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."