“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Ideas represent your psychic intent. They generate emotion and imagination. These activate the interior patterns. They are the motive force of action (pause), the means by which all interior events are exteriorized. They are energy formed and directed, formulations of interior and exterior patterns of reality. They are a part of the creative force from which all realities spring. Again, we run into difficulties in explanation simply because there are few verbal equivalents for what I am trying to say.

(9:28.) The atoms and molecules within you are quite literally dying and being completely replaced all the time. You are being created physically each instant. Period. The body reacts to exterior sounds and to the stimuli brought to it by the physical senses. These patterns of reaction can be clearly shown. They are all that is presently observable, however, of far greater interactions that also occur.

This is done by translating exterior stimuli into interior stimuli, but the physical carriers of the data are all that scientists or physicians have been able to follow thus far. The greater interactions have not been perceived, and the true story of the decoding of such messages (much louder abruptly) has not been understood — and take your break.

Now: (Pause.) The nerves are also composed of the same kind of interior structures as mentioned earlier (in this chapter): around, or rather from which, the physical nerves form. Here the exterior data is translated and broken down into inner terms. That is, it is decoded in terms of the internal sound, light, and electromagnetic patterns discussed before.

[...] Often the existence of probabilities and their acceptance does provide a kind of exterior crisis situation that individually and en masse is a symbol of independence and inner crisis. The crisis is met in the exterior situation, and as the people deal with that situation they symbolically deal with their own inner crises. In a way (underlined) those people trust such exterior confrontations, and even count upon a series of them (intently), of varying degrees of severity, that can be used throughout a lifetime for such purposes.

[...] There was, however, no doubt about it: Exterior conditions had improved (underlined), yet the individual did not seem any happier. [...] Life’s exterior conveniences would hardly matter if science’s knowledge was used to undermine the very foundations of life itself.

[...] In this century several issues came to the forefront of American culture: the exteriorization of organized religion, which became more of a social rather than a spiritual entity, and the joining of science with technology and moneyed interests. [...]

[...] There was some hope in forgetting one’s doubts in whatever exterior distractions could be found. [...]

The outside-attuned consciousness, however, is almost dependent upon exterior stimuli for its sense of life and enjoyment. I do not want to oversimplify, yet such a type of consciousness is far more interested in exploring the nature of itself as it relates to exterior conditions or circumstances. It becomes, relatively now, opaque to subjective personal conditions, since it has no secure exterior framework against which the inner condition can be judged. [...]

Primarily, such a consciousness knows itself, or tries to know itself, only in relationship to others or exterior conditions. [...] This type, however, is a cultivated specialization of consciousness in which its nature is known through the impact of exterior rather than interior conditions. [...]

If you believe, however, that you must have one at the expense of the other, then you will always face a dilemma between exterior and subjective activity. [...] They are indeed afraid of aging, and so press onward in more and more exterior activity, because they fear that age will show itself there first. [...]

[...] The polarities are artificial, but there is no doubt that in your society and times the exterior-tuned consciousness is the most paramount. [...]

The exterior religious dramas are of course imperfect representations of the ever-unfolding interior spiritual realities. [...]

Exterior religious dramas are important and valuable only to the extent that they faithfully reflect the nature of inner, private spiritual existence. [...]

[...] The forbidden experiences will simply be unconsciously expressed, gather strength and vitality, and rise up to form a counter projection which will then form another, newer exterior religious drama.

In these continuous exterior religious dramas, the Hebrews played a strange role. [...]

When consciousness becomes overly exteriorized and no longer identifies strongly with nature, then it no longer properly identifies itself with the inner nature of its own actions. One’s own actions therefore seem to be as exteriorized, or apart from consciousness, as trees or rocks seem to be. The exteriorized consciousness will always see such an event as an earthquake by viewing only its immediate, sometimes tragic, results. [...]

[...] The overly exteriorized consciousness has cut itself off so that it no longer perceives the inner order of events. [...]

The first Gods began the process of man’s exterior consciousness, so that the portions of nature with which he no longer identified were gradually deified, and put outside of himself. [...]

Now: Dictation: There is a constant give and take between each individual and his or her society; the divisions and characteristics of any particular civilization will be a perfect exterior representation of the overall attributes of the people within it, as they relate to one another and as they see themselves.

The exterior dimensions are replicas of interior personal ones. [...]

The implications of such statements for education are astonishing: Besides teaching rote information, our schools and universities should acquaint us with as many fields as possible; for these act as exterior triggers, bringing forth natural inner knowledge, sparking skills which are waiting for activation by suitable stimuli in the exterior world.

The psyche is not only the repository for sexual affiliation, however, but contains hidden abilities and characteristics which are then triggered into activity by exterior stimuli. [...]

He discusses in depth the experience of early man and the different organizations of perception that prevailed, and stresses that the species has always had access to “inner data” so that its source of knowledge was never exclusively dependent upon exterior circumstances. [...]

[...] All of this, Seth’s books and my own, surely gives evidence of the psyche’s vast creativity, and of its abilities to perceive and use information that comes from the inner, as well as from the exterior environment.

[...] Through being made aware of these facts, the exterior ego can begin to feel a quicker sense of support and nourishment. [...]

[...] The inner ego (long pause) draws instant and continuous support from the universal consciousness, and the more the exterior ego keeps that fact in mind, the greater its own sense of stability, safety, and self-esteem.

[...] Exterior events in those circumstances become magnets attracting the dramatic force of the imagination. Inner events are stressed over exterior ones. [...]

In recent times the trend has been in the opposite direction, so that the abilities of the imagination were considered highly suspect, while exterior events were considered the only aspects of reality. [...]

[...] The inner self responds through the richness of its own psychic fabric, sending up, so to speak, ever-new particularized abilities to meet the exterior circumstances.

Music is an exterior representation, and an excellent one, of the life-giving inner sounds that act therapeutically within your body all the time. [...]

Dreams are one of your greatest natural therapies, and one of your most effective assets as connectors between the interior and exterior universes.

[...] Dreams give you all kinds of information concerning the state of your body, the world at large, and the probable exterior conditions that your present beliefs will bring about.

New paragraph: The blueprints for reality will not be found in the exterior universe. [...]

[...] (Intently:) It is not only as valid as the exterior one, but it is the origin for it. [...]

[...] He familiarizes himself with the symbolism of his own dreams, and sees how these do or do not correlate with the exterior symbols that appear in the waking life that he shares with others. [...]

(10:35.) Give us a moment … The true scientist understands that he must probe the interior and not the exterior universe; he will comprehend that he cannot isolate himself from a reality of which he is necessarily a part, and that to do so presents at best a distorted picture. [...]

[...] The interior universe is the source of the exterior one, however, and traveling through it we will encounter our own hopes, fears and beliefs in their ever-changing form.

And so the exterior world emerges from the interior one even as this physical book materialized from the inner reality of inspiration, creativity and dreams.

As this formation took place there was constant give-and-take between interior and exterior realities, in your terms. The growth of feelings, sensations, I am-ness, concepts and beliefs was paralleled by the resulting exterior manifestations of animal species, and mineral and vegetable emergences; with these came the growth of complementary neurological structures, and the precise physical formations, such as mountains, valleys, seas, and so forth needed to sustain them.

(11:28.) Those in earthquake regions are attracted to such spots because of their innate understanding of the astonishing relationship between exterior circumstances and their own quite private mental and emotional patterns.

[...] Obviously there have been earthquakes where there are no people, but in all cases the origins are to be found in mental properties rather than exterior ones. [...]

A note: Your exterior civilizations do indeed mirror and reflect the great cellular civilizations, so that you try to exteriorize that kind of order and creativity.

[...] Your civilizations are your splendid, creative, exterior renditions of the inner social groupings of the cells of the body, and the cooperative processes of nature that give you physical life. [...]

[...] There was no exterior cosmic Pied Piper, singing magical notes or playing a magical tune, urging the universe into being. [...]

[...] Our discussion about the Gallaghers not liking animals—really not liking them, was the exterior part of the dream (of March 31, involving the dogs). [...]

Because dreams are such a perfect combination of stimuli from the inner environment and the exterior environment, other events are often used to trigger inner dream messages, just as the opposite occurs. [...]

[...] When it is not recognized, or when the individual looks mainly to the exterior environment as the provider of information, then the dream’s contents are projected onto objective events.

[...] Before such communications, the normal world of social concourse and natural phenomena always provided a great backdrop, in which the dreams of the night before would speak their messages—and the exterior circumstances then become recognizable for inner insights.

[...] [See session 472 in Volume 9 of The Early Sessions.] Material on Jane’s symptoms, interior and exterior illness, inner-self constructions and challenges, recognizing problems, etc. [...]

Dictation: Your next question is easy to anticipate, of course, for you will want to know the origin of that “interior” universe from which I have said the exterior one ever emerges — and here we must part company with treasured objectivity, and enter instead a mental domain, in which it is seen that contradictions are not errors; an inner domain large enough to contain contradictions at one level, for at another level they are seen to be no contradictions at all.

Your classifications in such respects set up exterior divisions. [...]

[...] It is perhaps difficult for you to realize that these are written and verbalized categories that in no real manner tell you anything about the actual experience of other creatures — but only note habits, tendencies, and separations of the most exterior nature.

[...] That exterior world is thrust outward, however, and projected into reality in line with your conscious desires, beliefs, and intent. [...] Each physical experience is unique, and while the energy for it and the creation of it come from within, the pristine, private, and yet shared quality of that experience could not exist in the same way (more emphatically) were it not so exteriorized.

The exteriorization has great purpose and meaning, then, and brings forth a different kind of expression. [...]

Now: Even in your terms of history and serial time, as a race you have tried various methods of dealing with the physical world.⁶ In this latest venture you are discovering that exterior manipulation is not enough, that technology alone is not “the answer.” [...]

With man’s own exteriorized ego, this leads to the question of free will and the making of conscious choices.

In this discussion, I am not merely speaking in terms of exterior accomplishments, or goals, though these are important. [...]

[...] You have been taught to pay almost exclusive attention to your exterior behavior. [...] You often structure your life according to that exterior pattern of events. [...] That inner world is your only real connection with the exterior events, and the objective details make sense only because of the subjectivity that gave them birth.⁶

There are two main ways of trying to find out about the nature of reality — an exterior method and an interior one. [...] You are well acquainted with the exterior means, that involve studying the objective universe and collecting facts upon which certain deductions are made. [...]