“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

I would like to continue with our discussion concerning the nature of the human personality in its relationship to action, and in connection with the matter of illness and health in general.

These unifying principles themselves, however, constantly and imperceptibly change. Upon another occasion we will consider the ways in which these unifying principles may shift. In many cases it may appear as if exterior circumstances formed such inner shifts, changing the whole unifying structure of the personality, and shifting the personality into what would appear to be entirely uncharacteristic activities.

I spoke, for example, of the acquiescence of action at certain levels to any kind of stimuli, indiscriminately, whether painful or pleasurable. Without this basic acquiescence, actions would not have been given the freedom to break patterns down and evolve new ones of them. This is not necessarily a more primitive aspect. It is simply a basic characteristic of action at certain levels, and the human personality, with its complicated ego structure, is nevertheless composed of many actions that operate at this level.

Its identity is within action. To say that its identity and its continuity or sense of continuity is within action, is not too far off, although the word continuity in this instance would be misleading.

In such a case the secondary personality may represent the best of the available alternatives that can be practically taken by the personality to maintain itself. The impeding action, then, would have a survival value.

In some cases of course the secondary personality would be a severely impeding one, stealing away the main energies. However, it must be understood that from the whole personality’s viewpoint, a strong ego, that is a dependable one, and one that will also allow necessary expression, is a necessity. Therefore from the standpoint of the whole personality, the adoption of a new ego, so to speak, with a more practical grouping of unifying principles, could be the best solution of the previous ego, the previously dominant ego, (if it) had been an incapable one.

In this case the so-called secondary personality would express the whole personality to better advantage, and actually reinforce its permanence and identity. After your break, we will discuss the purposes of the ego to some degree.

The basic personality would be fearful of such communications, knowing instinctively the weakness of the ego. The ego would be extremely insecure. On the other hand, the personality would almost welcome a strong organizing force, regardless of its source, and could tend to latch onto it as much as possible. A study of secondary personalities is most fascinating, since such a study would give you an excellent idea of the manner in which the ego in general is formed, for it is but a unity of energy under auspices of the strongest actions characteristic within the given personality system.