“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

You cannot see a handful of air though your hands may be full of it. You know its effects, you breathe it constantly, but consciously you do not realize what you are doing. You do not know how air tastes unless you really think hard about it. It is fuel to your physical body and the idea of it comes very close to this fuel of the inner senses, which is not a camouflage effect and which is our vitality unsolidified, or the little wires which make up our imaginary universe. In other words these little wires move along constantly like little individual railway cars carrying fuel, and also are composed of the very fuel themselves.

Your scientists can count their elements. While they are on the wrong track they will discover more and more elements. That is, they will create more and discover more until they are ready to go out of their minds. Because what will happen is, they will always create camouflages of the real thing. And while they create instruments to deal with smaller and smaller particular particles, they will actually see smaller and smaller particles, seemingly without end.

Scientists realize that the atmosphere of the earth is a distortion, or has a distorting effect upon their instruments. What they do not understand is that their instruments themselves are bound to be distortive. This cannot be emphasized too strongly. Any material physical instrument will have built-in distortive effects. The one instrument which is more important than any other and which has given you, that is mankind, all its breakthroughs and advance is the brain. Or rather the mind which contains the brain, and which is the meeting place of the inner and outer senses.

Einstein used the miraculous aspects of his mind. Parts of the mind are almost completely undistorted. The mind is distributed throughout the whole physical body. The mind builds up about it the physical camouflages necessary for existence on your physical plane. The mind receives data from the inner senses and forms the camouflage necessary. The mind unconsciously or unself-consciously deals with the basic laws according to the camouflage effect that is vital for survival on your physical plane. The mind is the tool which must be used.

The brain deals exclusively with camouflage patterns, transforming vitality into physical environmental camouflage patterns. The mind deals with basic principles inherent on all planes. The brain is itself part of the camouflage pattern, and can be interpreted and probed by physical instruments. The mind cannot be probed by physical instruments. It cannot even be found by physical instruments. The mind is the connective. It is here that the secrets of the universe will be discovered, and the mind itself is the tool of discovery.

The brain is of your plane. You may say that the brain is the mind in camouflage. Imagination belongs to the mind. It can be used by and is used by the brain for purposes of survival, and can sometimes be probed by physical instruments. That is physical instruments can be made to make the imagination move on occasion. But imagination is a property of mind, not brain, and no physical tool can force the imagination to conceive of an original conception or idea.

The subconscious is a property of the mind, and is to a strong degree independent of camouflage. You must of course understand that these terms are for convenience only. In many cases there is no division between them, and I speak often for convenience’s sake.

Part of the subconscious for example deals with camouflage, but the deeper portions are in direct contact with the basic vitality of the universe. When you or Ruburt wonder if this material comes from the subconscious, you often take it for granted that the subconscious is personal, exclusively dealing with matters of your egos’ personal past. You are sometimes willing to concede that perhaps an element of racial memory might enter in. Racial memory is of course a conglomeration of camouflage data. The subconscious also contains the undistorted material of the mind, which is uncamouflaged, and which operates between planes, knowing no boundaries.

I dislike the use of so many terms; since the brain is observable, I am tempted to use it to cover all abilities pertaining to mind in general. This would make it easier for you. However I will resist the temptation. The mind contains the brain. Material which comes from the so-called subconscious comes from that part of the mind which knows no boundaries, either of time or space, and in a deeper sense knows no boundaries of species or planes in any manner. The simple fact is that you are using this portion of the mind as a tool. Exercising the brain exercises the mind also, but the mind has abilities of which the brain is ignorant.

This certainly is not meant to mean that the brain is useless, far from it. On your plane the brain is extremely important, and for your information many animals have a highly developed mind though their brains may be small.

I will go into this sort of development at a later time. The mind however determines which mental enzymes will be utilized and to what degree, and also determines the strength, type, and validity of camouflages necessary to physical survival.