“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

I didn’t have a chance to answer. Seth answered for me—his way. “You are an identity,” he said. “Pretend that you hold a flashlight, and the flashlight is consciousness. You can turn this light in many directions, but instead you are in the habit of directing it along one certain path, and you have forgotten that there are other paths.

Seth has used several analogies to explain this point. He said in another class session: “You have more than one conscious mind. We want you to change the channels of your awareness. … If you consider the conscious mind that you usually use as one door, then you stand at the threshold of this mind and look out into physical reality. But there are other doors … you have other conscious selves. …

“You are not expected to become unconscious, then. There is no need to feel that when you block out the ordinary conscious mind, there is only blankness. It is true that when you close one conscious mind—door—there may be a moment of disorientation before you open another.

“It is also true that you may need to learn the methods by which you can perceive other realities, simply because you are not used to manipulating these other conscious portions of yourself. But these portions are as critical—and even as intellectual—as valid and as real as the consciousness with which you are ordinarily familiar.”

Seth insists that there is only one way to learn what consciousness is: by studying and exploring our own awareness, by changing the focus of our attention and using our own consciousness in as many ways as possible. He says: “When you look into yourself, the very effort involved extends the limitations of your consciousness, expands it, and allows the egotistical self to use abilities that it often does not realize it possesses.”

The Inner Senses help us use telepathic abilities, for example. This doesn’t mean that we will always be able to “read minds.” It means that in family, business, or social contacts, we will be intuitively aware of what the other person is saying to us: we will know what is beneath words. We will also use words better ourselves to communicate our inner feelings since we will know what those feelings are. We will not be afraid of them or feel the need to cover them up.

At times, we can “read minds”—though that is a popular term, leaving much to be desired. But to use the Inner Senses properly, they must be used smoothly, often blending one into the other. It is often difficult to know whether we are receiving clairvoyant or telepathic information, for example. Not that it matters. Using the Inner Senses, we simply increase our entire range of perceptions.

As I write this, I am picking up all sorts of information about my environment, but I am hardly aware of doing so. Certainly I don’t consciously separate visual and auditory data unless I stop to think of it, though I know I receive the information through different senses. All of the physical senses operate at once to give us our picture of reality. We use the Inner Senses the same way, constantly, far beneath usual conscious notice. In order to explain them, we must describe them separately, though their effects are felt together.

“Think of the Inner Senses as paths leading to an inner reality. The first sense involves perception of a direct nature—instant cognition through what I can only describe as inner vibrational touch. Imagine a man standing on a typical street of houses and grass and trees. This sense would permit him to feel the basic sensations felt by each of the trees about him. His consciousness would expand to contain the experience of what it is to be a tree—any or all of the trees. He would feel the experience of being anything he chose within his field of notice: people, insects, blades of grass. He would not lose consciousness of who he was, but would perceive these sensations somewhat in the same way that you now feel heat and cold.”

Generally, though, this first Inner Sense can be extremely valuable, leading to expansion of experience, greater understanding, and compassion. Using it, with practice, you can feel the living emotional element of any living thing, rejoicing in its vitality. It does not diminish individuality, and it does not imply psychic invasion. We are not to be psychic Peeping Toms, but should use these abilities only to help others or, joyfully, as we use muscles and bones. The intent is important, but I don’t believe that you can use these senses wrongfully in any basic way; if you aren’t ready to utilize them properly, your own personality will see to it that you don’t use them consciously at all.