“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Our material on the fifth dimension seemed almost infinite to you at the time. That is, the fifth dimension appeared infinite in its complexity, but you see that it is but one dimension within an infinite number of dimensions. For there are infinite possibilities in the patterns which action can of itself form.

I do not intend to number indefinitely, or list, an endless number of dimensions of actuality, though we will go into this later to some small degree. I am much more concerned for now that you understand the dimensions of action as they exist within the dream world, within psychological realities, and within other scopes with which you are yourselves somewhat familiar.

Here the self, by becoming part of greater action, increases its own ability to deal with action. The principle that action acts upon itself is extremely important when we are dealing with psychological action. The principle that action is self-generating, and that it cannot be withdrawn, is also vital in connection with psychological action.

In the psychological realm it goes without saying that a repressed emotion is never really repressed, since action cannot be retained. It must change. The cause of such difficulties lies not in the repression of an emotion, for this is impossible. The emotion in one way or another, will out, but the difficulty lies in the attempt to repress the emotion. This attempt is itself an action.

You may perhaps come closer to understanding how these psychological structures are manipulated if you consider the same sort of structures as they exist as dream objects in sleep.

You will recall that the ego, while disliking change, is nevertheless dependent for its identity upon change. The ego to a large degree, therefore, chooses during its development those characteristic actions which will form its nature. Because the ego necessarily changes however, actions or emotions which at one time it chose as acceptable, at a later date so to speak it may attempt to deny.

The habitual pattern or characteristic nature of the ego may then be led to refuse to accept an emotion, at the same time that a pattern has already been set to receive the particular type of emotion. Here the ego fights against itself. Such an emotion may of course be given release through dreams, but this is of limited value to the ego involved, since the ego does not accept the reality of dream existence.

The rejected emotion, in other words, will express itself in any case, but it will do so then as a rebel, outside of the organizational directives of the ego itself. Hence for example, actions that appear senseless to the ego are often the results of such unassimilated or denied emotions. At one time or another such emotions were acceptable to the ego. There was an attraction, or the emotion would not have been permitted to enter into a realm close to ego control.

It is therefore with the second alternating group of characteristics that most such problems arise. An ego who can, and has at one time or another accepted as part of itself a violent and unruly desire to kill, for example, will not automatically reject the emotion of hatred. He may dislike it, but he will recognize it as a part of himself during whatever period it is assimilated. An ego which once accepted such an idea of violence, and knew it as a possibility of action, such an ego, if he then rejects the conception, can no longer afford, ever, to recognize this once acceptable emotion, for he is only too aware of the action that could have at one time developed.

The ego itself attempts as its function to be the director and center of other functions. The ego, while considering itself apart from action, is obviously not apart from it. As dreams allow the inner self great freedom, and as in dreams great perspectives of time are available, and great freedom in space, though no space as you know it is involved, so it is possible for the ego itself to achieve the experience of freedom from time and space, if it would only allow itself for a short while to relax the intensity of its objective focus.

Ruburt may now, if he wishes, work on his psychological time in the morning. I wanted that particular routine broken up for a while, but now if it is more convenient he may return to his old schedule; that is, that same time of day, but twenty minutes should still be the limit.

(Seth referred to Jane’s endeavors with psychological time because she has been having trouble establishing an effective routine for it in the afternoons. She always found it natural to try it between eleven-thirty and noon, after she had put in her morning’s work writing, and before I get home from work.)