“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(9:42.) Your soul therefore — the soul that you are — the soul that you are part of — that soul is a far more creative and miraculous phenomenon than you previously supposed. And when this is not clearly understood, and when the concept is watered down for simplicity’s sake, as mentioned earlier, then the intense vitality of the soul can never be understood. Your soul, therefore, possesses the wisdom, information, and knowledge that is part of the experience of all these other personalities; and you have within yourselves access to this information, but only if you realize the true nature of your reality. Let me emphasize again that these personalities exist independently within and are a part of the soul, and each of them are free to create and develop.

(9:25.) Even the mortal self, you see, is far more miraculous and wondrous than you perceive, and possesses far more abilities than you ascribe to it. You do not understand as yet the true nature of perception, even as far as the mortal self is concerned, and therefore you can hardly understand the perceptions of the soul. For the soul, above all, perceives and creates. Remember again that you are a soul now. The soul within you, therefore, is now perceiving. Its methods of perception are the same now as they were before your physical birth, and as they will be after your physical death. So basically the inner portion of you, the soul-stuff, will not suddenly change its methods of perception nor its characteristics after physical death.

(10:44.) This physical perception in no way alters the native, basic, unfettered perception that is characteristic of the inner self, the inner self being the portion of the soul that is within you. The inner self knows its relationship with the soul. It is a portion of the self that acts, you might say, as a messenger between the soul and the present personality. You must also realize that while I use terms like “soul” or “entity,” “inner self,” and “present personality,” I do so only for the sake of convenience, for one is a part of the other; there is no point where one begins and another ends.

Many individuals imagine the soul to be an immortalized ego, forgetting that the ego as you know it is only a small portion of the self; so this section of the personality is simply projected onward, ad infinitum, so to speak. Because the dimensions of your reality are so little understood, your concepts are bound to be limited. In considering “immortality,” mankind seems to hope for further egotistical development, and yet he objects to the idea that such development might involve change. He says through his religions that he has a soul indeed, without even asking what a soul is, and often he seems to regard it, again, as an object in his possession.

The soul, however, does not need to follow the laws and principles that are a part of the physical reality, and it does not depend upon physical perception. The soul’s perceptions are of acts and events that are mental, that lie, so to speak, beneath physical events as you know them. The soul’s perceptions are not dependent upon time, because time is a physical camouflage and does not apply to nonphysical reality.

It goes without saying then that the soul does not require a physical body for purposes of perception; that perception is not dependent upon physical senses; that experience continues whether or not you are in this life or another; and also that the soul’s basic methods of perception are also operating within you now even as you read this book. [...] It also follows that some hints of the soul’s direct experience can be gained by momentarily switching the physical senses off — by refusing to use them as perceptors, and falling back upon other methods. [...]

(Pause at 10:20.) Now in terms of psychology as you understand it, the soul could be considered as a prime identity that is in itself a gestalt of many other individual consciousnesses — an unlimited self that is yet able to express itself in many ways and forms and yet maintain its own identity, its own “I am-ness,” even while it is aware that its I am-ness may be part of another I am-ness. [...] There is, in other words, a give and take between souls or entities, and no end of possibilities, both of development and expansion. Again, the soul is not a closed system.

[...] Physical existence is one way in which the soul chooses to experience its own actuality. The soul, in other words, has created a world for you to inhabit, to change — a complete sphere of activity in which new developments and indeed new forms of consciousness can emerge.

In many philosophies this sort of idea is retained — the soul being returned to a primal giver, or being dissolved in a nebulous state somewhere between being and nonbeing. The soul is, however, first of all creative. [...] The soul or entity is itself the most highly motivated, most highly energized, and most potent consciousness-unit known in any universe.

[...] Remember, this is your own soul or entity I am speaking of, as well as soul or entity in general. You are one manifestation of your own soul. [...]

[...] In many ways the soul is an incipient god, and later in this book we will discuss the “god concept.” For now, however, we will simply be concerned with the entity or soul, the larger self that whispers even now in the hidden recesses of each reader’s experience. I hope in this book not only to assure you of the eternal validity of your soul or entity, but to help you sense its vital reality within yourself. [...]

First of all, a soul is not something that you have. [...] I usually use the term “entity” in preference to the term “soul,” simply because those particular misconceptions are not so connected with the word “entity,” and its connotations are less religious in an organizational sense.

[...] A group of selves forms a soul. I am not telling you that you do not have a soul to call your own. (Again louder, with a smile:) You are a part of your soul. [...] The soul is not.

[...] The entity then, or greater self, is composed of souls. [...] The entity has its existence in multitudinous dimensions, its souls free to travel within boundaries that would seem infinite to you. As the smallest cell within your body participates to its degree in your daily experience, so does the soul to an immeasurably greater extent share in the events of the entity.

Souls are also creative psychic structures, ever-changing and yet always retaining individual integrity (pause), and all are dependent one upon the other. Souls make up the life of the entity in those terms. Yet the entity is “more” than the soul is. [...]

(End at 11:40 p.m. When Jane woke up the next morning, this passage of Seth’s from last night’s session was on her mind: “A group of selves forms a soul.” [...] We’re used to thinking, very conveniently, that each of us has our own individual soul. Was Seth saying that we share a soul with others?

[...] The soul does not exist apart from nature. [...] Nature is the soul in flesh, in whatever its materializations. The flesh is as spiritual as the soul, and the soul is as natural as the flesh. In your terms the body is the living soul. Now the soul can live, and does, in many forms — some physical and some not, but while you are material, the body is the living soul. The body constantly heals itself, which means that the soul in the flesh heals itself. The body is often closer to the soul than the mind is because it automatically grows as a flower does, trusting its nature.

[...] You are not a soul encased in inert clay.

[...] The soul uses consciousness. Consciousness is a characteristic of the soul. Consciousness is a method by which the soul understands what it is. [...]

Now, consciousness is a quality of the soul. [...] It is a quality inherent in the nature of the spirit or soul, but it is far more. [...]

The soul composes that of which the entity is made. The soul is the portion of All That Is of which the entity is made. [...]

([Rachel:]“Then consciousness is the feeling of the soul, the light, the understanding of the soul. [...]

In larger terms, my soul includes my reincarnational personalities, Seth Two, and probable selves. [...] Your concept of the soul is simply so limited. I am not really speaking in terms of group souls, though this interpretation can also be made.

Each “part” of the soul contains the whole — a concept I am sure will startle you. As you become more aware of your own subjective reality you will therefore, become familiar with greater portions of your own soul. When you think of the soul as a closed system you perceive it as such, and close off from yourself the knowledge of its greater creativity and characteristics.

[...] The soul is open-ended, therefore. [...] I have tried to show you that the soul is not a separate, apart-from-you thing. [...]

There is no need to create a separate god who exists outside of your universe and separate from it, nor is there any need to think of a soul as some distant entity. [...] “His” energy forms your identity, and your soul is a part of you in the same manner.

But all things have consciousness, and in those terms possess a soul-nature. There are no gradations as to soul. Soul is the life within everything that is. Of course the fetus “has a soul” — but in the same way, if you think in those terms, then each cell within the fetus must be granted a soul (leaning forward with humorous emphasis, voice deeper). The course of a cell is not predetermined. [...]

[...] Various religions have decided that the “soul” enters the fetus at its conception, while others argue that consciousness cannot be considered a human soul until some time later, just prior to birth.

You grant soulhood only to your own species, as if souls had sizes that fit your own natures only. [...] Then, however, you must wonder when the soul enters the flesh, or when the alien fetus becomes one of your own, and therefore blessed by the gods and granted the right to life.

Give us a moment … In the first place, again, the self or soul in this case is not a thing of measurement — nor is it necessarily some thing that suddenly arrives and then disappears.

[...] Intently:) The body of the earth can be said to have its own soul, or mind (whichever term you prefer). Using this analogy the mountains and oceans, the valleys and rivers and all natural phenomena spring from the earth’s soul, as all events and all manufactured objects appear from the inner mind or soul of mankind.

[...] Part of each individual’s soul, then, is intimately connected with what we will call the world’s soul, or the soul of the earth.

So does the human individual rise up in victorious distinctiveness from the ancient and yet ever-new fountains of its own soul. [...]

[...] Your soul was not born yesterday, in those terms, but before the annals of time as you think of time.

You think that the soul is a white wall with nothing written upon it, and so your idea of sacrilege is to shit upon it, not realizing that the shit and the soul are one, and that the biological is spiritual; and that, again — if you will forgive my homey concept — flowers grow from the shit of the earth. [...]

[...] Because you do not trust the biology of your being or the integrity of your soul in flesh. [...]

Your soul and your flesh are wedded together. [...]

When I say “soul,” you do not snicker.

I can see that my analogy comparing the soul to an organ within a multidimensional psychic structure of the entity is confusing you. We will clear it up by comparing the same properties, changing the word “soul” to read “oversoul.”

(Seth had already given the heading for Chapter Ten, but as we sat for the session now I reminded Jane of her questions about group souls, as described at the end of the 637th session. [...]

As earlier mentioned (at 10:20 in the 637th session), and simply following the analogy, each self has its own soul within the oversoul, and the oversoul is itself a part of the entity’s multidimensional structure.

The earlier statement makes perfect sense to me, for each self would call that portion of its greater reality within the whole unit its own soul. [...]

It is not the soul, but the soul of the body that you must learn to trust; for the soul in the body represents the corporeal meeting of the physical and nonphysical selves, in the most practical of terms. [...] But he is not relying alone upon “his own” resources, but upon those great dimensions of energy that connect the soul and body—the silver guide and the ape.

[...] In terms perhaps difficult to describe the muscles run through the mind’s journeys, and speak out their own questions, even as the soul speaks out its questions through the flesh. [...] The animal’s and the soul’s comprehension are one, and not alienated. Ruburt’s body is completely releasing itself, but it is of utmost importance that he go along with the process, and this experience was meant to provide the necessary connections between body and soul.

[...] These instincts are the earthly doors of the soul’s energy. [...]

[...] There are probable gods as there are probable men; but these probable gods are all a part of what you may call the soul of, or the identity of, All That Is; even as your probable selves are all a portion of your soul or entity.

Now these facts do not deny the validity of the soul, but instead add to it immeasurably.

The soul can be described for that matter, as a multidimensional, infinite act, each minute probability being brought somewhere into actuality and existence; an infinite creative act that creates for itself infinite dimensions in which fulfillment is possible.

[...] These probable selves, however, are a portion of your identity or soul, and if you are out of contact with them it is only because you focus upon physical events and accept them as the criteria for reality.

4. See Seth’s very acute discussions of the soul (or entity) in sessions 526–28 for Chapter 6 of Seth Speaks. He came through with many excellent points. I’ve always been intrigued by the remark he made just before 10:43 in the 526th session: “You are one manifestation of your own soul.” [...] A group of selves forms a soul. I am not telling you that you do not have a soul to call your own. You are a part of your soul. [...]

People have written here asking about soul mates.³ In certain circles this is the latest vogue. [...] They spend time searching for their soul mates — but the search involves them in a pilgrimage for a kind of impossible communication with another, in which all division is lost, with the two then trying to join in a cementing oneness, suffocating all sense of play or creativity. You are not one part, or one half, of another soul,⁴ searching through the annals of time for your partner, undone until you are completed by your soul mate.

3. Our dictionary defines a soul mate as one of the opposite sex with whom an individual “has a deeply personal relationship” — a mundane enough description. [...] Then we began to get letters from readers who either asked for Seth’s help in finding soul mates, or for his verification that such counterparts had, indeed, already been located.

That material bothered Jane, as I wrote at the end of the session, since “she wasn’t taken with the idea of a group soul, say, or of sharing a soul.” [...]

[...] Why should the soul be limited? The soul is not a thing that you have. The soul is not the consciousness that you know. The soul is far beyond the consciousness that you presently experience. It is only your own ideas of a limited self that make you think in terms of such a closed soul. There are no closed systems, and there is no end to the growth of the soul. [...]

[...] Because you are learning then to become acquainted with the whole, or in your terms, to become acquainted with the entire reality of the soul as it has meaning to you. [...]

Instead, the soul stands at the center of itself, exploring, extending its capacities in all directions at once, involved in issues of creativity, each one highly legitimate. The probable system of reality opens up the nature of the soul to you. [...]

Christian dogma speaks of the ascension of Christ, implying of course a vertical ascent into the heavens, and the development of the soul is often discussed in terms of direction. [...]

[...] The soul is not ascending a series of stairs, each one representing a new and higher point of development.

[...] No soul is forever ignorant.

You have been trying to squeeze the soul into tight concepts of the nature of existence, making it follow your limited beliefs. The door to the soul is open, and it leads to all the dimensions of experience.

(10:50.) If you think, however, that the self as you know it is the end or summation of yourself, then you also imagine your soul to be a limited entity bounded by its present ventures in one life alone, to be judged accordingly after death on the performance of a few paltry years.

[...] The soul stands both within and without the fabric of physical life as you know it. [...]

[...] The soul or entity has complete freedom of expression. [...]

(Jane was taking many more pauses.) The soul or entity is highly individualized spiritual energy. [...]

(9:28.) The soul, therefore, or entity, endows three-dimensional reality, and the three-dimensional self with its own properties. [...]

[...] The soul or entity then gives breath to the body, and to the three-dimensional self within it. [...]

In the body’s spontaneous functioning you see the easy mobility of the soul, the “going with that which I am,” which is an indication of the soul’s inner freedom and yet innate sense of direction. All portions of the body’s reality are versions in flesh of the soul’s reality, even as all segments of the exterior universe mirror an internal one. [...]

[...] Any kind of existence happens within the context of nature, and nature includes the soul. [...]

[...] Your idea of the soul is indeed limited by your three-dimensional concepts. The soul can change the focus of its consciousness, and uses consciousness as you use the eyes in your head. [...] Soul or entity, then, is more than consciousness.

You may think of your soul or entity — though only briefly and for the sake of this analogy — as some conscious and living, divinely inspired computer who programs its own existences and lifetimes. [...]

[...] I must emphasize that I am not saying that the soul or entity is a computer, but only asking you to look at the matter in this light in order to make several points clear.

The entity, or the soul, has a far more creative and complicated nature than even your religions have ever granted it.