Theory of Holes

Our understanding that the personality of ego is an imitation of the essential person, the person of Being, can be made more clear by what we call our “theory of holes.” This perspective, which was developed in detail in our books Essence and The Void, states that whenever an essential aspect is missing or cut off from one's consciousness there results a deficiency, a hole, in its place. This hole is then filled by a part of the psychic structure that resembles the lost essential aspect. One fills or covers the deficiency with a false aspect in its place. (The Pearl Beyond Price, pg 96)

When merging love is lost, there is left in its place a vacuum, an emptiness, a hole in the being. Merging love of essence is a fullness – something is there. It is a delicate, soft fullness, a substantial presence. So its loss leaves an experience of absence, a lack, that is acutely and painfully felt by the child… Thus the child learns not to feel the loss and the consequent emptiness. He learns to fill the emptiness, to cover it up, to bury it. He not only relegates it to the unconscious, he actually fills it with all kinds of emotions, beliefs, dreams and fantasies. (Essence, pg 94)

…the main islands of self-representations, besides forming the sense of identity, function to fill the holes of essential losses. (Essence, pg 96)

We will see that as each aspect of Essence is lost, a certain hole or deficient emptiness is created. This is then filled by the development of a certain sector of the personality, a part of the personality determined by the particular aspect of Essence lost, and by the specific childhood situation or situations that led to its loss. (Essence, pg 97)