“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Jane described her feelings and experiences at her father-in-law’s funeral. Theodore M. told of his experiences in the Great Hall and Joel related his experiences with his personality, Bill. The question was raised, where is consciousness when one is in trance?)

Now no one asked me what it was like when I go in trance. Now to go into a trance is simply to focus intensely in a highly specific area of reality and, therefore, I throw or project a part of what I am here because I am able to utilize greater areas of my personality than those with which you are now acquainted in yourself. I can do this in a conscious manner and yet still, as I am here and as I have mentioned, I find a difficulty in looking at you and relating to the selves that you think you are within your given moment of time for I see the composites, so it takes some training on my part to pinpoint you in the time and space with which you are acquainted.

(After break, Seth responded to a question that was not recorded.) It means this particular personality, otherwise you lose all aspects of free will. You, as you know yourselves, only accept those suggestions and ideas and concepts and hangups that suit your purposes at this time. You are not, therefore, at the mercy of any neuroses from a past life any more than you are at the mercy of any neuroses from this life. There are no fears from your present life that you cannot escape and conquer. I have not said that you will necessarily escape and conquer them, but it is within your ability to do so. The decision is your own according to your understanding as the individual personality. You cannot be hounded from one level of reality to another by a fear that you do not understand. You cannot be threatened in this life by fears from your early childhood in this life or by so-called past existences unless you believe so thoroughly in the nature of fear that you allow yourselves to be conquered by fear. Each of your personalities are free to develop, to accept, from the miraculous bank of reality those experiences and emotions that you want and to reject those that you do not want.

Now let me give you a more concrete example that each of you may use in your own way. Suppose the worst, that in this life you have the following background—you are poor, you are of a minority race, you are not intellectual, you are a woman, you have a severe physical defect and you are no beauty. Now these challenges, in a so-called past life, you have set for yourself. This does not mean you cannot use all your resolution, all your courage to solve those problems that you have set. To use those abilities that are still yours and to make from a seemingly chaotic pattern of personality and environment a product of joy and fulfillment.

You have in the past, collectively or individually, to blame a God or a fate for the nature of your personal realities, those aspects, indeed, that you did not like. Avoid the temptation to use, instead, the word, whole-self, for the personality is given, again and this is not new material either, the greatest gift of all. You get exactly what you want to get. You create from nothing the experience that is your own, and if you do not like your experience then look within yourself and then you can change your experience, but realize also, that you are responsible for your joys and triumphs. And realize also, that the energy to create any of these realities comes from the inner self. The energy, but what you do with it is up to the individual personality.

([Florence:] “Do we make instantaneous decisions? For example, I was thinking of the Los Angeles earthquake, one man walked out into the street and was killed by a brick. What made this one person in the entire building walk out?”)

([Joel:] “Didn’t you say earlier, referring to the woman who was born in a minority race, that her challenges had been set up by a previous personality in our terms?”)

([Joel:] “I wondered if a previous personality had accomplished this or if when that personality went back and became apart of the whole self and this period of reevaluation, if that’s when the decision was made?”)

Now you must realize again, that we are speaking of division for convenience sake when none exists, so at the same time, so to speak, that this personality is born in a minority race, poor, etc., in a completely different era it may be born rich, secure and aristocratic. It is searching out different methods of experience and expansion. Do you follow me?

([Joel:] “I understand. I just wasn’t sure if I had misunderstood that you had said this set of circumstances had been decided by a previous personality, in our terms, and I thought you had probably meant by the whole self.”)

By the whole self indeed. Remember, when we speak of other personalities, again, this is only for convenience sake. This is your entire identity of which we are speaking. It is only you who are presently aware but of one portion and this portion you insist upon calling yourself. You are the self who makes these decisions.

The inner self, however, realizes that potentials are present that would not be present necessarily under other circumstances and that abilities can be brought to the foremost that could not be met under other circumstances. Abilities that can be a help, not only to the present personality, but even perhaps, to the society at large and to other individuals involved.