“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

You may not be aware of the conscious nature of each atom in your body, or of the gestalt consciousness formed by those atoms as they build into cells, but it is not necessary for them, or for their own awareness of themselves, that you give them that recognition. The consciousness in the cells exists whether or not you recognize it.

[...] It goes without saying then, that there is consciousness of a kind, conscious energy, behind and to some extent within all material.

Energy as it comes through your plane is individualized; and indeed, irregardless of any other theories, all energy contains some consciousness, in simple or more complicated gestalt fashion, as I have mentioned that atoms and molecules so possess a limited consciousness, and a generalized subconsciousness which contains within it a capsule comprehension of the universe as a whole.

[...] This nature of energy, believe it or not, includes individualization and consciousness. Therefore, if you will for a moment think of bits of energy, or consciousness, initially without definite form, entering your physical plane, then according to the innate strength and capacity of any given particle it will, on entering your plane, on its own subconscious level already know how small or large a physical pattern it can form.

To some extent the greater expression of consciousness can be experienced under usual waking conditions, but only when a personality is flexible enough and secure enough to alter the focus of consciousness. [...] Any of your scientific or religious disciplines could benefit from a study of the dreaming consciousness, for there the basic nature of reality exists as clearly as you can perceive it. [...]

[...] It is as native to its level of consciousness as English is to your own — or Indian, or Chinese, or whatever. The various focuses of consciousness will have their own “languages.” [...] Others are so slow that he feels a sentence would take a week to utter.¹² These are the signatures of different focuses of consciousness as they are transposed in your space-time system.

Give us a moment … Other focuses of consciousness besides your own have different concepts of time, and are actually more biologically correct, in that they have greater knowledge of both cellular and spiritual realities. There is nothing “wrong” with your present habitual kind of consciousness, any more than there is anything wrong with speaking only one language. There is within you, however, the impetus to explore, to expand, to create, and that will automatically lead you to explore inner lands of consciousness; as, in your terms, it has led you to explore the other countries of the physical world.

[...] Both together represent the dimensions of your consciousness, and they exist simultaneously. [...] Obviously, then, your consciousness is equipped to function in the known and unknown realities, and the divisions that you have set up are quite arbitrary.

[...] The conscious mind is one brilliant segment of your larger consciousness, but it is composed of the same universal energy and vitality that composes all consciousness. [...]

[...] You usually think of your conscious mind as your ego. [...]

[...] It is also conscious, and is the director of all automatic interior activity (emphatically).

[...] Your ego and your ordinary consciousness bring into focus all of your physical experiences, and make possible the brilliant preciseness of physical experience.

Any of the probable actions that a person considers are a part of that person’s conscious thought. Just underneath, however, people also consider other sets of probabilities that may or may not reach conscious level, simply because they are shunted aside, or because they seem to meet with no conscious recognition. [...] The probabilities with which you are not consciously concerned remain psychologically peripheral: They are there but not there, so to speak.

Your conscious mind can only accept a certain sequence of probabilities as recognized experience. As I have said, the choices among probabilities go on constantly, both on conscious and unconscious levels. Events that you do not perceive as conscious experience are (pause) a part of your unconscious experience, however, to some extent. [...]

[...] Very simply: You want something, you dwell upon it consciously for a while, you consciously imagine it coming to the forefront of probabilities, closer to your actuality. [...]

[...] Except for those you settle upon, all of the others will remain psychologically peripheral, in the background of your conscious experience—but all of those possible versions will be connected in one way or another.

[...] That is, again, because the basic units of consciousness that build up matter—that form matter—are themselves endowed with a subjective acuteness. [...] (Long pause.) Your position on the scale of awareness inclines you to categorize consciousnesses so that only your own familiar brand seems to fit the definition—so again here I remind you that consciousness is everywhere in the deepest terms, because All That Is disperses itself throughout physical reality. [...]

[...] In Session 890 see his material on both EE units and CU’s. While reading tonight’s material, the reader might keep these brief passages from that session in mind: “Each unit of consciousness (or CU) intensifies, magnifies its own intents to be—and, you might say, works up from within itself an explosive spark of primal desire that “explodes” into a process that causes physical materialization. [...] And: “Units of consciousness (CU’s), transforming themselves into EE units, formed the environment and all of its inhabitants in the same process, in what you might call a circular manner rather than a serial one.”

Last night, as I began typing Monday’s 915th session, I asked Jane why Seth hadn’t just called his “invisible particles” CU’s, or units of consciousness, as he’d done earlier in Dreams,² and as he’d always done in his other books. [...]

[...] When Joseph (as Seth calls me) read the last session, he wondered whether or not the invisible particles I referred to were the same as the units of consciousness I have spoken of before.

You are one conscious version of yourself, creating along with all of your contemporaries the realities of the times. [...] your consciousness in certain fashions, but it is quite possible to read the consciousness of the world in other ways also.

[...] These do exist along with the kinds of consciousness that you recognize within the structure of physical life. When you dream, however, you often come in contact with these cousins of consciousness. [...] You see a species of consciousness, a species that must remain unexplained in any normal explanations of evolution, and these hint at the communications that exist at all levels (intently), protecting not only the genetic references necessary to your own kind, but the combinations [...]

[...] There are endless versions [of consciousness], of course, with their own worlds, forming organizations of meaning and purpose. [...] The “inner structure” is one of consciousness, and the deeper questions can eventually only be approached by granting the existence of inner references.

At one time, then, you were more open in a fashion to the kinds of consciousness that you admitted into your circle of reality. [...] Instead you included such cousins of consciousness into your midst, accepting a kind of comradeship—for to some extent at least you could see the different versions of humanity that resulted from a change of focus, an adjacent affiliation of humanized energy with the environment. [...]

[...] Apparently they insure that consciousness will not return to the physical brain too quickly. He also said that there were methods “by which the relative behavior and condition of the traveling consciousness is monitored at the other end. In case of any severe dangers, the consciousness is pulled back, but this is highly dangerous.”

“In the same way that thoughts can be sent through space, so individual consciousness can be sent through systems of reality [other dimensions]. As a seed can fly through the air, so individual consciousness can travel through these systems, but it must be protected. [...]

[...] Consciousness projects in an out-of-body experience. 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. [...] The drug allows for regulated periods of highly intensified consciousness, operating at peak levels, with all the mental faculties accelerated. [...]

[...] Now this would put tremendous pressure on any consciousness without proper background and development. [...] We are still alert to other quite alien systems of reality that flash on the very outskirts of consciousness as we know it. There are far more various kinds of consciousness than there are physical forms, each with its own patterns of perception, dwelling within its own camouflage system. [...]

[...] In childhood and in the dream state, each personality is aware to some extent of the true freedom that belongs to its own inner consciousness. These abilities of which I speak, therefore, are inherent characteristics of consciousness as a whole and of each personality.

Consciousness is not dependent upon form, as I have said, and yet it always seeks to create form. [...]

[...] We can follow a consciousness through all of its forms, for example, and in your terms, within the flicker of an eye.

The true unconscious is not unconscious. Instead, it is so profoundly and unutteringly conscious that it bubbles over. The life that you know is simply one of the many areas in which it is conscious. In each facet of its consciousness, literally tremendous power and balance must be maintained to hold aloft this particular consciousness-experience from all others.

[...] Your consciousness as you know it, your particular present kind of consciousness, is a statement of awareness brought about by a particular kind of tension, a specific kind of focus arising from the true unconscious of the whole self.

[...] Only beginning consciousness needs these kind of controls. The anima and the animus, therefore, are embedded deeply with their necessary complementary but apparently opposed tendencies, and they are highly important in maintaining the very nature of your human consciousness.

[...] More often than not, true awareness of the situation often becomes almost conscious, and just beneath awareness the individual knows the source of his authentic material.

“Other species of consciousness gain their experience at different ‘levels’; often we encounter such consciousnesses in the dream state, then interpret their actions in the wrong order of events … according to our own camouflage³ system … Our bodies are the focuses for only the physical part of our consciousnesses … My latest dreams are giving me a picture of the nonphysical inner wonderworks …”

[...] She was in “a slightly altered state of consciousness” while transcribing the data. [...]

“Wonderworks — inner experiences just beneath usual consciousness — contain different orders of events.¹ Literally the stuff of all creativity (in miniature).

[...] The universe is the result of a certain kind of focus of consciousness; the stuff of it, the matter, rises out of inner wonderworks — of which the private wonderworks of each of us is a part.

[...] It has a validity within very limited perspectives only, for consciousness does, indeed, evolve form and form does not evolve consciousness. All consciousness does, indeed, exist at once and, therefore, it did not evolve in those terms. [...] It is more the other way around in that evolved consciousness forms itself into many different patterns and reigns down in reality. Consciousness did not come from atoms and molecules scattered by chance through the universe or scattered by chance through many universes. Consciousness did not arrive because inert matter suddenly sparked into activity and song. The consciousness existed first and evolved the form into which it then began to manifest itself. [...]

[...] No—no form of matter, however potent, will be self-evolved into consciousness no matter what other bits of matter are added to it, but without the consciousness, the matter would not be there in the universe floating around waiting for another component to give it reality, consciousness, existence or song. [...]

Now the atoms and molecules that compose you are glorious impermanent things, and through the leadership of your consciousness have you led them to consciousness and song and through you do they experience what you experience. [...] And when each of you come together in a personal relationship are you then glorifying and adding to the reality of the consciousness that is within those atoms and molecules. [...]

([Arnold:] “Every bit of matter already has consciousness?”)

Trees and rocks possess their own consciousness, and also share a gestalt consciousness, even as the living portions of your body. [...] So the race of man also has individual consciousness and a gestalt or mass consciousness, of which you individually are hardly aware.

In certain terms, the ego is the eye through which the conscious mind perceives, or the focus through which it views physical reality. But the conscious mind automatically changes its focus throughout life. [...] It is only when the conscious mind becomes rigid in its direction, or allows the ego to take on some of its own functions, that difficulties arise. Then the ego allows the conscious mind to work in certain directions and blocks its awareness in others.

Everything that you experience has consciousness, and each consciousness is endowed with its own feeling-tone. [...]

[...] The ego can feel cut off, lonely and frightened, however, if the conscious mind lets the ego run away with it. The ego and the conscious mind are not the same thing. [...]

[...] There are units of consciousness,³ then, as there are units of matter. [...] There is a basic unit of consciousness that, expressed, will not be broken down, as once it was thought that an atom was the smallest unit and could not be broken down. The basic unit of consciousness obviously is not physical. [...]

3. A note added later: Of course, as soon as Seth mentioned units of consciousness in “Unknown” Reality I thought of the electromagnetic energy units (EE units, as he called them) that he’d discussed in 1969 and 1971. [...] In the latter material he used several evocative analogies to describe his EE units: “… basically emanations rising from consciousness … the invisible breath of consciousness … The emanations are actually emotional tones … The units are just beneath the range of physical matter.”

[...] It is therefore the source of all other kinds of consciousness, and the varieties of its activity are infinite. It combines with others of its kind, forming then units of consciousness — as, mentioned often, atoms and molecules combine.

So I prefer, here at least, to speak of these units of consciousness instead. [...] Literally now, these basic units of consciousness can be in all places at once. [...]

(To Art O.): Now, my dear scientific friend over there: Atoms and molecules, minute as they may appear to you, also carry their burden of consciousness and responsibility. Yet there is a portion of consciousness that can joyfully perceive in a manner that is not dictated by its nature; it can playfully perceive as a creative aspect of its being, without responsibility. In one manner of speaking the very air about you sings with its own joyful consciousness. It does not know the same kind of burden of consciousness that often oppresses you. (Speaking generally): You are so frightened of death, in your terms, that you dare not turn your consciousness off for one second; for you fear that if you do, indeed, who will be there to turn it back on again?

It is theoretically possible, for example, for any of you to disperse your consciousness and become a part of any object in the room — or to fly apart, to disperse yourself out into space — without leaving your sense of identity. [...] Consciousness by its very characteristics carries the burden of perception. This is the kind of consciousness you are used to thinking of. You cannot imagine it without perception in your terms; and yet consciousness can be vital and alive without your idea of perception. [...]

[...] You forget that consciousness is the only true vehicle. No part of your consciousness is imprisoned within you. [...]

Until you are honest with yourself and become consciously aware of yourself, you cannot honestly relate with others; you will project upon them your own fears and prejudices. [...] You must become consciously aware of what you tell yourself is true every moment of the day, for that is the reality that you project outward.

[...] With the hospital experience, I’m telling myself that if I can write about the storms of consciousness involving whole nations, I can certainly describe and reflect upon our own storms of consciousness. Jane and I must still have an unbelievable amount to learn, even though I think that in more basic terms certain portions of each individual’s reality are consciously unknowable. As Seth said three years ago: “Consciousness attempts to grow toward its own ideal development, which also promotes the ideal development of all organizations in which it takes part.⁹

[...] “We don’t want it thought,” I wrote when I got back to the hill house, “that the overall consciousness of Iran is playing with the individual consciousnesses of its people, say, as with toy soldiers, setting its citizens up against the world only to have them knocked down. [...] Rather, we want to relay to the reader that the great consciousness of Iran is made up of the individual consciousnesses of its people—that within that chosen national context the individual does have whatever freedom of creativity is possible. [...]

Yet from the very day of the accident, this question has existed along with each step of the cleanup process, and will continue to do so: What to do with Three Mile Island, that enormously complicated human creation that now has its own consciousness, and that has in its own way exerted the force of that consciousness throughout our civilized world? To dismantle TMI seemingly would solve the “problem”—but only partially, for once born its consciousness will (like all others) continue to live. [...]

[...] In notes at the end of this session I’ll briefly consider the latest expressions of large-scale consciousnesses concerning Three Mile Island¹ and the countries of the Middle East,² and then will unify those discussions by explaining how I think those great events of consciousness have counterpart relationships, just as “living” entities do.³ I’ll also refer to our country’s space-shuttle program.⁴ Next, I have to put into final form the complicated notes I began for a number of sessions for Dreams as Jane delivered them. [...]

Think of your ideas about your own sexuality in connection with those about your being and consciousness. [...] You have associated the word “female” with the unconscious, while you have been working toward what you now think of as an egotistically based consciousness. [...]

2. Sumari is a “family of consciousness” that Jane first contacted in ESP class for November 23, 1971. [...] (And, I can write later, Seth expands his family-of-consciousness material considerably in Session 732, Section 6, Volume 2 of “Unknown” Reality.)

[...] When the conscious and the unconscious minds are understood, you will have no more problems with sexuality.

[...] You see a range of human being and personality that defies conventional ideas of sexuality or of consciousness — that defies all of the ideas that have been handed down to you, and that challenges you each to look for the reality of your own being.

[...] And the invisible particles of which I speak not only possess consciousness—but each one is, if you will, a seed that contains within itself a potential for an infinite number of gestalts. Each such invisible particle contains within itself the potential (pause) to embark upon an infinite number of probable variations of consciousness. [...]

[...] To that degree—to that degree (underlined)—portions of your own consciousness are everywhere at once. They are not lost, or spread out in some generalized fashion, but acutely responsive, and as highly alert as your familiar consciousness is now.

[...] (Pause.) You are usually conscious of events that are significant neurologically, and that neurological timing is the end result of an [almost]² infinite series of sequences. [...] Each consciousness within each area is tuned into its proper sequence. [...]

It requires that Ruburt forge imagination and reason together in a highly accelerated fashion, and at levels obviously not conscious in usual terms—levels that propel him into my domain. I have my own consciousness at other intervals—intervals that in your terms encompass your own.

We also realize that permanency of form is an illusion, since all consciousness must be in a state of change. We can be, in your terms, in several places at once because we realize the true mobility of consciousness. [...] This form, projecting outward from your own consciousness, completely escapes your egotistical attention. When I think emotionally of someone else, I do the same thing, except that a portion of my consciousness is within the image, and can communicate.

[...] If there is any point where your own consciousness seems to elude you or escape you, or if there is any point where your consciousness seems to end, then these are the points where you have yourselves set up psychological and psychic barriers, and these are precisely those areas that you should explore. Otherwise you feel as if your consciousness is enclosed within your skull, immobile and constricted, and every lost thought or forgotten memory at least symbolically seems like a small death. [...]

What happens to a thought when it leaves your conscious mind? [...] For these thoughts and emotions that have left your conscious mind will lead you into other environments.

[...] In a gigantic cooperative endeavor, all consciousness joins together to make the forms that you perceive. [...]

(9:40.) You have the conscious mind for a good reason. You are not at the mercy of unconscious drives unless you consciously acquiesce to them. [...] If you do not like your experience, then you must change the nature of your conscious thoughts and expectations. [...]

All consciousness has within it the deep abiding impetus to use its abilities fully, to expand its capacities, to venture joyfully beyond the seeming barriers of its own experience. The very consciousnesses within the smallest molecules cry out against any ideas of limitation. [...]

Man has been endowed, and has endowed himself, with a conscious mind to direct the nature, shape and form of his creations. All deep aspirations and unconscious motivations, all unspoken drives, rise up for the approval or disapproval of the conscious mind, and await its direction.

[...] Nor did Jane have any conscious thoughts about subject matter, or a title, for any projected Seth book.

You like to think in terms of units and definitions, so even when you consider your own consciousness you think of it as “a thing,” or a unit — an invisible something that might be held in invisible hands perhaps. Instead consciousness is a particular quality of being. [...] You are rarely aware of such experiences because you do not believe them possible, and it seems that even consciousness, particularly when individualized, must be in one place or another.

Consciousness is far more mobile than you realize. [...] You cannot experience subjective behavior “from outside,” so this natural mobility of consciousness, which for example the animals have retained, is psychologically invisible to you.

In your world you identify as yourself only, and yet love can expand that identification to such an extent that the intimate awareness of another individual is often a significant portion of your own consciousness. [...]

In those early times, then, consciousness was more mobile. [...]