Id, Ego and Super-Ego (Video Transcript)
3.30.2011
Hi, my name is Jeremy Crow and in this video I'd like to explain the difference between the psychological concepts of Id, Ego and Super-ego and their relation to a spiritual path. These are three terms that were originated by Dr. Sigmund Freud and they represent three divisions of the mind. The Id is the inherent consciousness or physical intelligence of the body. It can also be described as the animal instincts that are inherent in all of us. Anyone with a body will have certain urges or desires and physical needs that will influence the mind in certain ways. A big portion of the mind is simply devoted to satisfying the physical needs in order to ensure your survival and also to avoid suffering and to seek pleasure. They say that when we are first born we are only Id. That the only form of mental activity that we have is related to those concerns and as we mature we develop the other vehicles which would be the Ego and the Super-ego.
The Ego is the individual personality and very early on as a little baby we can see that the Ego is starting to develop. The spark of what makes that person different from any other person is the personality: the part of ourselves that we feel is truly us. It's what you say when you say "me." And the Super-ego is the part of yourself that is transcendent. It is... now this is a bit of a controversial statement, but in my belief it's a part of yourself that you are addressing when you pray to God. I believe that most people are externalizing their sense of godhood; their own divine potential. Their own creative force is externalized as people aren't able to accept that they are divine and so they externalize the divinity and they pray to that externalized God. This is the Super-ego. It is a function of the mind... of your own mind but most people aren't willing to accept that part of themselves and they have to say that it's something outside of themselves. And those on the Left Hand Path would recognize this as their own inner divinity or their personal Buddha mind or cosmic consciousness... The Black Flame is a common term used in the Left Hand Path.
And these three divisions: Id, Ego, and Super-ego, it seems to me they're clearly based off of the ancient traditional tripartite division of humanity into Body, Soul, and Spirit. And another way to put that would be the Physical, the Personal and the Transcendental. So that's a... these are three parts of the self that should be in harmony with one another but in most people we experienced conflict: inner conflict. And one of the goals of the spiritual path whether you're on the Right Hand Path or the Left Hand Path it is imperative that you get all parts of yourself working in harmony with one another and in alchemy they would refer to this as: Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury which would correlate to Id, Ego and Super-ego. And when the three principal elements of Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury are purified and combined, that's when we create the Philosopher's Stone which elevates base metals like lead into noble metals like gold which don't tarnish. This is a metaphor for attaining immortality; attaining a level of personal integrity in the true sense of the word integrity. If you'd like to explore these ideas and related concepts even more you can visit my website at Jeremy Crow dot com and if you enjoyed this video you can certainly subscribe and get updated when I post another one. Hope you enjoyed it! Thank you.
If you feel that this material is important and useful please share it using the social media buttons provided at the side of the page. If you want to help support this website & the development of future content and projects please consider setting up an automatic monthly donation via my Patreon account: