“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Pretend for a moment that you are a child, and I am trying to undertake the particular chore of explaining to you what your most developed, adult self will be like — and in my explanation, I say that this adult self is to some extent already a part of you, an outgrowth or projection of what you are. [...] Must I die to become this other self? [...] How can I ever be this adult self when it is not what I am now, without dying as what I am?”

[...] Your waking physical self is the dreamer, as far as your dreaming self is concerned: You are the dreamer it sends on its way. Your daily experiences are the dreams that it dreams, so when you look at your dreaming self or consider it, you do so with a highly prejudiced eye, taking it for granted that your “reality” is real, and its reality is illusion.

The dreaming self as you conceive of it, however, is but a shadow of its own reality, for the dreaming self is a psychological point of reference and, in your terms, [of] continuity, that brings together all portions of your identity. [...]

[...] The dreaming self is just as complicated. So you can say that certain portions of it deal with physical reality, physical manipulation, and plans; some with deeper levels of creativity and achievement that insure physical survival; some with communication, with even more extensive elements of the personality now generally unknown; some with the continuing experience and existence of what you may call the soul or overall individual entity, the true multidimensional self.

[...] They use portions of themselves as hostages—or as in Ruburt’s case they use a portion of themselves not so much as hostages, but they take a part of the self under “protective custody.” This almost always occurs when there are misunderstandings in particular areas between the picture of the self or the world as painted by the intellect, and the picture of the world or of the self painted by the emotions. [...]

[...] The setting up of communication with individuals, communication between the various portions of the self, is highly desirable then. This is often accomplished quite automatically as other portions of the self form themselves into negotiative postures, inserting various thoughts and ideas and feelings to the opposing psychological camp. [...]

(Pause at 9:20.) In either case, however, portions of the self are hampered, restrained, and their expression drastically reduced, and there are bound to be repercussions. [...] In the case of hostages and those in protective custody, a certain kind of enforced isolation is also bound to happen —and to some degree or another, the individual involved will display in certain areas the same kind of exaggerated postures between various portions of the self, as the Americans and the Iranians display in their behavior together. [...]

[...] The American response—generally, now, speaking—to Iranian emotionalism is to become still more self-righteously reasonable, cooler, more superior. [...] So we are often indeed faced with a lack of communication between various portions of the self, or between various portions of the world. [...]

I have a suggestion, and it is that you mentally speak to what I will call “the basic creative self”—and remember, these are terms. That “self” is a portion of your being that creates all characteristics, and that can therefore help unify them. It is also the Framework 2 self, but the word “creative” is more potent for the two of you to use. [...]

[...] A lack of understanding is behind the issue, of course, but the spontaneous self was also taken into consideration, so that inner mobility—the acceleration of ideas and experience—was allowed for. Some dampers were put there also, but not because one part of the self conspired against another part. [...]

[...] He works in great bursts of activity, but instead of understanding this, and trusting the quiet periods and the creative self, he is up in arms. The creative self is playful and spontaneous. [...]

[...] I could list many more, but probably won’t. I still don’t think Seth would want to spend much time discussing that old material in any detail, since he’s said many times that focusing on what was wrong in the past is negative and self-defeating. [...]

Each probable self you see also has future selves. [...] The term includes the whole self as it consists of the self that you know, probable selves, reincarnated selves, and selves more highly developed than the self that you know.

I have told you that the ego, generally speaking, is self-conscious action that attempts to set itself apart from action and to consider action as an alien object. Now this altered ego retains its highly specialized self-consciousness, and yet it can now experience itself as an identity within and as a part of action.

[...] The ego becomes more similar to the inner ego than to its old self, comparatively speaking. [...]

[...] This self that you know has also set up and initiated probable realities of its own. [...]

[...] The Sinful Self material is doing its work, opening the necessary doorways of desire and intent. [...] (Long pause.) The innocent self is being uncovered. [...]

Ruburt is still dealing with spin-off material following or resulting from his Sinful-Self data, and this material generally follows the lines of development that are fairly obvious in the poems and notes that have followed since that time. [...]

[...] The entire Sinful Self material should be reviewed. [...]

(Long pause at 9:05.) He is presently encountering that kind of feeling, uncovering the reasons for it, and trying to recapture in a way the very young innocent self’s sense of faith. [...]

There are, and the whole self is aware of all of these realities. With no unkindness meant, you all know yourselves and your weaknesses and failures, so why should you suppose that the self you know is the only self that you are? [...]

[...] There is a constant interchange going on between what you think of as your present self, and your past and future selves. If this were not the case, then I would not be speaking here, for I am not Ruburt’s past self. [...]

[...] I am no poet, but as in one of Ruburt’s poems, think of the brain as a web you form about the inner self. [...] I want you to understand the nature of your inner self, or soul, for it is a focal point of reality from which other realities spring. [...]

[...] It is here and then it is not here, but the physical self focuses upon only those moments of physical reality. Because consciousness fluctuates however, other portions of your self have memory of those times when it is not focused in “physical reality,” and this is also a portion of your entire existence.

Instead of promoting the idea of man’s inner worth, it has taught people to distrust the inner self and its manifestations. Most churches preach a dogma that stresses concepts of the sinful self, and sees man as a creature contaminated by original sin even before birth.

Amid such a conglomeration of negative suppositions, the idea of a good and innocent inner self seems almost scandalous. To encourage expression of that self appears foolhardy, for it seems only too clear that if the lid of consciousness were opened, so to speak, all kinds of inner demons and enraged impulses would rush forth.

[...] Unfortunately such concepts are also reflected in fields of psychology, particularly in Freudianism — where, say, slips of the tongue may betray the self’s hidden, nefarious true desires.

The unconscious is understood to be a garbage heap of undesirable impulses, long ago discarded by civilization, while again much religious theory projects the image of the hidden self that must be kept in bounds by good work, prayer, and penance.

The words “Let thy will be done,” represented excellent psychological understanding, for according to Christ’s teachings as originally given, God the father represented the source or parent of the self, who was by nature free from the self’s ignorance or lack of understanding at any given time, and who would know better than the known self those experiences that would fulfill the self’s hopes, dreams, and potentials.

[...] You were still plagued by remnants of self-disapproval and self-condemnation, however, yet the spontaneous self in each of you managed to push here and there and blaze forth whenever you gave it a chance, with some quite outstanding results.

The message was “Do not condemn yourself or others,” for Christ well knew that self-righteous condemnation of the self or of one’s neighbors served to darken the door through which man might view his own potential and its greater source.

In this way, with the words spoken “Let thy will be done,” the self could free itself from its own misconceptions, and attract from Framework 2 benefits that it might otherwise not be knowledgeable enough to request. [...]

Again, the nature of space and time is glimpsed more clearly as it appears to the sleeping self, for in the dream state reality is to a large measure uncamouflaged, and the personality appears in a freer state. It should also be borne in mind that all aspects of the personality are part of the whole self. As such there is an overall communication between the various aspects of the self, although the separate aspects of the self may not be aware of the communications.

[...] They will be followed however by the sleeping self in its own fashion, and according to its own understanding. The solutions asked for may not appear to the conscious self in the fashion that it expects. The conscious self may not even recognize that it has been given a particular solution, and yet it may act upon the solution.

[...] The outer ego as you know deals with the manipulation of the self in the physical environment. You must remember that the whole self is more than the sum of its parts; and also, since it is action, it is never the same. [...] Therefore the whole self is not only the sum of the personality as you know it in your time, it is also the sum of what it has been and what it shall be. [...]

[...] With this in mind, consider once more the various aspects of the self in the waking and the dream states. [...] Indeed, the dreaming “I” seems more familiar with the waking self upon many occasions. [...]

Now, the process does not cease at the physical boundaries of the self however. The data thus far has been seen as traveling from the inner self outward, as being translated from pure knowledge into thermal pictures, inner images and thoughts. [...]

[...] There are hidden but very definite connections between the self and the objects of which it has created in its environment. The environment is simply an extension of the self, and those objects within it are a part of the physical or the physically materialized personality. [...]

[...] Information is now carried in reverse fashion back to the inner self, in an instantaneous and automatic procedure. [...]

All of the information of the inner self is highly condensed and codified, and exists in electromagnetic purity.

[...] You are taking this dual self for granted again. Until you realize that there is one self, and not one self who does and manipulates and another self who breathes and dreams, you will get nowhere quickly. [...]

If you will think (I hope) for simplicity’s sake of the whole self as it exists on your plane with its physical body, conscious ego and inner self as one field unit, which is also part of the larger or more complete entity as one field unit within another, then perhaps it will not be too much for you to imagine the connection, or one of the connections, between the entity field and the whole-self field, which is on your plane as being the inner senses—that is, the inner senses are one of the connectives between these two fields.

When I speak of the whole self I am of course referring to the personality as it exists in its entirety, having at its command use of both the inner and outer senses. That is, I speak of the doer, the mover, the breather and the dreamer as all belonging to one whole self.

[...] In other words the whole self as it exists on your plane does not contain the entity, although communication between the entity and the whole self can and does take place by means of the inner senses.

You have built defenses so strongly that you have not heard the voice of the inner self. The inner self is hardly to be feared. You have allowed the ego to become a counterfeit self, and you take its word because you will not hear the muffled voice that is within you speak.

[...] But these are not the words of the whole self. These are merely the words of the one part of the self with which you are most acquainted.

True self-knowledge is indispensable for health or vitality, and this means in every instance. The recognition of the truth about the self means that you must first discover what you think about yourself subconsciously. [...]

[...] Negative, distrustful, fearful, or degrading attitudes toward anyone work against the self and against the individuals involved. [...]

Now: the inner self is the primary personal creator and perceiver, the seat of identity, a consciousness then with many faces. Each portion of the inner self creates its own reality, and perceives the structure of matter to which it is attuned.

[...] These (in quotes) “divisions” of the self simply enable it to multiply its experience. Think of the subconscious now merely as an academic psychologist might; as that inner portion of the self who is concerned with physical survival. [...]

As the personal subconscious that you know maintains your familiar physical image, so does the core inner self beneath give this personal subconscious the power and ability. It does the same with other portions of the self that look out toward other times and places.

[...] While you are creating the physical reality and time that you know, other portions of the self are therefore creating their own times and places. [...]

[...] There is a constant interchange going on between what you think of as your present self and what you think of as your past self and what you may think of as your future self. And if this were not the case, then I would not be speaking here for I am not Ruburt’s past self. [...]

There are, indeed, and the whole self is aware of all of these realities. Now you know yourselves, with no unkindness meant, your own weaknesses and failures, so why should you suppose that the self that you know is the only self that you are. [...]

In the same way, however, your consciousness fluctuates—it is here and then it is not here—but the physical self focuses upon only those moments when consciousness is focused in physical reality so your conscious self only has memory of the physical moments that it has known. [...]

[...] I am no poet but then thinking of one of Ruburt’s poems, then think of the brain, indeed, as a web you form about the inner self. [...]

[...] The self or structure or personality travels outward and inward and (if you will forgive me) in all directions. [...] Each self as you know it has its own abilities and inclinations and sympathies. [...] It can contact that whole self which in your terms does not yet exist, but which is of course always present. [...]

[...] If you looked up now, you would not recognize the self that you will recognize. [...] It is a self you do not as yet know in your terms.

([Gene]: “Is it possible for one to be aware of the larger self, the universal self that exists apart from what I here and now call time?”)

[...] To be communicates instantaneously and directly and is instantly translated into truths that the inner self can understand. The communication speaks to the whole system of the self.

The ego then, is only part of a much larger self, but because consciously you do not perceive the whole self you arbitrarily make a unit from a truly indivisible identity, and call this the “I.” This designation, this classification, in no way affects the nature of that indivisible self. [...] You succeed in cutting off, in theory, one portion of the self from the whole self.

Though we speak in definite terms of the inner self, the entity and the ego, neither the inner self, the entity or the ego are stationary and complete. [...]

Neither, then, is the ego ever finished, nor the inner self, nor the entity. [...] The subconscious layers of the self dwell also in many realities, and here I speak of actual fields and not fantasies.

[...] As you cannot hold even the ego in the palm of your hand, so you cannot hold the inner self within the mind. [...]

(Long pause.) Its fears of such feelings, rather than the feelings themselves, cause difficulties, for the repression keeps the Sinful Self forever locked in the past, uneducated, panicky. The release of such feelings allows the Sinful Self some expression, and gives it a sense of communication so that it can indeed be reached by the understanding gained by other portions of the self—a highly important point. [...]

(Pause.) In that regard, the questions of Ruburt’s “Sinful Self” must indeed seem to it most alarming, for it possesses no frame of reference in which its own questions can be answered. These very passages are meant to help open the door of understanding, so that the Sinful Self itself can understand why it feels as it does, so that it can also realize that there are other systems in which its questions can at least be considered. [...]

[...] The Sinful Self believes it is unloved and unlovable by nature. [...] No portion of the self is beyond reach in that (underlined) regard, or unteachable. [...]

[...] The Sinful Self can be told it is a good self, it is loved, it is safe to express itself, it is free to follow its own motion and curiosity. [...]

[...] And so it would help you if you realize that you are often using conscious thought as a blind to hide you from yourself and that there is nothing within the self that you need fear and that the true security of your identity lies within this inner self and that the abilities of which we have been speaking are simply by-products of the inner self, not to be pursued for their own use, but as natural to the inner personality, as hands are natural to the physical self. [...]

[...] You will not learn nearly as much from me as you will through traveling through your own inner self and searching into the reality of yourself for other realities that are also there of which your are unaware. Now my voice is loud but the voice of the inner self is very still and you must be quiet to hear it and so from the loudness of my voice let your self run inward into that silence that is very active. [...]

[...] This does nothing to negate the validity and integrity of the self that you know. The divisions are illusions and when you wake up to yourself, to your true self, then you are aware of these other portions of your personality. [...]

[...] That the inner identity, that you, is far more than you presently realize, and the best way to work toward such realization is to accept the self that your are now, as you are. To feel the movement of the spontaneous self. [...]

[...] It can be an extension or enlargement of the self, a widening of its boundaries and of conscious comprehension. It can also be a pulling together of the self into an ever-smaller capsule that enables the self to enter other systems of reality. The tissue capsule surrounds each consciousness and is actually an energy field boundary, keeping the inner self’s energy from seeping away.

There is behind the ego a stronger and more vivid self. There is even a more self-conscious self of which he remains in ignorance. And again as I have said, evidence for this self can be and will be received.

Self-consciousness entered in very shortly after, but not what you are pleased to call human self-consciousness. [...] However the fact remains, and I can hear you all yell foul, that there is no actual differentiation between the various types of self-consciousness.

You are either conscious of self or you are not. On your plane self-consciousness exists as a rule. [...] What I am trying to point out to you here is this supreme egotistical presumption that self-consciousness must of necessity involve humanity per se. [...]

[...] To some degree it even possesses self-consciousness, and so there is no point at which self-consciousness entered, so to speak, with the sound of trumpets. [...]