“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Faster at 10:45:) The god concept then was an aid, and an important one, to man’s emerging ego. To develop its sense of specialization, the ego forgot the great cooperative venture of the earth. [...] In terms of ego consciousness, however, there were stages of growth; and the god concepts that spoke of oneness with nature were not those that served the ego’s purposes in the line of development as you understand it (deliberately).

[...] The ego, emerging, needed to feel its dominance and control, and so it imagined a dominant god apart from nature. Often nations acted as group egos — each with its own god-picturing, its own concepts of power. [...]

[...] Portions of the brain not used lie latent, waiting for the recognition that will trigger them into activity (intently). When this happens, the mind will become aware of the rich bed of probabilities upon which the ego now rides so blindly.

[...] Then the ego could expand and become aware of realities it had “earlier” ignored. [...]

[...] The ego prefers to consider itself the captain at the helm, so to speak, since it is the ego who most directly deals with the sometimes tumultuous seas of physical reality, and it does not want to be distracted from this task.

Channels, psychological and psychic, always exist, sending communications back and forth through the various levels of the self, and the ego accepts necessary information and data from inner portions of the personality without question. [...] The ego, in other words, the “exterior” self that you think of as your self — that portion of you maintains its safety and its seeming command precisely because inner layers of your own personality constantly uphold it, keep the physical body operating, and maintain communications with the multitudinous stimuli that come both from outside conditions and inside conditions. [...]

Now, in the three-dimensional reality in which your ego has its main focus, becoming presupposes arrival, or a destination — an ending to that which has been in a state of becoming. [...]

[...] Since the ego is definitely a part of the whole self, then it must necessarily be basically aware of such knowledge. [...]

Some of these states take place above the ego or the subconscious, although I am using the terms above or below simply for your convenience. Youthink of the ego as the center of the self, therefore I am forced to use these terms. You think the other portions of the personality revolve about the ego.

The ego is only one layer of the self that has self-consciousness. Being self- conscious, the ego attempts to be conscious only of itself. [...]

The subconscious, so-called, is aware to some extent of the ego, regarding it as an extension of itself, over which it does not have as much control as it would like. This is precisely however the way the ego views the subconscious, as a rule. [...]

The order within the probable system is based upon something that could be compared to subjective associations, or intuitive flashes of insight, that can combine elements that would appear to the ego as quite disconnected, into whole and integrated patterns of action.

[...] A strong supportive ego is a necessity, particularly in initial stages. In periods of severe personality disturbances that can occur simultaneously with great creativity, the ego becomes terrified of the strength of the creative ability, fearing that it can be crushed beneath.

In such cases the ego is too rigid, and does not expand with the nature of the personality’s whole creative experience. [...] In this case, however, Ruburt’s ego gradually began to let its rigidity go, in a gradual process that allowed the whole personality, itself included, to expand.

[...] His criticism in the beginning served also as reassurance to the ego, in its first experiences, that it would not be shoved aside or damaged in any fashion.

[...] It has no ego to cut the “I” identification short. Creatures without the compartment of the ego can easily follow their own identities beyond any changes of form. The inner self is aware of this integrity of identity, but the ego focused so securely in physical reality cannot afford this luxury.

[...] The ego is not present. The waking consciousness, dear friends, is not the ego. The ego is merely a small portion of waking consciousness. The ego is the portion of waking consciousness that deals with physical manipulation.

[...] The ego cannot participate directly in such experience. There is a compliance on the part of the ego, however, that allows it to step aside so that it does not block inner awareness of other-dimensional existence. It is difficult, but not impossible, for the ego to correlate the information gained. [...]

You exist in many dimensions, although the ego is not aware of such existence. The ego can be taught however. [...]

Waking consciousness is taken into the dream state, but the ego is not. The ego would immediately falter, and cause immediate failure and catastrophe. [...]

Without these chemical and electromagnetic connections, (voice louder) the ego as such would not exist. The ego is largely dependent upon the physical mechanisms that compose the corporal image. [...] While we speak of the ego, this part of the self is hardly permanent or constant, but ever-changing. However the intellect is also a portion, or an attribute, of the ego.

[...] These in large measure help form the physically oriented ego, or at least form its characteristic manner.

Obviously the ego is a part of the whole self. [...]

Now where the ego operates you will always find chemical repercussions; to some extent or another then the physical body will be involved. [...]

[...] We have seen that the ego begins, sparked into being, by the inner self, greatly influenced by heredity and physical environment; and that this ego as it continues to exist gradually builds up an electrical reality of its own, as its experiences form into coded data within the cells.

At any given point, the ego is as complete within electrical reality as it is psychologically complete within the physical universe. [...]

[...] When the inner self in its constant motion travels through an impulse range which it has once experienced, to the ego this will appear as a journey into the past.

When the inner self achieves an impulse or intensity that is new to it, to the ego it will seem a journey into the future.

(Pause at 10:43.) Now often the ego acts as a dam, to hold back other perceptions — not because it was meant to, or because it is in the nature of an ego to behave in such a fashion, or even because it is a main function of an ego, but simply because you have been taught that the purpose of an ego is restrictive rather than expanding. You actually imagine that the ego is a very weak portion of the self, that it must defend itself against other areas of the self that are far stronger and more persuasive and indeed more dangerous; and so you have trained it to wear blinders, and quite against its natural inclinations.

The ego does want to understand and interpret physical reality, and to relate to it. [...] Then because it is inflexible you say that this is the natural function and characteristic of the ego.

[...] The inner self upholds the ego with its support. It forms its truths into physically oriented data with which the ego can deal. [...] Seeing these truths thus materialized, the ego then finds it easier to accept them.

This is the dilemma of the ego, particularly in its early states. [...]

[...] This is craftily done, for the inner self knows exactly what will impress the ego, and what kinds of personalities will be best able to personify the message at any given time. [...]

[...] Now this is what the ego does you see within a lifetime, only to a greater degree. In projections, and in your dreams, your perceptions to some extent enable you to leap out of the ego’s time limitations. The physical body is indeed the ego’s vehicle. [...]

[...] When these dreams are unusually vivid, then the ego is aware of participating. The ego is not using its critical faculties however as a general rule.

Only then can you fully begin to manipulate the conditions that exist, and communicate the knowledge that you receive to your own ego. For the time, you see, the ego becomes a direct participator in such experiences—at least to some degree.

The next step of course is to allow the ego to use its critical faculties also within the dream state. [...]

The ego as you know it, the conscious self within your time system, this ego, let us say, arrives at and experiences event X.

As I have explained the ego to you, within your system it can only perceive in terms of continuity, in a straight-line fashion so to speak, one event after the other. [...] The ego is however the only portion of the self that is, in the main, limited to follow experience along these lines.

The ego must choose one of all these because of its physical time limitations. [...] It can pursue and experience all of these alternate events, and it can do so in the same amount of physical time that it takes for the ego to experience event X alone.

[...] It is obvious, for example, that some events are experienced by the subconscious also, that may or may not be experienced by the ego.

The solution therefore may not necessarily be accepted completely as the best solution by the ego. The ego is aware of the physical situation only in its relationship to itself. [...] It is extremely important then that the ego correctly interprets the physical situation, for this is the information that it will give to the computer, so to speak.

[...] In the dream state the personality actually has at its command a stupendous amount of subconscious information of which the ego is not aware. [...] The amount of data available to the subconscious is simply superior in quality and larger in quantity to that available to the ego, and this information can be used effectively through suggestion.

To follow the above material, let us emphasize the importance here of a clear, honest, perceptive intellect, for it is largely upon the intellect that the ego depends. The intellect collects from the physical environment those situations and conditions which affect, or will affect, the ego.

[...] The ego is indeed equipped to handle physical reality. [...]

[...] The ego, in anger, would not allow the suggestions made to be carried out. [...] The trouble was that the energy that would have been used to carry out the suggestions was dammed up by the ego.

[...] I felt she had alerted her ego somehow, and that it was balking at going through the usual psy-time routine. [...]

These things vary with personality; with Ruburt, while the ego cannot directly or immediately participate in such, shall we say excursions, it nevertheless must be kept up to date, and give consent. [...]

The ego simply feared the sudden increase of concentrated energy, and fought on general principles. [...]

Now we shall put this plainly, for his ego has indeed distrusted his intuitional self, and has been jealous of it. There has been a spiritual expansion occurring however that is responsible for these recent gains, and the late difficulty in sleeping has been the result of a flare-up, a last struggle, on the part of the ego; a rather weak offensive.

The seance affair (last session) frightened the ego to some extent. As a whole personality now, Ruburt has found himself operating at prime efficiency in several late incidents, when the ego and intuitive self have worked in harmony. [...]

This was not always the case, but in too many instances my intellect has been held back by the stubbornness of his ego. [...]

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. The inner ego being unhampered by the laws of your plane, once having entered your plane at physical birth, can therefore leave the physical body and then reconstruct it.

[...] It is the inner ego, and the inner vitality and the inner ego’s determination, along with the cooperation of all the cells that compose the physical body, that enables such a particular structure as the human body to exist as a separate construction, and to maintain the necessary sense of identity.

Without the determination of the inner ego, cohesion of identity would be impossible. [...] Even the outer ego contains multitudinous chambers and interconnections of which you are unaware.

The important point here is that identity cohesion is projected upon the human physical structure from within, that is, from the inner ego by way of the inner senses. [...]

The emergence of these psychic abilities was indeed resented by his ego, and initiated a necessary overhaul of personality, against which it protested. [...] The ego had simply overgrown its bounds.

Remember, the normal consciousness is not synonymous with the ego. The ego is only a portion of consciousness. [...]

He has learned that the ego cannot set itself up against the inner self. [...]

[...] When the ego controls this resoluteness however, it turns into stubbornness, and works against the personality. [...]

The ego tries to organize all material coming into the conscious mind, for its purposes — the ego’s — are those that have come to the surface at any given time in the self’s overall encounter with physical reality. As I said, the ego cannot keep information out of the conscious mind but it can refuse to focus directly upon it.

The ego attempts to maintain a clear point of focus, of stability, so that it can direct the light of the conscious mind with some precision and concentrate its focus in areas of actuality that seem permanent. As mentioned (in Chapter One), the ego, while a portion of the whole self, can be defined as a psychological “structure,” composed of characteristics belonging to the personality as a whole, organized together to form a surface identity.

The ego, while appearing to be permanent, then, forever changes as it adapts to new characteristics from the whole self,¹ and lets others recede. [...]

[...] I told you (at the beginning of this chapter) that it was important to realize the ego’s position as the most “exterior” portion of the inner self, not alienated but looking outward to physical reality. [...]

([Florence:] “Isn’t this what the psychologists call the ego and the super ego and the subconscious... [...]

When your precious psychologists walk out of their bodies and tell me what is in California, then I will listen to their theories of personality and when your psychologists put on the type of personality performance that I can put on—then I will listen to them when they tell me about the ego and subconscious. [...] Their ego and their subconscious and their superego and their id leads them no further than a worm that wiggles in the grass and is dead forever tomorrow, and even the worm has more reality than they are willing to assign to one human consciousness. [...]

[...] They would therefore look at you and at your ego, you see, as a fringe self. The ego seems to think that all other portions of the personality circle about it. [...]

[...] And this has nothing to do with the ego, which is only a small portion of waking consciousness. [...]

However, with the ego at rest in sleep, the individual often allows communications and dream constructions through — past the ego barrier. For example, if his present expectations are faulty, when the ego rests, he may recreate a time when expectations were high. [...]

[...] We have seen that the ego begins, sparked into being by the inner self, greatly influenced by heredity and physical environment; and that this ego, as it continues to exist, builds up an electrical reality of its own and forms its experiences … into the coded data within the cells.

[...] As there is usually no contact between the entity and the ordinary conscious ego, there is usually no contact on a conscious level between the self who dreams and the dream world which has its own independent existence.

[...] I am speaking now of the dream experience as it occurs and not of the remnant of it that his ego allows him to recall.