THE IDENTITY OF MAN

Death, what is death. One way of expressing it is the point of separation of the spiritual essence of Man from the physical body. In facing up to his inner beliefs on death, Man can open himself up to the possibility that he is both a physical being and a spiritual essence which can express itself through the physical body.

Let us consider that Man's identity consists of both a Physical Self and the spiritual essence or Inner Self. Life provides the opportunity for the two parts to dance as one. This happens when in the creative moments of life our Physical Self is an expression of our Inner Self. This is the state of wholeness.

The instinct of Man is to survive and to preserve his species. He has been endowed with the gift of intellect. He sees his survival related

to that of his community and his beliefs. Through education and experience Man assumes the mental consciousness of his culture and particular community. I call this consciousness the Personality Consciousness. It has two parts. One which is known to the individual and one which is suppressed or unknown. The Personality Consciousness enables the individual to adapt himself to changes in his environment and to adapt his environment so he can avoid disasters, survive better. However, he can choose to use his gift of intellect in selfish ways and to destroy his organic relationship with nature, and thus use his gift to bring about his own destruction.

But Man is more than his instinct and his intellect. He has intuition, a sense of a deeper purpose and reason beyond his reason. This intuition is the opening to the expression of the Inner Self. The consciousness of the Inner Self is the Intuitive Consciousness.

Thus the identity of Man which will be used in this talk has four major parts, the Physical Self, the Inner Self, the Personality Consciousness, and the Intuitive Consciousness. The collective term for all these parts is Man.