“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

He felt bewildered in a world of opposites. Conflicting beliefs were uncritically accepted. (Pause.) The conscious mind will always attempt to make sense out of its beliefs, to form them into patterns and sequences. It will usually organize ideas in as rational a way as possible, and dispense with those that seem to contradict the overall system of its beliefs.

Augustus had been taught to fear his own thoughts, to avoid self-examination. Beliefs or ideas that frightened him were not faced, therefore, but initially shoved into corners of the conscious mind, where they lay relatively harmlessly in the beginning.

As time went on the number of unexamined, frightening beliefs began to accumulate. Ideas and beliefs do feed upon themselves. There is within them a built-in impetus toward growth, development and fulfillment. Over the years two opposing systems of beliefs built up strongly, vying for Augustus’s attention. He believed that he was utterly powerless as an individual, that despite all his efforts he would come to nothing, go unnoticed. He felt completely unloved. He did not feel worthy of love. At the same time he let his conscious mind wander, and to compensate saw himself as all-powerful, contemptuous of his fellow human beings, and able to work greater vengeance upon them for their misunderstanding of him. In this line of beliefs he was able to do anything — cure mankind’s ills if he chose, or withhold such knowledge from the world to punish it. Period.

Now all of these ideas were quite conscious, but he held each group separately. The conscious mind, again, tries to obtain overall integrity and unity, lining up its beliefs into some kind of consistent system. When opposing beliefs that directly contradict each other are held for any length of time, and little attempt is made to reconcile them, then a “battle” begins within the conscious mind itself.

(Pause at 9:50.) Since it is the beliefs of the conscious mind that regulate the involuntary bodily motions and the entire physical system, then contradictory beliefs obviously set up adverse physical reactions and imbalances. Before Augustus’s opposing beliefs lined themselves up into separate camps, so to speak, the body was in continual turmoil; contradictory messages were constantly sent to the muscular system and the heart. The hormonal system teetered. Even his physical temperature varied rather drastically.

Because like ideas do attract like, both electromagnetically and emotionally, the conscious mind found itself with two complete contradictory systems of belief, and two self-images. (Pause.) To protect the integrity of the physical structure, Augustus’s conscious mind neatly divided itself up. No longer were the minute-to-minute messages to the body scrambled.

(Slowly:) The part of Augustus who felt powerful and alien became personified. When Augustus felt threatened then the conscious mind switched over, accepting as operating procedure the system of beliefs in which Augustus saw himself as all-powerful, secure — but as alien. This part of his beliefs, therefore, and this particular self-image, took over his conscious mind and became what we will here call Augustus Two. When Augustus Two assumed leadership then the physical body itself was not only strong and powerful, but capable of physical feats far surpassing those of Augustus One.

(10:01.) Augustus Two, you see, believes that his body is nearly invincible, and following this belief the body does perform much better. Augustus Two believes that he is an alien. In this case the rationale — because there must be one — is that he is a being from another planet, in fact from another galaxy. His purpose in this case is quite clear and simple: He is to help Augustus One, to use his power on the latter’s behalf, rewarding his friends and terrifying his enemies. Augustus One quite deeply believes he needs this kind of help.

Now this is a split of the conscious mind. It does not originate within the inner self. When Augustus Two takes over he is quite conscious. He simply views physical reality through an undeviating system of beliefs. The messages sent to the body are not in the least contradictory. The body is under excellent control.

His nature is protective. The basic ideas and beliefs that have been personified into his being, that became his being, were formed to protect Augustus One from the destructive ideas given to him in his childhood, to combat the beliefs in powerlessness and futility. To that degree they were added onto the original ideas, but still at an early age; so it was from the child’s concept of a powerful being that Augustus Two sprang.

His beliefs in his unworthiness prevented him from using his abilities, or even pursuing a course of effective action, with any persistence. It was then that Augustus Two began to assert himself — and to Augustus’s wife. In his own way Augustus Two would prove to her that she was married to quite an unusual, powerful man, a paragon of virility and strength; but to do so Augustus One must appear as Augustus Two to her. This continued for some time. Augustus One would first develop a splitting headache, and then this alien from outer space would arrive: the commanding male that Augustus One was not.

The beliefs whose energy generated this “alternate self image” then appeared in the daylight, acting out their natural results in physical reality. Augustus One, now in manhood, was forced to perceive the nature of these beliefs to some extent, yet when he was here visiting Ruburt he still would not examine them.

Augustus Two has not taken over now for two and one-half months. Augustus is in a dilemma, for he still holds intact the beliefs in his own powerlessness, and the contradictory beliefs of omnipotence are not now being expressed through Augustus Two. Yet expressed they will be; and so in the interview Augustus One — who we will now simply call Augustus — at one moment came through with his gigantic belligerence, staring at Ruburt and telling him that he could annihilate anyone who hurt him. In the next moment the great plea for help would surface, the love of his wife and child. In one sentence Augustus would make a statement, and ten minutes later make it clear with another remark that the first fact had not been true.

Here the polarity between Augustus One and Two had dissolved, so that the two opposing systems of belief operated alongside each other. Still Augustus would not examine his own words, his own thoughts, or see the contradictions so obvious to others.

The nature and importance of belief appeared so eloquently that Ruburt was astounded, and found himself forced into some complicated psychological footwork. The two “personalities” were no longer separate, but merging.

For the body of Augustus is once again under the sway of beliefs about himself that are highly contradictory. Before, he was physically powerful when he was Augustus Two, and weak when he was Augustus One. Now as Augustus he is alternately strong and weak, and the body stresses are apparent. As Augustus Two he could stay up night and day and perform physical tasks quite difficult for the normal human being to do, for he operated under the indivisible idea of power and strength.

It has taken some courage for him to let Augustus Two vanish. Because the neat division of beliefs no longer exists, however, he will seem even more difficult to his wife since the characteristics of Augustus Two now “bleed into” his own. He will lie for example where before only Augustus Two lied.

Here then is a case where directly opposing beliefs dominated the conscious mind at various times, each operating the body in its own manner. Physically the body has the same capacity for strength regardless of which group of ideas were dominant; but practically speaking, Augustus One was incapable of performing the feats of Augustus Two.

Augustus Two once leaped from a second-story window to the ground in anger, and without injury — a highly unusual feat. Augustus, however, is so exhausted that he can barely get through a normal day. You had a situation in which an individual, through beliefs, put his power and energy literally beside himself. He could use it only when he switched beliefs completely.

It was only because the childlike characteristics of Augustus Two finally appeared so blatantly that Augustus Two had to be dispensed with. Augustus’s wife made the difference, for it was obvious that she did not have the same opinion of this “friend” that her husband had. Her beliefs then became the new foundation, the one point of change that allowed Augustus to view this alternate self-image with any kind of detachment at all.