Mike's commentary · The "Unknown" Reality, Session 716

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 parts Mike read aloud).

Guide

Session 716 uses the metaphor of a "radio station of consciousness" for the different focuses of consciousness: the "home station" that is daily tuned to the physical world, and the unknown reality as neighboring channels. The main text first explains that one should first become familiar with and clearly focus the home station, then practice integrating vision, hearing, smell, taste, and bodily sensations to form the clearest physical focus; afterward, loosen from that focus, let consciousness wander in a chosen direction, and gradually make contact with other channels. The alteration of the focus of consciousness is described as traveling within the psyche, and when changing stations, repressed or denied content may first surface.

Key Points of This Chapter

• Everyday consciousness is like a radio tuner, usually locked onto the "home station" of the physical world; the unknown reality consists of other stations that the same consciousness can tune into.
• Exercise 11 integrates the sensations of eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body, forming and remembering the clearest home-station focus as a reference point for the exercises that follow.
• Exercise 12 loosens the clear focus and lets consciousness drift in only one chosen direction (left or right), gradually reducing physical sense data and receiving signals from other stations.
• When changing stations, static noise, distortion, or ignored and suppressed content from the home station may first appear; these contents are reminders, not mistakes.
• Changing the focus of consciousness is traveling within one's own psyche; different realities are the concretization of different states of the psyche.

Main Text

Hello everyone, I am Mike. Today I will continue sharing with you the second volume of the Seth book The "Unknown" Reality¹, which is Part Five of this book. The title of Part Five is "How to Enter the 'Unknown' Reality"², followed by a colon: "Minor Steps and Major Steps, Glimpses and Direct Encounters."

This session is Session 716³, titled "Methods to Put You in Contact with the Unknown Reality: The Radio Station of Consciousness." This session began on Wednesday, October 30, 1974, at 9:33 p.m.⁴

He said that in this session Seth mentioned that the title of the next session would be "How to Travel into the 'Unknown' Reality: Minor Steps and Major Steps, Glimpses and Direct Encounters." That part would deal with all sorts of methods that allow you to make contact with the unknown reality to some degree.

He said we have talked about probable people, hinted at probable civilizations, and mentioned alternate systems of reality. Alternate systems of reality are other material worlds just like this material world of ours. However, these do not exist completely separate from the world you know.

He said those things do not exist separate from your present world, nor are they completely cut off from your psyche. If you have not experienced this kind of reality, then their existence will always remain merely a pleasant or speculative image.

Then he said the unknown reality is a variation of the reality you know, a variation different from our present reality, but not so far removed from the reality we know. So many of its characteristics are latent rather than dominant in your own personal and collective experience. He said those unknown realities, within our present main life, exist as latent and unimportant parts of our personal or collective experience. Any encounter with such phenomena, then, would involve bringing into focus elements upon which you do not ordinarily concentrate. When you make contact with those probable realities or unknown realities, you bring those things you previously did not notice into your perception, into the focus of your consciousness.

Your consciousness must learn to organize itself in more than one way, or rather, you must be willing to allow your consciousness to use itself more fully. You must allow your consciousness to organize itself in many different ways, or to put it simply, you must allow your consciousness to be a complete version of itself. Both of these mean the same thing, because different forms of organizing consciousness will bring out another state of consciousness. Your consciousness itself has the characteristic of being changeable; it has this ability in itself. You simply restrict it and do not let it change, so it cannot become those further states of consciousness.

This is not necessarily a matter of trying to ignore the content of this world, or of denying your physical perception. It is not denying your physical perception, nor is it ignoring your present material world. On the contrary, the trick lies in seeing the content of this world in a different way. It is not about ignoring it, but about letting you see the true content of this world from different angles and in different ways, and releasing your physical senses from the limitations imposed upon them by your mental conventions. This is one of the main purposes of exploring the unknown reality.

Each particular station of consciousness corresponds to a reality. Perceiving in a different kind of reality is an assumption of consciousness—if you compare yourself to a radio, each station of consciousness corresponds to a different state of consciousness. When you are on that different station, it is equivalent to being in a different reality of consciousness, or in a different you experiencing a different world, experiencing a different universe. This is the concept of stations. As we mentioned earlier, Seth said that most of your time you are usually tuned to your home station, the station centered on your present focus of consciousness. If you turn your focus of consciousness just slightly away, the world will look different.

If you shift your focus of consciousness a little, this world will look different. When you make that focus the core of your consciousness, or the center of your conscious focus, then that world that previously looked different from the present one becomes your new way of seeing the world—that is your new world. He said every face of your psyche, every face of your spirituality, perceives the reality upon which it concentrates. Suppose your spirituality has many faces, that is, your consciousness has many faces, then each face will perceive that upon which it concentrates. And the other faces of consciousness concentrate on the levels upon which they themselves concentrate, without interfering with one another. Although you can only focus on one face at a time, you cannot deny the existence of the other faces.

Can you understand this? It is like many channels on a television all broadcasting different programs at the same time. You can only watch one channel; you cannot make two channels play on one television. When you are watching this one channel, you cannot say that the programs on the other channels are not playing—they are all playing, only you are not focusing on them. But there is another you, or another face of your consciousness, that is focusing on that channel, only you do not know this process.

That reality is also a materialization of a particular state of the mind's outward projection. Every level of the psyche can perceive its own unique world, the world upon which its conscious focus is directed, and that world is also a materialization of a particular state of your mind's outward projection. Your mind projects outward in many states; it is just that this one state materializes it, and then lets you perceive it. You can learn to contact other realities by changing your own position within the psyche. The so-called other realities are all projections from within your mind. If your inner mind hypothetically has eight faces, then you can have eight realities to explore. The so-called exploration of those unknown realities is an exploration within your own psyche, that is, changing your own position within your psyche. Previously you only focused on one point; Seth is now asking you to practice placing your conscious focus on other faces.

So starting from Part Five, Seth begins to teach you step by step, concretely, how to explore those unknown realities. He is giving you specific methods. If you want to experience this, you should start preparing from this part onward—Seth will take you along to experience it.

If you want to experience this unknown reality, first you must become familiar with how your consciousness operates when it is directed toward the material world. If you want to explore the unknown reality, then you first need to understand how your present consciousness explores your present material world. If you do not even understand this, then how can you explore those worlds you are not familiar with or have never been to? He said if you do not even understand the feeling of being fully absorbed in your own reality, you will not be able to know when you can focus in another reality. If you cannot even focus on this material world, how can you focus on other worlds?

Yet many people feel—impossible, how could I not focus on this material world? Even if I do not focus, I can still feel its existence. Yes, but when you go to other unknown worlds, things are not so simple. Seth tells you why. Because many people do not notice the gradual focusing and gradual fading out of that state. What he means is that at first we are focused on the material world, but after you have lived in this world for a long time, you have actually gradually faded out and are no longer focused on this world. Other people, however, can keep track of their own inner drifting. Some people can notice themselves saying, "I am drifting, I am not focused on this material world," but most people are unaware of it and do not realize that they are no longer focused on this material world.

Here, a simple daydream represents a slight removal of awareness from the direct, given sense data. When you have this habit of daydreaming, that is, having a lucid dream—sitting there and dozing off, as if you have not fallen asleep but still had a dream—at that moment your consciousness is drifting. Some people can notice it, some cannot. He uses this example to show that although we live in the material world and it seems our focus is all concentrated on the material world, you are actually not truly focused. Sometimes you are focused, but sometimes you scatter and are not focused on it. Why? He will explain below.

If you listen to a tuned radio station, there is a convenient locking device that can automatically maintain that station in clear focus. This is how a radio works. If you have studied analog circuits you will know—now everything is digital circuits—for example, in the old analog circuits, if you wanted to stay stable on one frequency, it used a feedback and negative feedback mechanism to firmly lock that frequency onto the already tuned band. It used capacitors and inductors—we will not go into that—but you can use a mechanism to keep that frequency fixed in place, so that the program does not drift and the program is very clear.

So in the same way, when you daydream, you drift away from your own home station. Although generally speaking, people still maintain contact with it, you also have a psychic equivalent of the tuning-locking mechanism. He said when you daydream, you have actually left the focus of the material world, but you still maintain a certain connection with it. He said you have a psychic thing similar to the electronic circuit in a radio that locks the frequency, which can also firmly lock your consciousness onto your home station, that is, onto our material world.

In your terms, this is the result of training. Actually, from our human perspective, this is the result of training. When your consciousness shifts away from the present focus of the material world to somewhere else, it will automatically come back—this is training. If your thoughts or experiences drift too far, this psychic mechanism will bring them directly back. Usually this is automatic; it is a learned natural response, and today it has come to seem almost instinctive. When your consciousness leaves the present focus of the material world to explore the unknown reality, your body will have an instinctive mechanism that brings you back. Although this instinctive mechanism was learned by you after birth, learned after you entered this physical body. You did not have this ability innately—your consciousness ran around everywhere—but after birth you developed an ability to firmly lock your consciousness onto this physical body. This was actually something you trained yourself to do later, but you do not realize it; by now it has become an instinct for you.

So when you explore the unknown reality, this is an anchor point. It is both an advantage and actually also an obstacle, because it always pulls you back. This is one of the main reasons why many people cannot succeed in exploring the unknown reality. You yourself must consciously learn this mechanism for your own purposes. You must learn how to use it, because it is an extremely convenient tool for shifting the focus of your consciousness.

Subjectively speaking, many of you do not pay attention to your own experience, so you drift in and out of clear focus within this reality, but hardly notice it. We humans have lived in this material world for too long. The longer we live, the more numb we actually become to this material world. Much of the time we do things based on experience, without carefully observing anything. In other words, our observation of the surrounding environment and the material world mostly remains at the level of concepts and experience, not true observation.

Let me give a vivid example: say you are driving on a familiar road, the road you take to and from work every day, or you are a very experienced old driver—he actually does not pay much attention to the conditions on the road, does not seem very focused, yet he can very skillfully drive home. When he encounters something, he immediately labels it, frames it with a concept, saying, "I know this kind of thing—it is just business," and so on. For example, when you meet a man, you will think, "I understand men; men are all like that." Women assume they know it is just like that. Then you automatically label him. Will you carefully explore, use your sensing to feel him? No. Most of our lives are actually lived in this state. You think you are observing the world around you, but you are not. You carry strong experience, and you use that automated processing of experience to handle the things around you.

The most typical example is the driver. An old driver sees in all directions; he can spot a person crossing the street far away. Before that person crossing the street has even rushed in front of the car, he has long since noticed him, so he always drives with great ease and is not nervous. If you observe a new driver, or yourself when you first got on the road, you will find that things the old driver can clearly see—the old driver beside you says, "Look at that person," and you say, "How did I not see that?"—or another car suddenly changes lanes and you cannot brake in time and crash right into it. Actually, those old drivers noticed it long ago, so why did you not notice it? This is a typical point. But the driver example is not quite so obvious, because he is actually too focused rather than unfocused—you are too focused on one point. But in our ordinary daily lives, the examples I gave earlier are more typical—you use too much experience and labeling to replace your normal cognition.

Your material world—so your consciousness drifts back and forth within this reality, clear focus comes and goes, and you hardly notice it. Often your daily program, your ordinary life, is not as clear as it should be, or is not well focused. You often go through a day muddle-headed, without any very clear feelings that day. You will say, "It is just a normal day at work, just work, nothing special." Indeed, it is full of static noise. That day passes as if plain and unremarkable, with no feelings, just a very dull sensation. Although it may annoy you a little, you can often tolerate it, and even become so accustomed to that disharmony that you forget what clear reception would be like.

Yet in this world you are surrounded by the details of familiar objects and ideas, and your main orientation is material. In life you are always surrounded by familiar objects, details, and ideas, but what you mainly focus on are material things, and you actually do not pay much attention to these ideas, details, and objects. So you can operate on habit alone, even when you are not focusing as clearly as you should within your reality. At the same time, you basically operate on habit—practice makes perfect. In familiar surroundings, in your familiar home, in your familiar workplace, you can move with ease and live according to habit. So your life becomes somewhat muddle-headed.

However, when you travel into other systems, you cannot rely on your habits. This is fine in your present world—you are used to it, very familiar with it. But when you go to explore an unknown reality, you have no way to use your habits, because you have no experience at all, nothing—how could you have habits? Completely unfamiliar. To be honest, they can often only add to your mental noise—"they" refers to those habits. When you go to explore the unknown reality, habits are actually not good, because they will make you bring old concepts in. In that unknown reality, habits are useless; all your habits are useless, and all logic and judgment are completely different from the present world. There they will become static noise, useless, only interfering with you.

So first you must learn what a clear focus is like. At this point you can no longer use habits; you must use your consciousness to focus. So at this time you should learn what the focusing of consciousness is, what a clear focus is. You cannot learn it by trying to escape your own reality, or by dulling your senses. Our present life is exactly about dulling our senses. We live by experience and habit, rarely truly living with our senses. So many practitioners tell you to live with awareness, to do things with awareness, to eat with awareness, to work with awareness, but you do not understand what it means to live with awareness. It means you must use your keen senses to experience it, and we normal people have already lost this ability. We mostly use dulled senses, but use very slick, experience-derived habits to handle daily life.

He is teaching you this method here—the method of dulling the senses can only teach you what it means not to focus. And no matter what reality you visit, being able to focus well and clearly is a prerequisite. Once you learn how to truly focus, then you will understand what it means to change the direction of your focus. If you cannot even focus, and I tell you to focus your attention on the unknown reality, but you do not even understand focusing in the known reality, then how can you possibly aim at the unknown reality? So he says the first exercise for wanting to explore the unknown reality, or a necessary prerequisite, is to be able to focus your consciousness.

Then he said the simplest exercise is hardly likely to be original, but it is indeed very useful. Why? Because this exercise is too simple, so many schools or many methods will have similar methods to teach you how to practice this exercise. Below is the method Seth gives you. I think this method is already very effective and very simple. Actually, this method is essentially the same as doing a ten-day Vipassana retreat⁵. At the end of the ten-day Vipassana, when you use your consciousness to move across every inch of your skin, you are actually training that focus. But it is still not as comprehensive and thorough as what Seth explains here, because in many Vipassana retreats they do not tell you why—they just let you experience it and feel it. Seth, however, explains the causes and consequences, why you do this exercise, what this exercise trains in you, and what you should pay attention to, all very clearly. Vipassana will also tell you some methods, but those methods are only part of this exercise, and you only understand them after hearing them.

Exercise Eleven

Everyone ready? Let's do this exercise.

First, try to experience all of your present sense data as completely as possible. This exercises a mechanism of your entire body and psyche, bringing all of your perceptions together, so that your awareness is completely open, body and mind working as one. You experience an immediate sense of power, because your abilities are directed to their greatest capacity. In a physical moment, so to speak, you can act directly in the present.

What does he mean by this passage? What is this exercise mainly training? It is about unifying all the sense data of the present moment. For example, the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body -- the feelings of the five external senses -- it has you bring them all together, bring all your perceptions together, and then let your awareness open completely, letting your body and mind work as one. The body here refers to your sensory system -- it is actually very powerful, but we ourselves have blocked out part of its information. Let it open fully, and then use your mind to experience it, to feel it. He says that at this time you can feel a sense of power, because you have connected with your inner self, your inner and outer are united, body and mind are joined together, and at this moment a sense of power arises naturally. Because it directs your abilities to their greatest capacity, it directs your body and mind into the greatest possible range of their abilities. Then in a physical moment, at the present point in space and time, you can act directly, act directly with this awareness. When you act with this full awareness, that sense of power, that feeling, is completely different from how you live in your usual muddled state.

If you have seen the movie Doctor Strange⁶, you know that when the master first taught him to practice, he practiced this too -- he took him to a park and had him listen, look, and feel, using all his perceptual organs to feel.

Seth's exercise begins:

Sit with your eyes open easily, and let your gaze range over everything in front of you, but without strain, and on the other hand really explore the whole world at the same time.

Sit with your eyes open, and be sure to be relaxed, not tense. Let your gaze sweep over everything in front of you, everything before your eyes, but do not strain, do not stare hard at each thing; just let your eyes sweep over them. Have you seen that laser-scanning kind of feeling? It is that feeling. On the other hand, really explore the whole world at the same time. When you sweep over it, like a laser scan, sweep over every detail, every corner, everything you see -- for example, your computer, the phone you are looking at, the earphones set aside, or your surrounding environment, your study desk, or your backyard at home, anything you see -- really explore it all at the same time. Look at every detail as you look.

Listen to everything at the same time, and if you can, identify all the sounds.

At the same time, listen to everything, and if you can, identify all the sounds around you, any sound, even very faint sounds. You say you cannot hear them -- try it. Do you have a clock at home? Can you hear the sound of the clock? No? Then what sounds can you hear? The sound of your fan at home, the sound of the cooling fan inside your computer, or the sounds from the neighborhood outside your home, or the sounds from the street? All the sounds -- distinguish them, identify all the sounds.

Then in your mind, put these sounds together with the corresponding objects.

Take all the sounds and the things you just saw, the picture your eyes saw, and combine them together in your mind. For example, this sound is the sound made by the computer fan; although it is very faint, I can hear it. At this time you can also see, for example, there is an electric fan or an air conditioner in front of you, and you hear the sound of the air conditioner's vent, so you think that the sound of this vent goes together with this air conditioner. Combine all the sounds you hear with all the things you see.

At this time, if some sounds are not within your line of sight -- for example, little birds outside the window, or a kitten in the living room -- it does not matter; it is not within your line of sight, but you should place it in your mind, put its image and its sound together. This kind of feeling forms a space in your brain; within the image in your mind, every sound has its own source, and you distinguish it.

Sit comfortably, but do not try too hard to relax.

At this time you should sit comfortably, but do not say that you should relax completely, with great effort; just sit naturally and comfortably. If you want to relax especially, you should instead feel that your body is in a state of alertness. What is a state of alertness? It is a very sensitive state, where all your sensory systems are fully opened, like radar fully activated -- your hearing is sharper than usual, your vision is sharper than usual, your perception, your body, all become sharp. It is not in a drowsy state, a distant state.

For example, you become more aware of the pressure of your body against the chair and of changes in body temperature.

You should be able to feel your body's temperature. Is the place where you sit on the chair warmer than other places? After sitting for a long time, does the temperature rise? What about other places -- if the air conditioner blows across one side of your body, for example, if the air conditioner blows from your left side, then does the left side of your body feel cooler than the right side? You should be able to perceive this kind of change in body temperature. Your hands may be very warm; are your feet very cold? Or perhaps the reverse. Or is your abdomen warm while your head is relatively cool? This kind of perception of body temperature -- you should consciously feel all the sensations of your body.

Earlier we talked about the eyes and ears, and also the sensations of the body. Is there any taste in your mouth? What did you eat this morning, or what did you eat at noon -- does that taste still remain? Or it is no longer the taste of food, but what taste is it? Did you eat chewing gum or use mouthwash? Do you smell any odor? Just mobilize all your five senses -- eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body.

You can do this exercise for as long as you want; it does not matter.

It will place you clearly within your universe.

It will make all your senses sharp, placing you within your own universe. Before or after doing any experiments involving alteration of consciousness, this is a very good exercise. Whether before doing an alteration of consciousness, or after doing one -- after you have gone to explore other unknown realities and come back -- you should do this exercise. Before consciousness leaves the present reality and focuses on another reality, and then after returning from that other reality, it is a very good exercise in both cases.

Next Seth says to take a short break below. Everyone can pause now and try doing this exercise.

Then Jane says that she can sense that in this step, Seth will give a series of exercises related to the exercise just given. At this position, in this step of the book -- it is divided into six steps, and now we have reached the fifth step -- he will give a series of exercises that will help people at least catch a glimpse of the alternate or probable realities discussed in Part Four, giving everyone a look at them.

All right, after finishing the first stage of the exercise, we enter the second stage of the exercise.

Exercise Eleven (continued): Integrating All Perceptions

Bring all those perceptions together, every sound you hear in your ears, every thing you see with your eyes, every smell you smell, every sensation in your mouth, and then the temperature changes in your body, the body's experiences, bring all these perceptions together. Then try to be aware of all of them at the same time, so that one enhances the others.

Earlier you were asked to feel your vision, hearing, smell, taste, and bodily sensations separately. After you have felt all five of these, now you are asked to put all five perceptions together, and then feel the entirety of these perceptions at the same time, so that one perception enhances the other perceptions. For example, you can use your hearing to enhance the things you have not seen -- things in the corner of your vision, or things not within your visual system, but this hearing enhances that vision. The reverse is also true. For example, suppose there is a zongzi on your desk and you are eating it right now. When you smell the zongzi's aroma, and when you see the zongzi's appearance with your vision, the two enhance each other -- your vision becomes more vivid, more full, because of the presence of that aroma. When you bring all these awarenesses, all these perceptions together, they enhance one another, and each one is stronger than when you feel it alone.

If you find yourself more concerned with one particular perception, then make an effort to bring those that have been ignored into the same clear focus.

In this process, you may pay special attention to certain things. For example, you may pay special attention to the computer in front of you, because the screen is changing through some standby photos; or you may feel especially clear about the curtains, or the plants in your home. No matter what you feel especially clearly, at this time you should not let go of the clarity of your feeling for it -- you absolutely must not let it go; once you let it go, that is not good. Hold on to it, hold on to that enhanced feeling you just felt especially clearly. For example, suppose there is a vase in front of you with a bunch of flowers in it. The feeling of the flower's fragrance and its visual appearance together is extremely strong. When that flower fragrance and the flower's color give you a very strong perception, you seize that feeling.

At the same time, you must also pull in the things you have not noticed -- for example, the water in the vase, which is something you ordinarily do not notice -- and also the things around the vase that are not the focal point, the things you have not paid special attention to. Use the same feeling with which you perceive the vase to perceive those things, and bring them in together. Do not focus only on the vase, but do not let it go. No matter what you are focusing on, do not let it go. With this clear focus, bring other things into your clear focus as well. This is a key step, very key.

That is, you have already been able to focus on one place. Most of us can do this, but we can rarely focus on many things at the same time. This requires practice, because at the level of consciousness you can do it. When your conscious focus is very clear, you glance at anything and think of it -- at this point you must pay attention, using your imagination and your perceptual system working at the same time. These things are all your inner perceptions combined with your outer perceptions.

What is being trained here? It is training that "mind." Right, that is what we call the six roots⁷ -- in Buddhism they speak of the six roots: eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and finally there is mind. What is being trained now? After the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body have each been trained separately, they are brought together. What is this? This is your mind. When you bring the perceptions of the five roots together, letting them all come together, that forms that one moment.

A brilliant awareness.

When the five roots plus this mind are brought together, there will be a particularly brilliant feeling in the present moment. All things become vivid and bright, all stronger than when you ordinarily feel them separately. Carefully experience that feeling -- all awarenesses brought together at the same time, each enhancing the others, making the fragrance more fragrant, the colors more beautiful, the shapes more pleasing, the body's sensations more comfortable and more sensitive.

If you use this exercise after any experiment in alteration of consciousness, then stop here. If you have come back from the unknown reality, when you return from the unknown reality, you can stop practicing at this point, and go do the other things you need to do, whatever you normally do. When you can tune your consciousness frequency together with the perceptions and sensations of your physical world, and tune it well, that is enough -- your consciousness frequency has already been tuned back from the frequency of the unknown reality to the frequency of your present physical world, and only then can you begin to live a normal life in this physical world.

But if you treat it as the very first step, that is, as the starting step for exploring other realities, he says this is actually training the mobility of your consciousness. First do a warm-up, first train this focusing of consciousness well. It is like a camera: before you actually take a picture, you must first let the lens and the autofocus system achieve focus. Today's cameras are similar to your current method. Today's cameras all have several hundred focus points at the same time -- for example, Sony's latest A7R4 has more than six hundred, more than seven hundred focus points⁸. Older cameras had only a single focus point, then gradually they became multiple, and now they all have several hundred focus points. So which one does it actually focus on? It synthesizes an algorithm. Today's cameras all have artificial intelligence algorithms that judge what you actually want to photograph. This is training the mobility of your consciousness.

Follow the procedure I described to do this exercise, and when you have that moment of perception as clear as possible, then consciously let it go.

Exercise Twelve

What he describes next is the state you enter when you begin to explore other unknown realities. If you have come back from the unknown reality and achieved the previous integration, then stop there and do not go further. If you are beginning to explore the unknown reality — when we have managed to integrate the five senses plus that intent, when all of your awareness is together — as a beginning, you should continue on from there.

Let us proceed according to the program for beginning the exploration.

When you have attained that point of integration — that brilliant, mutually enhancing effect of the awareness of the whole — when the focus of your consciousness is incomparably clear, then you consciously let it go.

What does letting it go mean? It means taking that clear focus of consciousness — the focus that is concentrated on all the world around you — and relaxing it, letting it go, no longer focusing on it, no longer looking at any sounds, images, or pictures. The feeling of letting it go is somewhat like — how should I describe it — the feeling of looking at something and yet not looking at it, that sense of seeming to look and not look, where everything becomes unfocused.

As far as your conscious thoughts and thinking are concerned, let that sense of unity disappear. No longer integrate them together, no longer form an overall feeling of the world around you, no longer forcefully or consciously integrate them — let them go. No longer connect the sounds you hear with the corresponding objects, no longer try to unite your vision and hearing. Throw away that package of unified perceptual groupings, loosen them. The clarity of the previous moment will then become something else.

It is actually the process of the focus of consciousness going out of focus. All right, after you have scattered this focus, what do you do next? You pick up a sound.

For example, the sound of a passing car. At this time, you can close your eyes and stop looking at your surroundings. Then in your mind follow that sound, keeping your eyes closed the whole time. Then become aware of anything that touches your perception, but this time do not judge or evaluate. Then in an instant, open your eyes, alert your body, and once again, as brilliantly and clearly as possible, put all your perceptions together again.

What he means is, how do you scatter the thing you integrated earlier? For example, at this point you follow a sound — it could be the sound of a bird, a helicopter, a police car, an ambulance. You follow this sound, and with your eyes closed, become aware of whatever touches your perception — whatever feelings arise at this time, do not worry about them, just follow the sound. Keep following the sound, and then as you are walking along, suddenly open your eyes, bring your body back to the stage of acute sensitivity, once again feel your surroundings, and focus once more.

And this time it should be faster than the last. Last time you focused slowly — first gathering vision, hearing, taste, smell, and bodily sensation bit by bit, then integrating them together. This time you focus in an instant — the moment you open your eyes, you focus, giving yourself the ability to focus quickly. This means the exercise has gone one step further.

This time, when the perceived world is before you, let it reach a climax — he says you could put it that way, you could use the word climax to describe it.

At this time your feeling may be somewhat different from before. Why? Because the impact of that feeling will be very strong — before you felt it slowly, this time it hits all at once. When you have followed the sound of the car very far away, when the feeling is almost slipping away, you suddenly open your eyes, and the whole world returns before you. The overall focus of your consciousness is once again incomparably clear, and the world around you once again reveals its brilliant and splendid side. He says this feeling is like the feeling of reaching a climax.

Then you close your eyes again, let them dissolve again, do not concentrate on any focal point. In fact, you are to scatter your focus, scatter it again, and then you can focus again. The purpose of this exercise is actually to make the focus of your consciousness continually focus, unfocus, focus, unfocus.

You can focus on any one of the five senses or on a single point of external information — for example, on changes in body temperature, or on a very subtle scent drifting from far away — this kind of very subtle perceptual ability becomes very strong. At the same time, you can also have a very strong integrated perceptual ability of the body. And then you can instantly integrate your focus, immediately taking in everything around you — seeing in all directions and hearing in all directions. Were not the ancient martial arts masters trained this way? Were not the martial arts heroes trained like this? They were all trained this way, and then they could instantly achieve the feeling of seeing in all directions and hearing in all directions. So this requires practice, like exercising the muscles of your consciousness, practicing continuously.

When you have done this exercise many times, you will personally perceive the contrast — the enormous contrast between focus and unfocus. What focus is like, what unfocus is like. Then you will have a subjective feeling, and you will know: so this is what it is like when my consciousness focuses on my physical world; when I can clearly perceive my physical world, my clear focus is like this. Then within you there will be a point of understanding that clearly indicates to you — focus feels like this, unfocus feels like this.

When your consciousness is focused in physical reality at its very best, what that feels like — you will retain a memory of it, and you will know, "Oh, this is what it feels like when I am focused in the physical world at my very best — this is the feeling." You must remember this feeling.

As you go about your days, in your ordinary daily life, try now and then to capture that point again.

In your ordinary days, you can try it from time to time — you do not need to try constantly, just occasionally — open up all your acute senses and see what different feelings arise. And bring all of this material into the clearest possible brilliance. Continuing this exercise at any point in a person's life will greatly enrich your normal experience — things you normally did not notice, you can now notice. Concentration and attentiveness become much easier. Previously you may have had trouble concentrating, or could not remember many things at all — now that will not happen.

Have you noticed that many famous detectives have this ability, or secret agents have this ability? In the movies, when a secret agent enters an environment, he can instantly observe the details of every person in the room. How could he possibly notice so many details at once? Right, he has practiced this.

To pay attention is to give attention and to take care of it.

After doing this enough, when you enter a room, you can instantly know the environment of the room, the people around you, the details of each person — things others might not notice, you can notice. This exercise is to train you to pay attention, to focus your awareness as clearly and vividly as possible on the matter at hand. Once this ability is developed, it will be a great asset in your life and work, because it allows you to concentrate on the things at hand that you normally do not notice. You can focus on a particular area, and at the same time have a clear awareness of your surroundings.

The subjective knowledge of your own best focus can serve as a reference point for many other exercises.

When you have a subjective feeling of the clearest focus of your own consciousness, you understand, "This is my clearest state." He says this is a reference point for many exercises, and this step must be practiced well. If you do not practice this step well, you will not be able to find the reference point when doing other exercises — when you are told to focus, you will not know how to focus; when you are told to return to your home station, you will not know what returning to your home station means.

This exercise, Exercise Eleven, is a very basic but also very important exercise. It is also very helpful for everyone's life, and it is a necessary exercise for exploring the unknown reality. I hope everyone will spend more time on it and try it as a very fun exercise.

All right, let us begin Exercise Twelve. This is the second exercise of this session.

He says, for your benefit, this entire session will be composed of exercise units, along with commentary and instruction.

With commentary and instruction.

You must proceed from your own subjective experience. Therefore, when you find your own best focus, that is your clearest reception of your own home station.

When you find the best focus of consciousness, that is your clearest reception of your own home station — this materially oriented home station, in other words, the frequency of your present life — you have tuned precisely to this frequency. Why is this so important? Because when you come back, you need to tune back to this. Although you have an automatic ability — the human being itself has an automatic ability that will automatically bring you back — as your explorations go farther and farther and your range of exploration grows larger and larger, sometimes it is not so... When you cannot focus back to your home station, you may get lost out there and not be able to come back for a while. The exercise in this session is to enable you to go and still come back.

You may feel that in your inner vision, or inside your head, there is a fixed position.

After you have accurately focused this kind of vision in the physical world — that feeling of brilliant and splendid clear focus at that moment in Exercise Eleven above — hold onto that feeling, and then place it in your mind, or in your heart, or somewhere you feel you can remember it. Place it on a point of memory, or on a feeling of your inner vision, and let that image, let that feeling be firmly engraved there, give it a fixed position. That is, remember this feeling. When you cannot remember it, then do Exercise Eleven a few more times, until you are very familiar with what it feels like to adjust to your home station, and then you will have this feeling in your mind, and you will understand.

Or you may find that you have your own symbol to represent it. If you want, you can imagine it as a station indicator on your own radio or television set, but your subjective recognition of it is your own indicator.

You can hold it in your brain at a position of inner vision — in other words, keep it in your memory, in a place remembered deeply and firmly. What is memory? Does not your memory contain a sense of imagery? When you recall a certain memory, does it not carry a certain sense of imagery? For example, think about where you lived in your previous home before moving, or think about your childhood home, the street or house where you lived as a child — you may not remember the street — think about the elementary school or middle school you attended, what that school looked like. Does an image not appear in your mind? Right. Now let the clearest image of your focused perception of the present physical world — the one formed at the end of Exercise Eleven — be remembered in your brain the way you remember your childhood school or the room you previously lived in. This is very important, because it will be used later.

You can also imagine yourself as a television set, and you can imagine it as a button on a remote control, or a button on the television set, or a certain dial on a radio, a certain frequency. For example, you can imagine it as the frequency 98.8, and you can imagine that as soon as this radio is tuned to that frequency, you come back. But he says, whether it is a radio or a television, you can imagine it as a symbol of a channel — when you come back, the most important thing is your subjective recognition; that is only a symbol.

What does subjective recognition mean? It means you must carry this feeling with you. You must firmly remember this feeling of clearly focusing on the physical world. That thing is only an image — the moment I see that button, the image of that button appears in my mind, and it can bring out this feeling. If you cannot remember this feeling, or if you do not have this kind of clear inner image, this inner visual image, then merely fantasizing about a symbolic object is useless. You must firmly remember it in your brain together with your focus in the real world.

What is this somewhat like? It is somewhat like the function of the spinning top in Inception⁹. Do you remember that when you see the top spinning, you know you have returned to the real world? If not, then you are still in the dream, no matter how many layers of dream. The principle is similar, although that one belongs to the dream state, but it is about being able to bring you back to your home station.

All right, this part says that subjective recognition is the most important thing — that is, set up a marker for your home station so that you can come back.

In the exercise we just talked about, when I said to let your clear perception scatter, this exercise follows the previous one. After your clear perception has scattered in the previous exercise, and you were told to separate vision and hearing, as far as your own home station is concerned, you are drifting. When you scatter it, when sound and vision separate, your consciousness is actually drifting within your home station — like the picture and sound of a television channel separating, or beginning to become unclear, with interference. This is your consciousness drifting, wandering. When you cannot focus on the focal point of physical reality, your consciousness is wandering.

At this point the second exercise begins. What is this exercise?

Begin from your best focus.

Begin from the best focus you achieved in Exercise Eleven. Through several practices you can reach a best focus — a very clear, acute perception of your surroundings, that brilliant and splendid present moment — begin from there, for that is a home station you have already established. Then, let your consciousness wander again, but this time only let it wander in a specific direction.

Previously your wandering was aimless, without direction. This time you first fix yourself on a clear focus, first stabilize yourself on a clear focus of your surroundings, and while maintaining this clear focus, now move the focus of your consciousness to the left or to the right. How do you move it? You remember the previous exercise, right — focus and unfocus, focus and unfocus. When you are focused, you certainly cannot move, because you need to be on the frequency of this physical world, on the focal point of this world. At this time you must learn to unfocus. Only after unfocusing can your consciousness drift, can it move, can it loosen from this focal point. And when you unfocus, is your consciousness not drifting? At this time you must give it a direction, not let it drift randomly. Let your consciousness keep moving to the left, as long as it feels natural. In this way you are still directing it, and learning to give yourself an orientation.

That is, you focus and unfocus, focus and unfocus. When you have practiced this very well, when you are focused on a point, there is a sense of direction, right — that sense of direction is a sense of direction of consciousness, not a spatial sense of direction. Then at this time you let your consciousness lean to the left — this is a spatial feeling, but this spatial feeling is not a real spatial feeling; it is like moving the focus of your consciousness in a direction, shifting it.

You must first be able to gather and release, to be free in gathering and releasing. When you want it to drift, you must first be able to loosen it, but after loosening it you must still have a sense of direction, and you must still have that focal point of conscious focus. How to understand this? It is the feeling of your focus being aimed at an empty space. There is a kind of focus, but at this time you are not focusing on anything, because you have already begun to shift from that clear focus of physical reality, but it still has a sense of direction — we say move it to the left.

When first doing this exercise, do it for at most 15 minutes, not too long. But let your awareness drift to whatever direction you have chosen. He says you should try it — let your awareness or consciousness drift in the direction you have chosen, keep drifting in the direction you have chosen — this feeling, you must practice.

Here, each person will have his or her own personal experience, but gradually certain kinds of physical data will seem to disappear, while others become more prominent.

At this time everyone's experience is different. Remember this — I cannot say what it is like for everyone, because once I say it, there will be this kind of suggestibility, but you will have your own experience. Certain physical data seem to disappear, while others become more prominent — of the things you just felt, some become less distinct, while others become more distinct.

For example, you may hear sounds in your mind, even though you know they have no physical source. But in your mind, you may see nothing at all — that is also possible. Or perhaps you see images that seem to have no connection to external objects, but hear nothing at all — that is also normal. For a while, ordinary physical data may continue to intrude.

The feelings of your three-dimensional world will continue to come in. When this happens, you recognize them as your home station. When your physical senses still have feeling, when your ears can still hear — not in your mind — when your ears can still hear, imagine it as the sound being broadcast from your home station, but my consciousness has already left my home station, and I am tuning further to the left. As you tune further to the left, you may hear some sounds, or some things, but that station. You must distinguish whether this sound comes in through your physical senses. Whatever comes in through the physical senses, treat it as the signal of your home station. Those things that emerge from within your mind, things that are not heard or felt through the body — those are signals from other stations. But at the beginning, this signal may be unstable — it may be noise, or a mess, or only images without sound.

Continuing to Tune the Dial

Having sound but no picture, or picture but no sound, or even nothing at all, is all perfectly normal. Because when you are tuning, there is a stretch between stations where there is nothing at all. You do not need to pay attention to it; just keep tuning.

When bodily sensations come, such as your legs going numb, tell yourself: this is a sensation from this station, no need to pay attention to it. What you need to do now is not to fiddle with this station, but to tune to another station. Keep moving to the left, letting the bodily sensations gradually diminish. You do not need to do it deliberately; just focus on the consciousness shifting to the left, and the bodily sensations will naturally lessen. If they come, then they come; tell yourself this is a sensation from this station, and the things from that unknown station have not come through yet. Mentally let yourself drift farther away from it.

Whenever information from this station comes in, mentally tell yourself: I want to get farther away from it, I am tuning the dial right now, do not let this station keep interfering with me. You need to consciously, deliberately let yourself get farther and farther away from the bodily sensations.

When you experience the mobility of consciousness, what matters is your own felt sense—you need to feel that consciousness really does have this ability to move away. The moment you start worrying or being afraid, you are back at this station. So approach it with an attitude of observing, experiencing, and exploring: what station can you receive once you leave this station? It is that kind of curiosity of "I do not want to listen to the station I hear every day anymore; I want to hear what the station next door is saying." Do not worry; the moment you worry, you easily come back.

Following the direction you have chosen, left or right, keep moving in one fixed direction. Just like tuning a radio, you have to turn it in one direction; you cannot go left for a while and right for a while, or you will never tune it clearly. To tune it clearly, you can only start from the current station—for example, we choose to turn left, letting the needle shift to the left.

Seth says:

I do not suggest that you use those concepts of higher or lower to direct your consciousness, because you are very likely to add your own interpretations on top of them through your beliefs.

He does not want you to tune upward or downward, precisely because he is afraid you will add too many of your own artificial judgments: does higher mean a higher level? Does lower mean a lower level? Seth says, first tune without the concepts of high and low—just tune to the left or right of this station.

You need to be patient. This is not something you can master all at once. After continuing to practice for a period of time, you will be able to go farther. At the beginning you cannot get very far; after practicing for a while you will be able to go farther. When you become more familiar with your own inner feelings, you will develop your own sense of direction.

From One Station to Another

Gradually, as you move toward another station, that station is already another reality. You will find that the inner sense data become clearer and clearer, and the sensations coming from the physical senses are almost gone -- the sensations of eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body are almost gone, but sounds coming from within, images in the mind, and other inner sensations will all appear. That is perceiving reality through a different state of consciousness; you are no longer perceiving through the ordinary state of consciousness.

The first journey from the familiar station to an unfamiliar station may involve all sorts of leakage, distortion, and static. These can be expected and are quite normal. You simply have not yet learned how to focus your consciousness clearly upon other kinds of focal points. At first you are unskilled, the frequency of consciousness cannot be tuned precisely, and it will drift; it is not easy to lock onto a specific reality. After our human consciousness became combined with the body, it also took a long time of practice before we could focus precisely upon this present physical reality.

Before you can receive the next station, double images may appear in the mind, or distorted pictures from the familiar station. The familiar station keeps sending distorted pictures all along. You have temporarily stopped using the habitual organizing process that integrates the physical sense perceptions; what you are bringing into play is the inner senses. The abilities of the outer senses are no longer being used.

Therefore, when you are between two stations, it is very likely that you will simultaneously pick up mixed signals from both sides, because you have not yet tuned in precisely, have not yet locked onto the new channel.

Traveling Within the Psyche

When you alter the focus of consciousness in this way, you also move away from that part you think of as the center of the psyche. In other words, you are traveling within your own psyche. There is originally a location within the psyche, and that space is your home station, which projects outward into our physical world, the reality we are familiar with. What you are now practicing begins with a shift in the focus of consciousness, which is equivalent to moving from the psyche's present space to another space. Another space within the psyche has its own inner contents, and what it projects outward is probable realities or unknown realities.

Exploring unknown realities is essentially traveling within the psyche. All the realities within the psyche truly exist, only you are not aware of them. Now you are being asked to focus upon them, to see what that station is playing, what it is saying. Different realities are the concretization of different states of the psyche. For example, when a certain part of the psyche's state is concretized, that is our physical reality; when another part of the state is concretized, that is another reality. The state of the psyche is the state of reality. However many psychological states you have, that is how many realities are concretized, projected outward, and experienced. The outer world is projected outward from different parts of your inner self; different psychological states project different realities. You must remember this.

What applies to your home station also applies to your physical world. What you project outward at your home station, in your physical world, is all projected from the home station; it is all a certain state of the psyche projected into the physical world. Now when you travel to other parts of the psyche, it is the same. He uses the example that your physical world is the projection of your inner self: it seems as though you have arrived at other realities, but actually that is also the projection of another part of the psyche. He only wants to emphasize this point.

This Station's Programs

Seth asked Rob if he was tired, and Rob said no. Then he gave an analogy: even your own station has many programs, and you usually tune in to only one main program, ignoring the others. For example, your channel has different programs every day -- legal report, foreign language programs, life programs, love stories -- and you may tune in to only one of them each day.

When you are between two stations, the characters in your preferred local program can appear on other stations in very different costumes. Elements of other programs on your own station that you ignore may also suddenly become obvious to you. Some programs on your own station you pay no attention to at all, only glancing at them occasionally, such as Back to Field¹⁰ -- you are not interested in celebrities going to live on an island. But on another station, this program becomes the main feature, spending a great deal of time every day broadcasting these people living on an island or in some remote place. That is what he means.

He gives an example. On your own station, you may tune in to a religious program, meaning that you organize your daily life according to very idealized principles. You especially like watching the religious program, and your life becomes orderly and very strict, like a model believer. You may try to ignore other programs that deal with hatred, fear, and violence, such as crime scenes, Chicago crime, legal report, and the like, but you do not watch them. You organize physical data around the ideal so well that you shut out all emotions involving fear, violence, and hatred. There is none of this in your life, and you do not care about it.

Again, when you alter consciousness, you automatically begin to let the old organization of data fall away. Previously you may have tuned out the feeling-programs you considered negative; they were present but ignored. When you give up your usual method of organizing physical data, they may suddenly become obvious. Before, you only watched the religious program; now you may become very interested in crime programs.

The Feelings of Sexuality Itself

If you tell yourself that the feelings of sexuality themselves are wrong, that sex is bad and should not be felt, and you organize your daily programming in that way, then when you meditate or give up that orientation, you may suddenly find yourself facing material you consider disgusting. When you give up the belief that "sex is bad," you will suddenly be faced with dealing with things you previously considered disgusting, such as things related to sexual love or sex. Previously you avoided them with all your might, because you felt sex was bad.

But you cannot deny the reality of the psyche, cannot deny those natural feelings in physical experience. In your heart you want to experience that thing, and you cannot deny it. When you begin to alter your perception, and the habitual picture of reality falls away, you may find yourself contacting components of reality in distorted ways, components that you had always deliberately denied or ignored in the past.

What does altering perception mean? Previously you felt sex was bad, dirty, unclean, not fit for polite society. When you change this belief and feel that sex is also good, that satisfying bodily desires is also good, you will change your perception of reality, and then find yourself contacting components of reality in very distorted ways. Things you normally considered wrong, how have they now become right? These things are very distorted to you, but previously you could not accept them. Now, because you have changed your feeling system, you begin to contact these things, all of which you had deliberately denied and ignored before. You feel sex is bad, but that is only a personal limiting belief, and yet you have always deliberately ignored and denied things related to sex. "I am a devout believer; none of these things should appear in my life."

In methods of altering consciousness such as the Ouija board or automatic writing, this point is most obvious. Some people, when doing automatic writing or using the Ouija board, often find that whatever they fear comes, and whatever they hate most appears. Very interesting.

Encountering Events in Time

He went on to say: In your home station -- that is, in your focus upon physical reality -- events are clearly encountered in time and space. In the home station, events all exist within the space-time framework. But once you shift away from the home station, you may encounter events in time rather than in space. When you try to deny realities, those realities may appear vividly. If you understand this point, it will serve you endlessly.

What this passage means is: In the home station, all events happen within space and time, with a time, a place, and people involved. When the focus of consciousness shifts away from the physical world, you may encounter things in time rather than in space. Those realities that you once refused to acknowledge, that you would not admit, may appear vividly. Once freed from the limitations of space, an event that in ordinary physical life might have nothing to do with you -- something you would never experience -- can still be experienced by you if it happens in time. Because when you shift your focus away from organized reality, the other portions that you had not been investing your attention in will come rushing up before you.

For example, originally you were only interested in religion, and that was your main focus; everything else in life you paid no attention to, did not care about, had no interest in. But those things were not nonexistent -- you simply denied their existence. When you shift your focus away, they become obvious; they pop out, they jump out. This can let you know what your home station has been lacking, if you know how to read those clues.

When you are exploring an unknown reality, an unknown channel, and that channel presents things that you find repulsive, nauseating, or hateful -- for instance, if you ordinarily detest sex, are disgusted by sex, and then when you go to other channels everything is filled with these things, and it turns into a pornographic channel, you would certainly be disgusted. Seth says that at such a moment this serves as a reminder: This is actually what your home station has been lacking. You have been vigorously denying the legitimacy of sex in your home station, so that station compensates by filling it in for you.

Sex Itself Is Wrong

You form your stage according to your beliefs — belief creates reality, that is an old saying. Seth says again:

If you firmly believe that sex itself is wrong, then your stage may involve you in a life program in which you will often try to deny the vitality of the flesh. A picture of a naked body may displease you. You may undress only in dark places.

Many people cannot make love with the lights on; they feel it is dirty, unbearable, and insist on turning off the lights. If you are a man, you may feel ashamed of your sexual needs. He will think: Why do I keep having sexual impulses? Why am I so animalistic? Like an animal.

Joe's Example

Seth said, I have an appropriate example. He called him Joe for the time being, a young man. He wrote a letter to Ruburt. This is a true story; he was one of his readers. Joe left his home in San Francisco, traveled to India, and studied with a guru. He had been told that sexual desire would hinder spiritual awakening. Various religions had told him before that sex was bad and would affect spiritual practice. His station program made him absolutely avoid anything related to sex, desperately suppressing desire.

But when Joe meditated or altered his state of consciousness and explored other unknown realities, he immediately got splitting headaches, and visions of naked women and goddesses came to seduce him, trying to destroy his chastity. Why goddesses? Because people who want to practice spirituality want to become gods, or become like gods. And it was precisely gods who came to seduce him. You want to become a male god, so I will send a goddess to seduce you. He broke down, but in that state he could not control his desire either, so he could only suppress it with all his might. In ordinary life no one seduces a spiritual practitioner, but in visions there was naked seduction, and he could not bear it. He told himself: no, I absolutely cannot break my vow. And so his head split with pain.

Joe thought these mental images were very wrong. Why is it that as soon as I sit in meditation, all these things come out? Other people get lofty and noble things; why is it that everything that comes out for me is filthy? He felt it was wrong.

Actually, the mental image itself was not wrong. Its appearance was telling him something: his station program was very dull, too one-sided, because he denied the reality of existence — he denied the fact that he had desires. If you yourself have no desires, that is fine; but having desires is a reality, and you must face it truthfully. You cannot say I have desires and still suppress them. That is denying the reality of existence. If you ignore the psyche's counsel — the psyche says you need this; if you did not need it, you would not have the desire. Having desire proves you need it. You have not yet reached that state, yet you insist on practicing according to the standards of that state, and so you suffer. This mental image was actually a counsel to his psyche.

If he ignored this counsel, his journey into unknown reality would become extremely distorted. If he did not solve this problem, if he did not dare to face it directly, then even if he traveled into unknown reality, the seductive goddess would follow him to the ends of the earth.

Basic Reminders for Exploring Unknown Reality

Seth reminds us that when doing this kind of practice, shifting the focus of consciousness and exploring unknown channels, when strange things appear on the channel that you normally cannot accept, that you find unacceptable, you should face them calmly. It may be a hint that something in your life has gone off course, that you are too attached to certain things, denying some things that legitimately exist. It just pops up right in front of your consciousness. In ordinary life, under the strong control of the ego, they are pushed down; when you return to the source of the psyche, back to the inner world, these things will pop up very strongly.

To begin exploring unknown reality, you need to understand some basic things: all these appearances are actually projections of your own inner self, and many are illusions. If these illusions are not resolved, they will affect your exploration of inner reality. A normal person should first live their physical life clearly. To put it bluntly, in real life you should be a person who is clear and has life figured out. All kinds of spiritual practice, the states spoken of in Buddhism. If there are still many things like good and evil, right and wrong, good and bad, moral judgments and so on still affecting you in real life, I personally suggest you do not practice exploring unknown reality yet. First get the things of physical reality sorted out and smoothed over, let yourself live in this physical world with more clarity, ease, and freedom, and then go explore. Otherwise, the repressed parts of your inner self, the fears, worries, rejections, and denials, may all pop up at this time.

But it is okay if they pop up. Seth is just telling you that this is actually a good thing, telling you that in this present reality you should make adjustments, throwing away the inherent limiting beliefs one by one. He gives you this kind of suggestion and reminder. If you cannot read this reminder, you will think, "How come as soon as I go in, it is all this messy stuff? I am not going anymore." Some people have inner fears, and all they see are demons and monsters, so they say, "I am not going anymore; inner reality is too terrifying." It is not that inner reality is too terrifying; it is that your inner self has been repressed for too long, or the fear is too great. At this time you should turn back and solve the problems in real life, and then go explore again, and things will improve.

All Forms Are Illusory

One last thing, and this is also what Teacher Xiyu has always reminded everyone of, and what the Buddha reminded us of: all forms are illusory; if you see all forms as not forms, then you see the Tathagata¹¹. When we explore these unknown channels, these unknown realities, it only adds to our life experience and increases our ability to break through illusion. You no longer focus only on the physical world as a single layer; you discover that so many worlds exist simultaneously, and each one is real. That is the benefit. But beyond that, it cannot give you much improvement in cognition; it can only give you more life experience. It is like traveling, or like watching many TV channels: other people only watch the evening news, but you not only watch the evening news, you also watch YouTube¹², and all kinds of programs, so your knowledge is a bit richer than others, not as one-dimensional as theirs. Maybe some people only like watching crime-solving shows, some only like watching Korean dramas, watching oppas, watching romance shows; you think they are all rather simple-minded, and you feel more well-rounded yourself. That is about the feeling of it. But the real improvement between selves, the improvement of cognition, the improvement of ability, is only obtained on top of this foundation. This is not the main tool or method for you to obtain those things.

You still need to, in this real life, through understanding and learning about unknown realities, through those events, enrich the present experience, let the present reality see more and feel more, let yourself understand your direction among different realities, and know how to choose in the present. Never make exploring unknown realities the main direction of your life. If you do, you will get lost. Because that world, that TV channel, is endless. You can practice exploration, and as Seth said earlier, its help to you is to help you break through illusion, but that is its only function.

All right, this session is over. After this is Rob's commentary, which I do not think is important. Too much commentary will lead your normal understanding of this book astray. Those who are interested can take a look.

注释与核实

1. Source: Penguin Random House The Unknown Reality, Volume Two 1997 (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/602610/the-unknown-reality-volume-two-by-jane-roberts-notes-and-cover-art-by-robert-f-butts/) ↩

2. This claim could not be verified. ↩

3. Source: Jane Roberts, Robert F. Butts The “Unknown” Reality: Volume Two (https://nowdictation.com/q/book%3Aur2%2Bsession%3A716%2Bcue/) ↩

4. Source: Jane Roberts The “Unknown” Reality: Volume Two (https://nowdictation.com/q/book%3Aur2%2Bsession%3A716%2Bexercise/) ↩

5. This claim could not be verified. ↩

6. Source: Marvel Doctor Strange (2016) | Cast, Villains, Release Date 2016 (https://www.marvel.com/movies/doctor-strange?wptouch_preview_theme=enabled) ↩

7. Source: Kim Jin-mu An Overview of the “Karma Theory” in Early Buddhism—Centered on the Āgama Sutras (https://isbrt.ruc.edu.cn/xszl/rucfojiaoallcmsZiyuan248.htm) ↩

8. This claim could not be verified. ↩

9. This claim could not be verified. ↩

10. Source: CCTV.com “Back to Field” Premieres Sunday; Huang Lei Shares Filming Anecdotes and Praises the Show as a Breath of Fresh Air (https://ent.cctv.com/2017/01/12/ARTIruNI78olQ5supjYbeZdp170112.shtml) ↩

11. Source: Kuiji Commentary on the Diamond Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra (https://tripitaka.cbeta.org/T33n1700_001) ↩

12. This claim could not be verified. ↩