“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Pause.) Basically, however, each “appearance” of such a particle is a self-version, for it is altered to some extent by its “location.” [...] So can the human self appear in several places at once,⁵ each such appearance subtly altering the “human” particle, so that each appearance is a version of an “original” self that as itself never appears in those terms.⁶ When you look at an electron — figuratively speaking — you are observing a trace or a track of something else entirely, and that appearance is termed an electron. So the self that you know is a physical trace or intrusion into space and time of an “original” self that never appears. [...]

The unknown self, the “original self,” straddles realities, dipping in and out of them in creative versions of itself, taking on the properties of the system in which it appears, and the characteristics native to that environment. [...]

Give us a moment … I am putting this as simply as possible; but when your “original self” enters [part of] itself into three-dimensional life from an inner reality, the energy waves carrying it break — not simply into one particle, following our analogy, but into a number of conscious particles. [...] In your conception of the centuries, then, there are other counterparts of yourself living at the same time and in different places — all creative versions of the original self. [...]

6. Several of my drawings in Part Two of Adventures relate visually to the idea of an “original self” (or “source self,” in Jane’s vocabulary) that never appears in physical reality. [...]

(Long pause.) Spontaneity is not trusted, and left alone the spontaneous self is seen as slothful, given to the pursuit of meaningless pleasure. To some extent the spontaneous self and the Sinful Self wear the same mask or bear the same face. [...]

Now, in politics and religion, (Prime Minister) Begin believes it much more practical to deal with the Sinful Self and its “evil prerogatives” than he does with the better self that may indeed represent “the Son of God in man.” [...] The Sinful Self is convinced of its own evil, and the evil intent of others, and so it is driven to protect itself ahead of time. [...]

This does indeed mean change at other levels of activity, the Sinful Self not only loosening its hold, but relinquishing some of the energy that it had withheld and repressed, so that the energy becomes available practically speaking for the body’s use once again. [...]

(One-minute pause at 8:52.) I did want to make some comments about the Sinful Self in general, and how it is perceived and assimilated in say, Castaneda’s work and in the belief structure of Kubler-Ross. [...]

What we are looking for here, and indeed one of the purposes of our sessions, is efficient use of various portions of the self in the perceptions of their own realities, and of an overall perception of each of the various portions of the self by the whole self, which transcends the others even while it is composed of them.

[...] Experience within both realities lets the inner or whole self know more fully its own potentialities and its own selfness.

[...] She has been reading the book The Self in Transformation, by Herbert Fingarette, Basic Books, 1963, NY and London. [...]

[...] The great contrast then refreshes the whole self. [...]

([Ned:] “Is it up to the probable self whether they become a new entity, or up to the person who creates the probable      self ?”)

[...] And remember, all of you, again, I am not speaking in terms of self-sacrifice. It is impossible to sacrifice the self, and when you try to do this, it is betrayal. [...]

([Mark:] “But sometimes, in self-pity, we think of it as self-sacrifice but really it’s a chance to gain humility or give service to other people?”)

[...] No—no form of matter, however potent, will be self-evolved into consciousness no matter what other bits of matter are added to it, but without the consciousness, the matter would not be there in the universe floating around waiting for another component to give it reality, consciousness, existence or song. [...]

[...] Avoid the temptation to use, instead, the word, whole-self, for the personality is given, again and this is not new material either, the greatest gift of all. [...] And realize also, that the energy to create any of these realities comes from the inner self. [...]

Now there is not time, in your terms, it is all simultaneous and yet, in your terms, you can become aware of what you would call a future self. No act of yours predisposes a future self to act or forces him or her to act in a particular manner. [...]

By the whole self indeed. [...] You are the self who makes these decisions. [...]

You are aware of the selves that sit in this room on a particular evening of a snowstorm with certain members of the class present, certain members of the class absent, and some new people here, but I am familiar with the inner portions of yourselves that you also know but that the egotistical self has hidden from you. [...]

This session you read (the 367th) applied mostly to Ruburt, yet you also have what I will call an overly conscientious self in battle with the spontaneous self (a fact I’m well aware of, and had discussed with Jane before tonight’s session). [...]

[...] Ruburt’s spontaneous self was by far the most active, and so his defenses against it, as the overly conscientious self, were more obvious than yours.

[...] When you fell in love with Ruburt, a part of you was appalled, for it felt it must hold itself ever aloof—and in those days Ruburt’s spontaneous self often met a response from your overly conscientious self, so that you appeared cold to him, and in repelling his spontaneity you were of course frightened to reveal your own.

(9:55.) You showed him often the face of the overly conscientious self.

(11:14.) I told you that the self was not limited, yet surely you think that your self stops where your skin meets space, that you are inside your skin. [...] Yet your environment is an extension of your self. [...] The inner self forms the objects that you know as surely and automatically as it forms your finger or your eye.

The doors to the inner self were to be shut tight. [...] The normal individual felt that he had best leave such areas alone, so in cutting off these portions of the self, barriers were also set up against the joy of the inner spontaneous self. [...]

[...] They seem self-explanatory. [...]

[...] Those who could not afford therapy tried the harder to inhibit any messages from the inner self, for fear they would become swallowed by the savage infantile emotions.

[...] Do not do what you want to do, but what you should do.’ Never trust the self that you are, the gurus say, but the self that you should be. And that self is supposed to be dead to desire, beyond wanting or caring; yet paradoxically, this nonfeeling leads to bliss. [...]

“What is this passion for nonbeing, this denial of sensual life, that drives so many gurus and self-proclaimed prophets? [...] They luxuriate in a kind of cosmic masturbation, titillating their psychic organisms into pitches of mindless excitement; cavorting in orgasms of self-surrender. [...]

[...] No one is free of certain minimum physical needs or of self-oriented thought, I remarked to Jane recently, and each nation strives to expand its technological base no matter what its philosophy may be. Would a widespread use of Eastern religious doctrines be more practical on our earth today, or the kind of self-knowledge Seth advocates? [...]

[...] The interested reader will also be able to compare her composition with certain passages in her long poem, Dialogues of the Soul and Mortal Self in Time, when that work is published in book form in September 1975.

(11:30.) With animals, there are varying degrees of division between the self who acts and the action involved. With the birth of the conscious mind in man, however, the self who acts needed a way to judge its actions. Again we come to the importance of that period of reflection, in which the self, with the use of memory, glimpses its own past experience in the present and projects its results into the future.

(Intently at 9:36:) Now this does not mean that your personality as you know it was often trapped within a womb, destined to die there, or that a hypothetical whole self would not be born. [...] The self is not … (pause, eyes closed) … give us a moment; I am searching for a good analogy … the self is not like a clay figure coming from a potter’s oven, so that you can say: “Ah, here is a self, and nothing can be added to it.” You have always existed as a probable self, though you were not focused in the knowledge of your own experience.

[...] There is no need to “romanticize” them, or to think of them as little people, but each of them possesses a highly focused consciousness, and a consciousness of self. [...] There are different kinds of selfhood, and an infinite variety of ways to experience self-awareness.

Dictation: Usually you think in terms of a hypothetical whole self or consciousness, emerging at birth and disappearing at death. [...]

[...] In most of these debates, this hypothetical self or consciousness is taken as the measure.

The spontaneous self when it did escape, you see, managed to do so only under circumstances where the explosive impulses shattered their way through. [...] When the situations developed which we have discussed, setting off the old conflicts, again you see, then the discipline idea was short-circuited back to the old compulsive behavior, though in different form, and with the old religious connotation of self-denial. [...] Now this self-denial began in the Catholic home, and he was peculiarly prone to accept it. [...]

[...] An outgoing atmosphere, oddly enough, will now allow the spontaneous inner self freer expression spontaneously, you see; the yoga, I am afraid, did represent a severe distortion, and yet a particularly tricky one, for generally speaking the exercise is excellent; and in the beginning when I recommended it, it was helpful in slowly coaxing out the inner self.

[...] Both of you lean toward self-denial, sometimes too acutely. [...]

[...] The fact that Ruburt begins to remember his dreams shows that the inner self is being allowed more freedom, and it responds to physical touch, pampering, denial, as the case may be.

Everything I have said about the Sinful Self applies. The Sinful Self is not the “villain”. [...]

[...] It also tends to being about a bigger division between those two images of the self. [...] At the same time, I do not want to play down the unfortunate aspects of the beliefs connected with the Sinful Self. [...]

[...] During one of our discussions yesterday, also, I mentioned to Jane some of my own ideas about the power of the Sinful Self, according to Seth’s material. [...]

[...] Ruburt had strong elements of personality still caught up in the beliefs of what I have called the Sinful Self. [...]

[...] The rocket ship would be the inquiring inner self in motion. This inner self in motion is bound to set up ripples of counteraction. [...]

[...] I use the word shape for simplicity’s sake, but the electrical universe is composed of dimensions which are perceived by the inner self, for the inner self also has existence within the electrical universe. [...]

Now, if you will follow me closely you will obtain a hint at least of the structure of the inner self. It is composed, that is, each inner self is composed, structurally of a particular range of electrical intensities with which various personalities have their identities insured, since their identity is composed of particular intensities within the range.

[...] Yet in using the inner senses, you yourselves probe into this universe, and at least in analogy dissect it, the inner self acting as the imaginary knife.

[...] The Sinful Self, however, no longer identifies with the Roman Catholic Church, as once it did, and in years past it also became dissatisfied with that framework. [...] In that regard the Sinful Self, then, is not pleased with its situation. [...]

[...] I took this to mean that communication continued between her Sinful Self and other levels of her personality. [...]

[...] And I thought that years ago, [and with my own unwitting cooperation] Jane had given over control of her life in certain large ways to the Sinful Self through the symptoms—and yes, abjectly allowed it to exert such power and influence that now she finally found herself in the grip of a strong force, or set of beliefs. [...]

(At noon, as we ate, I asked her what she thought the Sinful Self might make of the Speaker manuscript material she’d been getting in recent days. [...]

The overly conscientious self is life-sustaining, however. [...] This gives direction to the spontaneous self. [...] It simply attempts to keep the self united and the energies clearly focused.

The overly conscientious self also wants freedom of motion toward goals with which it agrees. [...]

[...] It is a rock-bottom portion of the self, a Taurus characteristic (Jane is a Taurus). [...]

[...] It is somewhat astonished to discover that the spontaneous self is no enemy, but a friend and ally. [...]

[...] Your self is secure in its own identity, unique in its characteristics, meeting life and the seasons in a way that has never happened before, and will never happen again — yet still you are a unique version of your greater self. [...]

(We’re presenting his material for me because it has good general application: If Seth deals with my own painted images without even mentioning the words reincarnation or counterparts, still he does reveal how such “residents of the mind” make up part of each person’s innate knowledge of his or her own greater — or larger — self.

[...] I also say that there are no limitations to the self. [...]

[...] Your writing gains vitality from your painting, your painting from your writing — and the dreaming self at one time or another is in contact with all other Aspects — capital “A” — of your reality.

He has learned that the ego cannot set itself up against the inner self. He has learned to trust and have confidence in the inner self, and to listen to the subconscious which is a part of his inner identity.

[...] The self teaches its own lessons. The self knows the best way to get its message across.

[...] And yet these lessons all in all were self-given, and he is actually lucky, for they could have been far more difficult and the fruits of stubbornness could have been more bitter.

[...] Ruburt will be more his natural and uninhibited intuitional self now. [...]

[...] (Long pause.) In his case he must accept himself as a human being before he can hope to discover the inner self. [...] There was a definite splitting of personality elements, and a complete abandonment by the inner self of the ego.

The ego takes care of physical matters so that the inner self can go about its other concerns. [...] The inner self is then in a precarious position, for it must also attempt to deal with physical reality.

The whole self contains the ego, and he ignored this. Any investigations into the nature of existence, and any true learning, must take place within all levels of the self. [...]

[...] He has disrupted the part of the self that usually deals with physical reality, and its manipulation. [...]

[...] Anyhow, got the idea when I put the book away that Seth would speak about things like the Moonies without mentioning them, idea being that the self as it is isn’t trusted; as in the Jonestown thing. Such groups make people dissatisfied with the self as it is, and try to superimpose the idea of a superior self—realistically impossible. [...]

[...] (Words lost) far as the inner self is concerned, for you must translate what you receive. [...] Because you give yourselves certain names does not mean that you are not one self. [...] It is the self that was familiar to you before you learned to speak. [...] The innermost portions of yourself that is indeed a part of all energy, must be sifted through the self that you now recognize, and your job is to learn how to receive the information and how to open and use the inner self. [...]

You are tapping the energy of your being, the inner self, with which you have not been familiar. You are picking up information, often of which you conscious self is not aware. [...]

([Gert:] “When I do this mirror trance, I’m getting an image on the wall behind me of my ‘Golden Boy.’ Is that a projection of my inner self?”)

([Sue:] “The creation of individual symbols of self is what Dave Zale did in that incident, wasn’t it?”)