“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(There came a knock upon the door. At times I had wondered how Jane would react to an interruption while in her new and deeper state. I now had at least one answer: Her body jumped in her chair, and her eyes popped open as though from shock. For a moment she appeared to be disoriented. Then she answered my query to the effect that she was all right.

Many sessions ago I used the analogy of air within your physical field, comparing it with the vitality of the universe, in that you are not as a rule conscious of air. Yet it is part of everything within your field. And also, that most inaccessible, most inward and seemingly most mysterious portion of the inner universe, which you seek, is so a part of you that you are unaware of it even though in it you have your very existence.

The gestalt patterns of which I have spoken is the basis here, and yet all members within such gestalts are themselves independent, possessing identity and separation even while they cooperate in a complicated pattern. It is arbitrary; that is, from your viewpoint you arbitrarily choose certain portions of reality and call them units, marking them off. But your divisions do not affect the nature of these gestalts, as my discussion speaks of separate universes without affecting the nature of any universe one whit.

The idea that I want to portray is a difficult one, for as you know everything that is, is conscious. And everything that is, is also self-conscious, in degree according to its abilities; and everything that is therefore contains identity and separation, even while it is part of a large and complicated gestalt.

And again, dreams are themselves never completed, but continue on whether or not your perception of them continues. For dreams also are gestalts. When you look into the mirror you see the camouflage image. You do not see the ego, though you know that it exists. But the idea, ego, is in itself an arbitrary unit chosen for particular reasons. It is not a thing. You have drawn lines, imaginary lines, and made an arbitrary boundary. This does not mean that the ego does not exist.

It means that the word is nothing, and that it is merely a symbol for that which you can neither see nor feel nor touch. It is merely a symbol for that small particle of yourselves which you permit your consciousness to perceive. It is a symbol to express that portion of an unseeable self, that is brought most obviously into operation for purposes of manipulation of the physical image within a camouflage field.