The Astral Body and Inner Senses

From Seth Early Sessions Book 5, Session 202

The Astral Body and Inner Senses

As you know, the inner senses belong to that part of human personality that is not physically materialized.  At various times I have spoken concerning the reality of what you refer to as the astral body.  You must remember that over a year ago we discussed tissue capsules.  The astral body is of this nature.  It is composed of electromagnetic components.  It is simply the unseen self.

(Seth began discussing the inner senses in the 20^th session; by the 50^th session he had gone into some detail on nine of them, with more to come.  By the 59^th session he had also included eleven basic laws of the inner universe, plus three properties of physical material.

(The 7^th inner sense is: Expansion or Contraction of the Tissue Capsule.  In Volumes 1 and 2 see the 39^th, 40^th and 43^rd sessions among many others.)

This does not mean that it cannot be seen on occasion, but it cannot be perceived through use of the unaided physical senses.  It is that indeed which contains the memories and experiences, in codified units, of the present individual.  It is that part which survives physical death.  It is that part which in physical life is intertwined with the physical image.

The basic consciousness is never physical.  Yet within your system it must collect experience within the physical system, hence the physical body.  But experience itself is not physical, and cannot be contained within physical matter.  Therefore this experience, collected within the physical field, is held in codified form by this inner self or astral identity.  It is only by understanding the connection between the physical and nonphysical self, and the communication systems that operate here, that the true nature of human personality can be studied.

While we are dealing now with your own species, it should be realized that all consciousness also possesses its own astral identity.  The inner senses are part of this nonphysical self.  They allow the personality to retain its relationship with nonphysical reality, permitting the material self to focus within its earthly environment.

The inner senses collect information of which the conscious self may not be aware.  The astral identity of course is aware of communications from both the inner and outer environment.  The astral identity is therefore actually a more complete representation of the whole personality, and its abilities are far-reaching.  The inner ego of which we have spoken is the director of this astral identity.  You should see now how this fits in with some of our older material.

(Seth began discussing the inner ego along with the inner senses, so material on it is woven through the sessions.  A few recent sessions dealing with the inner ego are:  94, 151, 162, 173.  See Volumes 3 and 4.)

When the physical self sleeps the astral image may indeed wander.  It always returns to the physical body during physical life.  Its telepathic and clairvoyant abilities are not hampered in any way by the ego when that self sleeps.  In waking hours the communications system is more or less closed on the ego’s side, but in sleep the barriers are lifted and knowledge from the inner self has a freer flow.

Obviously then so-called astral projection occurs frequently in the sleeping state.  It also occurs however in the waking state, although the ego is not aware of such projection as a rule.  When through training there is greater communication between the inner and outer selves, then it is possible for the ego to realize what has happened.

I have told you that dreams are a continuing process, whether or not the ego wakes or sleeps, and whether or not it has, or retains, any knowledge of the dreaming.  So also the astral self journeys often, whether the ego wakes or sleeps.

The inner ego is then the “I” of the astral body.

The inner ego is then this inner identity.  It is closely allied with the entity, and connects a reality that is purely psychic, the reality of the entity, with the reality that is mainly physical, the reality of the physical self.

The inner senses perceive the psychic reality and transmit messages from it.  We speak of these as separate, again, only for convenience, for we have but various abilities and various aspects of a self.  The divisions are arbitrary.  This is very important.

Now.  Regard the inner senses in connection with the nature of action and electromagnetic reality, for the perceptions of the inner senses are themselves action, and as such they change both the perceiver and the thing perceived.  You can see then that even this astral image is always in motion and never static, and its condition alters the physical self even as the physical self acts upon the astral image.

Any dream is experienced differently by these various aspects of the self.  There is not one objective dream that is merely perceived in various fashions.  The various levels of the self create their own dreams, which do have meanings to all layers of the personality.  But you cannot think of a dream as a concrete block that is for example chipped off in pieces that then applied to these imaginary levels.  All of these aspects of the self are so intertwined that arbitrary distinctions must be made for you simply to explain them.

Incidentally, suggestions will reach many aspects of the self, and some which are very distant from the ego, for you are setting into motion psychic action, which is behind all realities.  Suggestion will reach portions of the self of which the ego is entirely unfamiliar.  Suggestion can indeed change experience which has already passed.

It can change the individual’s present reaction to the past event, and alter the original implications and meanings that were once connected with such an event.  Suggestions can shape future events because any action changes that which existed before it, and that which shall exist after it within your system.

This is different however from cause and effect for basically a specific action will not give a specific effect, only.  Within your system, you only perceive certain actions out of an endless variety of actions.  So you take these few as inevitable results of a given cause.

Suggestions then can shape the future.  Expectation enters in here particularly of course.  Suggestion can shape dreams, and the dreams themselves then operate as action.  A strong dream can be a more significant psychic action than any physical experience, and it can change the course of the personality completely.

The inner senses will also react to suggestion.  If you therefore suggest that you become more aware of their activities, then so you shall.  You are giving suggestions, whether or not you realize it, constantly.  You are forming your own physical image with all its strengths and weaknesses whether or not you are aware of it.

Suggestion, well used, with training and knowledge, will therefore allow you to alter the very cells of your body.  The inner senses can be requested to operate in such a way that the ego will accept their communications.  For the astral body is not some distant and alien other self, but it is even now that portion of yourself that you know but cannot see, that you feel but cannot touch.