“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

The past exists as a series of electromagnetic connections, held in the physical brain on the one hand, but it also consists of the same sort of realities retained in the nonphysical mind. These electromagnetic connections can be changed. The present exists as a series of electromagnetic connections in both the brain and the mind, and this is the only reality which you are justified in giving to your present.

In other words the past and the present are real to the same extent. At times in fact the past can become more real than the present, and in such cases past actions are reacted to in the present. You take it for granted that present action can alter the future, but present actions can also alter the past.

There is of course a composite past that is composed of such individual electromagnetic connections, and this composite past is not the same past that once existed, in those terms. The past itself is being continually recreated by every individual, as attitudes and associations change. This is an actual recreation, and not a symbolic one. The child is indeed still within the man, but he is not the child that once was, in those terms. For even the child within the man continually changes, and again I am not speaking of symbolic change.

But this is the only reality that can be granted to the present. I am speaking now in your terms only, and this point should be clearly understood, for I am simplifying conditions considerably. A change of attitude, a new association, any of innumerable other actions, will automatically set up new electromagnetic connections, and break others. Now part of this we shall explain later, for these changes obviously affect both the future and the past. But the past, again, is continually changed by you, and by every individual. For basically you see, it is not something done and finished with, as is supposed.

In all of these instances however there are uncertainties, for probable future events can be foreseen as clearly as events that will more actually occur. No event is destined to occur, and it can be changed, not only before and during, but after its occurrence. Again, I do not speak symbolically, and I am leaving myself open to many strong critical remarks which cannot all be answered in one evening.

You have yourself doubtless thought of some, but we shall do our best to make these ideas clear and understandable, and to explain various complications that can be anticipated. There are for example certain limitations set here that must be clearly stated; but within these limitations you will find that events can be changed, and are constantly changed, regardless of the point or the apparent point of their original occurrence.

(It was now time for the 31st Dr. Instream test. As usual Jane sat quietly with her head down and her hands raised to her closed eyes. She used many short pauses, but her pace overall was fairly good. Resume at 10:11.)