“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

When you maintain that identity is dependent upon the duration of the physical body, you are taking it for granted that the physical body is one complete thing, more or less rigid in form, and permanent within a certain perspective. You know however that the physical body is not one thing in those terms, and that the stuff of which it is composed is forever coming and going, arriving and departing, and yet identity is maintained.

Also, for reasons that I will for now withhold, the psychic patterns within your physical universe are not maintained, as you know, indefinitely. As far as I know, no gestalt of any kind remains the same. But psychic gestalts develop in terms of value fulfillment, and it is known at the first appearance of a physical pattern how long the particular to-be-built-up gestalt will be maintained.

A psychic gestalt is dependent upon matter, not for its identity but merely for its survival in the physical plane. Psychic gestalts or identities or individualities are for all practical purposes immortal. They may join other gestalts but they will never be less than they once were. Identity then is never broken down. Any apparent breaking down is never an actual fact, as the personality could be thought of as a breaking down of the entity; but this is not so. The personality did not exist as such before its creation by the entity, and once it becomes an identity, it retains that individuality.

I have explained somewhat earlier how the gestalt ego consciousness was formed, and to some degree explained its psychic composition, but there is much more to be said here. There is a steady and unwavering cooperation that exists, and it is the basis of your physical universe. You do not see this cooperation. Your senses are rather more equipped to notice difference and divergence than sameness; but nevertheless the cooperation of all conscious entities provides physical objects with whatever appearance of permanence they have.

The physical body is formed about its electrical counterpart, yet they are both intertwined in completely different dimensions. [...] The camouflage material will be discarded as a physical gestalt, as far as the individual is concerned. The matter of the physical body will simply be used in other gestalts, in the manner that I have explained in earlier sessions.

The idea image of the physical body is of course retained by the individual. [...]

[...] The entire inner universe is far more varied, more complicated, than your physical universe, yet it could be conceived of as the same sort of universe with certain substitutions being made.

[...] All psychological realities and experiences which are not materialized within the physical universe have their actual reality and existence within the electrical universe.

However, as we know the cell is a part of the body, giving nourishment and receiving nourishment from it. Its outer rim, more correctly, connects it to the body. Parts of it literally travel throughout the body. [...] It possesses condensed consciousness and comprehension, it partakes of value fulfillments through the gestalt of which it would not otherwise be capable. If you considered the body as a closed system, which it is not, then you could say that the self of the cell had as its limitations only the limits of the whole closed system. But the system is not closed, and through the participation of the cell in the activities of the body, which is an open system, then you could truly say that the cell itself had no limitations.

Now, you should see from this that your universe is therefore itself a gestalt. As an individual cell can be considered to be apart from the rest of the body, as its outer rim can be considered as something that divides it from the rest of the body, so the self can be considered as apart from the universe, and its outer skin thought of as dividing it from the rest of the body.

If you then realize that every physical particle contains its own inner and initial consciousness, then you will see that we have come full circle. [...] It operates to form as complicated a gestalt as possible, following the law of value fulfillment, and yet in so doing it does not either invade, deny or negate other individual consciousness. It is limitless because there are no limits to the possibilities of its value fulfillment, or to the number of gestalts which it can form.

[...] Initially, before existence upon the physical plane this time, you could just as easily have focused upon a different quality-personality gestalt, although your choice most probably would be in line with a large field of possibilities, possible according to the desires of your entity.

Since the conscious ego is composed of the gestalt molecular consciousness, then when it leaves the physical body it takes the molecular consciousness with it, and this molecular consciousness is therefore present to aid in future construction. However, since you must deal with physical laws while dwelling upon the physical plane, you cannot dispense entirely with the physical constructions, but in such extensions of consciousness you must utilize other physical molecules and atoms.

The cells and molecules, forming their psychic gestalt into a particular human physical structure, are separated from what you might call the outer environment, and yet they are also connected to the outer environment more than they are separated from it. It is the inner ego, and the inner vitality and the inner ego’s determination, along with the cooperation of all the cells that compose the physical body, that enables such a particular structure as the human body to exist as a separate construction, and to maintain the necessary sense of identity.

[...] The particular physical body will then be known for what it is: a cooperative psychic gestalt, a psychio-physical structure formed together by the inner ego, utilizing atoms and molecules that are in themselves living and conscious.

[...] You will learn that it is possible, through no physical act (and underline that, through no physical act), to relinquish the physical body, expand the self, using atoms and molecules as stepping stones to a given destination, and reforming the physical body at the other end.

[...] You will say, “The four egos belonging to Eve all belonged to one physical body, but in the reincarnational process we are faced with the issue of several bodies, each one discarded and experiencing physical death.”

[...] As you know, the physical body is itself never the same, and the atoms that compose it appear and disappear constantly while the appearance of permanency is retained. [...]

[...] In the gestalt which could develop we would be in a position of helping each other more equally. Now through you I affect physical reality, and this is indeed one of my purposes.

[...] Obviously two personalities made such changes in the physical organism that the allergy was brought on. The organism was physically changed and affected. Even though one personality took over for an hour, still for that hour the physical organism itself was a different one.

To study the human body from only the physical standpoint, or to consider it as exclusively a physical phenomenon, is to severely limit your perception of it, and of reality as a whole. To study psychology exclusively in terms of the brain’s effect upon the physical body is likewise hampering and limiting, for the brain is merely that portion of, that very small portion, of the mind which is apparent within matter. As such within your physical field the brain is subject to the laws of your field. The mind, having its existence within the scope of the physical field but independent of it, is a much more fruitful subject for study; and not of course study through means of physical instruments or of operations performed. [...]

As inner energy forms more complicated gestalts through the processes that I have earlier explained, then inner energy continues its communication with the physical matter that it creates about it. When inner energy desires to construct a more complicated gestalt, then it must telepathically communicate this intent and purpose through the matter which it collects about itself, forming a more complicated inner telepathic pattern first, that can then be filled in with physical matter. [...]

I wanted to add here that evidences for those other fields of actuality can be found even within the body itself; that is, within the physical body. [...]

These clues could lead to proper understanding, so that it would be known that the physical body does exist in many fields of actuality, and through the study of various portions of the body many glimmerings could be received concerning the various fields of actuality themselves.

It may interest you to know that your athletic tendencies are somewhat involved in your out-of-body travel, in that it seems to you that the body must be poised and balanced, and have support — hence the hallucinations you use. You can use those tendencies to help you, however, if you think in terms of a completely free body, able to move unsupported in space, capable of manipulations in the dream state that are denied it in physical reality. The “inner” body can perform in ways that the physical body cannot, and you can use that as a challenge. Find out what you can do with your inner body; experiment.

[...] In terms of time you have many bodies, as you are born and reborn in earth experience. Your consciousness straddles those existences, and even the atoms and molecules within your present body contain the coded knowledge of those other (really simultaneous) forms. These units of consciousness are within all physical matter, containing their own memories. [...]

[...] Most individuals, for example, develop intellectually or emotionally or physically, ignoring to a large degree the body’s and the mind’s full potential. [...]

In some systems of physical existence, a multipersonhood is established in which three or four “persons” emerge from the same inner self, each one utilizing to the best of its abilities those characteristics of its own. This presupposes a gestalt of awareness, however, in which each knows of the activities of the others, and participates; and you have a different version of mass consciousness. [...]

[...] As a personality itself is an action gestalt, within the inner self there is a capsule comprehension of the purposes and intents of the whole personality. These are indeed within the very structure, both psychic and physical, of the personality itself. [...]

[...] An extremely rich thrilling suffused my head, then quickly spread to various parts of my body, not evenly by any means. [...] I was reminded of this by the 154th session, dealing with the body’s generalized ability to receive stimuli.

[...] Suggestions may come therefore from the physical world, to act upon the personality. Suggestions may also come from within the personality to act upon the physical environment.

[...] In the above instance, the initial source of the sensation appeared to stem from outside the body, and the waves against my ears had a tangible, solid quality that is difficult to describe.

Now: In purely physical terms, what you think of as consciousness of the self arises from a certain peak of intensity reached by the gestalt consciousness of the atoms and molecules, and cells and organs, that compose the body.

While your present conscious beliefs dictate your current experience, and while your physical body wears its solidity only in present time to your senses, beneath this both the ever-changing elements of your body and your consciousness are relatively free in time. [...]

(Pause.) The peculiarly physically oriented self that you know has its reality in that context, but even in physical terms its reality is more than any analysis of its entirety would show. It then directs the activity of the body, and is to that extent dependent upon neurological activity.

You rule your experiences from the focal point of your present, where your beliefs directly intercept with the body and the physical world on the one hand, and the invisible world from which you draw your energy and strength on the other. [...]

You could not afford to identify too completely with such bodies until you learned how to survive within them, so in the dream state (pause) the true processes of life began as these new bodies and earth-tuned consciousnesses saw themselves mentally exercising all portions of the body. Behind all that was the brilliant comprehension and cooperation of all of the units of consciousness that go to compose the body, each adding its own information and specific knowledge to the overall bodily organizations, and each involved in the most intricate fields of relationships, for the miracle of the body’s efficiency is the result of relationships that exist among all of its parts, connecting it to other levels of existence that do not physically appear.

While you and all of the other species were what I have called sleepwalkers, your bodies by then were physically capable. [...] Now, from a waking state, you do not understand how your dream bodies can seem to fly through the air, defy space and even time, converse with strangers and so forth. [...]

[...] And in those terms, of course, there are only various physical manifestations of consciousness, not a planet and its inhabitants, but an entire gestalt of awareized consciousness. In those terms (underlined), each portion of physically oriented consciousness sees reality and experience from its own privileged viewpoint, about which it seems all else revolves, even though this may involve a larger generalized field than your own, or a smaller one.

(Long pause at 9:23.) In the deepest terms, again, your physical world is beginning at each point at which these units of consciousness assert themselves to form physical reality. [...] Each unit of consciousness (or CU) intensifies, magnifies its own intent to be—and, you might say, works up from within itself an explosive spark of primal desire that “explodes” into a process that causes physical materialization. It turns into what I have called [an] EE unit,¹ in which case it is embarked upon its own kind of physical experience.

[...] The great overall inner trust with which you were born forms the basis for the encompassing reliability of the physical earth. Your body dwells in the earth as you dwell in your body. [...] The smallest atom has its own kind of built-in integrity, upon which all of its organizations and alterations are based, so generally there is a gestalt kind of permanence within the body of the earth.

(10:44.) The rhythms of your body and of your consciousness follow the patterns of your planet. The planet itself is composed of atoms and molecules, each with their own kind of consciousness, however; and in the gestalt and cumulative cooperative organization of their nature the physical structure is formed — out of consciousness.

(Slowly:) Feelings are still dependent upon your neurological structure and its impact with physical reality. [...] But your bodies must rid themselves of chemical excesses in the same way that land must clear itself of excess water. There are what I am going to call here “ghost” chemicals — aspects of normal chemicals that you have not perceived so far, where certain thresholds are approached in which chemicals are changed into purely electromagnetic properties, and energy released that directly affects the physical atmosphere.

[...] Your planet has a body as much as you have. [...] You are inside the body of the earth in those terms. As cells within your body influence it, so does your body affect the larger body of the earth. [...]

[...] In your terms the body is the living soul. Now the soul can live, and does, in many forms — some physical and some not, but while you are material, the body is the living soul. The body constantly heals itself, which means that the soul in the flesh heals itself. The body is often closer to the soul than the mind is because it automatically grows as a flower does, trusting its nature.

The stuff of the body should not be considered as some metaphysical result, then, but as a living gestalt of responsive flesh. Your body is composed of other living entities, in other words. [...]

While it is true that the body is the living materialization of idea, it is also true that these ideas form an active, responsive, alive body. The body is not just a tool to be used. [...] But the body is composed of living, responding atoms and molecules. [...]

[...] They consider ideas as completely mental properties, separate from their concept of the body. [...]

[...] The outer senses make this information meaningful to the physical organism, and the body consciousness, the ego. [...]

There are many other experiences encountered in projections and in ordinary living, you see, that are not translated into physical terms, for in physical terms they would have no meaning. The basic assumptions behind them would not be understandable in physical terms.

[...] The physical image is indeed a replica in many ways of the inner self. [...] He is ill often—always in fact—because of a distortion that is occurring within the self, and materialized in physical form.

[...] The immobility showed itself physically in faithful replica to the inner immobilization caused by fear. You could see, in other words, the exact extent of the distortion in quite physical terms.

(Jane has been studying psy-time regularly, and reports that almost as a matter of routine now she attains what she calls an “excellent state”, involving a feeling of much lightness and separation from her physical self. She believes she is on the verge of being able to travel from her physical body, and is getting used to the idea very gradually. She often feels herself to be partially “out” of her body, but as yet always exercises control to avoid going too far, too fast.

[...] Our discussion in the past concerning gestalts should make this point clear. The frameworks and boundaries, the extents and limitations of identities, are not physical.

(For the material on psychic gestalts, see the 59th, 62nd, 81st, 96th and 128th sessions, among many others.)

[...] This was also discussed briefly in sessions dealing with the first appearance of matter within the physical field.

You recall, I am sure, the material concerning the gestalt of the physical body. [...] There are various manners in which these inner suggestions are translated from inner pure energy form into the electrical and chemical systems which compose the physical organisms, and it is possible for errors of translation to occur along these lines.

[...] It will attempt to construct itself on a physical level, since it is within the physical system of reality. [...] It is obvious that the body is equipped to handle many such distorted actions, but a conflict is hereby brought into play, where constructive energies or actions are not given full reign, and patterns of distortions are set up within the system.

It is this that allows the body its physical manifestation. [...]

[...] Each molecule has its own self-image, without which it could not exist as a physical construction. [...] When action is allowed to flow unimpeded, the cooperation that is necessary to maintain the efficiency of the gestalt is maintained. [...]

(9:52.) It will not be physically perceived. [...] Since consciousness can travel faster than the speed of light, then when it is not imprisoned by the slower particles of the body it can become aware of some of these other realities. [...] The physical brain is the mechanism by which thought or emotion is automatically formed into EE units of the proper range and intensity to be used by the physical organism.

[...] EE units are formed spontaneously from the electromagnetic reality of feelings emitted from each consciousness, as, for example, breath automatically goes out from the physical body.

All of them cast certain “atmospheric conditions” or reflections that color physical events as you know them. [...] Ideas and feelings that you want made physical carry within them the mechanisms that will put them in the proper range, well within the electromagnetic field necessary for physical development.

[...] The invisible EE units form your physical matter and represent the essential and basic units from which any physical particle appears.

Now, this constant creation of the physical universe is not maintained through some localized subconscious that exists somewhere between two ears, behind the forehead. [...] It is a gestalt, maintained and formed by the cooperating, generalized consciousness of each atom and molecule of which the physical body is composed.

Not only does the physical matter that composes these images go back into the physical storehouse, to be reused time and time again, but also the physical matter is broken down once again to the state in which it was before its cooperation of parts that formed a particular physical body.

The physical body image that seems to die at a particular point, and seems to enter your physical universe at a particular point, does neither. There is no particular minute or hour for the materialization or dematerialization of the physical body. [...]

The capacity and mechanism necessary to project idea into physical matter is, therefore, present in the individual atom and molecule. I mentioned how the atoms and molecules combine to form cells, while each individual atom and molecule does not give up its own uniqueness, but forms rather a gestalt, so that a cell is indeed a psychic gestalt given physical construction through the capacity that exists within each individual component.

[...] Each individual has his part to play in projecting these EE units into physical actuality. Therefore, physical matter can be legitimately described as an extension of the self, as much as the physical body is a projection of the inner self.

[...] They appear fairly permanent to the physical senses. They are actually oscillating, ever-moving, highly charged gestalts of EE units (“beneath,” say, any atomic particles), organized and maintained by the collective efforts on the part of inner selves. They (the buildings) are solidfied emotions, solidified subjective states, given physical materialization.

[...] It constantly translates the components of its gestalt into reality—either physical reality through the EE units I have mentioned, or into other realities equally as valid.

[...] These, then, form physical objects, physical matter. [...] Your dreams, thoughts, and emotions are literally transformed into physical matter purposefully by this inner self.

The basic psychological structures available have definite solidity, depth, mass, et cetera, in the psychological perspective, and they may be formed into numberless gestalt patterns, which are then constructed physically. [...] There is nothing to force an individual for example to form psychological gestalts of hate and fear from the basic structure of consciousness survival.

This error may become habitual, coloring all other psychological structures, and resulting in unfortunate and dangerous physical constructions. [...] The physical construction is then perceived by the outer senses as threatening and fearful, and influences through the outer senses the inner individual, so that he begins a vicious circle in an attempt to form further, more threatening physical constructions to combat the earlier ones. And the greater the number of such destructive physical constructions, the greater his expectation of further fear.

[...] They become physically apparent to some degree in the emotions, which do have definite form, certain mass, depth, and solidity in the realm of psychological perspective which you do not physically perceive.

[...] These prerequisite psychological forms exist before the construction of matter and physical form by an individual. He grapples with, and manipulates and juggles these inner psychological shapes before constructing them, his version of them, into physical form.

It takes physical time to write a book, so some physical time must be allowed for the normal behavior of Ruburt’s body. [...] This is what can happen as far as Ruburt’s body is concerned: forget what you think the body can or cannot do. [...] Follow my suggestions, and know that the necessary work is being done completely outside of physical time, so that improvements can occur of a significant nature without any particular conventional expected processes that must first occur.

[...] By supernatural I mean the source from which nature springs, and Framework 2 represents the medium in which the natural and the source of the natural merge in a creative gestalt. That gestalt forms your physical being. [...]

[...] His physical body carries that memory. [...] The dream in Framework 2 is as much a definite plan for a normally walking body as any Oversoul Seven that did result in the book. [...]

At this stage I do not want Ruburt to compare his physical performance with yours at all. [...] In the physical flexibility area, however, you are operating in Framework 2 yourself, and so you can be of great help by catching Ruburt when he projects negatively on the one hand, and on the other by leading him toward the more creative habits of thought that are your own about your body.