Library » Conscious Creation » Seth/Jane Roberts: A Conscious Creation Overview

By Paul M. Helfrich, Ph.D.

Acknowledgments

I would like to dedicate this essay to my friends, Stan Ulkowski and his “partner in time” Lynda Dahl, without whom this probable reality would not exist. I’m indebted to their years of hard work and dedication that led to the re-publication of Reality Change magazine, most of the Seth/Jane Roberts’s books, and the creation of Seth Network International, the forum that allowed so many Seth readers to meet and share ideas during the 1990’s.

I would also like thank my life partner, Joanne, whose extraordinary dedication to the pursuit of excellence, creativity, and endless love made this little project possible. I love you my ancient friend!

Kudos, love, and high-fives go out to all of my compatriots and teachers on the Sethnet email list at eGroups.com. Thanks for helping me to experience and ponder the rich subtext within Seth’s ideas and also providing a challenging and creative public forum in which to immerse myself.

Finally, to Rob Butts, Jane Roberts, Seth, and the many others involved in making the Seth Material available to a world that can surely benefit from its depth, subtlety, and exquisite richness.

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The Seth Material: An Introduction

“The medium is the message.” – Marshall McLuhan

Jane Roberts (1929-1984) was born in Saratoga Springs, NY and spent most of her adult life in Elmira, NY with husband Robert Butts. She was a gifted writer, poet, and psychic whose life's work spanned over thirty-five published books, including short stories, fiction, and additional poetry. Roberts is best remembered today for a series of books that are most often referred to as the Seth material – a body of perennial wisdom that resulted from a little known psychic ability called channeling. We will explore the nature of the channeling phenomenon in a bit, but let’s begin with the message first, and delve into the medium second.

A central, unifying theme of the Seth material is termed conscious creation – a term originally coined to capture the essential idea that “you create your own reality” via a complex of nested cognitive factors that include our worldviews, the multidimensional psyche, and multiverse. [For greater detail, see the conscious creation entry in the Glossary below.]

Taken together, entire body of Jane’s work forms a contemporary translation of the perennial philosophy into the language and value systems of twenty-first century Western thought. They are not offered as dogmatic absolutes, but as a flexible framework in which to jointly move forward as we cope with the pace of twenty-first century life. The horizons that now approach us make the Century of Change – the twentieth century – look like the calm before the storm.

One of the main tenets of conscious creation is that consciousness is primary, which is to say that all matter – our brains, bodies, and ALL physical reality – is created and maintained by our consciousness; individually and collectively. In other words, we live in a conscious universe that by definition contains multiple, nested orders of sentience, perception, and memory that are not limited to human beings. All matter and energy contain their own distinct nested orders of conscious awareness, from subatomic particles, to planets, to galaxies, to All-Of-Consciousness.

According to Jane, human consciousness is fueled by a source self or soul that simultaneously exists “outside” of physical reality. So our ego-self – our primary waking sense of self and center of gravity for our identity as it unfolds during a lifetime – not only survives physical death but continues to grow and develop in other frameworks of consciousness “afterward.” And since our familiar physical universe is but one of an infinite array of conscious frameworks, our souls are multidimensional by nature, existing in multiple places and times, constantly seeking new and creative experiences.

The work of Jane Roberts has a learning curve, like any body of subtle and complex knowledge. It is not intended to be embraced by 100% of the population or solve all of the world’s problems. It offers a decentralized and democratic perspective on our individual right to decide what is fulfilling for ourselves. It does not claim to be Universal Truth, but to offer a view on understanding Universal Truths filtered through our current, cultural belief systems and direct experience.

One part of our own direct experience falls under the category of altered or nonordinary states of consciousness that connect us with our own inner knowing. They have been consistently experienced by humans in many, if not all, cultures throughout recorded history. So they’re nothing new to the species, as a whole, though they are new to mainstream Western scientific thinking. The words that describe an individual’s nonordinary experience, in themselves, hold incomplete and symbolic meanings. But the concepts hinted at, like all classical perennial literature from the past three thousand years serve as a trigger for our own inner knowing. These triggers open the door to further self-discovery and self-realization. Thus conscious creation, like all perennial teachings, focuses on the importance of our own direct experience, in concert with the spoken or mathematical languages that describe those experiences.

Conscious creation, if nothing else, is extremely useful in the process of identifying who and what we really are. In this way, the work of Jane Roberts can be considered a legitimate reminder from our inner selves that we are ALL aspiring conscious co-creators. Therefore, we each hold the responsibility to pursue an open-minded inquiry – integrating the rational (skeptical) and the intuitive (imaginative) – in the search for personal truth. And ultimately, it is each one of us, individually, who decides what the truth is.

This rich body of work provides an important conceptual foundation, replete with a set of tools – a type of yoga – that anyone can use to explore the nature of reality in the context of their own personal experiences. To get an overview of the extent and richness of this work, the published books are listed below:

“the Seth material” in the form of twenty-six Seth-dictated books:

• Seth Speaks: The Eternal Validity of the Soul
• The Nature of Personal Reality
• The “Unknown” Reality, Vol. 1
• The “Unknown” Reality, Vol. 2
• The Nature of the Psyche: Its Human Expression
• The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events
• Dreams, “Evolution,” and Value Fulfillment, Vol. 1
• Dreams, “Evolution,” and Value Fulfillment, Vol. 2
• The Magical Approach: Seth Speaks About the Art of Creative Living
• The Way Toward Health
• The Early Sessions: Book 1 of the Seth Material
• The Early Sessions: Book 2 of the Seth Material
• The Early Sessions: Book 3 of the Seth Material
• The Early Sessions: Book 4 of the Seth Material
• The Early Sessions: Book 5 of the Seth Material
• The Early Sessions: Book 6 of the Seth Material
• The Early Sessions: Book 7 of the Seth Material
• The Early Sessions: Book 8 of the Seth Material
• The Early Sessions: Book 9 of the Seth Material
• The Personal Sessions: Book 1 of the Deleted Seth Material
• The Personal Sessions: Book 2 of the Deleted Seth Material
• The Personal Sessions: Book 3 of the Deleted Seth Material
• The Personal Sessions: Book 4 of the Deleted Seth Material
• The Personal Sessions: Book 5 of the Deleted Seth Material
• The Personal Sessions: Book 6 of the Deleted Seth Material
• The Personal Sessions: Book 7 of the Deleted Seth Material

Introductory books to “the Seth material”:

• How to Develop Your ESP Power
• The Seth Material
• Seth, Dreams, and Projections of Consciousness

Three Aspect Psychology books:

• Adventures in Consciousness: An Introduction to Aspect Psychology
• Psychic Politics
• The God of Jane: A Psychic Manifesto

Worldview books:

• The Afterdeath Journal of an American Philosopher: The World View of William James
• The World View of Paul Cézanne: A Psychic Interpretation
• The World View of Rembrandt

Fictional Oversoul Seven books, combined into:

• The Oversoul Seven Trilogy (The Education of Oversoul Seven, The Further Education of Oversoul Seven, Oversoul Seven and the Museum of Time)

Books of poetry:

• Dialogues of the Soul and Mortal Self in Time
• If We Live Again, or, Public Magic and Private Love

A children’s book:

• Emir’s Education in the Proper Use of Magical Powers

Books by Susan Watkins:

• Conversations with Seth: The Story of Jane Roberts’s ESP Class
• Speaking of Jane Roberts: Remembering the Author of the Seth Material

the detailed records and notes of Rob Butts.

(Click here to explore a detailed listing of Jane Roberts’s books, short stories, fiction, audio tapes, and additional poetry: The Works of Seth and Jane Roberts by Barry C. Noonan.)

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What is Channeling, Really?

Now that we’ve been introduced to the message, let’'s take a look at the medium. Jane Roberts channeled a source named Seth – a clearly articulated and distinct personality complete with unique facial and vocal patterns – from 1963-1984. She and her husband, Robert Butts, held twice weekly sessions in which Jane would go into a trance state and Seth would come through and dictate information that Rob initially transcribed by hand. After several years of laying a foundation, Seth announced in one day that he was going to dictate his own books. One of the amazing features of Seth’s ability was that he dictated every one of his books from start to finish without changing a word. And with the dictation sessions occurring twice a week, when the hours of trance time were totaled up, if we define a week as a forty hour period, then most of the books were delivered in a period of only 3-4 weeks!

So just what is channeling and how can we best explain it in terms of science, metaphysics, and theology? Channeling is a kind of exceptional human ability that still has no standard definition. I will define it for now as a highly creative and inspired state of consciousness that occurs when the usual ego-self “steps aside” in varying degrees and allows another aspect of the psyche “come through,” either by speaking, automatic writing, automatic painting, automatic playing of a musical instrument, etc. There are distinctions made in the depth of this mental state, often called a trance state, such as light trance, deep trance, full trance channeling, and the like.

Whatever it is, it is not a black and white state – you channel or you don’t channel. It is a rich psychological spectrum of how far one “steps aside” and how deep one goes into the trance state. And in very simple terms, we’re defining a trance state as an altered neurological focus that is measurable by the tools of contemporary science including EEGs, PET, and CAT scans. We’re using the word “altered” because the brain and mind process information in significantly different ways during these trance states and often times the ego-self has little or no recollection of the experience. It returns to a “normal” focus as if waking up from a dream state. And brain activity reflects this.

The average person on the street knows little about this phenomenon. When you bring up the topic of channeling the stereotypical frameworks that come to mind are demonic possession, a religious frenzy or “speaking in tongues” called glossolalia, or dissociative personality disorders like schizophrenia. All of the preceding conditions immediately trigger a fear reaction in most of us because our officially accepted reality, in terms of mainstream science and organized religion, don’t yet have adequate explanations for this phenomenon. The following story provides a typical example of the attitudes many folks still have regarding channeling.

A good friend of mine and his wife came over for dinner one Winter’s evening in 1997. My wife, Joanne, cooked us all a delicious dinner and afterwards our conversation led into our interest in the channeling phenomenon. I put on a videotape of a woman named Jane Roberts who channeled a source named Seth from 1963 until her passing in 1984. While my friend is interested in science and science fiction, the paranormal was something that really stretched his sensibilities. And his wife was actually afraid of what she was witnessing. Her reaction was polite, she didn't run screaming or anything, but she was clearly being confronted by something that made her very uncomfortable.

We only watched the tape for about five minutes as the point was to introduce the channeling phenomenon. At the end my friend was silent, obviously mulling things over though not quite sure about what to say. His wife managed a question about the source itself. She asked, “how do you know this is not the Devil?” I was struck for a moment, surprised that her first response would come through her religious belief filters.

As we talked about the possibilities of who or what this source could be, I said to her, “well, if you're granting that another personality is expressing itself that’s a good place to start.” This also raised the important issue of learning to discern the validity of this, and really any, source of knowledge and truth. How can you tell if it is a valid source? Does the information have any practical application to my everyday life? Could the information have some utility for society at large?

Gradually our discussion turned back to the question of who the source was. Could the source really be a demon or Satan? I asked her, “if you grant that possibility, how do you know that it’s not an angel or archangel?” This beautiful smile suddenly beamed back at me from across the living room table. She hadn’t even considered that. Her knee jerk response, having been presented with something unknown, was the fear response as taught to her in church and reinforced in horror movies. And the thought of angels just melted away that fear, for the moment anyway.

I ended our conversation that night by showing that the person we had just seen on the videotape, Jane Roberts and her source named Seth, had produced over thirty-five published books on the perennial philosophy, metaphysics, fiction, poetry, and even a children’s book! All of these books were displayed on the top shelf of our bookcase. Quite a creative endeavor we all agreed. However, there was still a feeling of inadequacy and irresolution on my part. The framework that my friends had, both scientific and religious, was not able to provide anything deeper than the conclusion that this channeler was either schizoid or speaking for an angel or a demon. And if I really wanted to talk credibly with my friends and family about the channeling phenomenon, then there surely must be more information available and a reasonable framework in which to better understand it.

This after-dinner episode made me realize that culturally we are taught to fear what we don’t understand. Both in terms of scientific skepticism and religious dogma. The old fight or flight response kicks in almost automatically in most of us when confronting ourselves with conditions that we don’t have an adequate framework in which to understand. And science and religion are really attempting to come from similar places in their attempts to explain the how, what, and why of our universe and our species. Science reaps the best that the intellect has to offer and religion the best that the intuitions have to offer. But when science tries to use intuition and religion the intellect, the results are still incomplete theories and calcified dogmas, particularly when it comes to the channeling phenomena.

So this experience was a catalyst that led me to investigate further. My search led me into the area of parapsychology, an emerging area of science that has been investigating the paranormal since J. B. Rhine’s ESP experiments in the 1920’s. And further research turned up some serious speculation by scholars and scientists alike, with pioneers such as Charles Tart, Ken Wilber, Jon Klimo, Arthur Hastings, Deepak Chopra, among many others leading the way. The particular fields are called Transpersonal and Integral Psychology. In a nutshell, the transpersonal/integral model of human personality believes that the psyche resides in a virtual, immaterial domain that is free of space and time and thus exists co-dependently with the physical world. This virtual domain is conscious and aware, though it exists in a different type of psychological focus that is not based upon linear time or physical senses. According to this model of the psyche, consciousness creates matter, not the other way around, and thus human personality survives physical death.

So it turns out that the channeling phenomenon that resulted in the Seth material is not new at all. It has been found in every culture throughout recorded history. Arthur Hastings, former president of the California Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, California, traces the channeling phenomena as far back as the Babylonian oracle of the goddess Astarte in the eleventh century BCE. He notes that ancient channels who:

“spoke in trances and ecstasy were considered prophets or oracles for the gods. Even now, in various mainstream and minority religions, within many cultures, possession by the holy spirit, speaking in ecstasy, or possession by spirits is considered a sign of spiritual development, and is often encouraged and facilitated by ceremony and ritual. Channeling may be the current equivalent of ancient prophecy, bringing spiritual guidance and teachings for this time.” (2)

It should also noted that Hastings’ definition of prophecy isn’t limited to predicting the future, but includes “speaking under the inspiration of the god or interpreting the will of god.” (3)

Now by bringing the still very unscientific concept of god into the discussion, we need to be clear that the definition we’re using is not of a humanized, anthropomorphic god who lives in the sky who gets angry when we break his laws. God, in this sense holds no gender, but is the nondual, formless source of everything. There is no space or time involved. We’re using a definition derived from what is called the perennial philosophy, but more on that in a bit.

The important idea at this point is to realize that there is a documented three thousand year old tradition in which people speak in an “inspired” state and deliver useful information geared toward the cultural needs and times of the locals. Sometimes the information pushes and pulls at the officially accepted, consensus reality of the times and helps to facilitate change from calcified dogmas that the collective consciousness has outgrown. In this light, the channeling phenomenon is clearly seen as a grass roots or populist movement.

Jon Klimo, a psychologist on the senior faculty at the Rosebridge Graduate School of Integrative Psychology in Concord, California, states that “since 1986, channeling has reached into the grassroots. It has entered the popular vocabulary. Channeling now is part of current mainstream consensus reality.” (4) A good example is the imagery that graced the cover of the March 26, 2000 Los Angeles Times Calendar Magazine, the one that reports on the local entertainment scene. It pictures comedian Billy Crystal, sitting barefoot and cross-legged, eyes closed in deep concentration, surrounded by icons of the year’s best movies nominated for the upcoming Academy Awards T.V. show. The headline simply reads, “Channeling Oscar.”

Klimo offers a useful working definition for the phenomenon of channeling as “the communication of information to or through a physically embodied human being from a source that is said to exist on some other level or dimension of reality than the physical as we know it, and that is not from the normal mind (or self) of the channel.” (5) Like all definitions, it is open to continued research, debate, and refinement.

Any definition of channeling, in terms of spoken language, also has inherent limitations. Once you use a word to label something you limit its potential to be anything else. It’s like an actor who gets type-cast into a single role; Leonard Nimoy will always be Mr. Spock, yes? Can you even imagine Leonard in The Terminator or Singing in the Rain? But seriously, this is also why poets, writers, and composers create art forms to break out of the molds of language, using words and music to paint mental images and stir our emotions. Still, we are trying to understand something that is primarily subjective and psychological in nature that can’t be fully quantified in purely scientific and mathematical terms. Though channeling resists being easily poured into the containers of scientific and religious beliefs, we can glean some further understanding from the names used in various cultures to describe it:

“Throughout history and among various peoples, channels have been named according to what they do. Besides the term ‘medium’ and the more recent ‘channel,’ other names have included shaman, witch doctor, healer, and medicine man in native cultures. They have also been called fortune-tellers, oracles, seers, soothsayers, savants, and visionaries. In religious contexts, they have been known as priests, gurus, prophets, saints, mystics, and holy ones. And in the esoteric schools they are called light workers, initiates, teachers, adepts, or masters. The majority of mainstream psychologists and psychiatrists would probably regard the channels as hallucinating, delusional, suffering from dissociative identity disorder (once called multiple personality disorder), schizophrenic, or simply as persons with runaway imaginations, or even as downright frauds.” (6)

The latter thoughts reflect rather poorly on the narrow, incomplete view of human personality and the psyche found in contemporary cognitive sciences more than anything else. While acknowledging that people make fraudulent claims in every discipline, again, each individual must learn to discern the utility of the information delivered by any source, be it a channeler, scientist, minister, philosopher, economist, politician, or whomever.

Like any body of perennial wisdom, conscious creation has its own learning curve. It is not intended to be embraced by 100% of the population or solve all of the world’s problems. It concentrates on the individual’s right to decide what is fulfilling for him or herself. It does not claim to be Universal Truth, but to offer a view on understanding Universal “Truths” filtered through our current, cultural belief systems.

Until organized science and religion expand and ultimately integrate their limited models of the human psyche, the Seth phenomenon may be best understood in light of what is called the perennial philosophy (or wisdom). A German philosopher and mathematician, Godfrey Leibniz (1646-1716), coined the term “Philosophia Perennis” and writer Aldous Huxley made it well known in his book The Perennial Philosophy, first published in 1944.

Perennial wisdom is reflected in the established mystical traditions of the East and West in works such as the Tao Te Ching, Bhagavad-Gita, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, the poetry of Rumi, The Kabbalah, parts of The Old and New Testaments, and the Gnostic Gospels. Perennial wisdom is not based upon dogma or orthodoxy, but reflects the common denominator of universal truths that lie behind all religious dogma and method. This is what is meant, for example, by the Taoist saying, “the Tao which is written or spoken is not the true Tao.” In other words, the Tao represents the ineffable Source of all things: God. And despite our best attempts, our Source can never be fully expressed or captured by the limiting molds of human belief systems, languages, or dogma. But the Tao, our Source, can be directly experienced by anyone.

Jane Roberts referred to the Seth Material as “The New Way” in The Way Toward Health. This is her own version of the perennial wisdom concept. Here’s what Seth had this to say this:

“In [her] own mind, [Jane] calls these ideas, taken together, ‘The New Way.”’

“The ideas themselves are quite ancient, of course. They are expressed by many cultures and religions, esoteric groups and cults from the past, and continuing into the present. Their strength, vitality, and worth has been greatly undermined, however, by distortions, negative ideas, and some sheer nonsense.”

“In other words, these concepts, so natural to all of creation, have not been practiced by humanity in anything like their pure from. To that extent they do indeed represent a new way. They run directly counter to much of your official knowledge and contemporary thought as far as the mainstream of world culture is concerned. Where such ideas are practiced, they are frequently contaminated by fanaticism, superstition, and expediency.”

“The main point I want to make is that this ‘new way’ is the ideal and easiest complement to nature’s own innate integrity...” (7)

The main difference between older perennial translations and Seth’s, then, is that Seth’s ideas are presented in their original form, in the context of Western culture and belief systems, and have been “translated” only once into the calcified mold of language. In this sense, they presently exist in a state of very low distortion.

Most of us have played the children’s game called “whisper down the lane” or “telephone.” One person whispers a phrase to the person next to them and this cycle repeats until the originator has the phrase whispered back to them. At this point, the original phrase is revealed and a good laugh centers around the differences between that and the final distorted version. The same thing happens with translations of mystical experiences – they get distorted and calcified through the filter of the individual’s perception into language. Thus the concepts experienced in mystical or subjective states that form the basis of the world’s religions can never be fully translated into words. As Norman Friedman, author of Bridging Science and Spirit says, “it is literally impossible to really understand these concepts because the mystics do not have a mystical calculus. In short, when the mystic has an experience, merely by the act of converting it into words or even possibly mathematics, it will fall short.” (8)

Patanjali, the Hindu sage who lived a couple of centuries before the time of Christ, offers similar thoughts regarding those who become fanatical adherents of the written words of the Hindu scriptures. His thoughts also are appropriate to the readers of all religious scriptures and channeled information.

“Patanjali taught that the authority of the scriptures was not proof of their truth, because no matter who propounds them, the scriptures have to be received through the sight, hearing, limited imagination, and reasoning power of the reader. According to Patanjali, the real inner teaching of a Christ cannot be understood through the testimony of others, nor by listening to their interpretations, but can be grasped only by the power of direct intuitive perception.” (9)

Proponents of the world’s mystical traditions have always understood that mystical experience is a translation of the experience of temporarily merging with aspects of our Primary Source: God. These experiences are not limited to and thus can not be solely defined in terms of our five physical senses. And we are each endowed with our own inalienable, direct connection to this Source, for it is our Source. All of the writings about those individuals who have repeatedly experienced this state of being are likewise translations of their experiences, but not the experiences themselves.

Martin Luther (1483-1546) began the Protestant Reformation based upon the radical idea, at the time, that lay folk be allowed to interpret religious scriptures for themselves based upon their own faith, shifting power away from the strict mediation and fallacies of an entrenched bureaucracy of professional clergy. After all, religious scriptures are only the “vessels” that convey the mystical experiences of people who, often times, lived and died many hundreds of years earlier. And these scriptures were often put into written form many decades after the fact, since the indigenous cultures were based upon oral traditions. So once again, the issue of individual discernment and interpretation is paramount.

Channeling, as mentioned earlier, is part of an even larger spectrum of altered neurological focus that results in exceptional human abilities. Channeling, in its many forms, flavors, and creative outcomes, connects us with our own subjective, inner knowing. Here’s an analogy to shed some light on this idea. Imagine that your mind is a radio receiver. A receiver works by tuning into specific frequencies that bring in other stations. Think of your everyday waking state as a narrow spectrum of consciousness that has only four or five main stations including thinking, feeling, intuiting, imagining, making music, and the like. All of these stations use neurological pathways in your brain to process and relay information from the outside world to the inside world of your mind. As you change your neurological focus you change stations.

Now, if you tune your mind, inward, away from your five-senses information streams, you’ll discover that there are other channels present. But they are so soft in intensity that your five-senses inputs usually drown them out. In other words, neurologically and culturally speaking, you’ve learned to ignore them. But once you learn how to change your attention and neurological focus to tune in these inner channels, you discover an infinite band of new stations. Some are easier to tune into than others, some contain more static and seem to come from further away. By learning to tune into these stations clearly, with low distortion, you’ll maximize the signal to noise ratio of any new station you tune into. And this is what the Eastern mystics, yogis, and seers claim to have been doing for over three thousand years! And even though the proof is largely based upon subjective experiences, some adepts learn to clearly tune in these other channels. And these other channels are conscious aspects of our psyches.

Earlier we mentioned the importance in learning to discern the utility of any channeled source. Let’s move on now to explore the levels of distortion present and practical applications channeling has to the individual and collective. First, there will always be some distortion for sure. An important question we have to ask is, “how strongly are the channeler’s belief systems coloring what’s coming through? What is their motivation for claiming to channel? Does the information make sense?” The situation is compounded by the growing number of sources of channeled information available in this new millennium. A simple Internet search will turn up dozens of websites with channeled sources. How can anyone make sense of all the seemingly contradictory information?

In the simplest sense, all you can do is read it and see if it appeals to your value system. And apply a healthy dose of common sense. If it floats your boat, great! You will get something out of it. If not, That’s fine too. There is no single source that can provide all of the answers; not now, not ever. Trust that you will find something that resonates deeply, and when you do, give it your best shot. If you have the opportunity, attend a live session and see how you react to the people and the energy present. You may be pleasantly surprised or disappointed, but that’s entirely up to you.

In my view, the Seth material contains a very low degree of distortion as mentioned earlier. Seth never claimed to be an infallible source or hold the Truth or The Way. In fact he made this point very clear early in the sessions that he is not to be considered an infallible source. And that puts the responsibility of discerning the truth where it really belongs, on each one of us.

“Truth contains no distortions, and this material with all my best efforts, and with yours, of necessity must contain distortions merely in order to make itself exist at all on your plane. I will never condone an attitude in which either you [Rob] or [Jane] maintain that you hold undiluted truth through these sessions.”

“Inner data, even this, must make its entry through some distortion. We must always work together, but you must never consider me as an infallible source. This material is more valid than any material possible on your plane, but it is nevertheless to some degree conditioned by the camouflage attributes of the plane.” (10)

The above excerpt is in no way intended to diminish to depth, subtlety, and richness of the material nor its many practical applications to every day life. It is intended to frame it in a contemporary, postmodern manner that reveals its authentic nature by claiming, up front, that it is fallible and incomplete. It is a postmodern notion that no source, whether scientific, artistic, or religious can ever claim to have be an absolutely infallible or complete source of knowledge and wisdom. And it is one that I believe in strongly.

Moving on, then, what about each one of us? Is it possible that we all hold the ability to channel? Is channeling a latent potential in every human being, just like certain types of development mapped by the great developmental psychologists, like Piaget and Maslow? I believe so, but in the same sense that we all have the potential ability to be a mystic, physicist, or concert pianist. Some of us will be better at it than others. Jon Klimo feels that we actually channel when we are in any state of inspiration or creativity. He terms this “open channeling,” something that we all do to varying degrees, though most of us don’t “step aside” very far as we wish to maintain conscious control or presence of our waking identity. Other popular terms are “being in the zone” or “in the flow,” an altered state when everything seems to happen effortlessly, whether in it’s a spiritual epiphany, a breakthrough scientific concept, or performance of a piano concerto.

However, a small number of those who learn to change their focus and accurately tune in new stations are capable of masterful, even virtuoso performances with potential impacts on a global scale. Perhaps these virtuosos stand out because their spiritual masterpieces, scientific inventions, and artistic creations manage to tap directly into, and even beyond, that deep archetypal area of the collective consciousness described by the work of Carl Jung. This may well be the psychological process behind the spiritual philosophies, scientific theories, and bodies of art that literally change the course of entire civilizations – like the work of Christ changed the religious direction, Einstein the scientific direction, and Beethoven the musical direction of the Western world.

In metaphysical terms, then, the channeling phenomenon often provides useful information about the nature of reality, the origins and nature of the universe, and strong clues about the purpose and meaning of life itself. In that sense, channeling has always served a larger sociological and community function. And to be fair, channeling abilities take time to develop similar to the skills of any mystic, scientist, or musician. As the developmental psychologists have mapped, we all go through adult stages of development that Integral Psychologist Ken Wilber has termed conventional operational, formal operational, and then postformal operational. It is in the postformal stage where the adult skill levels of a Buddha, Hawkings, or Mozart usually emerge. (Mozart was a child prodigy, and these stages can emerge at precocious ages. There are no hard and fast rules on how slowly or quickly anyone passes through them.)

So it’s likely that the majority of channeled sources will appear quite immature, even ridiculous in their beginning stages. And given that many people never learn the critical thinking, feeling, and intuiting skills necessary for discerning the utility of spiritual information, we often find conclusions drawn from channeled information biased by fanaticism, overinflated ego, religious dogma, and superstitious nonsense. Still, the words that describe any individual’s mystical experience, in themselves, hold incomplete and symbolic meanings as they are subjective in nature. And the concepts hinted at, like all classical perennial literature, as well as the more recent channeled bodies of information like the Seth Material, serve as a trigger for our own inner knowing. In other words, since the source of this knowledge is subjective, it is actually lying latent within each of us and doesn’t exist “out there” in the ether somewhere. So the most useful sources of channeled information will open new doors toward a greater understanding and realization of self. And, as the saying goes, “Teachers open the door, but you must enter yourself.”

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Discerning the Source: Who and What is Seth?

So just who is Seth? In his own words, Seth describes himself as an “energy personality essence” that is no longer focused in physical reality. This implies that, from Seth’s perspective, there is a nonphysical source reality in which some form of human consciousness exists. Seth spoke through Jane Roberts for close to twenty-one years; try to imagine her own struggle in understanding just what Seth was. The Seth phenomenon didn’t fit into any psychological or religious frameworks in any satisfactory way in the late 1960’s. This led Jane and Rob to search for new answers that ultimately led her to develop a new mental discipline that integrated science and spirit, intellect and intuition, objective and subjective states, which she termed Aspect Psychology to help explain her own experiences. And Jane’s Aspect Psychology paralleled the development Transpersonal Psychology that came out of the same period.

In a nutshell, in Aspect Psychology the psyche is seen as a multidimensional source self of vast proportions. A lifetime is an aspect of that source self. A source like Seth is also seen as a broader aspect self, with access to information that seems to transcend our notions of space and time. So within the context of Aspects, Seth exists as an aspect self as does Jane, but they each have their own unique qualities while still being a part of a larger psychological entity, the multidimensional psyche. And since the psyche has aspects that exist in both physical and non-physical reality, Aspect Psychology, of necessity must leave the science of measuring instruments, quantification, and mathematics behind at some point and move into a purely intersubjective, qualitative realm. But the key is the integration of these two types of knowing and discernment. You can’t have one without the other!

Jane struggled for years in her understanding. She didn’t come to her conclusions lightly or without determined introspection and speculation. She was writing books, Seth was writing books, Rob was painting and adding copious notes to supplement the books. So the creative aspects of the phenomenon were absolutely undeniable. And Seth/Jane’s audience grew to millions of readers by the late 1970’s, so the material and ideas were finding fertile ground upon which to grow. And to find her own answers, Jane had to look deep inside and reconcile an array of psychic occurrences in the context of who and what she was. Here are some of Seth’s comments on Jane’s search for understanding:

“I am writing this book through a personality known as Jane Roberts. That is the name given her at her birth. She shares with you the triumphs and travails of physical existence. Like you she is presented with a life that seems to begin at her birth and that is suspended from that point of emergence until the moment of death’s departure. She has asked the same questions that you ask in your quiet moments.”

“Her questions were asked with such a vehemence however that she broke through the barriers that most of you erect and so began a journey that is undertaken for herself and for you also for each of your experiences however minute or seemingly insignificant, becomes part of the knowledge of your species. Where did you come from and where are you going? What are you? What is the nature of the psyche?”

“... ‘The Psyche’ is meaningless except as it relates to the individual psyche. I speak to you from levels of your self that you have forgotten, and yet not forgotten. I speak to you through that printed page, and yet my words will rearouse within you the voices that spoke to you in your childhood, and before your birth.” (11)

Jane offers some insights into her perspective circa 1971, after eight years of engaging the Seth phenomenon full time:

“Rob and I don’t refer to Seth as a spirit; we dislike the connotations of the term. Actually, what we object to is the conventional idea of a spirit, which is an extension of quite limited ideas of human personality, only projected more or less intact into an afterlife. You can say that Seth is a dramatization of the unconscious or an independent personality. Personally I don’t see why the statements have to be contradictory. Seth may be a dramatization playing a very real role – explaining his greater reality in the only terms we can understand.” (12)

“And so there may be others now (like Seth), also without images, but knowing – others who have been what we are and more – others who remember what we have forgotten. They may have discovered through some acceleration of consciousness other forms of being, or dimensions of reality of which we are also part.

“So we give them names who are nameless, as basically we are nameless. And we listen, but usually we try to squeeze their messages into concepts that we can understand, cloaking them in worn stereotyped images. Yet they are all about us, in the wind and trees, formed and unformed, more alive in many ways perhaps than we are – the speakers [of inner truths].

“Through these voices, these intuitions, these flashes of insights and messages, the universe speaks to us, to each of us personally. You are being addressed, and so am I. Learn to hear your own messages, not to distort what you hear or translate it into old alphabets.”

“... Seth may be leading us out of our usual limitations, into another realm that is ours by right – elemental whether we are in flesh or out of it. He may be the voice of our combined selves saying, ‘while you are conscious bodies, remember what it was like and will be like to be bodiless, to be freewheeling energy without a name but with a voice that does not need tongue, with a creativity that does not need flesh. We are yourselves turned inside out’.” (13)

In terms of the psyche and multidimensional personality, just what, then, is a Seth? Seth hints at his own greater reality, a nonphysically-based reality in which he exists. According to psychology, this is just the delusion of an ego-self afraid of its inevitable death. In other words, nothing exists beyond the world of the five senses. But do you buy that in the context of your own personal experiences? In essence this point of view denies twenty-one years of Jane’s own subjective experiences if nothing else, and I for one, don’t buy it either.

If Seth has a greater reality elsewhere, then what happens when Jane goes into trance? Seth uses the term ‘bridge personality’ to describe how he exists when speaking through Jane:

“In regular sessions, as now, [she] and I again both make adjustments, and so in session I am what I call a bridge personality, composed of a composite self – [Jane] and I meeting and merging to form a personality that is not truly either of us, but a new one that exists between dimensions. Beyond that is my real identity.” (14)

Jane formulated her Aspect Psychology theories over a period of years. Aspects form “prints” in terms of messages from the psyche. These leave behind ‘footprints of the soul’ in terms of our physical reality. And Seth is one of those “footprints” that Jane calls Aspect-prints that together form the trance personality that she terms a personagram:

“These Aspect-prints, taken together, form the trance personality which in this context can be called a ‘personagram’.”

“Just as a telegram is composed of symbols called words, so the personagram is made of Aspect-prints that together combine to form the message. Only this message is written ‘on’ a psychological structure by psychologically animate symbols. A telegram is inert itself; the information appears upon it, but it can’t send a message or interpret its own. A personagram can.”

“To make this clearer: The appearance of the personagram (or trance personality) is the message, and the personality characteristics displayed are the Aspect-prints (comparable to the words in the telegram...) Only these Aspects-prints are charged by a psyche and formed into a living personality profile (instead of, say, a flat sketch of a face in the sand), and endowed with our kind of expression or its approximation. The personagram is a representation of certain Aspects of the entity that are ‘too large’ to fit into our usual framework – transposed upon or within the displaced field of the receiving personality.”

“These psychically charged Aspect-prints form the trance personality. The more efficient the usual focus personality [outer ego] is at blurring its own field, the clearer our perception of the personagram will be.”

“The personagram, then, is an electromagnetic and psychological structure that exists potentially under certain conditions. It is a bridge personality, a unique psychological being equipped to operate between systems of reality, but its source may well be entirely outside of the three-dimensional systems. It is a psychological rapport, but dependent for its physical expression upon the receiving personality with which it merges to some extent.” (15)

“As the entity or source self [soul] has many Aspects, so any one personagram could also be considered as only one larger Aspect-print in itself, of a still more extensive personagram. (The Aspect-prints, again, represent traces of another Aspect of the entity.) So one such personagram such as Seth would represent only one face of the entity; one multidimensional Aspect of many; one characteristic in the nature of a kind of entity we can hardly comprehend.” (16)

So Seth per se, the Seth we would encounter during a channeling session, is really a composite of elements from the psyche, a temporary construction that takes the form of various characteristics that we will recognize. These include emotions, facial expressions, gestures, a sense of humor, even an accent; all to create a familiar framework in which the messages delivered can be comfortably received in culturally acceptable terms.

We should mention the Seth 2 phenomenon at this point, another Seth but one devoid of emotion and facial expressions that spoke in a soft, almost eerie monotone. Jane’s ESP class students found this personagram to be more alien that the familiar Seth. But Seth said that Seth 2 was yet another type of psychological focus that was further removed from physical reality but played an important role in supporting its creation and maintenance. From Seth 2:

“Our entity is composed of multitudinous selves with their own identities, many of whom have worked in this behalf [delivering channeled material]. Their messages will always be basically the same, though the times and circumstances of their communications may differ and be colored accordingly.”

“We taught man to speak before the tongue knew syllables. We adopt whatever personality characteristics seem pertinent, for in our own reality we have a bank of complete inner selves, and we are all Seth. We attempt to translate realities into terms that you can comprehend. We change our face and form, but we are always the one. Many of us have not been born in flesh, as I have not been. In one way we have seeded ourselves through endless universes.”

“Physically you would find me a mass smaller than a brown nut, for my energy is so highly concentrated. It exists in intensified mass... perhaps like one infinite cell existing in endless dimensions at once and reaching out from its own reality to all others.”

“Yet in such a small mass, these intensities contain memories and experiences electromagnetically coded one within the other through which I can travel – even as I can travel through other selves which I have known and which are a portion of my identity, and yet which are so beautifully unpredetermined, for you do not exist as completed personalities within my memory, but you grow within my memory.” (17)

Like an ever-opening flower, the deeper we dig into the psyche, the more “layers” we find. Perhaps, as the perennial wisdom suggests, there really is no separation from our Primary Source, just endless layers of psychological focus that widen and narrow, depending on what part of the mental spectrum we investigate. So we have the Jane, Seth, and Seth 2 selves that are all features of Jane’s psyche, aspect selves that are holonically nested within a complex psychological structure that ultimately is a projection of our Primary Source that hints Its deeper nature. And learning to cultivate a conscious awareness of this spectrum of inner relationships leads directly to a deeper understanding and remembrance of the perennial saying, “tat tvam asi” (“thou art that”) – meaning that ultimately we are all aspects of the same Primary Source.

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What are some Good Books for Beginners?

Lynda Dahl, ex-president of Seth Network Int’l., has authored several excellent books that offer her own interpretations of the Seth material in every day English in the context of her own personal experiences. A great place to start.

Recommended Seth-related books by Jane Roberts: get Jane’s perspective on Seth’s ideas and her own experiences with altered neurological focus. They are easy to read, full of insight, and present Jane’s own theory – called Aspect Psychology – that lays a foundation for understanding all paranormal events including altered states and projection of consciousness.

Recommended Seth-dictated books by Jane Roberts: these are the beginner’s books, though somewhat “technical.” They are guaranteed to challenge your notions of metaphysics and the perennial philosophy. I highly recommend the following:

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Glossary ~ ABCs of Conscious Creation

The following presents a conceptual overview of the main tenets that I have gleaned from the published material to date. However, since all of the Seth material has yet to be published, this overview will be updated to reflect any new ideas and understandings as they emerge.

Tip: press the Ctrl+F keys to search by keyword(s).

2075 probabilities – a transition or shift in collective human consciousness toward greater use of inner senses and a more individualized type of spirituality – without “outside” mediation – by the year 2075. This is one of the few predictions in the Seth material couched in terms of a religious and spiritual reformation intended to push calcified translative religions toward authentic transformational formats. Seth Discussed in detail in Seth Speaks: The Eternal Validity of the Soul.

All-That-Is – God/Universal Whole/Tao/Suchness/Gnosis/Wholeness/Shunyata/Consciousness/Great Chain of Being as an Eternal Process and not a “thing” separated from its parts. It is both immanent (in Framework 1) and transcendent (not limited to Framework 1). It is the Primal Cause of all processes and perspectives in the physical field of consciousness (Framework 1). Therefore, all space-time and energy-matter in Framework 1 is sentient and experiences in some way.

CUs (consciousness units) are the causal “force” of All-That-Is within the causal field that forms the subtle field, EEs (electromagnetic energy units) are the causal “force” within the subtle field that forms the physical field, and quantum fields are the form taken by CUs and EEs in Framework 1. Thus, All-That-Is creates all Its reality simultaneously through interpenetrated causal, subtle, and physical fields via CUs-as-EEs-as-quantum-fields.

Seth also used the terms Primary Energy Gestalt, Pyramid Energy Gestalt, Primary Pyramid Gestalt. Discussed in detail in The Seth Material and Dreams, “Evolution,” and Value Fulfillment, Vol. 1.

Alpha States – Seth outlined a “map” of a spectrum of altered neurological focus to consciously access “hidden” aspects of our psyche.

There are five main regions:

A1a (enhanced creativity, concentration, study, refreshment, rest, meditation)

» A1b (horizontal into alternate realities)

Group/mass probabilities, racial matters, civilization

» A1c (greater mobility, moving further “away” from present physical laws)

A2 (reincarnational selves, issues, and beliefs)

A3 (mass issues, geographical histories, racial info, species of animals)

A4 (“beneath” matter, source of civilization-changing inspiration, available in sleep state, personal conversions originate here)

A5 (seldom reached, meeting ground of clear communication for any aspect self, no-time, out-of-body experiences can occur here, interaction with Speakers imaged as angels, gods, disciples)

This is not a strictly linear progression through a spectrum of consciousness, like climbing up and down a ladder, but a more multidimensional, sideways, rightways, leftways, topways and bottomways cluster or nest. In other words, you don’t necessarily move through one to get to the next one. If you think of your conscious mind as a radio that receives and translates energy transmissions from your inner self over a spectrum of “stations,” you can simply change to any station by changing your attention to match the appropriate frequency.

Also, the alpha states outlined here do not map directly to those of current dream researchers who define the alpha state as the relaxed state that precedes sleep, occurring in the brain over a spectrum from roughly eight to fourteen cycles per second. So Seth’s use of alpha states should not be confused with the more popular scientific system of alpha states. Still, Seth’s A1-A5 offers a “map” in which to interpret paranormal experiences in terms of lucid dreams, projections, near-death experiences, trance, and other altered states.

Dream research remains in its infancy in the West, having only recently acknowledged lucid dreaming, but mostly from a modern materialist perspective. To date researchers have mapped four main brain states, though there may be others that current equipment can not yet detect:

1. Beta – 14-100 cycles per second, normal alert waking state. Higher range associated with anxiety, dis-ease, fight or flight conditions.

» Gamma – a subset of Beta, 40 cycles per second, but range from 24 to 70 cycles per second. Associated with an alert waking state, these have been found in meditative and lucid dreaming (REM) states. (Included as a subset because they are assoicated with a sense of clarity and wakefulness in the brain and mind, even though the rest of the body may be in a sleep, meditative, or trance state.)

2. Alpha – 8-13.9 cycles per second, just below the normal state of alertness. Associated with light relaxation, daydreaming, and self-reflection. A non-drowsy, yet relaxed, tranquil state of inward awareness that occurs before sleep. Beginning access to subconscious mind.
3. Theta – 4-7.9 cycles per second, deep relaxation, reverie, lucid dreaming, mental imagery, meditation, increased memory and focus, deep-rooted memories, and inspiration. Characterized mainly by light sleep, rapid eye movement (REM) dreams, and hallucinations. Hypnogogic imagery, deep meditation, access to subconscious mind.
4. Delta – .1-3.9 cycles per second, the deepest, most rejuvenating stage of dreamless, non-REM sleep and deep meditation. It also produces stress reduction, which can promote healing of the body. Human growth hormones released and loss of body awareness.

The scientific alpha state is what we use as we relax and fall asleep. According to Seth the alpha state provides the natural gateway to the inner ego through the inner sense of psychological time. Discussed in detail in Seth Speaks: The Eternal Validity of the Soul and Conversations with Seth.

American Vision – Jane Roberts’s vision of a future in which no single person, group, family, corporation, government, religion, or ideology holds exclusive rights for owning and offering Truth or The Way. A decentralized, democratic vision driven by an innate moral intuition that promotes the individual, unalienable right to define Truth for ourselves, based upon a direct, individual connection to God or All-That-Is without intermediaries adding layers of interpretation and “thou shalts.” No one is to be considered an infallible source. Discussed in detail in The God of Jane: A Psychic Manifesto (An Aspect Psychology Book).

Aspect Psychology – Jane Roberts’s theory to explain her extraordinary psychic abilities that involved a variety of altered states including channeling Seth, Seth II, automatic writing, Sumari singing, projections of consciousness, Helper, worldview books, psychic library, heroic dimensions and personages, and more. Jane synthesized Seth’s ideas on the multidimensional psyche into a theoretical framework that is similar to contemporary Transpersonal and Integral Psychology. In her view, the psyche is considered a source self in the subtle field, a bank of infinite potentials constantly seeking expression and fulfillment in terms of forming new personalities in the physical field, which Jane terms focus personalities. Both are considered aspects, hence the terms Aspect Psychology. Aspects are not discrete entities but holonically nested aspects within All-that-Is. The primary aspects of any human being according to Seth are the outer ego, subconscious, inner ego, and pyramid energy gestalts. Jane used the terms focus personality, nuclear self, source self, and pyramid energy gestalts to map the same spectrum of consciousness. Discussed in detail in Adventures in Consciousness: An Introduction to Aspect Psychology.

“Before the Beginning” – a metaphor within Seth’s creation mythos that claims there was no absolute beginning or end to our universe, and that creation or cosmogenesis actually occurs in every instant. “Before the beginning” explains how foundational creative forces called CUs (consciousness units) in the causal field created blueprints in the subtle field that precipitated the Big Bang. This is a form of involution, or nonphysical acts of creation that precede the Big Bang. Further, CUs and EEs continue as involutionary forces within causal and subtle fields as evolution unfolds in the physical field. Discussed in detail in Dreams, “Evolution,” and Value Fulfillment, Vol. 1.

Belief systems – the fundamental psychological filters we use to create our perception. Many times what we consider to be Absolute Truths and Laws are only beliefs relative to the physical field. Related ideas include bridge beliefs; beliefs used to identify core beliefs that bridge contradictory and conflicting beliefs we often hold simultaneously. Core beliefs are those central beliefs that attract subsidiary, or satellite beliefs. For example, the core belief system of relationships creates our sense of self-esteem, adequacy, self-worth, value in the community, and much more.

Learning to dig down and identify, change, and neutralize core belief systems also changes satellite beliefs. This process can be used to heal ourselves of psychological and physical dis-ease. Many times the process of identification is invisible – still a subconscious process. So a goal is to learn how to make our subconscious conscious through introspection, contemplation, and dream work. Once we learn to consciously recognize our many invisible, satellite, bridging, and core beliefs, we can neutralize their hold on us, create new choices, and promote personal growth. Discussed in detail in The Nature of Personal Reality.

Blueprints for reality – each Framework 1 is a probability system that has its own set of inner blueprints in Framework 2. They define freedoms and boundaries that create the most favorable structures capable of value fulfillment. They exist for as individuals, as well as the collective. These are similar to Platonic Forms, but Seth says they are not perfect and static, but dynamic and change with creativity and fulfillment. They exist at every level: physical, biological, psychological, and spiritual. Their Framework 1 aspects are found in our genes and chromosomes. Further, humans are not simply trying to imitate perfect forms in Framework 2, but directly, dynamically shape individual and collective blueprints through creativity on physical, biological, psychological, and spiritual levels. Discussed in detail in The “Unknown” Reality, Vol. 1.

Bridge Personality – a term to describe the temporary psychological bridge structure formed when Jane goes into trance, and Seth comes through. The bridge personality is a hybrid, and is neither purely Jane nor purely Seth. For example, Seth was limited to Jane’s vocabulary, memories, emotions, etc. and other aspects of her body/mind. So the Seth persona could never fully express all of the Seth personality’s multidimensional aspects. It’s like a galaxy squeezing itself through a straw. There is only so much that could be translated, or come through in any given session. Discussed in detail in The “Unknown” Reality, Vol. 2.

Camouflage – our physical universe is constantly created in each moment by an inner, nonphysical source reality that consists of subtle and causal fields of consciousness. In this multidimensional context, the effects of quantum fields – matter, linear time, space, gravity, the electromagnetic spectrum, the weak and strong nuclear forces – are a camouflage or construction. Jane Roberts also used the term idea constructions to represent the same concept. This has similarities to the Hindu concept of maya and Buddhist concept of samsara. However, physical reality is not an illusion to be avoided or renounced, just understood in relation to causal and subtle source realities. Discussed in detail in Seth Speaks: The Eternal Validity of the Soul.

The Codicils ~ appendices to the human will that serve as alternate hypotheses for private and public experience based upon Jane’s theory of Aspect Psychology. This theory organizes the “paranormal” capabilities of the human psyche into various aspects that reflect its true multidimensional nature.

1. “All of creation is sacred and alive, each part connected to each other part, and each communicating in a creative cooperative commerce in which the smallest and the largest are equally involved.

2. “The physical senses present one unique version of reality, in which being is perceived in a particular dimensionalized sequence, built up through neurological patterning, and is the result of one kind of neurological focus. There are alternate neurological routes, biologically acceptable, and other sequences so far not chosen.

3. “Our individual self-government and our political organizations are by-products of sequential perception, and our exterior methods of communication set up patterns that correlate with, and duplicate, our synaptic behavior. We lock ourselves into certain structures of reality in this way.

4. “Our sequential prejudiced perception is inherently far more flexible than we recognize, however. There are half steps – other unperceived impulses – that leap the nerve ends, too fast and too slow for our usual focus. Recognition of these can be learned and encouraged, bringing in perceptive data that will trigger changes in usual sense response, filling out potential sense spectra with which we are normally not familiar.

5. “This greater possible sense spectrum includes increased perception of inner bodily reality in terms of cellular identity and behavior; automatic conscious control of bodily processes; and increased perception of exterior conditions as the usual senses become more vigorous. (Our sight, for example, is not nearly as efficient as it could be. Nuances of color, texture, and depth could be expanded and our entire visual area attain a brilliance presently considered exceptional or supernormal.)

6. “Each person is a unique version of an inner model that is in itself a bank of potentials, variations, and creativity. The psyche is a seed of individuality and selfhood, cast in space-time but ultimately independent of it.

7. “We are born in many times and places, but not in a return of identity as we understand it; not as a copy in different clothes, but as a new self ever-rising out of the psyche's life as the new ruler rises to the podium or throne, in a psychic politics as ancient as humanity.

8. “Civilizations both past and present represent projections of inner selfhood, and mirror the state of the mass psyche at any given time. We hold memory and knowledge of past civilizations as we hold unconscious memories of our private early current-life experiences.

9. “From our present, we exert force upon the past as well as the future, forming our ideas of the past and reacting accordingly. We actually project events into our own new past.

10. “Each generation forms such a new past, one that exists as surely as the present; not just as an imaginary construct but as a practical platform – a newly built past – upon which we build our present.

11. “Options and alternate models for selfhood and civilizations exist in a psychic pattern of probabilities from which we can choose to actualize an entirely new life system.”

Discussed in detail in Psychic Politics: An Aspect Psychology Book.

Concept patterns – a metaphor used by Seth to describe aspects of his native mode of perception that incorporates full use of the inner senses in relation to the process in which he prepares information about to be translated into terms that Jane’s nervous system can manage. Since Seth’s reality is “outside” of space-time, he is aware of the past, present, and future aspects and conceptual intent in consciousness underlying these multidimensional patterns.

Jane writes about how, during session breaks, she often senses entire blocks of material available for her to tap into. This was how she perceived concept patterns as they wait for Seth to translate them into linear, physical terms through spoken language. Discussed in detail in The Early Sessions: Book 1 of the Seth Material.

Conscious creation – the phrase “conscious creation” has been used for decades, possibly longer. Applying the term to the Seth Material can be traced to Lynda Dahl, who published three books in the 1990s that used “conscious creation” to mean “you create your own reality.” The latter phrase was coined by Jane Roberts in The Nature of Personal Reality (1974). It went on to become a New Age mantra uttered by Amit Goswami in the New Age hit What the F%#? Do We Know? (2004). It is popular in the Seth community to use the phrase “conscious creation,” and sometimes YCYOR (you create your own reality) to represent the core ideas in the Seth Material.

This concept has been around for millennia, and is traceable back to the New Thought movement founded by Phineas Quimby (1802-1866) in mid-19th century America. Moreover, it extends all the way back in some form to the Idealist philosophers, from Plato (c.427-c. 347 BCE) to Plotinus (c.205-270 CE) and Nagarjuna (150-250 CE), onwards to Fichte (1762-1814), Hegel (1770-1831), Schelling (1775-1854), Berdyaev (1874-1948), and others. Seen in this light, Jane Roberts’s The Physical Universe as Idea Construction (1963), the manuscript that preceded Seth’s emergence, and the Seth Material that followed are variations of Western idealism. When we compare the Seth Material to premodern and modern forms of idealism we discover three main similarities:

1. Universe As Multiverse: All-That-Is as nested fields of physical, subtle, and causal consciousness (exteriors).
2. Self As Multidimensional: All-That-Is as nested Aspects: I-I-I (interiors).
3. Involution/Evolution: All-That-Is as Primal Cause and Effect (causality).

Therefore, conscious creation can’t be limited to only the Seth material, because the basic epistemology of concept 1 above and ontology of concept 2 above are found in some variation in all premodern and modern traditions.

1. The way that we create 100% of our reality in physical, subtle, and causal fields includes some variation of:

• (Eye of Flesh) - Physical senses/emotions.
• (Eye of Mind) - Mental/rational intelligences.
• (Eye of Spirit) - Inner senses.

2. The entire “You” who creates 100% of its own reality includes some variation of:

• (I) - Outer ego in the physical field.
• (I) - Inner ego in the subtle field.
• (I) - Pyramid Gestalts/Causal Consciousness in the causal field.

3. Involution/evolution describes the simultaneous action of creation in nonphysical and physical fields. Involution describes how All-That-Is acts as Primal Cause to create causal, subtle, and physical fields. For example, Seth used consciousness units (causal CUs) and electromagnetic energy units (subtle EEs) in this way in Dreams, “Evolution,” and Value Fulfillment (1986). Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950) used the Hindu Vedantic version of involution in The Life Divine (1949). Involution also helps explain pre-birth choices like intent, gender, who our parents will be, etc., that are not made by the outer ego.

Thus, “conscious creation” more accurately applies to any modern or postmodern body of work that explores the simultaneous action of involution/evolution in physical, subtle, and causal fields via physical, mental, and spiritual senses.

Modern examples of conscious creation include Vedanta Hinduism and Vajrayana Buddhism. Postmodern examples include the information offered by Seth, Elias, Kris, Wilber, and others.

Originally introduced in Seth Speaks: The Eternal Validity of the Soul.

Conscious mind – Seth distinguishes three primary qualities of the conscious mind – the outer ego, the subconscious, and the inner ego. Each is fully conscious, aware, and sentient but based upon its own unique order of perception. Seth consistently refutes the idea that anything is unconscious. The outer ego uses outer senses and reason, the subconscious uses outer and inner senses, and the inner ego uses inner senses. Further inward, the conscious mind taps into pyramid energy gestalts. Discussed in detail in The Nature of Personal Reality.

Consciousness units (CUs) – the foundational “causal force” or Primal Cause within All-That-Is; Seth’s metaphor for pure source energy in the causal field. CUs are ubiquitous, faster than light, nested “units” of awareized, not humanized, energy imbued with a propensity for creating gestalts of action, energy, and matter. Their unique characteristics include dreaming and inner sensing. Discussed in detail in The “Unknown” Reality, Vol. 1.

Constructions (Primary, Secondary) – a metaphor used by Seth to explain how the inner ego creates the outer ego, which in turn creates its own perception. The outer ego in the physical field (Framework 1) is a primary construction of the inner ego. The outer ego, in turn, creates secondary constructions through its perception in the physical field. So the "you" who creates 100% of your reality includes the outer and inner ego.

Constructions are also related to Seth’s use of the term camouflage and divine camouflage, and Jane’s idea constructions. Discussed in detail in The Early Sessions: Book 2 of the Seth Material.

Coordinate points – the means of energy exchange between the physical field (Framework 1) and subtle field (Framework 2). There are three kinds: absolute, main, and subordinate. Gestalts of CUs that form into electromagnetic energy units (EEs) that blink on/off beyond the Planck speed – 10(-44). These are the instrumental “black/white holes” that facilitate the actual translation of subtle field source energy – EEs – into physical constructions. In other words, they are key aspects in the mechanics of how we create our physical reality through a psychological, inner “action of translation.” Discussed in detail in Seth Speaks: The Eternal Validity of the Soul.

Cordellas – the inner “organizational units from which ... all [physical, biological, and psychological] alphabets are born.” In other words, they function as communications blueprints for “translating” all source energy from its potential subtle Framework 2 state into physical Framework 1 constructions. These “languages of translation” provide “the inner support for the communications and recognized happenings of conscious life,” including quantum fields, biological life, and human perception.

Cordellas also form the basis for the Sumari trance language. Discussed in detail in Adventures in Consciousness: An Introduction to Aspect Psychology.

Counterparts – simultaneous “reincarnational selves” that share or overlap within the same periods of history. For instance, we can have four or more lifetimes that share this PRESENT/present, and simultaneously four more that may have been born decades before our birth but died in our PAST/present or are still alive, and four more who will be born during our PRESENT/present but continue after we die in a FUTURE/present. This thesis, as Robert Butts called it, further expands how Seth defines reincarnation more as simultaneous multiple incarnations. Seth also hints that there can be temporary counterpart relationships between people that do not share the same entity. Discussed in detail in The “Unknown” Reality, Vol. 2.

Dis-ease – good health is one of our most cherished states of being. If you believe that you create ALL of your reality, then you begin to question the mechanics and purposes of any ill health situation. Dis-ease has many purposes, some of which are restorative to a more balanced state, some initiate the death experience, and some, for example birth “defects,” are for the purity of the experience. If the purpose of experiencing physical reality is to drink deeply of its rich potentials and we experience multiple simultaneous lifetimes, then it makes sense that certain extreme conditions are a pre-birth or involutionary choice of experience, not a punishment from God, bad karma, or the result of natural selection and “bad” genetics.

Dream-Art Science – emerging disciplines that integrate multiple ways of knowing, that is, integrate the conscious use of the eye of empiricism (five senses), eye of rationalism (logic), and eye of mysticism (inner senses):

• dream art scientist – a generic scientist. [ The “Unknown” Reality, Vol. 1 ]
• true mental physicist – a physicist. [ The “Unknown” Reality, Vol. 1 ]
• complete physician – a healer. [ The “Unknown” Reality, Vol. 1 ]
• dream archeologist – a psychologist or psychiatrist. [ Oversoul Seven and the Museum of Time ]
• the gifted amateur – an expert in any field without the dogmatic limitations of calcified organizational cultures. [ The Afterdeath Journal of an American Philosopher: The World View of William James ]

Electromagnetic energy units (EEs) – faster than light particles within the subtle field (Framework 2) earmarked for physical manifestation that “slow down” to form all matter, guided by the conscious mind and the pineal gland in the brain. Millions compose each atom. EEs are made up of the even “smaller,” more fundamental, consciousness units (CUs). Discussed in detail in The Seth Material.

Energy personality essence – used by Seth to describe the multidimensional nature of the human psyche as soul, source, or spirit in the subtle field. It includes the inner ego, an aspect of the conscious mind (outer ego, subconscious, inner ego) that is simultaneously focused in the subtle field.

The inner ego transcends physical death and is the source of all focus personalities. In Seth’s terms, then, we are all physically focused aspects of an energy personality essence. The inner ego is that aspect “beyond ” gender and sexual preference, though when it expresses itself into physical terms it adopts the physical traits designed into any particular physical field of consciousness. Seth also describes himself as an “energy personality essence no longer focused in physical reality.”

Seth also discussed pyramid energy gestalts that held wider awareness than him. These are focused in the causal field, and appear as ancient and developed beyond comprehension. Discussed in detail in The Seth Material.

Entity – another term for psyche, soul, or spirit, but expanded to include the inner ego that is simultaneously focused in the subtle field. Other synonymous terms include inner self, inner ego, source self, and energy personality essence. Discussed in detail in The Seth Material.

Entity name – a designation used by Seth that recognizes each individual’s inner ego as a multidimensional source self consisting of simultaneous, multiple personalities. As you read the Seth books you’ll notice that he refers to Jane as “Ruburt” and Rob as “Joseph.” Seth used entity names for help students open to their multidimensional nature beyond sole identification with the outer ego. Discussed in detail in The Seth Material.

Evolution – Seth consistently refutes the belief systems of cause and effect, closed energy systems, and linear time as Absolute Universal Truths. Since Consciousness is Primal Cause, there are inner source realities, the causal and subtle fields, from which our physical universe constantly springs. Thus, matter and energy don’t evolve solely according to Darwinian definitions, because there are also involutionary actions within the subtle and causal fields, within EEs (electromagnetic energy units) and CUs (consciousness units).

Still, Seth does not deny that change, growth, and development occur in the physical field. In his creation myth, found in Dreams, “Evolution,” and Value Fulfillment, Seth is clear that there is an order of play that maps generally to physical (physiosphere), biological (biosphere), and then self-reflexive mental (noosphere) emergence in the physical field.

While this is a hierarchical unfolding that transcends and includes but not vice versa, Seth is also aware that distorted interpretations of involution/evolution have lead to dominator hierarchies that deny the growth and health. And he appropriate critiques those elements of social Darwinism that led to the horrors of the Robber Barons, Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia, Maoist China, and so on. Seth also stresses cooperation over competition and defines value fulfillment as a foundation creative principle or natural law that informs all involutionary/evolutionary actions in the physical field of consciousness. Discussed in detail in Dreams, “Evolution,” and Value Fulfillment, Vol. 1.

“Families” of consciousness – Seth introduced the “families of consciousness” in sessions 732-740 in The “Unknown” Reality, Vol. 2 (1979, 1996). The idea of “families” is symbolic for something beneath physical appearances, a nonphysical source attribute that reflects the innate intention of individualized consciousness, as The One (All-That-Is) creates the many in the subtle and physical fields.

Since we can “slice the pie” of human intention any way we want, the concept of the nine “families” is just an orienting generalization that outlines intentionality within a collective that now exceeds six billion people. For example, as a prism breaks white light into component colors, so too does the “families” metaphor break the collective into a spectrum of innate intention designed to promote maximum value fulfillment. When we look at the “rainbow of intention” from a distance, systemically, there is an appearance of nine distinct colors. Yet when viewed up close, it is impossible to clearly discern where one color stops and another begins; they blur into each other. Thus, the “families” work the same way. They are not discrete, separate, or fixed qualities. Instead, they are nested, merged qualities that dynamically change in space-time, even though their source is “outside” of space-time.

As such, it is possible to have subdivisions of the nine primary intents given by Seth that allow for countless variations, permutations, and hybrids. For example, the healing intent can subdivide to specialize in interpersonal relationships, specific areas of human anatomy, or surgery, etc. Or the healing intent can combine with the teaching intent to specialize in teaching the art of healing, or surgery, etc. A simple mathematical way to imagine these permutations is to multiply 9x8x7x6x5x4x3x2x1 (called nine factorial). The result yields 362,880 possibilities. That’s a lot more than just nine. But since that example deals with discrete numbers, and intention isn’t really quantifiable, the possibilities beyond the primary nine are literally infinite.

Within the Integral Conscious Creation matrix, then, the “families” form a typology, the result of a pre-birth or involutionary choice. Thus, we hold a “family” intent as we develop over the course of a lifetime, and there will be in utero, infantile, juvenile, adolescent, adult, and senior variations. Since intention is qualitative and not quantitative, it may alter during the course of a lifetime depending on the complex dynamics of overall life conditions and choices.

Also, notice that the “families” concept is a worldcentric view of intention that doesn’t privilege any race, creed, or ideology, and applies equally to all focus personalities. It thus includes other species in addition to Homo-sapiens, for example, Neanderthal, Cro-Magnon, and possibly others. Elias, for example, has claimed that whales and dolphins recently evolved into focuses of essence. So these “families” of intention would apply to them, too.

Finally, the specific words Seth used to point out the primary nine intents are secondary, so take them with a grain of salt. Regardless of the words we use, the underlying conscious intentions they describe are easily discernable.

The nine basic “family of consciousness” intents:

Sumafi (Su-ma’-fi)

SETH: deals primarily with teaching, passing on their knowledge or that of others.

ROB: to transmit “originality” through teaching.

Milumet (Mil’-u-met)

SETH: composed of mystics, most of their energy is directed in an inward fashion, deeply involved in nature, in that sense more highly attuned psychically than most.

ROB: to mystically nourish mankind’s psyche.

Gramada (Gra-ma’-da)

SETH: specializes in organization, founders of large businesses, statesmen, politicians, vital, active, creatively aggressive.

ROB: to found social systems.

Vold

SETH: primarily reformers, activists, revolutionaries, with excellent precognitive abilities in terms of probabilities, one purpose in mind: to change the status quo in whatever the area of primary interest.

ROB: to reform the status quo.

Ilda (Il’-da)

SETH: they deal primarily in the great play of exchange and interchange of ideas, products, social and political concepts. They are travelers, carrying with them ideas of one country to another, mixing cultures, religions, attitudes, political structures. Seth has great affection for these folks!

ROB: to spread and exchange ideas.

Sumari (Sum-mar’-i)

SETH: innovators, naturally playful, humorous, relatively unfettered. They are impatient however. They will be found in the arts and in the less conventional sciences.

ROB: to provide the cultural, spiritual, and artistic heritage for the species.

Tumold (Tu-mold’)

SETH: primarily devoted to healing, though don’t have to literally be practicing medicine, found as psychics, social workers, psychologists, priests/shamans, florists, politicians, royalty in past history.

ROB: to heal, regardless of individual occupation.

Zuli (Zu’-li)

SETH: involved mainly with the fulfillment of bodily activity, athletes, dedicated to perfecting the beautiful, elegant, and performance capacities of the body, often appear at the beginnings of civilizations where direct physical bodily manipulation within the environment was of supreme importance.

ROB: to serve as physical athletic models.

Borledim (Bor-le’-dim)

SETH: deals primarily with parenthood, often have large families, focus on nurturing healthy children with brilliant minds, healthy bodies, and strong clear emotions. Their ideas often spring to prominence before large social changes, and help initiate them. Closest to Sumari.

ROB: to provide an Earth stock for the species through parenthood.

Discussed in detail in The “Unknown” Reality, Vol. 2.

Feeling tones – every aspect of All-That-Is is conscious and has its own inner tone. Just as a clarinet, violin, and electric guitar each have their own timbre when playing the same musical tone, we each have our own personal resonance or feeling tone that is unique to each of us. Learning to consciously resonate with and tune into our own feeling tone helps us connect to our own direct source, entity, or inner self. This provides a gateway, along with our inner senses, to further understand our deeper, inner nature. Discussed in detail in The Nature of Personal Reality.

Fifth dimensional space – used to describe the vastness of inner reality with a focus upon the subtle field. Actually looking at the actions of simultaneous time, Frameworks of Consciousness, and All-That-Is from a different angle. Discussed in detail in The Early Sessions: Book 1 of the Seth Material.

Focus personality – a term used by Jane Roberts to describe each individual human personality within the context of the larger multidimensional psyche. That is, the psyche actually consists of multiple simultaneous focus personalities. Jane used this term in her theory on multidimensional personality called Aspect Psychology. Discussed in detail in Adventures in Consciousness.

Frameworks of Consciousness – a metaphor to explain the multidimensional nature of our universe – Framework 1 represents the physical field, Framework 2 represents those aspects of the subtle field earmarked for physical manifestation in terms of collective consciousness and all probable source events. Framework 2 is “hidden” from our physical senses. Most of Framework 1 is also hidden from our physical senses. For example, the electromagnetic spectrum covers a range of radiation that far exceeds the limits of our optical and auditory systems.

Physicist David Bohm, a student of Einstein’s, postulated the same idea but used the term “explicate order” to describe physical reality and “implicate order” to describe the source reality. Quantum physicists theorize that vibrating “strings” now provide the source energy for our universe. Also, that our space/time universe consists of ten or more dimensions, most of which remain hidden to our physical senses. Discussed in detail in The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events.

Framework 1 – physical field of consciousness in all of its immaculate wonder.

Framework 2 – subtle field; the state of collective consciousness where all probable source events earmarked for physical manifestation exist.

Framework 3 – subtle field; another source dimension even further removed from physical reality. It was briefly mentioned, but never elaborated upon by Seth. According to Elias, the action of afterdeath transition occurs here.

Framework 4 – subtle field; yet another source dimension even further removed from Frameworks 1-3. It was briefly mentioned, but never elaborated upon. According to Elias, his native focus of attention exists here.

The God of Jane – a personalized version of our own psyche as the mediator to All-That-Is. The God of Self is local, intimate, and provides us each with a direct connection to our Primary Source. As such, all our answers to good health, spiritual and financial abundance, moral dilemmas, and satisfying relationships are directly available by searching within and getting to deeply know ourSelf. Discussed in detail in The God of Jane: A Psychic Manifesto (An Aspect Psychology Book).

Heroic Personalities, Dimensions – Jane's perception of personality aspects within the subtle field (Frameworks 2-4...) in which she sensed vast psychological structures or selves that seemed to straddle entire worlds. Discussed in detail in Psychic Politics: An Aspect Psychology Book.

High Intellect – a superb blend of deep intuitions (inner senses) and intellect that forms a higher cognitive faculty. This approach to knowledge and wisdom integrates multiple ways of knowing that include the eye of empiricism (five senses), eye of rationalism (logic), and eye of mysticism (inner senses). Introduced in The “Unknown” Reality, Vol. 1.

Idea constructions – there are inner source realities, the causal and subtle fields, in which all ideas originate. Ideas are transformed by the subtle inner ego into physical constructions—any physical form of matter and energy. Jane Roberts wrote an essay in an inspired state called The Physical Universe As Idea Construction (1963) in which she described the physical universe as idea constructions. Seth later said that this inspired state was his first attempt at consciously contacting her. Discussed in detail in Seth, Dreams, and Projection of Consciousness.

Impulses – an innate inner language of the psyche designed to lead us to our own deepest value fulfillment. However, they can be repressed, dissociated, or blocked on individual and collective levels. These repressions, dissociations, and blockages can have disastrous results, for instance, addictive, violent, and abusive behavior on individual and collective scales.

Conventional, modern definitions claim that most impulses are chaotic and bad – a primary cause of dysfunctional and anti-social behaviors like addiction, rape, murder, and others. In Seth’s definition, blocking our impulses actually results in dysfunctional and anti-social behaviors. So the goal is to learn to accurately discern and integrate our true impulses and recognize when they become blocked. Discussed in detail in many books; check any index.

Inner ego – if we use an iceberg analogy to represent the psyche, then the inner ego would be that vast portion which is submerged and provides the stability and subtle source energy for the tip or physical ego. Other terms used to describe the same concept include inner self, entity, source self, and soul. Discussed in detail in The Seth Material.

Inner self – if we use an iceberg analogy to represent the psyche, then the inner self would be that vast portion which is submerged and provides the stability and subtle source energy for the tip or physical ego. Other terms used to describe the same concept include inner ego, entity, source self, and soul. Discussed in detail in The Seth Material.

Inner senses – deep intuitions or what’s commonly called the “sixth sense” that complement the five physical senses. Used primarily by the inner self at full strength, the waking ego can learn to manipulate these through a spectrum of altered neurological focus that results from any authentic yoga. I sometimes use the term hyperception to indicate full bore use of the inner senses in waking state.

1. inner vibrational touch
2. psychological time
3. perception of past, present, and future
4. conceptual sense
5. cognition of knowledgeable essence
6. innate working knowledge of the basic vitality of the universe
7. expansion or contraction of the tissue capsule
8. disentanglement from camouflage
9. diffusion by the energy personality [essence]

Discussed in detail in The Seth Material.

Find out more about The Inner Senses – An Introduction & Overview.

Integral Conscious Creation – while the premodern traditions had an understanding of involution – the action of Consciousness as Primal Cause – what’s missing is an understanding of evolution; Consciousness unfolding in broad stages of increasing complexity over time in the physical field, or what Seth called Framework 1. We’re not talking about the crude distortions of Social Darwinism used by Robber Barons or Nazi Germany to justify economic inequalities or genocide, but the kind of evolutionary theories found in Aurobindo, Radhakrishnan, Chauduri, Gopi Krishna, Teilhard de Chardin, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, and Wilber. These modern and postmodern thinkers all show the driving “force” behind evolution, natural selection, genetic mutations, etc., to be none other than All-That-Is, with chance, chaos, and randomness playing a secondary role based upon free will.

However, premodern forms of idealism have tended to demean the physical. Since they correctly intuit that Consciousness is Primal Cause, and not material quantum fields, idealists tend to reduce everything to Consciousness, which is no-thing and immaterial. This has led to extreme asceticism, denial of the flesh, and other “sinful self” ideologies that marginalize the physical as secondary. On the other hand, modern materialist sciences claim that everything is reducible to quantum fields, and consciousness is a mere after effect or epiphenomenon of matter. This has led to alienation, fragmentation, and dissociation from Causal Consciousness that marginalizes consciousness as secondary. The two camps have been at odds for the past four centuries, and have yet to find a viable middle ground.

Therefore, part of what defines postmodernism are attempts to find that middle ground – ways to more adequately situate inner and outer, the ideal and material aspects of reality. Give each its place and don’t reduce one to the other, situate the physical and nonphysical as nested, interpenetrated fields within All-That-Is. Postmodernism attempts to bring Consciousness, which was present in premodern worldviews, back into the picture while acknowledging the advances and limits of modern science. However, this requires a type of cognitive development that can situate multiple contexts, some even contradictory, as all true but partial pieces of a larger puzzle. When taken together, we begin to hone in on more true and less partial explanations. It also requires a paradigm which can disclose and enact data through the use of physical senses, reason, and inner senses. Seth outlined what he called Dream-Art Science in The “Unknown” Reality, Vol. 1 (1977) and later, Ken Wilber’s integral approach refined things even further in Sex, Ecology, and Spirituality: The Spirit of Evolution (1995).

Thus, when we combine Wilber’s integral approach with the above definition of conscious creation, we get Integra