The following is from Seth Session 159 (Volume 4 of the Early Sessions):
"I am going to take this instance of your friend's illness however to make a few points of my own, some that may not be too well received. A cure of any kind will never depend upon any given treatment. It will in all cases depend upon the belief on the part of the sufferer that he can be cured. It will depend upon his desire to be cured. It will depend upon the strength of the purpose that an illness serves. It will depend upon, in the last analysis, the individual's own ability to mobilize his own energies, for only these will effect a cure.
"Any physician of any kind can only help a sufferer mobilize these energies and direct them. A sufferer has adopted an illness into his own self-image, through suggestion, which to a large degree he himself has given. He has caused the illness, whether it be organic or otherwise, and only suggestion will rid him of it.
"It is indeed quite time for us to discuss the true nature and reality of what is so loosely called suggestion. We have indeed spoken much concerning the focus of energy, and a sufferer is truly entranced with the idea of his illness, and it is only this which basically allows the illness to continue. He focuses upon it both consciously and unconsciously.
"An illness is a failure to solve a mental or psychological problem in the correct manner. As long as the illness continues the problem remains unsolved, and a vicious circle is maintained because of this unwholesome balance. The sufferer focuses upon the illness, therefore avoiding his task of functioning upon the problem.
"The energy that would be used to solve the problem instead is spent maintaining the illness. It is therefore necessary that an attempt be made as soon as possible to solve the problem, which of course must first be discovered by the ego, which has avoided it.
"This first attempt to discover the problem, automatically and because of its nature, immediately aids the sufferer in changing the focus of his attention away from the symptom, which he has himself formed, and already the symptom is weaker.
"The trouble with many health programs for recovery is that they cause the sufferer to focus upon his illness more than ever. The unsolved problem is therefore pushed further away."
... "So-called suggestion causes not only sickness but health.
"The term itself is a very poor one. We will go much more deeply into this as the whole discussion continues. Needless to say, suggestion operates as strongly and as realistically and as practically within an atom, or a toad, or a leaf, as it does in man.
"Our material concerning the construction of the physical universe and of physical matter in general may now, perhaps, give you an idea of how important suggestion is. Also consider our material on expectation, for indeed expectation comes closer, as a term, than does suggestion.
"Our focus of energy is vital, both yours and mine. Expectation to a large extent determines the manner in which we will use this energy, and the types of constructions that will be formed. Your friend's ulcer for example is his problem in its entirety, constructed into the physical matter of his own organism.
"This is to be taken literally.
"The problem, as a mental manipulation, has not been settled. The resulting construction, therefore, is a faithful replica of his distortion.
"In some types of illnesses such distortions are mirrored or reflected, so to speak, many times within one organism. We will have much more to say along these lines."
Friday, September 30, 2011
Friday, September 23, 2011
The Nature of Action and Idea Construction
From Session 157 of the Early Session of the Seth Material (Book 4):
"The nature of action cannot be altered.
"I am speaking now of the basic nature of reality, and not of any particular action, for particular actions can indeed be altered by other actions, and no given action occurs in a solitary manner.
"This last is extremely important. Actions are perceived as realities according to the nature, not of a given action, but according to the nature of the perceiver. His viewpoint and his field of reference will at all times colour to some extent or another the nature of the reality which he perceives.
"This may sound contradictory. We have stated that a reality remains as it is, unchanged even though the perceiver, because of his sense apparatus, may perceive it in a limited or distorted fashion. While this is to some extent true, we can now delve into the matter somewhat more fully. In our later sessions for example, we have mentioned that the desire for duplication must always result in a distortion, but this distortion is also the basis therefore for a new reality.
"Now, putting these two statements together, you see that an individual will perceive basic reality, in the main, only from his own reference point, and through his outer sense apparatus. His perception of basic reality in one way does not change the nature of that reality or of that action, as it exists independently of his field of reference. However, the very distortions that occur in his attempt to perceive this reality results in a new reality. What he perceives then is legitimate, for his very perception of it is the basis for its existence.
"Any individual reacts to a reality as he perceives it to be, and he perceives it to be since he has himself created it from basic reality. The very distortions therefore form many of the characteristic differences which for him gives his reality its peculiar nature. Those whose actions set them apart drastically from others within your system, and who seem in one way or another mentally unbalanced, are often told they must relate themselves more clearly with reality as it exists.
"This however is not their problem, for like all other individuals they perceive a reality that they have created. Their problem therefore is a distortive one. It is not related to their attitude toward reality as a whole, but it is intimately connected with the reality which they have created. They are indeed relating to that reality very well. The reality, however, is much more distorted than usual, and this is one of the main problems.
"It is only because their realities are so distorted that the difficulty is discovered. I mentioned many sessions back that your physical universe, so taken for granted, is actually at least as diverse and multitudinous as the dream system. Within the physical universe you merely focus upon similarities and ignore the vast differences that exist. Each reality is completely unique for every individual, and through his own actions he attempts therefore to communicate the nature of this reality of his to his fellows.
"We have discussed the ways in which telepathy operates in this respect, and we have to some extent discussed the ways in which the appearance of cohesiveness is maintained. In many cases the individual who is called mentally unbalanced is simply one whose individual reality is so composed that it is impossible for others to find in his expression of it any similarity with their own. The error is one of inadequate idea construction."
"The nature of action cannot be altered.
"I am speaking now of the basic nature of reality, and not of any particular action, for particular actions can indeed be altered by other actions, and no given action occurs in a solitary manner.
"This last is extremely important. Actions are perceived as realities according to the nature, not of a given action, but according to the nature of the perceiver. His viewpoint and his field of reference will at all times colour to some extent or another the nature of the reality which he perceives.
"This may sound contradictory. We have stated that a reality remains as it is, unchanged even though the perceiver, because of his sense apparatus, may perceive it in a limited or distorted fashion. While this is to some extent true, we can now delve into the matter somewhat more fully. In our later sessions for example, we have mentioned that the desire for duplication must always result in a distortion, but this distortion is also the basis therefore for a new reality.
"Now, putting these two statements together, you see that an individual will perceive basic reality, in the main, only from his own reference point, and through his outer sense apparatus. His perception of basic reality in one way does not change the nature of that reality or of that action, as it exists independently of his field of reference. However, the very distortions that occur in his attempt to perceive this reality results in a new reality. What he perceives then is legitimate, for his very perception of it is the basis for its existence.
"Any individual reacts to a reality as he perceives it to be, and he perceives it to be since he has himself created it from basic reality. The very distortions therefore form many of the characteristic differences which for him gives his reality its peculiar nature. Those whose actions set them apart drastically from others within your system, and who seem in one way or another mentally unbalanced, are often told they must relate themselves more clearly with reality as it exists.
"This however is not their problem, for like all other individuals they perceive a reality that they have created. Their problem therefore is a distortive one. It is not related to their attitude toward reality as a whole, but it is intimately connected with the reality which they have created. They are indeed relating to that reality very well. The reality, however, is much more distorted than usual, and this is one of the main problems.
"It is only because their realities are so distorted that the difficulty is discovered. I mentioned many sessions back that your physical universe, so taken for granted, is actually at least as diverse and multitudinous as the dream system. Within the physical universe you merely focus upon similarities and ignore the vast differences that exist. Each reality is completely unique for every individual, and through his own actions he attempts therefore to communicate the nature of this reality of his to his fellows.
"We have discussed the ways in which telepathy operates in this respect, and we have to some extent discussed the ways in which the appearance of cohesiveness is maintained. In many cases the individual who is called mentally unbalanced is simply one whose individual reality is so composed that it is impossible for others to find in his expression of it any similarity with their own. The error is one of inadequate idea construction."
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Dimensions of action
From Session 156 of the Early Sessions of the Seth Material (Volume 4):
"Now, we will speak again concerning action.
"Our material on the fifth dimension seemed almost infinite to you at the time. That is, the fifth dimension appeared infinite in its complexity, but you see that it is but one dimension within an infinite number of dimensions. For there are infinite possibilities in the patterns which action can of itself form.
"(See the 12th session for Seth's first discussion of the fifth dimension.)
"I do not intend to number indefinitely, or list, an endless number of dimensions of actuality, though we will go into this later to some small degree. I am much more concerned for now that you understand the dimensions of action as they exist within the dream world, within psychological realities, and within other scopes with which you are yourselves somewhat familiar.
"Your experiments with the pendulum are quite helpful to you, in that the subconscious is allowed, through its own action, to make itself more readily available. Your own conscious awareness is increased because you are then aware of inner actions with which the conscious mind had not been familiar. Here we have a coming together of actions, a joining and an immersion of one action within another: the action of the subconscious in answering questions put to it by the conscious mind, (use brain rather than mind), and the acceptance, which is itself action on the part of the consciousness, of the answers received.
"Here the self, by becoming part of greater action, increases its own ability to deal with action. The principle that action acts upon itself is extremely important when we are dealing with psychological action. The principle that action is self-generating, and that it cannot be withdrawn, is also vital in connection with psychological action.
"Energy cannot be retained. It must be discharged. The very attempt to deny an action automatically changes the nature of the action, and also changes the nature of the individual who attempts to deny it. All energy seeks to materialize itself, which is another way of saying that action must act.
"In the psychological realm it goes without saying that a repressed emotion is never really repressed, since action cannot be retained. It must change. The cause of such difficulties lies not in the repression of an emotion, for this is impossible. The emotion in one way or another, will out, but the difficulty lies in the attempt to repress the emotion. This attempt is itself an action.
"There is a term used occasionally to the effect that an emotional block is like a wall. The analogy is an excellent one. I have told you earlier that there are other kinds of structures beside physical structures. Emotions and thoughts have their own structures, that may be manipulated in the same manner that physical objects are manipulated, generally speaking.
"An action has reality, as you know, within every possible field of activity. An emotion has an electrical and chemical structure. This is extremely important. It is not a structure that takes up space as you know it, obviously, but it is a structure nevertheless, and could be compared to the appearance of dream locations.
"(In Volume 2, see the 44th session for material on dream locations.)
"Emotions are a quite natural portion of action, and left to themselves are fluid. They have electrical validity, and shape. When an attempt is made to reject an emotion, this does not affect the emotion half as much as it affects the individual involved. The act of rejection in itself is detrimental and doomed to failure.
"You may perhaps come closer to understanding how these psychological structures are manipulated if you consider the same sort of structures as they exist as dream objects in sleep.
"If you toss a ball in a dream, neither the self that tosses the ball, nor the ball, exist in any space structure as you know it. In somewhat the same manner are emotion structures handled. A refusal or a denial, an attempt not to handle a particular emotional structure involves action. The refusal itself is an action.
"What you have here is an attempt to objectify, or stand apart from action in such a refusal. This is not the fault of the subconscious, but a fault of the ego, which refuses to assimilate or accept a given action. As you know, it is the ego who exists as a result of such objectivity. All the qualities that make up the ego are objectified to that degree, but they are collected about the ego with the ego as centre. When the ego however refuses to accept an emotion as part of itself, it tries one of two actions.
"Either it attempts to return the emotion to a subjective state, or it attempts to objectify it further away from itself. In either case the ego is at fault for not assimilating or accepting the emotion. It is easy to see then that the ego is itself a series of actions, that it is a collection of more or less similar actions, selected from a larger mainstream of other actions.
"You will recall that the ego, while disliking change, is nevertheless dependent for its identity upon change. The ego to a large degree, therefore, chooses during its development those characteristic actions which will form its nature. Because the ego necessarily changes however, actions or emotions which at one time it chose as acceptable, at a later date so to speak it may attempt to deny.
"The habitual pattern or characteristic nature of the ego may then be led to refuse to accept an emotion, at the same time that a pattern has already been set to receive the particular type of emotion. Here the ego fights against itself. Such an emotion may of course be given release through dreams, but this is of limited value to the ego involved, since the ego does not accept the reality of dream existence.
"The strength of the ego actually depends on the flexibility with which it can accept and assimilate ever more complex actions, and give them a unity of its own. An action or emotion not accepted by the ego, but nevertheless a part of it, will always drain energy from the main core of the ego, despite the ego's denial, and energy cannot therefore be used by the ego for the purposes of its own purposeful action.
"The rejected emotion, in other words, will express itself in any case, but it will do so then as a rebel, outside of the organizational directives of the ego itself. Hence for example, actions that appear senseless to the ego are often the results of such unassimilated or denied emotions. At one time or another such emotions were acceptable to the ego. There was an attraction, or the emotion would not have been permitted to enter into a realm close to ego control.
"Inclinations with which the ego has very little liking, for example, are very seldom a problem for the ego, since they remain generally outside of the ego pattern, never having been chosen by it to form a characteristic part of the ego pattern. Obviously, to some degree every conceivable sort of inclination is latent to the ego, but it is apparent that each ego has its peculiar set of adopted characteristics, its set of characteristics that it sometimes accepts and sometimes rejects; and it is obvious that some characteristics simply seem alien to any given ego.
"It is therefore with the second alternating group of characteristics that most such problems arise. An ego who can, and has at one time or another accepted as part of itself a violent and unruly desire to kill, for example, will not automatically reject the emotion of hatred. He may dislike it, but he will recognize it as a part of himself during whatever period it is assimilated. An ego which once accepted such an idea of violence, and knew it as a possibility of action, such an ego, if he then rejects the conception, can no longer afford, ever, to recognize this once acceptable emotion, for he is only too aware of the action that could have at one time developed.
"It is in this area that such conflicts arise. The man, or ego, who has never really accepted such violence as a part of his action pattern, will usually have no conflicts in this particular line, simply because the inclination was never a strong part of the ego's inner image, and is more or less discarded automatically, along with all those other characteristics or inclinations which are not in his ego pattern.
"This is obviously somewhat simplified, in that the ego constantly changes, and the above examples must be read carefully or their meaning could be misinterpreted. Actions may appear to be separate, but they are all part of other actions, this being of course the basis for all organization, including that of the ego and the inner self.
"Again, it must be remembered that no real boundaries exist, only diversity of function.
"All boundaries, therefore, are apparent boundaries, boundaries in appearance only.
"Groupings of actions of any kind merge into other groupings, both within the physical field and outside of it. All apparent units are merely formed by functions, the functions of action. In this context the ego is also a function of action. There are of course also functions within functions, which should be obvious.
"The ego itself attempts as its function to be the director and centre of other functions. The ego, while considering itself apart from action, is obviously not apart from it. As dreams allow the inner self great freedom, and as in dreams great perspectives of time are available, and great freedom in space, though no space as you know it is involved, so it is possible for the ego itself to achieve the experience of freedom from time and space, if it would only allow itself for a short while to relax the intensity of its objective focus.
"It could still do this and retain its own nature, merely by allowing into its awareness the reality of other actions as a part of its self-image. There is for example no basic reason why the subconscious and the ego cannot communicate to a much larger extent than is now usual. Such communication would result in the acceptance of additional energy and action by the ego, and an expansion of the ego's self-image.
"It was necessary for the ego, in its origins, to objectify itself as much as possible. Now however the stability of the ego, generally speaking, as a part of the human personality is established. It can now afford to be much more elastic, to include, in other words, more and more of reality within its awareness. Such an inclusion would be most beneficial. It would of course however to some extent change the ego, and any change is resisted by the ego.
"Nevertheless the course of future events will move in this direction. It must. The ego must change in this rather basic manner, including other realities within its scope of awareness. There is no basic reason why it cannot add its directive energies to other aspects of the personality, and if it could so expand it would, theoretically, be possible for the ego to become aware of many experiences which have been impossible for it in the past.
"The hope and the possibilities here, as well as some of the dangers, lie in the fact that the ego does indeed change, and is not one specific reality but a series or group of actions, with direction, that have the potentiality for unlimited value fulfilment. The ego will never be less that it is now. It may very well be more. possibilities for development here are very great, but most such possibilities lie still in the future, and only, so far, as possibilities. There is nothing that will force the ego to enlarge the scope of its awareness."
"Now, we will speak again concerning action.
"Our material on the fifth dimension seemed almost infinite to you at the time. That is, the fifth dimension appeared infinite in its complexity, but you see that it is but one dimension within an infinite number of dimensions. For there are infinite possibilities in the patterns which action can of itself form.
"(See the 12th session for Seth's first discussion of the fifth dimension.)
"I do not intend to number indefinitely, or list, an endless number of dimensions of actuality, though we will go into this later to some small degree. I am much more concerned for now that you understand the dimensions of action as they exist within the dream world, within psychological realities, and within other scopes with which you are yourselves somewhat familiar.
"Your experiments with the pendulum are quite helpful to you, in that the subconscious is allowed, through its own action, to make itself more readily available. Your own conscious awareness is increased because you are then aware of inner actions with which the conscious mind had not been familiar. Here we have a coming together of actions, a joining and an immersion of one action within another: the action of the subconscious in answering questions put to it by the conscious mind, (use brain rather than mind), and the acceptance, which is itself action on the part of the consciousness, of the answers received.
"Here the self, by becoming part of greater action, increases its own ability to deal with action. The principle that action acts upon itself is extremely important when we are dealing with psychological action. The principle that action is self-generating, and that it cannot be withdrawn, is also vital in connection with psychological action.
"Energy cannot be retained. It must be discharged. The very attempt to deny an action automatically changes the nature of the action, and also changes the nature of the individual who attempts to deny it. All energy seeks to materialize itself, which is another way of saying that action must act.
"In the psychological realm it goes without saying that a repressed emotion is never really repressed, since action cannot be retained. It must change. The cause of such difficulties lies not in the repression of an emotion, for this is impossible. The emotion in one way or another, will out, but the difficulty lies in the attempt to repress the emotion. This attempt is itself an action.
"There is a term used occasionally to the effect that an emotional block is like a wall. The analogy is an excellent one. I have told you earlier that there are other kinds of structures beside physical structures. Emotions and thoughts have their own structures, that may be manipulated in the same manner that physical objects are manipulated, generally speaking.
"An action has reality, as you know, within every possible field of activity. An emotion has an electrical and chemical structure. This is extremely important. It is not a structure that takes up space as you know it, obviously, but it is a structure nevertheless, and could be compared to the appearance of dream locations.
"(In Volume 2, see the 44th session for material on dream locations.)
"Emotions are a quite natural portion of action, and left to themselves are fluid. They have electrical validity, and shape. When an attempt is made to reject an emotion, this does not affect the emotion half as much as it affects the individual involved. The act of rejection in itself is detrimental and doomed to failure.
"You may perhaps come closer to understanding how these psychological structures are manipulated if you consider the same sort of structures as they exist as dream objects in sleep.
"If you toss a ball in a dream, neither the self that tosses the ball, nor the ball, exist in any space structure as you know it. In somewhat the same manner are emotion structures handled. A refusal or a denial, an attempt not to handle a particular emotional structure involves action. The refusal itself is an action.
"What you have here is an attempt to objectify, or stand apart from action in such a refusal. This is not the fault of the subconscious, but a fault of the ego, which refuses to assimilate or accept a given action. As you know, it is the ego who exists as a result of such objectivity. All the qualities that make up the ego are objectified to that degree, but they are collected about the ego with the ego as centre. When the ego however refuses to accept an emotion as part of itself, it tries one of two actions.
"Either it attempts to return the emotion to a subjective state, or it attempts to objectify it further away from itself. In either case the ego is at fault for not assimilating or accepting the emotion. It is easy to see then that the ego is itself a series of actions, that it is a collection of more or less similar actions, selected from a larger mainstream of other actions.
"You will recall that the ego, while disliking change, is nevertheless dependent for its identity upon change. The ego to a large degree, therefore, chooses during its development those characteristic actions which will form its nature. Because the ego necessarily changes however, actions or emotions which at one time it chose as acceptable, at a later date so to speak it may attempt to deny.
"The habitual pattern or characteristic nature of the ego may then be led to refuse to accept an emotion, at the same time that a pattern has already been set to receive the particular type of emotion. Here the ego fights against itself. Such an emotion may of course be given release through dreams, but this is of limited value to the ego involved, since the ego does not accept the reality of dream existence.
"The strength of the ego actually depends on the flexibility with which it can accept and assimilate ever more complex actions, and give them a unity of its own. An action or emotion not accepted by the ego, but nevertheless a part of it, will always drain energy from the main core of the ego, despite the ego's denial, and energy cannot therefore be used by the ego for the purposes of its own purposeful action.
"The rejected emotion, in other words, will express itself in any case, but it will do so then as a rebel, outside of the organizational directives of the ego itself. Hence for example, actions that appear senseless to the ego are often the results of such unassimilated or denied emotions. At one time or another such emotions were acceptable to the ego. There was an attraction, or the emotion would not have been permitted to enter into a realm close to ego control.
"Inclinations with which the ego has very little liking, for example, are very seldom a problem for the ego, since they remain generally outside of the ego pattern, never having been chosen by it to form a characteristic part of the ego pattern. Obviously, to some degree every conceivable sort of inclination is latent to the ego, but it is apparent that each ego has its peculiar set of adopted characteristics, its set of characteristics that it sometimes accepts and sometimes rejects; and it is obvious that some characteristics simply seem alien to any given ego.
"It is therefore with the second alternating group of characteristics that most such problems arise. An ego who can, and has at one time or another accepted as part of itself a violent and unruly desire to kill, for example, will not automatically reject the emotion of hatred. He may dislike it, but he will recognize it as a part of himself during whatever period it is assimilated. An ego which once accepted such an idea of violence, and knew it as a possibility of action, such an ego, if he then rejects the conception, can no longer afford, ever, to recognize this once acceptable emotion, for he is only too aware of the action that could have at one time developed.
"It is in this area that such conflicts arise. The man, or ego, who has never really accepted such violence as a part of his action pattern, will usually have no conflicts in this particular line, simply because the inclination was never a strong part of the ego's inner image, and is more or less discarded automatically, along with all those other characteristics or inclinations which are not in his ego pattern.
"This is obviously somewhat simplified, in that the ego constantly changes, and the above examples must be read carefully or their meaning could be misinterpreted. Actions may appear to be separate, but they are all part of other actions, this being of course the basis for all organization, including that of the ego and the inner self.
"Again, it must be remembered that no real boundaries exist, only diversity of function.
"All boundaries, therefore, are apparent boundaries, boundaries in appearance only.
"Groupings of actions of any kind merge into other groupings, both within the physical field and outside of it. All apparent units are merely formed by functions, the functions of action. In this context the ego is also a function of action. There are of course also functions within functions, which should be obvious.
"The ego itself attempts as its function to be the director and centre of other functions. The ego, while considering itself apart from action, is obviously not apart from it. As dreams allow the inner self great freedom, and as in dreams great perspectives of time are available, and great freedom in space, though no space as you know it is involved, so it is possible for the ego itself to achieve the experience of freedom from time and space, if it would only allow itself for a short while to relax the intensity of its objective focus.
"It could still do this and retain its own nature, merely by allowing into its awareness the reality of other actions as a part of its self-image. There is for example no basic reason why the subconscious and the ego cannot communicate to a much larger extent than is now usual. Such communication would result in the acceptance of additional energy and action by the ego, and an expansion of the ego's self-image.
"It was necessary for the ego, in its origins, to objectify itself as much as possible. Now however the stability of the ego, generally speaking, as a part of the human personality is established. It can now afford to be much more elastic, to include, in other words, more and more of reality within its awareness. Such an inclusion would be most beneficial. It would of course however to some extent change the ego, and any change is resisted by the ego.
"Nevertheless the course of future events will move in this direction. It must. The ego must change in this rather basic manner, including other realities within its scope of awareness. There is no basic reason why it cannot add its directive energies to other aspects of the personality, and if it could so expand it would, theoretically, be possible for the ego to become aware of many experiences which have been impossible for it in the past.
"The hope and the possibilities here, as well as some of the dangers, lie in the fact that the ego does indeed change, and is not one specific reality but a series or group of actions, with direction, that have the potentiality for unlimited value fulfilment. The ego will never be less that it is now. It may very well be more. possibilities for development here are very great, but most such possibilities lie still in the future, and only, so far, as possibilities. There is nothing that will force the ego to enlarge the scope of its awareness."
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Perception
From Session 154 found in Volume 4 of Seth's Early Sessions:
"Basically, the physical body has the potentiality for perceiving stimuli on a generalized basis. I mean by this that although the eyes are for seeing, the ears for hearing and so forth, the potentials of the physical body include the capacity to hear, for example, through any given portion of the bodily expanse.
"The same applies to seeing, and obviously to feeling or touching. It goes without saying that this potentiality is very seldom realized, but it is part of the human heritage. It is the learning process that conditions you to translate a given stimuli into data that will be picked up by a given physical sense; that is, translations always occur in any case.
"You may see an automobile for example with your eyes, and hear its sound through your ears, but it is also within the human capacity, ideally speaking, to hear the sight of the car, and to see the sound of the car. Practically speaking these capacities have been overlooked in human development simply because the ego hit upon the present model of perception, and clung to it.
"In other species within your field, however, some of these various methods have been chosen and utilized. Many animals for example literally see through the sense of smell. They quite literally perceive what you would call the sight of another animal, through the use of the sense of smell.
"They build up multitudinous variations of odours to build the likeness of a structure complete in its translations as to size, weight and so forth. Sound, then, can be felt as well as heard, although you might say in such cases that the sound is heard in the depths of the tissues. This however being an analogy.
"Now for a moment we will return to our material on action, and you may perhaps see why this fits in so well here. No action is identical to any other action. An action is never entirely dissipated, though it may pass beyond its particular field of origin. This transference, incidentally, from one system to another, necessarily changes the action itself; but for simplicity's sake we may say that an action has its reality within many systems simultaneously.
"The sight of our imaginary automobile, therefore, is perceived by you as a visual stimulus, because you are conditioned to perceiving it in such a fashion. But it is also possible to perceive our automobile in entirely different fashions within different realities, and from various perspectives.
"It is even possible for the physical individual to train himself to change the nature of his own perception of such objects. It is not a question of the car having certain properties, being real to one perceptive view and therefore necessarily unreal to another. To a very large degree, the portion of any reality that you can perceive is determined largely not by the given, so-called real object itself, but from the perspective, and because of, the senses with which you perceive it.
"The scent image built up by the animal is every bit as real as the visual image. Action cannot be caught and held, and the nature of perceiving an action changes the very nature of the action itself. It is indeed, here again, that tension causes such a change.
"Since perceiving the action is itself an action, the perceiving must because of its nature to some extent distort the object of perception.
"Again, in this distortion we see the creation, however minute, of a new reality. The universe is cohesive, but it is also more various than you know even now. The nature of our object, our automobile for example, is indeed largely determined by those who perceive it, for it is different things in reality, and not one thing. Electrically it has an identity, and would be perceived as an entirely different phenomena from within an electrical system, where there would be no perceptors of physical data.
"Within your field the automobile is perceived mainly as a physical object. Within some systems the same automobile would appear to be no more than a shadow. Within some systems the automobile would not be perceived at all, unless it were in motion. In other systems it would not be perceived at all, unless it were not in motion.
"These various conceptions of the automobile would also apply of course to the perception of any physical beings within the car; that is, their reality would also be perceived differently, according to the perspective systems which viewed them.
"You must indeed for practical reasons pretend as if the automobile had no reality except the reality with which you are familiar, but this is not the case. I mentioned feeling sound because this is a capability that lies latent within your own physical system, but this same sort of a juggling of perspective data is what happens, generally speaking, when inhabitants of a different system perceive realities that also have existence within your own system.
"It is really a building up of idea into a whole pattern that can be perceived by the camouflage senses. Any reality therefore will be variously perceived, and the nature of the reality will necessarily be distorted in the very attempt to perceive it. Here again we have our creative tension, whereby a new reality is formed as a result of the distortion itself. Within your system colours may be perceived as sound. The connections with human moods is only too apparent.
"They may also be tasted as well as sniffed, and these experiences are actually to some fair degree carried on continually beneath awareness, all adding up to the individual's perception of a given colour. Colours may even be perceived through an inner sense of balance. Their stability or instability is, therefore, subconsciously appreciated.
"Emotions may even cause a colour reaction. Any reality, regardless of which system it originates within, will appear to some degree within all systems. Even within your own system, though perhaps on a subconscious level, all emotions have a reality in colour. They have, as you know, a chemical reaction which is sniffed by other animals.
"From your odour, an animal instantly builds up an image of the state of your psychological condition."
... "We are heading here indeed, slowly but surely, toward a thorough discussion of the inner senses, which could not be given until you had a good background in the nature of action itself. For you should be able to see now that the inner senses allow a more faithful perception of basic reality than the outer senses could ever give.
"Reality is indeed not necessarily that which is constant within the various appearances of reality through all systems, as it is the perception of the whole picture of reality, or the sum of all reality as seen within the various systems. This involves quite a complicated point, and implies a complicated position; for true reality would not be completely either the reality of an automobile, say, as it appears within the physical system, or as it appears within the electrical system. It would not be that which appears identical to the two systems, but it would be indeed the sum of the realities of all systems, as applied to our weary automobile.
"The inner senses, by being free of camouflage information, are more or less "pure" perceptors, perceiving with but little prejudice of many realities while being imprisoned by none."
"Basically, the physical body has the potentiality for perceiving stimuli on a generalized basis. I mean by this that although the eyes are for seeing, the ears for hearing and so forth, the potentials of the physical body include the capacity to hear, for example, through any given portion of the bodily expanse.
"The same applies to seeing, and obviously to feeling or touching. It goes without saying that this potentiality is very seldom realized, but it is part of the human heritage. It is the learning process that conditions you to translate a given stimuli into data that will be picked up by a given physical sense; that is, translations always occur in any case.
"You may see an automobile for example with your eyes, and hear its sound through your ears, but it is also within the human capacity, ideally speaking, to hear the sight of the car, and to see the sound of the car. Practically speaking these capacities have been overlooked in human development simply because the ego hit upon the present model of perception, and clung to it.
"In other species within your field, however, some of these various methods have been chosen and utilized. Many animals for example literally see through the sense of smell. They quite literally perceive what you would call the sight of another animal, through the use of the sense of smell.
"They build up multitudinous variations of odours to build the likeness of a structure complete in its translations as to size, weight and so forth. Sound, then, can be felt as well as heard, although you might say in such cases that the sound is heard in the depths of the tissues. This however being an analogy.
"Now for a moment we will return to our material on action, and you may perhaps see why this fits in so well here. No action is identical to any other action. An action is never entirely dissipated, though it may pass beyond its particular field of origin. This transference, incidentally, from one system to another, necessarily changes the action itself; but for simplicity's sake we may say that an action has its reality within many systems simultaneously.
"The sight of our imaginary automobile, therefore, is perceived by you as a visual stimulus, because you are conditioned to perceiving it in such a fashion. But it is also possible to perceive our automobile in entirely different fashions within different realities, and from various perspectives.
"It is even possible for the physical individual to train himself to change the nature of his own perception of such objects. It is not a question of the car having certain properties, being real to one perceptive view and therefore necessarily unreal to another. To a very large degree, the portion of any reality that you can perceive is determined largely not by the given, so-called real object itself, but from the perspective, and because of, the senses with which you perceive it.
"The scent image built up by the animal is every bit as real as the visual image. Action cannot be caught and held, and the nature of perceiving an action changes the very nature of the action itself. It is indeed, here again, that tension causes such a change.
"Since perceiving the action is itself an action, the perceiving must because of its nature to some extent distort the object of perception.
"Again, in this distortion we see the creation, however minute, of a new reality. The universe is cohesive, but it is also more various than you know even now. The nature of our object, our automobile for example, is indeed largely determined by those who perceive it, for it is different things in reality, and not one thing. Electrically it has an identity, and would be perceived as an entirely different phenomena from within an electrical system, where there would be no perceptors of physical data.
"Within your field the automobile is perceived mainly as a physical object. Within some systems the same automobile would appear to be no more than a shadow. Within some systems the automobile would not be perceived at all, unless it were in motion. In other systems it would not be perceived at all, unless it were not in motion.
"These various conceptions of the automobile would also apply of course to the perception of any physical beings within the car; that is, their reality would also be perceived differently, according to the perspective systems which viewed them.
"You must indeed for practical reasons pretend as if the automobile had no reality except the reality with which you are familiar, but this is not the case. I mentioned feeling sound because this is a capability that lies latent within your own physical system, but this same sort of a juggling of perspective data is what happens, generally speaking, when inhabitants of a different system perceive realities that also have existence within your own system.
"It is really a building up of idea into a whole pattern that can be perceived by the camouflage senses. Any reality therefore will be variously perceived, and the nature of the reality will necessarily be distorted in the very attempt to perceive it. Here again we have our creative tension, whereby a new reality is formed as a result of the distortion itself. Within your system colours may be perceived as sound. The connections with human moods is only too apparent.
"They may also be tasted as well as sniffed, and these experiences are actually to some fair degree carried on continually beneath awareness, all adding up to the individual's perception of a given colour. Colours may even be perceived through an inner sense of balance. Their stability or instability is, therefore, subconsciously appreciated.
"Emotions may even cause a colour reaction. Any reality, regardless of which system it originates within, will appear to some degree within all systems. Even within your own system, though perhaps on a subconscious level, all emotions have a reality in colour. They have, as you know, a chemical reaction which is sniffed by other animals.
"From your odour, an animal instantly builds up an image of the state of your psychological condition."
... "We are heading here indeed, slowly but surely, toward a thorough discussion of the inner senses, which could not be given until you had a good background in the nature of action itself. For you should be able to see now that the inner senses allow a more faithful perception of basic reality than the outer senses could ever give.
"Reality is indeed not necessarily that which is constant within the various appearances of reality through all systems, as it is the perception of the whole picture of reality, or the sum of all reality as seen within the various systems. This involves quite a complicated point, and implies a complicated position; for true reality would not be completely either the reality of an automobile, say, as it appears within the physical system, or as it appears within the electrical system. It would not be that which appears identical to the two systems, but it would be indeed the sum of the realities of all systems, as applied to our weary automobile.
"The inner senses, by being free of camouflage information, are more or less "pure" perceptors, perceiving with but little prejudice of many realities while being imprisoned by none."
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Inner Ego
From Session 153 of Seth's Early Sessions Volume 4:
"I have been wanting to speak further concerning the inner ego, for we have not discussed this issue in any depth. The inner ego is formed about characteristics and abilities that have been dominant in previous personalities, characteristics which the entity has developed through its experience in various lives.
"The inner ego is focused inward, with as much intensity as the outer ego is focused outward. This inner ego is in many respects a composite, as indeed to a lesser degree the outer ego is a composite.
"The inner ego, however, while conscious of itself, has returned to a subjective position within action, and views itself as part of the action. The outer ego, if you recall, views itself as apart from, or separate from, action. The inner ego contains the various purposes toward which the entity, as seen in its various personalities, has been working to achieve.
"The inner ego has experienced, then, objectivity, and has returned to a subjective state. It is a relative storehouse of energy, and it is capable of aiding the outer ego when certain conditions arise. The inner ego may be termed the unfamiliar "I". In many cases it is the I who dreams, bringing valuable information to the personal subconscious, information that may be then used for the benefit of the outer ego itself.
"I have often said that all these divisions and separations are arbitrary. All exist one within another. Apparent boundaries are not boundaries, but only differences in the focus of attention. Even this inner ego is not the same from one given moment to another, for it is not a static thing, but is a part of continuing action. It is much more familiar with the subconscious and with the dream universe, and with the inner self, than it is with the outside ego, however.
"To some extent it also acts like a director of experience and action. It is not actually composed of the past egos, but of those dominant aspects of the various personalities. The inner ego, as action, thrusts in an inward direction; that is, back toward the originating impulse. The outside ego thrusts outward. They are two faces, therefore, and form one of many spheres of action, one pulling inward and one outward.
"As the outer ego is constantly creative, so is the inner ego. The focus in which the creativity occurs is merely different. The subconscious could be thought of as a nucleus, surrounded by the inner and outer egos. Certain tensions are maintained here, and all communications, incidentally, are the results of tensions.
"Tension is action's inherent impulse to know itself through further action. All actions are the result of tension. Without tension there would be no existence. Tension therefore is a creative state. A lack of understanding concerning tension will always lead an organism to fight against itself.
"The ego, the inner ego, the subconscious, the whole self, and even the entity, these are all states of tension.
"The inner ego, however, through the subconscious, may at times encourage the development of abilities that will better allow the whole self to achieve balance and fulfillment.
"The outer ego is very seldom aware of the inner ego, and the subconscious is indeed a vast area dividing them. We are discussing now the outer ego in relation to the inner ego, and describing a situation in terms of relationships. Other relationships would show both the outer and inner egos in a different light. Relationships are also the result of tensions, and each action sets up a new tension.
"No action can be considered by itself. There is no solitary action. Such a possibility is basically meaningless. Nor does a tension exist in isolation. In all of these matters there is also constant pulsations of action within the outer ego, the inner ego, and all the other aspects of the whole system.
"We have not touched in any degree concerning further possibilities here, but as there is no real or actual boundary between any of these areas of the whole self, so there are no actual, definite boundaries between any given whole self and another, nor between any given entity and another.
"The boundaries are functional units rather, and functions may blend one into the other. For practical purposes there are apparent divisions. In basic actuality there are no such divisions. This will be dealt with very thoroughly at a later date, but it is an important point to keep in mind.
"It is therefore obvious why one action affects all others, so intimately that it is basically impossible to speak of one action in isolation. Tension is a condition of action, and an inherent quality of action. The possibilities of action are limitless. Regardless of the origin of any given action, it will never be entirely dissipated. It may pass beyond or through the system in which it originated, but its existence will not cease.
"Tension is infinite. Your time system is indeed the result of tension as it is distorted within your own system, yet the distortion itself, as you see, creates a new reality. And that reality then continues to operate, forming like realities of the sort that can exist within the given conditions already set up by the original distortion.
"Distortion, in this respect, has a different meaning than the sort of distortion arising from a misreading of information. Yet in some respects it is similar. An original action can never repeat itself in an identical fashion. Its attempts to do so, never successful, result in a kind of distortion, and this distortion then becomes the basis for a new reality.
"The reality then tries to recreate itself in identical fashion, fails, and is again distorted into a further facet of basic reality. This holds true under all circumstances and under all conditions. Recall here the material concerning identities in general.
"A very simple analogy will arise as an artist attempts faithfully to reproduce a landscape. The attempt is obviously doomed to failure, since the necessary actual perspectives in which the landscape exists are denied to him as working materials. He cannot create an actual reproduction of a living landscape.
"Such a landscape would have to take up as much physical space as the original. But more, it would have to take up an identical amount of physical time, in terms of past physical existence, which is clearly impossible.
"Such a landscape would have to be composed of the actual elements that compose the original landscape. The artist would have to assemble mountains of rocks, an infinity of molecules, all equally impossible. The best he can do is create a distortion of the original landscape - a creation of an approximation that can comfortably exist within the limited perspectives with which he can work, and using the materials that are at his own command.
"The painting that results is a new reality, but it is also a distortion of the original landscape. The artist may hint at time within his painting, but he cannot capture the physical eons that might be contained in the mountains themselves, which he wishes to reproduce.
"However his painting contains new realities, and distinctive ones, that would be alien to the original landscape. The actual trees, had he really been able to reproduce them, would then undergo their seasonal changes. The trees in his painting, being artificial reproductions, do not undergo the same physical changes, even while the atoms and molecules that compose the canvas itself, and all the pigments, constantly themselves change.
"The painting, therefore, is bot a distortion of reality, and the creation of a new reality. Likewise all realities are formed.
"Mankind is to some intimate degree acquainted with this attempt of action to recreate itself, for human reproduction is here a case in point, each individual attempting to create a replica, the attempt doomed to failure, but the attempt itself resulting in a distortion of the original action; that is, a distortion of the original individuals, and in the creation of a new reality, this process then being repeated indefinitely.
"The distortions are then creative. The nature of action itself is such that tension is one of its positive characteristics, and the tension is the element that causes action to seek expansion in terms of an attempt to duplicate itself.
"We come therefore to the fact of creative tension. The individual in his psychological state is familiar with creative tension, often in its pure state. So quickly however is the tension transformed into a distortive creation that the sensation of creation is mistakenly accepted as the tension itself, rather than seen for what it is. Creation is the result of tension, though instantly new tension is set up, since tension is a characteristic of action. And each creation, being action, will instantly set up new tension.
"It is possible, with some discipline, to become familiar with this state of tension from which new creation will so quickly arise. Familiarity with this brief state of tension will allow an individual to use it more efficiently. He can ride it like the crest of a wave.
"The act of creation occurs, itself, not at the peak of the wave of tension, but as the wave dissolves into the fulfillment of itself. The exhilarating sensation is the tension. The sensation is usually mistakenly applied as if it accompanied the creation itself, but the creation is the final act, so to speak, of a given tension.
"The creation is, therefore, the relaxed fulfillment of a tension. This can have practical results, for you will be able to recognize and use the tension itself toward purposeful goals. It can be dissolved or set at rest in any action. Recognizing the tension itself will allow you to choose the action that will result, to some degree.
"Creative distortion, in its relationship with action, affects therefore the creation of thoughts. The principle of creative distortions is mainly responsible for the fact that no identical thought is ever transmitted from one individual to another. Here the material that I have given you on telepathy should be considered.
"(See the 136th and 137th sessions, among others in Volume 3.)
"The thought received in telepathic communications will not, therefore, be the exact thought that was transmitted, but a close approximation, a creative distortion, actually created by the receiver. There are, as I mentioned, no duplication of identities.
"Now. Compare a thought, an original thought, with our original landscape. The problem would be then the same problem with which our artist was concerned.
"Say for example that our individual "A" wanted to transmit this thought to "B". The thought is as much a reality as the landscape. It is as much a part of individual "A" as the landscape is part of the physical earth. Our imaginary artist could not rip the landscape out of the earth, or bring it to his studio. He could not create an identical landscape because he did not have at his command the perspectives or materials necessary.
"Likewise, our individual "A" cannot rip the thought out of the context of his own inner electrical system. He cannot send it to individual "B". He can send an approximation of it, for the attempt to transmit the thought automatically changes the thought itself. He sends an approximation of the original thought, and this approximation is further changed by "B's" action as he attempts to receive it.
"In a like manner for example, the act of dreaming itself changes both the dreamer and the dream. The act of doing anything at all automatically changes the doer. The reality of any action automatically determines that the action will change.
"The creative dilemma, the creative distortion, is of course itself an action that is resolved in further acts. These are basic principles concerning the nature of action, principles that are carried through within any system. They are valid therefore within your own system, within the electrical system, within the dream system, and among all others.
"The action involved in these sessions, for example, changes us all, yet truly none of us perceive the nature of the entire action of which we are a part. I, for example, cannot perceive the entire future consequences of any one action. I may perceive the entire consequences of any given action within your system or my own, but it is impossible for me to perceive a given action's consequences as it is felt within all systems, for each action occurs within all systems simultaneously.
"I may use the word future, but I use it only to express that which is beyond my present perceptive limits. It is almost impossible to speak of a single, simple action, though I may do so for convenience's sake."
"I have been wanting to speak further concerning the inner ego, for we have not discussed this issue in any depth. The inner ego is formed about characteristics and abilities that have been dominant in previous personalities, characteristics which the entity has developed through its experience in various lives.
"The inner ego is focused inward, with as much intensity as the outer ego is focused outward. This inner ego is in many respects a composite, as indeed to a lesser degree the outer ego is a composite.
"The inner ego, however, while conscious of itself, has returned to a subjective position within action, and views itself as part of the action. The outer ego, if you recall, views itself as apart from, or separate from, action. The inner ego contains the various purposes toward which the entity, as seen in its various personalities, has been working to achieve.
"The inner ego has experienced, then, objectivity, and has returned to a subjective state. It is a relative storehouse of energy, and it is capable of aiding the outer ego when certain conditions arise. The inner ego may be termed the unfamiliar "I". In many cases it is the I who dreams, bringing valuable information to the personal subconscious, information that may be then used for the benefit of the outer ego itself.
"I have often said that all these divisions and separations are arbitrary. All exist one within another. Apparent boundaries are not boundaries, but only differences in the focus of attention. Even this inner ego is not the same from one given moment to another, for it is not a static thing, but is a part of continuing action. It is much more familiar with the subconscious and with the dream universe, and with the inner self, than it is with the outside ego, however.
"To some extent it also acts like a director of experience and action. It is not actually composed of the past egos, but of those dominant aspects of the various personalities. The inner ego, as action, thrusts in an inward direction; that is, back toward the originating impulse. The outside ego thrusts outward. They are two faces, therefore, and form one of many spheres of action, one pulling inward and one outward.
"As the outer ego is constantly creative, so is the inner ego. The focus in which the creativity occurs is merely different. The subconscious could be thought of as a nucleus, surrounded by the inner and outer egos. Certain tensions are maintained here, and all communications, incidentally, are the results of tensions.
"Tension is action's inherent impulse to know itself through further action. All actions are the result of tension. Without tension there would be no existence. Tension therefore is a creative state. A lack of understanding concerning tension will always lead an organism to fight against itself.
"The ego, the inner ego, the subconscious, the whole self, and even the entity, these are all states of tension.
"The inner ego, however, through the subconscious, may at times encourage the development of abilities that will better allow the whole self to achieve balance and fulfillment.
"The outer ego is very seldom aware of the inner ego, and the subconscious is indeed a vast area dividing them. We are discussing now the outer ego in relation to the inner ego, and describing a situation in terms of relationships. Other relationships would show both the outer and inner egos in a different light. Relationships are also the result of tensions, and each action sets up a new tension.
"No action can be considered by itself. There is no solitary action. Such a possibility is basically meaningless. Nor does a tension exist in isolation. In all of these matters there is also constant pulsations of action within the outer ego, the inner ego, and all the other aspects of the whole system.
"We have not touched in any degree concerning further possibilities here, but as there is no real or actual boundary between any of these areas of the whole self, so there are no actual, definite boundaries between any given whole self and another, nor between any given entity and another.
"The boundaries are functional units rather, and functions may blend one into the other. For practical purposes there are apparent divisions. In basic actuality there are no such divisions. This will be dealt with very thoroughly at a later date, but it is an important point to keep in mind.
"It is therefore obvious why one action affects all others, so intimately that it is basically impossible to speak of one action in isolation. Tension is a condition of action, and an inherent quality of action. The possibilities of action are limitless. Regardless of the origin of any given action, it will never be entirely dissipated. It may pass beyond or through the system in which it originated, but its existence will not cease.
"Tension is infinite. Your time system is indeed the result of tension as it is distorted within your own system, yet the distortion itself, as you see, creates a new reality. And that reality then continues to operate, forming like realities of the sort that can exist within the given conditions already set up by the original distortion.
"Distortion, in this respect, has a different meaning than the sort of distortion arising from a misreading of information. Yet in some respects it is similar. An original action can never repeat itself in an identical fashion. Its attempts to do so, never successful, result in a kind of distortion, and this distortion then becomes the basis for a new reality.
"The reality then tries to recreate itself in identical fashion, fails, and is again distorted into a further facet of basic reality. This holds true under all circumstances and under all conditions. Recall here the material concerning identities in general.
"A very simple analogy will arise as an artist attempts faithfully to reproduce a landscape. The attempt is obviously doomed to failure, since the necessary actual perspectives in which the landscape exists are denied to him as working materials. He cannot create an actual reproduction of a living landscape.
"Such a landscape would have to take up as much physical space as the original. But more, it would have to take up an identical amount of physical time, in terms of past physical existence, which is clearly impossible.
"Such a landscape would have to be composed of the actual elements that compose the original landscape. The artist would have to assemble mountains of rocks, an infinity of molecules, all equally impossible. The best he can do is create a distortion of the original landscape - a creation of an approximation that can comfortably exist within the limited perspectives with which he can work, and using the materials that are at his own command.
"The painting that results is a new reality, but it is also a distortion of the original landscape. The artist may hint at time within his painting, but he cannot capture the physical eons that might be contained in the mountains themselves, which he wishes to reproduce.
"However his painting contains new realities, and distinctive ones, that would be alien to the original landscape. The actual trees, had he really been able to reproduce them, would then undergo their seasonal changes. The trees in his painting, being artificial reproductions, do not undergo the same physical changes, even while the atoms and molecules that compose the canvas itself, and all the pigments, constantly themselves change.
"The painting, therefore, is bot a distortion of reality, and the creation of a new reality. Likewise all realities are formed.
"Mankind is to some intimate degree acquainted with this attempt of action to recreate itself, for human reproduction is here a case in point, each individual attempting to create a replica, the attempt doomed to failure, but the attempt itself resulting in a distortion of the original action; that is, a distortion of the original individuals, and in the creation of a new reality, this process then being repeated indefinitely.
"The distortions are then creative. The nature of action itself is such that tension is one of its positive characteristics, and the tension is the element that causes action to seek expansion in terms of an attempt to duplicate itself.
"We come therefore to the fact of creative tension. The individual in his psychological state is familiar with creative tension, often in its pure state. So quickly however is the tension transformed into a distortive creation that the sensation of creation is mistakenly accepted as the tension itself, rather than seen for what it is. Creation is the result of tension, though instantly new tension is set up, since tension is a characteristic of action. And each creation, being action, will instantly set up new tension.
"It is possible, with some discipline, to become familiar with this state of tension from which new creation will so quickly arise. Familiarity with this brief state of tension will allow an individual to use it more efficiently. He can ride it like the crest of a wave.
"The act of creation occurs, itself, not at the peak of the wave of tension, but as the wave dissolves into the fulfillment of itself. The exhilarating sensation is the tension. The sensation is usually mistakenly applied as if it accompanied the creation itself, but the creation is the final act, so to speak, of a given tension.
"The creation is, therefore, the relaxed fulfillment of a tension. This can have practical results, for you will be able to recognize and use the tension itself toward purposeful goals. It can be dissolved or set at rest in any action. Recognizing the tension itself will allow you to choose the action that will result, to some degree.
"Creative distortion, in its relationship with action, affects therefore the creation of thoughts. The principle of creative distortions is mainly responsible for the fact that no identical thought is ever transmitted from one individual to another. Here the material that I have given you on telepathy should be considered.
"(See the 136th and 137th sessions, among others in Volume 3.)
"The thought received in telepathic communications will not, therefore, be the exact thought that was transmitted, but a close approximation, a creative distortion, actually created by the receiver. There are, as I mentioned, no duplication of identities.
"Now. Compare a thought, an original thought, with our original landscape. The problem would be then the same problem with which our artist was concerned.
"Say for example that our individual "A" wanted to transmit this thought to "B". The thought is as much a reality as the landscape. It is as much a part of individual "A" as the landscape is part of the physical earth. Our imaginary artist could not rip the landscape out of the earth, or bring it to his studio. He could not create an identical landscape because he did not have at his command the perspectives or materials necessary.
"Likewise, our individual "A" cannot rip the thought out of the context of his own inner electrical system. He cannot send it to individual "B". He can send an approximation of it, for the attempt to transmit the thought automatically changes the thought itself. He sends an approximation of the original thought, and this approximation is further changed by "B's" action as he attempts to receive it.
"In a like manner for example, the act of dreaming itself changes both the dreamer and the dream. The act of doing anything at all automatically changes the doer. The reality of any action automatically determines that the action will change.
"The creative dilemma, the creative distortion, is of course itself an action that is resolved in further acts. These are basic principles concerning the nature of action, principles that are carried through within any system. They are valid therefore within your own system, within the electrical system, within the dream system, and among all others.
"The action involved in these sessions, for example, changes us all, yet truly none of us perceive the nature of the entire action of which we are a part. I, for example, cannot perceive the entire future consequences of any one action. I may perceive the entire consequences of any given action within your system or my own, but it is impossible for me to perceive a given action's consequences as it is felt within all systems, for each action occurs within all systems simultaneously.
"I may use the word future, but I use it only to express that which is beyond my present perceptive limits. It is almost impossible to speak of a single, simple action, though I may do so for convenience's sake."
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