Ego

"Your ego promotes a rather smooth flowing river of misery with fear, keeps you in a belief system that declares you are separate and special, prevents your from making the changes that will bring you into contact with your spiritual self, hands you guilt (the inner fear that you should pay a price for any and all mistakes), keeps you skeptical of your divinity, whispers that love is a high ideal loaded with danger.   It wants you not to give too much love because you may be taken advantage of.   All of these ideas keep you in a state of fear about giving and receiving love, which is enough to keep you under its influence."  Wayne Dyer