Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 21:27:38 +0100

To: ken-wilber-l@listserv.azstarnet.com

From: Thomas Jordan <Thomas.Jordan@redcap.econ.gu.se

Subject: How to catch the ego: Part 4

How to catch the ego by the tail - some hints: Part 4

This fourth part deals with yet another strategy the ego employs to protect its precious interests and its precious coherence.

Control strategy 4: Self-concealment. Insincerity. Having hidden agendas, using manipulative tactics (not disclosing goals; maneuvering into superior position by relying on authority, tradition, alliances, etc.).

Being open with our true feelings and wishes means putting the satisfaction of our own interests and needs more in jeopardy than the ego might care to risk. Openness with what it is that is important to us, and what we truly feel might entail the loss of tactical advantages: we may be taken advantage of. The ego strategy is to survey all situations from a tactical perspective: should I disclose my intentions, should I show my true feelings?

There may be very good and well-founded reasons not to be open about our true intentions or feelings in some situations. However, self-concealment is a ego-defensive mechanism when it is used to save the ego from exposing itself to circumstances which might speak for giving up or changing some attachments we are very closely identified with. Authenticity is also to meet the world as one is, and exposing oneself to whatever might come. Such unprotected encounters might result in processes in which we find ourselves changing, which is a notion the ego would like to dodge.

By sensitizing ourselves to the tendencies to self-concealment we might expose the ego in all its slyness. Letting go of these strategies requires courage to risk being vulnerable. Vulnerability is a basic existential condition of being a person with living connectedness to the world around us.

Thomas