“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

I am sure that you realize these points yourself. I do after all, and regardless of what you may think, credit you both with a certain sense of intelligence and imagination.

As I have said, the outer senses deal mainly and as far as I know exclusively with camouflage pattern. The inner senses, my dear Joseph, are senses which deal with realities beneath camouflage patterns, and which carry data of these realities, these inner realities, to the body. These inner senses therefore are thoroughly capable of seeing the inside of the body, in a way that the outer eyes cannot.

As the outer senses of sight, sound and smell appear to reach outward, bringing data to the physical body from an outside observable camouflage pattern, so the inside senses seem to extend far inward, bringing important inner reality data to the physical body. There is also a transforming process here much like the moment that we have spoken of in the creation of a painting.

The inner senses deliver data from the inner world of reality to the body. The outer senses deliver data from the outside world of camouflage to the body. However, the inner senses are aware of the body’s own physical data at all times, while the outer senses are concerned with the body mainly in its relationship to camouflage environment. In other words the inner senses have an immediate, constant knowledge of the body in a way that the outer senses do not.

The material is delivered to the body, as I have said, from the inner world by means of these inner senses. This inner reality data is received by the mind. This is extremely important. The mind, being uncamouflaged, is the receiving station for the data brought to it by the inner senses. What you almost have here is an inner nervous and communication system closely resembling the outer systems with which you are familiar.

You must remember here that time is part of the camouflage pattern. Now the outer sense of sight would seem to confound space, and seemingly conquer a portion of distance by using your eyes. That is, you do not necessarily have to walk a short distance in order to see what is in the particular space involved.

So the inner senses and the subconscious can do the same thing as far as inner space, and what you would call inner time, is concerned. But this is not amazing, far from it. It only seems strange because you are so familiar with your precious camouflage patterns. Time and space, dear friends, are both camouflage patterns, therefore the fact that the inner senses can conquer time and space is not, after all, so surprising. To the mind with its subconscious, and to the inner senses, there is no time and space, and therefore to them nothing is conquered. The camouflage is simply not present.

When I speak of the subconscious in this manner, I speak of course of that larger portion which deals with the inner realities. I want to give you more detailed information about the inner realities themselves. Actually they do not parallel the outer senses, and this will sound appalling to you I’m afraid, simply because there is nothing to be seen, smelled, heard or touched in the manner in which you are accustomed. This is extremely hard to explain, since I do not want to give you the idea that existence without your particular set of camouflage patterns is bland and innocuous, because this is not the case.

(Break at 10:32. Try as we would, Jane and I could not recall what I had said at last break to bring on Seth’s outburst concerning mediums, etc. We think it was at least an innocently intended remark, one made in passing. I now remarked that I wondered whether Seth even wanted us to publish this material, since this might also be regarded by him as using him. Jane said that she definitely did not think he meant that. She resumed dictating at 10:40.)

Imagine a man standing on a corner, looking down the street at a tree a block away. He need not walk that distance in order to know what is there since he can see everything between himself and the tree, at least as far as large objects are concerned. His sense of sight allows him this freedom.

Now with that out of the way, we can consider the inner senses as paths leading to an inner reality. However, here we are not concerned with space or time. If you were, or if man A was blind, he would not see the tree in question. If he were deaf he would not hear the car. Let us pretend this state of events, and let us compare the physical objects between our man and his tree to points somewhat corresponding to them in the inner world. It would be as if instead of seeing the various houses or whatever, our man instead felt them. If you remember, I mentioned earlier that your outer sense of touch was extremely immediate, in a way that sight was not, and I also gave you immediacy as one of the qualities of the inner senses.

It involves immediate perception of a direct nature, whose intensity varies according to what is being sensed. It involves instant cognition through what I can only describe as inner vibrational touch. This is, if you will excuse the pun, touchy, since I want to avoid any implication here of sloppy sentimental emotionalism; and the word vibrational is not the best.

This sense would permit our man to feel the basic sensations felt by the tree, so that instead of looking at the tree his consciousness would expand to contain the experience of what it is like to be a tree. According to his proficiency, in a like manner he would feel the experience of being the intervening grass and so forth.

When you receive more material on the inner senses, you can begin using them to a much higher degree than you do now. For those interested in inner reality the inner senses can be utilized, of course, to explore and perceive portions of this inner reality; and the inner reality is after all what you are after.

I will have to go into what we will call for now evolution at some time to explain the influence of the inner world upon the outer world, because the species to which you have the honor of belonging is now moving in the direction of breakthrough discoveries, as far as inner reality is concerned. There is much more to be said here, and you can count on me to say it.