Library » Conscious Creation » The Laws of the Inner Universe
By Paul M. Helfrich, Ph.D.
This compilation may only be used for private study, scholarship, or research.
Acknowledgments
I would like to dedicate this essay to my friends, Stan Ulkowski and his “partner in time” Lynda Dahl, without whom this probable reality would not exist. I’m indebted to their years of hard work and dedication that led to the re-publication of Reality Change magazine, most of the Seth/Jane Roberts’s books, and the creation of Seth Network International, the forum that allowed so many Seth readers to meet and share ideas during the 1990’s.
I would also like thank my life partner, Joanne, whose extraordinary dedication to the pursuit of excellence, creativity, and endless love made this little project possible. I love you my ancient friend!
Kudos, love, and high-fives go out to all of my compatriots and teachers on the Sethnet email list at eGroups.com. Thanks for helping me to experience and ponder the rich subtext within Seth’s ideas and also providing a challenging and creative public forum in which to immerse myself.
Gregory Polsen, from the Land Down Under, has created a wonderful set of indices to Books 1, 2, and 6 of the Early Sessions books and made them freely available on the website at the Sethnet email list on the eGroups.com. His spectacular efforts made my research much easier. Many thanks!
I am greatly indebted to author Norman Friedman, who helped open my eyes to the relationship between physics, the Perennial Philosophy, and the Seth Material.
And to Elena de la Peña, thanks for being a friend and an editor extraordinaire.
Finally, to Rob Butts, Jane Roberts, Seth, and the many others involved in making the Seth Material available to a world that can surely benefit from its depth, subtlety, and exquisite richness.
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Introduction & Overview
What is the Nature of Universal Truth?
Answering the above question, which stands singularly throughout the ages, is the ultimate goal of every science, philosophy, and religion. To date, very few have even dared to pretend that they held the answers to this fundamental question. The scientist, philosopher, and mystic all take different approaches to finding their answers, yet ultimately all approaches lead through the same place; the nature of personal reality. Does our soul really exist? Or are our lives just the results of some cosmic accident? Is the universe really a meaningless, menacing, and chaotic place based upon the survival of the fittest? Do our personalities survive death? Or is that the bleak end to existence as we know it? Is there a Creator “underneath” the divine camouflage that we call physical reality? And if so, is there ultimately a purpose and design to life as we know it? How, then, can we find the answers that will lead us to more deeply understand our own natures in relation to these Universal Truths?
Universal Truth, by definition, is an absolute condition that never changes and is ubiquitous. Yet we find ourselves in a physical reality that seems to do nothing but change, constantly. Can there be Universal Truths or Laws that are indeed absolute and never changing conditions? The Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary (1) defines ‘truth’ as follows:
1 a archaic : FIDELITY, CONSTANCY b : sincerity in action, character, and utterance
2 a (1) : the state of being the case : FACT (2) : the body of real things, events, and facts : ACTUALITY (3) often capitalized : a transcendent fundamental or spiritual reality b : a judgment, proposition, or idea that is true or accepted as true <truths of thermodynamics> c : the body of true statements and propositions
3 a : the property (as of a statement) of being in accord with fact or reality b chiefly British : TRUE 2 c : fidelity to an original or to a standard
4 capitalized, Christian Science : GOD
- in truth : in accordance with fact : ACTUALLY
Already you can see that the above definition covers a lot of ground, some of it seemingly contradictory. Can truth be relative? If so, can it really be considered Universal Truth? Or are we talking about two different things? The purpose of this essay, then, is to provide a thorough introduction to the nature of Universal Truth as expressed by Seth’s laws of the inner universe. First published in The Early Sessions: Book 2 of the Seth Material by Jane Roberts and Robert F. Butts, Seth’s laws of the inner universe point the way to some answers regarding the nature of Universal Truth. But before we dig into Seth’s ideas, we’re first going to take a look at the wisdom and insights of other thinkers on the topic of Universal Truth. This will help establish a foundation from which we can more deeply understand Seth’s laws of the inner universe, as they are perhaps the most subtle of all the ideas found in the Seth Material.
As you ponder the following, you can begin to see that the purveyors of Truth are talking about different things most of the time. The word ‘truth’ itself gets tossed about like a ship on a stormy sea, so much so, that the concept of an absolute, Universal Truth reveals itself to be a very slippery topic indeed. So strap yourself in for the ride, we are going to cover a lot of new and challenging ideas. If at any point you get overloaded, just pick and choose what follows your interests. You can always come back and reread any section of the essay at a later time.
“When we talk about scientific truth—just as when we talk about God—we are in trouble, because truth has different meanings. William James said, and it’s valid, ‘Truth is what works.’
“The idea of Truth with a capital ‘T’—that there is something called Truth that’s beyond the range of the relativity of the human mind trying to think—is what I call ‘the error of the found truth.’ The trouble with all of these damned preachers is the error of the found truth. When they get that tremolo in the voice and tell you what God has said, you know you’ve got a faker. When people think that they, or their guru, have The Truth—‘This is It!’—they are what Nietzsche calls ‘epileptics of the concept’: people who have gotten an idea that’s driven them crazy.
“Thinking you’ve got The Truth is a form of madness, as are pronouncements about absolute beauty, because one can easily see that there is no such thing. Beauty is always relevant to something. That quote from Keats’ Ode on a Grecian Urn—“ ‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty’—that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”—it is a nice poetic thought, but what does it mean? Speaking of platitudes, I like Robert Bly’s extrapolation of Descartes: ‘I think, therefore I am. The stone doesn’t think, therefore it isn’t’.” – Joseph Campbell (2)
“’Tis strange—but true; for truth is always strange; stranger than fiction.” – Lord Byron (3)
“It is the customary fate of new truths to begin as heresies and to end as superstitions.” – Thomas Henry Huxley (4)
“When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (5)
“There are no whole truths; all truths are half-truths. It is trying to treat them as whole truths that plays the devil.” – Alfred North Whitehead (6)
“Remember one thing, there is no such thing as ‘the truth’ – because, as you each have a separate set of individual finger prints, so have each of you your own ‘truth’.” – Datre, as channeled by Aona (7)
“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” – The Gospel of St. John 8:32 (8)
“Is it not amazing how liberating truth is? Many religions express giving you truth, that it will be liberating to you, but real truth needs no religious belief system behind it, and can be ultimately liberating in itself.” – Elias; as channeled by Mary Ennis (9)
“Truths are constants that may not be eliminated or annihilated. Energy is a truth. Color is a truth. Vibration is a truth. Reality is a truth. You creating your reality is a truth. Consciousness and its different areas of awareness are truths. You are a truth. Belief systems incorporate a much wider area, for they incorporate much imagination, but even within this you incorporate truth, for all thought becomes imagination and all thought is energy, which is truth, which is also reality. Therefore, all imagination is a reality, which is also a truth!
“Belief systems are those inventions that you create to explain what you do not understand. Truths are unchanging. Reality is a truth, but your viewing of reality is a belief system.” – Elias (10)
“You shall become aware that I speak of truths seldom, for truths are constants and absolutes throughout all of consciousness, which within any particular dimension, they are not recognized. They are distorted and not completely understood, and the importance placed on them is little. You search for truths within your beliefs and you look to philosophical areas or religious areas. Truths, within consciousness, are those elements of consciousness that are within ALL dimensions and that hold an element of significance within ALL areas of consciousness, physical and nonphysical. Their translation may be different, but they are constants. Color is one. Tone is another.” – Elias (11)
“The seeker of truth should thoroughly scrutinize various beliefs; but indiscriminate reading of religious books written by novices or untried enthusiasts yields only an indigestible hash of imagination, emotional outpourings, and diluted realization.” – Paramahansa Yogananda (12)
“... intuition is the power that tests truth. You must feel, you must realize truth before you can know that it is true. What seems true to reason and sense perception is not always true in fact. The only sure way to know truth is to realize it intuitively. To know the atom, you must become one in consciousness with the atom. You must become what you want to know. Can you know the taste of sugar without tasting it? No! So it is with the metaphysician: he experiences everything within himself. The scientist experiments with things outside himself.” – Paramahansa Yogananda (13)
“I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.” – Isaac Newton (14)
“This above all—to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.” – William Shakespeare (15)
“The further one travels, the less one knows.” – Lao Tzu (16)
“Work is for the purification of the mind, not for the perception of Reality. The realization of Truth is brought about by discrimination, and not in the least by millions of acts.” – Shankara (17)
“The truth indeed has never been preached by the Buddha, seeing that one has to realize it with oneself.” – Sutralamkara (18)
“There is nothing true anywhere,
The True is nowhere to be found.
If you say you see the True,
This seeing is not the true one.
When the True is left to itself,
There is nothing false in it, for it is Mind itself.
When Mind in itself is not liberated from the false,
There is nothing true; nowhere is the True to be found.” – Hui Neng (19)
“Now, the last end of each thing is that which is intended by the first author or mover of that thing; and the first author and mover of the universe is an intellect. Consequently, the last end of the universe must be the good of the intellect; and this is truth. Therefore truth must be the last end of the whole universe, and the consideration thereof must be the chief occupation of wisdom. And for this reason divine Wisdom, clothed in flesh declares that He came into the world to make known the truth. ...Moreover Aristotle defines the First Philosophy as being the knowledge of truth, not of any truth, of that, namely, which refers to the first principle of being of all things; wherefore its truth is the principle of all truth, since the disposition of things is the same in truth as in being.” – St. Thomas Aquinas (20)
“There is only one Truth; It can be known only by individual spiritual experience. Such experience will be found to be the same, whether the individual be Hindu, Christian, or a member of any sect or school of thought. But such realization cannot be described in words. It can only be manifested in living the life.” – Paramahansa Yogananda (21)
“If you fix
on yourself and your tradition,
believing you alone have got ‘It,’
you’ve removed yourself
from the rest of the world.” – Joseph Campbell (22)
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About the Limitations of Language When Talking About Universal Truth
Are words alone an adequate tool to convey the absolute nature of Universal Truth? Since we are bound by the inherent limitations of our own perception, physical senses, and reasoning abilities, just how close can we get to Universal Truth through the intellectual experience of reading, talking, or thinking about it? What if we were to employ some sort of advanced mathematical language? Could our own intuitions provide us with additional clues to the answers we seek?
Like any body of subtle and complex knowledge, the information that Seth offers has its own learning curve. It is not intended to be embraced by 100% of the population or solve all of the world’s problems. It concentrates on the individual’s right to decide what is fulfilling for him or herself. It does not claim to be Universal Truth, but instead offers a view on understanding Universal “Truths” filtered through our subjective perception in the context of our cultural belief systems. And for many people, their experience comes in the form of books, audio tapes, or discussion groups; media that employ the use of written and spoken language to convey ideas.
Until organized science and religion expand their present models of the human psyche, which place the channeling phenomenon somewhere between dissociative identity disorder (multiple personalities) and demonic possession, the Seth phenomenon may be best understood in light of what is called the Perennial Philosophy, a term popularized by German philosopher and mathematician, Godfrey Leibniz (1646-1716), and made well known by writer Aldous Huxley in his book The Perennial Philosophy (1944).
Perennial wisdom is reflected in the established mystical traditions of the East and West in works such as the Tao Te Ching, Bhagavad-Gita, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, the poetry of Rumi, The Kabbalah, parts of The Old and New Testaments, and the Gnostic Gospels. Perennial wisdom is not based upon dogma or orthodoxy, but reflects the common denominator of Universal Truths hinted at by any credible religious dogma and method. This is what is meant, for example, by the Taoist saying that, “the Tao which is written or spoken is not the true Tao.” In other words (pun intended :–), the Tao represents the ineffable Primordial Source of all things: God. And despite our best attempts, our Primordial Source can never be fully expressed or captured by the limiting molds of human belief systems, languages, or dogma. But the Tao, our Primordial Source, can be directly experienced by anyone through their deep intuitions in a type of deep mergence or empathic god-communion.
So perhaps the questions that we’re asking here have more to do with the relationships between the roles played by the intellect and reason versus the intuitions and emotions in our perception. Are these aspects of the psyche mutually exclusive when attempting to comprehend Universal Truth through personal experience? Even though every perennial tradition speaks about the importance of direct experience, what is the nature of that direct experience? The direct experience promulgated by Western science excludes the intuitions and emotions, focusing solely upon the intellect and reason. Facts are facts, right? Or are they? How far can we really go in terms of only the intellect and reason in comprehending Universal Truth? Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason (1787) builds a strong case regarding the limitations of reason and intellect alone in comprehending Universal Truth. Jane Roberts used the concept of “prejudiced perception” (23) to express something similar, namely that human perception has its own limitations and, by default, is a type of distortion lens through which all experience is filtered. In other words, personal reality is uniquely experienced through the subjective psychological filters of our complex belief systems.
Since our attempts to comprehend Universal Truth are often obscured by semantical definitions and dialectics, we must continue to examine the role of written and spoken languages in the experiential process. It is also just as easy, when studying religious writings, to be led down a similar blind alley through the process of multiple translations in which subtle nuances of meaning, relevant to the original culture, get distorted and calcified over periods of time.
In many translations of the Christian Bible the phrase “the word of God” occurs dozens of times. It is often used to represent the divine authority and dominance of the Christian God over all other gods and peoples. Those who were gifted could hear the “word of God.” They were considered to be prophets, like Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, and so on. In this case, “word of God” is really a metaphor that represents the source energy, vibration, and wisdom of our Primordial Source. To hear these “words” required special faculties that went beyond the ordinary five senses. In this context the “word of God” is not really a spoken language at all but represents Universal Truths that exist in a realm of consciousness “outside” of the physical realm. Those who are credited with the skill and ability to hear “the word of God” still had to translate their experiences into the spoken and written languages of the times or the process would have no utility for the larger community, benefiting only themselves. So in this case the spoken or written word is a carrier or vessel for the mystical experience of the “hearers,” but should never be confused for the actual “word” itself.
Once again we are returning to the nature of personal reality and trying to further understand our own perception, since it’s the only way we can ever experience and comprehend Universal Truths. As we continue, keep in mind that the words used to describe and convey any valid Universal Truth are themselves representations of something deeper and more ineffable that is beyond complete translation. This is one reason why these translations, in terms of the many extant religious and scientific textbooks, are often so different. They are inevitably tailored to the times and needs of the local cultures. The actual power contained in any book thus has a limited shelf life, since it exists in the physical realm of constant change and evolution. Have you read anything written in the 1750’s or 1850’s lately? The nature of personal reality therefore also exists in a historical continuum of constant change and development. And learning the ability to discern the difference between words and the reality they represent is the key in our search to unlock the mysteries of Universal Truth.
“The subject matter of the Perennial Philosophy is the nature of eternal, spiritual Reality; but the language in which it must be formulated was developed for the purpose of dealing with phenomena in time. That is why, in all these formulations, we find an element of paradox. The nature of Truth-in-Fact cannot be described by means of verbal symbols that do not adequately correspond to it. At best it can be hinted at in terms of non sequiturs and contradictions.” – Aldous Huxley (24)
“That words are at once indispensable and, in many cases, fatal has been recognized by all the exponents of the Perennial Philosophy.” – Aldous Huxley (25)
“In religious literature the word ‘truth’ is used indiscriminately in at least three distinct and very different senses. Thus, it is sometimes treated as a synonym for ‘fact,’ as when it is affirmed that God is Truth—meaning that he is the primordial Reality. But this is clearly not the meaning of the word in such a phrase as ‘worshipping God in spirit and in truth.’ Here, it is obvious, ‘truth’ signifies direct apprehension of spiritual Fact, as opposed to second-hand knowledge about Reality, formulated in sentences and accepted on authority or because an argument from previously granted postulates was logically convincing. And finally there is the more ordinary meaning of the word, as in such a sentence as, ‘This statement is the truth,’ where we mean to assert that the verbal symbols of which the statement is composed correspond to the facts to which it refers.” – Aldous Huxley (26)
“The world as it appears to common sense consists of an indefinite number of successive and presumably causally connected events, involving an indefinite number of separate, individual things, lives and thoughts, the whole constituting a presumably orderly cosmos. It is in order to describe, discuss and manage this common-sense universe that human languages have been developed.
“Whenever, for any reason, we wish to think of the world, not as it appears to common sense, but as a continuum, we find that our traditional syntax and vocabulary are quite inadequate. Mathematicians have therefore been compelled to invent radically new symbol-systems for this express purpose. But the divine Ground of all existence is not merely a continuum, it is also out of time, and different, not merely in degree, but in kind from the worlds to which traditional language and the languages of mathematics are adequate. Hence, in all expositions of the Perennial Philosophy, the frequency of paradox, of verbal extravagance, sometimes of seeming blasphemy. Nobody has yet invented a Spiritual Calculus, in terms of which we may talk coherently about the divine Ground and of the world conceived as its manifestation. For the present, therefore, we must be patient with the linguistic eccentricities of those who are compelled to describe one order of experience in terms of a symbol-system, whose relevance is to the fact of another and quite different order.
“So far, then, as a fully adequate expression of the Perennial Philosophy is concerned, there exists a problem in semantics that is finally insoluble. The fact is one which must be steadily borne in mind by all who read its formulations. Only in this way shall we able to understand even remotely what is being talked about.” – Aldous Huxley (27)
“It takes two to speak the truth—one to speak, and another to hear.” – Henry David Thoreau (28)
“The truths contained in religious doctrines are after all so distorted and systematically disguised that the mass of humanity cannot recognize them as truth. The case is similar to what happens when we tell a child that new-born babies are brought by the stork. Here, too, we are telling the truth in symbolic clothing, for we know what the large bird signifies. But the child does not know it. He hears only the distorted part of what we say, and feels that he has been deceived; and we know how often his distrust of the grown-ups and his refractoriness actually take their start from this impression. We have become convinced that it is better to avoid such symbolic disguising of the truth in what we tell children and not to withhold from them a knowledge of the true state of affairs commensurate with their intellectual level.” – Sigmund Freud (29)
“He who knows does not speak;
He who speaks does not know.” – Lao Tzu (30)“The truth can not be expressed in words, and when words are used, even by a Shankara [Hindu philosopher of the early ninth century AD], acute minds can always find a loophole for attack. The finite, in fact, can not contain the infinite. Truth is not an eternal discussion; it is Truth. It follows that only by actual personal realization, by practice or method ..., can Truth ever be known beyond doubt.” – Douglas Ainslie (31)
“In higher states of consciousness there is an awareness of being one with the universe and all it creatures, of a knowing—a gnosis—related to that of the Creator. Because these kinds of insight are so different from the ordinary experience our language usually expresses, they are not easily conceptualized and verbally communicated. Myth, symbol, paradox, and poetic metaphor become more effective means of communicating these insights and experiences.” – Willis Harman (32)
“Wishing to entice the blind,
The Buddha playfully let words escape from his golden mouth;
Heaven and earth are filled, ever since, with entangling briars.” – Dai-o Kokushi (33)
“What is known as the teaching of the Buddha is not the teaching of the Buddha.” – Diamond Sutra (34) (substitute sage, philosopher, or channeled entity of choice above)
“The history of all religions is similar in one important respect; some of their adherents are enlightened and delivered, because they have chosen to react appropriately to the words which the founders have let fall; others achieve a partial salvation by reacting with partial appropriateness; yet others harm themselves and their fellows by reacting with a total inappropriateness—either ignoring the words altogether or, more often, taking them too seriously and treating them as though they were identical with the Fact to which they refer.” – Aldous Huxley (35)
“The word ‘truth’ has been so misused as to have almost lost its real meaning. Truth is the consciousness that is guided by spiritual wisdom to perform certain actions—not because everybody else says so but because they are right. Truth is eternal, yet ever new. It cannot be monopolized by anyone. It will keep on expressing eternally through the soul of man. Every human being has a right and a duty to express it in his or her own life.” – Paramahansa Yogananda (36)
“By ‘truth’ I mean: i) propositional truth where language is rigorously self-consistent and noncontradictory; and ii) correspondence truth where propositional truth (expressed in ideas/words) is confirmed by empirical evidence. The kind of awareness needed to pursue logical and rational rigor is frequently incompatible with the kind of awareness essential to spiritual wisdom. By ‘wisdom’ I mean an often ineffable knowing born of direct experience, a kind of intuitive pragmatism that works to the extent it takes account of the whole. It is inclusive and integrative, and invariably involves empathy and compassion.” – Christian De Quincey (37)
Hopefully, if you’ve made it this far, you’re beginning to understand that the word “truth” is very subjective, often distorted and inconsistently applied. Defining Universal Truth seems to be quite contextual, seeming to hint at something far beneath the surface of what we’ve been traditionally taught is the absolute truth in terms of scientific and metaphysical laws. Scientific laws are propositional truths, proven through the reason and processes of mutual verification that create a consensus, collective view. These appear to be different on the surface from metaphysical truths, which are more subjective and proven through the direct, intuitive experience of the individual. Yet proponents of both methods claim to be right. Some even believe that they are the “the people chosen as purveyors of The Way.”
Is our intellect really mutually exclusive from our intuition? Are scientists really that different from priests? Or philosophers for that matter? Could we possibly be living during a period of history in which scientific and metaphysical beliefs are merging as we expand our abilities to include objective and subjective experience? Intellectual and intuitive experience – merged? Or will a more collective understanding of Universal Truth forever elude us, since it can never be fully translated or comprehended in terms of our physical experience in the context of our personal realities?
Willis Harman – philosopher, scientist, futurist, and former president of The Institute of Noetic Sciences in Sausalito, CA – offers tremendous insight into the issues affecting the schizophrenic separation of science and religion. He says that, “there appears to be no conflict between a mature science and a mature religion. Indeed, we must seriously question whether we have a mature science as long as such conflict appears to exist.” (38)
The intellect, stripped of its intuition, may never be able to provide a complete picture of the nature of Universal Truth. And intuition, without the intellect, may likewise provide only a dead end if we experience Universal Truth directly but can’t manage to translate it into a useful way that adds value to a larger community. Perhaps we are at a stage in human evolution in which we need to incorporate a wider perspective, one that includes the use of both our intellect and intuition more fully?
As we shall see shortly, in Seth’s laws of the inner universe we will discover a refined approach to and definition of Universal Truth, but it is still constrained by limitations we have been discussing thus far. So we still need to explore some additional ideas before addressing Seth’s.
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A Transpersonal View on Universal Truth by Ken Wilber
What we are really pondering at this point is a definition of Universal Truth in the context of the subtle nature of individual and collective subjective experience in relationship to individual and collective objective experience. I’d like to conclude our opening smorgasbord of “wisdom of the ages” with the ideas of Ken Wilber, a preeminent thinker and transpersonal psychologist. His views offer a viable framework within which we can begin to understand the nature of Universal Truth in the context of individual reality in relationship to collective reality, as you can’t really separate one from the other.
The term “transpersonal” refers to the view that the human psyche is very similar to Seth’s view; a multidimensional soul or energy personality gestalt that simultaneously exists in both physical and inner reality that also survives death. The transpersonal view is holistic. It views the physical universe, its galaxies, solar systems, and planets as consisting of interrelated systems that are inseparable; the whole always being greater than the sum of its parts. So it is within this context that we will continue our search for how we can comprehend the nature of Universal Truth.
The following ideas are summarized from Wilber’s book A Brief History of Everything.
“Truth, in the broadest sense, means being attuned with the real. To be authentically in touch with the true, and the good and the beautiful.
“And that implies that we can also be out of touch with the real. We can be lost, or obscured, or mistaken, or wrong in our assessments. We can be out of touch with the true, out of touch with the good, out of touch with the beautiful.” (39)
Wilber identifies four main aspects of the transpersonal psyche. Each one has its own, what he terms, validity claim or method of verifying the truth or falseness of any perception. This unique perspective allows him to dig into the more subtle aspects of the psyche, its individual and collective aspects, as well as its objective and subjective aspects. While all divisions are ultimately artificial, we can still get a clear sense of the way the psyche manifests in the world of our collective experience and ultimately how it relates to Seth’s inner laws of the universe.
The following is a simplification of Wilber’s holistic view of the psyche as related to what I’m calling the four primary aspects of Truth:
- objective / individual / It
- subjective / individual / I
- subjective / collective / We
- objective / collective / It
The first aspect of Truth deals with the concepts of objective, individual, empirical, “out there” reality. Its validity claim is propositional truth.
“Most people take truth to mean representational truth. Simple mapping or simple correspondence. I make a statement or a proposition that refers to or represents something in the concrete world. For example, I might say, ‘It is raining outside.’ Now we want to know if that is true or not. We want to know the validity or the ‘truth status’ of that statement. So basically, we go and look outside. And if it is indeed raining, we say that the statement ‘It is raining outside’ is a true statement.” (40)
The same is true for all scientific facts, the speed of light, atomic structure of hydrogen, and the boiling point of water can all be propositionally verified.
The second of Wilber’s four aspects of Truth deals with the concepts of subjective, individual, sincere, integral reality. Its validity claim is trustfulness.
“The question here is not, Is it raining outside? The question here is, When I tell you it is raining outside, am I telling you the truth or am I lying?
“And not just about objective truths, but especially about interior truths. I mean you can always check to see if it is raining. You can do that yourself. But the only way you can know my interior, my depth, is by asking me, by talking to me, as we have seen. And when I report on my inner status, I might be telling you the truth, but I might be lying. You have no other way to get at my interior except in talk and dialogue and interpretation, and I might fundamentally distort or conceal, or mislead – in short, I might lie.
“... This is not so much a matter of objective truth but of subjective truthfulness. Two very different criteria – truth and truthfulness.” (41)
The third aspect of Truth deals with the concepts of subjective, collective, mass reality, mutual understanding, cultural fit. Its validity claim is justness.
“The crucial point is that the subjective world is situated in an intersubjective space, a cultural space, and it is this intersubjective space that allows the subjective space to arise in the first place. Without this cultural background, my own individual thoughts would have no meaning at all. I wouldn’t even have the tools to interpret my own thoughts to myself. In fact, I wouldn’t even have developed thoughts, I would be ‘wolf boy.’
“In other words, the subjective space is inseparable from the intersubjective space, and this is one of the great discoveries of the post-modern or post-Enlightenment movements.
“So here ... the validity claim is not so much objective propositional truth, and not so much subjective truthfulness, but intersubjective fit. This cultural background provides the common context against which my own thoughts and interpretation will have some sort of meaning. And so the validity criteria here involves the ‘cultural fit’ [or justness] with this background.
“... The aim here is mutual understanding. Not that we necessarily agree with each other, but can we at least understand each other?
“... You and I can share our depth. When we point to truth, and we are situated in truthfulness, we can reach mutual understanding. This is a miracle. If Spirit exists, you can begin to look for it here.” (42)
The fourth aspect of Truth deals with the concepts of objective, collective, mass reality, social systems mesh, systems theory web. Its validity claim is functional fit. This is a very broad area.
“... the standard systems scientist, or standard systems theorist, is not primarily interested in any [subjective, cultural background], in any of the interior meaning. Rather, systems theory is interested in the function that the Dance [that represents any unique cultural event] performs in the overall social system. What the natives say this Dance means is not so important. What is really important is that the Dance is part of an objective social system, and this objective system in many ways determines what the individual participants are doing. The real function of the Dance is to provide autopoietic self-maintenance of the system. The Dance is thus part of the social system’s attempt to maintain its social integration, its functional fit. It provides a common ritual around which social cohesion is organized. And this can be determined by observing the Dance from an objective stance, an ‘empirical’ or positivistic stance – objective and monological. You can even make a monological flow chart of it, which, believe me, is not how the natives experience the Dance at all!” (43)
This fourth aspect – objective, collective – focuses solely upon:
“Objective systems within systems within systems – atoms are parts of cells, which are parts of organisms, which are parts of ecosystems, which are parts of the biosphere, and so on. In other words, functional fit.” (44)
When comparing the third and fourth collective aspects of Truth:
“They are both correct, in my opinion. One approaches the social/cultural holon [a theoretical holistic ‘unit’ of consciousness] from within, the other from without. One is how subjects fit together in cultural space—how you and I reach mutual understanding or intersubjectivity; the other is how objects fit together in physical space, in the total objective system, in interobjectivity. The one uses hermeneutics, or interpretation of inner depth; the other uses empirical-analytic observation, or objective analysis of observable behavior. ‘What does it mean?’ versus ‘What does it do?’
“... And ultimately, these four truths are simply the four faces of Spirit as it shines in the manifest world. The validity claims are the ways that we connect to Spirit itself, ways that we attune ourselves to the Kosmos.” (45)
The above is obviously a simplified and condensed presentation of Wilber’s evocative ideas, but the main point here is that the types of Truth we most often talk about are usually relative and not absolute. Wilber’s ideas show just how subtle the shades of gray can be when using intellectual dialectics to describe Universal Truth. Again, our intellects will only take us so far on this journey. At some point we will need to engage our deep intuitions and further understand the nature of personal reality, its physical and inner aspects and the Truths that pertain to each. And so we again return to a favorite topic of Seth, the nature of personal reality – the true context in which we are able to perceive absolute, Universal Truth as it pertains to us individually and collectively. We now have a suitable framework in which we can move on and examine what Seth has to say regarding his inner laws of the universe.
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About Seth’s Laws of the Inner Universe
Seth lays a foundation from the very beginning of the sessions in which to better understand the myriad, subtle relationships between physical reality and inner reality. This is no small task, since most of us are well acclimated to our familiar physical reality but unfamiliar with anything “outside” of our five-senses perception. Seth first introduces what he calls the laws of the inner universe in session 44, dated April 15, 1964. He opens this session with a discussion on the nature of dreams, physical reality as mental camouflage constructions, and nonphysical source aspects of the human psyche; light stuff for sure. He says that “the basic inner universe beneath all camouflage does not have an existence in space at all, as you envision it. Space as you envision it, that is as an emptiness to be filled, is a camouflage.” (46) He summarizes that “if the dream world exists, and it does, and if it does not exist in space, then in what, or where, does it have its existence, and what paths if any will lead us to it?” (47)
The notion of an inner source reality is a perennial concept repeatedly described in all of the world’s established metaphysical traditions. It is no accident that there are strong similarities between the mystical aspects of these traditions and many of Seth’s ideas. The main difference is that Seth’s ideas are offered in the contemporary clothing of our own cultural framework. So even though Seth uses different words and analogies, he is attempting to describe the same Universal Truths as these older traditions. And in like manner, Seth provides a set of tools in which anyone, raised in the scientific and religious value systems of the Western world, can explore physical reality and its inner, nonphysical source. But more on those tools in a while.
According to classical Newtonian physics our universe is perceived as a closed, finite, machine that can be broken down into parts like molecules and atoms. Quantum mechanics, a 20th century branch of physics, has essentially thrown out this model upon discovering a “hidden” nonphysical or nonlocal domain that is the source of all physical matter and energy. At the quantum level, physical reality behaves in bizarre and unpredictable ways. Thus our physical universe is no longer understood to be a closed system, but intersecting and exchanging energy with countless probable and alternate dimensions. And even though scientists still rely on physical senses and enhanced measuring devices that greatly extend their physical senses, they still are no closer to discovering the Source of our physical universe.
Though it’s still politically correct to believe that the Big Bang Theory accurately describes the genesis of our universe, postmodern science still refuses to address the Source behind the Big Bang leaving it to the realm of philosophers, theologians, and mystics. Still, where did that Primordial Source come from? And what are the implications if this Primordial Source is conscious and sentient? These are, what author Douglas Adams calls somewhat tongue-in-cheek, the big questions of God, life, the universe, and everything. And we must at least mention them if we are to consider what Seth offers as the laws of the inner universe, for they are likewise dependent upon how we comprehend Universal Truths through personal experience.
The notion of a physical world that’s strongly coupled to a non-material, inner reality is another perennial idea. Seth, years later, went on to introduce the concept of Frameworks of Consciousness to expand upon the relationships between physical reality and inner reality. (48) In a nutshell, Framework 1 represents the camouflage constructions Seth alluded to earlier; the everyday physical reality we take for granted. Framework 2, on the other hand, describes a region of consciousness that provides all of the “source energy” for Framework 1. So Framework 2 is a virtual, psychological medium, consisting of no-space and no-time, that is the nonphysical source of physical reality. Other terms used in session 44 – inner universe, value climate of psychological reality, fifth dimensional space, and the spacious present – are also attempts to describe the nonphysical nature of Framework 2 and “inward,” what Seth briefly mentions as Frameworks 3 and 4. (49) But for our purposes, we’ll concentrate upon the relationship between Frameworks 1 and 2; physical and inner reality.
It may seem a bit confusing, at first, to attempt to understand inner reality in terms of our physical senses and linear thought processes. What is the best way to best conceptualize nonphysical, nonlinear concepts? Initially, it may seem impossible to reconcile the apparent paradoxes of time and no-time, space and no-space. Yet the great sages, religious geniuses, and mystics have been telling us something similar, over and over, for thousands of years. If we use our deep intuition, or what Seth calls our inner senses, along with our intellect these concepts become much clearer. (50) This is one reason why Seth introduced the inner senses early on, beginning in session 14, regularly integrating them throughout his early discourses. He encouraged Jane Roberts and husband Rob Butts to regularly experiment with their inner senses, specifically psychological time, as these are the primary psychological tools for directly experiencing inner reality:
“I want to make one note here, that again experience in the use of [the inner sense of] psychological time will bring you close to an understanding of the value climate of psychological reality [Frameworks 1, 2, 3, 4 ...], for obvious reasons. Psychological time indeed is a part of this climate as it appears in fairly uncamouflaged form in your own universe. You can get the feel of it.” [session 44] (51)
And later...
“You will see also how the inner senses are equipped to perceive basic inner realities of the inner universe, in much the same manner that your outer senses are equipped to manipulate within your camouflage universe.
“This material is actually not nearly as difficult to understand as it may seem. Intuitively you should pick up much of it. The intuitions are not bound by the so-called laws of logic, and cause and effect. They do not take time as you know it into consideration, therefore they are not bound by continuity or limited to communication of words or even thoughts, strung out one after another.
“The intuitions are able to accept conceptual reality so some degree. They can feel the content and validity of a concept, where the brain itself may fall short.” [session 44] (52)
So we need to make an important distinction here, namely that when Seth talks about the inner senses he is talking about a type of subjective, psychic perception that is part of our genetic and spiritual heritage and has been experienced in every culture since the beginnings of the species.
I like to use the word hyperception to describe this type of inner perception. It’s derived from the word “hyperspace,” a word used in early science fiction to describe a fictional space containing more than three dimensions that allowed for extraordinary events, such as faster than light travel. More recently hyperspace has been used by quantum physicists to describe theoretical multidimensional space-time frameworks. Most of us are familiar, for example, with television’s Starship Enterprise engaging its fictional warp engines, entering hyperspace, and exiting in another quadrant of the galaxy many millions of light years from the entrance point. Hyperception is the logical extension of this same concept to the type of perception that results when consciously engaging the fuller use of our inner senses.
Perhaps the notion of a type of waking dream state is the closest analogy to describe hyperception. Just as we click on hyperlinks to jump at the speed of thought to any page on the World Wide Web, so too can we use hyperception to instantly travel anywhere within our own psyches. When using our inner senses we are not, however, talking about abandoning our intellect, skepticism, or losing our sense of identity. Far from it. Seth strongly encourages maintaining an equilibrium between our intuitions and intellect when learning to consciously engage our inner senses. In fact he strongly suggests that the human race is in the midst of a profound shift in consciousness in which we are just beginning to collectively learn the proper use of our inner senses in the waking state. In other words, our species is rapidly evolving toward what has previously been the purview of only adepts, sages, and mystics.
Returning to our laws of the inner universe, Seth says that:
“... the so-called laws of your camouflage universe do not apply to the inner universe [Frameworks 2, 3, 4 ...]. They do not even apply to other camouflage planes [other Framework 1’s]. However, the laws of the inner universe apply to all camouflage universes, and all consciousnesses on any plane must follow the basic laws of the inner universe. Some of these basic laws have counterparts known and accepted on various camouflage planes. There are various manifestations of these laws and various names given to them.” [session 44] (53)
So it’s important to realize that when trying to understand Seth’s laws, they are the foundational, underlying principles that are in essence Universal Truths that apply to inner and outer reality. So perhaps what we’ve been taught by our mainstream scientific and religious belief systems as Universal Truths or Laws are too narrow and really incomplete definitions. Again, the words that are used to describe Seth’s laws of the inner universe can never fully express these Truths. They are not offered in a philosophical dialectic or mathematical language. In other words, every time you begin to get lost in the inherently paradoxical nature of Seth’s semantical descriptions of these inner laws, that’s a sure sign that you’re rationalizing too much and not sensing and feeling the deeper meanings that lie underneath the words used to describe them.
To get a clearer sense of the subtle nature of these laws of the inner universe, let’s briefly explore two of Seth’s foundational concepts:
In a nutshell, Seth uses the term All-That-Is to represent our Primordial Source, or what we conventionally term God. Seth defines All-That-Is as an eternal action or process in which every aspect has some form of conscious awareness. In other words, God is not “out there” somewhere but literally “inside” and intimately woven into the fabric of all Its creations. On the other hand, CUs are the most basic, essential, nonphysical “unit” of the divine totality of All-That-Is. CUs are “awareized” conscious energy imbued with an innate intent to group together and form the various building blocks for matter, from sub-atomic particles all the way up to galaxies. By awareized, Seth doesn’t mean aware in human or anthropomorphic terms, he means aware in terms of the innate consciousness of All-That-Is. In this sense formations like atoms, oceans, or supernovas are acknowledged to be conscious and also imbued with an innate propensity for continued development.
Ultimately then, All-That-Is and CUs together form two primary qualities of an infinite spectrum of conscious awareness to which any definition of Universal Truths or Laws must apply. This spectrum can be understood as infinite Frameworks of Consciousness that begin with our familiar Framework 1 reality and enfold “inward” toward the divine totality of All-That-Is. So Framework 2 is really only the first nonphysical framework that directly affects, supports, and nurtures Framework 1. Again, Seth briefly hints at the existence of Frameworks 3 and 4, but leaves them be as, once again, we very quickly get into unfamiliar territory where most of our cultural definitions of Truth no longer directly apply to this Sethian context.
Our conventional definitions of Universal Truth are based solely upon the objectification of an absolute, externalized, cause and effect reality that is believed to be the same for each of us. In other words, it is believed that this absolute, consensus reality actually creates us. In this belief system it is not even possible that we could create our own realities! The most often used method for validating the factual evidence of propositional truths in Western belief systems is one of scientific verification using corroborative measurements on predictive models of physical behavior. For example, we believe that water boils at the temperature of one hundred degrees Celsius. This is accepted as a fact because we can measure and verify that condition at various atmospheric pressures in various locations around the planet. We are mistakenly taught to believe these qualities of our physical world are thus absolutes; Universal Laws. Gravity, the speed of light, and the electromagnetic spectrum are also considered fundamental Laws of our Universe that are verifiable through measurement. However, in Seth’s view, these appear to be absolutes only in terms of Framework 1 camouflage formations of matter and energy.
Once you expand your perception to include other Frameworks of Consciousness, the boiling point of water in Framework 1 is no longer “Universal.” There is no-water in no-space/no-time! What indeed appears as a Law in Framework 1 applies only to Framework 1. In other words, our conventional concepts of Universal Truths and Laws are only belief systems that suit us well here in Framework 1 terms but lose their absoluteness when perceived from a wider, multidimensional view.
Seth uses the concept of root assumptions (56) to describe what we conventionally consider to be Universal Laws like gravity, death, and taxes (that last one’s a joke :–). This to say that root assumptions are only relative to the Framework of Consciousness that they exist in, they are not absolutes. This is not to say that they aren’t important, for they provide the primary guidelines for all potential experiences within any Framework of Consciousness.
So the laws that Seth presents – laws of the inner universe – must apply to the innate qualities of All-That-Is as well as CUs. They must apply to the “largest” and the “smallest” aspects of our infinite spectrum of conscious awareness. If your brain is starting to hurt at this point, try to resist the natural inclination to say that this is all too technical and you’ll never understand it! Give it time, take little bites, slowly reread the information, and meditate on conceptualizing these ideas. Dream on these concepts. Be persistent! Since we each create our own realities, so too do we create our own understanding of Universal Truths, they do not exist “outside” of us, but are an intimate aspect of our personal realities. Given enough time and willful intent, the synergy of your intellect and intuitions will together reveal the deeper meanings of these laws to you.
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About Seth’s View of the Psyche and the Use of Inner Senses
Since our inner senses are the primary tools that help us to bridge our perception between physical and inner reality, a brief look at Seth’s “model” of the human psyche will help to outline the psychological mindscape in which the inner senses work. In a nutshell, Seth’s view of the psyche is multidimensional, saying that the psyche resides to some degree within each Framework of Consciousness. And again, only Framework 1 has physical attributes. Seth describes three primary qualities in which the psyche works together seamlessly in this multidimensional context:
- outer ego (waking self, outer senses)
- subconscious (dream self, outer/inner senses)
- inner ego (inner self, inner senses)
According to Seth, all three qualities are conscious aspects or “layers” of the psyche but each functions in a very different way. Obviously, the outer ego relies primarily upon the five senses and neurological processing within the brain and central nervous system. The subconscious is aware of a much greater array of body data, feelings, emotions, and peripheral physical and inner information, but these remain in the outer ego’s background, usually at weaker intensities from which the outer ego picks and chooses according to circumstances and intent. The subconscious actually extends much deeper than Western scientists presently believe, containing personal, racial, and collective regions. The subconscious is also involved in all of our so-called unconscious states such as sleep, dreams, and various altered or non-ordinary states. It thus serves as a gateway between the outer and inner egos.
The inner ego exists in what the Science of Psychology still considers to be the unconscious. And this is a very broad mindscape that, according to psychologist Carl Jung, is merged with the deep, collective unconscious of the entire species. Seth, however, consistently refutes that any part of the psyche is unconscious. He says repeatedly that All-That-Is consists of infinite spectrums of awareness and orders of intensity that, relative to themselves, are all quite conscious. So if a tree falls in the woods, does it really make a sound? Well, according to Seth’s definition of the psyche it does. Even though your outer ego isn’t present to make an observation or take a measurement, your inner ego is literally omnipresent and holds the ability to access every aspect of All-That-Is including the tree falling and the sounds it makes. And to be clear, omnipresence does not mean omniscience, these are two different qualities of consciousness. The former means holding the ability to access and be anywhere within All-That-Is. The latter means to fully understand and know the reasons why for everything.
Perhaps another way to conceptualize the omnipresence of the inner ego is to imagine it residing in Frameworks 2, 3, 4, and so on, in the same nonlocal state described by the quantum physicists. So it is literally no-when and no-where in those terms, and thus has instant access to any-when and any-where in multiple, simultaneous Framework 1’s. Apparently, this type of perception is only as difficult as we truly believe it to be, since it’s part of our genetic heritage and available to one and all. But that is a loaded statement, as hang-gliding, playing professional sports and violin concertos are also available choices of experience.
Hopefully you’re beginning to get the idea that you’re a part of something that’s much bigger than you previously believed. And once we make the conceptual leap that the so-called unconscious or inner ego is really a fully conscious entity, then all divisions of the psyche into ego, subconscious, and unconscious ultimately blur. The point is that these qualities of the psyche are not discrete parts of some machine, but more like holistically integrated aspects of a comprehensive source self that simultaneously exists inside and “outside” of space and time.
This is a big concept to understand if you’re used to thinking of yourself as a single separated ego-self, isolated from everyone and everything else. So one way to make this simpler is to use the analogy of the transpersonal psyche as an iceberg. The tip of this iceberg represents you, the outer ego-self. The air around you represents the time framework that you live in. This tip lives in a realm where time seems to flow from past to future in fairly predictable fashion. Stability, predictability; these are good things!
The water line in our analogy acts as a subconscious boundary between the tip and submerged aspect of our iceberg; the realm of the inner ego. The subconscious is like the two-way traffic cop that mediates the feedback loop between the outer and inner egos, using the inner senses to translate between Framework 1 and Framework 2 orders of perception. But the subconscious is also fluent in the use of the physical senses, aware of a much greater array of sensory information than the outer ego that relates directly to the complex biology of our body consciousness in any given moment point.
As we turn our attention to the size and nature of the submerged portion – the inner ego – we begin to sense its true multidimensional nature; the inner ego is so vast that it literally fuels entire galaxies and solar systems, revealing the infinite nature of our own source energy! And we can’t consciously perceive the submerged source in its entirety because full cognition of the inner ego would overwhelm our brains and nervous systems. However, we can perceive the invisible affects of our inner ego through the affects of dreams, inspiration, intuition, and other meditative states engaging our inner senses.
Seth also uses what he terms “entity names” to describe our inner ego. As you read the Seth books you’ll notice that he refers to Jane as “Ruburt” and Rob as “Joseph.” This practice often strikes a new reader as unusual and it is always footnoted and explained at the beginning of every book. Seth’s intent in using entity names is to get us to recognize how conscious and aware our inner egos really are, even though they seem mysterious and, for the most part, silent to us. According to Sue Watkins, the former ESP class member, family friend, and author of Conversations with Seth, entity names:
“... are supposed to express a person’s whole self, or ‘the image of the sum of your various personalities in the past and future,’ as Seth explains in The Seth Material. ‘The names are a sound that you make – that your mind makes, when it meets with the universe, as the leaves each have a sound that they make as they move against the sky,’ Seth added in an informal class gathering in 1979. ‘So, your mind sounds. And that sound has a certain identification. It is the sound of the movement of the leaves of your mind.’ ” (57)
So the key points to keep in mind as we forge ahead are that we’re dealing with an open model of the human psyche that is multidimensional and not limited to a single lifetime – a psychological source self, conventionally known as the soul, that exists in more dimensions than those perceived by the five physical senses and also survives physical death. Since no discussion of Seth’s view of the psyche would be complete without mentioning the perennial concept of reincarnation, we’ll briefly mention that, according to Seth, all lives occur simultaneously in multiple Framework 1’s supported by the merged inner Frameworks 2, 3, 4. However, there is nothing like the religious belief system of karma, the so-called law of moral cause and effect, at work here. (58) For now, we can leave reincarnation be as we’re concentrating on our individual selves and our ability to comprehend Universal Truth and Seth’s laws of the inner universe.
Back to our inner egos. According to Seth the inner ego is the primary psychological aspect that directly manipulates nonphysical “source energy” through the relatively unrestricted use of the inner senses, constantly creating anything and everything in physical reality. The inner ego, being safely ensconced in inner reality, is fully conscious and aware but in a nonphysical manner that initially appears quite alien in terms of our physical senses and outer ego. From the outer ego’s perspective the inner ego at first seems quite mysterious, literally the stuff of dreams:
“Now: the inner ego is the organizer of experience that Jung would call unconscious. The inner ego is another term for what we call the inner self. As the outer ego manipulates within the physical environment, so the inner ego or self organizes and manipulates with an inner reality. The inner ego creates that physical reality with which the outer ego then deals.
“All the richly creative original work that is done by this inner self is not unconscious. It is purposeful, highly discriminating, performed by the inner conscious ego of which the exterior ego is but a shadow – and not, you see, the other way around. Jung’s dark side of the self is the ego, not the unconscious. It is the product of an inner consciousness with far more sense of identity and purpose than the daily ego. It is the daily ego’s ignorance and limited focus that makes it view so-called unconscious activity as chaotic.
“The conscious ego rises, indeed, out of the ‘unconscious,’ but the unconscious, being the creator of the ego, is necessarily far more conscious than its offspring. The ego is simply not conscious enough to be able to contain the vast knowledge that belongs to the inner conscious self from which it springs.
“It is this inner self, out of massive knowledge and unlimited scope of its consciousness, that forms the physical world and provides stimuli to keep the outer ego constantly at the job of awareness.” [session 509] (59)
So one of the main processes of personal growth, at this present state of human development in purely physical terms, is learning to unblock the outer ego’s limited “five senses only” perception by creating a bridge between the inner and outer egos with our inner senses. And learning to use your inner senses to conceptualize Seth’s laws of the inner universe will provide the foundation from which to know your inner ego better, since these are the laws that govern the Frameworks of Consciousness in which your inner ego constantly operates.
“The basic rules of the universe as I have said appear differently on different planes [Frameworks]. The camouflage [of Framework 1] is necessary at this stage of development, intricate, complicated, various and beyond understanding of the outer senses which are the perceptors of camouflage itself, peculiarly adapted to see under particular circumstances. You cannot use camouflage to see through camouflage. There are basic rules in the universe. The inner senses use the rules consistently and well.
“It is only the inner senses which will give you any evidence at all of the basic nature of life itself. Since very often the vitality or stuff of the universe [consciousness units] seems as innocuous as air might seem to you, then look for what you do not see. Explore places that appear empty, for they are full. Look between events. What you see clearly with your outer senses is camouflage. I am not suggesting that you take everything on faith, nothing of the sort. I am saying that what seems vacant lacks camouflage, and therefore if this is explored it will yield evidence. I hope that I have not carried you too far too fast.
“Effects would seem to be evidence, and therefore when you probe into seemingly empty spaces you will receive effects which will be evidence. In concrete terms, if a tree branch blows you can take it for granted that something moves the branch. You know wind by its effects. No one has seen wind but since at times its effects are so observable it would be idiocy to say that wind did not exist. Therefore you will come up against the basic stuff of the universe and feel its effects, though your outer senses will not necessarily perceive it.
“Granted, your camouflage is in itself an effect. If you look at the observable physical world in this life, you can, it is true, learn something about the basic rules of the universe, if you take into consideration camouflage distortion. There is so much to be said here, and you have so much to learn that sometimes I have to admit that I’m appalled.” [session 19] (60)
As stated earlier, the laws of the inner universe can never be fully expressed in philosophical dialectics or mathematical equations, but they can be hinted at and, of course, be directly experienced through deep intuition. There are many perennial teaching traditions, some thousands of years old, that have faced this same challenge, that of introducing the concept of Universal Truth in terms of spoken and written words to novices. The solution is to intuitionally experience the difference between theory and practice. The following advice from a highly accomplished Tibetan teacher of Dzogchen Buddhism, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, directly applies here:
“By ‘applying in practice,’ we mean turning what has been conceptually understood – what has been received, pondered, and made meaningful – into direct experience. This process is analogous to tasting salt. Salt can be talked about, its chemical nature understood, and so on, but the direct experience is had when it is tasted. That experience cannot be grasped intellectually and cannot be conveyed in words. If we try to explain it to someone who has never tasted salt, they will not be able to understand what it is that we have experienced. But when we talk of it to someone who has already had the experience, then we both know what is being referred to. It is the same with the teachings. This is how to study them: hear or read them, think about them, conclude the meaning, and find the meaning in direct experience.” (61)
The direct experience that Tenzin Wangyal refers to comes through a variety of meditative and psychic practices perfected over thousands of years that also include dream and sleep yoga. I mention this to say, again, that most of what we experience with our five senses is a limited, not absolute, method of perception that has been deeply entrenched into our consensus, mass reality by the vast majority of people over many, many millennia. There are other modes of perception waiting to be experienced that are neurologically available, including Seth’s psychological time, that open the gateway to the inner ego and inner reality. So to answer some of our earlier questions concerning the nature of personal reality and how we can ever really know Universal Truth: in the context of Ken Wilber’s individual and collective, subjective and objective aspects of Truth and Seth’s multidimensional psyche, perhaps the simplest conclusion to make is that only when we, an outer ego, become consciously aware of our inner ego through the conscious use of inner senses, will we unequivocally comprehend Universal Truth. And that is another loaded statement!
When Seth says to always trust the evidence of your senses, he means physical and inner senses. In other words, trust the evidence of your own experience. And this doesn’t mean to forsake a healthy skepticism and embrace superstitious nonsense. The point is to use your common sense, be consistent and persistent in your personal search for meaning and Universal Truths. And just as learning to walk, swim, or play a Beethoven piano concerto takes time, so does learning to consciously use your inner senses. Just as you are a different person now than when you were nine years old, so too will you be different in the future. Why not dedicate some time, now, to learn more about yourself and your psychic abilities?
Perhaps, at this point, it’s best left to Seth to introduce and explain the laws of the inner universe in his own words, leaving the rest up to you to digest at your own pace. But first, some preparatory thoughts from this self-described teacher:
“You are in physical existence to learn and understand that your energy, translated into feelings, thoughts and emotions, causes all experience. There are no exceptions.
“Once you understand this you have only to learn to examine the nature of your beliefs, for these will automatically cause you to feel and think in certain fashions. Your emotions follow your beliefs. It is not the other way around.
“I would like you to recognize your own beliefs in several areas. You must realize that any idea you accept as truth is a belief that you hold. You must, then, take the next step and say, ‘It is not necessarily true, even though I believe it.’ You will, I hope, learn to disregard all beliefs that imply basic limitations.” (62)
“As mentioned, the first important step is to realize that your beliefs about reality are just that—beliefs about reality. You must make a clear distinction between you and your beliefs. You must then realize that your beliefs are physically materialized. What you believe to be true in your experience is true.” (63)
“There is a great fallacy operating. People believe that there is one great truth, that it will appear and they will know it. Now a flower is a truth. So is a lamp bulb. So is an idiot and a genius, a glass and an ant. There is little exterior similarity, however.
“Truth is all of these seemingly distinct, separate, different realities. So [Jane] is a part of the truth [s]he perceives, and each of you are a part of the truths that you perceive.
“‘Truth,’ reflected through [Jane] becomes in a way new truth, for it its perceived uniquely, (as it would be for each individual who perceived it). It is not less truth or more truth in those terms. It becomes new truth.
“Such ‘new truths’ can still be very ancient indeed, but truth is not a thing that must always have the same appearance, shape, form or dimension. Those who persist, therefore, in shielding their truths from questions threaten to destroy the validity of their knowledge.
“Again, those who are so certain of their answers will lack that need to know that can lead them into still greater dimensions of understanding. Any valid expansion of consciousness is itself, of course, a part of the message. The personality finds itself encountering living truth, and knows that truth only exists in those terms.
“I have used the term ‘expansion of consciousness’ here rather than the more frequently used ‘cosmic consciousness’ because the latter implies an experience of proportions not available to [hu]mankind at this time. Intense expansions of consciousness by contrast to your normal state may appear to be cosmic in nature, but they barely hint at those possibilities of consciousness that are available to you now, much less begin to approach a true cosmic awareness.”
Later...
“The integrity of any intuitive information depends upon the inner integrity of the person who receives it. Expansion of consciousness, therefore, requires honest self appraisal, an awareness of one’s own belief and prejudices. It brings a gift and a responsibility. All who wish to look within themselves, to find their own answers, to encounter their own ‘appointment with the universe,’ should therefore become well acquainted with the intimate working of their own personality.” (64)
“Beneath [the subconscious], pure and simple, undistorted, there for the searching, absolutely free for the asking, is the knowledge inherent in the inner self pertaining to the inner universe as a whole, its laws and principles, its composition. Here you will find, undistorted, uncamouflaged, the innate knowledge of the creation of the camouflage universe, the mechanics involved, much of the material that I have given you, the method and ways by which the inner self as a basic inhabitant of the inner universe, existing in the climate of psychological reality [Frameworks 1, 2, 3, 4, ...], helps create the various planes of existence, constructs outer senses to project and perceive the various apparent realities or camouflages, how the inner self reincarnates on the various planes. Here you will find your answers as to how the inner self transforms energy for [its] own purposes, changes [its] form, adopts other apparent realities, and all this free for the investigation.” [session 45] (65)
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Summary: Introduction & Overview
- Framework 1 represents our everyday physical reality. Framework 2 represents the nonphysical inner reality that is the source of Framework 1.
- The laws of the inner universe, by definition, must apply to every aspect of All-That-Is; within the smallest “unit” within every Framework of Consciousness.
- Our conventional definitions of Universal Truth are incomplete and inadequate in the context of the previous definition.
- The three primary aspects of the human psyche – the outer ego, subconscious, and inner ego – work in concert, using a spectrum of outer and inner senses to create our own versions of Frameworks 1, 2, 3, 4, ...
- Learning to consciously use the inner senses is the only way in which to fully conceptualize and comprehend the laws of the inner universe.
And now onward and “inward” to Seth’s laws of the inner universe ...
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Seth’s Laws of the Inner Universe
Value Fulfillment (66)
“If growth is one of the most necessary laws of your camouflage universe, value fulfillment corresponds to it in the inner reality universe.
Later ...
“These basic laws are followed on many levels in your own universe. We will go into these laws in time. So far I have given you but one, which is value fulfillment.
“In your physical universe this rule is followed as physical growth. The entity [inner ego] follows this rule through the cycle of reincarnations. The species of [hu]mankind, and all other species in your universe on your particular horizontal plane, follow this law under the auspices of evolution. On other planes this law is carried through in other manners, but it is never ignored.” [session 44, p. 14]
“... consider a seed, a grass seed.
“You say that grass grows from a seed, but the grass is not the seed. The material of the grass is not the material of the seed. From experience you know that the seed will often precede grass.
“As usual, this is putting things backwards. The grass contains no particle of matter that is identical in the seed.
“Here you see clearly the difference between value fulfillment and what you call growth. In your physical field value fulfillment consists of the development of the ability of the immaterial to express itself within the physical field.
“Growth is an erroneous conception that begins with the distortive idea of continuous physical matter, durable in time. And as you know, instead matter is the simultaneous expression of consciousness. Matter has little, really no, durability in itself, and is merely the instantaneous form taken by consciousness as it projects itself in the physical field.
“Grass is common. It is supposed to grow from seed, yet again no particle of matter is the same in grass or seed. Seed does not grow into grass. Acorns do not grow into trees. Children do not grow into adults.
“In all instances, no particle of matter is the same in the so-called grown version, and the initial construction. Matter does not grow. I cannot make this too plain.” [session 71, p. 242]
“You are playing with the very outmost skin of a reality whose true thickness and depth is presently beyond your comprehension. I am using the terms depth and thickness to aid you. They are meant for their intuitional value, and not to be necessarily taken literally.
“Nor is this material itself in any way meant to suggest that the attempt for knowledge is futile. By no means. Only that your own conception must first enlarge and not be imprisoned by the limitations.
“Value fulfillment represents an extension of the inner self in its journey into this reality. The reality can be manipulated only after its existence is known.” [session 72, p. 253]
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Energy Transformation
“The second law of the inner universe is energy transformation. This occurs constantly.
“Energy transformation and value fulfillment, all existing within the spacious present, add up to a durability that is at the same time spontaneous. Energy transformation and value fulfillment add up to a durability that is simultaneous.” [session 44, p. 14]
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Spontaneity
“Our third law is spontaneity, and despite all appearances of beginning and end, despite all appearance of death and decay, all consciousness exists in the spacious present, in a spontaneous manner, in simultaneous harmony, and yet within the spacious present there is durability.” [session 44, p. 14]
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Durability
“Durability is our fourth law. Durability within the framework of the spacious present would not exist were it not for the laws of value fulfillment and energy transformation. These make duration within the spacious present not only possible but necessary.
“Now, on your particular camouflage universe you are learning energy transformation. And in your case you are learning to transform inner energy by forming it into physical constructions that the plane enables you to manipulate by the formation of particular outer senses for this purpose. You are severely limited as yet in the use of your abilities. When the two laws of value fulfillment and energy transformation are mastered, then duration is a natural consequence.” [session 44, p. 14-15]
“Now returning briefly, I would like again to mention our spacious present, in which all things have their existence. When the spacious present is understood, with its attributes of spontaneity, then the cause and effect theory will fall. The cause and effect theory being the result of continuity holds no water. Basically, the spacious present as you know does have durability because of the existence of value fulfillment.
“It does not have continuity, in the manner in which the term continuity is usually used. Continuity usually implies one thing happening before or after another. The spacious present contains instead spontaneity, and within it all happenings are simultaneous, and yet there is durability.
“The durability is achieved because of constant expansion in terms of value fulfillment. Your camouflage physical universe does, necessarily, lead you to suppose that time exists in terms of past, present and future, simply because the idea or energy constructed into physical reality therefore operates under physical properties.” [session 51, p. 79]
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Creation
“I am not giving you these laws necessarily in the order of their importance, merely in the order which is easiest for me to deliver to you. Creation is obviously one of the basic laws, which we will call the fifth law.” [session 44, p. 15]
“The fifth law of the inner universe is creation, as I have told you. Again, this is not necessarily the fifth law in terms of importance. I am simply giving you the laws in the simplest way.
“This creation involves not merely the juggling of energy units and fields, from one form to another, but also involves the setting up of new fields. This is oftentimes the result of value fulfillment, in which case all the given possibilities are bound to emerge, but each emergence is in the truest sense a creation.
“Creation occurs, again, most often through value fulfillment, which exists in a dimension having nothing to do with your space and time; and in the deepest sense creation as a whole, originally, if you’ll excuse the term, had nothing to do with either your space or your time, and the birth of your known outer universe came long after in the story of creation and value fulfillment.
“When your scientists finally decipher the physical realities behind the birth of your known universe, they will only discover that this was an exterior manifestation of a vital psychic reality that existed long before. Creation almost always exists hand in hand with value fulfillment, and by the time that any physical construction appears within your plane, it has already been in existence. An idea on your plane gives birth to physical constructions, but the idea itself is merely a translation of another reality, which gave birth to it.
“Value fulfillment is very much like creation, and yet there is a difference, and creation exists first, if we must speak in terms of continuity, and for you we must. There is much here that almost can be given to you only through conceptual patterns, and again this difficulty arises in words strung out one before the other.” [session 50, p. 67]
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Consciousness
“Our next law, of the inner universe, is of course consciousness. Everything that exists on any plane and under any circumstances contains consciousness, condensed knowledge, and even self-awareness to some degree. There is no case where this is not so.” [session 50, p. 71]
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Capacity For Infinite Mobility
“Or next law of the inner universe is the capacity for infinite mobility, this occurring within the spacious present, which is an infinite spacious present.” [session 50, p. 71]
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Changeability & Transmutation
“Our next law is the law of infinite changeability and transmutation. That is, any given portion of energy has within it the capacity to take on any pattern or to form an infinite number of energy fields, each one giving forth a truly infinite variety of results.
“As you know, the cells or atoms in an arm could just as well form an ear, as far as innate ability is concerned. This is a very simple example.
“While it might sound impossible to you, this generalized molecular consciousness, which you would call subconscious, contains within it, in condensed genetic fashion, all knowledge of the inner workings of the universe, this knowledge being acted upon and instantly accessible when it is needed.
“When you realize that you are much more than the egotistical ‘I am,’ and that your true personality contains a much larger and really more powerful inner ego, then this relative inavailability of inner comprehension to the outer ego will not annoy you.
“Now, you will see that the inner ego of which we have spoken many times is the projector of energy upon your plane. The inner ego, representing the basic personality, through [the inner sense of] diffusion makes a materialization of itself and enters your plane.” [session 50, p. 71]
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Cooperation
“Cooperation is always a vibrant and necessary law, and you may add cooperation to our list of laws governing the inner universe.
“Now, this constant creation of the universe is not maintained through some localized subconscious that exists somewhere between two ears, behind the forehead. The individual subconscious, as I have explained, is the result of a psychic pooling of resources and abilities. It is a gestalt, maintained and formed by the cooperating, generalized consciousness of each atom and molecule of which the physical body is composed.
“Each individual atom within its generalized consciousness has the capacity, in some degree, to construct its portion of energy into physical construction. It is extremely important that you understand this fact, and realize that the individual cells, for example, lose no individuality in the process, and gain immeasurably, the whole physical structure of the body being the result of this cooperation of cells which are themselves the result of cooperation of atoms and molecules.
“The resulting pattern or physical body makes it possible for the cells, atoms and molecules to express themselves, and to fulfill abilities that would be impossible for them in another context. They share to some degree in the perspective reached through the abilities of a physically-large body structure, in a way that would be denied to them in other fashions.
“From their cooperation they achieve a value fulfillment along certain lines. I mentioned the capacity for infinite mobility and transmutation as being one of the laws of the inner universe. The reflection of this law is seen in the latent ability for almost infinite varieties of structures, and endless combinations that can be achieved by the atoms and molecules, and smaller particles of your universe.
“You remember that value fulfillment is also one of our laws of the inner universe, and in this particular instance, the atoms and molecules have the opportunity for value fulfillment along many lines, according to the form that their cooperation and combination may take.
“I am explaining this matter rather thoroughly because we will be getting to matters concerning the entity [inner ego] and its personality developments. The entity, for example, works with the same sort of individual cooperation, and uses building blocks of energy in much the same manner, that the atoms and molecules in the physical world combine to form cells, organs, and the whole structure of the physical body.
“As the various cells maintain their individuality, as they gain in terms of value fulfillment by cooperation and still retain their uniqueness, so also do the various personalities retain their individuality and uniqueness while still cooperating to form the psychic structure of the entity, which in one context also forms them; and with this little problem I will let you take your break. There are more ways to see what is inside an egg than cracking, it, as you will discover.” [session 50, p. 76-77]
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Quality Depth
“You have seen that the ego is a building block. It never becomes less than a unit, and may become more.
“The fragments that may develop from it do not make it less. At one time I mentioned massive units or blocks of intelligent energy, pyramids of psychic comprehensions, of which I cannot tell you too much at this time; but perhaps you can begin to perceive now how such comprehensions could be formed.
“Perhaps you can begin to sense the value fulfillment of such intelligent energy structures. You know very well that time as you know it has no meaning except within the domain of your own plane [Framework 1]. I have hinted in the past that I was touched by something that could be loosely related to, or substituted for, what you think of as time. It has nothing to do with intervals, or with beginnings or with endings.
“It has to do with not physical growth, of course, but with psychic fulfillment, which is as you know value fulfillment. We will call this quality-depth, and yet it has nothing to do with space. This is a quality existing with assurance of expansion, in terms of value fulfillment.
“Quality-depth, is therefore a sort of perspective having to do with value fulfillment. I can perhaps give you an analogy. Quality-depth is the sort of perspective, the only perspective, in which an idea can expand. It could be said to take the place of both your space and time, though this is somewhat simplifying matters.
“It is the perspective in which psychic motion occurs. In hypnosis for example a trance is said to be light or deep. This corresponds somewhat to the kind of depth that is involved here. Unfortunately, when you think of depth you think in terms of a movement at once inward and outward.
“Here we will most probably run into some difficulty, but I will try to explain what I mean, and will clear up any questions later. As the self has an inner and an outer ego, so also does the inside finally become the outside. Theoretically for example, if followed through, a deep trance leading to a deeper inside so to speak, would bring you ultimately to another outside. The outer ego for example would meet the inner ego, and vice versa.
“This is an instance of true traveling, or psychic motion. Now this quality that could be said to be a substitute for your space and time, this quality-depth, represents the perspective in which this sort of psychic traveling or psychic motion, or any psychic action, occurs; and its depth can be understood not in terms of downward action, but perhaps you can comprehend it if you think of a deep trance, for example, as definitely having motion, though the body may be motionless.
“But in trance depth, as in quality-depth, the motion has a direction that cannot be thought of in terms of up or down, north or south, east or west. The motion is action through quality or value dimension. I have been meaning to speak about this. It could easily be called the inner extension of your [inner sense of] psychological time, so you will see its importance.
“Psychological time indeed involves you in the initial venturing. It is like an outer rim. This quality-depth is our only true perspective. Again, no intervals are involved. I find difficulty in choosing words evocative for my meaning.
“Quality-depth is therefore the perspective in which all psychic actions occur, all ideas and universes expand. This expansion occurs in infinite dimensions, as perhaps it could be said that an apple develops about its core; and that perhaps is not a good analogy.
“You see, your idea of geometry, the circle, triangles and squares, are so based upon your own plane that the apple analogy containing the circle idea will be inadequate, since not enough dimensions are implied. The massive pyramids of comprehension have experienced such magnificent quality-depth that they represent, to the best of my knowledge, the highest or most perfect psychic entity formation.
“And yet they are not complete in terms of an entire possession of comprehension. They are not because, that is they are not entire or complete or perfect, in terms of quality-depth, because as far as I know such a perfection is impossible. A sublime discontent will drive them to form ever-new patterns of existence, new perspectives of quality-depth, in which to move and explore.
“I do not wish to become so involved that you literally screech at me for explanations. Nevertheless, once you asked me about the weather where I am, and I put you off. This is, I admit, a play on words. Nevertheless, I have spoken of the value climate of psychological reality.
“Now if you wish, quality-depth operates within the value climate of psychological reality, and gives truly amazing dimension to the spacious present, which is contained within the value climate of psychological reality.
“You may if you wish consider the quality-depth principle as blowing like a wind through the spacious present, it indeed being like a wind in that it is known by its effects; and if you must think of it visually it would, perhaps, have a funnel shape. All of these concepts are most difficult to translate into word patterns.” [session 59, p. 133-135]
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Seth’s laws of the inner universe are offered not as a moral code in which to govern human ethics, but as a foundation for understanding the nature of what we really are in relationship to the immaculate precision with which it all works together. In other words, the laws of the inner universe are nothing like the biblical ten commandments which are, in the context of our earlier definition of Universal Truth, religious belief systems perpetrated as Universal Truths that are in fact pertinent only to Framework 1.
Originally intended for an agrarian culture indigenous to the Mediterranean region over four thousand years ago, the ten commandments are part of the rich heritage in which human beings create their own value systems in the context of what Ken Wilber calls a cultural fit or sense of justness within the local culture. Within that context they are very important foundational belief systems but not Universal Truths. And this may seem a controversial or even blasphemous statement. Yet just as the Western consensus reality of the fifteenth century believed that the Earth was the center of the universe, it was controversial and blasphemous to state that the Earth actually revolved around the Sun, as Copernicus and Galileo did. Paradigm shifts gradually happen throughout history as consensus belief systems change. In the West, science and religion have always maintained an uneasy coexistence, but they are really two paths to the same thing – a deeper understanding of the purpose and meaning of the human experience.
Regarding Seth’s laws of the inner universe, there is no judgement of good or bad, better or worse being offered, just a subtle set of exceedingly complex interrelationships in the context of the multidimensional psyche, inner senses, and Frameworks of Consciousness. I don’t believe, and this is most important, that these laws of the inner universe are complete. This to say that these laws are not offered as absolutes in terms of “the word” in which they are presented, but only as foundational orienting generalizations that we each must ultimately surpass and leave behind at some point through the lens of our own objective and subjective experiences.
Just as no one else can create our reality for us, likewise no one else can create a comprehension of Universal Truth for us. Thus in the end we each create Truth for ourselves. And our personal search comes with its own responsibility. At best, Seth’s words provide a means in which we can directly experience Truth. At worst, Seth’s words provide yet another opportunity for us to translate Truths into unrecognizable and useless distortions.
To learn more about these laws it is strongly recommended that you obtain and read the Early Sessions books from the very beginning in order to understand the broader context in which this material was originally offered. Again, it’s so easy to take Seth’s words out of context and distort their meaning. Many of these concepts were fleshed out in the books Seth dictated later. For example, Seth dictated an entire book around the law of value fulfillment and related topics called Dreams, “Evolution,” and Value Fulfillment. So there is plenty of additional material available to shed more light on the deeper foundations of these inner laws.
It should also be noted here that Jane Roberts chose not to include any detailed information regarding these laws in her first full book in which she interpreted Seth’s ideas entitled The Seth Material, originally published in 1970. Perhaps it was all too new, too “way out” to attempt to tackle the relationships between these very subtle laws. It’s well documented how uneasy Jane was, at times, with the Seth phenomenon as it unfolded over a period of close to twenty-one years. She was occasionally afraid of leading people down a blind alley, particularly after witnessing how many readers often distorted Seth ideas into unrecognizable nonsense in the later years. So it’s reasonable to conclude that Jane, and perhaps even her publishers, thought it better to attend to the more easily digestible aspects of the material, leaving the potentially controversial nature of Universal Truth, as represented by these laws, alone during this early stage of the game when How to Develop Your ESP Power and The Seth Material were first published.
Still, understanding and experiencing the nature of Universal Truth has been the pursuit of scientists, philosophers, and mystics throughout the ages. So it’s no coincidence that we in the West have been presented with this perennial teaching of great depth, subtlety, and richness – the Seth Material in over thirty published books (67) – that addresses perennial concepts in the clothing of late twentieth century American cultural values. And it’s a teaching so new that it still hasn’t found its way into mainstream thinking in any big way yet.
Lest we get carried away by the idea that we now have found The Grail or The Truth or The Way there is one important concept to consider. The Sufis, mystics most often associated with Islam, proffer a notion that says any perennial teaching has a limited shelf life in terms of its utility and potency called baraka. Every teaching is really a translation of Universal Truth into physical and psychological constructs. Since these translations are tailored to fit the beliefs, needs, and times of the locals, as they change so too does the teaching, at least in terms of its physical expression in words, equations, dialectics, or ethics. Eventually new ideas spring forth from the collective psyche that update and modify the older teachings that are losing their utility and potency. In other words perennial teachings, by their very nature of being a translation, are constantly created, updated, and reinterpreted by their adherents during any period of history. In fact, they never exist in an absolutely finished state in physical terms because they presuppose a non-physical source reality – Framework 2 – from which they constantly emerge.
So the Seth Material is just the latest offering from the rich heritage of our collective inner selves. It too will eventually be distorted and calcified in time, to be replaced and updated by another, newer expression geared toward the beliefs, needs, and times of future locals. Just by labeling the Seth Material as a perennial teaching begins to encase it in constraints that will help nudge it onto its inevitable calcification and uselessness in a probable future. And this isn’t “bad” either! This is the natural, inexorable process of human history reflecting the needs of the mass psyche as it grows and changes through time.
“... the expression ‘a system of teaching’ has no meaning; for Truth (in the sense of Reality) cannot be cut up into pieces and arranged into a system. The words can only be used as a figure of speech.” Diamond Sutra (68)
In the mean time the Seth Material still has plenty of baraka, being less than forty years old. It, like any perennial expression, belongs to all of the people on this blue planet, to be accepted or rejected as its utility warrants. It is not Universal Truth in itself. The information only provides a framework and a set of tools in which to understand the nature of Universal Truth through the filter of personal reality; seeking, knowing, and being. The rest is up to each one of us. While Universal Truths remain absolute, the ways in which we interpret and translate them into physical terms will always be colored by the ever-changing tapestries of our cultural frameworks and belief systems. So take all of the above with a grain of salt and perhaps you too will get a richer taste of who and what you really are in the context of Seth’s laws of the inner universe. But try not to eat too much too quickly, as Pepto-for-the-soul is not yet available in this present time framework. Rumor has it that development is well under way though, but since the American pharmaceutical companies are marshalling the process, it’s bound to be very, very expensive :-).
Finally, it seems appropriate to give Seth and Jane the final word. The following is from an ESP class dated July 30, 1974:
“There have been great poems written about the great search of the soul for God, and how the soul runs and flees from God, but many people run far faster from an encounter with their own soul than they would from any God. God is, after all, supposed to be outside – some spiritual being that you can blame or praise.
“I challenge you to encounter yourself playfully and joyfully; to look at your beliefs as objectively as you would a flower, or a rose, or a skunk, or a chunk of coal. Simply be aware of the content of your own conscious mind. Learn to use your intellect and your intuitions together, and you will discover that there is no competition. You do not need to fear that you will be devoured by your emotions. You do not need to fear that your intellect will lead you astray. You do not need to fear anything.
“Your emotions and your intellect go together. Only your system of beliefs makes it seem that there is a difference – that one contradicts the other. There is no contradiction. You feel as you feel because you believe in a certain fashion. Your feelings follow your conscious beliefs, no matter what you have been told. You are not, therefore, at the mercy of any unconscious feelings from this life or any other.
“The freedom has always been yours. And each of you are here because you know it. And even when you playfully taunt me, or ask me for answers to questions – then you are testing me and testing yourself. You have been given pat answers and accepted those answers for too long! Therefore, have I always challenged you toward new questions and your own answers. And also has [Jane] always stayed away from any such arena in which [s]he was, therefore, accepted as an authority as far as others were concerned. You are your own authorities. You are your own authorities!
“No matter how tempted you are to look to others, you are your own authority. And the answers literally – literally – come from within yourself, and I mean now through your own private experience that cannot be given to you by another – they must be experienced. I can only lead you toward a recognition of those truths and help open your own inner doorways and help you use your own minds and intellect, until in one miraculous moment, your intellect and your intuitions click together and work like magic, and then you will know what I have been saying all this time, and the words will open and so will you each open.
“... Whatever you do, wherever you go, or whatever you think, no one can go where you go, or think what you think, in the same way. In certain terms, the truth is not the same for each of you. Is it true that the sunlight falls on one certain corner of the yard, and then false to say that it falls in another corner of the yard? But when you insist that truth is one thing and must be said or experienced in one way, then you are saying that one patch of sunlight is true and the other must hence be false.
“So each of you are true, and in the authority and validity of your trueness you have at least an inclination of what truth is. And you can follow that inclination – that hint. You must follow it inward into yourselves for no other person has your consciousness. No one else can do with it what you can do, or experience what you can experience, and in being true to your private experience, you enrich the experience of the universe, for you are a part of All-That-Is, materialized as you are.
“Now I do not intend to give this speech at the street corners. It is your speech, given by you, in certain terms, to yourself. And so, again, I return you joyfully to those selves...” (69)
Magic Show
|
What magicians we all are, |
turning darkness into light, |
transforming invisible atoms |
into the dazzling theater |
of the world, |
pulling objects, |
(people as well |
as rabbits) |
out of secret |
microscopic closets, |
turning winter into summer, |
making a palmful of moments |
disappear |
through time’s trapdoor. |
We learned methods |
so long ago |
that they’re unconscious, |
and we’ve hypnotized ourselves |
into believing |
that we’re the audience, |
so I wonder where we served |
our apprenticeship. |
Under what master magicians did we learn |
to form reality |
so smoothly that we forgot to tell ourselves |
the secret? (70) |
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(1) Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/dictionary, September 22, 2000.
(2) Joseph Campbell, edited by Diane Osbon, Reflections on the Art of Living: A Joseph Campbell Companion, HarperCollins Publishers, New York, New York, 1991, p. 134.
(3) John Bartlett, Lord Byron, Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, Sixteenth Edition, Little Brown and Company, Canada, 1992, p. 403.
(4) Bartlett, Thomas Huxley, p. 505.
(5) Bartlett, Arthur Doyle, p. 577.
(6) Bartlett, Alfred Whitehead, p. 584.
(7) Aona, DATRE Session #156 (May 2000), http://www.mindspring.com/~datrenet/datre151-200/Datre156.html, September 22, 2000.
(8) 1769 Authorized Version, The Word from Online Bible, version 1.00, Timnathserah Inc., Winterborne, Ontario, Canada, 1997-2000.
(9) Mary Ennis, Vicki Pendley, The Elias Transcripts, session 17, June 25, 1995.
(10) Mary Ennis, Vicki Pendley, The Elias Transcripts, session 45, October 15, 1995.
(11) Mary Ennis, Vicki Pendley, The Elias Transcripts, session 275, April 23, 1998.
(12) Paramahansa Yogananda, Self Realization Fellowship Lessons, S-5, P-105, Los Angeles, California, p. 3.
(13) Yogananda, p. 4.
(14) Brewster, Memoirs of Newton, II.27.
(15) William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act I, scene iii.
(16) Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Harper & Row, New York, New York, 1945, Lao Tzu, p. 127.
(17) Huxley, Shankara, p. 294-295.
(18) Huxley, Sutralamkara, p. 127.
(19) Huxley, Hui Neng, p. 126-127.
(20) Huxley, St. Thomas Aquinas, p. 295.
(21) Yogananda, S-4, P-104/1, p. 6.
(22) Campbell, p. 147.
(23) Jane Roberts, Adventures in Consciousness: An Introduction to Aspect Psychology, Sethnet Publishing, Eugene, Oregon, 1998.
Jane uses the term prejudiced perception in this, her first of three Aspect Psychology books to show that our five physical senses, while incredibly rich and varied, can never provide us with a complete picture of Universal Truth. For example, our hearing range covers a spectrum of only 20-20,000 vibrations per seconds. Our visual field can perceive only the thinnest band of the electromagnetic spectrum as we can’t see infra-red light or x-rays. So we now know that we are surrounded by physical energy spectra that we can’t directly perceive with our physical senses, though we can measure their effects with sensitive instrumentation.
All of the data that we do perceive and process in our brains gets filtered through our conscious minds and our belief systems. If we hold erroneous views about physical or inner reality, these beliefs will continue to translate erroneous perceptions about the nature of Universal Truth. For example, what is now called the Copernican Revolution witnessed the Roman Catholic dominated view of the Earth as the center of the universe toppled by the observations and views of Polish astronomer Nicolas Copernicus. A paradigm shift resulted that literally changed the face of the Western world during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
(24) Huxley, p. 128.
(25) Huxley, p. 129.
(26) Huxley, p. 125.
(27) Huxley, p. 34-35.
(28) Bartlett, Henry Thoreau, p. 477.
(29) Sigmund Freud, The Future of an Illusion, (translated by James Strachey et al.), Standard Edition, XXI, Hogarth Press, London, 1961, p. 44-45.
(30) Huxley, Lao Tzu, p. 216.
(31) Paramahansa Yogananda, Forward by Douglas Ainslie, The Science of Religion, The Self-Realization Fellowship, Los Angeles, California, 1994, p. x.
(32) Willis Harmon, Global Mind Change: The Promise of the 21st Century, Berrett-Koehler, San Francisco, California, 1998, p. 79.
(33) Huxley, p. 126.
(34) Huxley, p. 127.
(35) Huxley, p. 129.
(36) Yogananda, S-4, P-80, p. 5.
(37) Christian De Quince