Mike's commentary · The "Unknown" Reality, Session 724

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

This chapter revolves around counterparts and the relationship between personality and time. It points out that personality is part of a larger personality, but the individual is not diminished by this; within time, a person can only choose to develop some abilities while neglecting other talents. Time is compared to a tool for separating purposes, and different centuries have their own holistic challenges. The larger personality sends forth multiple counterparts throughout history, who share experiences with one another yet remain independent. Identity is forever new, is never annihilated, and is connected to the past and future through psychic inheritance. Finally, it touches on the fourfold counterpart and the concept of simultaneous time.

Key Points of This Chapter

• Individuality is part of a greater individuality, but this does not mean the individual is insignificant.
• Within time, a person can only focus on developing part of their abilities, and therefore must ignore other talents.
• Time is used as a means of separation, so that people in different centuries each face their own challenges of wholeness.
• The psychic children sent out by the greater individuality become counterparts, sharing experience yet remaining independent of one another.
• Each person's identity is forever new, will never be annihilated, and is connected to the past and the future through psychic inheritance.

Main Text

In Volume 2 of The "Unknown" Reality, Session 724, the title is "Counterparts, Races of Men, and Historic Eras." This session began at approximately 9:45 p.m. on Wednesday, December 4, 1974.

To my surprise, Rob came right out and said:

Yesterday afternoon I had another inner visual experience, in which I saw a Roman counterpart of mine in the first century A.D.

He had had this kind of experience before, and this was yet another one, which reminded me of his three Romans. He had already had three such psychic experiences, and this was the fourth, but it also left him puzzled, because what he saw was a different Roman counterpart, not one of the original three. For more on this part, you can refer to the special introduction in "Prisoner 22"¹.

Then at 9:43 Jane said:

I am getting all of this stuff, but I cannot put it into words yet, as if I have to untangle those concepts first.

She continued, with considerable surprise:

It is strange, as if I could say those things whether on my own or through Seth.

She had not known that Seth could say them too, but it was easier to let Seth do it, so she thought, light a cigarette and start the session. This was a genuine feeling of Jane's, and the feeling is quite interesting: she said I do not necessarily need Seth, I can obtain that material on my own too, but I have to work a bit harder at it, while Seth does it more easily, so let Seth do it, and I will just have a cigarette.

Then Seth said:

The following is not material for this book, because it does not fit the chapter in which we are dealing with the exercises. However, if you choose, and want to put it in the book, I think part of this session can be included in The "Unknown" Reality.

Of course they were related, so Rob put it in.

Limited Concepts of "Personhood"

Once again, we are confronted with a limited concept of personhood -- that is, a limited concept of what we call personhood, our ego, a person's uniqueness and one-of-a-kindness. If I tell you that you are part of a far greater personhood, then unfortunately you will think that this means by comparison you are smaller and more insignificant than that real self you perceive. This viewpoint is wrong, but it is very difficult for you humans to escape the limitations of this viewpoint. The moment I say you are part of a larger personhood, you feel that you are smaller and that the other is bigger. Seth says there is no way around this; it is a limited viewpoint of you humans, but this viewpoint is wrong -- be sure to remember that.

He then begins:

Joseph, I am not speaking specifically of you here, nor of any particular reader, nor of a member of our ESP class. I mean that all of you humans have this problem.

Each of you individuals perceives the existence of largely unexpressed aptitudes and inclinations -- everyone knows there is still a portion of their own abilities that has not been expressed, has not been brought forth. In your reality system, you must operate within time. Why is this so? Because you have many potential assumptions, but when you operate within time, you can only operate one or two major skills at a time. For example, if you want to develop into an athlete, you need constant training, unceasing professional training; only then can it automatically concentrate your attention and energy, only then can you achieve results and become a true athlete. But because of this, you must rule out the same degree of deep focus in different areas -- for instance, you cannot also take up painting. Similarly, being a musician, painter, or writer all requires effort within time. Living in a three-dimensional world, we have no choice; we must operate within three-dimensional time. And automatically concentrating your attention in a particular direction also prevents you from giving the same kind of attention to other areas; you cannot do other things at the same time, so this is something we cannot help.

A person can only do so much within time, just these few decades. And in your terms, in any given lifetime, the great source of our psyche is only drawn upon to a tiny degree. This is quite obvious -- our spiritual source, the source of the psyche, our spiritual abilities are vast, yet within this limited lifetime of ours, we can only use a tiny bit, because we all need to operate within time.

The Assumption of a Truly Fulfilled Earth Person

Earlier in this book, Seth hinted at the hypothetical existence of a truly fulfilled earth person. He hypothesized the existence of a personality who had achieved fulfillment on earth and no longer reincarnated. What characteristics should such a person have? This person should be one in whom all psychic, mental, and biological abilities have been actualized to whatever degree is possible. That is, this person would be able to bring every aspect of body, mind, and spirit to its fullest expression.

He previously talked about a complete doctor, remember? If you want to heal others, to be a complete doctor, then by Seth's standards — if you want to be a complete doctor, then in body, mind, and spirit, all three aspects, you must be extremely healthy, and you must also develop all of your potentials. This is an idealized state, but a real earth person cannot achieve it. It is impossible for you; your time is limited, and if you can develop one field to its fullest, that is already very good.

Each of you, in your own way, and according to your own individual characteristics, will develop whatever skills you choose and feel comfortable with.

Everyone's way of developing is different, based on their own characteristics, having their own traits, and then feeling comfortable — it must have these two qualities: it must fit your own characteristics, and it must feel comfortable to you. Whatever the skill, if you are not comfortable, then forget it; you cannot torment yourself. Physical abilities, however, will be freely expressed, so a woman might be a remarkable runner, and a man might excel at swimming. Physical things are easy to develop, but the other two aspects — the spiritual and the mental — are not quite so easy.

The kind of physical endurance now considered extraordinary would become the norm.

That is, our bodies will all be somewhat better than before. And at the same time, in a rather similar way, all latent spiritual and mental qualities would also be actualized.

So all of humanity's potentials would be actualized in each individual's experience in the most developed way.

"The most developed way" means actualized in the best, already completed manner, or in the highest state. And all facets of science and art would be explored. What he means is that an ideal human gestalt, a normal ideal state, would be like this. But within a single lifetime, such an achievement is fundamentally impossible — how could you possibly explore all facets of science and art, how could you possibly be outstanding in every aspect from mind to body? So this is not possible within one lifetime. But this does not mean that a different kind of education could not bring those ideals closer.

These impossibilities do not mean that we cannot improve our education, that we cannot bring these things closer to us.

So it is necessary for us to expand our education. And it does mean that each person has chosen to develop certain portions of their abilities.

Such a choice often necessitates ignoring other talents.

When a person develops one talent, they inevitably must ignore other talents.

The world at any given time is a unit composed of people deeply connected psychically and biologically.

At any given time, every living person in this world, biologically and spiritually, forms a whole. This is a composite world picture, and each person participates in it, painting their own unique color. Although each version differs slightly, some seem rather strange within the whole content — to the whole, you might feel they seem rather strange. But at any given time, a world picture will still emerge. Even if some individual's behavior patterns or their existence may seem discordant with the whole picture, or feel strange, it does not affect the existence of the entire picture. One discordant element will not prevent the whole picture from emerging.

The people alive in any century are engaged in a certain overall challenge.

Each century has its own challenge. Each person completes their own challenge, and then together they form the common challenge of the entire world in that era, in that century — provided that each person has actualized their own challenge.

Time as you understand it is used as a method of focus, like a room divider used to separate spaces, but used to separate purposes.

Time is a divider, like the furniture in your room that divides the room into different spaces; time serves a similar function. But what does time divide? Purposes — that is, different eras have their own challenges specific to that era, and time is what divides these.

If you wanted a Victorian room, you would not toss one Victorian piece of furniture into a group of Spanish furniture.

If you wanted a Victorian-style room, you would not fill a room with Spanish furniture and place only one Victorian piece in it; you should furnish the entire room with Victorian furniture. Instead, you would set it aside and surround it with decorations matching its own flavor — put this Victorian piece aside, place it in another spot, and then let other ornaments consistent with its style surround it, in order to achieve a Victorian room.

As in a museum, you would assign different rooms to the life of a past century.

I do not know whether any of you have visited large museums, whether the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, or museums in France. Visiting large museums is very interesting; each era is divided into different floors and different rooms. Some museums are organized by region — for example, the first floor is ancient times, the second floor is ancient Egypt, the third floor is the American continent, the fourth floor is Asian civilizations, divided by region. And within that, each room represents a different period, such as 200 BC, 1400 AD, and so on, divided by time. Each room in the museum displays objects related to that era, and those rooms exist simultaneously.

You might have to walk down a long corridor to enter a particular room. Museums generally have rather long corridors; you go from one place to another, exit through the same kind of door, and only then can you reach the next adjacent room. In this hypothetical museum, an 18th-century parlor might be right next to a 12th-century chapel, but you cannot pass directly from one to the other; you must first walk out into the corridor. Although these two things are right next to each other, you cannot go directly across; you must go around through the corridor, around to another door to enter that 12th-century chapel. Some large museums are designed this way, but nowadays some museums have changed; they open up the rooms so you follow one path all the way through, without making you go around in circles.

He is giving an example, using a museum as an example for you — every era has its own challenges, its own tasks, its own purposes. Time, then, is what divides the challenges of different eras. Just as a museum preserves the various periods of human civilization but places them in different rooms, when you enter a different room, that is a display of the artifacts of that period of human history.

The Creativity and Continuity of the Psyche

As a species, your concepts of the psyche's creativity are so fixed that I find it difficult to explain, but I will try.

As humans, it is hard to have a fixed concept of the psyche's creativity. You humans tend to understand the psyche too narrowly, but Seth still wants to try to explain it. He is like this every time. Physically, you multiply; physically, you grow.

If you have a child, you do not diminish yourself—you cannot say that after giving birth to a child you have less, that you have lost something. No. You are not less than you were before. Right, you have not lost anything. This applies to women, and it applies equally to men. But some women say, "One pregnancy makes you dull for three years," or that having a child makes you lose part of your mind. There is indeed such a saying; women may have their own experience of it, while men may not have that feeling. But regardless, looking at a person from the outside, you do not lose anything because you have had a child.

You accept your parents and grandparents as individuals, and at the same time you accept yourself as a separate individual, yet all of you spring from the same biological seed.

You feel that your grandparents are each separate individuals, and they have not lost anything either. At the same time, you also accept yourself as a separate individual. But you are still one family, connected by this bloodline—your parents were born from your grandparents, and your parents gave birth to you. From a certain angle, it all began from that most original seed. These seeds form specific races.

It is all a variation on one theme, just as Ruburt would say, all strange creatures born from an ever-changing pattern.

It is like a people, an ethnic group—all variations on one theme. The people of this ethnic group are all quite similar, sharing common traits; the variations are the differences, each with their own distinct characteristics under one broad theme. All of this is born from an ever-changing model. Remember, the people within these ethnic groups are all within an ever-changing model. It is not an unchanging model; this model is always changing.

What does "strange creatures" mean? For example, take today's post-2000 kids, or post-2005 kids—do you think they are the same as children in ancient times? No. Look at their views and ideas; they are completely different. But that does not matter. From a foreigner's perspective, you can tell at a glance that this is a Chinese person. Their views may be completely different from before, but they are still Chinese. So this "change" is the model changing—the mold of being Chinese is actually changing; it is not fixed. If it were fixed, you would be the same as ancient people. But no matter how it changes, it has a theme; it will not change as a human type. You can recognize it at a glance.

In terms of family, nation, and race, you accept the fact that there are biological connections between yourself and other individuals on your planet.

You accept this fact—that you have a biological link with people of your own kind. That is quite normal, including the biological link you have with other people as well. You could say that this group has divided itself off; it has separated itself from other humans—it says, I am Chinese, I do not identify with other peoples; it has its own separate division.

And at any given time, members of different races distribute themselves across various lands and countries.

The same ethnic group—for example, all rooted in Chinese culture—but take Singapore: it is a separate country, full of Chinese culture, yet would you say they are Chinese? They do not claim to be; they are Singaporeans. Different lands, different regions, and different countries—you habitually form organizations, forming different organizations. The same ethnic group may live in different regions and different places.

You say that such-and-such a race is thus and so, and we can trace its history back through the generations.

We say that this race has a long and deep history. For example, you can look at Captive 23²; it has an introduction in it. We can say that our race, for instance the Chinese nation, has five thousand years of history³—whether it is five thousand above and five thousand below, ten thousand in total, or five thousand in total, that is hard to say. According to China's written records, it seems to be five thousand in total. But from the earliest human archaeological discoveries, at a site in Anhui⁴—I forget what it is called, I cannot recall right now—it was discovered that Chinese civilization had already begun cultivating rice more than ten thousand years ago⁵, and there was some primitive civilization. They also found a jade-carved dragon, a very smoothly rounded dragon, along with many jade artifacts. The most amazing thing is that the jade had many tiny holes drilled into it, holes so fine that only today's jade-drilling technology could achieve such craftsmanship. It is unknown how they did it in ancient times. You know that jadeite is extremely hard; on the Mohs scale it is second only to diamond, reaching a hardness of eight to nine⁶. How could they drill such a tiny hole into something so hard without shattering it? This is beyond human understanding. So if we calculate from that era, the history of the Chinese nation is at least ten thousand years.

Generally speaking, you say certain races have their own particular characteristics, and when you do so, you often ignore other less obvious contradictory tendencies.

You say a race has such-and-such a characteristic, but in fact you ignore those characteristics that have not developed. Those things have not developed, but that does not mean they did not become dominant, nor that they do not exist. What he means is, when you say a people has such-and-such a trait, it often has the opposite trait as well, but you ignore it. For example, you say the Chinese nation is hardworking and brave—but there are also very lazy people in it, right?

Yet no one feels that he is not a complete person because he does not belong to a particular race.

You cannot say that a person, because he does not belong to any race, feels incomplete, or does not know who he is. You say yes, you would feel that way—when I lose my sense of ethnic belonging or national belonging, I feel lost; I do not know how to conduct myself; I do not even know what position to take, whom to criticize, whom to curse, whom to argue against. Yes, for an ordinary person, that is how it is. But the premise is—let me put it more bluntly—the premise is that you have seen too little, your exposure is too limited, because the people around you, including yourself, are all firmly stuck in this.

Suppose you marry someone from another country—what country does your child belong to? You say you can look at which passport he holds, how the law defines it. But setting aside the law, what person is he really? Is he a person of your ethnic group, or of your wife's ethnic group? You say that is easy, half and half. Then what if she marries someone who is already one-eighth mixed with one ethnic group and one-eighth with another, whose ancestry is composed of eight bloodlines—what ethnic group would their child belong to?

So we can only say that some of us are of a single race, a single ethnicity, and have that sense of belonging and identity. But this does not revolve around you. It is fine for you to be this way, but you cannot assume that others must be the same, or find it strange when others are not. It is not strange at all. Many, many people in this world are like that. They are not like our Chinese nation, with five thousand years of unbroken lineage, as if being Chinese is something to be especially proud of. There is nothing wrong with being proud, but you cannot look down on others—that is the key point. Just because others do not have a long, unbroken culture, you cannot despise them, calling them mixed-blood or mongrels. That only shows how narrow and low you are. It does not affect others; it only shows that you have not seen the world.

You cannot say that if you do not belong to a certain race, you feel you are not a person. You must belong to a certain race to be a person, and if you do not, you collapse—that is wrong, and most people would not be like that either. This is just your own fixation and delusion. Suppose one day your country revokes your citizenship—then what? You would not live anymore? You would go kill yourself because you no longer have that national identity? Take Snowden, for example—the U.S. government directly revoked his citizenship⁷. So he just stops living? And so on. It is the same. What Seth is saying is this: you will not lose your self-identity because of your ethnic identity. An ethnic group has its ethnic identity, true, but your own identity will not be lost because of it.

The Larger Personality and Counterparts

The children born from you are real, and they have a life of their own. They share certain of your experiences, but they use those experiences as they choose.

Children inherit many experiences from their parents, but they do not necessarily accept all of them wholesale; they choose which ones to use and which not to use, based on their own choices. In your terms, you existed in this physical world before your children did, but they do not completely depend on your experience. For example, nowadays your children do not get married and do not have children. You say this is your experience? No, it is not. If their parents' generation had not married, where would they have come from? Yet once they exist, this generation does not want to marry and does not want to have children. So did they inherit your experience? They did not; they use a certain part of your experience according to their own choices. This is normal.

So now, in certain other terms, your own larger personality existed before you in the same way.

He uses the same analogy to say that this larger, more complete self of yours existed in this physical realm earlier than you did.

That larger personality gave birth to many, many psychic children.

You can understand it as that larger existence giving birth to many, many psychic children, and then they became physical by being born into the two races of male or female. No matter how many psychic children there are, they themselves have no gender, but the moment they are born into the physical world, this spiritual child must have an identity. First of all, it must be either a boy or a girl, and then one asks whether it is black, white, or yellow, and then which country, which city, and so on, further subdividing. The prerequisite is that it must be divided into the two races of boy and girl.

Each such child wants to develop its abilities in a particular way.

Each person has their own unique purpose and their own unique way of converting that way into earthly experience -- converting their experience of developing their abilities in their own special way into their experience of living on earth, so that the rest of the earth benefits as a result. As each of them exercises their own abilities and develops their own abilities according to their own characteristics, the whole earth is thereby enriched.

At any given time, then, the world does indeed seem like a theater, but the play is not pre-designed or planned.

From a certain angle, the earth is like a large theater, but the play is not fixed, not set in advance. On the contrary, it is a spontaneous improvisation. In it, each theme is accepted in advance -- it is not planned, it is accepted. These are two different concepts. Is it not often the same thing? No, it is not the same thing. "Accepted" and "planned" are two different concepts.

Each larger character takes on several roles, bringing forth several psychic children.

Each larger character brings forth several different roles, several different psychic children, and those children come alive and become individual human beings. Those psychic children all come alive on earth, all have life, and become individual human beings on earth.

These psychic children have as much say in their birth as you did in your physical birth, and that is quite a lot of say.

Just as you had a great deal of say when your physical body came to incarnate, those psychic children also have their own say when they incarnate on earth. They choose where, at what time, in what era, what ethnicity, what skin color, what environment to be born into, including who their physical parents will be -- they all have their own say. You chose your environment and your purpose beforehand; you chose them before you came.

The larger character then has several earthly counterparts.

Each living individual participates in the great human drama of any given century. The theme of the human drama differs from era to era, from century to century. For example, the 19th century was industrial civilization, industrialization -- we can probably all understand that. The 20th century was our process of modernization, or the beginning of informatization. The 21st century may become the first year of the quantum era, where humanity begins to have new understanding in the quantum realm, and even rapid development in artificial intelligence. So you can attach different labels to different eras. For example, you can call the 18th century the great industrial revolution era; the 20th century can be called the information age, the age of technological development; the 21st century can be called the age of artificial intelligence and quantum science, or the age of spiritual awakening -- any of these work. You can give each era a different play title.

Each character learns from the other characters.

Each role learns from the other roles. Counterparts are like a mosaic puzzle, fitting together with one another -- for example, four or five counterparts piece together into a complete whole; that is their puzzle-like relationship. It is just that each piece of the puzzle is fully endowed with independent and free will. This is absolute.

So at any given time, the individuals alive on earth in physical form fit together beautifully, just as the cells within your physical body do at any particular time.

At any given time, the people alive on earth -- as if the earth were a body, and each person were like a cell. The cells are all connected to one another, forming a whole human body. That is the analogy he uses to help you understand.

The Boundary of the Metaphor: Not Screws

All right, just when you have understood this, the very next passage immediately breaks down that concept for you.

I am not saying that a human personality is as important as a cell, no more and no less.

He says he is not saying that each human personality is like a cell, no more and no less, precisely serving this larger body of the earth, or forming the body of a larger earth. The earlier part was only a metaphor, to help you understand the concept -- that they are connected to one another like cells, cooperating with one another, forming a common human society or a common earth ecology. But he says it is not as you might think, that every cell is like a screw, each with its own fixed duty, no more and no less, each only responsible for its own work post. It is like saying "I am a revolutionary screw, wherever I am needed, there I am screwed in" -- that is not the meaning; if you understand it that way, you have understood it too narrowly.

I am saying that in a certain way, people live upon the body of the earth, and have with one another the same kind of relationship that cells have with one another.

He says you and the cells -- the example I gave is like cells; you are of the same kind, and you have a relationship of deep kinship with one another. But it is not saying that, like the relationship between cells and the human body, each one is a screw, no more and no less -- it is not like that. Each of us has enormous room to play a role, each person's potential is unlimited, and you have unlimited room to develop; it is not fixed and limited for you. Because for cells, it is fixed and limited -- for example, if you are a hair cell, you can only ever be on the hair; you cannot become something else. But human beings are not like that; human beings are not fixed in place.

Spiritually speaking, you are composed of counterparts, just as physically you come from various races.

Spiritually speaking, you could say you are composed of different counterparts, just as we human beings are composed of different peoples. The whole of humanity has many peoples -- there are Asian, white, yellow -- and these make up the whole of humanity. He says for you, spiritually, these counterparts are like human beings of different races, making up a complete you.

The groupings of counterparts are far more numerous than races, but your definition of race is arbitrary.

Counterparts are far, far more numerous than your races. There are also many peoples on earth, but the groupings of counterparts -- one grouping of counterparts after another, for example, one set of counterparts counts as one grouping -- this number is far, far greater than the number of races.

It is better to compare counterparts to one specific family of yours.

Using race as a comparison is not quite right; it is too large. He compares one grouping of counterparts to a family, which is better, because you may well have four or five counterparts alive within one century, just as you may well have four or five family members distributed across that same span of time. In the same era, you may have four or five counterparts alive on earth, possibly distributed in different places, just as your family members may also live distributed across different cities and different spaces, and they all exist within the same time. Using this as an example is better.

Basically, however, counterparts are dealing with achievements and developments that transcend races and nations.

Basically, the challenges counterparts face, the subjects they deal with, transcend the achievements of races and nations. Can you understand what that means? That is, in human terms, races and nations have played a very large role in human development, and have brought about key achievements -- if there were no nations or no racial classifications, human development would not have been so good, so diverse, so complete. He says that for you, counterparts are even more important than that -- for spiritual development, counterparts are even more important than peoples and nations are for human development.

You Are an Earth Version of a Larger Role

Please remember:

You are an Earth version of your own larger role.

You are purely yourself, you are yourself. But that larger identity, that identity, is innately yourself. That larger identity is you, and this physical, Earth version is also you, but it is the part that cannot be expressed materially. That self cannot express itself in a material way, but it is you. The fact that it does not express itself materially does not mean it does not exist, or that it does not express itself on our Earth -- it expresses itself in other ways, non-material ways. It has not left you; it is not that the larger self sits far away on a cloud, directing a physical you struggling below. It is one with you.

Just as was said at the very beginning of the Level Seven course: division never occurred, division has never occurred. It is meaningless to belittle the small self as worthless. The small self is the larger self, and the larger self is the small self. It is just that the small self is a materialized version of the larger self, which does not mean it is a negation of the larger self -- the larger self is non-materialized, and there are other versions as well. He emphasizes this again here. This passage is very important. You must remember it, and when you have time you should read it over a couple more times to confirm yourself.

You are an Earth version of that larger role, and you are purely yourself. Remember this one word -- "purely." It means you are one hundred percent yourself; you are absolutely, solidly yourself. But that larger identity is innately you. See, he emphasizes again: that larger identity -- what you think of as the higher self, the soul, and so on -- is itself you, innately you. But it is the part that cannot be expressed materially; it simply cannot express materially. But that does not mean you have lost it, or that you are not together with it, or that you cannot find it. It has always been you.

Your experience is your own.

He emphasizes again: it is not that you upload it to some larger self -- that there is some soul above that specifically harvests your experience. There is no such thing; it is all your own. This viewpoint is very popular in spiritual circles, especially recently with the idea of aliens harvesting human experience -- that after you die you have to hand your experience over to them, and that you reincarnate on Earth precisely to collect experience. That is pure nonsense. They are selling fear, using fear to make people believe what they are saying. It is utterly childish.

Your experience is your own. Through you, it becomes part of the larger identity's experience. You might say, well, then isn't that still giving the experience to them? No. Are you not that larger identity? He said earlier: you are that purely yourself; you are that larger identity, innately yourself. So that experience is your own.

But his reality also originally gave you your physical existence.

That larger existence gave you an initial physical reality, which is your physical body.

Just as you give your child physical life.

You have to give him a body. You cannot create a child through thought alone; you have to give your child a body. Your child is not you; the child truly is not yours. Yet they were once contained within the mother's womb, but they did not originally come from the womb -- they came from the sperm and the egg. Actually, this point is not that meaningful. He just wants to tell you -- the child is not you; the child has an independent, fully self-contained, autonomous, free thing. He emphasizes again: although you are part of a larger identity, you are inherently one with that identity. It is different from your child; the child is an independent individual. In a sense you are also independent, but you are a larger self -- you must understand, you are that larger self. Do not go looking for where that larger self is. You are it. Where else would you go to find it?

Your personal experience, then, becomes part of your own larger role. But at the same time, you unconsciously draw upon that role's knowledge, and use it for your own purposes.

Your personal experience becomes part of the larger role's experience, but at the same time you unconsciously draw upon that role's knowledge and use it for your own purposes. Which role? It is this larger role. Remember, it is this larger role. Your experience becomes part of your larger role, and then you also use that role's knowledge to make use of it.

What is it somewhat like? It is somewhat like the larger self, as he described it: this spiritual seed is scattered across various places on Earth, each one an independent individual. But each person uploads their own experience to this larger, shared self, and then this larger self provides this information to all people, like a cloud service. Each individual then uses this knowledge through others' experience or this shared experience -- you upload your knowledge, everyone uploads their knowledge, and in the end everyone uses it. This is very much like the relationship between the various branches and the headquarters of the Spiritual University as we designed it. We put this Seth knowledge in a cloud for everyone to draw upon. Everyone takes this knowledge and, according to their own application scenarios -- different scenarios, different environments, different cultures, different regions, different matters faced, different lessons -- you can take small portions of the Seth knowledge and apply them. After applying them, in practice you will have new insights, new gains, and new expansions. This Seth knowledge gains development and enrichment in practical application, and these good developments and enrichments go back to the cloud and are uploaded to the headquarters platform. Then the headquarters platform takes all the feedback from the various branches' knowledge in practice, reprocesses it, and turns it into standardized knowledge that everyone can draw upon. Then other branches can take this knowledge and use it directly. For example, suppose a certain branch made a breakthrough in treating depression, curing depression through sound or drawing, and developed an effective course system. Once this system is uploaded to headquarters, it can be shared with branches all over the world, and they all gain an effective method for treating depression using this approach. I use this example to show you that the operating mechanism is the same.

Between our larger role and ourselves, this is exactly the relationship -- you are both that larger role and the one who draws from it. You both send knowledge to it and receive knowledge from it.

You are unconsciously aware of your counterparts' experience, just as they are of yours.

The experience sent by counterparts is obtained by you unconsciously, and their obtaining of experience from you is also unconscious. And you use that information to supplement your own information. So the biggest difference between this process he describes and the example I just gave is that in our case the obtaining of information is conscious, while in his case the obtaining of information is unconscious.

In this particular period of time, for example, in a highly industrialized, technological era, certain abilities can be developed with ease. Those interested in such an environment generally would not appear in the age of the cavemen, simply because those living at that time were dealing with different challenges.

So why would people of this era not reincarnate into ancient times? Because they do not need to. They can achieve greater development in this era. In that era people were still struggling for survival, hunting, so they do not want to face that challenge. Some people are willing to face that challenge and go; some are not willing and stay here.

So this hypothetical larger identity also chooses to be born in several different periods of history.

Suppose this larger identity has four or five counterparts, or four or five counterparts, in the same era. Then this identity is not limited to just one era; it wants to participate in every era, so it places itself in different time periods. And in each era, it has many counterparts.

Counterparts are born as individuals in just such a fashion, each biologically and spiritually connected, yet with great interweavings and variations, like a physical family tree.

Simply put, this larger entity enters in different historical periods, and in each historical period it has its own counterparts. For example, in the 18th century there are four or five, in the 19th century four or five, in the 20th century four or five, in the 21st century four or five. These experiences and knowledge can all be gathered together simultaneously, and can all be used by you. You can all learn from them. If you need to, you can draw upon that larger role's knowledge.

In its own way, each century's level has its own integrity.

In each century, the larger self sends out four or five counterparts, and these four or five individuals each have their own integrity. Within the larger context of each historical era's challenges, it obtains a complete experience of its own, because it simultaneously sends out four or five counterparts to experience it.

The identity of each living person is always new.

Your identity is always new. You are not an old identity, not some old role that others must perform according to. It is brand new. The initiative is entirely yours; autonomy and free will are entirely yours.

Yet its rich psychic heritage, through memory and experience, connects it with those identities that will come later and those that have come before.

It connects the past identities and the future identities together. Through what does it connect them? Through the rich spiritual heritage, the psychic heritage -- through memory and experience, connecting these past and future identities together inwardly.

You are closer to some family members than to others, and you are closer to some counterparts than to others.

Within this large family, within this entire family tree, you are closer to some people than to others. This is all very normal; in a large family, not everyone has the same relationship.

Types of Memory and Subfamilies

Your parents use photographs and letters as physical representatives of their memories.

How do your parents preserve their memories of you? Through photographs—looking at photos of you as a child, through the letters you wrote home. They keep those memories of you, but those memories are not yours; they are your parents' memories, not your memories. Yet they are a very definite part of your heritage, and you very much believe they are true. For example, if your family tells you about something you did as a child, you actually do not remember it at all, but you absolutely believe what they say is true.

In some instances, your parents may tell you of events that happened in your own infancy that you have forgotten.

You do not remember them at all, but those are your parents' memories about you. Although you do not remember them, you believe what your parents say is true, and you do not doubt it.

However, if those events apply to your direct experience, then they are unconsciously recorded.

Some things you have not experienced yourself—for example, when your mother describes her pregnancy, you of course have no knowledge of that. But if she describes something you did in kindergarten as a child, and you do not remember that event either, your parents describe it and you believe it. The key point is that as long as you experienced that event, it will be recorded. Although you cannot remember it, through hypnosis, in a hypnotic state, you can make them become your own memories. If you find a good hypnotist, he can take you back to your childhood and bring back all those things you never consciously remembered. When you re-experience those things in a hypnotic state, they become your own living, directly experienced events, rather than things your parents told you about.

So there are different kinds of memory. There are memories you consciously have, there are experiences from your childhood that you personally went through but did not consciously remember, and there are also experiences your parents told you about—events you may not have participated in at all, and so on.

You share certain biological similarities with your parents, but there are other biological combinations that are not understood.

You certainly have some biological similarities with your parents—who do you resemble? But with other counterparts who are not your parents, with the different roles on your larger self, you also have biological combinations with them. You do not only have biological combinations with your parents.

In any given century, counterparts are united.

You also have biological combinations with those counterparts. He gives an example:

Organ transplants between counterparts are more likely to succeed.

Here he points out another thing—organ transplants between counterparts are more likely to succeed. So matching is very subtle; sometimes people thousands of miles apart can be a match, while sometimes relatives within one's own family cannot match at all.

So you have an inner sub-species.

What is meant by sub-species is that besides your own species, you also belong to another species. For example, all these counterparts can be considered a separate species, and you of this species have similar or identical biological connections, which is why organ transplants among you are more likely to succeed.

If you prefer, you also have a subfamily.

What is a subfamily? It means that beyond your existing family, there is another kind of family relationship. You have two layers of family relationships—one is primary, your current parents and siblings; in the other family relationship, you also have another spiritual family relationship. Operating within the regular, specific divisions you know, within this division of yours you also have other spiritual families; he calls this a subfamily.

Telepathic information flashes more quickly from one counterpart to another.

Telepathy transmits faster between counterparts than between you and other people.

Some of your counterparts' memories may appear in your dreams, where they appear to you in fantasy fashion.

Your counterparts sometimes appear in your dreams.

In dreams, they appear to you in fantasy fashion. What does it mean to appear in fantasy fashion? It means they think: one day, if only I could become such-and-such a person—if only I were a painter, or if only I were an artist. And at that moment, suppose you are an artist, then they may appear in your dream.

They are like psychic snapshots rather than physical photographs. Physical photographs involve examples of one portion of your heritage—an example of another portion of your own heritage. Yours, yet not yours. They add to the you that you know as you. They also give you correct information about the past, just as your parents, holding photographs of you as a child, tell you about a time, as far as you are concerned, in which you did not directly participate.

They are both yours and not yours. They belong to your counterparts; in a sense, they belong to your larger role, and they are yours too; but in specific terms, they are not yours.

Old Photos and Old Eras

It is like your parents holding photos of you as a child, telling you about an era you did not directly take part in. The stories your parents tell about that era—actually you did not take part in any of them, but they will hold your childhood photos and tell you: oh, back then, our generation was such and such. You did not experience it; your parents tell you, back then when we bought things we still needed ration tickets—the era of ration coupons. What are ration coupons? You never experienced it, right.

A couple of days ago I saw someone posting a video: he went to North Korea—some young people born after 2000, before the pandemic started in 2019, some college students went to North Korea on a tour group, shot a video, came back and edited it. And they were especially shocked, because when they got to North Korea they discovered that at night, to sing karaoke, you actually had to take out several thick song books, look up the song title, then look up the number, and have a staff member enter it for you—or you could enter it yourself, but you definitely had to look up the number. They were especially shocked, saying they had never seen this kind of song-selection method. Because in their impression, selecting a song means picking up a remote and saying a sentence—I want to sing such and such—say the song title and the song comes up, or at most directly type the name of the song you want to sing into the input box. They had no idea there was still this kind of thing, like thick menu books, one after another, from which you select songs.

So when your parents hold photos and tell you stories of their era, it is very hard for you to understand. South Korea has a very famous TV drama called Reply 1988⁸; you can watch that extremely funny drama, it is especially cute and funny. That is a kind of era time-travel; if you want to know what 1988 was like, watch that drama—it is vivid to the extreme. Although it is about things in Seoul, South Korea, the sense of that era hits you right in the face.

So this is a typical example: you did not experience that era, but others will tell you stories of that era. Just as you did not experience the scenes your counterparts lived through, but through the inner connection, and through the way of dreams that you slip into without noticing, they will show you a bit of what they experienced—just like your parents telling you about their childhood.

But those old photos will strike a chord in your heart, just as the memory of the psyche will too. Because there is an emotional connection in the middle, so the things of your counterparts will strike a chord in your heart, and sometimes bring an inexplicable sense of familiarity and closeness.

You Are Always at the Center of Your Life

You are always at the center of your life. As you understand it, your identity is never annihilated, yet continues to develop its own existence in other ways.

You must remember this: you are the center of your life.

Seth is especially worried that — after talking about parallel space-times, about probable selves, about counterparts, after all of that — you might start worrying: then who exactly am I? What is my identity? What meaning does my identity still have? In this same era there are counterparts of mine existing, and across so many different eras there are still different counterparts of mine existing, so who am I? And each counterpart also has countless probable realities existing, and there are so many parallel space-times existing, and so many probable selves. My god, how many selves are there existing in this one body? You kind of start to break down.

So this time he emphasizes again: do not worry about this, your identity will never be annihilated, you are just that you.

A portion of you has lived many times on this planet, and the you that you know is fresh here, but will never again correspond to time and space in exactly the same way.

The you of the past, a portion of you has lived many times on this earth, and the you that you know is fresh here. This in itself is a paradox, right? It is fine, once you get familiar with it you will be fine. But this lifetime's experience of yours will absolutely never be exactly the same as the original one. Although a portion of you has come to this earth before, has lived in this human world before, this life of yours is absolutely brand new, absolutely fresh, absolutely different from that one. This applies equally to every life before or after, regardless of before or after, every life is like this.

A Unique Version Riding on Experience

Biologically you rely on a lineage... the soul or this larger self, whatever they call him, doesn't matter, does not just send out a self wearing new clothes again and again, but each time sends out a new character, freshly casting itself, then developing and going its own way. Each individual goes his own way.

Biologically, of course you have a lineage: you have a family, who your grandparents were, who your grandparents' parents were, and so on, this is a family lineage. Without this lineage how could there be you? You certainly have one, and if you trace back to the source you can certainly trace back to that origin. Psychically and spiritually you also have a source, and you can trace back to it as well, the same way.

The soul or this larger character—whatever they call him, it doesn't matter—does not always send out a self that is just a change of label without a change of substance, only changing the outer appearance while the inside remains the same, that would be no fun. Each time he sends out a completely new self. He is saying with humor, each time he sends out a new character, freshly casting itself, then developing and going its own way. Each individual goes his own way.

Seth says this with considerable emphasis. But then—

That self rides steadily, speeding along upon remarkable experience, and within himself feels all those others, also rushing into completely unique versions of existence.

That completely new self, however, rides steadily, speeding along upon remarkable experience. Upon whose experience does he ride as he speeds along? He rides upon the experience gathered from that larger self, from the different characters. He speeds along upon this experience. Within himself—it must be within himself and not outside—he feels all those others, those characters, also rushing into completely unique versions of existence. Each one rides upon this experience and gallops along, yet each one also develops independently, each one is a unique and complete version.

This is a very wondrous feeling: you ride upon all experience, and you also know that each experience is a unique and complete version, and others also ride upon their experience.

Let me give a vivid example: say you are riding in a carriage pulled by eight horses, you are the driver, cracking the whip as you gallop along. These eight horses are eight counterparts, or counterparts from different eras, it doesn't matter, you drive these eight horses, and you ride along on top. From another perspective, you are one of the eight horses, and another you stands on that carriage, yet cracks the whip and moves forward. This is a very vivid example, to help you understand what it means that each one is a complete and unique self.

No Coincidental Encounters

Now your friend Peter also shared the same earthly period. You were not counterparts then, nor are you now, yet you are allied closely enough that in some way, you share certain of the same psychic memories.

So you, this Joseph, were once Nabin, were once that black woman, and that Roman soldier, yet you are not any one of them. You are them and you are not them, but their realities are also part of your own larger alliance. Your friend Peter also shared that historical period. As for Peter, you can take a look at Captive 23⁹. You were not counterparts in that period, nor are you now, yet you are allied closely enough that in some way, you share certain of the same psychic memories.

It is like cousins, brothers talking about vague memories of the past, cousins talking about other cousins.

In any grouping -- biological, psychic, and social -- there is no coincidence.

He says there is no such thing as coincidence. Do you think there is coincidence? And obviously, in any club gathering, certain interests bring people together.

People are born in any given century, and they meet in space and time -- people are born in different centuries, just as in different clubs. Because each club has a different theme, you go to different clubs according to your own interests, just as you go to different eras to reincarnate. Every bar is different -- there are quiet bars, lively bars, gay bars -- which one you go to depends on your own preferences, and there is always a reason. There is no such thing as coincidence: you go there because you yourself like it, you go to whichever era to reincarnate because you like it.

Therefore, your meeting with Peter, and certain people coming to Ruburt's ESP class, also makes sense; none of it is random. Just as it is not without reason that all of us are studying together, and it is not without reason that all of us have come into contact with Seth -- there is a very deep inner origin to it all.

Jane's Dream Experience

The Seth material ends here for the time being. After adding a few lines of personal material about Jane, he ended the session at 12:07.

The next morning, Jane told me that he had been receiving more material on the "Unknown" Reality throughout the night. After breakfast, Jane enthusiastically began working on his new ideas, which he planned to use in the politics of the psyche.

Here, I have only touched on two examples of the experiences he had throughout the night. The first: while he was sleeping, he had become aware of a certain state concerning himself, receiving many insights from the Seth material. Some were in a preliminary stage, and he was not ready yet -- those insights, the Seth material was not ready yet -- but they all came through in a strange way.

Jane continued writing:

It was as if I were wearing a kind of psychic headset. The material was transmitted more or less directly onto my brainwaves, automatically flowing in, yet in a way that did not interfere with my own thinking in the slightest.

This is to say that Jane had two consciousnesses operating at the same time. Actually, through the earlier exercises we already know that Jane by this point had the ability to have two consciousnesses operating simultaneously. In dreams he could actualize this ability, but while awake he may not yet have had it. However, when Rob was doing that double dream, Rob also had this ability, but both of them actualized it only in dreams. In waking reality, they had not yet acquired this ability. But if you practice carefully -- the exercises Seth mentioned earlier, plus some supplementary exercises added by Teacher Xiyu -- if you truly practice seriously enough, you too can have dual consciousness while awake. At this point Jane had dual consciousness: his own consciousness remained undisturbed, while at the same time he could receive another consciousness.

So was a different part of the brain receiving the impressions? It has nothing to do with the brain, nothing at all to do with the brain. This is two consciousnesses operating. It was not the part I use for my ordinary thinking -- very interesting.

Finally he offered an analogy: it was like two pieces of music, with two voices, two pieces of music, two songs, finally merging together into one melody, without conflict.

Then when he truly woke up, he had in his mind a concept of counterparts and the four-sided self.

The Four-Faced Counterpart Self

The concept of four faces -- there is only one four-faced Buddha. You may remember that in Thailand the concept of the four-faced Buddha is quite popular, that is, a Buddha with four faces looking in four directions. If you do not know what the four-faced Buddha is, you can search for it. Jane said she suddenly had a concept of a four-faced self based on counterparts.

Just as she wrote today: in a general period of time, say within a century, there may be four counterparts living, forming a psychic gestalt. Any one of these four receives information from this common pool of identity. Each is distinct and independent, but each is an added dimension of the others, an added dimension. So, on different levels, these four create an alliance and become a four-faced counterpart self, spanning a given world. This is an operational alliance that exists all along in a latent form.

She can describe a union of counterparts as a four-faced person. And the sense of continuity of that four-faced counterpart self itself is not interrupted -- that union itself also has its own sense of identity, and it is not interrupted either. It maintains its continuity outside of space and time, maintaining its sense of identity without interruption, while at the same time maintaining its four identities. At the same time, the other portions of the individual selves, or your counterparts, live within space and time. These four counterparts live within space and time, while the larger self of the counterparts, this four-faced person who simultaneously possesses the four counterparts, lives outside of space and time.

Of course, Jane's statement that the four-faced counterpart self endures outside of space and time implies a contradiction. But this situation, when we come into contact with certain of Jane's and Seth's concepts, is something we as physical beings must always face in some way.

This itself is a feeling of truth, right on some level and wrong on some level. It is not that a larger counterpart entity has its essence existing outside of space and time -- this is one of Jane's understandings, and this understanding is wrong. Many people easily fall into this misunderstanding. It does not exist outside of space and time; it exists right within space and time, it exists within each person, within your heart. It is not somewhere outside, and even less somewhere outside of space and time.

Simultaneous Time

Seth himself, regarding simultaneous time and all these simultaneous, unfinished concepts, has threaded them through the material he began more than ten years earlier. Seth repeatedly emphasized simultaneous time and simultaneous existence; he emphasized this for over a decade.

As he again humorously remarked in the fourteenth session of 1968:

Because you cannot understand, how difficult it is to explain time to someone who must take time to understand that explanation.

He said you do not understand; how hard it is for me to explain time to a person who needs to take time to understand what time is. Can you grasp what he means? He said: I have no way to explain to a person who needs to take time to understand what time is how difficult a matter that is.

But Seth's simultaneous time is not an absolute statement, because as that same session also told us:

I am not time on your plane. I am not affected by time on your plane, but on my plane, I am affected by something similar.

Seth said, it is not that because I am not controlled by your three-dimensional time, I am not controlled by anything like time. He said I am controlled by something similar, but it is not called time.

To me, time can be manipulated, and leisurely utilized and examined. To me, your time is a vehicle, one of several vehicles by which I enter your awareness. To me, it is still a certain kind of phase, otherwise I would not be able to utilize it in whatever manner I do.

To Seth, time can be manipulated by me, and leisurely utilized and examined. To me, time is like a tool, just like your cell phone; it can be manipulated, fiddled with, reformatted, turned over and over, and taken out for examination. For us, that is not possible.

Your time, to Seth, is like a vehicle. Let me describe it: it is like a three-dimensional holographic video recorder, and a multi-angled one at that, since it is holographic, the kind of holographic thing where any single point gives everyone the whole picture. Think of time as such a video recorder, with a massive amount of storage inside. To Seth, this time is just such a video recorder; it is a tool.

He said it is one of several vehicles by which I can enter your awareness. Seth said: if I want you to be able to sense me, or if I want to communicate and exchange with you, I must enter your space of awareness. But if I want to enter your space of awareness, I must use certain things in order to get in, just as when I go somewhere I have to take a boat, a plane, or drive a car; those are my vehicles. So when I enter your space of awareness, what vehicle do I use? He said one of them is time; I must use this vehicle of time.

So he said, to Seth, time is still a certain kind of phase. What does that mean? It means it is still a certain kind of real existence, only it does not exist in the way we understand; it exists in another way. Time has become a video recorder; that is what it means. Otherwise, I would not be able to utilize it in whatever manner I do. If time were not a tool or not a reality, how could I make use of it? If I did not make use of time, how could I enter into this space and time of yours? That is what he means.

So here he again emphasizes that time is not nonexistent; he is only saying that it exists in a way we do not understand, as another kind of possibility, another kind of reality. He is not saying that time is nothingness. We must not study spirituality to the point where we finally study everything into nothingness, into emptiness: time does not exist, space does not exist. From a certain angle we can say that, but in true cognition, you should treat time as a tool, as another kind of tool to make use of, rather than denying all its existence and the meaning and value of its existence. If you deny the meaning and value of the existence of time and space, then where is the meaning and value of the existence of this little self of yours in this world?

So here he uses another angle to explain: time is given to you only as another kind of reality, or a vehicle, or a tool. We must learn to make use of it, rather than be controlled by it. We must take charge of this time, rather than be controlled by time. That is what he means.

Two Quotations from the Early Sessions

Then, on April 4, 1964, in Session 44, Seth explained:

The inner universe, energy and transformation and value fulfillment, both exist within this spacious present or simultaneity, adding up to a durability, and within that simultaneity it is also spontaneous, and at the same time still simultaneous. And in terms of value fulfillment, that durability is achieved through constant expansion.

This was when he was discussing the fundamental laws of the universe, mentioning several of them, among which value fulfillment, energy transformation, and spontaneity are all fundamental laws of the universe, and he brought up durability.

If you want to achieve value fulfillment, don't you need to accomplish something within a span of time? And this span of time is called durability. Although time does not exist, or time occurs simultaneously, within this inner universe there is still the arising of a span of time, and you call that durability. If nothing had durability, if everything were instant yet eternal, then I ask you, how would your value realization come about? Without a process, how could it be realized? However short, it still has a process, right? And its length is not necessarily fixed.

So here, what Seth is emphasizing once again is this: time does not exist in the way you understand it, and durability is also one of the fundamental attributes of this universe, but it is not the kind of temporal state we imagine. These things are all discussed in the early sessions, and we still won't go into them today, because only a sentence or two has been excerpted here, and expanding on it wouldn't be meaningful. We'll talk about this passage when we get to the early sessions.

---

注释与核实

1. This claim could not be verified. ↩

2. This claim could not be verified. ↩

3. Source: National Ethnic Affairs Commission, "Dao Zhonghua: Wang Wei: How Does Archaeology Verify China's More Than 5,000 Years of Civilization?" (https://www.neac.gov.cn/seac/c103391/202210/1158974.shtml) ↩

4. Source: Shanghai Museum, "Lingjiatan Site" (https://www.shanghaimuseum.net/mu/frontend/pg/m/article/id/CI00004747) ↩

5. Source: Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, "The 100,000-Year Evolutionary History of Rice from Wild to Domesticated at the Shangshan Culture Site," 2024 (https://igg.cas.cn/xwzx/yjcg/202405/t20240524_7169451.html) ↩

6. According to Mike's original words, "Jadeite is extremely hard; on the Mohs scale it is second only to diamond, reaching a Mohs hardness of 8 to 9"; upon verification, it should be "Jadeite (jadeite) has a Mohs hardness of 6.5 to 7, not 8 to 9, and is not second only to diamond." (Source: Gemological Institute of America (GIA), "Jade Care and Cleaning Guide," https://www.gia.edu/articles/jade-care-cleaning) ↩

7. This claim could not be verified. ↩

8. Source: Lee Haye-ah/Yonhap News Agency, "Popular TV series 'Reply 1988' whets appetite for retro goods, family values" (https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20160118004751315) ↩

9. This claim could not be verified. ↩