The Universal Shifts of Consciousness

A Seth BOOK

The INDIVIDUAL and the NATURE of MASS EVENTS


The mixture of Sun and the Ball of Advanced Thoughts is in my room. Apr. 2010

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Visible to the eye Pentagons are above our Monroe Centre in Elliott Heads, Australia, Dec. 2009

Jane Roberts

FROM:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/13896954/Jane-Roberts-A-Seth-Book-The-Individual-and-the-Nature-of-mass-events

NOTES BY ROBERT F. BUTTS
To Rob
CONTENTS
A Quotation From Seth.......................................................... .................ix
A Verse From A Psychic Manifesto by Jane Roberts . .............................xi
Introduction by Jane Roberts ..................................... .........................xiii
PART ONE: THE EVENTS OF "NATURE." EPIDEMICS AND
NATURAL DISASTERS .................................................... ........l
Chapter 1: The Natural Body and Its Defenses.....................................3
Chapter 2: "Mass Meditations." "Health" Plans for Disease.
Epidemics of Beliefs, and Effective Mental
"Inoculations" Against Despair.......................................47
PART TWO: FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK 2........................................79
Chapter 3: Myths and Physical Events. The Interior Medium in
Which Society Exists ......................................... ............81
Chapter 4: The Characteristics of Framework 2. A Creative
Analysis of the Medium in Which Physically-Oriented
Consciousness Resides, and the Source of Events …... 112
Chapter 5: The Mechanics of Experience........................................ ..147
PART THREE: PEOPLE WHO ARE FRIGHTENED OF
THEMSELVES........................................................... ......171
Chapter 6: Controlled Environments, and Positive and Negative
Mass Behavior. Religious and Scientific Cults, and
Private Paranoias....................................... ....................173
Chapter 7: The Good, the Bad, and the Catastrophic. Jonestown,
Harrisburg, and When Is an Idealist a Fanatic? ............ 207
Chapter 8: Men, Molecules, Power, and Free Will........................ ....236
Chapter 9: The Ideal, the Individual, Religion, Science, and
the Law..................................................................... .....253
PART FOUR THE PRACTICING IDEALIST ........................ .........................279
Chapter 10: The Good, the Better, and the Best. Value Fulfillment
Versus Competition.................................................... ....281

"We have never told anybody to do anything, except to face up to the
abilities of consciousness."
Seth
April 19, 1978

A note by R.F.B.: Seth was often pretty outspoken in Mass Events when he discussed our medical beliefs and practices, and the unfortunate results they sometimes bring about. At the same time he tempered his ideas with passages
like this one, from the 870th session for Chapter 10:
"Generally speaking, for example, if you are seriously worried about a physical condition, go to a doctor, because your own beliefs may overfrighten you otherwise. Begin with innocuous but annoying physical conditions, however, and try to work those out for yourself. Try to discover why you are bothered. When you have a headache or a simple stomach upset, or if you have a chronic, annoying but not serious condition, such as trouble with your sinuses, or if you have hay fever — in those situations, remind yourself that your body does indeed have the capacity to heal itself."

A Psychic Manifesto

My life is its own definition. So is yours. Let us leave the priests to their hells and heavens, and confine the scientists
to their dying universe, with its accidentally created stars. Let us each dare to open our dream's door, and explore
the unofficial thresholds, where we begin.

(A note by R.F.B.: This is the first verse of a long poem Jane wrote late in July 1979, as Seth was finishing his work on Mass Events. Among other things, the poem is a passionate declaration of psychic independence, written in response to Seth's ideas in this book.)

County would have been used to house refugees. Many spectacular national events have happened, of course, since our first sessions took place late in 1963, but Seth seldom mentioned such issues, and then only in answer to our own questions. In this current book, however, he discusses in depth how our private realities merge into mass experience. For that reason he examines the public arena, and devotes a good deal of material to Three Mile Island and to the Jonestown mass suicides as well. Both situations occurred as Seth was dictating this book, and while they are contemporary, both cases are classic in their implications. Rob's notes provide the necessary exterior orientation for this present volume, as they do for the previous Seth books, and hint at the framework of normal life in which Seth so gallantly "appears" twice weekly, tossing off my glasses and thereby signaling the beginning of my trance. Besides this, of course, my own moods, speculations, joys and sorrows have spun their earthly web through my mind on such days. I may have worked well or poorly at my own writing. The day may have been calm or distracted by unexpected guests, or marked by any of life's normal domestic ups and downs. While Seth was dictating Mass Events, for example, another of our cats (Billy) died. Seth was discussing the Three Mile Island accident, but he left off book dictation for a while because we felt so
badly, and gave us some excellent material on animal consciousness before and after death — because "tragedies" come in all shapes and sizes, and the most domestic events of our days offer Seth opportunities to comment on life itself. So even if I was focused elsewhere and my consciousness turned inward, a spotlight was thrown upon our world from that other viewpoint, almost as if a character in one of our dreams suddenly came awake, walked out of the dream, and dared comment on our waking world. Perhaps this isn't a good analogy — Seth is far from a dream character, and in fact I hardly ever dream of him at all — but he is a personality whose platform of reality isn't the same as ours, a
personality who writes books through me, but from his standpoint, not mine. In this book he comments on our religions, sciences, cults, and on our medical beliefs as well, with an uncompromising wisdom — as if he represents some deep part of the human psyche that knows better, that has always known better — as if he speaks out not only with my voice but for many many
other people — as if he represents the truths
that we have allowed ourselves to forget.
What truths? That our dreams come
alive at midday; that our feelings and beliefs
turn into the reality we experience; that, in
deeper terms, we are the events in which we
participate, and that murder for the sake of
an ideal is still murder. But more than this,
Seth reminds us of something we knew as
children: We are of good intent.
"You make your own reality." That
statement is one of the cornerstones of Seth's
material, stated almost from the beginning of
our sessions and emphasized throughout his
books. In Mass Events, though, Seth goes
further, maintaining that our private
impulses are meant to provide the impetus
for the development of our own abilities in a
way that will also contribute to the best
interests of the species and the natural world
as well. He's speaking of our normal
impulses here, those that we've been taught
are dangerous, chaotic, and contradictory.
Seth maintains that we can't trust ourselves
while distrusting our impulses at the same
time. Much of this book is concerned with
the purposes of our impulses, and the
reasons for their poor reputations in the eyes
of science and religion. What Seth is really
saying here is that our impulses are meant to
help us create our own realities on a
personal basis in a way that will enhance
both our private lives and our civilizations.
But if we are of good intent, how can we
sometimes end up involved in the most
reprehensible of actions? Seth faces such
questions squarely, and deals with the
motivations of both the fanatic and the
idealist. And people are idealistic. Many
readers of all ages write us, asking how they
can develop their own potentials and also
help bring about "a better world." They care
deeply, and abhor the adverse conditions
they see in society, whether or not they are
intimately concerned with them. In this book
Seth clearly shows how each of us can
contribute to the mass reality, and concisely
outlines the issues so that we don't fall prey
to disillusionment or fanaticism.
Since we are all involved with world
events, it is highly important that we also
understand how we fit into those global
actions, and see how our negative beliefs
about ourselves and the species can result
• xvi • INTRODUCTION
in situations far less than ideal, and quite
different from our stated goals. For this
reason, Seth explains how the theories of
Freud and Darwin confine our imaginations
and our abilities.
Rob and I grew up in the world of
Freudian and Darwinian concepts too, of
course. And we weren't given any magical
immunity from the unfortunate results of
such cramped vision. Those theories, along
with religion's belief in the flawed self, have
left their marks on all of our lives. Rob and I
have been given a new, vaster philosophical
structure through the Seth sessions, one that
we share with our readers. And that
structure is still emerging. It is far from finished.
The answers are not all in. We are
still learning how to ask the right questions.
When Seth began this manuscript, I was
personally working with the idea of "heroic
impulses" (those separate from our usual
ones) that would operate as inner impetuses
toward constructive action. In this book,
though, Seth states that it is our normal
everyday impulses that we must learn to
trust. Even I was taken back! Our usual
impulses? The ones I ignored while I was
looking for the "heroic" ones? And finally I
began to understand: Our normal impulses
are heroic, despite our misunderstanding of
them. In a way, this entire book is an
introduction to our impulses, those we
follow and those we deny.
I've had my own hassles with impulses,
following only those I thought would lead
me where I wanted to go, and drastically
cutting down those I feared might distract
me from my work. Like many other people,
I thought that following my impulses was
the least dependable way of achieving any
goal — unless I was writing, when impulses
of a "creative" kind were most acceptable. I
didn't realize that all impulses were creative.
As a result of such beliefs, I've had a most
annoying arthritis-like condition for some
years that was, among other things, the
result of cutting down impulses toward
physical motion.
In the past, when Seth told me to trust
the spontaneous self, I said "Okay," and
imagined some hypothetical inner self
somehow apart from my conscious intents.
But when Seth kept repeating "Trust your
impulses" in this book, I finally got the
message through my head — and I've
already had considerable physical
improvement as a result. This distantseeming
inner self wasn't so distant after all;
INTRODUCTION • xvii •
"it" communicated through my impulses. In a way, impulses are the
language of the psyche.
But what about aggressive or contradictory or even murderous
impulses? How can those be trusted? Seth answers those questions and
many more, until as we read his explanations we wonder how we could
have so misread our own nature as to distrust the very messages meant to
lead us toward our own spiritual growth and that of the species as well.
And what is my own part in all of this? I see it as harking back to the
poet's original role; to explore the reaches of his or her private psyche,
pushing against usual psychological boundaries until they give, opening
up a new mystical territory — the psyche of the people, of the species
itself — perceiving a spectacular vision of inner reality that the poet then
communicates to the people, translating that vision through words,
rhythm, or songs.
The earliest poets were probably half shaman, half prophet, speaking
for the forces of nature, for the "spirits" of the living and the dead,
voicing their visions of man's unity with the universe. They spoke their
messages, sang their songs, chanted their visions aloud. And maybe that's
why Seth speaks, communicating first through words, rather than, say,
through automatic writing. Seth's books are first of all spoken
productions. Perhaps the Seth sessions themselves harken back to some
ancient time when we received much of our pertinent information about
ourselves in just such a fashion: one of us journeying for the others into
the "mass unconsciousness" — a journey that somehow altered and
expanded the personality — and then communicating our visions as best
we could.
If so, though, such altered "between world" personalities can be
remarkably stable; and if they form according to our ideas of individuality,
they can certainly outdo us in their unique complexity. For if
Seth is only a psychological model filled out by my unconscious trance
material, then he certainly puts our usual concepts of personality to
shame, and by implication shows that we ourselves have a long way to
go if we are to use our full potential.
So I do think more is involved. I think that Seth is a model of
ourselves as we know we can be; that he speaks for the part of ourselves
that never for a minute believed all that nonsense about flawed selves.
• xviii • INTRODUCTION
As far as my relationship with Seth and his with me, because of our
long-standing association I think we must have formed a unique
psychological alliance; somehow I am part Seth, and in sessions at least,
Seth must be part Jane, in a kind of psychological bonding on both sides.
Seth must use my voice to speak and my life as reference, and certainly
the contents of my mind are vastly expanded as a result of the sessions.
My daily life is lived with the knowledge of that association, of course,
and my normal routine now includes "turning into Seth" twice weekly,
and has for years.
This Introduction represents my only conscious contribution to this
entire book, for example. But certainly as Seth often states, even the
unconscious portions of our personalities are actually conscious. It's all a
matter of focus. Not that Seth is just another focus of mine, for it's quite
legitimate to say that I'm a focus of his consciousness in that same
context; but that Seth represents that larger portion of the psyche from
which our own kind of consciousness emerges. The point of all of this is
the exploration of human consciousness, its ranges and scopes. How
much does it change as it approaches other levels of actuality?
But however we attempt to define Seth's reality, I'm convinced of one
thing by now: He is delivering to our conscious minds our deepest
unconscious knowledge about ourselves, the world, the universe, and the
source of Being Itself. Not that Seth claims any kind of omnipotence,
because he doesn't. His material, however, is clearly providing such
translations of unconscious knowledge, and intuitive disclosures;
disclosures, according to Seth, no more remarkable than those available
in nature itself, but we have forgotten how to read nature's messages;
disclosures no more mysterious than those available in our own states of
inspiration, but we've forgotten how to decipher those communications
too. Instead, many people are even frightened of inspiration itself.
I think that such phenomena were important in evolutionary terms,
helping to shape man's consciousness. Not that such material wasn't often
distorted, or just as often discounted: In any case, it would have to be
interpreted again and again so that it applied to the species' experience in
time's framework.
Talk about psychological complexities! I was just presented with an
excellent example of the ideas I've been discussing. As I wrote the
INTRODUCTION • xix •
previous few paragraphs of this
Introduction, the words themselves seemed
to carry me on with a certain rhythm. I felt
as if I were drawing on energy and
knowledge beyond my usual capacities.
Then, since it was late afternoon, I took a
break for a brief nap. More ideas came to
me that I scribbled down in the bedroom.
The subjective pace quickened and kept
accelerating — then I hit a psychological
brick wall, and I could carry the concept no
further. At that point I suddenly recognized
Seth "around the edges" of my mind. The
next moment, I fell asleep. When I
awakened half an hour later, I prepared
dinner. Rob and I ate and watched the
television news. Then I went back to my
study.
No sooner did I sit down than such a rich
vein of material opened that I could hardly
write fast enough to get it all down; and it
began where my earlier ideas had ended off.
I was being given many of the subject
headings for — Seth's next book, even as I
was writing the Introduction for this one!
Behind each heading or subject, I sensed
realms of information available to Seth, but
not (in usual terms) to me. Yet there had
been an earlier moment just before the
onrush of material when I sensed an odd
psychological threshold, a certain
accelerated state, that in this case at least signaled
the intersection of Seth's thoughts and
mine. Then there was a brief point of
psychological rest, an almost neutral
psychological platform in which Seth's
outline began to emerge.
Following this, in our next session, Seth
confirmed that the material amounted to a
partial outline for his projected new book,
and that the title I'd "picked up" while he
was still finishing Mass Events was correct.
So though he hasn't begun it as of this
writing, two days later, surely he will start
dictating Dreams, "Evolution, " and Value
Fulfillment any day now. My glasses will go
off. Seth will say again, "Now: Dictation,"
and Rob will make up a new title page for
his notebook.
The Seth sessions and Seth's books are
inevitably connected to my relationship with
Rob, of course. He's far more than a
recorder or transcriber of the material. Rob's
remarkable mind with its questions and
probing nature has always stimulated me to
do my best, and has served as a kind of
invisible but sturdy psychological screen,
helping me view myself and the sessions as
clearly as possible. If it hadn't been for his
encouragement and active participation, I
doubt that the Seth sessions would exist in
their present form.
• xx • INTRODUCTION
So while Seth's books go out into the public world, the sessions
themselves rise from our private lives. Yet those lives are lived in
coexistence with a mass arena of events that brush against us gently at
times, or drastically affect our days on other occasions. In this book Seth
describes the continuum of existence that holds us all together and blends
our private experiences into world events. This is your world and ours.
Hopefully, this book will help us all make it a better world.
Elmira, New York
September 22, 1979

SESSION 801, APRIL 18,1977
9:31 P.M. MONDAY
I 'll preface the workaday notes for the first session of Mass Events with
the following comments, just to briefly summarize the lifetime endeavor
that my wife, Jane Roberts, and I are involved in with the Seth books. Seth
is a highly creative "energy personality essence," as he calls himself, who
speaks through Jane while she's in a trance or dissociated state. These notes,
then, are written shortly after Seth finished dictating Mass Events in
August 1979. I've discussed some of the same points while introducing earlier
books in the series, of course, although on each occasion I did so in a
different way for variety's sake. At the same time, Jane and I want each book
to be complete in itself, so that the "new" reader can begin to understand
what's happening from the very beginning. Details about some of the subjects
I'll mention here can emerge as this book proceeds, or others are referred
to. And these notes will also free Jane to deal with other matters in her Introduction
for Mass Events.

(By his own definition Seth is no longer a physical being, although he's
told us he's lived a number of previous lives; thus, ideas of reincarnation
enter into his material. Mass Events is the sixth1 book that Seth has produced
— all of them with Jane's active cooperation, obviously, as well as
my own, since I write down his material verbatim, then add my own notes.
•4- EVENTS OF "NATURE"
Often fane has little memory of the information
she delivers as, or for, Seth. She began speaking
for him in December 1963, and shows no signs
of slackening her output. At times her Seth voice
can be very powerful indeed, with an accent I
have yet to succeed in describing. When she's
really into her trance state, her blue-gray eyes
become much darker, much more luminous and
penetrating. Seth calls Jane "Ruburt" and me
"Joseph. " According to him, these "entity
names" mean only that in our present lives we
identify more with the male aspects of our
entities, or whole selves — which in themselves
are neither male or female, but contain within
them a number of other selves [of both sexes] to
whom we're related, or a part of,
reincarnationally and otherwise.
(We usually hold two "sessions, " or
meetings with Seth each week, totaling three or
four hours, but we think that actually Seth
could talk 24 hours a day for the rest of our
lives, and still not cover all of the material he's
capable of tuning in to for us. [The only trouble
is that Jane and I wouldn 't last long!] That
astonishing creativity and energy in the
sessions beckon us on constantly, then,
regardless of what we think about Seth s "reality
or nonreality, " and even regardless of what he
tells us about himself.
(Yet even producing the Seth books — along
with a great amount of unpublished Seth
material — doesn't call upon all of Jane's
abilities, for she's also written 10 books "on her
own. " These include works of poetry, fiction, and
psychic matters as experienced from her own
conscious viewpoint. She has several more
books in progress. It's safe to note, however, that
now all of her work bears upon that unique,
still-growing view of consciousness expressed
by Seth and herself. And so does mine.
(That's saying a lot, really. We do intend to
spend the rest of our lives studying the
ramifications of that "unique, still-growing view
of consciousness. " We still have a host of
questions about Seth's reality, his concepts, and
Jane's role [and my own] in all of this — that
is, questions about consciousness itself,
basically: consciousness getting to know itself in
endless variations, as I've written before, and
whether or not it's couched in physical form.
(For now, let's postulate that Jane and I
think we understand better than we used to
that our consciousnesses have no limitations
except those we've imposed upon them through
our individual perceptions and understandings.
Consciousness creates all, or all that we know
reflects the particularized creations of
consciousness, then, and potentially those
sublime mental and physical achievements are
without end. The idea of infinity is
THE NATURAL BODY • 5 •
implied here — a concept whose implications make us uneasy, for although
Seth's material can be said to imply infinities of creation upon the part of
each of us, still we realize the conscious mind's inability to truly grasp all of
the qualities inherent within such a notion.
(At the same time, Jane and I are extremely grateful that we have the
opportunity to study ideas about consciousness with Seth, and this opening
up of our individual realities is something we couldn 't have conceived of
before 1963. Our appreciation of life has expanded greatly — and if the
Seth material did nothing but help us grow in that respect, it would perform
a very valuable service. We hope others feel they've gained something from
the material too. [Actually, I think that what I've learned has saved me
from bitterness and disillusionment in later life. Jane has also been helped
a great deal.] So our aim with the Seth books is to let Seth have his say, to
add some thoughts of our own, and to trust that the feelings and meanings
in all of this will evoke beneficial responses in each reader. It's all we can do.
I for one think that my own words are pretty inadequate tools of expression
to convey the deeper, unspoken meanings within life that I sense but cannot
really verbalize.
(I also think that Seth himself could have some pretty funny things to
say here to Jane and me — some day I'll ask him — words with which he'd
humorously caution us not to take the whole affair too seriously, to leave
room in our daily lives for the simple, uninhibited joy of creative expression
and living even while we study his unending outpouring of material. But
maintaining such a balance isn 't always easy. Seth has already offered Jane
encouragement twice since he finished his part of the work for Mass Events
in August 1979. He came through with the following quotations when Jane
began to express a renewed concern about her responsibility for his material,
and for the reactions of others to it. Her feelings had arisen in large part
because of the ever-increasing mail response the Seth books have generated.
Interesting, then, the way the Seth portion of Jane's personality structure
[whatever Seth's reality may be] reinforces those other portions that are meeting
all of the challenges embodied in her current mental and physical existence
— and we are continually seeking to learn more about how Seth is
able to do this. In these excerpts Seth also touches upon certain other points
that we think of often.
(From a personal session held on August 29, 1979:
("There is a power of growth and value fulfillment within each individual
that must be satisfied. It is the power that makes physical growth
•6- EVENTS OF "NATURE"
possible, the power that is behind the fetus.
You know ahead of time the nature of the
period into which you will be born. You [Jane
and Rob, or Ruburt and Joseph] were both
born with certain abilities, and you knew
ahead of time that you would have to enlarge
the framework of conventional concepts if
you were to have room to use those abilities.
In a way, they gave you both a second life, for
in the old framework there was no satisfying
[underlined] or creative way to go.
("You have both used the material I have
given you, and what you have learned on
your own through the material, very well —
some of it so smoothly that you are not even
aware of your accomplishments. In some
areas you still cling to old beliefs, but there is
no end to what you can do, still, with growing
comprehension. That is, you can still
accomplish as much, if not more, than you
already have.
("Think of yourselves, in important ways,
as almost having been born in 1963 [when
these sessions began]. The two of you —for
you are both involved — have not only
initiated a new framework from which you
and others can view the nature of reality more
clearly, but you also had to start from scratch,
so to speak, to get the material, learn to trust
it, and then to apply it to your own lives —
even while 'the facts were not all in yet. 'At no
point did you have all of the material to draw
upon, as for example, your readers do at any
given point. So tell Ruburt not to judge
himself too harshly, and in all of this have him
try to remember his sense of play. ..."
(From the regular, 877th session for
September 3, 1979:
("All creativity is basically joyful. It is
play in the highest sense of the term, and it is
always alive with motion. The sessions and
our work can help bring about a new mental
species of men and women. Ideas change the
chromosomes, but the sessions and Ruburt's
books, and so forth, must first and foremost be
joyful expressions of creativity, spontaneous
expressions that fall into their own order. . .
You paint because you love to paint, and
forget what an artist is supposed to be or not
to be. Have Ruburt forget what a writer or a
psychic is supposed to be or not to be.
Ruburt's spontaneity lets all of his creative
abilities emerge. It is foolhardy to try and
apply discipline, or secondary order to a
spontaneous creativity that automatically
gives you the finest order that nature could
ever provide. "
(Those two excerpts from Seth contain
inspired thinking — especially portions about
the power of value fulfillment, and the joy and
spontaneity involved in creativity. As I typed
his material I was reminded of the notes I
wrote and played with the other day:
THE NATURAL BODY •7-
("There really isn't anything else like the
sessions going on in the world today. Even now,
while I'm thinking about how to put Mass
Events together for the reader, last night Seth
came through with new material that he said
will be part of another book. I should always
remember that each time Jane and I sit for a
session, it's a unique event in the world.
("That isn't nearly as conceited a statement
as it seems to be, of course, for each thing each
person does is also unique in the world. Yet, at
the same time I mean that the sessions are truly
original and significant, with their contents
offering new creative insights and hope to the
human species in a way that most endeavors do
not do. In that sense the Seth business is a
remarkable achievement on Jane's part. I do
believe that prolonged study of the Seth material
would yield great results toward our
understanding of ourselves. ..."
(And now for the notes I wrote in April
1977, opening the first session for Mass Events.
Although I've added to my notes for Seth's book
since he finished dictating it, I've done so very
briefly in order to keep them as contemporary
as possible.)
(One might say that Mass Events had its
origins two Seth books ago — way back in
Volume I of "Unknown" Reality, which Seth
finished dictating in June 1974. At 10:14 in the
697th session for that work, he made this
statement: "I will have more to say
concerning illnesses, epidemics, and mass
disorders in this book. "
(It wasn 't until I was checking the page [or
printer's] proofs for Volume 1 last week that I
realized Seth hadn't followed through on his
promise. I'd also forgotten to remind him to do
so. I asked Jane if Seth could devote the next
session to that subject matter so that I could
insert it in Volume 2 of "Unknown" Reality as
a note or an appendix, since I had plenty of
work to do yet for that second volume. She
agreed; we thought some very interesting
material would result. We also thought it was a
good time to pose questions for Seth —for just
two weeks ago, in the 800th session, he'd
finished dictating his own fifth book, The
Nature of the Psyche: Its Human Expression.2
(We gave up our regularly scheduled
sessions last week, and spent a great deal of
time correcting the proofs for Volume 1 of
"Unknown".3 In fact, I didn 't finish my part of
the job until midnight Sunday; then early this
morning I mailed the whole thing to Tarn
Mossman, Jane's editor at Prentice-Hall. By
now both of us were bleary from all of those
days and
• 8 • EVENTS OF "NATURE"
nights of concentrated labor, but still we wanted to hold the session. I sat
opposite Jane in our quiet, softly-lit living room, working on these notes
while I waited for her to take off her glasses and go easily into trance. I felt
a familiar sense of anticipation as I thought of recording the excellent session
to come. And that's when Seth surprised us.)
Now: Good evening.
("Good evening, Seth.")
You cannot begin to understand the nature of mass events of any kind
unless-you consider the even greater framework in which they have their
existence.
A person's private experience happens in the context of his psychological
and biological status, and basically cannot be separated from
his religious and philosophical beliefs and sentiments, and his cultural
environment and political framework —
(Our young tiger cat, Billy, had been sleeping on a nearby chair. Now
he woke up, stretched, jumped down and walked over to Jane as she spoke
for Seth. Billy crouched to jump up into her lap. I picked him up and
headed for the cellar door. Jane remained in trance.)
Sweet creatures are difficult to find.
("Yes," I said to Seth over my shoulder. In a recent session Seth had
remarked that Billy was "a sweet creature." And he is. I put him in the
cellar, where he sleeps each night.)
All of the issues form together to make a trellis of behavior. Thorns
or roses may grow therein. That is, the individual will grow outward
toward the world, encountering and forming a practical experience,
traveling outward from his center in almost vinelike fashion, forming
from the fabric of physical reality a conglomeration of pleasant or
aesthetic, and unpleasant or prickly events.
The vine of experience in this analogy is formed in quite a natural
fashion from "psychic" elements that are as necessary to psychological
experience as sun, air, and water are to plants. (Loudly and humorously:)
I do not want to get too entwined (underlined) in this analogy, however;
but as the individual's personal experience must be seen in the light of all
of these issues, so mass events cannot be understood unless they are
considered in a far greater context than usual.
The question of epidemics, for example, cannot be answered from a
biological standpoint alone. It involves great sweeping
THE NATURAL BODY • 9 •
psychological attitudes on the part of many, and meets the needs and
desires of those involved — needs which, in your terms, arise in a
framework of religious, psychological and cultural realities that cannot
be isolated from biological results.
I have thus far stayed clear of many important and vital subjects,
involving mass realities, because first of all the importance of the
individual was to be stressed, and his power to form his private events.
Only when the private nature of reality was emphasized sufficiently
would I be ready to show how the magnification of individual reality
combines and enlarges to form vast mass reactions — such as, say, the
initiation of an obviously new historical and cultural period; the rise or
overthrow of governments; the birth of a new religion that sweeps all
others before it; mass conversions; mass murders in the form of wars; the
sudden sweep of deadly epidemics; the scourge of earthquakes, floods, or
other disasters; the inexplicable appearance of periods of great art or
architecture or technology.
(Pause at 9:57, one of many.) I said there are no closed systems. This
also means that in world terms, events spin like electrons, affecting all
psychological and psychic systems as well as biological ones. It is true to
say that each individual dies alone, for no one else can die that death. It is
also true that part of the species dies with each death, and is reborn with
each birth, and that each private death takes place within the greater
context of the existence of the entire species. The death serves a purpose
species-wise while it also serves the purposes of the individual, for no
death comes unbidden.
An epidemic, for example, serves the purposes of each individual
who is involved, while it also serves its own functions in the greater
species framework.
When you consider epidemics to be the result of viruses, and
emphasize their biological stances, then it seems that the solutions are
very obvious: You learn the nature of each virus and develop an
inoculation, giving [each member of] the populace a small dose of the
disease so that a man's own body will combat it, and he will become
immune.
The shortsightedness of such procedures is generally overlooked
because of the definite short-term advantages. As a rule, for example,
people inoculated against polio do not develop that disease. Using such
procedures, tuberculosis has been largely conquered.
• 10- EVENTS OF "NATURE"
There are great insidious variables operating,
however, and these are caused precisely by the
small framework in which such mass epidemics
are considered.
In the first place, the causes are not
biological. Biology is simply the carrier of a
"deadly intent." In the second place, there is a
difference between a virus produced in the
laboratory and that inhabiting the body — a
difference recognized by the body but not by
your laboratory instruments.
Give us a moment ... In a way the body
produces antibodies, and sets up natural
immunization as a result of, say, inoculation.
But the body's chemistry is also confused, for
it "knows" it is reacting to a disease that is not
"a true disease," but a biologically counterfeit
intrusion.
To that extent — and I do not mean to
overstate the case — the body's biological
integrity is contaminated. It may at the same
time produce antibodies also, for example, to
other "similar" diseases, and so overextend its
defenses that the individual later comes down
with another disease.
(10:19.) Now, no person becomes ill
unless that illness serves a psychic or
psychological reason, so many people escape
such complications. In the meantime,
however, scientists and medical men find
more and more viruses against which the
population "must" be inoculated. Each one is
considered singly. There is a rush to develop a
new inoculation against the newest virus.
Much of this is on a predictive basis: The
scientists "predict" how many people might be
"attacked" by, say, a virus that has caused a
given number of deaths. Then as a
preventative measure the populace is invited
to the new inoculation,
(Emphatically:) Many people who would
not get the disease in any case are then
religiously inoculated with it. The body is
exerted to use its immune system to the
utmost, and sometimes, according to the
inoculation, overextended [under such]
conditions.4 Those individuals who have
psychologically decided upon death will die in
any case, of that disease or another, or of the
side effects of the inoculation.
Give us a moment . . . Inner reality and
private experience give birth to all mass
events. Man cannot disentangle himself from
the natural context of his physical life. His
culture, his religion, his
THE NATURAL BODY - 11 •
psychologies, and his psychological nature together form the context
within which both private and mass events occur. (Loudly, then
whispering so softly that I could barely hear:) This book will, then, be
devoted to the nature of the great sweeping emotional, religious, or
biological events that often seem to engulf the individual, or to lift him or
her willy-nilly in their power.
What is the relationship between the individual and the gigantic mass
motions of nature, of government, or even of religion? What about mass
conversions? Mass hysteria? Mass healings, mass murder, and the
individual? Those are the questions we will devote ourselves to in this
book.
It will be called: "The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events."
(Louder:) Take your break or end the session as you prefer.
(10:35. "We'll take the break, then."
(Immediately:) And you can say that your question about epidemics
served as a convenient stimulus; for that question, coming from you,
comes also from the readers of our books.
(Jane came out of her trance in a sort of amazed silence — which
meant that she had some idea of what Seth had been talking about, as sometimes
happens.
("Now just who in the heck is up to what?" I asked her. We laughed.
"How can I use this material as an appendix or note in 'Unknown' if it
belongs in a new book ? I thought you and your boy were up to something not
long after the session started. "
("Oh, I don't believe it," she said. "This isn't anything like I consciously
figured upon — and you can put that down for one of us to type,
two or three years from now . . . I can't get over this. ..."
(fane had started doing some typing on the final manuscript for Seth's
The Nature of the Psyche: Its Human Expression a couple of days ago.
She was also working on her own The Afterdeath Journal of an American
Philosopher: The World View of William James. Yet I thought she needed
the stimulus of Seth having something underway. There was more than a
little irony in the situation, for I was the one who 'd told her flat out, back in
July 1975, that she was going to start Psyche, just so that she'd have a
Seth book to play with. [I'd also wanted to see what she and Seth would
come up with on demand.] But this time Seth fooled me and started Mass
Events only a couple of weeks after finishing Psyche. I was all for it,
though, I told Jane enthusiastically. It's always a pleasure to work on a Seth
•12- EVENTS OF "NATURE"
book, to explore with him his unique view of
reality, and to try to put at least a few of his
ideas to use in our everyday, "practical"
world. I repeated my thought that it didn't
matter how many Seth books she piled up
ahead of contract, or publication: That was
certainly a more creative and exciting
position to be in than if one didn't have
anything ahead. Jane agreed, while still
worrying about what we were going to do
with all of the material as it accumulated year
after year. At this time there's no way we're
going to see it all published.
("My mind works in sneaky little ways,"
she said. "I don't tell you everything. I was
thinking of something like a question-andanswer
format for a book, if we did a new
one." Even that idea was a revelation to me,
since she hadn't mentioned a book, period.
Seth returned briefly as we talked:
(10:39.) We have begun Part 1, to be
called: "The Events of 'Nature.' Epidemics
and Natural Disasters."
(Then a moment later:) Chapter 1: "The
Natural Body and Its Defenses."
("But I'm really surprised. I had no idea
of this tonight, "Jane said as soon as she was
Jane again — thereupon emphasizing anew
some of our endless questions about the Seth
phenomenon: What portion of her personality,
or entity, whether that portion might be
called a Seth, or whatever, had been busy
planning— organizing — this new
endeavor1? And how could such a creative
process take place without her having at least
some conscious intimations of it? What were
the limits of human accomplishment?
(We had something to eat while we talked
about the new book. I read Jane the title for it
several times. She didn't seem to be very taken
with it. "I don't know whether I'm going on
with the session or not, " she finally said. "I'm
just waiting. So far I haven't gotten anything. .
. ."Resume, eventually, at 11:25, with many
pauses.)
Dying is a biological necessity, not only
for the individual, but to insure the continued
vitality of the species. Dying is a spiritual and
psychological necessity, for after a while the
exuberant, ever-renewed energies of the spirit
can no longer be translated into flesh.
Inherently, each individual knows that he
or she must die physically in order to survive
spiritually and psychically (underlined). The
self outgrows the flesh. Particularly since [the
advent of Charles] Darwin's theories5, the
acceptance of the fact of death has come to
THE NATURAL BODY • 13 •
imply a certain kind of weakness, for is it not said that only the strong
survive?
To some degree, epidemics and recognized illnesses serve the
sociological purpose of providing an acceptable reason for death — a
face-saving device for those who have already decided to die. This does
not mean that such individuals make a conscious decision to die, in your
terms: But such decisions are often semiconscious (intently). It might be
that those individuals feel they have fulfilled their purposes — but such
decisions may also be built upon a different kind of desire for survival
than those understood in Darwinian terms.
It is not understood that before life an individual decides to live. A
self is not simply the accidental personification of the body's biological
mechanism. Each person born desires to be born. He dies when that
desire no longer operates. No epidemic or illness or natural disaster — or
stray bullet from a murderer's gun — will kill a person who does not
want to die.
The desire for life has been most flaunted, yet human psychology has
seldom dealt with the quite active desire for death. In its natural form this
is not a morbid, frightened, neurotic, or cowardly attempt to escape life,
but a definite, positive, "healthy" acceleration of the desire for survival,
in which the individual strongly wants to leave physical life as once the
child wanted to leave the parent's home.
(11:44.) I am not speaking here of the desire for suicide, which
involves a definite killing of the body by self-deliberate means — often
of a violent nature. Ideally this desire for death, however, would simply
involve the slowing of the body's processes, the gradual disentanglement
of psyche from flesh; or in other instances, according to individual
characteristics, a sudden, natural stopping of the body's processes.
Left alone, the self and the body are so entwined that the separation
would be smooth. The body would automatically follow the wishes of the
inner self. In the case of suicide, for example, the self ig to some extent
acting out of context with the body, which still has its own will to live.
(Long pause, one of many.) I will have more to say about suicide, but
I do nol mean here to imply guilt on the part of a person who
• 14 • EVENTS OF "NATURE"
takes his or her own life. In many cases, a more natural death would have
ensued in any event as the result of "diseases." Period. Often, for
example, a person wanting to die originally intended to experience only a
portion of earth life, say childhood. This purpose would be entwined with
the parents' intent. Such a son or daughter might be born, for instance,
through a woman who wanted to experience childbirth but who did not
necessarily want to encounter the years of child-raising, for her own
reasons.
(11:57. The telephone began to ring. The sudden noise was a shock, so
deep was our mutual concentration. Yet Jane didn 't come out of trance. As
Seth, she stared at me; I stared back, making no effort to take the call. Fortunately,
the ringing soon stopped.)
Such a mother would attract a consciousness who desired, perhaps,
to reexperience childhood but not adulthood, or who might teach the
mother lessons sorely needed. Such a child might naturally die at 10 or
12, or earlier. Yet the ministrations of science might keep the child alive
far longer, until such a person [begins] encountering an adulthood thrust
upon him or her, so to speak.
An automobile accident, suicide, or another kind of accident might
result. The person might fall prey to an epidemic, but the smoothness of
biological motion or psychological motion has been lost. I am not here
condoning suicide, for too often in your society it is the unfortunate result
of conflicting beliefs — and yet it is true to say that all deaths are suicide,
and all births deliberate on the part of child and parent. To that extent,
you cannot separate issues like a population explosion on the part of
certain portions of the world, from epidemics, earthquakes, and other
disasters.
(Long pause.) In wars, people automatically reproduce their kind to
make up for those that are killed, and when the race overproduces there
will be automatic controls set upon the population. Yet these will in all
ways fit the intents and purposes of the individuals involved.
(Forcefully:) End of dictation, end of session, my heartiest regards...
(12:12 A.M. After giving a few lines of material for herself, Jane
abruptly came out of a very deep trance without saying good night as Seth.
"I haven't any memory of anything since break, " she said. We were tired.
(I don't know yet how I'll go about producing my part of Mass Events,
of course, but the reader, picking up the finished work, will be able to tell at
THE NATURAL BODY • 15 •
a glance all the decisions I made: whether the session notes are long or
short, numerous or scarce, how often I referred to the other Seth books,
and whether or not I added any appendix material.
("Well, " / told Jane as we went to bed, "right now my idea is that
we'll have only short notes and no appendixes. Doing things that way will
speed up the publication date. " I'm all too conscious of the great amount
of physical time I'm spending on the two volumes of "Unknown" Reality; /
often feel responsible for holding up publication of Volume 2 especially,
since Seth finished dictating it almost exactly two years ago. See the
chronology of our activities in Note 2.)
NOTES: SESSION 801
1.In the order of their publication the five previous Seth books are:
Seth Speaks: The Eternal Validity of the Soul; The Nature of Personal
Reality: A Seth Book; Volumes 1 and 2 of the "Unknown" Reality: A Seth
Book; and The Nature of the Psyche: Its Human Expression. All of
Jane's books, whether produced with or without Seth, are listed in the
frontmatter of Mass Events, with publication dates.
2.I don't mean to confuse the reader by using the titles of Seth's "old"
books, but rather to show how Jane's and my work encompasses a
number of projects at once. That is, we have yet to manage to work
on just one book of any kind at a time; that would be too simple!
There's always a long slow rate of turnover in our labors, it seems: As
one book or project is finished, another rises almost effortlessly to
take its place, and everything rolls along together until the next large
change comes about.
That progression in Jane's endeavors (and in my own to a lesser
degree) may reflect her strong writing and psychic abilities, but it also
reveals the way we constandy work with her work, and how we go about
presenting it in the form of physical books so that we can show others
what we've been up to.
Note that even though Seth finished dictating Volume 1 of
"Unknown" Reality almost three years ago (in June 1974), and I
completed my own notes and appendixes for it six months ago, we're just
now coming to the end of the long, complicated process involved in
following the manuscript through the editorial and production stages
necessary to get the book out into the marketplace. Checking the page
proofs is the last stage we go through before publication, and Volume 1 is
due to be marketed this summer — probably in July.
In physical terms, three years is an important portion of one's life
span. What were Jane and I each doing all that time? We were involved
in a whole group of endeavors. I'll recap the major ones in order to place
the beginning of Seth's lutrsi book, Mass Events, in context. I do this for
my own sake as well
• 16 • EVENTS OF "NATURE"
as the reader's, since I like to know exactly where I am in time, and what I mean and feel
when writing even a short note for one of the Seth books.
This reconstruction of the past can be both fascinating and frustrating as I compare
dates, session numbers, and our daily activities. Somehow, immersed in all of that
minutiae of the past, I revive it so that it becomes part of the present once more — and
that coexistence then reminds me of Seth's idea of simultaneous time; perhaps, outside of
dreaming, it's the best approximation I can make of the paradoxical notion that all exists
at once, and that all changes together, for each time I regard one of my past moments
from the present, I change both that past and the present.
Another purpose is involved in presenting Mass Events in context, though: I plan to
use current professional and personal events from our lives as a sort of background or
framework for the book as Jane delivers it for Seth. But right now, here's a chronological
list of our activities from June 17, 1974, when Seth finished his share of the work on
Volume I of "Unknown Reality " to April 18, 1977 (today) when I mailed the corrected
page proofs for that volume to Jane's publisher.
Beginning in June 1974, then, while writing notes and appendixes for Volume 1 of
"Unknown", and taking Seth's dictation for Volume 2, I spent eight months producing the
art work for Jane's Adventures in Consciousness and for her book of poetry, Dialogues of
the Soul and Mortal Self in Time; I finished all of those drawings in January 1975. In the
meantime Jane completed Adventures in August 1974, and started Psychic Politics that
October. In March 1975 we took time out to move from the apartment house in downtown
Elmira to our "hill house" just outside the city. Jane finished dictating Volume 2 of
"Unknown" for Seth in April 1975, and I started my notes and appendixes for it. Injury
1975 Seth began The Nature of the Psyche: Its Human Expression, and in December of
that year Jane initiated work on her own The World View of Paul Cezanne: A Psychic
Interpretation. She finished Politics in February 1976, and Cezanne in September;
Politics was published that September also. I completed my own writing for Volume 1 of
"Unknown" in October. Our 16-year-old cat, Willy, died early in November, and two days
later we obtained a kitten, Willy Two (or Billy, as we soon came to call him), from an area
humane society. I finished typing the manuscript for Volume 1 late in November, spent
December checking it, and mailed it to Prentice-Hall early in January 1977.
In January we obtained an unlisted telephone number, because we could no longer
handle the 600-or-so calls a month that were coming in. Later in the month, Jane started
writing James. In February 1977 we received from Prentice-Hall the copyedited
manuscript for Volume 1 of "Unknown " Reality. (Copyediting is one of the earlier
editorial stages a book goes through on its
THE NATURAL BODY • 17 •
way to publication, and is meant to study all of the work that Jane and I and her
editor, Tam Mossman, have already done on the manuscript: Before it's set into
type, a reader who works independently of the publishing firm carefully checks
the manuscript for grammar, contradictions, facts, consistency, and so forth, and
makes suggestions for whatever changes he or she thinks are desirable. Jane and
I are free, of course, to reject any alterations we don't agree with.) In March we
checked the copyedited manuscript for Cezanne. Seth finished dictating Psyche
early in April. A few days later we began correcting page proofs for Volume 1 of
"Unknown. "
In addition to these activities, Jane conducted her weekly ESP classes until
we moved in March 1975, and kept up with her considerable correspondence.
Her mail is accumulating at such a rate that I think it's becoming a valuable
social document in its own right. An extremely interesting study could be done
on the personal and social factors behind the great variety of responses her work
has generated. We have on file most of the letters we've received over the years.
Through all of this, we've usually kept the sessions going, to get both book
work and other, often private material, seen a number of scheduled visitors —
and some who weren't scheduled — and participated in a few radio and
newspaper interviews.
At this time, I'm still working on the notes and appendixes for Volume 2 of
"Unknown, "even while Seth has begun Mass Events. Jane and I have already
planned our approach to Psyche (which Seth has just finished), and it's to be
published shortly after Volume 2 is. To top off our activities of the moment, we're
having the front porch of the hill house rebuilt — with a new raised floor and
screening all around, so that Jane can write there in die summertime. The
workmen swarming around all day, and the noise involved, are both exciting and
distracting. But I have a feeling that the front porch affair isn't the end of our
construction odyssey: Jane has a certain speculative look when she notes that we
have but one car — she doesn't drive — to occupy the large two-car garage
attached to the rear of the house. What better idea than to convert half of the
garage into a writing room, with sliding glass doors, and add a screened-in porch
there also? After all, she commented recently, the porch would protect our back
door, too, especially from all of that winter weather. . . .
3. Seth's delivery is remarkably clear and unambiguous, but once in a while
he'll come through with an awkward sentence (as we all do), or one that
combines the singular and the plural when one or the other should be used
throughout, or he'll repeat a certain word too often. On such occasions Jane and I
may recast the sentence slightly while maintaining the syntax, or add a clarifying
word or phrase in brackets [like this].
■ 18 • EVENTS OF "NATURE"
If I catch anything amiss in Seth's delivery I'll ask him about it. He may omit a word,
or I may misinterpret what he says while I'm concentrating on my notetaking. In these
cases Jane always spots the error at once when she reads my typed session transcript. But
except for such minor alterations, or in the case of personal information, which we may
delete, Seth's material is presented as received, and we never arbitrarily eliminate any of
it — occasionally to the pain of others, I'm afraid. We think it important that these
sessions be given just as Jane delivers them, for after all the manner of that presentation,
and its organization, are vital parts of the whole Seth phenomenon. So is the speed of
delivery, for that matter. I want to remind the reader that the Seth books are spoken books
rather than written ones, and that ordinarily Seth has no chance to revise his copy.
Jane's ability and training as a writer are obviously responsible for the form the
sessions take. As she's said often: "I'm a writer who's psychic — not a psychic who's a
writer."
4. I'm especially interested in Seth's material on inoculations, since on two separate
occasions I underwent severe physical reactions after receiving them. Jane has also had
some unfavorable experiences with inoculations.
As for myself, I took both preventative "treatments" before Jane began speaking for
Seth in 1963. One led to a strong serum reaction that incapacitated me for two weeks; the
other resulted in a partial paralysis lasting several days. I accepted the vaccines because I
yielded (if somewhat reluctantly) to conventional parental and medical pressures, as well
as my own beliefs of the time: I was "supposed" to take the inoculations; they would be
"good" for me. Even now I must carry a warning card in my wallet. It bears a description
of my reactions to at least some vaccines, as well as the most emphatic statement that if
I'm found unconscious for any reason — after an accident, say — I must not be given an
injection of any kind because I might have a fatal reaction to it. I haven't had a "shot"
since living through those very unpleasant experiences, nor do I intend to. I no longer
believe I'd succumb to one of the forbidden vaccines — but at the same time I don't want
to find out what might happen, either!
Still, it would seem to be almost impossible to do without inoculation programs in
our society — they're such a strong part of our national and private medical belief
systems. I'm sure that Seth will elaborate upon the whole subject of mass inoculations as
he proceeds with Mass Events.
He's commented before in his books on our medical practices and technology, of
course. In Volume 1 of "Unknown " Reality, for instance, see Session 703, which was
held on June 12,1974. At 10:36, in part: "People will die when they are ready to,
following inner dictates and dynamics. A person ready to die will, despite any
medication. A person who wants to live will seize upon
THE NATURAL BODY •19-
the tiniest hope, and respond. The dynamics of
health have nothing to do with inoculations. They
reside in the consciousness of each being."
5. Seth referred to evolution in both volumes
of "Unknown " Reality. As it happens, I've just
finished writing a rather long dissertation on the
subject for Volume 2. It will be presented as
Appendix 12.
SESSION 802, APRIL 25, 1977 9:47P.M. MONDAY
(The regularly scheduled session for last
Wednesday evening was not held. As I wrote in
Note 2 for the first session o/Mass Events, which
Seth-Jane gave a week ago, we're having the front
porch of our hill house rebuilt. The workmen
poured the cement for the new floor on Thursday.
Today they installed the forms for the new porch
steps, and poured again. The weather has been
excellent.)
Good evening.
("Good evening, Seth.")
Dictation: (Pause, one of many.) Now: To a
certain extent (underlined) , epidemics are the
result of a mass suicide phenomenon on the parts
of those involved. Biological, sociological, or even
economic factors may be involved, in that for a
variety of reasons, and at different levels, whole
groups of individuals want to die at any given time
— but in such a way that their individual deaths
amount to a mass statement.
On one level the deaths are a protest against
the time in which they occur. Those involved have
private reasons, however. The reasons, of course,
vary from one individual to another, yet all
involved "want their death to serve a purpose"
beyond private concerns. Partially, then, such
deaths are meant to make the survivors question
the conditions (dash) — for unconsciously the
species well knows there are reasons for such mass
deaths that go beyond accepted beliefs.
In some historical periods the plight of the
poor was so horrible, so unendurable, that
outbreaks of the plague occurred, literally resulting
in a complete destruction of large areas of the
environment in which such social, political, and
economic conditions existed. [Those] plagues took
rich and poor alike, however, so the complacent
well-to-do could see quite clearly, for example,
that to
• 20 • EVENTS OF "NATURE"
some extent sanitary conditions, privacy, peace of mind, had to be
granted to the poor alike, for the results of their dissatisfaction would
have quite practical results. Those were deaths of protest.1
Individually, each "victim" was to one extent or another a "victim" of
apathy, despair, or hopelessness, which automatically lowered bodily
defenses.
Not only do such states of mind lower the defenses, however, but
they activate and change the body's chemistries, alter its balances, and
initiate disease conditions. Many viruses inherently capable of causing
death, in normal conditions contribute to the overall health of the body,
existing side by side as it were with other viruses, each contributing quite
necessary activities that maintain bodily equilibrium.
If [certain viruses] are triggered, however, to higher activity or
overproduction by mental states, they then become "deadly." Physically
they may be passed on in whatever manner is peculiar to a specific strain.
Literally, individual mental problems of sufficient severity emerge as
social, mass diseases.
(Long pause.) The environment in which an outbreak occurs points
at the political, sociological, and economic conditions that have evolved,
causing such disorder. Often such outbreaks take place after ineffective
political or social action — that is, after some unified mass social protest
— has failed, or is considered hopeless. They often occur also in wartime
on the part of a populace [that] is against a given war in which [its]
country is involved.
Initially there is a psychic contagion: Despair moves faster than a
mosquito, or any outward carrier of a given disease. The mental state
brings about the activation of a virus that is, in those terms, passive.
(Pause at 10:16.) Despair may seem passive only because it feels
that exterior action is hopeless — but its fires rage inwardly, and that
kind of contagion can leap from bed to bed and from heart to heart. It
touches those, however, who are in the same state only, and to some
extent it brings about an acceleration in which something can indeed be
done in terms of group action.
Now if you believe in one life only, then such conditions will seem
most disastrous, and in your terms they clearly are not pretty. Yet, though
each victim in an epidemic may die his or her own death, that death
becomes part of a mass social protest. The lives of intimate survivors are
shaken, and according to the extent of the epidemic
THE NATURAL BODY •21-
the various elements of social life itself are
disturbed, altered, rearranged. Sometimes such
epidemics are eventually responsible for the
overthrow of governments, the loss of wars.
There are also even deeper biological
connections with the heart of nature. You are
biological creatures. Your proud human consciousness
rests on the vast "unconscious"
integrity of your physical being. In that regard
your consciousness is as natural as your toe. In
terms of the species' integrity your mental
states are, then, highly important. Despair or
apathy is a biological "enemy." Social conditions,
political states, economic policies, and
even religious or philosophical frameworks
that foster such mental states, bring about a
biological retaliation. They act like fire applied
to a plant.
The epidemics then serve many purposes
— warning that certain conditions will not be
tolerated. There is a biological outrage that
will be continually expressed until the
conditions are changed.
(Long pause at 10:31.) Give us a moment.
. . Even in the days of the great plagues in
England there were those smitten who did not
die, and there were those untouched by the
disease who dealt with the sick and dying.
Those survivors, who were actively involved,
saw themselves in a completely different light
than those who succumbed, however: They
were those, untouched by despair, who saw
themselves as effective rather than ineffective.
Often they roused themselves from lives of
previously unheroic situations, and then
performed with great bravery. The horror of
the conditions overwhelmed them where
earlier they were not involved.
The sight of the dying gave them visions
of the meaning of life, and stirred new [ideas]
of sociological, political, and spiritual natures,
so that in your terms the dead did not die in
vain. Epidemics by their public nature speak
of public problems — problems that
sociologically threaten to sweep the individual
to psychic disaster as the physical
materialization does biologically.
(Pause.) These are the reasons also for the
range or the limits of various epidemics —
why they sweep through one area and leave
another clear. Why one in the family will die
and another survive — for in this mass
venture, the individual still forms his or her
private reality.
(Pause at 10:42.) Give us a moment... In
your society scientific medical beliefs
operate, and a kind of preventative
medicine,
• 22 • EVENTS OF "NATURE"
mentioned earlier, in which procedures [of inoculation] are taken,
bringing about in healthy individuals a minute disease condition that then
gives immunity against a more massive visitation. In the case of any
given disease this procedure might work quite well for those who believe
in it. It is, however, the belief, and not the procedure, that works
(louder).2
I am not recommending that you abandon the procedure when it
obviously works for so many —r yet you should understand why it brings
about the desired results.
Such medical technology is highly specific, however. You cannot be
inoculated with the desire to live, or with the zest, delight, or contentment
of the healthy animal. If you have decided to die, protected
from one disease in such a manner, you will promptly come down with
another, or have an accident. The immunization, while specifically
effective, may only reinforce prior beliefs about the body's
ineffectiveness. It may appear that left alone the body would surely
develop whatever disease might be "fashionable" at the time, so that the
specific victory might result in the ultimate defeat as far as your beliefs
are concerned.
You have your own medical systems, however. I do not mean to
undermine them, since they are undermining themselves. Some of my
statements clearly cannot be proven, in your terms, and appear almost
sacrilegious. Yet, throughout your history no man or woman has died
who did not want to die, regardless of the state of medical technology.
Specific diseases have certain symbolic meanings, varying with the times
and the places.3
(10:56.) Give us a moment. . . Are your hands tired?
("No."
(Pause.) There has been great discussion in past years about the
survival of the fittest, in Darwinian terms,4 but little emphasis is placed
upon the quality of life, or of survival itself; or in human terms, [there
has been] little probing into the question of what makes life worthwhile.
Quite simply, if life is not worthwhile (louder), no species will have a
reason to continue.
Civilizations are literally social species. They die when they see no
reason to live, yet they seed other civilizations. Your private mental states
en masse bring about the mass cultural stance of your civilization. To
some extent, then, the survival of your civilization is
THE NATURAL BODY -23-
quite literally dependent upon the condition of each individual; and that
condition is initially a spiritual, psychic state that gives birth to the
physical organism. That organism is intimately connected to the natural
biological state of each other person, and to each other living thing, or
entity, however minute.
New paragraph: Despite all "realistic" pragmatic tales to the contrary,
the natural state of life itself is one of joy, acquiescence with itself— a
state in which action is effective, and the power to act is a natural right.
You would see this quite clearly with plants, animals, and all other life if
you were not so blinded by beliefs to the contrary. You would feel it in
the activity of your bodies, in which the vital individual affirmation of
your cells brings about the mass, immensely complicated achievement of
your physical being. That activity naturally promotes health and vitality.
I am not speaking of some romanticized, "passive," floppy, spiritual
world, but of a clear reality without impediments, in which the opposite
of despair and apathy reigns.
This book will be devoted, then, to those conditions that best promote
spiritual, psychic, and physical zest, the biological and psychic
components that make a species desire to continue its kind. Such aspects
promote the cooperation of all kinds of life on all levels with one another.
No species competes with another, but cooperates to form an
environment in which all kinds can creatively exist.
(Forcefully:) End of dictation. We will have a rip-roaring book this
time. You may end the session or take a break as you prefer.
("We'll take the break. "
(11:17. Jane's delivery had been quite intent throughout, even though
she'd taken many pauses; some of them had been long. Before the session she
had wondered if she really wanted to have one, but as on other such occasions
she came through with excellent material once she started.
(Resume in the same manner at 11:37.)
I will then briefly continue.
You live in a physical community, but you live first of all in a community
of thoughts and feelings. These trigger your physical actions.
They directly affect the behavior of your body. The experience of the
animals is different, yet in their own ways animals have both individual
intent and purpose. Their feelings are certainly as pertinent as yours.
They dream, and in their way they reason.
• 24 • EVENTS OF "NATURE"
They do not "worry." They do not anticipate disaster when no signs
of it are apparent in their immediate environment. On their own they do
not need preventative medicine. Pet animals are inoculated against
diseases, however. In your society this almost becomes a necessity. In a
"purely natural" setting you would not have as many living puppies or
kittens. There are stages of physical existence, and in those terms nature
knows what it is doing. When a species overproduces, the incidences of,
say, epidemics grow. This applies to human populations as well as to the
animals.
The quality of life is important above all. Newborn animals either die
quickly and naturally, painlessly, before their consciousnesses are fully
focused here, or are killed by their mothers — not because they are weak
or unfit to survive, but because the [physical] conditions are not those
that will produce the quality of life that makes survival "worthwhile."
The consciousness that became so briefly physical is not annihilated,
however, but in your terms waits for better conditions.
There are also "trial runs" in human and animal species alike, in
which peeks are taken, or glimpses, of physical life, and that is all.
Epidemics sweeping through animal populations are also biological and
psychic statements, then, in which each individual knows that only its
own greatest fulfillment can satisfy the quality of life on an individual
basis, and thus contribute to the mass survival of the species.
(Pause at 11:55.) Suffering is not necessarily good for the soul at all,
and left alone natural creatures do not seek it. There is a natural
compassion, a biological knowledge, so that the mother of an animal
knows whether or not existing conditions will support the new offspring.
Animals instinctively realize their relationship with the great forces of
life. They will instinctively starve an offspring while its consciousness is
still unfocused, rather than send it loose under adverse conditions.
In a natural state, many children would die stillborn for the same
reasons, or would be naturally aborted. There is a give-and-take between
all elements of nature, so that such individuals often choose mothers, for
example, who perhaps wanted the experience of pregnancy but not of
birth — where they choose the experience of the fetus but not necessarily
[that] of the child. Often in such cases these
THE NATURAL BODY • 25 •
are "fragment personalities," wanting to taste physical reality, but not being
ready to deal with it. Each case is individual, however, so these are general
statements.
Many children, who, it seems, should have died of disease, of "childhood
epidemics," nevertheless survive because of their different intents. The world of
thought and feeling may be invisible, and yet it activates all physical systems
with which you are acquainted.
Animals as well as men can indeed make social statements, that appear in a
biological context. Animals stricken by kitten and puppy diseases, for example,
choose to die, pointing out the fact that the quality of their lives individually and
en masse is vastly lacking. Their relationships with their own species is no
longer in balance. They cannot use their full abilities or powers, nor are many of
them given compensating elements in terms of a beneficial psychic relationship
with man — but instead are shunted aside, unwanted and unloved. An unloved
animal does not want to live.
Love involves self-respect, the trust in individual biological zest and
integrity. To that extent, in their way animal epidemics have the same causes as
human ones.
An animal can indeed commit suicide. So can a race or a species. The
dignity of a spirited life demands that a certain quality of experience be
maintained.
(Emphatically:) End of dictation, end of session. My heartiest regards.
(Whispering now:) Trust the changes in Ruburt's [own condition] . A fond good
evening.
("Thank you. The same to you, Seth. Good night. "
(12:17 A.M. See Jane's material on her "own condition" in her Introduction
for this book. She's enjoyed a number of heartening improvements lately.)
NOTES: SESSION 802
1. In ordinary terms, various kinds of plague, including the bubonic and the
infamous "Black Death," were (and still are) spread to man by fleas carrying a
bacterium from infected rats. Other forms of the affliction are carried by other
rodents. In Seth's terms, through the complicated interactions and
communications involving all forms of life, man's deep dissatisfactions would
have periodic ally helped trigger the resurgence of scourges like the plagues: In
3rd-century Rome, lor instance, several thousand people were said to have
• 26 • EVENTS OF "NATURE"
died each day; estimates are that over a 20-year period in the 14th century,
three-quarters of the population of Europe and Asia perished; there was the great
plague of London in 1665, and so forth.
2. Occasionally, instead of calling for a particular word or phrase to be
underlined for emphasis, Seth delivers it louder — sometimes much louder.
I often underline such material so the reader will know just what's been
stressed. On the printed page the results look pretty much like those words
Seth himself wants underlined, but during the session they come through
quite differently.
Jane has great energy and power at her disposal when speaking for Seth, and
I can often feel those qualities as though they form a collective palpable entity in
itself. During our private and book sessions Seth's voice effects are usually quite
conversational in tone and emphasis, and he speaks slowly enough so that I can
comfortably take notes. The Seth voice can be stunning in volume and rapidity
of delivery, however, and can seemingly continue in those modes indefinitely:
I've witnessed some truly remarkable demonstrations, lasting several hours.
Such manifestations are practically never carried that far in our regular sessions,
however. Nor is Jane ever exhausted by speaking for Seth — rather, she reports
an infusion of energy, both subjectively and objectively. As she's often said, she
"rides" the Seth voice, or the energy behind or within it.
Both of us have written about the Seth voice effects in other books, as we
try to understand more about them.
3. See Note 4 for Session 801.
For all of the disadvantages of vaccination and inoculation programs, then,
Seth obviously doesn't recommend that we abandon them at present, since most
of us believe in their efficiency. It may be some time before private beliefs are
strong enough to sustain us, without the use of those medical "crutches." Still,
we can try to minimize such dependency (as Jane and I do now), and to avoid
taking shots simply because they're "in vogue."
In Note 4 for Session 801,1 quoted material Seth gave on inoculations in
Session 703 for Volume 1 of "Unknown" Reality. Now let me cite some of his
material from Session 704 in the same book. After 10:16: "You can point to
diseases stamped out because of inoculations or other preventative measures. ...
It seems the worst kind of idiocy to suggest that the individual has any kind of
effective protection against illness or disease . . .
"Again, many can thankfully praise a given doctor for discovering a disease
condition 'in time,' so that effective countering measures were taken and the
disease was eliminated. You cannot know for sure, of course, what would have
happened otherwise . . . to those people who wanted to die. If they did not die of
the disease, they may have 'fallen prey' to an accident, or died in a war, or in a
natural disaster.
THE NATURAL BODY -27-
'They may have been 'cured' whether or not they had treatment, and gone on
to lead productive lives. You do not know. A man or woman who is ready to die,
if saved from one disease will promptly get another, or find a way of fulfilling
that desire. Your problem there rests with the will to live, and with the
mechanisms of the psyche."
Still, Jane and I do have our cats inoculated against feline distemper and
respiratory viruses; pets acquired at humane societies (as ours often are) have
already shared an infected environment. We suppose that if we had young
children we'd see to their receiving the immunizations they "should" have, or are
required to have by a school board, for example. It's very difficult in our society
to rely upon beliefs alone where other people are involved, particularly in the
face of medical and scientific propaganda. (Let me add, though, that there are
available today numerous vaccines against childhood diseases, but that many
parents ignore many of them. Some of those vaccines — for whooping cough,
mumps, measles, German measles or rubella, for instance — are still quite
controversial. They're often only partially effective, and can cause a variety of
side effects: reactions ranging from the temporary to the permanent or fatal. Jane
and I strongly recommend that parents thoroughly investigate and understand the
pros and cons involved with each inoculation their children will receive.)
4. The English naturalist, Charles Darwin (1809-1882), maintained in his
theory of organic evolution that all plants and animals develop from their own
previous forms by inheriting minute variations through succeeding generations,
with those forms best fitted to the environment being the ones most likely to
survive.
Amazingly, another English naturalist, Alfred Wallace (1823-1913), independendy
developed a similar theory, and the two men had their work presented
to science in the same paper in 1858. The next year Darwin published his On the
Origin of Species.
I'm sure Seth would say that the whole affair was hardly a coincidence,
since he's commented several times that new ideas often separately arise more
than once in a given historical period.
SESSION 803, MAY 2,1977
9:43 P.M. MONDAY
(Ever since she began dictating Mass Events for Seth, Jane has felt like
having book sessions but once a week — on Monday nights — and doing other
things in between. So she's been working on her own James, writing poetry,
painting, and helping me out with Seth's Psyche by doing some of the work I
usually do when he's finished a book: typing sessions for the
•28- EVENTS OF "NATURE"
manuscript, checking my rough notes,
rewriting some of them and making suggestions
about others. But with all of this, she's been
refreshing her physical and creative selves by
simply enjoying the day-by-day magical
ripening of another spring.)
Good evening.
("Good evening, Seth.")
Dictation: Your scientists are beginning to
understand man's physical relationship with
nature. The species is obviously a part of
nature and not apart from it.
Environmental questions are being raised
about man's effects upon the world in which
he lives. There is, however, an inner environment
that connects all consciousnesses that
dwell upon your planet, in whatever form.
This mental or psychic — or in any case
nonphysical — environment is ever in a state
of flux and motion. That activity provides you
with all exterior phenomena.
Give us a moment. . . Your sense
perception, physically speaking, is a result of
behavior on the part of organs that seem to
you to have no reality outside of their
relationship with you. Those organs are
themselves composed of atoms and molecules
with their own consciousnesses. They have,
then, their own states of sensation and cognition.
They work for you, allowing you to
perceive physical reality.
Your ears certainly seem to be permanent
appendages, and so do your eyes. You say:
"My eyes are blue," or "My ears are small."
The physical matter of those sense organs
changes constantly, however, with you none
the wiser. While your body appears quite
dependable, solid, [and] steady, you are not
aware of the constant interchanges that occur
between it and the physical environment. It
does not bother you one whit that the physical
substance of your body is made up of
completely different atoms and molecules
than it was composed of seven years ago,
[say], or that your familiar hands are actually
innocent of any smallest smidgen of matter
that composed them [even in recent times
past]. You perceive your body as solid. Again,
the very senses that make such a deduction are
the result of the behavior of atoms and molecules
literally coming together to form the
organs, filling a pattern of flesh. All other
objects that you perceive are formed in their
own way in the same fashion.
THE NATURAL BODY • 29 •
The physical world that you recognize is made up of invisible
patterns. These patterns are "plastic," in that while they exist, their final
form is a matter of probabilities directed by consciousness. Your senses
perceive these patterns in their own ways. The patterns themselves can be
"activated" in innumerable fashions. There is something out there
(humorously emphatic) to observe.
(Long pause, one of many, at 10:04.) Your sense apparatus determines
what form that something will take, however. The mass world rises
up before your eyes, but your eyes are part of that mass world. You
cannot see your thoughts, so you do not realize that they have shape and
form, even as, say, clouds do. There are currents of thought as there are
currents of air, and the mental patterns of men's feelings and thoughts rise
up like flames from a fire, or steam from hot water, to fall like ashes or
like rain.
All elements of the interior invisible environment work together, and
they form the temporal weather patterns that are exteriorized mental
states, presenting you locally and en masse, then, with a physical version
of man's emotional states. Period.
(As he had during the 801st session, our cat, Billy, roused himself from
a snooze and walked over to Jane. This time he jumped up into her lap, then
positioned himself with his forelegs against her chest while examining her
face. Jane, as Seth, petted him. I called Billy to me. He perched briefly on my
own lap, then curled up on the cushion beside me.
(Amused:) You can say that I petted the pussy.
Now: The physical planet is obviously also ever-changing while it is
operationally or realistically or pragmatically relatively stable. The
physical matter of the planet is also composed of literally infinite hordes
of consciousnesses — each experiencing its own reality while adding to
the overall cooperative venture.
(Longpause.) Natural disasters represent an understandably prejudiced
concept, in which the vast creative and rejuvenating elements
important to planetary life, and therefore to mankind, are ignored. The
stability of the planet rests upon such changes and alterations, even as the
body's stability is dependent upon, say, the birth and death of the cells.
(10:20.) It is quite obvious that people must die — not only because
otherwise you would overpopulate your world into extinction,
• 30 • EVENTS OF "NATURE"
but because the nature of consciousness requires new experience,
challenge, and accomplishment. This is everywhere apparent in nature
itself. (Pause.) If there were no death, you would have to invent it (smile)
— for the context of that selfhood would be as limited as the experience
of a great sculptor given but one hunk of stone (with quiet dramatic
emphasis)}
The sculptor's creation is pragmatically realistic, in that it exists as an
object, and can be quite legitimately perceived, as can your world. The
sculptor's statue, however, comes from the inner environment, the
patterns of probabilities. These patterns are not themselves inactive. They
are possessed by the desire to be-actualized (with a hyphen). Behind all
realities there are mental states. These always seek form, though again
there are other forms than those you recognize.
A chair is a chair for your purposes. As Ruburt speaks for me he sits
in one. As you read this book you most probably lounge on a chair or
couch or bench — all quite sturdy and real. The atoms and molecules
within those chairs and couches are quite alert, though you do not grant
them the quality of life. When children play ring-around-the-rosy, they
form living circles in the air. In that game they enjoy the motion of their
bodies, but they do not identify with those swirling circles. The atoms
and molecules that make up a chair play a different kind of ring-aroundthe-
rosy, and are involved in constant motion, forming a certain pattern
that you perceive as a chair.
The differences in motion are so divergent that to you the chair, like
your body, appears permanent. The atoms and molecules, like the
children, enjoy their motion — solidly sketched in space from your
perspective, however, with no "idea" that you consider that motion a
chair, or so use it.
You perceive the atoms' activity in that fashion. [Nevertheless] the
agreement takes place at mental levels, and is never completely "set,"
though it appears to be. No one perceives the same chair [all of the time],
though perhaps a given chair will seem to be "the same one" seen from
different angles.
The dance of the atoms and molecules is continuous in your area. In
greater terms, any given chair is never the same chair. All of this must be
taken into consideration when we discuss mass events.
Take your break.
THE NATURAL BODY •31 •
(10:42. Jane's trance had been good, but she
remembered Billy climbing into her lap, and
how he'd put his face close to hers. "Seth
thought it was great, " she said. Resume at
11:14.)
The scientist probing the brain of an idiot
or a genius will find only the physical matter
of the brain itself.
Not one idea will be discovered residing in
the brain cells. You can try to convey an idea,
you can feel its effects, but you cannot see it as
you can the chair. Only a fool would say that
ideas were nonexistent, however, or deny their
importance.
You cannot find any given dream location,
either, within the brain itself. The solid matter
of your world is the result of the play of your
senses upon an inner dimension of activity that
exists as legitimately, and yet as tantalizingly
hidden, as an idea or a dream location.
It is easy for you to see that seeds bring
forth the fruit of the earth, each [of] their own
kind. No seed is identical to any other, yet
generally speaking there are species that serve
to unite them. You do not mistake an orange
for a grape. In the same way ideas or thoughts
form general patterns, bringing forth in your
world certain kinds of events. In this respect
your thoughts and feelings "seed" physical
reality, bringing forth materializations.
You operate quite nicely politically, living
in villages, townships, countries, states, and so
forth, each with certain customs and local
ordinances. These in no way affect the land
itself. They are designations for practical
purposes, and they imply organization of
intent or affiliation at one level. They are
political patterns, invisible but highly
effective. There are, however, far more
vigorous invisible mental patterns, into which
the thoughts and feelings of mankind are
organized — or, naturally, organize
themselves.
Each person's thoughts flow into that
formation, forming part of the earth's psychic
atmosphere. From that atmosphere flows the
natural earthly patterns from which your
seasons emerge with all of their variety and
effects. You are never victims of natural
disasters, though it may seem that you are, for
you have your hand in forming them. You are
creatively involved in the earth's cycles. No
one can be born for you, or die for you, and yet
no birth or death is really an isolated event, but
one in which the entire planet participates. In
personal terms, again, each species is
concerned not only with survival but will) the
(|ii;ili(y of its life and experience.
• 32 • EVENTS OF "NATURE"
In those terms, natural disasters ultimately end up righting a
condition that earlier blighted the desired quality of life, so that
adjustments were made.
Am I going too fast?
("No, " I said, although Seth-Jane's pace was pretty good as far as my
writing speed was concerned.)
The "victims" choose to participate in those conditions at spiritual,
psychological, and biological levels. Many of those who are counted
among the fatalities might otherwise die of extended illnesses, for
example. At cellular levels such knowledge is available, and in one way
or another imparted, often in dreams, to the individual. Conscious
comprehension need not follow, for many people know such things, and
pretend not to know them at the same time.
(11:44.) Others have finished with their challenges; they want to die
and are looking for an excuse — a face-saving device. However, those
who choose such deaths want to die in terms of drama, in the middle of
their activities, and are in a strange way filled with the exultant inner
knowledge of life's strength even at the point of death. At the last they
identify with the power of nature that seemingly destroyed them.
That identification often brings about in death — but not always —
an added acceleration of consciousness, and involves such individuals in
a kind of "group death experience," where all of the victims more or less
embark into another level of reality "at the same time."
Those people were aware just beneath consciousness of the possibilities
of such an event long before the disaster occurred, and could
until the last moment choose to avoid the encounter. Animals know of
weather conditions ahead of time, as old tales say. This perception is a
biological part of your heritage also. The body is prepared, though
consciously it seems you are ignorant.
There are innumerable relationships that exist between the interior
environment of the body and the weather patterns. The ancient feelings of
identification with storms are quite valid, and in that respect the "realism"
of feelings is far superior to the realism of logic. When a person feels a
part of a storm, those feelings speak a literal truth. Logic deals with
exterior conditions, with cause-and-effect relationships. Intuitions deal
with immediate experience of the most intimate nature, with subjective
motions and activities that in your
THE NATURAL BODY • 33 •
terms move far quicker than the speed of light, and with simultaneous events
that your cause-and-effect level is far too slow to perceive.2
(Longpause.) In that regard also, the activities of the inner environment are
too fast for you to follow intellectually. Your intuitions, however, can give you
clues to such behavior. A country is responsible for its own droughts,
earthquakes, floods, hurricanes — and for its own harvests and rich display of
products, its industry and cultural achievements, and each of these elements is
related to each other one.
If the quality of life that is considered spiritually and biologically necessary
fails, then adjustments occur. A political problem might be altered by a natural
disaster if political means fail. On the other hand, the rousing creative energies
of the people will emerge.
Excellence will show itself through the arts, cultural creativity, technological
or sociological accomplishments. The species tries to fulfill its great capacities.
Each physical body in its own way is like the world. It has its own defenses and
abilities, and each portion of it strives for a quality of existence that will bring to
the smallest parts of it the spiritual and biological fulfillment of its own nature.
(Heartily:) End of dictation. End of session unless you have questions.
("Iguess not, Seth. ")
My fondest regards, then, and a hearty good evening.
("Thank you. The same to you, Seth. "
(12:08 A.M. Jane was out of an excellent trance before I finished writing. . .
.)
NOTES: SESSION 803
1. Seth's material on dying and the nature of consciousness immediately
reminded me of what he'd said at 11:20 in the 801st session: "Dying is a biological
necessity . . . Inherently, each individual knows that he or she must die
physically in order to survive spiritually and psychically . . . The self outgrows
the flesh." I'd been thinking about those passages, and when Seth returned to the
subject tonight I decided to have some fun with our accepted social and
scientific establishments by writing this note.
Seth's ideas about the true nature — the necessity — of dying directly contradict
more and more of what we read these days. Now a number of scientists
tell us that long before the end of this century we'll have the ability to prolong
out physical livei forcvei —or at least indefinitely, to be more "practical"
•34- EVENTS OF "NATURE"
about it. We're told again and again that technically
we're on the verge of producing artificial versions of
many bodily parts, as well as microcomputers that will
be implanted within the body to regulate its
performance; these advances, plus our "conquering" of
disease, pain, and suffering, plus genetic engineering,
will soon make it possible for human beings to live
indefinitely. Those in the know maintain that if you are
fortunate enough to be a younger person, you may never
have to die.
What grandiose claims these are, however — at
least at this time — for Jane and I also read that in the
last three-quarters of a century science has managed to
bring about an increase of only four years in the life
expectancy of the adult white male: from 69 to 73 years.
Granted that the medical establishment has learned a lot
since 1900, still it'll have to move awfully fast now to
make all of those predictions come true before the year
2000, say.
But nowhere do we see anything about any spiritual
dilemmas that may be involved with all of this, or about
the enormous social problems — challenges, to be sure
— that could soon begin to manifest themselves if
anything even approaching "eternal life" comes within
the reach of numbers of people. Think of the legalities
alone involved. (People might even have to change their
marriage vows!) Science-fiction ideas abound. What
about population control? What about those "who want
to live on, but can't afford to? How will decisions be
made about who receives the favored treatment and who
doesn't? Will families qualify, or just individuals?
Geniuses or dolts? If the services necessary to extend
life are free — paid for by the government, that is —
will government decide that certain families simply
cannot be allowed to have children, that they'll be left to
die out? In view of our present world challenges, it
might even be said that there are already too many
people in the world. And what about animals and other
forms of life? Perhaps in their own collective wisdom
the animals will look upon us as though we've altogether
given up our powers of intuitive understanding.
Right now I'd bet that man will most certainly try
with all of his might every technique he can devise in
order to prolong physical life as long as possible — so
great is his conscious fear of death as the consummate
extinction for all time to come. Through all of his
recorded history, man has created that fear, that belief,
with the greatest tenacity imaginable.
There's much irony involved in the whole idea of
living indefinitely. If such a possibility is ever achieved,
I think that on conscious levels the members of the
species will come to fear the chance of accidental death
more than anything else, and that this powerful concern
may seriously circumscribe behavior. For who, knowing
that for all practical purposes he or she is "immortal,"
will want to risk that most precious gift of all — life —
by doing anything that could rudely take it away? Even
contact sports, let alone activities like air, sea, or space
travel, or any dangerous occupation, could be
THE NATURAL BODY • 35 •
abhorred. Disease of any kind, as well as aging itself, would have to be controlled
absolutely.
As for Jane and me, we really don't think it necessary that we live forever physically,
or even to be 200 years old — an attitude that may be no more than a sign of our own
conditioning. We may even be a little sad and jealous that we chose to be born a few
decades too soon. "I wouldn't mind seeing the age of 100, though, if I were in good
shape," Jane said as we discussed this note. Those of approaching generations, we
thought, may have no hesitation at all about opting to live as long as possible. At least for
a while, consciousness would accommodate them very well. The final irony of all may
develop, however: Jane added that the suicide rate would rise considerably after the many
implications associated with extended lifetimes began to penetrate human consciousness.
People, she said, at last openly recognizing the great necessity and desirability of
biological death, would in many instances simply "turn themselves off."
2. Seth and Jane have both referred to faster-than-light effects in earlier books. Seth
did so while discussing his CU's, or units of consciousness, for instance. Albert Einstein,
in his special theory of relativity, demonstrated that nothing else in the universe can quite
reach — let alone surpass — the speed of light. Some physicists have theorized about
certain faster-than-light "particles," however, that by some unknown process are created
traveling at such enormous velocities; thus in that way they try to get around the limits set
by Einstein. There have also been recent astronomical observations of several far-distant
objects that appear to be "superluminous," or traveling considerably faster than the speed
of light. These effects have yet to be satisfactorily explained.
Of course, when one leaves the realm of "particles," no matter how small they may
be, or how they behave or how tenuous their "physical" construction, then all restraints
could well be off. As in the case of his CU's, Seth's "subjective motions and activities,"
his "simultaneous events," would easily be the rule in the basic nonphysical universe.
SESSION 804, MAY 9,1977 9:44
P.M. MONDAY >
(Jane's birthday was yesterday, and a couple of events that made pretty nice presents
revolved around that date. Two days ago, she worked on our new front porch for the first
time; she sat in the slanting sunlight and wrote down the information she psychically
picked up from the "world view" of William James, the American psychologist and
philosopher who lived from IS12-1910. She now has considerable material for her book
on James. [In
• 36 • EVENTS OF "NATURE"
the note she's making for her Introduction to Seth's The Nature of the
Psyche, Jane describes a world view as " . . . a living psychological picture
of an individual life, with its knowledge and experience, which remains
responsive and viable long after the physical life itself is over. "]
(Then today she received the contract for Psyche from her publisher,
Prentice-Hall. Now she prefers to formally sign for a book only after she —
and/or Seth — has finished most of the work on that project.
(Seth abruptly came through without greetings:)
Now — dictation. The body is a spiritual, psychic, and social
statement, biologically spoken. It is obviously private, yet it cannot be
concealed, in that "it is where you are," in usual terms.
The individual body is what it is because it exists in the context of
others like it. By this I mean that a given present body presupposes a
biological past of like creatures. It presupposes contemporaries. If, for
example, one adult human being were perceived by an alien from another
world, certain facts would be apparent. Even though such an alien came
upon a lone member of your species in otherwise uninhabited land, the
alien could make certain assumptions from the individual's appearance
and behavior.
(Long pause.) If the "earthling" spoke, the alien would of course
instantly know that you were communicating creatures, and in the vocal
sounds recognize patterns that contained purpose and intent. To one
extent or another, all creatures use language (underlined), implying a far
vaster sociobiological relationship than is usually supposed. From [the
earthling's] appearance the alien would be able to deduce — if it did not
already know — the proportions of the various elements upon your
planet; this being surmised from your method of locomotion,
appendages, and the nature of your physical vision.
While each individual springs privately into the world at birth, then,
each birth also represents quite literally an effort — a triumphant one —
on the part of each member of each species, for the delicate balance of
life requires for each birth quite precise conditions that no one species
can guarantee alone, even to its own kind. The grain must grow. The
animals must produce. The plants must do their part. Photosynthesis,1 in
those terms, reigns.
The seasons must retain some stability. The rains must fall, but not
too much. The storms must rage, but not too devastatingly. Behind all of
this lies a biological and psychic cooperative venture.
THE NATURAL BODY • 37 •
All of this could be perceived by our hypothetical alien from one lone
human individual; and we will return to our alien later on.
(Longpause at 10:05.) Cells possess "social" characteristics. They
have a tendency to unite with others. They naturally communicate. They
naturally want to move. Period. In making such statements I am not
personifying the cell, for the desire for communication and motion does
not belong to man, or even animals, alone. Man's desire to journey into
other worlds is in its way as natural as the plant's urge to turn its leaves
toward the sun.
Man's physical world, with all of its civilizations and cultural
aspects, and even with its technologies and sciences, basically represents
the species' innate drive to communicate, to move outward, to create, and
to objectify sensed inner realities. The most private life imaginable is a
very social affair. The most secluded recluse must still depend upon the
biological sociability of not only his own body cells, but of the natural
world with all of its creatures. The body, then, no matter how private, is
also a public, social, biological statement. A spoken sentence has a
certain structure in any language. It presupposes a mouth and a tongue,
the kind of physical organization necessary; a mind; a certain kind of
world in which sounds have meaning; and a very precise, quite practical
knowledge of the nature of sounds, the combination of their patterns, the
use of repetition, and a knowledge of the nervous system. Few of my
readers possess such conscious knowledge, yet the majority speak quite
well.
In one way or another, therefore, it certainly seems that your body
possesses a kind of quite pragmatic information, and acts upon it. You
can express almost any idea that you want in vocal terms, even if you
have hardly any conception at all of the way in which your own speech is
executed.
The body is geared then to act. It is pragmatically practical, and
above all it wants to explore and to communicate. Communication
implies a social nature. The body has within it inherently everything
necessary for its own defense. The body itself will tease the child to
speak, to crawl and walk, to seek its fellows. Through biological
communication the child's cells are made aware of its physical environment,
the temperature, air pressure, weather conditions, food supplies
— and the body reacts to these conditions, making some adjustments
with great rapidity.
• 38 • EVENTS OF "NATURE"
At cellular levels the world exists with a kind of social interchange,
in which the birth and death of cells are known to all others, and in which
the death of a frog and a star gain equal weight. But at your level of
activity your thoughts, feelings, and intents, however private, form part
of the inner environment of communication. This inner environment is as
pertinent and vital to the species' well-being as is the physical one. It
represents the psychic, mass bank of potential, even as the planet
provides a physical bank of potential. When there is an earthquake in
another area of the world, the land mass in your own country is in one
way or another affected. When there are psychic earthquakes in other
areas of the world, then you are also affected, and usually to the same
degree.
In the same way, if one portion of your own body is injured, then
other portions feel the effects of the wound. An earthquake can be a
disaster in the area where it occurs, even though its existence corrects
imbalances, and therefore promotes the life of the planet. Emergency
actions are quite rigorous in the immediate area of an earthquake, and aid
is sent in from other countries. When an area of the body "erupts," there
are also emergency measures taken locally, and aid sent from other
portions of the body to afflicted parts.
The physical eruption, while it may appear to be a disaster in the area
of the disease, is also, however, a part of the body's defense system,
taken to insure the whole balance of the body. Biologically, illness
therefore represents the overall body defense system at work.
(10:42.) I am trying to put this simply — but without some illnesses,
the body could not endure. Give us a moment. . . First of all, the body
must be in a state of constant change, making decisions far too fast for
you to follow, adjusting hormonal levels, maintaining balances between
all of its systems; not only in relationship to itself — the body — but to
an environment that is also in constant change. At biological levels the
body often produces its own "preventative medicine," or "inoculations,"
by seeking out, for example, new or foreign substances in its environment
[that are] due to nature, science or technology; it assimilates such
properties in small doses, coming down with an "illness" which, left
alone, would soon vanish as the body utilized what it could [of it], or
socialized "a seeming invader."
THE NATURAL BODY • 39 •
The person might feel indisposed, but in such ways the body
assimilates and uses properties that would otherwise be called alien ones.
It immunizes itself through such methods. The body, however, exists with
the mind to contend with — and the mind produces an inner environment
of concepts. The cells that compose the body do not try to make sense of
the cultural world. They rely upon your interpretation, therefore, for the
existence of threats of a non-biological nature. So they depend upon your
assessment.
(Long pause.) If that assessment correlates with biological ones, you
have a good working relationship with the body. It can react swiftly and
clearly. When you sense threat or danger for which the body can find no
biological correlation, even as through cellular communication it scans
the environment physically, then it must rely upon your assessment and
react to danger conditions. The body will, therefore, react to imagined
dangers to some degree, as well as to those that are biologically pertinent.
Its defense system often becomes overexerted as a result.
The body is, therefore, quite well equipped to deal with its physical
stance in the physical world, and its defense systems are unerring in that
respect. Your conscious mind, however, directs your temporal perception
and interprets that perception, organizing it into mental patterns. The
body, again, must depend upon those interpretations. The biological basis
of all life is a loving, divine and cooperative one, and presupposes a safe
physical stance from which any member of any species feels actively free
to seek out its needs and to communicate with others of its kind.
(Pause at 11:01.) Give us a moment... It is fashionable to believe that
the animals do not possess imagination, but this is a quite erroneous
belief. They anticipate mating, for example, before its time. They all
learn through experience, and despite all of your concepts, learning is
impossible without imagination at any level.
In your terms, the imagination of the animals is limited. Theirs is not
merely confined to the elements of previous experience, however. They
can imagine events that have never happened to them. Man's abilities in
this respect are far more complicated, for in his imagination he deals with
probabilities. In any given period of time, with one physical body, he can
anticipate or perform an infinitely
• 40 • EVENTS OF "NATURE"
vaster number of events — each one remaining probable until he
activates it.
The body, responding to his thoughts, feelings, and beliefs, has much
more data to deal with, therefore, and must have a clear area in which
concise action is possible.
Take your break.
("Thanh you."
(11:09 to 11:35.)
The body's defense system is automatic, and yet .to a certain degree
it is a secondary rather than primary system, coming into mobilization as
such only when the body is threatened.
The body's main purpose is not only to survive but to maintain a
quality of existence at certain levels, and that quality itself promotes
health and fulfillment. A definite, biologically pertinent fear alerts the
body, and allows it to react completely and naturally. You might be
reading a newspaper headline, for example, as you cross a busy street.
Long before you are consciously aware of the circumstances, your body
might leap out of the path of an approaching car. The body is doing what
it is supposed to do. Though consciously you were not afraid, there was a
biologically pertinent fear that was acted upon.
If, however, you dwell mentally in a generalized environment of fear,
the body is given no clear line of action, allowed no appropriate response.
Look at it this way: An animal, not necessarily just a wild one in some
native forest, but an ordinary dog or cat, reacts in a certain fashion. It is
alert to everything in its environment. A cat does not anticipate danger
from a penned dog four blocks away, however, nor bother wondering
what would happen if that dog were to escape and find the cat's cozy
yard.
Many people, however, do not pay attention to everything in their
environments, but through their beliefs concentrate only upon "the
ferocious dog four blocks away." That is, they do not respond to what is
physically present or perceivable in either space or time, but instead
[dwell] upon the threats that may or may not exist, ignoring at the same
time other pertinent data that are immediately at hand.
The mind then signals threat — but a threat that is nowhere
physically present, so that the body cannot clearly respond. It therefore
reacts to a pseudothreatening situation, and is caught between
THE NATURAL BODY -41-
gears, so to speak, with resulting biological confusion. The body's
responses must be specific.
The overall sense of health, vitality, and resiliency is a generalized
condition of contentment — brought about, however, by multitudinous
specific responses. Left alone, the body can defend itself against any
disease, but it cannot defend itself appropriately against an exaggerated
general fear of disease on the individual's part. It must mirror your own
feelings and assessments. Usually, now, your entire medical systems
literally generate as much disease as is cured
— for you are everywhere hounded by the symptoms of various dis
eases, and filled with the fear of disease, overwhelmed by what seems
to be the body's propensity toward illness — and nowhere is the
body's vitality or natural defense system stressed.
Private disease, then, happens also in a social context. This context is
the result of personal and mass beliefs that are intertwined at all cultural
levels, and so to that extent serve private and public purposes.
(Pause at 11:56.) The illnesses generally attributed to all different
ages are involved. Those of the elderly, again, fit in with your social and
cultural beliefs, the structure of your family life. Old animals have their
own dignity, and so should old men and women. Senility is a mental and
physical epidemic — a needless one. You "catch" it because when you
are young you believe that old people cannot perform. There are no
inoculations against beliefs, so when young people with such beliefs
grow old they become "victims."2
The kinds of diseases change through historical periods. Some
become fashionable, others go out of style. All epidemics, however, are
mass statements both biologically and psychically. They point to mass
beliefs that have brought about certain physical conditions that are
abhorrent at all levels. They often go hand-in-hand with war, and
represent biological protests.
(Long pause.) Whenever the conditions of life are such that its
quality is threatened, there will be such a mass statement. The quality of
life must be at a certain level so that the individuals of a species
— of any and all species — can develop. In your species the spiri
tual, mental and psychic abilities add a dimension that is biologically
pertinent.
• 42 • EVENTS OF "NATURE"
There simply must be, for example, a freedom to express ideas, an
individual tendency, a worldwide social and political context in which
each individual can develop his or her abilities and contribute to the
species as a whole. Such a climate depends, however, upon many ideas
not universally accepted — and yet the species is so formed that the
biological importance of ideas cannot be stressed too strongly.
More and more, the quality of your lives is formed through the
subjective realities of your feelings and mental constructions. Again,
beliefs that foster despair are biologically destructive. They cause the
physical system to shut down. If mass action against appalling social or
political conditions is not effective, then other means are taken, and these
are often in the guise of epidemics or natural disasters. The blight is
wiped out in one way or another.
Such conditions, however, are the results of beliefs, which are
mental, and so the most vital work must always be done in that area.
(Emphatically:) End of session.
("Okay.")
My heartiest regards, and a most fond good evening.
("Thankyou, Seth. Goodnight."
(12:15 A.M. Seth ended the session as abruptly as he'd started it. Jane
was doing so well delivering the material for him at a steady, intent pace
that I'd expected her to continue for some little while. She said the session
stopped because I asked Seth to repeat the word "vital"—just above —
which I hadn't understood the first time.
(Jane explained that when I did this she was "already three or four sentences
ahead" in the material, and the question forced her to look back at
what she'd just said. Then, knowing it was late even though she was in
trance, she suddenly decided to close out the session. At the same time, she'd
felt quite capable of continuing for another hour.)
NOTES: SESSION 804
1.Photosynthesis is the imperfectly understood process by which the
green chlorophyll in plants uses the energy of sunlight to manufacture
carbohydrates from water and carbon dioxide. This "stored sunlight"
can then be used as food.
2.Seth is certainly right when he says that "senility is a mental and physical
epidemic," considering the many millions of people who have
suffered —
THE NATURAL BODY • 43 •
and perished — from it in the past. I watched my father go through the ravages
of senility; he died in November 1971, at the age of 81. See Jane's very evocative
passages about him, as well as my drawing of him in old age, in Part Three
of her book of poetry, Dialogues.
The beliefs people acquire when young can be changed, of course, and
according to Seth (and the ideas Jane and I have also) this process of change
would be the best "inoculation" there is against senility. As I watched my father
grow older, with an accompanying progressive loss of memory and function, I
used to wonder why he didn't consciously revise his response to life — and why I
never saw any indication that he wanted to. I clearly sensed that it was possible
for him to improve his beliefs about life, and that the benefits from such a course
of action would be great. Nor did I merely wish he would change just so that I
could avoid the pain I felt watching him deteriorate. My father's chosen
withdrawal from the world was all too plain for everyone to see. In our imperfect
understanding, Jane and I and other family members saw this process go on: We
did not feel there was much any of us could do.
Now, there's very recent discussion in medical circles that many cases of
senility are caused by a "slow virus infection," rather than just heredity or the
traditional aging and oxygen starvation of the brain. The hope, and the un-proven
speculation, are that eventually such an infection might be treatable medically.
But either way (whether senility arises through aging or infection), beliefs would
come first, helping the whole body maintain its healthy performance well into
old age, or encouraging it to deteriorate unnecessarily.
As I wrote this note Jane pointed out that some of my material in Note 1 for
the 803rd session is applicable here. For, obviously, senility will have to be
conquered by some combination of physical and/or mental techniques if men and
women are to live a lot longer, let alone "forever."
SESSION 805, MAY 16,1977
9:28 P.M. MONDAY
(fane's ideas — and mine, too — have matured considerably since I wrote a
month ago that she was thinking of converting half of our garage into a writing
room, with its attendant back porch. In fact, we've agreed to go ahead with that
project this summer. It will certainly be a long and noisy endeavor. Now that he's
finished the front porch, our contractor is free to begin work at the back of the
house as soon as possible.)
Good evening.
("Good evening, Seth.")
Dictation: An animal has a sense of its own biological integrity. So does ;i
child. In ;ill forms of life each individual is born into a
•44- EVENTS OF "NATURE"
world already provided for it, with
circumstances favorable to its growth and
development; a world in which its own
existence rests upon the equally valid
existence of all other individuals and species,
so that each contributes to nature's whole.
In that environment there is a cooperative
sociability of a biological nature, that is
understood by the animals in their way, and
taken for granted by the young of your own
species. The means are given so that the needs
of the individual can be met. The granting of
those needs furthers the development of the
individual, its species, and by inference all
others in the fabric of nature.
Survival, of course, is important, but it is
not the prime purpose of a species, in that it is
a necessary means by which that species can
attain its main goals. Of course [a species]
must survive to do so, but it will, however,
purposefully avoid survival if the conditions
are not practically favorable to maintain the
quality of life or existence that is considered
basic.
A species that senses a lack of this quality
can in one way or another destroy its offspring
— not because they could not survive
otherwise, but because the quality of that
survival would bring about vast suffering, for
example, so distorting the nature of life as to
almost make a mockery of it. Each species
seeks for the development of its abilities and
capacities in a framework in which safety is a
medium for action. Danger in that context
exists under certain conditions clearly known
to the animals, clearly defined: The prey is
known, for example, as is the hunter. But even
the natural prey of another animal does not
fear the "hunter" when the hunter animal is full
of belly, nor will the hunter then attack.
There are also emotional interactions
among the animals that completely escape
you, and biological mechanisms, so that
animals felled as natural prey by other animals
"understand" their part in nature. They do not
anticipate death before it happens, however.
The fatal act propels the consciousness out
from the flesh, so that in those terms it is
merciful.
During their lifetimes animals in their
natural state enjoy their vigor and accept their
worth. They regulate their own births — and
their own deaths. The quality of their lives is
such that their abilities are challenged. They
enjoy contrasts: that between rest and motion,
heat and cold, being in direct contact with
natural phenomena that
THE NATURAL BODY • 45 •
everywhere quickens their experience. They will migrate if necessary to
seek conditions more auspicious. They are aware of approaching natural
disasters, and when possible will leave such areas. They will protect their
own, and according to circumstances and conditions they will tend their
own wounded. Even in contests between young and old males for control
of a group, under natural conditions the loser is seldom killed. Dangers
are pinpointed clearly so that bodily reactions are concise.
The animal knows he has the right to exist, and a place in the fabric
of nature. This sense of biological integrity supports him.
Man, on the other hand, has more to contend with. He must deal with
beliefs and feelings often so ambiguous that no clear line of action seems
possible. The body often does not know how to react. If you believe that
the body is sinful, for example, you cannot expect to be happy, and health
will most likely elude you,, for your dark beliefs will blemish the
psychological and biological integrity with which you were born.
The species is in a state of transition, one of many. This one began,
generally speaking, when the species tried to step apart from nature in
order to develop the unique kind of consciousness that is presently your
own. That consciousness is not a finished product, however, but one
meant to change, [to] evolve and develop." Certain artificial divisions
were made along the way that must now be dispensed with.
(10:03.) You must return, wiser creatures, to the nature that spawned
you — not only as loving caretakers but as partners with the other species
of the earth. You must discover once again the spirituality of your
biological heritage. The majority of accepted beliefs — religious,
scientific, and cultural — have tended to stress a sense of powerlessness,
impotence, and impending doom — a picture in which man and his world
is an accidental production with little meaning, isolated yet seemingly
ruled by a capricious God. Life is seen as "a valley of tears" — almost as
a low-grade infection from which the soul can be cured only by death.
Religious, scientific, medical, and cultural communications stress the
existence of danger, minimize the purpose of the species or of any
individual member of it, or see mankind as the one erratic, half-insane
membei of an otherwise orderly realm of nature. Any or
• 46 • EVENTS OF "NATURE"
all of the above beliefs are held by various systems of thought. All of
these, however, strain the individual's biological sense of integrity,
reinforce ideas of danger, and shrink the area of psychological safety that
is necessary to maintain the quality possible in life. The body's defense
systems become confused to varying degrees.
I do not intend to give a treatise upon the biological structures of the
body and their interworkings, but only to add such information in that
line that is not currently known, and is otherwise important to the ideas I
have in mind. I am far more concerned [with] more basic issues. The
body's defenses will take care of themselves if they are allowed to, and if
the psychological air is cleared of the true "carriers" of disease.

"MASS MEDITATIONS." "HEALTH" PLANS FOR DISEASE.
EPIDEMICS OF BELIEFS, AND EFFECTIVE MENTAL
"INOCULATIONS" AGAINST DESPAIR

Pause at 10:15.) Chapter 2: "'Mass Meditations.' (A one-minute pause.)
'Health' Plans for Disease. Epidemics of Beliefs, and Effective Mental
'Inoculations' Against Despair."
(Long pause at 10:20.) While in this book I will point out some of
the unfortunate areas of private and mass experience, I will also
provide some suggestions for effective solutions. "You get what
you concentrate upon."1 Your mental images bring about their own
fulfillment. These are ancient dictums, but you must understand the ways
in which your mass communication systems amplify both the "positive
and the negative" issues.
I may for a while stress the ways in which individually, and as a
civilization, you have undermined your own feelings of safety; yet I will
also give you methods to reinforce those necessary feelings of biological
integrity and spiritual comprehension that can vastly increase your
spiritual and physical existence.
Your beliefs have generated feelings of unworth. Having artificially
separated yourselves from nature, you do not trust it, but often experience
it as an adversary. Your religions granted man a soul, while denying any
to other species. Your bodies then were relegated to nature and your souls
to God, who stood immaculately apart from His creations.
(
•48- EVENTS OF "NATURE"
Your scientific beliefs tell you that your
entire world happened accidentally. Your
religions tell you that man is sinful: The body
is not to be trusted; the senses can lead you
astray. In this maze of beliefs you have largely
lost a sense of your own worth and purpose. A
generalized fear and suspicion is generated,
and life too often becomes stripped of any
heroic qualities. The body cannot react to
generalized threats. It is, therefore, put under
constant strain in such circumstances, and
seeks to specify the danger. It is geared to act
in your protection. It builds up strong stresses,
therefore, so that on many occasions a specific
disease or threat situation is "manufactured" to
rid the body of a tension grown too strong to
bear.
Many of my readers are familiar with
private meditation, when concentration is
focused in one particular area. There are many
methods and schools of thought here, but a
highly suggestive state of mind results, in
which spiritual, mental, and physical goals are
sought. It is impossible to meditate without a
goal, for that intent is itself a purpose.
Unfortunately, many of your public health programs,
and commercial statements through the
various media, provide you with mass
meditations of a most deplorable kind. I refer
to those in which the specific symptoms of
various diseases are given, in which the
individual is further told to examine the body
with those symptoms in mind. I also refer to
those statements that just as unfortunately
specify diseases for which the individual may
experience no symptoms of an observable
kind, but is cautioned that these disastrous
physical events may be happening despite his
or her feelings of good health. Here the
generalized fears fostered by religious, scientific,
and cultural beliefs are often given as
blueprints of diseases in which a person can
find a specific focus — the individual can say:
"Of course, I feel listless, or panicky, or unsafe
since I have such-and-such a disease."
The breast cancer suggestions associated
with self-examinations have caused more
cancers than any treatments have cured (most
emphatically). They involve intense
meditation of the body, and adverse imagery
that itself affects the bodily cells.2 Public
health announcements about high blood
pressure themselves raise the blood pressure
of millions of television viewers (even more
emphatically).
Your current ideas of preventative
medicine, therefore, generate the very kind of
fear that causes disease. They all undermine
the
"MASS MEDITATIONS" • 49 •
individual's sense of bodily security and increase stress, while offering
the body a specific, detailed disease plan. But most of all, they operate to
increase the individual sense of alienation from the body, and to promote
a sense of powerlessness and duality.
Take your break.
(10:45 to 11:09.)
Your "medical commercials" are equally disease-promoting. Many,
meaning to offer you relief through a product, instead actually promote
the condition through suggestion, thereby generating a need for the
product itself.
Headache remedies are a case in point here. Nowhere do any
medically-oriented commercial or public service announcements mention
the body's natural defenses, its integrity, vitality, or strength. Nowhere in
your television or radio matter is any emphasis put upon the healthy.
Medical statistics deal with the diseased. Studies upon the healthy are not
carried out.
More and more foods, drugs, and natural environmental conditions
are being added to the list of disease-causing elements. Different reports
place dairy products, red meats, coffee, tea, eggs, and fats on the list.
Period. Generations before you managed to subsist on many such foods,
and they were in fact promoted as additive to health. Indeed, man almost
seems to be allergic to his own natural environment, a prey to the weather
itself.
It is true that your food contains chemicals it did not in years past.
Yet within reason man is biologically capable of assimilating such
materials, and using them to his advantage.
When man feels powerless, however, and in a state of generalized
fear; he can even turn the most natural earthly ingredients against
himself. Your television, and your arts and sciences as well, add up to
mass meditations. In your culture, at least, the educated in the literary arts
provide you with novels featuring antiheroes, and often portray an
individual existence [as being] without meaning, in which no action is
sufficient to mitigate the private puzzlement or anguish.
Many — not all — plotless novels or movies are the result of this
belief in man's powerlessness. In that context no action is heroic, and
man is everywhere the victim of an alien universe. On the other hand
your common, unlettered, violent television dramas do indeed provide a
service lor ilicy imaginatively specify a generalized fear in
• 50 • EVENTS OF "NATURE"
a given situation, which is then resolved through drama. Individual action
counts. The plots may be stereotyped or the acting horrendous, but in the
most conventional terms the "good" man wins.
(11:30.) Such programs do indeed pick up the generalized fears of
the nation, but they also represent folk dramas — disdained by the
intelligentsia — in which the common man can portray heroic
capabilities, act concisely toward a desired end, and triumph.
Those programs often portray your cultural world in exaggerated
terms, and most resolution is indeed through violence. Yet your more
educated beliefs lead you to an even more pessimistic picture, in which
even the violent action of men and women who are driven to the extreme
serves no purpose. The individual must feel that his actions count. He is
driven to violent action only as a last resort — and illness often is that
last resort.
(Long pause.) Your television dramas, the cops-and-robbers shows,
the spy productions, are simplistic, yet they relieve tension in away that
your public health announcements cannot do. The viewer can say: "Of
course I feel panicky, unsafe, and frightened, because I live in such a
violent world." The generalized fear can find a reason [for its existence].
But the programs at least provide a resolution dramatically set, while the
public health announcements continue to generate unease. Those mass
meditations therefore reinforce negative conditions.
In the overall, then, violent shows provide a service, in that they
usually promote the sense of a man's or a woman's individual power over
a given set of circumstances. At best the public service announcements
introduce the doctor as mediator: You are supposed to take your body to a
doctor as you take your car to a garage, to have its parts serviced. Your
body is seen as a vehicle out of control, that needs constant scrutiny.
The doctor is like a biological mechanic, who knows your body far
better than you. Now these medical beliefs are intertwined with your
economic and cultural structures, so you cannot lay the blame upon
medical men or their profession alone. Your economic well-being is also
a part of your personal reality. Many dedicated doctors use medical
technology with spiritual understanding, and they are themselves the
victims of the beliefs they hold.
"MASS MEDITATIONS" • 51 •
If you do not buy headache potions, your uncle or your neighbor may be out
of business and not able to support his family, and therefore lack the means to
buy your wares. You cannot disconnect one area of life from another. En masse,
your private beliefs form your cultural reality. Your society is not a thing in itself
apart from you, but the result of the individual beliefs of each person in it. There
is no stratum of society that you do not in one way or another affect. Your
religions stress sin. Your medical profession stresses disease. Your orderly
sciences stress the chaotic and accidental theories of creation. Your psychologies
stress men as victims of their backgrounds. Your most advanced thinkers
emphasize man's rape of the planet, or focus upon the future disaster that will
overtake the world, or see men once again as victims of the stars.
Many of your resurrected occult schools speak of a recommended death of
desire, the annihilation of the ego, for the transmutation of physical elements to
finer levels. In all such cases the clear spiritual and biological integrity of the
individual suffers, and the precious immediacy of your moments is largely lost.
Earth life is seen as murky, a dim translation of greater existence, rather
than portrayed as the unique, creative, living experience that it should be. The
body becomes disoriented, sabotaged. The clear lines of communication between
spirit and body become cluttered. Individually and en masse, diseases and
conditions result that are meant to lead you into other realizations.
(Abruptly:) End of session.
("Very good material.")
My fondest regards.
("Good night, Seth, " I said at 11:59 P.M. I'd expected him to continue for a
while longer.)
NOTES: SESSION 805
1. When Seth came through with "You get what you concentrate upon," I
remembered that he'd first spoken that sentence some years ago — and that soon
afterward I'd made a little paper sign bearing those words and taped it to a wall
in one of the two apartments we occupied in Elmira, New York. Had I dated the
excerpt? I knew that a few years later the sign had
• 52 • EVENTS OF "NATURE"
accompanied us on our move to the hill house just outside the city, where we
live now. After tonight's session I found it — again upon a wall — with the date:
February 26,1972. From our records I learned that I'd taken Seth's quotation
from a personal session Jane held while we were on vacation in Marathon, a
resort community in the Florida Keys.
The session had been an impromptu one, and developed on our last night in
Marathon because we'd been worrying about our goals in life, and how
significant a part the Seth material might play in our affairs. We'd felt strong
attractions toward what seemed to be a simpler, more open and pleasant life in
the Keys, where the weather was excellent all year, and living in a trailer was an
accepted way of life. Yet we didn't think we could afford it. The Seth Material
had been published in mid-1970, but sales were slow, and Seth Speaks wasn't out
yet; we'd just finished correcting the page proofs for that work. I'd given up my
commercial art job before we went on vacation, and didn't know what I'd end up
doing, besides helping Jane as much as I could.
As I suppose is almost always the case with tourists in romantic, faraway
places, we had many ties back home. Although Jane's father, and my own, had
died the previous year (in 1971), our mothers were still living: Jane's in a
nursing home in upstate New York, and mine at the Butts family home in Sayre,
Pennsylvania, which is only 18 miles from Elmira and just south of the New
York State border. (While Jane and I were away my mother stayed with one of
my brothers, who lives some 60 miles below Sayre.)
All of our possessions were in Elmira. To convert to trailer living meant that
we'd have to dispose of most of what we owned, including paintings and
manuscripts, furniture, files, books, and many written records — something we
probably couldn't have brought ourselves to do. And how could we go to Florida
and leave all of our friends, and how inconvenient would it be to deal with a
publisher (Prentice-Hall) headquartered way up north in New Jersey? Jane was
much more willing to attempt the move than I was, but I think we knew all along
that beneath our questions and feelings the idea of moving was more like a
shared dream, or a probable reality we chose not to explore during our current
physical lives. Jane's mother was to die within three months of our return home,
mine over a year later (in November 1973).
Seth gave an excellent session for us on that last warm night in Marathon.
He did his best to reassure us. The following excerpt leads up to the quotation
that inspired this note:
"You have a relationship not only unique, the two of you, but one that also
serves as a springboard for creativity. You have talents and abilities that carry
with them satisfactions that you both often blithely take for granted: They are so
a part of your existences that you are not even aware of them.
"Do not confuse your [joint] position with anyone else's. It is unique.
Because it is, the possibilities are endless. If you magnify your limitations you
"MASS MEDITATIONS" • 53 •
create your own prisons. If you enjoy those freedoms that are yours now, you
automatically increase them. You are in a clear position at this moment. You
cannot expect a blissful time innocent of problems. That is not the nature of life
or of existence.
"Your set of problems are of the most creative kind. They are challenges
from which great potentials can emerge. Your full energy for work and your
creative drives are released, and will be, as you creatively use and understand
your problems. But do not concentrate upon them, nor let them close your eyes
to the joys and freedoms that you have. You get what you concentrate upon.
There is no other main rule (my emphasis)."
2. As Jane wrote for this note: "We think that the dangers of negative suggestion
are as real as the physical ones that are connected with the overuse of Xrays,
say. Certainly some women have uncovered cancers through selfexaminations,
and in so doing perhaps saved their lives. There's no way of
knowing, though, what part negative suggestion might have played in their
diseased conditions to begin with.
"With some women, not conducting regular self-examinations would rouse
as many fears as doing them — and since those women's beliefs follow official
medical ones so stricdy, they're must better off with the examinations. In this and
all instances regarding health, each woman should weigh all the evidence,
examine her beliefs, and make her own decisions."
I remind the reader that after break ended at 11:35 in the last session (the
804th in Chapter 1), Seth had this to say: "Left alone, the body can defend itself
against any disease, but it cannot defend itself appropriately against an
exaggerated general fear of disease on the individual's part. It must mirror your
own feelings and assessments. Usually, now, your entire medical systems
literally generate as much disease as is cured — for you are everywhere hounded
by the symptoms of various diseases, and filled with the fear of disease,
overwhelmed by what seems to be the body's propensity toward illness — and
nowhere is the body's vitality or natural defense system stressed."
Seth didn't mention it in the session tonight, but Jane and I find it extremely
interesting that just last week much national publicity was given to the ongoing
two-year-old controversy among cancer specialists over whether women —
especially those under 50 years of age — should be given routine mammograms
(X-ray examinations) in efforts to detect breast cancer in its early stages.
Involved in the arguments are the leading cancer investigative organizations
in the country. For example: Scientific advisers to the government's National
Cancer Institute, which is conducting elaborate studies of many thousands of
women of varying ages, have called for a halt to the routine screening of
younger women. These scientists are on record as stating that
•54- EVENTS OF "NATURE"
such X-raying may cause more breast cancer than it
cures. Many millions of dollars, and much time and
effort, have been and are being given to such research
programs. It will be difficult to alter those studies
because of entrenched belief systems. Even the economic
factors become important: Beside the great sums
involved in the "official" programs, for instance, many
private radiologists have also found mammography
screening to be quite profitable.
Now, there's much confusion on the part of women
over whether to have mammograms. The process isn't
infallible, unfortunately; also, misinterpretations of its
results have caused a number of cancer-free women to
undergo mastectomies — often radical ones — when
they didn't have to. Moreover, each of these individuals
has to live with the belief that they've had cancer, and
must constantly be on the alert for any signs of its
recurrence — signs they do not find. At the same time,
they are subjected to even more X-ray examinations on a
regular basis. They can also have insurance and employment
problems (as can many other cancer patients).
A controversy related to that over mammograms,
but one that hasn't been nearly as well publicized,
concerns "prophylactic subcutaneous mastectomy" —
the process by which some women elect to have their
breasts removed before they actually develop cancer in
one or both of them. These women have been told that
statistically they're "high risk" prospects for cancer.
Involved here are recent diagnostic procedures: the study
of the "patient's" family history, the study of the
"density" and structure of her breast tissues as
determined by mammogram patterns, and the detection
of possibly premalignant cellular changes. In this
preventative operation, the surgeon leaves the nipple and
the skin of the breasts, and restores their bulk with
implants of plastic or silicone.
At this time many more doctors disagree than agree
with the need for prophylactic mastectomies. Those
against the procedure cite the errors possible in
diagnosis, including the misinterpretation of
mammographic patterns. Once again, negative
suggestion rules in the present and is projected into the
future, for the individual is told that she is at the mercy
of her own bodily processes, which might go awry at any
moment.
Even when resorted to, prophylactic mastectomies
are not foolproof, for a few women have still developed
cancer in the area of the nipple. What Jane and I are very
curious about, however, is how many "statistically
vulnerable" women submitted to operations they didn't
need — for surely a significant number of them wouldn't
have developed cancer in the first place. The percentage
is unknowable, of course. If it could be shown that most
of the "high risk" women would get cancer, there
wouldn't be arguments about whether such mastectomies
are of general value. As things are, though, because of
the controversy women once again end up confused as to
who is righl and what
"MASS MEDITATIONS" • 55 •
to do. Large scale studies, including one by the National Cancer Institute, are
planned to explore the whole question of prophylactic mastectomies.
I'll conclude this note by making three quick points. The first is that other
agencies and individuals in the medical and psychological fields are conducting
studies of the ties that exist between emotional states and cancer. The second is
that Jane and I are perfectly aware of all the good things that medical science has
contributed to our worldwide civilization; given our species' present collective
beliefs about the vulnerability of the individual to outside forces, medicine as it's
now practiced is a vital component of that civilization. The third point is that
with his views, Seth is simply trying to open our eyes to a much wider
understanding of human capacities.
Apropos of that final item, Jane and I refer the reader to the entire last
session. For in it Seth not only discussed the body's natural defenses and how it
"immunizes itself," but also examined our negative cultural beliefs about the
body and disease. We think his material is so good that it deserves more than one
reading.
SESSION 806, JULY 30,1977
9:31 P.M. SATURDAY
(This is the first session for Mass Events since the last one, obviously — but
with an 11-week gap between the two. How come? What were Jane and I doing
all of that "time" — that nearly one-quarter of a year of our physical lives ?
(First, after holding session 805 we took a six-week break from sessions of
any kind. We didn't plan to do this; it just developed, and we eventually realized
that it did so through Jane's simple need for a change in routine. We had plenty
of other things to do: I was still occupied daily with writing notes and
appendixes for Volume 2 of "Unknown" Reality; on June 4 Jane received the
page proofs for Cezanne, and began correcting them for the printer; on the 14th
of the month "our" contractor began converting half of our garage into a writing
room for Jane, and adding a large back porch [see the end of Note 2 for Session
801]. All of that building activity was much noisier and more disruptive than the
work had been for the front porch, and forced some changes in our schedules,
including more night work, as we manipulated around those distractions.
(On July 9 we received from Prentice-Hall our first press copies of Volume 1
of "Unknown." This made us feelgood indeed, for it signaled the first publication
of a Seth book in three years [since Personal Reality came out in 19741. In mid-
July our friend Sue Watkins1 began typing the rest of
• 56 • EVENTS OF "NATURE"
the final manuscript /or Psyche; Jane had managed to help me out by finding
the time to prepare the first five chapters for the publisher, but since we
were both so busy we asked Sue for assistance. [Sue is a writer also, and
knows about things like manuscripts.] Then by the time this 806th session
came about, Jane estimated that she was practically through with the first
handwritten draft of James. She's also started her Introduction for it.
(Going back to the end of our stay-at-home vacation, on June 25 Seth-
Jane began delivering a series of 10 sessions that we held on Monday and
Saturday evenings for a change, instead of following our usual Monday-
Wednesday routine. We finally decided to classify these sessions as private,
or at least as not being work for Mass Events. Some of that material is
intensely personal, and some only generally so. But a lot of it isn't intimate
at all — meaning that it could help others if it were published. This realization
brought up questions we've encountered before: Which sessions apply
to a particular project, and which ones don't? What if they're related in
oblique ways, yet Seth doesn 't call them book dictation ? I may not realize I
should ask him about this at the time, or only later begin to speculate about
using certain material. We know that Seth will specify a given number of
sessions for this book, for instance, yet we keep the freedom to consider adding
other material.
(This 806th session is such an example. Strictly speaking, it isn 't dictation
for Mass Events, but Jane and I are presenting portions of it here
because Seth discussed events and memory with a different emphasis, and
touched upon aspects of reincarnation2 — all subjects that spring out of
that ineffable, really undefinable quality he calls simultaneous time. I ask
the reader to always keep in mind that no matter what subject he's discussing,
or from what viewpoint, Seth's kind of "time" underlies all that
our present physical senses translate into linear, concrete experience and
history. For clarification, I also keep this in mind: Seth isn't physical, as he
defines himself, and that "energy personality essence" seemingly isn't all
that focused on the passage of time — as we are — yet way back in the 14th
session for January 8, 1964, he told us that time "is therefore still a reality
of some kind to me. " In these notes for Mass Events, I plan to refer to time
—- all kinds of it —from "time to time. ")
Good evening.
("Good evening, Seth.")
Part 1 of the session.
"MASS MEDITATIONS" -57-
Because events do not exist in the concrete, done-and-finished
versions about which you have been taught, then memory must also be a
different story.
You must remember the creativity and the open-ended nature of
events, for even in one life a given memory is seldom a "true version" of
a past event. The original happening is experienced from a different
perspective on the part of each person involved, of course, so that the
event's implications and basic meanings may differ according to the focus
of each participant. That given event, in your terms happening for the
first time, say, begins to "work upon" the participants. Each one brings to
it his or her own background, temperament, and literally a thousand
different colorations — so that the event, while shared by others, is still
primarily original to each person.
The moment it occurs, it begins to change as it is filtered through all
of those other ingredients, and it is minutely altered furthermore by each
succeeding event. The memory of an event, then, is shaped as much by
the present as it is by the past. Association triggers memories, of course,
and organizes memory events. It also helps color and form such events.
You are used to a time structure, so that you remember something
that happened at a particular time in the past. Usually you can place
events in that fashion. There are neurological pockets, so to speak, so that
biologically the body can place events as it perceives activity. Those
neurological pulses are geared to the biological world you know.
In those terms, past or future-life memories usually remain like ghost
images by contrast. Overall, this is necessary so that immediate body
response can be focused in the time period you recognize. Other life
memories are carried along, so to speak, beneath those other pulses —
never, in certain terms, coming to rest so that they can be examined, but
forming, say, the undercurrents upon which the memories of your current
life ride.
When such other-life memories do come to the surface, they are of
course colored by it, and their rhythm is not synchronized. They are not
tied into your nervous system as precisely as your regular memories.
Your present gains its feeling of depth because of your past as you
understand it. In certain terms, however, the future
•58- EVENTS OF "NATURE"
represents, say, another kind of depth that
belongs to events. A root goes out in all
directions. Events do also. But the roots of
events go through your past, present, and
future.
Often by purposefully trying to slow
down your thought processes, or playfully
trying to speed them up, you can become
aware of memories from other lives — past or
future. To some extent you allow other
neurological impulses to make themselves
known. There may often be a feeling of
vagueness, because you have no ready-made
scheme of time or place with which to
structure such memories. Such exercises also
involve you with the facts of the events of
your own life, for you automatically are
following probabilities from the point of your
own focus.
It would be most difficult to operate
within your sphere of reality without the
pretension of concrete, finished events. You
form your past lives now in this life as surely
as you form your future ones now also.
Simultaneously, each of your past and
future selves dwell in their own way now, and
for them the last sentence also applies. It is
theoretically possible to understand much of
this through an examination-in-depth of the
events of your own life. Throwing away many
taken-for-granted concepts, you can pick a
memory. But try not to structure it — a most
difficult task — for such structuring is by now
almost automatic.
(10:01.) The memory, left alone, not
structured, will shimmer, shake, take other
forms, and transform itself before your
[mental] eyes, so that its shape will seem like
a psychological kaleidoscope through whose
focus the other events of your life will also
shimmer and change. Such a memory exercise
can also serve to bring in other-life memories.
Edges, corners, and reflections will appear,
however, perhaps superimposed upon
memories that you recognize as belonging to
this life.
Your memories serve to organize your
experience and, again, follow recognized
neurological sequences. Other-life memories
from the future and past often bounce off of
these with a motion too quick for you to
follow.
In a quiet moment, off guard, you might
remember an event from this life, but there
may be a strange feeling to it, as if something
"MASS MEDITATIONS" •59-
about it, some sensation, does not fit into the
time slot in which the event belongs. In such
cases that [present-life] memory is often tinged
by another, so that a future or past life memory
sheds its cast upon the recalled event. There is
a floating quality about one portion of the
memory.
This happens more often than is
recognized, because usually you simply
discount the feeling of strangeness, and drop
the part of the memory that does not fit. Such
instances involve definite bleed-throughs,
however. By being alert and catching such
feelings, you can learn to use the floating part
of the otherwise-recognizable memory as a
focus. Through association that focus can then
trigger further past or future recall. Clues also
appear in the dreaming state, with greater
frequency, because then you are already
accustomed to that kind of floating sensation in
which events can seem to happen in their own
relatively independent context.
Dreams in which past and present are both
involved are an example; also dreams in which
the future and the past merge, and dreams in
which time seems to be a changing ingredient.
Now take your break.
(10:14 to 10:44.)
Now: In certain terms the past, present,
and future [of your present life] are all
compressed in any given moment of your
experience.
Any such moment is therefore a gateway
into all of your existence. The events that you
recognize as happening now are simply
specific and objective, but the most minute
element in any given moment's experience is
also symbolic of other events and other times.
Each moment is then like a mosaic, only in
your current life history you follow but one
color or pattern, and ignore the others. As I
have mentioned [in other books], you can
indeed change the present to some extent by
purposefully altering a memory event. That
kind of synthesis can be used in many
instances with many people.
Such an exercise is not some theoretical,
esoteric, impractical method, but a very
precise, volatile, and dynamic way of helping
the present self by calming the fears of a past
self. That past self is not hypothetical, either,
but still exists, capable of being reached and of
changing its reactions. You do not need a time
machine to alter the past or the future.
• 60 • EVENTS OF "NATURE"
Such a technique is highly valuable. Not only are memories not
"dead," they are themselves ever-changing. Many alter themselves almost
completely without your notice. In his (unpublished) apprentice novels,
Ruburt (Jane) did two or three versions of an episode with a priest he had
known in his youth. Each version at the time he wrote it represented his
honest memory of the event. While the bare facts were more or less the
same, the entire meaning and interpretation of each version differed so
drastically that those differences far outweighed the similarities.
Because the episode was used on two or three different occasions,
Ruburt could see how this memory changed. In most cases, however,
people are not aware that memory changes in such a fashion, or that the
events they think they recall are so different.
The point is that past events grow. They are not finished. With that in
mind, you can see that future lives are very difficult to explain from
within your framework. A completed life in your terms is no more
completed or done than any event. There is simply a cutoff point in your
focus from your framework, but it is as artificial as, basically, perspective
is applied to painting.
It is not that the inner self is not aware of all of this, but that it has
already chosen a framework, or a given frame of existence, that emphasizes
certain kinds of experience over others.
(11:05. Now Seth went into the more personal Part 2 of the session,
explaining how in her own case Jane could give her past self in this life her
current knowledge, so that through the resulting "psychological synthesis"
she would be better equipped to handle certain challenges.
(End at 11:44 P.M.)
NOTES: SESSION 806
1. Sue Watkins has been mentioned, and at times quoted, in a number of Jane's
books: The Seth Material, Seth Speaks, Adventures in Consciousness, Psychic Politics,
and both volumes of "Unknown"Reality. Jane started her ESP class in September 1967.
We met Sue in September 1968; she began attending class a month later, and did so more
or less regularly until the end of class in February 1975. At this time Sue is working on a
novel of her own and co-editing a weekly newspaper in a small town some 50 miles north
of Elmira, New York (where Jane and I live).
"MASS MEDITATIONS" •61 •
2. Jane spent considerable time before my birthday
(I turned 58 on June 20) preparing a sketch book of
poems and colored drawings as a present for me. She
touched upon many subjects in her highly original poetry
and art. On reincarnation she wrote:
To Rob
Were you born once
in winter, in
Europe's ice and
snow, when villages
were dark at night
and wolves roamed
the towering hills ?
Or dark-skinned,
did your swaddling
cry pierce Egypt's
early dawn ? How
many birthdays
come and gone,
how many
homelands, each
your own ? How
many loves have
whispered through
the patterns of your
mind ? How many
sons and daughters
have grown from
your womb or loins
? What voices
merge with mine to
wish you happy
birthday, and what
loves within your
past lay out a feast
of wine and cakes?
And in a more "modern" vein:
To Rob
We parked
here today
and the green
world swirled
jungle-quick,
downtown
across the
river, and like
a city
bushman I
was in tune,
swinging
through
thought's
treetops while
the traffic
stopped and
started,
precise as a
ceremony of
animals,
almost formal,
engines
thundering
then purring,
wheels
pausing,
headlights
hypnotized in
sun. You
walked into
the bank,
making an
exchange as
ancient as any
tribal ilaim
•62- EVENTS OF "NATURE"
SESSION 814, OCTOBER 8, 1977 9:43P.M. SATURDAY
(With one exception, which I'll get to later,
we've spent another long period — 9 weeks —
without holding book sessions. Seth-Jane was
certainly busy on all of those Monday and
Saturday nights, though, and came through with
another separate series of sessions after I inserted
the 806th session into Mass Events — 17 of them
this time, as compared to the 10 sessions delivered
before the 806th was held. Once again, these were
private or nonbook sessions, and once again they
covered a wide range of subjects other than
personal ones.
(Including the 806th session, those two blocks
of material mean that in the last 20 weeks [or 41/2
months], Seth has held but one session for Mass
Events, and 28 on other subjects. "Maybe he's
already finished the book, and forgot to tell us, " I
joked with Jane. "Maybe it's going to be his
shortest one yet."
("That constant book stuff can get confining,
though, " she said, then reminded me that Seth —
with her obvious consent — had plunged into
Mass Events only a couple of weeks
afterfinishingPsyche. "It gets so he concentrates
on book subjects so much that a lot of other things
are left out. . . At least breaks in dictation give us
chances to go off in other directions — the
sessions are more flexible that way. "
(This flexibility also generates some
challenges, however, for the great amount of
material we 've accumulated during the Mass
Events hiatus gave us the urge to see what we
could do about getting at least some of it published,
so that others could benefit. The problem
— the challenge — would be to find the physical
time to do the necessary editing and notes to put
such a manuscript in shape for publication; this
would be a job that could easily take a year. Jane
and I considered combining that hypothetical book
with Mass Events, but figured out that the
resulting volume would almost surely be too long;
longer even than Volume 2 of "Unknown" Reality,
which in our opinion is bulky enough.
(The two sets of material are also different in
certain subtle ways, although one can always
justifiably say that each subject Seth discusses is in
some fashion a part of his overall philosophy. It
would have to be that way, of course. In other
words, it's somewhat ironic that during the break
in dictating Mass Events Seth-Jane actually
produced the equivalent of another book, but one
that we can't do much about, at least at this time.1
"MASS MEDITATIONS" •63-
(Since the 806th session was held 10 weeks
ago [on July 30], then, I've worked steadily on
Volume 2 of "Unknown." Late in August Jane
interrupted her work on James to move all of
her writing paraphernalia into her new room at
the back of the house. Sue Watkins delivered the
finished manuscript for several chapters of
Psyche, and picked up more to type. Jane, who
was to work on James all through September,
prepared a presentation for that book so that in
the meantime her editor, Tarn Mossman, could
show it to his associates at Prentice-Hall. On
September 12, Jane had a very vivid dream that
she believes was rooted in a past life of hers in
Turkey: Her dream involved a little boy, Prince
Emir, who lived in a brand-new world in which
death hadn 't been invented yet. Over the
telephone three days later, Tarn suggested that
Jane do a children's book, or one for "readers
of all ages, " based on her dream about Emir2;
the next day he called again, this time to give her
the delightful news that he'd accepted James for
publication.
(Then, in a private session held on the
evening of September 17, 1977, Seth came
through with a very exciting concept called
"Framework 1 and Framework 2." Jane and I
were so struck by the practical, far-reaching
implications of this proposition that we began a
concerted effort to put it to use in daily life.
Briefly and very simply, Seth maintains that
Framework 2, or inner reality, contains the
creative source from which we form all events,
and that by the proper focusing of attention we
can draw from that vast subjective medium
everything we need for a constructive, positive
life in Framework 1, or physical reality. We've
already made known to Seth our desires that he
go into his Frameworks 1 and 2 material much
more extensively in Mass Events, since those
concepts are so closely involved with the individual
and collective experiences surrounding the
lives of everyone?
(Now for the "once exception" I referred to at
the beginning of this note. It's the 812th session
for October 1, and at least some of it is book
dictation. It was triggered by a visit we had
recently from a reader who obviously had strong
tendencies toward paranoia. Seth gave a
session on paranoia in response to that
encounter [but not for the individual concerned,
although Jane later wrote to him], then
instructed us to lay the session aside for inclusion
in a later chapter of Mass Events.
(Finally: Just before tonight's session Jane
said she thought Seth might do some work on
M;iss Events. She had a question about herself,
and I asked for a few lines from Seth on whether
she just might have been born left-handed.
• 64 • EVENTS OF "NATURE"
/ want to use the material in connection with a passage I'm putting together for
Volume 2 of "Unknown" Reality. [See the excerpts from Session 211, in Appendix
18 of that work.] However, Seth didn't answer my question.)
Now, good evening —
("Good evening, Seth.")
— and as Ruburt supposed, dictation, as from our last formal book session
(the 805th).
In order from the beginning — the passages on paranoia (in the 812th
session) will come later. While Ruburt was working at one of his books a few
days ago, he heard a public service announcement. The official told all listeners
that the flu season had officially begun. He sternly suggested that the elderly and
those with certain diseases make appointments at once for flu shots.
The official mentioned, by the way, that there was indeed no direct evidence
connecting past flu shots with the occurrence of a rather bizarre disease that
some of those inoculated with the flu vaccine happened to come down with.4 All
in all, it was quite an interesting announcement, with implications that straddle
biology, religion, and economics. "The flu season" is in a way an example of a
psychologically-manufactured pattern that can at times bring about a
manufactured epidemic.
Behind such announcements there is the authority of the medical profession,
and the very authority of your systems of communication as well. You cannot
question the voice over the radio. It is disembodied and presumes to know.
Once again, the elderly were singled out. It seems obvious that they are
more susceptible to diseases. That susceptibility is a medical fact of life. It is a
fact, however, without a basic foundation in the truth of man's biological reality.
It is a fact brought about through suggestion. The doctors see the bodily results,
which are quite definite, and then those results are taken as evidence.
In a few isolated areas of the world even today, the old are not diseaseridden,
nor do their vital signs weaken. They remain quite healthy until the time
of death.
Their belief systems, therefore, you must admit, are quite practical. Nor are
they surrounded by medical professions. Later in the book we will return to the
subject. Here, you have, however, what
"MASS MEDITATIONS" •65-
almost amounts to a social program for illness
— the flu season. A mass meditation, it has an
economic structure in back of it: The scientific
and medical foundations are involved. Not
only this, however, but the economic concerns,
from the largest pharmacies to the tiniest
drugstores, the supermarkets and the corner
groceries — all of these elements are involved.
Pills, potions, and shots supposed to
combat [colds and the] flu are given prominent
displays, serving to remind those who might
have missed them otherwise of the
announcements [about] the coming time of
difficulty. Commercials on television bring a
new barrage, so that (amused) you can go from
the hay fever season to the flu season without
missing any personal medications.
A cough in June may be laughed off and
quickly forgotten. A cough in the flu season,
however, is far more suspect — and under such
conditions one might think, particularly in the
midst of a poor week: "Who wants to go out
tomorrow anyhow?"
You are literally expected to come down
with the flu. It can serve as an excuse for not
facing many kinds of problems. Many people
are almost consciously aware of what they are
doing. All they have to do is pay attention to
the suggestions offered so freely by the society.
The temperature does rise. Concern causes the
throat to become dry. Dormant viruses —
which up to now have done no harm — are
activated.
(10:10.) Coat, glove, and boot
manufacturers also push their wares. Yet in
those categories there is more sanity, for their
ads often stress wholesome activities,
portraying the happy skier, the tramper through
the woods in winter. Sometimes, however, they
suggest that their wares will protect you
against the flu and colds, and against the
vulnerability of your nature.
The inoculations themselves do little good
overall, and they can be potentially dangerous,
particularly when they are given to prevent an
epidemic which has not in fact occurred. They
may have specific value, but overall they are
detrimental, confusing bodily mechanisms and
setting off other biological reactions that might
not show up, say, for some time.5
The flu season intersects with the
Christmas season, of course, when Christians
are t< >l*l to be merry and [wish] their fellows
a happy
•66- EVENTS OF "NATURE"
return to the natural wonders of childhood, in
thought at least. [They are also told] to pay
homage to God. Christianity has become,
however, a tangled sorry tale, its cohesiveness
largely vanished. Such a religion becomes
isolated from daily life. Many individuals
cannot unify the various areas of their belief
and feeling, and at Christmas they partially
recognize the vast gulf that exists between
their scientific beliefs and their religious
beliefs. They find themselves unable to cope
with such a mental and spiritual dilemma. A
psychic depression often results, one that is
deepened by the Christmas music and the
commercial displays, by the religious
reminders that the species is made in God's
image, and by the other reminders that the
body so given is seemingly incapable of
caring for itself and is a natural prey to disease
and disaster.
So the Christmas season carries a man's
hopes in your society, and the flu season
mirrors his fears and shows the gulf between
the two.
The physician is also a private person, so I
speak of him only in his professional capacity,
for he usually does the best he can in the
belief system that he shares with his fellows.
Those beliefs do not exist alone, but are of
course intertwined with religious and
scientific ones, as separate as they might
appear. Christianity has conventionally treated
illness as the punishment of God, or as a trial
sent by God, to be borne stoically. It has
considered man a sinful creature, flawed by
original sin, forced to work by the sweat of his
brow.
Science has seen man as an accidental
product of an uncaring universe, a creature
literally without a center of meaning, where
consciousness was the result of a physical
mechanism that only happened to come into
existence, and that had no reality outside of
that structure. Science has at least been
consistent in that respect. Christianity,
however, officially asks children of sorrow to
be joyful and sinners to find a childlike purity;
it asks them to love a God who one day will
destroy the world, and who will condemn
them to hell if they do not adore him.
Many people, caught between such
conflicting beliefs, fall prey to physical ills
during the Christmas season particularly. The
churches and the hospitals are often the largest
buildings in any town, and the only ones open
on Sunday without recourse to city
ordinances. You cannot divorce your private
value systems from your
"MASS MEDITATIONS" •67-
health, and the hospitals often profit from the
guilt that religions have instilled in their
people.
I am speaking now of religions so
intertwined with social life and community
ventures that all sense of basic religious
integrity becomes lost. Man is by nature a
religious creature.
Take your break.
(10:40 to 11:10.)
Dictation: One of man's strongest attributes
is religious feeling. It is the part of psychology
most often overlooked. There is a natural
religious knowledge with which you are born.
Ruburt's book The Afterdeath Journal ofan
American Philosopher: The World View of
William James explains that feeling very well.
It is a biological spirituality translated into
verbal terms. It says: "Life is a gift (and not a
curse). I am a unique, worthy creature in the
natural world, which everywhere surrounds me,
gives me sustenance, and reminds me of the
greater source from which I myself and the
world both emerge. My body is delightfully
suited to its environment, and comes to me,
again, from that unknown source which shows
itself through all of the events of the physical
world."
That feeling gives the organism the
optimism, the joy, and the ever-abundant
energy to grow. It encourages curiosity and
creativity, and places the individual in a
spiritual world and a natural one at once.
Organized religions are always attempts to
redefine that kind of feeling in cultural terms.
They seldom succeed because they become too
narrow in their concepts, too dogmatic, and the
cultural structures finally overweigh the finer
substance within them.
The more tolerant a religion is, the closer
it comes to expressing those inner truths. The
individual, however, has a private biological
and spiritual integrity that is a part of man's
heritage, and is indeed any creature's right.
Man cannot mistrust his own nature and at the
same time trust the nature of God, for God is
his word for the source of his being — and if
his being is tainted, then so must be his God.
Your private beliefs merge with those of
others, and form your cultural reality. The
distorted ideas of the medical profession or the
scientists, or of any other group, are not thrust
upon you, therefore. They are the result of
your mass beliefs — isolated in the form of
separate discipline!. Medical men, for
example, are often extremely
• 68 • EVENTS OF "NATURE"
unhealthy because they are so saddled with those specific health beliefs
that their attention is concentrated in that area more than others not so
involved. The idea of prevention is always based upon fear — for you do
not want to prevent something that is joyful. Often, therefore,
preventative medicine causes what it hopes to avoid. Not only does the
idea [of prevention] continually promote the entire system of fear, but
specific steps taken to prevent a disease in a body not already stricken,
again, often set up reactions that bring about side effects that would occur
if the disease had in fact been suffered.
(11:32.) A specific disease will of course have its effects on other
portions of the body as well, [effects] which have not been studied, or
even known. Such inoculations, therefore, cannot take that into
consideration. There are also cases where alterations occur after
inoculation, so that for a while people actually become carriers of
diseases, and can infect others.
There are individuals who very rarely get ill whether or not they are
inoculated, and who are not sensitive in the health area. I am not
implying, therefore, that all people react negatively to inoculations. In the
most basic of terms, however, inoculations do no good, either, though I
am aware that medical history would seem to contradict me.
At certain times, and most particularly at the birth of medical science
in modern times, the belief in inoculation, if not by the populace then by
the doctors, did possess the great strength of new suggestion and hope —
but I am afraid that scientific medicine has caused as many new diseases
as it has cured. When it saves lives, it does so because of the intuitive
healing understanding of the physician, or because the patient is so
impressed by the great efforts taken in his behalf, and therefore is
convinced secondhandedly of his own worth.
Give us a moment. . . Physicians, of course, are also constantly at the
beck and call of many people who will take no responsibility at all for
their own well-being, who will plead for operations they do not need. The
physician is also visited by people who do not want to get well, and use
the doctor and his methods as justification for further illness, saying:
"The doctor is no good," or "The medicine will not work," therefore
blaming the doctor for a way of life they have no intention of changing.
The physician is also caught between his religious beliefs and his
scientific beliefs. Sometimes these conflict, and sometimes they only
"MASS MEDITATIONS" • 69 •
serve to deepen his feelings that the body, left alone, will get any disease
possible.
Take your break.
(11:45 to 12:01.)
Again, you cannot separate your systems of values and your most intimate
philosophical judgments from the other areas of your private or mass experience.
In this country, your tax dollars go for many medical experiments and
preventative-medicine drives — because you do not trust the good intent of your
own bodies. In the same way, your government funds [also] go into military
defenses to prevent war, because if you do not trust your own body's good intent
toward you, you can hardly trust any good intent on the part of your fellowmen.
In fact, then, preventative medicine and outlandish expenditures for
preventative defense are quite similar. In each case there is the anticipation of
disaster — in one case from the familiar body, which can be attacked by deadly
diseases at any time, and is seemingly at least without defenses; and in the other
case from the danger without: exaggerated, ever-threatening, and ever to be
contended with.
(Intently:) Disease must be combatted, fought against, assaulted, wiped out.
In many ways the body becomes almost like an alien battleground, for many
people trust it so little that it becomes highly suspect. Man then seems pitted
against nature. Some people think of themselves as patients, as others, for
example, might think of themselves as students. Such people are those who are
apt to take preventative measures against whatever disease is in fashion or in
season, and hence take the brunt of medicine's unfortunate aspects, when there is
no cause.
(12:13.) Give us a moment. . . .
(Now Seth delivered a few paragraphs for Jane and me, then ended the
session at 12:22 A.M.)
NOTES: SESSION 814
1. Here are a few comments I've always wanted to make about writing and
painting, both of which I usually do each day.
As I sorted through the mass of material Seth-Jane has produced these last
weeks, I found myteli once again charmed and mystified by the challenges
contained in the an <>l wi l l ing. The painted image can be taken in at a glance,
• 70 • EVENTS OF "NATURE"
at any stage of its development, but the cognition of the written word takes much more
time, no matter how fast one reads or absorbs new material. With a single look the artist
has an immediate grasp of the entire work before him; he (or she) can tell what he's done
and has to do, what he may have to change or "fix up," even if he fails at it. Not so the
writer, who while reading must pass up the artist's simultaneous perception for his own
linear cognition as he makes a multitude of decisions involving sentence structure, what
to use or eliminate, and so forth.
Sometimes the artist in me visually comes to the aid of the writer by laying out pages
of material and notes side by side upon a table or two. Then I can see what I'm trying to
do as a whole, and half intuitively, half intellectually make decisions about how to
organize passages I may be having problems with. This process is always very
challenging and thrilling to me. It always seems to work, although progress may still be
slow at times. This method also helps greatly in counteracting that initial impatience the
artist part of me strongly feels when my writer self comes upon a complex situation.
I'm well aware of current scientific theories about the supposed separate functions of
the two hemispheres of the brain: The left half is said to control logical activities like
writing, while the right half is responsible for the intuitive artistic abilities. Perhaps — but
after all, writing can be intuitively based, and art can be logically produced. At least the
whole brain (its hemispheres are connected deep within by the corpus callosum) must
contain that necessary basic creative ability that may then be apportioned out — but only
to an extent, I think — between the hemispheres. Barring physical injury/surgery, there
must be more communication between its halves (via the corpus callosum) than the brain
is given credit for. There's so much we don't know yet about the brain (let alone the
mind!). What about telepathy between the hemispheres? I think the divisions charted for
the brain so far may be too strict, that beliefs about such separations may get in the way of
our perception of the brain's beautifully whole operation.
"But Seth apparently just delivers his material verbally, and that's it, "Jane wrote
after reading my first draft of this note. "Even in a long book, he doesn't go through any
of those cognitive processes Rob mentions. I do when I'm writing, editing, or rewriting
my own work. If I do any of that work as Seth, it's so unconscious and fast that I'm not
aware of it. And Seth's 'writing' needs hardly any changes."
I also wrote in Note 3 for Session 801: "... that ordinarily Seth has no chance to
revise his copy."
2. I'll remind the reader that Jane has already received inspiration and material for
two books from her amazingly creative dream state: her novel, The Education of
Oversoul Seven, and James. While dreaming she tuned into whole chapters of Seven, for
instance.
"MASS MEDITATIONS" •71-
3.I should also note that Seth has made one
short, rather mysterious reference to the
existence of Frameworks 3 and 4. Two days
after he'd first talked about his concept of
Frameworks 1 and 2, he came through with the
following statement in another private session.
Jane and I have yet to ask him to elaborate
upon it: "There is, incidentally, a Framework 3
and a Framework 4, in the terms of our
discussion — but all such labels are, again,
only for the sake of explanation. The realities
are merged."
4.Seth referred to the paralyzing Guillain-Barre
syndrome, which struck a tiny proportion of
those receiving shots in the 1976 swine flu
program in this country. For many reasons, the
federal government suddenly ended the very
expensive and controversial program last
December. Then in May of this year a number
of scientists, working both in and outside of
government, agreed that the flu shots triggered
the Guillain-Barre syndrome, but that the
reasons for such reactions in certain individuals
are unknown. Jane and I didn't take the shots.
5.Earlier material on inoculations can be found
in Chapter 1. See Session 801 with Note 4, and
Session 802 with Note 3.
SESSION 815, DECEMBER 17,1977 9:22 P.M. SATURDAY
(All right. Another long period — 10 weeks
this time — has passed following Seth's last session
for Mass Events. Since this is the third such break
between book sessions, it seems that Jane and I
would be used to the idea by now. Actually, I'm
more bothered than she is by such long intervals. I
like to follow an endeavor through from start to
finish in a reasonably direct manner. When the
sessions don't work out that way I can feel
somewhat uneasy, while realizing at the same time
that a number of compensating factors may be at
work. In this case two distinct notions, one factual
and one philosophical, helped keep me at ease.
(First, during that 10-week break Seth-Jane
held a series of 18 sessions — excellent ones —
that once again did not constitute dictation for
Mass Events. Second, if one keeps in mind Seth's
ideas about simultaneous time, that basically all
happens at once [even considering Seth's own
acknowledgment that time "... is therefore still a
reality of some kind to me"], then it hardly matters
how long a break transpires between particular
sessions; there is no real separation; dictation on
any subject or project can be resumed whenever all
involved —Jane, Seth, and myself— choose, and it
will be as though the break never existed. For in
trance, Jane will once again
• 72 • EVENTS OF "NATURE"
be in accord with Seth in that nearly "timeless" environment in which he has a
large portion of his being}
(So we've decided to simply go along with however Mass Events works out
in terms of length, whether that length involves time or the number of sessions.
We do not plan to ask Seth when the book will be done. We have asked him to
discuss his Framework 1 and 2 concepts for it, though, and he's promised to do
so; he's had a good deal to say about those structures in the nonbook material
Jane has delivered since the 814th session was held.
(As of now: I'm practically through with the appendixes for Volume 2 of
"Unknown" Reality — which means I still have a number of notes to write for
the book's sessions per se, as well as much work to do for the Introductory Notes
and the Epilogue. Soon after Tarn Mossman suggested in early October that she
do a book on her dream about Emir,2 Jane began work on that project with her
usual enthusiasm. The dream became Chapter 1 of the book, and inspired the
rest of it; she's having great fun writing the story, and is sending it to Tarn
chapter by chapter as it comes out of her typewriter — a procedure she's never
followed before. She doesn 't know how long Emir will be. Late in October she
signed her contracts for the publication of James, and delivered the finished
manuscript at the end of November. Besides doing all of her own writing and
newspaper work, Sue Watkins is close to finishing her part of the typing on the
final manuscript for Seth's Psyche; / still have to spend more time on some of the
notes for it. Sue has also agreed that next year she'll start helping me type my
notes and appendix material for Volume 2 of "Unknown."
(While we've been busy with our endeavors, the shortening, brilliantly
colored and often warm days of October passed into November and turned
progressively colder through the month; we've already had more than a little
snow since Thanksgiving; and now in a few days [about December 22] winter
will officially arrive. I've raked leaves, stacked wood in the garage, installed
storm windows, and made sure our hill house is otherwise all set for cold
weather.
(We're still holding the sessions on Monday and Saturday evenings, which is
the routine we initiated after the 805th session was held just seven months ago
[on May 16]. As we sat for tonight's session Jane told me — somewhat to my
surprise — that she felt Seth might give some material for Mass Events. She
wasn't positive, however. Today she'd reread his sessions for the booh. Then:)
"MASS MEDITATIONS" • 73 •
Good evening.
("Good evening, Seth.")
Dictation. I do not want to shock you, but dictation — continuation
of our last chapter (2: "Mass Meditations, " etc.).
(With some humor:) Ruburt and Joseph have recently purchased a
color television set, so now their television world is no longer in black
and white. I have used television as an analogy at various times, and I
would like to do so again, to show the ways in which physical events are
formed, and to try to describe the many methods used by individuals in
choosing those particular events that will be personally encountered.
Not only does television actually serve as a mass means of communal
meditation, but it also presents you with highly detailed, manufactured
dreams, in which each viewer shares to some extent. We will use some
distinctions here, and so I am going to introduce the terms "Framework
1" and "Framework 2," to make my discussion clear.
We will call the world as you physically experience it, Framework 1.
In Framework 1, you watch television programs, for example. You have
your choice of many channels. You have favorite programs. You follow
certain scenes or actors. You watch all of these dramas, hardly
understanding how it is that they appear on your screen to begin with.
You are certain, however, that if you do buy a television set it will
perform in an adequate fashion, whether or not you are familiar with
electronics. Period.
You switch from channel to channel with predictable results. The
programming for Channel 9, for example, does not suddenly intrude on
Channel 6. Even the actors themselves, taking part in such sagas, have
but the remotest idea of events that are involved in order that their own
images will appear on your television screen. Their jobs are to act, taking
it for granted that the technicians are following through.
Now somewhere there is a program director, who must take care of
the entire programming. Shows must be done on time, actors assigned
their roles. Our hypothetical director will know which actors are free,
which actors prefer character roles, which ones are heroes or heroines,
and which smiling Don Juan always gets the girl — and in general who
plays the good guys and the bad guys.
• 74 • EVENTS OF "NATURE"
There is no need in my outlining in detail the multitudinous events
that must occur so that you can watch your favorite program. You flip the
switch and there it is, while all of that background work is unknown to
you. You take it for granted. Your job is simply to choose the programs of
your choice on any evening. Many others are watching the same
programs, of course, yet each person will react quite individually.
(9:40.) Now for a moment let us imagine that physical events occur
in the same fashion — that you choose those which flash upon the screen
of your experience. You are quite familiar with the events of your own
life, for you are of course your own main hero or heroine, villain or
victim, or whatever. As you do not know what happens in the television
studio before you observe a program, however, so you do not know what
happens in the creative framework of reality before you experience
physical events. We will call that vast "unconscious" mental and
universal studio Framework 2.
In this book I will try to tell you what goes on behind the scenes —
to show you the ways in which you choose your daily physical programs,
and to describe how those personal choices mix and merge to form a
mass reality. For now, we will go back to television again. You can turn
off a program that offends you. You can choose to buy or not buy a
product whose virtues are being praised. Television presents you with a
mirror of your society. It reflects and rereflects through millions of homes
the giant dreams and fears, the hopes and terrors of events in the most
private individual.
Television interacts with your lives, but it does not cause your lives.
It does not cause the events that it depicts. With your great belief in
technology, it often seems to many people that television causes violence,
for example, or that it causes a love of overmaterial-ism, or that it causes
"loose morals." Television reflects. In a manner of speaking it does not
even distort, though it may reflect distortions. The writers and actors of
television dramas are attuned to the "mass mind." They are not leaders or
followers. They are creative reflectors, acutely aware of the overall,
generalized emotional and psychic patterns of the age.
They also make choices as to which plays they will take part in.
[Each has his or her] own favorite kind of role, even if the role be
"MASS MEDITATIONS" • 75 •
that of a maverick. To the actors, of course, their roles become strong
parts of their personal experiences, while those who observe the plays
take part largely as observers.
You are aware through your newspapers and magazines of the
dramas, news broadcasts, or other programs that are presently being
offered. In the same way you are aware, generally speaking, of the
"programs" being physically presented in your own nation and
throughout the world. You decide which of these adventures you want to
take part in — and those you will experience in normal life, or in
Framework 1.
The inner mechanisms that happen prior to your experience will take
place in the vast mental studio of Framework 2. There, all the details will
be arranged, the seemingly chance encounters, for example, the
unexplained coincidences that might have to occur before a given
physical event takes place.
Take your break.
(10:02 to 10:19.)
On a conscious level, and with your conscious reserves alone, you
could not keep your body alive an hour. You would not know how to do
it, for your life flows through you automatically and spontaneously. You
take the details for granted — the breathing, the inner mechanisms of
nourishment and elimination, the circulation, and the maintenance of
your psychological continuity. All of that is taken care of for you in what
I have termed as Framework 2.
In that regard, certainly, everything works to your advantage. Indeed,
often the more concerned you become with your body the less smoothly
it functions. In the spontaneity of your body's operation there is obviously
a fine sense of order. When you turn on a television set the picture seems
to come out of nowhere onto the screen — yet that picture is the result of
order precisely focused.
Actors visit casting agencies so that they know what plays need their
services. In your dreams you visit "casting agencies." You are aware of
the various plays being considered for physical production. In the dream
state, then, often you familiarize yourself with dramas that are of a
probable nature. If enough interest is shown, if enough actors apply, if
enough resources are accumulated, the play will go on. When you are in
other than your normally conscious state, you
• 76 • EVENTS OF "NATURE"
visit that creative inner agency in which all physical productions j must
have their beginning. You meet with others, who for their own ' reasons are
interested in the same kind of drama. Following our analogy, the
technicians, the actors, the writers all assemble — only in this case the
result will be a live event rather than a televised one. There are disaster
films being planned, educational programs, religious dramas. All of these
will be encountered in full-blown physical reality.
Such events occur as a result of individual beliefs, desires, and
intents. There is no such thing as a chance encounter. No death occurs by
chance, nor any birth. In the creative atmosphere of Framework 2, intents
are known. In a manner of speaking, no act is private. Your
communication systems bring to your living room notices of events that
occur throughout the world. Yet that larger inner system of
communications is far more powerful in scope, and each mental act is
imprinted in the multidimensional screen of Framework 2. That screen is
available to all, and in other levels of consciousness, particularly in the
sleep and dreaming stages, the events of that inner reality are as everpresent
and easily accessible as physical events are when you are awake.
(10:40.) It is as if Framework 2 contains an infinite information
service, that instantly puts you in contact with whatever knowledge you
require, that sets up circuits between you and others, that computes
probabilities with blinding speed. Not with the impersonality of a
computer, however, but with a loving intent that has your best purposes
in mind — yours and also those of each other individual.
You cannot gain what you want at someone else's detriment, then.
You cannot use Framework 2 to force an event upon another person.
Certain prerequisites must be met, you see, before a desired end can
become physically experienced.
(10:45.) Give us a moment. . .
I will try to begin work on our book in a more predictable fashion,
while still maintaining our own discussions, and answering any questions
you may have. I do want to use our Framework 2 material, however, in a
more general fashion for the book.3 You may use any of our [other]
material you want, but the book itself will not rely upon that information.
"MASS MEDITATIONS" -77-
(The balance of the session, then, is deleted. Seth said good night at 11:12 P.M.)
NOTES: SESSION 815
1.The basic simultaneity of time is the most fascinating of all of Seth's ideas, I think.
That "spacious present" holds all events side by side, ready to be interpreted in
cause-and-e^ffect fashion by the organizational abilities of our more limited physical
senses. I wrote about reconstructing the past, simultaneous time, and dreams early in
Note 2 for Session 801. Also see the material on Seth and his simultaneous time in
the opening notes for the 806th session.
2.See the opening notes for the 814th session. Jane is calling her new book Emir's
Education in the Proper Use of Magical Powers.
3.Although this is the first session for Mass Events in which Seth had discussed
Framework 1 and Framework 2, at the moment Jane and I are a good deal more
familiar with his ideas concerning those fields of action than the reader is; see the
opening notes for the last (814th) session. Since introducing them in the deleted, or
nonbook session for September 17, Seth has at least mentioned the two frameworks
in 17 of the 23 deleted sessions he's given us since then.
He'd dealt with Frameworks 1 and 2 in only seven sessions, however, when I wrote a
paragraph of suggestions about them on October 26. This spontaneous creation not only
summarized what I'd learned from his new material so far, but gave me something I could
read daily. I've pinned copies to walls in both my painting and writing rooms.
My piece is naturally tailored to my own beliefs and needs, of course, and some of
its implications may become clearer to readers as Seth continues with his framework
material in Mass Events. But I'm presenting my effort as close as possible to its time of
conception so that each interested person can keep it in mind, and eventually write his or
her own version of it for personal use. Jane has done this; we find that a daily casual
reading of our respective "credos" concerning Frameworks 1 and 2 is valuable indeed. I
wrote on October 26:
"I have the simple, profound faith that anything I desire in this life can come to
me from Framework 2. There are no impediments in Framework 2. Framework 2 can
creatively produce everything I desire to have in Framework 1 — my excellent
health, painting, and writing, my excellent relationship with Jane, Jane's own
spontaneous and glowing physical health and creativity, the greater and greater sales
of all her books. I know that all of these positive goals are worked out in Framework
2, regardless
•78- EVENTS OF "NATURE"
of their seeming complexity, and that they can
then show themselves in Framework 1. I have
the simple, profound faith that everything I
desire in life can come to me from the
miraculous workings of Framework 2. I do not
need to be concerned with details of any kind,
knowing that Framework 2 possesses the
infinite creative capacity to handle and produce
everything I can possibly ask of it. My
simple, profound faith in the creative goodness
of Framework 2 is all that is necessary."

SESSION 817; JANUARY 30,1978
9:35 P.M. MONDAY
Seth 's statement at the end of dictation for the 815th session, "I
will try to begin work on our book in a more predictable fashion, "
reflected his good intent, but things didn 't turn out that way. Jane and I let
the holiday season intervene to some extent, and Session 816, which came
through the day after Christmas, didn't concern book work at all. Then,
starting in early January, we held eight sessions having to do with
questions we'd put off dealing with for a long time; some were personal and
some were not. We stayed with our Monday-Saturday evening session
routine, though, and kept busy with all of our other projects}
(We also experienced a very cold wintry month indeed, including a
series of massive snowstorms within the week just ended — "the worst in
over a decade," as I wrote in a note for last Saturday night's private
session.)
Good evening.
("Good evening, Seth.")
Dictation: A new chapter (3), to be titled: "Myths and Physical
Events." (Longpause.) Then: "The Interior Medium in Which Society
Exists."
s
• 82 • FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK 2
Give us a moment. . . Before we discuss man's and woman's private
roles in the nature of mass events — no matter what they are — we must
first look into the medium in which events appear concrete and real. The
great sweep of the events of nature can be understood only by looking
into a portion of their reality that is not apparent to you. We want to
examine, therefore, the inner power of natural occurrences.
A scientist examining nature studies its exterior, observing the
outsideness of nature. Even investigative work involving atoms and
molecules, or [theoretical2] faster-than-light particles, concerns the
particle nature of reality. The scientist does not usually look for nature's
heart. He certainly does not pursue the study of its soul.
All being is manifestation of energy — an emotional manifestation of
energy. Man can interpret the weather in terms of air pressure and wind
currents. He can look to fault lines in an effort to understand earthquakes.
All of this works at a certain level, to a certain degree. Man's psyche,
however, is emotionally not only a part of his physical environment, but
intimately connected with all of nature's manifestations. Using the terms
begun in the last chapter, I will say then that man's emotional
identification with nature is a strongly-felt reality in Framework 2. And
there we must look for the answers regarding man's relationship with
nature. There in Framework 2 the nature of the psyche appears quite
clearly, so that its sweeps and rhythms can be understood. The
manifestations of physical energy follow emotional rhythms that cannot
be ascertained with gadgets or instruments, however fine.
Why is one man killed and not another? Why does an earthquake
disrupt an entire area? What is the relationship between the individual
and such mass events of nature?
Before we can begin to consider such questions, we must take
another look at your own world, and ascertain its source, for surely its
source and nature's are the same. We will also along the line, and
throughout this book, have to make some distinctions between events and
your interpretations of them.
It certainly seems that your world is concrete, factual, definite, and
that its daily life rests upon known events and facts. You make a clear
distinction between fact and fantasy. You lake ii for granted as a rule that
your current knowledge as ,i people rests upon scientific
MYTHS AND PHYSICAL EVENTS • 83 •
data, at least, that are unassailable. Certainly technological development
appears to have been built most securely upon a body of concrete ideas.
The world's ideas, fantasies, or myths may seem far divorced from
current experience — yet all that you know or experience has its origin in
that creative dimension of existence that I am terming Framework 2. In a
manner of speaking your factual world rises on a bed of fantasy, myth,
and imagination, from which all of your detailed paraphernalia emerge.
What then is myth, and what do I mean by the term?
Myth is not a distortion of fact, but the womb through which fact
must come. Myth involves an intrinsic understanding of the nature of
reality, couched in imaginative terms, carrying a power as strong as
nature itself. Myth-making is a natural psychic characteristic, a psychic
element that combines with other such elements to form a mythical
representation of inner reality. That representation is then used as model
upon which your civilizations are organized, and also as a perceptual tool
through whose lens you interpret the private events of your life in their
historical context.
(10:06.) When you accept myths you call them facts, of course, for
they become so a part of your lives, of societies and your professions,
that their basis seems self-apparent. Myths are vast psychic dramas, more
truthful than facts. They provide an ever-enduring theater of reality. It
must be clearly understood, then, that when I speak of myths I mean to
imply the nature of psychic events whose enduring reality exists in
Framework 2, and forms the patterns that are then interpreted in your
world.
If someone is caught in a natural disaster, the following questions
might be asked: "Am I being punished by God, and for what reason? Is
the disaster the result of God's vengeance?" A scientist might ask instead:
"With better technology and information, could we somehow have
predicted the disaster, and saved many lives?" He might try to dissociate
himself from emotion, and to see the disaster simply as the result of a
nonpersonal nature that did not know or care what lay in its path.
In all cases, however, such situations instantly bring to mind
questions of man's own reality and course, his connections with God, his
planet, and the universe. He interprets those questions according lo liis
own beliefs, Let us then look at some of them.
• 84 • FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK 2
Take your break.
(10:18 to 10:27.)
Now: Myths are natural phenomena, rising from the psyche of man
as surely as giant mountain ranges emerge from the physical planet. Their
deeper reality exists, however, in Framework 2 as source material for the
world that you know.
In those terms, the great religions of your civilizations rise from
myths that change their characters through the centuries, even as
mountain ranges rise and fall. You can see mountain ranges. It would be
ridiculous to ignore their reality. You see your myths somewhat less
directly, yet they are apparent within all of your activities, and they form
the inner structures of all of your civilizations with their multitudinous
parts.
In those terms, then, Christianity and your other religions are myths,
rising in response to an inner knowledge that is too vast to be clothed by
facts alone. In those terms also, your science is also quite mythical in
nature. This may be more difficult for some of you to perceive, since it
appears to work so well. Others will be willing enough to see science in
its mythical characteristics, but will be most reluctant to see religion as
you know it in the same light. To some extent or another, however, all of
these ideas program your interpretation of events.
In this part (2) of the book, we are more or less dealing with the
events, of nature as you understand it. It will seem obvious to some,
again, that a natural disaster is caused by God's vengeance, or is at least a
divine reminder to repent, while others will take it for granted that such a
catastrophe is completely neutral in character, impersonal and [quite]
divorced from man's own emotional reality. The Christian scientist is
caught in between. Because you divorce yourselves from nature, you are
not able to understand its manifestations. Often your myths get in the
way. When myths become standardized, and too literal, when you begin
to tie them too tightly to the world of facts, then you misread them
entirely. When myths become most factual they are already becoming
less real. Their power becomes constrained.
(10:43.) Give us a moment. . . Most people interpret the realities of
their lives, their triumphs and failures, their health or illness, their fortune
or misfortune, then, in the l ight oi .i mythical reality that is
MYTHS AND PHYSICAL EVENTS • 85 •
not understood as such. What is behind these myths, and what is their
source of power?
Facts are a very handy but weak brew of reality. They immediately
consign certain kinds of experiences as real and others as not. The
psyche, however, will not be so limited. It exists in a medium of reality, a
realm of being in which all possibilities exist. It creates myths the way
the ocean creates spray. Myths are originally psychic fabrications of such
power and strength that whole civilizations can rise from their source.
They involve symbols and know emotional validities that are then
connected to the physical world, so that that world is never the same
again.
They cast their light over historical events because they are
responsible for those events. They mix and merge the inner, unseen but
felt, eternal psychic experience of man with the temporal events of his
physical days, and form a combination that structures thoughts and
beliefs from civilization to civilization. In Framework 2 the interior
power of nature is ever-changing. The dreams, hopes, aspirations and
fears of man interact in a constant motion that then forms the events of
your world. That interaction includes not only man, of course, but the
emotional reality of all earthly consciousnesses as well, from a microbe to
a scholar, from a frog to a star. You interpret the phenomena of your
world according to the mythic characteristics that you have accepted. You
organize physical reality, then, through ideas. You use only those
perceptions that serve to give those ideas validity. The physical body
itself is quite capable of putting the world together in different fashions
than the one that is familiar to you.
You divorce yourselves from nature and nature's intents far more than
the animals do. Nature in its stormy manifestations seems like in
adversary. You must either look for reasons outside of yourselves to
explain what seems to be nature's ill intent at such times, or its utter lack
of concern.
Science often says that nature cares little for the individual, only l« >r
the species, so then you must often see yourselves as victims in a larger
struggle for survival, in which your own intents do not carry even the
puniest sway.
End of dictation. End of session, unless you have questions.
("No, I guess not,")
• 86 • FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK2
There are good things coming. That is all I have to say. ("Okay.")
My heartiest regards, and a fond good evening.
("Thankyou, Seth. Goodnight."
(11 :02P.M. Jane's delivery in trance had been excellent — concentrated
and steady.)
NOTES: SESSION 817
1.Those "other projects" included work by Jane and me on Emir and Volume
2 of "Unknown" Reality, respectively. (Jane has been told that everyone at
Prentice-Hall, her publishing house, "just loves" Emir.) A couple of weeks
ago Sue Watkins delivered the last two chapters of the manuscript for
Psyche that she's been typing for us; we still have to check that book and
finish the notes for it. Then yesterday Jane received from her publisher the
copy-edited manuscript for James, so during the next week or so we'll be
very carefully going over that work, too.
2.See Note 2 for the 803rd session.
SESSION 818, FEBRUARY 6,1978
10:19 P.M. MONDAY
(No session was held last Wednesday night because Jane and I were so busy
checking the copy edited manuscript /orJames. / had the book wrapped for
mailing today, but I didn't leave the house. A massive snowstorm had developed
by noon. It was raging stronger than ever as we sat for the session at 9:15; drifts
were piled several feet high against the northern side of the house, and against
our new screened-in back porch facing the west. Now the forecasts were for the
storm to continue through the night.
(We waited for the session to begin for an hour and four minutes —
something neither of us could recall having done in the past. Both of us were
silent for long periods. At 10:05 Jane remarked: "I feel like there's a whole lot of
material out there getting organized, but it just hasn 't gotten here yet. Weird . . .
I don't think I've ever felt quite this way before. Otherwise I'd just say the hell
with it and do something else. But if I don't have a session tonight, then in the
next one I'll want to know why it didn't happen this time. It's as though I could
wake up at 2 A.M. and say, 'Oh my god, here it
MYTHS AND PHYSICAL EVENTS • 87 •
(And those strange feelings of Jane's are precisely why we're presenting this
session in Mass Events, even though it isn't book dictation. Seth came through
with some very interesting material on the relationship involving the three of us,
as well as the communication between his reality and ours. The session contains
just the kind of insights we're always looking for as we seek to understand the
whole ambience of the Seth experience, and when we receive such information
we want others to know about it too. We hardly expected Seth to discuss
Framework 3, though, since we're still assimilating his material on Frameworks
1 and 2.
("It would be really frustrating, waiting, except that everything seems so
timeless, "Jane said as we continued to sit. "Do you feel that way ?" I did. The
warm living room with its soft lights, and the storm outside, seemed to have
persisted forever. Our house on the hill is so well-insulated that we heard the
weather's assaults as though from a great distance, except for an occasional
sharp clatter from one of the metal window awnings as its slats vibrated in a
blast of icy wind. Then finally:)
Good evening.
( "Good evening, Seth. ")
Now: In explanation, I do not know exactly how to word this, but in a
manner of speaking I take tours — through psychological realities, however, or
through psychic lands rather than physical ones. Such journeys "take no time" in
your terms. Yet for our sessions I must synchronize many activities, so that on
some occasions I am with you, and I am also involved elsewhere.
You have a storm. Weathermen speak of local conditions and merging air
currents — but my journeys are in a realm where consciousnesses merge. I do
not know if I have specifically mentioned it, but you should understand my
constant state of growth, expansion, and development. Recall Ruburt's episodes
with the [psychic] library.1 Those are examples of far lesser versions of my
activities, and yet in those terms, and using an analogy, I travel to many great
universities of the mind.
Much of this is difficult to explain, again, for information and knowledge is
constantly transformed — almost completely reborn, so to speak, through
characteristics that are inherently a part of (liought itself. Knowledge is changed
automatically through the auspices of each consciousness who perceives it. It is
magnified and
• 88 • FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK2
yet refined. It is a constant language, yet one that transforms itself. When
I "attend these sessions," or "speak," then I exchange with others a more
complicated system of reality than any computer could handle. You do
not understand or perceive the ways in which your reality contributes to
the foundation of the mass-world reality that you experience.
Unconsciously, each individual participates in forming that world. In my
case, however, I am aware of the same kind of activities, only in regard to
many realities rather than one.2
As I try to increase your capacity for understanding, and to expand
the scopes of your abilities, so in other kinds of worlds I do the same
thing. While our meetings take place in your time, and in the physical
space of your house, say, the primary encounter must be a subjective
inner one, an intersection of consciousnesses that is then physically
experienced.
The encounters themselves occur in a Framework 3 environment.
That framework of course, again in terms of an analogy, exits another
step away from your own Framework 2.3 I do not want to get into a
higher-or-lower hierarchy here, but the frameworks represent spheres of
action. Our encounters initially take place, then, beyond the sphere that
deals exclusively with either your physical world or the inner mental and
psychic realm from which your present experience springs.
On a very few occasions over the past years, before a session Ruburt
has felt a distance between us, or that our material was not quite ready. I
have already explained that sometimes I leave you a "tape." Usually that
takes care of any such instances. This evening, however, Ruburt
somewhat sensed not only a distance but also the larger complications of
my activities.
(10:45.) Give us a moment. . . Now to some extent, you see, you are
both involved, but in ways almost impossible for me to explain. Do not
take this literally by any means. Portions of your consciousness are alive
in mine, so you are to some extent carried along where I go, as motes of
dust might be swept along with a brisk autumn wind from one area to
another. (Humorously:) I am not comparing you with motes of dust by
any means; to some extent, however, you do share in my journeys. You
are carried above the land of your usual perception so that portions of
you glimpse subjective states. These
MYTHS AND PHYSICAL EVENTS •89-
arouse your curiosity even when consciously you
are not aware of perceiving them. That curiosity
acts as impetus.
Your intents and concerns, your interests, your
needs and desires, your characteristics and abilities,
directly influence our material, for they lead you to
it to begin with.
You want to make the material workable in your
world — a natural and quite understandable desire:
The proof is in the pudding, and so forth. Yet of
course you are also participators in an immense
drama in which the main actions occur outside of
your world, in those realms from which your world
originated — and you are, foremost, natives of
those other realms, as each individual is; as each
being is.
Those realms are far from lonely, dark, and
chaotic. They are also quite different from any
concept of nirvana or nothingness. They are
composed of ever-spiralling states of existence in
which different kinds of consciousnesses meet and
communicate. They are not impersonal realms, but
are involved in the most highly intimate interactions.
Those interactions exist about you all the
while, and I would like you in your thoughts to
aspire toward them, to try to stretch your
perceptions enough so that you become at least
somewhat aware of their existence.
These frameworks, while I speak of them
separately, exist one within the other, and each one
impinges upon the other. To some extent you are
immersed in all realities. In a strange fashion, and
in this particular case, your conflict with your notes4
had to do with a sense of orderliness aroused by the
need to assemble facts. But [this was] then carried
over so that you wanted to keep your Roman
(reincarnational) world and this [present] one
separate and not merge them through association —
as you did — so that it was difficult to know this
when you did your sketches. Subjectively you
wanted to put (he worlds together, to explore the
similarities and so forth, but practically you wanted
to divide them for your notes.
If you can, try to sense this greater context in
which you have your being. Your rewards will be
astonishing. The emotional realization is what is
important, of course, not simply an intellectual
accep-tance of the idea. Ruburt wanted material on
this book, and that is well and good. The book is
important. The book has its meaning in
•90- FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK2
your world, but I do not want you to forget the vaster
context in which these sessions originate. This kind of
information can at least trigger responses on your part,
increasing still further the scope of knowledge that you can
receive from me.
In your world knowledge must be translated into
specifics, yet we also deal with emotional realities that
cannot be so easily deciphered. In this session, in the
words I speak — but more importantly in the atmosphere
of the session — there are hints of those undecipherable
yet powerful realities that will then, in your time, gradually
be described in verbal terms that make sense to you.
(11:13.) There is more, but it will have to wait simply
because it is not presently translatable. According to the
impact of this session, your own comprehensions and
perceptions will bring other clues, either in the waking or
the dream state. Keep your minds open for them, but
without any preconceived ideas of how they might appear.
Ruburt's own development triggers certain psychic activity
that then triggers further growth. He has been participating
in his library, for example, whether or not he is always
aware of it.
End of session.
("Thank you, Seth. Good night. "
(11:15 P.M. "Boy, I really felt different while that was
going on, "Jane said as soon as she was out of trance. "I
had a sense of power that I usually don't get. I'm glad I
waited. I guess I feel like I've been someplace else, or
something like that. I have a feeling there's something new
in the session, but I'll have to figure it out. . . .")
NOTES: SESSION 818
1.In Psychic Politics Jane thoroughly described her
discovery and use of her nonphysical library.
2.Jane and I plan to eventually ask Seth to explain to
us, in ways that will let us at least approach an
understanding of them, some of those other realities in
which he exists and "speaks."
3.This is the second time that Seth has very briefly
referred to Framework 3. See Note 3 for the 814th
session.
4.When Volume 2 of "Unknown" Reality is published
a year or so from now (early in 1979), the reader can
refer to certain notes I wrote for sessions 715-16. In
them I described a series of episodes during which I
saw myself as a captain in a Roman military force,
early in the liist century A.D.
MYTHS AND PHYSICAL EVENTS •91 •
SESSION 820, FEBRUARY 13,1978 9:40P.M. MONDAY
(This morning I mailed to Prentice-Hall the
eighth and last chapter of Jane's book, Emir's
Education in the Proper Use of Magical Powers.
(Session 819, which was held last Saturday
evening, had nothing to do with Mass Events. In
our opinion tonight's session did, however, and for
a number of reasons that will become obvious as it's
read. Yet Seth didn't call it dictation.
(At lunch today I suggested to Jane that she put
together a short book on the Frameworks 1 and 2
material Seth has given us since he introduced that
concept in a private session last September 17, 1977.
We've had 31 private or nonbook sessions since then,
and a number of them contain information on
Frameworks 1 and 2 — much of it relevant to that
presented in Mass Events. / thought Jane might
consider such a book project along with her other
work. In a way the suggestion was my idea of trying
to do something about Seth producing books within
books, as I discussed in my opening notes for the
814th session; but Seth is so prolific that it seems we'll
never get all of his material published at this time.
(Jane showed more interest in my idea than I'd
thought she would, and spent the afternoon going
over those private sessions. As the hours passed she
reacted to Seth's data by becoming very loose and
relaxed. She "felt funny, " she said. Still, she wanted
to try for the session. We began waiting at 9:30.
Then, without greetings:)
Now: How nice that you remembered Framework
2 again.
To some extent the material on Frameworks 1
and 2 is of course an example of the entire idea, for
you receive a good deal of information in sessions
not given to book dictation — simply because,
while our books are extremely free, still they must
be colored by your ideas of what books are.
Even your concepts of creativity are necessarily
influenced by Framework 1 thinking, of course, so
our sessions do indeed follow a larger pattern than
that, giving you certain perspectives from different
angles in book dictation, and in other material. To
some extent (lie larger creative pattern of the
material, which does exist and is sensed, is
nevertheless not directly perceived, for you are
bound to perceive it piecemeal.
• 92 • FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK2
I have said that acts of creativity best approach the workings of
Framework 2, for [those] acts always involve leaps of faith and inspiration,
and the breaking of barriers.
Each of our books adds to the others. That includes Ruburt's as well
— and that also includes of course books not yet written, in your terms,
so that the future books also influence what you think of as the past ones.
Again, while appearing in your time, the contents of the books come from
outside of your time.
When you are writing a regular book you draw upon associations,
memories, and events that are known to you and others, that perhaps you
had forgotten but that suddenly spring to mind in answer to your intent
and following your associations. When an artist is painting a landscape,
he might unconsciously compare hundreds of landscapes viewed in the
past in multitudinous, seemingly forgotten hues that splashed upon the
grass or trees, or as he seeks for a new creative combination. Art is his
focus so that he draws from Framework 2 all of those pertinent data that
are necessary for his painting. Not just technique is concerned, but the
entire visual experience of his life.
Framework 2 involves a far vaster creative activity, in which your
life is the art involved — and all [of the] ingredients for its success are
there, available. When you are creating a product or a work of art, the
results will have much to do with your ideas of what the product is, or
what the work of art is — so your ideas about your life, or life itself, will
also have much to do with your experience of it as a living art.
If you believe in the laws of cause and effect, as accepted, or in the
laws of polarity, as accepted (and explained in a letter we received
today), then you will be bound by those laws, for they will represent your
artistic technique. You will believe that you must use them in order to,
say, paint the living portrait of your life. You will therefore structure your
experience, drawing to yourself from Framework 2 only that which fits.
You will not have the "technique" to attract other experience, and as long
as you stick with one technique your life-pictures will more or less have a
certain monotony.
Again, the writer or the artist also brings more into his work than the
simple ability to write or paint. In one way or another all of his
experience is involved. When you pay attention to Framework 1
MYTHS AND PHYSICAL EVENTS •93-
primarily, it is as if you have learned to write
simple sentences with one word neatly before the
other. You have not really learned true expression.
In your life you are writing sentences like "See
Tommy run." Your mind is not really dealing with
concepts but with the simple perception of objects,
so that little imagination is involved. You can
express the location of objects in space, and you
can communicate to others in a similar fashion,
confirming the physical, obvious properties that
others also perceive.
In those terms, using our analogy, the
recognition of Framework 2 would bring you from
that point to the production of great art, where
words served to express not only the seen but the
unseen — not simply facts but feelings and
emotions — and where the words themselves
escaped their consecutive patterns, sending the
emotions into realms that quite defied both space
and time.
(10:13.) Now and then people have such
moments, and yet each private reality has its
existence in an eternal creativity from which, again,
your world springs.
It is not as if that vaster reality were utterly
closed to your perception, for it is not. To some
extent it is everywhere apparent in each person's
private experience, and it is obviously stated in the
very existence of your world itself. The religions, in
one way or another, have always perceived it,
although the attempt to interpret that reality in
terms of the recognized facts of the world is bound
to distort it.
Give us a moment. . . Your world, then, is the
result of a multidimensional creative venture, a
work of art in terms almost impossible lor you to
presently understand, in which each person and
creature, and each particle, plays a living part.
Again, in Framework 2 each event is known, from
the falling of a leaf to the falling of a star, from the
smallest insect's experience on a summer day to the
horrendous murder of an individual on a city street.
Those events each have their meaning in a larger
pattern of activity. That pattern is not divorced from
your reality, not thrust upon you, not apart from
your experience. It often only seems to be because
you so compartmentalize your own experience that
you automatically separate yourself from such
knowledge.
Creativity docs not deal with compartments. It
throws aside barriers. Even niosi people who are
involved in creative work often
• 94 • FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK 2
apply their additional insights and knowledge only to their art, however
— not to their lives. Period. They fall back to cause and effect.
Your Framework 1 life is, again, based on the idea that you have only
so much energy, that you will wear out, and that a certain expenditure of
energy will produce a given amount of work — in other words, that
applied effort of a certain kind will produce the best results. In the same
way, it is believed that the energy of the universe will die out. All of this
presupposes "the fact" that no new energy is inserted into the world. The
source of the world would therefore seem no longer to exist, having worn
itself out in the effort to produce physical phenomena. In the light of such
thinking, Framework 2 would be an impossibility.
> Instead, the energy of life is inserted constantly into your world, in a
way that has nothing to do with your so-called physical laws. I said (14
years ago) that the universe expands as an idea does, and that is exactly
what I mean.
The greater life of each creature exists in that framework that
"originally" gave it birth, and in a greater manner of speaking each
creature, regardless of its age, is indeed being constantly reborn. I am
couching all of this in terms of your world's known reality, which means
that I am dealing with the local properties of Framework 2 as they have
impact in your experience.
(Pause at 10:39.) Rest your fingers.
We will most probably have to end the session, for there are points
where the translation becomes most difficult. You [both] are privately at a
time where you are ready to go ahead again, where the information given
is catching up to you in time, so that there can be renewed bursts of
comprehension, dream experiences, and other such events.
End of session.
("Thank you, Seth."
(10:43 P.M. "That was really strange, "fane said, when she'd finished
her excellent delivery for Seth. I was surprised to see that she looked more
than a little queasy. "That's the first time that ever happened: I started to
feel really sick, as though the material really got to me while he was giving
it. Toward the end there was a strain, involving things I couldn 't translate.
As though I was on the edge of getting some great stuff I've never heard of
before. I still feel that way. . . .
MYTHS AND PHYSICAL EVENTS • 95 •
("Maybe my feelings weren't caused by any thing, but some kind of
acceleration toward a state I couldn't reach, instead of any great disclosure for
the world, "Jane said a little later. "But I really felt sick there. "
(Her comments fit in well with Seth's closing statement about the difficulty
of translation; otherwise, we couldn't find a reason for her reactions in the
session material itself. I suggested that the necessary insights would come to her
later. It did seem that her odd state had its origins in her feelings of the
afternoon and early evening.)
SESSION 821, FEBRUARY 20,1978
9:30 P.M. MONDAY
(In Note lfor the 817th session, which was held on January 30,1 wrote that
Sue Watkins had recently delivered the last of the typed manuscript for Seth's
The Nature of the Psyche. Actually, she had converted my original typed
sessions making up Psyche into standard manuscript form for the publisher; I
still have to do many of the notes for the book after I finish my work on Volume 2
of "Unknown" Reality several months from now.
(On the other hand, with the copy edited manuscript for James and the
concluding chapters of Emir mailed to Prentice-Hall earlier this month, Jane
found herself with some unexpected free time. [We don't expect to receive the
page proofs for James, for correcting, until late next month.] Jane began to enjoy
her break by writing poetry and doing some painting — but she surprised me
when she also spontaneously began to rough out some of the notes for Psyche.
She still planned to leave up to me the detailed, even painstaking work that she
doesn 't care for: the endless checking and recheck-ing of dates and events in
order to get each note just right. Yet I was more than happy with whatever help
she could give, I told her, since it would let us get Psyche published that much
sooner after Volume 2.
(I don't know how long I'll continue to benefit from Jane's assistance,
though, since poetry, painting, and notes can all be quickly laid aside if she
starts a new project, or resumes work on one that she's kept in abeyance for
some time. One such delayed endeavor is an autobiography that she began
several years ago. Another is the sequel to her novel, The Education of Oversoul
Seven; that first Seven book was published in April 1973 — and lately she's
been thinking of resuming work on Seven Two, as we usually call it.' One thing
is certain: Jane will see to it that something creative happens to change the
status quo, for she's much too restless and energetic In leave things a\ llir\ air.
•96- FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK 2
(In line with doing things differently, no session
was held last Saturday night because over the weekend
we decided to give up the Monday-Saturday session
routine we've followed for the last eight months, and
return to our original practice of holding sessions on
Monday and Wednesday evenings. The change was
made to give Jane more time on weekends to handle the
mail. I don't think my own daily work patterns will be
affected much; I help her with the correspondence, but
don't spend nearly the time at it that she does.)
Now: Dictation: You are, of course, a part of
nature, and a part of nature's source.
Growing from an infant to a full adult was
probably one of the most difficult, and yet the most
easy of feats that you will-ever accomplish in a life.
As a child you identified with your own nature. You
intuitively realized that your being was immersed in
and a part of the process of growth.
No amount of intellectual information, no
accumulation of facts however vast, could give you
the inner knowledge necessary to accomplish the
physical events involved in that growth process. You
learn to read, but the seeing itself is an
accomplishment of far greater magnitude — one that
seemingly happens all by itself. It happens because
each of you is, again, indeed a part of nature and of
nature's source.
In various ways your religions have always
implied your relationship with nature's source, even
though they often divorced nature herself from any
place of prime importance. For religions have often
hinged themselves upon one or another quite valid
perception, but then distorted it, excluding anything
else that did not seem to fit. "You are children of the
universe." This is an often-heard sentence — and yet
the main point of the Christ story2 was not Christ's
death but his birth, and the often-stated proposition
that each person was indeed "a child of the father."
There are many later-appended references in the
Bible, such as the fig tree story, in which nature is
played down. Christ's "father" was, however, the God
who was indeed aware of every sparrow that fell, who
knew of every creature's existence, whatever its
species or kind. The story of the shepherds and flocks
comes much closer to Christ's intent, where each
creature looked out for the others.
The officials of the Roman Catholic Church
altered many records — cleansing them, in their
terms, of anything thai might suggest
MYTHS AND PHYSICAL EVENTS •97-
pagan practices, or nature worship as they thought
of it. In terms of your civilization, nature and spirit
became divided so that you encounter the events of
your lives largely in that context. To some degree or
another, then, you must feel divorced from your
bodies and from the events of nature. The great
sweeps of emotional identification with nature itself
do not sustain you, therefore. You study those
processes as if you somehow stood apart from them.
(Long pause, one of many, at 9:51.) Give us a
moment... To some extent your society's beliefs
allow you enough freedom so that most of you trust
your bodies while they are growing toward
adulthood. Then, however, many of you no longer
rely upon the processes of life within you. Certain
scientific treatises often make you believe that the
attainment of your adulthood has little purpose,
except to insure the further existence of the species
through parenthood — when nature is then quite
willing to dispense with your services. You are
quite simply told that you have no other purpose.3
The species itself must then appear to have no
reason except a mindless determination to exist.
The religions do insist that man has a purpose, yet
in their own confusion they often speak as if that
purpose must be achieved by denying the physical
body in which man has his life's existence, or by
"rising above" "gross, blunted," earthly
characteristics. Period. In both cases man's nature,
and nature in general, take short shrift.
Such tales are myths. They do indeed have
power and strength. In those terms they represent
the darker side of myths, however — yet through
their casts you presently view your world. You will
interpret the private events of your lives, and the
spectacular range of history, in the light of those
assumptions about reality. They not only color your
experience, but you create those events that more or
less conform to those assumptions.
(Long pause.) Those who "lose" their lives in
natural disasters become victims of nature. You see
in such stories examples of meaningless deaths, and
further proof of nature's indifference to man. You
may, on the other hand, see the vengeful hand of an
angry God in such instances, where the deity once
again uses nature to bring man to his knees. Man's
nature is to live and to die. Death is not an affront
to life, but. means its continuation — not only
inside the framework of nature ;is you understand
it, but in terms of nature's source. It is, of course,
natural then to die.
•98- FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK2
The natural contours of your psyche are quite
aware of the inner sweep and flow of your life, and its
relationship with every other creature alive.
Intuitively, each person is born with the knowledge
that he or she is not only worthwhile, but fits into the
context of the universe in the most precise and
beautiful of fashions. The most elegant timing is
involved in each individual's birth and death. The
exquisite play of your own inner nature in general —
and that identification leads you into the deeper
knowledge of your own part in nature's source.
(10:19.) The myths upon which you base your
lives so program your existence that often you
verbally deny what you inwardly know. When people
are hurt in a natural disaster, for example, they will
often profess to have no idea at all for such
involvement. They will ignore or deny the inner
feelings that alone would give the event any meaning
in their lives. The reasons for such involvement
would be endless, or course — all valid, yet in each
and every case, man and nature in those terms would
meet in an encounter that had meaning, from the
largest global effects to the smallest, most private
aspects of the individuals involved. You have made
certain divisions because of your myths, of course,
that make this kind of explanation extremely
important and difficult. You think of rain or
earthquakes as natural events, for example, while you
do not consider thoughts or emotions as natural
events in the same terms. Therefore it is difficult for
you to see how there can be any valid interactions
between, say, emotional states and physical ones.
You might say: "Of course, I realize that the
weather affects my mood," yet it will occur to very
few of you that your moods have any effect upon the
weather. You have so concentrated upon the categorization,
delineation, and exploration of the objective
world that it surely seems to be "the only real one." It
seems to exert force or pressure against you, or to
impinge upon you, or at least almost to happen by
itself, so that you sometimes feel powerless against it.
Your myths have given great energy to the
outsideness of things.
(Long pause, then with much subdued irony:) In
exasperation some of you see nature as good and
enduring, filled with an innocence and joy, while on
the other hand you envision man as a bastard species,
a blight upon the face of the earth, a creature bound
to do everything wrong regardless of any strong good
intent. Therefore you do not trust man's nature either.
MYTHS AND PHYSICAL EVENTS • 99 •
This myth finds great value in the larger processes of nature in
general, and yet sees man alone as the villain of an otherwise edifying
tale. A true identification with nature, however, would show glimpses of
man's place in the context of his physical planet, and would bring to the
forefront accomplishments that he has achieved almost without his
knowing.
Take your break.
(10:40. Jane's pace in trance had been quite slow, with many long
pauses. I thought the material excellent, however, with plenty of "bite" to it.
Resume in the same manner at 10:51.)
Dictation: I will return to those accomplishments somewhat later. For
now I would like to mention some other issues, involving the individual's
connection either with natural disasters or with epidemics of one kind or
another, that by definition concern large groups of people.
You form your own reality. If you are tired of having me stress that
point, I can only say that I hope the repetition will serve to make you
understand that the statement applies to the most minute and the most
important of the events that you experience.
Some people believe that they must be punished, and so they seek
[out] unfortunate circumstances. They [go] to one event after another in
which they meet retribution. They may seek out areas of the country in
which natural disasters are frequent, or their behavior may be such that
they attract from other people reactions of an explosive kind. Often,
however, individuals use disasters quite for their own purposes, as an
exteriorized force that brings their lives into clear focus. Some may be
flirting with the idea of death, and choose a dramatic encounter with
nature in the final act. Others change their minds at the last moment.
Those involved in such disasters — the survivors — often use such
"larger-than-life" circumstances in order to participate in affairs that seem
to have greater import than those possessed by previous humdrum
existences. They seek the excitement, whatever its consequences. They
become a part of history to whatever extent. For once their private lives
are identified with a greater source — and from it many derive new
strength and vitality. Social barriers are dropped, economic positions
forgotten. The range of private emotions is given greater, fuller, sweep.
• 100 ■ FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK2
To some extent or another man's desires and
emotions merge with the physical aspects of nature as
you understand it, so that such storms or disasters are
as much the result of psychological activity as they
are of weather conditions.
Objectively — whatever the appearances —
storms, earthquakes, floods, et cetera, are quite
necessary to the well-being of the earth. Both man's
and nature's purposes are served, then, though
generally speaking man's myths make him blind to
those interactions. People's thoughts and emotions
always give clear clues whenever illness is involved,
yet most people ignore such information. They censor
their own thoughts. Many therefore "fall prey" to
epidemics of one kind or another because they want
to, though they might deny this quite vigorously.
I am speaking particularly of epidemics that are
less than deadly, though danger is involved. In your
times, hospitals, you must realize, are important parts
of the community. They provide a social as well as a
medical service. Many people are simply lonely, or
overworked. Some are rebelling against commonly
held ideas of competition. Flu epidemics become
social excuses for much needed rest, therefore, and
serve as face-saving devices so that the individuals
can hide from themselves their inner difficulties. In a
way, such epidemics provide their own kind of
fellowship — giving common meeting grounds for
those of disparate circumstances. The [epidemics]
serve as accepted states of illness, in which people
are given an excuse for the rest or quiet selfexamination
they desperately need but do not feel
entitled to otherwise.
(Long pause at 11:21.) I do not mean to assign
any hint of accusation against those so involved, but
mainly to state some of the reasons for such behavior.
If you do not trust your nature, then any illness or
indisposition will be interpreted as an onslaught
against health. Your body faithfully reflects your
inner psychological reality. The nature of your
emotions means that in the course of a lifetime you
will experience the full range of feelings. Your
subjective state has variety. Sometimes sad or
depressing thoughts provide a refreshing change of
pace, leading you to periods of quiet reflection, and to
a quieting of the body so that it rests.
Fears, sometimes even seemingly irrational ones,
can serve to rouse the body if you have been too
lethargic, or have been in a rut
MYTHS AND PHYSICAL EVENTS • 101 •
psychologically or physically. If you trusted your nature you would be able to
trust such feelings, and following their own rhythms and routes they would
change into others. Ideally even illnesses are a part of the body's health,
representing needed adjustments, and also following the needs of the subjective
person at any given time. (Long pause.) They are a part of the interplay between
the body and mind, or spirit.
The majority of my readers have come down with one or another disease
usually considered very dangerous, and without ever knowing it, because the
body healed itself normally and naturally. The disease was not labeled. It was not
given recognition as a condition. Worries or fears were not aroused, yet the
disease came and vanished.
In such instances natural healing processes occurred, for which the body is
seldom given credit. Such healings do not just involve changes in the body, for
example, for a physical healing can take place because of events that seem
utterly disconnected.
Some portion of each individual is in direct contact with the very source of
its own existence. Each individual is innately aware that help is available in
every situation, and that information does not need to come through the physical
senses alone. Many illnesses are cured, then, through quite natural methods that
not only involve physical healings, but bring into play other events — events
that have great bearing on the psychological elements that may be involved
behind the scenes. For those interactions we will have to look to Framework 2.
End of session.
("Very good.")
Thank you. A fond good evening.
("The same to you. Good night. "
(11:47 P.M. Jane's delivery for Seth had become even slower toward the end
of the session.)
NOTES: SESSION 821
1.Actually, the second Seven book named itself quite effortlessly as Jane
worked on its first chapters: The Further Education ofOversoul Seven.
2.I underlined the word story (like this) in Seth's material just to remind the
reader thai the Christ figure symbolizes our idea of God and his relationships.
According i<> Seth, the man we call Jesus Christ was actually
composed of three individuals who were the physical manifestations of
the same
• 102 • FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK2
nonphysical entity: John the Baptist, St. Paul, and a man historically known as
Christ. None of these were crucified. Their roles became blended and distorted
in history. Seth discussed the Christ story in various passages in The Seth
Material and Seth Speaks, and has at least touched upon it in all of his
succeeding books.
3. Seth referred to the latest scientific ideas concerning "selfish genes" — a
subject Jane and I had been talking about today. (Genes are units found on the
chromosomes of the cell nucleus; they carry hereditary characteristics, and
consist mainly of protein and DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid.)
A number of scientists — biologists, zoologists, and psychologists, among
others — have recently published highly praised books in which they claim to
show how our genes manipulate our individual behavior with only their own
genetic survival at stake, even when we think we are displaying subjective
qualities like altruism. Jane and I think the idea of such self-centered genetic
behavior is much too limited, simple, and "mechanistic," to use another term
that's currently in scientific vogue. The idea of selfish genes also implies plan on
the part of such entities — and so comes dangerously close to contradicting
several basis tenets of science itself: among them that life arose by chance, that it
perpetuates itself through random mutations and the struggle for existence (or
natural selection), and that basically life has no meaning.
As I occasionally do in my notes, I'm anthropomorphosizing "science" by
casting a multifaceted discipline in simple human or individual terms. But now it
seems that when science claims to understand the workings of a molecule of
DNA, for example — the "master molecule" of life, as it's often called —
science then states that it's stripped away the mystery of DNA and reduced our
functions to easily understood mechanistic ones. But Jane and I maintain that
grasping the marvelous workings of DNA should instead increase our sense of
the wonder and mystery of life. The DNA lies exposed in all of its parts, but the
questions about the life within it remain unanswered. Why does science want us
to live thinking that we're creatures programmed only for the survival of our
selfish genes? Even the biologists (and other scientists) who insist upon our
mechanistic bases do so with feeling!
SESSION 822, FEBRUARY 22,1978
9:27 P.M. WEDNESDAY
Now: Good evening.
("Good evening. Seth.")
Dictation: In the terms of our discussion, Framework 2 is the medium in
which your world exists. It represents the vaster psychological reality in which
your own subjective life resides.
MYTHS AND PHYSICAL EVENTS -103-
That framework has been glimpsed throughout history by many
individuals, and given many names. If you visit a foreign country,
however, you have a tendency to describe the entire nation in terms of the
small area you have visited, though other portions may be quite different
in geography, culture, and climate.
The individuals who have to one extent or another perceived
Framework 2 have, then, described it according to their own brief visits,
taking it for granted "that the part was a representative sample of the
whole." Plato conceived [of] it as the world ofideals, seeing within it the
perfect model behind each imperfect physical phenomenon.
He thought of that realm as eternal and unchanging, a perfect but
frozen composite that must indeed inspire men toward achievement on
the one hand, and on the other reproach them for their failure, since their
achievements must necessarily seem puny in contrast. Plato then saw
Framework 2 as a splendid, absolute model in which all the works of man
had their initial source. Man himself, according to this concept, could not
affect that ideal world one whit. He could, however, use it as a source of
inspiration.
Some ancient religions put the existence of gods there, and saw the
spirits of each living thing as existing primarily in that invisible medium
of reality. Therefore, Framework 2 has always been represented in one
way or another as a source of your world. Christianity saw it as heaven,
inhabited by God the Father, His angels, the saints, and [the] deceased
faithful.
Once scientists theorized the ether as the medium in which the
physical universe existed.1 Framework 2 is the psychological medium in
which the consciousness of the world exists. The word "ego" is much
bandied about, and in many circles it has a poor reputation. It is, however,
as I use it, a term meant to express the ordinarily conscious directive
portion of the self. It is your conscious version of what you are — an
excellent description, if I do say so myself (with amusement). It is
directed outward into the physical world. It is also aware, however, of
some of your "unconscious" activities. It is the you you identify with, so
it is as aware of your dreams, for example, as you are, and it is quite
conscious of the fact that its existence rests upon knowledge thai it does
not itself possess.
As you have an ego, fully conscious, directed toward the physical
world, von also have what I call an inner ego, directed toward inner
•104- FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK2
reality. You have, in other words, a portion of
yourself that is fully conscious in Framework 2. The
ego in your ordinary world, which again we will call
Framework 1, is uniquely equipped to deal with that
environment. It manipulates with rules of cause and
effect and consecutive moments. It deals with an
objectified reality. It can stretch its capacities,
becoming far more aware of inner events than it is
normally allowed to do, but its main purpose is to
deal with the world of effects, to encounter events.
The inner ego is fully conscious. It is a portion of
you, however, that deals with the formation of events,
that glories in a rather rambunctious and creative
activity that your specifications of time and place
physically preclude. The unconscious, so-called, is —
and I have said this before2 — quite conscious, but in
another realm of activity. There must be a
psychological chamber between these two portions of
the self, however — these seemingly undifferentiated
areas, in which back-and-forth translations can occur.
Dream periods provide that service, of course, so that
in dreams the two egos can meet and merge to some
extent, comparing notes like strangers who perhaps
meet on a train at night, and are amazed to discover,
after some conversation, that they are indeed close
relatives, each embarked upon the same journey
though seemingly they travelled alone.
(10:14.) In those terms the undifferentiated area
is actually filled with motion as psychological
transitions and translations are made, until in dreams
the two egos often merge into each other — so that
sometimes you waken briefly with a sense of elation,
or a feeling that in dreams you have met an old and
valued friend.
Your world is populated by individuals
concentrating upon physical activities, dealing with
events that are "finished products" — at least in usual
terms. Your inner egos populate Framework 2, and
deal with the actual creation of those events that are
then objectified. Since "the rules" of Framework 2
are different, that reality is not at all bound by your
physical assumptions. It contains, therefore, the inner
ego of each individual who has lived or will ever live
upon the earth.
I am speaking of that framework now only as it
applies to your world — not in its relationship to
other realities. Earlier in his own experience Ruburt
described that framework (in Psychic Politics) as the
heroic dimension. He saw quite correctly that there
was a great
MYTHS AND PHYSICAL EVENTS • 105 •
give-and-take between the two frameworks — your regular working one,
Framework 1, and this other more comprehensive reality. He did not
thoroughly understand, however, the creative ramifications involved, for
it did not occur to him at the time that the prime work of your world was
actually done by you in that other wider aspect of your existence.
Physically you have at your fingertips certain accumulations of
knowledge, objectified through the passage of information verbally
through the ages, in records or books, and through television. [Now] you
use computers to help you process information, and you have a more or
less direct access to physical knowledge. You acquired it through the use
of your senses. There is systematized knowledge, where men have
accumulated facts in one particular field, processing it in one way or
another. Your own senses bring you information each moment, and that
information is in a way already invisibly processed according to your
own beliefs, desires, and intents.
You will ignore as information certain stimuli that another person, for
example, will latch on to immediately. Even in your own world, then,
your interests and desires serve as organizational processes that screen
out certain information. The information available in Framework 2 is in
your terms infinite.
(Long pause, one of many, at 10:28.) It is the source of your world,
so therefore it contains not only all knowledge physically available, but
far more. Give us a moment. . . . I do not want to compare the inner ego
with a computer in anyway, for a computer is not creative, nor is it alive.
You think of course of the life that you know as LIFE, in capitals. It is,
however, only the manifestation of what in those terms can only be called
the greater life out of which your life springs. This is not to compare the
reality that you know in derogative terms to the other-source existence,
either, for your own world contains, as each other world does, a
uniqueness and an originality that in those terms exists nowhere else —
for no world of existence is like any other.
The inner ego is a portion of the self, for example — is the portion of
your self — that is aware of your reincarnational activities. It is the part
of you that exists outside of time, yet simultaneously lives in time. You
form your own reality. The ego that you are aware of obviously could not
form your body for you, however, or grow your bones. It knows IM>W lo
assess the conditions of the world. It makes
• 106 • FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK 2
deductions. Your reasoning is highly important, yet alone it cannot pump
your blood or tell your eyes how to see.
The inner ego does the actual work that brings about the events you
have decided upon. In very simple terms, if you want to pick up a book,
and then do so, you experience that event consciously, though you are
quite unaware of all of the inner events that occurred to bring the motion
about. The inner ego directs those activities.
If you want to change your job, and hold that desire, a new job will
come into your experience in precisely the same fashion, in that the inner
events will be arranged by the inner ego. A body event involves the
working of numerous muscles and joints and so forth. An event involving
a job change concerns motion on the part of many people, and implies a
network of communication on the part of all of the inner egos involved.
Obviously, then, a mass physical event implies an inner system of
communications of proportions that would put your technological
communications to shame.
Take your break.
(10:47 to 11:02.)
Dictation: You may then, again, unknowingly acquire an illness and
recover, never aware of your malady, being healed because of a series of
events that would seemingly have nothing to do with the illness itself —
because in Framework 2 the inner ego, knowing both the reason for the
illness, and its cure, brought about those precise situations that remedied
the condition. Such events happen automatically, when nothing hampers
recovery at your end.
The communication between the inner and outer egos should
obviously be as clear and open as possible. As a general rule, the inner
ego depends upon your assessment of physical events. Your involvement
in the private aspects of your living, and your participation in mass
events, has much to do with your estimation of the physical situation, and
with your beliefs and desires regarding it. Give us a moment... A very
simple example (colon): If you want to write a letter you do so. There is
no conflict between your desires, beliefs, and the execution of the act, so
the action itself flows smoothly. If for some reason or another, through a
poor assessment of your reality, you believe that such an act is dangerous,
then you will hamper the flow between the desire and the execution. The
How of creativity begun by the inner ego will be impeded.
MYTHS AND PHYSICAL EVENTS • 107 •
End of dictation, and give us a moment. . . . (11:13. After presenting some
material for both Jane and a friend of ours, Seth ended the session at 11:42 P.M.)
NOTES: SESSION 822
1. Jane rather surprised me: I knew she had an interested if generalized
awareness of the old theory of the ether (or the luminiferous ether), but I
hadn't realized she was well-enough acquainted with the idea to be able to
verbalize it that succinctly for Seth. In several texts I have, the authors wrote
about the ether, and Jane may have read those passages. I may have discussed
the theory with her, but I don't remember doing so.
The idea of the ether, or something like it, had been around since the time of
the ancient Greeks. By the last decades of the 19th century, and in line with
Newtonian physics, the ether was postulated as an invisible, tasteless, odorless
substance that pervaded all unoccupied space, and served as the medium for the
passage of electromagnetic waves of light and other kinds of radiant energy, like
heat —just as the earth itself serves as the medium for the transmission of
seismic waves, for instance.
Late in the last century some very ingenious experiments failed to scientifically
prove the existence of the ether, however, and the theory was finally
dispensed with for good following Albert Einstein's publication of his special
theory of relativity in 1905.
I think the idea of the ether is an excellent example of how man has always
attempted to posit or visualize in physical reality his innate knowledge of
Framework 2.
2. Note 13, for Appendix 18 in Volume 2 of "Unknown" Reality, contains
excerpts from one of the sessions Seth has given on the inner self-conscious self.
SESSION 823, FEBRUARY 27,1978
9:43 P.M. MONDAY
(A week has passed, and I'm still surprised: Not only has Jane helped me
considerably in planning the notes for Psyche, but the other day she switched
over to my Introductory Notes for Volume 2 of "Unknown" Reality and began
organizing them in the same loose way.
(Not long ago I reached an impasse with both the Introductory Notes and
the Epilogue for Volume 2, as I tried to give order to the mass of notes, excerpts,
and jotted-doum ideas that I've assembled for them since finishing work on
Volume 1 in Stpttmbei l(>76. That was some 18 months ago, but actually
• 108 • FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK 2
to one degree or another I've been involved with "Unknown" Reality for four
years now; I think that temporarily I've simply grown tired and overly concerned
about the whole project, even while I still have a considerable way to
go to finish certain notes and appendixes for Volume 2. Not that I haven't
worked on a number of other things at the same time, of course — but my
labors on those two books represent the prolonged, intense focus I always
search for in my creative life, and without which I feel incomplete. Jane knows
all too well what I mean, for her own attitudes here follow mine very closely.
(So in one day Jane was able to mentally sort out my material and start
to delineate the flow necessary to make the Introductory Notes successful,
and she intends to do the same thing with the Epilogue. It'll still be up to me
to add my kind of detail to each of those works, but there's no doubt that
she's enjoying the challenge of playing with the Seth books from the "other
side" — my viewpoint —for a change. I told her that I'd never envisioned
her showing that kind of interest in my approach to the sessions and books.)
Good evening.
("Good evening, Seth.")
Dictation. (With many pauses:) The main myth through which you
interpret your experiences, however, is the one that tells you that all
perception and knowledge must come to you through the physical senses.
This is the myth of the exteriorized consciousness — a consciousness
that you are told is open-ended only so far as objective reality is
concerned. It seems to be closed "at the other end," which in those terms
would represent your birth.
The consciousness of that myth can indeed have no origin, for the
myth precludes anything but a physically-oriented and physicallymechanized
consciousness. Not only could that consciousness have no
existence before or after death, but obviously it could have no access to
knowledge that was not physically acquired. It is this myth that hampers
your understanding most of all, and that closes you off from the greater
nature of those events with which you are most intimately concerned.
That myth also makes your own involvement with mass events
sometimes appear incomprehensible.
There seems to be no reason for many of them, simply because the
intricate inner communication systems of consciousness go utterly
unrecognized, generally speaking.
MYTHS AND PHYSICAL EVENTS • 109 •
I am speaking largely to a Western audience, and so here I am using
terms for a particular reason, to explain concepts in a way that will be
understood. The inner ego (see the last session) is perfect as a term to suit
my purposes. Let me stress again that the "unconscious" is indeed
conscious — and by conscious I mean that its reasoning is not irrational.
Its methods are not chaotic, and its characteristics are not only equal to
those of the known ego, but indeed are more resilient and knowledgeable.
Frameworks 1 and 2 obviously represent not only different kinds of
reality in normal terms, but two different kinds of consciousness. To
make this discussion as simple as possible for now, at least, think of these
two frameworks or states of consciousness as being connected by
"undifferentiated areas" in which sleep, dreaming, and certain trance
states have their activity. Those undifferentiated areas are involved in the
constant translation of one kind of consciousness into the other, and with
energy transferences. You constantly process those data that come to you
in your private life, and that information includes bulletins from all over
the world, through your news broadcasts and so forth.
The inner ego has access, again, to a much vaster amount of
knowledge. It is aware not only of its own private position, as you are of
yours, but it is also familiar with the mass events of its reality. It is
intimately involved in the creation of your own private experience.
I said that the inner ego reasons, but its reasoning is not restricted to
the cause-and-effect limitations that you apply to the reasoning process.
The action of the inner ego within the wider sphere of Framework 2
explains many events and seeming coincidences that otherwise seem to
make no sense within your world. Many realities within Framework 2
cannot suitably be explained as facts to you in Framework 1, simply
because they involve psychological thicknesses that cannot be translated
into facts as you think of them. These often appear in the symbolic
language of the arts instead, and many of your dreams are translations in
which the events of Framework 2 appear in symbolic form.
(A one-minute pause at 10:14.) Give us a moment. . . On any given
day the events of your private lives fit within the larger pattern of world
events, in which they have their context. On any given night
\
• 110 • FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK2
the intimate events of your dream lives also exist in the greater context of
the world's dreams — in which they have their reality.
Give us a moment . . . The consciousness that you have, as generally
described in psychology, is in a strange fashion like the bright shiny skin
of a fruit — but with no fruit inside; a consciousness with a shiny surface
that responds to sun or rain or temperature, and to its surroundings; but
for all of that a psychological fruit that has no pulp or pits, but contains at
its heart a vacancy. In those terms you experience only one half of your
consciousness: the physically-attuned portion. Fruit trees have roots, but
you assign no ground of being to this consciousness.
Jung's collective unconscious was an attempt to give your world its
psychological roots, but Jung1 could not perceive the clarity, organization,
and deeper context in which that collective unconscious has its own
existence. Reality as Framework 2 is organized in a different fashion than
it is in the Framework 1 world, and the processes of reasoning are far
quicker. In Framework 1 the reasoning processes work largely by
deduction, and they must constantly check their own results against the
seemingly concrete experience of physical events. The reasoning of the
inner ego is involved with the creative invention of those experiences. It
is involved with events in a context of a different kind, for it deals
intimately with probabilities.
(Longpause.) [Each of] you, with your beliefs and intents, tell the
inner ego which of an infinite number of probable events you want to
encounter. In the dream state events from both frameworks are processed.
The dream state involves not only a state of consciousness that exists
between the two frameworks of reality, but also involves, in those terms,
a connecting reality of its own. Here I would like to emphasize that to
one degree or another all species of plant and animal life "dream." The
same applies to the "psychological activity" of atoms and molecules, and
any "particle."2 Period.
(10:40.) There are intensities of behavior, then, in which the activity,
the inside activity, of any being or particle is directed toward [the]
physical force [that is] involved in the cooperative venture that causes
your reality. There are variances, however, when such activity is directed
instead into the interior nature of reality. You have an inner system of
communication, then, in which the cells of all
MYTHS AND PHYSICAL EVENTS - 111 -
living things are connected. In those terms there is a continuum of
consciousness.
Take your break.
(10:45. Before the session, Jane told me now, she'd known "that Seth
would talk about some of that stuff. "As it had been in the last session, her
delivery tonight was quite slow; the difference this evening, though, was
that she'd sensed many of those pauses. But this was the kind of session she
liked, and when she came out of trance she felt that more time should have
passed. Jane added that "you get a deeper subjective flow " of material when
the delivery lasted without a break for an hour, or thereabouts, instead of for
the old half hour periods.
(Resume in the same slow manner at 11:01.)
To really understand your own connection with the events you
encounter privately, and in relationship to others, you must first become
acquainted with that medium in which events themselves are formed.
What part, for example, does chance play in your life? Is it chance if
you arrive too late to board a plane, for example — to find later that the
plane crashed? Perhaps your late arrival was caused by "a chance
meeting" with a friend at the last moment, or by a misplaced ticket, or by
a traffic jam that seemingly had nothing to do with you at all.
You may have become a part of the drama of a natural disaster, or
avoided it as a result of other seemingly chance occurrences. What
appears to you as chance or coincidence, however, is actually the result
of the amazing organizations and communications active in the
psychological reality of Framework 2. Again, you form your reality —
but how? And how do private existences touch each other, resulting in
world events? Before we go any further, then, we must look into the
nature of Framework 2.
This will not be a dry, intellectual exploration, because the intent
itself will begin to trigger within your lives the emergence of hints and
clues as to your own immersion in Framework 2's creativity.
End of chapter.

(11:13.) Next chapter (4): "The Characteristics of Framework 2."
(Longpause.) "A Creative Analysis of the Medium in Which Physically-
Oriented Consciousness Resides, and the Source of Events."
Give us a moment. . . No chance encounter of physical elements
alone, under any circumstances, could produce consciousness — or the
conditions that would then make consciousness possible.
If you think of your world with all of its great natural splendors as
coming about initially through the auspices of chance — through an
accident of cosmic proportions — then it certainly often seems that such
a world can have no greater meaning. Its animation is seen as having no
source outside itself. The myth of the great CHANCE ENCOUNTER, in caps,
that is supposed to have brought forth life on your planet then
presupposes, of course, an individual consciousness that is, in certain
terms, alive by chance alone.
It is somewhat humorous that such a vital consciousness could even
suppose itself to be the end product of inert elements that were
themselves lifeless, but somehow managed to combine in such a way that
your species attained fantasy, logic, vast organizational power,
technologies, and civilizations. Your myths tell you that nature itself has
no intent except survival. It cares little for the individual — only insofar
as the individual helps the species to endure. In ils workings,
CHARACTERISTICS OF FRAMEWORK2 • 113 •
nature then appears to be impersonal, even though it so consists of individuals
that it cann6t be regarded otherwise.
Without the particular plants, animals, people, or even individual cells or
viruses, nature has no meaning. Your physical universe, then, had a nonphysical
origin, in which it is still couched. In the same manner your individual
consciousness has an origin in which it is still couched.
(11:35.) Give us a moment. . . Framework 2 represents the inner sphere of
reality, the inner dimensions of existence, that gives your world its own
characteristics. The energy and power that keeps you alive, that fuels your
thoughts — and also the energy that lights your cities — all have their origins in
Framework 2. The same energy that leaps into practical use when you turn on
your television sets also allows you to tune into the daily experienced events of
your lives.
End of session. End of dictation, unless you have questions.
(I paused, tired. "I don't know what to say. . . .")
To parallel these sessions, it would be nice if the two of you kept
Framework 2 in mind, and utilized it with a bit more confidence, and became
alert again to those "coincidences" that always appear in current experience.
I bid you a fine good evening.
("Thank you very much, Seth. Good night. "
(End at 11:42 P.M.)
NOTES: SESSION 823
1.Volume 2 of "Unknown" Reality contains a number of references to
(larljung, the Swiss psychologist and psychiatrist who lived from 1875-
1961.
2.For those who are interested: As soon as Seth mentioned the "psycho-l(
>gical activity" of atoms and molecules, I was intuitively and strongly aware
of connections between his statement and at least two principles of modern
physics. Yet I hesitated. "I know my feelings are right," I told Jane, "but how
do I explain them in a few words and make any sense?" I was also
constrained l>y the limits of my own knowledge. Especially, though, I
sensed relationships between Seth's idea on the one hand, and both the
uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics and the principle of
complementarity on the other.
The uncertainty principle, or the principle of indeterminacy (advanced by
Heisenberg in 1927, and part of the theory of quantum mechanics), sets definite
l imi t s to the accuracy possible in measuring both the motion and
•114- FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK 2
position of atoms and elementary particles simultaneously; more importantly to
my mind, for the purposes of this note, the uncertainty principle maintains that
there is an interaction between the observer (with his instruments) and the object
or quality being measured.
The complementarity principle (stated by Bohr in 1928) resolves the
seeming paradox posed by contradictory experiments that show how light, for
example, can be regarded as consisting of either waves or particles. Both
experiments and conclusions are right — and mutually exclusive; whichever
result is obtained is due to the nature of the particular experiment.
I doubt if physicists in the 1920s were concerned about the psychological
activity of atoms, molecules, or particles, although it seems that Heisenberg
came close to Seth's idea when he considered the free behavior of an electron
emitted by a light ray. Albert Einstein, whose own work was rooted in strict
causality, found a notion like the free will of an electron untenable, even though
much earlier (in 1905) he had laid the foundation for quantum mechanics in his
special theory of relativity.
Jane is largely unfamiliar with the details of the uncertainty principle and the
principle of complementarity, although the general ideas fascinate her. Her
feelings for these works of science, then, are the same as those she has for the
ether; see Note 1 for Session 822.
SESSION 824, MARCH 1,1978
9:40 P.M. WEDNESDAY
(After supper tonight Jane and I had a discussion about the theory of
evolution. But before that. . . .)
Good evening.
("Good evening, Seth.")
Dictation: In connection with the creation of the universe, and with the
creation of public and private events alike, let us for a moment consider a
different kind of myth.
Tonight, during a pleasant supper time, our friends Ruburt and Joseph
watched a television production based upon the Cinderella fairy tale. According
to the definition I gave earlier, this fairy tale is a myth. Surely it may seem that
such a children's tale has little to do with any serious adult discussion concerning
anything so profound as the creation of the known world. And most certainly, it
may appear, no scientifically pertinent data about the nature of events can
possibly be uncovered from such a source.
CHARACTERISTICS OF FRAMEWORK2 • 115 •
For one thing, [the] Cinderella [tale] has a happy ending, of course,
and is therefore highly unrealistic (with irony), according to many
educators, since it does not properly prepare children for life's necessary
disappointments. Fairy godmothers are definitely a thing of the
storyteller's imagination, and many serious, earnest adults will tell you
that daydreaming or wishing will get you nowhere.
In the Cinderella story, however, the heroine, though poor and of low
estate, manages to attain a fulfilling and seemingly impossible goal. Her
desire to attend a spectacular ball, and meet the prince, initiates a series
of magical events, none following the dictates of logic. The fairy
godmother, suddenly appearing, uses the normal objects of everyday life
so that they are suddenly transformed, and we have a chariot1 from a
pumpkin, and other transformations of a like nature.
The tale has always appealed to children because they recognize the
validity behind it.2 The fairy godmother is a creative personification of
the personalized elements in Framework 2 — a personification therefore
of the inner ego, that rises to the aid of the mortal self to grant its desires,
even when the intents of the mortal self may not seem to fit into the
practical framework of normal life. When the inner ego responds in such
a fashion, even the commonplace, ordinary, seemingly innocuous
circumstances suddenly become charged with a new vitality, and appear
to "work for" the individual involved. If you are reading this book you
are already too old to clearly remember the constant fantasies of your
early childhood. Children however know quite well, automatically, that
they have a strong hand in the creation of the events that then seem to
happen to them.
They experiment very often, and quite secretly, since their elders are
at the same time trying to make the children conform to a given concrete
reality that is more or less already mass-produced for them.
Children experiment with the creation of joyful and frightening
events, trying to ascertain for themselves the nature of their control over
their own experience. They imagine joyful and terrifying experiences.
They are in fact fascinated by the effects that their thoughts, feelings, and
purposes have upon daily events. This is a natural learning process. If
they create "bogeymen," then they can cause them to disappear also. If
their thoughts can cause them to become
• 116 • FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK 2
ill, then there is no real reason for them to fear illness, for it is their own
creation. This learning process is nipped in the bud, however. By the time
you are adults, it certainly seems that you are a subjective being in an
objective universe, at the mercy of others, and with only the most
superficial control over the events of your lives.3
(10:02.) The tale of Cinderella becomes a fantasy, a delusion, or
even a story about sexual awakening, in Freudian terms. The disappointments
you have faced indeed make such a tale seem to be a direct
contradiction to life's realities. To some extent or another, however, the
child in you remembers a certain sense of mastery only half realized, of
power nearly grasped, then seemingly lost forever — and a dimension of
existence in which dreams quite literally came true. The child in you
sensed more, of course: It sensed its own greater reality in another
framework entirely, from which it had only lately emerged — yet with
which it was intimately connected. It felt itself surrounded, then, by the
greater realities of Framework 2.
The child knew "that it came from somewhere else" — not by chance
but by design. The child knew that in one way or another its most
intimate thoughts, dreams, and gestures were as connected with the
natural world as blades of grass are to a field. The child knew it was a
unique and utterly original event or being that on the one hand was its
own focus, and that on the other hand belonged to its own time and
season. In fact, children let little escape them, so that, again, they
experiment constantly in an effort to discover not only the effect of their
thoughts and intents and wishes upon others, but the degree to which
others influence their own behavior. To that extent, they deal rather
directly with probabilities in a way quite foreign to adult behavior.
In a fashion, they make quicker deductions than adults, and often
truer ones, because they are not conditioned by a past of structured
memory. Their subjective experience then brings them in rather direct
contact with the methods by which events are formed.
Will you open this (beer) for our friend. Do you want to rest your
hand?
(10:28. "No____")
Children understand the importance of symbols, and they use them
constantly to protect themselves — not from their own reality but from
the adult world. They constantly pretend, and they quickly
CHARACTERISTICS OF FRAMEWORK2 • 117 •
learn that persistent pretending in any one area will result in a physicallyexperienced
version of the imagined activity. They also realize that they
do not possess full freedom, either, for certain pretended situations will
later happen in less faithful versions than the imagined ones. Others will
seem almost entirely blocked, and never materialize.
Before children are acquainted with conventional ideas of guilt and
punishment, they realize that it is easier to bring about good events,
through wishing, than it is to bring about unhappy ones. The child carries
with him [or her] the impetus and supporting energy provided him at
birth from Framework 2, and he knows intuitively that desires conducive
to his development "happen" easier than those that are not. His natural
impulses naturally lead him toward the development of his body and
mind, and he is aware of a cushioning effect and support as he acts in
accordance with those inner impulses. The child is innately honest. When
he gets sick he intuitively knows the reason why, and he knows quite well
that he brought about the illness.
Parents and physicians believe, instead, that the child is a victim, ill
for no personal reason, but indisposed because of elements attacking him
— either the outside environment, or [something] working against him
from within. The child may be told: "You have a cold because you got
your feet wet." Or: "You caught the cold from Johnny or Sally." He may
be told that he has a virus, so that it seems his body itself was invaded
despite his will. He learns that such beliefs are acceptable. It is easier to
go along than to be honest, particularly when honesty would often involve
a kind of communication his parents might frown upon, or the expression
of emotions that are quite unacceptable.
(10:46.) Mother's little man or brave little girl can then stay at home,
for example, courageously bearing up under an illness, with his or her
behavior condoned. The child may know that the illness is the result of
feelings that the parents would consider quite cowardly, or otherwise
involves emotional realities that the parents simply would not understand.
Gradually it becomes easier for the child to accept the parents'
assessment of the situation. Little by little the fine relationship, the
precise connections between psychological feelings and bodily reality,
erode.
• 118 - FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK 2
I do not want to oversimplify, and throughout this
book we will add other elaborations upon such
behavior. The child who gets the mumps with a large
number of his classmates, however, knows he has his
private reasons for joining into such a mass biological
reality, and usually the adult who "fall prey" to a flu
epidemic has little conscious awareness of his own
reasons for such a situation. He does not understand
the mass suggestions involved, or his own reasons for
accepting them. He is usually convinced instead that
his body has been invaded by a virus despite his own
personal approval or disapproval — despite his own
personal approval or disapproval (most
emphatically). He is therefore a victim, and his sense
of personal power is eroded.
When a person recovers from such an ordeal, he
[or she] usually grants his recovery to be the result of
the medication he has been given. Or he may think
that he was simply lucky — but he does not grant
himself to have any real power in such an affair. The
recovery seems to occur to him, as the illness seemed
to happen to him. Usually the patient cannot see that
he brought about his own recovery, and was
responsible for it, because he cannot admit that his
own intents were responsible for his own illness. He
cannot learn from his own experience, then, and each
bout of illness will appear largely incomprehensible.
Take your break.
(11:00. Jane's pace in trance had been
considerably faster than in recent sessions. However,
resume at a slower rate at 11:10.)
Dictation: Some years ago, before our sessions
actually began (in late 1963) — though immediately
previous — Ruburt (Jane) had an experience that he
has described in his own books.
That event resulted in a scribbled manuscript,
unpublished, called The Physical Universe as Idea
Construction. His desire and intense intent to
understand more of the nature of reality triggered the
production of that fragmentary automatic manuscript.
He found himself as a young adult, at the time of the
President Kennedy assassination, in a world that
seemed to have no meaning. At the same time, while
conditioned by the beliefs of his generation — beliefs
that still tinge your times — he held on to one
supporting belief never completely lost from
childhood.
His belief, illogical as it sounded when spoken,
contradictory as it seemed when applied to daily life,
stated that the individual somehow
CHARACTERISTICS OF FRAMEWORK 2 • 119 •
could perceive the nature of reality on his or her own by
virtue of innate capacities that belonged to the individual by
right — capacities that were a part of man's heritage. In other
words, Ruburt felt that there was a slim chance of opening
doors of knowledge that had been closed, and he decided to
take that chance.
The results, appearing initially in that now-yellowed
handwritten script, made him initially see that he had chosen
the events of his life in one way or another, and that each
person was not the victim but the creator of those events that
were privately experienced or jointly encountered with
others.
In that literally power-packed few hours, he also knew
that the physical senses did not so much perceive concrete
phenomena, but actually had a hand in the creation of events
that were then perceived as actual.
End of dictation.
(11:26. Still in trance, Jane now came through with a
few paragraphs of material for us. Among them was this
insight, which Seth related to his discussion of the
Cinderella fairy tale:)
Forgive the terminology, but you each believed in
"magic," or the sessions never would have started. You
believed that reality had more to it than the senses showed.
You believed that together you could achieve what had not
been achieved earlier — that you could somehow or other
offer meaningful and real solutions to the world's problems. .
. . (End at 11:34 P.M.)
NOTES: SESSION 824
1.At first Jane and I thought Seth was in error when he
said "chariot" instead of "coach" or "carriage." But from
the dictionary we learned that in archaic terms a chariot
could be a four-wheeled lightweight carriage, used
rilher for pleasure or on certain affairs of state.
2.Jane and I watched an adaptation of the Westernized
Cinderella fairy lale, of course. I almost didn't bother
looking it up, but I'm glad I did, for we learned that the
power of Cinderella has been much longer-lasting and
more pervasive than we'd realized: The Cinderella tale
reaches back to China in I lie 9th century, and exists in
hundreds of versions around the world.
3.The 806th session proper can be found in Chapter 2,
but in the deleted portion of thai session Seth came
through with some comments relative lo children thai In
in well with his material this evening: "The point of
• 120 • FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK 2
power is in the present. Whenever possible, minimize the importance of a problem.
Forget a problem and it will go away. Dumb advice, surely, or so it seems. Yet children
know the truth of it. Minimize impediments in your mind and they do become minimized.
Exaggerate impediments in your mind and in reality they will quickly adopt giant size."
SESSION 825, MARCH 6,
1978 9:31 P.M. MONDAY
(Happily refreshed by a few days' rest, I'm back working on my notes and
appendixes for Volume 2 of "Unknown" Reality. Over the weekend Jane
began typing my Introductory Notes as she's put them together for the book.
"And in a couple of days I'll get something done on the Epilogue, " she said.)
Good evening.
("Good evening, Seth."
(With many pauses:) Dictation: The physical universe is the result of
idea construction, as Ruburt perceived in the experience mentioned in the
last session (at 11:10).
That perception was not the sort of official sense data recognized by
your sciences. Ruburt did not come to his recognition of the world's
mental source through reasoning. Neither could any ordinary physical
perception have given him that information. His consciousness left his
body — an event not even considered possible by many educated people.
Ruburt's consciousness merged, while still retaining its own individuality,
with the consciousness of the leaves outside his window, and with the
nail in the windowsill, and traveled outward and inward at the same time,
so that like a mental wind his consciousness traveled through other
psychological neighborhoods.
The origin of your universe is nonphysical, and each event, however
grand or minute, has its birth in the Framework 2 environment. Your
physical universe arose from that inner framework, then, and continues to
do so.
The power that fuels your thoughts has the same source. In a manner
of speaking the universe as you understand it, with all the events that it
includes, functions "automatically" in its important processes, as your
own body does. Your individual desires and intents direct that activity of
your body's spontaneous processes — that is,
CHARACTERISTICS OF FRAMEWORK 2 • 121 •
your body walks across the floor at your command as a result of your
wishes, even though the processes involved must happen "by
themselves."
Your intents have a great effect upon your body's health. In the same
fashion, jointly all of the people alive at any given time "direct" the
events of the universe to behave in a certain fashion, even though the
processes must happen by themselves, or automatically. Other species
have a hand in this also, however, and in one way or another all of you
direct the activity of the physical body of the world in much the same
way that you [each] direct your own bodily behavior.
(9:50.) Give us a moment . . . You were born with the impetus
toward growth built in — automatically provided with the inner
blueprints that would lead to a developed adult form. Not only the cells,
but the atoms and molecules that compose them contained a positive
intent to cooperate in a bodily formation, to fulfill themselves, and they
were then predisposed not only toward survival, but with an idealization
leading toward the best possible development and maturity.
All of those characteristics have their sources in Framework 2, for
the psychological medium in Framework 2 is automatically conducive to
creativity. It is not simply a neutral dimension, therefore, but contains
within itself an automatic predisposition toward the fulfillment of all
patterns inherent within it. As James said in Ruburt's book,1 "The
universe is of good intent." It is automatically predisposed, again, toward
the creation of "good" events. I put the word "good" in quotes for now
because of your misconceptions about the nature of good and evil, which
we will discuss somewhat later.2
To that extent then the physical universe, like each physical body, is
"magical." I use the term purposefully, for it confounds the dictates of
your adult reasoning, and perhaps by so confounding what you think of
as reason, I may manage to arouse within you a hint of what I refer to as
the higher intellect.
Reasoning by itself can only deal with deductions made about the
known world. It cannot accept knowledge that comes from "elsewhere,"
for such information will not fit in reason's categories, and confounds its
cause-and-effect patterning. The power to reason comes from Framework
2. In the terms of this discussion, you are
• 122 • FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK 2
able to reason as a result of "magical" events that make reason itself
possible. The term "magic" has in one way or another been used to
simply describe events for which reason has no answer — events that
exist outside of the framework in which reason feels comfortable.
Your scientists consider themselves quite rational, yet many of them,
at least, would be more honest when they tried to describe the beginning
of the universe if they admitted that reason alone cannot provide any true
insight. Each of you are as familiar with the so-called birth of the
universe, as close to it or as distant [from it], as your own recognized
consciousness is to your own physical birth, for the initiation of
awareness and sensation in one infant really carries all of the same
questions as those involved with the birth of the universe.
The mother could not consciously control the bodily processes that
lead to birth. In the truest sense, the birth magically happens, as
miraculous in those terms as the so-called initial emergence of life upon
the planet itself. Scientific analysis of the brain will tell you nothing
about the power that moves your thoughts, or hint at the source of the
brain's abilities. However, the constant activity between Frameworks 1
and 2 is constantly apparent in the very existence of your world, and in
the relationships involving your imagination, feelings, and beliefs, and
those private and shared events that compose your experience.
Take your break.
(10:13. Break came a little early, after Jane had been in trance for just
42 minutes. "I didn 't feel too much with it before the session, " she said.
"Maybe I got tired this afternoon, working on the Intro for 'Unknown.'
I've had messages from Seth the last few days about the book stuff for the session
tonight, but what we got doesn't fit any of them . . . And I've got that
feeling again, that more time should have passed while I was under: I think
it should be a lot later now than it is. It's as though when the material's
good I expect that it should take more time to get, or something like that. . .
But the flow just ended, so break came. "
(Resume at 10:25.)
I do not mean to speak of reason in derogatory terms, for it is well
suited to its purposes, which are vital in your reality. It is also true that in
the deepest terms you have not developed your reasoning, so that your
version of it is bound to result in some distortions.
CHARACTERISTICS OF FRAMEWORK 2 • 123 •
Nor do I mean to agree with those who ask you to use your intuitions
and feelings at the expense of your reason. Instead I will suggest other
paths later in this book. Your reasoning as you now use it, however, deals
primarily with reality by dividing it into categories, forming distinctions,
following the "laws" of cause and effect — and largely its realm is the
examination of events already perceived. In other words, it deals with the
concrete nature of ascertained events that are already facts in your world.
On the other hand your intuitions follow a different kind of
organization, as does your imagination — one involved with associations,
an organization that unifies diverse elements and brings even known
events together in a kind of unity that is often innocent of the limitations
dictated by cause and effect. In those terms, then, Framework 2 deals
with associations, so that within it the recognizable events of the physical
world can be put together in an infinite number of ways, after which they
appear in your private experience according to directions you have given
them through those associations that you form mentally.
The coincidences that seem to happen, the chance encounters, the
unexpected events — all of these come into your experience because in
one way or another you have attracted them, even though their
occurrences might seem to have insurmountable odds against them.
Those odds — those impediments — do not exist in Framework 2.
(10:40.) To some extent or another, your intuitions acquaint you with
the fact that you have your own place in the universe, and that the
universe itself is well-disposed toward you. The intuitions speak of your
unique and vital part in the fabric of that universe. The intuitions know
that the universe bends in your direction. Your reasoning can deal only
with results of your physical perception, however — at least with the
training your societies have allowed it. You have in fact denied your
reasoning the results of important data, for you have taught it to distrust
the psychic faculties. Children's fairy tales still carry some of that ancient
knowledge.
So far, I have been speaking of Frameworks 1 and 2 separately, and I
will continue to do so for your convenience and understanding. Actually
the two merge, of course, for your Framework 1 existence is
• 124- FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK 2
immersed in Framework 2. Again, your body itself is
constantly replenished in Framework 1 because of its
simultaneous reality in Framework 2. Framework 2 is ever
exteriorizing itself, appearing in your experience as
Framework 1. You concentrate so thoroughly upon exterior
reality, however, that you often ignore the quite apparent
deeper sources of your own physical existence. As a result
you deal with methods of division and categorization so
completely that you lose sight of associative organizations,
even though you use them constantly in your own most
intimate thought processes.
End of session, unless you have questions.
("What do you think of Jane helping me with the
Introductory Notes for Volume 2 of 'Unknown' ?"
(Emphatically:) I think it is an excellent idea. I am
letting events magically emerge as they grow beneath the
surface of your lives — because Ruburt likes happy
surprises. He is very active now on other levels, and is
putting our material to good use. A fond good evening.
("Thank you, Seth. Good night."
(11:56 P.M.)
NOTES: SESSION 825
1.Jane's book (which is now being typeset) is The
Afterdeath Journal of an American Philosopher: The
World View of William James. See, for example, Note 2
for Session 801, and the opening notes for sessions
804 and 821.
2.Jane and I are really looking forward to Seth's
material on man's "misconceptions about the nature of
good and evil." Judging from our mail, we know that
many others will also be very interested in it.
SESSION 826, MARCH 8,1978 9:35 P.M. WEDNESDAY
Now, good evening.
("Good evening, Seth.")
Dictation: You must understand that in a manner of
speaking, Framework 2 is on the one hand an invisible
version of the physical universe. On the other hand,
however, it is far more than that, for it contains within it
probable variations of that universe — from the most
cosmic scale, say, down to probable versions of the most
minute events of any given physical day.
CHARACTERISTICS OF FRAMEWORK2 - 125 •
In simple terms, your body has an invisible counterpart in Framework
2. During life that counterpart is so connected with your own
physical tissues, however, that it can be misleading to say that the two —
the visible and invisible bodies — are separate. In the same way that your
thoughts have a reality in Framework 2, and only for the sake of a
meaningful analogy, thoughts could be said to be the equivalent, now, of
objects; for in Framework 2 thoughts and feelings are far more important
even than objects are in physical reality.
In Framework 2 thoughts instantly form patterns. They are the
"natural elements" in that psychological environment that mix, merge,
and combine to form, if you will, the psychological cells, atoms, and
molecules that compose events. In those terms, the physical events that
you perceive or experience can be compared to "psychological objects"
that appear to exist with a physical concreteness in space and time. Such
events usually seem to begin somewhere in space and time, and clearly
end there as well.
You can look at an object like a table and see its definitions in space.
To some extent you are too close to psychological events to perceive
them in the same fashion, of course, yet usual experience seems to have a
starting point and a conclusion. Instead, experienced events usually
involve only surface perceptions. You observe a table's surface as smooth
and solid, even though you realize it is composed of atoms and molecules
full of motion.
In the same way you experience a birthday party, an automobile
accident, a bridge game, or any psychological event as psychologically
solid, with a smooth experienced surface that holds together in space and
time. Such events, however, consist of indivisible "particles" and fasterthan-
light perceptions1 that never show. In other words, they contain
psychic components that flow from Framework 2 into Framework 1.
(Long pause.) Any event, therefore, has an invisible thickness, a
multidimensional basis. Your skies are filled with breezes, currents,
clouds, sunlight, dust particles and so forth. The sky vaults above the
entire planet. The invisible [vault of] Framework 2 contains endless
patterns that change as, say, clouds do — that mix and merge to form
your psychological climate. Thoughts have what we will for now term
electromagnetic properties. In those terms your thoughts mix
• 126 • FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK 2
and match with others in Framework 2, creating mass patterns that form
the overall psychological basis behind world events. Again, however,
Framework 2 is not neutral, but automatically inclined toward what we
will here term good or constructive developments. It is a growth medium.
Constructive or "positive" feelings or thoughts are more easily
materialized than "negative" ones, because they are in keeping with
Framework 2's characteristics.2
(10:05.) If that were not the case, your own species would not have
existed as long as it has. Nor would the constructs of civilization — art,
commerce, or even technology — have been possible. Framework 2
combines order and spontaneity, but its order is of another kind. It is a
circular, associative, "naturally ordering process," in which spontaneity
automatically exists in the overall order that will best fulfill the potentials
of consciousness.
At birth, each person is automatically equipped with the capacity
toward natural growth that will most completely satisfy its own abilities
— not at the expense of others, but in an overall context in which the
fulfillment of each individual assures the fulfillment of each other
individual.
In those terms there is "an ideal" psychological pattern to which you
are yourself intimately connected. The inner ego constantly moves you in
that direction. On the other hand, that pattern is not rigid, but flexible
enough to take advantage of changing circumstances, even as a plant will
turn toward the sun though you move it from room to room while the
sunlight varies its directions. The inner ego does not exist in time as you
do, however, so it relies upon your assessment of situations with which
your reasoning is equipped to cope.
Obviously there are objects of all sizes, durability, and weight. There
are private objects and public ones. There are also "vast psychological
objects," then, sweeping mass events, for example, in which whole
countries might be involved. There are also mass natural events of
varying degrees, as say, the flooding of large areas. Such events involve
psychological configurations on the part of all those involved, so that the
inner individual patterns of those lives touched by each such event have
in one way or another a common purpose that at the same time serves the
overall reality on a natural planetary basis. In order to endure, the plane!
itself must be involved
CHARACTERISTICS OF FRAMEWORK 2 - 127 -
in constant change and instability. I know it is difficult to comprehend,
but every object that you perceive — grass or rock or stone — even
ocean waves or clouds — any physical phenomenon — has its own
invisible consciousness, its own intent and emotional coloration. Each is
also endowed with patterns toward growth and fulfillment — not at the
expense of the rest of nature, but to the contrary, so that every other
element of nature may also be completed (all with much emphasis).
At certain levels these intents of man and nature may merge. I am
speaking in very simple terms now, and yet those involved in a flood, for
example, want the past washed away, or want to be flooded by bursts of
vital emotions such as disasters often bring. They want to feel a renewed
sense of nature's power, and often, though devastated, they use the
experience to start a new life.
Those with other intents will find excuses to leave such areas. There
will be, perhaps, a chance meeting that will result in a hasty trip. On a
hunch someone else might suddenly leave the area to find a new job, or
decide to visit a friend in another state. Those whose experiences do not
merge with nature's in that regard will not be part of that mass event.
They will act on information that comes to them from Framework 2.
Those who stay also act on the same information, by choosing to
participate.
(Long pause.) When you enter time and physical life, you are already
aware of its conditions. You are biologically and psychologically
predisposed to grow within that rich environment, to contribute on all
levels to the fulfillment of your species — but more than this, to add your
own unique viewpoint and experience to the greater patterns of
consciousness of which you are part.
You are beginning to understand the intimate connections that exist in
your physical environment. The psychological connections, however, are
far more complicated, so that each individual's dreams and thoughts
interweave with every other person's, forming ever-changing patterns of
desire and intent. Some of these emerge as physical events, and some do
not.
Take your break.
(10:37 to 10:55.)
End of dictation.
• 128 • FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK 2
(Even though he said he was through with Mass Events for the evening, the
first subject Seth touched upon now — my dream of early yesterday morning —
certainly was related to statements he'd made just before break, like this one:
"When you enter time and physical life, you are already aware of its conditions.
" I think my dream is an excellent example of that philosophy; I'd discussed the
dream with Jane yesterday, and intended to ask Seth to comment upon it this
evening if he didn 't voluntarily do so. I'm not claiming the dream inspired his
material for tonight's session, or that it was precog-nitive, in that I'd "picked up"
on his subject matter for tonight, and constructed the dream around a portion of
it in order to give myself that particular information. Perhaps I should have
questioned Seth about such possibilities, but their implications escaped me while
he was speaking and I was busy taking notes. From my dream notebook, with
age data about all involved added for the reader's convenience:
("Dream, Tuesday morning, March 7, 1978.
("Very vivid, and in color as usual: I dreamed that I was in the kitchen of
our hill house in Elmira, preparing to go outside into the back yard. My mother,
who died five years ago at the age of 81, was with me. She was of an
indeterminate age in the dream, as I was, and I believe she was telling me what
to expect out there. However, I also knew what to expect.
("Out on the grass, I saw them: my deceased father and his mother. My
father had also been 81 at the time of his death seven years ago. I estimate that
his very elderly mother had died in 1926, when I was seven years old [I'm almost
59 now].
("A very unusual dream. My father and his mother were waiting for me. The
strange thing was that Grandmother Butts looked considerably younger than
her son, my father. She was in her late 30's or early 40's, a beautiful woman with
straight brown hair and striking blue-green eyes that had a strong magnetic
quality.
("Now my grandmother was on her knees, kneeling upright in the grass. I
dropped to my knees before her. We greeted each other like old friends, wrapping
our arms around one another as we talked, and kissed very animatedly. We were
so pleased to see each other! I remember my father's legs as he stood beside us.
He was more shadowy all through the dream, however, not nearly as substantial
and real as his mother was. Nor did I see my own mother — his wife — much
more clearly. All of us were talking constantly, but I don't remember what any of
us said, except that our meeting marked a joyous occasion.
CHARACTERISTICS OF FRAMEWORK 2 • 129 •
("I don't recall having had any other dreams of this kind. I woke up as it
ended — or faded out of my perception — with the certain feeling that it
represented something quite unusual. Jane was sleepily stirring beside me, and I
told her I'd had quite a dream. I described it in detail for her when we got up at
about 7:00 A.M. "
(Now here's what Seth had to say about the dream right after break ended:)
In your terms, your father's mother is ready to enter time again. Your father
was pointing you out to her, and acquainting her with other such living members
of the family as well, who are still in time. Many individuals do this,
psychologically becoming aware of relatives still living, even though in life they
may never meet.
You may feel alone in life if all of your relatives are dead, for example. In
the same way, entering life, you often assure yourselves that past friends or
relatives are there before you.
(The dream suggests numerous subjects that Seth didn 't go into, and that
I'll leave for the reader to consider: reincarnation, the shifting of ages and the
independence of memory from time in the dream state, and so forth. I do have a
few clear conscious memories of Grandmother Butts; the last time I saw her she
was ill, a few months before her death 52 years ago. Yet, strangely, I can
consciously accept that my grandmother passed away more than half a century
ago easier than I can the fact that my own father and mother have already been
dead for seven and five years, respectively.
(After briefly dealing with a couple of other matters following this dream
material, Seth closed out the session at 11:05 P.M.)
NOTES: SESSION 826
1.See Note 2 for Session 803.
2.I think that tonight, when he started talking about the inclination of
Framework 2 toward good or constructive development, Seth began to elaborate
a bit on his statement after 9:50 in the last session, when he told us that
I he universe "is automatically predisposed . . . toward the creation of 'good'
events."
I also lliink Seth's passages in this (826th) session bear upon his remarks in
Session 82 I, iOIKci ning nian's "true identification with nature," his "place in the
context <>l lip. physi< .il planet."
• 130 • FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK2
SESSION 827, MARCH 13,1978
9:59 P.M. MONDAY
(In this noon's mail Jane received from her editor, Tarn Mossman, an
early printer's proof of the book jacket for The Afterdeath Journal of an
American Philosopher: The World View of William James. This is the
first time we've seen the design, and we like it very much: The long title,
along with Jane's name and Introduction by Seth, are well arranged in
subtle pastel colors against a deep blue background. However, this proof
doesn't contain the copy that Tarn will prepare for the inside flaps and the
back of the jacket.1)
Good evening.
("Good evening, Seth.")
A potpourri. Heredity plays far less a part in the so-called formation
of character than is generally supposed.
For that matter, [the same is true of] environment, as it is usually
understood. Your cultural beliefs predispose you to interpret experience
in terms of heredity and environment, however, so that you focus
primarily upon them as prime causes of behavior. This in turn results in
much more structured experience than necessary. You do not concentrate
upon the exceptions — the children who do not seem to fit the patterns of
their families or environments, so of course no attempts are made to view
those kinds of unofficial behavior.
Because of this, large organized patterns behind human activity often
escape your notice almost completely. You read constantly of people who
seem to have been most affected by fictional characters, for example, or
by personalities from the past, or by complete strangers, more than they
have been affected by their own families. Such situations are considered
oddities.
The human personality is far more open to all kinds of stimuli than is
supposed. If information is thought to come to the self only through
physical means, then of course heredity and environment must be seen
behind human motivation. When you realize that the personality can and
does have access to other kinds of information than physical, then you
must begin to wonder what effects those data have on the formation of
character and individual growth. Children do already possess character at
birth, and the entire probable intent of their lives exists then as surely as
does the probable plan for the adult body they will later possess.
CHARACTERISTICS OF FRAMEWORK 2 • 131 •
Consciousness forms the genes, and not the other way around, and
the about-to-be-born infant is the agency that adds new material through
the chromosomal structure.2 The child is from birth far more aware of all
kinds of physical events than is realized also. But beside that, the child
uses the early years to explore — particularly in the dream state — other
kinds of material that suit its own fancies and intents, and it constantly
receives a stream of information that is not at all dependent upon its
heredity or environment.
On these other levels the child knows, for example, of its contemporaries
born at about the same time. Each person's "individual" life
plan fits in somewhere with that of his or her contemporaries. Those
plans are communicated one to the other, and probabilities instantly are
set into motion in Framework 2. To some degree or another calculations
are made so that, for instance, individual A will meet individual B at a
marketplace 30 years later — if this fits in with the intents of both
parties. There will be certain cornerstone encounters in each person's life
that are set up as strong probabilities, or as plans to be grown into.
There are bodies of events, then, that in a certain fashion you will
materialize almost in the same way that you will materialize your own
adult body from the structure of the fetus. In those terms the body works
with physical properties — though again these properties, as discussed
often, have their own consciousnesses and realities.
Your mental life deals with psychological events, obviously, but
beneath so-called normal awareness the child grows toward the mental
body of events that will compose his or her life. Those unique intents that
characterize each individual exist in Framework 2, then — and with
birth, those intents immediately begin to impress the physical world of
Framework 1.
Each child's birth changes the world, obviously, for it sets up an
instant psychological momentum that begins to affect action in
Framework 1 and Framework 2 alike.
(10:26) A child may be born with a strong talent for music, for
example. Say the child is unusually gifted. Before he [or she] is old
enough to begin any kind of training, he will know on other levels the
probable direction that music will take during his lifetime. He will be
acquainted in the dream state with other young budding mus i c ians ,
though they are infants also. Again, probabilities will be
• 132 • FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK 2
set into motion, so that each child's intent reaches out. There is great
flexibility, however, and according to individual purposes many such
children will also be acquainted with music of the past. To one extent or
another this applies to every field of endeavor as each person adds to the
world scene, and as the intents of each individual, added to those of each
other person alive, multiply — so that the fulfillment of the individual
results in the accomplishments of your world.3 And the lack of fulfillment
of course produces those lacks that are also so apparent.
Give us a moment . . . Some readers have brothers or sisters, or both.
Others are only children. Your ideas of individuality hamper you to a
large extent. To one extent or another, again, each portion of
consciousness, while itself, contains [the] potentials of all consciousnesses.
Your private information about the world is not nearly as
private as you suppose, therefore, for behind the experience of any one
event, each of you possesses information pertaining to other dimensions
of that same event that you do not ordinarily perceive.
If you are involved in any kind of mass happening, from a concert to
an avalanche, you are aware on other levels of all of the actions leading
to that specific participation. If buildings are constructed of bricks quite
visible, so mass events are formed by many small, invisible happenings
— each, however, fitting together quite precisely in a kind of
psychological masonry in which each of you has a mental hand. This
applies to mass conversions and to natural disasters alike.
End of dictation — that was dictation.
(10:43. As he progressed with the session I began hoping that Seth
meant it for Mass Events; finally I decided to insert it in the book even if he
didn 't.
(The following isn 't dictation, of course, but concerns instead a very
vivid dream Jane had the day before yesterday, and Seth's interpretation of
it this evening. We're presenting that dream material here because it contains
elements of general interest, and covers points some readers have
touched upon in their letters to Jane [and Seth]. Jane's dream made me a
little envious [even if an element of fear might be involved in such an
event], since I don't recall ever having had one like it. She wrote:
("Dream, Saturday afternoon, March 11, 1978.
("I took a nap, and awakened remembering this dream experience: First
I was in a room asking a group of people about 'the council' — / wanted to
CHARACTERISTICS OF FRAMEWORK2 • 133 •
know if there was such a thing. Instantly a white light came from the floor
up through the ceiling, door width, with some symbols in or on it. I immediately
whooshed up through the air into it, ascending out of the room at
great speed. I became somewhat frightened and wished to return; I think I
was afraid of being carried away too completely. I don't know what I saw. I
returned to the room at once, but forget how or the circumstances.
("Later, I'm in some kind of spiritualistic reading room, telling a
woman of my experience. When I say I'm the author of the Seth material she
becomes upset, saying that they don't accept it. This doesn 't bother me. "
(Now from Seth:)
Ruburt, I understand, was looking for the council. He was looking for
counsel of a most exalted kind, and so it became the council — an
excellent term, by the way, standing for the most intimate and yet exalted
counsel possible for any individual.
He was looking for a state of higher consciousness that would represent
a unique and yet universal source of information and revelation.
Such a source does exist for each individual, regardless of how it is
interpreted. The white light is characteristically a symbol in such cases.
He could not assimilate the information, and became frightened, to some
extent at least, at the vastness of the experience involved, as if the ancient
yet new knowledge that he sought for his individual reasons was so
encompassing that his own individuality would have trouble handling it
while retaining its own necessary frame of reference. A natural-enough
reaction, simply because of the usual unfamiliarity of such experiences.
He was bathed in that light, however, filled with it, refreshed by it,
and given new comprehensions that will now emerge in his experience in
a piecemeal fashion that can be assimilated in his normal frame of
reference. Translations, then, are even now being made. The contact will
also be reestablished.
(After taking several minutes to cover some other material for fane, Seth
said good night at 11:10 P.M.)
NOTES: SESSION 827
1. Speaking of books: Even with all of the help Jane has given me lately on Psyche
and Volume 2 of "Unknown"Reality (see the opening notes for sessions H'21 and 823,
retpei lively), I 'm still only loo conscious of the work I have
• 134 • FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK 2
to do to finish the notes and other material for both books, and put together their
manuscripts for the publisher. I often discover the overall commitment, or plan, lingering
in my mind on a distant conscious level — a pressure toward accomplishment that seems
bound to accompany these long-range projects. At times this feeling can beset me, and I
may find myself trying to estimate the number of weeks it'll take me to finish Volume 2
first, then Psyche.
But naturally, I told Jane recently — again — I chose to become involved with the
whole Seth phenomenon in the most intimate ways. I did so because I knew from its very
beginning (in late 1963) that this process of discovery with Seth was more than worth it. I
still think so. I added that I'd certainly choose to do the same thing again, and that I hoped
to stay involved with the Seth books indefinitely. Granted that Seth's material may "only"
be bringing into our conscious awareness knowledge we already possess and use on other
levels, still it's a fine thing that his material makes us aware of that inner comprehension
— and so new dimensions of consciousness become available to us. I "drew" a rough
analogy with painting (to make a pun): The artist may start working on a blank canvas,
yet each physical brush stroke he or she delineates is built upon inner knowledge and
experience; in the painting these qualities are objectified in new combinations, which in
turn add further to the artist's conscious comprehension. And when the painting is
finished, the artist contemplates a new reality of his or her own creation.
I mailed the last chapter of Emir to Prentice-Hall just a month ago (on February 8).
Because of various delays, Jane is still waiting for news of the book's official acceptance,
even though she knows that Tam and other executives there like it very much. Emir,
however, is of an in-between length — shorter than a novel, far longer than most
children's books — and she wonders: Is that fact going to complicate Prentice-Hall's
presentation of Emir as a story for "readers of all ages"? There's talk of publishing it in
two shorter volumes. Jane doesn't know what to think. In the meantime, see the opening
notes for Session 814.
2.Chromosomes are rod-like bodies within the cell nucleus, and carry the genes that
govern hereditary characteristics. They separate lengthwise to double in number
during cell division. See Note 2 for Session 821.
3.Seth's material on individual creativity at once reminded me of a certain passage of
his in the private, or deleted, portion of the 580th session foi April 12, 1971. I came
across it recently while looking for some other references he'd made to Jane, or
Ruburt. (The regular part of the 580th session, incidentally, was for a book, too:
Chapter 20 of Seth Speaks.) I like the following quotation so much that I've made
copies of it for us to keep where we can refer to them — in my case, pinned up on a
wall in my studio. This little alfail is a typical example of how something good can
get lost in the constant!)
CHARACTERISTICS OF FRAMEWORK2 • 135 •
growing mass of Seth material; even with our attempts at indexing, it's very
difficult to keep track of single paragraphs like this:
"Ruburt is, as you know, highly creative. What most artists do not realize is
that the self is the first creation. They do not think of themselves as products of
their own creativity. Because of Ruburt's energy and creativity, he has always
perfectly mirrored and even somewhat exaggerated the condition of the inner
self, its activities and inner postures."
Obviously, then, Seth's observation doesn't apply to people in the arts alone,
but to everyone.
SESSION 828, MARCH 15,1978
9:53 P.M. WEDNESDAY
Good evening.
(Good evening, Seth.")
Now: In your terms, speaking more or less historically, early man was in a
more conscious relationship with Framework 2 than you are now.
As Ruburt mentioned in Psychic Politics, there are many gradations of
consciousness, and as I mentioned in The Nature of the Psyche, early man used
his consciousness in other ways than those you are familiar with. He often
perceived what you would call the products of the imagination as sense data, for
example, more or less objectified in the physical world.
The imagination has always dealt with creativity, and as man began to settle
upon a kind of consciousness that dealt with cause and effect, he no longer
physically perceived the products of his imagination directly in the old manner.
He realized in those earlier limes that illness, for instance, was initially as much
the result of the imagination as health was, for he experienced far more directly
the brilliant character of his own imagination. The lines between imaginative
and physical experience have blurred for you, and of course tlu-y have also
become tempered by other beliefs and the experiences that those beliefs then
engender.
I am putting this very simply here. It is far more complicated — and yet
early man, for example, became aware of the fact that no man was injured
without that event first being imagined to one extent or another. Therefore,
imagined healings were utilized, in
• 136 • FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK 2
which a physical illness was imaginatively cured — and in those days the
cures worked.
Regardless of your histories, those early men and women were quite
healthy. They had strong teeth and bones. They dealt with the physical
world through the purposeful use of the imagination, however, in a way
now most difficult to understand. They realized they were mortal, and
must die, but their greater awareness of Framework 2 allowed them a
larger identification, so they understood that death was not only a natural
necessity, but also an opportunity for other kinds of experience and
development (see Note 1 for Session 803).
(Long pause at 10:10.) They felt their relationship with nature
acutely, experiencing it in a far different fashion than you do yours. They
felt that it was the larger expression of their own moods and
temperament, the materialization of self-events that were too vast to be
contained within the flesh of any one individual or any group of
individuals. They wondered where their thoughts went after they had
them, and they imagined that in one way or another those thoughts turned
into the birds and rocks, the animals and trees that were themselves everchanging.
They also felt that they were themselves, however; that as humans
[they were] the manifestation of the larger expression of nature that was
too splendid to be contained alone within nature's framework, that nature
needed them — that is, men — to give it another kind of voice. When
men spoke they spoke for themselves; yet because they felt so a part of
the natural environment they spoke for nature also, and for all of its
creatures.
Much is not understood in your interpretations. In that world men
knew that nature was balanced. Both animals and men must die. If a man
was caught and eaten by animals, as sometimes happened, [his fellows]
did not begrudge that animal its prey — at least, not in the deepest of
terms. And when they slayed other animals themselves and ate the heart,
for example, it was not only to obtain the animals' "stout hearts," or
fearlessness; but also the intent was to preserve those characteristics so
that through men's experiences each animal would continue to live to
some extent.
Men in those times protected themselves against storms, and yet in
the same way they did not begrudge the storm its victims. They
CHARACTERISTICS OF FRAMEWORK 2 • 137 •
simply changed the alliances of their consciousnesses from the identification
of self-within-the-flesh to self-within-the-storm. Man's and
nature's intents were largely the same, and understood as such. Man did
not fear the elements in those early times, as is now supposed.
(10:25.) Some of the experiences known by early man would seem
quite foreign to you now. Yet in certain forms they come down through
the centuries. Early man, again, perceived himself as himself, an
individual. He felt that nature expressed for him the vast power of his
own emotions. He projected himself out into nature, into the heavens, and
imagined there were great personified forms that later turned into the
gods of Olympus, for example. He was also aware of the life-force within
nature's smallest parts, however, and before sense data became so
standardized he perceived his own version of those individualized
consciousnesses which much later became the elementals, or small
spirits. But above all he was aware of nature's source.
He was filled with wonder as his own consciousness ever-newly
came into being. He had not yet covered over that process with the kind
of smooth continuity that your own consciousness has now achieved —
so when he thought a thought he was filled with curiosity: Where had it
come from? His own consciousness, then, was forever a source of
delight, its changing qualities as noticeable and apparent as the changing
sky. The relative smoothness of your own consciousness — in those
terms, at least — was gained at the expense of certain other experiences,
therefore, that were possible otherwise. You could not live in your
present world of time if your consciousness was as playful, curious, and
creative as it was, for [then] time was also experienced far differently.
It may be difficult for you to understand, but the events that you now
recognize are as much the result of the realm of the imagination, as those
experienced by early man when he perceived as real happenings that now
you would consider hallucinatory, or purely imaginative.
It seems quite clear to you that the mass events of nature are
completely outside of your domain. You feel you have no part in nature
except as you exert control over it through technology, or harm it, again
through technology. You grant that the weather has
• 138 • FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK2
an effect upon your moods, but any deeper psychic or psychological
connections between you and the elements strikes most of you as quite
impossible.
(10:40.) Give us a moment. . . You use terms like "being flooded by
emotion," however, and other very intuitive statements showing your
own deeper recognition of events that quite escape you when you
examine them through reason alone. Man actually courts storms. He
seeks them out, for emotionally he understands quite well their part in his
own private life, and their necessity on a physical level. Through nature's
manifestations, particularly through its power, man senses nature's source
and his own, and knows that the power can carry him to emotional
realizations that are required for his own greater spiritual and psychic
development.
Death is not an end, but a transformation of consciousness. Nature,
with its changing seasons, constantly brings you that message. In that
light, and with that understanding, nature's disasters do not claim victims:
Nature and man together act out their necessary parts in the larger
framework of reality.
Your concepts about death and nature, however, force you to see man
and nature as adversaries, and also program your experience of such
events so that they seem to only confirm what you already believe. As I
mentioned earlier (in Session 821), each person caught in either an
epidemic or a natural disaster will have private reasons for choosing
those circumstances. Such conditions also often involve events in which
the individual senses a larger identification, however — even sometimes
a renewed sense of purpose that makes no sense in ordinary terms.
End of dictation. ,
(10:51. After giving half a page of notes for Jane, Seth ended the session
at 10:58 P.M.)
SESSION 829, MARCH 22,1978
9:30 P.M. WEDNESDAY
(Last Monday evening Seth gave a very short private session for Jane;
it turned out to consist of just one page of double-spaced typewritten information.
During the session Seth said that he was "preparing some
special
CHARACTERISTICS OF FRAMEWORK2 • 139 •
material for Ruburt, " but except for the excellent relaxation effects Jane has
experienced since then, we have yet to learn what else may be involved.
(In Jane's case, I mean something different by "relaxation" than might
be expected. Just recently I quoted her in Volume 2 of "Unknown" Reality;
from Note 6 for Appendix 19, in part:
("It's a sort of superrelaxation; almost profound, and mental and physical
at once. A completely different thing than just yawning, even though I
might be yawning. It involves a curious sense of dropping down inwardly,
of going slowly beneath the realities we usually perceive . . . Such a relaxation,
then, is almost an extension of biological insight. "
(Even while immersed in her most enjoyable state, Jane still wanted to
hold the session. "I think I know his subject matter for tonight, " she said,
"but I don't know if it'll be dictation or not. ..." Then she took off her
glasses as she went into trance:)
Good evening.
("Good evening, Seth.")
Now: The animals do have imagination, regardless of your current
thought. Yet man is so gifted that he directs his experience and forms his
civilizations largely through the use of his imaginative abilities.
You do not understand this point clearly at all, but your social
organizations, your governments — these are based upon imaginative
principles. The basis of your most intimate experience, the framework
behind all of your organized structures, rests upon a reality that is not
considered valid by the very institutions that are formed through its
auspices.
It is now nearing Easter (on March 26), and the yearly commemoration
of what is considered historic fact: the [resurrection and]
ascension of Christ into heaven.1 Untold millions have in one way or
another commemorated that occasion through the centuries. Private lives
have merged with public sentiment and religious fervor. There have been
numberless village festivals, or intimate family gatherings, and church
services performed on Easter Sundays now forgotten. There have been
bloody wars fought on the same account, and private persecutions in
which those who did not agree with one or another's religious dogmas
were quite simply killed "for the good of their souls."
• 140 • FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK2
There have been spiritual rebirths and regenerations — and ungodly
slaughter as well, as a result of the meaning of Easter. Blood and flesh
have certainly been touched, then, and lives changed in that regard.
All of those religious and political structures that you certainly
recognize as valid, arising from the "event" of Christ's ascension, existed
— and do exist — because of an idea. The idea was the result of a
spectacular act of the imagination that then leapt upon the historical
landscape, highlighting all of the events of the time, so that they became
illuminated indeed with a blessed and unearthly light.
The idea of man's survival of death was not new. The idea of a god's
"descent" to earth was ancient. The old religious myths fit a different
kind of people, however, and lasted for as many centuries in the past as
Christianity has reached into the future.2 The miraculous merging of
imagination with historical time, however, became less and less
synchronized, so that only r-i-t-e-s (spelled) remained and the old gods
seized the imagination no longer. The time was ripe for Christianity.
(9:49.) Because man has not understood the characteristics of
the world of imagination, he has thus far always insisted upon turn
ing his myths into historical fact, for he considers the factual world
alone as the real one. A man, literally of flesh and blood, must then
prove beyond all doubt that each and every other [human being]
survives death — by dying, of course, and then by rising, physicallyperceived,
into heaven. Each man does survive death, and each
woman (with quiet amusement), but only such a literal-minded species
would insist upon the physical death of a god-man as "proof of the
pudding." ,
(Intently:) Again, Christ was not crucified. The historical Christ,3 as
he is thought of, was a man illuminated by psychic realities, touched with
the infinite realization that any one given individual was, by virtue of his
or her existence, a contact between All That Is and mankind.
Christ saw that in each person divinity and humanity met — and that
man survived death by virtue of his existence within the divine. Without
exception, all of the horrors connected with Christianity's name came
from "following the letter rather than the spirit of the
CHARACTERISTICS OF FRAMEWORK2 • 141 •
law," or by insistence upon literal interpretations —
while the spiritual, imaginative concepts beneath were
ignored.
Again, man directs his existence through the use of
his imagination — a feat that does distinguish him
from the animals. What connects people and separates
them is the power of idea and the force of imagination.
Patriotism, family loyalty, political affiliations — the
ideas behind these have the greatest practical
applications in your world. You project yourselves into
time like children through freely imagining your
growth. You instantly color physical experience and
nature itself with the tints of your unique imaginative
processes. Unless you think quite consistently — and
deeply — the importance of the imagination quite
escapes you, and yet it literally forms the world that
you experience and the mass world in which you live.
The theory of evolution,4 for instance, is an
imaginative construct, and yet through its lights some
generations now have viewed their world. It is not only
that you think of yourselves differently, but you
actually experience a different kind of self. Your
institutions change their aspects accordingly, so that
experience fits the beliefs that you have about it. You
act in certain ways. You view the entire universe in a
fashion that did not exist before, so that imagination
and belief intangibly structure your subjective
experience and your objective circumstances.
(10:10.) In all of the other imaginative constructs,
for example, whatever their merits and disadvantages,
man felt himself to be a part of a plan. The planner
might be God, or nature itself, or man within nature or
nature within man. There might be many gods or one,
but there was a meaning in the universe. Even the idea
of fate gave man something to act against, and roused
him to action.
(All with much emphasis and irony:) The idea of a
meaningless universe, however, is in itself a highly
creative imaginative act. Animals, for example, could
not imagine such an idiocy, so that the theory shows
the incredible accomplishment of an obviously ordered
mind and intellect that can imagine itself to be the
result of nonorder, or chaos — [you have] a creature
who is capable of "mapping" its own brain, imagining
that the brain's fantastic regulated order could emerge
from a reality that itself has no meaning. Indeed, then,
the theory actually says thai the ordered universe
magically emerged —
• 142 • FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK 2
and evolutionists must certainly believe in a God of Chance somewhere,
or in Coincidence with a capital C, for their theories would make no
sense at all otherwise.
The world of the imagination is indeed your contact with your own
source. Its characteristics are the closest to those in Framework 2 that
you can presently encounter.
Your experience of history, of the days of your life, is invisibly
formed by those ideas that exist in the imagination only, and then are
projected upon the physical world. This applies to your individual beliefs
about yourself and the way you see yourself in your imagination. You are
having wars between the Jews and the Arabs and the Christians once
again, because emphasis is put upon literal interpretations of spiritual
truths.
In each person the imaginative world, its force and power, merges
into historical reality. In each person, the ultimate and unassailable and
unquenchable power of All That Is is individualized, and dwells in time.
Man's imagination can carry him into those other realms — bul when he
tries to squeeze those truths into frameworks too small, he distorts and
bends inner realities so that they become jagged dogmas.
Take your break.
(10:26 to 10:40.)
Now: The latest growth of fundamentalist religion has arisen as ;i
countermeasure against the theories of evolution. You have, then, an
overcompensation, for in the Darwinian5 world there was no mean ing
and no laws. There were no standards of right or wrong, so th;ii large
portions of the people felt rootless.
The [fundamentalists] returned to an authoritarian religion in which
the slightest act must be regulated. They gave release, and they are
giving release, to the emotions, and are thus rebelling against scientific
intellectualism. They will see the world in black and-white terms again,
with good and evil clearly delineated in the most simplistic terms, and
thus escape a slippery, thematic universe, in which man's feelings seemed
to give him no foothold at all.
Unfortunately, the fundamentalists accept literal interpretations of
intuitive realities in such a way that they further narrow the chan nels
through which their psychic abilities can flow. The fundameni.il
framework, in this period of time, for all of its fervor, is not rich -for
example Christianity was in the past, with its numerous saints, h
CHARACTERISTICS OF FRAMEWORK2 • 143 •
is instead a fanatical Puritan vein, peculiarly American in character, and
restrictive rather than expansive, for the bursts of emotion are highly
structured — that is, the emotions are limited in most areas of life,
permitted only an explosive religious expression under certain
conditions, when they are not so much spontaneously expressed as
suddenly released from the dam of usual repression.
The imagination always seeks expression. It is always creative, and
underneath the frameworks of society it provides fresh incentives and
new avenues for fulfillment, that can become harnessed through fanatical
belief. When this happens your institutions become more repressive, and
violence often emerges as a result.
If you look for signs of God's vengeance you will find them everywhere.
An avalanche or a flood or an earthquake will not be seen as a
natural act of the earth's natural creativity, but instead as a punishment
from God for sin.
In evolution man's nature is amoral, and anything goes for survival's
sake. There is no possibility of any spiritual survival as far as most
evolutionists are concerned. The fundamentalists would rather believe in
man's inherent sinful nature, for at least their belief system provides for a
framework in which he can be saved. Christ's message was that each man
is good inherently, and is an individualized portion of the divine — and
yet a civilization based upon that precept has never been attempted. The
vast social structures of (Christianity were instead based upon man's
"sinful" nature — not the organizations and structures that might allow
him to become good, or to obtain the goodness that Christ quite clearly
perceived man already possessed.
(11:01.) It seems almost a sacrilege to say that man is good, when
everywhere you meet contradictions, for too often man certainly .i| >
pears to act as if his motives were instead those of a born killer. You have
been taught not to trust the very fabric of your being. You cannot expect
yourselves to act rationally or altruistically in any consistent manner if
you believe that you are automatically degraded, or that your nature is so
flawed that such performance is uncharacteristic.
Give us a moment . . . You are a part of nature that has learned i<>
make choices, a part of nature that naturally and automatically produces
dreams and beliefs about which you then organize your realitv. There are
many effects which you do not like, butyou possess
•144- FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK2
a unique kind of consciousness, in which each individual
has a hand in the overall formation of a world reality, and
you are participating at a level of existence in which you
are learning how to transform the imaginative realm of
probabilities into a more or less specific, physically
experienced world.
In a way you choose from an infinite, endless,
uncomputable number of ideas, and sculpt these into the
physical fragments that compose normal experience. You
do this in such a way that the timeless events are
experienced in time, and so that they mix and merge to
conform to the dimensions of your reality. Along the way
there are accomplishments that are as precious as any
creatures of any kind could produce. There are also great
failures — but these are failures only in comparison with
the glittering inner knowledge of the imagination that holds
for you those ideals against which you judge your acts.
Those ideals are present in each individual. They are
natural inclinations toward growth and fulfillment.
That was dictation. That was also the end of the
chapter — and I bid you a fond good evening.
("Thank you very much, Seth. Good night. "
(11:16 P.M. I'd say that much of Seth's excellent
delivery since break is related to some of his material in
the 825th session, including this passage: "I put the word
'good' in quotes for now because of your misconceptions
about the nature of good and evil, which we will discuss
somewhat later.")
NOTES: SESSION 829
1. I added "[resurrection and]" to Seth's passage
because Jane told me that according to ordinary teaching
Christ's resurrection from the dead took place on Easter
Sunday, the third day following his crucifixion (on Friday),
while his ascension into heaven transpired at an indefinite
later time — up to 40 days later, as stated in the writings of
St. Luke in the Acts of the Apostles (AA 1:10). As far as
we know, Seth's inference that Christ's resurrection and
ascension took place on the same day is contrary to popular
belief.
"Here Seth seemed to telescope the two events into
one, "Jane wrote, "or refer to them together, as if the
distinction didn't exist for him . . . Seth may be implying
that the ascension was the main issue in the Christ story,
rather than the resurrection, or telling us that the two events
are so intertwined the matically as to be treated as one."
Since we do not arbitrarily change Seth's coov. his
reference here to the ascension rather than the resurrection,
anil ,i
CHARACTERISTICS OF FRAMEWORK 2 • 145 •
similar one that soon follows, stand as they were given. But, obviously, we did decide to
add this note.
At the same time, Jane and I checked a number of biblical references on the New
Testament — and discovered that Seth's passage seems to be a case where he shows a
knowledge we don't consciously possess. For we learned that of the four Gospels
(according to Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John, in that order), some scholars believe that
Luke and John can be read as stating that Christ's resurrection and ascension took place
on the same day. Yet in Acts, Luke postulates the 40-day interval between the two events.
(Originally Luke composed his Gospel and Acts as one treatise; the two were separated
early in the second century.) Out of such contradictions as those implied in Luke's case,
however, confusion and opposing opinions reign when one studies the Gospels and
related material. Christ himself left no written records, nor are there any eyewitness or
contemporary accounts of his life.
In the 591st session for Seth Speaks, I noted claims for an earlier date for the origin
of the first Gospel, that according to Mark; nevertheless, most authorities still believe that
the Gospels were written between A.D. 65 and 110. Since Christ was presumably crucified
around A.D. 30, this means that some 35-40 years passed before the advent of Mark's
account. There are many consistencies in the Gospels, but also inconsistencies that cannot
be resolved. Even the authorships of the Gospels according to Matthew and John are now
being questioned. A study of the New Testament books alone can quickly lead one into a
maze of questions: Why isn't the resurrection itself described? Why are there so few
references to the ascension? Matthew doesn't mention it at all in his Gospel, for example;
and Paul alludes to it only once (1 Timothy 3:16) in his writings. Is the Gospel according
to Luke merely schematic, rather than chronological? If time (as much as 40 days) did
elapse between Christ's resurrection and ascension, where was he physically during all of
that period, other than on the few occasions cited in the Gospels and in Acts, when on
various occasions he revealed himself to the women who discovered his empty tomb, to
the apostles, and to some others? Sometimes Christ appeared as an apparition — but as
Seth commented in a private session: "You could not have a world in which the newly
risen dead mixed with the living. An existence in a spiritual realm had to follow such a
resurrection."
I'd say that in this 829th session Seth spoke out of a knowledge of biblical tradition
and history; that is, he wasn't saying that Christ did rise from the dead or ascend into
heaven, but referring to Christianity's interpretation of its own creative Christ story. Seth
has always maintained that Christ wasn't crucified to begin with — indeed, he told us in
the same private session that "... in the facts of history, there was no crucifixion,
resurrection, or ascension. In the terms of history, there was no biblical Christ. In the
terms of the biblical drama (underlined), however, Christ was crucified.
• 146 • FRAMEWORK 1 AN D FRAMEWORK 2
"It was the Jewish tradition that nourished the new religion in its early stages. Christ,
as you know, was a common name, so when I say that there was a man named Christ
involved in those events, I do not mean to say that he was the biblical Christ. His life was
one of those that were finally used to compose the composite image of the biblical
Christ." (In Chapter 20 of Seth Speaks, see Session 586 for July 24, 1971.)
And finally, here's an answer to a number of inquiries from readers. The 647th
session for Chapter 21 of Personal Reality was held on July 2, 1973, and in it I quoted a
remark Seth made to me the following September: "You can have more material on
Jerusalem or Christ now, or when you want it. You can have The Christ Book when you
want it. . . . "
So far, we've done nothing about producing The Christ Book, except to talk about it
once in a while. "Well, it's true that I have ambiguous feelings about doing a book on
religion," Jane said as we discussed this note. "But for all that, if Seth started dictating it
tomorrow, I'd do it. Many issues would be involved — maybe even current national
events. I guess I think Seth would know the best time for such a book to be done and
publicly introduced.
"When he said, 'You can have The Christ Book when you want it,' I think he was just
stating his willingness to comply. Maybe he knows that really wanting it might take a
while, at least on my part. But I do know my attitude about getting such a book has
improved a lot in the last year or two."
Neither of us has any doubt that The Christ Book would be controversial indeed.
2.According to Seth, then, those old religious myths lasted for about 20 centuries,
dating from 2000 B.C.
3.See Note 2 for Session 821.
4.Once again: See my material on evolution in Appendix 12 for Volume 2 of
"Unknown " Reality, when that book is published. In Mass Events, see Note 2 for
Session 821.
5.See Note 4 for Session 802.

SESSION 830, MARCH 27,1978
9:15 P.M. MONDAY
Since Jane began dictating Mass Events 11 months ago, I've mentioned
our checking the printer's page proofs for two of her other books: Volume 1 of
"Unknown" Reality, and Cezanne. Now I can add a third book, James, to the
list. The uncorrected proofs, typeset in the actual page format in which the book
will be published, arrived last Thursday. So now we're spending much of our
working time checking — and double-checking — the proofs against our carbon
copy of the copyedited James manuscript. Our scrutiny will include spelling,
punctuation, and all of the other indicia that people take for granted when they
read the finished work. We must also make sure that no words, sentences, or
paragraphs have been inadvertently duplicated or omitted. We estimate that we
should have the whole job finished and in the mail to Prentice-Hall in about 10
days.
(Five weeks ago [in the notes leading off Session 821], I wrote that Jane
could resume work on The Further Education of Oversoul Seven — or Seven
Two — at any time. She finished her first novel about Seven in July 1972, and
within a month, long before it was published, she wrote the first five chapters for
Seven Two. Then we became involved in so many other projects that she laid it
aside until August 1976, when she wrote two more chapters. The book has
hovered in the back of her consciousness ever since,
• 148- FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK 2
waiting until she focused her attention upon it once
again. "Seven's got all the time in the world, " she
laughed more than once. But now that her editor, Tarn
Mossman, has scheduled a visit to us at the hill house
in a couple of weeks [on April 10, to be exact], Jane
feels that she wants to study what she's done on Seven
Two, go over it with Tarn, and perhaps take up work
on it again.)
Good evening.
("Good evening, Seth.")
To begin with, dictation. New chapter (5): "The
Mechanics of Experience."
Your world and everything in it exists first in the
imagination, then. You have been taught to focus all
of your attention upon physical events, so that they
carry the authenticity of reality for you. Thoughts,
feelings, or beliefs appear to be secondary, subjective
— or somehow not real — and they seem to rise in
response to an already established field of physical
data. You usually think, for example, that your feelings
about a given event are primarily reactions to the
event itself. It seldom occurs to you that the feelings
themselves might be primary, and that the particular
event was somehow a response to your emotions,
rather than the other way around. The all-important
matter of your focus is largely responsible for your
interpretation of any event.
For an exercise, then, imagine for a while that the
subjective world of your thoughts, feelings, inner
images and fantasies represent the "rockbed reality"
from which individual physical events emerge. Look
at the world for a change from the inside out, so to
speak. Imagine that physical experience is somehow
the materialization of your own subjective reality.
Forget what you have learned about reactions and
stimuli. Ignore for a time everything you have
believed and see your thoughts as the real events. Try
to view normal physical occurrences as the concrete
physical reactions in space and time to your own
feelings and beliefs. For indeed your subjective world
causes your physical experience.
In titling this chapter I used the word
"mechanics," because mechanisms suggest smooth
technological workings. While the world is not a
machine — its inner workings are such that no technology
could ever copy them — this involves a
natural mechanics in which the inner dimensions of
consciousness everywhere emerge to
THE MECHANICS OF EXPERIENCE • 149 •
form a materialized, cohesive, physical existence. Again, your interpretations
of identity teach you to focus awareness in such a way that you
cannot follow the strands of consciousness that connect you with all
portions of nature. In away, the world is like a multidimensional, exotic
plant growing in space and time, each thought, dream, imaginative
encounter, hope or fear, growing naturally into its own bloom — a plant
of incredible variety, never for a moment the same, in which each
smallest root, leaf, stem, or flower has a part to play and is connected
with the whole.
Even those of you who intellectually agree that you form your own
reality find it difficult to accept emotionally in certain areas. You are, of
course, literally hypnotized into believing that your feelings arise in
response to events. Your feelings, however, cause the events you
perceive. Secondarily, you do of course then react to those events.
(9:45.) You have been taught that your feelings must necessarily be
tied to specific physical happenings. You may be sad because a relative
has died, for example, or because you have lost a job, or because you
have been rebuffed by a lover, or for any number of other accepted
reasons. You are told that your feelings must be in response to events that
are happening, or have happened. Often, of course, your feelings "happen
ahead of time," because those feelings are the initial realities from which
events flow.
A relative might be ready to die, though no exterior sign has been
given. The relative's feelings might well be mixed, containing portions of
relief and sadness, which you might then perceive — but the primary
events are subjective.
It is somewhat of a psychological trick, in your day and age, to come
to the realization that you do in fact form your experience and your
world, simply because the weight of evidence seems (underlined twice)
to be so loaded at the other end, because of your habits of perception. The
realization is like one that comes at one time or another to many people
in the dream state, when suddenly they "awaken" while still in the dream,
realizing first of all that they are dreaming, and secondarily that they are
themselves creating the experienced drama.
To understand that you create your own reality requires that same
kind of "awakening" from the normal awake state — at least for many
people. S<»ni< , ,| course have this knack more than others. The
•150- FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK2
realization itself does indeed change "the rules of the
game" as far as you are concerned (louder) to a rather
considerable degree. There are reasons why I am
mentioning this now rather than in earlier books.
Indeed, our books follow their own rhythms, and this
one is in a way a further elaboration upon The Nature
of Personal Reality.1
As long as you believe that either good events or
bad ones are meted out by a personified God as the
reward or punishment for your actions, or on the other
hand that events are largely meaningless, chaotic,
subjective knots in the tangled web of an accidental
Darwinian world, then you cannot consciously
understand your own creativity, or play the role in the
universe that you are capable of playing as
individuals or as a species. You will instead live in a
world where events happen to you, in which you must
do sacrifice to the gods of one kind or another, or see
yourselves as victims of an uncaring nature.
While still preserving the integrity of physical
events as you understand them, [each of] you must
alter the focus of your attention to some extent, so
that you begin to perceive the connections between
your subjective reality at any given time, and those
events that you perceive at any given time. You are
the initiator of those events.
This recognition does indeed involve a new
performance on the part of your own consciousness, a
mental and imaginative leap that gives you control
and direction over achievements that you have always
performed, though without your conscious awareness.
As mentioned before (in Session 828), early man
had such an identification of subjective and objective
realities. As a species, however, you have developed
what can almost be called a secondary nature — a
world of technology in which you also now have your
existence, and complicated social structures have
emerged from it. To develop that kind of structure
necessitated a division between subjective and
objective worlds. Now, however, it is highly
important that you realize your position, and
accomplish the manipulation ol consciousness that
will allow you to take true conscious responsibility
for your actions and your experience.
You can "come awake" from your normal waking
state, and that is the natural next step for
consciousness to follow — one for which
THE MECHANICS OF EXPERIENCE • 151 -
your biology has already equipped you. Indeed, each person does attain that
recognition now and then. It brings triumphs and challenges as well. In those
areas of life where you are satisfied, give yourselves credit, and in those areas
where you are not, remind yourselves that you are involved in a learning
process; you are daring enough to accept the responsibility for your actions.
Let us look more clearly, however, at the ways in which your private world
causes your daily experience, and how it merges with the experience of others.
Take your break.
(10:25. Seth returned at 10:37 with a good bit of personal material for Jane
and me, then ended the session at 11:06 P.M.
(His delivery just above, about accepting the responsibility for one's
actions, reminded us of the personal challenges that have accompanied the roles
we've chosen in our own physical lives. Jane and I try to keep in mind these
passages of Seth's from the private session for June 25, 1977:
("Because of your individual and joint intuitive understanding and
intellectual discrimination, you were able from an early age to clearly perceive
the difficulties of your fellows. This helped incite stimuli that made you question
the entire framework of your civilization. You were able to do something few
people can: leap intuitively and mentally above your own period — to discard
intellectually and mentally, and sometimes emotionally, the shortsighted,
unfortunate religious, scientific, and social beliefs of your fellows.
("Many of those old beliefs still have an emotional hold, however, and some
helpful beliefs have also been overdone, or carried on too long. Because you can
see so clearly the failings of your age, you each have a tendency to exaggerate
them, or rather to concentrate upon them, so that you do not have an emotional
feeling of safety. You react by setting up defenses. . . .")
NOTES: SESSION 830
1. Jane and I have also been thinking of Mass Events as an extension of Seth's
second book, Personal Reality. It seems incredible to'us, so fast has the time passed, but
counting Mass Events Seth produced Personal Reality five books ago — and some five to
six years ago from this moment; he dictated it during 1972-78.
• 152 • FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK2
SESSION 831, JANUARY 15,1979 9:22 P.M. MONDAY
(The roses seemed to linger particularly late last
fall. On September 28, 1978, Jane wrote this little poem
when I brought in a few blooms from the climber
growing up the trellis at the northeast corner of our hill
house, near the kitchen windows:
The temporal rose
Contains
Eternal seeds
In which
The entire universe
(and you and I)
Are all implied.
(Jane's poem can also serve as a symbol to show
that she hasn't held a session for Mass Events for 42
weeks, or since giving the 830th session last March;
indeed, the summer, fall, and winter of 1978 have
passed, and we're into the next year [and a very cold
and stormy one it is, so far]. We accomplished many
things during those nine and a half months, however,
including the holding of 56 nonbook sessions. Those
sessions, whether private or not, are of course more
than double in number the 22 sessions Jane has given
for Mass Events [not counting tonight's]. In
connection with our feelings about the long intervals
that have materialized several times during the
production of this book, see my opening notes for the
815th session — especially those concerning
simultaneous time, and my statement that "We do not
plan to ask Seth when the book will be done." I'll
continue our chronology here, then, by describing many
of our professional activities since last March, and
follow it with Jane's own account of at least some of
the reasons for the long interruption in book work.
(Although each of us had looked over Mass Events
occasionally, still it seemed strange to hear Seth come
through with new material for it after all of that time
had passed, and equally strange to resume work on
these notes. I rechecked my opening notes for the last
session: Yes, we did finish correcting the page proofs
for James early in April 1978. Tarn Mossman did visit
later that month, and at his urgingjane did go back to
work on Seven Two with her old enthusiasm.
THE MECHANICS OF EXPERIENCE • 153 •
(Then in May 1978 Sue Watkins began helping me by typing the final
manuscript for the session notes for Volume 2 of "Unknown" Reality. In
June, with no hard feelings involved on anybody's part, Jane withdrew
Emir from consideration at Prentice-Hall when the decision was made there
to publish the story in two volumes; on July 12, Eleanor Friede at Delacorte
Press accepted Emir for publication as a single book. Later in July Sue finished
typing the notes and started in on the appendixes for Volume 2, just
as we received the first books for James. Jane completed Seven Two in
August, and set to work preparing the manuscript for Tarn. Late that
month — unbelievably to me — I finished my own work on Volume 2 of
"Unknown" Reality, and immediately began to type the final draft of the
sessions; as I finished groups of sessions I mailed them to Tarn every few
days, while at the same time collaborating with Jane on the table of contents
for the book. On September 23 Sue delivered the completed appendix material
for Volume 2, and I sent Tarn each appendix, with its notes, as I checked it.
Jane finished typing her manuscript for Seven Two on October 3, and I
helped her correct that book for mailing on October 9. My own mailings for
Volume 2 continued until the 21st of the month, when at last that very long
project was completed and out of the house in its entirety for the first time. I
felt like celebrating!
(Now another event took place in October 1978 that is most important
to Jane and me: Sue Watkins received the go-ahead from Tarn Mossman to
write a book on the ESP classes that Jane had conducted for some seven and
a half years, from the fall of 1967 to February 1975. It's to be called Conversations
With Seth. This is great news for the three of us, of course. It's
a project that Jane herself never figured she'd do, but wanted done — and
Sue, who was a class member, is talented psychically herself, has a newspaper
and reporting background, and is ideally qualified for the job}
(Conversations, we think, is sure to be published before Mass Events,
since Tarn is supposed to have Sue's manuscript in hand by January 1980,
for publication in the fall of that year. Even assuming that Seth will finish
dictating Mass' Events later this year [1979], Jane and I will still have too
much work to do on it for publication in 1980.
(Resuming our chronology: On October 24, 1978, Jane worked out the
Table of Contents for Seth's Psyche, and started her Introduction for it on
the 26th; we mailed Psyche to Tarn in sections as we put the manuscript
together, and finished, with that endeavor on November 9. On November 14
• 154 • FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK 2
Eleanor Friede visited us to renew an old friendship and to go over Emir
with Jane. No sooner had she left than Tarn arrived, two days later, bringing
with him the copyedited manuscript'2 of Seven Two for us to check; on
the 20th, our work completed on it, I sent it back to him at Prentice-Hall.
We received the printer's sample pages for Seven Two on December 4 [we see
these for each book, and they show us just how the work will look when
published]. On December 7 the copyedited manuscript for Volume 2 of
"Unknown" Reality came; it's more than 900 pages long, and painstakingly
checking every word on every page of that book kept us busy until
Christmas Eve; I mailed it to Tarn on December 26. Next, on January 13,
1979, the copyedited manuscript for Psyche arrived. Jane and I are still
going over it.
(Since last March, then, we've been holding our private, or nonbook,
sessions twice a week usually: Their regular production came to be a steady,
reassuring flow of creativity in back of all of the other, often hectic activities
I've listed here. Those 56 sessions are too numerous to quote in any meaningful
way, and even difficult to briefly summarize. Jane did review them
for me while I was working on this note, however, and here's a slightly
edited version of what she wrote as a result of her study:
("Looking over those nine-and-a-half months of sessions now, it's fairly
obvious what Seth was up to. He'd initially given us the material on Frameworks
1 and 2 in private sessions not long after starting Mass Events, as
Rob explained in his notes for Session 814. Yet even though Seth also discussed
those psychic frameworks to some degree in a dozen sessions for the
book, still he finally took that break in dictation to 're-educate' us, looking
at our own previous beliefs and those of the world at large in the light of
Frameworks 1 and 2.
("In an important fashion those private sessions parallel his material
for Mass Events . . . material that did make us view the world and current
events quite differently than we had earlier. Several times we asked about
local fatal accidents we read about, for instance, wondering how such events
fit in Frameworks-l-and-2 activity. Some of those sessions were devoted to our
private beliefs, but usually Seth put such beliefs into the larger social context.
Four days after they took place, he began discussing the disastrous events til
Jonestown, Guyana, involving the murder or suicide of more than 900 Aunt
icans in that South American settlement last November 18, 1978. Since then,
we've voiced our hopes often that Seth xvill go into the entire Jonestown affair
in Mass Events; he can't but help be aware of our wishes! So interspersed
THE MECHANICS OF EXPERIENCE -155-
in all of that private material are some excellent — and lively — discussions
of events current in the world at that time, as well as discourses on
connections between creativity and Framework 2, and topics as diverse as
psychotic behavior and early civilizations. It was as though Seth were trying
to help us break up old associations for once and for all. Certainly he tried
his best, and any failings are on our parts.
("We have our hassles like everyone else, of course. Seth 'never promised
us a rose garden,' and we have our good days and our bad days as we
encounter life's daily challenges, joys, adventures, and misadventures. In
this large group of sessions, Seth addressed himself to several of our individual
problems: Rob's occasional bouts of indisposition when he felt 'under
the weather' generally, or was bothered by a variety of minor but annoying
symptoms; and my own long-standing troubles with severe stiffness. If Seth
didn 't give us a rose garden, he certainly did — and does — try to tell us
where the weeds come from! This personal material did help give us a much
larger perspective on our various challenges, and we've made some inroads
in overcoming them. Like anyone else, we have to put Seth's material to use
for ourselves. The thing is, often we're so busy getting the material and
preparing it for publication that we don't have the time to really study it as
our readers do. Perhaps Seth was trying to compensate for that in those private
sessions, by taking time out from dictation to help us put the material
to greater personal use. "
(We held our first session for 1979 — a private one — on the evening
of New Year's Day. During it Seth remarked that he'd "begin book sessions
again next Wednesday, " but that didn't quite work out; he still had a few
more nonbook sessions to go. Jane has been looking over his material on
Mass Events every so often lately, though, with the idea of going back to
work on it. And then, on the very night when she told me that she thought
Seth would resume book dictation, Sue Watkins called with news that it was
all official now: Today she'd signed her contract with Prentice-Hall for the
publication of Conversations With Seth.)
Good evening.
("Good evening, Seth.")
Dictation: This is a continuation of the chapter begun (5): "The
Mechanics of Experience."
Organized religion has committed many important blunders, yet lor
centuries Christianity provided a context accepted by large portions of
the known world, in which experience could be judged
•156- FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK2
against very definite "rules" — experience once focused, chiselled, and
yet allowed some rich expression as long as it stayed within the
boundaries set by religious dogma.
If a man was a sinner, still there was a way of redemption, and the
immortality of the soul went largely unquestioned, of course. There were
set rules for almost all kinds of social encounters and religious
experiences. There were set ceremonies accepted by nearly all for death
and birth, and the important stages in between. Church was the authority,
and the individual lived out his or her life almost automatically
structuring personal experience so that it fit within the accepted norm.
Within those boundaries, certain kinds of experience flourished, and
of course others did not. In your society there is no such overall
authority. The individual must make his or her own way through a
barrage of different value systems, making decisions that were largely
unthought of when a son followed his father's trade automatically, for
example, or when marriages were made largely for economic reasons.
So your present experience is quite different than that of those
forefathers who lived in the medieval world, say, and you cannot
appreciate the differences in your [present] subjective attitudes, and in
the quality, as well as the kind of, social intercourse that exists now. For
all its many errors, at its best Christianity proclaimed the ultimate
meaning for each person's life. There was no question but that life had
meaning, whether or not you might agree as to the particular meaning
assigned to it.
(9:35.) Men's dreams were also different in those times, filled far
more with metaphysical images, for example, more alive with saints and
demons — but overall one framework of belief existed, and all
experience was judged in its light. Now, you have far more decisions to
make, and in a world of conflicting beliefs, brought into your living room
through newspapers and television, you must try to find the meaning of
your life, or the meaning of life.
(Pause.) You can think in terms of experiments. You may try this or
that. You may run from one religion to another, or from religion to
science, or vice versa. This is true in a way that was impossible l< >i the
masses of the people in medieval times. The improved methods of
communication alone mean that you are everywhere surrounded by
varying theories, cultures, cults, and schools. In sonic important
THE MECHANICS OF EXPERIENCE • 157 •
areas this means that the mechanics of experience are actually becoming
more apparent, for they are no longer hidden beneath one belief system.
(9:43.) Give us a moment . . . Your subjective options are far greater,
and yet so of course is the necessity to place that subjective experience
into meaningful terms. If you believe that you do indeed form your own
reality, then you instantly come up against a whole new group of
questions. If you actually construct your own experience, individually
and en masse, why does so much of it seem negative? You create your
own reality, or it is created for you. It is an accidental universe, or it is
not.
(Pause.) Now in medieval times organized religion, or organized
Christianity, presented each individual with a screen of beliefs through
which the personal self was perceived. Portions of the self that were not
perceivable through that screen were almost invisible to the private
person. Problems were sent by God as punishment or warning. The
mechanics of experience were hidden behind that screen.
Now: The beliefs of [Charles] Darwin and of [Sigmund] Freud3 alike
have formed together to give you a different screen. Experience is
accepted and perceived only as it is sieved through that screen. If
Christendom saw man as blighted by original sin, Darwinian and
Freudian views see him as part of a flawed species in which individual
life rests precariously, ever at the beck and call of the species' needs, and
with survival as the prime goal — a survival, however, without meaning.
The psyche's grandeur is ignored, the individual's sense of belonging with
nature eroded, for it is at nature's expense, it seems, that he must survive.
One's greatest dreams and worst fears alike become the result of
glandular imbalance, or of neuroses from childhood traumas.
Yet in the midst of these beliefs each individual seeks to find a
context in which his or her life has meaning, a purpose which will rouse
the self to action, a drama in whose theme private actions will have
significance.
There are intellectual values and emotional ones, and some-limes
there are needs of an emotional nature that must be met regardless of
intellectual judgments. The church provided a cosmic drama in which
even the life of the sinner had value, even if only to
• 158 • FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK 2
show God's compassion. In your society, however, the sterile psychic
environment often leads to rebellion: People take steps to bring meaning
and drama into their lives, even if intellectually they refuse to make the
connection.
Take your break.
(9:59. Jane wasn't too surprised that Seth had returned to his book,
since before the session she'd thought he would. Yet, she'd been "a bit nervous,
even if it is dumb or stupid: I still wonder if I can do it after a layoff.
The stuff isn't anything like I thought I'd get, though. . . ." It seemed incredible
to us now that the last book session had been held over nine months ago.
(I told her it was fun to get the dictation, that it reminded me that there
are other things in life besides personal sessions. It also reminded me of how
good the material could be in its more generalized context, and that there
were available from Seth reservoirs of information that we'd never be able to
fully explore, simply because of our ages and other time-related limitations.
My thoughts brought up feelings of regret, of course, but Jane suggested that
instead we concentrate upon what we could do. Good advice.
(Resume at 10:07.)
When God went out the window for large masses of people, fate took
His place (long pause), and volition also became eroded.
A person could neither be proud of personal achievement nor blamed
for failure, since in large measure his characteristics, potentials, and lacks
were seen as the result of chance, heredity, and of unconscious
mechanisms over which he seemingly had little control. The devil went
underground, figuratively speaking, so that many of his mischievous
qualities and devious characteristics were assigned to the unconscious.
Man was seen as divided against himself — a conscious figurehead,
resting uneasily above the mighty haunches of unconscious beastliness.
He believed himself to be programmed by his heredity and early
environment, so that it seemed he must be forever unaware of his own
true motives.4
Not only was he set against himself, but he saw himself as a part of
an uncaring mechanistic universe, devoid of purpose, intent, and
certainly a universe that cared not a whit for the individual, but only for
the species. Indeed, a strange world.
(Pause.) It was in many respects a new world, for it was the first one
in which large portions of humanity believed that they were
THE MECHANICS OF EXPERIENCE • 159-
isolated from nature and God, and in which no
grandeur was acknowledged as a characteristic of the
soul. Indeed, for many people the idea of the soul
itself became unfashionable, embarrassing, and out
of date. Here I use the words "soul" and "psyche"
synonymously. That psyche has been emerging more
and more in whatever guise it is allowed to as it
seeks to express its vitality, its purpose and exuberance,
and as it seeks out new contexts in which to
express a subjective reality that finally spills over the
edges of sterile beliefs.
The psyche expresses itself through action, of
course, but it carries behind it the thrust from which
life springs, and it seeks the fulfillment of the
individual — and it automatically attempts to
produce a social climate or civilization that is
productive and creative. It projects its desires
outward onto the physical world, seeking through private
experience and social contact to actualize its
potentials, and in such a way that the potentials of
others are also encouraged. It seeks to flesh out its
dreams, and when these find no response in social
life, it will nevertheless take personal expression in a
kind of private religion of its own.
Give us a moment . . . Basically, religion is an
activity through which man attempts to see the
meaning of his life. It is a construction based on
deep psychic knowledge. No matter what the name it
might go by, it represents man's connection with the
universe.
End of dictation. For now, a few notes.
(10:27. Seth came through with half a page of
information for Jane — personal material that's
deleted here — then ended the session at 10:34 P.M.
"I'm so unsure of myself it must be terrible, "Jane said
as soon as she came out of trance. "I'm so glad he's
back on the book again. I keep asking: Is it good, is it
good?' I know it is, but I've got that empty feeling
again, because of the suspense. . . .")
NOTES: SESSION 831
1. Jane and I had suggested to Sue last month
(September) that she write a book on ESP class,
although at various times previously the three of us have
discussed such a project. Sue took us up on the idea
this time, though — and was both exhilarated and
terrified when Tam, who was instantly enthusiastic,
asked her for an outline and a couple of chapters.
"Doing the outline for the book came easily," Sue
wrote for this note, later, "but then I spent the next
• 160 • FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK 2
four weeks in hell. The writing of the first chapter was agonizing and slow. ..."
After that initial plunge, though, she's been doing very well.
2.My brief description of the Copyediting process can be found in the last
paragraph of Note 2 for Session 801.
3.A reminder: Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was the Austrian physician who
founded psychoanalysis.
4.Once again, see my comments on "selfish genes" in Note 3 for Session
821.
SESSION 832, JANUARY 29,1979
9:11 P.M. MONDAY
(fane and I have been attending to the mechanics of publishing affairs more
than ever since she held the 831st session two weeks ago [on January 15].
During the first week of that time off from sessions we worked steadily at
checking the copyedited manuscript for Psyche. In the meantime, the copyedited
manuscript for Emir arrived on the 18th, sent to us by Eleanor Friede at
Delacorte Press; and since Emir is a short book, we were able to go over it
during one evening and get it in the mail back to Eleanor late the next day. I sent
Psyche to Tarn Mossman at Prentice-Hall on the 22nd, and on the same day we
received from him the page proofs for Seven Two. We spent two days of
concentrated labor studying those, and I returned them to Tarn on the 24th.
Then Jane, in a typical burst of inspiration the next day, began writing her third
Seven book: Oversoul Seven and the Museum of Time.
(This evening's session was of average length for recent ones — lasting
about an hour and a half, including break — but Seth devoted only the first short
portion of it to Mass Events.)
Now: Good evening. Dictation.
( "Good evening, Seth. ")
In your society, it is generally thought that a person must have a decent
livelihood, a family or other close relationships, good health, and a sense of
belonging if the individual is to be at all productive, happy, or content.
Better social programming, greater job opportunities, health plans or urban
projects, are often considered the means that will bring fulfillment "to the
masses." Little if anything is said about the personality's innate need to feel that
his life has purpose and meaning. Little is said about the personality's innate
desire for drama, the
THE MECHANICS OF EXPERIENCE • 161 •
kind of inner spiritual drama in which an individual can feel part of a
purpose that is his own, and yet is greater than himself.
There is a need within man to feel and express heroic impulses. His
true instincts lead him spontaneously toward the desire to better the
quality of his own life and that of others. He must see himself as a force
in the world.
Animals also dramatize. They possess emotions. They feel a part of
the drama of the seasons. They are fully alive, in those terms. Nature in
all of its varieties is so richly encountered by the animals that it becomes
their equivalent of your structures of culture and civilization. They
respond to its rich nuances in ways impossible to describe, so that their
"civilizations" are built up through the inter-weavings of sense data that
you cannot possibly perceive.
They know, the animals, in a way that you cannot, that their private
existences have a direct impact upon the nature of reality. They are
engaged, then. An individual can possess wealth and health, can enjoy
satisfying relationships, and even fulfilling work, and yet live a life
devoid of the kind of drama of which I speak — for unless you feel that
life itself has meaning, then each life must necessarily seem meaningless,
and all love and beauty end only in decay.
When you believe in a universe accidentally formed, and when you
think you are a member of a species accidentally spawned, then private
life seems devoid of meaning, and events can seem chaotic. Disastrous
events thought to originate in a god's wrath could at least be understood
in that context, but many of you live in a subjective world in which the
events of your lives appear to have no particular reason — or indeed
sometimes seem to happen in direct opposition to your wishes. . . .
What kind of events can people form when they feel powerless,
when their lives seem robbed of meaning — and what mechanics lie
behind those events?
End of dictation for now. I have a few notes. . ..
{9:34. Those "notes," however, dealing with other matters, ran for several
more pages before Seth said good night at 10:38 P.M.
(I told Jane that I think Seth's material on the animals' sense equivalents
of human civilizations is the best of its kind I've ever heard — most
evocative indeed. I hope Seth comes through with more on the subject before
he finishes M;iss Events.)
• 162 • FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK2
SESSION 833, JANUARY 31,1979
9:21 P.M. WEDNESDAY
(Jane has been having great fun in recent days, working on her new
[and third] novel about the adventures of Oversoul Seven.)
Now: Dictation.
People die for "a cause" only when they have found no cause to live
by. And when it seems that the world is devoid of meaning, then some
people will make a certain kind of statement through the circumstances
connected with their own deaths.
We will shortly return to a discussion of such "causes," and their
relationship with the person's feeling that life has or does not have a
meaning.
For now, consider a very simple act. You want to walk across the
room and pick up a paper, for example. That purpose is simple and direct
enough. It automatically propels your body in the proper fashions, even
though you are not consciously aware of the inner mechanisms involved.
You do not imagine the existence of blocks or impediments in your way,
in the form of additional furniture placed in your path by accident, fate,
or design. You make a simple straight path in the proper direction. The
act has meaning because it is something you want to do.
There are purposes not nearly as easy to describe, however, intents of
a psychological nature, yearnings toward satisfactions not so easily
categorized. Man experiences ambitions, desires, likes and dislikes of a
highly emotional nature — and at the same time he has intellectual
beliefs about himself, his feelings, and the world. These are the result of
training, for you use your mind as you have been taught.
One person may desire fame, and even possess certain abilities that
he or she wants to use, and that will indeed lead to that claim. Such a
person may also believe that fortune or fame leads to unhap-piness,
licentiousness, or in some other way brings about disastrous conditions.
Here we have a clear purpose to use abilities and receive acclaim. We
also have another quite opposing clear purpose: to avoid fame.
There are people who want children and mates, and have those
excellent qualities that would serve them well as parents. Some of those
same individuals may be convinced that love is wrong, however,
THE MECHANICS OF EXPERIENCE -163-
or that sex is debasing, or that children mean the end of youth. Such
persons may then find themselves breaking off good relationships with
those of the other sex for no apparent reason, or forcing the other party to
break with them. Here again we have two clear purposes, but they oppose
each other.
Those who believe in the ultimate meaning of their lives can
withstand such pressures, and often such dilemmas, and others like them,
are resolved in an adequate-enough fashion. Disappointments, conflicts,
and feelings of powerlessness can begin to make unfortunate inroads in
the personalities of those who believe that life itself has little meaning.
Such people begin to imagine impediments in their paths as surely as
anyone would who imagined that physical barriers were suddenly put up
between them and a table they wanted to reach at the end of the room.
(9:40.) When you simply want to reach a destination in space, there
are maps to explain the nature of the land and waterways. When we are
speaking of the psychological role of destinations, however, there is more
to consider.
Once more — (humorously:) that will save you from scratching out
another "again," "however," or whatever — your body is mobilized when
you want to move. It responds to your intent'and purpose. It is your
private inner environment, psychically speaking. Your psychological
intents instantly mobilize your energies on a psychic level. You have
what I will call for now "a body of thought," and it is that "body" that
constantly springs into action at your intent.
When you want to go downtown, you know that destination exists,
though you may be miles away from it. When you want to find a mate
you take it for granted that a potential mate exists, though where in space
and time you do not know. Your intent to find a mate sends out "strands
of consciousness," however, composed of desire and intent. Like
detectives, these search the world, looking in a completely different way
than a physical sleuth. The world is probed with your characteristics in
mind, seeking for someone else with characteristics that will best suit
your own. And whatever your purpose is, the same procedure on a
psychic level is involved.
The organization of your feelings, beliefs, and intents directs the
locus about wlii( li your physical reality is built. This follows with
impeccable spontaneity and order. If you believe in the sinfulness of
• 164 • FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK2
the world, for instance, then you will search out from normal sense data
those facts that confirm your belief. But beyond that, at other levels you
also organize your mental world in such a way that you attract to yourself
events that — again — will confirm your beliefs.
Death is a part of you, even as birth is. Its import varies according to
the individual — and in a certain fashion, death is your last chance to
make a statement of import in any given life, if you feel you have not
done so earlier.
Some people's deaths are quiet periods. Some others' are exclamation
points, so that later it can be said that the person's death loomed almost
greater in importance than the life itself. Some people die in adolescence,
filled with the flush of life's possibilities, still half-dazzled by the glory of
childhood, and ready to step with elation upon the threshold of adulthood
— or so it seems. Many such young persons prefer to die at that time,
where they feel the possibilities for fulfillment are intricate and endless.
They are often idealists, who beneath it all — beneath the enthusiasm,
the intelligence, and sometimes beneath extraordinary ability — still feel
that life could no more than sully those abilities, dampen those spiritual
winds, and darken that promise that could never be fulfilled.
This is not the reason for all such deaths by any means, but there is
usually an implied statement in them so that the death seems to have an
additional meaning that makes parents and contemporaries question.
Such individuals usually choose deaths with a high dramatic content,
because regardless of appearances they have not been able to express the
dramatic contents of their psyches in the world as it seems to be to them.
They turn their deaths into lessons for other people, forcing them to ask
questions that would not be asked before. There are also mass statements
of the same kind for people come together to die, however, to seek
company in death as they do in life. People who feel powerless, and who
find no cause for living, can come together then and "die for a cause" that
did not give them the will or reason to live. They will seek out others of
their kind.
(10:05.) The inner mechanics of emotions and beliefs are complicated,
but these are individuals who feel that physical life has failed
them. They are powerless in society. They think in black and white, and
conflicts between their emotions, and their beliefs about their emotions,
lead them to seek some kind of shelter in a rigid
THE MECHANICS OF EXPERIENCE • 165-
belief system that will give them rules to go by. Such
systems lead to the formation of cults, and the potential
members seek out a leader who will serve their purposes
as surely as they seem to serve his — through an inner
mechanics of which each member is at least somewhat
aware.
End of dictation. A few remarks.
(10:10. After giving a couple of paragraphs of
material for Jane, Seth brought the session to a close at
10:15 P.M.Jane was more than a little surprised at its
quick end; her delivery had been steady and forceful.
"Gee, I felt like there were reams of material in there —
just reams, " she exclaimed. "I also felt like I was getting
into the Guyana thing, without mentioning it by name. At
least I thought I was. " We agreed — and hoped — that
Seth did seem to be preparing to discuss the Jonestown
tragedy for Mass Events.)
SESSION 834, FEBRUARYS, 1979 8:59 P.M. MONDAY
(After supper this evening Jane read some notes I'd
written recently, in which I speculated about why I paint
portraits — my "heads, " as I call them — out of my
"imagination, " instead of using live models of "real
people. " I've often wondered if at least some of my
motivations for working this way have reincarnational or
counterpart1 inspirations. I remarked tonight that it would
be nice if Seth would discuss the subject, and Jane replied
that she thought he'd do so.
(That statement, in fact, plus her desire for material
from Seth on a question of her own, made her wonder
whether we'd even receive any book dictation tonight.
Then, no sooner had we sat for the session than Jane
asked me to write down what she was about to say, since
she had the material available whether or not Seth got to
it: "A new part, or chapter heading: 'People Who Are
Afraid of Themselves. Controlled Environments, and
Positive and Negative Mass Behavior.'" I told her I
thought Seth would not only have plenty of time to cover
our respective questions, but would come through with
some book work too, and this was the case.
(We're presenting his material for me because it has
good general application: If Seth deals with my own
painted images without even mentioning the words
reincarnation or counterparts, still he does reveal how
such "residents of the mind " make up part of each
person's innate knowledge of his or her own grraln 01
larger — self.
• 166- FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK2
(Whispering:) Good evening.
("Good evening, Seth.")
About your material, and allied matters.
As I have often said, there are concepts most
difficult to explain, particularly concerning the nature
of consciousness, for often in your frame of reference
certain concepts, quite valid, can appear contradictory
so that one will seem to invalidate the other.
I try to strongly state the pristine uniqueness of
the individual. I also say that there are no limitations
to the self. The two statements can appear to be
contradictory. When you are a child, your sense of
identity does not include old age in usual experience.
When you are an old person, you do not identify
yourself as a child. Your sense of identity, then,
changes physically through the years. In away it
seems that you add on to yourself through
experience, becoming "more than you were before."
You move in and out of probable selfhoods, while at
the same time — usually with the greatest of ease —
you maintain an identity of yourself. The mosaics of
consciousness are brilliant to behold.
When I speak of mosaics, you might think of
small segments, shining and of different shapes and
sizes. Yet the mosaics of consciousness are more like
lights, radiating through themselves and through a
million spectrums.
The infant sees mental images before birth,
before the eyes are open. Your memory, it seems, is
your own — yet I have told you that you have a
history of other existences. You remember other
faces, even though the mind you call the conscious
one may not recognize the images from that deep
inner memory. It must often clothe them in fantasy.
You are yourself. Your self is secure in its own
identity, unique in its characteristics, meeting life and
the seasons in a way that has never happened before,
and will never happen again — yet still you are a
unique version of your greater self. You share in
certain overall patterns that are in themselves
original.
It is as if you shared, say, a psychological planet,
populated by people who had the same roots, the
same ground of being — as if you shared the same
continents, mountains, and oceans. Instead you share
certain patterns of development, images, memories,
and desires. These are reflected in your physical life,
and in one way or another elements of your life are
shared in the same fashion.
THE MECHANICS OF EXPERIENCE • 167 •
(9:15.) Your [painted] faces represent such a recognition. You always
thought (underlined twice) that your artistic talent should be enough. You
thought (underlined twice) that it should be your consuming passion, but
you never felt that it was — for if it was you would have followed it
undeviatingly. (Longpause.) For you, painting had to be wedded to a
deeper kind of understanding. Painting was even to be a teacher, leading
you through and beyond images, and back to them again.
Your painting was meant to bring out from the recesses of your being
the accumulation of your knowledge in the form of images — not of
people you might meet now on the street, but portraits of the residents of
the mind. The residents of the mind are very real. In a certain fashion,
they are your parents more than your parents were, and when you express
their realities, they are also expressing yours. All time is simultaneous.
Only the illusion of time on each of your parts keeps you from greeting
each other. To some extent, when you paint such portraits you are
forming psychic bridges between yourself and those other selves: Your
own identity as yourself grows.
Only in a manner of speaking (repeated twice), there are certain —
(humorously:) a necessary qualifying word — "power selves," or
personalities; parts of your greater identity who utilized fairly extraordinary
amounts of energy in very constructive ways. That energy is
also a part of your personality — and as you paint such images you will
undoubtedly feel some considerable bursts of ambition, and even
exuberance. The feelings will allow you to identify the images of such
personalities.
("Well, I think I felt that way last week, when I was working on my
latest head. That's why I wrote those notes — but I didn't take the time to
discuss them with Jane. ")
That is why I mentioned it. I knew you did not tell Ruburt. The paint
brush can indeed be a key to other worlds, or course. Your own
emotional feelings carry over in such paintings.
(9:29.) Give us a moment. . . By all means encourage the dream
activity, and there will be a correspondence between your dreams, your
painting and your writing.2 Each one encourages the others. Your writing
gains vitality from your painting, your painting from your writing — and
the dreaming self at one time or another is in contact with M < > i l i < i
Aspects — capital "A" — of your reality.
• 168 • FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK2
(9:31. Now Seth came through with some material in answer to Jane's
question, before calling for a break at 9:38. Resume at 9:56.)
Dictation: If you cannot trust your private self, then you will not trust
yourself in your relationships with others or in society.
If you do not trust your private self, you will be afraid of power, for
you will fear that you are bound to misuse it. You may then purposefully
(leaningforward, quietly emphatic but with some amusement) put yourself
in a position of weakness, while all of the time claiming that you seek
influence. Not understanding yourself, you will be in a quandary, and the
mechanics of experience will appear mysterious and capricious.
There are certain situations, however, in which those mechanics can
be clearly seen, and so let us examine some such circumstances. (Pause.)
A few that I discuss may be exaggerated, in that they are not "normal"
conditions in most people's lives. Their rather bizarre nature, however,
throws a giant spotlight upon intents, purposes, and cross-purposes, that
too often appear in the lives of quite normal men and women.
When people are convinced that the self is untrustworthy, for
whatever reasons, or that the universe is not safe, then instead of luxuriating
in the use of their abilities, exploring the physical and mental
environments, they begin to pull in their realities — to contract their
abilities, to overcontrol their environments. They become frightened
people — and frightened people do not want freedom, mental or
physical. They want shelter, a definite set of rules. They want to be told
what is good and bad. They lean toward compulsive behavior patterns.
They seek out leaders — political, scientific (humorously), or religious
— who will order their lives for them.
In the next portion of this book we will discuss people who are
frightened of themselves, then, and the roles that they seek in private and
social behavior. To some extent we will be discussing closed
environments, whether mental or physical, in which questioning becomes
taboo and dangerous. Such environments may be private, as in the case
of persons with what are generally called mental disorders, or they may
be shared by many, in — for example — mass paranoia.
There are religious cults, and there are also scientific ones. There are
neonle who follow a cult that is purely private, with rules and
THE MECHANICS OF EXPERIENCE • 169-
regulations as rigorous as any sent down to a group of
frightened followers by a despot of whatever kind. Such
conditions exist, and I hope that such a discussion will
lead to greater understanding. A large portion of this book
will be devoted, of course, to the introduction of concepts
that will privately encourage greater productivity and
creativity, and therefore automatically contribute to more
healthy and sane social ways.
Now: The headings Ruburt gave: This [next] will be
Part 3: "People Who are Frightened of Themselves."
Part 2 should go after Chapter 2, [and should be]
called: "Framework 1 and Framework 2."
The other heading he gave helps make up the title for
the next chapter (6). Add to it: "Religious and Scientific
Cults, and Private Paranoias."
End of session.
("Okay.")
Do you have questions?
("No, I guess not. ")
Then I bid you a fond good evening.
("Thank you, Seth."
(End at 10:15 P.M.)
NOTES: SESSION 834
1.In Volume 2 of "Unknown"Reality Seth began
developing his theory of counterparts — that the
larger psychological self, or entity, of each of us manifests
not just one physical life in any given century,
say, but several, so as to gain that much more
experience in a variety of roles involving different
ages, nationalities and languages, sexual orientations,
family roles, and so forth. As I understand the
counterparts thesis, the individual may or may not
meet at least some of his or her counterparts, scattered
as they can be among earth's different countries and
cultures. Jane and I have encountered a few of our
respective counterparts, however, principally through
her now-defunct ESP (lass.
2.Seth mentioned a "correspondence" among my
dreams, painting, and writing because just lately I've
been doing small oil paintings of a few of my more
vivid dream images. I've discovered that this is great
fun — and much more challenging than I'd
anticipated, as I try to reduce the shifting, brilliant
dream elements to the motionless painted surfaces
we're so used to in waking
• 170 • FRAMEWORK 1 AND FRAMEWORK2
reality. Each little painting becomes a unique adventure both technically and
emotionally, and I hardly succeed in solving every attempt I make. Now, futilely,
I wonder why I didn't try painting images from my dreams at a much earlier age;
and why one so seldom hears about other artists doing the same thing. I don't
personally know any other artist working with dreams this way.

SESSION 812, OCTOBER 1,1977
9:33 P.M. SATURDAY
Then he originally gave us the 812th session some 16 months ago,  Seth told us it would "be part of a chapter later in the book. ..." [See
my opening notes for Session 814.] The 812th session was held following an
encounter Jane and I had with an unexpected visitor, although these
excerpts aren 't personal at all. They fit in well with material in Mass
Events, however— indeed, as soon as Seth confirmed Jane's headings for
Tart 3 and Chapter 6, we knew that we'd found the place to present this
material. We made our decision without consulting Seth, by the way.
(Whispering:) Good evening.
("Good evening, Seth.")
Now: Subject: Paranoia, and its manifestations.
Paranoia is extremely interesting because it shows the ways in which
private beliefs can distort events that connect the individual with other
people. The events are "distorted," yet while the paranoid is convinced
that those events are valid, this does not change other people's perception
of the same happenings. . . .
What I wan I to emphasize here is the paranoid's misinterpreta-lion
of innocuous personal or mass events, and to stress the ways in
• 174 • PEOPLE FRIGHTENED OF THEMSELVES
which physical events can be put together symbolically, so that from
them a reality can be created that is almost part physical and part dream.
You must of course interpret events in a personal manner. You create
them. Yet there is also a meeting ground of more or less shared physical
encounters, a sense plateau that offers firm-enough footing for the
agreement of a mass-shared world. With most mental aberrations, you are
dealing with people whose private symbols are so heavily thrust over
prime sense data that even those data sometimes become almost
invisible. These individuals often use the physical world in the way that
most people use the dream world, so that for them it is difficult to
distinguish between a private and a publicly-shared reality.
Many such people are highly creative and imaginative. Often,
however, they have less of a solid foundation than others in dealing with
a mass-shared reality, and so they attempt to impose their own private
symbols upon the world, or to form a completely private world. I am
speaking in general terms now, and in those terms such people are leery
of human relationships. Each person forms his or her own reality, and yet
that personal reality must also be shared with others, and must be
affected by the reality of others . ...
Now give us a moment . . . As creatures dwelling in time and space,
your senses provide you with highly specific data, and with a cohesiveenough
physical reality. Each person may react to the seasons in a very
personalized manner, and yet you all share those natural events. They
provide a framework for experience. It is up to the conscious mind to
interpret sense events as clearly and concisely as possible. This allows for
the necessary freedom of action for psychological and physical mobility.
You are an imaginative species, and so the physical world is colored,
charged, by your own imaginative projections, and powered by the great
sweep of the emotions. But when you are confused or upset, it is an
excellent idea to return your attention to the natural world as it appears at
any given moment — to sense its effect upon you as separate from your
own projections.
You form your own reality. Yet if you are in the Northeast in the
wintertime, you had better be experiencing a physical winter (humorously),
or you are far divorced from primary sense data.
POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE MASS BEHAVIOR • 175-
The paranoid has certain other beliefs. Let us take a
hypothetical individual — one who is convinced he has a
healthy body, and is proud of mental stability. Let us call
this friend Peter.
Peter [for his own reasons] may decide that his body
is out to get him and punish him, rather than, say, the
FBI. He may symbolically pick out an organ or a
function, and he will misinterpret many body events in
the same way that another may misinterpret mass events.
Any public service announcements, so-called,
publicizing symptoms connected with his sensitive area,
will immediately alarm him. He will consciously and
unconsciously focus upon that part of the body,
anticipating its malfunction. Our friend can indeed alter
the reality of his body.
Peter will interpret such body events in a negative
fashion, and as threatening, so that some quite normal
sensations will serve the same functions as a fear of
policemen, for example. If he keeps this up long enough,
he will indeed strain a portion of the body, and by telling
others about it he will gradually begin to affect not only
his personal world, but that part of the mass world with
which he has contact: It will be known that he has an
ulcer, or whatever. In each case we are dealing with a
misinterpretation of basic sense data.
When I say that a person misinterprets sense data, I
mean that the fine balance between mind and matter
becomes overstrained in one direction. There are, then,
certain events that connect the world. Though when
everything is said and done these events come from
outside of the world's order, nevertheless they appear as
constants within it. Their reality is the result of the most
precise balancing of forces so that certain mental events
appear quite real, and others are peripheral. You have
dusk and dawn. If in the middle of the night, and fully
awake, you believe it is sunrise in physical terms, and
cannot differentiate between your personal reality and the
physical one, then that balance is disturbed.
The paranoid organizes the psychological world
about his obsession, for such it is, and he cuts everything
out that does not apply, until all conforms to his beliefs.
An examination of unprejudiced sense data at any point
would at any time bring him relief.
Take your break. A note: This will be part of a
chapter, later in the book, on mass events.
• 176 • PEOPLE FRIGHTENED OF THEMSELVES
(10:31. Now Seth left this material to go into a discourse for Jane. He
ended the session at 11:30 P.M.)
SESSION 835, FEBRUARY 7,1979
9:11 P.M. WEDNESDAY
(Jane was very relaxed before the session — and for a better understanding
of her special kind of relaxation, see the opening notes for the
829th session.)
Good evening.
("Good evening, Seth. ")
Chapter 6 — headings as given last time (in Session 834).
There is an enchanting suggestion, solemnly repeated many times,
particularly after the turn of the century: "Every day, in every way, I am
getting better and better."1
This might sound like a bit of overly optimistic, though maybe
delightful, nonsense. To a degree, however, that suggestion worked for
millions of people. It was not a cure-all. It did not help those who
believed in the basic untrustworthiness of their own natures. The
suggestion was far from a bit of fluff, however, for it could serve — and
it did — as a framework about which new beliefs could rally.
We often have in your society the opposite suggestion, however,
given quite regularly: "Every day, in every way, I am growing worse, and
so is the world." You have meditations for disaster, beliefs that invite
private and mass tragedies. They are usually masked by the polite
clothing of conventional acceptance. (Pause.) Many thousands may die in
a particular battle or war, for example. The deaths are accepted almost as
a matter of course. These are victims of war, without question. It seldom
occurs to anyone that these are victims of beliefs (emphatically) — since
the guns are quite real, and the bombs and the combat.
The enemy is obvious. His intentions are evil. Wars are basically
examples of mass suicide — embarked upon, however, with all of the
battle's paraphernalia, carried out through mass suggestion, and through
the nation's greatest resources, by men who are convinced that the
universe is unsafe, that the self cannot be trusted, and that strangers are
always hostile. You take it for granted that the species is
POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE MASS BEHAVIOR • 177 •
aggressively combative. You must out-think the enemy nation before you
yourself are destroyed. These paranoiac tendencies are largely hidden
beneath man's nationalistic banners.
"The end justifies the means." This is another belief, most damaging.
Religious wars always have paranoiac tendencies, for the fanatic always
fears conflicting beliefs, and systems that embrace them.
(Pause.) You have occasional epidemics that flare up, with victims
left dead. Partially, these are also victims of beliefs, for you believe that
the natural body is the natural prey of viruses and diseases over which
you have no personal control, except as it is medically provided. In the
medical profession, the overall suggestion that operates is one that
emphasizes and exaggerates the body's vulnerability, and plays down its
natural healing abilities. People die when they are ready to die, for
reasons that are their own. No person dies without a reason.2 You are not
taught that, however, so people do not recognize their own reasons for
dying, and they are not taught to recognize their own reasons for living
— because you are told that life itself is an accident in a cosmic game of
chance.
(9:33.) Therefore, you cannot trust your own intuitions. You think
that your purpose in life must be to be something else, or someone else,
than you are. In such a situation many people seek out causes, and hope
to merge the purposes of the cause with their own unrecognized one.
There have been many great men and women involved in causes, to
which they gave their energies, resources, and support. Those people,
however, recognized the importance of their own beings, and added that
vitality to causes in which they believed. They did not submerge their
individuality to causes. Instead, they asserted their individuality, and
became more themselves. They extended their horizons, pushed beyond
the conventional mental landscapes — driven by zest and vitality, by
curiosity and love, and not by fear (all of the above with much
emphasis).
Many people lost their lives recently in the tragedy of [Jonestown]
(iuyana. People willingly took poison at the command of their leader. No
armies stood outside the grounds. No bombs fell. There was no physical
virus dial spread through the multitude. There was no clothing to
decorate ili<- mechanisms of events. Those people succumbed
• 178 • PEOPLE FRIGHTENED OF THEMSELVES
to an epidemic of beliefs, to an environment [that was] closed mentally
and physically. The villains consisted of the following ideas: that the
world is unsafe, and growing deadly; that the species itself is tainted by a
deadly intent; that the individual has no power over his or her reality;
that society or social conditions exist as things in themselves, and that
their purposes run directly counter to the fulfillment of the individual;
and lastly, that the end justifies the means, and that the action of any kind
of god is powerless in the world.
The people who died were idealists — perfectionists of exaggerated
quality, whose very desire for the good was tainted and distorted by
those beliefs just mentioned. For those beliefs must gradually shut out
perception of good from experience.3
Man is of good intent. When you see evil everywhere in man's intent
— in your own actions and those of others — then you set yourself up
against your own existence, and that of your kind. You focus upon the
gulf between your ideals and your experience, until the gulf is all that is
real. You will not see man's good intent, or you will do so ironically —
for in comparison with your ideals, good in the world appears to be so
minute as to be a mockery.
(9:56.) To this extent experience becomes closed. Such people are
frightened of themselves, and of the nature of their existence. They may
be intelligent or stupid, gifted or mundane, but they are frightened of
experiencing themselves as themselves, or of acting according to their
own wishes. They help create the dogma or system or cult to which they
"fall prey." They expect their leader to act for them. To a certain extent
he soaks up their paranoia, until it becomes an unquenchable force in
him, and he is their "victim" as much as his followers are his "victims."
In the Guyana affair, you had "red-blooded Americans" dying on a
foreign shore (in South America), but not under a banner of war, which
under certain circumstances would have been acceptable. You did not
have Americans dying in a bloody revolution, caught among terrorists.
You had instead Americans succumbing in a foreign land to some beliefs
that are peculiarly American, and home-grown.
Beside the list given earlier [tonight], you have the American belief
that money will solve almost any social problem, that the middle-class
way of life is the correct "democratic" one, and that the difficulty
between blacks and whites in particular can !>»■ erased by
POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE MASS BEHAVIOR • 179-
applying social bandages, rather than by attacking the
basic beliefs behind the problem.
Many young men and women have come to
adulthood in fine ranch houses in good neighborhoods.
They would seem to be at the peak of life, the product of
the best America has to offer. They never had to work for
a living, perhaps. They may have attended colleges —
but they are the first to realize that such advantages do
not necessarily add to the quality of life, for they are the
first to arrive at such an enviable position.
The parents have worked to give their children such
advantages, and the parents themselves are somewhat
confused by their children's attitudes. The money and
position, however, have often been attained as a result of
the belief in man's competitive nature — and that belief
itself erodes the very prizes it produces: The fruit is bitter
in the mouth. Many of the parents believed, quite simply,
that the purpose of life was to make more money. Virtue
consisted of the best car, or house or swimming pool —
proof that one could survive in a tooth-and-claw world.
But the children wondered: What about those other
feelings that stirred in their consciousnesses? What about
those purposes they sensed? The hearts of some of them
were like vacuums, waiting to be filled. They looked for
values, but at the same time they felt that they were
themselves sons and daughters of a species tainted, at
loose ends, with no clear destinations.
They tried various religions, and in the light of their
opinions of themselves their earlier advantages seemed
only to damn them further. They tried social programs,
and found a curious sense of belonging with the
disadvantaged, for they were also rootless. The
disadvantaged and the advantaged alike then joined in a
bond of hopelessness, endowing a leader with a power
they felt they did not possess.
(Long pause at 10:14.) They finally retreated into
isolation from the world that they knew, and the voice of
their leader at the microphone was a magnified merging
of their own voices. In death they fulfilled their purposes,
making a mass statement. It would make Americans
question the nature of their society, of their religions,
their politics, and their beliefs.
(Long pause in an intent delivery.) Each person
decided to go along on thai course.
• 180 • PEOPLE FRIGHTENED OF THEMSELVES
End of session unless you have questions.
(10:17. "Do you want to say something about Jane?" I asked. Seth promptly
came through with two lines of encouraging material for her. Then:)
End of session.
(With a laugh: "Okay. "
(10:19 P.M. "I'm still that way, quite a bit, "Jane said as soon as she came
out of trance; she referred to her very beneficial and relaxed condition. "Right
now my right temple, my right knee and my right foot are all going whooosh,
whooosh, whooosh. . . . " And I can add that her relaxed state enhances her
session material each time.)
NOTES: SESSION 835
1.Seth cited the same famous autosuggestion from the work of the French
psychotherapist, Emile Coue (1857-1926), in Chapter 4 oi Personal Reality,
and then as now, he was correct except for the first two words. He should
have said: "Day by day, in every way, I am getting better and better." In a
note for Personal Reality I wrote that "Coue was a pioneer in the study of
suggestion, and wrote a book on the subject in the 1920s. His ideas were
well received in Europe at the time, but weren't in this country to any large
degree. In fact, his lecture tour of the United States turned out to be a failure
because of the hostile press reaction."
2.See Note 3 for Session 802, and Note 2 for Session 805.
3.After this session, I was rather surprised when Jane told me that the
Jonestown tragedy was an emotionally charged subject for her, and mat Seth
knew it. I should have known it, too. She explained that it was disturbing
for her "because the whole thing is an example of how a mad visionary can
lead his people to destruction in the name of religion." Involved in her
feelings, ol course, are her own youthful conflicts with the Roman Catholic
Church; these led to her abandoning organized religion by the time she was
IK. Involved also are her adamant feelings against having the Seth material
used as the basis for any kind of cult, with herself as its leader. Hence, she's
continually examining Seth's revelatory material — and her own—with
very critical eyes to make sure she isn't "a self-deluded nut leading people
astray." Religious fanaticism frightens her because she regards it as being
but a six >i i step beyond fundamentalism, which is on the upsurge in this
country. See Seth's material on evolution and fundamentalism in Session
829.
Jane laughed when I asked her why she hadn't told me of her feeling about
Jonestown before: "You never asked me." She hadn't meant to be secre tive, she
added, but had simply accepted her attitudes :is being based upon
POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE MASS BEHAVIOR ■ 181 •
her own strong beliefs. The mass deaths at Jonestown (in
November 1978) took place during our long layoff from book
dictation, but Seth began discussing the affair almost at once in
our private material, as Jane described in her own portion of
the opening notes for Session 831. Now she told me that Seth
introduced the subject in that manner so that later she'd be
more at ease dealing with it for Mass Events.
SESSION 840, MARCH 12,1979 9:28 P.M. MONDAY
(Almost five weeks have passed since Seth gave the 835th
session. He's come through with four more sessions since then,
too — the last three of them growing out of the unexpected
death of our young cat, Billy, on February 28. Let me try to put
that unhappy event in perspective now, in the continuing
chronology of our lives as they 're enmeshed in the Seth
material in general and in Mass Events in particular.
(First, on February 12, five days after the 835th session
was held, Jane and I received from Prentice-Hall the page
proofs for Volume 2 of "Unknown" Reality. Checking those
499 pages, word for word against our carbon copy of the
original manuscript, called for the most demanding
concentration on our parts for the next 13 days.
(When I arose early on the 26th so that I could wrap the
proofs for mailing, however, I noticed that Billy didn 't appear
to feel well. Jane watched him while I went to the post office.
He was no better when I returned, and as the morning passed
we came to realize that he had a urinary problem. That
afternoon I took him to the veterinarian, who kept him for
treatment; the problem was serious; by then the cat was in
great pain. Jane and I both wondered: Why Billy ? Why should
such a seemingly perfect young creature suddenly become that
sick, for no observable reason? "We were shocked,1 no doubt
about it, " I wrote in my notes for the 836th session, a private
or non-book one which Jane gave that evening. During the
session Seth discussed Billy's illness to some extent, while also
giving the first "installment" of an answer to a longstanding
question of mine: I was curious about the relationship between
the host — whether human, animal, or plant — and a disease
it might contract, one that was "caused, " say, by a virus. I'll
return to the question at the end of these notes.
(On Tuesday the veterinarian told us by telephone that
Billy was better, that "probably" ""• i mild take him home the
followi