“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

The consciousness so attuned however is only a small portion of the individual’s total consciousness. In your system it is now fashionable to refer to this as the ego. The psychological structures are indeed so imprinted. However they are also aware and conscious of huge portions of themselves that are not so imprinted. They are aware of themselves simultaneously as individuals imprinted so as to react within several systems.

There may be a strong feeling of oneness with All That Is. This is of course much to those who have been primarily ego oriented, and it represents a meaningful breakthrough that can indeed provide the opportunity and impetus for a far more fulfilling earthly existence.

The ego indeed is a fiction, but a highly useful one. It is an artificial division, indeed ever changing, and yet the illusion of its existence must be maintained while you are in this existence. It need not be inflexible, with training. With training it will be willing to grant you much more freedom, and yet it will remain intact.

The psychedelic experience is a most fruitful one. Drugs are not a prerequisite however. In an experience without drugs, the ego loses its substantial quality momentarily. It remains however as a protection. In all our work we have been allowing the nonphysical self more and more freedom. We have been and we are expanding consciousness, and this consciousness includes the ego.

We are bringing the ego inward, so to speak. It is partaking of this consciousness expansion. In the past the ego has been overexaggerated. It has ruled the roost. This does not mean that the changing pendulum must now attempt to eliminate the ego. Any expansion of consciousness must also include this portion of the self.

Now. Another point. The ego will act as a translator of inner experience for you. If such translations contain distortions, they are better than no translations at all, and intuition will allow you to see through the distortions.

These will also be sifted of course through the layers of personal subconscious. The experience will still be meaningful without the ego, but it will not be as meaningful, and you will not be able to utilize in efficient manners. It must become a part of the organization of the whole present identity, you see.

It is precisely because the ego is excluded from the psychedelic experience with drugs that difficulties are encountered afterward. Given the opportunity the ego can and does merge with other portions of the self, and yet loosely maintains a psychological framework within which the experience can be translated in your terms.

The psychedelic experience under these circumstances transforms the ego also in beneficial ways. Otherwise the ego is left behind, unable to perform, as a rule now, its primary functions. The ego can organize the old data when it undergoes a psychedelic experience as a part of the whole self. Then it can also organize the new data.

A trained and flexible ego will be able to momentarily relinquish its dominancy during the experience itself. We will have more to say here in connection with these advanced psychological structures, and what is called the psychedelic experience. At our next session, I will begin also to answer Ruburt’s questions concerning such an experience without drugs. You have many hints, and I will give you further instruction.