Try this experiment sometime; sit in a dimly lit room and look directly into a mirror, into your own eyes without wavering or looking away. Really stare. Blinking is okay, but don’t look away.

Keep doing this for at least five minutes. Let your thoughts go blank; put away your inner chattering, your sense of identity, your self esteem or lack of it. At some point, the face you’re looking at will change and will suddenly seem to morph into someone else’s. Just keep staring.

I’ve heard various theories to explain this face change.

Some claim it’s one of your faces from a previous life; others say it’s the face of your higher self. I think they’re guessing, so I don’t necessarily believe or disbelieve any of the suggestions I’ve heard. However, I don’t have any theory of my own to offer you — only the experience itself.

Reading about doing this has no power to move you, but sitting and staring into your own eyes for an extended period — now that is a gut-level experience that needs no words. It transcends self image and self esteem.

You’ll come away with some interesting insights into yourself, insights that will probably surprise you.

Okay, playtime’s over — let’s get back to the subject of who your maker is.

In an absolute sense, of course, your maker is whatever or whoever you consider the highest power. You may call this force God, or the Universe, or some other name. Changing the name doesn’t change what it is — our ultimate cause.

But let’s step down from those lofty heights for a bit and consider the question of your identity rather than your existence.

When we come into this world we have minimal identity. But as we spend time around other humans, we tend to pick up and imitate bits and pieces of what we see, so before long we’re a mish-mash of things we’ve gathered up and adopted. As we adopt these traits and behaviors from others, we do it consciously, but after we’ve repeated them often enough, we forget how we chose to be that way.

And as we gain bits of identity, we often give up little bits of our self esteem. It’s not necessary, but that’s the way it’s often done.

Eventually we look at all the little bits we’ve acquired and think “that’s the way I am” or “that’s just who I am” and we find it difficult to change this long-standing “identity” that we’ve cobbled together.

The truth is, the “self” we think is us — that’s a sort of Frankenstein’s creature that we built along the way, with no plan except coping with the passing moment.

Any and all parts of our identity creature are more or less arbitrary, and could be changed at will — if we knew how and were willing.

But our self has taken on a life of its own. It has become what we call our ego. And IT isn’t very eager to change. Further, our self esteem has, by now, become so compromised that it may not be much help in driving change.

Nevertheless, you have just met your maker… the unformed infant who picks up and keeps sparkly pieces of this and useful bits of that, till “you” are formed and functioning, for better or for worse.

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