Seth Talk
Seth Talk Entries to Date, by Lynda Dahl. (Please see the new Section Two below, called What Would Seth Say To Me Today?)
Section One:
July 1, 2010: Intro; Action, Identities, the Three Creative Dilemmas
July 29, 2010: Action, Identities, the Three Creative Dilemmas (cont.)
Sept. 4, 2010: The Spacious Present; & Camouflage in the Spacious Present
Oct. 1, 2010: Significances & Subjective Continuity
Nov. 3, 2010: Suggestion/Expectation
Dec. 1, 2010: Moment Point/Present
Jan. 1, 2011: Probabilities
Feb. 5, 2011: Mental Acts: Thought, Emotion, Imagination
March 8, 2011: The Inner Self & the Entity or Soul
April 3, 2011: Trust
May 4, 2011: The Safe Universe
June 3, 2011: Redefining the Self (Final Entry of Section One)
Section Two: What Would Seth Say To Me Today?
Please skip to the end of the last Section One entry to read about the purpose and intent of Section Two.
OCT. 18, 2011: What Would Seth Say To Me Today?
JAN. 1, 2012: What Would Seth Say To Me Today...About Goals?
SECTION ONE: JULY 1, 2010
Welcome to Seth Talk, folks. I’m Lynda Dahl and I’m very excited about this new SNI offering because it will pretty much be my project, one that matches my inner inclinations very closely. Ever since I started reading the Seth material in 1984, most of my focus has been on attempting to understand the practical implications of what Seth says and then integrate it into my thinking as a given. Living a safe universe eventually became my overall goal.
Not an easy task, as all of you know, because the learning goes on...and on...and on. But as a by-product of my ongoing focus, I've gathered to me hundreds upon hundreds of Seth quotes on various subjects that specifically clarify what Seth is saying or recommending or clearing up regarding the nature of reality and how understanding it can lead to living a safe universe.
So what I'll be doing with Seth Talk, among other things, is laying the foundation which I believe will lead us to living a safe universe, nesting my gathered quotes together into a composite picture of what Seth says about certain subjects that point us in that direction, subjects such as action (also called the vitality of All That Is, or the basis of creation), and the spacious present (the only time there is, and the only place where action happens), and significances (the true cause and effect, happening in the spacious present and brought about by action). Etcetera, etcetera. I'll post a new entry periodically, and those of you on our email list will get a heads-up when one appears.
So, to kick off Seth Talk, the first offering is below. It's a long one because I wanted to give you some background about the purpose of Seth Talk and where it will eventually lead us. I hope Seth Talk's overview topic, Living a Safe Universe, will prove to be an intriguing journey through the Seth material from a different perspective than reading the books one at a time from cover-to-cover allows us, because the subjects that comprise the overview, and their quotes, will be gathered from all books to be made into a whole.
Also, I’m sorry to say the quotes will not be annotated. The reason is that in my private files, where all the quotes will come from, I find that annotation of the type of Seth comments I normally use (one or two-liners) gets cumbersome and burdens the eye instead of clarifying the point of the quotes.
And one final note, folks. Do feel free to copy and paste anything you wish from Seth Talk into a Word doc for printing purposes. No problem whatsoever.
Oh, another thought. If you're on Facebook, do drop by Lynda Madden Dahl, my page. Although FB isn't really a good, thorough venue for it, we're exploring some of Seth's ideas there, certainly some of his quotes. At the very least, we're sharing ideas and friendship with other Sethies. ** Go Seth!
Seth Talk's Main Topic: LIVING A SAFE UNIVERSE
Subjects to be Discussed Over Time
1/2. Action, Identities, the Three Creative Dilemmas
3. Spacious Present; & Camouflage in the Spacious Present
4. Significances and Subjective Continuity
5. Suggestion/Expectation
6. Moment Point/Present
7. Probabilities
8. Mental Acts: Thought, Emotion, Imagination
9. Inner Self & Entity or Soul
10. Trust
11. The Safe Universe
12. Redefining the Self
JULY 1, 2010 * First Entry
This first Seth Talk entry is the prelude to a series of documents that are basically all Seth quotes on given subjects, with little prose involved (a listing of the quotes documents is embedded within this entry and each will be posted in due time). What you will read here is a modified version of my kick-off talk used at SNI’s 2010 Seth intensive workshops, because it nicely and clearly sets the stage for the purpose of Seth Talk and leads into the astounding Seth quotes (coming soon) that clarify so much about the nature of reality.
Living a Safe Universe
Seth says, “When man realizes that he, himself, creates his personal and universal environment in concrete terms, then he can begin to create a private and universal environment much superior to the (present) one that is a result of haphazard and unenlightened constructions. This is our main message to the world, and this is the next line in man's conceptual development…”
Haphazard and unenlightened constructions. That’s what Seth says we’re creating to date, and he’s talking about in our personal as well as public lives. However, he then says, “When you get to the point that you realize you are forming your day-to-day existence and the life that you know, then you can begin to alter your own mental and psychic patterns, and therefore change your daily environment…. The entire structure of your existence will begin to change with these realizations…”
And Seth has been doing his best to help us along. He says: “…Not only have I been trying to divest you of official ideas, but to prepare you for the acceptance of a new version of reality…”
So, what are the official ideas Seth is trying to divest us of so we can live this new version of reality? It’s what he calls the official line of consciousness, and its main organizing factor is linear time. He says, “The official line of consciousness forms a world about it, and you perceive and experience that world, and it will always show you the results of the beliefs that are inherent in the official line of consciousness. While you devote yourself to that official line of consciousness, the world will always appear the same…”
And the reason it will always appear the same is because the one-line official consciousness gives us no place to go, no openings to aspire to outside the limitations of linear time, because it claims there is:
evolution
and cause and effect
and one world
and one timeline for that world
and one timeline for us
And it tells us that these things are facts, and therefore cannot be altered. They just ARE. And those facts force us to think a certain way, a way that leaves little to no room to believe we, as Seth says, create our personal and universal environments in concrete terms.
The good news, according to Seth, is this: “The one-line stage of consciousness was necessary... But that stage contained within it its own impetus. It set up challenges that could not be solved at that stage of consciousness, and that would automatically lead you into other strands of awareness.”
Those challenges that Seth’s talking about take the form of our haphazard and unenlightened constructions. And in order to solve our issues made manifest in those constructions, we need to become aware of other information, and then think differently because of it.
Years ago I read a line from Seth that I didn’t understand, and it puzzled me for a long time. He says: “Your ideas of time are detrimental. Time works with you and not against you.” (He said to Rob, "Underline that four times.")
And the more I read the Seth material, it finally hit me that Seth was talking about two different kinds of time in that one statement. When he says, “Your ideas of time are detrimental,” he’s talking about our ideas of linear time and our acceptance of cause and effect – which is what linear time is all about. And when he says, “Time works with you and not against you,” he’s talking about subjective time working with us, subjective time in the spacious present – which is the only real time there is, according to him.
And it struck me that if we can get a grip on the use of subjective time, then time truly will work for us, mostly because we will drop the idea of cause and effect. And by dropping the idea of cause and effect, we will significantly change the rules of the game. Seth says: “As you (come to) understand time, you will eventually be able to merge your inner comprehension with your physical self, and form your world on a conscious basis.”
Indeed, time is the issue. We need a different perspective on time, an expansion of our thinking to include the working assumption that time is subjective, not objective, and therefore we can override the belief in cause and effect. And when we do, Seth has good news for us. He says, “You begin to glimpse a promised land – a land of psyche and reality that represents unimpeded nature.”
Understanding the subjective nature of time is the key to living a safe universe without the haphazard constructions Seth referenced earlier. And it is perhaps one of the most difficult issues for us to grasp. Not theoretically or intellectually because we can pretty much understand what Seth is saying about simultaneous time vs. linear time, or at least we can see the outlines of the bigger picture. That’s not where our issue lies.
The real challenge in understanding and using time to our advantage lies in the fact that we believe linear time. Not that we believe in it - but that we believe it! That is, we believe it when we assume an action we took yesterday caused an event today. We believe it when a memory of a “past” event is accepted as a part of our past. We believe it when something happens to us in the present that we accept as a random event. We believe it when an object is assumed to be solid. We believe it when we assume there is something beyond the walls of our home, always there even if we don’t see it.
Some ideas about linear time we’ve loosened. When we no longer fear death, we’ve loosened the hold of linear time. When we know the illness or accident we experienced was caused by us, we’ve loosened the hold of linear time. When we consciously choose a lucid dream or an out of body, we’ve loosened the hold of linear time. But overall, a belief in linear time dominates our lives. And yet – and this is the ironic part – we know, because Seth tells us so, that our view of linear time is a detriment to us and to our individual growth. That our freedom lies in understanding and using simultaneous time.
Seth says, “You have put yourselves in a position where your consciousness must now become aware of the probable pasts and probable futures in order to form for yourselves a sane, fulfilling, and creative present.” And we can’t accept or work with the probabilities surrounding pasts and futures, and the implications of it all, unless we truly accept and work with subjective time.
So this discussion is in direct response to the challenge Seth has laid down for us, paraphrased – to loosen our hold on linear time thinking, because our efforts will lead us to freedom from haphazard and unenlightened constructions and into a sane and fulfilling present.
What we will do here is to frame our realities through the lens of simultaneous time instead of linear time. In order to do that, we have to start from a different place than our thinking normally takes us. That is, instead of seeing and discussing our lives as emerging from linear time and trying to use that framework to bring about change, we will see our realities as immersed in the spacious present in subjective time, and learn to use the knowledge and tools of that framework.
Seth says, “You recognized the overall vitality of our material, but you did not realize that it meant a complete reorientation of your attitudes. You did not realize that you were being presented, not merely with an alternate view of reality, but with the closest approximation you could get of what reality was, and how it worked, and what it meant.”
And reality is not linear time and cause and effect. To get to a complete reorientation of our attitudes, we can’t just theoretically accept Seth’s wonderful alternate view of reality. We really must bring it alive in our thinking, which will quite literally bring it alive in our present. We need to own it as our bedrock platform of thought, not just as an intriguing, but abstract, idea of Seth’s. We must make it ours.
So I’ll bring certain of Seth’s topics to your awareness here and in following entries, all chosen for and aimed at reinforcing the idea that we are indeed basically non-physical consciousness in the spacious present simply using the illusion of linear time for our own purposes.
And that change in our thinking about who we are and what we’re capable of, will eventually lead us to, as Seth says, “a land of psyche and reality that represents unimpeded nature.” Or, as I think of it, freedom.
These topics will be piecemealed in different handouts, building toward a whole, a whole that, when we see it clearly for what it is, will push the boundaries of linear time’s unquestioned acceptance and walk us toward that sane and fulfilling present.
And the subjects are:
1/2. Action, Identities, the Three Creative Dilemmas
3. Spacious Present; and Camouflage in the Spacious Present
4. Significances and Subjective Continuity
5. Suggestion/Expectation
6. Moment Point/Present
7. Probabilities
8. Mental Acts: Thought, Emotion, Imagination
9. Inner Self & Entity or Soul
10. Trust
11. The Safe Universe
12. Redefining the Self
I’ll start the ball rolling right now on the first topic, that of action, identities and the three creative dilemmas, and I won’t do much editorializing during this part. That is, I won’t be saying much about their relevancy to us in our everyday lives and their very practical implications. We’ll hold that part for after the groundwork is laid through the coming documents. (FYI, the next Seth Talk posting will be the full quotes document on this subject.)
Okay, and now a drum roll, please....because what we’re about to discuss is the information that has the distinction of differentiating the Seth material from any other body of work in today’s world. This is the information that sets Seth head and shoulders apart and makes sense of everything else…in a logical way.
Living a Safe Universe: Action, Identities, the Three Creative Dilemmas
Before what Seth calls the beginning – or before objectified reality, when the only reality was subjective - all things – realities, identities, objects, etc. - were already created and held within All That Is. They simply were not materialized or expressed outside of the subjective reality of All That Is.
But even after objective reality, or in our case physical reality, was created by All That Is as an extension of itself, not all of ATI was or can ever be fully expressed or objectified – part of it always has to be unexpressed. But it’s a pressing desire on the part of ATI to continually materialize some of itself, so there is a constant attempt to do so.
And this attempt, this trying, results in action. Not the action of motion as we know it, but the action of ATI. Seth says, “Action is the breath of inner vitality (or All that Is), of which all materializations of any kind are composed. It represents the relationship between unexpressed inner vitality and materialized vitality.” Some might call it creation.
So, action – or the breath of inner vitality - begins from within ATI and is a part of ATI. And since action is a part of ATI, the materializations that occur because of this action, are, simply put, All That Is expressing itself in different forms.
Which means that everything that’s materialized in whatever reality, in whatever form, is ATI expressing itself as action. There is nothing anywhere, ever, that is not ATI expressing itself as action…and that includes us.
To explain all this further, Seth talks about three creative dilemmas that occur because of the constant need of ATI to keep creation happening, or said another way, to keep action happening, for creation and action are one. And while this won’t seem so obvious at first, the dilemmas are the birthplace of everything.
First creative dilemma: This is actually what we’ve already talked about here. Here’s how Seth words it: “The first creative dilemma is that which exists when inner vitality (or All that Is) struggles to completely materialize, though it cannot completely materialize.”
This constant struggle results in action, as we discussed. But this struggle is not only the birth of action. It’s the birth of identities. Seth says, “An identity is an unfolding of action upon itself; and through this interweaving of action with itself, an identity is formed. Yet although identity is formed from action, action and identity cannot be separated.”
So an identity is action. And what identities are Seth talking about? He’s saying that any identity that ever comes into being starts here. Nowhere in the greatest stretches of ATI, expressed and not expressed, is there a mechanism other than action that creates identities. And that becomes a key factor when we later start talking about ourselves and our personal and mass realities, and it brings great clarity to those subjects.
So every identity starts existence or is materialized right here during the first creative dilemma. As is everything, actually, as we’ll learn.
So now let’s discuss the second creative dilemma, and interestingly, we’ll learn about the beginning of consciousness.
Second creative dilemma: “The second dilemma occurs, then, because identity, because of its characteristics, continually seeks stability, while stability is impossible.”
“It is this second dilemma, precisely between identity’s constant attempts to maintain stability, and action’s inherent drive for change, that results in the imbalance, the exquisite creative by-product that is consciousness of self.”
So, identities are action which is conscious of itself. That’s what they are – action which is conscious of itself. And because identities cannot be separated from action, identities constantly change, because action constantly changes.
An inner self is formed from this stage of the dilemmas. It’s an action of All That Is which is conscious of itself. And an inner self constantly changes, because each action causes another action which causes change.
A note here: You may have noticed that Seth didn’t say consciousness comes first and then identities are formed from consciousness – which is the prevailing idea in the New Age. The knowledge that identities come first breaks Seth apart from other works, and finally relieves the need to dress consciousness in spiritual clothes, similar to God’s but now called New Age. What Seth says is that consciousness is a tool used by identities. And we’ll talk more about that, and its implications, later.
Okay, on to the third and last dilemma, and here’s where we come in.
“The third dilemma is when consciousness of self attempts to separate itself from action, resulting in a state of ego.”
So, consciousness of self, created in the last dilemma, is not the same thing as consciousness of ego self – which is, of course, what we are.
Seth says, “Ego consciousness involves a state in which consciousness of self attempts to divorce itself from action, an attempt on the part of consciousness to perceive action as an object.”
So, ego consciousness views action – or All That Is - as though action is outside of itself, manifested into objects. But separation between action and ego consciousness – or ego consciousness and objects - is obviously impossible, since no consciousness or identity can exist without action, because they are inseparable.
Seth says, “…It appears to ego that action is not only separate from itself, but that action is initiated by the ego, and a result rather than a cause of ego’s own existence and experience.”
And one point here: From All that Is to action to identity to consciousness is actually all one loop of continuing action, and there is no boundary that separates any of that action. So we, as ego consciousness, are simply All That Is and action and identity and consciousness of self (in our case, inner self) attempting to divorce our self from action and not actually able to.
This whole issue becomes paramount to us understanding that we are All That Is and we are our inner self – not an offshoot, not a consciousness formed by our inner self and placed in a separate reality, but that we ARE our inner self. Seth says “You cannot be disconnected from your inner self, because it is what you are made of.” And he adds, “When you say ‘I will do this myself,’ you are speaking with a limited idea of identity. Nothing is ever really done alone…”
So, those are the three dilemmas. To quickly review:
1. The first is when inner vitality – or All That Is - struggles to completely materialize, but it can’t completely materialize, and that results in action and identities…and they are integrated.
2. The second dilemma happens because identity constantly attempts to maintain stability, but action – which is always integrated with identity - has an inherent drive for change, and that imbalance results in what Seth calls “the exquisite creative by-product that is consciousness of self.”
3. The third dilemma is when consciousness of self attempts to separate itself from action and see itself and everything else as objects, resulting in a state of ego.
Seth says, “These three dilemmas represent the three areas within which inner vitality (or All that Is) can experience itself.” And he says, “The creative dilemmas are the basis for all realities, and the heart of all meaning.”
This is it, folks. This is how and why creation happens. And nothing happens outside these three dilemmas, because the dilemmas constitute how All that Is creates. That’s it. From identities to consciousnesses to realities to objects – everything happens right here.
And by knowing this and other things we’ll discuss in the following documents, we will come to see who we really are, and how to use that knowledge to create our realities consciously.
So, to wrap this part up:
Accepting the fact that we are not primarily human consciousness in linear time, but wholly non-physical consciousness – or action – using linear time for our own purposes, changes the ground rules completely. But the changed ground rules have to be recognized and built upon in order to effectively lead us to a personal safe universe – one without doubt, without fear, with clarity, with absolute trust…and with a built-in ease of conscious creation.
Change starts with knowledge and continues with integration; knowledge by itself does not lead to change. And integration does not work until we are so comfortable with an alternate way of thinking that it becomes natural.
And as long as we hold such a strong inner acceptance of linear time, we cannot effectively use our knowledge of ourselves as action, and all it implies.
And that is our challenge. Or as Seth calls it, our learning process. He says, “Remind yourselves that you are involved in a learning process; you are daring enough to accept the responsibility for your actions.”
And so we shall.
JULY 29, 2010 * Second Entry
Living a Safe Universe: Action, Identities, Three Creative Dilemmas (cont.)
Seth says, “You need not say, ‘The universe is safe,’ for, at your present levels, that will only enrage you! You say instead, ‘I live in a safe universe,’ and so you shall.”
When all is said and done, what we really want out of this existence is to live in a personal safe universe, isn’t it? That is, we want to live without doubt, without fear, with clarity and with absolute trust, because with that psychic platform under us, our creative bases are covered. No more haphazard and unenlightened constructions that seem out of our control, but instead constructions that mirror back satisfaction and our innate understanding and use of the nature of reality.
And an interesting thing happens along the way to a safe universe. We redefine our self. Indeed, we cannot get from here to there without that redefinition in place, because we can’t create overall safety without understanding why safety is even possible. And that “why” is answered only through an expanded understanding of the self.
In the first Seth Talk, we started that redefinition of self by discussing the three creative dilemmas, action and identities. And each subsequent Seth Talk entry will substantially add to our understanding of the self. And it will become crystal clear along the way that we are basically not physical consciousness in linear time, but non-physical consciousness in the spacious present using the camouflage of linear time for our own purposes. And that significant alteration in our thinking will be what allows the creation of a personal safe universe.
From this point on you will see eleven documents posted here, one by one, perhaps a month apart. Each document will end with a listing of Seth quotes, each quote short and to the point and specific to its subject, taken from one or more - usually many more – of the Seth books. As I explained in the intro to Seth Talk, the quotes are not annotated because I chose them over the years for my personal use, never dreaming I’d eventually share them with other Seth readers.
Today’s quotes document is titled “Seth on Action, Identities, the Three Creative Dilemmas.” Yes, this is what the July 1 entry was all about. But because that entry was so long in itself, and because these quotes deserve your undivided focused time, I chose to hold them until now.
And there was another reason I chose to hold them, a more compelling reason, actually. This information is truly at the very core of redefining the self and our relationship to reality creation. We may not at first grasp the significance of what Seth is saying, but it is, in my opinion, imperative that we try, because as Seth says, the three dilemmas (which include action and identities) “…are the basis for all realities, and the heart of all meaning.”
This is where everything starts, terminates, and starts again, with the process happening millions of times a second to our complete individual camouflage realities - not just our realities’ parts, because there are no parts. So the millions of terminations per second applies to our bodies, the kitchen stove, a sunset, a flea, the very ground upon which we stand and the air which we breathe – quite literally, everything. Sorting out what this means to us and how it, along with a few other of Seth’s concepts stirred into the mix, inherently redefines the self is what will eventually lead us to a safe universe. (It also helps us understand how certain things can occur, such as spontaneous healings.)
The information about action, identities and the three dilemmas will be the building blocks upon which everything else we’ll discuss in Seth Talk will reside – indeed, upon which our very existence resides. So my recommendation: Don’t skim over the quotes document, reading it all in one session. Instead, take each quote individually and reflect on its significance to you, action and identity and self that you are, over several sessions. And using your mind’s eye, see how they build a composite picture, starting with All That Is right through to ego consciousness. It’s truly amazing stuff, folks!
1/2. Seth on Action, Identities,
& the Three Creative Dilemmas
A portion of All That Is resides within and is a part of every consciousness. Every consciousness is therefore cherished and protected individually.
Each self is endowed with the impetus (for creation), for it is a fabric from which All That Is made itself.
You do have access to a portion of All That Is that is highly attuned to you only, above all others.
You see yourself at a certain age, within a given set of circumstances. When you realize that you are also a portion of All That Is, then you will see that this concept is erroneous and limited.
Within All That Is, the wish, the desire and expectation of creativity existed before all other actuality.
The feelings, in other words, were adequate proof to All That Is that it was.
And you create for the same reason, and within all of you is the memory of that primal agony—that urge to create and free all probable consciousnesses into actuality.
Action:
Action is the breath of inner vitality (All that Is) of which all materializations of any kind are composed. It represents the relationship between unexpressed inner vitality and materialized vitality.
Action is the spontaneous nature of inner vitality toward various expressive materializations.
Action is a result of inner vitality’s attempt to completely express itself in materializations, and its inability to do so.
Action approximates as nearly as possible that portion of inner vitality which cannot be completely materialized within any camouflage, within a plane.
All materializations of any kind are composed of action.
Action materializes itself in various forms. I term these forms camouflage.
Within your system the camouflage of action is physical matter.
Action can never be considered apart from that which is seemingly acted upon, for action becomes part of all structure.
There is no separate force that causes action.
Action is more like growth than force.
Value fulfillment is action.
A thought is action.
Action takes place within the spacious present.
Action is a dimension of existence, action within action, an unfolding of action upon itself.
Action is a by-product of any reality, and a part of all reality.
Action necessarily changes that reality and forms from it a new reality.
The continued existence of your physical body is determined by action.
Action is as valid whether the act is conscious and voluntary, or whether it occurs within a dream or within a thought.
By slowing down his perception of action, man imagines that he lengthens time.
Every action is a termination (of everything that came previously).
Each action creates a new reality.
Identities:
An identity is an unfolding of action upon itself; and through this interweaving of action with itself, an identity is formed.
The energy of the action, the workings of action within and upon itself, forms identity.
Yet although identity is formed from action, action and identity cannot be separated.
Identities are action which is conscious of itself.
Identity, like action, is a dimension of existence.
Were it not for action, identity would be impossible.
The reality of an identity exists within the action.
Without identities action would be meaningless, for there would be nothing upon which action could act.
Action must, therefore, create identities.
To remain an identity, an identity must completely renew itself, and each renewal is a termination. Yet without the termination no new action on the part of the identity would be possible.
Every action is a termination, and yet without the termination, identity would cease to exist, for consciousness without action would cease to be conscious.
Without action no identity can be aware of its own existence.
The Three Creative Dilemmas:
The First Dilemma is that which exists when inner vitality struggles to completely materialize, though it cannot completely materialize.
This first dilemma results in action, and from action’s own working upon itself we have seen that identity was formed, and that these two are inseparable.
Action, having of itself, and because of its nature, formed identity, now also because of its nature would seem to destroy identity, since action must involve change. And any change would seem to threaten identity.
Identity must seek stability while action must seek change, yet identity could not exist without change, without action, for identity is the result of action, and not apart from it but a part of it.
Identities are never constant, as you yourselves are not the same consciously or unconsciously from one moment to another.
The Second Dilemma occurs, then, because identity, because of its characteristics, continually seeks stability, while stability is impossible.
It is this second dilemma, precisely between identity’s constant attempts to maintain stability, and action’s inherent drive for change, that results in the imbalance, the exquisite creative by-product that is consciousness of self.
Consciousness and existence do not exist because of delicate balances, so much as they are made possible by lacks of balances.
There would be no reality as it is understood to be if balance were ever maintained.
Consciousness of self involves a consciousness of self within, amid, and as a part of action.
Consciousness of self is still consciousness directly connected with action.
A consciousness is a gestalt of patterns of perception, by which action knows itself.
A particular consciousness is a gestalt of these conceptual patterns; but there is nothing to prevent a consciousness from increasing itself by experiencing other conceptual patterns or patterns of perception.
A self is composed of a gestalt of perception patterns, within which a fairly constant efficiency is maintained. This is the best definition I can give you at this time.
The self—being action which has formed itself into gestalts of pattern perceptions, by which it knows itself—changes constantly.
The inner self is that inner portion of action which forms the egos, and the selves, through the dilemmas of which I have spoken.
The Third Dilemma is when consciousness of self attempts to separate itself from action, resulting in a state of ego.
Consciousness of self is not the same thing as consciousness of ego self.
Ego consciousness involves a state in which consciousness of self attempts to divorce itself from action, an attempt on the part of consciousness to perceive action as an object.
It appears to the ego that action is not only separate from itself, but that action is initiated by the ego, and is a result rather than a cause of ego’s own existence.
Separation is obviously impossible, since no consciousness or identity can exist without action, because they are inseparable.
Ego’s seeming independence from action is basically meaningless, since ego is also action.
Ego consciousness, in this attempt, strives to perceive action not only as separate, but to perceive it in such a fashion that it appears to ego that action is not only separate from itself, that is separate from the ego, but that action is initiated by the ego, and a result rather than a cause of ego’s own existence.
The ego is action’s attempt to stand off from itself.
You cannot escape action. The ego is a part of action.
The ego attempts to control action by standing apart from it.
When the ego gives up its hold upon what it considers control of action, then as in dreams almost any action is possible.
These Three Dilemmas represent three areas of reality within which inner reality, or inner vitality (All That Is), can experience itself.
And here we have also one of the reasons why inner vitality can never achieve complete materialization. The very action involved in vitality’s attempt to materialize itself adds to the inner dimension of inner vitality.
Action basically can never complete itself. Inner vitality, materializing in any form whatsoever, at once multiplies the possibilities of further materialization.
Inner vitality attempts to materialize itself completely, and yet because of its very nature, with each materialization it increases itself, making the attempt impossible. This is the basic dilemma from which all types of reality spring.
The creative dilemmas of which I have spoken are the basis for all realities, and the heart of all meaning.
SEPTEMBER 4, 2010 * Third Entry
Living a Safe Universe: The Spacious Present; & Camouflage in the Spacious Present
Normally we see ourselves living a timeline from birth to death, residing on terra firma and watching as the moments pass into days, then months, then years. Our past seems firm and tidy, a true and unchanging picture of where we’ve been, and our future awaits us, replete with discrete events that will happen to us. Here we reside, human beings physically separated from everything and everybody by space and time.
That picture tightly defines us and our boundaries. Before we even take into additional consideration the psychological and physical aspects of ourselves, we’ve acceded to that basic definition of self. And as long as we agree with that definition, we cannot live a safe universe, because along with that definition, honed by a belief in space and time, comes cause and effect. And along with a belief in cause and effect comes haphazard and unenlightened constructions created out of fear and worry and doubt and guilt (among other things).
But, thankfully, there’s hope for us yet, and it comes with understanding the spacious present. Seth says, “The cause and effect theory being the result of continuity holds no water. When the spacious present is understood, with its attributes of spontaneity, then the cause and effect theory will fall.”
In the last two Seth Talk entries, we’ve started redefining the self, or more accurately stated, we’ve started showing the self for what it truly is. Which is action – or the breath of inner vitality (All That Is). Bottom line: we are action. And now we’ll add to that definition by wrapping in the spacious present.
The spacious present is where all action takes place, and action is how All That Is creates. And since we are action, we create in the spacious present. There is no sub-set of action that can happen somewhere else; ergo, no creation can happen unless it takes place in the spacious present.
All identities and objects and probabilities continually reside here, in past, present and future form. Seth nails that idea down with this: “In the spacious present…all things that have existed still exist, and all things that shall exist in your tomorrow already do exist.”
Seth says that no matter where consciousness thinks it resides (for instance, in linear time), it actually resides in the spacious present. He says, “You are in the spacious present now. You were in the spacious present in your yesterday and you will not have traveled through it in your tomorrow, or eons of tomorrows.” Any other time scheme used by consciousness is camouflage constructed within the spacious present. And that’s because, as Seth reminds us, in actuality there is only a spacious present.
Did you know that when hurtling down the highway at 70 miles an hour, you’re not going anywhere? That when flying 30,000 feet above the ground, you’re not going anywhere? In fact, Seth says, “There is no place to go. It is also true to say there are as many places to go as you wish to find.”
So let’s take a look at how our individual camouflage realities are created in the spacious present and we’ll learn many things, like the fact that anything that we can see, touch, hear, smell or taste is not actually real.
First, though, we need to clear up what a reality is and where it exists. Seth says that, “Identity, like action, is a dimension of existence.” And, “The reality of an identity exists within the action.” So, realities exist within the identity/action’s dimension of existence. In other words, realities do not exist alone, shuffled off somewhere outside the identity, and the personality, being a portion of it, plopped down outside of itself and and told to go create. Realities are a part of identity/action. Which, when dropped to the bottom line, says I have my reality and you have yours, but we do not share realities per se, because I’m within my identity (as we learned in the three dilemmas) and you are within yours.
What we do share is the ability, in the spacious present, to telepathically agree to define our individual realities so that they look similar. At present, those of us who are reading this page agree we live in the year 2010 in a world that generally is known to us to have certain characteristics. And because of that agreement, I form my reality to coincide pretty much with what you see. But the objects I see cannot be seen by you, because you are not in my reality. You see them in your own reality, though.
Seth explains it like this: "Physical objects cannot exist unless they exist in a definite perspective and space continuum. But each individual creates his own space continuum . . . Each individual actually creates an entirely different object, which his own physical senses then perceive.” And he clarifies this while talking to Jane and Rob and a guest: “Each of the three of you creates your own glass, in your own personal perspective. Therefore you have three different physical glasses here, but each one exists in an entirely different space continuum."
To drive this point home to its ultimate conclusion: We can never be anywhere but in our own unique reality, and that reality - as and because of action - can only exist in the spacious present.
So there I exist, in the spacious present within my identity, creating a camouflage reality for my own needs and purposes. (“I” defined, as always, as the whole of inner and outer selves; to be discussed further in future Seth Talks.) In order to experience the sensation of linear time I “first” construct a space/time continuum framework, because space and time are the defining ingredients of linear time. But the space/time continuum is camouflage, of course, even though camouflage with great purpose.
So, I now pretend to “live” in my reality with everything contingent on a belief in linear time (ergo, the need for the space/time continuum), but I’m really in the spacious present, which is presided over by action, i.e., continuous terminations of the previous action. How then, do I hold it all together, this illusion of continuity in time and space, when there is no continuity, ever, because one action terminates the previous one?
According to Seth, a complete reality is refreshed millions of times a second, as, or because, each action terminates the previous one. So millions of times a second everything we can see and touch is replaced with a new version of everything we can see and touch, including our bodies. And, an important point, each new action is different than the previously terminated one, because no action can be identical to another one. Remember, action is creation, and each creation by All That Is is unique. And that is how change happens.
So, here we are in our own camouflage reality in the spacious present, using a space/time continuum to create the illusion of space and time. Let’s look at some of the underlying truths to that situation, then, and we’ll better come to understand, of all things, the self.
Since there is no time, and since each action terminates the previous action, it means there is no duration to anything we see. As Seth says, “Matter of itself is no more continuous, no more given to growth or age than is, say, the color yellow.”
To hone that idea further, Seth says, “Matter is continually created, but no particular object is in itself continuous. There is not…one physical object that deteriorates with age. There are instead continuous creations of psychic energy into a physical pattern that appears to hold a more or less rigid appearance.” And with each creation the object changes, because action is change. And in a camouflage reality based on the root assumption of time, that very gradual change looks like aging and wear, in order to reinforce the camouflage idea of time.
So a muscleman doesn’t grow muscles by working out through time, because his muscles are not around long enough to age or grow – they have no duration. What then determines the state of his muscles? Ah, that is the subject (or the beginning of the subject) in the next installment of Seth Talk! For now, just lock on to the idea that since there is no time, nothing is around long enough to grow or age.
The next point is that there is no space. As Seth said earlier when discussing the spacious present, “There is no place to go.” And that’s because space is camouflage within a space/time continuum of camouflage itself. Seth elaborates on this point with this: “Since both space and time are camouflages, to speak of traveling through them is basically meaningless.”
One of the main issues underlying this idea, then, is that there is no motion. How does one walk across the room or drive to the grocery store without time or motion? That, like the question of what directs the growth (or change) of the man’s muscles, is a subject for future entries of Seth Talk.
One more important point here, though. If there is no time and no space, leading to no duration of matter and no motion, how do we create the illusion of being in a continuous reality one day at a time, and surrounded by objects? It’s the brain that does it. Its neuronal structure creates that illusion of time and space for us, and its perceptive mechanisms of sight, touch, smell, taste and hearing point the inner portion of I to do the actual conversion of action into objects.
Which means this: If we cannot see, touch, smell, taste or hear something, it does not exist in our camouflage reality. It always exists in the spacious present, of course, but within our reality it will not exist.
So when you walk from one room to another, does the room you just left exist in physical reality? No. Does the city partk next door to your home exist in your reality if you cannot see it? No. Only once you lay eyes on it will it exist, and then only that portion that you can see. Or touch, or smell, or taste or hear. So the portion of the city park that’s created when your sight is out of commission (eyes closed or blinded) is only what the other senses pick up. Your feet touch the soil, so the feel of your feet and the soil is created, but not whatever is right next to that bit of space upon which you stand. Not the swing set, not even the trees. Etc., etc.
You see, we each are our own dimension of existence, and our personal reality is created within it. And since we reside in the spacious present, that’s the only place our camouflage reality can play out. And the spacious present has no time and no space, ergo no growth, no age, no motion. So methods of recognizing camouflage are built into the camouflage itself, through the camouflage brain.
I think Seth rounds out nicely the ideas we’ve been examining here with these quotes: “As I have said that the walls of your house do not actually exist as such, so the time divisions that you have placed within the spacious present do not exist.” And, “Beneath all camouflage exists that which has no need of camouflage, but simply is.”
To end this entry of Seth Talk, then, let’s close with what we must all attempt to do, if we truly want to redefine our self to the point where we can live a safe universe. And, of course, the answer comes from Seth: “Leap over the tradition of time’s framework and sense with the united intellect and intuitions your own individual part in the spacious present.”
Please don’t forget, though, that all of the listed Seth Talk subjects as a whole work together to help redefine the self. So while action and identity and the spacious present are crucial to understand because of the stage they set, there’s much more to take into consideration.
Okay, now on to the great Seth quotes on this subject of the spacious present, and some on camouflage reality…
3. Seth on the Spacious Present; & Camouflage in the Spacious Present
The matter of time is highly important if you have any hopes of understanding the self.
The only sort of time that has any real meaning is that of the spacious present.
There is only a spacious present.
Action takes place in the spacious present.
In actuality there is only a spacious present, so spacious that it cannot be explored all at once in your terms, hence your arbitrary division of it into larger rooms of past, present and future.
In the spacious present…all things that have existed still exist, and all things that shall exist in your tomorrow already do exist.
You are in the spacious present now. You were in the spacious present in your yesterday and you still will not have traveled through it in your tomorrow, or in eons of tomorrows.
There is no place to go. It is also true that there are as many places to go as you wish to find.
Leap over the tradition of time’s framework and sense with the united intellect and intuitions your own individual part in the spacious present.
Your ideas of time are detrimental. Time works with you and not against you. (Seth said to Rob, “Underline that four times.”)
As I have said that the walls of your house do not actually exist as such, so the time divisions that you have placed within the spacious present (that represent past and future) do not exist.
Your past, present and future are all compressed in any given moment point of your experience. Any such moment is therefore a gateway into all of your existence.
To look backward into the past entails looking forward into the future, and there is no firm ground, no firm ground that is the present from which to view the future or the past. For they are all one, and you are a part of the spacious present.
Continuity usually implies one thing happening before or after another. The spacious present contains instead spontaneity, and within it all happenings are simultaneous.
To speak of backward and forward is meaningless. There are only various electric pulsations of varying intensities. When the pulsation is weak, you call it past. When it is strongest, you name it the present, and one that seems to you not yet as strong as present, you name future.
Here we have two of your most basic idea camouflage structures: your conception of time as a succession of moments, and your idea of cause and effect.
Seth on Camouflage in the Spacious Present:
Matter of itself is no more continuous, no more given to growth or age than is, say, the color yellow.
Matter is continually created, but no particular object is in itself continuous. There is not…one physical object that deteriorates with age. There are instead continuous creations of psychic energy into a physical pattern that appears to hold a more or less rigid appearance.
The actual material that seems to make up the object has completely disappeared many times, and the pattern has been completely filled again with new matter…
You are not now what you were ten minutes earlier. You are not the same being physically, psychologically, spiritually, or psychically, and ten minutes later you will be different again.
You know that you hallucinate the room.
Your entire physical environment comes as naturally out of your inner mind as words come out of your mouth.
The environment expresses your personality. This is a literal and not symbolic truth.
So environment is not a separate thing in itself, but the result of perceptive patterns, and these are determined by psychological structure.
As I have said that the walls of your house do not actually exist as such, so the time divisions that you have placed within the spacious present (that represent past and future) do not exist.
Beneath all camouflage exists that which has no need of camouflage, but simply is.
Since both space and time are camouflages, to speak of traveling through them is basically meaningless.
It is ridiculous to develop camouflage vehicles to deal with camouflage space, when all that is necessary is that you realize that camouflage is camouflage.
There is no cause and effect in the terms in which you understand the words. Nor is there a succession of moments that follow one after the other, and without a succession of moments following one after the other you can see that the idea of cause and effect becomes meaningless. An action in the present cannot be based on or caused by an action in the past, and neither action can be the cause of a future action in a basic reality where neither past nor future exist.
The cause and effect theory being the result of continuity holds no water. When the spacious present is understood, with its attributes of spontaneity, then the cause and effect theory will fall.
As you come to understand time, you will eventually be able to merge your inner comprehension with your physical self, and form your world on a conscious basis.
Such manuscripts as mine are meant to help you do precisely that.
OCTOBER 1, 2010 * Fourth Entry
Living a Safe Universe: Significances & Subjective Continuity
As you know by now, one of the purposes of Seth Talk is to redefine, or broaden, our definition of self. And it isn’t just an interesting but ultimately impractical exercise we’re undertaking here. What we’re attempting to do is live a safe universe, right? Which, by its definition, suggests we’ve found ways to seriously lessen the frequency, strength and duration of haphazard and unenlightened constructions in our individual camouflage realities and increase experience of more pleasant events. And if we continue to accept our self as locked in linear time/cause and effect, then we’re missing the key to freedom.
So here in Seth Talk we’re working from the top down, so to speak. We’re not starting with camouflage reality as our baseline and then attempting to create a safe universe within all the distortions that come with a strongly held belief of our self in linear time and the impotence and hopelessness that sometimes accompanies it. What we’re attempting to do is redefine the self by starting where the self starts – with All That Is – and working “down” to camouflage reality instead of “up” from it, thereby recognizing our true abilities as consciousness. And why would we undertake this not insignificant task? Because we’ll free our self from seeing our self embroiled in camouflage restrictions that have no bearing whatsoever on how creation happens – unless we believe in them. We’ll see and accept the bigger, far more invigorating, picture of the self.
In the last Seth Talk, the spacious present was the topic. Seth said, “In the spacious present…all things that have existed still exist, and all things that shall exist in your tomorrow already do exist.” That’s because the spacious present is the spontaneous playground of creation. All action happens here and stays here, it’s where we reside (being action ourselves) within our dimension of existence, creating the camouflage of physical reality.
Okay, so the spacious present holds everything that has existed or will ever exist. And Seth’s talking about for all consciousness at once, not one spacious present for me and one for you, etc., with a neat package of possibilities held within them. Which eventually must beg the question: Then how does any one consciousness gather to it a range of events it can experience in its present state of being, when the spacious present is awash in the infinite events and objects of all consciousness?
Something has to act as a boundary so that we, for instance, are not mixing events and objects possible from 4,000 years ago Earth time with scenes happening in our hometown today; and Seth is keeping his unique possibilities separate from those of his cohorts; and our experiences are separate from Seth’s, etc. And that something is significances.
Seth says, “You imprint the universe with your own significance, and using that as a focus you draw from it, or attract, those events that fit your unique purposes and needs.” And, “Each consciousness uses its own significance as a focus to draw into its experience whatever events are possible for it from the universe itself.”
I’m a white woman living in 21st century America. I chose certain personality traits and other defining mental constructs pre-birth, all with great purpose and intent, that would define my sphere of significances. And that means, logically, that there are significances that don’t fit within what I want to experience in this existence. So the significances I eventually chose are the building blocks for the events I will meet.
But Seth goes on to say more about significances, clarifying for us that significances not only define the larger picture of our life, but also the day-to-day manifestations. He says, “The universe, by whatever name and in whatever manifestation, attains its reality through ordered sequences of significances.” And you’ll note Seth didn’t qualify that with a “sometimes.”
So all manifestations start life as significances that order themselves into a meaningful array, no matter whether we’re of Seth’s vintage or involved in – as we are now – the camouflage of physical reality, or whatever other experiential constructs consciousness can create for itself. Significances are “used” by all consciousness to bring order and boundaries, however loose they may be, to whatever creation they are experiencing at the moment.
So, if everything we can or will ever experience exists simultaneously within our sphere of significances, then how do we bring order to significances? How do we clarify them into groupings that eventually enter our reality as events of all sizes? Interestingly enough, it’s done subjectively, or through what Seth calls subjective continuity.
To us, continuity implies one thing happening before or after another, but Seth says that continuity has nothing to do with a linear process, and everything to do with the subjective nature of the spacious present. That is, movement within significances in the spacious present is based on mental acts by consciousness, which are, by nature, subjective.
What these mental acts do is highlight significances that mean something to us, consciousness that we are, and those significances change as we shift our thinking. And with each shift in thinking, the camouflage reality that we’re creating from significances, for that is exactly where it comes from, shifts.
And all of this is the polar opposite of cause and effect. Seth says, “You understand the cause-and-effect kind of order, but events are built upon the non-causal aspect of significances.” And, “The cause and effect theory being the result of continuity holds no water. When the spacious present is understood, with its attributes of spontaneity, then the cause and effect theory will fall.”
Our realities are not created in a linear fashion, but instead through mental or associative processes. It’s where we place our significance that determines what will occur in our reality, and time has nothing to do with it other than act like a framework within which we can experience the illusion of a lifeline.
This highlighting of significances is how consciousness moves through a “place” (the spacious present) with no time or space and how events are chosen for exploration. And underneath the illusion of cause and effect/linear time, it’s precisely what we do, too, of course. And those mental acts of ours are what change our past, present and future possibilities.
Although in upcoming Seth Talk entries we’ll talk about the fluidity of our past and future, I’ll use this quote of Seth’s to bring home more clearly here and now the subjective continuity idea and how it relates to us, consciousness in camouflage physical reality: “You may say, ‘I was born in a house on a certain street in a certain town, and no present belief to the contrary will change that fact.’ If, in the present, one past event can be altered within your neuronal structure, however, then basically no event is safe from such change.” And Seth adds later about this general point, “It happens all the time, and I mean all the time.”
But do keep in mind that while our overall past can and does change as we shift our mental acts on to new significances, so do the smaller daily events we experience. In a reality that has no time, no space, no duration, no motion, no linear-time continuity, how can we even make it to the grocery store? It’s done through mental acts, or thinking our way there. It’s moving our self through the illusion of time by choosing where we place our significance. Where we place our mental acts. How can it be otherwise?
And with this information the dawn breaks brighter over our understanding of the self.
So, to wrap up this entry of Seth Talk, a brief review of what we’ve learned overall to date.
First we started with the big picture of All That Is. That led us to action – because action is how ATI creates – and how action, in turn, creates identities. Then, between action’s need for change and identities’ need for stability, we learned how the exquisite by-product of consciousness (as Seth terms it) is formed. From there we moved into the spacious present, the only time there is and the only place consciousness resides and creation takes place, ever. That led to a discussion of how realities are created by consciousness within the spacious present and the camouflage that ensues (in our case, physical reality), the camouflage that never leaves the spacious present. And today we took a look at how the spacious present – where everything that can or will ever happen to every consciousness known to ATI (which is all consciousness) resides – is organized into areas of significance by each consciousness through mental acts, so as to bring meaningful focus to individual events and existences.
We learned a lot more than the paragraph above suggests, though. What we learned – or I should say are starting to learn because more is coming – is the fuller story of the description of self. Because, you see, none of what’s mentioned above is outside the self. Not action, not identities, not the spacious present, not realities, not significances. One cannot exist without all the others, because in essence they are one. They are intertwined so completely that breaking them apart is impossible. In many ways they’re attributes of and within each other.
And that’s why we must continue our journey into the self, not stop here, if we intend to live a safe universe. Because it’s the fullness of the self that brings the complete understanding we need in order to accept a new definition of the self, and a new working hypothesis on how to approach our dealings with camouflage physical reality. In other words, how to become conscious creators unburdened with haphazard and unenlightened constructions.
See you with the next Seth Talk entry, folks, and with it we’ll get more explicit about how significances are highlighted in order to become events in our realities, and how we move our self through our day-to-day lives via the mental act of suggestion.
Now on to some great Seth quotes on today’s subject….
4. Seth on Significances & Subjective Continuity
The universe, by whatever name and in whatever manifestation, attains its reality through ordered sequences of significances.
Each consciousness impresses the universe in its own fashion. Its very existence sets up a kind of significance… The universe knows itself through such significances.
You imprint the universe with your own significance, and using that as a focus you draw from it, or attract, those events that fit your unique purposes and needs.
Each consciousness uses its own significance as a focus to draw into its experience whatever events are possible for it from the universe itself.
The inner significances, the associations, exist all at once, to be tuned in to at any point of time.
They have their reality basically apart from time, even though they appear within it.
The cause and effect theory being the result of continuity holds no water. When the spacious present is understood, with its attributes of spontaneity, then the cause and effect theory will fall.
Events have nothing to do with what you think of as cause and effect. Instead events are built up, so to speak, from significances.
You understand the cause-and-effect kind of order, but events are built upon the non-causal aspect of significances.
Significances fall or happen in certain patterns, and when these become very obvious they appear as cause and effect.
Using such significances as yardsticks, you accept or reject probable events.
You change your focus point. You change what you consider significant.
If you gained your sense of personal continuity through associative processes primarily, rather than as a result of the familiarity of self moving through time, then you would experience physical reality in an entirely different fashion. Objects from past, present, and future could be perceived at once, their presence justified through associative connections.
Continuity usually implies one thing happening before or after another. The spacious present contains instead spontaneity, and within it all happenings are simultaneous.
Instead of a time sequence that seems to govern thought, mental activity and overt action, you have associative processes.
Subjective continuity itself never falters, in that it is always a part of the world that it perceives, so that you and the world create each other.
This divine subjectivity is as present in the world of your experience as it was before the beginning of the universe.
The ordinary events of each day are overloaded with coincidences and significances that are nearly invisible because they are so taken for granted, and they are so multitudinous in number, and fit so perfectly into the framework of the days.
Those coincidences and significances are indeed giving hints of all the actual organization behind the facts of your world.
Your conversations, your mail, the television programs you watch – all of these are involved, in that you will be led to watch programs, for example, that in one way or another help the entire picture.
This organization is personally, intimately tuned, in that it gives evidence of a spectacular psychology that organizes events in a manner that is for each individual personally significant. It hints at the most precise and powerful focus, so that amid an infinity of data, events can be arranged (for each individual).
It is a meaningful universe. You are known by the universe.
There is nothing in the universe that does not have meaning, that is not meaningful. That meaningfulness is not only of good intent, but of superlative intent, seeking the greatest possible development and fulfillment for you.
NOVEMBER 3, 2010 * Fifth Entry
Living a Safe Universe: Suggestion/Expectation
Ahhh, we’ve finally reached a point in Seth Talk where we can start talking “practical.” There are, of course, overwhelming practical implications in everything we’ve looked at so far – from All That Is to the three creative dilemmas, to action, to the spacious present, to significances and subjectivity continuity. It’s all very practical for one main reason: the “whole” so far tells us precisely how creation happens. No more confusion, no more wondering, no more sense of being so overwhelmed by Seth’s concepts that we feel they’re almost beyond our grasp. That part of creation is now very clear. But there’s more to come today, and it will really knock your socks off.
The subject is suggestion. Suggestion? Well, yeah, it sounds interesting and all that, but knock your socks off?
Let’s back up for a moment and set the stage. In previous Seth Talk entries, we learned that All That Is is continually attempting to materialize some of itself, and that attempt results in action. Not motion as we know and define it, but the action of All That Is. In entry #1, Seth says, “Action is the breath of inner vitality (or All That Is), of which all materializations of any kind are composed.” In a nutshell, action is the result of the creative force of All That Is, or All That Is expressing itself in different forms and materializations. As Seth says, there is nothing anywhere, ever, that is not All That Is expressing itself as action, and that includes us.
Now we get to the intriguing part (as though knowing how All That Is creates is not intriguing enough!). What drives action? What directs action as to what to materialize? What force holds so much power that it calls creation’s shots? You got it – it’s suggestion!
Seth says, “Suggestion is indeed in the nature of an impetus, an inner impetus that belongs to action, and is not some force separated from action, and acting upon it. Suggestion, therefore, is one of the characteristics of action. (It) can even be termed the direction in which action itself moves.”
In fact, if not for suggestion, Seth says action couldn’t organize itself into anything constructive. He says, “Without suggestion, action would indeed involve itself in chaotic disorders, without constructive patterns of materializations. It would entangle itself within the power of its own energy.” In other words, chaos would reign in the spacious present.
So, suggestion is the controlling force of action. It’s what sets action’s course, it’s what determines what action will materialize – or will not materialize. Suggestion is the powerhouse behind all non-chaotic creations in the spacious present (which are all of them, because All That is doesn’t like chaos), and it applies to Seth’s creations as well as ours. In fact, it applies to all creations by any consciousness. Period. Because suggestion is the bottom line of what determines the course of action for all consciousness.
And what exactly is suggestion? It is mental acts that take on the significance of expectation. Suggestion, therefore, is the thoughts, feelings and imaginings that we (and Seth and all other consciousness) hold which have a built-in acceptance of outcome. In fact, Seth says the word expectation is a much better term than suggestion.
Don’t forget, all creation starts life as a mental act. If it cannot be thought, felt or imagined into existence through assumption or expectation, it will not materialize. And that applies not only to the big expectations we undertake, such as “I will buy a new house” (which has to be an expectation before it can become a reality); but also to every single ordinary moment-by-moment condition, object or event we encounter.
You cannot, for instance, pick up a glass of water unless you have the expectation that it can happen – indeed, that there is such a thing as a glass and that there is such a thing as water, and even that there is such a thing as movement (see Seth Talk entry #3). And you cannot exclude anything from this fact. The couch you sit on would not be in your reality unless you expected/assumed it to be there. When Seth says, “There are no walls to your house,” he’s saying they’re camouflage, found only in our private framework of reality, created through our mental act of expectation in the spacious present.
As we said, suggestion is, among other things, thought. Seth, for instance, in creating a chair for his rather famous library, has to place significance on the kind of chair he desires, and he does it through suggestion. And that’s how we do it, too, and not only with chairs, but with every object and event we experience. Suggestion defines significance, or what’s to be materialized.
And that’s why Seth calls thought an unsurpassable force. Not a force separate from action, but one that belongs to action. And because of the unrelenting direction in which suggestion heads us, Seth says, “You must become consciously aware of what you tell yourself is true every moment of the day, for that is the reality that you project outward.” And, “You must understand that each mental act is a reality for which you are responsible.”
Are we unequivocally on board with the fact that only suggestion determines the outcome of our individual realities? That all creation is mental? Good, because now we’re about to add the final knock-your-socks-off factor to suggestion.
First, Seth: “What you term negative suggestions are usually impeding actions, or directions of actions which impede the main directive inner flow. They operate then in much the same manner as crosscurrents, setting up blockages, and impeding main energies by dividing them in several diverse directions.”
So, imagine a thick trunk of action, or in ordinary terms let’s say it’s a goal with expectation behind it. (Seth calls a goal a conceptualized desire and says it will come to pass unless we block it through disadvantageous beliefs; i.e., negative thought with acceptance behind it.) That’s our main trunk of action and should by rights come into being.
But the potential problem? If we give our self negative suggestions – not even necessarily having to do with the main goal but tangential to it – those suggestions cause crosscurrents which divide the main action into several diverse directions, which weakens the main action (our goal) significantly.
Seth continues: “Until the energy, once again, becomes disentangled (from these negative suggestions), action will (continue to) flow in crosscurrents, and the main trunk of energy that gives overall integrity…could therefore be severely threatened.”
Jane’s overall bodily integrity was severely threatened because the main trunk of her energy was entangled in crosscurrents of the impeding action of negative suggestions. She didn’t end up in the hospital for 1 ½ years before she died because she couldn’t rid herself of some lifelong beliefs. There is no “lifelong” anything. What Jane did (and what most of us do) was to not manage her thoughts and feelings to her favor. And the result was that her negative suggestions were constantly made significant, creating her past and future from the moment point in the spacious present.
Seth again: “It is extremely important that methods be learned to let action follow its normal directive bent within the personality, therefore avoiding these abortive offshoots that impede main directives and purposes….”
This is a wake-up call for all of us. If we let our negative suggestions build without management they will impact what we really want out of life, because our main action will not be able to sustain itself.
And Seth finishes with this: “…When cross currents of action are constructed, action will continue in those directions unless it is diverted back to other channels. Then the…impeding channel will automatically be closed off. But all action must be withdrawn from it, for as long as the channel remains, then the possibility remains that the impeding action will reoccur.”
And if you’ve ever wondered why you think you’ve changed a belief and there it comes again, it’s because it has shown up in your conscious thoughts or emotions or imaginings as suggestion, maybe in different clothes than originally identified, but it had to be part of your thinking in some form – and the proof is because the channel remained open, or re-opened. No god did it to you, no inner self did it to you, no subconscious did it to you. Nothing trips us up but our own moment points of thinking and suggestions. Just as Jane’s did.
So, to wrap up this entry:
Everything we’ve talked about so far in Seth Talk applies to all consciousness created in the three dilemmas, which is all consciousness, ever. None of it is specifically and uniquely directed to consciousness in camouflage physical reality. That is, creation always happens in the spacious present, it’s all started by All That Is, and it’s all about action and the suggestions given that direct that action into materializations.
True, entities can and do at times choose to create camouflage frameworks in which it seems action takes place, but creation outside the spacious present is an impossibility. Ergo, the camouflage frameworks are meaningful in that they’re attempting to structure learning within a given context (think linear time/cause and effect, for instance, or even Seth’s framework, whatever it is), but meaningless if it is assumed that creation happens within them. It simply cannot, because it’s not the way All That Is creates.
The reasons this is so important for us to understand are myriad, but the one to focus on now is that this knowledge helps us redefine the self. We no longer see our self as caught in linear time/cause and effect with few creation tools at our disposal that we can understand or use. Indeed, we create exactly like Seth or any other identity does, so we’re not at a disadvantage of some unknown sort by having chosen physical reality. That’s not where our vulnerability lies. If anywhere, it lies in our complete, unchallenged assumption of time being linear, and of the implications of the acceptance of cause and effect. Remember, creation cannot happen in physical reality. It is an impossibility. It can only look like it’s happening here.
All of this information is so profound in so many ways. One is that it sorts out all the misunderstandings of how creation happens, not only misunderstandings by non-metaphysical people, but by those in the New Age, too. And along with our sharper knowledge comes more than a glimmer of how we can practically apply it to our realities and know it will work, because we know how creation works.
The last of today’s words go to Seth: “To understand that you create your own reality requires an ‘awakening’ from the normal awake state. Realization itself does not change the ‘rules of the game.’ This recognition does indeed involve a new performance on the part of your own consciousness, a mental and imaginative leap that gives you control and direction over achievements that you have always performed, though without your conscious awareness.”
So, come back for the next Seth Talk entry, folks. It’s on the moment point/present, and will help us understand how to gain that control and direction that Seth mentions above, and that can lead to living a safe universe. See you then!
Okay, on to our marvelous Seth quotes for this session...
5. Seth on Suggestion/Expectation
Suggestion is no more and no less than an inner willingness and consent to allow a particular action to occur; and this consent is the trigger which sets off the subconscious mechanisms that allow you to construct inner data into physical reality.
The word expectation is a much better term (than suggestion).
Generally speaking, no physical object can be constructed, and no action can occur, without what you are pleased to call suggestion.
No action and no material object can be perceived without inner consent and willingness. Behind every action and every construction there is indeed suggestion.
Expectations themselves have much to do with whether or not any given situation will occur.
Your reality is at every point a perfect replica of your inner wishes and expectations. There are no exceptions.
You must become consciously aware of what you tell yourself is true every moment of the day, for that is the reality that you project outward.
What you call suggestion is but a projection into the (spacious present) of data that operates constantly, as a basis for, and within, action. It is basically a psychic manifestation that gives direction for action.
Suggestion is indeed in the nature of an impetus, an inner impetus that belongs to action, and is not some force separated from action, and acting upon it.
Suggestion is one of the characteristics of action. (It) can even be termed the direction in which action itself moves.
These directions are merely the resultant patterns with which energy expresses itself.
It is important that it be understood that suggestion is but the manifestation of inner flows and inner directions.
Without suggestion, action would indeed involve itself in chaotic disorders, without constructive patterns or materializations.
It would instead entangle itself within the power of its own energy.
What you term negative suggestions are usually impeding actions, or directions of actions which impede the main directive inner flow.
They operate then in much the same manner as crosscurrents, setting up blockages, and impeding main energies by dividing them in several diverse directions.
Until the energy, once again, becomes disentangled (from these negative suggestions), action will (continue to) flow in crosscurrents, and the main trunk of energy that gives overall integrity could therefore be severely threatened.
It is extremely important that methods be learned to let action follow its normal directive bent within the personality, therefore avoiding these abortive offshoots that impede main directives and purposes.
When cross currents of action are constructed, action will continue in those directions unless it is diverted back to other channels.
Then the impeding channel will automatically be closed off. But all action must be withdrawn from it, for as long as the channel remains, then the possibility remains that the impeding action will reoccur.
DECEMBER 1, 2010 * Sixth Entry
Living a Safe Universe: The Moment Point/Present
As you know, everything being discussed in Seth Talk is very specific in its purpose. And that purpose is to lead us past the haphazard and unenlightened constructions we seem to stumble into, the ones that reflect back to us an unsafe, not consciously directed, personal reality. And to do that we really need to understand how creation happens. How else can we possibly expect to consciously direct our existence if we don’t even have a handle on all aspects of the creative process, not just the few highlighted in pop metaphysical culture?
We’re not talking here about just consciously creating a goal now and then through focused thought, which many of us have done. We’re talking about creating a continuous reality that is safe and trustworthy. Not one without challenges, but one where the challenges aren’t driven into existence because of one or more fears, or because of a belief in a lack of safety and an inherently uncontrollable pattern of cause and effect.
And the only way to do that, according to Seth, is to change our understandings and beliefs about the nature of time. It always gets back to time. Living a safe universe consistently and consciously cannot happen without accepting, and then using, a uniquely fuller definition of time. Here in Seth Talk we’ve been working on that issue, and will continue to, ad infinitum. And today’s subject, the moment point, will catapult us right smack into that central premise of Seth’s. You know, the one where linear time/cause and effect is a non-starter?
So, first let’s take a look at how Seth defines the moment point for himself and his colleagues. He says, “Our work, development and experience all take place within what I term the moment point. The moment point is the framework within which we have our psychological experience.” And what should fully rivet our attention is this nugget from Seth about our realities: “Here, within the moment point, the smallest thought is brought to fruition, the slightest possibility explored, the probabilities thoroughly examined, the least or the most forceful feeling entertained.”
Seth uses the moment point exactly like we do. Remember, as discussed in a previous Seth Talk or two, creation isn’t different for consciousnesses focused in different realities. In fact, the pieces, if you will, are identical for all consciousness – and “all” obviously includes us. So, like Seth, we work in the moment point. It’s the framework within which we explore our psychological potential. All choices are made here. All significances are selected here. All suggestion is applied here. All action happens here. Therefore, all reality is created and met here.
The unassailable fact is that we are personalities which reside in the spacious present, always using the moment point for our immediate focus, which is our only focus. There really is no place to reside in linear time because it quite literally does not exist other than in camouflage form in the spacious present. That’s why pandering to linear time is self-limiting. Linear time is an hallucinated circumstance, which, when bought into without question or attempts to see and act beyond it, limits our comprehension of ourselves, which limits our experience. As Richard Bach so aptly put it, “Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they’re yours.”
Given the importance of the moment point, let’s take a closer look at it and what it means to creating a safe universe.
Seth says, “As I have said that the walls of your house do not actually exist as such, so the time divisions that you have placed within the spacious present (that represent past and future) do not exist.” And, “The moment point is the creative framework through which you constantly form corporeal reality; and through that window into earthly existence you form both its future and its past.”
To help us grasp the significance of the moment point, a quick review. Action is the creative force of All That Is, from which all materializations come. Action only happens in the spacious present, which is the only time there is. Action is directed through suggestion, the pointer, if you will, to our significances, or what is significant to us.
Now let’s wrap in the moment point. It is the window in which we frame our mental acts, the ones that compose our suggestions. What happens in the moment point determines the end result of the creative process. That is, mental acts in the moment point become suggestions which direct action, which lead to our materializations. You might say the moment point is our window of opportunity, if used properly. Actually, you might say the moment point is the only window of opportunity we’ll ever get. It’s also the window of inopportunity, if used sloppily. Think haphazard and unenlightened constructions, think an unsafe universe.
So, what do we create in the moment point? How about everything? Take the past, for instance. Seth says what we give significance to in the moment point quite literally reorganizes what we think of as our past, thereby constantly changing it. See, the supposed past is created in the spacious present in the moment point, just like the future is, because the spacious present is the only time there is, and because creation is never stagnant or over, thanks to action.
Remember, each action terminates the previous action, it doesn’t build on it. If it built on it, then we’d be talking linear time. But the fact is that each action is a fresh creation, completely different than the previous one (and also remember from earlier Seth Talks that new actions happen millions of times a second, in our terms). That is, each action is a whole new reality. And that new reality has a new past and a new future, because the past and future are determined by the present action, which creates that whole new reality.
And also remember that our subjectivity is what brings continuity to our experiences, not a time sequence (Seth Talk #4). To explain it from a practical perspective, think about a present belief in victimization. A belief is subjective, as are all mental acts, so a present belief in victimization sets up the supposed past with events that mirror the belief. And, oh so helpfully, it also sets up our future to reflect that belief. That’s called, by Seth, subjective continuity.
So, break the continuity, change the past. That’s quite literally how spontaneous faith healings occur. To explain, Seth says, “A sudden or intense belief in health can indeed ‘reverse’ a disease, but in a very practical way it is a reversal in terms of time.” A new belief in the present breaks the composite of subjective continuity of moment-point thinking, and voilà, a new past emerges. It has to, because the new belief is action, and action terminates the previous action, creating a whole new reality, with it’s own past and future.
As Seth tells us, “It should appear obvious from what I am saying that neither future nor past is predetermined. From your platform of poised now-experience, you alter both the past and the future, and that alteration, that change, that action, causes your point of immediate sense life.” And that’s why Seth consistently calls the present the point of power. He says, among other things, “The truth is this: You form your reality now, through the intersection of soul in flesh, and the present is your point of power.”
Although you’ve read them in other Seth Talk entries, both of the following quotes fit in perfectly with the subject of the moment point, and are an exclamation point way of emphasizing the awesome power of our mental acts and how, when used wisely and well, can lead us to living a safe universe. They are also a nice way to end today’s session: ”You must become consciously aware of what you tell yourself is true every moment of the day, for that is the reality that you project outward.” And, “You must understand that each mental act is a reality for which you are responsible.”
Okay, on to some of Seth’s quotes on the moment point and present, which explain so much more than I did here. And see you next time when we’ll talk about probabilities and how they play into the moment point, which plays into expanding our notion and definition of the self, which plays into living a safe universe.
6. Seth on the Moment Point/Present
In your terms, the moment point, the present, is the point of interaction between all existences and reality. All probabilities flow through it.
The moment point is the creative framework through which you constantly form corporeal reality; and through that window into earthly existence you form both its future and its past.
Your past, present and future are all compressed in any given moment point of your experience. Any such moment is therefore a gateway into all of your existence.
(Seth) Our work, development and experience all take place within what I term the moment point.
(Seth) The moment point is the framework within which we have our psychological experience.
Here, within the moment point, the smallest thought is brought to fruition, the slightest possibility explored, the probabilities thoroughly examined, the least or the most forceful feeling entertained.
The present as you think of it, and in practical working terms, is that point at which you select your physical experience from all those events that could be materialized.
You must understand that your present is the point at which flesh and matter meet with the spirit. Therefore the present is your point of power in your current lifetime.
The truth is this: You form your reality now, through the intersection of soul in flesh, and the present is your point of power.
The present is your point of action, focus and power, and from that point of volition you form both your future and past.
It should appear obvious from what I am saying that neither future nor past is predetermined. From your platform of poised now-experience, you alter both the past and the future...
You rule your experiences from the focal point of your present, where your beliefs directly intersect with the invisible world from which you draw your energy and strength.
Your present beliefs are like the directions given to the entire personality, simultaneously organizing and reorganizing past and future experience according to your current concepts of reality.
Your physical circumstances change automatically as your beliefs do. The point of power is in the present, and from that moment you choose which you, and which world.
At any point that an individual realizes his point of power in the present, he will not need a barrier to test himself against, or to focus him in what he thinks of as the proper direction.
From the present you have hypnotized yourself, viewing the past not as it was to your experience, but as it appears now in the light of your current beliefs. You have reconstructed it. So when I tell you to restructure your past, I am not telling you to do something that you have not already done
Past events do not intrude (into the present) unless they are beckoned by the conscious expectations and thoughts that exist within your mind.
The point of power is not in the past unless you abjectly decide to acquiesce to worn-out beliefs that no longer serve you.
By changing the past in your mind, now, in your present, you can change not only its nature but its effect, and not only upon yourself but others.
The fact is that there are probable past events that "can still happen" within your personal previous experience. A new event can literally be born in the past—now.
Whatever your circumstances, you use the past as a rich source, looking through it for your successes, restructuring it.
When you search the past looking for what is wrong, then you become blind to what was right, so that the past only mirrors the shortcomings that now face you. Since basically past and future exist at once, you are at the same time dangerously constructing your future along the same lines.
Cellular memory can be changed at any point. Present beliefs can insert into the past new memory, both psychologically and physically.
It is truer to say that heredity operates from the future backward into the past, than it is to say that it operates from the past into the future.
A sudden or intense belief in health can indeed "reverse" a disease, but in a very practical way it is a reversal in terms of time. New memories are inserted in place of the old ones, as far as cells are concerned under such conditions.
…a strong belief in a particular ability generated in the present will reach into the past and effect whatever changes would have had to occur there in order to now make the ability apparent.
You may say, "I was born in a house on a certain street in a certain town, and no present belief to the contrary will change that fact." If, in the present, one past event can be altered within your neuronal structure, however, then basically no event is safe from such change.
To rid yourself of annoying restrictions then…you re-pattern your past from the present.
Your desire or belief will literally be reaching back into time, teaching the nerves new tricks. Definite reorganizations in that past will occur in your present, allowing you to behave in entirely new fashions.
It should appear obvious from what I am saying that neither future nor past is predetermined. From your platform of poised now-experience, you alter both the past and the future, and that alteration, that change, that action, causes your point of immediate sense life.
JANUARY 1, 2011 * Seventh Entry
Living a Safe Universe: Probabilities
If anything has become clear through these ongoing Seth Talk discussions, it has got to be the fact that nothing is created in physical reality, that all creation happens in the spacious present and then becomes camouflage in a camouflage-defined reality. But no creation happens here – not motion, not aging, not growth, because they all depend on time and space being the bedrock requirements of physical creation. But time and space are simply camouflages made possible by the creative abilities of consciousness. They are secondary constructs brought to life because they serve a desired purpose.
And that is precisely why we’ve not led the Seth Talk discussions from a linear time perspective, attempting to understand how to initiate change from within camouflage itself. The dynamics of change simply cannot be understood, let alone deciphered, when viewed as one self moving through one world on a birth-to-death journey that is basically outside of the self’s obvious control.
Do you see how our wheels just keep spinning when we bind ourselves to a belief in linear time/cause and effect? How we’re then forced to search for answers through psychology and self-help and science and religions – all solidly based on that one belief and therefore missing the point entirely? (And much of New Age thinking isn’t off the hook, either, in spite of talking a larger picture.)
We simply cannot get from here to there (i.e., living a safe universe) without bringing a heavy dose of reality to our thinking. And today’s dose – probabilities – will nudge us even closer to understanding how our true self, honestly and without equivocation, brings about change.
Seth tells us, “Physical events imply the collection of basically nonphysical forces into an organization that exists initially outside of the time-space context.” And part of the nonphysical forces he’s talking about is probabilities.
He says, “Probabilities are an ever-present portion of your invisible psychological environment. You exist in the middle of a probable system of reality. It is not something apart from you. To some extent it is like a sea in which you have your present being. You are in it, and it is in you. From this field of probabilities you choose patterns of thought which you will weave into the physical matter of your (reality).”
So, let’s take a look at some of the more intriguing comments Seth has made regarding the nature of the field of probabilities, and then we’ll look at what it means to us in our creation efforts.
"This probable field…is composed of thought images…(that are) vivid storehouses of energy."
Thought has an amazingly intense energy behind it and an unparalleled role in creation. Even the field of probabilities is composed of thought. Thought is action, and action is what moves consciousness through experiences.
"You use probabilities like blocks to build events."
An event is not composed of simply one probability. As an example, let’s say Seth wants to create a new library, and he sets it as a goal. That goal is not simply one probability snug and complete, an end product in the field of probabilities. It’s a flowing together of many probabilities that, once fully materialized, looks like an only-one-path-could-have-led-to-it event. But any event is actually the result of numerous probabilities linked by significances in the spacious present and based on our thinking in the moment point – and the changes in our thinking in the moment point – until a certain overall scenario can be said to have been experienced. But there was no one probability that encompassed the totality of Seth’s new library, or any given event, for that matter.
"The nature of any given probable action does not lead to any particular inevitable act."
When Seth set his goal for a new library, he had to have the flexibility of making choices along the way, changing his mind, adding new elements, etc. So he started the action with a charged thought, here called a goal, and that one action started the unfolding of other actions that took certain directions as Seth made his choices. But the end result was never an absolute given. For instance, if Seth had given up on his goal for whatever reason, those new thoughts (i.e. suggestions) would have changed the outcome of the library.
"Each event you form from any set of probabilities automatically gives rise to new probabilities."
In fact, what Seth chose to eventually experience as his “final” library was itself an arbitrary event, because action doesn’t stop still and freeze an event in place. Consciousness can put arbitrary boundaries around an event through focused suggestion, but the event continues to grow and change and expand. And if consciousness chooses to, it can expand its event’s arbitrary boundaries into a larger creative playing field by expanding its suggestions.
“Before you make your decision, each of these probable actions are equally valid."
Seth could have chosen a blue chair with a matching ottoman for his library. He equally could have chosen to have no chair, but instead a pair of matching couches. The choices were his – and each was equally valid, equally available to him, because of the nature of creation, the nature of action.
"The majority of events do not 'solidify' until the last moment in your terms."
The field of probabilities assures consciousness that it can change its mind at any time, and alter the potential outcome of an event. Events can't be decided so far in advance that we don't have time to rethink our position. And the reason that’s true is because of, again, action, or the way All That Is creates.
"At no time are events predestined. …Every action changes every other action.”
Events are headed in a certain direction by suggestion, but there can be no predestination, solely because of action. We change our suggestions in the spacious present and our arbitrary boundaries change, because suggestion drives action.
"There are in your terms unlimited probable future events for which you are now setting groundworks. The nature of the thoughts and feelings you originate sets a pattern."
There's no getting around it—the thoughts and feelings of identities are actions which create other actions. Our potential possibilities are the direct result of what we think. Like Seth says, “You must become consciously aware of what you tell yourself is true every moment of the day, for that is the reality that you project outward.”
Seth tells us, “You are learning how to transform an imaginative realm of probabilities into a physically experienced world.” And he gave Jane and Rob a very thought-provoking example of how changing their suggestions allowed new probabilities to enter what seemed to be their very concrete, finished world. I’ve condensed it below from Early Sessions, Book 2, pg 297-8.
“There are times when expectation suddenly shifts. It has been in the process of changing, but it suddenly shows the change as it suddenly becomes obvious through physical construction. When it finally manages to change constructions, bringing them into line with present alterations, the individual realizes that something has happened.
“An example, dear friends, is your house. You would have moved into it on the 13th.... The letter had little to do with your joint decision not to buy. Both of you decided no before the letter arrived, and you caused the letter. Your energy focused on the property, constructed the property into the state where the road disintegrated into a trail.”
(Rob: “The letter referred to above was one received from the regional office of the Veterans Administration, in N.Y.C. The letter characterized the dirt road leading up to the property as a "trail," and stated the request for a loan was denied unless the veteran, meaning myself, could he assured that the road would be maintained by either city or county at no additional expense to the veteran. This could not be done, since at this time the road is classed as private, and must he maintained by whoever lives on the property.)
“You found that you wanted more when it came down to it than the property seemed to offer. You did not expect that you could get what you found you wanted at the price. You constructed the property, then, in terms of what you expected you could get for the price, and then did not consider this sufficient.
“Now I tried, ineffectively I might add, in the sessions to raise your expectations of the property for the same price, by justifiably showing you, I thought, how value fulfillment psychically could definitely add to the construction.
“Had I succeeded, the transaction would have been an excellent one. Your expectations did rise. In this I did succeed. But practically, you could not leap the boundary, you could not expect to get so much (the added expectations) for so little. You therefore ripped down the construction to meet the price, and then refused it.”
Even though we see ourselves supposedly in hard-core linear time, our thinking has to transcend linear time. We have to accept ourselves as in the spacious present, surrounded by all possible probabilities. And we have to use suggestion to choose our significances from the field of probabilities, and by so doing set our boundaries of choice, by choice. And then our physical reality will adapt to our changed thinking. We will quite literally convert a road to a trail, or vice versa, because the road and trail are simply changeable camouflage constructions created in the spacious present by our action through our expectations.
Seth says, “If you understand the nature of probabilities, you will not need to pretend to ignore your present situation. You will recognize it instead as a probable reality that you have physically materialized. Taking that for granted, you will then begin the process necessary to bring a different probability into physical experience.”
And on that note we’ll move on to this entry’s marvelous Seth quotes on probabilities. And when we return next month our Seth Talk subject will be on the creative force of mental acts: thought, emotion and imagination. So much more will become clear with that entry, folks, especially about the power of our newly defined self. So stay tuned!
7. Seth on Probabilities
You are learning how to transform an imaginative realm of probabilities into a physically experienced world.
Physical events imply the collection of basically nonphysical forces into an organization that exists initially outside of the time-space context.
Probabilities are an ever-present portion of your invisible psychological environment.
You exist in the middle of a probable system of reality. It is not something apart from you.
To some extent it is like a sea in which you have your present being. You are in it, and it is in you.
This system of probabilities is quite as real as the physical system.
From this field of probabilities you choose patterns of thought which you will weave into the physical matter of your universe.
This is a psychological organization, consisting of a selection of chosen probable events. They wait in the wings, so to speak, for physical actualization.
Here is the material from which all pasts, presents and futures are made.
This probable field is composed of thought images, not physically materialized in your terms, but vivid storehouses of energy.
You choose certain acts, unconsciously transform these into physical events or objects, and then perceive them.
Any physical event is something like the impact of a rocket ship entering your world from “somewhere else.”
The nature of probabilities must be understood, for the time has come in the world as you experience it where the greatest wisdom and discrimination are needed.
In your terms, the moment point, the present, is the point of interaction between all existences and reality. All probabilities flow through it.
You use probabilities like blocks to build events.
Each event you form from any set of probabilities automatically gives rise to new probabilities.
The nature of any given action does not lead to any particular inevitable act.
Because a course is begun, this does not mean that it cannot be changed at any point.
The majority of events do not “solidify” until the last moment in your terms.
The path of experience is nowhere settled. There is no one road that does not have avenues to another.
There are deep veins of probable actions ever available to you at any given time.
No event is predestined.
Any given event can be changed not only before and during, but after its occurrence. I am not speaking symbolically.
At any point where a decision was made, the other probable alternative actions were also taken.
There are points…where probabilities meet; intersections with space and time that occur in your mind while you change directions, where new probabilities that once lay latent suddenly emerge.
You must realize that you are indeed a probable you.
Alter the beliefs and any probable self can, within certain limitations, be actualized.
In quite real personal and racial terms, the past is still happening. You create it from your present according to your beliefs.
The past is as real as the future, no more and no less.
The individual is hardly at the mercy of past events, for he changes them constantly.
He is hardly at the mercy of future events, for he changes these not only before but after their happening.
An individual’s future actions are not dependent upon a concrete, finished past, for such a past never existed.
The present as you think of it, and in practical working terms, is that point at which you select your physical experience from all those events that could be materialized.
If you believe in cause and effect, then you will be bound by those laws.
It is basically far more rational to enjoy the summer night present to your senses than to react instead to unpleasant events separated from you in probabilities.
…In your dreams you work with probabilities and decide which ones will become your physical “true facts.”
(Your inner self) computes probabilities with blinding speed…all with a loving intent that has your best purposes in mind.
If you understand the nature of probabilities, you will not need to pretend to ignore your present situation. You will recognize it instead as a probable reality that you have physically materialized. Taking that for granted, you will then begin the process necessary to bring a different probability into physical experience.
FEBRUARY 5, 2011 * Eighth Entry
Living a Safe Universe: Mental Acts -
Thought, Emotion, Imagination; & Tips on Using the Power Behind Them
Seth tells us, "In your system of reality you are learning what mental energy is, and how to use it. You do this by constantly transforming your thoughts and emotions into physical form. You are supposed to get a clear picture of your inner development by perceiving the exterior environment. What seems to be a perception, an objective concrete event independent from you, is instead the materialization of your own inner emotions, energy and mental environment.”
Let’s start today by taking a truncated stroll down Seth Talk’s memory lane so we can set the stage for this entry’s subject and its implications. As you’ll recall, Seth says action is the creative force of All That Is from which all materializations come. Action only happens in the spacious present, which is the only time there is. Action is given direction through suggestion in the moment point. Suggestion, in other words, drives action, and action can be thought of as creation.
So what is suggestion? It seems a simple enough word with a rather clear definition, but like most things having to do with All That Is and creation, there are depths needed to be plumbed in order to understand its implications. This isn’t the time or place to explore all of its ramifications, but we can certainly get an overview.
Suggestions are mental acts that take on the significance of expectation. But then, what is expectation in this context? Sure, it means the biggies in experience, like the expectation that we don’t need health insurance or we can win the lottery. But it also encompasses the expectation that we can walk across the room without falling, or that our patio chair will be there when we awake tomorrow, or that there is indeed a room to walk across. Whether the suggestion is acceptance of an unquestioned root assumption or a free, new idea we come to embrace (such as a flu shot affords protection), suggestions create. And why? Because creation is driven by suggestion which drives action, which drives creation. All creation. Without suggestion (also called expectation by Seth), none of the examples in this paragraph can happen.
Our realities, then, are created and defined by suggestion, and suggestions are mental acts. Interestingly, mental acts are composed of a combination of these forces: thought, emotion and imagining. Take any other descriptive word for mental act, such as attitude or belief or intent or assumption or...well, you get the idea...and you’ll find they all hail back to a combination of those three basics.
Seth says, “You must understand that each mental act is a reality for which you are responsible.” So, let’s take a brief look at the three components of mental acts.
THOUGHT
Seth calls thought an unsurpassable force. He says, “It is almost as if your thoughts punched the keys of some massive computer, for your thoughts do indeed have a force.” He also tells us that thoughts have a reality and psyche content that has form and shape, and when we finally perceive it, thought has taken on camouflage’s bulk. That is, it has become objects and events in our reality. And that is why Seth says, “Your subjective world causes your physical experiences. See your thoughts as the real events.”
EMOTION
To get a sense of the dynamic strength of emotion, here’s Seth: “Any strong emotion carries within it far more energy than, say, that required to send a rocket to the moon.” Emotions bring intensity to our thoughts, which makes the combination very powerful. Think “I am a victim” with emotion behind it, and we all know what happens. But think “I am a victim” as a passing thought, one not dwelled upon or emotionalized, and it grabs little to no creative traction. So thought and emotion work hand in hand to create expectations, positive or negative.
IMAGINATION
Seth says, “Your world and everything in it exists first in the imagination.” And, “Imagination and emotions are the most concentrated forms of energy that you possess as physical creatures.” So once more we’re introduced to an incredibly powerful force, one that, like emotion and thought, drives creation, one so awesome Seth says, “The imagination, backed by great expectation, can bring about almost any reality within the range of probabilities.”
And why do these three powerhouses – thought, emotion and imagination – have the heart of creation in their hands? Because they are what form expectations, also known as suggestions. And by now we well know that suggestion drives action, that without suggestion to guide it, action would become chaotic. So, all of what is created is thanks to suggestion. And suggestion is composed of mental acts. And mental acts are composed, to varying degrees, of thought, emotion and imagination.
And that’s why suggestion’s mental acts should rivet our attention. Seth says we haven’t learned to use our consciousness “properly or fully,” because we don’t understand that imagination, emotion and thought are not only not set against each other, but are forces that are joined at the hip and can be consciously used as such. And if there is one Seth quote that acts like a bridge between the concept of mental acts and the all-important practical using, it’s this one, mentioned in Seth Talk several times because of its overriding importance: “You must become consciously aware of what you tell yourself is true every moment of the day, for that is the reality you project outward.” And we don’t see anything as true unless it’s already become a suggestion.
Time to move on now to our Seth quotes of the day. And as an added bonus take a look at the last of the section of quotes called “Tips on Using the Power Behind Mental Acts.” Hope you get as much out of them as do every time I read them!
8. Seth on Mental Acts: Thought, Emotion, Imagination; & Tips on Using the Power Behind Them
You must become consciously aware of what you tell yourself is true every moment of the day, for that is the reality that you project outward.
You must understand that each mental act is a reality for which you are responsible.
The large area of your mental activity is translated into physical terms.
Altering the state of the psyche automatically alters physical circumstances. There is no other valid way of changing physical events.
The organization of your feelings, beliefs, and intents directs the focus about which your physical reality is built. This follows with impeccable spontaneity and order.
The manipulation of camouflage material depends to a large degree upon the outside ego’s confidence.
Thought
The unsurpassable force of thought.
Your subjective world causes your physical experiences. See your thoughts as the real events.
It is almost as if your thoughts punched the keys of some massive computer, for your thoughts do indeed have a force.
Your own thoughts have a reality that you do not understand, and their own kind of form, or psychic content, and this content exists not as pure energy, but as energy with form and shape.
And when this content is perceived by you, then it has bulk.
This means that your positive and healthy attitudes are physically manifest, as well as your unhealthy or negative attitudes.
Thoughts of abundance affect the inner order of events.
Your beliefs are like hypnotic focuses. You reinforce them constantly through the normal inner talking in which you all indulge.
Each of you will find habitual thought patterns in your own life backed up by resulting action – conditioned behavior as it were – by which you continually reinforce negative aspects.
Emotion
Each of you is free to accept and develop, from the miraculous banks of reality, those experiences and emotions that you want, and to reject those you do not want.
Any strong emotion carries within it far more energy than, say, that required to send a rocket to the moon.
Emotional intensities and significances compose the nature of events. These are like charged emotional patterns, formed of your own highly personal emotions and intents.
It seldom occurs to you that your feelings themselves might be primary, and that a particular event was somehow a response to your emotions, instead of the other way around.
Any charged emotional feeling will almost immediately be made actual. Now this gives you an advantage, if you understand the principles.
Since I have said that experiences are formed by the emotions, then it is obviously the basic emotions themselves that must be manipulated.
Emotions are the problem, and not those elements that bring them about.
Emotions form expectations. An expectation of danger will create danger. An expectation of success will create success.
Your emotions trigger your memories, and they organize your associations.
Imagination
Your world and everything in it exists first in the imagination.
Imagination and emotions are the most concentrated forms of energy that you possess as physical creatures.
The true power is in the imagination which dares to speculate upon that which is not yet.
The imagination, backed by great expectation, can bring about almost any reality within the range of probabilities.
Your mental images bring about their own fulfillment.
Your imagination can be of great value, allowing you to open yourself to new courses.
Imagination plays an important part in your subjective life, as it gives mobility to your beliefs. It is one of the motivating agencies that helps transform your beliefs into physical experience.
It is vital therefore that you understand the interrelationship between ideas and imagination. The proper use of imagination can then propel ideas in the direction you desire.
Tips on Using the Power Behind Mental Acts
Intensity
Form is the result of concentrated energy, the pattern for it caused by vividly directed emotional or psychic idea images. The intensity is all important.
Mental images, accompanied by strong emotion, are blueprints therefore upon which a corresponding physical object, or condition or event, will appear.
The intensity of feeling or thought or mental image is, therefore, the important element in determining its subsequent physical materialization.
The more intense the core, the sooner the materialization.
There is a wisdom and an understanding operating, a beautiful give-and-take in life between the intensity of a desire and its fulfillment.
Now about the time lag on suggestions. This has nothing to do with time, but with the intensity of any suggestion, and any countering suggestions. The most intensive will triumph, though there may be obstacles in its way.
While symptoms of any kind serve a purpose they are considered legitimate. The psyche will not remove them until the intensity of desire for freedom rises high enough to meet those purposes in other ways.
The concentration upon a problem brings about a kind of mechanical repetition, a repeated type of hypnotic focus.
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Will
You cannot equivocate. You have a will for a reason.
It is no coincidence that the word “will” refers to the future, as in “it will happen,” and also refers to the decision-making quality of the mind.
Spontaneously take it for granted that your acts will result in the most favorable circumstances, and that any given situation will have a favorable end result.
Your psychological intents mobilize your energies on a psychic level.
When the will is divided, the structure is divided.
You cannot equivocate. You either trust the self or you do not.
You cannot equivocate. You cannot say, “I live in a safe universe but but but but” anything
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Further Tips
Ask and you shall receive. Ask half-heartedly and you shall receive in exactly that measure.
Expectancy and inner confidence always brings the best results with the least effort.
The feeling of effortlessness is what is important.
…if he does not seriously take steps to assure his inner self of his intentions…
When you find yourself dissatisfied, question the orders you are giving in that particular arena of experience.
The results do not seem to follow your conscious desires. But you will find that they do follow your conscious beliefs, which may be quite different.
Remind him to remember that he does not have any particular disease…rather than dignifying negative concepts by giving them names and designations.
As negative suggestions play their part, so do positive suggestions. Any connection with past periods of productivity or joy have immediate reference to the present.
Suggestions made by the personality are also carried out by the sleeping self. This is one of the reasons why health suggestions given immediately before sleep are so effective.
In the physical world, time may have to elapse, or whatever. Conditions may have to change, or whatever. But the desire will bring about the proper results.
Framework 2 is a growth medium. Constructive feelings or thoughts are more easily materialized than negative ones.
Odds and impediments do not exist in Framework 2.
You can quicken your psychic experiences if you stop thinking of impediments.
Minimize impediments in your mind and they do become minimized. Exaggerate them and – in your reality – they will quickly adopt giant size.
One of the greatest detriments to mental and physical well-being is the unfortunate belief that any unfavorable situation is bound to get worse instead of better.
An expectation of danger will create danger. An expectation of success will create success.
To brood or worry or become resentful is regrettable. Over time, resentments X out large areas of otherwise productive experience.
Enjoyment is a weapon. The man who is capable of joy is capable of changing his world.
Natural optimism is a power in the individual and in the world. It believes in triumph, in pleasant, unpredictable surprises, in unexpected solutions, joyful occurrences. It is like the child’s anticipation of Christmas Eve, and it is biologically ingrained.
MARCH 8, 2011 * Ninth Entry
Living a Safe Universe: The Inner Self & Entity or Soul
Those of us who have been around the Seth material for any length of time know the complexity of interrelationships between entities (also called souls by Seth) and inner selves and probable selves and dream selves and past, present and future selves, etc., etc. And we know we really cannot separate our “known” self from those other aspects of our overall identity. But if we want to understand today’s physical self in a much broader framework, we do need to focus down to one relationship that has an immediate, irrevocable, unquestionable impact on us. And that relationship is, of course, to our inner self.
Seth says, “It is only through the recognition of the inner self that the race of man will ever use its potential.” That’s a very strong statement, and as such should prompt us to seek both knowledge of and experience with our inner self if we at all care about our own potential. So let’s take a look at some of the things Seth has to say about that part of us that might be termed our inner self.
But first, in order to understand the inner self, we need a quick refresher on the entity for it all to make sense.
Seth says, “There is a portion of you, the deeper identity who forms both the inner ego (inner self) and the outer ego, who decided that you would be a physical being in this place and time. This is the core of your identity, the psychic seed from which you sprang, the multidimensional personality of which you are a part.” This, then, is the entity.
Seth expounds on the definition of entity or soul (he uses the terms interchangeably) with this: “(The soul) is a field of concentrated action...a powerhouse of probabilities or probable actions, seeking to be expressed; a grouping of nonphysical consciousness that nevertheless knows itself as an identity.” And: “The soul could be considered as a prime identity that is in itself a gestalt of many other individual consciousnesses.” (As an aside, remember from Seth Talk entry #1 about identities being formed during the first creative dilemma? Well, this is it.)
To clarify further, Seth says an entity or soul is actually a composite of many souls – like he says above, a gestalt of many individual consciousnesses. And what basically does a soul do? It perceives and creates. And since any act of perception (an action) changes reality (creative dilemma #1), a soul is changed because it perceives.
And that is why the entity or soul is not static, it grows and develops, as Seth says, “...through the experiences of those personalities that compose it.” So the soul is not a closed system, it is vibrant and alive, constantly seeking growth through its perceptions, and through the perceptions of its personalities.
So our personal mental perceptions (which are the only kind, for all consciousness) mean a lot to the entity, because its growth is dependent on our growth. And that brings us to the intimacy of assistance we get from our entity in hopes that we will perceive clearly, and one might assume without creating haphazard and unenlightened constructions. And that assistance reaches us through the auspices of our inner selves.
To start, Seth says our inner self is the portion of the entity or soul that is in each of us. He says an inner self “acts as a messenger between the soul and the present personality.” But it’s not just a one-way street, our inner self simply sending us messages. Seth says, “You do have access to the inner self. You are hardly cut off from your own soul or entity.”
So the entity makes the decision to send part of itself into physical reality as a personality (that’s us) and then it sends part of itself (our inner self) to...what? Keep in touch? Partially that’s true, but the job of the inner self far exceeds that limited marching order. In fact, Seth tells us it’s “embarked upon an exciting endeavor, in which it learns how to translate its reality into physical terms.” And we’re Step One for it. That is, while the entity decides part of itself will become physical, it also needs part of itself to oversee the process. And that’s our inner self’s responsibility.
And that overseeing includes the actual creation of physical reality. Seth tells us, “It is the inner self, out of massive knowledge and the unlimited scope of its consciousness, that forms the physical world.” And, “It is the inner self that organizes, initiates, projects and controls...transforming energy into objects, into matter.” And those “objects” include the camouflage body we inhabit, because after all, it is part of the physical world.
So when Seth says we create our own reality, we do, in that the personality portion of us, the known self, uses its mind (which is not physical) to think and feel its way to creating suggestions, which as we know drive action. But it is the other portion of us, our inner self, which actually translates our mental landscape into the camouflage of physical reality. And part of the reason for this is really interesting. Seth says a human being thinks so many thoughts that they can’t all be turned into camouflage – it would overwhelm the personality. So a screening process needs to take place, with the most significant thoughts to us taking precedence, and it can’t happen unless it’s outside of a time context – which is the working arena of our inner self.
But keep in mind that while the camouflage is prepared by our inner selves in the spacious present, it’s not actually brought into physical existence without us using our perceptive mechanisms – sight, touch, hearing, taste, and smell, as described in Seth Talk entry # 3 – to make it happen. As you’ll recall, if we cannot perceive it with one of our senses, it will not materialize. So it actually takes both our inner self and us to physically manifest our realities.
Okay, before we go on with our discussion of the inner self, we need to be really clear that we’re still talking about the whole, that the inner self and personality are simply the entity doing its thing. The creative abilities of the inner self and personality are the creative abilities of the entity (which are the creative abilities of All That Is as expressed in the three dilemmas). The point being that our inner selves are our entities, and we are our entities. And basically that tells us that the overall goals (or intent) of our entity are the goals of our inner selves, and they are our goals, too. Because we really are one, simply with the same purpose and intent being uniquely expressed at different flash points of reality. Like Seth says, “You are your soul.”
So, what is our relationship with our inner self once we choose physical life? It’s rather obvious that we’re never separated from it. How could we be? It’s what we’re made of, which makes separation impossible. It is us, and we are it, which is why Seth says: “When you say ‘I will do this myself,’ you are speaking with a limited idea of identity. Nothing is ever done alone...”
That is not to say our inner self takes over our decisions for us, just because we are so tightly connected. Our inner self has its own way of approaching its purpose, and is given great leeway by the entity to do so. And we are afforded the same opportunity. However, if we stray too far from the purpose of our inner self, which, remember, is really our purpose, too, then all hell breaks loose.
Perhaps “hell” can be defined as the haphazard and unenlightened constructions Seth talks about. Certainly it’s a wake up call. Seth says, “The ego that ignores too many of the possibilities of the inner self is soon in dire difficulty, and is forced to realize that it has been considering survival in a very limited light.”
The overall goal here, between entity, inner self and present personality, seems to be expansion of consciousness, also called growth or value fulfillment by Seth. And he clarifies it with this: “In true expansion of consciousness, the ego becomes more aware... It recognizes its identity as part of the inner self... Portions of the inner self have joined the strictly egotistical functions. The ego has accepted the goals of the inner self.”
Given that the inner self has such high stakes riding on us, does it step in and control our thoughts and emotions to its advantage then, since thoughts and emotions signal the direction of creation? Unfortunately for us, no. :-) As Seth says, “The personality is on its own, with the power of self-determination and free will.” And, “No commands are built-in, no prohibitions given. It is the personality who makes the choices. There is no puppet, no hand that moves the strings. If there were, you see, you would indeed have a much more perfect world.”
Okay, we get that our inner self is us, that we share purposes and goals/intents, that it’s the creator of our physical reality (with our mental and sensory participation). And we get that it doesn’t meddle in our affairs. Right? Well, not precisely. Thankfully for us, our inner selves have our backs. While they normally won’t step in and force a decision change, they will do their best to point us in a more constructive direction, both before and after a decision has been made. It’s their thing, their responsibility, part of their raison d’être.
Seth says help is always available from our inner self. For instance he tells us, “When the inner self is alerted (to a problem), it will immediately try to remedy the situation by an influx of self-corrective measures.” And going even further with its assistance, Seth says that occasionally “...when a problematic situation gets out of hand, the inner self will bypass those restrictive areas of the conscious mind, and solve the problem by shooting forth energy in other layers of activity.”
One comment of Seth’s that seems to draw the attention of his readers, almost with a sigh of relief, is this: “Often the inner self will sift from the barrage of conflicting beliefs the particular set that is the most life-giving, and send these in what then appears as a burst of revelation. Such revelations result in new patterns that can change behavior.” And another is this: “It is of great value that each person remembers this universal affiliation. Such a reminder can often allow the inner self to send needed messages of strength and love, appearing as inspiration, dreams or simply bursts of feeling.”
But do remember that while we share purpose and intent with our entity and inner self, it does not mean our specific physical goals are determined in advance. In fact, Seth says, “There are no ends that must be accomplished by any given personality, no ends that must be gained by a personality for the entity.” But there’s one caveat: “The only detriment to so-called free will is the built-in necessity for value fulfillment.”
And that is where the merging of intent by the entity, inner self and personality takes place. We share the same path toward value fulfillment. And that value fulfillment and its overall scope is determined by what the entity wants out of its existence. In other words, we, the personality, are on the identical page as our soul and inner self. Because we are one, we’re headed in the same direction. As Seth says, “The personality itself is a gestalt of action, and as such it is necessary that the flow of action within it follow the overall directives of the entity and inner self.”
And when we, the personality, get too far off track? Like we said before, all hell breaks loose.
The whole point of Seth Talk is to expand our understanding of the self so we can use more of its creative abilities consciously. And there is zero way the self can be understood without taking into consideration the inner self and, more generally, the entity. Seth makes this abundantly clear in this comment, if strength is equated to living fulfilling realities: “True strength is the result of excellent communications between the outer self that faces the world and the inner self that looks inward.”
So how do we align our known self with our inner self? There’s really only one way – and it’s through trust. Which just happens to be the next discussion of Seth Talk. So hope to see you then, folks. And meanwhile enjoy the heck out of the following Seth quotes, first on the entity or soul, and then on the inner self. They are real clarifiers, in my opinion.
9.a Seth on the Entity or Soul
There is a portion of you, the deeper identity who forms both the inner ego (inner self) and the outer ego, who decided that you would be a physical being in this place and time. This is the core of your identity, the psychic seed from which you sprang, the multidimensional personality of which you are a part.
(The soul or entity) is a field of concentrated action...a powerhouse of probabilities or probable actions, seeking to be expressed; a grouping of nonphysical consciousness that nevertheless knows itself as an identity.
The soul could be considered as a prime identity that is in itself a gestalt of many other individual consciousnesses...
The soul or entity is itself the most highly motivated, most highly energized, and most potent consciousness-unit known in any universe.
While I use terms like soul or entity, inner self, and present personality, I do so only for the sake of convenience, for one is a part of the other; there is no point where one begins and another ends.
You have immediate, instant personal connection with that which is.
You are hardly cut off from your own soul or entity.
...The inner self being the portion of the soul that is within you.
You are a part of your soul. It belongs to you and you to it.
While you have a limited concept of the soul, then to some extent you cut yourself off from the source of your own being and creativity.
The soul is the creator of all experience, and of all destinations in your terms.
You are a soul.
For the soul, above all, perceives and creates. Remember again that you are a soul now. The soul within you, therefore, is now perceiving.
Its methods of perception are the same now as they were before your physical birth, and as they will be after your physical death. So basically the inner portion of you, the soul stuff, will not suddenly change its methods of perception nor its characteristics after physical death.
Now any act of perception changes the perceiver, and so the soul, considered as a perceiver, must also change.
This characteristic of materializing thoughts and emotions into physical realities is an attribute of the soul.
So your soul, that which you are, constructs your physical daily reality for you from the nature of your thoughts and expectations.
Now the soul itself is not static. It grows and develops even through the experience of those personalities that compose it, and it is, to put it as simply as possible, more than the sum of its parts.
The soul is not a closed system. No psychological system is closed, no consciousness is closed.
There are no ends that must be accomplished by any given personality, no ends that must be gained by a personality for the entity.
The personality is on its own, with the power of self-determination and free will.
No commands are built-in, no prohibitions given. It is the personality who makes the choices.
The only detriment to so-called free will is the built-in necessity for value fulfillment.
The entity may not either aid or prevent any choice that the personality may make.
The entity may not like any particular choice made by the personality, but the entity cannot change the course the personality chooses to take.
The entity is utterly incapable of changing that choice. With its superior knowledge, the entity must leave hands off.
There is here no puppet, no hand that moves the strings. If there were, you see, you would indeed have a much more perfect world.
Now, each event of which you are aware is already a translation of an inner event, a psychic or mental event that is perceived by the soul directly, but translated by the physically oriented portions of the self into physical sense terms.
When you are aware of the existence of the entity or of the soul, you can consciously draw upon that greater energy, understanding and strength.
The fact is that while you hold limited concepts of your own reality, then you cannot practically take advantage of many abilities that are your own.
When you do not understand the nature of the soul, and do not realize that your thoughts and feelings form physical reality, then you feel powerless to change it.
The point is that you are only limited to the self you know if you think that you are.
Your recognition of the soul and entity can help you direct energies from these other dimensions into your daily life.
There are far more wonders to perceive through this inward exploration than you can possibly believe until you begin such a journey for yourself.
The personality itself is a gestalt of action, and as such it is necessary that the flow of action within it follow the overall directives of the entity and inner self.
You forget that consciousness is the only true vehicle.
You, dear reader, are in the process of becoming a conscious participator with the soul, in certain terms of becoming what your soul is.
Jointly, each generation has its own purpose. It is this – to perfect inner knowledge, and to manifest it as faithfully as possible outward into the world.
Spiritual knowledge and psychic wisdom are the natural result of a sense of self-unity.
To understand the multidimensional self is to use it.
Society would be restructured if the self were trusted.
9.b Seth on the Inner Self
First, for definition and clarity’s sake, the Entity or Soul: There is a portion of you, the deeper identity who forms both the inner ego (inner self) and the outer ego, who decided that you would be a physical being in this place and time. This is the core of your identity, the psychic seed from which you sprang, the multidimensional personality of which you are a part.
While I use terms like soul or entity, inner self, and present personality, I do so only for the sake of convenience, for one is a part of the other; there is no point where one begins and another ends.
Now, the Inner Self:
...The inner self being the portion of the soul that is within you.
You are far more than the conscious mind, and the self which you do not admit is the portion that not only insures your own physical survival in the physical universe which it has made, but which is also the connective between yourself and inner reality…
The inner ego (inner self) always identifies with the source-identity as a beloved, individualized portion of the universe. It is aware of the universal love that is its heritage.
The inner self is embarked upon an exciting endeavor, in which it learns how to translate its reality into physical terms.
It is the inner self, out of massive knowledge and the unlimited scope of its consciousness, that forms the physical world.
It is the inner self that organizes, initiates, projects and controls…transforming energy into objects, into matter.
It is of great value, then, that each person remembers this universal affiliation.
Such a reminder can often allow the inner self to send needed messages of strength and love, appearing as inspiration, dreams or simply bursts of feeling.
It is only through the recognition of the inner self that the race of man will ever use its potential.
You do have access to the inner self. You are hardly cut off from your own soul or entity.
You have immediate, instant personal connection with that which is.
The inner self is not remote – not divorced from your most intimate desires and affairs, but instead communicates through your own smallest gesture, through your smallest ideal.
Many of you keep searching for some seemingly remote spiritual inner self that you can trust and look to for help and support, but all the while you distrust the familiar self with which you have such intimate contact. You set up divisions between portions of the self that are unnecessary.
This sense of division within the self forces you to think that there is a remote, spiritual, wise, intuitive inner self, and a bewildered, put-upon, spiritually ignorant, inferior physical self, which happens to be the one you identify with.
Quite literally, the inner self forms the body by magically transforming thoughts and emotions into physical counterparts. You grow the body. Its condition perfectly mirrors your subjective state at any given time.
The point is that you are only limited to the self you know if you think that you are.
You are meant to understand the nature of your inner self and to manifest it outward. As this is done, your exterior circumstances will change for the better as the inner self becomes more aware of its own nature and capabilities.
While the most basic work must be done by the individual, help is always available from a variety of sources, both within and without.
When the inner self is alerted (to a problem), it will immediately try to remedy the situation by an influx of self-corrective measures.
On occasion, when a problematic situation gets out of hand, the inner self will bypass those restrictive areas of the conscious mind, and solve the problem by shooting forth energy in other layers of activity.
The inner self will manage to work around the blind spots in the reasoning mind.
Often the inner self will sift from the barrage of conflicting beliefs the particular set that is the most life-giving, and send these in what then appears as a burst of revelation. Such revelations result in new patterns that can change behavior.
Impulses are inherently good, both spiritually and biologically. They emerge from Framework 2, from the inner self.
When you begin trusting yourselves, you start by taking it for granted that to some extent at least you have not trusted yourself or your impulses in the past.
The ego that ignores too many of the possibilities of the inner self is soon in dire difficulty, and is forced to realize that it has been considering survival in a very limited light.
Without a sense of joy and inner accomplishment and development of potential, the personality will not only fail to flourish, but the inner self will refuse to maintain the physical structure adequately. This is extremely important. Superficial measures will not fool the inner self.
You cannot be disconnected from your inner self, because it is what you are made of.
When you say ‘I will do this myself,’ you are speaking with a limited idea of identity.
Nothing is ever really done alone, and nothing is ever done unless it is done alone.
It is convenient not to be consciously aware of each breath you take, but it is sheer stupidity to ignore the inner self which does the breathing and is aware of the mechanics involved.
When you doubt the inner self then you have need of doctors and nurses, and it is good to have them if there is no other place to turn.
The fact is that while you hold limited concepts of your own reality, then you cannot practically take advantage of many abilities that are your own.
In true expansion of consciousness, the ego becomes more and more aware… It recognizes its identity as a part of the inner self…Portions of the inner self have joined the strictly egotistical functions.
The ego has accepted the goals of the inner self.
There are no ends that must be accomplished by any given personality, no ends that must be gained by a personality for the entity.
The personality is on its own, with the power of self-determination and free will.
The only detriment to so-called free will is the built-in necessity for value fulfillment.
No commands are built-in, no prohibitions given. It is the personality who makes the choices.
There is here no puppet, no hand that moves the strings. If there were, you see, you would indeed have a much more perfect world.
The personality itself is a gestalt of action, and as such it is necessary that the flow of action within it follow the overall directives of the entity and inner self.
True strength is the result of excellent communications between the outer self that faces the world and the inner self that looks inward.
To understand the multidimensional self is to use it.
Society would be restructured if the self were trusted.
April 3, 2011 * Tenth Entry
Living a Safe Universe: Trust
Seth says, “To understand that you create your own reality requires an ‘awakening’ from the normal awake state. Realization itself does change the ‘rules of the game.’ This recognition does indeed involve a new performance on the part of your own consciousness, a mental and imaginative leap that gives you control and direction over achievements that you have always performed, though without your conscious awareness.”
We’ve come a long way over the months from Seth Talk’s entry #1 to this one, and the focus has been on broadening the definition of our self so that we can live a safe universe. That’s our goal and, good for us, we’ve learned or reminded ourselves of many of Seth’s concepts that dovetail with our need for that expanded learning. But as we all know quite well, knowledge itself will not set us free. If that were the case, we’d all be healthy, wealthy and wise after reading our first Seth book.
What does it take, then, to make the leap from pure knowledge-based concepts that we fully accept as valid, to actually translating that knowledge into living a safe universe? This is no big secret, we all know the answer: a blending of knowledge and trust. Trust takes us beyond accepted knowledge and into an awakening that constitutes a mental and imaginative leap that brings control and direction to our creations. Without trust, we cannot take the necessary and fulfilling step of living the results of our learning.
So what is it we have to trust? How about our literal oneness with All That Is and our inner self? The subjective nature of time and lack of cause and effect? That what we see is actually camouflage in the spacious present made to look like it resides in time and space? That action - the driving force of creation - is given direction through suggestion composed of thought, emotion and imagination? Okay, the list goes on and on and on, no doubt about it. So much to learn to trust, it seems.
But is that true? Is there really so much to trust? In one regard, yes, because each of those components of knowledge, and many others, are actually facts that we must accept as true, if we’re to throw off the yoke of the one-line stage of consciousness Seth discusses in entry #1, and stop creating haphazard and unenlightened constructions. So they can’t be downplayed. But they can be gathered under the banner of a whole trust, one trust that by nature encompasses – nay, transcends – the sum of its parts. And that one trust is of our self.
Seth tells us, “In each person, the ultimate and unassailable and unquenchable power of All That Is is individualized, and dwells in time.” And he says, “A portion of All That Is resides within and is a part of every consciousness. Every consciousness is therefore cherished and protected individually.” This, then, is the ultimate basis for our trust, the platform upon which we stand and which never wavers or changes. It simply is.
But at times, maybe most times at first, we can’t see it, so we attempt to answer the questions of the mind in order to allow ourselves to trust. That’s what drew us to the Seth material in the first place, perhaps even when we weren’t aware that that was our cause or path. So answering the questions is important, because the soul’s desire is to trust, and the mind, in order to trust, normally needs understanding and assurances. And what does a composite picture of what we learn from Seth bring us? A new, broader definition of the self.
Seth says, “There are no real rules to be followed that will bring you into...an encounter with the present moment of reality – only a trust in the nature of your being.” As we develop our understanding of the Seth material and experience it in our daily lives, change starts showing itself here and there because we start to trust here and there. But what we need ultimately is full, unilateral trust. And Seth tells us, “...That trust is within you whether or not you recognize it, for it gives you your present experience; and no matter how your mind questions, it resides securely in the great creativity of the soul.”
So what is it we need to trust, in more concrete terms? According to Seth, “...Trust the natural order of being; that conditions are largely conducive to it; that your needs will be met within the circumstances of that natural order; and that you are couched and supported.” And, “...You must trust your own nature, for it has a purpose.” And, “What is needed is a basic trust in the nature of vitality, and faith that all elements of experience are used for a greater good.” He says more than that, of course, but those quotes seem to cover the basic elements.
And do we have any wiggle room with a full commitment to trust, perhaps, like we said above, just trusting here and there? Yeah, sure. :-) Our friend and advisor says, “If you cannot trust that which keeps you alive, what can you trust?” And, “You cannot equivocate. You either trust the self or you do not.” And one of my favorites, because it so sounds like Seth and makes me smile each time I read it: “You must begin to trust the self some time. I suggest you do it now.”
So, yes, it is the self that must come to be trusted, not in selected instances but always. When we create an event, uneasy or not, we must trust that there is purpose and meaning behind it. When we ask for understanding and clarity, we must trust that it will always be forthcoming. When we feel an impulse, we must trust that there is good intent driving it. When we need healing, psychic or physical, we must trust that we are fully capable of creating a path that fits our needs. When we seek new direction, we must trust probabilities to open that guide us. - So much to trust, and this is only a small portion of it.
But overall, we must see that it is our self that makes these intimacies of interaction happen because of who and what our self is. That is the bottom line. Who and what is the self, and what rightful power does it hold because of it? We must accept a new, broader definition of the self...and trust it.
And our friend takes the final word today, suggesting the great implications to our individually learning to trust our self and what it means to our reality: “Society would be restructured if the self were trusted.”
As usual, following are the gathered Seth quotes on today’s subject, and they only hint at everything Seth has to say about it. Also included are some lines that use the word “faith,” because Seth made a comment that the words faith and trust are interchangeable.
Hope to see you in May for the next to the last Seth Talk entry, and in some ways it’s an extension of this one because it’s on living a safe universe. And how the heck can we possibly do that without trust? More good Seth quotes and clarifications coming your way soon, folks!
10. Seth on Trust
In each person, the ultimate and unassailable and unquenchable power of All That Is is individualized, and dwells in time.
A portion of All That Is resides within and is a part of every consciousness. Every consciousness is therefore cherished and protected individually.
There are no real rules to be followed that will bring you into…an encounter with the present moment of reality – only a trust in the nature of your being.
And that trust is within you whether or not you recognize it, for it gives you your present experience; and no matter how your mind questions, it resides securely in the great creativity of the soul.
If you cannot trust that which keeps you alive, what can you trust?
…You must trust your own nature, for it has a purpose.
…Trust the natural order of being; that conditions are largely conducive to it; that your needs will be met within the circumstances of that natural order; and that you are couched and supported.
You cannot trust yourself and not trust yourself at the same time, without coming into some difficulty.
You cannot equivocate. You either trust the self or you do not.
What is needed is a basic trust in the nature of vitality, and faith that all elements of experience are used for a greater good.
Some people always feel safe and protected even when the events of their lives do not seem favorable.
Regardless of their own doubts and worries, such people feel themselves supported, and feel that in the end everything will work out to their advantage.
They take it for granted that their needs will be met, and that the universe is well-disposed toward them.
Every event serves a purpose. Every event is offered for a reason. What is good? What is bad?
The soul constantly creates the body, and each individual on the face of the earth at any given time places his or her trust in that reality.
One of the greatest detriments to mental and physical well-being is the unfortunate belief that any unfavorable situation is bound to get worse instead of better.
The body is equipped, ideally, to rid itself of any diseases, and to maintain its stability into advanced old age, with only gradual overall change.
In these ideal terms, death would involve a closing down of your physical house; it would not be crumbling about you.
It is far better to trust, for you open up Framework 2 so that benefits become available that might otherwise not be.
…He (Ruburt) did not have the courage of his convictions, and really made no attempt to act upon them. Had he left the gallery when his novel was published, he would by now have one and a half times his present income from writing. …
He would have been acting out of expectancy, in league with subconscious as well as conscious need, and the impetus of wanting money would have given it to him, if he closed off the other means. He did not.
When you begin trusting yourselves, you start by taking it for granted that to some extent at least you have not trusted yourself or your impulses in the past.
When you learn to trust your feelings and your impulses, something very strange happens. They turn quite trustworthy.
…In your larger picture there are no errors, for each action, pleasant or not, will be redeemed.
And if it seems that a trust is betrayed in an individual case, the overall picture will prove to be far different.
You must begin to trust yourself sometime. I suggest you do it now.
Society would be restructured if the self were trusted.
Your exterior improvements are the result of inner workings, and they represent the growth of inner confidence.
Natural optimism is a power in the individual and in the world. It believes in triumph, in pleasant, unpredictable surprises, in unexpected solutions, joyful occurrences.
You begin to glimpse a promised land – a land of psyche and reality that represents unimpeded nature.
Miracles are nature unimpeded.
Many of you keep searching for some seemingly remote spiritual inner self that you can trust and look to for help and support, but all the while you distrust the familiar self with which you have such intimate contact. You set up divisions between portions of the self that are unnecessary.
I am saying that you and every individual is in control of their own destiny. You are in control, you are not moved by other forces.
Spiritual knowledge and psychic wisdom are the natural result of a sense of self-unity.
Until you have faith in yourself, you can have no real faith in the universe or in All That Is.
…Faith is the agent in which growth can happen.
…A state of grace is provided you in which you can take action without care, without the anticipation of impediments.
Faith in a creative, fulfilling, desired end – sustained faith – literally draws from the universe all of the necessary ingredients, all of the elements however staggering in number, all of the details, and then inserts into physical life the impulses, dreams, chance meetings, motivations, or whatever is necessary so that the desired end then falls into place as a completed pattern.
May 4, 2011 * Eleventh Entry
Living a Safe Universe: The Safe Universe
Seth: “The one-line official consciousness with which you are familiar, says ‘The world is not safe. I cannot trust it. Nor can I trust the conditions of experience, or the condition of my own existence, nor can I trust myself.... And therefore I must protect myself, and I must set up my defense in whatever way I can, to protect myself in a universe that I cannot trust, and to protect myself from a self that is evil and flawed.”
What constitutes an unsafe universe? If All That Is had perfected an unsafe universe as the model for its creations, what would it look like? One of the most obvious frameworks of such a universe would be an abundance of fear, since that’s the emotion engendered by a lack of safety. And that would be closely followed by the creation of seemingly endless protections against all that is feared. With fears and protections in place, the consciousness inhabiting such a model could go unhappily about the business of creating its reality.
But All That Is instead created a safe universe, one completely devoid of the need to fear, where protections were not only unnecessary, but quite contradictory to the safe-framework model, and one where consciousness could happily go about the business of creating its reality.
Seth tells us we live in a safe universe, and he tells us this is a psychic truth. He’s not saying, however, that our personal universe is always seen as safe, simply because we have the free will to play at not being safe, if it suits our needs (i.e., resonates with our thoughts, emotions and imaginings). But underneath our creations is a reality of complete safety, always inviolate.
So which do we choose, a safe universe or an unsafe one? As Seth asks us, “Which you? Which world?”
Seth says, “When people are convinced that the self is untrustworthy or that the universe is not safe, instead of luxuriating in the use of their abilities, exploring the physical and mental environments, they begin to pull in their realities – to contract their abilities, to over-control their environments. They become frightened people.”
So fear is definitely the issue that needs to be resolved, and not just a fear here and there, but a whole new mindset that scoffs at the idea of fear. Our personal safe universe is of our own making, but we can’t take it half way and expect to live a reality free of fear. Like Seth says, “You cannot equivocate. You cannot say, ‘I live in a safe universe but but but but’ anything. The threat will follow you and erupt in one way or another.”
Seth goes on to tell us, “You have an entire civilization and world set up about those beliefs I have just given you: that the universe is not safe; that you must defend yourselves from enemies that come from without, and worst of all, from enemies that are within. And so indeed do you feel uneasy, and set up your barriers, and run as fast as you can, in whatever way given you, from those enemies that are the result of a one-line official kind of consciousness.”
Believing in a safe universe is a first step for us, albeit a huge first step. It immediately eliminates the belief of outside forces harming us – whether those forces be people, events, strange powers or, not insignificantly, even the past. It puts the responsibility of “un-safety” squarely on our shoulders – which is exactly where it needs to be. How else can we change unpleasant circumstances unless we take responsibility for their creation? And how very fortunate are we to have such a get-out-of-jail-free card? We must truly believe we have the ability to change our circumstances. Why? Because we can.
According to Seth, “When you thoroughly understand what is meant by the entire safe universe concept, then the physical, cultural climate is understood as a medium through which the ideal can be expressed. The ideal is meaningless if it is not physically manifest to one degree or another. The ideal seeks expression.”
So, it’s up to us as to which world we choose to inhabit, the one that is basic to the safe nature of the universe, or the one that is unnaturally created in line with our fears. Whichever we choose, we are responsible for its expression in our reality, because the “ideal” is always expressed. Which us? Which expressed ideal? Which world?
Speaking of worlds to inhabit that reflect a safe universe, I find in Jane's wonderful little novel, Oversoul Seven and the Museum of Time, a model to aspire to. In it, Oversoul Seven and a rather motley group of his twentieth-century aspects come together in a very odd set of circumstances.
From Seven's broader perspective, he realizes that underlying the surface events that they are all involved in is the real drama, and it's about something called the Codicils. It becomes Seven's task to figure out what the Codicils are and why they're so important, and then to secure them in time and space for future generations.
Seven ends up fast-forwarding through time to the twenty-fifth century, where yet another of his aspects resides. This person, called Monarch, is the head of an archeological dig at which the Codicils were discovered some 200 years previously, and which altered civilization as it was then known.
In honor of the Codicils and their tremendous impact on humanity, Monarch built a replica of a house from the nineteenth century where the Codicils were first penned—and this replicated house became a world museum which held the Codicils, and it was called the Museum of Time.
It’s a wonderful story and full of learning for all of us. But most important to us today is how Monarch's twenty-fifth century world functions. Paranoia has not been felt for decades. Crime is unknown to the people. Indeed, at one point Monarch thinks to himself that no thievery has been committed in his lifetime. He goes on to remember that all social diseases have been eliminated for over a century.
Monarch says that the causes of such things have been done away with almost naturally, as humankind taught itself about the self and its own potentials and abilities.
And certainly we Seth readers are on that journey. We started it with our first Seth book, and we’ve come a long way. But Monarch’s world is one where the safe universe concept is a given, where it’s practiced, not just accepted in theory; where a complete trust in everything important is the mode of the day, like trust in All That Is, like trust in their inner selves, like trust in themselves, like trust in the nature of reality.
The people of Monarch’s world could not have created lives free of fear without that trust – which actually is what gives the safe universe concept life…and reality.
Yes, indeed, a world for us to aspire to.
To live a safe universe takes a profound belief in and trust of the self. And that’s why we’ll end Seth Talk next time, our last entry, with our redefinition of the self, the one we’ve been building here for the past year. Meanwhile, on to some Seth quotes that so very much help us understand far more deeply what a safe universe entails and what it takes to maintain it. – Go Seth!
11. Seth on The Safe Universe
The one-line official consciousness with which you are familiar says, “The world is not safe. I cannot trust it. Nor can I trust the conditions of experience or the conditions of my own existence. Nor can I trust myself.”
You have an entire civilization and world set up about those beliefs I have just given you: that the universe is not safe; that you must defend yourselves from enemies that come from without, and worst of all, from enemies that are within.
And so indeed do you feel uneasy, and set up your barriers, and run as fast as you can, in whatever way given you, from those enemies that are the result of a one-line official kind of consciousness.
The one-line stage of consciousness was necessary... But that stage contained within it its own impetus. It set up challenges that could not be solved at that stage of consciousness, and that would automatically lead you into other strands of awareness. Only then can you say – and listen, now – 'I live in a safe universe.’
The belief in an unsafe universe sets up certain habits of resistance, and more practically, of self-protection. The resistance is protective. It shows itself in fears that seem perfectly realistic, and indeed highly practical.
In an unsafe universe you run your personal life along certain lines. You do not trust good fortune; indeed, it seems practical not to trust it. It does not seem to belong in an unsafe universe.
In an unsafe universe, you believe that something good will be fought over.
You are so used to feeling unsafe that you consider alarm of one kind or another as a realistic approach to life.
The idea of prevention is always based upon fear – for you do not want to prevent something that is joyful.
You try to say, “The universe is safe,” and then you watch the news on television or read the newspaper and you say, “What lie is this? How can the universe be safe when I read about wholesale murder, war, trickery and greed?"
You cannot say “I live in a safe universe, but I am threatened by the economic problems of my state,” move to Pennsylvania, or to Timbuktu. It will make no difference, because the threat will follow you and erupt in one way or another while you believe in that system.
As long as you believe that you dwell in a universe that is a threat, you must defend yourself against it.
As long as you believe that the self is flawed...you must also defend yourself against yourself, and how can you then trust the voice of the psyche?
When people are convinced that the self is untrustworthy or that the universe is not safe, instead of luxuriating in the use of their abilities, exploring the physical and mental environments, they begin to pull in their realities – to contract their abilities, to over-control their environments. They become frightened people.
When you begin to realize that you do indeed live in a safe universe, these patterns of reaction begin to break up.
The safe universe becomes “practical,” where before it was not considered so. This means a great deal of energy is released.
You cannot equivocate. You cannot say, “I live in a safe universe but but but but” anything. The threat will follow you and erupt in one way or another.
You do live in a safe universe. You do. You need not believe that the world of the newspapers does not exist, but you must believe that the world cannot threaten you.
By such a belief you so atttract probabilities that you actually miss the threats that appear at one level of reality. In so doing, you not only help yourself but others as well, for they perceive your safety, and look for the reasons.
The panic reaction you sometimes imagine helps remind you of the panic in which many people spend whole portions of their lifetimes. The way to help them is to perfect your own craft – your beliefs – so that others can use them also.
You live in a safe universe. This is not only a valid psychic truth, but is the basis for cellular integrity.
You need not say, “The universe is safe,” for, at your present levels that will only enrage you! You say instead, “I live in a safe universe,” and so you shall.
Ruburt said somewhere, "Sometimes you lean into the universe and feel it give." It is indeed yielding. It is not against you, nor is the world.
You are each gradually leaving the official level of consciousness behind, in that its beliefs no longer serve as your criteria of reality.
That reality exists, but it is not yours any longer.
You are tuning into another channel, experiencing a reality that is not only quite as real, but presents a far truer picture.
It is as if you were on a hilltop, surrounded by clear brilliant air. You could still look down at the foggy valley below, and see that it existed. You would also realize that you were not down there anymore.
You cannot be hounded from one level of reality to another by a fear that you do not understand. You cannot be threatened in this life by so-called past existences.
The universe is with you and not against you.
Your fellow men are with you and not against you. When you realize that, then you reach those portions of your fellow men that are with you.
The universe does not give up on any of its creatures.
(Seth, humorously): I said it was a safe universe. I never said it was a perfect one.
Some people always feel safe and protected even when the events of their lives do not seem favorable.
Regardless of their own doubts and worries, such people feel themselves supported, and feel that in the end everything will work out to their advantage.
The greatest possible development allows the greatest possible security, for such development shows itself physically and in all other manners.
Abilities must be ultimately tied in with your greatest inner aspirations – not tied down by your fears.
Within yourself you recognize the validity of your own being. It is inviolate. It cannot be invaded or superseded by others, unless you acquiesce to such circumstances.
There is nothing in mental or physical reality that you ever need fear, for you are filled with the vitality of All That Is, and it protects you. You must simply allow it to do so.
A state of grace is provided you in which you can take action without care, without the anticipation of impediments.
When you thoroughly understand what is meant by the entire safe universe concept, then the physical, cultural climate is understood as a medium through which the ideal can be expressed. The ideal is meaningless if it is not physically manifest to one degree or another. The ideal seeks expression.
The safe universe search itself would lead to a completely different set of values and a new belief system.
June 3, 2011 * Twelfth Entry (Final)
Living a Safe Universe: Redefining the Self
A Psychic Manifesto, by Jane Roberts
(from The God of Jane)
My life is its own definition.
So is yours.
Let us leave the priests to their hells and heavens,
And confine the scientists to their dying universe
And accidently created stars.
Let us each dare to open our dream’s door,
And explore the unofficial thresholds, where we begin.
______________________________________________________________________
When all of Seth’s words are read and absorbed, when all of the intricacies of his statements are clarified, when all is said and done, his bottom line message is clear: We live in a safe universe. It is a message of such startling proportions and certitude that we stand in awe of its scope of possibilities, for ourselves and for our world.
And then reality sets in, a moment at a time. We fully believe Seth – that is definitely not the issue. The issue, for many of us, is that we know we live in a safe universe, no problem; it’s just that our personal universe, our reality, doesn’t always reflect that safety. We’re still creating those haphazard and unenlightened constructions Seth talks about, the ones that take us under, that seem to harm our way of life, the ones that reflect depression or illness or desperation or hopelessness. The ones that come from a belief in cause and effect.
And make no mistake, that is exactly where they come from. I am assuming you’ve read all of Seth Talk to date, so you know quite well, thanks to Seth, that the underlying issue that causes our unenlightened constructions is our acceptance of linear time. Or, perhaps better said, our non-conscious use of subjective time. Because on one level we soundly reject the idea of linear time/cause and effect – we know it’s a fallacy constructed as a camouflage framework for physical reality. It’s just that we haven’t trained ourselves sufficiently to change our knee-jerk reaction to that old belief yet. It still overrides our acceptance of the spacious present, or at least our conscious working relationship with said present.
Yet as we so well know, when the spacious present becomes our platform of being, when we really make the conscious shift in our thinking that allows us to use our knowledge of the spacious present, we’re home free – we’re in the ultimate position to create our realities with conscious understanding. And that, according to Seth, is his main message to the world and the next step in the evolution of our consciousness.
And that is also why I chose to write Seth Talk, as I mentioned earlier, from the “top” down, rather than the “bottom” up – from All That Is to identity to consciousness, and a discussion of the process of creation, which is identical for all consciousness, no matter whether it is in physical reality or is a grand psychic gestalt that creates worlds. That is, I didn’t start with the physical self awash in its beliefs in a concrete physical world honed through cause and effect, and try to talk our way out of it. I chose, instead, to start by virtually ignoring the physical world except as effects caused by consciousness in the spacious present.
And why? Because it’s the true, the one-and-only, picture. Everything else is camouflage, so why on earth waste our time by dismantling illusion in a quest to find truth? Why not skip to the truth and determine instead how it creates illusion? That’s the ultimate quest, the freeing quest; in my opinion, the only quest worth its salt in maximum knowledge.
But it’s always more than just about the quest, isn’t it? Why quest unless there’s a practical reason, a comfortable outcome that has meaning to us in our physical reality existence? So a quest of the sort Seth suggests can end up as our practical ticket out of debilitating experiences and into a more steady stream of refreshing outcomes. So questing isn’t the answer, it’s the path. And what’s the million dollar magical ingredient that pushes us from questing into change so great it results in those refreshing outcomes? There’s only one answer that fits the criteria, and it is trust.
Seth Talk has been all about living a safe universe by redefining the self. And to what purpose? So we can trust. Because that’s where the quest ends. It can start with trusting All That Is, but in some ways that’s a remote kind of trust, removed from us and our daily interactive lives. It can continue with trusting our inner self and maybe our entity, but that’s also a remote kind of trust, because, like trusting All That Is, it’s not called into moment-by-moment use throughout our days. And the same goes for trusting a safe universe and the flow of creation. Unless we bring trust closer to home it stays a quest, not an outcome.
The final leap of faith that takes us from questing to results has to be the trusting of our self, an intimate, always constant trusting. As Seth tells us in many different ways, we are miracles of creation and creators of miracles. We are All That Is expressing itself as identity which is conscious of itself, using action to create realities. Because we are part of All That Is, we share its ability not only to create but to be within our creations. Or, better said, its inability to be apart from its creations
And if we cannot be apart, then we must understand and trust the package of divine gifts that define us. Since we cannot be separated from All That Is, we are integral to its three dilemmas of creation. We come from identity and action and consciousness, and we use the spacious present, significances, suggestion, the moment point, probabilities and our mental acts as our playing field of creation.
But we not only use this playing field, we are the playing field, because the playing field is part of All That Is. We are our spacious present, our significances, our suggestions, our moment point, our probabilities and our mental acts. We are our own reality, never found anywhere but within our own identity. And, of course, we are our inner self and entity, we are the guiding force of our self as well as being our self.
This, then, is the redefinition of the self. This is who we are and why we can create. We are creation, not simply the created. When we forget we are creation, we become so entwined in the created part of our self that we stop trusting. Trust must come from remembering – and living – the truth of our self moment by moment. It cannot stay remote and make any sustainable difference in our life.
Seth says, “You sit within the miracle of yourselves and ask for signs.” It’s our time to stop asking for signs and live our miracle. It’s time to trust our amazing selves. Seth says it can be effortless. Let us believe him and make it so. Let us seriously and with enthusiasm explore the unofficial thresholds where we begin and which define us and our creative abilities.
Seth:
* You cannot equivocate. You either trust the self or you do not.
* You must trust the self some time. I suggest you do it now.
Years ago I set a goal, and it was actually words spoken by William James in Jane’s marvelous book, The Afterdeath Journal of an American Philosopher: The Worldview of William James. In it he talks about his life after death and how different he feels knowing he’s surrounded by what he calls the Atmospheric Presence or Divine Mood (Seth’s version of All That Is). He says, “A steady confidence sustains me and a stronger sense of balance than I’ve ever known.”
Almost everything I now do with the Seth material has its purpose in that quote. It has become, for me, the embodiment of my own purpose for this lifetime. I see it as the ultimate possibility found in physical reality, the perfect platform upon which to consciously stand, the platform defined by trust of self. The perfect platform, and the only one, in my opinion, upon which to build a sustainable personal safe universe.
Thank you so much for making this long Seth Talk journey with me. As always happens when I write about the Seth material, I learn so very much about myself. So it has been a pleasure and a learning experience sharing time and thoughts with you. I may be back later in the year with other subjects that capture my attention, but for now I’ll sign off, wishing you a fine summer filled with marvelous creations.
My sincere best to you!
Lynda
SECTION TWO: What Would Seth Say To Me Today?, started October 18, 2011
Like many of you, I've been a constant reader of the Seth material for a long time, actually decades. I always have a book close by, and consider the material a daily part of my life. Years ago, pretty much out of desperation, I found myself wishing for much more personal contact with Seth's words in a way that would focus them down from the long quotes and deep treatment of subjects that brought such overall understanding to me.
Almost from my introduction to Jane's work, I'd been taking Seth quotes along on long contemplative walks, reading them in Psy-Time, and even kept a stack handy in the car to think about while driving. Now I wanted more, I wanted to have Seth’s words directed to me in a way that not only would help clear my mind of a given problem or concern, but could be more easily integrated into my mind as my blueprint for moment-by-moment thinking. So I wrote at the top of a page, “What Would Seth Say To Me Today?”, then went into the books looking for mostly one-liners and other very short quotes that addressed my need of the moment. Over time I expanded the subject line to include specific topics I needed immediate help with, such as my favorite, “What Would Seth Say To Me Today About Trust?”
So, what I’ve decided to do is share some of these “What Would Seth Say...” papers with you over the coming months. I’ll always announce them in my newsletters to our email list, so if you’re not on it and would like to get this advance notice, please do sign up.
You’ll see that some of the quotes will show up in several documents over time, simply because they fit what I felt I needed to hear or reaffirm at that point in my reality. If you decide to use the papers like I do, then here’s what I’d suggest: Print the docs, and during your quiet times or before sleep, read what Seth is telling you personally. Maybe you’ll only read a couple of the quotes each time because you want to think about what they mean to you, or maybe you’ll cover a whole page of them at once, but whatever you do, be ready for the clarity and warmth and direction Seth brings to you in that moment.
First Entry: October 18, 2011
What Would Seth Say To Me Today?
You recognized the overall vitality of our material, but you did not realize that it meant a complete reorientation of your attitudes. You did not realize that you were being presented, not merely with an alternate view of reality, but with the closest approximation you could get of what reality was, and how it worked, and what it meant.
You must become consciously aware of what you tell yourself is true every moment of the day, for that is the reality that you project outward.
You stand within the miracle of yourself and ask for signs.
You are not now what you were ten minutes earlier. You are not the same being physically, psychologically, spiritually, or psychically, and ten minutes later you will be different again.
(You are) given the greatest gift of all: You get exactly what you want to get. You create from nothing the experience that is your own.
All you have to do is realize your own freedom. You form the reality that you know, not esoterically, not symbolically, not philosophically. Some great Oversoul doesn’t form it for you.
(You are) free to accept and develop, from the miraculous banks of reality, those experiences and emotions that you want, and to reject those you do not want.
Forget the cringing self that you sometimes are and remember, instead, the magic essence of your own being that sings even now through your fingertips. That is the reality which you are seeking.
In the inner world, your desires bring about their own fulfillment, effortlessly. That inner world, and the exterior one, intersect and interweave. They only appear separate.
In the physical world, time may have to elapse, or whatever. Conditions may have to change, or whatever. But the desire will bring about the proper results.
The feeling of effortlessness is what is important.
You know that you hallucinate the room.
Your entire physical environment comes as naturally out of your inner mind as words come out of your mouth.
The environment expresses your personality. This is a literal and not symbolic truth.
So environment is not a separate thing in itself, but the result of perceptive patterns, and these are determined by psychological structure.
Mental images, accompanied by strong emotion, are blueprints therefore upon which a corresponding physical object, or condition or event, will appear.
The intensity of feeling or thought or mental image is, therefore, the important element in determining its subsequent physical materialization.
The more intense the core (expectation), the sooner the materialization.
You get what you concentrate upon.
The concentration upon a problem brings about a kind of mechanical repetition, a repeated type of hypnotic focus.
You change your focus point. You change what you consider significant.
Your goals are usually conceptualized desires, and once formed they act in a fashion like magnets, drawing from those vast fields of interrelatedness the kinds of conditions best suited to their fulfillment.
You are not “programmed.” Nothing happens because it must happen.
Those desires of yours that are fitting to your nature will automatically come to pass, unless you block them through disadvantageous beliefs. They cannot be blocked by others. If they seem to be blocked by others, that assumption is incorrect, based on ignorance.
You cannot be hounded from one level of reality to another by a fear that you do not understand. You cannot be threatened in this life by so-called past existences.
You set your problems in the hope that you will solve them. You did not set them like millstones about your neck.
You say, “I don’t want any of this”. The inner self realizes, however, that potentials are present that would not necessarily be present under other circumstances – abilities that can not only help you but other individuals, and even society at large.
Until you are honest with yourself and become consciously aware of yourself, you cannot honestly relate with others; you will project upon them your own fears and prejudices.
You must be willing to change all the way from the old system of orientation to the new, if you want the new approach to work fully for you in your lives.
You forget your home so that you can return to it enriched.
To understand the multidimensional self is to use it.
To change your world you must change your thoughts.
Second Entry: January 1, 2012:
Your goals are usually conceptualized desires, and once formed they act…like magnets, drawing from those vast fields of interrelatedness…conditions best suited to their fulfillment.
Those desires of yours that are fitting to your nature will automatically come to pass, unless you block them through disadvantageous beliefs.
They cannot be blocked by others. If they seem to be blocked by others, that assumption is incorrect, based on ignorance.
When the intellect is used properly, it thinks of a goal and automatically arouses other levels of communication unknown to it, so that all forces work together toward the achievement.
When the intellect is improperly used, it is as if the intellect feels required to somehow know or personally direct all of those inner processes.
The intellect alone cannot bring about the fulfillment of those goals. It must count upon those other properties that it does indeed set in motion – that spontaneous array of inner complexity, that orderly magic.
The intellect imagines a goal and imaginatively then attains it.
The vital word is ease or effortlessness.
Say, “That is not my realm. I will leave the solution to that problem or goal where it belongs.”
Forget the questions and the mood that accompanies them in order to create the proper kind of atmosphere at another level of consciousness.
If the proper creative and magical orientation is kept primarily in mind, other things will fall into place.
Once you begin consciously working with the (spacious present), help, support, solutions – all begin to come, for you line up your conscious faculties with your unconscious ones, in the most beneficial way.
Even when nothing shows in physical reality, all the proper circumstances and conditions are being brought together.
Because the organization is so different, you must forget cause and effect, for things fall into place almost in a circular fashion.
They may appear suddenly, or they may not appear in the order in which you think they should, because your vision must be limited in comparison to that available in the spacious present.
All energy at the inner self’s disposal is concentrated to bring about the results asked for by the conscious mind.
Your inner self brings about your desire, but also considers it in the light of your entire life situation, so that it comes about in the best way - and time - possible.
Your conscious goals fit in with your unconscious natural goals, then – the primary ones given at birth. You are right with yourself again.
Expectancy and inner confidence always bring the best results with the least effort.
The conscious mind does not have to have all the information required. It only needs to have the faith that means are available, even if those means are beyond its own scope of activity.
Comparatively speaking, a small number of clearly felt connections with the (spacious present) can undo a year’s doubts.
Natural optimism is a power in the individual and in the world. It believes in triumph, in pleasant, unpredictable surprises, in unexpected solutions, and joyful occurrences.
The power of the universe is a personal one. When your intent is clear, events fall into place, from the most minute to the most momentous, that bring your desires to pass.
To act in an independent manner, you must begin to initiate action that you want to occur physically.
You change your focus point. You change what you consider significant.
This is done by combining belief, emotion and imagination, and forming them into a mental picture of the desired result.
Concentrate upon the goal, rather than the means of attaining it, and you will attain it.
It is your feelings and your impulses that you trust that will lead you to whatever you want.
When you learn to trust your feelings and your impulses, something very strange happens. They turn quite trustworthy.
Your clear intent sets forces working for you. The clear intent takes it for granted that the results will indeed be highly beneficial, and not cause detriments.
Thoughts of abundance affect the inner order of events.
You can think of what you will do with the money – how you cause it to increase life’s enjoyment, which will in turn benefit you and others.
Such imaginings can be quite helpful.
Ask and you shall receive. Ask half-heartedly and you shall receive in exactly that measure.
I would like you to give suggestions before sleep that in one way or another during the dream state your knowledge will be increased.
You doubt your ability to impress your desires upon the (spacious present) properly. Your faith is not secure here.
Rupurt did not have to do anything of a conscious nature, except to state his intentions.
The physical planning carried out, then, is in line with the envisioned future, and brings it about.
You are at times ignoring significant clues that say your desires are being formed, seeing them instead as insignificant.
Now that causes an additional tension - and impediments - that slow down the process to whatever degree, which is exactly what you want to avoid.
You must be willing to change all the way from the old system of orientation to the new, if you want the new approach to work fully for you in your lives.
Organize your reality according to your playfulness, according to your dreams, according to your joy, according to your hopes. And then you can help those who organize their realities according to their fears.
Faith in a creative, fulfilling, desired end – sustained faith – literally draws from the universe all of the necessary ingredients, all of the elements however staggering in number, all of the details, and then inserts into physical life the impulses, dreams, chance meetings, motivations, or whatever is necessary so that the desired end then falls into place as a completed pattern.
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