“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

“As I walk into the kitchen the head of my dream self fills with vivid scenes, like other dreams, interpretations of each cell of this new awareness. I project all of this outward around me into literally hundreds of brilliant scenes; expressions, I knew, of probabilities, ‘past’ and ‘future’ events, sideways events I can’t even understand … all happening at once, with perfect comprehension of that by the ‘anchor’ dream self. I feel that while all of this is still coming from this anchor self, the selves in these dreams are equally as focused — each of them being dream selves, existing in their universes, and with each of their own connections expanding outwards in much the same way that mine do. [...] In at least one of these selves, the knowledge of this entire event comes to consciousness like a half-recalled dream of its own, and the experience of recalling and being recalled is like liquid electricity in me, the anchor self.

[...] You would just have another expansion of consciousness, another self-who-is-aware-of-being in the same way that — using an analogy, granted — the writer is aware of the self who lives, in those terms; is the self who lives while being in a position of some apartness, able to comment upon the life being lived.

“As a dream self I’m sitting in my living room with a friend, Stephen, when suddenly self-knowledge, connections among events, symbols, and the inner logic and fabric of my life and experience became crystal clear. [...] It’s as though my dream self can handle only so much at once, and the stuff heaps up, and I get up and walk to the kitchen. [...]

[...] My addition, now, to those remarks is this: You would need the creation then of another “self,” who stood aside from the writing self in order to preserve the original intent.

These are unfoldings, as the inner self materializes what is already latent into physical actuality. Now there may be areas in which the inner self is simply not interested. [...] The inner self is a developing entity, not a finished product. [...]

The inner self is acquainting itself with reality as it exists there. [...] Any faulty constructions however are used by the inner self in a feedback system and as a part of the learning process. Your system is not the most elementary, but it is one of the most elementary, and it is a way that the inner self acquaints itself with certain basic facts.

The inner self therefore uses the physical system to express its own inclinations and ideas of reality. It is the inner self that unfolds those patterns of behavior spoken about in the article you read on infant growth. [...]

The interior self causes the physical challenges that then seem to spurt further bodily activity. [...]

(4:41.) One of the attitudes detrimental to good health is that of self-condemnation, or dislike of the self. [...] Feelings of self-worth, self-esteem, and pleasure with one’s abilities promote feelings of well-being, health, and exuberance.

[...] Such a reminder can often allow the inner self to send needed messages of strength and love through the various levels, appearing as inspiration, dreams, or simply pure bursts of feeling. 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.

Ruburt then, would be considered Jane’s third self in approximate terms. In the analogy these future selves would dwell in other dimensions, and usually self one, or Jane, would be relatively unaware of their, existence or knowledge. In this case self one is able to make such contacts however.

[...] Your own creativity, your painting, has always had a psychic basis, and in your case—back to our analogy—self 3 has helped you. Self 2 followed the same path, relatively speaking, as Ruburt’s self 2. You had better substitute Jane there.

[...] Since I mentioned self 2, and again remember this is an analogy—self 2 has embarked upon a completely different adventure, in a different direction in another system.

[...] Suffice it to say, using again our analogy, that although both self 6 and self one are independent, there are certain connections between them, and that these can be activated.

By now it must be plain to the reader that Seth’s material on the sinful self—any sinful self, or all of them—could very well be considered the other side of his information on the magical approach to reality. [...] Indeed, how irritating it was, I thought, that for Jane and me at least the magical self seemed to be so far removed from daily reality, while the sinful self was so close! Reaching out to the magical self could be thought of as some theoretically attainable goal—but the sinful self was right there, functioning within the most intimate areas of personal life. [...] Seth, I knew, would simply say that the magical self is just as real and close as any other self. The challenge for the individual is to know and to believe that, to clear unwanted growth from around the magical self so that it can bloom unimpeded….

“After supper I discussed with Jane the question I’ve been keeping in mind for Seth, concerning what her sinful self may have learned since we began this series of sessions. I said it was essential to communicate to her sinful self [so named by Seth for convenience’s sake only] that its performance has been very destructive to Jane, and that it must release its hold. I want to know that self’s attitude toward the fact that Jane is now helpless as far as her physical survival is concerned—she can no longer take care of herself without my help, and this obviously implies that if her condition continues to worsen to the point of death, her sinful self will die also. [...] No matter how it must reason or react, that self has to be concerned about its own survival—but in what ways, and based upon what knowledge and reasons? [...]

And yet, Seth told us, in spite of everything Jane’s sinful self could begin to change once it was reached. [...] Her sinful self, according to Seth, no longer identifies with the Church. That self itself has become frightened, in conflict within itself over its early training and Jane’s great creativity, which it regards as wrong: The creative self is guilty. [...]

Through April and into May, I had problems controlling my own anger and hurt feelings toward Jane’s sinful self as I came to better understand its mechanisms of operation. [...] of course, my feelings reflected upon the workings of my sinful self, or upon some similar psychological quality—for how could I be so involved with my wife’s challenges, for almost 26 years, without complementing them within deep portions of my own personality? [...] Jane had refused to listen to that self of hers in earlier years. “The idea is in no way to accuse the sinful self,” Seth said on April 28. [...]

[...] If you cannot trust the self, then you will see social and civic organizations primarily as ways of directing the self in certain areas, prohibiting its full power. Any work, even inconsequential work, will be seen as beneficial, to “take up the self’s time.” Your governments are set up because you do not trust the self. This does not mean that governments in the future cannot exist for the fulfillment of the self and the society.

Certain methods of self-enlightenment in my book will serve as quite adequate techniques, that can be used to acquaint the known self with other portions of the psyche. [...]

[...] It will be a source book for all of those who try to understand the self as it operates consciously and unconsciously. [...]

[...] I am not speaking here of a one-sided expansion, in which so-called occult tendencies are emphasized at all, but in an overall reeducation of consciousness, in which the operational self becomes aware of areas that have been considered taboo.

4. A note added later: Jane dealt with her “own” ideas of the inner multidimensional self in Part 2 of her Adventures in Consciousness: An Introduction to Aspect Psychology. [...] Seth’s private oracle is analogous to her basic nonphysical source self, from which numerous Aspect selves simultaneously emerge into various realities. All Aspects of a source self are in communication with each other, even if unconsciously. The Aspect self that appears in our reality is the focus personality, “earthized” in physical form. I made a number of diagrams to illustrate Jane’s material in Part 2 of Adventures, and several of these show a schematic source self with its attendant Aspects.

[...] But that order would recognize the inner validity that is within the self; and the inner order, unseen, that forms the integrity of the physical body, likewise would form the integrity of the social body. The self, the individual, being its fulfilled self, would automatically function for the good of itself and for the good of society. [...] This presupposes, however, an understanding of the inner self and an exploration into the unknown reality of the individual psyche.

[...] The private oracle is the voice of the inner multidimensional self — the part of each person not fully contained in his or her personhood, the part of the unknown self-structure out of which personhood, with its physical alliance, springs. [...]

[...] Learning would take advantage of the latent inner knowledge of the subjective self, and help it interpret itself in terms of physical life. [...]

[...] It also senses, however, a deep and abiding connection that it does not understand, with other portions of the self that are not under its domain. It is also aware that this inner self possesses knowledge upon which its own existence is based.

[...] They play the part of the blessed inner self that actually cannot operate within physical reality uncloaked by flesh. This energy, however, is a quite valid projection from the interior self. [...]

There are internal realizations always present within the whole self. [...]

[...] The drama itself is a psychological phenomenon in a way, for each physically oriented self feels thrust alone into a strange environment, without knowing its origins or destination or even the reason for its own existence.

(“I’d been working all day,” Jane wrote, “on my book of poetry, Dialogues of the Soul and Mortal Self in Time. Working like crazy, really on a creative ‘high.’ Just before supper time I’d been writing about the single yet double universe of self and soul, and the last line had quoted the mortal self:

[...] In periods of great physical stress it draws upon the powers of the body and inner self to perform remarkable feats of heroism — that leave it wondering afterward at the power and energy of the self in crisis.

[...] The knowledge is present that the “old self” did not make it — so what assurance does the so-called new self have? [...]

[...] Some psychologists like to say that you cry out unconsciously against the natural method of your birth.⁴ But here you have the situation where a self is faced with its own annihilation, while another “self” arises after conscious participation with its death.

Seth then sat in front of my dream self, feeding it something that looked like cereal. My critical self became upset then, almost feeling that the dream was worthless. Then Seth said to the critical self, ‘This is symbolism … food for thought … far more complicated than you know and beyond any part of you that you understand.’ At once the dream self became soothed, almost hypnotically. The critical self kept thinking that this couldn’t happen in a dream.

[...] At this point, my critical self separated from my dream self who was receiving the lecture. [In other words, Sue became aware of herself and the dream self.] My critical self instantly felt put off, since it could not understand or translate the lecture. [...]

At times, illness is momentarily accepted by the personality as a part of the self, and here lies its danger. [...] The illness is often quite literally accepted by the personality structure as a portion of the self. [...] The self does not want to give up a portion of itself, even if that part may be painful or disadvantageous. [...]

[...] The suggestions will be followed by the sleeping self in its own fashion. The solutions may not appear to the conscious self in the way it expects. The conscious self may not even recognize it has been given a solution, and yet it may act upon it. [...]

[...] Each of my readers plays a game in which the egotistical conscious self pretends not to know what the whole self definitely does know. Since the ego is definitely a part of the whole self, then it must necessarily be basically aware of such knowledge. [...]

Channels, psychological and psychic, always exist, sending communications back and forth through the various levels of the self, and the ego accepts necessary information and data from inner portions of the personality without question. [...] The ego, in other words, the “exterior” self that you think of as your self — that portion of you maintains its safety and its seeming command precisely because inner layers of your own personality constantly uphold it, keep the physical body operating, and maintain communications with the multitudinous stimuli that come both from outside conditions and inside conditions. [...]

[...] Even when we are exploring other issues, we will be trying to illustrate the multidimensional aspect of this inner self. [...]

You do have access to the inner self, therefore. [...]

(To Joel) And as for our friend over here, trust yourself, and when I say your self, I mean the entire self. Not just the self that you know, or the self you think you accept, or the self you fear you do not know, but the entire self. [...]

[...] Do not take it at face value but feel within yourself for the hidden self that is within. [...]

[...] And let them form a foundation upon which you can climb to find your own reality and your own existence that is in itself independent, both of my words and even of the room in which now your bodies sit, for that independent inner self wanders through all existences that you have known, in your terms, has a wisdom and knowledge that you can use. [...]

You must understand that it is not cut off from the inner self. The inner self keeps the physical body alive even as it formed it. The miraculous constant translation of spirit into flesh is carried on with inexhaustible energy by these inner portions of being, but in all cases the inner self looks to the conscious mind for its assessment of the body’s condition and reality, and forms the image in line with the conscious mind’s beliefs.

In your present life the conscious mind assesses physical reality and has behind it all the energy, power and ability of the inner self at its disposal. [...] The inner self sends to it only the information it asks for or feels necessary. [...]

[...] As mentioned (in Chapter Four), the conscious mind is a portion of the inner self; that part that surfaces, so to speak, and meets physical reality more or less directly.

[...] Without it there would be an “out of focus” effect that would make physical survival impossible, so certain portions of the inner self come to the foreground of being.

The entity, the true multidimensional self, is aware of all of its experiences, and this knowledge is to some extent available to these other portions of the self, including of course the physical self as you know it. These various portions of the self in fact will eventually (in your terms) become fully aware. [...]

(9:53.) If you have any intuitive understanding as yet concerning the nature of the entity or whole self, you will see that it has placed you in a position in which certain abilities, insights, and experience can be realized, and in which your unique kind of consciousness can be nurtured. [...] For if you are intensely preoccupied with what may seem to be one infinitesimally minute aspect of reality, and while you seem to be completely embedded within it, only the most “surface” elements of the self are so entranced. I do not like the term “surface” in this regard, though I have used it to suggest the multitudinous portions of the self that are otherwise engaged — some of them as entranced in their reality as you are in yours.

For one thing, you are not dealing with one linear self. The self is indeed multidimensional, and the driving force behind the self does not reside in the ego or in what you refer to as the subconscious.

[...] In the case of the whole self there is communication between various portions of the self. [...] A thorough understanding of reincarnated existences are of benefit to the conscious present self. [...]

[...] Practically speaking a self can be defined as an energy gestalt whose perceptions are organized under the auspices of apparent identity. The more of reality that is perceived the larger the dimensions of the self, or identity.

[...] The self organizes data basically in a manner that psychology has not found. [...] Such tendencies are highly colored by previous existences, by past lives, and this prehistory, existing as the electromagnetic property of the whole self, is the blueprint which is followed by the structure of the chromosomes.

No man can find
Where he has been,
Or follow in flesh
Where the self tread,
Or keep the self in
Though doors are closed,
For the self moves through
Wood and stone.

[...] But each of you creates a dream world of validity, actuality, durability and self-determination, in the same way that the entity projects the reality of its various personalities. As there is usually no contact between the entity and the ordinary conscious ego, there is usually no contact on a conscious level between the self who dreams and the dream world which has its own independent existence.

The eye movements noted in the beginning of REM sleep are only indications of dream activity that is closely connected with the physical layers of the self. [...] The self is actually returning to more surface levels to check upon physical environment. [...]

No man can find
The post or sign
That led the self
Through such strange land.
The way is gone,
The self returns
To slip its bony
Image on.

After the session I began to wonder what Jane’s “sinful self” would have to say now, in comparison to the material she’d received from it in June 1981. During that fervent bout of activity her sinful self had explained and defended its actions most eloquently throughout some 36 closely handwritten pages. Both of us had been appalled at the revelations coming through Jane’s pen, even if we did grudgingly admit that we understood, intellectually at least, many of the points that self made. [...] I’d also been reminded of material Seth himself had given a few weeks earlier, in a very important private session on April 16: “Many of Ruburt’s beliefs have changed, but the core belief in the sinful self has been very stubborn. [...]

It could hardly have been accidental, then, that beginning on June 17, 1981, our deep need led to Jane’s spontaneous production of her own sinful-self material. The way had been illuminated by Seth himself in his private sessions, with his discussions of her sinful self and related challenges: Those sessions, the publication of the two books, Jane’s personal sinful-self material and her worsening physical situation, all combined to serve as a complex trigger. [...]

He (Ruburt) need not try to be the perfect self, then, the superimage—and in fact to some extent he found himself the supplicative [self], knocking upon creaturehood’s earthly door, as any creature who found himself wounded through misadventure might ask aid from another. [...]

[...] Not only that, but those “magical” sessions had naturally developed into another series, this time on a portion of the personality Seth called “the sinful self”—mine as well as that of others—and those sessions had in turn led me to produce many pages of material directly from my own sinful self. [...]

[...] I added that perhaps the important thing for us now was to observe our unfolding lives with Seth’s ideas of the larger, or whole self, in mind, and so achieve insights we could interpret in terms of probabilities. So we decided not to ask Seth to backtrack and give us material about the son my mother’s probable self had had in her reality, even though that son was a probable self of mine.

[...] On other levels, laws of dynamics apply to the energy sources of the self. Think of a given “self” as a nucleus of an energy gestalt of consciousness. [...]

[...] (To me:) Your “sportsman self”* was never endowed with the same kind of force as that of your artistic or writing self. [...]

[...] The father that you knew was the probable self, therefore. That probable self, however, dealt with emotional realities that the other avoided, and this was indeed his sole intent.

[...] The question, “When is the self born?”, would take many sessions to answer. As simply as possible the self, the inner self with which the ego is only vaguely familiar, that self which is the inner strength, continuity and identity, that gives the ego its vital meaning, that inner self, dear friend, is constantly being born.

In a very actual respect chemically, electromagnetically, extensions of any given self permeate your universe. For practical considerations, and to reduce the amount of data that need concern the self, rather arbitrary divisions are set up, where the self at one point is said to exist and at another is considered nonself.

Outward extensions of the self can be more clearly objectified, the concentration at the outward extensions being less, and identity correlations being kept in more concentrated areas within the boundaries of the physical self. [...] In like manner the self is, but is not consciously able to examine that which it is. [...]

[...] The self may project itself into the dimensions of space and time, but the projection is a small part of its actuality. Even the uppermost or surface elements of the self with which you are familiar, the ego and the uppermost layers of the subconscious, even these cannot be said to be born at any given time, in time as you conceive it.

Other portions of self one are to some extent aware of these other dimensions. [...] For now consider what we shall call self A. And we shall say that he is the physical self in the physical universe. [...] From your own work you realize however that this individual, or self A, is indeed more than physical matter, even while he exists within the physical dimension.

[...] The ego does not perceive the communications, obviously; but the ego, you must understand, is not self one alone, it is only a portion of self one, or the physical self.

But self A is not limited to the ego’s perceptions only, therefore it may be said that self A’s perceptions are not limited, in toto, to the field in which it exists. For it is not so limited in dreams and in other states, yet while consciousness is in these other conditions, self a still exists within physical reality.

If self A were limited to the perceptions of the ego, and if self A were limited then to the dimensions in which it found itself, then my dear friends precognition in dreams would be impossible, and in order to perceive the future self A would of necessity be forced to discontinue existence within the physical system.