Comments on: THE BIRTH OF SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS

By: Gary

Gary — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 16:42:40 +0000

O yes, I know what you mean.
Man, I was soooo self-conscious, especially as a teenager – feeling like I was hovering a meter above me; seeing me walking. Most annoying.
Luckily I started feeling One again. Which does not mean I don’t see the difference between the soul and the body. The body has just found its place (along with the mind) as the natural instrument of ‘self’expression.

By: bertha

bertha — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 22:48:40 +0000

You used what could have been a thought provoking article into a diatribe against G.W. Bush. I wonder if you are aware of your unconscious mind? Perhaps you need to reexamine your motives and see what the current regime is doing against our liberties? It is of course interesting that you use writtings about WWI and comparing with what is happening now in view of the fact that Woodrow Wilson was a criminally subversive president and another democrat. Please do not misunderstand me I am disillusioned by both parties. I see the two parties juggling us back and forth taking us blindly perhaps unconsciously perhaps not ,down a road to disaster. Perhaps I did glean something from your writting, I hope you did.

By: Kris Knight

Kris Knight — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 15:15:21 +0000

Just finished reading all your former articles and now have just read the above sharing. Your analytical navigation with the psyche is marvelous. Perhaps it seems so partly because I am able to comprehend what you are describing in your writings; if I were not, they’d be way over my head.
I too have come to so many similar findings and find it a daily quest to balance the observing with the being observed by me, and then negotiating variances of effect that I can influence through my thoughts, actions and most of all, observation. Thank you so much, again.

By: Lucy Johnson

Lucy Johnson — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 16:43:58 +0000

Thanks so much, Paul…..
For Your example and clear analysis of the dilemma/ problem of the arising separate self-consciousness for all of us. And then, in so beautifully and thoroughly illuminating the path of return, You have remindedme that in a moment, through awareness i can energetically reclaim the power and authority to BE (myself). What a teaching!

By: David Beckemeier

David Beckemeier — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 14:09:05 +0000

Paul, I thouroughly enjoyed this article, particularly the last paragraph, very profound. It inspires me to further contemplate something that happened in my case when I was about three. I know it is earlier than your story, which I have considered, yet it feels like the “birth of shame” in my life. Look forward to more of your Wisdom.
Warm Regards, David

By: Mielaz

Mielaz — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 22:06:36 +0000

Very insightfull reading, and i can really relate to it. I sometimes in the middle of a interaction, become aware of myself and cant focus on what the person is saying, and therefore it becomes akward looking them in the eyes, so I look away, and I feel like they can sense something odd is going on, and the whole thing becomes very emberrasing.

By: Joey Tavares

Joey Tavares — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 23:46:48 +0000

Paul, thank you. I will always remember, at this catharsis, that I was fortunate enough to be able to give a “Thank You” to a deserving enabler.

May happenstance continue to be my Guide, and lead me once more to Truths such as yours…

Ours.

Merci mille fois, gentil homme…

By: Amy

Amy — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 12:44:02 +0000

Your writing got me thinking – wouldn’t it be wonderful if we lived in a world where 2nd grade teachers were trained to be alert for moments such as the one you described? Knowing that children – especially sensitive and creative ones – become self-conscious around this time, aware teachers might notice and approach the child after class – help the child process the experience – perhaps help avoid the person being stuck for years in shame and pain. Imagine, even if the teacher had helped you just at that moment and instead of laughter at you and shame, there had been kindness and understanding?

This kind of sensitivity training could be given to doctors, parents, teachers, every caregiver – imagine going through life surrounded by adults who could be with and talk to you at that level, help you through…what an evolved world we might live in then.

peace.

By: Michael Copley

Michael Copley — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 09:32:02 +0000

Paul, thanks a million for sharing your insights and your love. Our greatest initiations are not easy but we come out of these journeys with profound depth, gifts and abilities that were not there before our ordeal. We are indeed our own shamans and we can let others light their candles off our light should they want to.

Sending you great joy from Cape Town, South Africa.

By: Fran Bull

Fran Bull — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 02:20:16 +0000

Paul, a million thanks for this generously shared, candid and deeply perceptive article. You have helped me immeasurably to look at an aspect of my own life I’d go so far as to call “the elephant in the parlor”, a terror that has plagued me all my life. Analysis has given me a thousand ways to look at it, live with it, but none so vibrantly clear, hopeful and profound (and fascinating) as what you have written here. The label Wounded Healer comes to mind! You are he.