Integral Impressions on The Nature of Personal Reality by Jane Roberts: Part 1 of 5
(Preface, Chapters 1-4)
by Paul Helfrich

Foreword

Several attempts have been made over the years to review The Nature of Personal Reality chapter by chapter in our online forums, but due to the immensity of the challenge have never gotten past the initial chapters. Recently on NewWorldView, however, Tom Sherlock stepped up to the plate and is attempting this heroic endeavor once again by publishing a précis of each chapter in order over the next few months.

This inspired me to commit to a five-part series - a sort of Cliff Notes - on the core themes that Seth, Jane, and Rob explored through the benefit of an integral lens, which by definition includes a more comprehensive, balanced, and inclusive set of perspectives provided by Ken Wilber. You can expect these notes to be unlike any you've encountered to date in a Seth book, but they are secondary, so you can skip them if they don't interest you.

The basic idea, then, is to read one chapter at a time in order, and spend a week or so concentrating on the core ideas. This spreads your reading over a period of months to better understand many of the core concepts. So sit back, take your time, and enjoy this marvelous book!

When we reread an influential book, we do so with new eyes. In the process, we discover new layers of understanding because we have encountered many of the concepts in the real world, and they no longer remain abstractions or theories without the evidence of experience. In this sense, the Seth books are gifts that keep on giving - evergreens - because direct experience helps us penetrate more deeply into layers of meaning cleverly hardwired into the text. How many times have you reread a book and thought it got much better or clearer? It's a mirror of our own growth through time.

Jane Roberts was at the peak of her creative life during the writing of The Nature of Personal Reality. For instance, she wrote in the intro that she considered Dialogues of the Soul and Mortal Self in Time and The Speakers poems as companions to NPR because they show how her creative and psychic abilities were developing in complementary ways. At this stage of her career, the Seth books had become the means to reach a much larger audience than was possible through private or group sessions, like ESP class.

Jane also began the first Oversoul Seven book during this amazing period. Further, she talked about how she could sense multiple channels or blocks of Seth material available as book dictation, or answers to Rob's questions, or answers to other questions, all at once. Jane also began what she called "the Sumari development," which included singing, pantomime, poetry, and even math. As if this wasn't enough, Jane also developed her Aspect Psychology model in Adventures in Consciousness to explain it all!

So The Nature of Personal Reality was a truly foundational work. It also coined the New Age mantra "you create your own reality" that is still in use today. Another important feature is how Jane and Rob wove their personal lives, mass events like the Elmira/Agnes flood, and the creative nature of the Seth phenomenon into the structure of this book. As such, it is multi-layered and sets up the next book, the magnum opus called The "Unknown" Reality (the only Seth book to include an organized set of transformational Practice Elements and extensive supporting research by Rob Butts).

However, if this is the first time you read The Nature of Personal Reality, you can skip most of Rob's notes and read only Seth's words the first time through. That will make the ideas easier to assimilate. Be sure to include them the second time through, as they add an important dimension.

[Note: integral comments are included in brackets below. You also can skip them and still get the core ideas presented by Seth.]

Summary

Main points to contemplate when reading the Preface and Chapters 1-4:

• Seth focused on ontology - the nature of Being, or Self - and outlined a broad map:

• All-That-Is: mentioned one time-a primary organizing gestalt. [Also called causal body-mind.]
• Inner Self: also called soul, psyche, source self: a mediating nonphysical "region" between All-That-Is and its physically manifested selves. [Also called subtle body-mind.]
• Conscious Mind: Seth used a giant camera metaphor with outer ego as director of lens and focus geared toward physical constructions. [Also called gross body-mind.]
• All the above structures work in concert; the distinctions are artificial and only useful insofar as to point out Aspects within our own awareness right now that may be useful in addressing to various challenges and limited definitions of Self. There are essentially no boundaries or separation to Self or All-That-Is. This is a core belief Seth promotes early on.

[Seth defined the conscious mind as something much wider than just the ego. So this hints at the un- or subconscious processes that early psychologists like Baldwin, Freud, Mesmer, William James, and F. W.H. Meyers began to map in the 19th century.]

[The expanded way Seth defined the conscious mind comes very close to what Jane would soon call the nuclear self in Aspects, distinct from the focus personality. It was her attempt to identify the psychological structure that helped to manage all probable selves within each focus personality (Seth's outer ego) and source self (Seth's inner self or inner ego).]

• With the above concept map presented, Seth recommends that we explore our conscious minds through introspection. "I am not telling you to examine your thoughts so frequently and with such vigor that you get in your own way, but you are not fully conscious unless you are aware of the contents of your conscious mind." p. 34.
• Seth introduced the concept of feeling-tone as a means to more deeply engage the conscious mind and inner self. He offered a simple practice (p. 20-21) in which to discern the simple feeling of being, our innate feeling-tone [or essence-tone to use Elias' equivalent].
• Regarding the exercises in the book overall, Seth said that "The methods that I will outline demand concentration and effort [my italics]. They will also challenge you, and bring into your life expansion and alterations of consciousness of a most rewarding nature." P. xix. In other words, this is not a quick-fix book, but requires serious concentration and effort. Further, it will lead to altered states that are quite beneficial, but mostly denied and repressed by modern worldviews.
• Seth focused initially on the role of thoughts, ideas, beliefs, expectations, emotions, feelings, and imagination in reality creation. All are psychological structures with concomitant physical structures (i.e., brain/body) that are co-causal. That is, they work together in some mysterious way to form, make, and create personal reality.

[An integral approach doesn't over-emphasize inner or outer structures, but a harmonious blend of both. So it's not all about any one factor, but how all of them work together.]

• Note thus far that the phrase YCYOR is not used, but "you make" or "you form" your own reality is the dominant linguistic expression.
• [Seth used the term "gestalt," or collective consciousness, to describe the consciousness of trees and rocks, cells and organs, and "the race of man." Though he doesn't go deeper, there are clear holonic relationships that outline how All-That-Is is nested within all reality creation. "Consider the spectacular framework of your body just from the physical standpoint. You perceive it as solid, as you perceive all other physical matter; yet the more matter is explored the more obvious it becomes that within it energy takes on specific shape (in the form of organs, cells, molecules, atoms, electrons [my italics]), each less physical than the last, each combining in mysterious gestalt to form matter." P. 20.]

[Note that Seth follows the exact order of Wilber's holonic model in the above example. Each is "less physical" than the previous and combine in a "mysterious gestalt" to form our bodies. This is what Wilber means by each wider or superholon "transcends yet includes" each narrower or subholon. For more on holons and holarchy, see: All-That-Is as Holarchy.]

• Seth also outlined the larger, mass gestalt framework within which personal reality occurs. He even outlined a brief history of the conscious mind, for example, showing how the modern conscious mind limited earlier, premodern emotional and psychic abilities, while making great leaps forward by emphasizing the rational-empirical-analytical aspects during the Industrial Revolution.
• Seth also pointed out how mainstream, modern beliefs in Freud's unsavory subconscious -the modern version of The Church's sinful self - have influenced and limited mass reality creation. In other words, they prevent self-examination and introspection of our conscious mind to unmask invisible core beliefs that limit our potentials, because we're taught to believe that only a "priesthood" of trained therapists and years of psychoanalysis can hope to unlock them. So just believing in the existence of Seth's ontology - that there is a conscious mind and inner self all nested within All-That-Is - becomes very important in learning to work more closely with The Self "who creates 100%" of our personal reality. In other words, it's not just limited to outer ego, thoughts, emotions, beliefs, etc., but includes the inner self and even deeper Aspects of All-That-Is, though we don't want to get ahead of Seth's story.
• Another linguistic pattern to notice is that Seth mentions "there is no other rule" three times throughout Chapter Three:



• "What exists physically exists first in thought and feeling. There is no other rule." P. xvii.


• "You make your own reality. There is no other rule. Knowing this is the secret of creativity." P. 14.


• "You get what you concentrate upon. There is no other main rule." P. 45. (This quote was taped on the office wall of Rob Butts during my visits to the Hill House in December 1991 and April 1993.)



[In terms of discernment (adequate interpretation of meaning and linguistic context) this means that Seth used the phrase "there is no other rule" as a strong emphasis and NOT as an Absolute. Otherwise, it would be performative contradiction that ends up negating itself. Still, all three focus on the importance of subjective experience in reality creation, and seem to under-emphasize the role of physical counterparts, like the brain, body, genes, DNA, organs, cells, etc. In hindsight, I believe this emphasis on interiors and idealism (for instance, Jane's idea constructions) is a reaction against the modern emphasis on exteriors and scientific materialism in general. Therefore, from an integral perspective, we attempt to account for both as we interpret Seth's words and intended meanings.]

• Seth began to outline a taxonomy of beliefs that will be further developed:



• Core - foundational belief systems [vMemes] around which many other beliefs [memes] orbit.


• Limiting- beliefs [memes] that serve to inhibit growth and widening.


• Invisible - beliefs [memes] held as Absolute truths that are, in fact, relative and malleable. They are not buried or unconscious, instead they include unexamined assumptions about the nature of reality that may no longer serve our growth and fulfillment.


• Subsidiary/Corollary - offshoots of core beliefs [memes]. Once core belief systems are addressed, false or distorted subsidiary beliefs simply lose their energetic affect. They still exist as potentials, but are neutralized.


• Directional - beliefs [memes] that children receive from parents to ensure a sense of safety to develop their abilities and explore their world.


• Conflicting - subsidiary beliefs [memes] held in simultaneous opposition that manifest physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual symptoms. A physical example, the beliefs that it's important to write (I'm good at communicating with my wife) and it's important to not write (I'm not very good at communicating with a parent) will produce confusing signals to the hands, leading to tension, stress, and cramps when writing. However, once fully identified and addressed to, the opposition and symptoms can be neutralized.


• Joint - beliefs [memes] shared in relationships. Interpersonal beliefs of a similar nature.


• Body - beliefs [memes] about the body's function and whether those functions are healthy or unhealthy, socially acceptable or not, etc.


• Negative - beliefs [memes] that generate strong emotional and imaginative connections that produce unhealthy, even pathological symptoms.


• Active/Passive - the former are beliefs in use by the conscious mind, the latter lie latent as potentials to be activated by conscious mind. This also relates to negative and positive beliefs that are actively in use.


• Private - personal beliefs held by the individual. However, since they are available to others, so when we change beliefs we may get mixed messages intended to sabotage our new beliefs because they no longer align with previous groupthink. "These people will either drop out of your experience or you must drop them from yours." P. 77.


• [The Developmental Seth - though Seth, Jane, and Rob don't go into great detail, they show an understanding of how humans develop through stages, and how our beliefs, belief systems, and worldviews do as well. For example, in the Introduction Jane talked about "the Sumari development," and later in chapter three Seth talked about the different channels of material now available to Jane in waking state indicated a certain "stage of development" in her personal abilities.]

[In chapter four, Seth discussed the origins of beliefs as transmitted and reinforced by our parents. He points out "early stages of development" and the impact of "directional beliefs" that create a nurturing framework where children can explore and develop more easily. Thus, as children, we take our parents' beliefs as Absolute Reality until we mature enough to begin to discern for ourselves that they are beliefs about reality that are not Absolutes.]

[Further, we developed reasoning abilities (intellect) as a species that were meant to "evolve and grow as they are used." As our cognitive capacities develop, we become "more conscious" as well. So growth and development equal increased consciousness in physical terms.]

[The "mature conscious mind" is defined as one that accepts exterior (physical senses and intellect) and interior information (inner knowledge, deep intuition = hunches, inspiration, precognition, clairvoyance). Thus, to limit the function of the conscious mind to one or the other results in an imbalance.]

[However, Seth, Jane, and Rob didn't really get into how the basic stages unfold from egocentric (me) to groupcentric (us) to worldcentric (all of us) to Kosmocentric (All-That-Is). So this book is an introduction to foundational principles, because we can only cover so much in one book!]

In summary, Seth concentrated on ontology or the nature of being by pointing the psychological structures we use in reality creation. He made the nature of being explicit in his pointing out instructions. However, he did not focus on epistemology - how we know what is true and what constitutes evidence of the true. So this remains implicit to Seth's story-telling at this point.

On the other hand, Seth did cover the inner, mental (reason), and outer senses in previous sessions that were published in The Seth Material. So epistemology is covered elsewhere in the material. Keep in mind that The Nature of Personal Reality began with session 609, April 10, 1972, years after Seth made his first appearance.

[Extra Credit: For those interested in applying an integral approach:]

• [Seth provided an exercise in which we begin to list various beliefs. This is a good place to introduce Elias' ten foundational belief systems. From our integral lens, they can be understood as a typology that unfolds in stages of development. For example, if we take the values line from Spiral Dynamics, it deals with beliefs (memes), belief systems (vMemes), and worldviews (weltanschauung) in the individual and how they scale up into the collective through the four quadrants.]



[Within the values or beliefs line, then, we find ten types (or zones or bird cages, to use Elias' metaphor) of core belief systems. It is within these belief systems that we find individual beliefs. So the following is one way to organize the sum total of all our beliefs within ten main belief systems. Together, these ten belief systems form our worldviews:

• Relationships (interpersonal/intrapersonal = self/other)


• Duplicity (morality/ethics)


• Sexuality (sexuality/gender/orientation/preference)


• Truth (relative truths/Absolute Truth)


• Emotion (emotional/feeling)


• Perception (perceptual/attention)


• The senses (inner/mental/outer sensing)


• Religious/spirituality (exoteric/esoteric)


• Scientific/elements of physical reality (scientific/rational)


• Physical creation of the universe, including accidents and coincidences (creation mythos)]


• [As we begin to notice and identify beliefs, the above typology helps us organize and explore interrelationships between them. The rest of NPR will emphasize how belief systems are structured in ways that we can learn through sincere introspection to notice, identify, and address to those core beliefs that lie at the root of our main challenges, problems, and dis-eases.]

Help and Heal and Honour All
by Nardine Neilson

Passion stirs within my heart
and leads me always on my path
so I may know the blessed me
within Gods light eternally free

I have no doubt the path I follow
guides me on to joy tomorrow
and in this moment as I be
within my process true to me

I am led toward greater heights
as I create such sweet delights
that show me love in every way
reflecting joy and bliss each day

to help and heal and honour me
allows me freedom and to see
the pledge I made and do recall
to help and heal and honour all

The Resonating Sound…
Energy is Love
by Shirley Hadley

Resonating, sensual, energy, sound.
Patterns of my soul.
Whispered voices call to me, my attention
Is drawn to a point of clarity.

The wind caresses my skin, as I lie
In the arms of my infinite lover.
I look into your eyes and I see a god.

Resonating, sensual, energy, sound
Patterns of my soul
My intent is brilliant
My desires of love create all realities.

Play me like a song, together we
Create the melody, the harmony,
The rhythm is the beat of our
Souls as One.

Resonating, sensual, energy, sound
Patterns of my soul.
Spiraling light forms
Curved around my deepest memories
Of you.

In our dreams we meet
Sound waves wash over us
Spectral color emanates.
Spiraling light forms
Curved a round my deepest memories
Of You.

Resonating, sensual, energy, sound
Patterns of my soul.

It was March 28, 1972, and as they say, Spring was just around the corner. Unfortunately, no one had mentioned this to the city of Elmira. By the time class was set to begin at approximately 7:00pm, temperatures dipped below the freezing mark, though my spirits remained high as I waited for that portion of the universe known as Seth to appear in Jane’s living room. Enter Seth, eyes peering into mine:

“Now: the small but brilliant sardonic part of you was, and in other terms still is, a very brilliant courtesan in 16th century France, who sat with the philosophers and thought they did not know what they were talking about. Since you were a woman with an excellent mind, you listened to these men who seemed to think they knew what they were talking about and you thought, “They do not have the slightest idea in their heads and yet they look at me and think I am beautiful and silly when I can think rings around them” and so you did, and in other terms so you still do. This woman had much energy and still possesses it.”

I don’t know what prompted Seth to give me this information, and while his comments were certainly intriguing, they didn’t spark much of a reaction within me. If I did live in France during the sixteenth century I had no recollection of such a life now. I filed the information away and continued to grapple with the challenges I was facing in this life, which kept me busy enough.

One fine day in the middle of the summer I found myself at an art exhibit devoted to the works of René Magritte. Although I am not an art aficionado and have little knowledge of painting and technique, I was very taken with his work. Following an impulse to learn more about him I went to the New York Public Library. I opened the encyclopedia to the entry for Magritte when suddenly, as if pulled by some magnetic force, my eyes were drawn to the opposite page where the following name was staring up at me: Marguerite de Valois. There were only a few lines written about her, but one of those lines stated that she was a well-known courtesan in sixteenth century France. Recalling the information Seth had given me I decided to peruse the library’s card catalog to see if there were any references to a Marguerite de Valois. To my surprise I found quite a few references, one of which immediately stood out: Secret and Historic Memoirs of the Courts Of France, written by Marguerite de Valois. I filled out a slip requesting a copy of the book and handed it to the librarian. She told me it would take a few minutes to retrieve it since it was located in the archives below the main floor. I imagined the librarian’s helper rummaging through stacks of old dust-laden books until finally coming upon the title I had requested. It ended up taking about twenty minutes before I had the book in my hands, and after reading a few pages I decided I wanted to speak with you know who before I continued.

At next week’s class I asked Seth if he cared to say anything about a “Margaret” de Valois. He paused for a moment, looked at me with an odd expression, and said “Not now I do not. But I appreciate the reason for the question.”

Later during that same class he looked at me and said: “Marguerite,” correcting my earlier mispronunciation when I had said “Margaret.” Despite the brevity of Seth’s response I knew something was up. Upon returning home I went back to the library and started reading everything I could about Marguerite de Valois. I believe some brief biographical information would be helpful here; or dare I say autobiographical.

Marguerite de Valois was born May 14, 1553. She was the youngest daughter of Henry II of France and Catherine de Medicis. In 1572 a political marriage was arranged between Marguerite and the Protestant Henry of Navarre (later Henry IV). Some years later Marguerite was expelled from the royal court for her political intrigues and in 1586 she was banished to the castle of Usson in Auvergne. In 1599, ten years after Henry of Navarre's accession to the throne, she consented to the annulment of their marriage.

Marguerite was admired for her charm and literary talent, and her memoirs were translated in 1892.

Early on in my research I toyed with the idea of doing an in-depth comparison between Marguerite’s life and my own, but realized such a project would have required a book in itself, and wasn’t inclined at the time to commit to such an undertaking. Certain connections however became readily apparent, and while the list is more extensive than what appears below, I’d like to note just a few examples.

Marguerite had a habit of holding a pen in her hand whenever she was reading a book:

I have that same habit.

Marguerite loved writing poetry:

I have always found great pleasure in both the writing and reading of poetry.

Marguerite had a passion for philosophy and wanted to open a school where philosophy could be studied:

While attending Jane Roberts’s classes I often thought of how wonderful it would be to have a school or center where people could get together and explore Seth’s ideas.

Marguerite loved dancing:

As a teenager I loved to dance, though I’m sure my gyrations would have raised more than a few eyebrows had they been carried out on the floor of the royal court.

Marguerite composed light melodies for various psalms and hired singers to perform her arrangements:

I compose simple melodies on my guitar, and at times have paid musicians to help me arrange them.

Besides discovering various traits we had in common, there were times when I would read about a particular event in Marguerite’s life, and then either that same day or shortly thereafter a parallel event would occur in my own life. The following are but two examples. One day I was reading about a period in Marguerite’s life when the court set up residence in the city of Navarre. As I left the library that day and was walking around Manhattan I passed a small hotel called Hotel Navarre. During all my years of traversing the city I could not recall having seen this hotel before.

Another incident occurred when I was reading about one of Marguerite’s first love affairs. She was in love with a well-known military leader named the Duke d’ Guise and it was fully expected they would marry. One day to Marguerite’s great surprise and with no attempt to soften the blow, the Duke informed her he had asked another to marry him, and his proposal had been accepted. Not long afterwards I called a woman I was growing increasingly fond of, (and thought the feelings were mutual). But barely thirty seconds into the conversation she informed me with great enthusiasm that a friend of ours had asked her to marry him and she had happily agreed to his proposal.

As I became further immersed in my study of Marguerite’s life and times I began to get feelings about various people I knew in this life, and who they were in the context of sixteenth century France.

For example, I had the distinct feeling that my friend Ricky was this Duke d’ Guise fellow I just spoke of. The more I read about the Duke d’ Guise the more I began to see connections between Ricky and the Duke. And talking about connections, I have a copy of a drawing that was done of the Duke d’ Guise, which when placed alongside a copy of a picture of Ricky from an earlier time in his life, the resemblance is quite striking.

After many hours and months of research I reached a point where I became determined to get verification from Seth that Marguerite de Valois was indeed the woman Seth had been referring to when he gave me that reincarnational data in March of 1972. Here is the exchange that took place between us one evening in Jane’s living room:

Seth: “Now, you make your own reality.”

Rich: “Are you going to be crafty and keep me wondering?”

Seth: “If you really understood, you would realize that the statement answers your question; but since you do not, I will elaborate.”

Rich: “Thank you, that’s why I love you.”

Seth: “You hit upon it yourself regardless of the sneaky ideas you get now and then that make you believe that time is a series of moments and years and centuries. All time is now. When you told your story just now, you wondered whether you had been that woman. And the syntax of that sentence sounds quite correct. It is quite as proper of course, to say that woman was you. It is much more basically truthful to say that a correspondence exists between you and that woman, now; and that correspondence creates a relationship. That relationship then, in your terms, seems to bleed backwards into the past. In whatever terms you think of, there is a correspondence between yourself and the woman, but you are yourself now and not the woman.”

Rich: “One question in my thick skull I just want to know for sure-- Is that the woman you were referring to when you gave me the information?”

Seth: “It is indeed.”

Rich: “Thank you. Is the Duke?”

Seth: “And the same applies to our spooky Duke over there.”

Rich: “Thank you. You have made me feel outrageous.”

Seth: “No, you have made yourself feel outrageous.”

As the years went by I spent less and less time thinking about Marguerite de Valois, yet reincarnational selves, like long lost relatives, have a way of turning up when you least expect them.

In 1990, my friend Emily and I were on vacation in Bolton Landing, a town in upstate New York about ten miles from Lake George. One of the tourist brochures listed a local attraction called The Madame Sembrich Museum. Despite the fact that neither Emily nor I had the slightest idea who Madame Sembrich was, Emily was insistent that we go. I decided what the heck, since we didn’t have anything else planned for the day.

The “museum” was actually a small house, filled with miscellaneous memorabilia from Madame Sembrich’s career. (She was a famous opera singer in the late nineteenth /early twentieth century.) Among the memorabilia on display were some of the original gowns Madame Sembrich had worn while appearing in various operas. A small card next to each gown listed the name of the opera, as well as the operatic character she had played. I suddenly noticed the word Huguenots written on one of the cards. The Huguenots were the French Protestants who were at the center of the religious wars that raged in France during much of the sixteenth century. The card stated that this particular gown was worn by Madame Sembrich in the opera The Huguenots, during her portrayal of… Marguerite de Valois!

A few years later I attended a ballet at Lincoln Center. During the course of the evening I started wondering if Marguerite de Valois used to attend the ballet in France while growing up. Seemed like an odd thought to suddenly pop into my head. During intermission I wandered into the lobby where numerous books were being sold all relating to ballet. The first book I picked up was a history of the ballet. As I started to browse through it I came across a passage where the author described how Catherine de Medici introduced ballet to France in the sixteenth century. If you recall, Catherine de Medici was the mother of Marguerite de Valois. I now had an answer to my question; an answer that appeared as magically as the question itself.

As I said, reincarnational selves have a way of turning up when we least expect them. Toward the end of 1994 I received a phone call from friend and compatriot Sue Watkins. She had just read a movie review of a film entitled Queen Margot, based upon the life of Marguerite de Valois. I grabbed a newspaper to see where the movie might be playing. What A Coincidence; it was showing right up the street from where I lived.

One last connection (for the moment); because I don’t think connections ever really end. In Dreams, “Evolution” And Value Fulfillment, one of the Seth books, Seth makes reference to a private session for Jane and Rob held in March of 1981. During this session Seth spoke of how Jane had initiated a small religious order— in sixteenth century France!

I believe reincarnational clues surround us every day, and the more we keep ourselves open to such clues, the more we can learn about the multidimensional nature of our beings. If you would like to explore the subject of reincarnation further, I highly recommend The Education Of Oversoul Seven,” written by Jane Roberts. It was presented as a fictional piece, but as Jane once said: “Facts are just official fiction.”

As far as Marguerite de Valois is concerned, I’ll end this chapter with the lyrics I wrote to a song called Castles, dedicated to Marguerite.

Castles
(Words by Rich Kendall/Music by Penny Wilbur)

In a castle in the mountains she wrote letters of her life
All the lovers all the dramas
All the innocent deceit
She wrote letters of her life in her faraway retreat

I can see the candles burning in her room
Her chestnut hair was faded though her beauty it remained
In the hearts of all who knew her
In the dreams of when she reigned
In her endless loving eyes
In her hands so warm and wise

There are times I feel her near me in the night
Now she walks the fields and forests
And talks to autumn leaves
She listens to their colors
And asks them if they grieve
Through the tangles of her mind
Future memories twist and wind

As we meet in moonlit shadow by my door
Her chestnut hair it glistens
Through the winter wind it flows
Pink shadows round the treetops
The countryside it glows
Through the tangles of her mind
There’s a joy no love can bind
In a castle in the mountains she wrote letters of her life
All the lovers all the dramas
All the innocent deceit
That keeps her all alone
In her faraway retreat

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What is reincarnation? To begin with, reincarnation does not take place within a matrix of linear time. It’s not as if e.g. you had a life in ancient Greece and then you died; then you had a life in ancient Rome and then you died; then you had a life in the Middle Ages and then you died; etc. Rather, all of your past and future lives are going on at once, in an eternal NOW moment.

Think of it like this: survivors of near-death experiences often report seeing all the events that ever happened to them flash by them in no time at all. Thus it would seem that we experience the thought forms of our lives twice – once in linear fashion over a lifetime, and the second time around in timeless fashion at the moment of death.

In an analogous manner, while there is indeed an evolution going on in the universe, this evolution is not taking place in linear time: it’s all happening at once. Space and time have no objective existence. They are merely cognitive tools which evolved as sentient beings evolved, to enable them to focus upon one thing at a time instead of everything at once. The linearity of time is an illusion, a falsehood, which Eastern philosophers have termed maya or samsara. It is this false appearance that there is such a thing as an objective reality out there unfolding in linear time, which animates the striving of all sentient beings and keeps the wheel of reincarnation – of life and death and rebirth – turning.

Babies (and even young children, who sometimes talk about memories from other lifetimes) are not as centered in a one-track existence as adults are. Babies and young children are consciously impinged upon by influences from other lives and probable realities which most adults have learned to ignore. The same socialization process which props up a baby’s sense of being a unitary, abiding, separated individual also imprisons that individual in a furrow of inexorable linear temporality.

For most people, 99.9% of decisions are made on the basis of socially-conditioned actions and reactions – what they were taught by their parents and society. But every now and then everyone has poignant moments – moments of consciousness or conscientiousness or conscience – when they sense that probable realities are branching off this way or that; or they feel echoes from other lifetimes and realities; or they hear voices from deep inside them. When this happens people feel connected to something more profound than their customary hustle and bustle; and that something is their true purpose in this lifetime – the reason they were born.

Nobel laureate William Butler Yeats’ masterpiece A Vision (channeled by his wife) explains the true nature of reincarnation – what it really is and how it really works. Starting this coming month Magical Almanac, Bob Makransky’s free monthly ezine of astrology and magic, will be presenting a six-article series which explains the theory of reincarnation as described in A Vision. This series includes complete instructions for safe and easy techniques you can use on your own to run past life regressions and probable reality progressions; and to recapitulate memories from your present lifetime (thereby releasing the pent-up emotions which you have invested in your memories).

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“We all to some extent meet again and again the same people and certainly in some cases form a kind of family of two or three or more persons who come together life after life until all passionate relations are exhausted, the child of one life the husband, wife, brother, sister of the next. Sometimes, however, a single relationship will repeat itself, turning its revolving wheel again and again.” – William Butler Yeats, A Vision

Explore the works of Visionary Artist Shirley Hadley!

The photographs you see below were created by Shirley in her studio, and not through electronic manipulation. Each photo is available in 5x7 or 8x10 and includes a poem that goes with the photo.

Entrance to Awareness
The journey of the self is
to see without using your eyes
to hear but not with your ears.
Listen to your inner voice, it will lead you
to an awareness of new ways to view your
selves and the world you live in.

New from Sharon Hackleman, author of Marion the Magnet



MIND TIME CARDS

"Mind Time Cards are a deck of 31 inspiring positive daily affirmations created by Sharon Hackleman and illustrated by Jessica Glickman. The SOUL purpose of creating the Mind Time Cards is to teach teens about the magical powers of positive thought and the importance of feeling good about themselves-
Spirit, Mind, and Body!

$9.95
FREE SHIPPING
when ordered on mindtimecards.com

"We are all connected...intertwined...by a universal energy so divine." - Sharon Hackleman

Sethworld - A board game based on the Seth Material

Explore your beliefs! Stretch your imagination! Delve into your dreams! Challenge your creativity!

Seven years in the making, I am so pleased to be able to offer you SethWorld - The Game of All That Is! SethWorld is a totally unique game, the first metaphysical board game based on the Seth material - maybe the first metaphysical board game, ever! It is designed to explore and uncover beliefs while having fun. There are no winners, no losers, and NO RULES! A 24-page pamphlet included with the game gives a probable framework for play, 6 sample "moves," and a glossary of 61 concepts.

SethWorld -- You've never played anything like it!

WHAT A COINCIDENCE Understanding Synchronicity In Everyday Life
by Susan M Watkins

Overview:

What if all those seemingly insignificant little What a coincidence! moments you've experienced were actually connected, were part of a larger, more complex coincidence story?

What if they were hinting at something very personal and important about yourself—and about the workings of human consciousness?

Would you listen?

Susan Watkins does. For more than 35 years she's been documenting and studying the coincidences that have happened in her life. What she's discovered is that seemingly simple coincidences—thinking of an old friend and their calling seconds later, for example—are often pieces of larger, more complex and meaningful "coincidence clusters."

A former newspaper reporter and the author of five books, Watkins has always been intrigued by coincidences—what they mean in our everyday lives, and in the grander scheme of things. What, she asks, do these coincidence clusters say about human consciousness and human connection? In What a Coincidence! she presents coincidence clusters that are utterly astounding. What they reveal is life- altering.

What a Coincidence! is an exciting, groundbreaking journey. Along the way Watkins offers profound insights as well as practical pointers on how to become aware of the coincidence clusters in our own lives. She also shows us how to document coincidences so that we, too, can reap their valuable rewards. We'll never brush off those What a Coincidence! moments again.

Conscious Creation Links – Conscious Creation Publishers, Book Stores, Websites, Journals, Newsletters, Mailing Lists, Message Boards, and more.

The Elias forum - website by Paul & Joanne Helfrich contains an expansion of many of the conscious creation concepts introduced by Seth/Jane Roberts, channeled by Mary Ennis.

What if the Seth material was a foundation to be expanded later by other channeled sources? Can any perennial source ever be considered complete AND infallible?

Seth readers will want to check out:
Introduction & Overview
A Seth, Elias Comparative Overview (Updated!)
Digest: Seth, Jane Roberts

In The Rose Garden - a blog by Joanne Helfrich who channels the essence of Rose as mentioned in the Elias forum.

The Kris Chronicles - an expansion of many of the conscious creation concepts introduced by Seth/Jane Roberts, channeled by Serge Grandbois.

A Kris, Seth, Elias Comparative Overview (Updated!) - a preliminary comparison of core concepts in the Seth material, information offered by Elias, and Kris Chronicles

Otherfocus.com the personal website of Donald R. Johnson

Explore the creative worlds of John McNally and Kristen Fox Cofounders of the Conscious Creation Website and Email group John and Kristen share interests in writing, art, photography and cooking which they explore on a variety of websites:

John and Kristen's new Green blog: It Should Be Easy Being Green
Intuitive Astrology site: Psychic Weather
Writing: Mind Altering Fiction
Photography: Telepathicfrog
Cooking: Food Follies
Shop: Telepathic Frog Designs
Shop Powered By Tshirts

Kristen's weblog: FoxVox
Art & Photo Gallery: Art of FoxVox
Art & Photo Prints: Deviant Art
T Shirt Reviews Tshirt Casserole