“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

[...] It is, of course, that kind of outside-of-time activity that in your terms explains the origin of your universe. [...]

Your closest approximation will be, again, your experience with time in the dream state—or instances in which complicated problems are suddenly solved for you in dreams or in other states of consciousness, so that the answers appear full-blown before you.

[...] Any sudden emergence of a completed universe would then imply an unimaginable and a spectacular development of organization—that it did not just appear from nowhere, but as the “completed physical version” of an inner highly concentrated endeavor, the physical manifestation of an inspiration that then suddenly emerges into physical actuality.²

[...] Consciousness becomes more familiar with its own inner motion, and even with the kinds of work and actions it performs outside of its usual waking prejudices. [...]

[...] In stating that the universe is an accidental creation, however, a meaningless chance conglomeration formed by an unfeeling cosmos, it states quite clearly its belief that the universe and man’s existence has no value. [...]

[...] This year alone, for instance, he’s already given a good amount of excellent information upon a number of nonbook topics — among them the interpretation of dreams; human, animal, and plant consciousness, and the interactions among them; human sexuality; viruses and inoculation; other realities he himself inhabits, and so forth. [...]

Now those beliefs separate man from his own nature.¹ He cannot trust himself — for who can rely upon the accidental bubblings of hormones and chemicals that somehow form a stew called consciousness (louder and quite ironic) — an unsavory brew at best, so the field of science will forever escape opening up into any great vision of the meaning of life. [...]

[...] Consciously recalling the dreams is excellent, since the subconscious data is at least to some extent consciously assimilated, and in the dreams aggressive tendencies are indeed released and worked out in an actual manner, as satisfying to the subconscious as if they were worked out within the physical field. [...]

This involves on his part not a conscious, but a subconscious change of habit. [...]

[...] Ruburt at this time would not dispense with the sessions, although it is true that he sometimes consciously resents the discipline involved in their regularity.

Subconsciously however, the very regularity is reassuring to him, since a fairly permanent pattern exists despite the flux and flow of conscious inclination. [...]

[...] Or whether he has been thrust outward from the background of which he is part, a living focus rising out of the background, a part of consciousness rising out of a larger, undifferentiated consciousness implied in the background. [...]

[...] I hadn’t tried to consciously decide what the prophet might be saying as he looked upward. The only conscious decision I had made was that I would let such designs remain in the subconscious if they did not spontaneously present themselves.)

(At this moment I then consciously knew what my prophet was saying in the painting; the words came clearly to mind: “My God, my God, what am I?” I was tempted to speak them aloud next chance I had, but did not. [...]

[...] All of these issues are a part of your painting, implied in every line of its conception, but I want you to see consciously the implications of the figure, and the overall implications of the figure in context with the background.

Symbols can be called psychic codes that are interpreted in infinite fashion according to the circumstances in which consciousness finds itself. Dream events “come together” in the same way that the universe does. [...]

[...] They grow out of each other in a kind of spontaneous expansion, a profusion of creativity, while the conscious mind chooses which aspects to experience — and those aspects then become what you call an objective event.

(9:40.) Events obviously are not formed by your species alone, so that, as I mentioned in our last session, there is a level of the dream state in which all earth-tuned consciousnesses of all species and degrees come together. [...]

Individually and en masse, in the dream state you change the orientation of your consciousness, and deal with the birth of events which are only later time-structured or physically experienced.

[...] The displaced powers of consciousness are still being assigned to the unconscious, and great efforts are being made to reach what seem to be normally inaccessible areas of awareness. [...] It can all be quite conscious, and utilized to enrich the reality that you know. The conscious mind is not some prodigal child or poor relative of the self. [...] You, again, have a conscious mind. You can change the focus of your own consciousness.

The conscious mind was [therefore] expected to perform alone, so to speak, ignoring the highly intuitive inner information that is also available to it. [...] Yet any individual knows quite well that intuitive hunches, inspiration, precognitive information or clairvoyant material has often risen to conscious knowledge. Usually it is shoved away and disregarded because you have been taught that the conscious mind should not hold with such “nonsense.” So you have been told to trust your conscious mind, while at the same time you were led to believe it could only be aware of stimuli that came to it from the outside physical world.

On the other hand there are those who stress the great value of the inner self, the emotional being, at the expense of the conscious mind. These theories hold that the intellect and usual consciousness are far inferior to the inner “unconscious” portions of being, and that all the answers are hidden from view. (Pause.) The followers of this belief consider the conscious mind in such derogatory terms that it almost seems to be a supercilious cancer that sprouted like a growth upon man’s psyche-impeding rather than aiding his progress and understanding.

[...] All of its infinite resources are placed at the disposal of your conscious mind, however, and for your conscious purposes.

At the same time, young children in particular still possess a feeling of oneness with the universe, and with all of life, even as they begin to separate themselves at certain levels from life’s wholeness to go about the delightful task. [...]

[...] They deliberately close their eyes to some of the reasons for their own illnesses, and this behavior has become so habitual that they are no longer conscious of their own intent.

Children, however, may be quite conscious of the fact that they willed themselves to become ill, in order to avoid school, or an examination, or a coming feared family event. [...]

That led you, just below normal consciousness, to consider the relationship between father and daughter, and then to think of Ruburt’s father, Del. [...]

[...] I told Jane that I suddenly understood that in the dream I’d experienced paternal feelings — genuine ones — that I’d never known in conscious life, or had access to. [...]

(I might as well add that in Chapter 5 of Dreams I deal with a couple of my intense experiences with the “light of the universe” back in 1980. [...]

Verbalization is not a basic method of communication for in quotes “higher” forms of consciousness, nor is it for lower forms of consciousness. [...]

[...] We were discussing the fact that no knowledge exists apart from consciousness. [...]

[...] They live in an entirely different sense universe.

[...] There are indeed a body of symbols that are more or less basic within all kinds of perception—bridgeworks from one form of perception to another, since beneath all perceiving systems there is consciousness. [...]

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. [...]

[...] Jane and I try to ignore such factors consciously, but have no doubt we feel the psychic effects of weather as much as anybody else.

[...] We had no conscious ideas as to why this should be, and indeed this was the first time this problem had come up during the sessions.

[...] This was very similar to my experience of July 9,1965, at Oswego State University College in Oswego, NY. [...]

The despondencies that he encounters also should show him that these feelings emerge into his conscious awareness now, to be dealt with, where in the past they festered beneath consciousness, and he would not admit them as a problem for he was not that aware of their existence.

[...] Ruburt need not bear the weight of the world upon his shoulders (humorously throughout), nor take the responsibility of the universe. [...] God can handle his own problems and take care of his universe. [...]

But more: I just didn’t know, for example, that everything had its own consciousness. [...] A nail was sticking in the windowsill, and I experienced ever so briefly the consciousness of the atoms and molecules that composed it.

[...] The entity operates its fragments in what you would call a subconscious manner, that is, without conscious direction. [...] It’s as impossible for the entity to control fragment personalities as for the conscious mind to control the body’s heartbeat.”

[...] I went plummeting through a leaf, to find a whole universe open up; and then out again, drawn into new perspectives.

When I came to, I found myself scrawling what was obviously meant as the title of that odd batch of notes: The Physical Universe As Idea Construction. Later the Seth Material would develop those ideas, but I didn’t know that at the time. [...]

Now, consciousness is a quality of the soul. You can turn your consciousness in many directions. It is like a tool that belongs to you, but you are more than your consciousness is. [...]

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

[...] However, you may turn your consciousness in many directions and this is what I hope you are learning to do. Consciousness is like a searchlight that belongs to you. [...]

([Rachel:]“Then consciousness is the feeling of the soul, the light, the understanding of the soul. The consciousness for everything that is around that exists.”)

[...] How much do we consciously know, or think we know, about that ultimately mysterious quality within which we construct our universe, our planet, the most minute portion of each one of us, mental or physical, during each moment of our lives? That ineluctable universe within which we swim so beautifully day and night, one that, according to Seth, we also create—and all at once, no less! [...] If only we could really grasp consciously those innate qualities that we value so highly, yet take for granted! [...]

[...] It will also be rather unorthodox—more like a series of conscious and unconscious reminiscences and free associations, moving back and forth in time as I approach sets of ideas from various angles while seeking to learn more about my wife even now, 18 years after her death. [...]

[...] I humbly submit that somehow, somewhere, there are connections, intuitions, whispers and shouts and facts that proclaim our greater reality’s depth and being, its independence of our ordinary conscious ideas of space and time. [...]

[...] When I went out to see what Jane was up to I was greeted with her breakthrough accomplishment—one that, to put it mildly, was to lead to very unexpected challenges and growths in our lives: Jane held up a sheaf of typewriter paper upon which she had scribbled in large handwriting an essay that had come to her as fast as she could write it down: The Physical Universe as Idea Construction. [...]

As I have often said, there are concepts most difficult to explain, particularly concerning the nature of consciousness, for often in your frame of reference certain concepts, quite valid, can appear contradictory so that one will seem to invalidate the other.

[...] The mosaics of consciousness are brilliant to behold.

[...] Yet the mosaics of consciousness are more like lights, radiating through themselves and through a million spectrums.

[...] You remember other faces, even though the mind you call the conscious one may not recognize the images from that deep inner memory. [...]

For one thing, while pain is unpleasant it is also a method of familiarizing the self against the edges of quickened consciousness. Any heightened sensation, pleasant or unpleasant, has a stimulating effect upon a consciousness to some degree. [...] This acquiescence to even painful stimuli is a basic part of the nature of consciousness, and a necessary one.

[...] It is only when action becomes compartmented, so to speak, in the development of highly differentiated consciousness, that such refinement occurs. I am not here saying that unpleasant stimuli will not be felt as unpleasant, and reacted against, by less self-conscious organisms. I am saying that less self-conscious organisms will rejoice even in their automatic reaction against such stimuli, because any stimuli and reaction represents sensation, and sensation is another method by which such action knows and expresses itself.

On a very basic level, as consciousness with a self (but no conscious “I” exists in the most minute division of consciousness), all action and all sensations and all stimuli are instantly and automatically and joyfully accepted, regardless of their nature. [...]

[...] It obviously becomes part of the personality-psychological structure, the physical structure, the electrical and chemical structure, invading to some extent even the dream universe.

Your consciousness fluctuates in the same way. [...] Because consciousness fluctuates however, other portions of your self have memory of those times when it is not focused in “physical reality,” and this is also a portion of your entire existence.

And when you realize that you form the events of your life in the same way, you will learn to take hold of your entire consciousness in whatever aspect it shows itself in this life. [...] Remember, also, that this life is a dimension of experience and reality even if it is, in contrast, a dream in a higher level of reality in which you have your larger consciousness.

[...] The question cannot be answered simply in one evening, but each consciousness has its own defense system and its own vitality; you should trust your own.

In our own sessions I have explained something that I haven’t mentioned in class, and it is this: For every moment of time that you seem to exist in this universe, you do not exist in it. [...]

Now because of their knowledge and temperaments, they had already begun to play cards — to distract their conscious attention — and to drink wine to help reduce tension. Ruburt then went into an altered state of consciousness, and quite correctly foresaw their situation. [...]

[...] The reasons and the habits were all quite consciously available.

Now: Dictation: Ruburt and Joseph (as Seth calls Jane and me) have always seen themselves in a one-to-one relationship with nature and with the universe. [...]

All of this had to do with past conscious decisions and responses to situations that, in your terms, no longer existed at the time of the flood. [...]

I have said the universe, that is the inner universe, does expand, but does not expand in space. [...] And so does the universe expand, but space is merely a camouflage, useful to you for a time, constructed through the use of mental enzymes, subconsciously and only for a brief span.

[...] Jim also wanted to tell us about two of his friends who had been running some telepathy tests with personnel at the parapsychology lab at Duke University. [...]

[...] You knew he was coming consciously, and in your inner vision you saw many things and made of them one image. [...]

[...] And again, while it had definite duration, it was still over with before I consciously understood what had taken place. [...]

Man desired in one way to step out of himself, out of the framework in which he had his psychological existence, to try new challenges, to step out of a mode of consciousness into another. He wanted to study the process of his own consciousness. [...]

[...] Otherwise the new kind of consciousness would always run back to its home for security and comfort. [...] The new kind of consciousness simply had to look away from it to maintain initially an independent focus.

The journeys of the gods, therefore, represent the journeys of man’s own consciousness projected outward. [...] Its consciousness, and its reality, is within each man, and within the gods he has created. [...]

[...] Your conception of good and evil results in large part from the kind of consciousness you have presently adopted. [...] The conscious mind focuses with a quick, limited, but intense light, perceiving from a given field of reality only certain “stimuli.” [...]