Transforming Personality
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org,
please feel free to visit the school website)
Introduction
Typical Subpersonalities
Recognizing Subpersonalities
Transforming Personality Audio Meditations
Bibliography
Written by Christine Breese, D.D., Ph.D.
Introduction
Transforming the personality can be quite a challenge indeed. The personality is a rather wily entity unto itself, and it resists being controlled. It is a dualistic creation consisting of both dark aspects and light aspects. Parts of the personality are quite likable, and other parts are very unlikable. Even those who seem to have a perfect personality have those darker aspects inside that express themselves in more passive ways. Personality types are discussed in detail in other UMS courses, like Basic Psychology, and the Enneagram course, but this course will focus most closely on the subpersonality and transforming the personality in general.
Personalities can be found in animals and humans alike. It has even been suspected that plant life might have personalities as well. This of course, is still uncharted territory. One might think it absurd that a flower might have a different personality than another flower just like it only a foot away. However, intuitive gardeners might beg to differ! Plants are most certainly sentient, which has been proven in the Findhorn experiments.
You have noticed, most likely, that there are different parts of your personality which come forward, depending on the situation that you are in. When you are in a situation where someone is acting gentle, soft and nurturing toward you, one of the parts of your personality that you like a lot is most likely to be the one at the forefront. However, when someone is acting badly toward you, you might find yourself acting quite unlikable as well and a different part of your personality is in the forefront. It is definitely not the same one that is there when you are in a nurturing moment.
These different personality aspects were developed as coping devices for handling the various events in life. They were developed when you were very young, and were created as a reaction to something that was happening to you as a child. The negative aspects of the personality, called the shadow subpersonalities, were coping mechanisms for events that you most likely did not understand, especially if these were actions from adults that seemed inappropriate. Dealing with these personalities within the self is much of what integrative psychology is all about.
According to an unnamed author on http://www.meaningoflife.i12.com, "Subpersonalities are psychological satellites, coexisting as a multitude of lives within the overall medium of our personality… Each of us is a crowd. Often they are far from being at peace with one another." Adrian Longstaffe considers subpersonalities to be "a complex of thoughts, feelings and even body sensations which are capable of acting as a complete person for shorter or longer periods of time." (http://www.interactive-consultancies.co.uk)
Jason Bennett, an acting trainer in New York City, has made an entire career of teaching actors how to access their subpersonalities in order to play different characters more convincingly. He describes a subpersonality as, "A subpersonality, or self, is a basic unit of the human personality structure. Each of us have hundreds of subpersonalities that comprise our personality structure. Subpersonalities within the same person often possess extremely divergent thoughts, values, abilities, emotions, voices, images, energetic tones and physicalizations." (http://www.jbactors.com) Subpersonalities are much like the archetypes described by Carl Jung. Archtypes are discussed in detail in the UMS course Archetypes.
Dr. John Gielow says on http://www.innerwell.com, "People generally don't understand that they have subpersonalities although they experience the effect of subpersonalities… A subpersonality contains emotional experiences which are too intense for the emotional system to handle. The feelings involved can be either positive or negative, can occur in a single moment or gradually built up over time. The subpersonality becomes essentially a specialist in a particular emotion or perceptual state. In negative emotional experiences, subpersonalities tend to become stuck at the age of the trauma, containing the original perceptions of the intense experience. Their presence is not generally felt except when conditions occur which are similar to the original trauma or passionate moment. When this happens the subpersonality careens forth and takes over our experience, perception and view of self and others in the world. When this happens we are "not ourselves," but rather our subpersonalities, who then largely dictate our experience of, and sometimes even our behavior in, the world."
Everyone is schizophrenic to some extent or another, or could be said to have multiple personalities. A person who is diagnosed as schizophrenic, or having a multiple personality disorder, is one who has not learned how to control these personalities as to when they come out to the forefront or when they are put on the back burner. People with serious cases of multiple personality disorders are usually people who have experienced severe abuse at a young age. Their personality shattered and did not come back together.
These multiple selves within the self are quite natural to the human psychology, and everyone's personality structure is shattered to some extent or another. The spiritual seeker is one who is trying to bring the shattered pieces together. These shattered parts of the self have been manageable enough not to be diagnosed as a disorder, but can make relationships and friendships difficult, nonetheless. The "normal" person is one who to some extent can control when these personalities come out and when they stay hidden, or inactive, and obey social rules. However, this is still quite an unconscious process, even in the "normal" person.
The person who is on a spiritual path is trying to bring this process to the conscious level, rather than remaining unconscious of these processes, and wants to understand why the personality does what it does. The spiritual seeker is usually unhappy with how the personality reacts in such unconscious, automatic ways, and wants to remedy the situation. The first thing to do is to understand where these inner aspects of the self reside, what triggers them to come out and what makes them act in ugly ways. Usually, angry outbursts are due to an unresolved subpersonality that has not been reassigned to a better way of carrying out its purpose.
Subpersonalities in themselves are not "bad." They actually serve a useful purpose in your life. For instance, a subpersonality that is behind an angry outburst might be trying to enforce your personal boundaries, insist on something you need, or protect you in some way. A subpersonality that is behind depression or sadness might be a misdirected function of compassion in a world that is suffering, or a signal to you that some sort of need has not been met. The task for the spiritual seeker is to teach the subpersonalities new ways of carrying out their purpose and their tasks without making so much trouble in your social relations with others. The subpersonalities will not disappear or go away, for they are part of the human psychology. Everyone has them. In fact everyone has the same ones. They may have different nuances, but the subpersonalities in each human being all serve the same purposes.
Each subpersonality has a unique way of looking at the world. Some subpersonalities have been validated by your experiences in life, and others have become disowned, relagated to the unconscious. The ones that have been validated become your "primary" selves.
Many people in our lives reflect our subpersonalities. People who we have judgment on, or dislike, tend to reflect subpersonalities within ourselves that we don't like, haven't matured, or we deny. This works the same way with the people we adore and love, feeling inadequate around them. These are also disowned personalities, the ones that haven't matured, yet are the incarnations of our more noble characteristics that we don’t access very often. Rejecting a subpersonality is dangerous indeed, for it never goes away. Adrian Longstaffe says, "You reject them at your peril. Rejecting a subpersonality doesn't kill it—it will simply go underground and then get you from there." (http://www.interactive-consultancies.co.uk)Subpersonalities are the reason why most people are in an inner battle with themselves. It is because the various parts of the self are clamoring to be acknowledged, and most of them are quite opposite from each other. This is why it is so important to work with subpersonalities. The inner battle is what is troubling most humans, more than the external circumstances around them. If we can learn what the driving forces are behind our actions, that most negative actions come from a disgruntled subpersonality or a misdirected subpersonality that is trying to take care of itself somehow, then we can begin to get to the bottom of the mystery around the battle within. A common teaching about subpersonalities is that each subpersonality has an opposite, whether or not you are aware of it. You can look at any subpersonality you have and find another that is a dualistic opposite. This is the cause of the battle within, and, of course, the battle within is the battle inside God.
Dr. John Gielow says on http://www.innerwell.com, "After beginning to identify and recognize wounded subpersonalities, the next step is to acknowledge them. This process involves the adult parts of ourselves hearing about the wounded subpersonality's creation, their story and to begin providing healing experiences… A dialogue develops with the adult personality listening to the subpersonality with a mind set of unconditional acceptance… Their experience and behavior may not make sense logically from the adult's point of view. However, given all that they have experienced, their age and age congruent abilities, one eventually comes to understand more and more of their experience and resulting behaviors. It is through this dialoguing process (and through the subpersonality being heard and unconditionally accepted) that healing occurs." Unfortunately, many mental health professionals do not appreciate or know how to work with subpersonalities. Perhaps the idea that we all can be significantly influenced by subpersonalities, including the doctors themselves, is threatening for many people in the mental health field.
Each subpersonality is an individual case, so there is no formula for working with a subpersonality. However, you will find in this course a meditation tool for working with these unruly aspects of the self. This meditation can be used over and over again, and each time you use it you will have a different experience if you choose different subpersonalities to work with. This is a technique that has been developed in several methods of psychology. Some call this inner child work as well, some call it shadow work, and others call this integrative psychology.
Dr. Satoshi Abe, Ph.D. says in his book Creating The Rainbows Of Happiness (date unknown), "Even if a person has achieved enlightenment, it does not necessarily mean he or she is under control all the time, for tempers could be lost. It is only merely a matter of seeing to it they are well taken care of so they do not get out of hand." This brings us to the observer in us all. The observer, who is none of the personalities, but contains all of them, this is the one who has the ability to see the illusion that each subpersonality lives in. This is the one who can bring peace between all the opposing sides within the self.
It is useful to work on the personality, but not required. Enlightenment does not mean that you will have 24/7 bliss and peace with a perfected personality. Enlightenment means "to know" or "to be aware of." It does not necessarily mean to be the master of anything either, not even life. Simply knowing who and what you really are is all that is necessary to be enlightened. A perfected personality is impossible, and therefore is not a prerequisite to enlightenment. The human condition itself can never be enlightened. Only the true self, which does not have a human personality, is enlightened. This is the one who knows that subpersonalities are creations of the human condition, with its traumas and successes in human life.
Up to this point in your studies at UMS you have discovered that you are not your personality. You are also not the body, the mind or the emotions—none of these. You are eternal consciousness that lives long after the personality, the mind, and the body have come and gone. Eternal consciousness is your true identity, not your personality. Up to this point you might have thought that you are your personality, your name, your collection of experiences, but you are not. In fact you are not the one who is evolving. The human is what is evolving, which includes the body, the mind, the emotions, and the personality.
The first of the meditation journeys is a subpersonality journey for the inner work that all healers and teachers work with, even after they are in teaching positions as spiritual teachers in their communities. The next meditation is an exercise in using light as a tool for working with the personality. The third is a journey in transcendence of personality itself, and experiencing that the personality is not who you are.
This course is mostly experiential with the meditation journeys, and does not require extensive reading. Use the mediations as many times as you like, especially the subpersonality journey. The metaphysician must be familiar with and begin working with the subpersonalities in order to live an exemplary life, and help others learn about their own subpersonalities as well. So let the healer begin with himself or herself! Enjoy!
Transforming Personality: Index >>
Typical Subpersonalities
Below are a few examples of subpersonalities: (excerpt from Jason Bennett’s website http://www.jbactors.com)
The power selves: The protector. The warrior. The killer. The leader. The boss. The star. The survivor. The rebel. The patriarch. The special self. The traditionalist. The "I'm God" self. The exercise self.
The vulnerable/child selves: The vulnerable child (the core of our being – our psychological fingerprint). The magical child. The lonely child. The lover. The playful child. The victim. The shy/embarrassed child. The ordinary self. The silly/goofy child.
The parent selves: Good father. Negative father. Critical father. Good mother. Critical mother. Negative mother. Nurturing mother or father. Responsible mother or father.
The being selves: The Beach bum. Spirituality. The Meditator. The Relaxation self. The "who cares"/irresponsible self. The "just want to escape" self.
The personal selves: The pleaser. The feminine selves. The "bleeding heart" self. The empathic self. Most of the children selves.
The impersonal selves: The rational/logical selves. The power selves. The "who cares" self. The judge. Masculine selves. The rebel. The finance self.
The inner critic: a very powerful self in most of us, always criticizing us.
The perfectionist: a very powerful self in most of us.
The pusher: a mega-doing self. The self that says "let's go, do this, do that, do more, do more."
Transforming Personality: Index >>
Recognizing Subpersonalities
(Excerpt from http://www.meaningoflife.i12.com/subpersonalities.htm)
- Consider one of your prominent traits, attitudes, or motives.
- With your eyes closed, become aware of this part of you. Then let an image emerge representing it. It may be a woman, a man, an animal, an elf, an object, you in disguise, a symbol, or anything else in the universe. Do not consciously try to find an image (but always accept the first image that appears). Let the image or impression emerge spontaneously, as if you were watching a screen, not knowing what will shortly appear on it.
- As soon as the image has appeared, give it the chance to reveal itself to you without any interference or judging on your part. Let it change if it tends to do so spontaneously, and let it show you some of its other aspects if it wants to. Get in touch with the general feeling that emanates from it.
- Now let this image talk and express itself. Give it space, so to speak, for doing so; in particular, find out about its needs. Talk with it (even if your image is an object, it can talk back to you)
- Now open your eyes and record in your notebook everything that happened so far. Then give this sub-personality a name—any name that fits and will help you to identify it in the future. For example: "the Complainer," "the Artist," "the Bitch," "Santa Claus," "Jaws," "the Clown," "the Judge," "the I Told You So" and so on. Finally write about its traits, habits and peculiarities.
- After you have identified and exhaustively described one sub-personality you can go on to the others. But take your time and work on each one alone until you feel finished. The process requires merely picking a few more of your prominent traits, attitudes, or motives and going through steps 1 to 5 for each one. (Take one sub-personality per week and observe the unfolding of its energy very carefully in an impersonal and impartial way).
Transforming Personality: Index >>
Transforming Personality Audio Meditations
- Mdtn. 1: Subpersonality (30:00)
- Mdtn. 2: FillingWithLight (15:00)
- Mdtn. 3: Eternal Self & The Big Picture (15:00)
Transforming Personality: Index >>
Bibliography
Berkley, Deborah Hall 2001
Safe Eyes: A Story Of Healing. Warwick House Publishers; Lynchburg, Va.
Clark, Terri A., 1993
More Than One. T. Nelson; Nashville.
Firman, John & Ann Gila 2003
Psychosynthesis: A Psychology Of Spirit. Suny Press; Albany, New York
Firman, John and Ann Gila 2000
The Primal Wound: A Transpersonal View of Trauma, Addiction And Growth. State University Of New York Press; New York
Rowan, John 1993
Discover Your Subpersonalities: Our Inner World And The People In It. Routledge; London/New York
Rowan, John 1990
Subpersonalities: The People inside Us. Routledge, London/New York
Stone, Hal PhD and Sidra Winkelman PhD 1985
Embracing Our Selves. New World Library; San Raphael, CA
Stone, Hal PhD and Sidra Winkelman PhD 1989
Embracing Each Other: Relationship As Teacher, Healer & Guide. New World Library; San Raphael, CA