“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

CHAPTER
TEN:

The Nature of Physical Reality

What do you think this physical universe is? You may not have thought of the question consciously, but each of us has an opinion and we guide our daily actions by it whether we realize it or not. By physical universe I mean everything with which we come into contact in any way at all—stars, chairs, events, rocks, flowers—our entire physical experience. What you really believe about these things causes much of your behavior. You’ll feel safe or panic-stricken, happy or sorrowful, secure or insecure, according to your private view of reality.

Some people think that we are stuck in physical reality like flies in flypaper or victims in quicksand, so that each motion we make only worsens our predicament and hastens our extinction. Others see the universe as a sort of theater into which we are thrust at birth and from which we depart forever at death. In the backs of their minds people with either attitude will see a built-in threat in each new day; even joy will be suspect because it, too, must end in the body’s eventual death.

I’m dealing with this subject, the nature of physical matter, first, because it is basic to any understanding of Seth’s theories. Seth says that we form the physical universe as unselfconsciously as we breathe. We aren’t to think of it as a prison from which we will one day escape, or as an execution chamber from which all escape is impossible. Instead we form matter in order to operate in three-dimensional reality, develop our abilities and help others. Physical matter is like plastic that we use and mold to our own desire, not like concrete into which our consciousness has been poured. Without realizing it we project our ideas outward to form physical reality. Our bodies are the materialization of what we think we are. We are all creators, then, and this world is our joint creation.

Seth says that not only do we form our own reality now, but we will continue to do so after physical death, so it is of the utmost importance that we understand the connection between thought and reality.

Seth explains exactly how we translate thoughts into physical reality. To our knowledge, this explanation is original with the Seth Material To say the least, the supposition that we actually create matter gives rise to all kinds of questions, and Rob and I have considered many of them at one time or another. Was Seth saying that we created tables and chairs as well as events? And when we were ill, were we creating our own disease? If we create reality to begin with, then can we change it for the better?

“Because I say that you create physical matter by use of the inner vitality of the universe, in the same way that you form a pattern with your breath on a glass pane, I do not mean that you are the creators of the universe. I am saying that you are the creators of the physical world as you know it.

“Matter is continually created, but no particular object is in itself continuous. There is not, for example, one physical object that deteriorates with age. There are instead continuous creations of psychic energy into a physical pattern that appears to hold a more or less rigid appearance.

“Physical matter makes consciousness effective within three-dimensional reality. As individualized energy approaches your particular field, it expresses itself to the best of its ability within it. As energy approaches, it creates matter, first of all in an almost plastic fashion. But the creation is continuous like a beam or endless series of beams, at first weak as they are far off, then stronger, then weak again as they pass away.

“None of you sees the glass that the others see. … Each of the three of you creates your own glass, in your own personal perspective. Therefore you have three different physical glasses here, but each one exists in an entirely different space continuum.”

“Physical objects cannot exist unless they exist in a definite perspective and space continuum. But each individual creates his own space continuum … I want to tie this in with the differences you seem to see in one particular object. Each individual actually creates an entirely different object, which his own physical senses then perceive. Since we have here this evening such an elegant and welcome guest,” Seth smiled, “Let us then perceive him in terms of a slight discussion of matter, in which he will be our guinea pig.”

“You and Ruburt perceive Mark, and yet neither of you sees Mark’s Mark. As he sits in his chair, he is constantly creating his own physical image, using his own psychic energy, and using particular atoms and molecules for the construction of his body. So far we have here, then, one Mark, constructed by himself, and before the evening is out you will be amazed at how many Marks we end up with.

“While Mark creates his own physical image, you do not see it. At this time, there are three entirely different Marks in this room.”

“There is the Mark which Mark has created, an actual physical construction. There is another, created by you, Joseph. There are two more physical Marks, one created by Ruburt, and one by your cat. If another person entered the room, there would be still another physical Mark.

“There is a smugness about the lips, very good, that I am rather pleased with. The construction is being created by myself. Just to appear within your plane, any construction, whether perceived by you or not, must be composed of atoms or molecules.

“Suggestion is no more and no less than an inner willingness and consent to allow a particular action to occur; and this consent is the trigger which sets off the subconscious mechanisms that allow you to construct inner data into physical reality.

“Thoughts and images are formed into physical reality and become physical fact. They are propelled chemically. A thought is energy. It begins to produce itself physically at the moment of its conception.

“Chemicals are released through the skin and pore systems, in an invisible but definite pseudophysical formation. The intensity of a thought or image largely determines the immediacy of its physical materialization. There is no object about you that you have not created. There is nothing about your own physical image that you have not made.

“The physical environment is as much a part of you, then, as your body. Your control over it is quite effective, for you create it as you create your fingertip. … Objects are composed of the same pseudo-material that radiates outward from your own physical image, only the higher intensity mass is different. When it is built up enough, you recognize it as an object. At low intensity mass it is not apparent to you.

“Every nerve and fiber within the body has an inner purpose that is not seen, and that serves to connect the inner self with physical reality, that allows the inner self to create physical reality. In one respect, the body and physical objects go flying out in all directions from the inner core of the whole self.”

“In a very real manner, events or objects are actually focal points where highly charged psychic impulses are transformed into something that can be physically perceived: a breakthrough into matter. When such highly charged impulses intersect or coincide, matter is formed. The reality behind such an explosion into matter is independent of the matter itself. An identical or nearly identical pattern may reemerge ‘at any time’ again and again, if the proper coordinates exist for activation.”

Throughout the centuries many people have recognized that mind and matter were related, but the Seth Material specifically gives the ways and means by which mind is translated into the reality that we know. Exactly what force is beneath the smallest units of matter, for example? How does the breakthrough into matter occur? In order to do justice to these questions, I deal with them separately in the Appendix.

“In your system of reality you are learning what mental energy is, and how to use it. You do this by constantly transforming your thoughts and emotions into physical form. You are supposed to get a clear picture of your inner development by perceiving the exterior environment. What seems to be a perception, an objective concrete event independent from you, is instead the materialization of your own inner emotions, energy, and mental environment.”

But as you will see, we form our physical reality not only now and after death, but through at least several lifetimes, as we learn to translate energy and idea into experience. We not only form our environment now, but ahead of time we choose our parents and circumstances. Perhaps after reading the next two chapters you’ll see why I finally accepted the idea of reincarnation after having been “dead set” against it.