“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

We shall tie these two subjects together. The book should make one point plain: Identity, despite all appearances to the contrary, does not reside primarily in the ego. Social identity may possibly there reside, but the basic identity does not.

The four faces of Eve all represented various ego manifestations of one inner identity. The course of the ego is a precarious one, and any number of potential egos exist within any identity. The Three Faces of Eve is an excellent title for the book, since the ego may quite legitimately be compared to the face that the identity turns toward objective reality, or the living mask that it dons.

The authors made several excellent points, without however carrying the main point in any actuality. They conceive of the psychological structure as a gestalt, dominated by the ego, formed by various needs and potentialities. When the dominating ego relaxes its control for any reason or becomes weakened, then according to their concept any one of the subsidiary groups may take over.

But identity is much more than this, and basic identity, while using the perceptive abilities, is not that dependent upon them. It is true that the personality is a gestalt, and that every identity has any number of potential egos. It is also true that on occasion one potential ego will take over from another. But this is all highly simplified, for the ego structure is not one thing, but a changing, never constant, actually quite informal grouping of psychological patterns. Each ego uses and interprets the organism’s perceiving apparatus in a way that in the overall is characteristic and distinctive.

This characteristic way of interpreting perceived data, and of reacting to it, is not as constant as it appears to be however. The stability and illusion of permanence is highly misleading. The four manifestations of personality all belonged to one identity, and this is perhaps the main point missed. For if the authors say that oftentimes a subordinate or potential ego will take over control when necessary in order to insure the survival of the whole, then this implies a decision that has been made; and who has made it?

The inner self chooses from its available potential personalities the one that it finds most adequate. Sometimes it simply makes an error, for the inner self is not a perfected thing, any more than the ego is. But identity does exist, and the ego is but a pseudoidentity formed for utilitarian reasons, and as such it is of course a part of the basic identity from which it springs.

These potential egos at one time or another will have their chance, as dominant egos, in this existence or in another reincarnation. They represent the overall potentials of the whole identity in respect to physical existence. The identity has in other words latent abilities which it will not use within the physical system, but all of the latent ability ever available lies within the original identity.

Also the impression of a string or series. A miscellany of shapes in one corner. An implied border. A note.

(Break at 10:28. Jane was dissociated as usual. Her eyes had remained closed throughout both experiments. She had but one image during the envelope data—of white notepaper with blue lines upon it, and she didn’t know whether this came from Seth or herself.

(“Suitable. A connection with something suitable for an occasion.” In the photo Maxine is dressed up, including white hat and gloves, and wears a large corsage on the left lapel of her dark-colored suit. The corsage could be something suitable for an occasion. There could also be a play on words here, in that Maxine is wearing one of the old-fashioned square-shouldered two-piece suits in style then: Suitable, suit. Seth elaborates a little in answer to a question.

(“A grillwork.” In plain view in the photo are picket fences to the right and left of Maxine and Del, plus two large curving trellises bare of flowers or greenery. One of the trellises is in back of the couple. See the tracing on page 124.

(“A circular object that is segmented, and perhaps turns.” One of the trellises in the photo is plainly seen on the couples’ right. Its construction is segmented, its outside shape made up of curves. In addition the curve of this trellis flows into the curve or arch of the trellis behind Del and Maxine. We think Seth’s perception of these curving lines led to the mention of “perhaps turns.”

(“Also the impression of a string or series. A miscellany of shapes in one corner.” Apparently the picket fence, seen in two places on the photo—to their right and in back of Del and Maxine, and their left foreground. In the photo the tree branches in their left background form an interesting pattern also, with the building mentioned at the top of this page seen behind them; usually when Jane uses the word miscellany to denote irregular shapes the data is too general.