“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

[...] Action is something like a mirror which reflects itself. In one action, basically, we can see all actions, and through one action we can reach the reality of all actions.

I have told you that action cannot deny itself. An action cannot be recalled, that is, called back out of existence. Once an action has begun, it will attempt completion. An action may be recalled in terms of memory, but it cannot be taken back, or denied or undone.

The apparent dimensions within action is caused by the separation of which we spoke, when action attempts to step aside from itself. Dreams are as much action as the movement of a muscle, and the movement of a muscle is indeed as sleeplike as any dream.

We are all within action. [...] In whichever direction we focus our abilities and energies, we seem to see new action, but it is merely our focus which has changed; and in changing, has formed new action.

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.

[...] Action never ceases its own exploration of itself. All That Is can never know itself completely, since action must always act and each action creates a new unknown.

One thing you should know: action cannot stop. [...] Individuality is a direct result of the overall oneness of this action. Action is also a direct result of individual identities, for without these psychological dimensions, oneness could not multiply itself.

Action must then travel through itself from every conceivable point, and yet the journey, you see, itself being action, will create new paths.

[...] As the personality is changed by any experience or any action, so it is changed by its own dreams. Here again we see how energy or action operates within itself. We can even trace the actions and interactions.

[...] To the whole self there is little differentiation made between actions that are of an exterior nature, and actions that are of an interior nature. [...]

[...] Here we simply have spirals, so to speak, of evermoving actions that compose the whole self. But portions of these spirals coincide, and in this analogy the spirals of action not only have those dimensions which you understand, but other dimensions with which you are not yet familiar.

The designations put upon these units of action are highly artificial, and represent limitations that are quite arbitrary. We mentioned in an earlier session something to this effect, in that you simply perceive a small portion of such action, label it as a unit, can perceive no further, and so suppose that what you see or perceive is all there is to see or perceive.

[...] Consciousness of self, if you recall, is self-consciousness that still retains self as a part of action, self that perceives its existence within action. Ego, originally a part of this consciousness of self, splits off as previously explained, and attempts to dissociate itself from action, indeed to view action as a result of itself; that is, to view action as a result and not a cause.

I am going to speak about your past condition, and I am also going to speak about action. Although the reason, or reasons, for your particular illness involves personal causes, indeed in one way or another all illnesses have a root within ego’s attempt to stand apart from the action of which it is composed, so that at times it fights against itself.

Basically, all action is. Basically there is no evil action. [...]

[...] But you are familiar only with the results of action as they appear within the physical field, as long as you insist upon viewing your physical universe with the eyes of the ego-self; for the ego-self attempts to cut itself off from that action of which it is a part, and in so attempting it loses contact with this larger reality.

I would like to discuss dreams in relation to action. We mentioned earlier that all action does not necessarily involve motion that is apparent as such to you. To one extent or another, all actions are unfoldings. The action of dreaming itself is partially a physical phenomena. There is, then, the outside action that makes dreaming possible, the action that is dreaming.

One of the closest glimpses you can get of pure action is action as it is involved with the dream world and in this mobility as the personality passes into and out of the dream field. Within the physical world, you deal with the transformation of action into physical manipulations — but this involves only a small portion of the nature of action, and it is my purpose to familiarize you with action as it exists, more or less, in pure form. [...]

I used the term, pass out of the dream world purposely, for here we see a mobility of action easily and often accomplished — a passing in and out that involves an action without movement in space. The dreamer has, at his fingertips, a memory of his ‘previous’ dream experiences and carries within him the many inner purposes which are behind his dream actions. [...]

Now, you experience action as if you were moving along a single line, each dot on it representing a moment of your time. But at any of these ‘points,’ action moves out in all directions. From the standpoint of that moment-point, you could imagine action forming an imaginary circle with the point as apex. [...]

For all systems, so-called time is measured with the entrance or projection of any given mental action through this resistance barrier. The mental action projected must continue to project. When it passes completely through a system, then within the system it appears that the mental action has ceased to be, and again time is marked.

Now that you know something about the nature of matter, you will see that all matter is objectified mental action, and that basically such action happens simultaneously in the spacious present, formed by individualized energy through the formation of mental enclosures.

These simultaneous actions, happening at once, appear in multitudinous fields of activity. [...] The appearance of this time is caused by the apparent changes or transformations of the action as it enters any given camouflage field.

The action is only apparent or visible in a particular field when it adopts the camouflage coloration of the field in question. Basically the action has not changed. [...]

[...] An action may occur therefore in the world of matter, and be perceived in both the universe of negative matter and the dream world, but in such a case each universe interprets the action according to, and within, its own framework of reference.

These acts are not only interpreted differently, they also of course have effects which are caused not only by the initial action but also by the distortive appearance of the action in a given system. [...]

[...] It will be far more simple to see such a distortive effect of one mental action as it occurs in the dream and matter universes. In all such cases the mental action occurs simultaneously in all systems in which it will have a reality; in which it can be used as a reference point in other words.

[...] We will deal directly in our future dream material with specific mental actions, and with the different appearance of the actions in the dream and matter universes.

They are brought into existence in a subjective manner, but they then are independent action, and as such may continue to exist in duration within the physical field, according to their original electric potential. In turn these thoughts or emotions, as electric actions, can affect other actions; and influence patterns can be set up, and are set up. The subjective habits of individuals are largely responsible for their own attractions to various types of such electric actions, and here indeed like attracts like.

Each thought or emotion exists then as electric action within the mind. The action is transformed and translated, and is sent to the brain where its effects directly are felt, and the brain then initiates reactions. [...]

[...] If you recall, I said that thoughts and also emotions existed as electric actions, and once initiated are then in independent existence. [...]

[...] Since these are electrical actions, they set up strong electrical fields of attraction within the personality, easy electric paths. [...]

The mental enzymes within the enclosure are the elements that set off the action and—listen closely—are also the action itself. In other words the mental enzymes not only produce action in the material world but become the action. I will always call any materialization an action from here on in, since as you both know by now nothing is stationary. [...]

[...] Love and hate for example are action. They are both action and they both imply action in physical bodies, and even as far as thoughts are concerned. In your plane action is the main word of importance.

(A juncture represents a flowering of thought through action. [...] would be thought translated into more positive action.

(A drawing is solidified action. [...]

[...] Yet all characteristic reactions, whether denied by the ego or not, are kept for use as alternative actions. In many cases actions unacceptable to the ego may be precisely those actions that are necessary for whole other areas of the personality. When too many actions are restricted by the ego, they may begin to form impulse patterns or groupings of various rejected impulses. [...]

[...] The ego is concerned with purposeful action. However when the ego is too restrictive its conception of purposeful action becomes so narrow that many legitimate and necessary impulses are dammed up, forming these rejected action patterns.

It feels the concentration of energy that has collected to form the rejected action patterns, and indeed it may feel that this unified rejection pattern is then even an enemy to its own superiority. [...]

The rejected action patterns, however, will find outlet. [...]

[...] Those serve to organize individual action in a world where an infinite number of probable roads are open—and here again, private impulses are basically meant to guide each individual toward avenues of expression and probable activities suited best to his or her development. They are meant, therefore, as aids to help organize action (pause), and to set free will more effectively into motion. [...] Essentially, the individual would have no particular leaning toward any one action over any other (all with emphasis).

[...] The awakening mentioned earlier, then, found man rousing from his initial “dreaming condition,” faced suddenly with the need for action in a world of space and time, a world in which choices became inevitable, a world in which he must choose among probable actions—and from an infinite variety of those choose which events he would physically actualize. [...]

[...] (Pause.) The emergence of action within a time scheme is actually one of the most important developments connected with the beginning of your world.

[...] This immediately brought about the importance of choosing between one action and another, and made acts of decision highly important.

A thought is an action. A dream is as much an action as a breath is an action. Although we speak in terms of separation, all reality is a part of action. When we divide action in order to discuss it, we in no way change the reality of action, nor alter its nature.

Action (you may if you prefer use the term vitality; I prefer the term action) action continually attempts to express itself in endless formations. [...] It is impossible for action to completely express itself in any medium.

[...] The ego attempts to stand apart from action, to view action as the result of ego. However, again, the ego’s attempt to stand apart from action in no way changes the basic nature of action itself, and the ego merely limits its own perception.

Nor is the dream itself a chaotic action, but a complicated and unique action by which symbols are chosen with such precise and careful attention that they have meaning to all levels of the inner self, and various levels of the subconscious. [...]

[...] Now all of these possible actions have a reality at that point. [...] Before you make your decision, each of these probable actions are equally valid. [...]

The other probable actions, however, are as valid as they ever were, though you have not chosen to actualize them physically. [...] If there was a strong emotional charge behind one of the rejected probable actions, it may even have greater validity as an act than the one you chose.

In your daily life at any given moment of your time, you have a multitudinous choice of actions, some trivial and some of utmost importance. [...]

It seems to you that reality is composed of those actions that you choose to take. [...]

Now for a moment we will return to our material on action, and you may perhaps see why this fits in so well here. No action is identical to any other action. An action is never entirely dissipated, though it may pass beyond its particular field of origin. This transference, incidentally, from one system to another, necessarily changes the action itself; but for simplicity’s sake we may say that an action has its reality within many systems simultaneously.

[...] Action cannot be caught and held, and the nature of perceiving an action changes the very nature of the action itself. [...]

Since perceiving an action is itself an action, the perceiving must because of its nature to some extent distort the object of perception.

[...] We are heading here indeed, slowly but surely, toward a thorough discussion of the inner senses, which could not be given until you had a good background in the nature of action itself. [...]

(Jane also thought she knew something of what Seth had planned to discuss this evening, relative to action within action. It concerned the actions taking place within the action of dreaming, reincarnation, etc.)

I was going to speak this evening rather in depth concerning action within action, as there is much to be said here that will show you how actual dimensions of action are formed. [...]

I am speaking now of the basic nature of reality, and not of any particular action, for particular actions can indeed be altered by other actions, and no given action occurs in a solitary manner.

[...] Actions are perceived as realities according to the nature, not of a given action, but according to the nature of the perceiver. [...]

The nature of action cannot be altered.

[...] His perception of basic reality in one way does not change the nature of that reality or of that action, as it exists independently of his field of reference. [...]

As I have told you, all action is basically spontaneous. Only your perception of it adds the illusion of time to action. You think, for example, that any given action consumes or devours or takes up a certain amount of time. Therefore you think of time as something that contains action.

[...] An action is an experienced intensity, and need not involve motion in physical terms. As I have said, every action is a part of every other action, and affects every other action, and is also so affected itself. [...]

The dimensions of action itself have nothing to do, basically, with your conception of time. Instead the dimensions of action have to do with intensities; not only the intensities of the electromagnetic components that compose them, but with intensities as they are translated into psychological terms. Therefore the psychological experience of a particular event or action has little to do with clock time.

Your concept of time does not of course change time itself, but it does force you to perceive actions in a certain manner. Much of this is the result of the limitations of the physical organism, but much more is the effect of the development of the ego, which attempts to set itself up and apart from action.

[...] All this is action, for the personality itself is composed of action, and is constantly changing. This is action, therefore, delighting in the expression and form of itself.

[...] Again, all of this involves action within action. [...]

[...] It tries to separate itself from action, to view it objectively, and to see itself as something apart from action.

Since it is itself action, such an attempt is basically doomed to failure. [...] Since this existence of separate identity is assured, attempts should then be made so that the ego can better participate in its realization of action, and the emotional life is very important in this respect.

[...] Even people who are not so fervently opposed to spontaneity often feel that it is somehow suspect, distasteful, perhaps leading to humiliating actions. Spontaneity, however, represents the spirit of life itself, and it is the basis for the will to live, and for those impulses that stimulate action, motion, and discovery.

[...] In the physical world, such behavior often leads to compulsive action — stereotyped mental and physical motion and other situations with a strong repressive coloration. [...] The conscious mind must be in control of all actions as much as possible, for such a person feels that only rigid, logical thought is strong enough to hold back such strong impulsive force.

(Long pause.) These attitudes may be reflected in rather simple compulsive actions: the woman who cleans the house endlessly, whether it needs it or not; the man who will follow certain precise, defined routes of activity — driving down certain streets only to work; washing his hands much more frequently than other people; the person who constantly buttons and unbuttons a sweater or vest. Many such simple actions show a stereotyped kind of behavior that results from a desperate need to gain control over oneself and the environment.

[...] Spontaneity is particularly important in the actions of children, and in the natural rhythmic motion of their limbs. [...]

You conceive of action in terms of time, since within the physical field a given action appears to actually take up time, almost in the same way that a chair seems to take up space. [...] Nor does the action take up time. [...] Nevertheless, in the electrical system there is distance in terms of action. Each action is separate and not continuous with other action, in terms of continuity.

The distance occurs within the intensity of an action within the electrical field, as to say, you could fall into depths of intensity. The falling into would itself involve action. The action as it happened, then, falling through the intensity, would be falling into what I mean by distance. [...]

There is, again, depth which is a depth of intensity; and yet within this depth of intensity there exists distances in terms of action, which is a fairly new idea in these sessions.

[...] Action within the electrical system, then, would involve this same sort of distance without space; the road would then be an imaginary road of intensity.