“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Chapter Five. (Pause.) “The Constant Creation of the Physical Body.” 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.

You are mainly concerned now with physical orientation and the corporeal materialization of inner reality. Therefore the conscious mind holds in ready access the information that you require for effective day-to-day living. It is not necessary that you hold in steady consciousness data that does not directly apply to what you consider your physical reality at any given “time.”

Now the animals’ conscious minds, connected with their physical brains, make this necessary selectivity possible. 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.

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. Any information that it requires will be available. Its job is to assess that reality effectively, using that fine focus mentioned earlier. (See Chapter Two.) Because of its character, consciousness, or the conscious mind, cannot be swamped by too much detail, too much information. The inner self sends to it only the information it asks for or feels necessary. To a very large extent then conscious beliefs act as great liberators of such inner data, or as inhibitors of it. Are you following me?

The conscious mind is itself developing and expanding. It is not a thing. It learns through experience and through the effects of its behavior. The inner self brings about whatever results the conscious mind desires.

It does not leave the conscious mind at loose ends nor isolate it from the fountains of its own being. Because the conscious mind is part of the inner self, it is obviously made of the same energy, filled with the same vitality, and revitalized by the deep sources of creativity from which all being emerges.

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.

So — once more — you form reality through your beliefs, and your most intimate production is your physical body. Your beliefs about it are constantly fed into inner data. You organize on an unconscious level the atoms and molecules that compose your cells to form your body. But the blueprint is made by your conscious beliefs. To change your body you change your beliefs, even in the face of physical data or evidence that conflicts.

Now: Dictation: You constantly give yourself suggestions about your body, your health or ill health. You think about your body often, then. You send a barrage of beliefs and instructions to the inner self that affect your physical image.

Now thoughts in general possess an electromagnetic reality, but whether you know it or not, they also have an inner sound value.

You know the importance of exterior sound. It is used as a method of communication, but it is also a by-product of many other events, and it affects the physical atmosphere. Now the same is true about what I will call inner sound, the sound of your thoughts within your own head. I am not speaking here of body noises, though you are usually oblivious to these also.

Inner sounds have an even greater effect than exterior ones upon your body. They affect the atoms and molecules that compose your cells. In many respects it is true to say that you speak your body, but the speaking is interior.

The same kind of sound built the Pyramids, and it was not sound that you would hear with your physical ears. Such inner sound forms your bone and flesh. The sound exists connected with but quite apart from the mental words you use in thinking.

(Pause at 11:05. It might be noted here that Seth devoted a group of sessions last November, December, and January to some of the meanings and uses of inner and outer sound. That material was new to us, and included information on the Egyptians’ use of “inaudible” sound to help build the Pyramids; according to Seth the Romans also employed such sound in erecting the enormous, truly awesome city of Heliopolis at Baalbek, in what is now the Middle Eastern country of Lebanon. See the continuation of these notes at the end of the session.)

It does not matter in which language you are addressing yourself, for example. The sound is formed by your intent, and the same intent — I am putting this simply now — will have the same sound effect upon the body regardless of the words used.

But usually you think in your own language, and so in quite practical terms the words and the intent merge. For all practical purposes then the two are one. When you say, “I am tired,” mentally you are not only giving silent messages to yourself — I say messages rather than message because the general statement is broken down; many portions of the body must be affected before you feel tired — but beside this the inner sound value of the messages automatically affects the body in just that way.

The inner sound value of the countering suggestion automatically begins to refresh the body. It is fashionable now to think about noise pollution, yet the same kind of circumstances occur with inner sound, particularly when your inner thoughts are self-contradictory, scrambled and random.

(11:23.) Diverse and highly conflicting instructions are then given to the body. As you should know, the body’s inner environment changes constantly, and it is you who change it. Change is quite necessary and as a rule the body’s overall balance is maintained. But the directions that you give are often not clear or advantageous, and your beliefs largely determine the kind of information you send to that environment.

The inner self always attempts to maintain the body’s equilibrium and health, but many times your own beliefs prevent it from coming to your aid with even half of the energy available to it. Often only when you are in dire straits do you open up the doors to this great energy, when it is much too clear that your previous beliefs and behavior have not worked.

(Adding to the 11:05 note on sound: The 1971-72 sessions mentioned there also contained much about the inner meanings of sound and Jane’s development and use of Sumari — and once again I refer the reader to her Introduction. As Seth told us, “Sumari effectively blocks the automatic translation of inner experience into everyday verbal stereotypes.” One of its services will be to teach Jane to free her inner cognitions enough so that she can translate Speaker manuscripts without distorting them out of all proportion.