“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

This sort of experience does, for you, indeed have its unpleasant side, and the ego most naturally combats. Nor is this to be unexpected for any physical death, or knowledge of any such physical death, is considered automatically as a threat by the ego. [...]

[...] Much of this knowledge, then, resides in the subconscious while the ego goes on its way.

Many individuals imagine the soul to be an immortalized ego, forgetting that the ego as you know it is only a small portion of the self; so this section of the personality is simply projected onward, ad infinitum, so to speak. [...]

You can see this easily for yourself if you consider the way in which psychologists use the terms “ego,” “subconscious,” and even “unconscious.” [...]

It would be impossible to proceed physically if the other simultaneous events had to be handled by one ego. [...]

[...] If all of those functions must be beneath present consciousness, you can see that no single ego-consciousness could easily grapple with several environments, times, or life experiences. [...]

[...] (Jane dictates:) Yet ego is relaxed. The cat focuses upon one thing at a time even though it has no strong ego. So Jane concentrates while I give her the messages, even though it is not her ego which is concentrating. [...]

It is unfortunately true that the dominant present ego can be degraded on your plane to an amazing degree, through for example brainwashing and so forth. [...]

[...] Ego spits like a cat to maintain conscious control, but will relax when it sees it can come to itself whenever it chooses. [...]

[...] The ego distorts material, as in this case. [...]

[...] It can be thought of as the most exterior projection of the inner ego. When you find yourself, so to speak, watching what you think of as the ego, then you are in contact with this portion of the self. [...]

You must first of all cease identifying yourself completely with your ego. You must not just listen to my words but realize not only that you are more than your ego, but that you can perceive more than your ego perceives. [...]

[...] As the self has an inner and an outer ego, so also does the inside finally become the outside. [...] The outer ego for example would meet the inner ego, and vice versa.

You have seen that the ego is a building block. [...]

It is much easier for me to deal with other people’s illnesses and health nuisances, than it is to deal with Ruburt’s. He asks me a question and then slams the ego gates down, refusing to hear the answer. [...]

[...] His ego washes his hands. [...] So the inner self does not wash its hands, but his ego does not realize this most of the time. [...]

[...] The inner ego however can be utilized in such a dissociated state as such a director of activities, with sufficient training. [...]

You have what you may think of then as a split action, where one portion of the self, the inner ego, is allowed to travel through the other states of action that compose the whole self, purposefully as a director, and retain the knowledge thereby received.

[...] It will not be restrained by the ego to any large degree. [...]

[...] Quite without realizing it, your ego is a result of group consciousness, for example; the one consciousness that most directly faces the exterior world, is dependent upon the minute consciousness that resides within each living cell of your body; and as a rule you are only aware of one ego — at least at a time.

In some systems the “individual” is quite aware of having more egos than one, in your terms. [...]

[...] Thoughts however are connected with language and with highly organized ego development. [...] As a rule they are highly physically oriented, their function being to acquaint the physically adapted ego with some inner data.

As specified,² ego consciousness grew. [...]

[...] Ego consciousness lost part of that focus in comparison. [...]

[...] It is because you remember but vague glimmerings and disconnected episodes that dreams appear, sometimes, chaotic or meaningless, particularly to the ego, which censors rigidly much of the information that the subconscious does retain.

On leaving the dream state, he becomes more and more aware of the ego, and creates then activities which have meaning to it. [...]

Now basically even the physical universe itself is so constructed, but for all practical purposes, as far as general perception and experience is concerned, time and the physical growth development apply, so that we find the ego portion, particularly of the human personality, is to a large extent dependent for its maturity and development upon the amount of time that the physical image has spent within the system.

(From the 242nd session for March 16, 1966:) The ego is not the most powerful or the most knowledgeable portion of the self. [...] 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.

[...] 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. [...]

When communication takes place between a survival personality and one who exists within the physical system, this involves a reshuffling on the part of the survival personality, where the ego is momentarily given greater reign … If this was not done, then in most cases communication would not be possible, just because the survival personality would have such difficulty impressing the personality who was still ego-oriented within the physical system.

[...] Therefore, I do not need to adopt a past ego [of my own]. [...] This connecting framework does some of the translating for me that a reassembled ego would do. [...]

The ego is a king with a very precarious crown, and you think you are what your ego is. It does not occur to you, however, that there are literally countless, countless probable egos within yourself, numberless abilities that could come to the foremost of your consciousness to be latched upon and used. [...]

[...] What you have instead is something like the developments narrated in The Three Faces of Eve. You have dominant egos, all a part of an inner identity, dominant in various existences. [...] Only the egos involved make the time distinction. [...]

“In fact, the ego receives much of its [relative] stability because of this subconscious retention. Were it not for past experiences in other lives on the part of deeper layers of the self, the ego would find it almost impossible to relate to other individuals, and the cohesiveness of society would not exist.

“The whole self is aware of all of the experiences of all of its egos, and since one identity forms them, there are bound to be similarities between them and shared characteristics. [...]

“In the materialization of personality through various reincarnations, only the ego and the layers of personal subconscious adopt new characteristics. [...]

In the last analysis the channel for vitality or for vitality’s transformation into physical matter is of course the inner senses’ ability, and there is a counteraction here as far as the conscious ego is concerned. The conscious ego often blocks much energy. [...]

[...] But the conscious ego is the primary manipulator of camouflage patterns and the obvious mover. [...]

The conscious ego then manipulates this material for the purposes of camouflage constructions. [...]

That image is only connected with your present personality ego, and could be likened to a fibrous projection or growth, into which your present personality could become entombed. [...] By the same token, your triumph represented a necessary one, and reinforced the healthy points of your present ego.

[...] Then these split personality fragments or images can be kept under scrutiny without taxing the present ego to distraction. [...]

[...] But generally speaking high energy is needed in order to maintain overall stability, and in order that the ego is not overstrained. [...]

[...] The usual limitations set upon the self by the ego vanish. [...]

[...] Most of these dreams are very disconnected from the ego, and will seldom be recalled. [...]

[...] The doctor obviously has his own ego, though not within your system.