“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

There are as I have told you no limitations to the self. It grows by growing, and by constant use of its abilities. It can be said that all consciousnesses and all identities are but one. This in no way negates the existence of any given identity however. All identities are more dependent upon each other, and yet more independent, than you imagine.

Various aspects of the personality exist whether or not you are aware of their existence. When you do become aware of their existence, your awareness in no way negates their independence. You simply expand psychically. Portions of the self live a more or less independent existence, both while the dominant personality sleeps and is awake.

When through training the ego becomes more aware of this inner self, the whole personality benefits. The whole self as it exists at any given time can be glimpsed through studying the actions of the physically-oriented ego, as seen in physical manipulation, and in studying the activities of the inner ego as seen in dream experiences. Obviously some training is necessary before this can be achieved.

Later you may be able to follow this inner self even while the physical ego operates in its normal manner, but this is much more difficult if overall personality balance is to be maintained. It should be fairly obvious that identity hardly resides exclusively within the physically-oriented ego. In one sense, identity is always a becoming, and it can never be a static, finished thing. For it knows itself through change, and that which is finished cannot change.

Our material on the nature of action will be helpful here. The ego, the physically-oriented ego, is a convenient figurehead. It represents only an imperfect glimpse of a given momentary appearance—the portion of the self that happens in any given instant to show itself.

You do not know the self as it is within physical existence, and until you do you cannot hope to know what survives physical death, or what part of you is awake while the ego sleeps. When I refer to the ego I do so for simplicity’s sake, since the term has meaning to you. There are obviously portions of the self that never operate directly within physical reality.

Consider this analogy: The self as a moving circle, such as a Ferris wheel. A tree in front of the wheel will represent physical reality. The whole self, or the whole wheel, is composed of many selves in various positions, as the many people who sit on the Ferris wheel. As the wheel turns you call the person or the self who faces the tree the ego, simply because this is the portion that faces physical reality, represented by our tree. But the self who faces the tree one moment is not the self that faces it the next moment, and the operator of the wheel is never in evidence, you see.

The driver of our wheel in this case never appears in the seat that faces physical reality. He is in a strange position, in that he is an overall self, composed in part of the sum of these other selves, and yet more than the sum.

The selves who ride the wheel therefore also provide some of the power that runs the wheel. It is only because you stress similarities rather than differences that you do not realize that the self that you call the ego is but the appearance, in one particular perspective, of many quite different aspects of the personality.

Perhaps if you imagine a spotlight directed on the seat in front of the tree, you will see this more clearly. You cannot see the other selves on the wheel, you only see the one spot that is lit, and the light is that of physical perception. There are different lights, however. If others watched and saw only that portion of the self that was clear in their perspective, then they would imagine that they saw the primary self also.

The inner ego is the self who drives the wheel with purpose; at the same time there are many other wheels and many spokes… Our moment point analogy will also help you here. The sleeping self will of course be considered the primary self from the standpoint of its own reality. I cannot emphasize too strongly the fact that all of these portions are self-conscious. They may not be conscious of the other selves however. The inner senses connect all the selves, and the movements of consciousness are far more complicated than that of a Ferris wheel.

The psychology of personality cannot be grasped unless reincarnation is taken into consideration, but even then this only represents energy operating within one system. The personality operates simultaneously within many systems. Projection represents practical application. Such experience allows you to unite various aspects of the self, and to bring the whole self into sharper focus. As a rule projection in some areas can only be achieved by those who are living their last earthly cycle.

It is true that the whole personality, or whole self, does not directly manifest itself within physical reality.

However, the personality as it is manifested can never be understood if it is taken alone. There are sufficient hints and signs that do appear, to give evidence of these other portions of the self. Now there is one important point in particular in all this that should be emphasized, and I will repeat it: Certain portions of the self do not manifest themselves directly within physical reality. They do not operate directly within physical reality, and the word directly is significant.