Fragmentation

The experience of fragmentation occurs in some stages of spiritual development. In the deeper stages it loses its threatening and terrifying character. This is partly due to the increasing insight that it is an image that is fragmenting, not oneself or one's body. Also, the individual increasingly attains a capacity to be the self without the self-representations. So we can experience the self and the self-representation separately. And since we can see directly that it is not who or what we are that is fragmenting, but some representation of who or what we are, there is more equanimity about the experience. (The Point of Existence, pg 505)

In dealing with narcissistic issues, or with issues on the level of deep ego structures, one sometimes encounters the experience of fragmentation. As a result of either an already existing weakness in the structure of the self, or deep work that has dissolved ego structures, the individual experiences fragmentation, or disintegration. The sense of fragmentation often feels literal; the person experiences his body in fragments. This terrifies him and brings fears of death… how can we explain the graphic and vivid experience of one's self in fragments when in actuality one's body remains in one piece? The usual understanding is that the fragments are not of the body itself, but of its image in the psyche. However, the individual’s feeling is that he himself, not an image in his mind, is fragmenting, and thus, he will likely experience physical terror. This is because the image of the body forms a central component in the self-representation. (The Point of Existence, pg 60)