“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Mankind’s consciousness, however, experimented along time-specific lines. As he developed along those lines, various biological and mental methods of selectivity and discrimination were utilized. When in historic terms mankind became aware of memory, and recalled his past as a past in your terms, it was possible for him to confuse past and present. Vivid memories, out of context but given immediate neurological validity, could compete with the brilliant focus necessary in his present.¹

The past, in the present, would appear so brilliantly that man could not react adequately in circumstances of time that he had himself created. The future was blocked, practically speaking (long pause), to preserve freedom of action and to encourage physical exploration, curiosity, and creativity. With memory, however, mental projections into the future were of course also possible so that man could plan his activities in time, and foresee probable results: “Ghost images” of the future probabilities always acted as mental stimuli for physical explorations in all areas, and of all kinds.

(Pause at 10:37.) Its focus in the present is now secure. That focus finally brought about, in your terms, an expansion of consciousness, and one that early man did not have to handle. In your terms, time now includes more space, and hence more experience and stimuli. Again speaking historically, in the past the private person in any given hour was aware at once only of those events happening in his immediate environment. He could respond instantly. Events were, to that extent now, manageable. And rest your hand if you want to.

Now: In the past in the same way, love could be immediately expressed. In historic terms, early man, using here your theories about the race — early man — was in intimate contact with his family, clan, or tribe. With the developing expansion of space, however, loved ones often dwell far apart, and sudden bodily response cannot be expressed at once, at a particular point of immediate contact.

Quite sharply he perceived a particular curb at the corner of a definite intersection (York Avenue and Warren Street), and his attention was caught by the focus a curb, a slope of dirt, and then the sidewalk; and the motion of the carriage as it was wheeled up.

He toured his (public) grade school where he attended kindergarten to third grade,³ saw the children come out for recess, and felt himself one of them — while during the entire experience he knew himself as an adult, embarked upon that adventure.

He went from place to place, floating bodiless — a tour of consciousness. That same environment exists now, alternately with Ruburt’s present, and as vividly as his present does. It was, however, from his viewpoint, a probable past.⁴

(12:19.) In the sleep state after our last session, then, he allowed his consciousness to expand enough so that it became aware of information and experience usually censored automatically through mental and neurological habit. In Adventures Ruburt uses the term “prejudiced perception” — an excellent one — that is applicable here. For you have prejudiced yourself spiritually, mentally, and physically in those terms. In the sleep state Ruburt became unprejudiced, at least to some degree, so that he encountered information that seemed alien or out of context with usual experience.

Your theories of time are connected with your usual neurological pulses. It is one thing to play with concepts of multidimensionality, or probabilities, and quite another to be practically presented with them, even briefly, when your thought patterns and neurological habits tell you that they cannot be translated. So Ruburt felt frustrated, and he told me in no uncertain terms (see Appendix 4) that his consciousness could not contain the information he was receiving.

Like a good teacher (humorously), I took his protests into consideration. Later he wrote a statement that came to him. This was his conscious interpretation of the information he had received the night before, translated as best he could in linear terms.

I have my own existence, that is quite different from Ruburt’s, and yet I also have a reality that is connected to his psyche.⁶ Each of you also have the same kind of connection with other “more knowledgeable” portions of yourself, or your greater identity, that are independently themselves and yet also alive in your psyches. They are portions of the “unknown” reality.

Now I am able to obtain information that Ruburt, in his terms, does not have. In other terms he does have it, and so do you, but you have been mentally, spiritually, and biologically prejudiced against it. As a race, you are ready to become more aware of your greater reality, however, and to explore its “unknown” aspects. Period. Hence this book.

(Loudly:) Period. End of session. I will have some personal recommendations next time. Ruburt’s favorite television programs are good for him, and allow his mind to rest. They are his mental play, and for that reason, important.