“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Dictation: In the terms of our discussion, Framework 2 is the medium in which your world exists. It represents the vaster psychological reality in which your own subjective life resides.

That framework has been glimpsed throughout history by many individuals, and given many names. If you visit a foreign country, however, you have a tendency to describe the entire nation in terms of the small area you have visited, though other portions may be quite different in geography, culture, and climate.

The individuals who have to one extent or another perceived Framework 2 have, then, described it according to their own brief visits, taking it for granted “that the part was a representative sample of the whole.” Plato conceived [of] it as the world of ideals, seeing within it the perfect model behind each imperfect physical phenomenon.

He thought of that realm as eternal and unchanging, a perfect but frozen composite that must indeed inspire men toward achievement on the one hand, and on the other reproach them for their failure, since their achievements must necessarily seem puny in contrast. Plato then saw Framework 2 as a splendid, absolute model in which all the works of man had their initial source. Man himself, according to this concept, could not affect that ideal world one whit. He could, however, use it as a source of inspiration.

Some ancient religions put the existence of gods there, and saw the spirits of each living thing as existing primarily in that invisible medium of reality. Therefore, Framework 2 has always been represented in one way or another as a source of your world. Christianity saw it as heaven, inhabited by God the Father, His angels, the saints, and [the] deceased faithful.

Once scientists theorized the ether as the medium in which the physical universe existed.¹ Framework 2 is the psychological medium in which the consciousness of the world exists. The word “ego” is much bandied about, and in many circles it has a poor reputation. It is, however, as I use it, a term meant to express the ordinarily conscious directive portion of the self. It is your conscious version of what you are — an excellent description, if I do say so myself (with amusement). It is directed outward into the physical world. It is also aware, however, of some of your “unconscious” activities. It is the you you identify with, so it is as aware of your dreams, for example, as you are, and it is quite conscious of the fact that its existence rests upon knowledge that it does not itself possess.

As you have an ego, fully conscious, directed toward the physical world, you also have what I call an inner ego, directed toward inner reality. You have, in other words, a portion of yourself that is fully conscious in Framework 2. The ego in your ordinary world, which again we will call Framework 1, is uniquely equipped to deal with that environment. It manipulates with rules of cause and effect and consecutive moments. It deals with an objectified reality. It can stretch its capacities, becoming far more aware of inner events than it is normally allowed to do, but its main purpose is to deal with the world of effects, to encounter events.

Your world is populated by individuals concentrating upon physical activities, dealing with events that are “finished products” — at least in usual terms. Your inner egos populate Framework 2, and deal with the actual creation of those events that are then objectified. Since “the rules” of Framework 2 are different, that reality is not at all bound by your physical assumptions. It contains, therefore, the inner ego of each individual who has lived or will ever live upon the earth.

I am speaking of that framework now only as it applies to your world — not in its relationship to other realities. Earlier in his own experience Ruburt described that framework (in Psychic Politics) as the heroic dimension. He saw quite correctly that there was a great give-and-take between the two frameworks — your regular working one, Framework 1, and this other more comprehensive reality. He did not thoroughly understand, however, the creative ramifications involved, for it did not occur to him at the time that the prime work of your world was actually done by you in that other wider aspect of your existence.

You will ignore as information certain stimuli that another person, for example, will latch on to immediately. Even in your own world, then, your interests and desires serve as organizational processes that screen out certain information. The information available in Framework 2 is in your terms infinite.

Dictation: You may then, again, unknowingly acquire an illness and recover, never aware of your malady, being healed because of a series of events that would seemingly have nothing to do with the illness itself — because in Framework 2 the inner ego, knowing both the reason for the illness, and its cure, brought about those precise situations that remedied the condition. Such events happen automatically, when nothing hampers recovery at your end.

I think the idea of the ether is an excellent example of how man has always attempted to posit or visualize in physical reality his innate knowledge of Framework 2.