“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Now I will say more concerning the changes worked in the ego as a result of our sessions, and from the psychedelic experience in general. The ego structure as such remains, of course. The responsibility of dealing with manipulation within the physical universe remains, but in some respects the nature of this manipulation changes. It becomes more direct: Physical properties are manipulated more and more on a mental level.

The personality is more integrated, yet through its acceptance of inner data, the ego, to use the term lightly, has expanded. It has not shrunk. It is now composed of more various elements from the whole personality. Retaining its own consciousness of reality it can now afford to step out of itself momentarily in order to gain further experience.

I have told you that the ego, generally speaking, is self-conscious action that attempts to set itself apart from action and to consider action as an alien object. Now this altered ego retains its highly specialized self-consciousness, and yet it can now experience itself as an identity within and as a part of action.

This is a cornerstone for consciousness and for personality development. It is only a first step, however. Without it, no further development of consciousness can occur. This particular step is not attained by all within your system. You are at this point now. This state has been called cosmic consciousness, but it is hardly that.

The next step is taken when identity is able to include within itself the intimate knowledge of all incarnations. Yet in this state the independence of the various reincarnated selves is not diminished. Each of these steps of consciousness involves identity with the inner recognition of its whole identity with All That Is.

To any of them, the others would seem to exist in a probable universe. Yet all of you are psychologically connected. This is literally endless. All of you did not have the same parents, for example, and these are portions of probable situations existing in your own parents’ separate lives, as you think of their lives.