“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Now your time, your past, present and future, as you conceive of them, would be experienced entirely as present to many of these other personality structures. However your past, present and future would be experienced entirely and completely as past, to still other personality structures.

[...] Many other personality structures do not need a materialized perceptive framework, such as this, but an inner psychic organization is always present. It also represents the personality’s present capabilities.

[...] Past, present and future appear highly convincing and logical when there must be a lapse of time between each perceived experience.

[...] Such a personality is able, in your terms, not only to react and appreciate event A, say, in your present time, but also to experience and understand event A in all of its ramifications, and all of its probabilities.

Because of man’s great gift of imagination, however, the alarm signals not only invade a safe present moment, but go jangling into the next one and the one following, and are endlessly projected into the future. To whatever extent, and in whatever fashion, each individual is therefore robbed of his or her belief in the personal ability to act meaningfully or with purpose in the present.

[...] That primary sense data, while pinpointed in the present, providing you with the necessary stance in time, still can open up to you the timelessness from which all time emerges, can bring you intuitive intimations, hinting at the true nature of the ever-present coming-to-be of the universe.

The most negative projection or prophecy seems to be the most practical one; when you are reading of the world’s ills, you say in all honesty, and with no humor: “How can I ignore the reality, the destructive reality, of the present?” In the most practical, immediate, mundane terms, however, you and your world are in that moment naturally and physically safe, as your bodily senses immediately perceive. In the most basic of bodily terms you are not reacting to present conditions.

[...] But if you allow those experiences to overcloud your present, valid intersection with reality, then you speak and act from a position not your own, and deny the world whatever benefits your own present version of reality might allow you to give.

[...] Strictly speaking, it isn’t dictation for Mass Events, but Jane and I are presenting portions of it here because Seth discussed events and memory with a different emphasis, and touched upon aspects of reincarnation² — all subjects that spring out of that ineffable, really undefinable quality he calls simultaneous time. I ask the reader to always keep in mind that no matter what subject he’s discussing, or from what viewpoint, Seth’s kind of “time” underlies all that our present physical senses translate into linear, concrete experience and history. [...]

[...] Your present gains its feeling of depth because of your past as you understand it. [...] But the roots of events go through your past, present, and future.

Now: In certain terms the past, present, and future [of your present life] are all compressed in any given moment of your experience.

[...] The memory of an event, then, is shaped as much by the present as it is by the past. [...]

The interaction is constant, however, and in all of your presents, creative. [...] You have a gigantic pool of information and experience to draw upon, but this will be utilized according to your present conscious beliefs. If you understand that the point of power is in the present, then you have an inexhaustible realm of ability and energy at your command.

Since all is simultaneous, your present beliefs can alter your past ones, whether from this life or a “previous” one. [...] Yet within the abilities of your creaturehood, your current beliefs can change your experience; you can restructure your “reincarnational past” in the same way that you can restructure the past in this present life (as explained in sessions 657-58 in Chapter Fifteen.

[...] 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.

[...] If you are severely ill and believe that the reasons for your symptoms exist in a past life, that you must “put up with it,” then you will not realize that your point of power is in the present, and you will not believe in the possibility of recovery.

(Slowly:) Only because these units have their source outside of space and time is the present corporal reality a triumph of probabilities. [...] Your present image, for example, seems to be the only one possible for you, permanently yours for your lifetime at least; and what happens to it appears almost inevitable. [...]

For example: It is truer to say that heredity operates from the future backward into the past, than it is to say that it operates from the past into the present. Neither statement would be precisely correct in any case, because your present is a poised balance affected as much by the probable future as the probable past.

[...] There is indeed an expanding universe, and it is formed in the eternal present. [...]

Your present is the result of your own poised consciousness, choosing its perception and the nature of its life from a field that is at all predictable only because of the greater area of organization available to it.

[...] The hub of the present, therefore, is held together by “spokes.” [...] Each present moment of your experience is dependent upon the future as well as the past, your death as well as your birth. [...]

[...] The present hub of the wheel, therefore, is but one prominent present, operationally valid. [...]

[...] Pretend that the present moment is like a wheel, with your concentration at the hub. [...]

You could not die unless you were the kind of creature who was born, nor could you have a present moment as you consider it. [...]

[...] Certain events in the present will remind you of past ones, for example, and sometimes your memory of the past will color present events.

Association or no, physically you will remember events in time, with present moments neatly following past ones. [...]

The inner self realizes, however, that potentials are present that would not necessarily be present under other circumstances — abilities that can not only help the present personality but other individuals, and even society at large.

[...] You hide it from the present self simply to insure the fact that the present reality is not a pretended one.

[...] I simply want you to realize that if this life is a trance, then you can turn the direction of your consciousness to perceive greater realities that presently exist. [...]

[...] You are not, therefore, at the mercy of any neurosis from a past life, nor are there any fears from your present lives that you cannot conquer. [...]

The son who did survive, you do not know in your present existence. Throckmorton however is your present father. [...]

[...] The brain would be more or less what it is, that is, the brain of the present personality existing on a camouflaged plane. [...] The mind would contain all data having to do with past existences and intertwining purposes, problems and relationships, but it would only give such data to the brain as was necessary for its present existence.

[...] This was of my present younger brother Dick during his life in England in 1671. [...]

[...] You know her in this life as a relative of, I believe a niece of, your mother’s. You will recall that your mother, your present mother, was Dick’s oldest sister during that life.

An idea is not itself aware of past, present and future for example, and yet having no experience with present, past and future, it still endures. Nor does the duration involved in the spacious present in any way involve a suspension in terms of, for example, growth forbidden to achieve maturity.

The spacious present does not contradict the existence of durability, but durability does not imply the existence of a future as you conceive it. [...] The spacious present, while existing spontaneously, while happening simultaneously, still contains within it qualities of duration.

[...] Our third law is spontaneity, and despite all appearances of beginning and end, despite all appearances of death and decay, all consciousness exists in the spacious present, in a spontaneous manner, in simultaneous harmony, and yet within the spacious present there is also durability.

[...] Durability within the framework of the spacious present would not exist were it not for the laws of value fulfillment and energy transformation. These make duration within the spacious present not only possible but necessary.

Remember that reincarnation does not contradict the theory of the spacious present, for such lives within the spacious present are simultaneous. [...]

Seven: The spacious present is here more available to the perceptions.

Elements from past, present and future may be indiscriminately available to you. [...]

Yet you may be straddling time in such an instance, perceiving, say, the room as it existed in the 1700’s, and the street as it exists in your present. [...]

[...] Your two present brothers were intertwined with your life on two other occasions, once as friends and once as cousins. Your present father secretly admires Loren’s apparent easy sociability, not knowing that Loren is forced to laugh and shout loudly, just as your father is more or less forced by his own personality to sit silent and sullen.

[...] In each life the new consciousness struggles to tie together the whole present personality, to use what is necessary from the subconscious for the good of the personality, and to keep submerged in the subconscious any knowledge that would threaten the dominancy of the present ego.

Nevertheless at such times the old wounds are opened without the present personality’s understanding or awareness. [...]

[...] His present mother was a very jealous older sister. [...]

History, as you think of it, represents but one thin line of probabilities, in which you are presently immersed. [...] Reality is far more diverse, far richer and unutterable than you can presently suppose or comprehend. Evolution, as you think of it and as it is categorized by your scientists, represents but one probable line of evolution, the one in which, again, you are presently immersed.

As the present life of any individual rises from hidden dimensions beyond those easily accessible in physical terms, and as it draws its energy and power to act from unconscious sources, so does the present physical universe as you know it rise from other dimensions. [...]

[...] We push such details “back” so that we can handle the present. We focus our attention upon a certain group of events—the “present” ones—and then drop them into the subconscious where they seem to fall away and become distant. If we could keep our attention on these past events and still concentrate on the present ones simultaneously, then our sense of present time would be immeasurably enlarged.

“Again: the medium is the message in the Spacious Present,” Seth said, smiling, “and whenever the time for the program arrives, I am here in your present, regardless of where I am in what you would term my present. [...]

We are aware of past, present, and future—a series of moments strung out, it seems, one before the other. What if this series is only part of a larger present, a more spacious “moment” of which we are unaware?

[...] Perhaps it consists of events already in existence in this Spacious Present; events that we have conveniently decided not to contend with “as yet.” [...] They never even enter our past, present, or future reference.

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. I use the word purposely to show the danger, because such an occurrence would be a setback, not only to your present personality but indirectly for your entity, since you would be further away from it than you are now. By the same token, your triumph represented a necessary one, and reinforced the healthy points of your present ego.

(Jane continues:) In a sense the present individual in any given life could be called a fragment of his entire entity, having all the properties of the original entity, though they remain latent or unused. [...]

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

[...] Speaking about the problem you mentioned, because your aggressions are fairly well controlled consciously, and because in the present your creative energies are in the realm of your subconscious, at this stage they can be, and often are, used to create unhappy image personality situations such as at York Beach. [...]

The spacious present is always present (smile)—my pun—in any work of art. [...] The fluidity or the spacious present pervades the dream state as it pervades a painting, but the images are projected into the spacious present by the dreamer, according to his own understanding and experience.

The thoughts would not be perceived if they were present, you see. If a certain intensity is reached here however, a peak of intensity, then you could perceive the spacious present as it exists within your native system. [...]

[...] If none is present you know you are out of the system. The dream universe is obviously then strongly connected with your own, since pseudoimages are present. [...]

Most people could not handle a knowledge of future lives in the present. [...] It is better to concentrate on the subjective reality involved—that is easier, for if successful you will automatically tune into the future self that “emerged” from your present reality. [...]

One of the main root assumptions of your popular world has been that the future does not exist in the present. [...]

[...] Again, a future life presupposes death in the present one. [...]

[...] In your terms those selves often give you information, advice, and inspiration, planting in their own pasts the events that “will” bring about their present. [...]

[...] He also was aware however of your own comparative imprisonment in a limited present. For the present as you know it is very limited indeed. [...] He can relive the incident at his leisure, and experience it as present if he so chooses.

[...] Present actions can change future events that would otherwise occur. But when this is admitted, then we must admit also that present events can alter the past, for there is no element in the past that has a different structure or composition or characteristic, that is not present in the future.

[...] An inverted time system actually presents us with a system that more closely approximates the true nature of time. [...]

[...] The past therefore becomes present. [...]

[...] They and the land seemed one, sharing the present seasons, the daily work—but more than that, their fathers and their forefathers and usually many past generations of given families came from the same area. People lived in houses shared by their elders that had earlier been shared by their elders backward through family lines, so that daily experience and family incident was not nearly as restrained to the present in your terms. [...]

[...] The peasants of course worked closely with the land and seasons, with earth’s natural timing, and even though such work seemed to make time go faster, in the overall the sense of present time included a rich dimension from both present and past, so that in your terms it would seem longer by contrast —richer—when people went to bed earlier, lacking the night’s electricity. [...]

[...] As noted, I’m quite interested in that area, though not only in our present time frame. [...]

[...] Those Italian villages exemplified really a kind of consciousness, or an orientation of consciousness, that existed before modern psychology and Darwinian belief: a framework of consciousness and experience that was overall similar in the recent past and in the time of the Romans—one, in other words, that existed up into the present. [...]

[...] In 330 I found presents from the Bumbalos for both of us. [...] Peg and Bill Gallagher visited Jane at 11:00 last night, sneaking in through the emergency exit, Jane said, and left presents, including wine, for us. I didn’t expect presents from anybody, and so hadn’t planned to get anything for others beside Jane. [...]

[...] Again according to those rhythms of which i speak—but know that I am present and approachable. [...]

[...] I guess, Jane, the best present I could offer were my notes at the end of the last session, about trying to appreciate what we have, be grateful that we have what we have, and know that things can only get better from here on in. [...]