“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Also while on this walk, Jane had the thought that death approaches a personality when the personality becomes less and less able to focus his energies fully on this plane, when he can no longer control his physical image as well as in the past. She thought Seth might discuss this subject this evening.

We will begin by examining the cause behind the breaking up of necessary physical patterns so that survival within the world of matter is no longer possible. Now. Existence within the physical field depends upon a focus of psychic energy, in the subconscious construction of that physical organism without which material survival is not possible.

You may refer here to past sessions dealing with the mechanisms involved. Existence within any field of reality necessitates intensive focus within that field. It involves something like a sleight of hand trick, played by one part of the whole self upon another part. As an actor in a drama goes along with certain acts and gestures that make the play necessary, while at the same time he realizes that the play is a play, he must still focus his attention upon the lines spoken, and use the props available.

In much the same manner, existence within the physical universe involves the most intense self-hypnotic trance, where attention becomes riveted and focused along certain lines while other realities are of necessity closed out of one’s perception and comprehension for a certain while.

No play can go on forever. Individual focus cannot be intensely maintained indefinitely. Neither can the vibrant, almost fanatical focus of the self within the limitations of one field continue indefinitely.

It changes its focus, grows restive, adopts new forms in line with existence-necessities that exist within other fields. There is nothing inherent within the composition of matter as you conceive of matter to bring about a natural downfall, or natural inevitable disintegration.

Since matter does disintegrate, or seems to, you take it for granted that this dissolution is inherent within it, but this is not the case. The focus of energy that organizes the physical body weakens, strays; the trance state, strongest at what you call early adulthood, begins to lose its hold even as in childhood it has not yet attained its full depth.

By adulthood the trance, the intense focus, is most strongly upon him. It is after this period that the trance little by little weakens its hold. By the period you call old age the inner attention is already escaping. The strong focus of psychic energy needed to maintain the splendid physical image-organization is no longer given. The conscious ego with which you are familiar cries out its bewilderment, for has it not always sensed immortality?

This accounts for the disintegration. There is much more that must be said along these lines, and in time we will go into further discussion. However, the main focus of the whole self has already begun to stray, and the energies used in necessary pattern organization for the physical plane are already being returned, taken from their attention to physical matters, and becoming more attuned to the whole self from which they were originally delegated.