Effects of Identification on Behavioral, Affective, and Cognitive Functioning
By George A. Boyd © 2023
Q: I’ve noticed that my Christian friends seem to identify with something different than I do. What is going on here?
A: We need to consider the impacts of attentional focus and identification on different parameters of personality functioning:
Focus of attention – focusing attention for sustained periods on a spiritual essence ultimately leads to the state of identification with that essence.
Choices – a spiritual teacher or clergy of one’s faith may encourage or command that one make certain approved choices.
Values – one may incorporate the moral values transmitted through the teachings of a spiritual Path or from the scriptures and religious discourses of a religion that cultivates identification with this essence.
Beliefs – one learns a variety of beliefs from the teachings of their Path or their religion that supports their identification with the spiritual essence.
Emotions – based on the beliefs of the Path or religion, one may experience a variety of emotions. These emotions can be negative, such as guilt, fear, shame, anger, or paranoia; these emotions can be positive, like love, compassion, forgiveness, peace, or joy.
Perception – one sees the world and other people from a different perspective in each identity state.
Behavior – the choices, values, and beliefs one learns in this Path or religion directly influences ones behavior and relationships with others.
The essence with which one identifies varies between different spiritual traditions. For example:
- Identification with the Moon Soul nucleus of identity characterizes Jewish and Christian spirituality in the First Planetary Initiation.
- Identification with the Solar Angel nucleus of identity is found among those who follow the “I AM Movement” groups of the Second Planetary Initiation
- Those who study with Yogi Preceptors of the First Cosmic Initiation adopt identification with the Cosmic Consciousness nucleus of identity.
- Those who study with the Movement of Inner Spiritual Awareness (MSIA) cultivate identification with the Cosmic Soul Awareness nucleus of identity.
- My first spiritual teacher, Maha Genii Turriziani, who founded the Risen Christ Ashram Foundation, led his disciples to identify with the Astral Soul ensouling entity of the Cosmic Sphere.
- Many world religions—such as Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Sikh, Jain, and Zoroastrian—teach their followers to identify with the Supracosmic seed atom on a Supracosmic Path.
- Sat Gurus of the Paths of the Transcendental Sphere train their disciples to identify with the spirit upon a Transcendental Path.
We invite you to inquire into how identity states work. You can use questions like these to explore these alternate identity states in yourself and in others:
- With what spiritual essence do you identify with in your faith or on your spiritual Path?
- How is this identity state different that what people identify with in other faiths or spiritual Paths?
- Upon what essence do you focus your attention?
- How does this influence the choices you make?
- How does this identification shape your values and the moral code that guides your behavior?
- How does it affect your character?
- What beliefs did you learn from this faith or spiritual Path?
- When you study the teachings of the faith or spiritual Path and practice them, what emotions do these teachings draw out in you? Are these positive emotions like love and compassion? Are they negative emotions like paranoia and mistrust, or grandiosity—feeling you are superior to others? Are you taught to detach and dissociate from your feelings, and to regard your life and personality as unreal or a hindrance to your spiritual development?
- How does holding your attention in this identity state change your perception of your life and personality, other people, and the world? What cosmology and archetypes do you encounter when you enter into union and identification with this identity state?
- What actions spring from the beliefs, values, and choices you have learned and incorporated from this faith or spiritual group?
Doing this contemplation may help you better understand those who belong to other religions or spiritual Paths.
The sustained focus of attention upon a spiritual essence leads to identification with that essence. Your experience of this spiritual essence can be that it is:
- Static and unchanging
- The essence transforms towards an inner spiritual horizon
- Upon liberation of the essence, after completing your journey of transformation, you spontaneously re-identify with a new spiritual essence.
In Mudrashram®, we teach our students to identify with their cutting edge ensouling entity, their spirit, and their attentional principle. As Mudrashram® students evolve spiritually, the spirit and the ensouling entity with which they identify shifts, as they move into each new spiritual stage.
Those that wish to awaken their cutting edge ensouling entity, their spirit, and their attentional principle—and transform through each stage of their spiritual evolutionary plan—can learn how to do this in our intermediate meditation classes, the in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation and the by-mail and online Accelerated Meditation Program.
