Sin is a queer thing.
The greatest condemnation Christianity has ever suffered comes from a seemingly forgotten promise from Christ which seemed to assure his followers that they would be spared the experience of death:
Probably more would-be followers of Christ have been disillusioned by this seeming inconsistency than by any other single element of Christianity, but now, with Division Theory, this statement seems to have been clarified, revealing a way that this statement could in fact be fully accurate.
It is entirely possible that some of Christ's followers, indeed, do not die.
This could only be possible, however, by employing an entirely new definition of death, one with which humanity has previously been unfamiliar: the definition used by Division Theory. When Christ's followers separate from their bodies at physical death, if they had remained perfectly faithful to their own souls during their lives, thus `living' in Christ, then their souls and spirits may not separate at all; if so, their memories and identities would not be lost or destroyed; they would experience no dissolution of self; THEY WOULD NOT DIE.
All of Christ's followers, however, would not be spared from the separation of soul and spirit at death, but only those who had lived their lives entirely according to Christ's directions, remaining fully dedicated to validating the input from the Holy Ghost within their own souls, thus `living' in Christ, would maintain complete unity of soul and spirit at death:
Here is the basic pattern: First, we avoid what we need to look at because we do not want to feel pain. Then our avoidance produces further problems for us, which we also do not want to look at because they evoke pain. Then the new avoidance produces additional problems we do not care to examine - and so on. Layer of avoidance is piled on layer of avoidance, disowned pain on disowned pain. This is the condition of most adults.
Since the right-brain, subjective, unconscious soul always has the last word on any value- judgments taking place in the human psyche, including, of course, one's self-evaluation, the quality of one's self-esteem would seem to stand as a precise measure of just how successfully the unconscious soul judges that the conscious spirit has integrated with it.
Paralleling Division Theory's suggestion that the Primordial Soul originally contained a preprogrammed concern with issues of morality and ethics, Branden also believes that certain concerns are inherent to human experience, certain questions, instinctively asked within each of us, such as `What kind of a person should I try to be?'; `What ideals should I use to guide my life?'; `What things in life are truly the most valuable?'; and `what should I put first in my life?' The soul is always judging itself in reference to such questions, although such judgments are often pushed out of our conscious awareness. But while we may opt to consciously ignore such judgments, we cannot escape their effects in our lives; whether or not one possesses any conscious awareness of it, a poor self-judgment virtually ensures a life of struggle, anxiety, and unhappiness. In fact, Branden insists (in agreement with Division Theory) that virtually all psycho logical problems have at their root a lack of self-esteem, i.e., an imperfect union of the soul and spirit.
A positive self-evaluation, on the other hand, substantially supports, nourishes, and improves one's life, according to Branden. Of course, Division Theory not only agrees, but then follows this natural effect to its logical conclusion, suggesting that a fully complete integration of the soul and spirit would be so profoundly life-enhancing that it would actually extend one's own self, one‘s own ego consciousness, beyond physical death.
Branden identifies two varieties of human ego, one which does possess self-esteem, and one which does not; these correspond precisely to Division Theory's `subordinate' and `insubor dinate' egos. In the first version, the ego which does have self-esteem and is `subordinate', we find the original, natural, undivided state of the psyche. In order to maintain this natural unity, such an ego would need to fully dedicate itself to the task of honoring and validating the input from both sides of its psyche. In such an integrated psyche, it would be necessary to subordinate the moment-to-moment cravings and impulses of the ego to the higher ideals found within the soul. A person able to achieve and maintain such unity would be rewarded with true self-esteem, resting securely in the knowledge that his inner self was undivided, complete, and whole. A person with such perfect inner integrity, Branden teaches, would also enjoy enhanced rationality, intuitiveness, creativity, and benevolence (the very qualities typically recognized by religious traditions as the fruits of a successful spiritual life).
The second type of ego, thought to be held by the vast majority of humanity, is to be found in those whose psyches remain at least partially divided. Just as Division Theory suggests that most people lack perfect integrity and complete integration, living their lives largely alienated from the input of their own souls, the Self-Esteem Movement is now also teaching that most people live in a state of self-estrangement (being divided within themselves). Unconsciously suffering from self-condemnation for betraying their own integrity, such people's conscious egos desperately cling to complex illusions of self-esteem. Our psychological need for self-esteem, the need to believe we have been true to ourselves and are internally uncompromised, is so powerful, according to Branden, that those who lack genuine self-esteem and complete integrity cannot bear to consciously face up to this fact; their unconscious, therefore, creates a complex system of mental detours, barriers, smoke, and mirrors (identifiable with Division Theory's Wall created by sin), all designed to keep the individual from ever coming face-to-face with the fractured, warped, and twisted nature of their true inner selves. All through their lives, according to Branden, such people are unconsciously driven by fear, automatically (unconsciously) repressing and refusing to acknowledge one uncomfortable fact after another. Rather than facing up to and aligning them selves with the value-judgments arising within their souls, they ignore these, crediting their unhappiness instead on external conditions. Unconsciously determined to avoid any direct confrontation with their own inner self-condemnation, such people direct their attention furiously outward, consciously hoping in vain desperation that more money, power, sex, or intoxicants will finally fill the aching void within. Branden describes such people as prisoners of their own self- image, much as the Bible describes the sinner as prisoner of his sin. Mirroring Division Theory yet further, Branden maintains that anyone whose ego is based on such self-esteem illusions is ultimately doomed to personal destruction.
Branden identifies two primary dangers to self-integration: (1) the seductive lure of unconsciousness, and (2) the fear of pain. Humanity, he warns, simply does not realize how seriously dangerous it is to reject parts of one's own psyche, continually forcing more bits and pieces down into unconsciousness. Instead, people tend to act as if unconsciousness is what makes life bearable, often enthusiastically choosing to escape into a mental fog. Isn't this the same attitude warned against in the 2500 year-old book of Isaiah - that humanity harbors a secret, deadly yearning for unconsciousness?:
Like Division Theory, Branden also teaches that true health of one's psyche cannot be gained through any exterior source, but can only come by reintegrating those contents of the unconscious which have been rejected by the conscious mind:
As a psychotherapist I see that nothing does as much for an individual's self-esteem as becoming aware of and accepting disowned parts of the self.
"Make yourselves full, and leave no part of yourselves empty."