The "Introduction" and "Key Points" of this chapter were summarized by an AI editor based on the main text below; they are not things Mike said during the lecture. The main text comes from Mike's commentary, and the blockquotes are Seth's original words (the parts Mike read aloud).
Introduction
This chapter begins with Jane's experience, just before falling asleep, of projecting back into a parallel reality from her infancy. Seth discusses how the body is a projection of higher consciousness into three-dimensional space-time; its material components constantly change, yet the pattern remains intact. The body is composed of units of consciousness, and cellular consciousness is eternal. The body is a living station and focal point; the collective activity of cells selects possibilities that can be experienced. The conscious mind usually views the world through the body, but it can also leap free of the body. Expanding the conscious mind is for the purpose of selecting a physical course from among open probable experiences.
Key Points in This Chapter
- The body is a projection of higher consciousness into three-dimensional time and space; its material components constantly change while the pattern remains intact, and cellular consciousness is eternal.
- The body is composed of units of consciousness; the collective activity of cells triggers a higher body consciousness, and probabilities are selected along cellular pathways.
- Ordinary consciousness is usually centered on the body and sees the world through the body, but consciousness can leap away from the body and is not confined by the flesh.
- In other probable realities there exist selves that are equally real, and the present self carries hints and traces of those other probable selves.
- Expanding the conscious mind is for the purpose of choosing, from all open probable experiences, the route of physical experience; the choice still rests with the individual.
Main Text
The Body Is Your "Home Station," and More on the Basic Units of Consciousness
Monday, February 25, 1974, 9:51 p.m. Before the session, Rob first talked about a rather unusual experience Jane had during her afternoon nap. Here are Jane's notes:
Just before I fell asleep, I had what seemed to be a psychic kind of projection. I seemed to project into my past -- back to when I was a baby, in my hometown of Saratoga, around 1931. Everything was gray and colorless. First, I (the "I" in quotation marks -- that is, the out-of-body me) looked down and saw myself (the "myself" in quotation marks) in my baby carriage. Then, as I grew a little larger in the projection, I easily crossed the street and so on.
Just now, while I was writing this, I received something from a part of my own consciousness -- not from Ruburt or Seth, but from myself. It told me that the environment of this projection was actually just as clear as my present environment, but it was one of the possibilities of my environment. Biologically, I did not cut into it from my present. I was in it and not in it. This is very interesting -- I was in it and not in it. Traveling or having traveled between two clear realities, between two parallel worlds. Those fluctuations of consciousness Seth talked about in the last session, where he also mentioned possible kinds of consciousness. Was I watching myself develop one of them in my own physical reality? But this was clearly a waking event, happening just before I fell asleep. As soon as I got up, I described it to Rob.
This was a clear dream experience, occurring before falling asleep. She returned to the state of being a small child sitting in a baby carriage, looking at herself from above. But the amazing thing was that the self in the baby carriage was not in the same time and space as she was -- that was another time and space, another kind of possibility. And between her present self and that one, there was a very strange feeling: she was both in it and not in it. Not in it, because she clearly felt she was not in the same time and space as that one; in it, because she could recognize that the little baby in the baby carriage was herself.
We began waiting for tonight's session at 9:26. As before Session 684 and other sessions, Jane said that today's session was somewhat different -- for this book she had to attain a certain kind of clear focus, her consciousness had to be a little different from usual, clearer, in order to receive the relevant material.
Then Seth came through. He said:
Please wait for us a moment.
He wanted to summarize and see how to proceed. Then he said:
The body is also a pattern, even though the materials that compose it are constantly changing. The matter in the body -- whether molecules, atoms, or cells -- is constantly changing, but the pattern still maintains its own integrity. Its components change, but its integrity does not change. That form is inscribed in space and time. It is a pattern, carved into space and time. The changing of its material components is unimportant. However, the pattern itself exists outside this framework of space and time.
So the body is a projection of a higher consciousness into the three-dimensional world -- a projection of a higher-dimensional consciousness into three-dimensional space and time. Although the projection in space and time may, in our terms, disappear -- age, wither, die -- the primary identity still continues to exist.
The cellular consciousness within it is eternal. Although cells come into being and pass away, the consciousness of the cells exists forever. The bodily structure itself is composed of immortal things.
Very interesting. When the body is inhabited by our normal human consciousness, the living body operates like a very strong focus. Why is it so strong? Because we are all maintaining it, in order to satisfy the many needs of this body -- making sure it eats well, sleeps well, giving it a comfortable life, satisfying its various sensory pleasures. We are maintaining it as a focus.
The conglomerate of consciousness within the body concentrates its own network of communication at all levels.
The body is composed of units of consciousness. The conglomerate of these units of consciousness, at all levels -- the physical level, the nonphysical level, the psychic level, the spiritual level, the neural transmission level, the biological level -- concentrates its own communication network. This network extends in all directions, crossing through the physical and nonphysical realms. And this private network is connected to all other networks like itself. Every body is networked, connecting you to other bodies through consciousness. Because the most core units of consciousness that compose your body are inherently trans-spatiotemporal -- they can, through biological, spiritual, and psychological means, connect you with other living beings and other humans into a vast network.
Electromagnetically and biologically speaking, there are fundamentally interacting levels between all bodies.
All things are interconnected, through the communication network formed by consciousness. And the range this network can reach is far greater than the connections between the various levels within the body -- it makes deeper connections outside the body.
Not only can all cells respond to one another, but their collective activity also triggers the higher centers of consciousness to react to one given set of world conditions, rather than to other equally legitimate world situations that are not accepted as patterns.
The mutual responsiveness of cells, their collective activity, triggers the higher centers of consciousness -- cellular consciousness forms a larger gestalt consciousness, which we can call the "overall body consciousness." This body consciousness is not the consciousness in the brain; they must be distinguished. At every moment, the body, based on the information gathered from all the cells, forms at very high speed an information map of each moment -- the current state of the body, a current pattern of the body. This overall body consciousness exceeds the range of our human conscious perception. What does it do? It only reacts to this particular set of world conditions that it accepts -- it reacts to the whole world. Its environment, the society around it, the people around it, the surrounding living beings, the natural environment, the social environment -- all of it. When your body reacts, it considers information at the level of the whole world, not simply relying only on itself or considering only itself. When it reacts, it takes into account the surrounding environment, up to the world level. This is not an exaggeration -- it really is at the cellular level that this body consciousness is formed, and when this body consciousness reacts, it considers both what is beneficial to itself and what is beneficial to the whole world. As for those things it does not recognize or accept, it does not react -- but those are equally legitimate; it just does not pay attention to them.
So some people are very sensitive to certain things and insensitive to many things; other people are very sensitive to things you are insensitive to. Everyone focuses on different points. You are only interested in and attentive to certain things happening in this world, and basically choose to turn a blind eye to the rest. You will not look at them, much less feel them. So what you feel is what you want to feel -- but this "want" is not the wanting in your head; it may be the wanting of the body consciousness, or it may be the deeper inner you wanting.
To some extent, probabilities are decided along cellular lines.
Here Seth puts forward an insight: how are probabilities chosen? From a certain angle, they are decided by the cells, determined along cellular lines. Why? Because cells choose based on their own collective consciousness -- choosing what is important to them, which direction they go to experience, what they react to. Then you feel the existence of that thing. You think it is you who feels it, but actually you do not know that this is a decision made by your body's cells. In other words, what you feel and what you do not feel is sometimes decided by the cells of your body, not by your own consciousness. Is that not subversive and mind-bending? You must never underestimate the cells in your body -- at many levels they decide many things that you yourself cannot decide.
After a long pause -- he always pauses this long -- he said:
The structure of the body itself, in and of itself, determines the pattern for the probabilities that can be actually experienced.
Let us explain this sentence again. The structure of the body itself is composed of units of consciousness -- what we see at the physical level is cells, and beneath the physical level are those units of consciousness. This bodily structure itself, in and of itself, determines the pattern for the probabilities that can be actually experienced. What does that mean? Whatever the body wants to experience, whatever it wants to feel physically, it chooses the kind of probability it wants, and then brings it into your life experience. To put it more bluntly: your body can experience comfort and pleasure, ease and relaxation, tension and fatigue, and so on -- all these probabilities the body can experience. So what does the body want to experience, and why does it experience that? Because it selects, from among the many probabilities, those that can be actually experienced. Those that cannot be actually experienced, it will not choose -- because it knows choosing them is useless, it simply cannot experience them. For example, you would not choose the feeling of being an astronaut if you are not an astronaut.
All other things leap out from within it. The reality of the source from which they leap is never determined.
There is no fate, no fixity, no predetermination. The universe is forever being created. Here he again emphasizes that there is no such thing as predestination. Then you may ask: what is the relationship between the body's choices and our free will, our subjective consciousness? When you ask this question, you are setting the conscious mind and the decisions of the units of consciousness in opposition. You are overlooking one point: what is the conscious mind composed of? The conscious mind is composed of units of consciousness. Are the decisions made by the conscious mind also decisions made by the units of consciousness? Yes. Then you ask: is it your free will or the units of consciousness making the decision? You again realize: the operational relationship in between is that the conscious mind makes a balance or fusion between the conscious and the unconscious. At that level, you cannot distinguish who is actually at work, who is making the decision.
Your body will make advance preparation and advance foreknowledge according to what it wants to experience. But is all of this predetermined? No. The decision is still yours. You can choose to change a certain belief, or choose not to change it. Whether you change it or not, your body has prepared for both situations. Whichever you choose, the body gives you that experience. For example, if you originally had trypophobia, when you replace it with an opposite belief, the next time you see those dense patterns, your body will no longer produce the physiological reaction of trypophobia as it did before.
When consciousness is specified, it always regards itself as a center of its world.
When consciousness is clear, it always regards itself as the center of its world. Each of us looks at this world only from our own perspective, never from Zhang San's perspective, nor from Li Si's perspective. Some people have empathy and the ability to feel with others, and can think about problems from another person's perspective, but their premise is still always themselves. They can be a good friend, a good confidant, sharing suffering and joy, sorrow and happiness with others, but they can never be that other person. They always take themselves as the center of their world. This is a fundamental characteristic of all consciousness.
All the details of consciousness, and all phenomenal appearances, occur when the basic units of consciousness -- that is, EE units -- combine, and thereby enter what you call definite units, definite dimensions -- that is, physical units, the physical world.
He still emphasizes this point: when units of consciousness become electromagnetic energy units -- EE units -- the EE units can then enter the physical world. From the formless world to the formed world, it is at the moment of manifestation that these details become determined. Before manifestation, all probabilities are contained within. As for which details and which phenomenal appearances are specifically manifested, all of that happens at that moment. This is like what we call the collapse of the wave function -- before it is determined, the wave function is the superposition of all probabilities; once it collapses, there is a single unique solution. So in the physical world, it becomes determined.
Your primarily accepted normal thinking consciousness is within the physical matter of your body.
Our conscious mind is indeed within our brain, and of course not only the brain -- your gut also has consciousness.
And through his body, you see your world.
Through this physical body you see your world. Because your consciousness is within the body, you feel that you are separate from this world, that the world is outside you. This is not wrong; your conscious mind does operate this way. Everything it perceives and sees is obtained through this body, and all information comes from the outside. When all information comes from the outside, it will inevitably regard the outside as a real world -- because it does not feel the inner information. Can you see your internal organs? Can you see your body's cells? You cannot see any of them, let alone see how your own psyche operates. So everything you see is given to you by the external sensory world, and you will feel that your world is all outside you.
Nothing prevents you from viewing your body from a standpoint outside the body.
No one is stopping you from standing outside your body and looking at yourself. But we are already habituated; only through certain study and practice do you gain this ability. As Seth has often said before: step your consciousness one step to the left of your body, or one step to the right. In spiritual practice, there is also often mention of a feeling of "pulling back" -- place your consciousness behind your head, imagine there is an eye watching you, and that is the real you. Then you can imagine it shrinking back, retreating, pulling your consciousness out of your body. Many practices and meditations can bring about the feeling of temporary separation between consciousness and body. The only reason you have been taught that consciousness is imprisoned within the body -- this is one of your beliefs limiting you. If you did not have this limitation, your consciousness could be anywhere. Why do people who have out-of-body experiences have that feeling? It is because their consciousness separated from the body, and the consciousness went out. Consciousness itself has no physical limitations, nor limitations of time and space.
His body is a sending and receiving organism, your home station, and the focus of your activities.
The body is your home station, and also the focus of your activities. All your activities revolve around the body -- meditation, eating, sleeping, working -- all centered on the body. In the future, when you explore the unknown reality, you will also have to set out from this home station. This is like the main station of a television network, under which there are many channels -- news channel, children's channel, music channel, science channel -- and you are that main station.
Yet you can quite consciously leap away from it.
You can move the focus of consciousness away from the body. You often do this -- for example, when dreaming, especially in the dream state, for a while you look at this world from another perspective, and at that time you have temporarily freed yourself from the physical body.
After another pause, he said:
In certain adventures, you do indeed visit other probable realities. In them you have a body structure as real as your own body.
When you are able to go to other parallel worlds and encounter another self -- it exists as truly as you do now, and it has a body -- at that time your psychological structure will change, and it will expand your psychological structure. Your cognition of yourself will no longer be limited to the present self. You discover that in parallel worlds there are other selves, living other lives, and they are also me. At that time you have a strange feeling -- you are also him, and he is also you.
For he draws from your greater probability, from the rich storehouse of existence. Even a small understanding of these concepts can help you glimpse how narrow today's psychological concepts are.
Merely an insight into this concept can let you know how narrow psychology is -- because it only explores such a small range and angle. In plain human terms: at the psychological level, you are a being of multiple personalities; you inherently contain many existences within you, many probable yous, and all of these are you. This is the foundational layer of psychology -- true psychology should study all of you, all probable yous.
The self that you know and recognize carries within it the hints and traces of all your probabilities.
The present you, right now, carries within it the hints and traces of all other probabilities. The reincarnational you, the you in parallel worlds, those probable yous -- all leave hints and traces, leave clues, in your present psyche. Your body is prepared to actualize these -- those potentials, the potentials to be an artist, a singer, a painter, an athlete, you all possess them, and your body is fully equipped. Why? Because at the underlying cellular level, they are trans-spatiotemporal. When you want to realize a certain wish, the future you will come back in reverse and design the present you, so that the present you grows into the shape of that future. So you need not worry that your body will not cooperate when you want to become something -- your body is fully cooperative; it has this ability.
Because of the selectivity mentioned earlier, certain directions may be easier than others, while some may seem impossible.
You may find certain things easier to learn than others, because you already have some experience in those areas. And some abilities you feel are impossible -- that is also normal. But:
Yet within the psychological and biological structure of your species, there are far more intersections along the roads of probability than you know.
The possibilities you think exist are, in actuality, always far greater and far more numerous than you yourself believe. But they are not infinite either. There are still some objective limitations and realities here -- you cannot say, well then I will fly; flying has little probability. There are certain limitations; it is not infinite.
If your normally considered conscious mind directs your overall actions, its concepts determine which choices you make.
Normally we all think the conscious mind directs actions. Why can it direct them? Precisely because its concepts determine what choices you make. Those who can truly tell fortunes, who can predict, have actually seen through your conscious mind. How do they see through it? Your conscious mind is also a kind of information, a kind of electronic signal, a kind of real existence. Once they see through your conscious mind, they can point out, from among all your possible choices, a direction your future may develop. And most of the time they are right, because you will make choices according to your conscious mind.
It is for such a reason that I try to expand your conscious concepts.
We are now studying Seth, reading books, all using consciousness to learn. When the conscious mind directs, it is making choices. Our study now is to expand the concepts of the conscious mind, making its range wider and wider, its vision higher and higher, its limitations smaller and smaller. When the conscious mind expands to a certain degree, when you take action with such a conscious mind, the life experiences it can bring you will be completely different from before.
You may ask: is it my conscious mind choosing, or is it the units of consciousness choosing? When you ask this question, you are still considering the problem within the framework of time -- you still think about who decides first. You have not realized that the conscious mind is composed of units of consciousness. Your free consciousness is embodied right there -- when the units of consciousness present all probabilities to you, you make your choice according to your own preferences and the order of importance in your own life. And the state in which you make this choice occurs simultaneously with the decisions of the units of consciousness; there is no before or after; they influence and determine each other. If you still have such sticking points, remember: when you remove time, these problems are no longer sticking points. With the limitation of the time axis, you will definitely have sticking points, and you will definitely ask what comes first and what comes after. This is like asking which came first, the chicken or the egg -- it cannot be explained clearly.
So, the purpose of training our consciousness, expanding our beliefs, changing the width, height, and depth of our consciousness, is:
Expand your conscious mind, so that you become more capable of choosing, from among all the probable experiences open to you, the route of your physical experience.
After all this talk, is it not just to make you understand that you have many probabilities to choose from? And this multitude of probabilities is not limited to the forks in the road of this one life; it also includes all your lives, all the probable yous' storehouse of life experiences. You can select the life experiences you want to experience, and then bring them into the physical world to manifest. I am only opening up a larger space of possibility for you, but the choice is still in your hands.
The conscious mind itself, as Seth has specifically discussed in other material -- it is like a child straddling a wall, one side facing the conscious, the other facing the unconscious. The conscious mind itself is something between the conscious and the unconscious, between the inner self and the outer self. You cannot feel the unconscious part, but the conscious mind can feel it; it gathers information from both sides.
After the break, Jane continued at 10:57 p.m. Seth began the preface:
There is an unknown reality, of which I am a part, and of which you are also a part.
This is the preface Seth wrote for this book. At the very beginning of this book, we discussed the foreword Rob wrote, and then what followed was this preface written by Seth himself -- completed in the latter half of this session. Seth did not finish until midnight, and he said cheerfully, "The preface is finished." You see, this book is also interesting -- he did not write the preface first; halfway through writing, he remembered he should write a preface. So do not always feel that things must follow a certain order; you can do whatever comes to mind, and in the end it will naturally sort itself out.
Although the session ended here, in fact there were several lasting effects that arose from it, including some of Jane's Saratoga experiences. All the relevant material is recorded in detail in our Fulu Temple; if you are interested, you can take a look.
Finally, Teacher Xiyu interprets this session as follows: