THE SELF AND THE TRANSCENDENTAL EGO. 28 1 



the Transcendental Ego can neither be separate 

 from or equivalent to the phenomenal self ( = the 

 content of consciousness). If it were separate, the 

 " I " would be divided, would be not one but two ; 

 If It were equivalent, the self which Interacts with 

 the Deity would be equivalent to the self which Is 

 the result of that Interaction. 



To understand this relation, we must remember 

 that the ordinary phenomenal '' I " Is essentially 

 changing, and displays different sides of Its nature 

 at different times. Hence Its actual consciousness 

 never represents the w/iole capacity of the self 

 What " I " think, feel, etc.. Is only a small portion 

 at any time of what I am capable of thinking and 

 feeling, and its amount is very different when I am 

 Intensely active and half asleep. But do not the 

 latent capacities of feeling, etc., truly belong to 

 myself, or does Its reality admit of degrees corre- 

 sponding to the intensities of consciousness ? Am 

 " I " annihilated when I fall asleep, and resurrected 

 when I awake ? Assuredly this would be a strange 

 doctrine, and one from which the acceptance of the 

 Transcendental Ego delivers us. The Transcen- 

 dental Ego is the *' I " with all its powers and 

 latent capacities of development, the ultimate reality 

 which we have not yet actually reached. The phen- 

 omenal self is that portion of the Transcendental 

 Ego which is at any time actual (exists epepyeln), 

 or present in consciousness, and forms but a feeble 

 and partial excerpt of the Ego. But the Self is as 

 yet alone real, and as In the progress of its develop- 

 ment it unfolds all Its hidden powers, it approximates 

 more and more to the Ego, until at last the actual 

 and the potential would become co-extensive, the 

 Self and the Ego would coincide, and in the attain- 



