What is EGO? Ego functions, ego voices and how to deal! (EGO DEATH in spirituality)

If you want to understand the voices inside your mind that make you suffer, you need to understand your ego! To help you out, in this post I will tell what it is, what it sounds like and how you can calm it down!

As a bonus, at the end I’m going to talk about the ego’s death, which is a very common term used in spiritual communities!

What is Ego

To understand better what the ego is, look at it as the operating system that allows you to exist in this reality! And it does so through three main functions: identification, comparison and survival.

Identification

All the words you use to describe yourself are part of your ego. These labels define the roles you play in society, and you have a list of them for every aspect of your life!

Some will define who you are as a person, others your work, your contribution to society, the roles you play in your family, your lifestyle… Everything that defines your identity in this world, belongs to your ego! And it’s not just about labels, any object you identify with, like the car you drive, is part of your ego!

Comparation

Why is your ego always comparing yourself to other people? The answer is quite simple to understand! As an interface, an operating system, it’s the ego’s job to locate you in this reality, and the way it does that is by scanning the world around you and comparing yourself to it, so you know who you are and where you are!

Survival

The last function that is part of your ego’s responsibilities is to take care of your survival mechanism, and how does it do that? It looks to the past to understand how life works, it looks to the future as an attempt to predict what might happen, and it looks for any possible threats to your existence!

These three functions work together and are connected, for example, when the ego is checking your future survival, it uses identification and comparison to better understand what your chances are.

How are the Ego’s Voices

When you understand how the ego works, it becomes easier to identify the voices inside your head that are coming from it! Any thought related to the three functions it has (identification, comparison and survival), is coming from your ego! And it’s good to learn to observe and recognize them because they are often responsible for drama, negative emotions and problems!

Some of the consequences of your ego voices are:

• Fear and anxiety because of the survival mechanism
• Low self-esteem or arrogance because of the comparison
• Or even an existential crisis that happens when the identification system breaks

Now that you know what the ego is, the kind of thoughts it produces, and some of the consequences, the next question is: can you make it go quiet?

How to Deal with the Ego

As long as you live in this reality, you will have an ego and it will talk to you. The more you fortify your mind through mental practices like meditation and mindfulness, and the more you learn to stay in the present moment, it will become less talkative, but it will still talk! Especially when you are going through changes in your life, so the trick is to learn to calm it down.

First, you need to develop an observer in the back of your mind, so that you become aware of what your ego is saying that is making you suffer. Second, you need to strengthen this observer by giving it the power to question and argue with your ego. You want the observer to play the “devil’s advocate” and win the discussions with your ego, so it shuts up!

Practical examples

The conversation inside your mind will be very much like an adult (observer) talking to a 5-year-old child (ego), for example:

E: Oh my God! Look at that guy, he’s so good at this! Look at me, I don’t know anything, I look like an idiot!
O: How long has the guy been doing this?
E: I don’t know… It looks like he’s been doing this for a while…
O: And you? How long have you been practicing this?
E: I just started…
O: I’m sure when he first started, he looked just as “idiot” as you are now… Give yourself time and practice! You will be as good as he is, or even better!
E: You’re right, I’m learning…

Now let me give you a general example about a future-related anxiety attack, how you can reason with your ego and make it quiet:

E: What if that happens? How am I going to deal with this? It will be so devastating!!!
O: When was the last time you predicted the future and it happened exactly as it was in your head?
A: I can’t remember…
O: Probably because it never happened…
E: Maybe…
O: Are you taking every precaution and doing everything you can to prevent this situation from happening?
E: Yes!
O: If that happens, it’s very likely that it won’t be as you think, do you agree with me?
E: Yes!
O: The situation might be different, you might be better equipped to handle it, right?
E: Maybe…
O: And at this moment, is this situation real? Does it already exist?
E: No…
O: Then forget it! If it happens, when it happens, you worry and deal with it!
E: You’re right!

See how it works? You need to question and argue with your ego until it agrees and shuts up! The more you practice this kind of debate, the stronger this side gets, and the more mind control you have! It’s a skill and I’m sure with time and practice, you can master it!

The Ego’s Death

The last topic that I will clarify today is about the ego’s death during the spiritual awakening! If you’ve read this post so far, you can certainly understand that it’s not possible to exist in this reality without having an ego, so there’s no way it can die!

In spirituality, what people call the ego’s death, is the process of deconstructing the person you were conditioned to be while growing up and becoming a person that is more aligned with your true essence! And this process is quite chaotic, your ego doesn’t like to give up any kind of identity because it gets lost!

During awakening, it is normal to have an existential crisis and to think that you are going crazy, until you discover the person you are becoming and give your ego a new identity!

So what happens during this period is: the operating system (ego) is still there, and it breaks down (crisis) while you are switching apps (identity)! It’s just an upgrade! The system itself does not die!