“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Because of the brain’s necessary specifications, large portions of your own greater reality cannot appear through its auspices. The brain might consider such extracurricular activity as background noise or clutter that it could not decipher. It is the mind, then, as the brain’s nonphysical counterpart, that decides what data will activate the brain in that regard. The so-called ancient portions of the brain (among them the brainstem — limbic system) contain “the mind’s memories.” Generally speaking, this means important data to which, however, no conscious attention need be given.

The brain organizes activity and translates events, but it does not initiate them. Events have an electromagnetic reality that is then projected onto the brain for physical activation. Your instruments only pick up certain levels of the brain’s activity. They do not perceive the mind’s activity at all, except as it is imprinted onto the brain.

You are bringing into your consciousness traces of events that have not been registered in the same way that waking events are (emphatically) by the brain. The dream events are partially brain-recorded, but the brain separates such experience from waking events. Dreams can provide you with experience that in a manner of speaking, at least, is not encountered in time. The dream itself is recorded by the brain’s time sequences, but in the dream itself there is a duration of time “that is timeless.”

Theoretically, certain dreams can give you a lifetime’s experience to draw upon, though the dream itself can take less than an hour in your time. In a way, dreams are the invisible thickness of your normal consciousness. They involve both portions of the brain. Many dreams do activate the brain in a ghostly fashion, sparking responses that are not practically pertinent in ordinary terms. That is, they do not require direct action but serve as anticipators of action, reminders to the brain to initiate certain actions in its future.

[...] Measuring and recording brain waves is a complicated task, however; not only is it important which areas or lobes of the brain are monitored — if not all of them — but because of the mechanical limitations of the EEG itself much that goes on in the brain is necessarily missed. In addition, the two hemispheres of the individual brain often show variations in electrical energy states. But most importantly, we think, while the EEG can indicate broad categories of brain activity, it can hardly probe the participant’s very individual and subjective content of mind within this camouflage [physical] reality. Nor at this time, given the minimum premise that Jane’s speaking for Seth constitutes any indication of “paranormal” activity, do we think that her performance could be identified as such per se on the graphs of her brain waves. [...]

(There are four recognized [electrical] brain waves, and in speed they range upward from 0 to 26 and more Hertz units, or cycles per second. [...] Brain waves overlap. Very simply, delta brain waves are connected with dreamless sleep, theta with creativity and dreams, alpha with a relaxed alertness and changing consciousness; beta — the fastest — with concentration, and with an intense focus upon all of the challenges [and anxieties and stresses, many would say] faced in the ordinary daily world.

[...] For no matter which brain rhythm may predominate at any time, that state is certainly an altered one in relation to the other three. But more than this, why not call all actions of the brain “altered” when compared to Seth’s concept of the individual personality’s whole self or entity?¹

In sleep your ordinary brain waves as you understand them register a chaotic jungle of experience not normally processed. [...] A mixture of brain waves would result. [...]

[...] There is constant interplay and communication between the areas of consciousness that are connected to the brain and those that are not. The “deeper” purposes of the consciousness involved “circulate,” sometimes arising in the awareness that is joined with the brain. Information coming from those deeper sources of the self, reaching the areas connected to the brain, will be interpreted according to the beliefs of that most physically focused segment of the self.

Now it is here that the seeming division in the self occurs, for in physical life the conscious mind must be connected with the brain, and in terms of time that organ itself must grow and develop. [...] The portion that must “wait for” the brain’s development is the part you call in life “the conscious mind.”

[...] Now all of this inner self cannot become expressed even with its connection with the brain, since the brain must sift perception through the physical apparatus.

[...] While the condition of the body is directed by the conscious mind in life, then, the idea or mental pattern for the body existed before the conscious mind’s connection with the physical brain.

[...] This involves a transfer of conscious energy from a home system to an alien one, and certain more or less automatic changes must be made from system to system, involving the use of brain waves; certain patterns being normal in different systems. There are other brain patterns for example than those discovered by your scientists. The brain patterns simply reflect the kind of mental or psychic activity, and other kinds of activity will give you different patterns.

[...] The injections are made into the physical being, affecting therefore the physical brain. [...] The physical brain is cushioned against shock because in this case consciousness travels at such a fast pace that ordinarily contact between it and the body would be severed.

Certain injections, given to the brain, actually help consciousness outside of the brain, and act as nourishment. [...]

[...] During the periods of unconsciousness the drugs injected into the brain give increased nourishment to those areas of the physical brain that are involved in such ejections of consciousness. [...]

Emotions, to the brain, are also somewhat frightening, because of their vividness, which seems out of order to the brain. To the brain something in the past seems dim, yet an emotional feeling that occurred in the past may suddenly appear again within the brainscape’s awareness, as vividly as its first occurrence, and the brain feels disoriented. [...]

The brain however often does not see the inner logic of the emotion’s reoccurrence, or the inner connections that make it again pertinent. Any given emotion itself contains within it multitudinous perceptions that the brain has not perceived, and as a result indeed of in quotes “calculations” the brain could not follow.

[...] Most of its richness and depth would not be perceived by the physically oriented brain.

The emotional intellect for example is not time-oriented, and this alone makes no sense to the physical brain. [...]

2. I’d say that when he talks about the “unused portions of the brain,” that physical organ, Seth means qualities of nonphysical mind as well. We still have much to learn about the brain (let alone the mind); even though by now all sections of the brain have been probed down to the molecular level, no trace or imprint of a thought has ever been found within its tissue. As an analogy, the innate knowledge of probabilities that Seth postulates here may be related to the brain in the same way that memory evidently “happens” throughout its parts, instead of being localized in just one of them.

For material on mental and psychic expansions in old age, and the hemispheres of the brain, see the 650th session in Chapter 13 of Personal Reality. And in Chapter 21 of Seth Speaks, Seth briefly mentions the eventual activation of “new areas” in the brain to “physically take care of” past-life memories. [...]

The brain seeks the richest form of an event. I am speaking specifically of the brain, as separated from the mind, to emphasize the point that these abilities are of creaturehood. The brain’s genius comes from the mind, which can be called the brain’s biophysical counterpart.

[...] The brain is primarily an event-forming psycho-mechanism through which consciousness operates. [...]

Children’s dreams are more intense than those of adults because the brain is practicing its event-forming activities. [...]

[...] Basically (underlined twice) in dreaming the brain is not limited to physically encountered experience.

[...] The brain is responsible for these physical symbols. The mind has no need of them, but passes the information to the brain, who then interprets it. [...]

[...] (Pause.) The brain is capable (underlined)of interpreting and transmitting far more inner information than it does. It is the ego’s idea of what is possible, the ego’s concept of reality, that determines in a large manner whether or not the brain will interpret any particular data.

Now some inner data cannot be perceived or translated by the brain, practically speaking, but as minds develop so the physical brain will develop, and in some individuals to a large extent this has occurred.

[...] Therefore large portions of the brain, now unused, lie latent for these developments. [...]

The brain is of your plane. You may say that the brain is the mind in camouflage. [...] It can be used by and is used by the brain for purposes of survival, and can sometimes be probed by physical instruments. [...] But imagination is a property of mind, not brain, and no physical tool can force the imagination to conceive of an original conception or idea.

I dislike the use of so many terms; since the brain is observable, I am tempted to use it to cover all abilities pertaining to mind in general. [...] The mind contains the brain. [...] Exercising the brain exercises the mind also, but the mind has abilities of which the brain is ignorant.

This certainly is not meant to mean that the brain is useless, far from it. On your plane the brain is extremely important, and for your information many animals have a highly developed mind though their brains may be small.

[...] The one instrument which is more important than any other and which has given you, that is mankind, all its breakthroughs and advance is the brain. Or rather the mind which contains the brain, and which is the meeting place of the inner and outer senses.

[...] The particular brain is the physical mechanism that translates the thoughts of the mind. It goes without saying then, that the brain belongs to the physical system, and here in clear terms you see the smooth cooperation that exists. [...]

Inspiration is often a more or less instantaneous translation, occurring for various reasons which I will give you later, without the benefit of the brain’s intervention. [...] The individual seems not to know where the thought comes from, because he does not recognize the characteristic mark of his brain upon it. [...]

Thoughts are psychoelectric patterns, set up by the mind, and transformed to human codes by the brain.

Even the electric reality of a dream is decoded, so that its effects are experienced not only by the brain, but in the furthest reaches of the most minute cells in the human body. [...]

Now: Ruburt’s mind is far more aware of other realities than his brain is, but he consciously believes in the greater reality of himself and his perceptions. The brain also possesses this belief, and so it opens itself as much as possible to the mind’s activities. [...]

(10:45.) A certain kind of affirmation of self allows the brain to tune into these more spacious methods of perception that are the natural characteristics of the mind. [...] The brain (and the entire physical system) is meant to insure your bodily survival and to follow your conscious beliefs about reality. [...]

[...] If it believed this, then certain portions of the brain would be activated. The brain would become aware of more of the mind’s knowledge, and the probabilities of future events would be made consciously available.

Now the brain would have to sort out this information so that the physically attuned mechanism was clearly able to maintain its temporal present. [...] To utilize future probable events, the physical brain would be forced to enlarge its function while keeping the individual in clear relationship with the present moment of power, or corporeal effectiveness. [...]

[...] The injections are made into the physical being, affecting the brain. [...] The physical brain is cushioned against shock, since in this case consciousness travels at such a fast pace that ordinarily contact between it and the body would be severed.

“Certain injections then given to the brain actually help consciousness outside of the brain and act as nourishment. [...]

“During the unconscious periods the drugs injected into the physical brain give increased nourishment to those areas of the brain involved in these ejections of consciousness. [...]

“There are other brain patterns, for example, than those discovered by your scientists. [...] If these brain patterns were not changed on entering and leaving a system, theoretically at least, the consciousness could become trapped within any given system: acceleration or deacceleration, you see, but mentally.”

[...] Within the brain the dream has an electric and psychological reality; a much weaker electrical reality. That is, it still exists as an electrical reality, but it is not recognized as such by the brain or the psychological awareness of an individual. [...]

The mind then formulates meaningful psychological symbols, but still in terms of electric symbol, and only in the brain are the particular symbols then sent to the various levels of the human personality.

[...] It is received by the brain and changed into a more or less pure psychological symbol. [...]

[...] The dream is then passed on to the brain, where the electric symbol becomes a psychological or dream symbol. [...]

However, the sleeping portion of the species represents the brain’s unconscious activities in the body — particularly when you think of the motion of all of the species’ actions en masse in a given day. [...] If you think of a mass world brain — one entity — then it must wake and sleep in patterns. [...]

[...] Waking and sleeping reality is therefore balanced in the world mind — not the world brain.

Part of such a brain would have to be awake all of the time, and part engaged in unconscious activity. [...]

(As can be seen by Seth’s comments about the mass world mind-brain, he was all ready to launch into some new material. [...]

(Pause at 10:00.) The brain, as opposed to the mind, needs this correlation. [...] The mind exists independently of the brain, but with connections to it. [...]

[...] The physical brain only perceives the appearance of matter in one of its many manifestations. [...]

There are points of correlation between the two of which the conscious brain is not aware, and perceptions that do not consciously register. [...]

[...] Such thermal pictures are found in what is called the old brain, and to these, the body responds with changes of temperature that sparks various chemical reactions.

[...] Consciousness experiences reality directly, but having formed physical matter into a personal image, it must then creatively translate data to that physical brain. [...]

The brain looks out upon the physical universe, and consciousness then reacts, again creatively, to that environment. [...]

The physical self extends outward, literally, to the ends of your universe, but the physical brain could not handle this amount of manipulation, and it has become subconscious. [...]

In physical life, your conscious mind is largely dependent upon the workings of your physical brain. You have a conscious mind whether you are in flesh or out of it, but when you are physically oriented, then it is connected to the physical brain.

The brain to some extent keeps the mind to a three-dimensional focus. It orients you toward the environment in which you must operate, and it is because of the mind’s allegiance with the temporal brain that you perceive, for example, time as a series of moments.

The brain channels the information that the mind receives to your physical structure, so that your experience is physically sifted and automatically translated into terms that the organism can understand. (Seth-Jane spoke emphatically, rapping upon the coffee table between us.) Because of this, physically speaking and in life as you think of it, the mind is to a large extent dependent upon the brain’s growth and activity. [...]

[...] Quite without your conscious knowing — because your mind, connected with its brain, is not that developed — your imagination is set along certain roads.

[...] I wanted him to enlarge upon the statement he’d made at 11:29 in the 690th session: “Further developments in your concepts will lead to greater activation in portions of the brain now not nearly utilized, and these in turn will trigger expansions in both psychic and biological terms.” I wondered what connection, if any, might exist between the capacity to have [and/or to remember] more than one dream at a time, and those “portions of the brain now not nearly utilized.”

[...] You could not at this point remember both dreams, because the physical brain apparatus could not handle the simultaneous data. This has reference to portions of the brain not used, as mentioned in this book.³

At certain levels the brain can handle simultaneous material, of course, even though you may be conscious of only a smattering of it. [...] Inherently the physical brain is capable of dealing with more than one main line of consciousness. [...]

(To me:) You are, in a rudimentary fashion, beginning to open up those unused areas of the brain, or you would not have even been aware of the fact of two simultaneous dreams. [...]

[...] (Pause.) As thoughts set up traces and new patterns, new electrical pathways in the physical brain, it then becomes easier for the brain to entertain these habitual lines of thought.

Your physical brains simply cannot handle certain kinds of information. [...]

[...] The brain structures of your race therefore grew more complicated as the inner knowledge sought to make itself known to the physical creature.

[...] (Pause.) Multidimensional concepts cannot be received, nor interpreted, at this point by the physical brain. [...]

The brain deals exclusively with camouflage patterns, while the mind deals with basic principles inherent on all planes. The brain is, itself, part of the camouflage pattern and can be interpreted and probed by physical instruments. [...]

You might say that the brain is the mind in camouflage. Imagination belongs to the mind, not the brain. [...]

[...] The one instrument which is more important than any other is the mind (not the brain) … the meeting place of the inner and outer senses.

[...] Any information that is important to the body’s contact with outer camouflage is given to the brain.