“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Dictation: Now: To some extent the development of consciousness as you understand it follows the development of the gods through the ages; and in those stories appear the guises that man might have taken, as well as those that he did.

As specified,² ego consciousness grew. These inner patterns, native to the psyche of any species, turned into concepts, mental images — intuitive projections that were all meant to give conscious direction. The gods served, then, as stimulators of development. Seemingly outside of the self, they were meant to lead the self into its greatest area of fulfillment. The god images would change as consciousness did. The various god concepts that have fallen by the wayside, so to speak, represent areas of development that were not chosen, in your terms, but they are still latent. The totem pole, for example, is a remnant from an era where there was much greater communication between man and the animals — when, in fact, men went to the animals to learn, and from them first acquired knowledge of herbs and corrective medicinal behavior.³

(Long pause.) Historically, it seems to you that mankind was born from an animal’s undifferentiated kind of consciousness into egotistical self-awareness. Instead, many types of consciousness existed in the period of which I am speaking. The animals chose to develop their own kind of consciousness, as you chose your own. Animal awareness may seem undifferentiated to you. It is however highly specific, poised in the moment, but so completely that in your terms past and future are largely meaningless.

The specific concentration, however, results in an exquisite focus. Ego consciousness lost part of that focus in comparison. The totem poles date back to the time when men and animals understood each other, before that point of departure. Physical species that existed and flourished in those epochs then became probable to you, for they did not develop in your system but became extinct. Their living relics exist in the god concepts that embodied them. Give us a moment …

(The following material is, in part, an outgrowth of certain effects described in Personal Reality; see my notes for the 616th session, bridging chapters 2 and 3. That session was held on September 20, 1972, and the notes I’m referring to concern a new development in Jane’s abilities: her initial realization that on at least some occasions she would have more than one channel of information available from Seth. [...]

(Jane had some other insights into Seth’s multiple channels as she continued dictating Personal Reality after that session,¹ yet we continued to think of the new development as one of mostly theoretical interest. [...]

[...] I do believe it possible for Jane to deliver “Unknown” Reality and The Way Toward Health concurrently through Seth, and to carry on her “regular” writing, for I think we have yet to learn the limits of her abilities [although as she continues to develop them she increases our knowledge of human potential]. [...]

The Present Development of Ego Consciousness, and Why We’re at This State
The connections with health and illness.