I was just going through my journal a few minutes ago, looking for things to add to my blog, when I came across this again:

"When one becomes familiar and comfortable with psychic events and abilities, one might encounter problems of a different kind. It is easy to become fascinated by the opening realm of psychic phenomena and interpret their occurrence as an indication of one's own superiority and special calling. Since the goal of the spiritual path is transcending the ego, such an attitude represents a great danger of ego aggrandizement and inflation."
--Stanislav and Christina Grof, Spiritual Emergency

It just seems to be a really important thing to remember--I have a feeling that that "ego aggrandizement and inflation" can be one of the biggest dangers, and has probably led a lot of people to either lose their minds or do terrible things to others.

Just my thought (yay!  I had one!   ) for the day!

Doe

Staczek is right on! Messianic complex, delusions of grandeur, psychosis! Of course the other trap of the psychologist is they don't want anyone to make them look up to Heaven, or look down to see the blood on the ground because most of them all they see is a psychology-another trap!

While psychic opening/awareness is a spiritual practice, the ego plays a role. Humility is the first gift of the spirit.  

It would be foolish to think we could eliminate this human complex from all our exercises.  Perhaps it is a question of balance the ego, rather than eliminate it?

Yes, I agree--thinking that one can eliminate the ego is no doubt an exercise in futility, even for the most spiritually advanced/attuned.  Balancing the ego is still a constant challenge in just about all human affairs--not just the psychic.  It takes a lot of vigilence (and it STILL doesn't always work to be vigilent).  I often really annoy myself with my inability to keep my ego in check (and yet I'm still really shy and insecure at the same time...go figure...or maybe that contributes to the problem   ).

And yes, Lightning--I feel very sure that psychosis and delusions of grandeur are, more often than people would think, the results of psychic awakening (or whatever term you choose to use) without proper guidance and care.  Scary when you think about it...

Doe

Stay open to your Spirit and it's needs, don't make decisions how it really is in the Spiritual world.  
Just keep  open to learning and growing, no matter how many gifts are received from Spirit.
To get to a point where a person thinks they have the answers means they are cutting themselves off from the "real" or more answers of Spirit.  
Yes, ego needs to serve Spirit, not the other way around. That also means we need to be careful that the information from Spirit isn't filtered thru ego.  Ego may not always like what Spirit is sharing with us.