“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Energy as it comes through your plane is individualized; and indeed, irregardless of any other theories, all energy contains some consciousness, in simple or more complicated gestalt fashion, as I have mentioned that atoms and molecules so possess a limited consciousness, and a generalized subconsciousness which contains within it a capsule comprehension of the universe as a whole.

As energy flows through your field and appears within it, it does so according to its own inherent nature. This nature of energy, believe it or not, includes individualization and consciousness. Therefore, if you will for a moment think of bits of energy, or consciousness, initially without definite form, entering your physical plane, then according to the innate strength and capacity of any given particle it will, on entering your plane, on its own subconscious level already know how small or large a physical pattern it can form.

This is at our simplest and most basic level. The forms then build, one within or upon the other, in the manner in which I explained that the gestalt of a human body was maintained. In many ways like does attract like; certain patterns therefore being set up, are used by other energy bits of similar capacity and strength.

I have explained somewhat earlier how the gestalt ego consciousness was formed, and to some degree explained its psychic composition, but there is much more to be said here. There is a steady and unwavering cooperation that exists, and it is the basis of your physical universe. You do not see this cooperation. Your senses are rather more equipped to notice difference and divergence than sameness; but nevertheless the cooperation of all conscious entities provides physical objects with whatever appearance of permanence they have.

Your cat and the birds on your rooftop all do their part. With expanded consciousness the responsibility for cooperation becomes more definite. And yet there is really no choice, for upon your physical plane there will be cooperation or annihilation.

This cooperation is a necessity on a molecular level, and continues through all phases of physical existence. Remember however that it is the conscious cooperation of the individualized energy that makes the molecule itself possible.

As you know, so-called inert objects possess consciousness also, though in a more generalized and much less specific manner, in which to a large degree choice is denied to them. It should be apparent that psychic identity is no more dependent upon physical permanence, certainly when you consider that even a chair retains its form as a chair, even though it is actually not one thing or object, and that no atom or molecule remains the same within it.

When you maintain that identity is dependent upon the duration of the physical body, you are taking it for granted that the physical body is one complete thing, more or less rigid in form, and permanent within a certain perspective. You know however that the physical body is not one thing in those terms, and that the stuff of which it is composed is forever coming and going, arriving and departing, and yet identity is maintained.

The limits of identity are arbitrary on your part, developed throughout the stages of your evolutionary process, not for any reason inherent in identity itself, but merely for purely practical reasons on your physical field, having to do with the amount of matter that various kinds of identities could effectively manipulate and control.

In some ways it may be said truly that the physical universe itself puts a limit on the extension of personal identity, and we will go into this also later.

I have mentioned, for example, what you may think of as infinite building blocks or pyramids of comprehension, and these could not operate within your physical universe, as the basic gestalt freedom is severely limited. This is also one of the reasons why whole entities, as whole entities, do not exist in your field, but only separate, partially disconnected portions.

You may not be aware of the conscious nature of each atom in your body, or of the gestalt consciousness formed by those atoms as they build into cells, but it is not necessary for them, or for their own awareness of themselves, that you give them that recognition. The consciousness in the cells exists whether or not you recognize it.

They follow the law of value fulfillment, which on your plane is thought of as growth. But the growth, so-called, is not of itself a property of matter, in that the same matter does not grow, but energy completely forms the pattern ever anew, as far as the particular strength of the energy itself can carry it, and knowing the limitations and capacities of the pattern which it has formed. To some extent the image or physical pattern ultimately blurs.

It must be apparent however that all energy is not materialized as it passes through your field. There are also psychic gestalts with intelligences that are not materialized on your physical plane, and with these you are not of course familiar.

You had better forget the habit of thinking of your physical universe as a place, for it is simply not a place. Locations of this sort mean nothing. Even space, as you think of it, does not exist. Fifth dimensional space is something else again. The appearance of space is a distortion of your own perception, and that is all.

Incidentally, in the same manner that psychological experience exists, and does not take up space, in this same manner do psychic gestalts of intelligence exist, more or less within your plane and yet not visible to your senses. They have some limited effect on your plane however, but this is part of another discussion.

Also, for reasons that I will for now withhold, the psychic patterns within your physical universe are not maintained, as you know, indefinitely. As far as I know, no gestalt of any kind remains the same. But psychic gestalts develop in terms of value fulfillment, and it is known at the first appearance of a physical pattern how long the particular to-be-built-up gestalt will be maintained.

Identity, being independent of matter, is then not finished when the particular physical pattern is no longer created. Energy while being propulsive, is also retentive. It retains what you may call memory of previous gestalts. Capsule comprehension exists even in the smallest particle of energy, and even within the smallest particle of energy there exists all possibilities of development and creation.

A psychic gestalt is dependent upon matter, not for its identity but merely for its survival in the physical plane. Psychic gestalts or identities or individualities are for all practical purposes immortal. They may join other gestalts but they will never be less than they once were. Identity then is never broken down. Any apparent breaking down is never an actual fact, as the personality could be thought of as a breaking down of the entity; but this is not so. The personality did not exist as such before its creation by the entity, and once it becomes an identity, it retains that individuality.