Mike's commentary · Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment, Session 922

The "Introduction" and "Key Points" for this chapter were summarized by an AI editor based on the main text below; they are not things Mike said during the lecture. The main text comes from Mike's commentary, and the block quotes are Seth's original words (the portions Mike read aloud).

Introduction

This session begins with Seth's statement that "you are protected," and uses the energy image of the "helpers" seen by Ruburt to explain that protection and threat are interdependent, and that the helpers are in fact the innocent, powerful, spontaneous inner self. Seth goes on to point out that human culture, tools, herbal knowledge, and other abilities were not acquired through gradual evolution or mere trial and error, but were activated by the inner knower according to environmental needs; over-reliance on reason limits mental abilities, and he also discusses the illuminated consciousness.

Key Points of This Chapter

• You and your works are naturally protected. This protection originates from the very energy that forms your existence and does not depend on additional rituals.
• Believing in protection also implies believing in threat; overemphasizing protection strengthens the sense of threat, making it impossible to fully accept natural protection.
• The helper image is the innocent, powerful, spontaneous, natural, and magical inner self. True help comes from awakening the other person's own mental abilities.
• Value fulfillment is the process by which every entity automatically and spontaneously seeks its own and others' completion, and it cannot be achieved at the expense of others.
• Human culture, tools, herbal knowledge, and other abilities were not gradually evolved or acquired merely through trial and error; they were automatically activated by the inner knower according to environmental needs.

Main Text

Seth Book: Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment Session 922

This session began on Monday, October 13, 1980, at 9:14 p.m.

Before it began, Rob said that his publisher -- that is, Tam Mossman -- had called Jane to tell them that they were ready to offer another book contract if they got one more book.

This morning, Rob wrote to Tam, their publisher, asking what long-term plans Prentice Hall¹ had for the fifteen books Jane and Rob had sold them. They had already delivered fifteen books to this publisher. What he meant by "long-term plans" included whether there was any idea of publishing them as a collected series, or whether there were plans for reprints. Because by now nearly ten years had passed since the earliest of these books was published. Rob's thinking was that two people who had written fifteen books were highly prolific by any writer's standard, so for such authors, did the publisher have any special program -- for example, reprinting, collecting, or repackaging them into a complete set, and so on.

From this you can see that on the matter of coordinating with the publisher, Rob's input was actually very important too. Although the publisher dealt directly with Jane -- they considered Jane the primary author, and in this series of books, at first only Jane's name appeared, and only later was Rob's name added -- they still called Jane. But Rob had his own ideas in the middle of all this; Rob was more like an agent, even though he was also one of the authors.

In the private session on September 22, when Seth was discussing one of the series on the magical approach to life, he told them that their work was protected. Rob had been curious about that statement ever since; he did not understand what deeper meaning this "protection" might have. Today he mentioned to Jane this point in connection with the letter he wrote to Tam. This protection was not just a matter of copyright -- because in the United States there was no copyright issue -- it referred to whether these books could be passed on, whether they could serve their intended purpose, whether they could be widely disseminated, and whether the publisher could devote greater effort or greater resources to this set of books.

Although the publication of these books had, from a certain angle, already been a very great success, in a certain sense Rob felt it might not be enough -- this is my personal feeling, that they felt it was not enough. Looking at the overall situation in the United States, the vast majority of people had never heard of this set of books. As for the Seth material, in the United States and in English-speaking countries, the vast majority of people had never heard of it, let alone studied or understood it. Even within spiritual learning circles, within spiritual growth circles, those who knew of it were extremely few, vanishingly small. So the influence of these books was not very great. Of course, within the New Age movement, its role was very significant, but in other fields, its role was not great. So at this point we also know that its role had not achieved what we imagined it should have achieved, and this was part of what worried Rob.

How many copies of this set of books have been published in total? Some time ago I contacted the publisher or the rights agent -- the rights agent for this set of books in the United States -- and the feedback he gave me was that worldwide, across all language editions combined, this set of books has now sold eight million copies. Eight million copies. Eight million copies is, in a certain sense, already quite a lot; any book that sells over a million copies is already very big. But that was the cumulative total as of 2021; at the time, the sales were not yet that large. Later they seem to have switched to another publisher, and they may not have been entirely satisfied with this one either. Although in the early days this publisher gave Rob and Jane tremendous help -- at a time when no one else was willing to publish their books, this publisher gave them support from the very beginning -- later on, perhaps because the publisher had its own direction, and every publisher has its own selection of topics, materials, and positioning, the degree of attention they gave to this set of books may not have reached what the two of them had expected. This is us looking at the issue from a three-dimensional perspective.

Then, in the afternoon, after Rob and Jane took their nap, Jane was quite unhappy -- remember, not just ordinarily unhappy, but very unhappy. Why? Because they overslept. Just because of oversleeping, Jane was very angry; she regretted the time lost while they slept. Therefore they had to eat dinner later than usual. Jane said as a punishment: since we overslept this afternoon, let us eat dinner a bit later, and we must make up the afternoon work time. But think about it: eating dinner late is actually hard for most people to bear, because your normal mealtimes are fixed. Rob was actually using this sentence to express his dissatisfaction: so what if I overslept? Why should we eat later than usual?

However, tonight, when Seth was discussing one of the aspects of true ability closely connected with his concept of value fulfillment, he made wonderful use of Rob's interest in the question of protection. Because that session fit extremely well with the relationship to this book, even though it was not a dictation connected with this book -- because the previous session in this book dealt with topics like schizophrenia, reincarnation, possession, and demonic possession -- but this session was also extremely brilliant; this session of the Seth material was extremely brilliant, so Rob's decision to insert it here was very well done.

You Are Protected

Let us see how Seth expressed it. Seth began by saying:

You are protected, and your work is protected.

Seth made a statement once again. First, remember, this is a statement, and this statement was made not only to the two of them, but also to all of us. But in this session, he focused on using the two of them as an example, to show us why we are all protected.

He said:

Years ago, Ruburt had an experience.

This was in 1971. At that time, Ruburt glimpsed a strange figure in the middle of the living room; he saw a figure, and he felt that this figure was composed of energy, and clearly had the tendency to help him or to follow his direction.

This was an intuition Rob had in 1971 -- he saw a figure in the living room, a figure composed of energy, that could help Rob, help Ruburt, and could also follow Ruburt's direction. He could feel it, and he also realized, at least to some degree, that this energy was the accumulated result of his own good intentions and his wish to help others, his desire to help.

Where did the energy come from? There were two parts: one was his good intentions, and the other was his wish to help others, and then such an energy gathered. So we often say, why do good deeds and so on -- it is not that doing good deeds brings rewards. That is our traditional religious concept: doing good deeds accumulates merit and virtue. Accumulating merit and virtue is not like making a deal with the universe, as you might imagine -- look, I did a few good deeds, so give me a few little red flowers, or give me some good things -- no. The original purpose of doing good deeds is explained clearly by Seth in one sentence here: because when you do good deeds, you have only good will; what matters is your good intentions and your wish to help others, and this will accumulate such an energy.

So this is the same as what Buddhism says: if a person wants to become a Buddha, to reach the state of Buddhahood, to attain right knowledge, right mindfulness, and supreme perfect enlightenment, then you must make a vow -- what kind of vow? The wish to help others. You must be a bodhisattva, you must practice the bodhisattva path; whether Buddhism calls it the bodhisattva path or the bodhisattva vow, no matter how you do it, it is about helping others, helping all sentient beings -- not just people, but all sentient beings -- so all living beings with feeling in this world must be helped. Then such a tremendous wish, such a vow that you make, would not the energy it accumulates be extremely strong? So Seth tells you here: doing good deeds is not about making a deal or getting a return; it is because when you have such good intentions, you will gather such an energy, and this energy will be at your service; while it helps you, it is also at your service -- what do you use it for? You use it to help others.

Then Ruburt, by intuition, called this energy a "helper." Why did he call it a helper, not a savior? There is something very subtle here. The original meaning of this word is helper; "helper" means one who helps, but Teacher Wang Jiqing deliberately did not use "bangzhuzhe" (one who helps); he insisted on "xiezhuzhe" (one who assists). Think about it, everyone: why did he translate it that way?

The reason he translated it as "one who assists" is that the one who truly helps you is always yourself. Even if this external energy, no matter from how high a level of consciousness, no matter what kind of external energy, it can only assist; the one who truly helps you is always yourself. If you treat this external energy as a helper, then you have reversed host and guest, putting the cart before the horse. So to prevent you from forming such a concept, the translator Wang Jiqing very thoughtfully and deliberately translated this word as "one who assists"; this had his purpose, and it also conforms to the original meaning of the word and its inherent inner meaning.

And he never saw that figure clearly again.

That is, after Jane saw it once in 1971, she never saw it again. What did that figure represent?

That figure represented his personally accumulated positive energy, which was beneficial to him at that time, providing him with protection, but which also automatically exerted a powerful effect on his life and his life's plans.

Here everyone must pay attention: what he called "positive energy" does not mean that there is negative energy in between. What he meant by positive was that it was beneficial to him -- beneficial to him personally, and also beneficial to the whole. Here he mentioned "at that time" -- Seth specifically emphasized "at that time," that it was beneficial to him at that time. Why emphasize "at that time"? He will explain below.

What provided Ruburt with help, what provided him with protection, was specifically aimed at him personally. Earlier it said "personally accumulated," meaning it was aimed at him personally; that is to say, the help this energy gives you is all aimed at the problems you personally encounter; it is personalized.

Protection and Threat

But then he continued: why was it helpful to him at that time? Look below, this is crucial:

As you know, the very concept of protection that we speak of implies threat. So if you believe in threat, then you had better have protection.

He is now explaining why this was helpful to Ruburt at that time, and why Ruburt later no longer needed it. Because Ruburt at that time believed in threat. Like many of us now, he believed in threat, believed in ghosts and spirits, believed that in the spiritual world there were still many devils, many evil spirits, and many evil things -- he believed such threats existed, so he needed protection.

So many of us, many teachers, will tell you how to establish such a protected space, such a boundary, or establish some kind of ritual to place yourself in a protected state. The premise -- Seth has already said this here -- the premise of believing in protection is that you must believe that a threat truly exists. If there is no threat, what are you protecting? If the threat does not exist, what are you protecting? What are you resisting? What are you fighting against? So this is a pair of concepts: as long as you believe protection exists, then inwardly you must believe in threat.

So for those whose inner fear has not been removed, or those who still have fear in their hearts, who still believe threats exist, this protection is still useful to them. Everyone must look at this issue dialectically. You cannot see someone else making such a boundary, such a ritual, such ceremonial things, and then sneer and say, none of this is needed, this is all low-level stuff, you still have fear in your heart. Saying all that is useless -- because the fear in their heart is in their heart, not in yours. You may have no fear, but as a practitioner, or as a person of wisdom, you should be able to understand the fear in another person's heart. It cannot be removed just by casually saying a few words like "remove your fear, you should not have fear." If fear were that easy to remove, it could not have affected each of us to such a degree. So when you see others taking such protective measures, you should be able to understand that the other person still has fear in their heart, still firmly believes in the existence of threat, and then you understand; that is enough. You do not need to criticize them at that moment, because each person is at their own stage; there is a process -- from having fear at the beginning, to slowly, gradually removing the fear; it is a process.

So Seth specifically pointed out here: you see, Ruburt at that time still needed this thing. He needed it, so he saw that energy -- that energy was a helper, an assistant, who came to help Ruburt. That proves that Ruburt at that time still had a certain amount of fear in his heart, still worried about external threats, and that is why it appeared. Although it was gathered from his positive energy, from his good will to help others, and was a positive energy, was this energy needed? No. When you reach a certain level, it is no longer needed. But did Ruburt need it at that time? Yes. So when it said "positive energy" earlier, you must understand -- do not think that there is also a negative energy. It is not because there is a negative; it is because at that time Ruburt needed the existence of such a positive energy as he understood it. And do you say positive energy is good, is needed? It is not needed.

Now you can understand this: it is not that we need positive energy, that we carry positive energy around with us every day, that we keep this positive energy, this energy body -- like our protective deity, like our higher spirit, higher self, or dharma protector -- by our side. If you believe in dharma protectors, then you believe someone is destroying the dharma, right? You believe someone is destroying this matter, then who is destroying it? And so on. We have now made this matter clear here.

Ruburt had no need to see that figure again, as long as he felt the reality of that powerful energy, and understood that it was there to do things for him.

Seth said Ruburt did not need to see the figure again; he did not need to see something visualized, something with a concrete form -- for example, a dharma protector, a vajra warrior, or something like that -- he did not need to see anything like that again, because he only needed to believe that this energy had always existed; that was enough, and there was no need for it to be represented through a form. That is, the universe's protection of you, of every person, is always there; you only need to believe it is there, and you do not need to conjure up a form.

Second, he said you must understand that this energy is there to do things for him; that is enough. What does "do things for him" refer to here? It refers to the fact that readers often wrote letters asking Ruburt to help them solve this or that problem, and Ruburt could not possibly have so much time to help them one by one, so he would silently send out this energy in his heart, saying, use this energy; let this energy go help them. And then he would tell them, I have already sent such an energy to help you solve your problem. That is all. He said you only need to believe that it can solve problems for you, do things for you; that is enough, and you do not need a concrete form to appear again.

The Innocent and Powerful Inner Self

Why? Because as Ruburt grew stronger, he no longer worried about such threats or such fears.

In a manner of speaking, that figure represented the innocent and powerful inner self.

Remember this phrase: the innocent and powerful inner self. These are two different qualities. Many people think innocence has no power, right? We think children have no power. Why? They are too innocent; their logical thinking, their rational thinking is not rigorous enough; it seems they cannot protect themselves; they are silly; children only know how to play and be innocent. What we often fail to realize is that innocence itself is one of the most powerful forces. It does not need the kind of wisdom you think you need -- the worldly sophistication, slickness, smoothness, interpersonal skills, and meticulous calculation about how to protect yourself -- this is what we humans think we need, because we believe that without worldly wisdom, one cannot protect oneself in society. But in fact, it is exactly the opposite: what can truly protect you is this very innocence.

So this is your inner self. What is your inner self? He uses two words here, and he inadvertently lets it slip -- your inner self has two primary attributes: first, innocence; second, power.

I have often said before that your inner self must connect with the earth. The attribute of the earth is the attribute of a little girl, an innocent and carefree little girl. If your inner self connects with the earth, then it is innocent, carefree, overflowing with that innocent and carefree heart. It is like the image I often introduce to everyone: the little white cat walking with a bounce in its step; that is the image. That is the original appearance of your inner self. If you can bring it forth, if you can feel that inner exuberance, that joy, that feeling of walking with a bounce, a skip in your step, then you are together with your inner self. If you are still serious-faced, solemn, frowning all day, thinking about how to spread spiritual knowledge, how to solve this problem, how to promote it to more people, frowning all day, then you are not together with your inner self. And this innocence itself is very powerful, very full of strength; you do not need any additional power.

There is also the second: the spontaneous self -- it is spontaneous, meaning it wants to do certain things on its own; you do not need to urge it, you do not need to do this or that, you do not need others to demand that you do something, and you do not need to whip yourself; you are automatically spontaneous; you just want to do this thing.

Spontaneity and Changes in American Universities

Let me tell you about the recent situation. The United States now has roughly more than 4,000 universities²; I do not know the exact number, because there are too many universities in America. Recently, 1,500 universities in the United States have eliminated the SAT and ACT scores³. The SAT is a standardized test, and the ACT is also a standardized test. Although the United States does not have a national college entrance exam, American high school students take the SAT or ACT during high school; they can choose either one, to assess their abilities. You can take this test multiple times, repeatedly, and the highest score counts -- you can take it once, twice, three times, as you like, and then you can submit this highest score as a representative of your academic achievement to the universities you apply to. American universities use an application system, not admission by exam score, but this score itself also serves as one of your standards, so you have to submit the SAT score as part of the evaluation.

But recently in the United States, especially in the last year or two, 1,500 universities have eliminated the SAT score⁴ -- not all of them, but this trend has already begun. Many people in America know that they do not only look at the SAT; they look at your GPA -- that is another topic. GPA is the average of your daily homework and exams, an overall average for each subject. So, do they look at GPA? What they focus on is neither the SAT, nor do they look at GPA. There is now a trend in American universities: what are they looking at? Let me tell you what they are looking at -- they are looking at what this child spontaneously did when no one was supervising them.

Because with the SAT, as long as the test exists, children will be forced to take it, and forced to get a good score. Now they no longer require it. And what do they want? They want the child to describe for themselves what they did during this time, what things they did, and these things must be spontaneous -- definitely spontaneous. Remember this: spontaneous.

Why am I talking about the spontaneous self here? This is the most crucial point -- there is no external pressure. And where does the problem in Chinese education lie? It lies in the fact that you force children; from a young age you push them into tutoring classes, exams, rankings, getting into key schools; you force them externally, and you do not bring out their spontaneity. This is the biggest problem. Now America has also realized the problem, and they have begun to emphasize this spontaneity. What can you do spontaneously? Without external pressure from parents, schools, or society, without anyone giving you a standard that you must meet, without anyone forcing you, under the condition of complete freedom, what have you done on your own? And they use this to judge whether you are suitable for their university, whether they want you; this is the standard.

Now you understand why a few years ago there was a famous case -- an ordinary child. What did this child do? During his four years of high school, every week -- I cannot remember whether it was every week or often, but basically every week -- he would use his weekend time to help the homeless, the poor and destitute. Because in America there are many such organizations, institutions, charities, like Foodbank or something similar, and they have various ways of serving, including volunteering, and so on. He did this every week for four consecutive years; no one required him to do it, and he did not think it would get him anything; he just liked doing it.

Then he wrote about this experience when applying to universities. As a result, this child's academic performance was very average, ordinary, could not be more ordinary; his GPA was also utterly ordinary, around 3.3 or just above 3⁵; I do not know the specifics, just a very ordinary child. And Harvard admitted him⁶. At the time, many people did not understand: so this can work? Delivering food to the homeless for four years can get you into Harvard?

Now, through what you have learned here, you can understand. If you saw that report and then you also went to deliver food, also went to help the poor, then the nature of it changes -- you are doing it with a purpose, you are driven by external factors, and you are not helping these people from the heart. So many parents later began to imitate this approach, having their children do this or that, but the nature had already changed. Harvard later did not report admitting more such children. Why? Because they knew that once this news came out, many profit-seeking parents would force their children to do similar things.

So what I am emphasizing here with these extra words is: spontaneity. It is the same for children, and for us adults -- whether you are 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, or 80 years old, no matter what age you are, what you do voluntarily and spontaneously, without external pressure or compulsion, determines the fundamental quality of you as a person -- whether it is your value fulfillment, the quality of your life, the essence of your life, or that inner thing of yours; it is all reflected there. So this is the spontaneous self, and it is very important. I emphasize here that it is very important -- if you want to cultivate children, or if you want to pay attention to children, you should guide them more in this direction, and draw out that spontaneity in the child.

The Natural, Magical, Spontaneous Self

Then he says here: that figure -- that helper, that assistant, that figure composed of positive energy -- what exactly was it?

Seth said it was the inner self, it was the magical self, it was the spontaneous self.

He uses three terms here, and then he says these are all synonyms, all referring to the same thing.

Here he emphasizes again: what was that figure you saw -- the figure composed of energy that Ruburt saw in the living room in 1971 -- it was your inner self, except he added a few modifiers. I am just emphasizing these modifiers again: innocent, powerful, spontaneous, natural, and magical. Remember these key words.

Then:

Ruburt knew he could send the helper to others... In that respect, that figure represented the great power of natural positive desires and thought patterns.

Remember that Seth here absolutely has to add a qualifier: "in that respect." In what respect? In respect to the single matter of helping others, just this matter, just on its own terms, that image represents the great power of natural positive desires and thought patterns. Why does he absolutely have to add "in that respect"? He is afraid you will fall into a "positive energy" trap, he is afraid you will become obsessed with doing this kind of thing. He tells you that what he calls positive desire is, first of all, natural. What is positive desire? Natural positive desire is your spontaneity. Your spontaneity is what Mr. Wen called "impulse is an angel" -- the meaning is that this spontaneity of yours is itself natural positive desire. It has no good or bad, right or wrong; do not judge it. It is the most positive, because it represents the natural, because it is spontaneous. Remember, this is positive.

Then there are thought patterns -- the great power of thought patterns. That is, simply Jane saying, I am sending a healer to you, he is a positive energy coming to help you -- just such a statement, just such a thing, just such a suggestion, will produce tremendous help for the person being helped. And such a healer sent out by Jane often has very good results. Why very good? Because these people, simply knowing that a higher energy, or a higher consciousness, or something from a higher dimension -- whether it is a positive energy or some kind of personality -- is helping them, will feel inside a sense of being protected, being cared for, being understood, being supported. And this feeling, this thought pattern, this kind of idea, will produce astonishing power, and will have a very great healing power for them.

Then how is this power produced? It is produced exactly this way. Just like when someone on the street says, I will send you energy, I will send you energy remotely, or I will send you something -- its effect is actually all here. There really is an effect, but this effect is not the effect of the energy itself; it is this kind of effect. Everyone must understand this.

But Seth here is especially afraid that people will fall into this trap, especially afraid that people will flock to this thing and become obsessed with it. So he added a definition in front: "in that respect" -- in the respect of helping people, sending out this energy does play a positive role. Remember, so its positivity is only reflected in this one matter. You cannot generalize it and say it is positive, it is positive energy, it should be strengthened, it should be reinforced. Remember not to do this reinforcing.

You say helping others this way is good, so why not reinforce it? Why not? I already explained earlier: because the more you reinforce it, the more you emphasize this matter, the more you are implying that a threat exists. Look, if I send a person to protect you, what does that imply? It implies there is danger around you -- you need protection. Why do you need protection? At the same time it also implies that you are not capable -- you are not capable, so I need to help you; you cannot do it yourself; you cannot save yourself; therefore I have to send a helper to help you. And the stronger my helper is, the weaker your ability becomes. For example, at first I sent one person to help you, later I sent a group of people to help you, later I sent a special police force to help you, later I sent helicopters, trucks, ambulances, all to help you -- the more people I send to help, the stronger the helping force, the greater the danger you are in, the greater your predicament, the smaller your ability, the more negligible your possibility of self-rescue, and that is why you need an external powerful force to help you.

So you must remember the subtle difference here; never seize on a single sentence and take it -- Seth has planted foreshadowing in every sentence here, he is afraid you will go astray. So here he absolutely has to add that sentence: "in that respect." This sentence seems insignificant, but it is a very important sentence; everyone must remember it.

So in this respect, in the respect of Jane helping those readers, it is useful, and it also demonstrates the effect of her natural positive desire and the great power of thought patterns. He tells you it is useful, but its usefulness is reflected in these two aspects -- remember, it is not that the energy itself is working. Remember, it is not the energy itself that is working; it is these two things that are working. Which two things? Emphasizing again: natural positive desire is spontaneity, and thought patterns are your belief system. These two are what truly cause the person being helped to change. But if you think about it, these two are actually both his own matters -- spontaneity is his own, and the change in his belief system is also his own; we only played the role of an initiator, or of fanning the flames.

The Source Self and Greater Knowledge

He turns to Rob and says:

You have that same kind of image.

He says you also have this kind of thing; he quickly reassures Rob, afraid that Rob will say, so only Jane has it and I do not. He says no, you have it too:

These images represent the larger source self from which you presently emerge... I have told you that you possess far more knowledge about your own life and the lives of others than you consciously realize.

Seth says I have told you that concerning your own life and the lives of others, you possess far more knowledge than your intellect or logic can consciously perceive.

The meaning of this sentence is that you know what the essence of your life is, and every person also knows, and other lives also know, but this knowing cannot be expressed through your intellect and logic, so you think you do not know. The more you believe that reason is the only thing that can represent your expression, or represent what you know, the less you know the essence of your life. And the essence of your life far exceeds rational expression and rational cognition, so it is more a kind of perceptual, intuitive understanding of the essence of your life.

He says this knowledge is far more than you think you know. We often ask what the meaning of our life is, what our life is like, as if you know nothing, because science is insufficient to answer these questions -- when science is insufficient to answer questions about the essence of your life, you feel you do not know. Seth says you know; you just think you do not know.

And that energy -- the image composed of energy mentioned earlier -- is this thing. That helper, that thing that can help him, that can help others, he says that thing is this: the source of your life, the knowledge that you yourself do not know you know, composed of it.

In one respect, as you specifically emerged and as you grew, you acted upon that knowledge.

From childhood, from the time you were born, you grew up relying on this knowledge. When you were little, no one taught you rational knowledge, right? No one taught you how you should grow up, right? No one taught you how cells should divide and grow, how the various organs should coordinate, how much energy you should consume, how you should arrange your nutritional formula, how you should develop -- no one told you, but you grew up anyway. He says what you relied on was this knowledge.

Again, as you saw on a television program, when squirrels begin to bury nuts, they act upon a certain kind of knowledge, and the squirrel's larger knowledge also includes the knowledge of other species.

He says you recently watched television and saw squirrels burying things -- burying pine cones, burying various things. After burying them, why does it bury them? Who told it that it should bury these things? He says this kind of knowledge, what I just told you about -- the knowledge that you humans already have but that you yourself feel you do not have -- is that part of the knowledge from the source of life. In the squirrel, the burying of nuts manifests as burying nuts, but the squirrel's knowing to bury nuts contains all of your biological knowing -- for example, a beaver building a dam is also this same knowledge.

Here you must understand one meaning; let me say it again, do not misunderstand or fail to understand it fully. What he means is that the squirrel does not only know "I should go bury nuts." From the squirrel's perspective, it seems it only knows this one thing -- I should bury this pine cone and dig it up in winter to eat. The squirrel knows that its burying of nuts comes from a source of life. That source-of-life knowledge includes the knowledge of all life, including the knowledge of our human survival instincts, and the knowledge of other animals' survival instincts -- we say mice can dig holes; all these innate things come from this same place.

I do not know whether you can understand the meaning of this sentence: it is not that the squirrel only obtained this one knowledge of hiding nuts; the squirrel also possesses the knowledge of mice digging holes, the squirrel also possesses the knowledge of beavers building dams, except that in its species, in this lifetime experience of its, that knowledge is latent and unused, but it is not that it does not have it. This is what he means.

Simply put, each of us is connected to the source of our life, and the knowledge possessed by this source of life, which we cannot obtain through reason, is extremely profound, extremely broad, all-encompassing. Whatever you need, it produces: for example, if you are a squirrel, you need the knowledge of squirrel survival, and it gives you this knowledge of squirrel survival; if you are a human, you need the knowledge of human growth and survival, and it gives you human knowledge -- including the protection mentioned earlier and so on, it will give it to you. But that knowledge is far more than you know. Do not think that a squirrel only knows how to hide nuts; actually the squirrel not only knows how to hide nuts, the squirrel also knows how to -- what was it, how to fly, I forgot what that rodent is called -- it also has this knowledge, except that as a latent ability it has not used it.

The squirrel in our backyard is very amusing; it hides things and often cannot find them, very funny. Once, for example, we sometimes bought some fruit and might leave it in the backyard, and if we accidentally forgot to bring it in, the squirrel would steal it. After stealing it, it would bury it, and after burying it, sometimes it could remember, sometimes it could not; it forgot where it buried it, and it would dig around everywhere, very amusing. So the squirrel burying nuts is one of its instincts.

The Power of the Mind and Immediate Comprehension

Then Seth continues:

Practically speaking, it is very important that you understand that this knowledge and protection do exist, and that all of your problems need not be solved through conscious reasoning alone... and indeed, very few problems are solved in that logical manner alone.

This is a very important sentence. He says you must understand one thing: you must understand that this knowledge is innate to you. You must understand what this knowledge is -- this knowledge is that helper. Did he not say it? This helper is a part of this knowledge. That so-called "higher self," the so-called inner self, the so-called source self, the so-called spontaneous self that can help you -- it has always existed. But its way of solving problems is never the way you think, through logic, through reason, through inference. Its way of solving is often direct, skipping over all of that. This is the key point; what I hope everyone can understand is this.

Then Seth continues:

Your work is protected... not only because it is one of your projects, but also because, in a manner of speaking, it became its own kind of entity... distilled from your own best inspiration, and existing in a quite concentrated form.

What is he saying here? He says the reason your work, your creations, are protected is not only that it is part of your life plan. From another angle, these works -- this Seth material -- have formed, have become their own kind of entity. In other words, as the Seth books are published one after another, these books themselves have formed an independently existing energy body, which is the entity of the Seth material itself.

Then you say, that is not right; is "entity" not referring to people? Remember, entity is not only people; entity is not only people. All things in the world -- trees, flowers, plants -- are these not all entities? They are all fragments of an entity. So if you treat entity as a soul, or a higher spirit, or an ultra-high spirit, or an oversoul, then your understanding is still stuck at the level of human understanding. And all things in the world are not only people; does a book have its entity? Yes.

Seth here again emphasizes that the Seth material, through the distillation of your inspiration -- what is the distillation of inspiration? Through his connection with Jane, through Jane's mouth and Rob's pen, writing it down, organizing it, typesetting it again, publishing it, handing it to the publisher -- all of this is their inspiration. Through the distillation of their inspiration -- the process of distillation is the process of purification -- it became a quite concentrated form. Books are a quite concentrated form; the published Seth material is very concentrated. And it formed its own entity.

So you must understand that the Seth material is alive; it is a living energy body that truly exists like our souls; it is an entity. This also explains a question that many people cannot figure out: many people, when they encounter difficulties, do not intend to solve them, do not intend to ask Seth to help them solve them, but when they vaguely have some problems in their recent life that need solving, they casually pick up any book of the Seth material by their bedside, open to any session, and upon reading, they discover that the content of that session of the Seth material happens to help them solve the problem at hand. This has happened countless times; many people have given me this feedback, including myself; I have had this experience too. It is not that you go ask Seth how to solve it; you do not need to ask Seth how to solve it, and you do not need any kind of ritual. No. It is just that you may have had a problem recently that has not been solved, or you do not know a better way to solve it, and at that moment you open the Seth material and suddenly find that it has given you the answer, and a very pure answer at that, a very ultimate answer. Many people do not understand why. Now you can understand, because the Seth material itself is a living energy body; it is an entity.

Therefore because it is an entity, it is also filled with energy, and it also becomes a collector of energy.

The following sentence is also very interesting: it is not only filled with energy, it is also a collector of energy, meaning its energy will become stronger and stronger. How do we understand this energy becoming stronger and stronger? It is a book; how does the Seth material become strong? Just imagine, as a collector of energy -- all of us who read the Seth material, who spread the Seth material, who listen to it, who digest it, who understand it -- are we not attaching our energy to it, giving it energy? You are paying attention to it; your consciousness is always focused on this matter.

And many people have made spreading the Seth material their lifelong ideal, their life mission; are they not gathering the energy of their lives onto it? If from now on, for the remaining decades of their lives, they focus decades of energy on this Seth material -- whether as spreaders, spreaders of all kinds, or as practitioners, it does not matter if I do not spread it; I simply live and practice according to the Seth material's way -- are they not also focusing energy on it? And this focusing of energy, this gathering of energy, is one person, two people, three people, more and more people coming in, and in the end the spread of the Seth material will become broader and broader, and the number of people influenced will increase. The broader its influence, the more people, does that not prove that its energy is stronger?

The fact that we can do this spiritual home project today is precisely to make the Seth material more widespread, to let more people come in, to do greater things. Through my earlier sharing of the Seth material, we have already gathered so much energy; we can do such great things today, and when this Seth material is spread out in the future, it will gather even more energy. Because it is itself filled with energy, it can do greater things, and its promoting effect on human civilization and society will be more evident; this is its significance. So Seth here gives a very precise description of the attributes and nature of the Seth material itself; very interesting. Remember, it is a collector of energy.

The Knower

Another pause of some duration -- in a much slower delivery, one of many pauses, telling you that the current state of transmission is relatively slow and has many pauses, because Seth is also weighing these words and phrases.

I do not want to become involved in a confusion of terms.

He says I do not want to get tangled up in this term and that term. According to our private session from last time:

The powers of the mind are far greater than those generally assigned to the reasoning mind alone.

Here he says again, I do not want to get tangled up in so many terms -- entity, energy collector, source self, these images, positive energy, spontaneity, and so on -- discussing these complicated words; let me simply summarize for you: the power of your mind is far greater than the power of your rational thinking.

Remember, assigned to the reasoning mind alone. Let us simplify and say it is what we often call "the wisdom of your heart is greater than the wisdom of your brain." But here the wisdom of the brain is part of the wisdom of the mind; remember. We often say the wisdom of your heart, and when everyone says this it seems to exclude the wisdom of the brain; do not form this misunderstanding. The wisdom of the mind includes the wisdom of your brain; it includes your rational wisdom and your perceptual wisdom, includes your logical reasoning and also your intuitive feeling; they are combined together. Be sure to remember this, so it is definitely greater than it. That is, the power of your heart is greater than the power of your brain.

The reasoning mind, overdone for example, can actually limit the practical use of your entire intellect.

Intellect means your wisdom. In other words, for example, if you overuse your rational reasoning, your wisdom becomes limited. Actually your wisdom has great ability, but because you are too rational, your wisdom's ability becomes limited, and thus some areas of the mind become dulled -- certain areas of your mind become slow to respond. Actually you have all these abilities; it is just because you are too rational.

Again, in a manner of speaking, the helper represents the true abilities of the mind.

The mind is your overall ability. What are those helpers, those assisters, that helper? It is actually the true ability of your own mind. Remember this sentence; it has meaning. It is telling you: those helpers, those so-called images, those images representing positive energy -- they can help others, but the part that truly helps others is not the energy itself -- remember, be sure to remember what I told you -- it is not the energy itself; it is the part of your own mind's true ability that can function to help you. It has merely taken on an image, or let you understand it as some external image coming to help you. Actually what can truly help you is always your own -- remember, not someone else's mind, but the true ability of that part of your own mind being awakened; it is no longer dull; it is awakened, and only then does it come to help you. This must be the understanding; be sure to understand it correctly.

It is not that a part of your mind comes to help you. No, it awakens that part of your mind. Your mind has two parts: one is the rational logical reasoning we now know, and one is your perceptual intuitive impulse. It activates that part -- the intuitive part, the perceptual part. Through what means does it activate it? Through something like sending you a helper, or through studying the Seth material, like lighting a lamp.

For example, take a candle. Your candle is unlit; you are in darkness. You are in a room in total darkness, and then someone holding a lit candle comes in from outside and lights up the room. Then you say, do not leave, stay, because if you leave this will become a dark room again. Then this person says, you have a candle here; can I not just light it for you? Then the person with the candle lights the candle in your hand. The candle in your hand is that complete part of your mind; he lights that complete part of your mind, and then he leaves. Whether he leaves or not -- if he does not leave, your room has two candles and is brighter; if he leaves, you have your own candle and you will also be bright. Then you turn around and light all the candles in your house, and is not the whole room lit? If you want to understand the function of this helper, this is his function; he just brings the flame. But what truly lights you, what truly illuminates, is the candle in your own hand; it is not that someone else gives you the candle and you have to cling to it desperately; that is not the concept. Everyone must understand.

He says:

That immediate comprehension that is behind both intuition and mental activity.

Behind mental intuition and reason -- remember, the immediate comprehension behind both intuition and mental activity. What immediate comprehension? It needs no language, no logical reasoning, no anything; I just know. This is what Zen Buddhism often speaks of, what Buddhism speaks of, that thing that cannot be transmitted through language -- the saying of not relying on written words. It cannot be explained to you through logic or through words, but I can use another way to let you immediately comprehend. When you comprehend, in Zen this is called enlightenment, or attainment, or realization. It is this kind of immediate comprehension. You say you understand; quickly tell me how you understand -- too bad, he cannot say it; he cannot express it in language; he cannot tell you through logic and rational reasoning that if you do first, second, third, fourth, you will immediately comprehend. It is not that he will not tell you; it is that he cannot tell you.

So this is that immediate comprehension behind; be sure to remember it is behind. Even intuition he tells you, but he is not the thing behind intuition. How do you tell him? How can you tell someone else what is behind your intuition? First of all, intuition itself is hard to explain -- you say this is a feeling of mine, this is my sixth sense, my intuition; I cannot say it clearly. How did it come about? Cannot say clearly. That thing is that immediate comprehension.

So you must understand that what truly helps you is that immediate comprehension, that knowledge behind, that knowledge about the essence of your life, that which is innate to you -- just like the squirrel is born knowing how to hide nuts, the mouse is born knowing how to dig holes, the beaver is born knowing how to build dams, that immediate comprehension -- it is awakened; previously it was suppressed, now it is awakened. It is that simple.

Then you are dealing with a larger intellect... called the knower.

He has coined another new term: "larger intellect." What is it? "The knower," a knower. He has coined another new term. Seth says I do not want to deal with these terms, do not want to deal with these words, but he has no choice but to coin another new term. But you must be able to understand -- forget all these terms; knower, helper, knower, forget them all; it does not matter.

He says that knower:

Is instantly aware of all of your needs, and is that portion of the universe that is personally inclined in your direction.

That knower -- the knower he speaks of is actually the same as that helper, the same as your inner self, the same as that understanding of the knowledge of the essence of life behind; they are all one thing. That knower is instantly aware of all your needs, and is that portion of the universe personally inclined in your direction. He does not give you the entire knowledge of the universe; he does not lecture you on grand principles. You encounter a problem, and he says come, come, sit down, let me tell you what units of consciousness are, what units of meaning are, how the universe was born -- he does not tell you this. If he told you this, that would be a comprehensive cosmic knowledge; he does not talk about that. He specifically talks about the part aimed at you: your most pressing problem right now, your most difficult problem right now, your most painful problem right now; he directly gives you the answer to this problem. He does not lecture you on grand principles.

Because its energy forms your own person, that protection always protects your existence.

Why does this protect you? Precisely because this energy is what forms you. You are formed by this energy, and this is the source of your life. So the protection this energy that forms your life gives you is not based on worry about some threat or fear; it naturally maintains your existence. What lets you exist, what lets you continue, is the very reason it created you, and this is innate. It does not need some reason in order to protect, so this protection is inherently complete, it is innate, and you do not need to do anything extra.

It means you live in a state of grace.

He has talked about this in earlier books: we have always been graced. If you do not feel it, if you cannot perceive that state, you can deny it or refuse its existence, but no matter what, you are within it. He says you may feel that you are not graced, that you cannot perceive this universe and nature's grace toward you or protection of you — he says whether you perceive it or not, you live within this grace. In other words, you live within this energy.

It forms the very texture of your individual existence.

It is the very texture of your individual existence, meaning the essence of your life is composed of it. Whether you acknowledge it or not, whether you can feel it or not, whether you deny it or refuse it, it is still this way.

The True Meaning of Value Fulfillment

Then let us continue reading:

Value fulfillment means that each person, each entity, regardless of its nature, automatically and spontaneously seeks those conditions suited to its own fulfillment, and to the fulfillment of others.

Here he emphasizes value fulfillment again: it is each person, each entity, regardless of its nature — remember, no matter what kind of entity, whatever its nature — it automatically and spontaneously seeks the value fulfillment suited to itself, and it also automatically and spontaneously accomplishes the value fulfillment of others. This is automatic.

In the most basic terms, no one's fulfillment can be achieved at the sacrifice of another's fulfillment.

That is, value fulfillment is not achieved by sacrificing another's interests, or harming another's value fulfillment, or affecting another's value fulfillment. Each person's value fulfillment both accomplishes their own and accomplishes others'. Value fulfillment does not happen in that way; it does not happen by harming another's interests.

Your life itself seeks the best guidance for value fulfillment.

That is, your life itself automatically seeks the best guidance for value fulfillment — you do not need to think extra hard about what value fulfillment is, or how you can achieve your value fulfillment. You do not need to deliberately search for it; your life itself automatically and spontaneously pursues the best value fulfillment. This is automatic.

Our work also seeks the best guidance for its own completion.

He then turns it back around: this Seth material we transmit also automatically seeks the best guidance for its own completion.

When you understand this, then you can accept seeming defeats and seeming contradictions with a serene, detached attitude.

When you understand this matter, you will use a kind of serenity — remember this word, serenity. Many people do not understand the state after enlightenment. If you use one word to describe the state after enlightenment, among many words one of them is serenity. A serene, detached attitude, accepting what you regard as defeats, or what you regard as contradictory things.

You realize that these factors appear the way they do only because of your present intellectual knowledge.

What does this sentence mean? It means the contradictions you think exist, the defeats you think exist, are only the results you get from thinking with your intellect. You feel that this matter did not succeed, that it failed, and that this is not value fulfillment — the value fulfillment you think of is limited to the knowledge of present events, and only when you look at it with your limited intellect does it appear that way.

The Dialectic of Protection and Threat

If you accumulate this sense of threat, then at your level, you also react to that sense of threat. Protection exists, but in this case, you do not allow yourself to accept its full benefit.

Let us explain this in plain words: if you do not believe that this protection from nature inherently exists, and you insist on taking extra protective measures, then you are accumulating a sense of threat, accumulating those fears. Originally you do not need protection; you are already protected. But you believe threats exist, and you take certain actions to protect yourself, so you are reacting to that sense of threat — you are reacting to threats you have fabricated, threats you have imagined. Those threats that originally did not exist, because you treat them as truly existing, really do constitute a threat to you in your life.

You might say: that is not right. You told me this natural protection exists, so even if I do not believe it, this protection should still work, right? Why is it that once I believe in threats, the protection stops working? Seth says here — protection exists, but when you believe a sense of threat exists, you do not allow yourself to accept its full benefit. That is, this protection could originally give you one hundred percent protection, but you think you are not protected, you think you need extra protection, and so under the influence of your own beliefs, you do not accept its benefit. In other words, this protection has a smaller effect on you, because you do not believe it works.

You say, then how can I make it effective? Very simple: just foolishly believe that this natural protection exists, and it automatically takes effect. Do not take those extra actions.

There is a dialectical relationship here. From the standpoint of logic and nitpicking, if you are inherently protected, why do threats work at this time? But Seth speaks rather tactfully; he would not say it as directly as I do — saying the protection does not work. He says you do not allow yourself to accept its full benefit. In plain words, this natural protection has not taken effect. Is it present? It is. But you have made it ineffective; you have made this protective shield ineffective.

Then Seth suggests a break here. At 9:50, when Seth suggested a break, Rob was surprised, because in these days the sessions often went straight through with few breaks. However, Jane said she called a halt because she had run out of cigarettes. After Jane got her cigarettes and returned to the coffee table across from Rob, Rob described to her a story he had recently learned about the Cro-Magnons⁷ — they went to Europe about thirty-five thousand years ago, and like modern humans they belonged to the human species; in toolmaking, in painting, in religion, in fact in their entire culture they displayed a refined artistry. Then they also talked about early humans in Palestine around 3000 BC.

This early human civilization from thirty-five thousand years ago is actually earlier than what our current scientific understanding recognizes. Because current scientific understanding tells us that human civilization is only a few thousand years old, five thousand years, and so on. But these things are all determined for us by our scientists and archaeologists. Is it really so? Uncertain. Why? Because, for example, regarding the age of the Great Pyramid, all scientists and all the textbooks we see tell us the Great Pyramid is 4,600 years old⁸, but as for how old the Sphinx next to it is, scientists have not yet given a definite figure; they speculate it is 5,000 years old. In fact, there are many different claims about how old the pyramid is — some say it is more than 13,000 years old, some say 60,000 years old. No matter which claim, no one can determine the exact age of the pyramid. Here he mentions an early human civilization thirty-five thousand years ago, which is already far earlier than anything our current human civilization can detect.

The earliest thing our current human civilization talks about is roughly ten thousand years ago, in a certain place in present-day Anhui — I cannot recall the exact location right now — where an early Chinese human civilization was discovered, along with early rice cultivation. Carbon-14 dating by scientists placed it at roughly ten thousand years ago. Exquisite jade carvings were found from ten thousand years ago⁹, and one famous jade carving is a ring-shaped dragon with a hole drilled in it, said to be only about one millimeter or even less. Scientists were stunned: jadeite is extremely hard, a 9 on the Mohs scale, while diamond is 10, meaning only diamond can work jadeite. Even today, working jadeite requires diamond drill bits. And the key is this hole — scientists later found some tools nearby, and even more amazingly — the hole was drilled with a hollow tube, not a drill bit as we might imagine, but a thin metal wall that was hollow in the middle. Think about it: this hole is only about one millimeter in total, and there was more than one hole; many holes were drilled at the time. So ten thousand years ago humans already possessed the technique of drilling such tiny holes in jade or jadeite, which to this day scientists cannot figure out — even modern technology finds it very difficult.

Culture Did Not Gradually Evolve

These were the things they discussed during the break. Then Rob said that Jane was very interested in their conversation, especially the things he mentioned, but in the end she revealed that for her, it was best not to interrupt when Seth was speaking. Jane said she liked him to go straight through; do not interrupt — he was in the flow, and if you interrupted him, because he was connected in this way, he might not be able to keep up, and the later content might be incomplete.

Rob quickly defended himself, saying my questions should not have carried any implied answer from Seth; I was just chatting with you about everyday things, as if we were just sharing some curiosities. But nevertheless, his words did bring a change to the material of the session. At 9:10 Seth continued, saying regarding one of your brief discussions — Seth directly turned the topic to this discussion that had taken place during the break. This seemingly casual discussion triggered a deeper insight, and this insight is very important for all of us.

He continued:

The ideas for tools and products exist in the mind, and are activated when they are needed by the environment.

Was Rob not talking about the tools and artworks of the Cro-Magnons⁷ from thirty-five thousand years ago? Seth says: this thing has always been in the human mind, and when the environment requires it, it is activated.

In various areas of the earth, for example, different tribes would suddenly begin using tools, not because of any physical communication between them, or cultural exchange, but because the separate conditions in their own environments triggered those mental processes, and those processes activated the specific image of a tool needed for a task at hand.

You see, in the history you humans have discovered, the civilizations of various early tribes on earth may have suddenly begun using tools in the same period. This was not because they communicated with each other — like later civilizations, where you visit me and I visit you, and when you discover a new tool I take it and use it. In that era humans had not yet mastered navigation and such technologies; each group lived in a very small area and could not communicate. So how could they begin using tools in the same period? What Seth means is that this ability inherently existed in their brains, in their minds — you could also say it existed in their genes. When the environment required it, it automatically emerged — triggered in your environment, triggered in Africa, triggered in the Americas, triggered in Asia, forming the process by which different tribes simultaneously began making tools.

Thus knowledge that was originally nonphysical, in a particular mental image, would be transformed into practical knowledge from information in the nonphysical world, by the inner visual imagery itself, or through the dream state.

Through dreams, through visual imagery, through images in the mind, it becomes actual tools. Dreams have always existed as this kind of connecting link — in the transitional state from the nonphysical to the physical.

You know far more about your lives than you think you do.

You think you only know this much knowledge, but in fact you know far more than this, yet you do not know that you know. About your life and about society, you know far more than you intellectually perceive.

Early man was in such a position, and his inventions, his tools, and his works and so forth, came into existence from the inner and eternal realm of the mind. They were set out from that unconscious but quite real assessment of his position in the universe generally, and of his relationship with his own environment.

What does this passage mean? Early man was in such a position — what position is meant here? It is his relationship with the universe, his relationship with nature. And his inventions — tools, and his works including cave paintings — where did they come from? They came from the inner and eternally existing realm of the mind, entering into physical existence. Triggered by what? Triggered by his position in the universe generally, that is, his position in the three-dimensional world, that is, the environment in which early humans found themselves during their period of development.

You must understand the layered relationship here: this physical body's position in the material world is not equal to humanity's true position in the universe; it is only its position in this material world. Then, his relationship with his own environment, that unconscious but quite real assessment — what does unconscious mean? It means what you do not feel is called unconscious. You cannot feel it, but your unconscious is assessing — at this time tools should be used. Early humans did not know this, and present-day humans do not know it either. But this unconscious and real assessment means that when your physical body arrives in such an environment, needing to hunt, needing to make tools, needing to set up tents, needing to cut down trees — under the influence of the environment your survival requires, there is an unconscious self within you assessing: what kind of tool is needed at this time. This process escapes your awareness, so it is unconscious; but it is real, because it gives you actual things according to your actual environment. Whatever you need at this time, it gives you. If you need stone axes and stone knives, it gives you stone axes and stone knives; at that time it could not give you computer chips, because you had not yet developed that ability. It proceeds step by step: the Stone Age, the Paleolithic, the Neolithic, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, and the later developments we all know. It is a process of assessment followed by gradual activation.

Then Seth paused for a long while, and said in a certain way:

Forgive me for using my favorite word again — but in a manner of speaking, culture did not evolve in the direct manner usually supposed.

Again he says: from a certain angle, culture did not evolve; it was not as you imagine, gradually evolving from the most primitive, the most clumsy, the most rudimentary stage bit by bit.

Of course, culture changes. But man began to form culture immediately, just as beavers immediately began to build dams. For example, they did not spend centuries building defective dams; they are born, created dam-builders.

What he means is: human culture existed from the very beginning of human existence; it was not learned step by step, gradually progressing, evolving from the clumsiest tools to advanced tools. It was there from the start; it is just that with the triggering of conditions and the natural environment, certain tools are continually activated, and the ability to create these tools existed from the very beginning.

He uses the beaver as an example. You see beavers in the streams of nature, using local materials — stones, pebbles, branches — to build a dam that completely blocks the river, piling it into a dam and letting the water flow away. For an animal this is not easy — even for a child of several years old it is not easy. It is not as people imagine: that at first beavers were inexperienced and built rough dams, and after hundreds of years of evolution their dam-building technique became more and more skilled. No, beavers were born knowing how to build dams from the very beginning. He uses this example to tell us: the moment humans were born, the supporting culture that matches humans automatically, from the very beginning, came into being.

This book is called Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment — why is "evolution" in quotation marks? Because this so-called evolution does not exist, but we humans believe such an evolution exists. From the perspective of time it seems like evolution, but in fact it is only that at different periods, different abilities were activated according to the needs of the environment.

Man automatically began to form culture, and did not begin with the kind of primitive culture you suppose. Is that so? If you look at early oracle bone script, you will find it has many, many similarities with present-day writing; basically the entire structure has not changed. I specifically talked about this in that audio column — the meaning of the character "yuan" in the metaverse. The oracle bone understanding of this character was already very profound. It is not simply drawing a pig, drawing a cat, drawing a sun, drawing a moon; if you understand it so superficially as merely pictographic writing, that is far too crude. In the oracle bone period, all the various attributes of Chinese characters were already present. Let me give another example: the character "yuan" — the yuan of the universe, the yuan of Yuanshi Tianzun, the yuan of yuanqi, the yuan of yuanshen — it is a very abstract character; how do you draw it? Yet the original character exists in oracle bone script. Many characters are very abstract, and they all exist in oracle bone script. Moreover, many characters themselves contain very deep meanings. So I use this example to tell you that these Chinese characters had their own meanings from the very beginning.

It did not think its way to clear thought through error.

It did not invent a writing system, find it did not work, and then revise it — there was no such process. Not only Chinese characters; the later Latin script was the same way. Once it appeared, it was directly set in form, and then put into use. Of course there would be some changes, including new vocabulary, but that structure and the broad grammar were set from the start. How was it set? It was not as we imagine, gradually iterating from imperfect to perfect. No.

Instead, he thought quite clearly from the beginning, but he did learn through trial and error the best ways of translating thought into concrete action.

Note this distinction: his mind was very clear from the beginning, but in the process of turning thought into action, he needed trial and error. What does this mean? It means he understood very clearly how things should be done: how tools should be built, how language should be designed — these things were very clear in his mind. But clarity in the mind does not necessarily mean it will work in practice. For example, he had an image of a stone axe in his mind, but because of limited conditions, the stone axe he made still differed from what he imagined, and might not work well, so he kept improving it. Today's axe still originates from the idea of the early stone axe — although the material is different, the shape and form of the axe have not essentially changed over thousands or tens of thousands of years. The image of the axe was already very clear in the mind of ancient humans; it was just that his conditions, environment, and various factors prevented him from making it, but he understood what he wanted to make. So in practice he needed constant trial and error, but in ideas, in the structure of language and tools, he did not need trial and error.

His first cultures were as rich as your own.

Do not think that people back then knew nothing; they were the same.

In your terms, reading and writing are the greatest advantages. But in the past, the mind was also truly used to record data, and to transmit data with a talent that you do not use now.

You humans consider reading and writing the greatest advantages, but what you do not know is that the human mind is capable of recording data. The memory of ancient people was far better than it is now, and they also had ways of transmitting information that we no longer use — telepathy, or oral transmission, or transmission through music, tone, and melody. Including the Homeric epics, including the Mongolian Gesar¹⁰ of China, these are all methods of transmission we no longer use. But such methods of transmission are extremely effective at conveying information; they can transmit poems of tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of lines through human memory, without the slightest error, for hundreds or thousands of years. This exceeds the limits of human memory, yet even now this is still the case. Among the Mongolians there are still many people chanting the Gesar; how they learned it, they themselves do not know. There was one person, in his thirties or forties — Mike cannot remember exactly — who woke up one day and could chant the Gesar, and then he began to transmit it, section by section, exactly the same as what others had transmitted before. No one taught him, and he did not specifically study it; he simply knew it innately. So here he says that the human mind was used to record data, but in ways we do not understand — transmitting data with a talent we no longer use. The Homeric epics were the same; at that time there was no writing, and everything was transmitted orally, recording all this historical data.

There was a time when memory was so perfect that man was truly a living history, and carried in his mind his family tree, and the background and knowledge of his people, and these were then passed on to his descendants.

Human memory at that time was extremely good; he could remember everything he experienced, everything his people experienced, and then he passed it on to his descendants through oral transmission and other means. Every person was a living history.

Indeed, in this process, reading and writing have some advantages.

Of course reading and writing are better; if you write it down and record it, does it not transmit farther? It is always better than relying on your brain to remember. So the later invention of writing, movable type printing, and so on, did play a very good role in spreading information, but they also weakened this inherent human ability to remember — the ability that existed in ancient times. India is the same; those ancient Indian scriptures were all transmitted orally. Writing in India came even later, and people relied on oral recitation to transmit such massive works, over thousands of years. So writing and reading do have their advantages, but they also erased some of humanity's innate abilities.

But the knowledge possessed in that ancient way also truly became part of a person and a society in a way far more meaningful than an individual one.

Those ancient things become part of a person or a society. Although they have been eliminated by present society, and no one uses the brain to remember these things anymore — our information is so convenient now; whatever you want to know, a quick search online brings it up — but that thing and that inherited culture have become part of our society, or part of this person.

It was a different kind of knowing, of course. At its best, it did not lead to a rote performance of remembered data, but instead led to a dramatic performance through music, poetry, and dance.

He says do not think that this kind of memory through the mind is like rote memorization. No. The data remembered through the mind in this way is alive; it transmits information through music, poetry, and dance, through dramatic performance. We see that many ancient poems, ancient music, and ancient dramas came about this way.

In other words, its performance was accompanied by creative physical expression.

Because it is accompanied by a physical expression, undergoing a second creation, a second composition — the information is still that information, but through performance, singing, dancing, poetry, through bodily movement it is expressed, and it carries vitality.

Practically speaking, one mind truly cannot contain all the information available in your world, but that information for the most part does not deal with the basic knowledge of the universe and man's position within it. It is a secondary kind of information, interesting but not life-giving information.

Within the information of your three-dimensional world, it is impossible to contain the information of your entire mind — the information contained in your mind is far greater than the information that can be expressed in your three-dimensional world. Why? Because the information of your three-dimensional world does not deal with the basic knowledge of the inner position of humanity and the universe; it deals with the knowledge of the outer, surface relationship between humanity and the universe. Your present means of expressing information are not sufficient for this task; you can only express these things of the material world. And this basic knowledge of your three-dimensional world, this outer knowledge between you and the universe, is a secondary kind of information. Relatively speaking, it is not as important as the knowledge of the inner relationship between you and the universe. It is interesting, but it is not life-giving information. Because the inner relationship between humanity and the universe is the source of human life, the essence of human vitality. Present-day scientists do not study the essence of life; they study the outer, visible, tangible things of the material world. These things are interesting and fun, with all kinds of knowledge and theoretical frameworks, but they have no life.

And those things transmitted through the mind, created through poetry and dance -- why do they have vitality? Why can they be passed down? Because they are close to the source of the universe, close to the source of life, close to that inner knowledge of the relationship between human beings and the universe. So then you understand why many very ancient things can be handed down for thousands of years -- because they have their own vitality within them.

The Inner Knower

At 10:30, Seth paused again for a long while.

People do not need to try, do not need to learn by trial and error which plants are good to eat, and which herbs are useful for treating illness.

You say that's not right -- didn't we have Shennong tasting the hundred herbs in ancient times? And Li Shizhen also tasted all kinds of herbs and so on. That is only a figurative and literary expression. Do you think it could really be possible? How many kinds of herbs are there? We won't say several thousand -- a few hundred of the most basic ones at least. Shennong tasted the hundred herbs, and how many kinds of human illnesses are there? Which herb treats which illness is not even a one-to-one relationship, it is a combinatorial relationship -- those medicines are all made up of several herbs combined together. Suppose every Chinese medicine formula is composed of more than five herbs working together, and people have over a hundred kinds of illnesses, and there are several hundred herbs -- to pick out several of them to combine, to treat a certain illness -- if he did not have innate knowledge, if he just tried one by one like a scientist, do you think that would be possible? It is simply impossible.

So when we say Shennong tasted the hundred herbs, that is only a later description by people, and it is not the same as our cognition and understanding. He had this knowledge innately; it was just that in practice he had to confirm it -- this is the same as what Seth says, in practice he had to confirm whether this medicine could actually treat this illness, and there was a process of trial and error in the middle, but from the very beginning he already had this knowledge.

We often say that Chinese medicine refers to Chinese herbal medicine, but what about places without Chinese herbal medicine, places without Chinese people -- how did they treat illness? Every tribe had its own ways of treating illness with herbs, and they innately knew which herb could treat which illness. It is just that Chinese medicine is more systematic and more complete.

The knower within him knew this, and he acted upon it spontaneously.

Within him there was a knower. Didn't he just say earlier, "You know far more than you think you do"? He is linking back to the earlier sessions again -- the inner knower knew about those herbs, and he acted upon it spontaneously. Why spontaneously? Because this did not go through logical reasoning: this herb, because it has a cold nature, can detoxify -- it was not deduced that way.

For example: the most famous one in Chinese medicine is fuzi, aconite. Aconite is extremely toxic, but it can treat illness. So how do you know that this aconite is intensely hot and highly toxic but can still treat illness? Would you dare to try it? How was the method of using arsenic to treat illness figured out by trial? How many people would have to die from eating it before it could be figured out? You cannot test it according to modern understanding. It is not that you put a little arsenic in every medicine and finally discover that for this illness arsenic does not work -- if you put a little arsenic in every medicine, would that be acceptable? How many people would have to die from that? It was not figured out that way. He knew it innately; it was just that for this specific illness, for this specific person, how much dosage to use -- that he needed to explore in practice. This is the principle of ancient Chinese medicine and herbal medicine. Spontaneous.

Of course that knower has always been there; it is not that only ancient people had it -- we modern people have it too. But why don't I know it now? Why did ancient people know it? Because you do not believe in him, you do not believe that you know, you do not believe that you have this ability, you only believe in science, and so this ability of yours is gone. Ancient people did not have science; they only had this one thing to use, only this inner knower to use, so they could only rely on it.

In those portions of your culture that are based upon the idea that no such inner knowledge exists, and in those foolish ideas that consider rational thought the only provider of answers, you often limit your own use of inner abilities.

Why did ancient people have it and I don't? The reason is right here. You do not believe that this kind of inner knowledge exists, so how would you use it? You do not even believe you have it, so how would you go about using it? And then you always treat rational thought as the only answer; he says this kind of thinking is the foolish kind. But we human beings right now are exactly in this kind of thinking -- we believe that only things that can be explained by logical reasoning make sense; if they cannot be explained, then sorry, it is invalid, it cannot convince me, and so I would rather die than use this thing. Is this still the situation now? Why is it that if something is effective but you cannot explain the reasoning, you won't use it? Isn't that foolish?

Let me give you an example; this is a true story. One time I went to the hospital -- a relative in the family was sick, and I went to stay with them. In the next bed there was a person, and someone from his family was also staying with him, and they told me about something that happened in their hometown.

In their hometown there was an ancestor who was an old Chinese doctor of very high skill. Later, during the Cultural Revolution, because of the campaign to destroy the "Four Olds," his books and everything were confiscated. The person telling the story was a shepherd boy at the time, very simple and honest, and from time to time he would bring the old doctor a little something, so he treated the old man well. When the old doctor was about to die, he had nothing left to give him -- his books had all been confiscated -- so he said: I have nothing to leave you, so I will just teach you one formula orally. This formula was specifically for treating bone fractures -- the kind where you break your leg in a fall. He said with my formula, you can get out of bed in two or three days. That's impossible, right? We know that without three or four months in a cast, a fracture cannot heal normally. The old man told him what herbs to use, how to combine them, how to apply them -- these herbs were available locally, they grew right there. After he finished speaking, the old man passed away.

After he died, the shepherd remembered the formula, but he had never tested it. He thought, I need to try this thing and see if it is good -- he had never treated anyone; he was a shepherd. How did he test it? He took a rock and broke a sheep's leg, then wrapped it with the herbs, and watched to see whether the sheep would recover. It worked every single time; after two or three days the sheep was fine, as if nothing had happened. Then he told people in the surrounding villages. At first people were skeptical, but later someone whose leg was broken came to him for treatment, and it healed right away, and gradually his reputation spread. Using just a few kinds of local grasses -- something called white snake flower grass, I can't remember exactly -- a few grasses combined, smeared on the broken leg, and in two or three days it was healed.

How do you explain that? It cannot be explained. How do you explain it with science? A fractured, broken leg cannot heal within two or three days. If you use intellect and logic to reason it out, it is impossible, but the actual result was that it healed. Later this person's formula was also taken away by the state -- he was also practicing medicine illegally; he was a shepherd with no medical license, and later he was not allowed to treat people anymore. But this formula seems to have been preserved by the state; whether it was ever used again afterward, I don't know.

The Lucid Awareness

He says because you go through logic and rational thought, you cannot possibly apply these inner abilities, because they completely do not conform to logic, do not conform to rationality.

If all goes well, you will have a new kind of lucid awareness.

Seth has already pointed out this direction. If all goes well -- he means if you can use your inner knowledge, if you no longer believe that only logic and rational reasoning are the only results, if you acknowledge this inner existence -- the existence of this knower -- if you acknowledge that these inner things exist, then you will develop a new kind of consciousness, called lucid awareness. What is lucid awareness? It is innate knowing, knowing from the beginning; the more you use it, the more you believe it, the more it knows. This thing still cannot be explained clearly by intellect and logic. This is also a major direction for the future development of our human race -- outside of technological development, but it does not mean that we abandon technology; no, it is about combining them together.

It is a kind of intellect that understands the source of its own light.

Remember, it is not that once you use this thing you no longer need intellect. It is still a kind of intellect, but it understands where the source of its own intellect lies. The source of the intellect's light is not the intellect itself, not itself, but rather the spontaneous force that provides fuel for its thinking. At that time, this lucid awareness will be activated. The most central point of this lucid awareness is this: it understands that intellect is not the only thing in this world, that behind intellect there is still that something -- what makes you think? Your thoughts never stop for a moment; what is it that makes your thoughts keep thinking like a perpetual motion machine? Apart from the biological fact that the brain needs blood, needs oxygen, needs energy supply, what is that power that truly keeps your thinking from stopping? What is that spontaneous force? That is the lucid awareness we need to expand. It is the power behind the thinking ability, that consciousness, that is your lucid awareness. It is not about developing your thinking, your logical reasoning ability to the extreme -- none of that is enough to expand your abilities; it is the thing behind thinking that is the ability you should be expanding.

Seth said the session was over. Rob said, "Excellent" -- he knew this session was fantastic. This session discussed two core issues: one was protection, and the discussion that arose from protection; then afterward it discussed how human civilization came about, this inner knower of ours, this knower. Two seemingly unrelated topics, and in the end they echoed each other again.

I wish you a good evening. Tell Ruburt to change his cushion often -- he has a water bag.

At 10:40, as soon as Jane came out of trance, she smiled and said to Rob: See, I told you not to interrupt me, I said interrupting was not good -- but as it turned out, the interruption brought some good things. Then Rob told her that the implications of the material were utterly fascinating, that the content was wonderful. He said that it was very interesting that in her ability to connect to the Seth material, which seemed to be an infinite source of energy, she bore a strong resemblance to early humans and to their ability to carry within themselves all their personal, cultural, and historical information. When Jane connected to Seth, she gained endless knowledge and wisdom; those early people did not understand anything, so they connected to their inner selves, and then they knew. This ability and the process by which early humans obtained knowledge by connecting to their own inner selves -- aren't they very similar? Just as early humans operated on their own, without all the writing or any other modern conveniences of communication that we have -- the state of Seth channeling through Jane is the same; there is no need for written transmission, someone directly tells you this knowledge in your mind, just as Seth told Jane and Rob recorded it. Isn't it very similar?

Rob was speculating about what reincarnational connections might exist between Jane and ancient people. Was Jane, in some sense, more like an ancient person reincarnated into the present, who had retained this ability and therefore could connect with Seth? What this means is, was Jane an ancient person reincarnated here? They did not ask Seth to comment on it. Seth's potential for doing oral history seems to be unlimited -- when Seth talks about human history, there is simply no limit at all; he can go from prehistoric civilization all the way to modern civilization. Rob joked that Seth's ability to narrate history orally was limitless, much like early humans passing down history by word of mouth.

Seth did not return to the material on reincarnation, schizophrenia, and demonic possession that he had discussed last Wednesday evening in Session 921. He was watching -- that is, in Chapter 6 of Adventures in Consciousness¹¹, Jane described how in November 1971 she became aware of the existence of this helper, and she sent this helper to many people who requested various kinds of assistance. She still does this now. Quite a few people had written to Jane, and when she actually did this for them, beneficial events occurred in their lives -- many people wrote back to tell her that when she actually sent these helpers to assist them, real, beneficial changes truly occurred in their lives. But Jane did not keep formal records; she did not write it down, who had what changes -- she did not record these things.

Rob said, we often speculated that, at least for those who needed help, simply knowing that Jane had sent a messenger like a helper to care about them had psychological benefits -- this helping them, helping them to initiate positive action on their own. Simply knowing that Jane was going to send someone to help them was in itself a great psychological comfort to them, and could also prompt them to activate their own inner strength. The other party sent only a helper; it mainly depends on yourself. But having someone come to help you and feeling that no one in the universe is helping you are different feelings. Although in the end what helped them was themselves, this external help, for those who needed help, was like grasping a life-saving straw; it still had a certain significance. You have to first give them a state, and then let them gradually transition to self-initiation. If from the very beginning you ignore them and say, it all depends on yourself, change your own beliefs, adjust yourself -- everything you say is correct, but for the person seeking help, this really makes them feel too cold, too helpless. Because in the state they were in at that time, if they could activate themselves, they would not have needed to come to you. The reason they came to you is precisely because they believed they did not have this ability, did not have this strength. So you first give them something, let them have this comfort, have this opportunity to catch their breath first, and then tell them to slowly accumulate their own strength, reclaim their own energy -- only then will they have this turning point.

In the end it still depends on oneself, but in the early stage one can seek this kind of help.

All right, the commentary on this session ends here.

---

注释与核实

1. This claim could not be verified. ↩

2. Source: U.S. Department of State EducationUSA, "Find Your Fit: How to find the best university for you, with Minerva University," 2024 (https://educationusa.state.gov/events/find-your-fit-how-find-best-university-you-minerva-university) ↩

3. Source: Amber Dance, "Pencils down: The year pre-college tests went away," 2021 (https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/society/2021/college-admissions-testing-pros-cons) ↩

4. Source: FairTest, "Two-Thirds of Bachelor-degree Granting U.S. Colleges and Universities Will Not Require ACT/SAT Scores From Fall 2022 Applicants" (2021) (https://fairtest.org/two-thirds-of-colleges-universities-will-not-require-act-sat/) ↩

5. This claim could not be verified. ↩

6. Source: Kay Nolan, "Success in Helping the Poor and Homeless Leads Teen to Create an Even Bigger Initiative to Focus on Education," 2020 (https://www.pointsoflight.org/awards/success-in-helping-the-poor-and-homeless-leads-teen-to-create-an-even-bigger-initiative-to-focus-on-education/) ↩

7. Source: Smithsonian Institution, "Homo sapiens" (https://www.si.edu/object/homo-sapiens%3Adpo_3d_200102) ↩ ↩²

8. Source: Chinese Academy of Sciences, "Scientists See Through the Mysterious Corridor of the Great Pyramid for the First Time" (https://www.cas.cn/kj/202303/t20230308_4878780.shtml) ↩

9. According to Mike's original words, "exquisite jade carvings were discovered ten thousand years ago"; upon verification, it should be "the Lingjiatan site in Anhui dates to about 5,800 to 5,300 years ago, and finely crafted jade objects were unearthed there, not jade carvings from ten thousand years ago." (Source: Xinhua News Agency, "Visiting Lingjiatan, Inquiring into the Mystery of 'Intelligent Manufacturing' from More Than 5,000 Years Ago," 2023, https://www.news.cn/2023-08/10/c_1129797244.htm) ↩

10. Source: UNESCO, "Gesar epic tradition" (2009) (https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/gesar-epic-tradition-00204?RL=00204) ↩

11. Source: Robert Butts, "Dreams, 'Evolution,' and Value Fulfillment, Volume Two" (https://avalonlibrary.net/ebooks/Jane%20Roberts%20-%20Seth%20-%20Dreams,%20evolution,%20and%20value%20fulfillment.Vol2%20%5BOCR%5D.pdf) ↩