From lecture 193, R?SUM? OF THE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF THE PATHWORK: ITS AIM AND PROCESS:

The human condition can best be expressed in a general way by the following three levels of consciousness: the higher self which is the God consciousness; the lower self which is the demonic self; and the mask self which hides the demonic or lower self. Needless to say, there are many degrees and stages within each of these levels of consciousness. The way they overlap, cancel each other out and create confusion, along with the resulting indirect effects and chain reactions, needs to be explored, understood, and mastered. This work is the pathwork. All these aspects of the personality can be conscious or unconscious to varying degrees. The less awareness you have of any of these states, the more conflict exists in your life and the less you are equipped to deal with life, yourself, and other people. Low awareness will also certainly result in your being farther removed from the realization of your ultimate divine self.

Lack of awareness comes from being split off from the reality of one’s real, higher, divine self. But one is also split off from awareness of the lower self as well as the mask. This fragmentation creates misunderstandings, illusions, and misconceptions. It is one of the tasks of this pathwork to find these misconceptions and correct them.

Now let me shed some light on the aim of this pathwork before I describe the process. The aim is to unify these three levels of consciousness so that the mask and lower selves dissolve and only the true higher self manifests and expresses itself. Only when the lower and mask selves are entirely conscious and their exact manifestations understood can misconceptions be corrected, because lack of awareness creates misconceptions. Misconceptions, in turn, create negative energy and feelings. Negative energy and feelings create suffering. This chain must be reversed and can only be reversed when awareness of the mask self, the lower self, and finally the higher self can be attained through various processes and approaches of the pathwork.

Now we come to the method of this pathwork. I will summarize and discuss the fundamentals without going into all the manifold details and considerations. The levels to be worked with — each one in a different way — are the following aspects of the human personality:

(1) the level of mind and thought
(2) the level of will
(3) the level of feelings
(4) the level of physicality and physical expression.

When all these levels are conscious and when their inevitable divergence from each other is faced and accepted, a unification process can begin. When the lower self is understood, accepted and dissolved, when the mask is dispensed with, then the unification of the being can take place in spiritual reality.

Now let us see what the different approaches to the four different personality levels are.

(1) The Level of Mind and Thought

The level of mind must deal with concepts and misconceptions. Thoughts and thought processes which are directed into erroneous channels affect all other levels. They always create vicious circles which entrap you in hopeless situations. It is indeed true that as long as you move within a vicious circle there is no hope. But the moment the vicious circle is broken, you are liberated from the trap. It is therefore imperative to clearly see, understand, and give up those components of your mental attitudes and behavior which create a vicious circle. This always means to basically change a concept, a thought process, an approach to reality.

The particular misconception must be recognized as such. You need to determine why it is one, how it came to exist, and in what way it leads you into a vicious circle. You need to ask, “How does this vicious circle evolve? What is the corresponding true concept and how would living according to it lead me into a wide open world and into a benign cycle of creative self-expression?” All this must be clearly perceived, understood, and made conscious. Eventually it must be experienced emotionally, for it is not enough to have merely a theoretical understanding of these inner processes. Only through your emotional experience of a misconception can it be replaced by a true concept. Only then will the true concept take root in the psyche and open up new channels of spontaneous behavior no longer based on conditioned reflexes, and of creative expression of feelings.

Misconceptions can be quite conscious without your knowing that they are misconceptions. Therefore your conscious beliefs must also be tested and investigated. Misconceptions can be vaguely conscious. This is the case when your actions and reactions testify to the fact that you are governed by misconceptions, but you have not yet concisely specified what these misconceptions and their consequences are. Then the work of specific identification needs to be done. Misconceptions can also be unconscious. In that case, the pathwork must make them conscious. This can only be done by examining the life manifestation. One’s life does not lie. It expresses exactly what you really inwardly believe. You may consciously claim that you are a loving person and indeed believe in love. But if you suffer from a loveless life, it testifies clearly that somewhere inside of you, you do not believe in love, do not want to love, and have your reasons, or rather misconceptions, for not loving. Hence, unconscious misconceptions can only be unearthed by looking at your life, your suffering, your frustration, and your unfulfilled longings.

All levels must be dealt with by looking at the conscious mind and searching in the unconscious: these two approaches vary for each of the four aspects of the personality. You have to work differently with the level of mind than with the levels of will, of feeling, and of the body.