“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

A confident ego is indeed a prerequisite for psychic venturing, for it is only the confident ego which ultimately feels secure enough to give leeway to the inner self in the long run.

For safety’s sake a firm relationship between the ego and its environment should be considered a prerequisite for serious or extensive psychic investigation. The ego must have something to come back to. This is extremely important.

I do not mean to discourage the personality in his laudable interest in unseen reality. I do want to caution him that first steps must be taken first if his inner goals in this direction are ever to be achieved, without unnecessary difficulties for the ego.

With such a firm foundation he will indeed be most successful, and he can achieve such a foundation. Then he can apply inner knowledge to the ego’s environment. The feet of the ego, of any ego, must not rest on quicksand, or when the venturing self returns there will be no sound foundation to receive him.

If this sounds difficult then indeed it is, because I will not deal in platitudes, and the exercise of the inner abilities demand, as a bulwark, the sometimes difficult achievement of an ego that can adapt itself in the outer environment, and so hold its own while the inner self is then freed to go its way.

Discipline then should not only be considered, as it is by some schools of thought, as a mere mental discipline over the muscles, or various portions of the body by the inner self, but indeed a discipline in terms of training of the ego by the inner self, so that the ego as a personality achieves a well-balanced relationship with the physical universe.

Legitimate, balanced psychic journeyings will result in a beneficial effect as far as the ego and its ability to handle its concerns are involved; and whenever such journeyings or investigations result in a lessening of egotistic control over circumstance then anyone so involved should instantly ask himself questions, and abruptly halt.

I do not speak here of acquaintances who do not understand the importance of psychic investigation. I speak now of the ego’s ability to handle itself. And psychic investigation will, and should, increase that ability if it is properly begun, and if the ego is properly related to the physical environment.

This discipline however should be followed rigorously only with a program of ego orientation, in which the ego tries to discipline itself in the most difficult manner, for this particular personality, toward freedom. He should express himself when he feels a diverse opinion, when he feels wronged. It is only when aggressions are unexpressed that they are dangerous, and the repressed rage will hold back the desired psychic development. Even chemically such anger causes reactions that will make desired states of being difficult to achieve.

The personality also contains good intellectual capacities, and he should examine psychic experience in the light of his intelligence also. There are truths which the intellect cannot perceive, but the intellect knows the ego, and represents a firm and reliable pathway between the inner self and the ego; and psychic experience—I repeat, psychic experience—will not suffer from such scrutiny.

A steady program, such as I have outlined, because of its conditioning routine, will allow the personality a progressive and safe entry into psychic experience that is firm, and will also strengthen the ego in its relation to environment. This is not to suggest that the ego is weak in this case, for it is not. But its ability to relate to others on the physical plane needs strengthening, particularly since the personality is vitally concerned with psychic investigation.