In Latin, alter ego means “the second I.” An alter ego can be thought of as an individual’s second self or clone.
The alter ego is a spiritually separate energy that exists inside the mind of every human being on Earth. Evolution created this separate energy in the pure realms after each soul decided to separate itself from its Higher Self and spiritual teacher. This act of trying to “go it alone” created the separate identity of the ego over a gradual period where it formed as different energy within the spirit of the soul.
John has two alters egos: One is his genuine “self” or soul and the other is his sales agent alter ego “Max,” who sells Max’s Brand Name Products and Services using his own life story for business purposes. Now, if these two people were to meet, they would realize that they have vastly different goals in life, and their paths would most likely diverge. It would be like comparing apples and oranges. One would be the apple (your real self) and the other the orange (Max’s personality). Both have different attributes, and yet, they both love and care for each other. Why? Because they’re basically the same person.
In many cases, individuals with multiple alter egos will exhibit traits of dissimilarity, however similar or alike they may seem to be to the others. This is because their original “selves” are so deeply rooted in their original “identity” that they almost always feel like they are “one” with that self. The problem, however, is that often times these “identities” are just fakes or constructs that help to protect the real self from the harsh realities of the outside world. It is in the recognition of this fact that the goal of developing a strong secondary self is born.
Most psychologists and psychiatrists to describe the formation of these alternate personalities as the result of repressed memory or repressed behavioral responses to past traumatic events. One of the most common ways in which people develop these alternate personalities is through repressed memories. If you are an individual who was severely abused as a child, your memory may be very “repressed,” resulting in the formation of “amnesia.” This means that your memory has been repressed and is not fully retrievable. However, there is a good chance that the memory remains retrievable if it is retrieved through hypnosis or via reprogramming, both of which are aimed at getting the memory back into the mind.
This brings up an interesting point: what is it that causes people to hold onto memories of things that didn’t happen, even to the point of having these memories “retrieved” through hypnosis? The answer lies in the fact that our human beings are very complex creatures and have various psychological needs that need to be satisfied. What is repressed in one instance can become visible in another. An individual’s memory may be repressed due to childhood trauma; repressed in one case, the person may see his alter ego screaming at him during a sales call, when in actuality, he is busy talking to a client. It all depends on how much control the repressed alter ego has over the unconscious mind.
It is important for this discussion, not to paint these repressed memories in a bad light-the fact that they don’t occur in real life doesn’t make them less real to the person suffering from them. What is important to realize is that each of us experiences memories differently from another person, depending on our individualized personalities and the state of our personal ego. What is an Alter Ego in one person, may only be an Alter Ego in another, and in each instance of experiencing them, it is our individual sense of who we are that dictates which emotions and reactions we experience and that actions and reactions we decide to take when these experiences arise.
