“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(From the 58th session for June 1, 1964:) Ruburt and myself are offshoots of the same entity. The difference in time is but a camouflage distortion. The entity was a particularly strong one, and many of its egos have made the decision to turn into entities … And now, my dear patient Joseph, may I tell you that you are also part of that same entity — and this is one of the reasons why I am able to communicate with you both.

(From the 242nd session for March 16, 1966:) The ego is not the most powerful or the most knowledgeable portion of the self. It is simply a well-specialized part of the personality, fully equipped to operate under certain circumstances²¹ … When those conditions no longer exist [after “death”], then other layers of the self take over the dominant position, and the personality realigns its psychological components. The ego does not disappear, however; it merely takes a back seat in some respects, as your own subconscious does during physical existence. The ego is under the control of what may loosely be called “the inner self.” The survival or nonphysical personality has somewhat the same relationship to the ego as the dreaming personality has to it in physical life.

When communication takes place between a survival personality and one who exists within the physical system, this involves a reshuffling on the part of the survival personality, where the ego is momentarily given greater reign … If this was not done, then in most cases communication would not be possible, just because the survival personality would have such difficulty impressing the personality who was still ego-oriented within the physical system.

The nonphysical personality does not think in terms of words, but experiences concepts in a much more direct manner. This sort of thing simply could not be understood by the physically focused individual … The survival personality’s inner self gives this reassembled ego ideas in the same way that, often, the subconscious gives the ego concepts in physical existence. This reassembled ego then attempts to perceive these insights in terms of sense perceptions, which are sent to the physical individual at the other end. Sometimes the communications are made directly, though they must be sifted through the subconscious of the one who is physical. When that person is trained along these lines, however [as Ruburt is], he or she helps in this process, and a psychological framework, like a bridge,²² is erected that serves to connect the two personalities.

I speak as my whole self to you … since my personality structure is more advanced than is usual for communications from other systems. Therefore, I do not need to adopt a past ego [of my own]. Perhaps because this is not necessary, the psychological bridge is required to make my messages comprehensible to Ruburt. This connecting framework does some of the translating for me that a reassembled ego would do. It delivers information to Ruburt in a way that he can understand. Occasionally [in your tests] I do impress him directly, telepathically (see Note 19), with a concept. When he receives data in the form of images the framework is operating. With my direction, this framework uses Ruburt’s personal associations to direct his impressions toward the correct point. Then when we are successful I insert the right information.²³

21. In Volume 1, see Seth’s material on man’s emerging ego consciousness in sessions 686 (after 10:37), 687, 689, and Appendix 6.

Seth actually initiated his material on the psychological bridge in the last (241st) session. However, I chose to excerpt the 242nd session on the subject because of the information it also contains on the ego and survival personalities in general.

“Egotistically, you make arbitrary designations of necessity, perceiving only portions of any given action: again, the ego attempting to separate itself from overall action, and to see itself as an entirely independent structure.” (See the excerpts from the 242nd session.)