“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(I nodded, but I’d had a particularly interesting dream experience last night, and I also hoped that Seth might discuss that. As you’ll see, he managed to do both, winding a discussion of my dream into his own material about the psyche.)

You may believe in an afterlife to some extent or another, or you may or may not be convinced by the general theory of reincarnation. But certainly most of you are united in the seemingly irrefutable belief that you are definitely alive now, and not dead. Dead people do not read books. Period.

(Amused:) On the other hand, dead people do not usually write books either — now do they?

In a strange manner I am telling you that your “life” is simply the only portion of your existence of which you are presently aware. In greater terms, you are alive and dead at the same time, even as I am. My focus, however, is in an area that you do not perceive. Again: Existences are like notes played along certain frequencies. You are tuned in to an earth song, following this analogy, but you are only following your own melody, and usually you are unaware of the greater orchestration in which you also take part.

Sometimes in dreams you do tune in to a greater picture, but again, certain things appear to be facts, and against these so-called facts even definite experiences can appear ludicrous or chaotic.

(10:07.) Your own waking consciousness deals specifically with certain kinds of distinctions. These help form the very structure of physical existence. They highlight your lives, providing them also with a kind of frame. Quite simply, you want to experience a certain kind of reality, so you put boundaries about events, that allow you to concentrate upon them. When an artist paints a picture, he uses discrimination. He or she chooses one area of concentration. Everything within the painting fits; so in your physical lives, you do the same thing.

I often speak of you and the psyche as if they were separate, yet of course this is not the case. You are that portion of the psyche that you presently recognize. Many people say: “I want to know myself,” or “I want to find myself,” when the truth is that few really want to take the time or effort. (Pause.) There is one place to begin, however: Try becoming better acquainted with the self you are now. Stop telling yourself that you do not know yourself.

If, however, you learn to know yourself better in daily life to become more fully aware even of your earthly life, then you will indeed receive other information that hints of a deeper, more supportive reality, in which physical existence rests. You will find yourself having experiences that do not fit recognized facts. These can add up to an alternate set of facts, pointing toward a different kind of reality, and give evidence for an inner existence that takes precedence over the physical assumptions. A certain kind of discretion and understanding is necessary, however. Basically the inner reality is the creative source of the physical one. Yet to some extent, the physical rules are also inviolate — at their level.