I M Perfect lady

Gary Zukav writes about the difference between Conscience and Integrity in his book, Spiritual Partnerships.  

"Integrity and conscience both present themselves as guides through your life, however, they are distinctly different guides, and they take you to distinctly different places.  Conscience takes you where your culture, parents or peers want you to go.  It also discourages you from visiting places that have not been approved by them. When you ignore your conscience you feel guilty and remorseful, as though you have betrayed a trust or disappointed an expectation.  In fact, your collective expects certain behaviors from you, but it also does more than that. It imposes nonnegotiable demands."

Conscience tells you when you have ignored a nonnegotiable demand or you are thinking about ignoring one, for example, "Don't lie" ( or "Thou shalt not lie," if you speak archaically).  Even thinking about ignoring such a demand (command) activates conscience.  You feel guilty at the least and terrified, a failure, and condemned to endless pain at worst.  These are the experiences of frightenend parts of your personality.  In other words, conscience and fear are the same. Conscience is the painful anticipation of painful punishment. The demands of every collective, no matter how different in content, are all starkly black-and-white, either-or, this or that. Conscience guides you to the painful fear of pain and the painful need to avoid pain. That is its function.  It insures that you conform to commands decreed by others or suffer punishments decreed by others."

"Psychologists call this "internalizing" an authority.  You are not the authority. You are controlled by the authority.  Even if the authority is absent, even it it no longer exists (as in the case of a deceased parent), you are controlled by the authority.  If you disobey a command and you think that you will never be caught, you still live in the fear (pain) of being caught (and punished).  You punish yourself until you are punished by others.  The authority takes up residence inside of you as your "conscience", and you experience it as fear. Awareness of your conscience and awareness of your frightened parts of your personality are identical."

"Five-sensory humans feel "out of integrity" when they violate a collective demand.  Multi-sensory humans feel "out of integrity" when they do something that they know is generated by fear instead of love.  They feel "in integrity" when they act in love, with compassion and wisdom…"  

"You can not know in advance what integrity will require of you.  If you need to speak to keep yourself from feeling uncomfortable, to show people that you are there, or to control the conversation, and you are aware of it, integrity requires not speaking.  If speaking in a group intimidates you or you think that what you have to say is not important, and you are aware of it, integrity requires speaking.  Each interaction brings its own healing potential.  Integrity calls you to that potential.  If you ignore it you feel unsettled, on the "wrong track," or wanting to choose again.  If you answer the call you feel at ease and content with the path that you have chosen."

"Conscience imposes itself upon you.  Integrity calls to you.  Conscience demands that you listen to frightened parts of your personality and obey them.  Integrity requires listening to loving parts of your personality and honoring them.  Conscience takes you where others want you to go.  Integrity takes you where your soul wants you to go." Gary Zukav

What my religion called conscience or taught us about conscience were really all the collective fears of the adults or elders of the church, imposed upon us.  The sins and then punishment to hell all became embedded in us and drove our lives.  Steering by conscience to be steered by the collect authority in our upbringing.  

I used to say "Let your conscience be your guide…."  Now, I know what I was saying was to do what the masses needed you to do. NOT to do as your soul decreed.

I love how he breaks this down.  Integrity it seems to me is to go against the authority rules, to openly and defiantly oppose the conscience.  I know this is absolutely true.  For I had to walk in direct opposition of my conscience to be with my truth.  Freedom is to get out from underneath your inner ruler, called conscience.

Living with integrity is the new definition of being without a conscience.