“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

There are other kinds of knowledge, also. These deal with organizations with which you are generally not familiar. It is not merely a matter of learning new methods to acquire knowledge, then, but a situation in which old methods must be momentarily set aside — along with the type of knowledge that is associated with them.

It is not a matter, either, of there simply being one other category of knowledge, for there are numerous other such categories, many of them biologically within your reach. Various so-called esoteric traditions provide certain methods that allow an individual to set aside accepted modes of perception, and offer patterns that may be used as containers for these other kinds of knowledge. Even these containers must necessarily shape the information received, however. (Pause.) Some such methods are very advantageous, yet they have also become too rigid and autocratic, allowing little room for deviation. Dogmas are then set up about them so that only a certain body of data is considered acceptable. The systems no longer have the flexibility that first gave them birth.

The kind of knowledge upon which you depend needs verbalization. It is very difficult for you to consider the accumulation of any kind of knowledge without the use of language as you understand it. Even your remembered dreams are often verbalized constructs. You may also use images, but these are familiar images, born of the educated and hence prejudiced physical perceptions. Those remembered dreams have meaning and are very valuable, but they are already organized for you to some extent, and put into a shape that you can somewhat recognize.

Any information or knowledge must have a pattern if you are going to understand it at all. Ruburt’s own painting, his knowledge of his psychic abilities, his love of Joseph — all served to form a pattern which then attracted the Cézanne material. He received this “automatically,” writing down the words that came almost too quickly for him to follow. His craft or art of writing brought the material to clear focus. The information itself, however, had nothing to do with words, but with an overall comprehension of the nature of painting, a direct knowing. Ruburt used his own abilities as a container, then. This direct kind of knowledge is available, again, on any subject, to anyone who provides a suitable pattern through desire, love, intent or belief.

(Pause.) I said earlier that there were many kinds of knowledge. Think of them instead as states of knowledge. Perception of any of these takes a consciousness attuned to each. In my “waking” condition, I operate at many levels of consciousness at once, and deal therefore with different systems of knowledge. In my “dream” condition, or rather conditions, I form links of consciousness that combine these various systems, creatively forming them into new versions. “Waking” again, I become consciously aware of those activities, and use them to add to the dimensions of my usual state, creatively expanding my experience of reality. What I learn is transmitted automatically to others like me, and their knowledge is transmitted to me.

It is much more natural to remember your dreams than not to remember them. It is presently in the vogue to say that the conscious mind, as you consider it, deals with survival. It deals with survival only insofar as it promotes survival in your particular kind of society. In those terms, if you remembered your dreams, and if you benefited consciously from that knowledge, even your physical survival would be better assured.

It seems evident to you that one person has one mind. You identify with the mind you use. If you had another, then it would seem as if you must be someone else. A mind is a psychic pattern through which you interpret and form reality. You have physical limbs that you can see. You have minds that are invisible. Each one can organize reality in a different fashion. Each one deals with its own kind of knowledge.

In terms of history, some ancient races achieved such goals, but in your terms, so long ago that you cannot find evidence of their knowledge.

(Long pause.) Throughout the centuries various individuals have come close, yet had no vehicle of expression that would have enabled the members of the species to understand. They possessed methods, but the methods presupposed or necessitated a knowledge that others did not possess.

Ruburt’s nearly forgotten dream last night represents a breakthrough, in that he was at least consciously aware of receiving knowledge in yet another different fashion.