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."
Sunday, September 4, 2011
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."
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Joy
From Session 152 in Volume 4 of Seth's Early Sessions:
"Joy and the spontaneous expression of it will always bring increased strength and resiliency to the personality. It also brings deep and abiding satisfaction to the subconscious, which is much more joyful than it is given credit for. The subconscious, for example, the personal subconscious, takes great pleasure in its manipulation of the physical fibres in locomotion. The expression of joy also makes the ego more resilient, less fearful, less resentful of diverse conditions when they occur. The emotion itself is an automatic signal that unites the conscious and conscious in shared experience.
"It is, as a rule, lack of knowledge on the part of the ego as to the nature of reality, and its part in it, and the resulting fear, that often prevents a personality from accepting spontaneous expression of emotions in general. The capacity to feel is important. When one fears to experience seemingly unpleasant emotions, the personality also tends to set up an emotional pattern of rejection that seriously cuts down, also, not only on the expression but the very perception of joy.
"This does not mean that the personality must be completely swept away by an emotion, though this is what such an ego fears. Emotion replenishes even the ego. Emotions demand resiliency, and resiliency is both the result of spontaneity, inner assurance, and discipline. All this is action, for the personality itself is composed of action, and is constantly changing. This is action, therefore, delighting in the expression and form of itself.
... "The desire to set yourself apart from emotion, and coolly appraise it, is merely an indication of the ego's characteristic nature. It tries to separate itself from action, to view it objectively, and to see itself as something apart from action.
"Since it is itself action, such an attempt is basically doomed to failure. Yet the very attempt causes the formation of the ego. Once this apparent separate ego is formed, and once a fair amount of stability is maintained, and a new identity arrived at, the initial desire and energy will maintain the ego in its position during its existence in any field. Since this existence of separate identity is assured, attempts should then be made so that the ego can better participate in its realization of action, and the emotional life is very important in this respect.
"In any fairly normal personality the intellect will indeed stand guard. There is no need to fear identity's complete immersion into emotional sensation. Such emotional experience actually strengthens not only the ego, but it opens communications between the ego and the subconscious, and allows for a much greater flow of energy from the primary source of action.
"This energy, incidentally, can be most effectively used for creative work. I could have given you much of this material earlier, but I wanted you to understand the basic reasoning behind the material, and for this a knowledge of the nature of action was necessary."
"Joy and the spontaneous expression of it will always bring increased strength and resiliency to the personality. It also brings deep and abiding satisfaction to the subconscious, which is much more joyful than it is given credit for. The subconscious, for example, the personal subconscious, takes great pleasure in its manipulation of the physical fibres in locomotion. The expression of joy also makes the ego more resilient, less fearful, less resentful of diverse conditions when they occur. The emotion itself is an automatic signal that unites the conscious and conscious in shared experience.
"It is, as a rule, lack of knowledge on the part of the ego as to the nature of reality, and its part in it, and the resulting fear, that often prevents a personality from accepting spontaneous expression of emotions in general. The capacity to feel is important. When one fears to experience seemingly unpleasant emotions, the personality also tends to set up an emotional pattern of rejection that seriously cuts down, also, not only on the expression but the very perception of joy.
"This does not mean that the personality must be completely swept away by an emotion, though this is what such an ego fears. Emotion replenishes even the ego. Emotions demand resiliency, and resiliency is both the result of spontaneity, inner assurance, and discipline. All this is action, for the personality itself is composed of action, and is constantly changing. This is action, therefore, delighting in the expression and form of itself.
... "The desire to set yourself apart from emotion, and coolly appraise it, is merely an indication of the ego's characteristic nature. It tries to separate itself from action, to view it objectively, and to see itself as something apart from action.
"Since it is itself action, such an attempt is basically doomed to failure. Yet the very attempt causes the formation of the ego. Once this apparent separate ego is formed, and once a fair amount of stability is maintained, and a new identity arrived at, the initial desire and energy will maintain the ego in its position during its existence in any field. Since this existence of separate identity is assured, attempts should then be made so that the ego can better participate in its realization of action, and the emotional life is very important in this respect.
"In any fairly normal personality the intellect will indeed stand guard. There is no need to fear identity's complete immersion into emotional sensation. Such emotional experience actually strengthens not only the ego, but it opens communications between the ego and the subconscious, and allows for a much greater flow of energy from the primary source of action.
"This energy, incidentally, can be most effectively used for creative work. I could have given you much of this material earlier, but I wanted you to understand the basic reasoning behind the material, and for this a knowledge of the nature of action was necessary."
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Moment Points
Seth from Volume 4 of the Early Sessions:
Session 150
Moment Point
"A moment point basically consists not of any particular given time division, but is within your system a convenient term that expresses or represents the range of reality that can be conveniently embraced without undue strain.
"Within what you call one moment, many such perceptions flash through to affect any given individual. However there is within your system a lapse before the organism can effectively organize these perceptions. My idea of a moment point is only an approximation of your physical moment. I am trying to make it plain here that the range of action is what is important. A moment point is a range of action."
Session 151
Moment Point (continued)
"There is much to be explained along many lines which we have only begun to touch upon, for all things are correlated; and there is indeed a correlation between our moment points of which we have spoken, the spacious present, and that portion of the whole self which you call the subconscious.
"We are dealing here principally, and in the main, with the essence of action, and essentially all apparent divisions are arbitrary for the sake of explanation. The moment point is in itself arbitrary, an artificial division. As we have said, the moment point for you is actually composed of the amount of action which your are capable of assimilating within your present framework, for the moment point is indeed a portion of the spacious present.
"(For a more graphic interpretation of what a moment point might be, see Jane's description of the concept she received from Seth in the 149th session.)
"The subconscious, and in fact all portions of the self with the exception of the ego, are capable of assimilating a wider area, so to speak, of action. Therefore to these other portions of the self, time has a much different essence than it has for the ego. The ego is indeed many things. It can be defined in relationship to many other aspects of reality. In relationship to action, and moment points, the ego is indeed that portion of the self which stands at the apex of the moment point, and is limited by the moment point. The ego is in this context the portion of the self which is utterly focused upon, and imprisoned by, the moment point.
"The ego is that portion of the self which experiences time as continuity, and to whom experience is a series of stimuli and responses carried on one after another. And yet this is in itself a division, so to speak, or a kind of value fulfillment, for the simultaneous nature of a given action is here experienced in slow motion, as a child must learn to walk before the child can run.
"The subconscious however is not so limited. If you consider the ego at the apex of the moment point, and imprisoned therefore within the realm of its own before-and-after, cause-and-effect experience, then you can imagine the subconscious reaching further outward and seizing upon many other moment points. It should be easy to see then why the focus of the ego is so sharp and brilliant. Within its limited scope there is intensity of stimuli and response. Indeed, the ego is that portion of the personality which is plunged into a specific and intense preoccupation with a given field of action or dimension.
"The subconscious, reaching outward, reaches also inward. For while there is no real past or present or future within the spacious present, there is indeed an infinity of inward and outward; and again, of actions within actions, and there is no end to these actions for they are self-generating. The other portions of the inner self reach then even further in all directions, and they therefore envelop many moment points. To many portions of the inner self then, what you would call a moment would correspond to an almost limitless number of moments, for even physical time has no meaning without experience without action.
"Your whole concept of time is built about your own capacity for perceiving action; as this capacity for perceiving action grows, so indeed do the dimensions of time grow. Conceivably therefore one moment of your time would indeed be experienced by the whole self as centuries.
"This should lead you to understand why physical time is basically meaningless to the subconscious, and why the inner self has at its command a knowledge of past lives and past endeavours; for the inner self, dear friends, these lives are not in the past, nor is the life of the ego necessarily present to the whole self.
"For to the whole self all personalities that compose it exist simultaneously, and personalities that would appear to you as future personalities are experienced by the whole self in the same dimension as it experiences personalities that you would call past personalities. For all your ideas of time are illusion, not merely philosophical illusions, but delusions as far as any basic reality is concerned.
"It is only the ego that steps from moment to moment, as a man who walks from puddle to puddle. It is only the ego who drowns in time. Therefore, since only the ego is momentarily imprisoned within the focus of your plane, it is only the ego who probes so slowly into simultaneous action, perceiving it bit by bit and sip by sip. So now you will see what I meant when I spoke about the limitless self, for the whole self is not so bound. The whole self could and does perceive a limitless number of such moment points simultaneously. And now hear this:
"The whole self not only perceives these limitless moment points, but being a part of action, each whole self projects fragments and personalities from itself to all these points, creating therefore other egos, other intense focus points which are independent, which work out their own destinies and experiences, which in turn perceive any given moment point ins slow motion.
"It must be stressed that there are no sharp boundaries, however, between the various portions of the whole self.
"There are shadings and variations and that is all. The inner ego is that part of the inner self which is closely allied with the outer ego, in that it is to some degree a director of function and activity. But it is not sharply focused. It looks inward. Here we run into some language difficulty.
"The inner ego looks inward, yet in looking inward it looks outward toward those vast portions of the self. Because there is always action within action, and because of the three dilemmas of which we have spoken earlier, the new personalities projected outward into other fields of perception, or other moment points, these other personalities in turn create new ones, and the cycle is again repeated.
"Time, physical matter, these are but portions of action as perceived in one particular fashion. The basic stuff, or the basic action of the universe, is one. It is perceived differently, and therefore reality constantly wears a different face. It is speeded up or slowed down according to the scope of perception.
"(It might be interesting to note here that Seth began talking about action in the 13th session, January 6, 1964: "Love and hate, for example, are action," and "In your plane, action is the main word of importance," etc. See Volume 1, page 71.
"(See the 138th and 141st sessions for material on the three creative dilemmas.)
"It is almost impossible to explain clearly, through the use of words, this massive complexity, for all fields of activity are self-generating. Even the dream field is self-generating. No consciousness can bring itself to destruction. It can only cease experiencing a certain portion of action. This is a rather important point.
"The multiplicity of human experience would be impossible were it not for the inner self, and for the heritage that speaks through the cells of every human being. The perspectives and psychic relationships that make up the human personality simply could not have resulted through action within your field alone. It cannot be stressed too strongly that experience within the self can lead to at least some understanding of the nature of action in its pure form, for within your physical universe action is to some extent frozen, insofar as your perceptions of it are concerned.
"Yet within your own psychological experience you can perceive its fluid nature. The material that I have given you concerning the three dilemmas will be most helpful here.
"There is much that you simply cannot perceive at this point. There is much that mankind as such will never learn, simply because such knowledge is beyond the reach of the ego. But there is much that you do not know that you can learn.
"Now, Each moment point is a field or dimension. You perceive certain very limited aspects of a given number of such moment points. The same moment points may simultaneously be experienced in an entirely different fashion, and to a different set of perceptions. These moment points would appear quite different than they appear to you.
"There is a delicate connection here with the dream universe that is somewhat difficult to explain. The dream universe, however, pervades many other fields. It does not exist outside or apart from your own universe, but simultaneously with it. It appears, and is a reality, to all aspects or portions of the self, and often it is only within the dream universe that the personality can change focus easily or efficiently enough so that he can perceive the variety of roles that he himself has played.
"I mentioned the chemical relationship between your universe and the dream universe. There are like relationships of one kind or another that tie together all fields and systems, from the largest to the most minute. The freedom of the inner self, then, is never determined by time as you know it. It is determined by time as you do not know it.
"There are such manipulations within various systems that change other systems. Your own behaviour and action within the dream universe definitely affects the physical universe. From one field of activity then you have changed another, and without ever knowing, in many cases, that you have done so. In the same manner do the activities of the physical universe alter the dream system. It is virtually impossible for me to explain all these inner workings. We will have to wait until you can experience concepts for much of that.
"These moment points may, for simplicity's sake, also be thought of as reference points from one system to another. Do you see now a connection here with camouflage, as explained in earlier sessions?
"The moment point will be seen as camouflage, which simply means that it will be perceived differently according to the perceptors. Definitions have little meaning unless they are related to other issues. For that reason I will try whenever possible to relate terms with which you are familiar in ways so that their relationships will be clearly seen.
"There will be much more here also concerning moment points and value fulfillment. For this, value fulfillment, is the reason behind the existence of all systems, and of all experience within your field. I mentioned that value fulfillment seems, and is to some small degree, dependent upon time as you know it, but this merely reflects upon the manner in which you perceive time, and in no way alters the simultaneous nature of value fulfillment, which grows in dimension but is not dependent upon time as you know it."
Session 150
Moment Point
"A moment point basically consists not of any particular given time division, but is within your system a convenient term that expresses or represents the range of reality that can be conveniently embraced without undue strain.
"Within what you call one moment, many such perceptions flash through to affect any given individual. However there is within your system a lapse before the organism can effectively organize these perceptions. My idea of a moment point is only an approximation of your physical moment. I am trying to make it plain here that the range of action is what is important. A moment point is a range of action."
Session 151
Moment Point (continued)
"There is much to be explained along many lines which we have only begun to touch upon, for all things are correlated; and there is indeed a correlation between our moment points of which we have spoken, the spacious present, and that portion of the whole self which you call the subconscious.
"We are dealing here principally, and in the main, with the essence of action, and essentially all apparent divisions are arbitrary for the sake of explanation. The moment point is in itself arbitrary, an artificial division. As we have said, the moment point for you is actually composed of the amount of action which your are capable of assimilating within your present framework, for the moment point is indeed a portion of the spacious present.
"(For a more graphic interpretation of what a moment point might be, see Jane's description of the concept she received from Seth in the 149th session.)
"The subconscious, and in fact all portions of the self with the exception of the ego, are capable of assimilating a wider area, so to speak, of action. Therefore to these other portions of the self, time has a much different essence than it has for the ego. The ego is indeed many things. It can be defined in relationship to many other aspects of reality. In relationship to action, and moment points, the ego is indeed that portion of the self which stands at the apex of the moment point, and is limited by the moment point. The ego is in this context the portion of the self which is utterly focused upon, and imprisoned by, the moment point.
"The ego is that portion of the self which experiences time as continuity, and to whom experience is a series of stimuli and responses carried on one after another. And yet this is in itself a division, so to speak, or a kind of value fulfillment, for the simultaneous nature of a given action is here experienced in slow motion, as a child must learn to walk before the child can run.
"The subconscious however is not so limited. If you consider the ego at the apex of the moment point, and imprisoned therefore within the realm of its own before-and-after, cause-and-effect experience, then you can imagine the subconscious reaching further outward and seizing upon many other moment points. It should be easy to see then why the focus of the ego is so sharp and brilliant. Within its limited scope there is intensity of stimuli and response. Indeed, the ego is that portion of the personality which is plunged into a specific and intense preoccupation with a given field of action or dimension.
"The subconscious, reaching outward, reaches also inward. For while there is no real past or present or future within the spacious present, there is indeed an infinity of inward and outward; and again, of actions within actions, and there is no end to these actions for they are self-generating. The other portions of the inner self reach then even further in all directions, and they therefore envelop many moment points. To many portions of the inner self then, what you would call a moment would correspond to an almost limitless number of moments, for even physical time has no meaning without experience without action.
"Your whole concept of time is built about your own capacity for perceiving action; as this capacity for perceiving action grows, so indeed do the dimensions of time grow. Conceivably therefore one moment of your time would indeed be experienced by the whole self as centuries.
"This should lead you to understand why physical time is basically meaningless to the subconscious, and why the inner self has at its command a knowledge of past lives and past endeavours; for the inner self, dear friends, these lives are not in the past, nor is the life of the ego necessarily present to the whole self.
"For to the whole self all personalities that compose it exist simultaneously, and personalities that would appear to you as future personalities are experienced by the whole self in the same dimension as it experiences personalities that you would call past personalities. For all your ideas of time are illusion, not merely philosophical illusions, but delusions as far as any basic reality is concerned.
"It is only the ego that steps from moment to moment, as a man who walks from puddle to puddle. It is only the ego who drowns in time. Therefore, since only the ego is momentarily imprisoned within the focus of your plane, it is only the ego who probes so slowly into simultaneous action, perceiving it bit by bit and sip by sip. So now you will see what I meant when I spoke about the limitless self, for the whole self is not so bound. The whole self could and does perceive a limitless number of such moment points simultaneously. And now hear this:
"The whole self not only perceives these limitless moment points, but being a part of action, each whole self projects fragments and personalities from itself to all these points, creating therefore other egos, other intense focus points which are independent, which work out their own destinies and experiences, which in turn perceive any given moment point ins slow motion.
"It must be stressed that there are no sharp boundaries, however, between the various portions of the whole self.
"There are shadings and variations and that is all. The inner ego is that part of the inner self which is closely allied with the outer ego, in that it is to some degree a director of function and activity. But it is not sharply focused. It looks inward. Here we run into some language difficulty.
"The inner ego looks inward, yet in looking inward it looks outward toward those vast portions of the self. Because there is always action within action, and because of the three dilemmas of which we have spoken earlier, the new personalities projected outward into other fields of perception, or other moment points, these other personalities in turn create new ones, and the cycle is again repeated.
"Time, physical matter, these are but portions of action as perceived in one particular fashion. The basic stuff, or the basic action of the universe, is one. It is perceived differently, and therefore reality constantly wears a different face. It is speeded up or slowed down according to the scope of perception.
"(It might be interesting to note here that Seth began talking about action in the 13th session, January 6, 1964: "Love and hate, for example, are action," and "In your plane, action is the main word of importance," etc. See Volume 1, page 71.
"(See the 138th and 141st sessions for material on the three creative dilemmas.)
"It is almost impossible to explain clearly, through the use of words, this massive complexity, for all fields of activity are self-generating. Even the dream field is self-generating. No consciousness can bring itself to destruction. It can only cease experiencing a certain portion of action. This is a rather important point.
"The multiplicity of human experience would be impossible were it not for the inner self, and for the heritage that speaks through the cells of every human being. The perspectives and psychic relationships that make up the human personality simply could not have resulted through action within your field alone. It cannot be stressed too strongly that experience within the self can lead to at least some understanding of the nature of action in its pure form, for within your physical universe action is to some extent frozen, insofar as your perceptions of it are concerned.
"Yet within your own psychological experience you can perceive its fluid nature. The material that I have given you concerning the three dilemmas will be most helpful here.
"There is much that you simply cannot perceive at this point. There is much that mankind as such will never learn, simply because such knowledge is beyond the reach of the ego. But there is much that you do not know that you can learn.
"Now, Each moment point is a field or dimension. You perceive certain very limited aspects of a given number of such moment points. The same moment points may simultaneously be experienced in an entirely different fashion, and to a different set of perceptions. These moment points would appear quite different than they appear to you.
"There is a delicate connection here with the dream universe that is somewhat difficult to explain. The dream universe, however, pervades many other fields. It does not exist outside or apart from your own universe, but simultaneously with it. It appears, and is a reality, to all aspects or portions of the self, and often it is only within the dream universe that the personality can change focus easily or efficiently enough so that he can perceive the variety of roles that he himself has played.
"I mentioned the chemical relationship between your universe and the dream universe. There are like relationships of one kind or another that tie together all fields and systems, from the largest to the most minute. The freedom of the inner self, then, is never determined by time as you know it. It is determined by time as you do not know it.
"There are such manipulations within various systems that change other systems. Your own behaviour and action within the dream universe definitely affects the physical universe. From one field of activity then you have changed another, and without ever knowing, in many cases, that you have done so. In the same manner do the activities of the physical universe alter the dream system. It is virtually impossible for me to explain all these inner workings. We will have to wait until you can experience concepts for much of that.
"These moment points may, for simplicity's sake, also be thought of as reference points from one system to another. Do you see now a connection here with camouflage, as explained in earlier sessions?
"The moment point will be seen as camouflage, which simply means that it will be perceived differently according to the perceptors. Definitions have little meaning unless they are related to other issues. For that reason I will try whenever possible to relate terms with which you are familiar in ways so that their relationships will be clearly seen.
"There will be much more here also concerning moment points and value fulfillment. For this, value fulfillment, is the reason behind the existence of all systems, and of all experience within your field. I mentioned that value fulfillment seems, and is to some small degree, dependent upon time as you know it, but this merely reflects upon the manner in which you perceive time, and in no way alters the simultaneous nature of value fulfillment, which grows in dimension but is not dependent upon time as you know it."
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Action In Relation To Dream Reality
From Session 149 found in Volume 4 of Seth's Early Sessions:
"Now, regarding again the nature of action, I would like to discuss action in relation to the dream reality, for you are intimately familiar with action in dreams, and your practical experience will enable you to understand the true nature of action more clearly.
"We mentioned that there are always actions within actions, and make it clear that all action does not necessarily involve motion that is apparent as motion to you. Actions may be thresholds or openings for other actions. To one extent or another all actions involve unfoldings. The action of dreaming itself is partially a physical phenomena. There is then, comparatively speaking, the outside action that makes dreaming possible, the action that is dreaming.
"There are then truly endless varieties of actions within the dream, which is itself a continuing act. There is, most simply, within a dream the creation of images. These images then also act. They move, speak, walk, run. There is at times a dream within a dream, where the dreamer dreams that he dreams. Here of course the dimensions are even more diverse.
"Man of these actions performed by dream images are muscular ones, physical manipulations. But many of these actions are also mental manipulations, or aesthetic realizations and even aesthetic performances. These dream images are not one-dimensional, cardboard figures by any means. Their mobility in terms of perspectives and within space is far greater than your own.
"You perceive, however, but a very small portion of these images which you have yourselves created. You simply cannot bring them back into the limited perspectives of your own present field, and are left with but glimpses and flimsy glimmerings of images which are actually as actual, vivid, and more mobile than those in the physical field.
"I have mentioned that what I call the dream universe is indeed composed of molecular structure, and that it is a continuing reality, even though your own awareness of it is most usually limited, for quite necessary reasons, to the hours of your own sleep. There is a give and take here, for if you give the dream universe much of its continuing energy, much of your own energy is derived from it. There is, between the physical field and the dream universe, an interdependence that is not at all unusual, for all fields are indeed dependent one upon the other.
"(Seth began talking about dreams as far back as the 15th session, about dream locations in the 44th session, about the subconscious and dreams in the 92nd and 93rd sessions, etc., among others.)
"Nor is the dream universe a shadow image of your own. It carries on according to the possibilities inherent within it, as you carry on according to the possibilities that exist within the physical field. The possibilities for action vary, however, within these two fields as they vary within all other fields. You may say that in sleeping you focus your energies to form a different reality than the reality of waking physical matter.
"You focus your awareness in altered form into another universe, that is in every way as valid and permanent as your own. It is also as changing as the physical universe. A small amount of energy only is focused upon the physical field during sleep, enough simply to maintain the physical body within its physical environment.
"The dream universe and the events within it are, therefore, as meaningful as those events that occur within the physical universe.
"In many respects actions within the dream universe are indeed more direct than in your own. It is because you remember but vague glimmerings and disconnected episodes that dreams appear, sometimes, chaotic or meaningless, particularly to the ego, which censors rigidly much of the information that the subconscious does retain.
"For most people this censoring process is valuable, since it prevents the personality from being snowed under by data it is not equipped to handle. The ability to retain experience gained within other fields is the trend of further development. You are at least however to some extent familiar with this field of dream action, and every man intuitively knows his involvement here.
"The feeling of unreality is not felt when the dream experience is being participated in by the dreamer. At that time the experience is felt to be real, and some dreams indeed are more vivid than waking experience. It is only when the personality passes out of the dream experience, or the dream universe, that the dream experience in retrospect may appear unreal. For now, again, the focus of attention and energy is in the physical universe. Reality then is a result of the focus of energy and attention.
"I used the term "pass out of" the dream universe purposely, for here we see a mobility of action easily and often accomplished, a passing in and out that involves an action easily and often accomplished, a passing in and out that involves an action without movement in space. The dreamer is acquainted intimately, and has at his fingertips so to speak, a memory of his previous dream experiences, and carries within him the inner individualistic purposes which are behind his dream actions.
"On leaving the dream state, he becomes more and more aware of the ego, and creates then activities which have meaning to it. In the deep dream state the inner purposes are more involved. As I have mentioned however, all dream symbols have meanings to all portions of the personality.
"(See the 92nd session in particular, in Volume 3.)
"The dream universe has molecular construction, but this molecular construction takes up no space as you know it. The dream universe, while composed of molecules, is not composed of matter as you know it. The dream universe consists of depths and dimensions, expansions and contractions, that are more clearly allied, perhaps, to ideals that have no need for the particular kind of structure with which you are familiar.
"Obviously, time in terms of continuity, is not an element of importance in the dream universe, and this is one of the reasons for the lack of physical structure. The intuitions and certain inner abilities here have so much more freedom that it is unnecessary for molecules to be used in any imprisoning form or structure. Action is more spontaneous within the dream universe, more fluid. The images appear and disappear much more quickly because value fulfillment is allowed greater reign.
"The slower physical manifestation of growth that occurs within the physical field involves long-term patterns filled by atoms and molecules which are, to some extent, then imprisoned within structure.
"(See the 71st session [in Volume 2] among others.)
"In the dream universe however the slower physical growth process is replaced by psychic and mental value fulfillment, which does not necessitate any long-range imprisonment of molecules within a pattern.
"This involves, simply, a quickening of experience and action relatively unhampered by the sort of time necessities inherent within the physical universe. Action itself therefore is allowed greater freedom. This is not to say that structure does not exist within the dream universe, for structures of mental or psychic nature do exist. But structure is not dependent upon matter as in the physical universe, and the motion of molecules is more spontaneous, and an almost unbelievable depth of experience is possible within what would seem to you a fraction of a moment.
"I will have more to say concerning the connection between the two fields and their manifestation in action, for one of the closest glimpses you can get of pure action is action as it is involved within the dream universe, and in this mobility as the personality passes into and out of the dream field. within your own universe you deal with the transformation of action into physical manipulations, but this involves but a small portion of the nature of action, and it is my purpose to familiarize you with action as it exists more or less in its pure form.
"In this way you may be able to perceive the manners in which it is transformed into other fields that do not involve matter as you know it.
"Your own universe expands as an idea expands, in ways that have nothing to do with space.
"The whole reality of the dream world, or of the dream universe, lies along these lines. Within it fulfillment and development are not dependent upon permanence of physical matter, however, and are not at all dependent upon any concept like that of your physical time. There [are] therefore possible bursts of developments, that have matured within perspectives that are not bound up in time, and that would appear spontaneous to the waking self.
"But these developments, nevertheless, are the results of actions that occur in many perspectives at once, and not developments that occur as within the physical system, through actions that happen in a series seemingly strung out moment after moment.
"Now basically even the physical universe itself is so constructed, but for all practical purposes, as far as general perception and experience is concerned, time and the physical growth development apply, so that we find the ego portion, particularly of the human personality, is to a large extent dependent for its maturity and development upon the amount of time that the physical image has spent within the system.
"A certain portion of physical growth, in terms of a series of physical moments, is therefore necessary for value fulfillment to show itself within a physical organism. Within the dream field and within many other systems, this series of moments is unknown. Development comes not from a series of actions strung out along a single line, one before the other in lengthwise fashion. Instead development is largely a matter of value fulfillment, which is achieved through the perspectives of action, through traveling within any given action, and following it and changing with it. To make this clearer, I have said that action exists within limitless perspectives, and that you are mainly familiar with it as it is materialized along a single line of continuity within the physical system. You experience action then as if you were moving along a single line, each dot on the line representing a moment of your time. But at the imaginary point on your line that represents any given moment, action moves out in all directions. From the standpoint of that moment point, you could imagine action forming an imaginary circle with that point as an apex. But this happens at the point every moment.
"There is no particular boundary to the circle. It widens outward indefinitely. Now, in the dream universe, in all systems of such nature, development is achieved not by traveling your single line, but by delving into that point that you call a moment. The physical laws simply do not apply here, within such a value fulfillment system. Basically your own physical universe is at the apex of such a system itself, and it is only because of the purpose and nature of the particular apex that experience appears, from my viewpoint, to be so slowed down. The particular point, in one manner, is being pursued by you in such slow fashion that it appears to be a series of happenings strung out in a thread of continuity. You experience action as one happening after another, not because of the nature of action itself but because of the nature of your own structure and perception.
"This is in itself, you see, a form of value fulfillment, since you are perceiving one simultaneous action as if it were a series of separate actions You are delving into one action, and within it continually creating action within action. This is however or this can be, while fulfilling, also limiting."
"Now, regarding again the nature of action, I would like to discuss action in relation to the dream reality, for you are intimately familiar with action in dreams, and your practical experience will enable you to understand the true nature of action more clearly.
"We mentioned that there are always actions within actions, and make it clear that all action does not necessarily involve motion that is apparent as motion to you. Actions may be thresholds or openings for other actions. To one extent or another all actions involve unfoldings. The action of dreaming itself is partially a physical phenomena. There is then, comparatively speaking, the outside action that makes dreaming possible, the action that is dreaming.
"There are then truly endless varieties of actions within the dream, which is itself a continuing act. There is, most simply, within a dream the creation of images. These images then also act. They move, speak, walk, run. There is at times a dream within a dream, where the dreamer dreams that he dreams. Here of course the dimensions are even more diverse.
"Man of these actions performed by dream images are muscular ones, physical manipulations. But many of these actions are also mental manipulations, or aesthetic realizations and even aesthetic performances. These dream images are not one-dimensional, cardboard figures by any means. Their mobility in terms of perspectives and within space is far greater than your own.
"You perceive, however, but a very small portion of these images which you have yourselves created. You simply cannot bring them back into the limited perspectives of your own present field, and are left with but glimpses and flimsy glimmerings of images which are actually as actual, vivid, and more mobile than those in the physical field.
"I have mentioned that what I call the dream universe is indeed composed of molecular structure, and that it is a continuing reality, even though your own awareness of it is most usually limited, for quite necessary reasons, to the hours of your own sleep. There is a give and take here, for if you give the dream universe much of its continuing energy, much of your own energy is derived from it. There is, between the physical field and the dream universe, an interdependence that is not at all unusual, for all fields are indeed dependent one upon the other.
"(Seth began talking about dreams as far back as the 15th session, about dream locations in the 44th session, about the subconscious and dreams in the 92nd and 93rd sessions, etc., among others.)
"Nor is the dream universe a shadow image of your own. It carries on according to the possibilities inherent within it, as you carry on according to the possibilities that exist within the physical field. The possibilities for action vary, however, within these two fields as they vary within all other fields. You may say that in sleeping you focus your energies to form a different reality than the reality of waking physical matter.
"You focus your awareness in altered form into another universe, that is in every way as valid and permanent as your own. It is also as changing as the physical universe. A small amount of energy only is focused upon the physical field during sleep, enough simply to maintain the physical body within its physical environment.
"The dream universe and the events within it are, therefore, as meaningful as those events that occur within the physical universe.
"In many respects actions within the dream universe are indeed more direct than in your own. It is because you remember but vague glimmerings and disconnected episodes that dreams appear, sometimes, chaotic or meaningless, particularly to the ego, which censors rigidly much of the information that the subconscious does retain.
"For most people this censoring process is valuable, since it prevents the personality from being snowed under by data it is not equipped to handle. The ability to retain experience gained within other fields is the trend of further development. You are at least however to some extent familiar with this field of dream action, and every man intuitively knows his involvement here.
"The feeling of unreality is not felt when the dream experience is being participated in by the dreamer. At that time the experience is felt to be real, and some dreams indeed are more vivid than waking experience. It is only when the personality passes out of the dream experience, or the dream universe, that the dream experience in retrospect may appear unreal. For now, again, the focus of attention and energy is in the physical universe. Reality then is a result of the focus of energy and attention.
"I used the term "pass out of" the dream universe purposely, for here we see a mobility of action easily and often accomplished, a passing in and out that involves an action easily and often accomplished, a passing in and out that involves an action without movement in space. The dreamer is acquainted intimately, and has at his fingertips so to speak, a memory of his previous dream experiences, and carries within him the inner individualistic purposes which are behind his dream actions.
"On leaving the dream state, he becomes more and more aware of the ego, and creates then activities which have meaning to it. In the deep dream state the inner purposes are more involved. As I have mentioned however, all dream symbols have meanings to all portions of the personality.
"(See the 92nd session in particular, in Volume 3.)
"The dream universe has molecular construction, but this molecular construction takes up no space as you know it. The dream universe, while composed of molecules, is not composed of matter as you know it. The dream universe consists of depths and dimensions, expansions and contractions, that are more clearly allied, perhaps, to ideals that have no need for the particular kind of structure with which you are familiar.
"Obviously, time in terms of continuity, is not an element of importance in the dream universe, and this is one of the reasons for the lack of physical structure. The intuitions and certain inner abilities here have so much more freedom that it is unnecessary for molecules to be used in any imprisoning form or structure. Action is more spontaneous within the dream universe, more fluid. The images appear and disappear much more quickly because value fulfillment is allowed greater reign.
"The slower physical manifestation of growth that occurs within the physical field involves long-term patterns filled by atoms and molecules which are, to some extent, then imprisoned within structure.
"(See the 71st session [in Volume 2] among others.)
"In the dream universe however the slower physical growth process is replaced by psychic and mental value fulfillment, which does not necessitate any long-range imprisonment of molecules within a pattern.
"This involves, simply, a quickening of experience and action relatively unhampered by the sort of time necessities inherent within the physical universe. Action itself therefore is allowed greater freedom. This is not to say that structure does not exist within the dream universe, for structures of mental or psychic nature do exist. But structure is not dependent upon matter as in the physical universe, and the motion of molecules is more spontaneous, and an almost unbelievable depth of experience is possible within what would seem to you a fraction of a moment.
"I will have more to say concerning the connection between the two fields and their manifestation in action, for one of the closest glimpses you can get of pure action is action as it is involved within the dream universe, and in this mobility as the personality passes into and out of the dream field. within your own universe you deal with the transformation of action into physical manipulations, but this involves but a small portion of the nature of action, and it is my purpose to familiarize you with action as it exists more or less in its pure form.
"In this way you may be able to perceive the manners in which it is transformed into other fields that do not involve matter as you know it.
"Your own universe expands as an idea expands, in ways that have nothing to do with space.
"The whole reality of the dream world, or of the dream universe, lies along these lines. Within it fulfillment and development are not dependent upon permanence of physical matter, however, and are not at all dependent upon any concept like that of your physical time. There [are] therefore possible bursts of developments, that have matured within perspectives that are not bound up in time, and that would appear spontaneous to the waking self.
"But these developments, nevertheless, are the results of actions that occur in many perspectives at once, and not developments that occur as within the physical system, through actions that happen in a series seemingly strung out moment after moment.
"Now basically even the physical universe itself is so constructed, but for all practical purposes, as far as general perception and experience is concerned, time and the physical growth development apply, so that we find the ego portion, particularly of the human personality, is to a large extent dependent for its maturity and development upon the amount of time that the physical image has spent within the system.
"A certain portion of physical growth, in terms of a series of physical moments, is therefore necessary for value fulfillment to show itself within a physical organism. Within the dream field and within many other systems, this series of moments is unknown. Development comes not from a series of actions strung out along a single line, one before the other in lengthwise fashion. Instead development is largely a matter of value fulfillment, which is achieved through the perspectives of action, through traveling within any given action, and following it and changing with it. To make this clearer, I have said that action exists within limitless perspectives, and that you are mainly familiar with it as it is materialized along a single line of continuity within the physical system. You experience action then as if you were moving along a single line, each dot on the line representing a moment of your time. But at the imaginary point on your line that represents any given moment, action moves out in all directions. From the standpoint of that moment point, you could imagine action forming an imaginary circle with that point as an apex. But this happens at the point every moment.
"There is no particular boundary to the circle. It widens outward indefinitely. Now, in the dream universe, in all systems of such nature, development is achieved not by traveling your single line, but by delving into that point that you call a moment. The physical laws simply do not apply here, within such a value fulfillment system. Basically your own physical universe is at the apex of such a system itself, and it is only because of the purpose and nature of the particular apex that experience appears, from my viewpoint, to be so slowed down. The particular point, in one manner, is being pursued by you in such slow fashion that it appears to be a series of happenings strung out in a thread of continuity. You experience action as one happening after another, not because of the nature of action itself but because of the nature of your own structure and perception.
"This is in itself, you see, a form of value fulfillment, since you are perceiving one simultaneous action as if it were a series of separate actions You are delving into one action, and within it continually creating action within action. This is however or this can be, while fulfilling, also limiting."
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Action Within The Spacious Present
From Session 147 of Seth's Early Sessions (Volume 3):
"Action does not always move in what you would consider a straight line. Because you view action in narrow terms, usually seeing it in physical terms only, you are inclined to think of it, or any effort, as a straight line from one point to another. This is hardly the case.
"Any action that affects the physical individual also has its reality within many other fields, and its effects and its nature are felt within them. A manuscript, or indeed any art form, contains action and sets up its own climate, either of psychological acceptance or rejection. This climate is more than the result of the materials or subject matter or nature of which the work is composed. It goes without saying that such a work actually contains a portion of focused psychic energy, which is action, and which has its effects."
... "It is most important, again, to realize that action does not move in a straight line. Action may have mass. It may not have mass in other instances. Action will never have one effect only. This is a rather important point. Whenever an action seems to have but one effect, then there is a lack in perceptive abilities.
"Action within your field may appear to be affected by your time, but only that part of action which is physically materialized will be so affected. Action may appear to be at rest, but is never at rest, or stationary, or permanent. Action may appear to have a beginning and an ending but this is, again, an error of perception.
"(Seth had quite a bit to say about the "source of the source" in the 95th session.)
"Action which is materialized within your plane appears within your field, and disappears from your field. This in no way affects the basic nature of action itself. That is, it does not change the basic laws of action. Action will change both within your physical field and outside your physical field. you are only aware of a small part of action, that portion which is materialized within your system.
"You say that an action has begun when it enters your system. You say that an action is completed when it passes beyond your system. But the action, in those terms, began long before; and the action, in those terms, is never completed. Yet even the action as it occurs within your system is constantly changing in the ways which we have described, and this changing in itself implies infinities of beginnings and endings within action itself, with no ending, a real or permanent ending, and no beginning, a real beginning out of nothing. For each beginning carries within it action which has come before.
"Again here, when I speak in terms of before and after, I speak only for your convenience, for there is no before or after, only all action within the spacious present, occurring out of itself, spontaneously, into all directions, and forming of itself all the infinite fields and systems of actuality."
"Action does not always move in what you would consider a straight line. Because you view action in narrow terms, usually seeing it in physical terms only, you are inclined to think of it, or any effort, as a straight line from one point to another. This is hardly the case.
"Any action that affects the physical individual also has its reality within many other fields, and its effects and its nature are felt within them. A manuscript, or indeed any art form, contains action and sets up its own climate, either of psychological acceptance or rejection. This climate is more than the result of the materials or subject matter or nature of which the work is composed. It goes without saying that such a work actually contains a portion of focused psychic energy, which is action, and which has its effects."
... "It is most important, again, to realize that action does not move in a straight line. Action may have mass. It may not have mass in other instances. Action will never have one effect only. This is a rather important point. Whenever an action seems to have but one effect, then there is a lack in perceptive abilities.
"Action within your field may appear to be affected by your time, but only that part of action which is physically materialized will be so affected. Action may appear to be at rest, but is never at rest, or stationary, or permanent. Action may appear to have a beginning and an ending but this is, again, an error of perception.
"(Seth had quite a bit to say about the "source of the source" in the 95th session.)
"Action which is materialized within your plane appears within your field, and disappears from your field. This in no way affects the basic nature of action itself. That is, it does not change the basic laws of action. Action will change both within your physical field and outside your physical field. you are only aware of a small part of action, that portion which is materialized within your system.
"You say that an action has begun when it enters your system. You say that an action is completed when it passes beyond your system. But the action, in those terms, began long before; and the action, in those terms, is never completed. Yet even the action as it occurs within your system is constantly changing in the ways which we have described, and this changing in itself implies infinities of beginnings and endings within action itself, with no ending, a real or permanent ending, and no beginning, a real beginning out of nothing. For each beginning carries within it action which has come before.
"Again here, when I speak in terms of before and after, I speak only for your convenience, for there is no before or after, only all action within the spacious present, occurring out of itself, spontaneously, into all directions, and forming of itself all the infinite fields and systems of actuality."
Action and the Personality
From Session 146 of Seth's Early Sessions (in Volume 3):
"You realize that in order to speak of action it is necessary that it be discussed as though some aspects were isolated from others. But this is not the case.
"In order that you understand it is necessary, as I have told you, for me to break down concepts. In this way much of the unity of certain phenomena may escape you. We have spoken at various times about specific portions of action's manifestations. We have discussed to some degree, for example, the nature of matter, the electrical universe, the dream universe, and such other topics as the layers of the subconscious and the nature of the whole self.
"There is always the danger in such discussions that effects which are studied separately will appear to be separate in essence. But what we have been discussing in all these topics is, indeed, the nature of action. The personality as you know it is action. As such the personality however is not physically materialized. You cannot hold it in your hand. You can only observe it in motion, for it is never still, and to probe into it yourself is to change it.
"In very important aspects it always escapes you, though you are partially what it is. Men speak of having their own personalities, as if the personality were a thing that they had in their possession, a thing fairly permanent, a concrete, always-to-be-counted-on possession.
"But the personality is always in a state of becoming, and forever changes. The personality is an excellent example of action in one aspect. It is important here also to realize that while the personality is always in motion, the motion involved here is not one of mobility in space as you know it. It is most definitely motion in terms of value fulfillment.
"There are here also thrusts in all directions, with certain identifying pulsations that underlie all, and that have their origins within the inner self. As the vitality of the universe forms, of itself, the boundaries of the various fields of activity, and as vitality itself takes on the coloration of the various fields and forms the camouflage patterns within them, so also vitality, in the form of emotions that the camouflage patterns of the personality, even while this vitality forms both emotions and personality for every individual, every consciousness, may be thought of as a separate field of activity; and all the data relating to fields of activity may be seen to apply to any consciousness as well.
"We find once again a basic reality, that of the personality, which is accepted and recognized within the physical field, even while it does not appear there as a definite physical unit. It can indeed be examined but the examination itself, being action, changes it. For the personality, true to the roles of action, will seize upon the new action and form of it new realities and unities with itself.
"The personality and the ego are not the same.
"The personality has strong connections with the inner self.
"The personality is that consciousness of self of which I have spoken, which is aware of itself within, and a part of, action. The ego attempts to stand apart from action, and to stand apart from the personality, and to mould the personality into a more or less permanent and stable, dependent portion of the ego itself.
"(Again, see the following sessions among others: 139, 141, 142.)
"The ego would if it could, stop personality's motion and development for the security of stability. The ego would drive the personality into preconceived channels. This consciousness-of-self is seen in man as personality, as the human personality. It appears, however, in all types of consciousness to one degree or another.
"Therefore, consciousness-of-self can appear with or without the existence of an ego. Consciousness-of-self is an attribute then of all physical species, regardless of their classification. Personality, human personality, is simply the name given to this class of self, as applied and seen within human beings. Personality changes and acts upon all other action. Personality, then, can be seen to operate as a field of action in identity; but identity that is conscious of its relation to action as a whole.
"The peculiar and individualistic aspects of personality are the result of those camouflaging abilities of which we have spoken earlier. Those portions of the personality which escape ego's attempts to dominate are held suspect in ego's eyes. Ego considers them as invalid and dangerous to its own supremacy. When ego is forced to admit that personality changes, it will do its best to avoid this knowledge. The more rigid an ego is, the more danger there is that the individual will have difficulties in all kinds of adjustments.
"Because of its nature ego does not want to adjust. It wants adjustments to be made to it. Because ego is another manifestation of action, it is of course impossible for its aims to be realized. For all its attempts at stability and control, ego itself constantly changes. Ego most of all resents and fights against time as you know it, ego fears both the past and the future. It fears the past because it has already lost control of the past. It fears the future because it is not yet in control of it. It seeks continuity of identity, yet it is forced to realize that the "I" of today is hardly the "I" of thirty years ago.
"It is the ego which fears death so strongly. And yet the stability which ego so urgently seeks would, indeed, result in death, since no further action would be allowed.
"Ego also fears spontaneity, for it cannot control action; being a part of action, most of its efforts of necessity are thwarted. Yet it is precisely this struggle between ego's struggles for stability, and the personality's attempt to expand spontaneously, that is at the basis of much of mankind's achievements, and that is certainly the basis for much of his art.
"In his art we have the nostalgia of the ego for past time, and for lost control of a self that has already vanished, and changed into something new. It is ego who plans for the future, trying to anticipate the environment in which it must operate. Its anticipations, of course then form that environment.
"The ego therefore is a very necessary force within your field. It is also, regardless of current psychological beliefs, the basis for aggression, in general. All aggression is not detrimental, for example.
"Because the personality is that part of the individual which is conscious of itself as a part of action, and therefore aware of its relation with action, the personality is that part of the individual which survives physical death.
"The personality is not the whole self. It is a portion of the whole self, which is activated during a particular existence. The ego, as I have explained, does not vanish. However, it must always be remembered here that the ego is not the self-conscious self in its entirety by any means. It is simply a portion, a field of focus whereby the self attempts to objectify itself within the world of matter.
"It simply ceases to so objectify itself, but it retains, or the self retains, memory of that objectification.
"The personality necessarily continues to change after physical death. After physical death the personality simply ceases to project itself, as a rule, within the physical field, and no longer focuses within it.
"The personality is much more extensive and expansive than you realize. Remember here our discussions upon the subject of the limitations of the self.
"Theoretically, the self is unlimited, if you will recall. The ego within your field is limited because of the nature of its rigidity. The ego operates as a partitioning agent. It directs and uses the abilities of the personality for manipulation in the physical universe. It can mobilize a smaller or larger amount of these energies according to its own strength. It has a small focus but a powerful one.
"I mentioned earlier that the personality is an excellent example of action as it is sometimes projected into the physical field, while not appearing within it in tangible form. For here we see many of action's characteristics: the mobility that does not necessarily involve space, the thrusts outward, and the corresponding thrusts inward. We see action acting upon itself and constant change.
"A thorough study of the personality will be an excellent exercise, and will lead you close to the nature of action itself. The experiences about which you asked, for example, involved actions of the personality and not, of course, of the ego. Expansion and contraction occur constantly as characteristics of action, as I have explained.
"The ego is scarcely conscious of these. Your experiences occurred when the ego, because of your illness, was momentarily exhausted, its control lessened. The personality was then momentarily aware of realities that the ego would ordinarily attempt to block. These were pulsations, in actuality of corresponding strength, but interpreted differently by you.
"(See page 323, of the 145th session, for a description of my experiences. Also see the 86th session.)
"I will have more to say concerning this after I have developed certain subject matter that is important. If I did not make it clear, let me repeat that the personality is a portion of the inner self. There are interchanges here, so that certain parts of the personality will seem to vanish. In such cases, for various reasons, the inner self simply sees no reason for their continued focus in the physical field.
"There is a very delicate balance always maintained, and later on we will have a whole section of our material that will deal with the personality in relation to other phenomena. We are speaking of it this evening mainly in terms of its reality as a part of action. As we speak of such subjects in their relation to various phenomena, again it must be kept in mind that such realities are being considered often from one aspect only, but that their reality extends into many other dimensions.
"Many of these dimensions cannot be discussed at this time. But you will see, indeed, that the nature of action, or the nature of any reality, is greatly coloured by the viewpoint or dimension from which it is examined. It is my purpose here to examine for you reality from as many different aspects as possible, lifting you from the limitations of your own dimensions, and allowing you the advantage of others.
"It must, once again, be realized that there is no particular point where ego begins or ends.
"There is no particular and definite line between the ego and the personality and the inner self. They must merely be discussed in such terms. There is, believe it or not, no particular and specific definite boundary between what is self and not self. If we isolate such portions of reality for the sake of discussion, such isolation is artificial, and in no way affects the nature of reality itself.
"Such a remark may appear so simple that it is not worth saying, but it is extremely important that it be understood. In like manner, there is indeed no particular boundary or line of demarcation between the dream universe and the physical universe. Any seeming barrier is artificial, for all these realities merge one into the other, and an action in one affects the other.
"The self is extended, so to speak, existing within many dimensions. It extends as vitally and actually in the dream universe as it does in your own physical universe. It is as much a part of the electrical universe as it is a part of the world of psychological motivation. The intertwinings are infinite in all directions.
"The ego fears death, yet in the space of your own physical lifetime portions of the self have undergone like transformations endless times, of which the ego is unaware."
"You realize that in order to speak of action it is necessary that it be discussed as though some aspects were isolated from others. But this is not the case.
"In order that you understand it is necessary, as I have told you, for me to break down concepts. In this way much of the unity of certain phenomena may escape you. We have spoken at various times about specific portions of action's manifestations. We have discussed to some degree, for example, the nature of matter, the electrical universe, the dream universe, and such other topics as the layers of the subconscious and the nature of the whole self.
"There is always the danger in such discussions that effects which are studied separately will appear to be separate in essence. But what we have been discussing in all these topics is, indeed, the nature of action. The personality as you know it is action. As such the personality however is not physically materialized. You cannot hold it in your hand. You can only observe it in motion, for it is never still, and to probe into it yourself is to change it.
"In very important aspects it always escapes you, though you are partially what it is. Men speak of having their own personalities, as if the personality were a thing that they had in their possession, a thing fairly permanent, a concrete, always-to-be-counted-on possession.
"But the personality is always in a state of becoming, and forever changes. The personality is an excellent example of action in one aspect. It is important here also to realize that while the personality is always in motion, the motion involved here is not one of mobility in space as you know it. It is most definitely motion in terms of value fulfillment.
"There are here also thrusts in all directions, with certain identifying pulsations that underlie all, and that have their origins within the inner self. As the vitality of the universe forms, of itself, the boundaries of the various fields of activity, and as vitality itself takes on the coloration of the various fields and forms the camouflage patterns within them, so also vitality, in the form of emotions that the camouflage patterns of the personality, even while this vitality forms both emotions and personality for every individual, every consciousness, may be thought of as a separate field of activity; and all the data relating to fields of activity may be seen to apply to any consciousness as well.
"We find once again a basic reality, that of the personality, which is accepted and recognized within the physical field, even while it does not appear there as a definite physical unit. It can indeed be examined but the examination itself, being action, changes it. For the personality, true to the roles of action, will seize upon the new action and form of it new realities and unities with itself.
"The personality and the ego are not the same.
"The personality has strong connections with the inner self.
"The personality is that consciousness of self of which I have spoken, which is aware of itself within, and a part of, action. The ego attempts to stand apart from action, and to stand apart from the personality, and to mould the personality into a more or less permanent and stable, dependent portion of the ego itself.
"(Again, see the following sessions among others: 139, 141, 142.)
"The ego would if it could, stop personality's motion and development for the security of stability. The ego would drive the personality into preconceived channels. This consciousness-of-self is seen in man as personality, as the human personality. It appears, however, in all types of consciousness to one degree or another.
"Therefore, consciousness-of-self can appear with or without the existence of an ego. Consciousness-of-self is an attribute then of all physical species, regardless of their classification. Personality, human personality, is simply the name given to this class of self, as applied and seen within human beings. Personality changes and acts upon all other action. Personality, then, can be seen to operate as a field of action in identity; but identity that is conscious of its relation to action as a whole.
"The peculiar and individualistic aspects of personality are the result of those camouflaging abilities of which we have spoken earlier. Those portions of the personality which escape ego's attempts to dominate are held suspect in ego's eyes. Ego considers them as invalid and dangerous to its own supremacy. When ego is forced to admit that personality changes, it will do its best to avoid this knowledge. The more rigid an ego is, the more danger there is that the individual will have difficulties in all kinds of adjustments.
"Because of its nature ego does not want to adjust. It wants adjustments to be made to it. Because ego is another manifestation of action, it is of course impossible for its aims to be realized. For all its attempts at stability and control, ego itself constantly changes. Ego most of all resents and fights against time as you know it, ego fears both the past and the future. It fears the past because it has already lost control of the past. It fears the future because it is not yet in control of it. It seeks continuity of identity, yet it is forced to realize that the "I" of today is hardly the "I" of thirty years ago.
"It is the ego which fears death so strongly. And yet the stability which ego so urgently seeks would, indeed, result in death, since no further action would be allowed.
"Ego also fears spontaneity, for it cannot control action; being a part of action, most of its efforts of necessity are thwarted. Yet it is precisely this struggle between ego's struggles for stability, and the personality's attempt to expand spontaneously, that is at the basis of much of mankind's achievements, and that is certainly the basis for much of his art.
"In his art we have the nostalgia of the ego for past time, and for lost control of a self that has already vanished, and changed into something new. It is ego who plans for the future, trying to anticipate the environment in which it must operate. Its anticipations, of course then form that environment.
"The ego therefore is a very necessary force within your field. It is also, regardless of current psychological beliefs, the basis for aggression, in general. All aggression is not detrimental, for example.
"Because the personality is that part of the individual which is conscious of itself as a part of action, and therefore aware of its relation with action, the personality is that part of the individual which survives physical death.
"The personality is not the whole self. It is a portion of the whole self, which is activated during a particular existence. The ego, as I have explained, does not vanish. However, it must always be remembered here that the ego is not the self-conscious self in its entirety by any means. It is simply a portion, a field of focus whereby the self attempts to objectify itself within the world of matter.
"It simply ceases to so objectify itself, but it retains, or the self retains, memory of that objectification.
"The personality necessarily continues to change after physical death. After physical death the personality simply ceases to project itself, as a rule, within the physical field, and no longer focuses within it.
"The personality is much more extensive and expansive than you realize. Remember here our discussions upon the subject of the limitations of the self.
"Theoretically, the self is unlimited, if you will recall. The ego within your field is limited because of the nature of its rigidity. The ego operates as a partitioning agent. It directs and uses the abilities of the personality for manipulation in the physical universe. It can mobilize a smaller or larger amount of these energies according to its own strength. It has a small focus but a powerful one.
"I mentioned earlier that the personality is an excellent example of action as it is sometimes projected into the physical field, while not appearing within it in tangible form. For here we see many of action's characteristics: the mobility that does not necessarily involve space, the thrusts outward, and the corresponding thrusts inward. We see action acting upon itself and constant change.
"A thorough study of the personality will be an excellent exercise, and will lead you close to the nature of action itself. The experiences about which you asked, for example, involved actions of the personality and not, of course, of the ego. Expansion and contraction occur constantly as characteristics of action, as I have explained.
"The ego is scarcely conscious of these. Your experiences occurred when the ego, because of your illness, was momentarily exhausted, its control lessened. The personality was then momentarily aware of realities that the ego would ordinarily attempt to block. These were pulsations, in actuality of corresponding strength, but interpreted differently by you.
"(See page 323, of the 145th session, for a description of my experiences. Also see the 86th session.)
"I will have more to say concerning this after I have developed certain subject matter that is important. If I did not make it clear, let me repeat that the personality is a portion of the inner self. There are interchanges here, so that certain parts of the personality will seem to vanish. In such cases, for various reasons, the inner self simply sees no reason for their continued focus in the physical field.
"There is a very delicate balance always maintained, and later on we will have a whole section of our material that will deal with the personality in relation to other phenomena. We are speaking of it this evening mainly in terms of its reality as a part of action. As we speak of such subjects in their relation to various phenomena, again it must be kept in mind that such realities are being considered often from one aspect only, but that their reality extends into many other dimensions.
"Many of these dimensions cannot be discussed at this time. But you will see, indeed, that the nature of action, or the nature of any reality, is greatly coloured by the viewpoint or dimension from which it is examined. It is my purpose here to examine for you reality from as many different aspects as possible, lifting you from the limitations of your own dimensions, and allowing you the advantage of others.
"It must, once again, be realized that there is no particular point where ego begins or ends.
"There is no particular and definite line between the ego and the personality and the inner self. They must merely be discussed in such terms. There is, believe it or not, no particular and specific definite boundary between what is self and not self. If we isolate such portions of reality for the sake of discussion, such isolation is artificial, and in no way affects the nature of reality itself.
"Such a remark may appear so simple that it is not worth saying, but it is extremely important that it be understood. In like manner, there is indeed no particular boundary or line of demarcation between the dream universe and the physical universe. Any seeming barrier is artificial, for all these realities merge one into the other, and an action in one affects the other.
"The self is extended, so to speak, existing within many dimensions. It extends as vitally and actually in the dream universe as it does in your own physical universe. It is as much a part of the electrical universe as it is a part of the world of psychological motivation. The intertwinings are infinite in all directions.
"The ego fears death, yet in the space of your own physical lifetime portions of the self have undergone like transformations endless times, of which the ego is unaware."
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