“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

The overall needs of the personality are always taken into consideration by what I have called in the past the inner ego. Now this portion of the self is indeed self-conscious in the highest meaning of the term—aware of the subconscious portion of the personality, aware of the primary conscious framework that you call your ego, and constantly directs the overall activities. This portion is aware of the complicated workings of the nervous system and all bodily functions. It is the overseer. It knows when to allow subconscious needs and wishes their fulfillment. It knows when to put fulfillment off for a time. It is this part of the personality that is in charge of overall stability.

When in such dreams your perceptions seem exceedingly clear, you can be certain that the inner ego is operating. Now all portions of the personality, of the present personality, belong to this inner ego. It functions constantly, and yet it is always in a state of becoming. It is more than what you are at any given moment in your time. It contains, and is, the psychological blueprint containing the full potential of the present personality within any given incarnation.

It is the director of all the subsidiary psychological subpersonalities that form the acting-present primary personality. It gives and takes. It prevents unconstructed aspects from gaining control, unless of course there are strong reasons why such control is necessary in the long run.

It dabbles in both your future and your past, speaking now in your terms. As you create a painting, and the painting is still an aspect of yourself, so it creates the whole personality, which is an aspect of itself. It operates in both the waking and the dream state. It often forms the content of each. It is more knowledgeable than any one aspect of the personality. It is more knowledgeable than all other aspects of the personality, for it forms them together into a cohesive whole.

It is therefore the director of all activities, both in the waking and dream condition. It is the inner ego from whom you receive your inspiration, and it is the inner ego which gives consent to our meetings.

If only the physically-oriented ego survived, very little indeed would survive at all. The physically-oriented ego is hardly aware of your experiences in their entirety. The physically-oriented ego, if it alone survived, would contain only your conscious memories. Even now, in physical existence, you operate on a much deeper and more complicated level than this. Events and experiences which are forgotten, or which escaped the physically-oriented ego, still affect your activities in this life, and if they did not your physical existence would be brief indeed. (Jane pounded the tabletop for emphasis, eyes wide and dark.) Any survival that was based upon the survival of the physically-oriented ego alone would be as shallow as a paper cutout. These things escape you. You take it for granted that the physically-oriented ego represents your own psychological identity, you see, and this is an illusion. It contains a portion of your psychological feeling of identity, but only that.

Feelings and sensations and memories that it knows nothing of have built up your psychological identity, and given you a sense of continuity. Of these this ego knows but little. Intimacy with your self and with your own identity, that is intimate knowledge of your own identity, resides in all portions of the self, and is not dependent upon a survival based upon the survival of the physically-oriented ego. This would represent a sham of a survival indeed.

The survival personality does not need to do this. To him all realities are psychological realities, a thought as real as a chair—in fact, much more real. Therefore, communications between survival personalities and physically-oriented personalities are bound to suffer difficulties, and these difficulties are the result of the change of psychological frameworks.

There was no personal danger to either of you, as far as Ruburt’s dream is concerned, and that is all for now.