“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Jane got two more bits as we talked: The creative self had to disentangle itself from the conscientious self to get this material out; and she had ambiguous feelings about her books because she felt they put me in a poor light. Then the creative self returned at 9:50:)

[...] I think the continual repressions over the years have let the conscientious self grow out of proportion. I think also that the conscientious-self or “it” made a creative advance on February 19 when it stated its tactics were bringing about the very thing it did not want—Jane’s inability to work in freedom. My thought at the moment is that more expression on Jane’s part will free the conscientious-self to perform its own balanced role, and to actually retreat in doing so. [...]

[...] It was actually a composite of the creative self and the conscientious self.

(This morning Jane got quite angry at her conscientious and creative self. [...] This morning she found herself rebelling against what she considered to be the conscientious self’s domineering tactics—work before anything else—etc. [...]

[...] It should not be forgotten, however, that the ego is also a portion of All That Is, a highly specialized portion, enabling the inner self to manipulate and interpret particular conditions. If the ego considers itself as the only self, then you are cut off to a large degree from the vitality and energy available.

The inner self or the whole personality consists of many such egos, as you know, but the inner self is also aware of itself as something more than the sum of its parts. [...]

[...] You as a consciousness, seek to know yourself, and to some extent or other, you become aware of your self as a distinct and individual portion of All That Is. [...]

The ego’s false ideas prevent it from accepting this energy, but once the ego is aware of its position as a portion of the self, then it should not be shunted aside, but can take its place. [...]

[...] There is one self, but within that self are many. There is one body, in one time, but the self has other bodies in other times. [...]

[...] Now he knows differently, but he still clings to the idea of one god, one self, and one body through which to express it.

(11:22.) Such a development would, however, necessitate first of all a broadening of concepts about the self, and a greater understanding of human potential. [...]

While you have highly limited concepts about the nature of the self, you cannot begin to conceive of a multidimensional godhood, or a universal reality in which all consciousness is unique, inviolate — and yet given to the formation of infinite gestalts of organization and meaning.

(My question had to do with the various kinds of experience sought by the inner self. I wondered, with some apparent irritation, why Jane’s inner self would permit such a detriment as the symptoms to continue for so long. Once the experience of the illness had been gained, it seemed to me, it made better sense for the inner self to terminate the particular experience and move on to others. [...]

[...] I told you in our last session that the inner self will not take over entirely. In this particular case built-up negative attitudes of years’ standing set up negative patterns that prevented the most creative parts of the self from using their natural potential.

[...] Now your book uses the term subconscious to cover the whole inner self. Those healing abilities, that exuberance and love of life, is from a deeper layer of the self.

The inner self will see to it that he does. [...]

[...] I have extra athletic ability, I know, but I used to think that such self-preserving knowledge was inherent in everyone. To me, her opacity toward her fantastic abuse of her own body speaks loudly and clearly of the dominance of the sinful self—the willingness to use the body for its own ends, regardless of the consequences, even if those consequences ultimately are self-defeating.)

(I did dwell upon the fact that Seth—and Jane—have yet to go into the main question I’ve asked several times since she came home from the hospital: the current attitude and role of her sinful self. To me, I said, the sinful self is more active and domineering than ever before, and after all we thought we’d learned over the years. [...]

[...] I said I thought both she and Seth had avoided my questions about the sinful self, which I saw as part of the sinful self’s power to cover up issues it didn’t want to face, or considered threatening. [...]

[...] Since the implications here might involve success, I said as we talked, perhaps that too had alerted the sinful self to become more protective, although her current state had begun hours before I suggested the call. [...]

[...] that self is a small part of my reality. [...] and that were mine...and they are still mine, for this self of mine that I show to you does still exist and grow. But beyond that self, there is another self, and still another self... [...] And that self can see through physical reality. And to that self, physical reality is like a breath of smoke in air ... and that self does not need the characteristics that you know and find so endearing. And yet it is not an unemotional self; it is a self that has condensed emotions; and, it is not distant.

[...] And our friend Ruburt is quite correct, you (WL) learn the nature of the inner self first....and then we shall help you in the development of your own abilities. [...]

[...] You will not let the inner self speak clearly enough to you... [...]

[...] and do not retreat in the summertime from your inner self.

And this part that you see and that appears in this room and can show joy, and show its existence and reality; that can call to you beyond space and time; that shows such energy; that shows you what energy can blow through such a small and slight frame—that self is a small part of my reality. [...] And you will need the human characteristics that you know—and that were mine—and they are still mine, for this self of mine that I show to you does still exist and grow. But beyond that self, there is another self, and still another self of which I am fully aware. And that self can see through physical reality. And to that self, physical reality is like a breath of smoke in the air and that self does not need the characteristics that you know and find so endearing. And yet, it is not an unemotional self; it is a self that has condensed emotions and it is not distant. [...]

[...] And in your own daily activities, in your playful moments, you can almost achieve the freedoms that the inner self knows. And in your most serious moments, you can almost achieve the freedom that the inner self knows. [...]

([Seth II:]) And that self tells you that there is a reality beyond human reality, beyond human characteristics that you know—and within that reality even I am dwarfed and there is knowledge that can never be verbal. [...] Although this type of existence seems cold to you, it is a clear and crystal-like existence in which things are known that are beyond your comprehension, in which no time is needed, in your terms, for experience; in which the inner self condenses all human knowledge that has been received by you through your various existences and reincarnations has been coded and exists indelibly. [...]

[...] And our friend Ruburt is quite correct, you (Brad) learn the nature of the inner self first—and then we shall help you in the development of your own abilities. [...]

[...] To that degree and in the light of this discussion, you end up with what I will call —and have in the past called—the overly conscientious self, which attempts to deal with the attitudes of the Sinful Self by checking and double-checking all the time, by being, in other words, overly conscientious: is Ruburt dealing with “the truth,” and so forth? That kind of question is endlessly considered by the conscientious self. [...]

[...] “What’s the matter,” I asked her after supper tonight, “do you feel guilty because you think you deserted your mother?” I explained that I felt self-punishment, a feeling of unworthiness, self-doubt and mistrust must lie at the root of her symptoms—that she felt she must pay a price for each success, like the publishing of a book. [...]

[...] The material on the Sinful Self and so forth gives some insight into the nature of the problem. That is, it gives expression to the portion of the self that holds attitudes that are behind the difficulty. [...]

Our material does not work by providing bandages, but by providing an overall aura of creativity that in itself generates self-healing and self-understanding—and that is how other people are helped. [...]

(10:44.) This physical perception in no way alters the native, basic, unfettered perception that is characteristic of the inner self, the inner self being the portion of the soul that is within you. The inner self knows its relationship with the soul. It is a portion of the self that acts, you might say, as a messenger between the soul and the present personality. You must also realize that while I use terms like “soul” or “entity,” “inner self,” and “present personality,” I do so only for the sake of convenience, for one is a part of the other; there is no point where one begins and another ends.

[...] You insist upon focusing your attention upon the similarities that are woven through your own behavior; and upon these you build a theory that the self follows a pattern that you, instead, have transposed upon it. And the transposed pattern prevents you from seeing the self as it really is. [...]

(9:25.) Even the mortal self, you see, is far more miraculous and wondrous than you perceive, and possesses far more abilities than you ascribe to it. You do not understand as yet the true nature of perception, even as far as the mortal self is concerned, and therefore you can hardly understand the perceptions of the soul. [...]

Many individuals imagine the soul to be an immortalized ego, forgetting that the ego as you know it is only a small portion of the self; so this section of the personality is simply projected onward, ad infinitum, so to speak. [...]

Each of the twelve represented qualities of personality that belong to one individual, and Christ as you know him represented the inner self. The twelve, therefore, plus Christ as you know him (the one figure composed of the three) represented an individual earthly personality — the inner self — and twelve main characteristics connected with the egotistical self. As Christ was surrounded by the disciples, so the inner self is surrounded by these physically oriented characteristics, each drawn outward toward daily reality on the one hand, and yet orbiting the inner self.

[...] He represented the self-betrayer. He dramatized a portion of each individual’s personality that focuses upon physical reality in a grasping manner, and denies the inner self out of greed.

(10:03.) The disciples, therefore, were given physical reality by the inner self, as all of your earthly characteristics come out of your inner nature. [...]

[...] He literally was made flesh to dwell among you, for he forms your flesh in that he is responsible for the energy that gives vitality and validity to your private multidimensional self, which in turn forms your image in accordance with your own ideas.

[...] Many schools of thought (long pause) seem to have the curious ideas that the ego is inferior to other portions of the self, or “selfish,” and imagine it to be definitely of a lower quality than the inner self, or the soul.

[...] There are ways of communicating with the inner ego or inner self, however, and we will discuss some of these very shortly. It is important, again, to remember that this inner ego or inner self (long pause) uses a process that is far swifter than reasoning.

In the first place, it is really impossible to separate portions of the self, and we make such distinctions only in an effort to explain the many facets of the personality. [...]

[...] This inner ego or inner self should not be thought of as superior to your ordinary mind. [...]

[...] In these instances the time is actually used to clamp down on the inner self, rather than to release it. [...] He has been afraid to simply sit and think, for fear of letting the spontaneous self show without the symbolized writing mechanism.

[...] If some were not made, they would be demanded by other portions of the self. [...]

[...] They are a vital means of showing your intent to other portions of the self. [...]

[...] The spontaneous self is being allowed more freedom now, this is the source of the intuitional understanding.

[...] As you should know, mental acts have an electromagnetic reality which directly affects the inner self, which directly forms the constantly changing nature of the inner self. For the inner self is, after all, composed of mental actions, and the entity itself is everchanging.

[...] Your identity, your inner self, is a main action-event, forming other such events that are the various portions of your personality.

[...] For the egotistical self it will be a nonfact and the physical senses will of course find no sense data to confirm reincarnation.

[...] There is constant give and take between all portions of the self, and the entity changes as it interacts with other levels of the personality. [...]

[...] I have said that the second dilemma resulted in, and constantly results in, consciousness of self. [...] Consciousness of self is not the same thing as consciousness of ego self. Consciousness of self is still consciousness directly connected with action.

Consciousness of self involves a consciousness of self within, amid, and as a part of action. Ego consciousness, on the other hand, involves a state in which consciousness of self attempts to divorce itself from action, an attempt on the part of consciousness to perceive action as an object. [...]

(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. [...]

It is this dilemma, precisely between identity’s constant attempts to maintain stability, and action’s inherent drive for change, that results in the imbalance, the exquisite creative by-product that is consciousness of self. [...]

Since Ruburt’s work involved him most directly in an examination of the self and in the unknown reaches of the psyche, then his experiences led him into a conflict with the idea of the Sinful Self. One of the main points of his work, and mine, is the definition of the well-intentioned self, of course. [...]

(“This Sinful Self thing is liable to turn into the primary cause behind the whole business,” I said to Jane. “Imagine—atonement, self-punishment for things learned more than 40 years ago. [...]

[...] Those habits were there, again, before the sessions began, and they have their basis in the church’s concepts of the sinful nature of the basic self. [...]

Again, that belief in the need for control is rooted in the earlier concepts of the Sinful Self (long pause)—concepts that have come to the fore in current contemporary world events with the new attention being given to religious cults and religions. [...]

[...] This has to do again with the self-protection used. The self does not perceive any impressions, you see, which are so vivid that it could be overwhelmed. As the self learns then it allows greater and more intense impressions.

[...] Not because it is basically undesirable, for such an experience has the greatest potentials for development of the self. Such experiences can be disastrous simply because the self structure is not yet strong enough to assimilate and contain the intensity of the experience. [...] But the inner self is more flexible, you see, than the ego, and it can therefore contain greater intensities without undue alarm.

[...] The area within these limitations and boundaries you call the self. The self expands as your ability grows, as you learn to retain identity in the midst of diversity.

[...] This is what you are doing of course in self-hypnosis: But, used for therapy, you are still trying to affect or change something physical.

Now when you use the word I, more and more, this is the portion of the self of which I spoke in our last session. [...] These are all portions of the self, however; the difference is functional.

In those terms you could call it a part of a more expansive portion of the self, the only part that you are so far able to experience in your usual conscious terms. Ruburt has been using this part of the self automatically in the pendulum sessions, and in giving suggestions. [...]

Now, in the past when you said the word I, this I was the ego I, and you identified the whole self with the ego. [...]

This self can give directions to both the ego and the subconscious and can instruct the subconscious to speed up healing processes. [...]

Now if you would each, for ten minutes a day, open yourselves to your own reality there would be no question of self-justification, for you would realize the miraculous nature of your own identity. [...]

[...] But realize also that you are responsible for your joys and triumphs, and that the energy to create any of these realities comes from the inner self. [...]

[...] No act of yours predisposes a future self to act in a particular manner. [...]

By the whole self.

Suggestions made by the waking personality are also carried out by the sleeping self. The characteristics of the sleeping personality therefore partially determine the physical existence of the waking self. [...] The physical environment is directly affected then by the activities of the dreaming self.

[...] The connections between the dreaming self and the waking self, and between the dream universe and the physical universe, exist on chemical, electromagnetic and psychic levels.

Without a sense of joy and inner accomplishment and development of potential, the personality will not only fail to flourish, but the inner self will refuse to maintain the physical structure adequately. [...] Superficial measures will not fool the inner self.

[...] My self-questioning was particularly intriguing because I could have chosen from a half-dozen routes to work; yet I had picked a course that enabled me to act out the dream of the night before, while not being consciously aware of the dream.)

As I also mentioned (in the 614th session in Chapter Two), the conscious mind is not basically cut off from the inner self or from those deep inner sources of knowledge available to it. The aware mind is not any one event, for that matter; it represents various portions of the inner self that “surface” at any given time.

The other portions can be called the inner self. Now all of this inner self cannot become expressed even with its connection with the brain, since the brain must sift perception through the physical apparatus.

[...] Information coming from those deeper sources of the self, reaching the areas connected to the brain, will be interpreted according to the beliefs of that most physically focused segment of the self.

To some degree, such inner data will be colored by the current beliefs of that part of the self most directly confronting the physical world. Those beliefs, however, are also constantly being examined by the inner self.