The third level of the Healing Pathways model is personal perception. The inner world of human dynamics is based on how we perceive ourselves and others in relationship to our environment and personality. Each individual is multidimensional; everyone has five distinct levels of perception that are all integrated together as an energetic whole. These five levels of perception are the physical level, the emotional level, the cognitive level, the spiritual level and the potential level, and they are reflected in the five levels that make up the Jewish soul, known as the nefesh, ruach, neshamah, chayah and yechidah.
Our physical body serves as an energetic medium to express the degree of balance or imbalance found within the five levels of self. Illness, discontent, pain and other forms of stress indicate a lack of integration within our five levels of perception; or they are an indication of how our perception conflicts with either our personality traits or our environment. The body generates feelings of discomfort or pain in order to point out to us these imbalances. These uncomfortable feelings are the body’s way of letting us know about issues that need to be confronted and resolved.
Every individual relates to the world by utilizing his talents and abilities on many levels. He relates physically via his various senses and organs, and he relates emotionally by expressing his inner feelings through words or body language. A pain in the back might reflect a problem in a spinal disc, but it may also represent an emotional pain we experienced in the past and are currently holding in our back muscles. We view every challenge both cognitively – thinking about the meaning of the situation or relationship in which we find ourselves, and spiritually – as when we choose to perceive each new day as an opportunity to grow spiritually and develop a closer relationship with our Creator. Finally, each individual seeks, whether consciously or unconsciously to connect with his higher-level self, to draw from his infinite positive potential and to actualize that potential in every aspect of his or her life.
Another way of perceiving these five levels of perception is as five distinct energetic selves, in which the concept of self is defined as a spiritual and energetic multi-level system in which all aspects of the system work together as an integrated whole. As such, our potential level of perception can be viewed as the essential self, our spiritual perception as our experiential self, our cognitive perception as our mental self, our emotional perception as our emotional self, and our physical perception as our bioenergetic self.
The Essential Self
In our environment, every level of creation connects to a specific spiritual root (Likutei Moharan I, Torah 257) from which it draws and actualizes its potential. Similarly, in personal perception, we actualize ourselves by connecting to our spiritual root, drawing spiritual energy from our higher-level self, which we manifest though our thoughts, words and actions. The essential self represents our connection to all that we can be, even if at present we are expressing only a small part of our infinite potential. The essential self is the real person we are deep down, cloaked within all our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual garments.
The original embryonic cell created at conception contains within itself the potential of the entire human being. Even after cell-subdivision any number of times, each cell still maintains the potential to be any limb, sinew or organ cell. Approximately fourteen days after conception, the embryo cells begin to differentiate, creating dimensions such as front as opposed to back, right side as opposed to left, top as opposed to bottom. A similar developmental process applies in a perceptual perspective: A person will initially connect to his potential, but in order to utilize it fully, he must organize and define that potential within the dimension of experience. This is done by channeling his potential to the experiential self.
The Experiential Self
Infinite potential is pure, raw energy, unformed and undefined. For this potential to be useful there must be an aspect of self that gives that energy dimensions and meaningful implications. Just as the operating system of a computer will format a diskette, setting up virtual compartments that can then hold information, so does the experiential self create a format for each unique type of human expression. By defining and creating a matrix, the experiential self delineates and clarifies the difference between dissimilar situations, and it provides the means by which to experience and grow from each event.
The ability to experience is distinct from the ability to think, just as hearing someone describe the Grand Canyon is completely different from seeing it. The experience of feeling jealousy is quite unique from the physical sensation of eating a cherry. The experiential self sets up the system by which we experience external and internal stimuli, whether intellectual, emotional or sensory. Our experience of this stimuli exerts an ongoing influence on our physical, emotional, cognitive and spiritual growth, including our openness and devotion to Torah and mitzvos and to our relationship with God.
The Mental Self
Just as God uses the medium of thought to guide the world ( see Yeshayahu 55:8), so too, the capacity to think, to formulate ideas and concepts, is of primary importance in human self-actualization. The experiential self creates a basis for experience, and God provides man with the mental self, the source of all our thoughts, whether positive or negative, that influences our awareness of ourselves within our environment. The mental self operates via sensory-based thought (Me’or Einayim, Parashas Vayeilech).
The Emotional Self
The fourth self is the emotional self, which allows us to attune ourselves to all the various nuances of sensory- and emotional-based stimuli and to the effects these feelings have on our sense of well-being and on our perception of others. Operating within the body’s endocrine system, it cloaks itself in the inner balance of the “four humours” and in the glandular energy.
The Bioenergetic Self
The fifth self is the bioenergetic self, which is the energetic-spiritual integrated system within a person. The bioenergetic self oversees the balanced functioning of the physical body’s organs, muscles, cells and interconnected systems, such as the digestive, excretory and respiratory system, as well as mind-body communication. It operates via electrical currents that flow within the body, moving the physical energy that manifests as brain waves and signals, in order to maintain a balanced state of equilibrium in the body.
