“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

In order that you understand it is necessary, as I have told you, for me to break down concepts. In this way much of the unity of certain phenomena may escape you. We have spoken at various times about specific portions of action’s manifestations. We have discussed to some degree, for example, the nature of matter, the electrical universe, the dream universe, and such other topics as the layers of the subconscious and the nature of the whole self.

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.

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.

Theoretically, the self is unlimited, if you will recall. The ego within your field is limited because of the nature of its rigidity. The ego operates as a partitioning agent. It directs and uses the abilities of the personality for manipulation in the physical universe. It can mobilize a smaller or larger amount of these energies according to its own strength. It has a small focus but a powerful one.

A thorough study of the personality will be an excellent exercise, and will lead you close to the nature of action itself. The experiences about which you asked, for example, involved actions of the personality and not, of course, of the ego. Expansion and contraction occur constantly as characteristic of action, as I have explained.

Many of these dimensions cannot be discussed at this time. But you will see, indeed, that the nature of action, or the nature of any reality, is greatly colored by the viewpoint or dimension from which it is examined. It is my purpose here to examine for you reality from as many different aspects as possible, lifting you from the limitations of your own dimensions, and allowing you the advantage of others.

There is no particular and definite line between the ego and the personality and the inner self. They must merely be discussed in such terms. There is, believe it or not, no particular and specific and definite boundary between what is self and not self. If we isolate such portions of reality for the sake of discussion, such isolation is artificial, and in no way affects the nature of reality itself.