I always thought of my guide as my past life energy-personality, who still has his own life and is still in that time frame which is as real as 2005 is to me. I believe, but do not have certainty DP lived around 1910 or is still in that dimension and connects with me as his future self. all this is like imagination in many ways, but I've learned theres more to imagination than we think.
but aside from that my energy is different than DP's. I am soft, passive, emotional, rebellious about his religious constructs.
his energy as guide, is like ageless wisdom,an active principle to complement my passiveness, full of disapline, not rebellious, but loving and allows my rebellion because he knows I am a new ego and he knows I get the last word on every thing!

these days, I don't call him higher self, as the merge seems complete so that there does not seem to be two here, but one, but for communication purposes we may make divisions like this, because merging is a process that may take an entire lifetime. seems we have more than one higher self which would include all disc members which can be seen as other lives but at same time real people still alive on another level.
the ego in C1 appears to be just a part of something bigger which is having itself an individual experience to add to the whole. as such, not much can be said for the individual ego passing through here except in its relationship to the bigger picture.
all the answers are accessible within.
love, alysia