PHASE 1: PENETRATING THE MASk
Core Energetics calls the most superficial layer of our personality the MASK. The part of our self which we generally present to the world. Often it reflects the “role” we adapted in our families, or an idealized image of who we believe we are supposed to be. For example, the good girls, or the tough guy, or the quiet one. Though we may come to believe this is who we really are, the mask is actually a false self. It is an adopted survival strategy devised to compensate for & escape from, the hurts and humiliations of our past.
We invest energy in our mask(s) in the belief it will gain us love, approval, power, or safety. Unfortunately the false promise of the mask as the solution to suffering in N E V E R fulfilled, because even if we do get what we want from this place, it will fail to satisfy. This is because we will be unable to genuinely receive the love, or power we are given, as we came by it through a king of deception, and therefore internally remain feeling undeserving and empty.
The mask cannot gain us the fulfillment we seek because it is not the truth. The mask will distort the energy of LOVE and turn it into submission & false giving. The mask distorts our true POWER and turns it into aggression. The mask distorts inner SERENITY and turns it into a withdrawal from life. The energy of the mask is separative and stagnant. Unfortunately most of us stay unaware of how invested we are in this place and fear that if we let go of it, we won’t really know who we are. We must have courage and receive support to PENETRATE THE MASK. This is the work in the 1st phase of Core Energetics.
PHASE 2: TRANSFORMING THE LOWER SELF
Below the mask is a layer that is largely unconscious because knowledge & ownership of it highly threatening to the personality. This is the LOWER SELF, and it exists in each and every one of us. It is powerful in our lives despite its unconscious nature.
Where does the lower self come from? When our normal developmental needs are not met as children our normal response is anger & frustration, however when we subsequently experience rejection for our anger on a repeated basis, the result is rage. If anger created rejection and punishment, certainly rage is even more threatening to a child who needs its caregivers, and so the only solution is sending it underground into unconsciousness where the energy becomes dark and separative. However, just because it is hidden, doesn’t mean the energy of it does not continue to operate in our lives.
Most of us are unwilling to own & take responsibility for our lower self. As awareness of it emerges, we often feel enormous guilt and fear. This is because the lower self threatens our idealized image or conception of ourselves as well as societal norms that tell us how we “should” be. The guilt tends to send us right back into our mask, where we can disown our negativity, our cruelty, our rage, and our negative intentions.
Denial of the lower self creates a “s p l i t t i n g” of the energy and the consciousness within us. It is imperative that we meet and take ownership of this part of ourselves, otherwise we will be unable to transform it and harness its energy.
PHASE 3
TRASITIONING TO THE HIGHER SELF
When we take responsibility for the lower self, we open to feeling the cleansing energy of true remorse (different form useless guilt) for the pain we have caused ourselves and others through our previous destructiveness. Here we find liberating self-forgiveness.
As we open to the woundedness that lays beneath the lower self, we discover that our “here and now” adult self can hold ourselves in compassion and not be annihilated by the return of feelings that as children we felt so helpless against. In learning to not fear feelings, self-knowledge, truth and vulnerability we are transitioning to the Higher Self.
PHASE 3: CENTERING IN THE HIGHER SELF
In this stage the personality no longer finds satisfaction in the pseudo-reality of the mask. The positive orientation and commitment to authenticity creates a more aligned, unified individual able to “walk their talk”. The experience is of greater self-acceptance and self-love, opening you a heightened sense of connectedness to yourself and others, and you radiate a higher vibratory quality, producing pleasure, joy, and purpose in life.
This does not mean that there is no longer any mask, or that life no longer challenges you. It means that when you notice you are suffering, the path to releasing it is clear. We again turn our awareness to how our mask & lower self are operating, and work though the phases of the process, only now it can happen in moments instead of years. In this we hold the key to liberation and freedom and we radiate our Higher Self qualities.
PHASE 4: THE UNIVERSAL LIFE PLAN.
“Far from being mutually exclusive, the universal and the personal grow in the same direction and culminate simultaneously in each other
…this is the evolutionary process-
a sacred marriage of the Universal and the Personal
The final stage of Core Energetics is reached when the individual consciousness knows itself, not as a separate entity, but as an integral part of a greater whole, intimately connected with all life.
At this stage the energy of this consciousness predominates and infused the personality with the courage and the capacity to manifest the vital energy of the CORE. The result is experienced as a life filled with purpose and meaning and an enhanced capacity to shape and heal the world around us. Our journey of healing has transcended from the personal to the universal.
Interestingly in many ways this has always been true, but we can now live and experience this at the deepest levels because we have done the challenging work of healing the energetic splits & opened the blocked of the earlier stages.
Of course this does not mean our journey is complete. Our life and it’s challenges continue, but now we have in us the resources to work though whatever we are presented with, and use these challenges in service of our creative and continued growth. We are aware when we lose our grounding, or when our defenses have emerged to block our joy and our flow, and we know that what we need to do is see our own mask, release our lower self, and center once again in our Higher Self in order to return to our TRUTH & INTEGRITY, and to the PLEASURE & FULFILLMENT that is our birthright.
Life is lived form the most potent & creative center…LOVE!
In Memoriam:
Gateway prayer
Through the gateway of feeling your weakness,
lies your strength.
Through the gateway of feeling your pain,
lies your pleasure and joy.
Through the gateway of feeling your fears,
lies your security and safety.
Through the gateway of feeling loneliness,
lies your capacity to have fulfillment, love, and companionship.
Through the gateway of feeling your hate,
lies your capacity to love.
Through the gateway of feeling your hopelessness,
lies true and justified hope.
Through the gateway of accepting the lacks of your childhood,
lies your fulfillment now.
Brief History
CORE ENERGETICS was developed by psychiatrist, Dr. John Pierrakos, a student of Wilhelm Reich. Dr Pierrakos had developed Bioenergetics with Dr. Aexander Lowen, but then after meeting his wife Eva Broch in 1967, a gifted channel that brought forth the Spirtual Wisdom now known as the PATHWORK, he chose to incorporate many of the key Pathwork concepts with the physical techniques of Bioenergetics and traditional Reichian therapy, and Core Energetics was born.
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