“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

The only matter that matters to your Ruburt right now, is the new house, although I am sure I do not have to tell you this.

I would like to continue our discussion on matter. If you recall, we were entering into primary and secondary constructions.

A primary construction is a psychic gestalt, formed into matter by a consciousness of itself. Such a primary construction is an attempt to create, in the world of matter, a replica of the inner psychic construction of the whole self.

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.

Even a primary construction, therefore, is but a partial appearance of inner nature into matter. The term consciousness, as I am here using it, may need some explanation, although you should by now understand my meaning.

To use full consciousness would be most distracting in many instances. When I speak, therefore, of primary constructions in the physical field, other fields of course have their own primary constructions also, though they would not be composed of matter in your terms.

Consciousness therefore forms the primary construction about itself, not to protect itself from matter but in order to become allied with matter, the consciousness obviously being diffused through the whole physical construction.

As far as using all the powers of consciousness, this is strictly cultural, and has nothing to do with the inherent properties of either consciousness or matter.

The intertwining of consciousness and matter is most intricate and highly complicated. In all cases consciousness is first, and it forms its physical constructions according to its abilities, first of all forming its own primary construction, and then branching outward, constructing secondary images of other consciousnesses with whom it comes in contact.

The distortions are so great that the attempt is foredoomed. It is, nevertheless, attempted, and is a necessary physical adjunct to constructions in your field. I have explained birth, at least briefly. The new human being is obviously not either the father or the mother, and yet is obviously a construction formed by each from physical matter belonging to each.

Yet the physical matter of the born infant contains none of the same physical matter which was received initially from the parents. The original matter has completely disappeared, to be replaced by other matter as the consciousness of the infant slowly constructs about itself its growing awareness of itself into physical matter.

The parents, therefore, give definite parts of their own physical matter to initiate the infant’s construction, and yet it is not this particular matter which grows.

Call the particular matter given by the parents x and y. When the child is born, it does not contain anywhere within it these particular portions of matter called x and y. It would appear that the matter had changed. Instead, the matter has vanished, in ways that I have explained earlier. Do you recall?

No particle of matter is the same in the born infant, that was contained in either the fetus or earlier in the sperm or egg. I am going into all this for a reason. Leave this for a moment, and consider a seed, a grass seed.

As usual, this is putting things backward. The grass contains no particle of matter that is identical in the seed.

Growth is an erroneous conception that begins with the distortive idea of continuous physical matter, durable in time. And as you know instead, matter is the simultaneous expression of consciousness. Matter has little, really no, durability in itself, and is merely the instantaneous form taken by consciousness as it projects itself in the physical field.

Grass is common. It is supposed to grow from seed, yet again no particle of matter is the same in grass or seed. Seed does not grow into grass. Acorns do not grow into trees. Children do not grow into adults.

In all instances, no particle of matter is the same in the so-called grown version, and the initial construction. Matter does not grow. I cannot make this too plain.

There is obviously something identical, and some continuity between the child and the adult, but it is not matter. Consciousness, according to its ability, projects itself into the physical plane, and through value fulfillment it constructs its image.

It must work according to its ability to do this. It must first get a foothold, so to speak; hence our seed. As the consciousness attains its foothold it projects more effectively. It dispenses with its atoms and molecules, or matter, almost instantaneously, as you know.

The form that consciousness takes in the field of matter is determined by its own strength and capacity. Consciousness forces its way into matter. You should see, then, that though you call a particular portion of grass one blade of grass, the matter that composes it is not static or permanent, and it is not a particular physical object growing, since the matter that composes it is neither static or permanent.

You say that the matter that composes it steadily changes, but this is not the case. The apparent continuity is a result of your inability to perceive the actual atoms that compose matter as they appear and disappear. Because grass appears where seeds have been sown, you have leaped to the conclusion that the matter of the seeds grows from the matter of which they are composed, and that grass grows from the actual matter of the seeds.

Again, there is absolutely no continuity in the matter that composes the seeds, and the matter that composes the grass. What you have instead is the value fulfillment of the consciousness behind matter, as it expands and expresses itself in various forms.

Since you can more or less count upon the appearance of grass seed, preceding grass, all this may seem making much over nothing, but it is very important, as you will see later. It is not matter that has continuity, and it is not matter that dictates the form.

Now that we have gone into the nature of matter as it pertains to grass, you will understand my next analogy more clearly.

Consider a lawn. Obviously this is an arbitrary designation for utility’s sake. Of itself, the matter of grass does not form itself into a lawn. You merely designate certain portions of grass and call it lawn.

This is the same sort of thing you do when you designate certain portions of matter as blades of grass. Lawns do not come from grass. That is, grass does not grow into a lawn. Do you follow me here?

And neither then do seeds grow (underline that so it’s plain) into grass. You perceive certain matter as blades of grass, as you perceive the matter of grass as lawn. You can see clearly that the matter of grass in a lawn is not the same. Then understand also that the matter within one blade of grass is not the same.

You call a floor a floor. Matter may be added to the floor in the form of paint or varnish, yet you still call the floor the floor. Paint may be added to a house, and paint may disappear from a house through weathering, and you still call a house a house.

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 I saw brilliant green water with lots of living matter in it, rushing by. I appeared to be plunging downward through it although I was untouched by it; I seemed to be enclosed in a huge bubble. I then saw a blue gush of water rush by to my right, like a river.