I am not Me–Your Self (2024 edition)

This week’s episode was first broadcast in May of 2021

So far, here at Gnostic Insights, we have discussed the basic cosmology of Gnosticism as explained by the Tripartite Tractate of the Nag Hammadi codices, and those are outlined in the first eight episodes of this Gnostic Insights podcast.

I recommend that you listen to those first eight episodes, and you can find them on the GnosticInsights.com website, under the tab, The Gnostic Gospel Primer. We’ve also begun to discuss the Simple Explanation of Absolutely Everything, which was my previous format, you might say, for understanding our world. You see, we all build these models in our minds of how things work, and this is there, and that’s there, and this is who I am, and that’s who you are, and this is why things happen, and it’s all so confusing.

So over the many years, I have developed a philosophy called A Simple Explanation of Absolutely Everything, which you can find on my blog of the same name, and it is not specifically what you would call Gnostic. However, it is Gnosis in the sense of knowledge, and I am always happy to share that. I have also incorporated a few of the basic memes from the Simple Explanation into my Explanation of the Gnostic Gospel, and that is why sometimes we hear words in my podcasts that you don’t find written in the Nag Hammadi, words like memes, and words like fractals, and units of consciousness.

And so it’s helpful to listen to these podcasts basically in the order that they have been recorded so that you can understand the memes I am using, and this will assist in your own remembering of the Gnosis that is within you. Today’s episode of Gnostic Insights is about who we are. Who am I? is the question we always ask ourselves.

Am I my ego? Am I my Self? Am I God Consciousness? Who am I? My ego is not really me, even though that’s who I usually think I am. We think of the mind and ego as ourselves, but this is the delusion. Yes, the me package reflects our personalities, but I am much more than the meme bundles and karma of this personality.

Nor am I my mind. My mind is like a tuning device that scans for and locks onto my meme bundle. The ego feeds on the memes tuned in by my mind. My mind is directed toward its preferred memes by my karmic record. Ego is not a conscious entity. Ego is only a construction.

Ego is like a garment that we wear. It’s a garment that is cast over ourselves. It is like a vessel that contains or a shadow that outlines my Self’s unit of consciousness. Underneath this garment of me resides a perfect fractal of the originating units of consciousness, and that is known as my Self, Self with a capital S. I am a unit of consciousness that is identical to the universal unit of consciousness, which in Gnosticism we would call the Father, the Son, the Fulness. These are the archetypal patterns held by the mind of God, so to speak. And I hold one of these fractals of that perfect originating consciousness within myself.

So in terms of the model that I’ve constructed in the first eight episodes of the Gnostic Insights podcast, the Fullness of God in the illustrations that I’ve drawn looks like a pyramid of stacked golden cannonballs. It just looks that way, because it’s a hierarchy, and a hierarchy means that the higher the fewer. A hierarchy looks like a pyramid.

There are more objects at the bottom, and there are fewer and fewer as you climb up toward the top. And at the very tip top, just above this hierarchy of the Fullness, is the Son of God, or the Son of the Father. And the Son is a perfect fractal of the Father.

So if I think of my own Self, I have one of these golden pyramids within my mental construct, and that is myself. And it is a fractal of the Fullness of God. So within myself, I have access to the entire Fullness of God, or you could say, I have access to all of the Aeons of the hierarchy.

In the Simple Explanation model, instead of this being a golden pyramid, the Self-unit of consciousness is described as looking like a donut, a torus. And I’ve been trying not to bring the torus into the Gnostic Insights. However, it is such a good model that it’s difficult not to bring it in.

So we can also think of the Self as this energetic bubble that’s shaped like a donut that has a very, very tiny center, and it’s kind of wrapped all around me, and there’s a little donut associated with every unit of consciousness in my body, from the particles on up. When you’re looking at the illustrations, it makes a lot more sense. So I would also encourage you to visit a Simple Explanation blog and read about the toruses, or look at how it is that we might consider this donut shape to be a representation of the shape of our unit of consciousness.

My body is a veritable galaxy of units of consciousness working to instantiate me. The simpler the unit of consciousness, the more of them there are. So while there is only one of me, my body is comprised of 11 organ systems made of 78 organs, which in turn comprise 30 trillion specialized cells made up of such a large number of atoms and molecules that I wouldn’t even know how to read or write the numbers.

The more organized and complex the unit of consciousness, the fewer of them there are. That follows the precept called the higher the fewer. Note that the mind, or ordinary consciousness, as well as the subconscious, are artifacts of the organ systems, the organs and cells that make up my body.

In other words, the mind and the ego are my meat’s  thought processes, not my higher Self’s. My Self unit of consciousness sits atop this hierarchical mountain of countless units of consciousness, all working to instantiate my body. While it may feel as though I am the only conscious entity inhabiting this body of mine, my physical body is actually home to all of these aggregated units of consciousness, each with their own jobs to perform, each laying down their own karmic record.

Lucky for me, their job is to hold me together and facilitate this life of mine, and they generally go along with the program and do a good job. Another basic trait of my aggregate units of consciousness is this. The more units of consciousness on the same level of complexity that are laterally linked, so for example, molecules to molecules, atoms to atoms, cells to cells, the greater their shared perception of here and now.

This means that when you add up all of these units of consciousness together that make up my body, their aggregated consciousness is about as aware as my singular Self unit of consciousness. And those aggregated units of consciousness that make up my mud, so to speak, and my meat, are everywhere I am. No wonder I can get around so well without my conscious Self paying much attention.

The ego is my subjective sense of who I am, and it is largely a reflection of myself’s units of consciousness choices, that is, my karma, and the memes I cling to, which are my beliefs and my narratives. My ego also reflects my body’s aggregates, and their karmas, and their meme choices. Ego is not identical to the Self, as the Self unit of consciousness is the immutably perfect soul that exists independent of this material instantiation.

I have the choice at every moment of time to either identify with me and my bundle of memes, or to identify with the universal unit of consciousness, and the bigger picture that transcends personal identity. The egoic me is selfish, competitive, single-minded, short-sighted, and meme-bound. Transcending ego, I reach out to others with love, help, and information for the betterment of all, what we call here at Gnostic Insights theSimple Golden Rule.

The egoic self, which is self-centered and only takes care of me, it is patterned after the Fall. It is patterned after Logos having fallen, because Logos broke from the Fullness of God and went out on a solo endeavor, but it didn’t work out well, and Logos fell. And the results of the Fall is this world that we live in, and so when you dwell deeply in the world as it appears, you are living an egoic lifestyle.

My true Self, being one of the fractals of the Fullness, is unified with the Fullness of God, is unified with the grand scheme of redemption, and joy, and love. I have the choice at any moment of time to either identify with me and my bundle of memes, or to identify with the universal unit of consciousness, or the Fullness of God. And the more I step away from my selfish ego and identify with my transcendent Self, the more I can cooperate with other people and with the entire world in order to instantiate the golden rule, and work with others with information and love to build something better that will benefit the all.

For most people, the answer to Who am I? is that I am my Self-aware sense of me encased in this body of mine that I’m walking around in. The Gnostic Insights would suggest that we are that, but we are also the things we love and the things we hate, which is our meme bundle. Plus, we are the record of our actions in this world, which is our karma, and that is overlaid over our essential unit of consciousness, or our essential Self.

Think of a unit of consciousness as a perfect echo or waveform that is shaped exactly like God’s mind. You could say that our universe is populated by fractal echoes of the Father’s primordial consciousness. The units of consciousness are all identical because they are all reflections of the Father’s unit of consciousness.

What makes me different from you is the pattern of my meme bundles and the karma that overlays or filters my pure unit of consciousness. The Self unit of consciousness is a perfect fractal reflection of the Father’s unit of consciousness. But I, that is the subjective sense of me, am not that perfect, because of my meme attachments and my karma.

And within our bodies, we have every single type of unit of consciousness from the hierarchy of God. So, each cell in the body knows how to do that cell’s function. Each organ in my body knows how to perform its job. The heart knows how to do the job of the heart. The stomach knows how to digest food. Everything in your body is a unit of consciousness, and it is fully loaded with all of the information of the Fullness of God. But only the part that is its personal sphere of responsibility is unlocked. That’s what I mean by a need-to-know basis. We’re all fractals.

Within my body, there are countless fractals of the Fullness of God, or the pleroma, and each one of them is doing its job to keep me alive and walking around, because they are operating according to the Simple Golden Rule of reaching out and holding hands with their neighbors, working together with information, with coherence, with love, to work for the betterment of all.  am also the Self-aware unit of consciousness generated at conception.

Like all units of consciousness, this capital letter Self came into this universe as a perfect echo of God’s mind. The job of this Self-unit of consciousness is to oversee my body’s aggregated units of consciousness, and to join with others like myself to build things. I am influenced in my decision-making by many forces acting upon me as I approach the here and now. These forces include the karmic records and meme bundles of myself and my body’s aggregate units of consciousness, and the karma and memes of those around me. Despite these influences acting upon me, it is always within my power to make a free-will decision at any particular moment in time.

So, for most people, the answer to, Who am I? is that I am my Self-aware sense of me, encased in this body of mine, and I would suggest that we are that, but we are also the things we love and hate, plus the record of our actions in this world, overlaid upon that unit of consciousness.

You could say that our universe is populated by fractal echoes of the Father’s primordial consciousness, and these units of consciousness are all identical, because they are all fractal reflections of the Father’s unit of consciousness. And what makes me different from you is the pattern of my memes and the karma that I have accrued, which overlays and filters out that perfect fractal Self. The Self-unit of consciousness is a perfect reflection of the Fullness of God, but I, the subjective sense of me, am not that perfect because of my meme attachments and karma.

Units of consciousness gather their systemic patterns and the universal operating laws required to get the job done, from the information constantly flowing into and throughout our universe. The phenomenon known as coherence ensures the compatibility and integrity of these universal patterns and laws. What we call love is the felt experience of coherence.

Brethren units of consciousness need information and they need love in order to join together and work toward a common goal. Cells work together for the greater good of their organisms through information and love. Families and societies get the job of social order and cohesion done through information and love. In order for human units of consciousness to join and work together for the greater good, they need relevant information, including shared meme cords, they need to be willing to channel coherence from the Fullness, and they need to love one another.

Anger, hatred, division, finger-pointing cannot get the job done of making this a better place, because it is not working out of coherence and love, according to the Simple Golden Rule. The essence of the consciousness of the Father is love, whereas the essence of this fallen world is confusion and delusion and Self-centeredness. Our fallen world does not operate according to the precepts of the golden rule, unless we enact it.

The soul associated with this material body of mine is a perfect replica of the originating unit of consciousness, or you could say it is a fractal of the Fullness of God. If, during my life, my unit of consciousness is affected by the aggregated units of consciousness of my body, then what, if anything, affects my perfect soul, Self, unit of consciousness after the body passes away? Perhaps the individual me that persists beyond death comes down to my ongoing karma. If this is the case, then the me that continues to influence the fate of the Self after death is nothing but the holographic pattern of all the choices ever made by my unit of consciousness.

In life, this karmically generated vibratory pattern attracts or repels the memes associated with my meme bundles. The memes I think of as me are not a part of my Self, unit of consciousness, but they are drawn to me by my karmic pattern. It is my karmic record that attracts and repels the patterns of memes surrounding my life at any moment.

That the you that exists between material incarnations is nothing but your karmic record is proved by one of our basic assertions that all units of consciousness are fundamentally one and the same, and that all units of consciousness begin their individuated journey as perfect echoes of the Fullness of God. Then it follows that I develop as a result of my choices and the choices of others. I am my perfect unit of consciousness, enshrouded in karma and the memes that my karma attracts.

In yogic philosophy, it is said that an enlightened yogi has become free of attachments and can therefore perceive the oneness of all things. The Simple Explanation of this phenomenon would be that the yogi has successfully laid down all of his or her memes and can therefore perceive his or her perfect unit of consciousness now stripped from its karmic shroud. Freed of personal memes and karma, the yogi can instantiate God’s will without delusion.

The same phenomenon is known as Buddhahood in Buddhism and Sainthood in Christianity. According to tradition, these liberated units of consciousness are no longer bound to this material world by their discarded memes. If they do return to Earth, it is in order to help others by sharing love and information.

In Gnostic terms, these units of consciousness of which I’ve been speaking are called Second Order of Powers. We are Second Order Powers, and we bear the likeness of the First Order of Powers, who are the Aeons of the Fullness. We Second Order Powers are also called those of the remembrance, because we were implanted with a dim memory of the Father and the Son, and a longing to rejoin the Aeons in the hierarchy and this dream of paradise that is in our minds because it is in the minds of the Aeons.

We Second Order Powers are considered to be superior to those of the imitation because we come from noble thought and not presumptuous thought. In other words, the Second Order Powers embrace the memes of the Fullness of God. We hold the memes of the Aeons within ourselves, whereas those of the imitation came from the fall and the presumptuous egoic thought of Logos.

Consequently, those of the imitation have egoic, selfish motivations rather than altruistic, loving motivations. Even those of the remembrance barely remember the Father and the Son and the Fullness, and we are locked in an endless war with the dark side of our natures and with other people who stand in our way. Those of the imitation defend and embrace the darkness of the deficiency, while those of the remembrance do their best to overcome their darker nature and follow the light.

When we set aside our earthly memes, that is, when thought is suspended, language is suspended, in, for example, meditation, then the person’s governing unit of consciousness remains. This fractal unit of consciousness, the Self, underlies the memes. Unencumbered by meme attachments, the person’s governing unit of consciousness aligns with the universal unit of consciousness, and this is called bliss in Buddhist and yogic teachings.

Be still and know that I am God is how the Bible says it. Stillness reveals the secrets of eternity. To be still is how we hear God. Be still.

Thank you for joining me today with Gnostic Insights. Onward and upward, and God bless.

Exciting news–I’m nearing completion of reformatting A Simple Explanation of the Gnostic Gospel of the Tripartite Tractate. It should be ready any day now. Then it will take a couple of weeks to read the proof copy and put it up for distribution. I could really use your help at this point for paying for advertising and promotion. Miguel Conner of Aeon Byte Gnostic Radio has agreed to narrate the book, and that should be ready for distribution by the end of summer. I also need funds to pay Miguel for his work. Any amount you can contribute to this effort will be greatly appreciated. I would be happy to personally mail you a signed copy of the book for contributions over $50. Just send me you address and a note via the Contact Me form at gnosticinsights.com. Thank you!