The Real You Vs. The False You

For many this will seem like an intriguing concept, the concept of there being another you. Most people go about their day by day lives thinking that what they see in the mirror is ‘real’. What’s more, most people believe that everything they see in the world around them is ‘real’. Have you ever seen the cartoon Transformers? It is an old cartoon which was around in the 1990’s and has become popular in recent times by Michael Bay’s attempt at bringing them into the theatre. For those of you who saw the original cartoons, can you remember the tag line in the theme song? For those not familiar with this song the words are, “Transformers, more than meets the eye”. This being the perfect phrase to now use in describing you, as just with the transformers there is also a lot more to you than meets the eye.

Most people tend to identify themselves with what they see in front of them. If you are like most people, when you look in the mirror you believe that person being reflected back is you. As far as you are concerned everything that is ‘you’ can be seen in that mirror. But in reality this couldn’t be further from the truth. What you see in the mirror every day is just the reflection of something greater, something that is hidden within your physical shell which we call our bodies.

This hidden part of ourselves is not hidden in the sense that we are not meant to find it. Neither is it hidden from us so that we will not find it or become aware of it. It is hidden in the fact that it cannot be seen with our traditional five senses. And seems we as humans tend to equate reality with being able to perceive it with one of our senses, we are not normally aware of this ‘hidden’ aspect of ourselves as we go about our day by day lives. It is this hidden aspect of ourselves that we will be looking at here.

Many civilisations, nations, cultures, people throughout the ages have had an awareness of this hidden aspect of being. Many refer to it as spirit, whereas others call it the soul. It is this spirit, this soul, where the ‘real’ you resides. This is the ‘you’ that existed before you were born on earth, and will continue to exist long after you pass through the process we currently call ‘death’. This part of you is eternal; it cannot be created or destroyed.

Now this is completely opposite the characteristics of the ‘you’ you’re acquainted with on a day by day basis. The ‘you’ you’re used to is fat, slow, ugly, dumb, broken, limited, weak, handsome, hairy, short, tall and the list goes on. And according to this part of ourselves we will cease to exist once we die. This is based off the fact that we have seen our ancestors die and be put in the grave; therefore we too will follow the same path.

It is at this point appropriate, after having established that there are two aspects to us as human beings, to put names to these dual aspects of ourselves. First of all, one of these aspects of our being is false, whereas the other is real. No points for guessing which one is which at this point, right? The false aspect of ourselves is called the ‘ego’, with the real aspect of ourselves being referred to as ‘I AM’, or the Higher Self.

Before getting into any more detail it is important to provide some visual aids to help describe what is being explained. The following diagram depicts very basically some attributes of these two different aspects of us as human beings. Following the diagram we will break it down and apply it to ourselves in seeing how this knowledge can benefit us in our day to day lives.

The Real You – ‘I AM’ This is your spirit. This is the eternal you that is: Unlimited Unchangeable Immortal Accepts everything without judgement Part of the One One with all things Exists in the ‘NOW’

The Filters These represent our filters as human beings. These function as we go about our daily lives. The filters are: Beliefs & values Perceptions Environment Memories Decisions Attitudes Language Time/Space It is these filters that determine what we experience in our lives. We do not actually see life as it is, we only see life through these filters. Each of us have differences in how we use these filters, which is why we all experience different things in life.

The False You – ‘The ego’ This is the container that is the effects of the filters on the left. How we use the filters create the ego, or the false self. The ego is your false self, it is the you that is: Limited Changeable Mortal Judges Separate from the One Separate from all things Exists in the past and future At birth, this false self, the ego, is blank. Thus each of us creates our own egos as we go through life from birth. The ego grows and feeds off our filters. Without the filters the ego would not exist.

Let us now take a more detailed look at these dual parts of our being. The deepest, most authentic part of ourselves is who we really are, the ‘I AM’. It is within this ‘I AM’ that our true nature and abilities reside. It is the ‘I AM’ that has come to this part of Earth to experience life within the physical density. This was necessary so the “I AM’ could experience itself in a way that wasn’t possible before we were born on Earth.

As part of being born on Earth we each acquire a physical body of flesh and blood. But we also acquire something else when we enter mortal existence; we acquire filters. As seen in the table above these filters include beliefs & values, perceptions, environment, language and time/space. These filters were not part of our existence before being born on Earth. It is these filters that colour every aspect of our physical lives.

This is where it begins to get very interesting. How we use our filters from birth essentially determines who we become. But you see, who we really are, the ‘I AM’, is unchangeable. Who we really are is already perfect and complete. We are not here to become something as the ‘I AM’ already is all it can be. And it is here we enter into one of the greatest paradoxes that life has to offer.

As we grow as children we begin to experience and use these filters in different ways. As we do so a certain thing known as the ego begins to expand and grow. The more and more we use these filters the stronger the ego becomes. As the ego grows stronger the ‘I AM’ slips more and more into the background. The more control the ego has over our lives, the less control the ‘I AM’ has. Put another way, the more we live from ego, the more of an illusion we live in; and the more we live from ‘I AM’, the closer to reality we live.

The more we identify with ego the less we identify with what is real. The ego does not see things as they really are; it sees things according to the past. For example, after multiple break ups we begin to be resistant to entering into future relationships. Why? Because according to our ego, relationships cause hurt, pain and suffering. Your filters are now coloured accordingly and all you experience in relationships is pain, hurt and suffering. This applies to any experience which we have judged or perceived to be a certain way.

Hence the fact that it is all but an illusion. In reality all of life is a fresh moment, a new moment of NOW. This new moment is not influenced by any of the previous ones, unless we allow it. When we live from ego, we live according to our past, according to our life story. But this story is nothing but an illusion of past beliefs & values, perceptions, environment, language, memories, decisions etc. If we were to drop these filters at any moment we would see life as it really is. This is the paradox we live in. We live in a reality that is an illusion created by ourselves.

The irony of it is that reality is always there to be seen, but we choose not to see it as we live via the ego. The real you, the ‘I AM’, is the pure awareness that exists beyond your thoughts, beyond the filters, and beyond the ego. You are not your thoughts. You are not your filters. You are not your body. And you are most definitely not your ego. These things are parts of you, but they are not you. It is like your body. It is made up of hands, fingers, a head, neck, legs etc. These things are part of you, but they are not who you really are.

As you wake up to this you will start to experience the power that lies within you. As you recognise you are not the voice in your head, it begins to liberate you from the inside out. You will realise you are not a slave to that inner voice, to your emotions, your feelings, and your thoughts. You will realise that you are the silent ‘I AM’ that underlies all of these things, the part of you that is real. As you get in touch with this ‘real’ you, life as you know it begins to shift dramatically. You realise that you have been living in an illusion, albeit an illusion that seems very real while you are in it. Einstein affirmed this as near the end of his life he stated, “Reality is merely an illusion, although a very persistent one”.

You cannot begin to live your full potential until you realise who you really are, and in order to do this you need to understand who you are not. I hope that as a result of reading this you now have a better idea of who you are not, so that you might more fully get in touch with who you really are. There is so much more to you than meets the eye. The more you get in touch with the ‘real’ you, the more you will be able to transform your life. It all starts with a decision, the decision to act. Will you continue living in the illusion, or are you ready to step out of the illusion into reality. The choice is yours.