“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Now any individual can pass through these levels and remain relatively untouched and unaware, can travel through them unperceiving. The overall intentions and characteristics of the personality will determine the quality of perception and understanding. The material mentioned is available in each of the levels of consciousness given, but it must be sought out, either through conscious desire or strong unconscious desire. If it is not, then the gifts available and the potentials simply remain unused and unclaimed.

A-5 opens up a dimension in which the vital consciousness of any personality can at least theoretically be contacted. This involves communicating not only with past personalities in your terms, but future ones. It is a level of consciousness very seldom reached. It is not, for example, the layer used by most mediums. It is a meeting ground in which personalities from any time or place or probable system can communicate with each other in clear terms understood by all.

Since past, present, and future do not exist, this is a level of crystal clear communication of consciousness. Those involved have an excellent knowledge of their own backgrounds and histories, of course, but in this state possess also a much larger perspective, in which private and historical backgrounds are seen as a portion of a greater perceivable whole.

For those who reach this state and utilize it, communication is clearest. It must be understood that this communication works in both ways. Leonardo da Vinci knew of Picasso, for example. There are great men and women who go unknown. Their contemporaries ignore them. Their achievements may be misunderstood or physically lost, but at this level of consciousness they share in these communications, and at another level of existence their achievements are recognized.

In many cases memory remains unconscious as far as waking self is concerned, but the experiences themselves can completely change the structure of an individual life. Disastrous courses can be averted through such inner communications and illuminations, whether or not the ego is aware of them.

It has some energy of its own, but needs additional energy from a perceiver for any interrelationship to take place. If such a materialization appears threatening, then simply wish it peace and withdraw your attention from it. It draws its main activating energy from your focusing, and according to the intensity and nature of your focus. You must not take the root assumptions of physical existence with you as you journey through these levels of consciousness. Divest yourself of as many of them as possible, for they can cause you to misinterpret your experiences. (Pause.)

There are other layers of awareness beneath this one, but here there is a much greater tendency for one to merge into the other. In the next level, for example, communication is possible with various kinds of consciousness that have never been physically manifested, in your terms — personalities who do not have a physical reality in either your present or future, yet who are connected with your system of reality both as guardians and custodians.

When you are proficient you will not be swept willy-nilly into other stages of consciousness as you sleep, but will be able to understand and direct these activities. Consciousness is an attribute of the soul, a tool that can be turned in many directions. You are not your consciousness. It is something that belongs to you and to the soul. You are learning to use it. To the extent that you understand and utilize the various aspects of consciousness, you will learn to understand your own reality, and the conscious self will truly become conscious.

I will see that it is covered for you. My perceptions were dealt with in the earlier chapters of the book, but not in just that way….

(“You are aware of the selves that sit in this room on a particular evening of a snowstorm, with certain members of the class present, certain members absent, and with some new people here. I am familiar with the inner portions of your selves that you also know, however, but that the egotistical self has hidden from you, and so I must think constantly to myself: ‘Oh, yes, our Lady of Venice [Seth’s affectionate term for a class member] thinks that she sits in this specific room at this specific hour, and is wearing a blue outfit.’

(“But I am aware of a Lady of Venice, you see, in several different manifestations in various existences, all occurring at once. I must remember that she is not aware of these, and when I speak to her I must use a designation that will make sense to her at this particular time.

(“To some extent, I serve as a communicator from one level of your selves to other levels of your selves, for I remind you of what you are. You have been much given to thoughts of death this evening. Now, I have been a very lively corpse many times; but then, so have you all. The inner portions of your selves know this well. You have walked away from more graves than you can remember — and will indeed, many of you, walk away from more. Why, then, do you worry about justifying your own existence in this hour?”