“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

[...] You know this because you have a reasoning mind, but that particular kind of reasoning mind knows what it knows because at deep levels the cells are aware of the nature of probable action. The beliefs of the conscious mind, however, set your goals and purposes. [...] The conscious intent, therefore, activates the inner mechanisms and changes the behavior of the cells and their components.

Give us a moment … (Long pause, eyes closed.) There are lands of the mind.⁵ That is, the mind has its own “civilizations,” its own personal culture and geography, its own history and inclinations. But the mind is connected with the physical brain, and so hidden in its [the brain’s] folds there is an archaeological memory. [...]

In far greater terms, the goals set consciously by your species also set into operation the same kind of inner biological activity. [...]

[...] In your mind, try to follow “what might have happened” had you taken the course you did not take. [...]

[...] So it is the conscious alert mind that must take these pictures if you hope to later make sense of your inner journeys. That conscious reasoning mind must therefore be taken along. [...] Certain techniques will help you pack your conscious mind for your journey as you would pack your camera. It will be there when you need it, to take the pictures that will be your conscious memories of your journey.

[...] We will be giving some instructions that will enable readers to experiment with the projection of consciousness at least to some extent. [...] Your state of mind, freed from its usual physical focus, creatively expresses itself in all of its power and brilliance. The state of mind itself serves as an intent, propelling you into realities of like conditions.

[...] When your consciousness is not directly focused in physical reality, then, the great creativity of the psyche is given fuller play. All of its dimensions are faithfully and instantly produced as experience when you learn to take your “normally alert” conscious mind with you; and when you are free of such limiting ideas, then at those levels you can glimpse the inner powers of your own psyche, and watch the interplay of beliefs and symbols as they are manifested before your eyes. [...]

[...] To say the least, they lie in virgin territory as far as your conscious mind is concerned. [...]

[...] Bodily mechanisms, who holds memories too numerous for the conscious mind to follow.

[...] If all of those functions must be beneath present consciousness, you can see that no single ego-consciousness could easily grapple with several environments, times, or life experiences. [...]

(Pause at 10:00.) The brain, as opposed to the mind, needs this correlation. [...] The mind exists independently of the brain, but with connections to it. [...]

There are points of correlation between the two of which the conscious brain is not aware, and perceptions that do not consciously register. [...]

(Quite forcefully:) A certain beneficial and natural situation is arrived at, in which the conscious and unconscious minds meet. [...] The optimum state is so short because of the prolonged drugging of the conscious mind.

It cuts you off from the spontaneous give-and-take of conscious and unconscious material mentioned earlier (in this session), and of itself you see necessitates certain changes that then make your prolonged sleep period necessary (intently). [...] Conscious stimuli is over-applied, making assimilation difficult and placing a strain upon the mind-body relationship.

In the natural body-mind relationship the sleep state operates as a great connector, an interpreter, allowing the free flow of conscious and unconscious material. [...]

To some extent, there is a natural and spontaneous merging of what you would think of as conscious and unconscious activity. [...] Its character is transformed, so that the “dark” qualities are seen as actually illuminating portions of conscious life, while also providing great sources of power and energy for normal ego-oriented experience.

An important point here: You use consciousness—what you think of as rational consciousness—in an unusual manner. Obviously other species use their consciousnesses differently. [...] Your kind of consciousness, relatively speaking, involves some intrinsic difficulties, along with spectacular potentials. [...]

In that larger picture (underlined) there are no errors, for each action, pleasant or not, will (underlined) in its fashion be redeemed, both in relationship to itself and in relationship to a larger picture that the conscious mind may not be able presently to perceive. [...]

[...] Remember, along with these passages, material I gave recently on the uses of the rational mind, and its necessary dependence upon intelligence that it cannot itself directly perceive.

[...] It will be, for example, less difficult to have pleasant expectations, for they will begin to bubble up by themselves into the mind. [...]

As your cells have their own memories, so the conscious mind has a more overt kind of memory. Your conscious thoughts act as triggers, bringing both kinds of memory into activation. [...] There are [in your memory] the most complex organizations and associative frameworks, that exist both in the depths of your cellular structure and in the highest reaches of your conscious activity.

[...] The cells within your hand contain within themselves memories your conscious mind would be dazzled to behold. [...] Your conscious thoughts and habits regulate which of them will intermix into the maelstrom of the present.

You consciously give the signals for reaction. [...] Past events do not intrude in this manner unless they are beckoned by the conscious expectations and thoughts that exist within your mind. [...]

[...] In such a case you are not being honest with the contents of your conscious mind. [...]

You do still continue such activity, again, [although] you have turned your conscious minds away from those directions. Most of it does not become conscious because you do not want it to. [...]

[...] The discoveries and inventions that made the industrial world possible were always latent in man’s mind, and represented an inner glittering landscape of probability that he brought into actualization through the use of dreams—the intuitive and the conscious manipulation of material that was at one time latent.

[...] That realization alone can further remind you that the conscious mind does not have to have all (underlined) the information required. [...]

We talked about how people could be helped to consciously realize their participation in this worldwide dream organization. [...] The experiment has the potential for significantly broadening our conscious understanding of the world we’re creating.

[...] As mentioned, these experiences are translated into dreams later, necessitating a return to areas of consciousness more familiar with physical data. [...] There will be a metamorphosis, therefore, of one symbol turning into many, and the conscious mind may only perceive a chaos of various dream images, because the inner organization and unity is partially hidden in the other areas of consciousness through which the reasoning mind cannot follow.

“You” presently have a once-centered consciousness, in that “you” close off from your experience these other stages of consciousness in which other portions of your entire identity are intimately involved. These other stages of consciousness create their own realities as you create your own. The realities are, therefore, byproducts of consciousness itself. [...]

[...] It is a cushioning, supportive, and expansive stage of consciousness. [...] Following this period there is an active state, that can occur, of pseudodreaming, where the mind busies itself with physical concerns that have managed to cling through the first two stages.

[...] Almost every individual has had bizarre experiences with consciousness, and knows intuitively that their greater experience is not limited to physical reality. [...] Your consciousness is already oriented again to physical reality; the dream, an attempt to translate the deeper experience into recognizable forms. [...]

[...] In all cases a misinterpretation is being made on the part of the conscious mind, that then triggers bodily responses. [...] Whatever the issue might be, the conscious world-view is bringing about biological activity. Now there are countering body impulses, and a constant set of checks and balances where the mind is meant to take another look, or where the body says that the biological integrity is in jeopardy. There are periods of new adjustment, and ideally the mind would take a new assessment of events.

[...] When the world-view enlarges to include more sophisticated cultural environments then, however, the body must rely upon the conscious mind’s interpretation of events. [...] The body might object, but it still must rely upon the conscious mind’s interpretation of events, that it realizes are beyond its realm.

[...] His body, mind, spirit, will all exercise themselves together. [...]

Messages from the inner self if strong enough will pass through the conscious barriers, and the conscious ego is only too happy to receive them. But such intuitions have usually first appeared in dream form, appearing to the ego later; and many such messages appear in dreams ahead of time, to be released to the conscious mind when situations demand it.

Now, in any dream you will find a unifying image that will seem as diverse as this to the conscious mind. [...] In that dream you found the word tub referring to many various meanings, but in many cases you will find various other images, all cunningly connected so that it seems most unfortunate to you that the conscious mind cannot interpret them.

However, I have said that the conscious mind is but a small portion of the whole self, and the information thus received through dreams is automatically acted upon or assimilated, regardless of conscious cognition.

[...] The conscious mind perceives matter. [...]

[...] Now, when you allow negative thoughts to predominate in your conscious mind you then become more open to the negative thoughts of others. You are given a natural protection but you weaken this protection when your conscious thoughts are negative. [...]

[...] I want you to watch your own conscious thoughts. [...] You let the thoughts of your mind chatter on, but you are not aware of what you are thinking. [...]

(To Brad:) Now, your conscious thought patterns and your subconscious thought patterns are the same. Therefore, using your inner senses that day you felt the urge to get into your car because consciously you were looking for negative patterns. [...]

(To Ned.) Behind me, this fellow behind the rocker, you mark my words and guard your vitality and the love you have of life and of your wife and of your child and the new life you see beginning in him and do not let the other emotions destroy your peace of mind. [...] And trip also through your own vitality and through the bright green forests that grow in your own mind and derive your strength and peace from these. [...]

[...] You hypnotize your very nerves, and the cells within your body, for they will react as you expect them to react, and the beliefs of your conscious mind are followed in degree by all portions of the self down to the smallest atom and molecule. The large events of your life, your interactions with others, including the habitual workings of the most minute physical events within your body — all of this follows your conscious belief.

[...] You do not consciously examine the data that you receive. [...]

[...] I want to impress upon you the fact that all of this simply follows the natural function of the mind, and to dispel any ideas that you have about the “magical” aspects of hypnosis.

[...] Try to feel the statement in whatever way is possible — that is, do not allow distractions, but if your mind insists upon running about then channel its images in line with your declaration.

[...] Consciousness fulfills itself by knowing itself. [...] There have been experiments upon your earth (by consciousness) with both men and animals at a different level than just mentioned, but with that in mind — herds of animals, for example, with each animal quite aware of the joint knowledge of the herd, the dangers to be encountered in any individual territory, and a psychological structure in which the mass consciousness of the herd recognized the individual consciousness of each animal, and protected it.

In the systems in which evolution of consciousness has worked in that fashion, all faculties of body and mind in one “lifetime” are beautifully utilized. [...]

[...] And as if to further reassure my conscious mind, I saw my mother with people who were still “living”; this has been the case in other recent dream experiences I’ve had with her. [...]

[...] At those times the individual consciousness became so entranced with its own experiences, however, that the clear-cut, steady, and conscious communication with the mass consciousness went underground, so to speak. [...]

It is however usually operating at subconscious levels, and without either knowledge or intent as far as the conscious mind is concerned. To be able to bring these natural but subconscious forces at all under any domination by the conscious mind is a terrific task.

Such domination will never be habitual, but conscious awareness of subconscious manipulation of matter may become habitual, and may often of its own accord follow the desires of the conscious mind, if certain conditions are met.

Because his conscious desire was based strongly upon inner emotional need, and not opposed to it, and because the emotional need at that time was powerful, that is his need to leave on vacation, and because he remembered our discussion on expectation, he was able to utilize both conscious and unconscious energies. In other words, to consciously focus his subconscious psychic abilities to perform toward a definite, material end.

First of all, the conscious desires must be in league with, and unopposed by, subconscious expectations. [...] And three, communication between the conscious and subconscious, or the inner and so-called outer parts of the whole self, must be excellent.

So what we want, obviously, is to ensure that the conscious mind, with its reasoning processes, can make proper adjustments about the nature of the world and the individual citizens within it. I will return later to the purposes of man’s conscious mind in nature, and part of that discussion will fall in our book (Dreams).

[...] The same applies to the conscious mind in that situation. [...]

The thinking mind to a large degree directs the activity of great spontaneous forces, [with] energy-cellular organization being, say, the captain (pause) of the body’s great energy sources. The reasoning mind defines, makes judgments, deals with the physical objects of the world, and also with the cultural interpretations current in its time.

[...] Now in some important respects the reasoning mind is like the government in this analogy. [...] The reasoning mind acts in the same fashion when paranoid beliefs are in power. [...]

[...] This is done when the conscious mind is separated from direct involvement with physical events. [...]

To some extent dreams are participated in by cellular consciousness also, for the cells have an equal interest in the individual’s psychic and body events. In a way dreams are of course composite behavior — mental and psychic games that suit the purposes of mind and body alike. [...]

[...] Too large a serving, of course, could simply waken you, but small amounts taken if you are already drowsy allow you to take your conscious mind into the dream state more readily, where it can act as an observer.

Your beliefs about dreams color your memory and interpretation of them, so that at the point of waking, with magnificent psychological duplicity, you often make last-minute adjustments that bring your dreams more in line with your conscious expectations. [...]

(Pause at 11:38.) You do not need a self-conscious mind to feel, and in the “past,” earthquakes represented the feeling-patterns of species in the same way — unstable conditions of consciousness that in themselves initiated natural phenomena, further altering the state of consciousness and the conditions of species as well.

First sentence: Your reality exists independently of your physically oriented consciousness, but while you are a creature your awareness must be interpreted through your neurological structure and your corporeal aliveness. [...] Other data will seldom be required consciously, yet it must always be available to unconscious portions of the self. Biologically the reach and capacity of your physically oriented consciousness is directly connected with the length of your days and nights, and of course with the seasons. [...] With the precise night and day schedule that it possesses, your planet would, in those terms, give birth to a creature consciousness uniquely suited to fit it. In other terms, the night and day represent the innate rhythms of your consciousness physically materialized through natural phenomena, for you are not yet equipped to perceive longer-duration days. [...]

Beliefs are the formations of self-conscious minds, even as buildings are at another level.

[...] Ideas and beliefs bring about those obviously man-made structures that imply self-conscious minds and the ocean of interrelated social events.

Because you have in the past convinced yourselves that the conscious mind must of necessity be cut off from inner reality, you think that it must be alienated from the dream state. Following such beliefs, you find yourselves thinking of dreaming as chaotic, unreasonable, and as completely divorced from normal conscious direction, purpose, or function. [...]

[...] In the waking state the conscious mind must focus rather exclusively upon that one particular point of concentration that you call reality, simply so that it can direct your activities properly in temporal life. [...]

[...] What you do not know is that all consciousnesses dream. We have said that to some degree even atoms and molecules have consciousness, and each one of those minute consciousnesses forms its own dreams, even as on the other hand each one forms its own physical image. [...]

[...] On Friday, however, while in an altered state of consciousness, she tuned into some material on Seth, dreams, and other species of consciousness; she calls it The Wonderworks, and excerpts from it are presented as Appendix 11.

I’m personally intrigued, of course, that this book was written through me, without my conscious mind there at every point, anxiously checking, organizing, and criticizing, as it does in my own work. Then, while my creative and intuitional abilities are given a good deal of freedom, the conscious mind is definitely in control. [...]

[...] Suddenly my consciousness left my body, and my mind was barraged by ideas that were astonishing and new to me at the time. [...]

[...] He needs my ability with words; even, I think, my turn of mind. [...] Certain personality characteristics are important too, I imagine — the agility with which I can switch the focus of my consciousness, for example.

Looked at merely as an example of unconscious production, however, Seth’s book clearly shows that organization, discrimination, and reasoning are certainly not qualities of the conscious mind alone, and demonstrates the range and activity of which the inner self is capable. [...]

[...] The conscious mind can indeed have such thoughts because it so often tries to solve all problems on its own, until it begins to feel frightened, overburdened, and a failure in its own eyes.

[...] The inner ego (long pause) draws instant and continuous support from the universal consciousness, and the more the exterior ego keeps that fact in mind, the greater its own sense of stability, safety, and self-esteem.

Each person is a vital (long pause), conscious portion of the universe. [...] The universe is conscious at every conceivable point of itself. [...]