I VS We

If I told you that the adventure we call life is nothing more than the struggle between the I and the We, what would you think?

In fact, life is the story of how an "I" becomes many "I's" and wishes to return to being just one "I".

But to do so it has to unite all those selves into a We.

Do you realize that We is an I of many I's?

What a tongue twister.

Let us start from the beginning.

In the beginning there was Self-perception, Presence.

No Universe, no matter, no Space, no Time... Nothing.

Just a Presence.

A Something that feels itself.

But let us not assign it personality, nor thoughts. It is just Presence.

Have you ever meditated?

That state you reach by not having thoughts, is a reflection of that Presence which is the origin of life.

That Presence fragmented and the first two Identities were born.

Perception and Consciousness were born.

The Self was born.

That is, the Presence began to experience.

Consciousness is nothing more than the instants in which the Presence experiences.

This is explained in my book I Create a God and in the articles on this website, so I will not dwell on it too much.

The Self arises from the identification of the Presence that I am, with respect to the one that is not Me.

Just as it happens to you.

Look, you feel yourself and, therefore, you can verify that you exist.

But you do not feel the interior, the life, the Presence... of anyone else.

Only yours.

To the point that you might even wonder if the rest of the beings you interact with exist, or not.

Because you do not feel their Presence.

When you dream, the same thing happens to you.

You interact with beings, but do they exist when you wake up?

Do they exist during sleep?

Do they exist other than me?

Perhaps, everything is a creation of your mind, even the words you are reading at this moment could have been created by your mind.

Thus, every being is an I, is Consciousness.

Consciousness being the sum of the instants in which the Presence is experiencing.

That is, the Presence being an I, interacting with the scenario we call Reality.

That interaction generates the experience at each instant and, therefore, there is an I that is living, that is being Someone.

The problem with all this is that the Self-perception, the Presence, wishes to return to being just one.

The experience of Consciousness generates an eternal suffering... An inevitable suffering because of the experience itself.

That is why the Presence desires to return to being only one.

Notice that every living being is a manifestation of the Presence having experiences.

Every living being is Consciousness (Actually, every Identity, being that the cells that form a multicellular being lack experience and, therefore, Identity).

Since the Presence is the Totality, the only thing in the Universe.

Since the Universe, the Consciousness and all that exists are nothing but thoughts within the Presence.

Since Totality is always Individual.

Of course, if it were not Individual, it could not be the Totality... An apple is an apple.

An apple split in two is two parts of the apple and, in that case, neither of them is the apple.

Neither is the whole.

But the sum of both is the total.

A single total.

Therefore, the Totality is Individual.

In order for the different I's to become a single I, they must be grouped together into a We.

We, if you analyze it well, is an I that is Superior to many I's.

That is, when we form the group, it is One.

It is the way we individualize plurality.

The We is the way we turn many individuals into one.

So, when we group together and create a We, what we are doing is recognizing that there is an I that contains each one of us.

And, it is the same Self for all.

If we extend the grouping of a family, for example, to a whole village.

Later to a province.

A country.

A continent.

The world.

If we were to extend that We, in the end there would be only one Self that would contain us all.

That is what we are trying to do, unconsciously through the process I call Transference of Perception.

The We eliminates the differences to form one Self.

That is why it establishes what we call the Common Good.

That is to say, an I pursues the Individual Good.

It has its own interests and wants to achieve them.

Being a We, the collective does not pursue the Individual Good of each Self.

On the contrary, it pursues the Common Good, which is the standardization of the interests of each Self, renouncing the Individual Good.

Because the Common Good is not only the Good that will be pursued by the We, but the Good that will be pursued by each "I".

By grouping ourselves in a We, we renounce the Individual Good.

And, mind you, we do it naturally, unconsciously and we are delighted to do it.

Because, that is what we are and what we do.

It is effortless because we are designed that way. It is what we are.

The most surprising thing comes next.

The We is a Higher Self.

Rather, the We will end up being a Higher Self.

Thus, the Common Good will be transformed into the Higher Good.

The collective will no longer pursue the Common Good, being that which pursues the interests common to the individuals of the group.

Rather, it will pursue the Highest Good.

And what is this?

Well, the Highest Good is the recognition that, above the members of the group, there is a Higher Self with its own interests.

An example?

Soldiers go to war to defend the nation.

Ants die defending the anthill.

The Nation and The Ant Hill are a Higher Self.

One kills and dies for this abstract concept of group.

Individuality is renounced to be part of the group, defending the members.

But, later, the concept of the Higher Self will be defended, which has priority over the members that form it.

First the I renounces its Individuality for the We.

And the We renounces its essence for the Higher Self.

Since the We has never been anything other than a Higher Self.

Moving from an I to a We, and then from We to a Higher Self is an unconscious process that I call Perceptual Transfer (or Identity Transfer).

Do you want an example of what happens when this process of renunciation of the Self culminates?

Well, when the Transference of Perception culminates, Someone like you is born.

What do I mean?

You are a Higher Self than the little "I's" that form you.

You are a multicellular being.

Think of the first multicellular being that was born.

First some cells grouped together.

They went from being an "I" to a "We".

From pursuing the Individual Good to pursuing the Common Good.

And, then, they went from the We to the Higher Self.

From the Common Good to the Higher Good.

They no longer cared about living or dying, but what really mattered was that the Higher Self they formed lived.

And that Higher Self is the total individualization of plurality.

That is life.

The adventure of life is the attempt of all beings to group us into one.

That is what will eventually happen.

In the end, we will all form the Supreme Self.

And, with that Higher Self, the one that will contain all the others, existence will come to an end.