Thoughts on the Origin of the Human Self Identity

      The things which please or displease us we latch onto as what we identify ourselves with. I like chocolate cake. Me liking chocolate cake is a part of my identity. I was born in America. If this pleases me, then it becomes a part of my identity which I treasure. If it displeases me, it becomes a part of my identity I am ashamed of, but still a part of my identity. I write rambles, and it has become a part of my identity that I do so. Being a Christian has been a part of my identity for a long time. But the point is that the ego builds the illusion of identity around those things which either please or displease, which it either agrees with or disagrees with. This is why it can be so psychologically threatening when something which is agreed with or disagreed with is challenged. Even something as inane as fictional stories or characters. My agreement with, for example, that "Han shot first" in the original Star Wars becomes a part of my identity, and who I consider myself to be. Thus, when it is changed by the film maker, it threatens that identity (in reality, I don't personally care; I figured that was George Lucas' call and he can do whatever he wants with his film), and thus threatens me psychologically.

     In this way, one's ego, Old Man, or EMI is intrinsically tied to the hamartia malfunction, and is a by-product of it just as much as our sense of "right and wrong" or "good and bad" is a product of that malfunction. Furthermore, our assignation of "good" or "bad" to those things which please or displease, what the brain's fight/flight/feeding/sex response system mistakenly registers as survival necessities or survival threats, further reinforces those things as a part of our personal identity with which the ego uses to define itself, being a product of that malfunctioning fear survival response.

     Why does it do this? Because our survival response system is always in overdrive, it reacts with fear to nearly everything. And when we are panicked and afraid, we blind ourselves to our Source, the God in whose image we ourselves are made and carry, and are cut off in this way from the Spirit of Christ as Fear and Love cannot coexist together in the same place. One is blinded to God when he or she submits to their fear responses, and as human beings, we are subconsciously ruled by fear because of our malfunctioning survival responses. Being blind to the genuine source of identity, the brain panics and devises its own in order for it to continue to function.