“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

There is always the danger in such discussions that effects which are studied separately will appear to be separate in essence. But what we have been discussing in all these topics is, indeed, the nature of action. The personality as you know it is action. As such the personality however is not physically materialized. You cannot hold it in your hand. You can only observe it in motion, for it is never still, and to probe into it yourself is to change it.

But the personality is always in a state of becoming, and forever changes. The personality is an excellent example of action in one aspect. It is important here also to realize that while the personality is always in motion, the motion involved here is not one of mobility in space as you know it. It is most definitely motion in terms of value fulfillment.

We find once again a basic reality, that of the personality, which is accepted and recognized within the physical field, even while it does not appear there as a definite physical unit. It can indeed be examined but the examination itself, being action, changes it. For the personality, true to the roles of action, will seize upon the new action and form of it new realities and unities with itself.

Therefore, consciousness-of-self can appear with or without the existence of an ego. Consciousness-of-self is an attribute then of all physical species, regardless of their classification. Personality, human personality, is simply the name given to this class of self, as applied and seen within human beings. Personality changes and acts upon all other action. Personality, then, can be seen to operate as a field of action in identity; but identity that is conscious of its relation to action as a whole.

The peculiar and individualistic aspects of personality are the result of those camouflaging abilities of which we have spoken earlier. Those portions of the personality which escape ego’s attempts to dominate are held suspect in ego’s eyes. Ego considers them as invalid and dangerous to its own supremacy. When ego is forced to admit that personality changes, it will do its best to avoid this knowledge. The more rigid an ego is, the more danger there is that the individual will have difficulties in all kinds of adjustments.

Because of its nature ego does not want to adjust. It wants adjustments to be made to it. Because ego is another manifestation of action, it is of course impossible for its aims to be realized. For all its attempts at stability and control, ego itself constantly changes. Ego most of all resents and fights against time as you know it, yet ego is to a large extent responsible for your conception of time. Basically, ego fears both the past and the present. It fears the past because it has already lost control of the past. It fears the future because it is not yet in control of it. It seeks continuity of identity, yet it is forced to realize that the “I” of today is hardly the “I” of thirty years ago.

In his art we have the nostalgia of the ego for past time, and for lost control of a self that has already vanished, and changed into something new. It is ego who plans for the future, trying to anticipate the environment in which it must operate. Its anticipations, of course, then form that environment.

The personality necessarily continues to change after physical death. After physical death the personality simply ceases to project itself, as a rule, within the physical field, and no longer focuses within it.

I mentioned earlier that the personality is an excellent example of action as it is sometimes projected into the physical field, while not appearing within it in tangible form. For here we see many of action’s characteristics: the mobility that does not necessarily involve space, the thrusts outward, and the corresponding thrusts inward. We see action acting upon itself and constant change.