Yes, according to Salvadore Poe, ego is simply a belief.

He makes a crucial distinction between the presence of thoughts and the presence of ego:

• Thoughts Are Not Ego: Thoughts appearing in consciousness are completely natural and are not ego in themselves; they are just simple appearances with no individual creator or entity behind them.
• Ego Is the Belief in Identification: Ego (the “rising I”) arises specifically when there is a belief that those thoughts are “what I am”.
• The Story of Self Is a Myth: The separate “I” generates a “story of self” centered around past and future time. Because actual experience consists only of “this moment” as it is—with nothing behind the curtain of time—that story is really a myth and a fantasy.
• Belief Creates Separation and Suffering: It is the belief in that story and identification with thoughts that creates all feelings of separation, fear, desire, aversion, and psychological suffering.
• Nothing to Destroy: Because the ego is merely a belief in a myth rather than an actual physical or spiritual entity, Poe notes that there is nothing to kill, transcend, or get over.

When you step prior to that rising belief into the “sun of pure being,” you see that all there is is open, direct knowing without the mind conceptualizing a separate “you”.

Salvadore Poe describes coming out into the “sun of pure being” as stepping prior to the rising belief in a separate “I” and directly recognizing what is actually here right now.

Here is how he unfolds this direct realization:

• There Is Nothing Behind the Curtain: In direct experience, this immediate moment—with its body sensations, sounds, and sensory appearances—is all there is. There is no hidden “absolute” tucked away somewhere else, nor is there an actual past or future that this moment came from or is going to. This moment, exactly as it appears, is the absolute itself.
• Stepping Prior to Belief: The “rising I” relies on a narrative of time (past and future) to construct a story of a separate self. Because past and future exist only as conceptual ideas, that personal story is really a myth and a fantasy. Coming out into the sun of pure being means stepping back prior to that habit of belief.
• Bare and Naked Open Knowing: When the mind stops conceptualizing or dividing experience into dualistic categories (such as separating “form” from “the absolute”), you are left with bare, naked, open knowing.
• “No One Home”: In the sun of pure being, there is no separate individual managing or owning experience. There is simply “no one home”—just pure, unadorned being resting naturally in what is.

By stepping into this sun, you see that because the separate self is merely a belief in a myth, there is nothing you need to kill, transcend, or get over.