Chapter III. Flow and Solidification

We will borrow a few foundational concepts from Jung’s work on psychic functions—not as tools for personality classification, but merely as points of departure. From there, we step onto a vessel and begin to trace the energetic current that configures a being: a process I call the Solidification of the Anchor Point

■ Channels of Conduction and the Convergence of Flow

Cognitive functions are likely already familiar to you. Still, I want to re-establish them on a clean ground—to polish them until no trace of behavioral expression remains. At this stage, we are not speaking of personality, choice, or “who someone is.” We are speaking only of operating channels.

› Cognitive Function Channels: Perception and Judgment

Perceptual function channels are channels of reception — processing — assimilation of information.
There are two kinds of information the psychic system can access: the visible and the invisible.

• Sensing: accesses the visible layer—what can be seen, heard, touched, and measured.
• iNtuition: accesses the invisible layer—relations, possibilities, meaning, and latent structures.

Judging function channels are channels of analysis — evaluation — decision.
They operate on two distinct value systems: reason and ethics.

• Thinking: orients right/wrong based on rational, impersonal criteria.
• Feeling: orients right/wrong based on ethical value—colloquially, what we call “feeling.”

By this point, I hope no one is still assigning personality to these cognitive channels.
They are simply… channels.
And if Jung had never existed—if no one had named them at all—everything described here would still be operating exactly as it always has: unconscious — unnamed — indifferent.

Just kidding.

But not really.
Most of us never actually see our own stream of thought — it moves like a dull inertia, and we are simply dragged along by it. Understanding the structure of thought is already a luxury, when we do not even know what we are thinking in the first place. Very few are willing to sit still and quietly watch the chaos running through their own mind. That is precisely why dreams have to step in — to clean up what we refuse to look at during the day. I will not go into dreams here.

But if you are patient enough to sit down and look directly at that tangled mess in motion, you will run into a rather naked truth: cognitive functions have no inherent hierarchy whatsoever. There is no “boss channel,” no pre-assigned primary or secondary role stamped into us at birth. In the beginning, there is only a heap of crude potential — a vague cognitive energy not yet shaped, waiting for an excuse to take form.

Jung called this an Anlage — an innate psychic disposition. It sounds rather dignified, but in reality the process is quiet, sneaky, and brutally pragmatic. Your psychic energy simply flows where things are smoother, settles where there is less resistance. That is all. An anchor point gradually condenses, following the logic of water flowing downhill. There is no vote, no act of free will involved here. It is merely a random arrangement… that has already happened — and you then go on believing that you chose it.

And the real authority? Oh, the Ego sits there quietly smirking, orchestrating the entire game while you still believe you are “freely choosing.”

The truth is this: we have existed in this unconscious state for millions of years, like automated machines, operating under the quiet dictatorship of the Ego. The Ego is clever enough to convince us that we are living with free will — that we know who we are, what we want, and why we suffer.

But look more closely. The pains that repeat themselves throughout our lives are almost always blamed on external circumstances. Rarely do we see that it is the Ego itself that generates the disorder. Conveniently — and thanks to its monopoly of power — it pushes all other channels of perception out of the field of awareness. Once those channels are buried, the cognitive system turns… unconscious. And we respond like machines: a chain of instinctive reactions, scripted and executed by the Ego.

›Ego: A Temporary Center of the Psyche

Jung helped us put names to the channels. But this journey does not stop at naming. The train keeps moving, driven by the pressure of life itself — Drive — and by how this pressure forces the psyche to latch onto certain channels in order to survive. From this point on, the story is no longer about personality, but about dynamics.

Look closely at what is actually happening right now. The organism exists with two fundamental survival demands:

1. Biological: sustaining life, maintaining physiological stability.
2. Psychic: preserving inner coherence, maintaining emotional balance.

We become aware of these demands through thought — one of life’s most remarkable inventions. Once thought arises alongside this need for stability, every feedback from the environment is registered, and the organism begins to form responses in order to protect its equilibrium.

So at the moment of birth, when Drive — the raw current of life energy (physical pain, craving, fear) — surges without any regulating center, the organism is forced to draw a boundary: between itself and the world. From there, it seeks an anchor point to coordinate this primal chaos. And so the Ego begins to condense — as a temporary center of regulation… indefinitely. Because it is me, after all. Hello, life. I am “alive.”

Chaotic primal signals broadcast an SOS → The boundary “Me” ≠ “Not-me” is established → A stable anchor point emerges to coordinate survival responses → The Ego condenses at the point of least chaos

And the place of least chaos is also the place of optimal energy efficiency. Imagine a turbulent, violent flow fitted with a pressure-regulating valve. The organism experiences a strange sense of satisfaction — the feeling of “I am right”, “I am in control”. It is precisely this reward that causes the Ego to begin identifying with that operational channel, turning what was once a mere cognitive tool into an identity anchor.

The Ego, then, is not an independent entity — not a “person in the head”, not a soul, not the true self. The Ego is a self-organizing mechanism — a temporary center the psyche generates in order to survive. Be a little grateful to it. No need to hate it so fiercely.

In short, the Ego does not govern the unconscious. It functions more like a gatekeeper, deciding what may enter awareness and what must be pushed into the shadows. The Ego is temporary order amidst chaos — nothing more, nothing less.

Summary

For those with dyslexia — or simply the reading-averse (like me). Here is the compressed summary:

›Initial State of Drive Flow Dynamics

• • Innately, all channels N = S = T = F
  They exist fully but remain undifferentiated. Everything is raw potential awaiting formation through self-condensation.
• • Primordial chaos + survival drive => Ego activation
  Function: establish an identity anchor, organize responses, and maintain the boundary between consciousness and the unconscious.
• • Ego condensation point = least chaotic Drive
  A flow directed inward (In-) or outward (Ad-).
• • Ego identification (Cog-Vector) via inertia = identity pattern formation
  The Cog-Vector with the lowest Drive loss becomes the system’s operational lever through a natural-selection-like mechanism.
• • Drive flows through the identity pattern
  Producing sensations of right/wrong, control, and satisfaction.
• • The unconscious
  Weaker perceptual channels gradually withdraw from consciousness, carrying unresolved Drive turbulence as flow smoothness degrades.

›Drive Filter Diagram

          [ IDENTITY ]
    (Final compression point)
                ▲
                |
              |   |
              |COG|
              |VEC|                <-- (Narrow conduit – The Channel)
              |DOM|
              |   |
                |
    [=EGO:VAlVE / REGULATOR=]      <-- (Condensation point – The Regulator)
      / /       |        \ \
     / /       | |        \ \
    / /        | |         \ \        (Polarized flow)
 ~~( (  ______/   \______   ) )~~
  ~ \ \   / PRS RELIEF\    / / ~   <-- (Unconscious Channel – The Leakage)
   ~ \ \ [ UNCONSCIOUS ]  / / ~       (Drive overflow due to blockage)
~~~~~~\ \________________/ /~~~~~~
       \                  /
        \      DRIVE     /
 ________\______________/________

         [ PRIMAL ENGINE ]         <-- (Baseline pressure – The Source)

• ID-D Ego’s identity hunger (Identity-drive)
• CHAN Operational reflex: Cog-Vector — Ego’s point of leverage (The channel)
• REGU Ego: Pressure valve (The regulator)
• LEAK Unconscious channel: Zone of chaos, prone to pressure leakage (The leakage)
• SRCE Drive: The primordial engine of life (The source)

Put simply: whatever the Ego uses repeatedly becomes an automatic reflex. Whatever the Ego dislikes or cannot tolerate gets suppressed — but it does not disappear. It merely waits for a chance to resurface.

By now, you have seen the entire mechanism of how the unconscious operates. But the more important question lies beyond:

If the Ego dominates one selected channel, what happens to the channels left behind in the dark?
Do they vanish?
Or do they re-emerge in ways we never expect?

These channels pushed into the unconscious, together with the direction of flow and the anchor point established by the Ego, shape the internal equilibrium of the psyche. Yet this equilibrium is not static. In the next chapter, we return to the Nuance Flow reference frame to observe more clearly how this dynamic mechanism unfolds in lived reality.