This book is Tkachuk's journey out of Seventh-day Adventism and Christianity, and an explanation for why remaining a Christian isn't an option. The death of his sister jolted him into an emotional and intellectual journey into understanding Self that his theology could not answer. The "Self" is a part of our humanity we assume we understand, but don't. Christianity targeted the Self as a selfish evil nature that controls our thoughts and actions and wars against God and Good. Self is damned if not redeemed by faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. All it took was three sentences from Dr. Julian Jaynes' book, "The Origin of Consciousness in the Break Down of the Bicameral Mind," and the unfolding and development of Self came clear: ancient man didn't have a psychological mind or Self because he wasn't yet conscious. Why hadn't that occurred to Tkachuk earlier? (1) "I wish to be very clear that consciousness is chiefly a cultural introduction, learned on the basis of language and taught to others, rather than any biological necessity. (2) Consciousness and morality are a single development (and) (3) it is the self that is responsible." "Self" is the mysterious coincidence of becoming conscious. However, because of our split brain, we didn't develop one self, but two. One Self was designed from the perspective of the right hemisphere, the other from the left. This results in one Self but perceived through the confluence of these two perspectives. Man's dual nature is not Good and Evil, Gods and Demons, but our dual Self: man seeing himself as social mind-our community mind; and man seeing himself as psychological mind-our individuated sense of being. Self was developed through a socialization by our community, our sociological Self. Consciousness is the process of individuating from that social Self. It is therefore a type of rebellion. Since our community has for millennia defined what we believe and therefore "see" in our mind's eye, including right and wrong, good and evil, when the psychological Self differs from those social norms, it is seen as evil and rebellious. To understand Self, you have to understand the nature and design of consciousness that came from man's dual brain forming two Selfs, but a unified perspective that indeed causes a struggle within Self. It is this dual nature that Adventism and Christianity is confused about and keeps man hostage to it as man's sociological Self. Consciousness is the liberation, yet the responsibility of individuating from our social Self. Good and Evil are a perspective within consciousness. Good is engaging that which works against Self's priorities and changes their course of action towards a harmony of Self's purposes. Evil is what flows in a trajectory different from the priorities of Self. Evil is never annihilated, only overcome. Evil only remains overcome as long as it is engaged by a Self changing it into what is "Good." Christianity interprets the Bible as if ancient prophets were conscious as we are now, but it isn't so. This fact is the difference between mythology (the ancient mind) and consciousness (the modern mind). Mythology is like the child stage of human development, where each person developed as a social mind only. Consciousness is the adult stage where both a community and psyche developed, where the Self has the authority and responsibility to manage that relationship. But the Bible teaches that God is authority yet man is responsible. This is the oxymoron of mythology that produces mythic guilt and toxic fear in man. For man cannot be responsible over that which he has no authority. For, if a Self is conscious, it has authority to the extent it is capable of being responsible. It can't therefore be also responsible to God. So if Self exists, God cannot. If God exists, then Self cannot. They represent two conflicting structures that have competing ends, where one will negate the other. Do your "Self" a favor, and read th