The Ego, Jung tells us, is that part of the psyche that
we think of as "I." Our conscious intelligence. Our
everyday brain that thinks, plans, and runs the show of
our day-to-day life.
The Self, as Jung defined it, is a greater entity, which
includes the Ego but also incorporates the Personal and
Collective Unconscious. Dreams and intuitions come from
the Self. The archetypes of the unconscious dwell there. It is,
Jung believed, the sphere of the soul.
What happens in that instant when we learn we may
soon die, Tom Laughlin contends, is that the seat of our
consciousness shifts.
It moves from the Ego to the Self.
The world is entirely new, viewed from the Self. At
once we discern what's really important. Superficial
concerns fall away, replaced by a deeper, more pro-
foundly grounded perspective.
This is how Tom Laughlin's foundation battles cancer. He
counsels his clients not just to make that shift mentally but to
live it out in their lives. He supports the housewife in resum-
ing her career in social work, urges the businessman to return
to the violin, assists the Vietnam vet to write his novel.
Miraculously, cancers go into remission. People recover. Is
it possible, Tom Laughlin asks, that the disease itself evolved
as a consequence of actions taken (or not taken) in our lives?
Could our unlived lives have exacted their vengeance upon
THE WAR OF ART