“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

The beginnings of human consciousness, on the other hand, began as soon as multicellular groupings began to form in field patterns of a certain complexity. While there was no specific point of entry as far as human consciousness was concerned, there was a point before which human consciousness as such did not exist. Self-consciousness did exist. The consciousness of being human in your terms was fully developed in the caveman, but—and I cannot emphasize this enough—the human conception was alive in the fish.

You know now that so-called inert form has consciousness. To some degree it even possesses self-consciousness, and so there is no point at which self-consciousness entered, so to speak, with the sound of trumpets. Consciousness, to a degree, was inherent in the first materialization physically upon your plane.

You are either conscious of self or you are not. On your plane self-consciousness exists as a rule. A tree is conscious of itself as a tree. [...] What I am trying to point out to you here is this supreme egotistical presumption that self-consciousness must of necessity involve humanity per se. [...]

Self-consciousness entered in very shortly after, but not what you are pleased to call human self-consciousness. [...] However the fact remains, and I can hear you all yell foul, that there is no actual differentiation between the various types of self-consciousness.

To some extent, there is a natural and spontaneous merging of what you would think of as conscious and unconscious activity. [...] Its character is transformed, so that the “dark” qualities are seen as actually illuminating portions of conscious life, while also providing great sources of power and energy for normal ego-oriented experience.

(Quite forcefully:) A certain beneficial and natural situation is arrived at, in which the conscious and unconscious minds meet. [...] The optimum state is so short because of the prolonged drugging of the conscious mind.

[...] There is within the innate characteristics of the mammalian brain, then, a great balance in which complete physical relaxation can occur in sleep, while consciousness is maintained in a “partially suspended, passive-yet-alert” manner. That state allows conscious participation and interpretation of “unconscious” dream activity. [...]

(Very actively delivered:) In your current beliefs, again, consciousness is equated in very limited terms with your conception of intellectual behavior: you consider this to be a peak of mental achievement, growing from the “undifferentiated” perceptions of childhood, and returning ignominiously to them again in old age. Such wake-sleep patterns as I have suggested would acquaint you with the great creative and energetic portions of psychological behavior — that are not undifferentiated at all, but simply distinct from your usual concepts of consciousness; and these operate throughout your life.

A remembered dream is a product of several things, but often it is your conscious interpretation of events that initially may have been quite different from your memory of them. To that extent the dream that you remember is a snapshot of a larger event, taken by your conscious mind. [...]

[...] When you are alive, corporally speaking, what you think of as dreaming becomes subordinate to what you refer to as your conscious waking life. [...] By contrast to waking consciousness it can appear hazy, not precise, or off-focus. [...]

[...] In waking life there are fluctuations in your consciousness, periods when you are more or less alert, in your terms, when your attention wanders from issues at hand; or when, instead, you are certainly brilliantly focused in the moment. So there are gradations of consciousness in the waking state. [...]

(1. Seth’s reference, after 9:27 in the 697th session, to our race as “a conscious species. “I wanted to get his comments as to how, in our terms at least, we could be in a state other than a “conscious” one. [...]

You will learn that you are a part of the webwork of consciousness. You will learn to be conscious cocreators. [...] And if you do, your consciousness will begin in another reality. [...] And you will create with joy and spontaneity when you recognize that within the leaf of a flower the consciousness that is within it, and relate it to yourself, and honor it and treat it as a little brother, you will be free. [...]

Yet consciousness, and your individual consciousness, always was and always will be, in your terms. [...] And if he were, that would be the end of creativity and the end of any kind of existence or consciousness. [...]

Now in bidding you all good evening, again I encourage you to find within yourself the source of your own energy and consciousness and strength and to let it sing within you as a vitality of your being. And do not cower and do not cry, but sing in pure joy that your consciousness knows itself and that even in your ignorance you create and give joy to others. And know that there is no end to your consciousness or to the reality of which you are a part. [...]

[...] You will extend your consciousness, as you know it, from the self that you know outward and relate to others and understand them. Or you will take their positions and from their consciousness observe the selves that no longer exist in your time. [...]

[...] Consciousness is equipped with inner perceptors, however. These are inherent within all consciousness, regardless of its development. These perceptors operate quite independently from those that might be assumed when a given consciousness adopts a specialized form, such as a physical body, in order to operate in a particular system.

[...] It is that the physical picture is simply one of an infinite number of ways of perceiving the various guises through which consciousness expresses itself. [...] The inner senses open your range of perception, allow you to interpret experience in a far freer manner and to create new forms and new channels through which you, or any consciousness, can know itself.

[...] In order to explain, I shall have to speak about the nature of consciousness in general. [...] Part of my purpose is to acquaint your egotistical self with knowledge that is already known to a larger portion of your own consciousness, that you have long ignored.

[...] Now, we use the inner senses quite freely and consciously. [...]

[...] You are following levels of your own consciousness until you discover yourself in an environment of which the ordinary waking consciousness had been previously unaware. This is a relatively difficult feat, for the waking consciousness must not be shut off, or you defeat your purpose.

You must allow the normal waking consciousness to become transparent, so to speak, without however disturbing its flow. [...] This is almost like working backward, for directly beneath the thoughts and impressions of waking consciousness, you will glimpse dream images like those that appear just as you fall to sleep.

[...] It is aware of both conscious and subconscious motivations and realities, and it is also aware of projections into other fields of actuality. I have hinted before of these matters, for when I say that you will use this other portion of the self to examine waking consciousness and probe beneath it, I already presuppose a you that uses this self. [...]

[...] A projection obviously need not be conscious. [...]

Such a primary construction allows consciousness to operate, manipulate and be perceived in the world of matter. The physical construction of consciousness never is complete as far as fulfilling the inner purpose is involved; that is, consciousness can never fully construct itself in matter, and to do so would indeed imprison such a consciousness so that it could not escape the transient nature of matter itself.

What you consider your consciousness, or your self, or your thinking ego, represents of course only one portion of your entire consciousness, that part which you are using at this time. It is as if, for example, consciousness of any whole self were compared to a huge, and indeed almost infinite light, with the ability inherent in the light to focus in many directions; to be diffused, as if the light had many switches that would turn it to greater or lesser intensities and directions.

The intertwining of consciousness and matter is most intricate and highly complicated. In all cases consciousness is first, and it forms its physical constructions according to its abilities, first of all forming its own primary construction, and then branching outward, constructing secondary images of other consciousnesses with whom it comes in contact.

Secondary physical constructions are those created by a consciousness of its conception of other consciousnesses, from data received through telepathy and other means.

(10:00.) Usually when you look into your conscious mind you do so for a particular reason, to find some information. But if you have schooled yourself to believe that such data is not consciously available, then it will not occur to you to find it in your conscious mind. If furthermore your conscious data is strongly organized about a core belief, then this will automatically make you blind to experience that is not connected with it.

[...] Connected with it is the consciousness of all those who understand it, perceive it or originate it. [...] Instead, the consciousness that held, or holds, or will hold the information attracts it like a magnet…. The information itself wants to move toward consciousness. [...]

(“Your consciousness attracts the consciousness that is already connected with the material. [...] Information, then, becomes new and is reborn as it is interpreted through a new consciousness, as Seagull was.

[...] You are consciously aware of these, though often you do not focus your attention upon them. They become invisible, therefore, unless you become aware of the contents of your conscious mind.

Your conscious mind, again, is a part of your inner self, and ever-changing. In terms of species consciousness it is a development of great significance. [...] They come naturally up to consciousness. [...]

[...] But the experiences undergone by the patients — and all of this applies to massive doses — represent the enactment, through terrible encounter, of the species’ birth into consciousness, and its death as consciousness falls back annihilated; followed by its rebirth as the individual patient struggles to emerge again from dimensions not native under those conditions.

[...] When this occurs “all by itself” it is an innate reflection of the psyche’s creativity and happens with its own rhythm — connected to seasons of the mind and blood and consciousness and cells in ways that you do not as yet understand. But the whole structure and its subsidiary relationships change together, and the conscious mind is able to assimilate what is happening.

It is just because individuals are not aware of the resiliency of their own consciousnesses that they agree to such proceedings. So patient and therapist share the belief that the conscious mind does not have easy access to the needed knowledge.

The mechanics of consciousness remain the same. [...] Therefore there are no limitations set upon the development of any individual consciousness, or growth of any identity. Consciousness both in the body and without finds its own range, its own level. [...]

(10:45.) As you know, consciousness has a great tendency to maintain individuality, and yet to join in gestalts at the same time. An animal consciousness after death may form such a gestalt with other such consciousnesses, in which abilities are pooled and the combined cooperation makes possible, for example, a change of species.

(Pause at 9:40.) Your consciousness, however, is equipped to create realities in other fields as well. Now in certain dreams and out-of-body experiences, your own consciousness moves faster than the speed of light, and under such conditions you are able to perceive some of these other forms of “mass or matter.”

Animals have varying degrees of self-consciousness, as indeed people do. The consciousness that is within them is as valid and eternal as your own, however. [...]

The full personality consciousness indeed places an additional strain upon what you may call the overall body consciousness, and prolongs the sense of pain connected with that body consciousness. [...] In a terminal illness, the personality consciousness, the I as you know it, bears down in panic upon the body consciousness when it does not understand the state of affairs.

Consciousness ejects signals, the consciousness within the cell, not the cell, you see. Now the consciousness is within the cell, all through the cell, not localized within it, and yet it is not the matter of the cell.

He does not as yet consciously know the extent of his changed attitude. [...] You and Ruburt both know subconsciously, and you have begun to sense the implications on a conscious level, but barely. [...]

In one of our earliest sessions I told you that trees have consciousness, and that consciousness resided within all things, as the plants within this room to some extent are aware of you, and the happenings here, can sense strangers, and can strongly sense emotional and psychic atmospheres, to which they do indeed react. [...]

[...] Since the identity-consciousness is composed of the combined and cooperating generalized consciousness of all the body’s atoms and molecules, and the consciousness of the inner ego, these molecular consciousnesses that once or initially found expression in forming their physical construction, no longer do so; but are competent to do so again when the self-consciousness so demands.

Since the conscious ego is composed of the gestalt molecular consciousness, then when it leaves the physical body it takes the molecular consciousness with it, and this molecular consciousness is therefore present to aid in future construction. However, since you must deal with physical laws while dwelling upon the physical plane, you cannot dispense entirely with the physical constructions, but in such extensions of consciousness you must utilize other physical molecules and atoms.

The fact remains that the outer senses induce a conscious focusing along certain limited lines, grouping perceptions and comprehensions in a narrow fashion, and limiting the practical and imaginative range that consciousness might otherwise take. With these sessions you are yourselves broadening the range of your own consciousness, and therefore of your own abilities, with my help.

The combined molecular consciousnesses, retaining identity, form a gestalt consciousness that is the ego, the outer ego, that is in turn utilized by the consciousness of the inner ego. [...]

Your body consciousness is like the consciousness of any animal—alert, above all optimistic, focused in the present, as you understand it, glorifying in motion and in rest, in excitement and in quietude. [...] The body consciousness enjoys its own expression. [...]

[...] They react in their own ways to suggestion to the tone of your voice, to your expectations of their behavior, to your treatment of them—and in that regard your body consciousness responds to your conscious treatment of it. For this analogy alone, meant to further develop your joint understanding of the relationship between your conscious mind and your body, we will make further points. [...]

[...] Animals and your own body consciousness have little concept of age. (Pause.) In a fashion almost impossible to describe, their consciousnesses—the body’s and the animals’—are “young” in each moment of their existences. I must perhaps here clear up a point: I am taking it for granted that you understand that I am referring to the “mental attitude” of animals and of the body consciousness, for they both do possess their own mental attitudes—psychological colorations—and above all, emotional states. [...]

You can learn much about your own body consciousness, and therefore to some extent about the natural man, by observing the behavior of your pets or other animals, and you can to some extent learn from their behavior, and therefore to some extent counteract any susceptibility to negative beliefs. [...] Such imaginings frighten the body consciousness, as you might frighten an animal. [...]

You can understand what is meant by saying that your consciousness fluctuates — for each individual is aware of various intensities and concentrations. You are more alert, or, in your terms more conscious on some occasions than others. Now the same applies to these units of consciousness — and to atoms, molecules, electrons, and other such phenomena. [...]

(“For those of you who do accompany me, I promise you an adventure, a creative alteration of consciousness, and experiences beyond those that you have known in your terms. [...] Do you think there is but one kind of consciousness?

(“Your world is formed out of the vast unpredictability of consciousness. [...] It is something else, however, when you start worrying about which kind of self [or consciousness] is superior to another kind.”

(As we waited for the session to begin at 9:30, Jane said, “I’m getting ready — waiting for that certain clear focus — the one clearest place in consciousness for the material to come through …”)

Give us a moment … You identify a highly evolved self-consciousness with your own species development, and with your own kind of perceptive mechanisms. [...] Its impetus, however, comes from within the nature of consciousness itself. [...] In some quarters it is fashionable these days to say that man’s consciousness is now an element in a new kind of evolution — but that “new consciousness” has always been inherent. [...] Every consciousness is aware of itself as itself.⁵ Each consciousness, then, is self-aware. [...]

In your terms, consciousness of self did not develop because of any exterior circumstances in which your species won out, so to speak. In fact, that consciousness of self in any person is dependent upon the constant, miraculous cooperations that exist between the mineral, vegetable, and animal worlds.³ The inner intent always forms any exterior alteration. [...] Consciousness forms the environment. The environment itself is conscious (forcefully). Atoms and molecules themselves operate in their own fields of probabilities. [...]

[...] Physically speaking, earth itself has its own kind of gestalt consciousness. If you must, then think of that earth consciousness as grading (spelled) upward in great slopes of awareness from relatively “inert” particles of dust and stone through the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms. [...] If you will remember that even atoms and molecules have consciousness, then it will be easier for you to understand that there is indeed a certain kind of awareness that unites these kingdoms.

[...] He plans to attend ESP class tomorrow night, then stay over Wednesday to read and discuss the two works Jane has in progress, Adventures in Consciousness: An Introduction to Aspect Psychology, and “Unknown” Reality. [...]

Ruburt himself, unconsciously but also to some extent consciously, has been more intrigued with questions concerning consciousness and personality — the role of the ego consciousness, for example — since beginning his novel, Oversoul 7 (in late March, 1972).

The great creativity of consciousness is your heritage. [...] Each living being possesses it, and the living world consists of a spontaneous cooperation that exists between the smallest and the highest, the greatest and the lowly, between the atoms and the molecules and the conscious, reasoning mind.

[...] All consciousness creates the world, rising out of feeling-tone. It is a natural product of what your consciousness is. [...]

[...] That consciousness of your usual daylight hours, the ego consciousness, rises up like a flower from the ground of the “underneath,” the unconscious bed of your own reality. [...]

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.

First of all, it is within your conscious mind. The pendulum would be a method of allowing you to view conscious material that is not structured to recognized beliefs. [...]

Instead, on your return you are communicating to the world through your notes — a choice you made consciously, but without being aware of the other contents of your conscious mind, and the “conflicting” beliefs. [...]

Now at various times you made those conscious choices. They escaped your notice but they existed as conscious points of awareness and choice. [...]

Now all consciousness, including your own, is highly mobile. While you focus your attention primarily in your own world, certain portions of your consciousness are always straying. When you are sleeping, then, your consciousness often ventures into other realities, usually in a wandering fashion without tuning itself in to any precise frequencies. Beneath many seemingly chaotic dreams there are often valid experiences in which your consciousness “lights” in another reality, without being attuned to it with the necessary precision that would allow for clear perception. The information cannot be sifted or used effectively and is translated into dream images, as your consciousness returns toward your own home station. [...]

[...] For the sake of imagery, you can imagine your normal consciousness as your connection with this home planet — the familiar station that you tune in to every day. When you project your consciousness away from it, then you will encounter various kinds of atmospheric conditions. Once you understand what these are, and what effects can be expected, such journeys can be undertaken consciously, with the conscious mind that you know acting as the astronaut, for example, and the rest of your consciousness acting as the vehicle. [...]

Your world, again, is the result of a certain focus of consciousness, without which that world cannot be perceived. [...] The range of consciousness involved is obviously physically oriented, yet within it there are great varieties of consciousness, each experiencing that seemingly objective world from a private perspective. [...]

[...] Basically, however, consciousness is freewheeling. Such realities therefore always exist — in your own psyche — outside of your “home station,” and some portion of your own consciousness is always involved in them. [...] (Pause.) For now think of your own psyche, which is a consciousized identity, as a kind of “supernatural radio.” [...]

Let us begin with the normal waking consciousness that you know. But one step away from this is another level of consciousness into which you all slip without knowing. [...] It is adjacent to your normal consciousness, separated from it very slightly; and yet in it very definite effects can appear that are not present in your usual state.

[...] In A-l your consciousness can enter the body of another, and heal it. [...] You can, according to your abilities, manipulate matter from the inside consciously, with lucidity and alertness.

Now it can be used as the first of a series of steps, leading to “deeper” states of consciousness. [...] Each of the deeper layers of consciousness can also be used as first steps leading to other adjacent levels. [...]

[...] You then return to normal consciousness, going through the A-l state that you used as a preliminary. [...] Then in your normal state of consciousness, of course, you make the decision that you want from the information and experience that you have received.

This interchange follows, again, your conscious beliefs. It is fashionable in some circles to believe that you react physically to telepathically received messages despite your conscious beliefs or ideas. [...] You react only to those telepathic messages that fit in with your conscious ideas about yourself and your reality (emphatically).

Because it is intimately connected with other portions of the self it does not basically feel alienated or alone, but proudly acts as the director of the conscious mind’s focus. It is an adjunct of the conscious mind in that respect.

Another way to do this is to recognize through examination that the physical effects you meet exist as data in your conscious mind — and the information that formerly seemed unavailable will be obvious. The seemingly invisible ideas that cause your difficulties have quite obvious visible physical effects, and these will lead you automatically to the conscious area in which the initiating beliefs or ideas reside.

Now we have been speaking of the conscious mind, for it is the director of your activities physically. [...] Using this analogy, portions of the self on the other side of the conscious mind constantly receive telepathic data. [...]