“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Now for a moment we will return to our material on action, and you may perhaps see why this fits in so well here. No action is identical to any other action. An action is never entirely dissipated, though it may pass beyond its particular field of origin. This transference, incidentally, from one system to another, necessarily changes the action itself; but for simplicity’s sake we may say that an action has its reality within many systems simultaneously.

Again, in this distortion we see the creation, however minute, of a new reality. The universe is cohesive, but it is also more various than you know even now. The nature of our object, our automobile for example, is indeed largely determined by those who perceive it, for it is different things in reality, and not one thing. Electrically it has an identity, and would be perceived as an entirely different phenomena from within an electrical system, where there would be no perceptors of physical data.

Within your field the automobile is perceived mainly as a physical object. Within some systems the same automobile would appear to be no more than a shadow. Within some systems the automobile would not be perceived at all, unless it were in motion. In other systems it would not be perceived at all, unless it were not in motion.

These various conceptions of the automobile would also apply of course to the perception of any physical beings within the car; that is, their reality would also be perceived differently, according to the perspective systems which viewed them.

You must indeed for practical reasons pretend as if the automobile had no reality except the reality with which you are familiar, but this is not the case. I mentioned feeling sound because this is a capability that lies latent within your own physical system, but this same sort of a juggling of perspective data is what happens, generally speaking, when inhabitants of a different system perceive realities that also have an existence within your own system.

It is really a building up of idea into a whole pattern that can be perceived by the camouflage senses. Any reality therefore will be variously perceived, and the nature of the reality will necessarily be distorted in the very attempt to perceive it. Here again we have our creative tension, whereby a new reality is formed as a result of the distortion itself. Within your system colors may be perceived as sound. Their connections with human moods is only too apparent.

Emotions may even cause a color reaction. Any reality, regardless of which system it originates within, will appear to some degree within all systems. Even within your own system, though perhaps on a subconscious level, all emotions have a reality in color. They have, as you know, a chemical reaction which is sniffed by other animals.

Reality is indeed not necessarily that which is constant within the various appearances of reality through all systems, as it is the perception of the whole picture of reality, or the sum of all reality as seen within the various systems. This involves quite a complicated point, and implies a complicated position; for true reality would not be completely either the reality of an automobile, say, as it appears within the physical system, or as it appears within the electrical system. It would not be that which appears identical to the two systems, but it would be indeed the sum of the realities of all systems, as applied to our weary automobile.

As always, my heartiest good wishes to you both, and one small note for Ruburt’s edification: a beef bouillon in mid afternoon would serve him well. Incidentally, his system automatically as a rule seeks those foods that tend to build up the particular sort of energy that he uses in the main. As a rule therefore, proteins are indeed a most beneficial food to him, and it is for this reason that he automatically seeks them out.