State Pathologies and the Three Kinds of Self

Here Ken deepens his exploration into states of consciousness. He discusses some of the crucial distinctions between states and stages, most notably the fact that while stages of development are inclusive (each new stage building upon the last), states of consciousness are not—they are exclusive in the literal sense of the word, meaning you cannot be happy and sad, drunk and sober, or liberated and contracted at the same time.  Furthermore, while we cannot skip stages of development (you must grow through stage 3 before you can hit stage 4), states of consciousness are much more fluid, and any state can be experienced at just about any time.
 

However, there is a big difference between naturally-occurring states and trained states.  As we said, natural states are always available to us, and do not follow any strictly sequential nature.  But trained states almost always do, leading the practitioner over many years from the "densest" states (gross states) to less dense states (subtle states) to formless states (causal states) to effortless Witnessing states (Turiya) to the seamless nondual integration of Witness and Witnessed (Turiyatita).
 

It may be surprising to hear that we can experience painful pathologies in our experience of states. Many are accustomed to thinking of "pathology" as a primarily developmental concern—that is, some piece of us becomes "broken" at some point in our growth, and remains broken throughout our lives (fertile ground for everything from neurosis to psychosis) until we are able to find a way back to the original wound, eventually redressing and reintegrating it.  But pathologies are not limited to stages of development—there are also a great many things that can go wrong with our experience with (and progression through) states, which Ken discusses here.
 

Finally, Ken talks about the three different definitions of "self" that have caused so much confusion while trying to integrate Western philosophy with Eastern philosophy.  He identifies these "selves" as the False Self (the broken or illusory self), the Actual Self (the "authentic" or healthily-integrated self at any particular stage of development), and the Real Self (the timeless Self behind and beyond all manifestation).  To summarize, there have been many failed attempts to remedy the finite False Self by trying to plug it directly into the infinite Real Self, completely bypassing the need to cultivate a healthy and fully-functional Actual Self as the arbiter of our illumination—resulting at best as an effete and cantankerous enlightenment, at worst as the unfulfilling desperation of spiritual bypassing.