A man goes to a psychiatrist, who decides to use a Rorschach Ink-Blot Test to evaluate his new patient. He shows the man a page with a large ink-blot on it and asks the man to describe what he sees. The man tells the doctor he sees two people engaged in sex. The psychiatrist shows him another ink-blot, and again the man sees sexual activity. On the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth ink-blots, the man continues to see nothing but sex. Finally, the psychiatrist asks, “Sir, doesn’t it seem strange that everything you see is erotic?” “What do you expect?”, Replies the man, “All you show me are dirty pictures.”
A vitally important step on the spiritual path is taken when an individual accepts responsibility for his life and his experience of the world. Just like our friend who sees sexual acts in blots of ink, the external reality we perceive arises from the inner contents of our minds and the types of perceptions we desire. We are not passive spectators watching the world turn regardless of our wishes. Quite the contrary, we each live in a world of our own choosing; one which reflects our core beliefs, no matter how unconsciously held, about who we think we are. Formulating images of ourselves in our minds, we manifest scenarios that justify and support these images.
Projection is the great determiner of perception. Our inner world of mind, thoughts, and desires incites the dynamic of projection on two levels, the sensory and the psychological. On the sensory level, the world perceived by an individual is a mental phenomenon developed from the intercourse of senses and sense objects. As modern science tells us, all form is actually condensed energy, and energy is vibratory in nature. When the vibrations of the external world strike the various senses, they produce the corresponding responses of sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell. The mind synthesizes these sensory experiences and produces a composite picture, which is then projected onto the external environment, creating the appearance of a world “out there.” The apparently concrete, external world is actually a mental image projected onto abstract patterns of energy. This may sound shocking to our usual way of thinking, but it is entirely consistent with the teachings of the ancient sages of the East, as well as contemporary physicists of the West.
On the psychological level, an individual projects his desires onto the sensory world, thereby creating his unique experience. That is why a group of people can drive through a town and each sees something different. The hungry one sees the restaurants, the businessman sees the banks, the lusty one sees the attractive bodies. Each sees a town different from the others, based on his interests and desires.
One’s psychological reality is also greatly influenced by projections of ownership. A man might own a coat and care for it with great attention, but after he gives it away he no longer cares what happens to it. The coat remains the same and its objective value does not change, the only thing that changes is the man’s mind. He no longer projects onto the coat his desire for possession and the thought that it belongs to him.
What drives this mechanism of projection? In yoga, it is called ahamkara, or ego. The term “ego” is used differently in yoga than it is by Freud and most schools of Western psychology. In yoga, the ego is the part of consciousness that desires to identify itself as a distinct personality. It is the part of us that seeks to be different, to be special, to be better than others. This seeking creates a feeling of separation and the ego experiences itself as apart, as opposed to apart, of life and of God.
The ego uses projection as a means of demarcating what it considers “me” from who it deems “other.” In an attempt to rid itself of qualities with which it does not wish to be identified, the ego projects onto “other” people. People then appear as ugly, violent, cruel, and threatening. Projection, however, is a total process, and the ego’s baby ends up getting thrown out with its bathwater. Those characteristics with which the ego would like to be identified, those qualities which it deems “me,” also get projected. Different people then appear as beautiful, wise, powerful, spiritually advanced, etc.
Projection inevitably results in conflict, for every ego is convinced that its projected values are right and proper. And it is the nature of the ego that it has little reluctance to attack, or even kill when it feels justified. Thus we can understand the remarkable phenomenon in war that all parties are confident God is on their side.
Most people spend their lives trying to avoid pain by withdrawing from the “bad” things in the world and pursuing pleasure by obtaining the “good.” But the ego is never able to quite get the world the way it desires, so frustration grows and peace becomes impossible. When a person psychologically projects, he gives power to the world to hurt him or to make him complete, preventing him from realizing the invulnerability and wholeness of Soul consciousness. No one can obtain what he really wants from the external world because what he really wants is inner peace. This can only be achieved when the dynamics of projection cease and the separative ego is transcended in Soul consciousness.
The decision to take responsibility for one’s consciousness makes one a spiritual aspirant. The methods one uses to grow spiritually will vary based on inclination. What is universal to this process of growth, however, is that one becomes increasingly free of psychological projections and the resultant anger, jealousy, pride, guilt, and fear. With this freedom comes an increasing sense of the beauty of all life and the inherent sacredness of all beings. Assuming responsibility is the way beyond the ego, and the vision of the Soul awaits those who travel its path.
