one thing that comes to mind with this, which would be the, [00:33:00] so. This spiritual bypassing. Okay, so we have the identification with ourselves as a human, we have the identification with ourselves as spirit, and there can be this tendency when we do start to identify more with the soul of denying the human trials, the human feelings, the human.

the lower things that we go through and it's like a, Nope, nope. I'm a soul, I'm not affected. I, I don't feel that way or whatever. And of course, it's also important that we are authentic and that we have this human experience and that we do allow, Allow ourselves to express our feel or to let those feelings run through us, or whatever it is.

There's a, [00:34:00] there can be a tendency to deny the human experience. So I don't know if you have any thoughts 

Michael Massey: about that. yeah. That's a great question. Okay. And it, and I think it's a good segue into something that I. Talk about, in terms of the particular aspect of the personality self. Okay.

So what we have is, the situation that you're describing is like, okay, well I have through introspection and I've looked into my inner world and I've found the truth within my inner world of who. So that's the inner world experience. And then we have, but we also have this, we have an ex, there is an external world all around us.

Right. and so what, what resides between this, the inner self, right? And this outer world to a inner world, outer world. And then that ego is the lenss are the filter by which we're, experiencing the outer. [00:35:00] And so what the situation you are describing is a situation where we go, oh, I don't wanna look out at the world.

I just wanna look in because, that makes sense to me. And it's all hunky door. And when I look out into the world, it doesn't match. So my outer world doesn't match my inner world. And that's because of the. The filter. And so in this situation that, would be the denial, like I just wanna stay inwardly focused and I don't wanna pay any attention to the out outside world because it doesn't look like my inner world.

And then that creates a cognitive dissonance in my own.

Now, so that would be, that's a different [00:36:00] situation than imagine you've actually embraced this filter. Understand what it is, begin to love and appreciate it for what it is. And as such, we can then basically we say clean up. Lens and we can, remove the smudges from it and we can polish it and we can fix any emblem blemishes that are in it, that are creating distortions.

and as we do this, then imagine coming to the sublime. State where the inner, our inner world experience actually does match the world around us. And that's when we, that's, That's when you're in a very solid

state of being. And the experience of life from there can be nothing but. [00:37:00] So it's only the, it's only this,the discord that exists between what we actually witnessed in the outside world and then what we perceive in our inner world. And when those things are out of alignment, then,what happens is it creates a sense of a baseline of.

And we say, okay, and it somehow what happens is we feel powerless because it doesn't matter how we might feel good on the inside, but if we're, if that has no bearing or impact on our external world or vice versa, then we feel disconnected and we feel powerless. And that leads that, and that is felt, and it's kind of, its baseline is felt as a sense of, Of instability. and therefore it, it triggers this anxiety. And now so many people, I, we just take in anxiety [00:38:00] as almost as that's just a. that's just the way it is. You just ex just accepting that everyone's just gotta cope with this, this perpetual state of anxiety.

It doesn't need to be like that. It certainly wasn't originally, it's not like that's the, 

Kara Goodwin: the human blueprint or something. 

Michael Massey: No, it's, no, certainly not. So what happens when,

 this baseline anxiety. Now, if you actually, actually couple anxiety or there's actually kind of three factors, and if these three factors all come together, this is where, this is the, like the dark, the pit of despair. And it's if you have a, your basic anxiety and then.

the other thing that to know is that we all have this component of our personality self, of the ego self, which I would refer [00:39:00] to the critic. It's the critic or the, some folks might call it the judge. Now, the critic has like, it's like original purpose was to let you know when you drew colored outside the lines so that you could.

You could improve that the next time. that's about what the critic is for. But what happens is if the critic is in so many people's, like the, is the aspect of the personality self that's moved its way into the driver's seat and what happens When that critic is overblown, it's a bugger bear.

And it has two effects. You see, the thing is when you're being really self-critical and beating yourself with, and I think of just about every human, I would think, I mean at least familiar with this. really negative self-talk. And when the critic goes, ah, I can't believe you're so stupid, why did you do that?

whatever. And it just [00:40:00] keeps on clubbing you over and over again. And, that is, so that's the critic. And that can be really painful. And it becomes particularly painful if it's, if also there's a traumatic memory. That's in place. So if you have, anxiety and then a critic, and then also there's a trauma, then that means that you have to baseline anxiety and, then you make a mistake.

The credit goes bonkers, starts beating yourself up. But it's not just beating you up with that incident of making a mistake, it's also triggering a. Of, all the times in your life where you've made a horrendous mistake or something like that, now you're getting super clubbed and this is what gets people, this is what can get so painful and madness in the mind that 

It'll drive, it literally drives people suicide. And so it's so painful [00:41:00] that the quick fix tends to be just okay, is to take that critic and go, oh, and just to turn it outwards. And now it'd be like, okay, I, it's too painful for me to criticize myself, but I can't seem to control this critic, so I'm just gonna point it in a different direction.

And if you point the camera out now, they become super critical of everyone else. Whoa hasn't. Yeah. Yeah. and what happens is if somebody's super critical of everyone else, they will, they were gonna fight to defend it because what they're afraid of is somehow getting that triggered where it click and all of a sudden that critic turns around and it points back at them.

And that's such a terrified thought that we'll send 'em in such a pitfall of despair that, yeah. That they just try to keep that camera focused externally.

Kara Goodwin: [00:42:00] That's fascinating. And that, and it's really, I was just reflecting on this morning actually, because last week I had one, one particular day that was just a really difficult day. With just, it was almost comical, like how bad this day was and unusual in that way too. But by the end of the day I was like, this day is terrible.

And I was like going through the day trying to find more things to support my case than the obvious things that had happened that were bad. But I, I was, I know other things happened, right. That were bad, and I've got into this cycle of like, trying to even make it worse.

Like, I don't know what I was doing, but I was like, wanted to support my case about just within myself not needing, external validation, but I was like kind of curious. [00:43:00] This pattern of what else? wondering like, what's going on in the stars? What else am I seeing that's popping up?

And then I'm like, what am I doing? Why am I trying to make things worse? Like, what am I trying to prove to myself? But it can be a, I guess, kind of addictive or something to. So let that ego just like, yeah, you just have at it. Or the critic. Sorry. You know, you take over.

Michael Massey: Oh my goodness. Right. yeah, I, yeah, I've been thinking about this l lately a lot and. it's just like, okay, it's just really time that we need to like fire the critic from the driver's duty. At least go, you know what, we're revoking your license. You're not allowed to be in the driver's seat anymore and we got a nice spot for you back in the trunk.

That's until we have a job for you to do. And until [00:44:00] then, yeah. Now this is the thing, and we coming back to like that baseline anxiety and why that's all present there, et cetera. It's because the personality itself is never really meant, it is not meant to be in the driver's seat of the vehicle.

It, and it doesn't want to, it thinks it does. but it's like a, it's like a five year old behind the wheel of a car and it's much you. And kids, they wanna drive a car cuz like to them it's a big cool toy, but very quickly they'll get overwhelmed and scared. So really what the personality self wants is it wants to go on a great ride.

And it is the soul that is able to provide that. And once we understand this, we go, oh, okay. Is okay. We can embrace our personality self like we would a child [00:45:00] and go, Hey, we know what you want and you don't have to provide it. And you can be free of all that responsibility. And we actually, we got a great place for you where you can enjoy the ride and be a part of it, without the struggles of trying to run the show.

And the only way that it, that the ego personality itself can run the show is through.

And so it keeps trying to get more and more control because it's trying to, it's trying to control the external world so that it can match the inner, but it can, it doesn't have any control over the external world. It thinks it does, but it doesn't ultimately.

And so this says, okay, well [00:46:00] how do we work with, how do, what do we really do? and, what do we give? The personality, what do we give it to, to be able to identify with? And there's many roles. We said, in many aspects to the personality self. We talked about the critic, but there's other parts of this construct.

I'm a mother, I'm a father, brother, sister, teacher, student, et cetera, et cetera, is to understand what, first and foremost of what the, what is our sense of self and who are we coming back to that original question. And there is one, there's one thing that we can identify with that brings peace between the ego and the soul.

Self is something that they can agree on together. And that's to know that, to be able to say that I am a child of God and you are a child of God, and we are the [00:47:00] children of God. Now if you prefer, I'm child of the universe or children of the universe, but this is the essence. This is the one safe place for the personality self, for the ego that will not put it in conflict with the soul.

And when we do that, our inner world will begin to match our, our world. And this is something that we all know every, just, every single one of us is, hopefully, or before their life is over, they will experience this cuz we have a word. Inner language that describes when our inner and outer world are actually in harmony and they match and we call it love.[00:48:00] 

Kara Goodwin: That's beautiful. Thank you so much, Michael. 

Michael Massey: Oh, you're welcome. Joy to be here and share this with you, and we can go on for hours and hours on this topic. It's a rich and deep one, but hopefully we've been able to give everybody a nugget or two or something that's gonna help them on their journey as we go through these times together.

Kara Goodwin: Absolutely. 

 this has really been so beautiful. Thank you so much, Michael. All right. A lot of really great takeaways and perspectives and in how to relate to ourselves. From a higher perspective. And, I think that will, I know, speaking for myself again, mentioning that, there has, I've just had my own, issues coming up in the last week or so, and that has definitely been a big part of.

[00:49:00] The, the moving through the gunk, is just, okay, this is a temporary human experience. And tapping into like, who am I really? And, trying to keep that higher perspective of, okay, I am a soul in a body and I'm here to have experiences and there, there must be something in here for me, whether.

Lessons or experience or whatever it is, but trusting that there's purpose in the hard times and and keeping that perspective. So everything you've said today really helps to kind of strengthen that perspective. So 

Michael Massey: thank you. You bet. All right. Blessings to each and every. 

Kara Goodwin: Yeah. Thank you. Thank you Michael.

Thank you for everybody who's joining, who has joined Thank you.[00:50:00]