In my travels through this life in various capacities, I have been searching more or less constantly for a way to make sense of it all. Looking back on it now with a hindsight perspective, I can see that though much of it at the time seemed to be insane nonsense, there was under all the confusion, striving, wishing, hoping and dreaming an underlying reality that did make sense. Through some kind of process of elimination, I had to look in many places where the answer was not before I could turn to where inc answer is. Many people on the path tried to tell me where to look; to guide me; show me shortcuts. Some of these people had an answer for them, for their time and place -- others did not. At various times, I listened for a while, but the more they shouted, 'Look here, this is the answer; I have it and I will give it or sell it to you; why look further?' the more I seemed to shy away and mistrust their cries. I could not take their word; I had to find out for myself.Some of the people who tried to guide me in this way were parents, teachers, friends, supervisors in the work hierarchy, well-meaning relatives, people in various religious systems, psychologists and therapists, people in various growth-oriented or encounter groups, and other authority figures through numerous self-help and other educational books.Once in a while, I eagerly took the bait; I grabbed for what they had and hoped that would be 'it,' or at least that what they were offering would provide a shortcut to 'it!' Sometimes, I held on longer than I should have for my own good, far beyond the point where I knew this was not the answer, or not enough of an answer -- trapped by the hope that eventually, if I hung on long enough, the answer would be revealed. I was unwilling to abandon an investment of so much time, so much hope, so much of my life -- unwilling to accept that perhaps this particular path had given me as much as it could, and it was time to move on.Don Juan, in Carlos Castaneda's Journey to Ixtlan, says, 'Choose a path with a heart.' Many of the paths I chose did not have a heart, but at the time, I didn't know that's what I was searching for. Now, I believe I have found a path with a heart -- perhaps because I have discovered my own heart in it. I can feel the love, the caring, and the giving of others on the same path, and more and more of all humankind. Through their love, I am learning to love.Through this path during the last several years, I have become increasingly aware of three distinct parts of myself. Each of these parts seems to have autonomy; each is quite unique and each operates in my life quite differently. Many triads of this type have been proposed before. Examples are Freud's id, ego, and super-ego; T.A.'s Parent, Adult, and Child ego states; Carl Jung's subconscious, conscious, and superconscious; and even in religion, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit.The triad I have discovered is different from any of these, but overlaps some of them. This triple entity which is the subject of this book is also its title, 'My Ego, My Higher Power, and I.'This triad belongs to the class which combines psychology and spirituality. Others in this class are that of Carl Jung already mentioned -- subconscious, conscious, and superconscious -- and the four-part division of Transpersonal Psychology: spiritual, intellectual, emotional and physical, in order of increasing energy density. The distinctive feature of the three-part division presented here is that it identifies more clearly the self-oriented mode of believing, thinking and living (our ego), and the spiritual mode of beliefs, thoughts and actions (the Higher Power within us); and it places the capacity and responsibility for choice squarely on each individual one of us (the 'I').In this book, I show how most of us have lived primarily in the ego mode and how, through such living, we have created a spiritual vacuum in our lives which accounts for the emptiness, loneliness, frustration, and perhaps utter despair that many of us feel, regardless of how many external achievements we may claim, how many material things we may have accumulated, or how many conquests, trophies or awards we may have won. I then show how, through developing our awareness of our spiritual dimension, the Higher Power within us, we often find what we have been seeking all along in the ego world: love, peace of mind, and a sense of community and cocreativity with our fellow human beings.I want to share this bit of knowledge with you because a number of people have told me that it has helped them make better sense of their lives. It seems to help people to understand why they do the apparently senseless, often self-destructive things they do when their best intentions are quite opposite to their eventual behavior. I hope that this way of looking at ourselves may be of help to you also -- not only as another way of better understanding how we function, but also as a means toward changing yourself to make better decisions in your life.