Identification at The Almaasary • A Glossary of Key Passages from the Work of A.H. Almaas

Cause of Narcissistic Disturbance

Identification with mental representations, or a psychic structure patterned by such representations, is the most fundamental cause of narcissistic disturbance.
The Point of Existence, p. 91 • discuss »

Finding Your Identity

One thing that can help our investigation is to connect the feeling of "I," the feeling of self, to what is called "identity" or "identification". Finding out who you are is essentially finding your identity. You can see the connection between identity and identification, if you look at your experience of any moment, and see that at that very moment you are identifying with something, you're taking yourself to be something in particular. You might not be consciously aware of what you are taking yourself to be, but at any moment you are taking yourself to be something, or someone. So what we want to investigate is what or who you are taking yourself to be at each moment and question it.
Diamond Heart Book III, p. 19 • discuss »

Identification Systems as Most Subtle Defense

Our understanding is that to continue identifying with the particular ego structure is to continue the defense. In all the cases of an individual going from an ego state to a Being state, the main defensive maneuver is the identification with an ego structure, a self-image or an object relation. While it is true that one must deal with other defense mechanisms, like repression, reaction formation, projection and so on, ultimately one comes to face the identification systems themselves as the ultimate and most subtle defense.
Pearl Beyond Price, p. 137 • discuss »

The Mess that Most People Call Their Lives

The moment you take yourself to be anything in your mind, you are split from who you are, and you will experience insecurity, fear, and desire. The separation from your real self will bring wants and needs, the thoughts that accompany them, the feelings that accompany those, and the rest of the mess that most people call their lives.
Diamond Heart Book III, p. 91 • discuss »

Identifying Tension Patterns Can Bring Awareness Of One's Identifications

The permanent presence of identification systems in the mind can now be seen as a kind of indigestion or constipation. Any such system is a mental contraction, which is accompanied by physical contractions in the body. When inner sensitivity is refined, the tensions in the body which accompany the identification can be seen. These tensions are what William Reich called "the body armor" ...identifying these tension patterns can be very useful in the process of becoming aware of one's identifications.
Pearl Beyond Price, p. 164 • discuss »

Usage of "Identification"

The word “identification” as it is used in psychological literature is taken to mean the use of an image, impression, or representation to define our sense of who we are or our sense of reality. In other words, we take an image, impression, or piece of knowledge, and we make it into a basic building block of our sense of self. This is part of the process of the development of the ego—internalizing impressions, stabilizing them inside the mind, and using them to define who we are and what the world is. The way we use the term “identification” in our work includes this psychodynamic meaning, which views identification mainly as a historical process. But it also includes present-time activity: the action of identifying in this very moment. For example, we might be identifying with a particular structure that was formed by our ego in the past and has remained unconscious, such as “I am a strong woman” or “I am a stupid kid,” and we identify with it, which means that we believe that it is true—“that is what I am.” We are living out of that identification, moment to moment, even if we are not saying those words to ourselves.
The Unfolding Now, p. 142 • discuss »

Identifying with the Body

We act as if we were the body, and so our identification with it is ongoing, almost totally continuous. The body is happening this very moment; it is not just a memory, and it is not static. But we identify with it as if it were fixed. So what we are really identifying with is a body image—the image of our body that we have constructed in our mind. This is something from the past that is remembered and brought to bear in each moment. We actually feel our body according to that image. But even if we felt our body in its immediacy right now, we could also identify with that and limit our sense of who we are to only that experience.
The Unfolding Now, p. 143 • discuss »

Identifying with Emotions

We can experience the same kind of strong identification with an emotion. As we said earlier, the difference between identifying or not identifying depends on our response to the content that is arising, not on the content itself. So when I am feeling angry, I can be identified with the anger, which means, “I want to be angry. I have to be angry. I am going to continue to feel angry. I can justify why I am angry. I have all the right to be angry.” If I am not identified with the anger, I can say, “Okay, so I’m angry; that’s just what is happening right now. What’s the big deal? I get angry a lot; it comes and goes.”
The Unfolding Now, p. 144 • discuss »

Identification with the Present Moment

Identification most often happens in relation to events, structures, images, and beliefs from the past, but we can also identify with present-moment manifestations that are not reifications. Suppose you experience your True Nature and feel the presence of it as clarity and lightness. Simply being that spacious, clear presence is not the same as identifying with it. That’s because being your True Nature does not involve a mental operation; there is just the recognition that “this is what I am in the moment.” Now, you could identify with that presence once you recognized it, but identification adds something onto it. The mind comes in and holds on to the experience and becomes stuck in it. The mind wants to grasp it, to use it to identify who you are.
The Unfolding Now, p. 145 • discuss »

Lack of Identification with Anything

Yes, absence is absolute lack of identification with anything. Usually, though, we do not know what this means if we have not yet experienced absence. That is why I prefer to refer to it as the cessation of consciousness. Although I can describe it pretty well, absolute absence is difficult to imagine and understand. We can relate it to the experience of clarity, when your consciousness sometimes feels as clear as transparent glass or crystal. Now take that clarity and make it more clear, absolutely crystal clear. Then make it clearer and clearer and clearer and clearer and clearer until it is so clear that you can't even feel it. As the transparent medium of consciousness becomes so smooth, so clear, and so fine, it becomes thinner and more subtle and transparent. At its limit, absolute clarity is so fine, so clear, so subtle, and so thin that there is nothing there. The medium of consciousness is then absolutely erased. Complete absence is a state of complete lightness and openness because there is nothing there, not the slightest sensation, to obstruct the openness.
Diamond Heart Book V, p. 133 • discuss »

The Almaasary

Identification

Discuss Identification