One of the most important things to think about in metaphysics is your ego. It is capable of sabotaging your best efforts to do anything. That doesn’t mean to say that the Id or the subconscious part of you can’t do the same thing. It can ruin your plans like a prize fighter with a champion right hook. The ego is a close second to the amount of damage it can do.

There are people walking around who think they can do no wrong or that the rules of whatever don’t apply to them. If you know people like that, walk away as fast as you can because they will cause you no end of trouble. Have you considered that you might be one of those people? If you are one of them, probably not. They are notorious for being obtuse in the self-awareness category. If you can bring yourself to contemplate the question, congratulations, there is hope for you.

The reason we’re talking about the ego today is that your spiritual growth depends on whether or not you can keep it in check. I was on a panel that answered questions on a topic with which I have experience. There were several practitioners on the panel, and we got some interesting questions. What struck me about the experience was that everyone was almost combative about their position. What I mean is that when one person would say something, another person would almost contradict them. It generated an odd, almost uncomfortable energy. It felt like the other people on the panel had to be acknowledged as experts on the subject. I almost laughed watching everyone’s egos come into play while feeling sorry for the people who had asked a question. I’m sure they were struggling to make sense of what was presented to them.

When I’ve been on panels in the past, there was a cohesiveness to it. The practitioners didn’t always give the same answers, but they were all along the same lines and the same themes. I guess you could say it allowed the questioner to get a feel for where it was all headed. This time, it was all over the place, and I sat back and observed, but only after I felt my ego step up and want to tell another practitioner that they didn’t know what the hell they were talking about. When that happened, I took a mental step back and let things roll past me that I could have responded to but didn’t. Another practitioner sent me a message commenting something like, “Well, wasn’t that dismissive?” After someone felt the need to assert their point of view again.

I replied that everyone had their own perception, so whatever. Perception colors everything we do, whether we know it or not. If you are not able to see something in the way that someone else does, don’t make the mistake of thinking that what they see is invalid and discount it. Your way is not the only way, and if you think so, that is your ego getting in the way of any real growth the universe is presenting to you. The need to one-up someone can be a sign of insecurity or an attempt at putting someone else down for you to feel better.

With insecurity in charge, any effort you make toward spiritual growth will be sabotaged. Metaphysics is about expansion. Expansion of your cosmology and your belief system. It is further uncovering your strengths and your weaknesses. It is getting a closer look at yourself. To know yourself better and better. The ego wants us to focus outward. It’s safer. It’s easier to criticize or correct something “out there” than look inside ourselves. It’s easier when it’s someone else’s fault, and it’s hard to acknowledge that if there is a fault that it belongs to us.

The ego runs on what it perceives. Due to the limitations of our human bodies, there is a lot you don’t perceive. If there was a crime committed in public with eyewitnesses and they are asked to describe the perpetrator, the answers could be as varied as the colors of a rainbow. People can only describe what they perceive, but what they perceive might only be a fraction of what is really there. It doesn’t make it invalid, only incomplete. It’s a failing of the ego to believe that what we can see is all there is. We are willing to make the concession that while others might be missing something, we refuse to acknowledge that it is us that’s missing something.

Another thing I noticed during the panel was that people didn’t listen well. It’s like they found something in what the questioner said and glommed onto it, shaping their entire response around that one thing. They spoke without realizing that the part they chose to focus on was only a small part of the question. In short, this panel was fascinating. I spent more time observing the other practitioners than answering questions. I saw insecurity, indignation, and self-importance play out in a matter of a couple of hours.

Let me just say that I am not criticizing the other panelists. They are who they are, they are where they are in their spiritual journey. We all have our lessons to learn, and we will learn them or we won’t. Our choice. I learned my own lessons on that panel. I was able to identify when my own ego needed to sit back. As I mentioned earlier, I was tempted to tell someone that she was speaking on something that she clearly knew nothing about, but it wasn’t in anyone’s best interest to point out her ignorance at that time. Yes, I could have done it later, but I didn’t. I didn’t see the point in it. If the universe wanted to fill that gap in her knowledge through me, I would have felt the prompting. Who knows, it might come up if I ever see her again. The bottom line here is that we all have egos, and it’s always running its own agenda. To make sure you don’t allow the ego to give you tunnel vision when it comes to your spiritual growth, pay attention to those moments when you need to check that ego.