“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(At this conference Jane, A.J. and three other science fiction writers formed a group they called “The Five.” Letters were exchanged for some little time. In her letter of November 12 Jane asked A.J. a few questions about The Five. A.J. replied on November 22, stating that before he could answer Jane’s questions he would like Seth’s answers to three questions: “When was the last time you grew up?”, “What do you love?”, and “When is the self born?”

Words are quite ineffectual methods of communication. The question, “When is the self born?”, would take many sessions to answer. As simply as possible the self, the inner self with which the ego is only vaguely familiar, that self which is the inner strength, continuity and identity, that gives the ego its vital meaning, that inner self, dear friend, is constantly being born.

There is no point in time as you know it, when the self is born. It is constantly in a state of becoming. It expands and develops in terms of value fulfillment, in a way that has nothing to do with space and time.

It develops, again, as you know, Joseph and Ruburt, it expands as an idea expands, taking up no space. The self may project itself into the dimensions of space and time, but the projection is a small part of its actuality. Even the uppermost or surface elements of the self with which you are familiar, the ego and the uppermost layers of the subconscious, even these cannot be said to be born at any given time, in time as you conceive it.

The self, Mr. A.J., is more than you know. It is capable of intelligence that you do not use. It is capable of making distinctions finer than you now imagine. The self, as other sections of this material explains, has methods not only of perception, but of criticism and judgment, that man in general does not take advantage of nearly as much as he could.

The self is limited only by its own idea of limitation.

A psychological experience may take up no space as a rock takes up space, but when a psychological experience happens it may fill you up. Yet you do not deny the existence of a psychological experience, though you cannot rip it apart from yourself and examine it with the physical senses. Still it has its effect, and its validity is well known to every man. So also are there other realities that cannot be examined through the use of the physical senses, realities so close to the self that they cannot be separated from it and objectified.

A combination of intuition and discipline can be used with most valid and definite results, as a tool for investigating those parts of the self which are so interwoven that they cannot be separated from the self.

In a very actual respect chemically, electromagnetically, extensions of any given self permeate your universe. For practical considerations, and to reduce the amount of data that need concern the self, rather arbitrary divisions are set up, where the self at one point is said to exist and at another is considered nonself.

Outward extensions of the self can be more clearly objectified, the concentration at the outward extensions being less, and identity correlations being kept in more concentrated areas within the boundaries of the physical self. The eye sees but it cannot see itself. In like manner the self is, but is not consciously able to examine that which it is. Therefore man must take his abilities and travel inward, since going outward will not allow him to perceive the inner portions of himself.