All the awareness and focus by the New Age Movement on the higher self has created an image of it being a lofty source of all we need. Yet, being part of the self, even though residing in the divine realm and able to communicate with Creator, that implies the higher self is more a helper and assistant. Is it more like another level of our consciousness than being a separate conscious entity? Can you give us a tutorial of the higher self’s place in things, its role and duties, its strengths and limitations?

You are circling around the truth of things very beautifully here in thinking about the higher self as indeed, another level of the mind. This is not so hard to fathom, given that you are connected to your soul around the clock as long as you are alive, no matter where you are or what you are doing. And your soul resides in the higher astral plane, so you have a direct pipeline to the source of your existence, and other resources you can connect to. And that is what the higher self is most helpful with, because it resides within the heavenly realm as an intermediary between you, your consciousness in the physical, and your soul proper, up in the light. So it is not, indeed, another being that might have volunteered for that duty but otherwise might be off on another excursion somewhere else, as is true of spirit guides and guardian angels who will rotate among individuals and even take turns as though they are working shifts with a particular person over the course of their lifetime. The higher self is part of you and as such is always there, always on duty, and always responsive to requests, both from you in the physical if you are aware of what is possible to gain from communication, as well as the higher self communicating with the divine realm and surveying vast reservoirs of consciousness of all kinds, including the akashic records. It will interact with many beings of light for a variety of purposes and counsel. It does have a quite important and central place in things because it is part of the divine realm, and thus can do far more than the rest of your consciousness, trapped within the body in a diminished mode of function. We have told you the deep subconscious is the largest part of your mind, but that is the parts within the physical realm. The higher self is more lofty and also more vast in capability than even the deep subconscious, but it is still part of you. It can outshine you and outperform you in some respects, but it is not the part of you on the excursion into the physical that represents the essence of your soul as a seeker, a light being, and an experiencer to advance the cause of the divine and achieve many other objectives in service to others, as well as the soul's safety, care and feeding, growth, and expansion—the purpose for living and, of course, the overarching goal of the human being to be in the vanguard of a revolution in solving the problem of evil for all of time, not just within the Milky Way Galaxy that is in dire straits from the rise of evil, but to overcome evil everywhere, wherever it might be expressed or re-created in the future. So the higher self is a kind of replica of you, with certain basic characteristics in the configuration, but not everything, and not the most creative parts of you. Those are the highest of divine faculties you possess, where the higher self is more workmanlike, more a utilitarian, and acting as a kind of functionary to carry out duties in a support capacity, not as an innovator. Its strength is in the oversight and guardianship of your life goal and also personal integrity and the governance of your karmic interplay, because that will be rate limiting and will determine the likelihood of success or failure. So its job is to help balance where your energy goes and what for, so you have wherewithal to work on your mission. But at the same time, it sees that you are doing your homework and paying your penance, as might be needed in response to the Law of Karma bringing a reckoning your way that must be attended to. So to the extent that it is able to outshine you, that is largely because the part you have more direct control of is in a diminished mode and in a state of ignorance, in the bargain. So your higher self is privy to more understanding and awareness of the big picture and understands the ropes, how to make things happen and get things done that are beyond human understanding. That is why it is so lofty-seeming, because that is definitely the case in contrast to the human level you experience as a routine.