“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

In the beginning, for example, there is always a distortion of material by the person who receives it, at least on the topmost subconscious level. So an individual whose personal prejudices are at a minimum is excellent. If, for example, Ruburt’s prejudices happen to lie along lines which do not contradict what I know to be true, then all the better, and there is much less resistance.

Information like this is sifted through many layers of subconscious conception, and is subsequently colored. People believing in your organized religions color it in a manner that is highly disadvantageous, and that unfortunately adds to existing superstitions. Ruburt’s mind, believe it or not, is much like my own — though, if you’ll forgive me, in a very limited fashion. Therefore the distortions are much less distortive, much less harmful, and more easily discovered and cleared … Others less perfectionist than myself are content with more distortion. I am not. Ruburt’s Idea Construction⁹ was rather amazing. The inner senses provided him with much, but nevertheless the ideas contained in it represented an achievement of the conscious mind. I was drawn by this to realize that he was ready for me.

We have gone into this before, and I have no doubt that we will on endless occasions. And if I succeed in convincing you of my reality as a personality, I will have done extremely well … Ruburt’s subconscious has enough camouflage pattern to enable me to make contact, but not so much as to distort me out of all recognition. I am not his subconscious, though I speak through it. It is the atmosphere through which I can come to you, as the air is the atmosphere through which the bird flies. A certain reassembly of myself is necessary when I enter your plane, and this is done partially by myself, and by the combined subconscious efforts of you, Joseph, and Ruburt. Will this satisfy you for now?

(From the 54th session for May 18, 1964:) Your Ruburt was, indeed, Seth … I have promised to give you more material dealing with the psychic construction of the entity, and its relationship with its various [physical] personalities. In the beginning, I could not tell you in so many words that Ruburt is myself, because you would have leaped to the conclusion that I was Ruburt’s subconscious mind, and this is not so.

(From the 82nd session for August 27, 1964:) When man realizes that he creates his own image now, he will not find it so startling to believe that he creates other images in other times. Only after such a basis [is established] will the idea of reincarnation achieve its natural validity, and only when it is understood that the subconscious, certain layers of it, is a link between the present personality and past ones, will the theory of reincarnation be accepted as fact.

(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.

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.

“… the part that translates inner data sifts it down through the subconscious, which is a barrier and also a threshold to the present camouflage personality. I have said that the topmost part of the subconscious contains personal memories, that beneath these are racial memories, and so forth. Things are simply not layered in the way I speak of them, but continuing with the necessary analogy, on the other side of (or beneath, to you) the racial memories, you no longer exist within your plane; you look out upon another with the face of this other self-conscious part of you. This part receives inner data, is in contact with the entity to some greater degree than you are in contact with your dreams, and actually directs all of the important functions that you think are either automatically or unconsciously controlled.

“At the same time imagine that these creatures are really one creature, but with definite parts equipped to handle two entirely different worlds. The subconscious, therefore, in this ludicrous analogy, would exist between the two brains, and would enable the creature to operate as a single unit.

“There are a few points of a general nature that I would like to make. Ruburt has been reading Jung, though not consistently. The libido does not originate in the subconscious of the present personality. It begins instead in the energy of the entity and inner self, and is directed by means of the inner senses — outward, so to speak, through the deeper layers of the individual subconscious mind, then through the outer or personal areas.

“Your Freud and Jung have probed into the personal subconscious. Jung saw glimpses of other depths, but that is all. There are rather unfortunate distortions occurring in his writings, as well as in Freud’s, since they did not understand the primary, cooperative nature of the libido….

“It is true that the outward manifestations of the libido are directed toward the physical world, but until its source is seen, not in the topmost subconscious layers of the individual, and not even in the racial subconscious, but within the entity itself, then man will not know himself.

“Freud courageously probed into the individual topmost layers of the subconscious, and found them deeper than even he suspected. These levels are indeed filled with what may be termed life-giving differentiated and undifferentiated impulses acquired in the present life of an individual, but when these have been passed there are many discoveries still to be made. After that passage the diligent, consistent, intuitive, and flexible seeker-after-knowledge will find horizons of which Freud never dreamed. Freud merely touched the outer boundaries. Jung, with his eyes clouded by the turmoil set up by Freud, glimpsed some further regions, but poorly.”