We will continue in giving more information about what has previously been called the Chief Feature in the Michael Teachings, or what is known more generally as the manifestation of ego.  As we mentioned previously, everything about this structure of ego is based upon the perception of separation.  There is in actuality no "problem" with this, as this is what you are here, on the physical plane, to do.  You are here to explore the perception of separateness in order to know and rediscover who you truly are.  In what is known as the ego there is a gift you give to yourself - a focus that helps you focus on your lessons you have created for yourself and that will carry you home.  Love for your own creation will at all times aid you in rediscovering your own choices and your powers of creation that exist within you at all times.

We will now talk of the manifestation of this perception of separation known as Greed.

Greed is built upon the fear of loss, upon the perception of "I have something now but it won't exist at some future point for me". Humans have within them the knowledge that things are impermanent, that things change. This is the law of impermanence, as described by the Pali word annicha.  

There's often a great energy that creates defenses against this, because people get emotionally attached to things, people, feelings, experiences, and events. Expectations are created that experiences and feelings will be reproduced, time and time again.  The expectations themselves serve to create a deeper energetic connection and attachment with the experience.  You build up this energetic connection and there's a fear that the experience is going to go away.  As an example, the thing that gave you comfort may go away or the way of relating to you by another that conveys a meaning of love to you may disappear.  The fact that these actions hold the meaning of comfort and love to you creates the desire for them to last forever.

It is impermanent, so you know within you that it's not going to last forever. Everything goes away — but that makes you want to grab onto it all the tighter.

Of course, that grabbing on tighter creates the opposite reaction from the universe: the thing itself will want to go away. The grabbing on tightly causes it to move away.  So there's a constant "irritation" in the person using this energy, because they are always feeling this push-pull effect. It is a constant battle of pulling for their desire and the natural response of the universe of it pulling away. And because of that, there is a continual focus on the battle itself and no attention to what the battle surrounds.  Without attention and presence, that area within the soul loses energy, and all they have is the perception that there is an emptiness inside.

You have heard this described as an energetic vortex — a "void". There is a great amount of activity going around the "perimeter" of you because of this energetic irritation, this push-pull battle of things moving away and pulling it back. The thought is, "That's what I know, what I can hold onto — that's what keeps me feeling anchored to this weird physical plane that I still know on some level is all an illusion."

It's all impermanent. 

What's permanent is the soul.

This is a "fight" of the physical plane. It's a very basic one to the perception of Being on the physical plane, because there's this constant battle between what you know energetically on an astral level — that you're one. You're All That Is. There is no separation. But all your senses are telling you that there is separation, so there is this "big battle".  This is what manifests as Greed.

Greed is about that energetic holding on to an experience or thing that feels "real".

Again, when it comes down to it, all the chief features, or "manifestations of ego," are all based on the same thing — the perception of separation. In the broadest terms we see all the chief features as the same. They are all a function of the elements of the physical plane and your responses to them. All of you use most of them. You have some central ones that are more ingrained within you (given in what is known as a "Michael Overleaves Chart"), and then other responses that are connected are built on top of them.

The Formation of Greed

In childhood, Greed tends to manifest when there is a pervasive energy that is close by of a parent or family member who is unreliable in terms of consistency. So when there is that unreliable energy in the surroundings, there is a desire to create some sense of consistency for one's self. This can fixate on different things depending on what the other perceptions are of that particular person in that lifetime.

It can fixate on material possessions — there is the thought, "I have more things around me and I feel the energy of those things around me and that feels consistence and permanent."   It can fixate solely on experiences and the reproduction of them, time and time again. It can fixate on a feeling, such as the feeling of being admired. It could fixate on the various energetic interactions that become patterns later on, such as patterns of relationship. The common tendency of manifesting relationships that mirror familial childhood ones is often an extension of this.

Greed is constructed as a defense.  It exists simply to create a protective energetic sphere around one's self that feels comfortable and consistent. A child has this need, as psychologists know. Yet the end effect of this is that it becomes this energetic vortex that we've talked about when there's this push-pull battle, because of the nature of how things work on the physical plane.

For instance, if you're fixated on material goods, on the physical plane they will become degraded, broken, lost, stolen, etc. There's impermanence there. Nothing on the physical plane is permanent and constant. But because there's this underlying fear of separation and loss, the reaction of Greed is generated in order to create a sense of connection with something - whatever the fixation happens to be attached to.

Greed can look very different externally depending on where the fixation is placed, but all manifestations are based on this energetic pattern and the fear of loss. What types of things that are commonly fixated on can be divided up into Soul Age perceptions.  A common example of a particular fixation for an old soul is on patterns of experience, interaction and interrelation.

This is very common even without the pattern of greed with Mature Souls and Old Souls; the same people pop in your life again and again, only in different bodies. One reason for this soul choice is that you want to examine similar issues under different guises.

With greed, this appears as a similar type of pattern and behavior and response, but based on the fear of separation and loss. It has this "push-pull" battle at all times; you're both pushing this experience towards you with increasing energy at the same time as it's pulling away. Without the constancy of this behavior pattern — no matter how dysfunctional and destructive it is — there is the feeling that life itself would end. The void, that energetic vortex within someone in this energetic pattern, feels like death. It's a feeling of emptiness and lack that is the source of the behavior. Because it's a powerful vortex, others are magnetized towards it; people will appear in your life that give you some of that constancy you are fixated on without you thinking you did anything to create that. They just pop up.  Many of those in the healing profession — on both sides — can reproduce these kinds of encounters without necessarily being consciously aware of it.

Question: As you describe it, it doesn't sound how the word "Greed" is used in society. It's wanting a familiar controlled comfort, not extra things.

There's a feeling of lack without that constancy. We don't use the term "fixation" lightly. There is a huge amount of energy and attention put towards that maintenance of security.

Because it acts as a vortex with this "void" inside, it feels very empty to other people. It can never be filled because it's never really meant to be filled.

How you can work with this energy

What helps the most tends to be activities that allow you to fall into that perceived void in the Center of You. That's a very metaphorical phrase, so we will expand further on this.

An analogy would be to simply allow yourself to experience the Void that you perceive within you. Allow yourself to acknowledge this sense of emptiness. That's a huge thing for a lot of people, because people who use this energy tend to be very, very very busy convincing themselves and others that they are not empty. This is part of the constant activity of greed. You feel this emptiness but you want to push it away and have it not there, because this emptiness means something about you that feels very negative.

• The first step, therefore, is to acknowledge that this void is there. That, of course, will bring up pain and "issues".
• The next step is to simply allow yourself to fall into it and to trust that you will not completely disappear.

How can most people fall into this void?  Certainly paths of meditation and contemplation can help you get there.  In deep meditation, there is only awareness.  There is no ideally no holding on to thought patterns, labels, and experiences that serve to perpetuate this "push-pull" battle.  This will serve to let awareness gradually fall within and bring energy to what feels like "emptiness".

For those people who aren't meditators, many will manifest situations in their lives where they are forced to look at it. For instance, if they are materially fixated they may manifest extreme poverty so they will see the flip side of their fixation — their worst fears realized.

Although this sounds horrible, this is ultimately the way to work with greed: to perceive what you are fixated on, what your fear is and what it is attached to, and to walk down the road of what being in that world that would result from this worst fear.

Question: What exactly is the void? I thought that ultimately there isn't such thing as a complete void in the universe.

On the physical plane, because there is the perception of separation, there is a perception that you'll never get back to the oneness, that you'll always be "stuck here" and there's nothing for you. That's one aspect of the void. Older souls tend to have more of a connection to the world-between-worlds, the Astral plane (what's call the "other side") and other awarenesses. That can ironically bring the fear into a sharper perception.

The void is simply the perception that there is a lack and emptiness within you, that you are not complete As You Are. It is the thought that you need to fixate your attention and energy on something else in order to feel secure and complete.

When you are inside the void, you perceive it is truly not empty — because you are in it.

This is the truth of what you perceive as your void and emptiness: it is only a void because you are not in it.