Model of Human Nature
Figure 1 is a model of human nature as described by Jacquelyn Small. (continue referring of Figure 1 as the text proceeds). According to Small, there are seven levels of our Self-levels 1,2, and 3, she puts together as the Lower Self or the ego.
These have the qualities of self-preservation, self-gratification and self-definition respectively and are concerned with the `outer world of experience'. The person at levels 1,2, and 3 is in the process of `becoming'.
Levels 5, 6 and 7, according to Small is the Higher self characterised by understanding, intuition and self-mastery. It is the `inner world of experience' reflecting a person's transpersonal' dimension. Small's Higher Self is similar to Assagioli Higher Unconscious and Higher Self. A person in Small's levels 5,6 and 7 is in a state of Being.
Level 4 is the bridge between the Lower and Higher Selves. This is the Observer Self akin to Assagioli's Director.

Observer Self
The Observer Self is the key to transformation, for if enables consciousness to work. It has been explored in many philosophical systems and is known as The Fair Witness, The Watcher Self, or the Observer. One transpersonal researcher defined it as:
That which is capable of observing the flow of what is - without interfering with it, commenting on it, or in any way manipulating it... it simply observes the stream of events both inside and
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1. Jaquelyn Small. Transformers : The Therapists of the Future. California, 1982.

outside the mind/body in a detached fashion, since it is not exclusively identified with either. Once he realizes each can be perceived, he simultaneously realizes that they cannot be his real self. 1
When we are operating from the Observer Self, we experience the various levels of naked reality without the mental and emotional veneer we have covered them with by the limitations of our Lower Self. Also, we see without judgment : things can no longer be perceived as good or bad, black or white, but in terms of exactitude or inexactitude. The Observer Self, the voice of the Soul, is the passive aspect of the active, non-judgemental energy of acceptance. It prepares us to love ourselves by placing us in the right frame of mind. The Observer Self does more than change our ideas about things. It changes our level of consciousness : if we only changes ideas, we are still spinning around on the same wave length ... one more pirouette in the same mental space. To change our consciousness is to change where we live inside - to expand our state of Being.
This level of consciousness is the battleground where all of life is fought consciously. The Lower Self is still able to take charge, because it is a creature of habit. We are still in the process of unlearning a set of imperatives we inherited from earlier periods of our development. And sometimes a need at Level One, Two or Three will dominate our personhood, and until we become aware of it, it has us under its spell. But the Observer Self at Level Four is always available for it is its nature to awaken us. When this level is awakened in us, we are always willing to see the Truth unless a lower need overwhelms us. In this case we find that we must go ahead and just be where we are, in our Lower Self, running on ego power again.
Level Four provides the energy which the Transformer or the Facilitator/therapist uses to work from a caring position, from the heart. Here we can accept the client as they are without the distortion of our own ego's arrogance and defences. The therapist in Level Four can just sit there being aware, and allowing the client to be in their space ... seeing, loving, and hoping to share truth in a way the client can receive the benefit. It is not goal-oriented, it is comfortable just being there, understanding and accepting. Here we learn to love, ourselves and others. It can allow and give the freedom to be oneself, to forgive - to transcend
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1. Ken Wilber. The Spectum of Consciousness. The theosophical Publishing House, Wheaton, III. U.S.A. 1977.

Questions Helpful to Understand Personality

As an aid to understanding Figure 1 we use the following questions in our group work and with individual clients to learn the Truth of their family.

1. What skills did you have to build in order to defend against a particular adult in your family unit? And, how is that skill now useful to you as an adult in your personal development or in your work ?
2. What kind of models (negative or positive) did you have in your family that add to your knowledge of personality development? How have these models aided you in developing strengths you needed in order to actualize your unique potential?
3. What role did you play in your family that now has meaning for you as an adult in a new way? Were you a hero, a peacemaker, the "Clown," etc.?
4. Quietly reflect on your original family unit for a few minutes. Now, give me a symbol that , to you, represents the unit ... What does this symbol elicit in you ? What meaning does this symbolic information hold for you today?
5. Think of your family in terms (and see what enlightenment you get):

1. You Chose your family (on a superconscious level) - before you were born.
2. Your family gave you exactly what you needed (for your Soul's advancement)- not what you wanted, maybe, but what you needed.

Source : Jacquelyn Small. Transformers : The Therapists of the Future De Vorss & Co., CA 1982, p. 151-2.

dichotomies. At Level Four we begin to harmonize the energies of the imagination and activate its tremendous power to transform our lives. See Figure 2.

Fourth Force provides the bridge connecting Levels 1-2-3 with 5-6-7. Acceptance - surrendering the need to control, judge, or manipulate life - is the key to transformation. The personality is getting into harmony with itself. From the Observe Self point of view we discover Life is a teaching: all of our experiences are leading us somewhere in our inner development. We discover we can love ourselves, in spite of our bunglings and misconceptions. And we can love: this is seeing reality from the Soul level. The Observer Self consciousness cannot be taught; it must be experienced.
When the Lower Self and the Higher Self operate together, transformation can occur. We have a chance to break out of our limited world view. The two working together create a synergistic effect, another whole reality. We accomplish a feat we had deemed impossible. We discover we just are that very person we had longed to be but had almost given up on.
There is an indwelling spiritual component of the Observer Self that is behind our bodymind that is also an organic part of the human psyche. This is experienced as the urge towards wholeness. It carries on an active dialogue with our personality even though we have the free will to tune it out or distort its messages through our active, outer-directed left brain. This Observer Self has a way of speaking to us and it is through symbols, in dreams, visions, altered states of consciousness, and synchronistic events (coincidences). These spiritual despatches reveal deep patterns and conditions - spiritual directions. Prior to establishing contact with Higher Self our lives are dictated by blind habits, beliefs, and addictions often leading to conflict or downright foolhardiness. This alienation of the ego or Lower Self from its Higher Self with its companion feeling of isolation, forlornness and homesickness must be fully experienced before it can be transformed. The goal of spiritual growth is an integrated completion of the Lower and Higher Selves, not a moralistic perfection. When completed the Self resembles a being with qualities attributed to God.
This battle between truth and untruth, the higher nature and lower, is life's game. Fortunately, we have a helper, the Observer Self within us for this process of becoming conscious. The Observer Self , gives us the option of acting rather than reacting. It is a portion of our True Self that in centered in Reality, for it is our Soul's agent it time and space. The Soul, living in the transpersonal dimension, cannot enjoy itself without some way to experience events. Consequently it projects down into life the Observer Self so that it can creatively manifest, in the image of its Maker.
Higher Self is motivated by an urge toward our completion. "It is the future which draws, not the past which pushes", as Sri Aurobindo says. It takes the experiences from our past and applies meaning and purpose, love and understanding to these experiences, incorporates this meaning, and moves forward towards completion. It never hangs onto the past. The Observer Self feels irresistably drawn by its own destiny-in-the making. For it is aligned with the Higher Self. It possesses the courage to act instead of react, even though it may be against popular opinion at times. It delights in authentic expression. When we are self-creating we are aligned with the Higher Power. As our Observer Self emerges and takes charge, we discover this in our Essence - the one we lost touch with during our process of ego-development.
The creator is not just outside us, but inside as well! This energy is a dynamic, transforming power within us, not just a remote God-out-there-somewhere. And in cooperation with this high Energy, we co-create our life. When we have the courage to be our Observer Self, we can surrender, and then the Divine can take over.
As each person works out their subpersonalities and starts to integrate and harmonize their energies, we can see that one of the following emerges:

1. The Observer Self is in charge - strong and active.
2. The Observer Self is there, but weak, often one of the sub-personalities sit in the Director's or Observer Self's chair and the ego rules.
3. The Observer Self is not in evidence.
   The therapy is to strengthen the Observer Self if weak, or to form one, if absent. We do this by role play, psychodrama, feedback, meditation, artwork, and so on. (See box below.)

The Observer Self or Director is :

• The key to our transformation.
• Able to see without judgment.
• The Soul's agent in time and space. The voice of the Soul.
• Able to put us in the right frame of mind thus preparing us to love ourself and others.
• Changing the level of our consciousness, not just changing our ideas about things. It expands our state of Being.
• Always available because it is its nature to awaken us.
• Always willing to see the Truth .
• Harmonising our personality.
• To be experience - no one else can bring you to realise it.
• Ever ready to speak to the subpersonalities.
• Having an indwelling Spiritual component.
• Courageous and (gives us the option) capable of acting appropriately rather than reacting.
• Giving us the freedom to be oneself, to forgive, and to transcend dichotomies.
• Motivated by an urge towards our completion, urging us towards wholeness.
• Speaking to us through symbols, in dreams, vision, altered states of consciousness, and synchronistic events which give us spiritual direction.
• The bridge to integrate Higher with Lower Self which gives us qualities attributed to God, conforms us more closely to the image of God.
• Applying meaning and purpose to the experiences of our past.

How to Strengthen the Director

Take decisions yourself
Watch your inner self- talk between the subpersonalities and the Director and see how decisions are made. Watch who makes the decisions and keep a record for each subpersonality and the Director. Keep a Journal of this process daily until you are satisfied that the Director is firmly in the chair. As you choose a particular decision, before implementing it, run it run it through your fantasy several times to see all the implications before doing it in reality.

Keep the subpersonalities in their place
As you observe the self-talk you will see which subpersonalities tend to take over the Director's chair. Get to know their needs and wants and meet them positively - this discharge their negative powers in your life.

They are part of me, not all of me
Every time you catch a subpersonality taking over, tell it, "You are not me, you are only a part of me. You can contribute to the whole, but not take over. I have a much better view of the whole situation than you, so I will direct things - considering your views."

Dialogue with subpersonalities and change and be flexible
By ongoing dialogue you will become aware of which supersonalities fight with which, and which can defuse and help each other change and grow. You will be so conscious of their needs and wants that you become an expert at meeting them before their negative behaviour manifests itself in your life. As you grow in this, you will experience increasing flexibility in your thought and action and that you are at ease with change in all areas of your life. Initially it may help to stick up your subpersonalities on the wall around your room when you are talking to them. As you experience you subpersonalities changing over time, redraw them to bring out the positive change.

Strengthen your Ideal Model
Keep the picture of your Ideal model on the wall of your room as well as the gift you got from your Ideal Model. Meditate on both daily and write up in your journal your progress towards both. Do not record failures.

Mental transformation, self-talk
Keep a separate section of your journal for mental transformation. On one side of the page put all the negative thoughts, beliefs, parent message, expectations, feelings, values, etc. you become aware of, and on the other side of the page immediately make them positive.

Prayer and Meditation and reflection
Daily prayer and meditation -- if past hurts come up, reenter the scene, but change it by seeing the harmful person in their Real Self and how they act in a new way, a healing way. Pick your peak time for meditation every day and you will gradually sense the inner peace and joy as you integrate your Higher and Lower Selves.
The following case describes how Punita's Observer Self was unable to see a subpersonality's needs. The facilitator intervened to shock the Observer Self into realisation and action.

Punita'a Case

Punita is a woman about 55 years old. She has recently retired from a hospital after working for over 15 years as a pastoral counsellor. She stands at a crossroad now while she explores various options for future work.

Punita's subpersonalities

Dibba (picture 10) : This is a sub personality which is symbolised by a dirty, ugly, useless box. It is shut up tight with no key to open the lock because, Punita thinks she is an obstacle for others, always wrong, a curse to her people - `nobody loves me so I do love anybody !'
Dibba was born early in her childhood when he mother died and her father married again. Punita was the only child of her parents and felt totally unwanted when her father remarried. The step mother did not like her probably because, Punita now thinks, Punita looked a lot like her own mother whom her father loved very dearly. She never felt a part of the family and this feeling was reinforced when other children were born in the family - she was always the outsider.

Gunda the Grub (Picture 11) : This sub personality was born when Punita was sent away from home to a boarding school run by missionaries. Gunda is filled with fear, sadness, hatred, and anger. `One of these feelings usually boils up in me most of the time and then I burst and spill on to people in hard ways and they go away and leave me.'
This subpersonality symbolises the behaviour arising out of the feeling of rejection (Dibba) which further alienates her from other people and herself. Punita's epilepsy probably can be attributed to Gunda's extreme feelings.

Padam the Lotus (Picture 12) : Padam is the `good' or the powerful part of her personality which has its roots in the misery of her childhood.

Titli the Butterfly (Picture 13) : This subpersonality represents the spiritual and aesthetic self of Punita.

Tapti the Tap (Picture 14) : This is the subpersonality which is a manifestation of Titli especially in her work of pastoral counselling.

Process of Working Through
Because of the kind of work that Punita has been involved in, she has had access to tools of personal analysis. She has been using these for increasing her own awareness of her inner self. Before embarking on this adventure of getting to know her various subpersonalities, she thought that there is very little of herself that she did not know. She was shocked when she came face - to-face with `Dibba' and `Gunda the grub'! Her method of dealing with these `ugly' parts of herself was to throw them out lock, stock and barrel. This was not really leading to any solution because they just refused to go ! Punita was stuck at an impasse.
The facilitator helped Punita break through the impasse by standing behind Gunda's chair and becoming Gunda. The Gunda confronted her saying how earnest she was all through her life. She protected her from much harm. `If were not with you, you wouldn't have existed now. Now you want to throw me out. have you ever recognised me or accepted me in your life? I came to you with a purpose. If you meet my needs and wants. I will be very happy with you and we can work together'. The Gunda pleaded with Punita to embrace him, not to throw him out, `What is the difference between you and other people? Everybody rejects me!' This was starting a revelation for Punita. It was like an electric shock which coursed through her, as she listened to Gunda speaking to her, tears flowed down her face unheeded.
She realised that she had been rejecting the most basic needs of herself and that she had to own, accept and love Gunda and then he would be her friend.
In the second part of her process of working through, Punita took the courage and in fantasy  opened her locked up 'Dibba'. And in it she discovered that she had looked away as she writes, 'All gifts of life, people, creation - wonder, fun, joy, knowledge, peace, love.'

Highlights of the Process
This case illustrates and reinforces the following.

1. People usually get stuck with rejecting their negative sub-personalities. They try to disown and eject these. But until we embrace these `shadows', transformation does not take place.
2. Sometimes our Observer Self is completely overwhelmed by our various subpersonalities.Transformation requires a change, a paradigm shift in the Observer Selfs perception. TheGrub which is ugly and creepy can also be perceived as the source of a beautiful, multi-hued butterfly.
3. One way of breaking through this kind of an impasse is to use on empathic, sensitive person in these situations. When the facilitator became Gunda and articulated his feelings accurately, Punita was forced to see him.
4. Doing psychosynthesis and transformation exercise in a group has synergistically healing effect - Punita's realisation of Gunda's beauty and lovableness had the effect of evoking an extremely nurturing response from the group. Many of the group members cried along with Punita as she cried for Gunda - they all wanted to embrace him and love him.
5. An experiential exercise is indeed empowering. After going through a synthesis experience herself, Punita's Tapti and Titli acquired a new power - she became an even more effective facilitator of other's psychosynthesis and transformation.

Addiction as Blocked Creative Energy
The job of the Observer Self is to become aware of, awakened to the addictions of the Lower Self, and transform them. Addiction is non-growth - a way of being stuck in the past. These are what we perceive as our negative sub-personalities. If a natural urge has been thwarted, addiction sets in. Therefore addiction can be viewed as blocked creative energy.

Blocked First Force :The urge towards self-preservation is distorted. The person behaves in a fearful, childish manner. This is a basic sense of insecurity. Fear drives the person to meet this unmet need for safety and well being. Many choose death. This can be seen, in Punita's `Dibba' Subpersonality and in Sangeeta's`Traveller' (see Picture 18 below) through which she used to withdraw into a world of fantasy.

Blocked Second Force :The urge towards self-gratification is distorted. The person does not know how to deal with emotions. Feeling are scary, bad, unnecessary. They are confused about what the sense are telling - they are out of touch with feelings. Punita's `Gunda the Grub', Sangeeta's `Bitchwitch' and Ajay's `Thunder' are examples.

Blocked Third Force :The urge towards self-definition is distorted. The person loses their sense of identify. Third Force is a mental stage of development, but still driven by emotions. The motivating force is desiring status and a drive to please others -getting other people, to approve us. Ajay's `Prime Minister', Sangeeta's Bitchwitch exemplify the blocked Third Force.

The principles that govern ego-dominance are :

• The Lower Self draws its data from the outer world of experience, believing it is the only reality; consequently, it thrives on halftruths.
• Its director is the ego.
• The ego will get our needs met - one way or another.
• The Lower Self draws its conclusion from the subconscious mind - programs based on the past.
• It is emotionally attached to life, based on fear, passion, or desire for status or ownership. It only functions on the first three levels of consciousness - in the world of addiction.
• It cannot rise itself. Like standing on a plank and trying to lift it, the Lower Self is totally into its experience, consequently, there is no Observer Self who can rise out of it and see what is happening.
• The Lower Self says "My experiences are who I am." It feels determined completely by the experiences it involves in. This is the genesis of victimhood.
• The Lower Self's three keynotes are limitation, sensation, and egoism.
• It cannot love, it can only `use'.
• Its energy feels forced instead of flowing. `I've got to be it; I've got to make it.'
• The Lower Self keeps us locked into a sense of separateness.
• The Lower Self, reacts to life rather than acting creatively through choice.
• Its behaviours is acquired, not intrinsic to the True Self.
• By keeping our attention focused outward, the Lower Self blocks our inner development.
• The Lower Self is ruled by feeling of scarcity: "There isn't enough for everyone. I must struggle to have my share."
• The Lower Self operates in the world of strife consciousness. Whenever you are dominated by Lower Self in a particular situation, raise your vibration to a level where strife does not exist : seek the truth beyond the apparent duality - and you will find yourself living in a world of harmony rather than strife.

But the Higher Self does not annual the bottom. It is from having climbed from the bottom, through the addiction, that we transform it. The addiction is the very stuff our transformation is made of. It is because we have been hooked on relationships that we now know relationship. It is because we gave our power away to a substance, that we now can live without fear. We did not choose to live like sheep who never strayed; we risked. The highest part of us can only exist when there is energy to love it and this energy is the overflowing from the lower levels of our experiencing.
At this point in our growth, there is an illusion we must guard against - when the Higher Self begins to overshadow our meager personality, our tendency is to throw out the Lower Self. But the two must work together. We needed those experiences in our past that we have labelled "wrong" or "bad". They have provided the tension in our life that now makes it possible for us to self-create. If we think of our family in terms of choice - we chose our family ( on a super-conscious level) before we were born; our family gave us exactly what we needed (for our Soul's advancement) - not what we wanted, maybe, but what we needed; our reflection will provide important clues to our unique purpose in life.
The Observer Self attracts the energy of the Higher Self and integrates the Lower Self by harmony consciousness : See Figure 3 in the box below.

Thus we can see how our negative self-created addictions exist in relation to their positive spiritual companions. They complete and explain each other. Each by itself cannot really be understood. The Lower Self (our addicted selves) can only operate when Forces One, Two, or Three are experienced without energy from any of the higher levels. Since this is only one-half of reality, the material side, and we are opening as though it is the only reality, we are caught in a web of illusion incapable of realizing the large picture.

 Synthesis : Harmonising the Higher and Lower Selves
As the Lower Self completes its task of experiencing and meeting various needs, learning to function in the world, a very subtle event occurs - sometimes all at once, sometimes gradually, Personality becomes passive, and Essence becomes active.
Forth Force is functioning, and now, as if by magic, the higher centres descend into the personality sphere. The Higher Triangle becomes activated and creates transformation. What began as two discontinuous triangles now becomes merged into a symbol we all recognize. (See Figure 4)
Level Seven, has overshadowed One with its dynamic qualities - Unity, Discrimination, Courage, Divine Will, and Self-Mastery. Insecurity, at Level One, is synonymous with feeling alone, cut off from the world, frightened of annihilation by other outside oneself. Self-Mastery is insecurity transcended. One cannot fear annihilation if one is aware of being at one with everything, guided by the Divine Self. Insecurity, in fact, becomes an irrelevant concept. Fear is transformed into the courage to act as one's True Self. Love of God, which is synonymous with love of Self, is the unifying force that now dominates the person.
Level Two is the organism's sensual playground - the place where we rightfully learn to connect with our world through knowledge of the five physical sense and the personality's emotional life. At Level Two, we are completely identified with our physical sense, believing our feelings are all that we are. These needs and fears become transcended through awareness of our Soul nature. I have a physical body that prefers to be gratified, but I am not my body: I am a beautiful Soul evolving through a lifetime, eternal and forever perfect in all ways.
When I realize I can choose sensual pleasure, but do not have to have it, a sense of freedom and peace washes over me, and I am content. As Level Six descends upon level Two its force of love and wisdom, united, passion is transformed into compassion, and self-gratification transmuted into a desire to serve others. One is now totally in love with Life. Through Forth Force we have become fulfilled and now spill over with a love we yearn to share.
As Fifth Force pours into Level Three, the mind is transformed. Bits and pieces of self-knowledge (acquired through the roles we have played and the self concepts we have adopted from the outer world of experience) becomes knowledge of the whole. Comprehension replaces fragmented knowledge. We realize who we really are, rather than mechanically functioning like others thought we should be. We begin to express our true nature in the world, rather than someone else's idea of it. We are acting authentically. The will to know has become an intensely focused love of truth. So now the personality is a willing and faithful servant of the Higher Self, serving as an instrument for its earthly mission.

The therapeutic Process
The therapeutic process differs at the three levels of blocked energy (refer to section below on "Addiction as Blocked Creative Energy"). See also Figure 5.
At Level One, the facilitator/transformer helps the client to recongnise her addictions and ascribe meaning to them. At Level Two, the Observer Self is helped to become a strong bridge between the Lower and Higher Selves. And at Level Three, the focus is on living out the transformation.
The following section describes in detail, the tasks or steps that the transformer needs to follow in the therapeutic process.

Therapeutic Tasks for Level One Blockage

1. Empathic listening - slowly form a bond. Never argue. Draw out the client's story to establish rapport.
2. Releasing constricted energy - help them let go of guilt and resentments and to build up self- acceptance and forgiveness.
3. Attributing meaning and purpose to the past - everything happens for a reason.
4. Transformation - guide to higher levels of functioning by connecting them with the more integrated Observer Self.
5. Right action - build up successes and play down the failures.
6. Transpersonal focusing - guide the person out of self into serving others. Help them discover particular strengths and talents in serving.
7. Disengaging - acknowledge more and more your client's own personal power, disallow dependency on you.

Level Two Blockage

1. Non- judgmental listening.
2. Bibliotherapy - suggest reading materials.
3. Proactive focusing - instead of retreating into the past, remaining in the present and focusing on the future.
4. Thematic life history - seeing a theme in one's life history.
5. Connecting mind and heart - Observer Self acting as a bridge between the Lower and Higher Selves - mental transformation.
6. Transpersonal focusing.

Level Three Blockage

1. Reality testing (to strengthen the Observer Self).
2. Provocative questions. Who are you? Where do you come from? What are you here for ? What quality is trying to emerge in you? How did you manage to attract this experience to yourself? What are you doing?
3. Thought is creative - Whatever we feed to our minds and then nurture will grow.
4. Evoking an Ideal Model : what would your Higher Self do now - picture it, and act accordingly.
5. Practice your Ideal Model.

Resistance
In every case we see conflicts among/between subpersonalities. This sets up resistance and almost always the person wants to throw out one bad or unacceptable subpersonality. They may bodily throw them out, kick them, shout at them in anger, or cry out in frustration to `Get out of my life!' When we help them break through, they realise the value of resistance.
"Force does not become creative until it meets resistance. Light does not become visible until it strikes an object," Iama Govinda says. Resistance is a gift. And we must learn to respect it. Often the Higher Self uses resistance to step down our energy. We are moving too fast, in too big a hurry to evolve. At times like this, the Higher Self will mediate to keep us from blowing a fuse, may be by making us fall ill. Resistance represents the beginning of a change - something new is trying to emerge from our unconscious. If it is coming from the sub-conscious, we might feel fear at seeing this "monstrous part of ourselves" that has never seen the light of day. So we resist, not knowing what will happen if it rears its ugly head. We may need time. Or we may need to be treated gently. It could be that we are not ready to make the life changes that will be required, once we see this fragment of ourselves clearly. If the energy is coming from the Superconscious, it mean that a new quality of perfection is trying to emerge, to be expressed through us. The therapist can determine the origin of the resistance by eliciting symbols and imagery from the client's imagination. The therapist asks the client "How do you experience resistance in your life? Perhaps there is a habit, an addiction you are being asked to let go of, but you resist. How do you resist ? What behaviours of resistance do you use, what ideas, what feelings? Look at each, first of all, as getting in your way - each resistance behaviour, feeling or idea. Now, look at each for the value that it has for you : Are you surprised ? You see, there is a gift there. Resistance can point you to where you need to grow."

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