“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

“Using the senses developed on a particular plane to perceive its characteristic camouflage patterns, it is almost impossible to see beyond these boundary effects. The inner senses are inherently equipped to do this, but for many reasons they do not. The appearance of an expanding universe is also caused, therefore, by this distortive boundary effect …

“At 8:45 I walked into the living room to waken Jane for the evening’s session. She continued to lie quietly on the couch, eyes closed, but in a few minutes told me she’d just been visited by a most strange sensation. From her description of it I thought she might have been exploring an ability related to the inner senses. So far, Seth has explained six of these. (Several years later, Jane was to list nine such inner senses in Chapter 19 of The Seth Material.) Jane said that upon coming slowly awake from her nap she’d had the very peculiar feeling of ‘growing larger.’ The laughing phrase she used was that she’d felt as ‘big as an elephant.’ Her boundaries of awareness seemed to have expanded. Holding her hands up on either side of her head, she indicated a width of almost three feet; her head had literally felt that wide to her.

(And from the 40th session:) The tissue capsule is actually an energy field boundary … At the same time it protects the whole self from certain radiations which do not here concern you. No living consciousness exists on any plane without this tissue capsule enclosing it … To some inhabitants of other planes [realities] that have access to your plane, all that can be seen of you is this capsule, since such inhabitants have had no experience in your particular type of camouflage [physical] construction. Therefore your camouflage patterns are invisible to them, but the tissue capsules are not.¹

“The universe as you think of it contains innumerable planes, all taking up, in your terms, the same amount of space. The forms within these planes are in constant motion, as are the planes themselves. There is a continual exchange of energy and vitality, in other words, of actual atoms and molecules between one plane and another … the interaction and movement of even one plane through another results in effects that will be perceived in various ways … as necessary distortive boundaries, in some cases resembling a flow as if a plane were surrounded by water, or in other cases a charge as of electricity. But on each plane the effects … of this interchange of energy will take on the camouflage [physical appearance] of the particular plane.

[...] It can be an extension or enlargement of the self, a widening of its boundaries and of conscious comprehension. [...] The tissue capsule surrounds each consciousness and is actually an energy field boundary, keeping the inner self’s energy from seeping away.

[...] And if the image were projected against a midnight sky, within its apparent boundaries then you would see a multitude of planets and stars. [...]

[...] In our analogy, the projected image would seem to float, including ever-different stars and planets within its boundaries. [...]

[...] The boundaries of the entity would be imaginary, taking in as many moment points as the entity felt it could handle. [...]

[...] There is nothing arbitrary about their boundaries. [...]

[...] All so-called closed systems are caused by a limiting of perception, a narrowing down of distinction, a subconscious agreement that the props are real, and that boundaries exist. Conversely, the boundaries do exist when they are thought to exist.

[...] The inner senses, when the physical body is relaxed, will carry you through the imaginary boundaries, but a conscious focus upon the boundaries to be passed through will tend to reinforce them. [...]

The outer senses perceive only certain given distinctions within an open, infinite system, and these distinctions therefore become the apparent boundaries of the system. [...]

Now, you arbitrarily decide on the personal physical image as the exterior boundary of the self. As you know, in actuality, no such physical boundary exists. [...] Even physically, you see, no such boundary exists. [...]

Now, the process does not cease at the physical boundaries of the self however. [...]

The expanding self, ideally, would reach out beyond the arbitrary boundaries it has placed upon itself. Again, there just is not any particular boundary between what is self and what is not self. [...] The skin is as much, if not more, a necessary connective as it is a boundary.

The boundaries, limitations, extent and vistas of the self are merely arbitrary. [...]

Because of the basic simplicity of the elements in your universe, and for other reasons already mentioned, there is no real boundary neither chemical, electrical or even psychic, between the self and what is usually considered not self.

When you realize that the self has no boundaries, then you can begin to make progress. [...]

[...] If you consider them as soldiers guarding the barriers or the boundaries, then you would have to imagine a strange creature, our particle, as a soldier on a boundary facing toward and away from the country in question.

[...] And while these particles act as resistant boundary forces, they are also uniting forces, forming so to speak the connective tissue that both separates and unites.

The particles of which we spoke may be regarded as not only boundaries but as gateways, both separating and dividing systems.

[...] I have used the word “particle” to explain those units which are gateways and yet boundaries. [...]

[...] These communications, in your terms, quite simply act as boundaries, though the boundaries as you know do not really exist.

[...] But no boundaries really close a system, and within any set, any given set of coordinates, there will be others. [...]

The apparent boundaries of your own physical system therefore are composed of psychic intensities and projections that are set out by the entities who have decided to experience physical reality. [...]

Your Sumari consciousness is that kind of consciousness, and so is mine, except that my boundaries are far less limited than your own, and I recognize them not as boundaries but as directions in which recognition of myself must grow. [...]

[...] But the names signify an independent, unique kind of consciousness that makes use of certain boundaries.

[...] Apparent boundaries are not boundaries, but only differences in the focus of attention. [...]

We have not touched in any degree concerning further possibilities here, but as there is no real or actual boundary between any of these areas of the whole self, so there are no actual, definite boundaries between any given whole self and another, nor between any given entity and another.

The boundaries are functional units rather, and functions may blend one into the other. [...]

[...] Boundaries may be set up in terms of a self. [...]

[...] It has no arbitrary boundaries. [...]

If however we changed our arbitrary boundary points, then the minor selves at either end would now seem to be portions of other selves. [...]

As this effective field of perception patterns changes, so do the apparent boundaries of the practical self. [...]

[...] It can broaden the apparent boundaries of its own existence, for all boundaries are only apparent. [...] Even the boundaries that you set about your own identities are illusions. [...]

All boundaries, therefore, are apparent boundaries, boundaries in appearance only.

Again, it must be remembered that no real boundaries exist, only diversity of function.

[...] It is as if (underlined) you forget particleized boundaries for a while, and allow the greater capacities of your being to take over. [...]

[...] Yet the self limits itself through boundaries that are arbitrary and erected through fear, and also through habit that originally had its source in the necessity for physical survival. [...] You should know by now that individual thought does not remain within the boundary of the physical individual. [...]

In actuality the outer layer of skin is a flimsy boundary indeed. [...]

[...] You may insist that also some particular boundary must mark off where you stopped and where something else begins, surely at least where another individual begins. [...]

[...] As the vitality of the universe forms, of itself, the boundaries of the various fields of activity, and as vitality itself takes on the coloration of the various fields and forms the camouflage patterns within them, so also vitality, in the form of emotions that the camouflage patterns of the personality, even while this vitality forms both emotions and personality for every individual, every consciousness, may be thought of as a separate field of activity; and all the data relating to fields of activity may be seen to apply to any consciousness as well.

[...] There is, believe it or not, no particular and specific and definite boundary between what is self and not self. [...]

[...] In like manner, there is indeed no particular boundary or line of demarcation between the dream universe and the physical universe. [...]

[...] It is true that there are no boundaries to enclose it within safe confines, where it can be said, “Here is the self.”

It is also true however that this lack of boundary allows for possibilities of development and expansion that would be impossible with a limited self. [...]

But as it is not wise to dispense with the idea of nationalism without gradual growths of understanding and preparation, and while the idea of nationalism cannot suddenly be dispensed with, so also the ego cannot be, and will not be, overthrown overnight; and even when it is finally left behind, it will still be used as a handy reference point; and through all this the self will not lose but gain, for all expansion outward, and expansion inward is a gain, and all boundaries, whether inward or outward, are hampering and limiting. [...]

[...] There are no limitations to your own entity: therefore, how can your entity or soul have boundaries, for boundaries would enclose it and deny it freedom.

“Your [Sumari] consciousness is that kind of consciousness, and so is mine, except that my boundaries are far less limited than your own, and I recognize them not as boundaries but as directions in which recognition of myself must grow. [...]

[...] But the names signify an independent, unique kind of consciousness that makes use of certain boundaries.

For all actions merge one into the other, and none are truly independent; and all units merge one into the other, and all boundaries shift, and are arbitrarily chosen. Boundaries are the results of the limitations of perception, for a unit seems to end where perception of it ceases.

[...] It goes without saying, once more, that all of these designations imply a separation which does not exist in fact, and imply definite boundaries which are not present.