“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Our other friend is playing with his crutches...tossing them in the air a bit...practicing a two-step without them. But we need more than that. [...] I tell you that that information is practical information. [...] I am flattered that you pick it up and look at it now and then. [...] They are not all that horrible. You still fear, as our Lady of Venice, that there is a cellar door... [...] And, if you open it, all sorts of demons will emerge. [...] And it is up to you to find your own reality. [...] but the experience is personal and the experience is subjective and the journey is one that you must make and that you must make alone. [...] And any problems that you have I have had them... [...]

You must dissociate yourself from the person that you know. [...] Imagine anything that you like that is pleasant to you. It makes no difference what it is. [...] And then imagine that all about you there is another dimension and you need only take one step at a time ... [...] There is an adventure and it is within you. [...]

Now, dear friends, you all dwell in the same unlimited dimension....you simply have not opened your eyes to see it. You think that you are blind and so you do not see. The universe in which I dwell is the universe in which all of you dwell. Some of you have better eyesight than others and the vision is not physical. [...] Forget the self that has the theories...and begin to experience. To do this, follow the directions that I have given, but also get in the habit of looking about you morning, noon and night ... and realizing that there is more within every environment than each small room that you see. [...]

The trick is not to try too hard, to realize that the answers are available, that they are there, that you can find them. All that is necessary is given to the flower. And all that you want will be given to you, but you must want what you want desperately enough, wholeheartedly enough. [...]

You must become more aware of your inner selves—they are not all that horrible. You still fear, as our Lady of Florence, that there is a cellar door—a cellar door to your mind—to your inner self. And, if you open it, all sorts of demons will emerge. [...] And it is up to you to find your own reality. [...] I can point you in the direction—but the experience is personal and the experience is subjective and the journey is one that you must make and that you must make alone. [...] And any problems that you have I have had them—so look at me and know how indestructible you are! [...]

You must dissociate yourself from the person that you know. [...] Imagine anything that you like that is pleasant to you. It makes no difference what it is. [...] And then imagine that all about you there is another dimension and you need only take one step at a time—and you will find your answers. [...] There is an adventure and it is within you. [...]

Now, dear friends, you all dwell in the same unlimited dimension—you simply have not opened your eyes to see it. You think that you are blind and so you do not see. The universe in which I dwell is the universe in which all of you dwell.Some of you have better eyesight than others and the vision is not physical. [...] Forget the self that has the theories—and begin to experience. To do this, follow the directions that I have given, but also get in the habit of looking about you morning, noon and night—and realizing that there is more within every environment than each small room that you see. [...]

The trick is not to try too hard, to realize that the answers are available, that they are there, that you can find them. All that is necessary is given to the flower. And all that you want will be given to you, but you must want what you want desperately enough, wholeheartedly enough. [...]

I also think that if asked Seth would point out that since the concept of quantum mechanics is based upon the idea that everything we “know”—matter, energy, our sensual information—is made up of quanta, or the interactions of insubstantial fields that in turn, and quite paradoxically, produce very active subatomic packets or particles, then quantum mechanics is at least analogous with his statements that basically the universe is composed of consciousness itself. But I think that the continuum of consciousness, or All That Is, contains not only the phenomena of quantum mechanics, but also Seth’s nonphysical EE (electromagnetic energy) units, and his CU’s (or units of consciousness). In those terms, then, quantum mechanics is a theory that doesn’t penetrate deeply enough into basic reality, even if physicists these days are basing their unified field theories upon quantum thinking. [...] So far, gravitation remains outside all attempts at integration.)

Granted that our species’ best human understanding of “the mystery of life” and of the universe is exceedingly inadequate, still Jane and I do not think that nature is totally objective, indifferently cruel, or simply uncaring, as science would have us believe. (We also have deep reservations about the theory of evolution and its “survival of the fittest” dogmas, but this isn’t the place to go into those subjects.) Far more basic and satisfactory to us are the intuitive comprehensions that this “nature” we’ve helped create is a living manifestation of All That Is, and that someplace, somewhere within its grand panorama, each action has meaning and is truly redeemed. [...] For if, as I wrote earlier, Jane and I agree with the ancient idea that “all seeming divisions reflect portions of a unified whole,” we also think that in some fashion the whole is enclosed within each of its parts. [...]

That all seeming divisions reflect portions of a unified whole is surely one of our oldest concepts, growing, in those terms, with us out of our prehistory as we struggled to grasp the “true” nature of reality. Traditionally we’ve cast that feeling or knowledge in religious terms, for want of a better framework, but I think that more and more now the search is also on within science for a theory—even a hypothesis—that will lock up our often subjective variables into what might be called a more human equivalent of the still-sought-for unified theory in physics. [...] I can’t help wondering!) Portions of the latest scientific literature I have on hand, particularly that produced by physicists, contain references that not long ago would have been branded as metaphysical, or even worse.

This isn’t all, however, for experiments have now shown that the brain/mind connection can influence immunity, through stressful conditioning either enhancing its effects or subduing them. Until a very few years ago it was medical dogma that the immune system was entirely independent of any “outside” influence. [...] In physical terms, then, I think it quite possible that in Jane’s case long-term stress, beginning in her early childhood, consistently overstimulated her immune system. Over and over Marie told Jane that she was no good, that the daughter’s birth had caused the mother’s illness. Well before she was 10 years old Jane had developed persistent symptoms of colitis, an inflammation of the large intestine/bowel that is often associated with emotional stress. [...] Marie—and others—told her that she would burn herself out and die before she was 20 years old. [...]

This tale, I admit, is far more difficult to understand than a simple story of God’s creation of the world, or its actual production in a meaningless universe through the slippery hands of chance—and yet my story is more magnificent because elements of its truth will find resonance in the minds and hearts of those open enough to listen. [...] It is not simply that man has a soul that is somehow blessed while the rest of him is not, but that in those terms everything [he knows], regardless of size or degree, is made of “soul stuff.” Each portion has its own identity and validity—and no portion is ever annihilated or destroyed. [...]

Remember that each unit of consciousness is a fragment of All That Is, a divine portion. [...]

(Long pause.) There is no place where consciousness stops and the environment begins, or vice versa. Each form of life is created along with each other form—environment and organism in those terms creating each other. After forms were fully physical, however, all species operated as sleepwalkers for many centuries, though on the scale that existed then the passage of time was not considered in the same fashion. During that period the work of wedding nonphysical consciousness to matter was accomplished. [...]

[...] In that regard the earth’s entire environment was built mentally, atom by conscious atom—each atom, again, being initially formed by units of consciousness. I said that these units could operate as entities, and as forces, so we are not speaking of a mental mechanics but of entities in the true meaning of the word: entities of unimaginable creative and psychic properties, purposeful fragments propelled from the infinite mind as that mind was filled with the inspiration that gave light to the world. Those entities, in your terms so ancient, left fragments of themselves in trance (underlined), so to speak, that form the rocks and hills, the mountains, the air and the water, and all of the elements that exist on the face of the earth.

The responsibility for your life and your world is indeed yours. [...] I told Ruburt today that God has given you the greatest of all gifts and the most awesome. [...] The world is what you want as individuals and as races. The world is what you are. [...] You look at nature and you find the joy that is within you that you have also formed outward. You look at the good and it is a reflection of the good that is within you, within each individual person, multiplied outward millions of times for each individual within the planet. And there is no man that hates but that hatred is reflected outward and made physical. And there is no man that loves but that that love is not reflected outward and made physical. [...]

[...] What you call God is the sum of all consciousness and yet the whole is more than the sum of its parts. God is more than the sum of all personalities, and yet all personalities is what He is. There is constant creation, but peace is to be found in creation. There is a force within you that allows you to breathe. There is a force within you that knew how to grow you from a fetus to a grown adult. This force is part of the innate knowledge within all consciousness and it is a part of the God within you. [...]

[...] No god ever meant or intended that you suffer. God is a joyful being. To the extent that you do not realize that you exist in Him are you sorrowful. To the extent that you do not develop your abilities and project them into physical realities are you sorrowful. To the extent that you do not live up to your potential are you sorrowful. It is indeed true that you find yourself by losing yourself. You are indeed a part of All That Is. When you attempt to concentrate on the tiny I that you imagine yourself, then indeed you do not know where you are and you cannot find yourself. [...]

Now, Ruburt and I banter, we banter back and forth and I am a rare one and he is a rare one, but all of this is based on spiritual understanding and on peace, and joy do you have. [...] Yet I tell you that this bit of energy is minute and nothing in comparison to the energy that is within each of you now and that you are not using. The energy that you are not using and the abilities that are yours. [...]

The span of a god’s love can perhaps equally hold within its vision the existences of all individuals at one time in an infinite loving glance that beholds each person, seeing each with all his or her peculiar characteristics and tendencies. [...] The emotion of love brings you closest to an understanding of the nature of All That Is. [...] You cannot, therefore, honestly insist that you love humanity and all people equally if you do not love one other person. If you do not love yourself, it is quite difficult to love another.

When love and sexuality are artificially divided, however, or considered as antagonistic to each other, then all kinds of problems arise. Permanent relationships become most difficult to achieve under such conditions, and often love finds little expression, while one of its most natural channels is closed off. [...] Yet it soon learns that areas of exploration are limited even as far as its own body is concerned. The child is not free to contemplate its own parts. The body is early forbidden territory, so that the child feels it is wrong to love itself in any fashion.

[...] It is an easy enough matter to shout to the skies: “I love my fellow men,” when on the other hand you form no strong, enduring relationship with others. It is easy to claim an equal love for all members of the species, but love itself requires an understanding that at your level of activity is based upon intimate experience. You cannot love someone you do not know — not unless you water down the definition of love so much that it becomes meaningless.

Love is naturally creative and explorative — that is, you want to creatively explore the aspects of the beloved one. Even characteristics that would otherwise appear as faults attain a certain loving significance. [...] The beloved attains prominence over all others.

They serve quite clearly as human representatives of All That Is. Now since each individual is a part of All That Is, to some extent each of you serve in that same role. In such a religious drama however (long pause), the main personality is much more conscious of his inner knowledge, more aware of his abilities, far better able to use them, and exultantly familiar with his relationship to all of life.

[...] There is comprehension of the meaning of all existence within each personality. The knowledge of multidimensional existence is not only in the background of your present conscious activity, but each man knows within himself that his conscious life is dependent upon a greater dimension of actuality. This greater dimension cannot be materialized in a three-dimensional system, yet the knowledge of this greater dimension floods outward from the innermost heart of being, and is projected outward, transforming all it touches.

(10:00.) Now these people are chosen by others to manifest outwardly the interior truths that all intuitively know. [...] On the one hand, such individuals receive their unearthly abilities and power from their fellows, contain it, exhibit it in the physical world for all to see. 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. [...]

This is the dilemma of the ego, particularly in its early states. It looks outward for answers because this is its nature: to manipulate within physical reality. 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.

[...] The seed goes into the earth, however, and in the wintertime in any of your suburban gardens here beneath the snow are all these seeds. They are being nurtured, but do they in this darkness, therefore, look about them and say, “This is a time of death? There is nothing else for me and my existence is meaningless? How is it that I remember a time in which I blossomed? How is it I vaguely remember a summer in a time in which I was strong and spontaneous and free? What has happened to the summertime, and will it never come again for me?” That is what you are doing now. Our seed, however, who does not have this fine intellect that sits so nicely beneath your hair and within your skull, our seed without the intellect, rests joyfully within the earth knowing it is in the midst of creativity and that from within it, again, another flower will spring. And it does not deny the earth that gives it birth. It knows within itself, and it is this knowledge that you can find again. It is within you now. [...]

Now, this has happened to each of you, or will happen, for it is indeed, as Ruburt said earlier, it is the night of the sword. And yet it is a time that you cannot ignore and it is a crossroad that you cannot avoid, for it is there for a reason. And all the answers that have been given, and all those answers you have told yourself, will be as nothing. And it will seem that all your friends are but ghosts that pass in the night with no meaning. [...]

This is a crossroads that comes, not only to you, but to each individual upon the face of the planet and in every time it comes when an individual realizes that they are using all the resources that they have, and that they are not getting the results that they wanted. [...] When they look back on their childhood and realize that, in that time, there was great magic and great rejoicing and great freedom and they ask, “Where has it gone?” It is a crisis that comes to each soul born in flesh. [...]

[...] The high and mighty intellect that deals with the world of sense is not all. The validity and the vitality of your existence is far more than this. And when you find your intellect, alone, cannot give you the answers, and that it cannot bring you joy and that it brings you no closer to the fountain of existence, then you begin asking the proper questions. [...] Your soul, your inner self, your reality, is experience. It is this upon which you must base your life. [...]

You are teaching yourselves the value of consciousness and vitality and strength and life, by pretending to yourselves that death is death and that your consciousness will not continue and that your parents who die are forever still, by pretending that the voices you have heard in childhood will be heard no more. By pretending that when you breathe your last breath here, your consciousness is forever still. [...] And these lessons serve you well, and what you learn goes out from you in all directions and each triumph that you make is not yours alone, but reaches even into those dimensions of which I have spoken. [...]

[...] In fact it will help you, for even hidden within the flesh are mechanisms that [will] help the inner senses [to] operate even in this environment. And so one by one, the inner senses can begin to operate so that what you see can become clear, and what you hear can become vocal and clear and strong. I want you to realize that you are getting glimpses of a reality that exists now, in your terms, that existed in the past and, in your terms, it will exist in the future. And a reality that is nevertheless instantaneous and as a part of you as your own heartbeat. I want you to learn to manipulate in that environment. [...] I want you to recognize the core of identity within yourselves that is familiar with this inner environment, for from your viewpoint other realities also open. Other doors that you can also enter; other channels into knowledge that are yours for the asking. [...]

Now I want those of you who can to follow still further, for we will travel beyond these fields of probabilities in which all times are born. [...] Into an immense system of beginnings that are beyond any beginnings that you may have imagined, in which all nebulous creations exist in incipient form. In which all probabilities exist, in your terms, as yet unborn; and yet in greater terms already being accomplished and coming into new existence. And you also have a reality here; and this reality, to some extent, nurses your own existence and reaches down into the system that you know, even though you are usually not acquainted with this reality. And this is only at the edges and the boundaries of the one system in which you have your existence. For beyond this, there are still other beginnings so alien that I cannot explain them, and yet they are connected with your own life; and they find existence and expression even in the small cells within your physical flesh. [...]

[...] First of all, through listening to my voice, I want you to be reminded of the sheer physical vitality that is now a part of your own being. The physical life that you do not understand, that is now the vehicle for the expression of your self. I want you to be intimately aware of it and realize that the blood rushes within your veins with as much force as this voice speaks. [...]

“All That Is creates its reality as it goes along. Each world has its own impetus, yet all are ultimately connected. The true dimensions of a divine creativity would be unendurable for any one consciousness of whatever import, and so that splendor is infinitely dimensionalized (most intensely throughout), worlds spiraling outward with each ‘moment’ of a cosmic breath; with the separation of worlds a necessity, and with individual and mass comprehension always growing at such a rate that All That Is multiplies itself at microseconds, building both pasts and futures and other time scales you do not recognize. Each is a reality in itself, with its own potentials, and with no individual consciousness, however minute, ever lost.

[...] In the world that you recognize as official, however, they moved into the hill house. [...] I do not mean that they are simply familiar with the exterior thought processes involved, such as: “The hill house is better constructed,” or “It has a fine view.” [...] (Pause.) It is obvious that when you move from one place to another you make an alteration in space — but you alter time as well, and you set into motion a certain psychological impetus that reaches out to affect everyone you know. (Long pause.) When a house is vacant all of the people in the neighborhood send out their own messages. [...] Empty houses are psychic vacancies that yearn to be filled. [...]

Give us a moment … Your planet as you know it is a certain kind of focus point for consciousness. At your level you think it is divided into areas of land and water — continents and oceans, islands and peninsulas, cities and woods — because that is all you perceive. Your consciousness is tuned in to frequencies of perception that give you that impression. [...]

[...] First of all, take it for granted — as you do — that your ideas about the age of the earth are erroneous. There were intelligent human beings far earlier than is supposed; and because you assume a one-line kind of progression from an apelike creature to man, you ignore any evidence that shows to the contrary. There were highly developed human beings with elaborate civilizations, existing simultaneously with what you might call animal kingdoms — that is, more or less organized primeval animal tribes, possessing their own kinds of ‘primitive’ cultures.

[...] He is plunged so quickly to the level that we want, you see, that oftentimes he is not aware of the intervening stages. But you will have no difficulty starting with the stage that was discussed here this evening, and each of you know intuitively what that stage is. And you will all learn what true communication is, for you will learn to communicate in various levels of consciousness and you will learn to listen to me in various levels of consciousness, and you will learn to know me in various levels of consciousness so that you can see (feel?)[sic] beneath the words as well as hear the surface of the words. [...]

[...] When he is with you, his loyalty is yours. When he is with the grandfather, however, he relates to those characteristics that are like yours. Any characteristics that are different upset him and frighten him. They confuse his sense of loyalty and he feels that he is supposed to relate to the grandfather as a male image when he is away from you. He feels that this will hurt you, but more than this, it makes him feel insecure. [...] The hesitation, however, is translated into the speech mechanism. [...]

Now first of all, you are dealing with symbolism and secondly, you have been using your clairvoyant abilities as, of course, you hope to do. Tell yourself that in the dream state this evening you will understand what the symbolism is. And if you do not get the answer, then I will tell you, but it is far better that you learn it for yourself. [...]

[...] A difference in the behavior of two personalities that he holds dear. [...] When he is away from you, however, in his particular case, any characteristics that are not yours that he sees in his grandfather somehow become threatening. [...] When the two of you are together, you and grandfather, there is no difficulty because the boy, in his own mind, interweaves these characteristics. When he is alone, however, with the older man, any characteristic of his that does not agree with yours becomes threatening to him. [...]

Outward from your skulls, therefore, into a dimension that has no space or time, in your terms. [...] Therefore free your perceptions while you have the opportunity and use your consciousness naturally in the way that it is meant for you to use it, freely and with confidence and joy. Be assured of your own vitality and your own confidence to deal with all situations. Let my voice then serve even to form a portion of the pyramid so that you have even greater feelings of support. [...] Learn to use the mobility of your own consciousness joyfully and follow even further into the pyramid and into, indeed, the light of consciousness and understanding, for it reaches as a pathway between those dimensions, and it is indeed a channel between those dimensions, and it is indeed a channel between your world and other worlds that also exist. [...] And if you find worlds that you do not understand, then look upon them with wonder, but send your consciousness as far as it can go with great vigor, with freedom and joy. Let it go where it wants to go and travel those pathways that are native to it, that are as native to it as breath is to your physical body. Let yourself then be flooded with comprehension and with knowledge and let all those intuitive connections be made that need to be made. [...] And let the self that you know realize its potential and part of All That Is. And now for the last spurt let your consciousness go still further so that you know you are sending it as far as you can, that you are using it clearly and with vigor. [...]

Now as Ruburt said earlier, he (Martin) is a good man and besides that I like him. Now he may not approve of Ruburt’s habits, but then Ruburt does not approve of his, and that is between he and Ruburt. As you are all used to saying, you must do your own thing in your own way. There are distortions in his thought as there are distortions in all of your thoughts. [...] You must indeed look beneath them, and you must learn to listen to the inner voice within that is not fooled by any myths. Now the vitality that is within him is expressed in a different way than you express your own and the terms attached to it. And the tales that go along with it are different than your own. [...] Neither words within your brain, within your mind; for the voice itself and language itself is bound to be distorted. [...] You need the words in your state of being but only each of you in your own way can search for the reality that has no need of words. The reality that needs no sound. [...] All of the myths should float away, and all the debris. [...] Beneath the clothing is the person and the reality. [...]

[...] The experiment that began as I said is still continuing and some of this will also appear in your dream state. [...] Some other events that we have been working toward are close to fruition and next week you may find yourselves realizing what these are. Also be on the lookout for strangers that specifically approach you. Not strangers that you meet, but strangers that approach you where no effort is required on your part. This in connection with other people that you have known. So I expect you will have a busy week and I also expect that we will have a busy class next week. If certain watchers are watching you, as I have said before, there is no reason why you cannot watch them also. [...]

(After break.) All right now, the experiment that began some time ago is still in operation and the visitors that come here do not come here by chance alone. [...]

(Long pause.) You all have physical parents. Some of you have physical children as well—but you will all “one day” also be the mental parents of dream children who also waken in a new world, and look about them for the first time, feeling isolated and frightened and triumphant all at once. All worlds have an inner beginning. All of your dreams somewhere waken, but when they do they waken with the desire for creativity themselves, and they are born of an innocent new intent. That which is in harmony with the universe, with All That Is, has a natural inborn impetus that will dissolve all impediments. It is easier, therefore, for nature to flourish than not.

[...] In his life [each] man is embarked upon a cooperative venture with his own species, and with the other species, and dying he also in that regard acts in a cooperative manner, returning his physical substance to the earth. (Pause.) Physically speaking, man’s “purpose” is to help enrich the quality of existence in all of its dimensions. Spiritually speaking, his “purpose” is to understand the qualities of love and creativity, to intellectually and psychically understand the sources of his being, and to lovingly create other dimensions of reality of which he is presently unaware. (Pause.) In his thinking, in the quality of his thoughts, in their motion, he is indeed experimenting with a unique and a new kind of reality, forming other subjective worlds which will in their turn grow into consciousness and song, which will in their turn flower from a dream dimension into other ones. Man is learning to create new worlds. [...]

In the same fashion man is born with an inbuilt propensity for language, and for the communication of symbols through pictures and writing. He spoke first in an automatic fashion that began in his dreams. In a fashion (underlined), you could almost say that he used language before he consciously understood it (quietly). It is not just that he learned by doing, but that the doing did the teaching. [...] You might almost say—almost—that he used the language (pause) “despite himself.” [...]

This early man (and early woman) regarded the snake as the most sacred and basic, most secretive and most knowledgeable of all creatures. In that early experience it seemed, surely, that the snake was a living portion of the earth, rising from the bowels of the earth, rising from the hidden source of all earth gods. [...] It was important also in that it shed its skin, as man innately knew he shed his own bodies.

(Slower now): All of this material now given must be considered along with the fact that beneath these developments there are the eternal aspects and creative characteristics of a force that is both undeniable and intimate. All That Is, in other words, represents the reality from which all of us spring. (Pause, one of several.) All That Is, by its nature, transcends all dimensions of activity, consciousness, or reality, while being a part of each.

[...] All That Is, however, is within each such adventure. Its consciousness, and its reality, is within each man, and within the gods he has created. That last is in small letters, and gods shall always be in small letters. All That Is is capitalized.

The open concept of All That Is, however, frees you to a great extent from your own projections, and allows a more valid contact with the spirit that is behind the reality that you know.

(10:45.) Behind all faces there is one face, yet this does not mean that each man’s face is not his own. [...] While maintaining its own status, it will be able to have much greater commerce with other portions of the self, and also to offer to the inner self opportunities of awareness that the inner self on its own could not procure.

You are not fated to dissolve into All That Is. [...] All That Is is the creator of individuality, not the means of its destruction.

In many ways this is a cozy concept, though to some it can be quite frightening with its connotations of eternal damnation. It is far too tidy an idea, however, to hint at the rich embellishments that are at the heart of divine creativity. [...] Such a consciousness is present within all living beings, and in all forms.

(10:41.) Personality changes whether it is within a body or outside of it, so you will change after death as you change before it. In those terms, it is ridiculous to insist upon remaining as you are now, after death. It is the same as a child saying: “I am going to grow up, but I am never going to change the ideas that I have now.” [...]

[...] All are living and vital. All go their own way. [...] Out of the reincarnational framework, there is no death as you think of it.

After six months, then, Three Mile Island is still “a closed enigma,” as I wrote in finishing Mass Events—only now the costs for the repair and cleanup of its damaged reactor have been projected as being well over $1 billion instead of the $40 million to $400 million of just a month ago, and into many years of “time” instead of just four. TMI has become the unfortunate symbol of our unprepared experimentation with a nature that contains all sorts of surprises for us; especially when, as Seth maintains, each of those “surprises,” once created, becomes conscious in its own way. [I do believe that this kind of thinking is totally unacceptable to most businessmen, as well as generally to the public they serve, the irony here being that neither businessman or scientist can explain what that fantastic nuclear energy—or any energy, for that matter—really is. In the frontmatter, see the first of the four quotations from Seth; the one taken from a private session given just two months ago: “All energy contains consciousness (underlined). … A recognition of that simple statement would indeed change your world. [...]

[...] That, surely, would be an illusory goal! [...] That sublime framework still exists for us in all of its great beauty, and I want to always return to it: We create our human version of it each day, and I think that even now we’ve hardly begun to understand what we are and have. I’ve come to believe that the predominantly outdoor life would give me a certain understanding of our temporal and spiritual worlds impossible to grasp otherwise, and that my painting would inevitably mirror that greater comprehension. Sometimes I simply yearn for that way of living. Of course, what I’m really stressing here is living the independent life as much as possible within our ever-more-complicated national and world cultures. But we all have our dreams.

[...] There are thousands of farm-bred animals, however [and have been], all throughout civilization, alive for a time, well-cared-for for a time—animals who in usual terms would not exist except for man’s “gluttonous” appetite for meat. That is the way the issue is often considered. It seldom occurs to anyone that certain forms of animal consciousness came in physical form [by choice], that certain species are prized by man and protected, or that the consciousnesses of such animals had anything at all to do with such an [overall] arrangement.

[...] At least from my viewpoint, each of nature’s rhythmic signs implied a continuity, an inevitability and security, that I’ve often felt is lacking in our all-too-human affairs—this, even though I wrote in Mass Events that Jane and I are aware, of course, of all the “good things” we humans have constructed in our mass reality. [...] Now it even seems to us that in Mass Events Seth began preparing us for Dreams long before Jane and he ever mentioned that work by name.

To those who want easy answers, this is no answer, I admit. There is, I know, in heroic terms a love, a knowledge, a compassion, a creativity that can be assigned to All That Is, which is within each creature. I know that each smallest “particle” of consciousness can never be broken down, and that each contains an infinite capacity for creativity and development — and that each is innately blessed.

Ruburt had to know what he was afraid of, and his dream interpretation gave him that knowledge so that he could deal with it. It was the fear of death — not chosen, of course — the fear that if he did not deliver, work hard, and pay his mother back for a life magically given, grudgingly given, then in a magical equation she, the mother, could take it back. [...] The life came from All That Is, from the spirit of life itself, and was freely given — to be taken away by no one, or threatened by no one or no force, until that life fulfills its own purposes and decides to travel on.

[...] That “breakthrough” cannot be logically explained, but only compared to, say, an illumination — that is, a light everywhere occurring at once, that became a medium for life in your terms. It had nothing to do with the propensity of certain kinds of cells to reproduce, but with an overall illumination that set the conditions in which life as you think of it was possible — and at that imaginary hypothetical point, all species became latent.

So Ruburt’s dream made possible a conscious emotional realization of fear — but more, it provided for that fear’s release, or gave the solution to a deep emotional equation. In this case it was the realization emotionally that life is not given by the parent, but through the parent — by LIFE (in capitals) itself, or All That Is, and “with no strings attached.”

Good and evil then simply represented the birth of choices, initially in terms of survival, where earlier instinct alone had provided all that was needed. In deeper terms, there is still another meaning that mirrors all of those apparent divisions that occur as All That Is seemingly separates portions of itself from itself, scattering its omnipotence into new patterns of being that, in your terms, remember their source and look back to it longingly, while still glorying in the unique individuality that is their own.

[...] Jane was very intent in her delivery.) The story of the fall, the rebellious angels, and the leader Satan who becomes the devil — all of this refers to the same phenomena on a different level. Satan represents — in the terms of the story — the part of All That Is, or God, who stepped outside of Himself, so to speak, and became earthbound with His creatures, offering them the free will and choice that “previously” had not been available.

All such dogmas use artificial guilt, and natural guilt is distorted to serve those ends. In whatever terms, the devotee is told that there is something wrong with earthly experience. [...]

The early acquiescence to beliefs has a biological importance, therefore, but as the conscious mind attains its maturity it is also natural for it to question those beliefs, and to assess them in relation to its own environment. Many of my readers may have certain ideas about good and evil that are very hampering. [...] You may think that you are quite free, only to discover that you hold old ideas but have simply put new terms to them, or concentrated upon other aspects.

I should tell you that I am sorry that I kept you so long last week. My friend Ruburt has been telling me that I must apologize. And I should tell you that I have deep sympathy—but your time is not my time. [...] And yet those issues that might bring me to you in a session, have nothing to do with time as you consider it. Now I will let you take a rest period, but I have not said good evening, and you can all be comfortable. Our friend will not be speaking to you this evening, and he is not a bogey man. [...]

Now there is something you do not understand, and so I will set you straight. [...] You have all seen, I suppose, educational TV. Now when you turn on your miraculous contrivance and you see the teacher on the screen, that does not mean that at that moment, the teacher is on the screen. [...] The teacher is quite legitimate but he is not there when you see him. [...]

When you were children, you knew you were a part of All That Is and you allowed your perception some freedom. That is all that I ask of you now! [...]

Therefore I invite you to forget the bodies that you know, to set your inner selves free. I ask you, as Ruburt has often, to realize that within yourself there are endless dimensions, and that you can travel safely within them. I ask you to realize that your mind is a gateway into other dimensions. [...] I ask you to sense within yourselves the energy in this voice that you hear, to realize that this energy is also a portion of your own energy—the energy of individuality, the energy of the universe, the energy that grows you from a fetus to the self that you know. [...]

Even the damage that potentially can stem from a peacetime nuclear accident, as at TMI, can be great indeed. In Note 1 for Session 933, in Chapter 10 of Dreams, I speculated about nuclear energy being an earthly analog of the illimitable loving being of All That Is. Now I believe that it is. [...] I relaxed by watching a television travelog; I saw a great waterfall in an isolated jungle setting; the cameraman zoomed in on the foaming, surging water leaping at the base of the waterfall—and staring at that eruption of energy I suddenly realized the obvious: It’s not the force of any nuclear reaction that we fear, but the consciousness of the event. We must mature quickly enough to learn to “control” the contradictory potentials of the nuclear energy that we’ve helped guide into being. We have barely started to use that great power for peaceful purposes. I believe, then, that unwittingly we’re translating compartmentalized glimpses of All That Is through the extraordinary consciousness of nuclear energy. Isotopes of some of the elements involved with that energy have “half-lives” of millions of years—far longer, quite possibly, than our species will exist in those terms of time. Those reaches of time are so great, so timeless, that I see them as another earthly analog of All That Is.

However, all of our reactions were much more subdued than they had ever been before when she had finished a book, either by herself or with Seth. No matter what other challenges we had created for ourselves over the last two years and four months, the knowledge that Dreams was in process had served as a comforting foundation in our lives. That had been true even during those long delays in its production. We regret that that support is gone. And we know that as the creation of Dreams begins to recede from our immediate perception other challenges will inevitably move forward. Basically, things have come down to our hopes that Jane can keep going from day to day, and that our new credo will offer her support now that Seth and she are through with their book.

Nothing taught that you were creatures. I have been trying to lead you into a new threshold of perception, where the old myths of evolution can be seen as outmoded, ancient or forsaken castles amid a forest of beliefs—a forest that is indeed itself a magically formed one. (Very long pause.) The forest is the world of your imagination, surely, the imagination of your minds, and yet given force and power by the innate creativity that rises up from an inner world that represents much more truly the origins of man and beast. That world has been largely hidden by the camouflages shed by science and religion alike, but in your times the landscape began to appear so dark and threatening, so forbidden and alien to your own desires, that its end seemed all the more inevitable and swift.

I don’t mean at all to put down everything we’ve created in our world, and to proclaim that Seth’s concept of All That Is is the magical solution that mankind has been searching for throughout his existence. [...] It’s inevitable that we’ll grow. How we’ll grow is the question!