“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Now, we have been sliding along again. Our Lady from Venice has made some progress, for since I spoke to you last, you finally took me to heart. I hoped for more from you. . . and you will surprise yourself. I am speaking to our young merchant from Venice over here.

I use Ruburt’s body with his permission because he is a friend of mine. You use your own bodies... they are the vehicles that you wear. As Ruburt would say, they’re the space garments you don in order to dwell upon your earth. They are not you... you use them... use them joyfully and gladly and well but do not identify with them for they are not you. I have used and discarded more bodies than I would desire to count. And had I really died with even one of those bodies, I would not be speaking to you now... and you would not be sitting beside me. For you have also spoken with many tongues. But again, coming here once a week may help you find yourself... it may point you in the right direction... but you will only find yourself when you journey inward. And by journeying inward I do not mean a quick and hasty and apologetic trip to your child memories. I do not mean an attempt to find out why you are frightened of spiders or have boils on your arm. I am speaking of a more extensive journey. And all of you know to what I am referring. Open up the gates of your consciousness while you sleep! You know you are more than what you refer to as your conscious I. But you should know it through experience! Open up the barriers in your daily lives... step outside of the self that you know—and you will solve your difficulties! You will solve them and you will know that you have done so. You will know that the ability is within yourself and you have used it—then you may hit me over the head with your crutches and I will laugh!

You must understand the nature of reality before you manipulate within it intelligently and well. In this environment and in physical reality, you are learning...you are supposed to be learning...that your thoughts have reality and that you create the reality that you know. When you leave this dimension, then you concentrate upon the knowledge that you have gained. If you still do not realize that you create the reality that you know, then you return and again you learn to manipulate and again and again you see the results of your own inner reality as you meet it objectified. You teach yourself the lesson until you have learned it. And when you have learned it, then you have begun to learn how to handle the consciousness that is yours intelligently and well. And then you can form images for the benefit of others, and lead them and guide them. And then you can continue, you can continue to enlarge the scope of your understanding and consciousness...and as you do this, you take on a more conscious awareness of your responsibility. And your responsibility is not difficult to understand.

It is always up to the individual. There is no predestination. And there is no one who tells you what you must do. The answers are within yourself then as the answers are within yourself now.

([Jim Crosson:] “How do you discover those answers for yourself?”

You must try to forget for a period of time each day the self that you think of as yourself ... the adult pretensions, the adult bignesses. You must remember the childhood spontaneity. You must think of the freedom that is within a flower. Now it seems to you that a flower cannot move, and therefore has no freedom. And yet I tell you, you must think about the freedom of a flower.

You must dissociate yourself from the person that you know. Close your eyes. Imagine anything that you like that is pleasant to you. It makes no difference what it is. Then imagine yourself stepping apart from yourself in whatever way you choose. And then imagine that all about you there is another dimension and you need only take one step at a time ... and you will find your answers. You have only to begin. There is an adventure and it is within you. And there are answers, and they are within you... and you can find them. Now. You have more questions?

Now. I have some questions. It is more difficult for me to form questions than for me to answer them. My question is this... and you do not need to answer it now. You do not need to answer it at any time, to me.... It is a question for yourself:

Your answers to the questions that you gave me will come from within. They will come in an easier fashion if you can free yourself. For you have formed barriers without knowing it... where barriers do not exist.