ease as the professor talks of a solid, liquid and acriform substances in his laboratory. So at last he finds that even the wonderful powers of the Intellect must go into the "not I" collection. This is almost as far as the average man can realize. You can realize and say "I am not the body, not the emotions, not the intellect." Therefore you see, that side of consciousness which is the sum-total of your physical, emotional and intellectual functions comprises the "me" or Feminine or Passive mental principle. That which can separate itself in thought from all the above is the "I" or the Masculine Function. But another step must be taken. That which you have been taught to regard as the Spiritual Consciousness (see "Spiritual Consciousness") will also eventually go into the "Not-I" or "me" collection. In brief, the spiritual mind may be said to comprise all that is GOOD, NOBLE and GREAT in the field of consciousness. It is the "Super-Conscious" mind, just now. But, mark this, when through further evolution, the "I" has mastered this field of consciousness also and is able to regard it as being the last of the "me" collections, then it will lose its sense of _relativity_ and _separation_ and the real individuality, the "I AM" consciousness, will have been realized. What do I mean? This "I AM" is not the petulant self-assertion of the relative ego. "I" but really means GOD CONSCIOUSNESS as perfect Existence, perfect Knowledge or perfect Bliss. It means the realization of an Infinite and Eternal Self or Individuality. "He that has lost the self has gained the SELF". Here is the explanation: this little self or "I" so long as it is attached to the PERSONALITY which is the product of the "me" consciousness is bound down to the relative plane. It can think only through only one brain, enjoy through one body and such happiness as it gets is transitory, short-lived and impermanent because this world of relative existence is itself essentially changeable. It is permanent only in its impermanence. So long as the "I" thinks and while only for the benefits of its personal self, both thinking and willing are limited and not free. But when it has succeeded in joining itself to the Spiritual mind and works for, aspires after the Larger Self--the "I AM"--it has to renounce or "disattach" itself from the personal self and work under the guidance of the impersonal Higher Self. "I refuse to be contained within my hat and boots," said Walt Whitman. When the Vedantist says "Aham Brahmasmi"--"I am the absolute"--he does not mean this lower "I". No, no. He is not built that way. For him the moorings of self-consciousness are out. He has lost all sense of his particular relative "I" and has _one-d_ himself with the absolute "I AM"--the impersonal, intangible, immortal, omnipotent Self of and over all. This "I am" is Spirit or Atman. There can be but one Individuality--that of the Absolute. It becomes objectively expressed in man as Cosmic Consciousness.