The New Paradigm
vol. I, Number 11

Dear Friends,

Swiss psychologist Carl Jung (1875-1961) described ego as "...the centre of my field of consciousness...."

"But," he continued, "inasmuch as the ego is only the centre of my field of consciousness, it is not identical with the totality of my psyche...."¹

The "totality of my psyche" Jung called the self, which includes contents beyond the horizon of conscious awareness and is not ultimately bound within any definable limits.

Now, "old paradigm" consciousness is very much dominated by the ego. Ego is at the center of consciousness and is effectively presumed to be at the center of the universe; which immediately leads to problems, because one soon encounters all these other egos out there who seem to be under some sort of illusion that they are at the center of the universe. So right away we have problems with the ego.

In the course of life one further discovers that the universe is evidently a mighty big place in comparison with shimself,² and that there is an aweful lot going on "over the horizon" and beyond the view or awareness of "little me," ego. This can be seriously "deflating" to ego, who may feel the need to bolster shim's presence in the universe by any plausible means, such as assirting shim's supremacy over something or someone apparently even less significant than shimself. "I may not amount to a hill of beans," shim may say, or think, "but at least I'm better than you."

This familiar schoolyard game may be, and has been, played out on any number of different levels, manifesting as racism, nationalism, religious bigotry, imperialism, various flavors of chauvinism, the caste system in India, etc. At the level of nations, empires and the global community the result is a stratified society in which everybody ideally occupies some position on a heirarchical scale of relative worth, with the aristocracy at the top and the destitute and homeless at the bottom: ideally, that is, for the aristocracy, to whose advantage this arrangement seems to work most favorably. It is therefore always in the incumbent aristocracy's evident best interest to go to any lengths necessary to perpetuate what we have been calling here the "old paradigm."

So long as everybody knows shim's place in the heirarchy, is respectful and deferential to shim's "superiors," gracious and tolorant of shim's "inferiors" and civil to shim's "peers," we have what we call "civil society," or "civilization;" and everybody is supposed to be happy and satisfied. Those who are not may be incarcerated, exiled, "fed to the lions," or otherwise "edited out" of the system. This is the basic paradigm upon which all civilizations have been built so far in recorded history, and apparently in prehistory, where evidence is limited to ruins and artifacts unearthed by anthropologists.

However: there is demonstrably more to anyone than shim's ego. Ego, being the center of consciousness is after all the center, relatively, of not very much; for just in the course of normal wakefulness, thoughts, ideas and sensations are entering and exiting the sphere of conscious awareness at all times. Where do they come from, and where do they go? Where is the memory of an experience you know you had, but cannot recall? Whence comes a creative inspiration that enters your consciousness at some point in time, which you eventually bring to fruition as a manifest creation? Further, are your creative thoughts and inspirations entirely your own? Or are they influenced imperceptably by the thoughts and inspirations of others, both within and without your conscious awareness? In a moment of reflection you can conclusively verify that there is much, much more to you than the contents of your conscious awareness, and hence, than your ego.

Or consider your physical body, which is easy to equate with yourself, as distinguishable from anybody else; but reflection blurs the distinction. Within your body are various vital organs, without which it could not function. Among these are your lungs, which supply every cell in your body with a continuous flow of atmospheric components, particularly oxygen, essential for their metabolism. But the function of your lungs is inseparable from the atmosphere they breathe; therefore it is not inapropriate to observe that the envelope of air that surrounds the entire Planet is a vital organ of your personal body. Moreover, your body imports oxygen as a vital metabolic element, and exports carbon dioxide as a byproduct; but carbon dioxide is a vital component for the metabolism of all green plants, which produce oxygen as a byproduct. Therefore you posess another "distributed vital organ" consisting of all green plants on the Planet; for without them free oxygen would not be an atmospheric component, and your body could not function on the face of the Earth.

Similarly, your metabolism, and that of all biological entities, depends upon the radient energy of the Sun, some 93 million miles removed from your local "body;" yet does the Sun not constitute a "vital organ" at least as important as your lungs, or your heart, or your brain? And where would the Sun be, if not for the Galaxy? And where the Galaxy, if not for the Local Cluster? And so forth....

Thus both physically and psychically, any line you draw in the sand to distinguish "you" from "not-you" is arbitrary and ultimately misleading. No such distinction can be made with any claim to "objective certainty." Your self, then, as distinguished from your ego, expands without limit to fill the entire universe, and overlaps almost totally with the self of every "other" being or entity in the universe. This is a fundamentally "new paradigm" understanding, and the basis of an entirely alternative approach to all relationships, including what would correspond to "old paradigm civilization."

The realization of self as your true identity is no threat to ego; for ego is still the center of conscious awareness. The only thing that has changed is: now you are consciously aware that you are not limited by your conscious awareness. Instead of identifying with ego, which is limited in countless different ways, you discover you are at liberty to identify with self, which is fundamentally limitless, boundless, immortal, and posessed of infinite wisdom, love, power and creativity. All these fine things may not be within your conscious awareness at the moment, but they must be at least potentially available to you, personally; for you already have the experience of thoughts, sensations and things coming into your awareness from somewhere outside of it, all the time.

Allow this "new paradigm" awareness to percolate through your consciousness, and that of your fellows, and really take root and grow, and the whole world will be transformed before your eyes. No longer will you have any "enemies," "competitors," "opponents." Unless that is what you want. As you explore the ramifications and implications of the "new paradigm" (which isn't new at all, but may be new to you, as it is new to me) you will discover that you can have it any way you like it. You are not a victim of "circumstances beyond your control:" there are no "circumstances beyond your control," in the whole length and bredth of the entire universe; and no victims. You are here because, consciously or unconsciously, this is where you have decided do be, under the circumstances you find, for a purpose you may or may not at the moment remember.

As to the heirarchical "old paradigm civilization," it is now in the final stages of self-destruction, fated from its inception perhaps many thousands of years ago. For it is founded upon the irreconcilable contradiction created when ego insisted upon placing shimself in intrasigent opposition to "everything else." This was/is a product of fear, based upon the self-evident fundamental limitations of ego-awareness in the midst of the incomprehensible (to ego) universe. Ego's reflexive reaction to the Unknown is fear; and since virtually everything was, and remains, Unknown, ego naturally fears everything, and consequently hates everything.

The inevitable result has been a succession of self-contradictory and self-destructive "civilizations" in which ego busies shimself with endless games of shim's own devising which create the illusion of "control," "knowledge," "security." These illusions are persuasive, so long as ego does not venture beyond the parameters of the game of the moment, such as "the Roman Empire," or "the Soviet Union," or "the United States of America," or "Western Civilization." These are all games in which ego writes the rules and pretends that shim is in "control" of something substantial; when in fact it is all imaginary, and less substantial than the wind. Such games inevitably self-destruct, only to be replaced by other games no less futile than those that preceded them, so long as the "old paradigm" persists in which ego carries on the charade of being "in control." When "everything is under control," chaos reigns.

Today the incumbent aristocracy are scrambling desperately to regain and maintain "control" in a world where the illusory borders between "this" and "that," "us" and "them," "me" and "you" are rapidly breaking down. Agencies like the World Bank, the International Monitary Fund, the Council on Foreign Relations, the United Nations, and many others, are striving with might and main to establish a so-called "New World Order" whose overarching purpose is to maintain, by any means whatsoever, the incumbency of the incumbent aristocracy.

Theirs is not a particularly pleasant position, notwithstanding the incalculable wealth and political power evidently at their disposal; for their wealth and power have been accumulated by stealth and deception, and have validity only within the paramaters of their imaginary games. When "We the People" all over the world awaken to the real wealth and power that is Ours by virtue of Our limitless and cosmic Self, and cease playing the silly games made up to comfort the idle fears of terrified egos, then will we see the birth of a human society which will render every "old paradigm civilization" of the past and present as a cave encampment out of our primitive and forgotten prehistory. This is the paradigm shift taking place today, in which the incumbent aristocracy may be the last to participate, simply because they are so emersed in their ego games that by the time they wake up, the rest of us may have long since gone on to create a real human civilization.

Is that so?

Love & Light,

-- Harmon
J. Harmon Grahn

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1. C.G. Jung, Psychological Types, Revision by R.F.C. Hull of the Translation by H.G. Baynes, Bollingen Series XX, Princeton University Press, 1971, 1974, 1976, 1990, p. 425.

2. My essays of this vintage were perhaps blemished by the affectation of the gender-neutral personal pronoun, "shim," as explained in an editorial asside, "A note on the need for a gender-neutral personal pronoun," 24 December 1997.