“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

You both believed in relating personally to the universe. You wanted some relative seclusion. The search for knowledge would mean often that you would be between beliefs, operating as you had been taught through training, and trying to operate according to the new knowledge. You know this, of course. The search for knowledge on your parts was personal. You would share what you learned with the world —but he who seeks knowledge must first of all be himself or herself, for most members of the world cannot follow such a course.

Before this life both of you decided upon the search for knowledge. Knowledge, of course, is not some thing that you find or discover. You must become knowledge. It is never apart from you. It is a process of self-discovery. You chose your environments, your interests, your families, friends, and associates forming bit by bit the details that would become the pictures of your lives.

Ruburt found our last session extremely depressing, as he saw how the two of you conspired to bring about his physical condition. Though the primary “responsibility” is his, of course, yet each of you in the same fashion “conspired” to explore art, psychic realities, and the search for knowledge together. Each of you conspired to learn far more than might have seemed possible from your backgrounds, to sort through systems of beliefs. Each of you conspired to share your knowledge with the world, so that other lives were also enriched.

Ruburt has often felt that it was too late, and that you could not help him —for you would sabotage his efforts, as it seemed he himself did. Such feelings should be admitted. They are, however, the results of old hangovers, when he is reacting to conventional, quite limited knowledge filled with distortion, about the nature of the psyche, the nature of time—knowledge further polluted by methods of problem-solving that simply add to problems.

(Pause.) I said earlier that there were many kinds of knowledge. Think of them instead as states of knowledge. [...] In my “waking” condition, I operate at many levels of consciousness at once, and deal therefore with different systems of knowledge. [...] What I learn is transmitted automatically to others like me, and their knowledge is transmitted to me.

There are other kinds of knowledge, also. [...] It is not merely a matter of learning new methods to acquire knowledge, then, but a situation in which old methods must be momentarily set aside — along with the type of knowledge that is associated with them.

Any information or knowledge must have a pattern if you are going to understand it at all. Ruburt’s own painting, his knowledge of his psychic abilities, his love of Joseph — all served to form a pattern which then attracted the Cézanne material. [...] This direct kind of knowledge is available, again, on any subject, to anyone who provides a suitable pattern through desire, love, intent or belief.

It is not a matter, either, of there simply being one other category of knowledge, for there are numerous other such categories, many of them biologically within your reach. Various so-called esoteric traditions provide certain methods that allow an individual to set aside accepted modes of perception, and offer patterns that may be used as containers for these other kinds of knowledge. [...]

When you are in touch with your psyche, you experience direct knowledge. Direct knowledge is comprehension. When you are dreaming, you are experiencing direct knowledge about yourself or about the world. [...] When you are reading a book, you are experiencing indirect knowledge that may or may not lead to comprehension. [...]

[...] It means also that you are limiting the range of your knowledge by not taking advantage of such methods. It does not mean that in your terms all knowledge already exists, either, for knowledge automatically becomes individualized as you receive it, and hence, new.

It seems almost heresy to suppose that such knowledge is available, for then what use is education? [...] The Cézanne material was from the past, yet future knowledge is quite as accessible. [...]

[...] They also served to point up the differences between knowledge and comprehension, and emphasize the importance of desire and of the emotions.

Such a knowledge as you suggest in actuality would not have added to his comprehension of his body, for he comprehended it very well. [...] No man’s knowledge will alone save him from heart failure, or heart difficulties, if such knowledge is not backed up by comprehensions of an entirely different order.

[...] Man has an inherent knowledge of his body. On some occasions specific knowledge of the various parts leads him to forget other issues, and leads to a mechanistic approach.

[...] You have categorized by part, certainly it seems, the great part of emerging knowledge, when in your terms taboos were broken and medical men were allowed to dissect corpses, to see what was before hidden. Yet again, men who felt they had the fleetness of the gazelle, the heart of the lion, or whatever, did not need literal knowledge in your terms. [...]

Man has a knowledge of his body. [...] Your belief structures have clouded the practical use of that knowledge, however.

[...] The context in which such knowledge appears will often vary, therefore. In some cases, the framework itself is used for a final time, with the initial inspired knowledge — the knowledge itself — escaping from the framework and growing out of the context that allowed for its birth.

[...] The knowledge gained must then be integrated by the physical personality, and yet by its nature, valid knowledge of this kind will shed out its light and make its own way.

Such knowledge requires not only more responsive and responsible behavior, but involves a sympathy with life that may earlier have been lacking. [...] Many individuals have experienced unusual, quite valid and intense expansions of consciousness, but found themselves unable to correlate the new knowledge with past beliefs, to make the changes necessary to handle the sensitivity. [...]

[...] These must be coupled with the inner confidence that pertinent knowledge can be directly received. [...]

The more extensive your knowledge, the more aware you are of probable actions, and of the conglomeration of choices that then become available. There are also people, then, with an intense thirst for knowledge who believe that knowledge is indeed good and beneficial, while on the other hand they believe just as fervently that knowledge is forbidden and dangerous.

It should probably be noted here also that this suspicion of knowledge is intensified when the female sex is involved, for the legends quite erroneously give the impression that knowledge is twice as disastrous if possessed by a woman. [...]

Foremost, connected with the distortions about creativity and expression, is the belief that knowledge itself is dangerous, evil, and bound to lead to disaster. [...]

Knowledge automatically changes the personality and the camouflage structure through which it flows. Knowledge, in other words, is action. [...]

I am not giving you some kind of disembodied knowledge, however. Knowledge itself (pause, smile) is conscious. [...]

[...] Knowledge exists as realizations, and realizations presuppose personalities.

Knowledge does not exist, ideally, in abstract terms. [...]

Knowledge in your terms does change your own physical structure, merging with the physical stuff of your image, but your ego remains relatively detached from it, you see. (Long pause.) There is a psychic merging with knowledge. To you, knowledge in the abstract means little. [...]

[...] Her voice, with its distant quality, was not faint however.) This involves being united with knowledge in a way you cannot now appreciate. [...] Since you are very involved with self-structures as you think of them, then knowledge must be given in such a way that it affects the structure as you know it.

Here knowledge is sifted through self-structures. (Pause.) Pure knowledge is not impersonal. [...]

(Pause.) The knowledge that we have, myself and others like me, would be incomprehensible to you in its pure form.

[...] I told you that you possessed far more knowledge about your own lives, and the lives of others, than you were intellectually aware of.² You act on that knowledge, for one thing, when you are born physically, when you grow. The squirrel acts on that kind of knowledge when it buries nuts—as you saw, again, on a recent TV program—and the squirrel’s greater knowledge includes the knowledge of its species as well.

Memory was so perfected that men at one time were indeed living histories, and carried within their minds their genealogies and backgrounds and the knowledge of their peoples, which were then passed on to their children. It is true that reading and writing have certain advantages over such procedures, but it is also true that knowledge possessed in that old fashion became a part of a man, and a society, in a much more personal, meaningful manner. [...] It is true that, practically speaking, a man’s mind, or a woman’s, could not hold all of the information available now in your world—but much of that information does not deal with basic knowledge about the universe or man’s place within it. [...]

(9:30.) Helper represents the part that possesses such knowledge. In practical terms, it is very important to understand that such knowledge and protection do exist, that all of your problems need not be solved through conscious reasoning alone—and, indeed, few problems can be solved exclusively (underlined) in that fashion.

When you realize this, then you can accept seeming setbacks, or seeming contradictions, with a calm detached air, realizing that such factors appear as they do only in the light of your present intellectual knowledge—a knowledge that must be limited to current events—and that in the larger picture known to you at other levels, such seeming contradictions, or seemingly unfortunate situations, or whatever, will be seen to be to your advantage. [...]

[...] You can compare this sense with instinct, as you think of it, although it is concerned with the innate knowledge of the entire universe. [...] The inner self has at its command complete knowledge, but only portions are used by an organism. [...]

[...] It is concerned with the entity’s innate working knowledge of the basic vitality of the universe, without which no manipulations of vitality would be possible—as, for example, you could not stand up straight without first having an innate sense of balance.

[...]

[...] The knowledge of multidimensional existence is not only in the background of your present conscious activity, but each man knows within himself that his conscious life is dependent upon a greater dimension of actuality. This greater dimension cannot be materialized in a three-dimensional system, yet the knowledge of this greater dimension floods outward from the innermost heart of being, and is projected outward, transforming all it touches.

[...] This inner knowledge attempts to find a place for itself within the physical landscape, to translate itself into physical terms. Each man, then, possesses this inner knowledge within himself, and to some extent or other he also looks for confirmation of it in the world.

[...] The inner knowledge can be compared to a book about a homeland that a traveler takes with him into a strange country. [...]

[...] It is also aware that this inner self possesses knowledge upon which its own existence is based.

[...] It is a matter of knowledge, electromagnetically coded, psychically valid, but you cannot hold knowledge in your hand and perceive it directly. You take its usual transmission in daily life for granted, overlooking the fact that all the physical aspects of its transmission and appearance serve to hide its basic non-materiality, and that words and printed data and moving pictures, all visual or physical symbols, are not the knowledge itself. [...]

You are used to acting on knowledge only when it is so physically passed on, and the more numerous the forms in which it physically appears the greater your trust of it. [...] The images, again, are only the symbols, the physical symbols, of inner knowledge. They are not the knowledge but the symbols of them.

[...] The inner self has the knowledge behind these physical perceptions. [...]

[...] Also since earlier conditions taught it that such knowledge could bring punishment. [...]

[...] In a curious fashion, however, that circle of safety provides each individual with the freedom and curiosity to go ahead and test independent theories and situations—so it also serves the purposes of creativity and knowledge, and even allows for the acquisition of new knowledge that was not in the original belief structures. [...]

[...] There are also periods in people’s lives, rhythmic times, when the self seeks to cast off certain such bindings for the pursuit and acceptance of still further data and knowledge. [...]

[...] Each society—or each system of knowledge, for that matter—has its own taboos built in, and most of these imply abandonment by the community. [...]

[...] He could assimilate much new knowledge by means of the creative mechanisms, which could not transform troublesome ideas into other symptoms that could become quite acceptable. [...]

I do not want you to think that the answers to your questions lie prepackaged in the dream state, either, relatively inaccessible except to those (long pause) who possess unique talents or some secretive knowledge of the world of the occult. [...] The answers, therefore, lie as close as your own back-door steps, for at the thresholds of your beings you automatically stand in the center of knowledge. [...]

[...] prepackaged knowledge begins to disappear. [...] You could be equally correct in calling them the voices of electrons or the voices of the gods, for each is a representation of All That Is, overflowing like a fountain both with knowledge and with love.

[...] Each portion of the universe carries the knowledge of all other parts, and each point of a reality is (underlined) that reality’s center. [...]

You are remembering it and creating it at once, watching it grow from the attention of your own love and knowledge, and as you seem to stand at its center, so you stand at the center of all of your dreams, which then spin themselves seemingly outward.

[...] The knowledge of reincarnational lives is spontaneously held, and you can receive profound insights from that knowledge. This occurs when you are not looking for it, but when you are familiar enough with the entire concept, so that you realize such knowledge is available.

This does not mean that all conscious knowledge about your own reincarnational existences is forever beyond you — for through various exercises you can indeed learn to recall some of that information. It does mean, however, that you are innately aware of all of your existences, and that the knowledge gained in one life is automatically transferred to another, whether that life be present, past, or future.

[...] The inner knowledge of all of your lives, from your point of view, is in the same category as those automatic processes that underlie your existence.

Such knowledge, however, would automatically affect those past lives. [...] The knowledge of its “future” leaves, as potential pattern, exists now. [...]

You carry within you, however, the deep knowledge of experience that in your terms would be prior, yet in your cells and your own deeper mind such information is current.

[...] To a certain extent you do carry the knowledge of your forefathers within your [cells’] chromosomes,¹ which present a pattern that is not rigid but flexible — one that in codified fashion endows you with the subjective living experience of those who, in your terms, have gone before. [...]

[...] Again, even the cells retain knowledge of all of their affiliations. [...]

According to Seth, our own desires, focuses, and intents dictate what inner information we draw from the endless fields available; for he sees all knowledge existing at once, not as dry data or records, but enlivened by the consciousness that perceives it. The minds of the past and future are open to us, or at least their contents are, not in a parasitic relationship but in a lively give-and-take, in which knowledge from each time period enriches every other historical era. Seth gives this pooling of knowledge both a spiritual and biological reality.

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. According to Seth, it is from this interior body of knowledge that our systemized, objective, information-storing social processes emerge.

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.

[...] Simply put, a world view is a living psychological picture of an individual life, with its knowledge and experience, which remains responsive and viable long after the physical life itself is over. [...]

[...] And within that reality even I am dwarfed and there is knowledge that can never be verbal. [...] in which the inner self condenses all human knowledge that has been received by you through your various existences and reincarnations... [...]

[...] And in me the knowledge and vitality of that Seth still rings. [...]

[...] and the comprehension that exists within each cell, the knowledge that each cell has, the desire for organization was given by us. [...]

[...] So that if all physical knowledge were taken from you, all the knowledge that you have learned since birth in this life, and that is impossible, but if it were possible still within you would always be the inner knowledge not only of your own private past and future, but of the private past and future of your kind and of your species. [...]

Now, so-called occult knowledge dealt with secret knowledge, and it is secret to the extent that every man must discover it for himself and that is the end of the secrecy. [...]

[...] You are taking first steps well, but the subjective knowledge must come from within each of you. [...]

[...] And yet no knowledge can be removed from you and no sense of your identity, past, present or future, can be divided from you and as you yourself do the dividing. [...]

[...] No information given to my knowledge that was unknown to any living person; some given that was not known consciously by Jerry but she could have picked up the knowledge and forgotten it.)