“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Such a primary construction allows consciousness to operate, manipulate and be perceived in the world of matter. The physical construction of consciousness never is complete as far as fulfilling the inner purpose is involved; that is, consciousness can never fully construct itself in matter, and to do so would indeed imprison such a consciousness so that it could not escape the transient nature of matter itself.

What you consider your consciousness, or your self, or your thinking ego, represents of course only one portion of your entire consciousness, that part which you are using at this time. It is as if, for example, consciousness of any whole self were compared to a huge, and indeed almost infinite light, with the ability inherent in the light to focus in many directions; to be diffused, as if the light had many switches that would turn it to greater or lesser intensities and directions.

You call yourself yourself, though the color of your hair may change; and indeed the adult bears little resemblance to the child. Form simply cannot be a characteristic of matter, since matter can be proven to come and go, while form in many cases remains recognizable.

This will be a vital point in later discussions. You must, and will, learn to look at things in a new way, and many implications will arise from tonight’s discussion that will carry us further along our way. You will indeed see clearly that matter is created simultaneously, and has no duration, but is completely and almost instantly replaced by other matter, and that identity and continuity are not characteristics of matter, but must be found in other places.

(Then the sensation in my hands changed. They appeared to enlarge, principally in length. I seemed to be aware of another set of hands appearing just above my own, to be extending their reach and dimension until they were about 10 inches long. The feeling lasted for several minutes. All the while this extra set of hands hovered just above my own, and reminded me of arching claws to some extent. Again, I had to resist the impulse to move my hands drastically to see if they were indeed undistorted in the flesh.