The Illusion of Identity

By Lisa Raphael

In these times of increasing efforts to monitor and control us, it seems especially important to realize that who we are has nothing to do with the documents, numbers, reports or beliefs through which we are identified.  Who we are is beyond definition.

I recently dreamed that I found myself in totally unfamiliar territory with all my documents, keys and cards gone.  There was no way to identify myself.  Yet rather than feeling fearful, as I have in the past in real or dream life when I misplaced or lost these, I felt strangely free.  Our ID, our Id-entity is a grand illusion.  A lifeless thing composed of conscious and unconscious conditioning – through fear – of not being loved or accepted if we do not comply with familial, social, cultural or religious rules and beliefs.

I first experienced being beyond identity twenty five years ago at the Grand Canyon.  Sitting quietly off the path, absorbed in the changing shadows over the canyon, time stopped.  It was not until I began to feel chilled that I realized I had been there for several hours.

When I got up, I felt I had been truly seen for the first time in my life.  Somehow, in the silence, in the absence of thought, feeling, motion or human contact, I had made contact with my Self.

My path since then has taken me to many unfamiliar places where I have been unknown.  As I create new bios, vitae, business cards, web sites, and continue to acquire documents requiring name, social security number, and more, the challenge is to be my authentic SELF without getting trapped in the illusion that these FORMS of identification are who I am.

I am not alone in this dilemma.  More and more of us are awakening to a larger reality while needing to function within the matrix of cultural norms.  Living off-grid is now technologically possible.  Living free of the grid of conscious and unconscious belief is an ongoing challenge.

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