IF YOU ARE, or have ever been addicted to any type of drug, like nicotine for instance, when you smoked those first few cigarettes, the ego thought, ‘That’s good, I’d like some more of that,’ so it created a folder labelled ‘smoking gives me a good feeling’ and into that folder it placed pleasurable memories of those smoking experiences for later reference.

Even if some cigarettes gave you a bad taste or caused you to cough and gag, those negative sensations were cunningly put aside and only the euphoric feeling of the experience recorded. As more and more cigarettes are smoked, the memories in the folder grows and the ego’s need to re-experience the euphoria increases.

The ego eventually becomes addicted to returning to the memories in that folder, then lights another cigarette to re-experience those good feelings. Finally the need switches from seeking a good feeling to a craving. It then becomes something the ego believes it cannot do or live without.

This same scenario can be attributed to anything that the ego believes it wants to re-experience badly enough. It can be drugs, alcohol, chocolate, over eating, material possessions, sexual pleasure, an adrenalin rush of any sort, or something as simple as health and fitness, love and recognition, or spirituality and enlightenment. It doesn’t matter, as long as the ego believes it can gain something from it, it will pursue it.

Even Anorexia is a need worth pursuing as far as the ego is concerned. In this case it’s a need for less. The ego still misguidedly believes it will get something out of starving oneself – consequently there is a folder labelled say, ‘I’m too fat’ or ‘I need to diet to be beautiful’ that contains the appropriate memories.

There are many pleasurable sensations that are quite harmless and then there are some that become addictive. The more times the ego experiences those addictive types of sensations, the more it gets hooked, consequently, it frantically seeks to experience that feeling again. Sounds ludicrous doesn’t it, the unnecessary pain we unconsciously impose upon ourselves?…

Continued next post…

Dan’s Quote: “While ever we believe we are this false ego self,
______________we will continue to be at the mercy of artificial stimulation.”