“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

The subconscious, and in fact all portions of the self with the exception of the ego, are capable of assimilating a wider area, so to speak, of action. Therefore to these other portions of the self, time has a much different essence than it has for the ego. The ego is indeed many things. It can be defined in relationship to many other aspects of reality. In relationship to action, and moment points, the ego is indeed that portion of the self which stands at the apex of the moment point, and is limited by the moment point. The ego is in this context the portion of the self which is utterly focused upon, and imprisoned by, the moment point.

The ego is that portion of the self which experiences time as continuity, and to whom experience is a series of stimuli and responses carried on one after another. And yet this is in itself a division, so to speak, or a kind of value fulfillment, for the simultaneous nature of a given action is here experienced in slow motion, as a child must learn to walk before the child can run.

The subconscious, reaching outward, reaches also inward. For while there is no real past or present or future within the spacious present, there is indeed an infinity of inward and outward; and again, of actions within actions, and there is no end to these actions for they are self-generating. The other portions of the inner self reach then even further in all directions, and they therefore envelop many moment points. To many portions of the inner self then, what you would call a moment would correspond to an almost limitless number of moments, for even physical time has no meaning without experience without action.

Your whole concept of time is built about your own capacity for perceiving action; as this capacity for perceiving action grows, so indeed do the dimensions of time grow. Conceivably therefore one moment of your time would indeed be experienced by the whole self as centuries.

This should lead you to understand why physical time is basically meaningless to the subconscious, and why the inner self has at its command a knowledge of past lives and past endeavors; for the inner self, dear friends, these lives are not in the past, nor is the life of the ego necessarily present to the whole self.

For to the whole self all personalities that compose it exist simultaneously, and personalities that would appear to you as future personalities are experienced by the whole self in the same dimension as it experiences personalities that you would call past personalities. For all your ideas of time are illusion, not merely philosophical illusions, but delusions as far as any basic reality is concerned.

It is only the ego that steps from moment to moment, as a man who walks from puddle to puddle. It is only the ego who drowns in time. Therefore, since only the ego is momentarily imprisoned within the focus of your plane, it is only the ego who probes so slowly into simultaneous action, perceiving it bit by bit and sip by sip. So now you will see what I meant when I spoke about the limitless self, for the whole self is not so bound. The whole self could and does perceive a limitless number of such moment points simultaneously. And now hear this:

(The heavier overtones of Jane’s voice had subsided to some degree by break time, but it still had good substance. Jane maintained this reduced characteristic as she began dictating again, at a good rate, at 9:42.)

Time, physical matter, these are but portions of action as perceived in one particular fashion. The basic stuff, or the basic action of the universe, is one. It is perceived differently, and therefore reality constantly wears a different face. It is speeded up or slowed down according to the scope of perception.

A note here: Ruburt may try the psychological time experiments twenty minutes daily; and indeed yes, the time of the day should be uniform. I would suggest now that he seriously begin to schedule this with his daily activities. It is best that you be in the house with him, Joseph. And indeed, for your own edification your life in general will be much more comfortable within what I would call a short time; though to you this may be two years, before a noticeable change is apparent.

I am speaking in financial terms. The changes themselves will begin earlier, but you will probably not be sure of them yourself until the time that I have given. I will not go into any other personal matters this evening, however, as it was not my intention.

(Jane has been trying psy-time lately, though not yet on a regular basis. She seems to think fifteen minutes is not quite enough for her to achieve results as a matter of routine, although she enters a trance state readily enough.

(Of course Jane and I have for some time been aware of the possible differences in meaning between Seth and ourselves, over interpretation of the word “soon”. Sometimes the situation has been rather humorous, other times not. A good case in point would be the 104th session of November 4,1964. In it Seth stated that Jane had already made a sale, yet she did not receive confirmation of the sale of her ESP book until April 19, 1965. See the 147th session.

I mentioned the chemical relationship between your universe and the dream universe. There are like relationships of one kind or another that tie together all fields and systems, from the largest to the most minute. The freedom of the inner self, then, is never determined by time as you know it. It is determined by time as you do not know it.

There will be much more here also concerning moment points and value fulfillment. For this, value fulfillment, is the reason behind the existence of all systems, and of all experience within your field. I mentioned that value fulfillment seems, and is to some small degree, dependent upon time as you know it, but this merely reflects upon the manner in which you perceive time, and in no way alters the simultaneous nature of value fulfillment, which grows in dimension but is not dependent upon time as you know it.

I tell you that you are indeed headed for more comfortable times, but this does not mean that there is not very much within your own daily life now to be thankful for. Spontaneity will open many doors. I am speaking of emotional spontaneity.

(End at 11:02. This time Jane was fully dissociated again.)