Conditioning

I must repeat an important insight that is true for every human being: The ego is the psychological imprint of the helplessness of infancy.

In order to survive, we conform to the social system. We accept its norms and values in exchange for physical security.

Add in our early experiences, our likes and dislikes, our education, our explorations of the world and our social interactions with our peers, and our minds become a conditioned response to outside stimuli.

This false personality is the social mask that psychologists refer to as the ego. It is not your true self.

I am conscious of the presence and criticism of a part of me, which, as it were, is not a part of me, but spectator, sharing no experience, but taking note of it, and that is no more I than it is you.

Thoreau was aware that the ego is a delusion covering our true nature.

Nobody can escape this process of socialization, but all can learn to undo it. Until we learn how to "de-institutionalize" our brains and discover the reality within us, we will never be truly happy.