“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

The progression in that system incidentally was not swift or certain. Individual development suffered in many ways. The problem of how to handle energy constructively was put in far simpler terms. There was less free will involved. The inhabitants of the system were far more fearful—so fearful that little change was allowed for.

Not one portion of consciousness is lost in this process, you understand. When you think of a possible destruction of your planet, you imagine perhaps the mutilation of nature as you know it, the species changed. Or you imagine the race of man vanishing, or starting all over again as it were from scratch.

Now you must understand that this continues throughout the entire system—animal and plant life. Change is gradual. In many ways it is a sleeping system, change taking place so slowly and nonviolently that the danger is in a constant status quo. The mental associative patterns are completely different from your own. Even abruptness of thought, you see, carries implications of violence, of abrupt change—the breaking of one pattern for another.

These accomplishments are not the ones for which you pat yourselves on the back however. Nature as you know it is also a result of your decision to handle large amounts of energy without strong imposed restraints. The beauties within it are often the result of violent changes, of strong energy, used to change pattern and form, and yet maintain a definite stability. The end products—your foliage, landscapes and skies for example, are of the highest esthetic nature: as esthetic productions they are unequalled.