“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Each particular “station” of consciousness perceives in a different kind of reality, and as mentioned earlier (in Session 711, for instance), you usually tune in to your home station most of the time. If you turn your focus only slightly away, the world appears differently; and if that slightly altered focus were the predominant one, then that is how the world would seem to be. Each aspect of the psyche perceives the reality upon which it is focused, and that reality is also the materialization of a particular state of the psyche projected outward. You can learn to encounter other realities by altering your position within your own psyche.

You must learn to use this mechanism consciously for your own purposes, for it is extremely handy. Many of you do not pay attention to your own experience, subjectively speaking, so you drift in and out of clear focus in this reality, barely realizing it. Often your daily program is not nearly as clear or well-focused as it should be, but full of static; and while this may annoy you, you often put up with it or even become so used to the lack of harmony that you forget what a clear reception is like. However, in this world you are surrounded by familiar objects, details, and ideas, and your main orientation is physical so that you can operate through habit alone even when you are not as well focused within your reality as you should be.

You will not learn it by trying to escape your own reality, or by attempting to dull your senses. This can only teach you what it means not to focus, and in whatever reality you visit the ability to focus clearly and well is a prerequisite. Once you learn how to really tune in, then you will understand what it means to change the direction of your focus.

In order to begin, you must first become familiar with the working of your own consciousness as it is directed toward the physical world. You cannot know when you are in focus with another reality if you do not even realize what it feels like to be in full focus with your own. Many people phase in and out of that state without being aware of it, and others are able to keep track of their own “inner drifting.” Here, simple daydreaming represents a slight shift of awareness out of directly given sense data.

Because of that specialized, limited focus, however, to varying degrees each of you were divided within yourselves. Ruburt feared that the psychic work conflicted with the writer, and detracted from you in your focus as an artist. [...]

Both of you, so far, still believe that your spontaneity must be measured out because of those specialized focuses, and for no other reason. That focus has prevented you each from seeing what you have, from using it fully in all areas, and from recognizing your achievements, creatively, financially, and otherwise.

Your writing abilities for example would not have emerged had that original course and specialized focus been followed to a “t.” Had that original course and specialized focus been followed to a “t,” Ruburt’s abilities would not have emerged either. [...]

I want to return to a discussion of your specialized focus, individually and jointly. [...]

From this focus position communication may be set up between personality essences no longer in the physical field, and those still in it, provided that those still in it are able to remove focus from the ego to this particular level. It is from this focus point then that communication between what is termed the living and the dead may take place.

When I speak of levels of the subconscious, I do so only for simplicity’s sake, since there is after all no top or bottom to the mind, but only a present point of focus from which viewpoints may be taken, and new perspectives formed. It is theoretically possible, for example, to change the focus, to delve downward as it were two lives back, and look upward from that perspective to the present.

[...] These chemical changes without the proper subconscious focus point, will result in clairvoyance or telepathy strong enough on some occasions to be conscious. When the proper focus point is reached however, these communications will result in rapport between the living and that portion of personality essences, or so-called dead, who are still at least psychically connected with life on your field.

Obviously people vary in their ability to change their point of focus. [...] Some, because of excellent development, inner communication with the inner self, feel subconsciously secure enough to change focus spontaneously, as one might listen to one radio station and then another, still retaining knowledge of the basic “I” who listened.

[...] Now from my own field of reality I focus my attention toward the woman, but the words that she speaks — these words upon the pages — are not initially verbal at all.

[...] You can only focus upon so many things at one time, and your language structure is not given to the communication of intricate, simultaneous experience.

I am aware of a different kind of experience, not linear, and can focus upon and react to an infinite variety of simultaneous events. [...]

[...] In these communications, therefore, Ruburt’s consciousness expands, and yet focuses in a different dimension, a dimension between his reality and mine, a field relatively free of distraction. [...]

To confine such creativity to solve life’s problems primarily or to direct it primarily in that fashion, limits it and holds it in an improper focus; shackles it. [...]

We have to go beyond that—the point of problem-solving or problem-focus —back to stressing the creative larger-than-life aspects, otherwise all we have is a better problem-solving framework. [...]

To do that, I have to drop those old feelings of responsibility as a primary focus (to get the ideas out quickly so they can help people, etc.) because those feelings strain the Seth-book framework particularly when I demand that in each book Seth answers all questions and so forth. [...]

[...] I’ve hampered my own psychic development and possible new books by such focuses which generate their own paranoiac-like fears. [...]

[...] Slightly let yourself fall out of focus, look away, and then back to the face of the subject. [...]

[...] He would not have allowed himself the highly focused sort of trance necessary, for rather specialized data. [...]

(I began a question: “Well, you were still present, even with this highly focused trance—” when Seth motioned for me to wait.)

(“I just wanted to comment that this highly focused trance of Ruburt’s wasn’t so specialized that you were shut out. [...]

[...] Wait — just now as I wrote this I picked up something [from a part of my consciousness other than Ruburt or Seth], to the effect that the projection environment is as focused as mine is, really, but that it’s a probability of mine. Biologically I wasn’t keyed into it in my ‘now’, I was in it and not in it, between focused realities … traveling in or through these fluctuations of consciousness Seth talked about in the last session. [...]

While inhabited by the usual human consciousness, the living body operates as an intense focus point. The conglomeration of consciousnesses within it on all levels focuses its own network of communication. [...]

[...] Once again, as she had before the 684th session and on other occasions, she said that now “something was different” in the sessions: For this book she had to “get a certain clear focus …”)

The body is a sending and receiving organism; your home station, so to speak, and the focus for your activity. [...]

[...] Existence within any field of reality necessitates intensive focus within that field. [...] As an actor in a drama goes along with certain acts and gestures that make the play necessary, while at the same time he realizes that the play is a play, he must still focus his attention upon the lines spoken, and use the props available.

[...] Individual focus cannot be intensely maintained indefinitely. Neither can the vibrant, almost fanatical focus of the self within the limitations of one field continue indefinitely.

By adulthood the trance, the intense focus, is most strongly upon him. [...] The strong focus of psychic energy needed to maintain the splendid physical image-organization is no longer given. [...]

(Also while on this walk, Jane had the thought that death approaches a personality when the personality becomes less and less able to focus his energies fully on this plane, when he can no longer control his physical image as well as in the past. [...]

I only suggest that you watch Ruburt as he moves; and I must remind you that upon other occasions when results had been achieved, your minds had been focused along these directions for a long period of time, comparatively speaking, and whether you realized it or not your psychic energies had been so focused. Whether you are consciously aware of it or not, the subconscious focus at all times must be achieved first. Even when you did not realize that such a focus had been achieved it had been achieved.

[...] The various methods simply focus all of your concentration upon a specific area, shutting out any distractions.

[...] For example: If you constantly focus on the belief that your early background was damaging and negative, then only such experiences will flow into your present life from the past. [...]

[...] Hypnosis, again, is merely a state of concentrated attention, in which you focus upon beliefs. [...]

(10:12.) The shutting out of superfluous data and the narrowing of focus are the two most important ingredients. [...]

[...] But on other levels, through the contrasting focuses of poverty and wealth, scientific accomplishments or the lack of them, opposites are brilliantly apparent. Technological progress, followed as a main focus, automatically portrays its benefits and its disadvantages.

[...] At any point that an individual realizes his point of power in the present, he will not need a barrier to test himself against, or to focus him in what he thinks of as the proper direction.

(Very emphatically at 10:03:) On an individual basis a grave illness, for instance, will represent the adoption of a particular highly intense focus in which a given aspect of usual experience is deliberately cut out or denied; the context of life itself must then be magnified along other lines. [...]

[...] These attributes were pursued at the expense of others for individual reasons and those en masse. The rest of the world agreed to such actions, however, and various portions of it took entirely different courses, so that in your experience global society would show a kaleidoscope of varying focuses and their results.

I have spoken often concerning the importance of changing focus, altering the direction of consciousness. This does not involve a change in consciousness itself, merely a change in the direction in which consciousness is focused. [...] Usually however this involves a rather surface change of focus, as your attentions are directed first upon specific physical areas, and then switched to other specific physical areas.

This does not involve however a change of focus in depth. A change to a different level entirely occurs when the individual switches focus from physical reality to other realities. [...]

Such a change of focus demands a concentration in one area to the exclusion, as a rule, of other areas. [...]

There are several ways that will allow you to change the focus of your own awareness when you choose. [...]

Not only are you part of other independent selves, each one focused in its own reality, but there is a sympathetic relationship that exists. [...] You can learn to focus your attention away from physical reality, to learn new methods of perception that will enable you to enlarge your concept of reality and greatly expand your own experience.

Some of these may involve the thoughts of what you would call a reincarnational self, focused in another period of history as you know it. [...] In other words, you may become aware of a far greater reality than you now know, use abilities that you do not realize you possess, know beyond all doubt that your own consciousness and identity is independent of the world in which you now focus your primary attention. [...]

(9:35.) You are as actively and vividly concerned in these realities as you are in the one in which your main attention is now focused. [...]

“You” are not divorced from these other streams of consciousness in any basic way; only your focus of attention closes you off from them, and from the events in which they are involved. [...]

[...] On such occasions your attention is focused elsewhere, in what you might call mini-dreams or hallucinations, or associative and intuitive processes of thought that go quite beyond normal focus.

Alternate focus is merely a state in which you turn your consciousness in other than its habitual direction, in order to perceive quite legitimate realities that exist simultaneously with your own. [...]

Using alternate focus, with practice it is possible to perceive the different physical formations that have filled any given area of space, or that will fill it in your terms. [...]

[...] In alternate focus you can dispense with the root assumptions that usually guard, direct, and limit your perception. [...]

You are so focused in your roles, however; so intrigued by the reality that you have created, so entranced by the problems, challenges, hopes, and sorrows of your particular roles that you have forgotten they are of your own creation. [...]

I am speaking of the portion of you who is taking part in this particular period piece, however; and that particular portion of your entire personality is so focused within this drama that you are not aware of the others in which you also play a role. [...]

[...] You therefore are forced to focus intensely upon the actions of the play. [...]

Periods of renaissance — spiritual, artistic, or psychic — occur because the intense inner focus of those involved in the drama are directed toward those ends. [...]

[...] By being alert and catching such feelings, you can learn to use the floating part of the otherwise-recognizable memory as a focus. Through association that focus can then trigger further past or future recall. [...]

[...] For clarification, I also keep this in mind: Seth isn’t physical, as he defines himself, and that “energy personality essence” seemingly isn’t all that focused on the passage of time — as we are — yet way back in the 14th session for January 8, 1964, he told us that time “is therefore still a reality of some kind to me.” [...]

[...] The original happening is experienced from a different perspective on the part of each person involved, of course, so that the event’s implications and basic meanings may differ according to the focus of each participant. [...]

[...] Overall, this is necessary so that immediate body response can be focused in the time period you recognize. [...]

[...] The inner self constantly changes its focus. I have said that consciousness is merely the direction in which the inner self focuses at any particular time. In order to examine the reality of dreams it is necessary to change the focus of the inner self to those directions in which the inner self moves, when the ego does not limit its scope to camouflage reality only.

This in itself, this change of focus, is not difficult. What is difficult is the ability or facility to change focus from one area to another, always leaving the door open for a return to the usual necessary daily focus point, in order that effective balance be maintained and manipulation in the physical area remain fairly uninterrupted.

[...] The intense but limited focus of usual consciousness will itself distort the true nature of dreams, and the ego will hold any such conscious examination of dreams within rigid bonds.

Now during the dream drama the inner self may focus at various, or at one of various subconscious areas which it uses as a point of departure. [...]

[...] And so will you awaken and so have you awakened and so even in the trance of physical focus are you already awake to your own greater reality. You only focus upon a point of ignorance. Merely turn the focus of your awareness in another direction and freedom shows itself and time is seen then as the figurative closed eyelid that deceives you. [...]

[...] Therefore, you focus upon only certain points and accept these as real and ignore others. When some of you then begin to focus upon different points, then there is great confusion ...for it seems to you that one set of data must be right, and if this set is right then all other sets must be wrong or fantasy. [...]

Each entity, for example, is different from any other, and will seek different kinds of focuses and intents. [...] One entity might focus its main energy, intent, and drive in one particular earth life, filled with incredible creativity, so that that “focus life” becomes a central core for all other existences, the foundation and the source of energy for all other lives.

[...] They define it, and confine it to certain focuses.

[...] It is, therefore, the focus of your attention that delineates your time period, and provides a psychological stance from which you will then view all other selves, or all other experiences of your entity. [...]

[...] Other entities might spread their creativity and focus more equally over many lives. [...]

The physical self as you know it is a focus of consciousness that forms a personality in response to that focus. [...]

[...] It means that the archaeology of your psyche as it is physically focused carries those experiences. [...] You have always existed as a probable self, though you were not focused in the knowledge of your own experience.

[...] Your focus of attention forms boundaries that predispose you to believe in a point at which your consciousness emerges, as you understand it, and a point when it is no longer effective, or dies. Your beliefs in such concepts limit your perception, for by altering the focus of your attention you can to some extent become aware of perception before and after the recognized points of birth and death.

(In parentheses: You may have been focused quite well in other realities, but I am speaking of your earthly existence as you understand it.)