“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

A-4 brings you to a level that is beneath matter formations, a level in which ideas and concepts can be perceived, although their representations do not appear in the present physical reality that you know.

These ideas and concepts obviously came from consciousness. However, they represent incipient latent developments that may or may not occur in physical reality. They may or may not be perceived by any given individual. The characteristic interest and abilities of the personality involved will have much to do with his recognition of the realities within this layer of consciousness.

(9:25.) The states of consciousness merge also one into the other, and it is obvious that I am using the terms of depth to make the discussion easier. Starting with the ego or waking consciousness as the outer self focused toward exterior reality, these states are broad, more like plains to be explored. Each one, therefore, opens in great adjacent areas also, and there are many “paths” to be taken according to your interest and desire.

As your ordinary waking state perceives an entire universe of physical data, so each of these other states of consciousness perceive realities as complicated, varied, and vivid. It is for this reason that it is so difficult to explain the experiences possible within any given one. (Long 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.

You may have several quite valid experiences in level four for example, without any awareness of the first three. The stages are there for those who know what they are and how to use them. Many quite spontaneously find their own way. The other adjacent levels on the horizontal line, now, involve you in various alternate realities, each one a greater distance from your own. Many of these involve systems in which life and death as you know it does not occur, where time is felt as weight; systems in which the root assumptions are so different from your own that you would only accept any experiences as fantasy.

Often you visit such areas of consciousness in the dream state where you fall into them spontaneously, remembering in the morning a fantastic dream. Consciousness must use all of its parts and activities, even as the body must. When you are sleeping, therefore, your consciousness turns itself in many of these directions, often perceiving, willy-nilly, bits and pieces of reality that are available to it at its different stages. This also happens beneath your normal physical focus to some extent, even as you go about your waking activities. The alternate presents of which I spoke are not simply alternate methods of perceiving one objective present. There are many alternate presents, with you focused only in one of them.

When you let your attention waver, however, you may often fall into a state in which you momentarily perceive glimpses of another alternate present. The whole self, the soul, knows of its reality in all such systems, and you, as a part of it, are working toward the same state of self-awareness and development.

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.

You will be able to perceive physical reality because you want to, knowing it to be one of many realities. You will not be forced to perceive it alone, out of ignorance.

(“I hope you’ll cover for your book the question Jane and I were discussing at the supper table this evening, about what you actually see when you’re speaking to a group of people — focusing upon each of us as individuals in this time and place.”)

(“Now [humorously]: no one asked me what it was like when I go into a trance. To go into a trance is simply to focus intensely in a highly specific area of reality. Therefore, I throw or project a part of what I am here because I am able to utilize greater areas of my personality than those with which you are now acquainted in yourselves. I can do this in a conscious manner, and yet still, as I have mentioned, when I am here I find a difficulty in looking at you and relating to the selves that you think you are within your given moment of time; for I see the composites. So it takes some training on my part to pinpoint you in the time and space with which you are acquainted.

(“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?”