“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

We have in the past discussed in full the manner in which physical matter is formed. We have also discussed the ego, and our friend would do well to read the sessions dealing with the ego, and the ego’s relationship to action. For one of the basic reasons for the difficulty lies in the fact that the ego of the present personality does strongly attempt to stand apart from action. It attempts to force action, and to fight action which it does not initiate.

Here we have a blockage. The personality, the present ego, will not acquiesce to action, will not go along with it as part of it, but attempts to force it along its own directions. This will become clearer when passages concerning action and the ego are read.

There is an involvement that would seem, would seem, intense. The ego appears to be extremely intense, but to a large degree this is a deception, for the intenseness is caused by the attempt of the ego not to become involved with action, unless the ego can dominate action. There is no basic trust of the inner self. The personality does not basically recognize or trust the ability of the inner self, and this results in an intense inhibited fear.

The ego of the personality does not trust its own inner organisms. It must attempt to stand apart from them, and keep an eye on them. The ego does not believe that they are treating it right. The ego is therefore in its present circumstances because it fears itself so solitary, since it has to a large degree cut itself off from its inner self; yet not entirely, for the intuitive still speaks.

It has not been drowned completely by any means. Attempting to cut itself off, however, from the wholeness of the whole personality, the ego must strain for its reserves of energy; for in a large measure, it refuses to accept the energy of the whole personality that is available to it.

It will be our concern here, therefore, to aid the personality to discover and use these resources. I will have more to say concerning the manner in which the organic illness has been accepted by the ego, as a part of the ego’s self-image. This acceptance does indeed take place in that area of the personal subconscious that is closely allied to the ego.

It is precisely because the inner vitality is not accepted by the ego, that when it is acknowledged by the ego it seems so explosive. The ego attempts, this ego attempts, to stand aside and to deny the inevitability of change. The ego in this case, as in many cases, attempts to maintain stability and permanence at all costs.

This ego in particular, and many egos, consider that the self is the ego alone. The ego considers that therefore it must maintain stability and permanence. It therefore attempts to become rigid, because it considers itself the main representative of the self. It attempts to deny the inner emotions because the changeability of these emotions would seem to threaten its own permanence. It does not want to change. Therefore any seemingly small incident will tend to bring forth the explosion of these emotions quite against the ego’s inclination, precisely because the ego denies them so vehemently.

The harder the ego attempts to hold down the emotions, the more explosively will they show themselves upon the least provocation, and the more the ego will attempt to hold them down, and the worse the ulcer becomes. This need not be.

This is why there appears to be two such diverse tendencies that show themselves. The personality is indeed divided. The ego fights the inner self, which means of course that the self fights against itself.

Reactions will therefore appear to be intensified. Nevertheless this intensification is a pretense that one part of the self plays upon the other part, for the very intensity of the emotional reaction on the part of the ego to even small stimuli, allows the ego to say to itself “I feel deeply, therefore I know the depths of myself.” And this sham allows the ego to continue denying those inner emotions in an effort to maintain its permanence.

What the personality must be led to see is that any real permanence would indeed be the death of the ego and the personality. For as we know, the ego is not the same today, in your terms, as it was yesterday, nor yet as it will be tomorrow. That “I” continually changes.

The ego is indeed but one part of the self that speaks for the other portions of the self, but when it tries to speak for itself only, then indeed its words become meaningless, and the words become threats to the rest of the self. The discipline required in following our program as it develops, that discipline will itself represent the first steps to recovery.

In other words the apparent intensity of the egotistical reactions is a sham on the part of the ego, to hide the fact that it refuses to become involved with action as a whole, because it fears for its permanence. When the ego understands, and it will, that it is a portion of the whole self, and itself a part of action, then indeed it will not fear for its own permanence, for it will realize that being a part of action, its very nature is dependent upon change, and vitality, and value fulfillment.

I now suggest your break, and I do myself indeed enjoy your pleasant summer evening. I would like to make it plain here, however, that on a surface psychological level, the personality plunges into activity, and it is for the present this portion of the personality with whom we must deal. Nevertheless, beneath there is a denial of involvement, and a strong desire for permanency, both of which are repressed, and the stronger the efforts put forth by the ego to repress these tendencies, then these tendencies will explode with inadequate stimuli. There will be an overaction on the part of the ego to compensate for the refusal to accept involvement on deeper levels.

One more point. The ulcer for example has reality upon many levels, and must be dealt with in a like manner, for it is not enough to handle it even from the viewpoint of the present ego; for indeed causes are involved of which the present ego must necessarily be mainly ignorant. The inner self however has at its command all these reasonings, and all these causes.

It has been added for the purposes of the ego, and it can be discarded. It did not come to you as an organ like your heart, and your existence is not dependent upon it. The purpose that it served it no longer serves, and it must now be discarded.

When the ego becomes so rigid, it immediately begins an insidious attempt to block off stimuli, to limit the reaches of perception, to enclose itself in what it considers a safe world.

It begins to reject stimuli, because stimuli must be reacted to, and it rejects action because action must be reacted to. Therefore it chooses areas of rejection. The areas it chooses to reject are determined by characteristics that are unique to the particular ego.

It begins to travel down safe paths, and out of fear it continually enlarges the scope of limitations. In the particular personality’s case, perception becomes also limited, and rejections occur. In this as in many such cases foods are rejected. In many such cases the ego itself chooses to perceive only within those areas where it feels safe, and it rejects more and more any involvement that it can avoid. And now the ego has the self-created ulcer to blame, and it rejects many foods, for foods are symbolistic of involvement.

When you see that the ulcer does not belong to you in these terms, then indeed you will have no purpose in using your energies to maintain it. It is not part of your heritage. It is not part of the whole self; and now, we will see the purpose of the ego in all this is to protect what it considers the self, for the ego considers itself as the only self.

The very involvement of the ego with the inner self will be of great benefit. Nothing would be gained if I told you now that the ego would allow the ulcer to vanish, for there would still be a definite need on your part to understand. And it is indeed the understanding itself which will allow you to let it vanish.

For in the very quiet and discipline required to follow the problem, those reactions on the part of the personality will set up actions which will of themselves solve the problem; and we will find that also there will be suggestions given, and very important suggestions, whereby a systematic effort will be made on the part of the personality to enlarge the scope of his action, in spite of the ego’s anxiety to limit them, and this itself will seem to work a miracle.

I would suggest for the psychological time experiments, fifteen minutes to begin with, along the lines of the directions which Joseph has given. You will find here an intimacy with portions of yourself which you would tend to ignore, which the ego would tend to ignore. You will find indeed refreshment and release. I would suggest that the directions, Joseph, be more specific. You can do better than you have done.