“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

The inner ego, however, while conscious of itself, has returned to a subjective position within action, and views itself as a part of action. The outer ego, if you recall, views itself as apart from, or separate from, action. The inner ego contains the various purposes toward which the entity, as seen in its various personalities, has been working to achieve.

I have often said that all these divisions and separations are arbitrary. All exist one within another. Apparent boundaries are not boundaries, but only differences in the focus of attention. Even this inner ego is not the same from one given moment to another, for it is not a static thing, but is a part of continuing action. It is much more familiar with the subconscious and with the dream universe, and with the inner self, than it is with the outside ego, however.

To some extent it also acts like a director of experience and action. It is not actually composed of the past egos, but of those dominant aspects of the various personalities. The inner ego, as action, thrusts in an inward direction; that is, back toward the originating impulse. The outside ego thrusts outward. They are two faces, therefore, and form one of many spheres of action, one pulling inward and one outward.

Tension is action’s inherent impulse to know itself through further action. All actions are the result of tension. Without tension there would be no existence. Tension therefore is a creative state. A lack of understanding concerning tension will always lead an organism to fight against itself.

The outer ego is very seldom aware of the inner ego, and the subconscious is indeed a vast area dividing them. We are discussing now the outer ego in relation to the inner ego, and describing a situation in terms of relationships. Other relationships would show both the outer and inner egos in a different light. Relationships are also the result of tensions, and each action sets up a new tension.

No action can be considered by itself. There is no solitary action. Such a possibility is basically meaningless. Nor does a tension exist in isolation. In all of these matters there is also constant pulsations of action within the outer ego, the inner ego, and all the other aspects of the whole self.

It is therefore obvious why one action affects all others, so intimately that it is basically impossible to speak of one action in isolation. Tension is a condition of action, and an inherent quality of action. The possibilities of action are limitless. Regardless of the origin of any given action, it will never be entirely dissipated. It may pass beyond or through the system in which it originated, but its existence will not cease.

Distortion, in this respect, has a different meaning than the sort of distortion arising from a misreading of information. Yet in some respects it is similar. An original action can never repeat itself in an identical fashion. Its attempts to do so, never successful, result in a kind of distortion, and this distortion then becomes the basis for a new reality.

Mankind is to some intimate degree acquainted with this attempt of action to recreate itself, for human reproduction is here a case in point, each individual attempting to create a replica, the attempt doomed to failure, but the attempt itself resulting in a distortion of the original action; that is, a distortion of the original individuals, and in the creation of a new reality, this process then being repeated indefinitely.

The distortions are then creative. The nature of action itself is such that tension is one of its positive characteristics, and the tension is the element that causes action to seek expansion in terms of an attempt to duplicate itself.

We come therefore to the fact of creative tension. The individual in his psychological state is familiar with creative tension, often in its pure state. So quickly however is the tension transformed into a distortive creation that the sensation of creation is mistakenly accepted as the tension itself, rather than seen for what it is. Creation is the result of tension, though instantly new tension is set up, since tension is a characteristic of action. And each creation, being action, will instantly set up new tension.

The creation is, therefore, the relaxed fulfillment of a tension. This can have practical results, for you will be able to recognize and use the tension itself toward purposeful goals. It can be dissolved or set at rest in any action. Recognizing the tension itself will allow you to choose the action that will result, to some degree.

Creative distortion, in its relationship with action, affects therefore the creation of thoughts. The principle of creative distortions is mainly responsible for the fact that no identical thought is ever transmitted from one individual to another. Here the material that I have given you on telepathy should be considered.

Likewise, our individual “A” cannot rip the thought out of the context of his own inner electrical system. He cannot send it to individual “B”. He can send an approximation of it, for the attempt to transmit the thought automatically changes the thought itself. He sends an approximation of the original thought, and this approximation is further changed by “B’s” action as he attempts to receive it. Have we this clear now?

In a like manner for example, the act of dreaming itself changes both the dreamer and the dream. The act of doing anything at all automatically changes the doer. The reality of any action automatically determines that the action will change.

The creative dilemma, the creative distortion, is of course itself an action that is resolved in further acts. These are basic principles concerning the nature of action, principles that are carried through within any system. They are valid therefore within your own system, within the electrical system, within the dream system, and among all others.

The action involved in these sessions, for example, changes us all, yet truly none of us perceive the nature of the entire action of which we are a part. I, for example, cannot perceive the entire future consequences of any one action. I may perceive the entire consequences of any given action within your system or my own, but it is impossible for me to perceive a given action’s consequences as it is felt within all systems, for each action occurs within all systems simultaneously.

I may use the word future, but I use it only to express that which is beyond my present perceptive limits. It is almost impossible to speak of a single, simple action, though I may do so for convenience’s sake.

Our next session then will be concerned further with the nature of action, and I will speak concerning the complexity of what may appear to be a single action.