The "Reading Guide" and "Key Points" for 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 portions Mike read aloud).
Introduction
Session 715 centers on "the role of the intellect, the importance of personal matters, and alterations of consciousness": Seth first explains that physical reality is composed of changeable models, and that the focus of consciousness alters the models; then Jane, while shopping, enters an expanded state of consciousness, perceives the world as more dimensional and real, and experiences free will and inevitable action existing side by side; Seth comments that the intellect and intuition should combine into a higher intellect, and that Jane in the waking state enters the level of the psyche's library to operate; Rob's notes supplement the Roman officer experience and related material from the early sessions.
Key Points of This Chapter
- Physical reality is composed of constantly changing patterns; when the focus of consciousness intersects with these patterns, it alters them and forms new certainties.
- While awake and on a shopping trip, Jane entered an altered state of consciousness, perceiving people and objects as more dimensional and more real, and feeling that free will and the inevitability of every action were not contradictory.
- What tradition calls rationality is limited to dissection, criticism, and analysis, but rationality should combine with intuition to become "higher rationality," used for creative, unifying construction.
- Jane simultaneously perceived the physical level and the level of the psychic library, and understood that one of her purposes in this life is to rebuild the books in the psychic library within the physical world.
- In reality, what matters most is the practical; exploring unknown reality cannot remain only in theoretical imagination, but should be contacted through personal experience.
Main Text
Session 715: The Role of the Intellect, the Importance of Personal Matters, and Alterations of Consciousness
This session began at 9:25 PM on Monday, October 28, 1974.
In the notes above, Rob described two unusual psychic events that he and Jane experienced on Sunday and today. The first was Rob discovering that he had been a Roman officer in the first century AD. The second was Jane -- in last Wednesday's class I mentioned that Jane began her new book, The Politics of the Psyche, and at the same time she became aware of a slightly different Jane in some psychic library, where she seemed to obtain most of the material for The Politics of the Psyche.
So there were two Janes. One was the Jane in the living room, and the other was the Jane in the psychic library. The psychic library was a library within her, and much of the material for The Politics of the Psyche was obtained from that psychic library.
On Thursday, Jane went to her library several more times. She obtained material in the library but did not record anything. On Friday morning, she received another, shorter piece of library material. I will excerpt part of it. The following material was obtained by Jane in her psychic library, not from Seth.
There are constantly changing models of physical reality. (Session 715)
Let us look at the first sentence first. In our physical world, there are many models, or we could call them a mold, a template -- the original word should be "pattern." In the physical world, any given thing does not have just one appearance; it has many potential appearances. So which one actually manifests?
They constantly alter themselves according to each new stability immediately establishing new procedures. (Session 715)
For example, this table -- there are many kinds of tables; this cup -- there are many kinds of cups. Within its own reality, through each new stability, it immediately establishes a new order. When there is a new stability, there is a new order, and it can change into a new appearance.
I do not know whether you can understand this. Many people say that the process of manifestation in our three-dimensional world is exactly such a process: when any object manifests in the three-dimensional world, behind it there actually lies the possibility that it could become many other objects. This cup has many possible appearances, this table has many possible appearances. So which one actually manifests? Each one that manifests, within the environment in which it manifests, establishes such a new order and maintains such a new stability.
We focus upon these models, and our intersection with them at any given point also changes them. (Session 715)
When you look at a cup, your conscious focus is upon that cup, and that is your intersection. At that point of intersection, you change the cup. In our traditional scientific view, this is considered impossible -- a cup is a cup, how could you change it? But from this perspective, it is indeed so. Because the cup is also composed of consciousness, and behind it there is also a model or pattern. When your consciousness interacts with the pattern that composes the cup, you actually influence it.
So we often say, if a hundred people look at this cup, there will be a hundred cups there, and each person sees a different cup. You say they are all the same? Ask carefully, and each person is actually different, each person's feeling is different. You say, how could there be such a big difference? If you do not believe it, you can do an experiment. Take a classmate of yours, and ask other people about their understanding of that classmate -- you will find that everyone's description is different. Take a piece of clothing, the same piece of clothing, and everyone's view of it is also different. You say this is all too subjective, so take something objective -- a glass of water. Some people feel it is cold, some feel it is hot. This is the most classic saying of Master Xuanzang: "As with drinking water, only the drinker knows whether it is cold or warm1," as with drinking water, only the drinker knows whether it is cold or warm1. Cold and hot are decided by the person himself.
I use such a vivid example to tell you: when you go and perceive an object in this three-dimensional world, and you pour your consciousness upon it, you have actually already changed it, only you do not realize it.
This creates a new dimension of certainty. (Session 715)
What is meant by a new certainty? The reason that cup appears to you as that cup is because of the change in your conscious focus and its pattern -- the two interact, causing that cup to present the appearance you imagine it to present. To put it more bluntly, that cup is actually something projected outward from within you. Your consciousness causes the pattern of that cup to change, becoming a cup that conforms to your inner needs. Then, with that new focus extending outward, starting from this cup, after this conscious focus merges with it, it extends further outward and can become different other things, with numerous possibilities and numerous variations.
Jane's Actual Experience
Seth continued:
Jane did not really understand what he was writing. (Session 715)
He was soon to begin one of the key episodes of his psychic career.
My later experience that day was a practical experience of how those models operate. (Session 715)
What came before was a theory, and what came after -- Jane's real experience on the way to the supermarket -- served as a very comprehensive illustration of the preceding theory. To put it bluntly: every object in our three-dimensional world is, behind the scenes, a multidimensional existence, but if our senses are not sensitive enough, we can only perceive its existence in the three-dimensional world. The truth is that the thing itself is a multidimensional existence. When our consciousness interacts with the model of this multidimensional existence, it changes it, and this change produces subsequent effects, possibly affecting the object in our reality, and possibly affecting the object's expression in other realities.
At noon on Friday, Jane told me that he had entered another state of altered or intensified consciousness. Although his state of awareness was still increasing, he still decided to drive into town with me after lunch -- I planned to go to the repair shop to pick up our typewriter, and then buy some groceries.
Jane was so relaxed that he could barely walk steadily. It felt as though the floor was rising up beneath my feet, supporting my weight, but in a way I was not accustomed to. He found it utterly fascinating. Then he went into town with Rob to do the shopping. Rob joked that we should be careful when we went out -- if people saw you staggering around, they would think you had been drinking.
As we drove east along Water Street toward downtown Elmira, Jane repeatedly marveled at the new beauty he had discovered in his world. But after I picked up the typewriter and we went to the supermarket, he decided he could not get out of the car. Jane said, I cannot walk, I will just stay in the car -- he did not want to do anything that might interrupt his greatly expanded state of consciousness.
So Rob parked the car in front of a drugstore and hurried in to buy some paper and pens for Jane, so that while Rob went to the supermarket next door to buy groceries, Jane could sit in the car and write down some of his feelings. When Rob returned after about thirty minutes of shopping, Jane was still writing and had already filled six pages. Below are some excerpts from Jane's notes -- Jane later added a note reminding readers that his full experience was written in Chapter Two of The Politics of the Psyche.
Then, between this moment and the next, between two points of time, the world truly changed before my eyes. I saw the world from an entirely different perspective. It was like the old world, yet infinitely richer, more immediate, richer, more immediate, better made, and with far more depth. (Session 715)
Language cannot describe it. Every person passing by the car was at that moment more three-dimensional, and super real. We normally do not think of people as unreal, but he felt they were more three-dimensional, more super real. Yet each was part of a larger model of himself. He could feel that every person walking past his car was one part of a larger model of his own self.
Do not forget that at the beginning of this session, the concept of models was mentioned: every model in the physical world, when consciousness focuses upon it, simultaneously changes it, and within the new change forms a new stability. What Jane described in the preceding passage was his experience of this process -- he could feel the multidimensional existence of every person.
Each person's reality was obviously and clearly no longer merely three-dimensional in space; it was multidimensional. (Session 715)
They looked like the same people as before, but their feeling and my feeling were no longer the same. The world now encompassed so much more, was more solid, more substantial than before, to the point that my previous experience of it seemed like a counterfeit -- his previous experience of the world, relative to his present feeling, seemed like a counterfeit, and this world was more real.
The world now was so solid, made up of unconnected points or blurred focuses.
In terms of quality, the supermarket plaza was so different from usual -- he mentioned a quality -- I could hardly believe this plaza was so different from usual. While Rob was shopping, I kept looking and looking. It was just an ordinary small supermarket plaza, but he felt it was completely different.
I knew that every person I saw had free will, yet every action was also inevitable, and somehow there was no contradiction in it. (Session 715)
This is a very subtle feeling. He said, I could feel that every person I saw had their own complete free will, yet every action was also inevitable. Is this not itself a very paradoxical thing? It was originally a contradiction, yet there was no contradiction.
I could look at each person and feel their model and all its variations, and understand how that model was here and now, within this person. This is the meaning of the sentence at the beginning of this session -- what is the relationship between free will and possible variations? Do I actually have a destined arrangement for my fate? If so, then do I actually have free will?
Jane made an exposition at this point: they are indeed unified. What does this mean? Each person has within them a model, and this model can become any appearance it shows, and this variation and change is actually determined by the person's own conscious focus. In other words, he can become any appearance within this model, and these models -- are they pre-set? Yes. But does he have free will? He does. But the free will he has is also choosing among these models. And when he chooses, along with his present consciousness, the model also changes. So the subtlety in between truly cannot be described in words.
I saw these people as real people. (Session 715)
Real people, meaning complete people. Because these people were more immediate, more complete, and more whole. People seemed to be a model of themselves, a model. What does this mean? These people should be manifested from patterns of multidimensional existence. They are real people because he could carry all his patterns, all his models, and his present state must be his best state, must be the result of his own self-selection. But when selection is mentioned here -- do not think it is choosing one result from a pile of dead photographs. No. When he chooses, he still interacts with the selected model, and in that interaction, the model changes according to his wishes, intentions, thoughts, ideas, feelings, and emotions. But no matter how it changes or how he chooses, the model, the pattern, the appearance he selects in the present moment is his best appearance, a model of himself.
You must remember this. Seth always says, you are the best you in the present moment, accept in the present moment that this is the best state. Most of us do not understand the meaning of this statement, and Jane's exposition here helps you understand it.
Facing a row of shops, and these too were models or their variations, likewise one of many models, and their changes as well, and this likewise applied to everything I looked at. (Session 715)
I thought, I am so full I am about to overflow. (Session 715)
Why? Because every person, every thing, every object in the three-dimensional world was presented from a multidimensional perspective. When presented multidimensionally, each person carried all their dimensions, all their probable selves, all the variations of the pattern within them, and when all of it could be displayed, then for Jane, his brain could not process so much information at once. So he said, I feel I am about to overflow -- meaning his brain could not handle it anymore, the stimulation was too intense.
For a moment I wondered whether I was wearing a remarkable new pair of glasses. (Session 715)
First of all, writing these things required some perseverance. Why? Because his state at that time was somewhat like being drunk, dizzy and lightheaded, and that state truly is best described as being drunk. Because I only wanted to keep looking this way forever -- he did not want to write, but Rob asked him to. I wanted to keep observing like this, wearing such a new pair of glasses, observing a brand-new display of this old world.
On our drive back to the apartment, Jane was still deeply immersed in this remarkable experience, and he marveled: Wow, after this I will never touch LSD again2, who needs that? He laughed and said: How to conduct your own free trip -- if you have feelings like Jane's, you do not need to spend money, you can trip. Rob quickly added that he did not use any kind of psychedelic drug. Jane said, I will never touch LSD again2 -- my state feels the same as taking those hallucinogens.
What would happen if you opened your eyes and really saw the world? It is indescribable. (Session 715)
Jane is a literary person, a writer, and even he could not describe it -- just imagine that feeling.
And later today, he wrote again:
For example, as Rob drove home, I felt that the earth supported the road, and the road supported the tires and the car, and I felt these physically. (Session 715)
He felt the earth in the same way we feel temperature. Temperature surrounds us, and this earth was the same, as if surrounding us, a positive support and pressure, holding the road up. The road seemed to have an upward support, and that force almost seemed to hold itself up, like a long, powerful wall, like the back of a huge animal.
His feeling of the road was also different from usual.
Even from my observer's perspective, the actual adventure of consciousness was so abundant that by comparison my attempts to describe it seem utterly inadequate. (Session 715)
Rob said that Jane's feelings of this kind could not be adequately described by any human language, and even Jane's own description could only give you a slight sense of it.
Seth's Comments
At this point, Seth came through.
Give us a moment, and we will use it for the book again. (Session 715)
He knew the two of them wanted to ask about this, because for him it was such a magical feeling.
Let us first discuss the book's content. We said in the last session that that evening was significant for Ruburt. (Session 715)
Why was it significant for Ruburt? Now that we have heard it, we understand: in that session, through his understanding of that kind of tone and notes, of feeling-tone, through a real feeling, Ruburt understood what his "value fulfillment" was this time. In other words, he found his own positioning, and he knew what role he played in the universe. So that day Seth said, that day was significant for Ruburt, very significant.
And that was true in many respects. (Session 715)
Many of the things Ruburt felt that day were true. This book is about the unknown reality, and Ruburt began a different journey into other dimensions last week -- he had already gone to other different dimensions. After that kind of sound fell into various dimensions, the seed of personality was blown like the wind to every corner of time and space, and so on, such poetic feelings and experiences -- at that time Jane had already entered another dimension.
I hope in these sessions to show you the various levels of psychic experience, and as a result, the inseparable connections between experiences in different systems. (Session 715)
You can see both the different feelings and experiences of your psyche at different levels of consciousness, and also the inseparable inner connections between different systems. You think there is no connection between various dimensions and various parallel worlds -- they are connected, each is valid, and each is more or less related to this life you know.
And Ruburt had allowed a portion of his consciousness in this life to suddenly change direction, so to speak, onto another path, and into another system of actuality. (Session 715)
Ruburt has this ability to allow a portion of his consciousness in this life to suddenly change direction. His life there is as valid as his existence in your world. Jane's existence in the psychic library -- that inner world of his -- is as real and valid as our existence in this world of ours.
Now in the waking state, he can alter the direction of his consciousness. (Session 715)
Previously he could only go to the psychic library in dreams, or in a trance state. Now he can go there while awake. This is very different from before -- for him to go there while awake means he must have an ability to let two consciousnesses operate simultaneously: one in that reality space -- the reality space of the psychic library -- and one in the space of our physical world. He must maintain both consciousnesses at the same time.
Ruburt has only just begun this, so up to now he can only occasionally insert such an experience there.
Ruburt is not yet skilled; he can only glimpse it occasionally.
However, behind his mind, he can now more or less constantly be aware of it. (Session 715)
Behind his mind, he can constantly be aware of the existence of that inner reality. He did not disturb the world he now knows; on the contrary, it enriched him. Take his supermarket experience as an example -- he did not overturn that world, saying that everything in the supermarket had changed, that the road was no longer a road, that the supermarket was no longer a supermarket, that people were no longer flowing energy bodies one by one. No. He did not destroy his existing known visual world, the physical world; on the contrary, it enhanced him and enriched him.
The idea of the unknown reality will help expand each reader's consciousness. (Session 715)
This book itself is presented in such a way -- transmitted through the collaboration of Seth and Jane, through channeling -- that it automatically pulls your perception out of the ordinary, pulls you out of the common sense you normally accept in daily life.
So awareness will flicker back and forth between the standard version of the world you accept, and the unofficial version you perceive but usually do not acknowledge. (Session 715)
There is an official version you know -- what the world is like, what the universe is like; and there is another version of the unknown reality that you are not ordinarily familiar with. This book can make you flicker back and forth between the two versions.
As Ruburt transmitted this material, the same thing happened to him in different ways. So in certain respects he bounced back and forth between dimensions, practicing the flexibility of his consciousness. And in this book, more than in previous books, his consciousness was sent out farther. (Session 715)
When Jane transmitted this material, he likewise bounced back and forth between two reality spaces -- the space between where Seth connected with him, and our reality space. He bounced back and forth here, practicing the flexibility of his consciousness. In the process of transmitting this book, he had gone farther on the level of consciousness than in the transmission of the previous books.
Transmitting this material itself helped him develop the flexibility necessary for his recent pursuits. (Session 715)
That is, many of the facts you have accepted as the criteria of experience -- leave them behind, and only then can you achieve a clear understanding and effective exploration of the unknown reality. If you still carry the old worldview and way of thinking of the physical world, it will be very difficult for you to explore this unknown reality.
The unknown reality is also written in such a way. I hope it will cause you to begin questioning many of your true beliefs about existence. (Session 715)
I will make you re-examine what true existence is, what is real, and what is unreal. Then you can look at existence with new eyes, rather than looking at existence only from a physical perspective as before.
Ruburt is taking that new step from your perspective. (Session 715)
From that viewpoint, Ruburt is doing two things:
First, he is consciously entering another room of the psyche, and also entering the corresponding reality. (Session 715)
He did not use levels, depths, or dimensions; he used rooms. Suppose your psyche has many rooms, with a long corridor, and each room corresponds to a universe, to a reality. Jane has already begun entering other rooms, and each room has a universe world corresponding to its frequency, or encryption system. When you enter it, you enter that world.
This brings the two experiences together. One is his conscious experience; then he also entered another reality space -- another room of the psyche -- and when he felt the universe and reality corresponding to that room, he brought the two experiences together. He overlapped these two experiences, so in his visual system an overlap appeared.
There were clearly two sets of sensations, two sets of cognition. One set is the normal visual information you see with your eyes, and the other set is the multidimensional existence you feel with your psyche, or the inner senses. And the amazing thing is that you overlap the two together -- but they are within a common focus, both within your conscious focus. You have two conscious focuses, and these two conscious focuses at this moment, in this present, are overlapping. One is directed only at the physical world, and the other is directed at a multidimensional world. Generally speaking, you can only use one specific level of awareness, and what we most commonly use is our conscious awareness to feel the world.
I have told you that the physical body itself can receive other neurological messages besides those you usually respond to. Now let me add that when you reach a certain proficiency in alterations of consciousness, this will allow you to actually become acquainted with some of these other neurological messages. (Session 715)
I have said before that your nervous system can receive far more than just this little bit of information; it can receive a great deal of information, and that information is unfamiliar to you. You usually filter it out, but that does not prevent it from being received. When you become proficient to a certain degree, you allow the part of what your physical nervous system can receive, which you previously did not feel, to be felt by you.
It was in this way that Ruburt could concretely perceive what he was doing in his library. Last Wednesday, he first saw the interior of the library -- he used the word "saw" -- he was simultaneously the self in the living room, the self in this physical world, observing his own image in a library. Like watching a movie, but he was also the self in the library. He had two awarenesses, two consciousnesses, two conscious focuses.
Before him he saw a wall of books, and in the living room he suddenly understood: his purpose in this reality was to recreate certain of these books.
He suddenly understood what he had come to this world to do -- to rebuild the books of the psychic library in the physical world. And The Politics of the Psyche was one of them. He suddenly understood that this was his mission in this life.
He knew he was operating on two levels, one on the physical level and one on the psychic level, and with the reality he knew, he joined them together. He cast aside the spaces between things, and they were seen as each other's other side. (Session 715)
What does "other side" mean? It means taking a book from the inner psychic library and bringing it into the outer world, letting it manifest and be transmitted. Jane can span two realities, operating simultaneously with two identities and two focuses of consciousness.
In your terms, he has already worked with me for a while. (Session 715)
What does "already worked with me" mean? It means on that dimension with Seth, they have already worked together for a while.
However, I do not in any way control his subjective reality. (Session 715)
Although he has worked with me for a while in such an intermediate dimension, I won't control him or tell him what he should do--that you should transmit the Seth material, that you should cover this book or that book. No.
I am undoubtedly his teacher, but his progress is always his own challenge and responsibility. (Session 715)
I am his teacher, but I am not the kind of teacher who forces him to do homework or forces him to study. He is very free. However Jane wants to study in this, whatever challenges she wants to take on, whatever responsibility she wants to bear--just do it, I won't force you.
And basically, how he uses my teaching is entirely up to him. (Session 715)
How Jane uses the knowledge I taught her, how she improves herself, how she can transmit this material into the world--these are entirely her own affairs. I did not force her, and I did not dominate her consciousness; it is entirely autonomous.
At this point Seth says humorously:
You should note in parentheses that at present I have given him an A. (Session 715)
In Western academic grading, performance is rated with letters A B C D; he gave Jane an A, meaning he is fairly satisfied with Jane's performance.
But like many people, he was taught from childhood to believe that the function of reason is mainly dissection, criticism, and analysis. (Session 715)
A child raised in the West is taught from childhood to have your "reason." What is reason? In Western society, reason means having a critical spirit, a dissecting spirit, and an analytical spirit. You have to look at everything from these three angles: first dissect it, deconstruct it, then study it with a critical point of view, then analyze it. This critical point of view is not innate in every child; it is cultivated--American high schools place great importance on cultivating critical thought and critical writing; critical thinking and critical writing are the main educational focus of their high schools. So from childhood they have this spirit of challenging authority.
You could also call it serious, or logical, or earnest, but they all use such a word. (Session 715)
So-called reason is dissecting, criticizing, and analyzing whatever is faced.
In fact, we should instead build toward creative unification. (Session 715)
We should not dissect things, dividing everything into isolated things, splitting the universe into separate disciplines to study, isolating human beings from nature, and isolating cells and diseases one by one. Do not do that. You should creatively unify and build, rather than criticize, dissect, and analyze.
And analysis is considered to be a way of separating the components of a concept, rather than a limiting prior concept. (Session 715)
You think analysis is only about differentiating a concept; we must use analysis to distinguish this thing or theory from others.
New ideas are considered to be intuitive and psychic. (Session 715)
The old ideas are all about differentiating, analyzing, and criticizing, while new ideas use the intuitive and the psychic--that is, the way of unifying and creative building, not the way of analyzing, dissecting, and criticizing. This is the way we should most use reason.
This is set against reason's traditional responsibility, so the two seem to be separate. (Session 715)
They seem to be separate.
Therefore, in principle, Ruburt feels it is his responsibility to question any intuitive construction in the most vigorous way. (Session 715)
Because Ruburt was raised with a rational education, he feels a responsibility to question any intuitive construction--he is also full of questioning about the things that happen to himself.
This, in fact, provides an excellent transitional method. (Session 715)
Because he thinks that an intuitive thing will immediately come up with a new psychic construction in response to what he regards as rational scrutiny and doubt.
This is a very interesting thing. Ruburt has an innate doubt and questioning toward these intuitive and psychic things; this is an instinctive reaction of Ruburt's in the broader social context of the West. But the most magical thing is that when he questions and reacts, this rational questioning immediately leads to an intuitive and perceptual approach--to building a new psychic structure and examining what he experiences in a rational way.
Let me put it in my own words, because his wording is too convoluted. Jane is by nature a person who thinks rationally. Although her intuition and sensitivity are extremely strong, and her psychic and mystical qualities are very strong, Jane by nature has a pattern and habit of challenging, judging, analyzing, and questioning things rationally, and she cannot change that. But Seth says this unchangeable thing is not a bad thing; it is an excellent transition.
What is an excellent transition? Precisely because she has doubts, because she has doubts about this thing, then what does she do after doubting? She wants to verify it. How does she verify it? She wants to find a way to verify whether it is correct. And where does she verify it? She must verify it in a new psychic structure. That is to say, when she wants to verify this matter, when she verifies it with a critical attitude, she is actually using another psychic dimension, using the very intuitive and psychic method she had always doubted. Then she will experience things that transcend what she perceives in the physical world, and that is a new psychic structure--that is, her recent feelings.
So this kind of questioning is a good thing for Ruburt. It can help him experience what he would not have experienced if he had not questioned. This is a very interesting and subtle point. Sometimes questioning is good--if you question, you want to verify; if you verify, you will experience. If you want to verify something on the psychic level, you must verify it on the psychic level, and this verification itself expands Jane's ability in this area, expands her new psychic construction, and imperceptibly expands Jane's ability.
Therefore, when we use reason to look at the Seth material, there are advantages and benefits; we should not completely abandon reason. In fact, reason and intuition should go hand in hand, neither rejecting the other.
In Ruburt's experience, the two finally began to work together. (Session 715)
His rational questioning brought about an expansion on the psychic level, and the two began to work together, as they were meant to be.
Then, what I call a higher reason took its place.
When they started working together, Seth says he gave it a name, called "higher reason"--a higher level of reason, that is, reason and intuition joined together.
A mixed application of intuition and reason. (Session 715)
When these two are combined, it is as if you gain a new ability--reason plus intuition; you have another new ability, and you have unlocked a new skill.
This development released Ruburt from many old limitations, and at last allowed him to actually experience the unknown reality in the most intimate way. (Session 715)
Like his psychic library and supermarket experiences, including his earlier experiences--hearing the crystal, seeing the sound of the crystal as light--we won't go into them.
Ruburt's library indeed exists as surely as this room does. (Session 715)
Ruburt's psychic library is real, yet it is also as uncertainly real as this room. He is discussing something theoretical--does this room really exist? It really exists. Do you say this room does not really exist? It also does not really exist. Either way you say it, you are right. Does Ruburt's psychic library really exist? It really exists. Does it really truly exist? It also does not absolutely truly exist.
This kind of talk is a bit like saying nothing. So in the end the Buddha said, "I taught the Dharma for forty-five years, but actually I didn't say a word3"--because what I said was all nonsense; saying it is the same as not saying it. But he was like that; what is there to say? Everything is nondual, and nonduality is the same as not saying. Just as he said, is this library real? It is real. Is it not real? Yes, it is not real. If I say these two sentences, aren't they the same as saying nothing? But being the same as saying nothing is also not the same--not saying is not saying, and saying is nonduality; they are two different states.
Okay, let's not play word games.
To believe theoretically in the existence of another world, and to gain some comfort and joy from the idea, is one thing, while finding yourself in such an environment and feeling that the two worlds can coincide is quite another matter. (Session 715)
To know theoretically that the psychic library exists, that another reality exists, that probable realities and parallel time-spaces exist--and to actually exist in such a world, in such an environment, and to be able to make that environment coincide with your present environment--these are two completely different things. Real experience and theoretical feeling are two different concepts.
Reality, most importantly, is actual. (Session 715)
So-called reality--reality is the true world; the most important thing about reality is actuality.
So when you expand your concepts of the nature of reality, you will inevitably find yourself with this sense of strangeness. (Session 715)
When you expand your ideas about the nature of reality, you will definitely feel very strange, surprised, or completely lose your sense of direction. Of course, because the unknown world is completely different from our physical world.
So in this book I present to you not only imagined possibilities, but I often show you how such possibilities affect your daily lives, using the way Ruburt and Joseph's lives have been touched as an example. (Session 715)
In this book, I am not just giving you grand theories; I show you through living examples that happened to Ruburt and Jane that these unknown realities truly exist. For example, Jane's Psychic Politics was excerpted from material in that psychic library. Although Ruburt may not have known what he was excerpting meant--sometimes he truly did not know what he was excerpting--but a book published in our three-dimensional world came from the contents of a library in another time-space, a library that, relative to the physical world, does not even exist. Isn't that amazing?
Therefore, Seth says, I not only tell you about the unknown reality, but I also let you experience the unknown reality. How can you experience it? I can only use what happened to Ruburt and Jane as living examples to show you that this unknown reality truly exists.
For a while, many of you will play around with those ideas; some of you may have heard of the Seth material for a while, may be very interested in this concept and play around with it, while at the same time, except for those experiences already accepted, you avoid direct contact with any and all other experiences. (Session 715)
Many people can accept these theories of Seth in theory, but only in theory; they never want to try, are not willing to try, and do not dare to try, avoiding trying those unknown things. They just do not go and verify personally.
However, the infinity of your own abilities speaks silently in your dreams, in your private moments of conversation, even in the knowledge of your own molecules. (Session 715)
You yourself have infinite ability, and this ability is demonstrated everywhere--in your dreams, in your cells, in your molecules, in your private conversations, it is all the same. So since you have this infinite ability, you should try those unknown realities and expand the space of your consciousness.
There are psychic civilizations. If there are physical civilizations of mankind, there are also psychic civilizations, and only by studying these can you discover the knowledge of your planet's lost civilizations. (Session 715)
Only by studying the psychic civilizations--turning inward to seek this spiritual civilization--can you find the lost history of human civilization. Because every such physical culture corresponds to the psychic counterpart you even now possess, and emerges from it. Your present world also emerges from a part of your psyche, and those past human civilizations also emerged from your inner world. As long as you explore inward, you can find them. If you want to study human civilization, then first understand the civilization of your inner world; they correspond to each other.
Many of you are fascinated by a theory or idea that suggests the multidimensionality of your existence, yet are horrified by any evidence that supports it. (Session 715)
Many people are very fascinated in theory, but when it comes to actual experience and any real evidence in practical verification, you become very afraid.
You often interpret such evidence according to the doctrines you are already familiar with, which makes it more acceptable. (Session 715)
When evidence of this unknown reality appears, you use things from our three-dimensional world and your habitual old viewpoints to interpret what is clearly not a three-dimensional matter; you insist on forcing a three-dimensional explanation on it. Because only after it has been explained in three-dimensional terms does it seem acceptable to everyone; otherwise it is even harder to accept.
For example, our understanding of extraterrestrials is clearly wrong; our understanding of interstellar travel is also clearly wrong. But only when we explain or speculate from the viewpoint of our physical, three-dimensional world does it seem acceptable to everyone--that is, that there are alien civilizations far off in space, and so on, which we can accept. But if you tell them that these aliens come from parallel worlds and parallel time-spaces that are parallel to ours, and may even be on our moon--of course not this moon of ours, but another probable moon--then most people cannot accept or understand it.
When presented with such evidence, Ruburt used to feel almost angry. (Session 715)
In the past, when Ruburt saw things he could not understand and could not accept rationally, he was very angry.
But he also refused to characterize it in traditional dress. (Session 715)
He refused to accept these things through traditional, outdated theories, but he also could not accept the idea that these things came from a completely inner world. Ruburt was still quite rationally inclined.
And his own curiosity and creative ability gave him enough flexibility, so learning could happen. (Session 715)
What was good about it? Ruburt was curious; he had strong curiosity, and he had extremely strong creativity--the creativity you can see. These two gave him enough flexibility, so he could learn.
And he was still able to maintain normal contact with your world. (Session 715)
He was learning the unknown reality on one side while maintaining normal contact with our world, which is Ruburt's current state.
Ruburt, then, has had many experiences in which he temporarily caught a glimpse of the rich other side within physical reality. (Session 715)
Ruburt has had many such experiences; within physical reality, he has temporarily seen that rich other side.
He had known a unique heightening of perception. (Session 715)
Ruburt was also familiar with this perception--a perception that was raised and enhanced in its dimension. But he had never before, while awake, firmly stepped into another layer of reality and allowed himself to feel the continuous, lively connection between two worlds. Ruburt had had experiences in this area before, but never while awake.
Let us continue with Seth's account of Ruburt. He had never before, while awake--for example, in a moment like going to the supermarket in broad daylight--firmly stepped into another layer of reality and felt the continuous, lively connection between two worlds.
Earlier we talked about the concepts of models and patterns--Ruburt hid his own purpose from himself, so he would not see it. Interestingly, he did not even let himself see his own purpose. Many of us do the same: we hide our purposes from ourselves, so we won't see them. Ruburt also did this, so at times his purpose would jump out on its own--when it could no longer be hidden, it would jump out. Those of us now listening to the Seth material are the same.
Of course, at the same time, they are the same as all of you, each striving toward their own goals. What was Ruburt's goal? Ruburt's goal was to bring all the books in the psychic library into this world; that was his goal, and the Seth material is part of it.
However, to acknowledge his purpose and bring it into the light of day would mean that Ruburt had to make a personal and public declaration of alliance that he had not been able to make previously. He had to reveal his hidden purpose and tell himself and others out loud: I want to obtain these books from the inner world, spread them, and publish them. This is a declaration combining both the personal and public dimensions. Previously he did not dare; he hid his purpose from himself.
Each of your purposes is different; remember that. Some people undertake various adventures, such as dealing with intimate family contact, with the deep personal involvement of children or other careers. Each person has different goals and faces different lessons--some deal with family issues, some with career issues. All of these meet perpendicularly with physical experience. What "meeting perpendicularly" means is that this sense of purpose in your inner world, this pursuit of personal ideals, must inevitably come into contact with the physical world in the three-dimensional world; it must come into contact with our physical experience. You cannot hide it there, thinking about it every day in your mind, while in reality doing nothing. That won't work.
This is said to Ruburt, and to every one of us: do not leave your exploration of the inner world only in the inner world; you must bring it into the light of day, into this physical world, for it to be more meaningful.
So the journey into unknown reality can be very attractive--exploring unknown ideals is of course very attractive--and it represents a major distraction from what you are currently focusing on, something that seems to have no practical effect on you, but actually has a very great supporting effect. In other words, your exploration of inner reality also greatly helps your purposes in the physical world, only sometimes you do not notice this help. Just as when Ruburt explored the inner world, he discovered the meaning of this lifetime, found his life value, found his purpose and direction. Is that useful? Of course it is--wasn't his purpose to publish books? When he explored inner reality from the inner library, he could even get the contents of books.
These interests seem like a sideline to you, but they add great understanding and depth to your own experience, and from another level they give you more understanding and deeper recognition of your present experience--you will know why you made such decisions and took up such work in this life.
It can be said that Ruburt and Joseph chose travels and explorations that are secondary for other people. Others went to explore the physical world, while Ruburt and Joseph went to explore the unknown reality, something others do not much choose and regard as secondary. The focus of each person's consciousness is composed of a certain mixture, and this makes such possibilities able to become, in your terms, the main motivation. The physical world is very important, but the two of them wanted to explore the truth of this world. This exploration of the unknown world looked like a sideline, because writing books was Ruburt's main work and painting was Rob's main work; it seemed the transmission of the Seth material was like a by-product. But strangely, this exploration of unknown reality often mingles with the focus of your main purpose, and in this mingling process it brings you possibilities you had not thought of. Within these possibilities you do not know about, this exploration of unknown reality will become a main motivation.
You seem to be accomplishing a goal in the physical world, and then your exploration of the inner world has areas of mixture and overlap with that goal. But as you keep doing it, you will find that their primary and secondary status has begun to tilt and shift--you will find that inner-world exploration has become your main motivation. Only in this way can such a possibility come about.
Everyone is where they are, in the place where you are, because your consciousness forms the reality you have. You are very comfortably in your own reality; your entire physical condition is adapted to the environment you are now in, and your mental structure follows habitual patterns, focusing on the outer world. When you learn to set old ideas aside, you will begin to experience evidence of other layers of reality, and become aware of other information you previously blocked out. When you have this ability, by discarding old ideas, you can see information you had not discovered before, information blocked by your own ideas.
Part of Ruburt's training period is over; the focus of his whole personality now accepts the validity of many worlds--the physical world, the invisible world, the out-of-body world, the psychic library. Ruburt has acknowledged the validity of many worlds, and he accepts them from the heart. And how much acceptance of this unknown reality do we have? Each of you may have your own feeling about that.
Seth says he has told us many times: your consciousness is not static, not fixed there motionless, but always moving and creative. So each of you, throughout your life, travels through your own psyche, and your physical experience changes accordingly. Do not think about your life plan or your blueprint--these things are not fixed; they are always developing and always being created. Just go experience and create. When your consciousness creates, when your psyche experiences, your physical experience changes accordingly.
Over these years, Ruburt's position within his own psyche has gradually shifted, until he found a new, better, and more stable foundation point for himself. A few days ago Ruburt was looking for this, and he happened to find it; for Ruburt this was a new foundation point. From this new framework, he can more effectively handle different stimuli--bringing together stimuli that came to him from different realities, so as to build a model through which other realities can be understood.
Seth says he will continue to speak from his own unique viewpoint, but in your terms, Ruburt is one of you, and the exploration he undertakes from your viewpoint may be the most valuable. However effective Seth's viewpoint is, however valuable the theory is, you still have to practice it. Ruburt is one of the representatives of your humanity; what Seth says to Ruburt is actually what he says to you. Exploring this world from Seth's viewpoint is meaningless; what is truly valuable is to experience from our own viewpoint, from our own foundation point, from our own focus of consciousness, and then it becomes meaningful.
Seth says:
The real books and my books have already been written, and there are those not yet written. They will provide others with a framework to follow, if they wish, and in the way they wish.
If these people wish, the Seth material and Jane's material can provide help for their explorations, and then these books really can provide help. But the most important thing is still how each reader practices these things, just as Ruburt practiced them in life.
Then, this portion of the dictation came to an end, and below are some notes by Rob.
Rob's Note 1: The Experience of the Roman Officer
Rob said that on Sunday afternoon he lay down to take a nap. Just before he drifted into sleep, he had three small experiences involving inner vision. In the first, his eyes were closed, and in an episode related to this text, he saw himself back in the first century A.D. -- he was a fairly high-ranking officer in a Roman legion, aboard a small Roman warship in the Mediterranean. Although he was on a ship, he knew he was on an assignment for the army. He did not particularly like the dull, unemotional self that he saw. Briefly looking through those eyes, he saw two rows of galley slaves. He described the scene and his feelings about it to Jane, and he made two sketches of the officer's small face, one frontal and one in profile. He did not know the man's name. In terms of Seth's idea of simultaneous time, he thought he had caught a glimpse of another existence being lived now -- whether a reincarnational existence or a probable one.
Then on Monday, Rob decided to take another nap, and again, he found himself as that Roman officer, entering a sequel to the first scene. He felt himself lying face down in the Mediterranean, his hands tied behind his back. He knew he had been deliberately thrown into the sea, and he immediately cut off his awareness of the experience -- probably to avoid experiencing his death in that life. He did not panic, but he felt very uncomfortable: seeing how his previous self had died, to such an extent that he suppressed the conscious memory of the whole episode and deliberately refused to recall it. It was not until after tonight's Session 715 that he wrote down the entire event, so that the first and second Roman experiences could be presented together.
After the first Roman experience, Rob wondered whether he had touched upon a reincarnational self or a probable self. As far as he himself was concerned, he thought of reincarnational selves as rooted in physical reality -- whether in simultaneous or linear terms of time. But he thought probable selves had a much broader and far more complex range of existence. From the reincarnational point of view, Rob's thinking was somewhat narrower -- after all, in terms of human history, even if recorded human history is only four or five thousand years old4, with each life lasting eighty years, that would be at most fifty reincarnations, and then it would be over for humanity. So reincarnation is connected with physical reality, while probable selves are not connected with physical reality; they belong to nonphysical reality, a concept of parallel space-time.
I believe that even though we create them on an individual basis, our probable selves can reach many other realities, including physical and nonphysical ones.
These views of Rob's are the normal way of thinking for someone who has just begun to come into contact with spiritual matters. And he felt his thinking was very valuable and very meaningful. But actually, by the time we hear this session, we already know that the questions Rob was asking were still at a fairly elementary stage. He also often felt that some probable selves had moved into realms of existence that we truly cannot understand, and that they and their environments were so alien to our usual concepts of solid physical existence -- that was Rob's feeling.
Actually, in these notes you can see that Rob was very clever, advertising his other books. This is where Rob was shrewd -- you must not underestimate him. Do not forget that in another probable self, Rob was once a super athlete, a person of enormous wealth, so Rob had his areas of expertise in this regard. Look at how in this one short note he mentioned several books: he mentioned a book of poetry, another book by Jane, Seth Speaks, the information from Linjie, and a small article -- in this one short note he mentioned books or sources five times. If readers were interested, they would certainly buy all these books.
Jane's Ecstatic Experience and the Supersystem of Reality
What follows is not particularly important. It concerns a claim Jane made -- she said the world now accommodates so much -- when you enter this kind of unknown reality, it does not shake your sense of this present reality. It only gives you a richer cognition. You no longer identify with its uniqueness, but instead enrich it -- you do not knock it down or dissolve it.
This made Rob go look for related material Seth had spoken about, and Rob found two passages in Seth Speaks. Seth said:
There are also realities that are more effective than your own. Your physical table, for example, appears vague by comparison.
Our table turns out to be vague, while the table in that reality is more real -- it is a kind of super table. By comparison, your reality is not a reality system formed by the strongest concentrated energy. This statement is very important. Many people say our energy is too strong, and that is why nonphysical things become physical things -- but this is a human prejudice and misunderstanding. Only when something moves at a speed lower than the speed of light can it manifest in our physical world. When it is lower than the speed of light, do you think its energy is stronger or weaker? Is high frequency strong, or is low frequency strong? This is a very simple principle.
So Seth says your table is like a vague table -- because its frequency is too low. But the other realities of that table, the states in which the possible forms of that table exist, that multidimensional existence -- those are more real, more solid, more stable, and stronger in energy. The things in our three-dimensional world are things we can perceive only after their energy has weakened.
Therefore:
The other part of yourself, of which you are not consciously aware, dwells in what you could call a supersystem of reality, where consciousness learns to handle and perceive far stronger energies.
When you go explore unknown reality, the things there give you far greater stimulation than the three-dimensional world gives you. You must not think the energy there is weak and the three-dimensional world's energy is strong -- it is exactly the reverse.
Then, in Session 567, Seth also said:
You know that light has a spectrum, and therefore matter also has a spectrum of matter. Compared with certain others, your physical reality system is not very dense. The dimensions of length, width, and height you give to objects actually only begin to touch upon the various possible dimensions.
You have only given it a three-dimensional cognition, and you think that within this dimension it is very dense, but in fact it is not. Those systems may be much heavier or much lighter than yours -- that does not matter -- but they are all denser than ours.
On the Sixth Inner Sense
Fourth note: In Session 4 on April 21, 1964, Seth mentioned the sixth inner sense, which is the innate knowledge of basic reality, the innate concepts. Jane's exploration last Friday afternoon of those super-real models of our world represented an application of her knowledge of the sixth inner sense — those insights about crystals, about human personalities, and so on, can represent an embodiment of that direct conceptual perception. The drafts about some of the content came more or less from that same inner sense.
Note 5: The Childhood of False Hyperactivity
See Session 686 in Volume One, as well as Appendix 4 and Appendix 5 -- what Seth said in a private session ten days after finishing this book:
Ruburt has an ability to identify with others and to communicate, and he has always been a person of quick mind and flexible rationality.
When he was young, he received information from others so rapidly that he was diagnosed as falsely hyperactive. In fact, what he was receiving was the unofficial information that is normally checked and deleted by the nerves, and he could not make it conscious in this world, so he became extremely hyperactive. When he was young, he received this information from the unknown reality so rapidly, but at that time he did not know how to interpret it, nor could he make it conscious, so he was diagnosed as falsely hyperactive.
Note 6: Content from the Early Sessions
The sixth note appears in Appendix 18. On December 8, 1963, in Session 4, Seth announced his presence to Jane and Rob through the Ouija board. In Session 6, he told Jane to begin her training. In Session 12, he informed them that they were his first class of students. He then added that all those on my level have periods when they teach this kind of course -- those on the same dimension as Seth come to the human world at intervals to teach this kind of course. But this psychic connection between teacher and students is necessary. This means we must wait until the people in your reality have progressed enough to begin the class -- it is not a question of whether the teacher is ready, but whether the students are ready. Today, if the Seth material has spread so widely, it means that more and more people are ready.
Although reason is extremely important, Seth has no intention of diminishing its value, and he has never said that reason is meaningless. But in any case, what you call emotions and feelings are the connection between us. Reason is very important, but on Seth's level, when he transmits the material to those who want to learn, that connection happens through emotions and feelings. In the early sessions, he often used one word, which is life force -- he said:
What connects these life forces of yours that span different dimensions across time and space? It is your emotions, it is your feelings.
When you want to move, enter, and exit across different times and spaces, emotions and feelings are the primary connecting link, not reason.
Later we came to understand that when Jane transmitted certain Seth material, some distortions could occur -- this was something from the early sessions. When we considered the nature of simultaneity and openness, and when we considered the concept of probable realities, we began to understand that we might simultaneously be, and might not be, Seth's first class of students. But in those early sessions, we did not have the background knowledge to ask this question in a meaningful way.
In Session 15, Seth told Jane and Rob:
I am giving you what can be considered a very broad outline, so that it can be filled in later.
The knowledge he gave was a very broad outline, and many of the details within it could be slowly filled in later. That is why this whole series of transmissions of the Seth material came afterward -- all of it is filling in the content of that outline.
Our interpretation of this session ends here.
注释与核实
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Source: Ministry of Education, Dictionary of Chinese Idioms, 2020 (https://dict.idioms.moe.edu.tw/idiomView.jsp?ID=28122&la=0&webMd=1) ↩ ↩2
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Source: Fo Guang Dictionary Editorial Committee, Fo Guang Dictionary, “What the World-Honored One Did Not Say” (https://m.fodizi.tw/f05/65740.html) ↩
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Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Cuneiform tablet: record of rations of beer, bread, oil, and onions for messengers” (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/327069) ↩