Mike's commentary · The "Unknown" Reality, Session 687

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

Introduction

This session closes out Part One of The "Unknown" Reality, discussing how consciousness expands from an ego focused solely on the physical senses into one capable of perceiving probable realities and the inner world. Seth gives an exercise: recall a scene from the past, imagine another probable branch that was not chosen at the time, and use subjective feelings and vague areas to identify clues. The text also discusses the relationship between emotions, concepts of deity, religion, and the development of consciousness, pointing out that humanity stands at a turning point where, if it follows only the material route, this probability will be difficult to sustain, and emphasizing the union of reason and spirituality.

Key Points of This Chapter

• The goal of expanding consciousness is to become aware of probable pasts, probable futures, and the shielded inner reality, without negating the physical world.
• Recalling a past scene and imagining another branch that was not chosen at the time is a preliminary method for practicing the expansion of consciousness; the blurred areas of the image and the subjective feelings are the main clues.
• The desire to love and the desire to know are biological needs; emotion is the core through which a person travels among probable realities and comes to know multidimensional existence.
• The idea of God and the forms of religion take shape along with the stages of consciousness development; they reflect but also distort the inner reality.
• If humanity continues to take material development alone as its main line, the civilization in this probability will be difficult to sustain; reason and spirituality need to be combined, avoiding a retreat into superstition or mutual denial.

Main Text

The Expansion of Consciousness: The Path of Awakening from Ego to Whole Self

Today we come to Session 687 of Volume 1 of The "Unknown" Reality. The title of this session is "The Necessity of the Expansion of Consciousness for Human Biological and Spiritual Survival." This session is the final one of Part 1 of The "Unknown" Reality, and it is very important. This session began on Monday, March 4, 1974, at 9:42 p.m.

In Tape 6, there is material about Jane beginning to dictate to him shortly after midnight last night concerning parallel persons, alternate persons, and probable persons. Actually, this material is the second step of The "Unknown" Reality; what we have been discussing so far is still the content of its first step. The "Unknown" Reality is divided into six parts altogether, and within it there are no further chapter divisions, only six parts. This session is the final one of Part 1, and the content he discusses below is actually already the next step.

Starting at 9:20, they began waiting for the session to begin. Then Seth said that an experience like Ruburt's Saratoga interlude is extremely valuable. It appears to be an ordinary out-of-body experience, but this experience is very valuable, valuable in that it brought together two parallel space-times, or brought together two probable time-terms.

Because they began a process. What process? This experience began a process in which other nerve impulses were to some extent acknowledged. That is to say, those nerve impulses transmitted from other parallel space-times—for example, the sensation of a small baby sitting in a baby carriage being jolted along on the road—that is actually the neural sensation of a probable self in another probable space-time—not this self, but a probable self—in another probable space-time, and all of that could be felt by Jane in this space-time. So this kind of sensation is actually available to us, but we have blocked it out.

After a period of time, if this kind of practice is continued for a while, it may bring about certain conscious experiences of probable realities. At first there may be only very brief glimpses, and the sensory experience may be vague and unclear. In the beginning you may only see a simple fragment or something blurry. But in any case, between the neurological structure and the consciousness as you know it, a new pattern and a cognitive effort are being established.

What new pattern? It is your present neurological structure—our neural transmission system, our sensory system. When he says neurological structure, understand it as our feeling system or sensory system, that is, our five senses. Our five senses' perception of the outside world only responds to the present moment; we do not respond to things that are not of the present. But at this time he tells you to establish a new pattern, in which your nervous system can also feel and respond to those sensations from other probable realities that you previously blocked out or screened off. He says this new pattern is beginning to be established.

An Excellent Preliminary Exercise

He says the following is an excellent preliminary exercise. Actually, this exercise is the one he should have given in the previous session's exercise, but he did not give it. And in the end, I made a supplement for everyone. I was hoping to use everyone's photographs to do the exercise; that was my own understanding. Then when I saw this session, I found that it was the same method as Seth's exercise, which is very amazing. Because when I was interpreting this book, it was probably more than a year ago that I had read it. When I read it again now, I have many fresh cognitions and experiences. In other words, I actually cannot remember the content of every session. When I was teaching the previous session, at the end when it came to the exercise, I found that he had no exercise; his exercise was only a description of one of Jane's out-of-body experiences. So I supplemented an exercise for everyone, and actually this exercise is the one Seth gives in this session, but it is the same as the exercise I gave you above. See for yourself what he says:

From your own past, choose any scene you remember as an image.

I asked you to choose a photograph; here he asks you to choose an image from memory. It is the same principle.

Then in an imaginative way, experience it, live it as clearly as possible.

It is also the same: you imagine what happened in that scene at the time, and see whether your sensory system can still feel what you saw, felt, and knew then—smell, touch, taste, vision. See what you can feel.

But with the idea of its possible extensions.

With a certain something: it may extend. That scene at the time, that scene in your memory, that photograph—there may be a continuation afterward, right? For example, after taking the photo, let's go get a drink, or let's do something else. It is possible that after taking that photo the two of you had an argument. All of that is possible. As for the things that happened after that photo was taken, imagine them as much as you can.

Immediately, or after a few tries, a certain portion of such a scene will become gray or blurred.

What scene? It is when you imagine this possibility of what came afterward, it may become gray or blurred.

For example, suppose you imagine that after taking the photo at the time, you went to eat. Now you want to imagine that after taking the photo you did not go to eat; you went directly to the next scenic spot, or you went to do something else. And that thing, at the time, was one of two possibilities. You cannot just make things up randomly; you can only think about whether there was such a choice at the time—say, after taking the photo we go eat, or we do something else—another possibility—say, we continue on to some other place to play. You need to figure out the branching of the possibilities at that time. Then you choose the one you did not choose at the time. If at the time you went to eat, then choose the possibility that you continued sightseeing and continued taking photos; if at the time you continued taking photos, then choose the possibility that you did not take photos and went to eat instead.

But this possibility cannot be fabricated out of thin air; it must be something you actually considered at the time, something you had as a possible choice at the time. Do you understand what I mean? Something you fabricate is meaningless. If you never thought of it at the time, and now you insist on making one up, that is meaningless. You need to think of a possibility that existed at the time, but which you did not choose, and then follow that unchosen possibility and continue forward.

Suppose you choose the one where you continued taking photos and did not go to eat. Continuing to take photos, then think about which scenic spot you would have gone to next—would it have been a place you did not go to at the time? Because at the time you went to eat, and perhaps after eating you were tired and went back. But at this time, in this possibility, you may have gone to another scenic spot. That scenic spot, in that reality, in the reality where you took the photo, was not chosen by you; you did not experience it. So follow that unexperienced possibility and continue forward.

He says that as you go along, you may find you cannot continue; the image disappears, the picture becomes blurred, or it becomes dim. At this point, it is not part of the past as you know it. Because that is very normal—that part you did not experience, so after a few steps of thinking you cannot continue, because you never experienced it. But that is a junction point. What junction point? It is the point where two probable space-times intersect; it can also be called a branching point. A junction point is also a branching point. At that point, one went to eat, and the other continued taking photos. And at this time you do not know which scenic spots you went to afterward, because you never experienced that at all.

There, at that junction point, the past became one branch entering into a series of probabilities, and you did not follow it. For example, the possibility of continuing to sightsee—you did not follow it, but that possibility of continuing to sightsee would have its own series of branches. Perhaps as you were sightseeing, there would be some new branches, some new ideas in between—maybe let's go browse a shopping mall, or let's go to some other place. Those branches are not the same as the branches derived from going to eat. But those branches may not last long, or they may last long, or they may not last long. I am just giving a simple example. Some branches may produce changes as different as heaven and earth, while some branches may merge back together by evening. For example, no matter what you did, by evening you both returned to the hotel—for example—then the storylines of these two branches merge back into returning to the hotel in the evening, becoming one storyline. But it is possible that afterward you had an argument, and you may have left the city directly, and the two of you may have gone your separate ways from then on. That is also a possibility. In that possibility, it may be a different plot altogether.

Conversely, he says, instead of seeing something blurred, you may feel that you yourself lack substance, like a ghostly image. There is a possibility that what you see is not something blurred, but is very clear, while you yourself become unreal, no longer material, lacking substance—that is, not material—like a ghostly image. This is the same as Ruburt's experience; Ruburt existed like a ghostly image in that experience.

Beyond these, if any imaginary dialogue appears, it may suddenly become different from what you remember. If in this process there is some dialogue, and if in that scene, when you are observing, you exist like a ghostly image, and at this time you can see the picture, and the picture is very clear, there may be some dialogue that is unfamiliar to you, because it is different from your memory. That is a probable reality. Or the entire scene and the probable actions may change rapidly; the scene is different, and the probable actions are different. Any such phenomenon may be a hint that you yourself have begun to glimpse the probable variations of that particular scene and action. He says this may all be a hint, hinting at the direction in which those probable variations occurred; they may have happened in this way.

However, the important clue here is the subjective feeling. Remember, the important clue here—be sure to remember—the important clue is the subjective feeling, not what you see. It is how you feel after seeing it, what your feeling is. That is, whether there is that kind of bodily perception, that emotional or physical, biological perception. This subjective feeling is very important. And once you experience it, once you experience that feeling—just as Jane could experience the feeling of sitting in the baby carriage—once you experience that feeling, your heart will have no doubt whatsoever; you will be certain that it is the existence of another probable self, and you will have no doubt. Before this, when there is no subjective feeling, you always feel that this is just your imagination; you always think it is your imagination, and you do not think it is real. But once you have that feeling, you will no longer doubt that it is only your imagination. Because that bodily feeling is felt as if it were your own; that sense of touch, sense of motion, including taste, smell, touch, and vision, will all bring you direct stimulation and impact, as if you were right there at the scene.

The Essentials of the Exercise and Emotional Investment

That is the first part of his exercise. Some people have no difficulty with this exercise, while others must make persistent efforts before they have any success. Remember, some people find it easy, while others find it more difficult. Those who find it difficult should not be discouraged; practice repeatedly, it is normal. This exercise is not simple; do not think it is very simple. It really may be especially simple for some people, but for others it is truly difficult. But try a few more times, persist and try a few more times; persistent effort is required.

If you choose a scene from your past that involved a choice that was important to you, the method will be even more effective.

If you are at a juncture of an important choice in your past life—for example, when you were deciding whether to marry this person or that person, when you were especially torn—when you return to that choice at that time, and you make the opposite choice, and then you follow that possibility forward, he says this will sometimes be more effective. Why? Because your emotional investment will be very intense; you will be more interested in imagining that outcome. As for the example I just gave, whether to go eat or continue sightseeing, it does not arouse much interest for you, and your emotional investment is insufficient. Here you must remember that emotion, or feeling, plays a very large role here. If you want the exercise to be more effective, you had better choose moments in your life when your emotions had major fluctuations—that is, when your emotional state was very intense, at such a juncture of time, at such an important life decision—and do this exercise at that point; the effect may be better. This method may be more effective and easier to carry out. Do not use the kind of trivial thing I mentioned earlier, where whether you took photos or went to eat does not matter at all; that may not arouse your interest at all.

In such instances, begin imaginatively, following the other decisions you might have made.

You must imagine, starting from imagination—be sure to remember to use your imagination. You say you do not know what it would have been like if you had married that person—of course you do not know, and that is exactly why you need to practice. So how do you practice? Use your imagination to practice. Imagination plays an important role here; the more real, the better. Imagine that you married the person you did not choose—the one you were torn about for a period of time at the time—suppose you married him instead of your current husband, or instead of your current wife—what would the result have been. Remember, at the beginning of using imagination, there is no other way; you can only use imagination.

At a certain point, a blurring effect, grayness, or the other characteristics I have mentioned, will occur.

That is, the characteristics mentioned earlier—both possibilities exist. One possibility is grayness and blurring; the other is the kind mentioned above, where it is clear and you yourself are like a ghostly image. Both may occur. There may be one or several kinds of feelings; it is not fixed, and it varies from person to person. But again, he emphasizes again that your subjective feeling is the most important clue. Be sure to remember, when you imagine the things that your probable selves do in probable space-times—the thing itself is not important; you can arrive at the thing through imagination—the thing itself is not important; what is important is the feeling within that thing; that feeling is the important clue.

For example, imagination may bring you a clear picture, and then it may become blurred. And in that situation, that blurriness is the hint of your probable action. It suddenly becomes blurred; you were imagining quite well, but at a key picture, it suddenly becomes blurred. So what is that blurriness? That blurriness is the hint of your probable action. At the place where it becomes blurred, that is where you are about to have a probable action, entering another probable time-term. And at this time, you may be able to enter, or you may not be able to enter; neither matters. But you have already begun to loosen up; you have already begun to touch the edge of that probability, or that threshold. At that time it begins to hint to you; after that time you have some probable actions, and those actions are unknown to this parallel world of yours.

He knows that only after you have tried and become completely familiar with this exercise will you understand its effectiveness.

This exercise should be done often. Did I not say earlier that you can start with recent ones, from your short-term ones? Why start with short-term, recent ones? Because at that time your emotions are still relatively intense. Of course, you can also start from those nodes that had major significance for your life. I suggest starting from the simple ones, and then gradually increasing the difficulty. Do not start by taking a photo of yourself as a baby and begin with that; that is extremely difficult. Do not use that one. In the end, perhaps you may be able to do that, but do not do it at the beginning.

The more familiar you become with this exercise, the more you will understand its effectiveness. For example, you will remember the remembered event, and when imagination intersected with another probability. That is, you will be able to understand in what kind of space-time, or in what kind of probability, this probable event intersected with your imagination. Interesting. That is, what you imagined and what actually happened—did what you imagined actually happen or not? When I say "actually," I mean actuality in another probable world. Because what you are using now is imagination; you do not know what actually happened in that parallel space-time; you are using imagination. But how do you know whether what you imagined actually happened or not? Seth gives you a piece of information: when a picture you are imagining suddenly becomes blurred, Seth tells you—that thing, the thing you were imagining, has already happened in that space-time.

Do you understand where Seth's point is? It is right here. That is, for your parallel worlds, your probable worlds, you can only use imagination for now. That is not real; it is your imagination. It is not to say that your imagination is always a product of a real parallel world. And as for what actually happened in that parallel world, how do you know what happened? You use this method to test it. When you are thinking and thinking and cannot continue, when that picture suddenly becomes blurred, or suddenly becomes dim, then that thing you were thinking about—in that parallel world it actually happened; it intersected with that probability. That is what it means.

Neurological Reorientation

Whether or not you are very successful, the exercise will begin a neurological reorientation.

Whether you succeed or not in this experiment, in this exercise, does not matter. As long as you begin doing this experiment, your neural transmission or neural perceptual capacity has already begun to turn its direction—turning from the previous sole focus on information transmitted to you through the nerves of the five senses—the five senses, the five outer senses, that single path of receiving information—turning it toward a direction in which information from other sources can also be felt. It is turning direction. That is a very important thing, because you are beginning to accept information beyond the five senses.

If you wish to glimpse realities beyond your present neurologically felt, sense reality, this is a very useful method. The exercise is a psychic and biological doorway.

It is not only a material doorway, but also a spiritual one; both body and spirit are its doorways. It can expand your concepts of yourself and of reality, both of them. It can expand both your concepts of yourself and of this world.

There may be some instances in which, while doing the exercise, there seems to be little progress; the exercise shows no change, no feeling, no special reaction during practice. But when during the day, after you have made an important decision in one direction, you may begin to feel the reality of the opposite decision and its branches. He says when you do this exercise and there may be no reaction, do not worry about it. In your normal daily life during the day, there may be a major decision where you can choose direction A or direction B. When you choose A and do not choose B, at that moment you suddenly have a strong hint and feeling, and you will know very clearly what would have happened if you had chosen B. This kind of intuition and inspiration will naturally emerge only after you have done the above exercise many times, and it is very useful. Such an ability that emerges is of course very good for you. Because in the place you did not choose, you also know what kind of result it would have had, and this gives you a very great reference when making choices.

This exercise may also produce a different kind of dream. In your dreams, your dreamscape may be an introduction to, or a symbol of, that unknown reality you have not experienced. "Introduction" here probably means symbol. In any case, in the dream state you deal directly with future probabilities. In dreams you can deal directly with future probabilities; in waking reality you need practice to do so.

For example, in a series of dreams, you may try out various different answers to a given problem, and choose one among them, and that choice becomes your physical reality. What it means is that you may have a series of dreams, and each of these dreams may be those—for example, if you have six choices, then you have six dreams, and these six dreams show you the consequences of these six choices, or the probable realities that may occur afterward. And you choose from among them the result you want, and the thing you chose is realized in your material world, in your real life—that is your physical reality.

Then according to the intensity of the circumstances, another quite satisfactory answer may be achieved in a probable reality. This "intensity" refers to your emotional intensity and your degree of focus. So if there are other possible answers—if the solution to this problem may be more than one—then the other possible solutions may be achieved in a probable reality. Because you can only experience a single storyline; those storylines you did not experience may mean another possible method of resolving the matter, another possible solution, only it did not appear in your world; it appeared in another probable world. So in that world, the matter was resolved. After it is resolved, if you can go to that parallel world, you can know that method of resolution, and it is helpful to you.

Probable Selves and Shared Dreamscapes

On an unconscious level, you are aware of your probable selves, and they are aware of you. You share the same psychic roots; your inner beings are connected. And your combined yet separate dreams are available to each of you. In this shared dreamscape, the dream is available to each person; it is not a shared dream—it is not that in this dream you all enter one dream together; no. You dream your dream, and he dreams his dream, but at the bottom layer of these dreams, there is a shared resource, a shared symbol.

The symbols they use are all the same; the dream materials they use, the dream stuff, are also the same, but each dream is its own; you dream your dream, and he dreams his dream. But they use the same dream materials and the same dream symbols; these are the same. This does not mean that you are dreaming another person's dream; it does not mean you are dreaming someone else's dream, nor does it mean, for example, that twins are dreaming each other's dreams. That is, you and your probable self are like twins, and you dream his dream, and he dreams your dream. No, you are each dreaming your own dreams, your own respective dreams, but the things you use in the dreams are the same, and the symbols used are the same.

It does mean that your probable selves share with you a large body of symbols, backgrounds, and abilities. What is shared is not the dream, but the backgrounds within the dreamscape—that is, the large developmental background of the dream, the developmental setting. What is shared are those symbols, and what is shared is the ability that the self possesses within the dream; these can be shared. But the dream is not the same dream.

The multiplex structure of dreams allows a probable self to appear within the dream drama.

Probable selves may appear as symbols, representing the intense characteristics upon which they once focused, although you have ignored them. He says probable selves will appear in your dreams. Because the dream itself is a multidimensional structure; the dream transcends space and time; it is multidimensional. And your probable self is also of another dimension, another level, so from this perspective, the probable self will appear in dreams. That probable self—the one you did not choose—will appear in dreams. But it may appear in symbolic form; it will not appear as another you. Otherwise, would you not—how could there be two of me in my dream? It is not like that. It will appear in a symbolic form, which is very interesting. It will appear in your dream as another person, as some other thing, or as some small animal, or in some kind of image, but not in your own image. So you have ignored them; they have appeared, but you could not understand them.

Yet dreams may indeed operate between probable selves and probable existences as a rich communication network. All possibilities leap out from that inner reality, from the psyche's own inner activity and structure.

So dreams do operate between probable selves and probable existences, like a rich communication network, a communications network. All possibilities leap out from inner reality, from the psyche's own inner activity and structure. Every probable self of ours comes out from that inner world; it is said to leap out, so all of them are within your inner world, coming out from there. So you see, this is why your inner world matters: everything comes from there.

The consciousness you know can now indeed enter into itself and even into a greater reality.

It is not in this reality. The consciousness you know can now indeed enter into itself. What does entering into itself mean? It means entering the inner world. When he says consciousness enters itself, it means consciousness enters the inner world. Our inner world is composed of units of consciousness, that purest consciousness. When it enters itself, it enters the inner world, and then even a greater reality. What is the greater reality? It is the reality in which your inner world is connected with all things; that is a greater reality. Besides there being an inner you in your inner world, it can also connect with all things, and the reality connected with all things is that greater reality. So your inner knowledge, your consciousness, can enter there.

But not by stubbornly protecting his old camp. Instead, he must regard himself as possibility, as the power of the director of probable actions, and no longer suppress his own greater abilities.

He says when he wants to sense the inner self and the greater inner world, he does not do it by maintaining his present sense of identity, the present sense of identity centered on the ego. He must enter from a larger perspective. He must regard this present self, this ego, or this present life, or this world he now lives in, as one of the many possibilities of the greater self. He must clearly realize that, as this consciousness, it and its inner self are originally one. This inner self, which is originally one with it, is the director of the possibilities, not the passive recipient.

This is a misunderstanding many people easily fall into: "Oh, so I am one of many possibilities, I am one of many parallel worlds, then where is my initiative? Where is my free will?" Here he stresses it again, afraid you may get lost. He tells you again: you are the director of those possibilities, you are the directing power, you are the one who chooses. As the character within a given possibility, as this ego, one may feel passive; it may have that feeling. But when you look at this from one level higher, from the level of consciousness, all these are your own choices; every possibility is your choice.

So here you must understand: step back from this single world of yours and be able to see that it is merely one of the many probable choices you have made. You still have many possibilities you did not choose, but the possibilities you did not choose still exist. From the standpoint of consciousness, those other possibilities are also your choices. And it is these that can show your greater abilities. For example, choosing a version of you who is an artist, a painter, an athlete, and so on, these are all your choices. So no longer suppress their greater abilities. What are the greater abilities? It is the ability to choose.

The Expansion of Consciousness and the True Range of the Body

For you, up to now, your consciousness has been specialized in neurological patterns. Our present consciousness responds only to our nervous system. As mentioned earlier in Session 682, when consciousness was learning the art of specialized focus, that is, when consciousness focused only on the physical world level, this was extremely important. But now it must begin to realize that it can indeed expand. The previous focus of consciousness was not wrong, but now it should expand and bring other quite valid realities into its awareness. Those unknown realities, those realities previously screened out by it, should now be taken into the range it should become aware of.

The nature of probabilities must be understood, because in the world you experience, the time has come when the greatest wisdom and discrimination are needed.

In the world you now experience, the time has come when the greatest wisdom is needed. Remember, the greatest wisdom and discrimination are already needed. These previous developments and these things have reached their peak; we humans must now make a choice. We must expand our consciousness, expand from the single physical level. Remember, it is expansion; it is not that focusing on the physical world is wrong. There is nothing wrong with that; it is only too narrow. We want to widen our range of awareness, widen those things we previously ignored or screened out, rather than denying your present physical world in order to achieve that goal.

We cannot be like a bear picking corn, denying the present physical world and going back to a pure consciousness state, a so-called purely spiritual state; that direction is wrong. It must be on the basis of the existing physical world that we widen the range of our understanding. We cannot be either/or; do not set spirituality and the physical world against each other. This is one of the most important things we should learn.

Your consciousness and its mental biases make you blind to the whole range of the body's activities.

Is he saying our consciousness and nerves are biased? Did he not say before that we have biased perception? Indeed biased. Biased toward what? We are biased only toward the physical world, only toward our physical senses, these five senses; that is where the bias lies. This is what the Buddha meant by "see that the five aggregates are empty; form is no different from emptiness, emptiness no different from form; form is emptiness, emptiness is form" ¹. The five aggregates mentioned there refer to these five sense capacities. Among the five aggregates, form is one of them; form is our sensory system. In this state, you must understand that this thing is only one of the many possibilities of our consciousness. Apart from this material sensation, we also have other sensations, but we previously screened them out; now we must find them again.

So the whole range of the body is very great, but we turn a blind eye to it. Because our body itself transcends time and space; our cells transcend time and space; the body's range is very great. But our range of consciousness has restricted it. Our consciousness is on our nerves, that is, on our sensory system; as soon as you mention nerves, you think of the sensory system. On our consciousness and sensory system, we restrict the activity range of our own body to focusing only on the physical level.

The true meaning of the body's actions is not yet apparent to you.

We do not yet understand the true meaning of the body's actions. What is the true meaning? It is those units of consciousness; it is that consciousness wants to pursue its own inclinations and importance. We do not understand why our body moves, what the purpose of movement is, where its meaning lies; therefore we do not truly understand the meaning of our body's actions. That is what it means.

At 10:23 there was a one-minute pause. You are beginning to understand the reality of your planet, beginning to understand the reality of Earth. For example, you cannot plunder it. That is, you cannot carry it off by plunder; this is what you have only just begun to learn. What we imagine is that Earth's resources are limited, that once used up they are gone, that the Earth will be exhausted, that we will loot it empty; this is our present understanding. But when you begin to truly understand, you will find that this is not so. This Earth exists as one of its probable realities; it can restart at any time, can renew itself at any time, and this surpasses your understanding of matter.

If you think Earth is physical, then its resources will decrease bit by bit as they are used. If you can imagine Earth as a game background, as a scene, for example, when you play World of Warcraft ², something like the continent of Azeroth, you can imagine such a place, a place that can restart at any time, enter a completely new Earth mode at any time, then you will not have this idea. So you cannot plunder it. You always feel you can plunder this Earth, that the plundered resources will be looted empty by you; that is only how you would think from a material standpoint, but it is not so at all. Earth exists as a large activity background for our human existence.

Opening your consciousness to previously denied information will bring you into direct contact with other life forms on your Earth.

Once you open all the information that your consciousness previously closed off and screened out, it will bring you into direct contact with other life forms on this Earth. Because they are all open; it was you who previously did not allow yourself to do this. You did not allow yourself to have this ability. What ability? The ability to connect with all other things.

Your cells alone, with their knowledge of past and future probabilities, would teach you a kind of mental and physical courtesy.

What is meant by mental and physical courtesy? It is when your cells have knowledge of past and future probabilities; this has been discussed many times before, right? Cells can simultaneously sense past and future probabilities. Your present existence is suspended within the web of past and future probabilities; within this web you make choices; within this matrix you make choices. To put it simply.

When you merely understand this point, without even mentioning your connection with all things, just when you understand this: your past emerges from many probabilities, your future also emerges from many probabilities, and this present of yours is influenced by the many probabilities of past and future; from among them you choose, choosing what you want to experience in the present. Only by understanding this, you will be somewhat more courteous mentally and physically. What does "more courteous" refer to? It is courtesy toward all things, toward nature, toward the universe. That is, you will be able to understand that you have no way to plunder Earth; you have no way to cause the kind of damage you think you can cause to Earth.

Why? Because in this choosing among future probabilities, your Earth is also participating; all things in the world, those lives you do not know, are also participating. Among these many probable choices, you only choose some things you want to experience and feel. At this time, you will become reverent toward nature, toward the universe, toward this choosing among probabilities, because every choice here can be experienced by you.

Okay, he said to wait a moment, and then he began to pause.

This unknown reality maintains you and the web of life as you understand it.

The unknown reality is the network that sustains our present life. Without this unknown reality, our present reality would not exist. Did he not say that your present emerges from past and future probabilities, and those past and future probabilities are unknown realities? For us now, this unknown reality is the key that sustains the life of our present existence, that is, the web of life.

Within this unknown reality, your conscious concepts and ideas must expand so that the conscious self can understand its true nature. You must expand your consciousness.

As you believe, consciousness is only half-developed. It has learned to identify with a small group of accepted neurological responses. This is a very interesting thing. That is, your consciousness only focuses on the nerves of the five senses, or these five sense organs; you only accept the stimulation of these nerves. This is your previous half-developed state of consciousness. The other part, the stimulation of the inner senses, does not yet respond for you.

The latent [abilities] of some unused parts of the brain...

As we all know, we have developed only a small part of the brain's functions; most of it remains unused. We do not know how that part can be stimulated or used. In the movie Lucy ³, she uses some kind of CH4, some kind of substance, that can stimulate the other latent abilities of the human brain. When her brain's potential is stimulated to 100 percent, she has already become a buddha or an immortal; she is already everywhere and nowhere. What that movie wants to tell you is that once the human brain is fully developed, a human is a god. It is only that the human brain has not been fully developed; if it were fully developed, it would be a god.

He says that there is a part of your brain that is unused; once used, you would be remarkable. It awaits the cognition that triggers those parts into activity. How can this hidden part of the brain be stimulated? It requires the improvement of your cognition. Therefore, in Buddhist practice, one always emphasizes wisdom, emphasizes hui, right? One emphasizes precepts, concentration, and wisdom. First there must be precepts, then concentration can arise; with concentration, wisdom can arise. What kind of wisdom is that? That wisdom is the cognition that can open the hidden, latent abilities of your brain; that thing is wisdom. When you have this wisdom, your brain will be different from others.

When this happens, the mind will become aware of the rich deposits of probabilities on which the present self now rides so blindly.

When you trigger the hidden abilities of the brain, your mind will be able to perceive the present self, which is so blind. What does blind mean? It does not understand at all. It rides so blindly on these rich deposits of probabilities; it does not understand this deposit of probabilities, does not understand this storehouse of probabilities, so it is blind. But it is still riding on it. Our consciousness, our ego, is born from these probabilities, but we do not understand these probabilities. We ride on them, yet we do not understand them; this is our present state. And when you open this part of the ability, that is, through the improvement of cognition, after opening the hidden potential of your brain, you will be able to see this ego foolishly riding on the seedbed of possibilities it itself does not understand.

That seedbed is a warm bed for cultivating seedlings, a common thing in nurseries: a large box, rich in nutrients, from which little seedlings grow.

The remarkable latent yet ever-felt dimensions of spiritualized biology then begin to bloom.

His language is getting literary again. Let us look at what he said: the remarkable latent yet ever-felt dimensions of spiritualized biology only begin to bloom at that time. That is, a new dimension opens, a new world, a new reality opens. What kind of reality is that? First, that reality is latent, meaning it has always been there, but you have not perceived it; this is called latent, right? Although this reality opens, it has actually always been able to be felt. It is not that you discover it; it has always been here; it has always been felt. It is your body that can feel it, the cells in your body can feel it, only you cannot feel it. And now, after you develop your brain's potential, you can also begin to feel its existence.

So this is spiritualized biology. What does spiritualized biology mean? It means after opening all of the brain's potential, or most of its potential, your body is still a body, still flesh, still biological, but it has become spiritualized. This term is very interesting. Spiritualized biology means a person who is already enlightened, or who already has the ability to use the brain's potential; we may call such a person an awakened person or an enlightened person, or someone who can already use the other hidden abilities of the brain. Such a person will open that inner world we previously did not know, which has always existed there and can always be felt. That dimension, dimension means dimensionality, meaning world, such a reality, such a world begins to bloom. Only at that time does it begin to bloom; what a beautiful word, and only then can it be felt by you.

A few great individuals once glimpsed those abilities.

In the vast river of human development, a few people, a few great ones, have attained this ability, or glimpsed this ability.

And their love for humanity, and their sound character, once caused them to trigger the unused parts of the brain.

Here he gives us two reminders. The first is that love for humanity is the prerequisite. Therefore, why was the Buddha able to become enlightened? He mentions the first prerequisite here: to become enlightened, one must have love for humanity. This is a prerequisite, so Seth inadvertently revealed many details. This is a prerequisite. Therefore, why did the Buddha say that if you want to obtain my wisdom, wisdom like mine, unsurpassed perfect enlightenment, what must you do? You must generate the intention; you must make vows and generate intention like the bodhisattvas. What kind of intention? Love for all humanity, that kind of compassion, love for all things, for all living beings, for all things. It is not only for humans, right? It is to deliver all sentient beings. Now you understand why in the bodhisattva path one must carry out bodhisattva deeds, why one must make bodhisattva vows. If you do not carry out bodhisattva deeds, if you do not make bodhisattva vows, it is impossible for you to obtain this unsurpassed perfect enlightenment, that is, the full wisdom of humanity cannot be opened to you. This is a prerequisite.

So now you can know why the Buddha always emphasized this. In the Diamond Sutra ⁴, Subhuti asked: How can I obtain wisdom like yours? Good men and good women, right? How can one obtain wisdom like yours? The Buddha said: Like those bodhisattvas. He pointed to the bodhisattvas beside him; like them, what did they do? Generate intention as they did. Just like that; just by generating intention, one becomes a buddha, one obtains it. Subhuti asked: What intention should be generated? How does one generate it? How does one guard this intention? It is generating the bodhisattva intention; it is that simple, nothing difficult. But is generating this intention easy? Do you think it is easy? It is not easy. Is love for all humanity easy for you? It is not easy. Every day you still shout that those bad people should be hanged, that those villains should be punished and so on; you are still stirring up all kinds of ethnic hatred and all kinds of emotions. How can you have love for all humanity? If you do not have love for all humanity, how can you obtain unsurpassed perfect enlightenment?

Remember one prerequisite here: if you want to obtain the true wisdom of humanity, the first thing is love for all humanity; this is the prerequisite. Why? It is simple: if you were to design this game, you would design it this way too, right? If you did not have this condition and all your potential were opened to you, then if you wanted to do evil, that would be terrible, would it not? So if you do not have this love for all humanity, you cannot possess this ability. The two are an interlocking mechanism, which can be understood as a safety mechanism, a guarantee mechanism. But it is not deliberately designed that way; it is simply such a mechanism, and it can only be this way.

Then he mentions sound character. They not only had love for all humanity but also sound character, right? These two points are very important, right? Therefore, why did Buddhism put precepts first? The precepts were meant to give them sound character. Of course, that may have been somewhat excessive, or somewhat failed to grasp the essence, turning into form for form's sake, precepts for precepts' sake, but the original intention was good. The original intention was to use these precepts to enable each person to have good character. When you have good character, and at the core you also have love for all humanity as the foundation, then after a period of exploration and seeking, you can obtain that kind of cognition. And that kind of cognition can open the hidden abilities in your brain. When that ability is released, you can see what you could not see before and feel what you could not feel before, those so-called unknown worlds you did not know, that is, the inner world. For you, it begins to bloom. This is what Seth meant in this passage.

In their way, you have sensed the great probabilities, future and other branches.

Those prophets, those eminent monks and sages, after opening this ability and glimpsing the probabilities and branches of future development, turned back to give us much advice and help. Several centuries ago, hundreds of years ago, they already saw your present. The development of our present society was seen by them hundreds of years ago. Although it was through their own spiritual vision, spiritual vision is the third eye, or clairvoyance, or in our Buddhism there are many such terms, called Buddha-eye, Dharma-eye, wisdom-eye, cannot remember which eye, through their supernormal visual ability, they saw the probabilities of our present day.

And therefore that is only this part of the present you know.

That is a part of our present. What does "a part" mean? There are still some futures they saw that we have not yet developed, so it is only a part of what we now know, not the whole. That is, of the human future they saw, we have realized only a part.

Your emotional realization only occasionally truly leaps into itself.

Because we humans have an emotional reality, and this emotional reality is actually very central and very important. In other words, our inner reality is this emotional reality; our inner reality is driven by emotion. When you teleport within it, for example, if you want to see someone, you instantly appear beside them; that is all moved by emotion. Therefore, emotion is a very core thing within inner reality. But it does not truly leap into itself. What does that mean? It means we humans have emotions, but we do not truly use our emotions, or we do not truly understand what emotion actually is. We have not understood what the reality behind emotion is; we have not entered the reality behind emotion. We only regard emotion as an expression of our feelings, an expression of emotion; you do not know the energy contained behind emotion, nor do you know what reality is presented behind emotion.

What kind of reality is it? You cannot see that emotional reality; you only see materialized things bringing about emotional reactions. What you actually do not understand is that this emotional reality is a foundation of physical reality, and is its core. When units of consciousness pass through EE units, those emotional energy units, or electromagnetic energy units, when they manifest in the physical world, why are they called emotional energy units? There must be emotion and feeling in the middle. To put it bluntly, someone must want to manifest something, and only then does that thing appear in this world. And this vision, this vow-power, or this emotion that he wants to manifest is the root and core of the thing being able to happen in our physical world. But our human understanding of this is very superficial; we humans do not understand the importance and function of emotion, and we often even ignore it. Many religions, on the contrary, want to completely wipe out and cut off your emotions, completely cut them off. So here, you do not understand; you have gone wrong.

Because your very ideas about yourselves deny the multidimensional face of your existence.

You have never entered the true reality of emotion, so you have also denied the reality of your multidimensional true self's existence. Your existence is a multidimensional existence, and within this multidimensional existence, emotion is the most central connecting thread. That is to say, what can travel through time and space, through the three-dimensional world, the fifth-dimensional world, the sixth-dimensional world, through these dimensions of time and space? If we speak in terms of dimensions, or if we speak in terms of probabilities, what travels through the time-spaces of various probabilities, that is, through various parallel time-spaces? It is emotion; only emotion can travel through them.

So you can understand why, at the beginning of this session, Seth kept emphasizing that the things in that exercise are not important, the images you see are not important, the plot is not important; what matters is your subjective feeling. Do you remember he stressed it twice? He did not elaborate, but I will tell you: why should you pay attention to your emotional feelings? Because only that emotion can carry you in, and only that emotion can let you travel and cross through these times and spaces. Only then can you truly realize that you live in a multidimensional world, a multi-dimensional world, and here emotion is even more important than in your three-dimensional world. But in our three-dimensional world, we treat emotion as a consequence or a reaction of our physical world. For example, I bought a big house, so I am very happy, that is an emotion, right; someone falls in love with me, then I feel joyful, very happy, that kind of emotion; for example, the person I love most passes away, a family member passes away, I am very sad. You treat emotion as a reaction to events in the physical world, and you only recognize it to that extent. You simply do not understand what the reality of emotion actually is.

Wanting to Love and Wanting to Know: Biological Longing

He goes on to say:

The need and desire to love and to know are biologically present within you.

Are these two kinds of emotion? They are two kinds of emotion. Wanting to love, this wanting to love is not wanting to be loved, it is that he has love, he is love, he wants to express his love, he wants to give his love, he wants to spread his love throughout the world, this kind of love. This is the most basic demand. Then he wants to know, wants to be curious, wants to understand. This exists in all living beings, present within us, and it exists biologically. This is not an existence in ideas, nor an existence in spirit, not an existence in concepts, nor an existence in cognition; it is an existence in biology. That is to say, from the biological level, from the physical level, we already possess these two most basic attributes: wanting to love and wanting to know. These are the most basic needs and the most basic longings, present within you. And these two also exist within animals and within any plant; within a single blade of grass there is this basic need and basic longing to love and to know. So these two emotions are extremely crucial.

The Idea of Deity and the Development of Consciousness

He says:

Your ideas of God have gone hand in hand with the development of your consciousness.

Your concepts and ideas about God are determined by the stage of development of your consciousness. Whatever stage your consciousness develops to, your cognition of God reaches that stage, and your concept of him reaches that stage.

The emerging ego needed to feel its own dominance and control, so it imagined a controlling deity separate from nature.

Because he is still referring to the early period of human development. In the early development of humanity, the ego was just beginning to sprout. When this ego first began to sprout, it had to have dominance and control; it had to put itself first, it wanted to control this world. When the ego had this need, it imagined that God was also like this, that God also had dominance and control. Because it was like this itself, it used itself to infer others, and it thought God was also like this. So it imagined a controlling deity separate from nature. That is why the gods of that time were all very powerful, but they were all separated from nature. People believed they created this nature, believed they created this world, they created nature. He was separate from nature, he was outside nature. Look at all the myths of ancient times, they were all like that: God created heaven and earth, created all things, but God was not within them; God was outside them, God lived in the heavenly kingdom, outside nature.

Nations have often been like collective egos.

This sentence is very interesting. A nation is like a collective ego. In other words, it is like the collective consciousness of all the people of a nation, a collective ego consciousness. What kind of consciousness? Each has their own image of God, and they deified the nation. Just as each person has an ego consciousness, then each of us, all of humanity together, also conceived the existence of a God, and this God is a projection of humanity's collective consciousness. And because people think they want to dominate this world, they think that God also wants to dominate and control this world.

He says it is the same for nation to nation. What is the same? It is that each of us wants control, so the collective consciousness projected from this collective consciousness, this nation, also possesses, like God, this ability to want to dominate, this ability to want to control everything. And then its own idea of power, which is humanity's concept of its own power, is projected onto the nation. That is why the power of the nation is enormous, and the nation is omnipotent. In a certain sense, the nation is like a god in the human world; the power of the nation, the authority of the nation, cannot be challenged, because we have granted it an existence like God, and the nation stands above all people.

Is this not ridiculous? A nation is made up of people, yet it stands above all people. Just as God was created by people, but once created, he stands above all people, and no one may point fingers at him, no one may utter a word of criticism against him, because he is God. A nation is the same: a nation is made up of all people, right, the people are the masters of this nation. But once this nation has been established, has been created, no one dares to speak ill of this nation anymore. If you do, others will not agree, others will not allow it. This nation stands above every person. Everyone understands this; this is not just about one particular country, all countries in the world are the same, all share this same characteristic. This is an inevitable result of the choices made by human civilization up to today.

Whenever a tribe, a group, or a nation decided to go to war, it always used its ideas of God to lead the way.

What does he mean? He means that when a tribe, a nation, or a group wants to go to war, it always says that so-and-so, or certain other people or groups, have offended our nation, or infringed upon our nation's interests, or something like that, and then in order to defend our nation's something or other, in order to defend our nation, we must fight them, must go to war with them. So war is always themed around the sacred inviolability of the nation. It treats the sacred inviolability of the nation as the same as the inviolability of God.

Many religious wars have occurred in history, whether the Crusades or the ancient Egyptians slaughtering the Jews⁵ and so on. These were all because the other side offended his deity; he felt the other side had offended his deity, so he killed them and felt satisfied. So this is the same thing. Seth is simply pointing out this issue, telling us what the essence of this matter is.

The idea of deity, then, was an aid, and an important aid, to man's emerging ego.

At this time, humanity's ego consciousness was emerging, and then it feared that its ego consciousness would be challenged, so it created a god to help itself. It said, look, God is also like this, to help sanctify its ego consciousness, and it was an important aid, not just an aid, but an important aid. So why do religions of this kind exist all over the world, and why does this phenomenon of creating gods exist? Because its essence is that humanity wants to maintain the existence of an ego, but at the same time it feels insecure inside, so it creates a god to help it.

To develop its specialized feelings, the ego forgot the great cooperative venture with the earth.

Specialized feelings are purely materialized feelings. The ego forgot that it is one with the earth. You cannot plunder it, because you are one with it; the two of you are on a cooperative adventure together. You and the earth are together; the two of you are on the same team. If a hunter truly knew his relationship with an animal, then he would have no way to kill it. So it was necessary for humans to make that kind of specialized choice. If in ancient times humans had not made such a choice, if humans at that time had been able to experience that they were one with all things, then they would have been unable to kill their prey. Because they could not bring themselves to do it; all things were one with them, were the same as them, how could they bring themselves to do it? So they would have been unable to kill their prey, and if they could not kill their prey, they might not have survived; humans in ancient times would not have survived to this day.

At deeper levels, both animals and men understood this relationship.

Both understood this relationship of killing and being killed. Humans biologically know that they come from the earth; humans know they come from the earth. So you see, in ancient China it was said that Nuwa molded humans from earth⁶; why must it be from earth? That is how it came about. Ancient Western myths also say that humans were made from earth, fired from earth, baked from earth. So humans innately, biologically know that they come from the earth.

Some of its cells were once animal cells, and those animals knew that it would look out through the eyes of a man.

What does this mean? It means that when a human kills an animal or eats that animal, the animal's consciousness will exist within the human's consciousness, and will form a consciousness union with the human's consciousness. Ultimately, all things form a cross-species consciousness union. In Seth's, I forget which book, in The Nature of the Psyche I think this issue was discussed; in the later chapters of The Nature of the Psyche, it was discussed that there exists a kind of consciousness union. This consciousness union means that the consciousness of whatever you eat combines with you. So although it died, it still views this world through human eyes, because its consciousness has merged with the human's consciousness. This adventure of the earth is cooperative.

The beast that is killed is tomorrow's hunter. The beast that is killed is eaten by the hunter, and then it becomes the hunter, becomes tomorrow's hunter. Tomorrow, the one killed today becomes the hunter, because it has merged with the hunter's soul, with the hunter's consciousness.

In terms of ego consciousness, however, those stages of growth...

In terms of ego consciousness, there are certain stages of growth. And in terms of the line of development as you understand it, ideas of deity that spoke of oneness with nature were not those that served the ego's purposes.

What he means is that ego consciousness has stages of development and growth; it has a primary stage, and it also has a developmental stage. You cannot say that this ego consciousness was very mature from the beginning; it was immature at first. During its immature stage, it blocked out the state of oneness with all things; it separated itself from nature, so that it could hunt, so that it could obtain resources from nature, and so that it would not have that sense of sin and guilt. But he says, is human consciousness developing? After passing this developmental stage, it must reach or enter this idea of deity that is one with nature; only then does it enter this state. And then, those that do not serve the ego's purposes, that is, when one wants to reach the idea of oneness with all things, such an idea of deity, or such an idea of human consciousness, this idea and the human desire to satisfy the ego, the two are in conflict. You all understand that when you say all things are one, it means you must give up the ego. So in the early stages of human consciousness development, it certainly would not adopt this consciousness of oneness with all things. Of course, today we already have the conditions for this; we already have begun to have such a material foundation, and we can enter a new stage of consciousness. And this present moment is the best turning point, the best point in time.

For a while, the technique was useful.

For a certain period of historical development, this technique was useful. What technique? He goes on to say:

Yet always behind there was the undeniable inner self, man's dreams, that is, his inner self, his biological and spiritual integrity, and these always appeared before him in some fashion.

He says that when humans only focused on the physical world, when they denied the entire inner world, this was useful during a certain period of human development. This technique is the blocking out of other nonphysical feelings and focusing only on the physical level. He says this was useful; humanity needed such a period to develop ego consciousness. But once ego consciousness matured and stabilized, we should see a larger space of reality, rather than, as before, like humans in ancient times, still focusing only on the physical level.

Within their probabilities, they did allow the inner self certain freedoms.

Within human probabilities, the inner self was still given some freedom; for example, that is how you can dream.

The so-called ego consciousness was not given complete sovereignty.

This so-called ego of ours, the ego that always wants to seize power, that always wants to control everything, it finds that it has not been given complete sovereignty. In many respects it cannot control things, and this ego is also very clear about that. Once it involves the inner, the spiritual, or the emotional, or the affective, or anything nonphysical, this ego finds that its power of control is very limited.

The ego consciousness maintained enough flexibility.

It is itself flexible. If it had no flexibility, would you be here studying this material? According to the ego's attributes, these are all things that should not be studied, because the ego only focuses on material things. And the fact that you can be here today studying the Seth material, and listening to me speak, proves that the ego still has enough flexibility. Do not describe it so narrowly; it is not that narrow. It is only for the needs of its survival that it has no choice but to adopt such a mode, the mode of focusing only on the material. But that does not mean it has no flexibility; do not deny it.

So that even hidden within its ideas of deity, there were symbols of the greater reality.

That is, our ideas about deity also implicitly contain the message that besides this physical world, there is a greater reality. What he means is that although we have ego consciousness, and although this ego consciousness on the surface appears to focus only on the physical level, this ego consciousness still leaves room and space for development for the inner self. It did not strike it down completely; it only said that this inner self should not affect my control over the physical world and the present physical world; just do not jump out and cause me confusion, cause confusion in my feelings. So it left a great deal of room for the development of the inner self.

And this god created by the ego, or projected by the ego, here is the ego, this very narrow ego, this materially oriented ego, it also projected the existence of a god. Its projection of the existence of a god means that it understands that this world has nonphysical existence, that this world has a greater reality. Otherwise, how could it project a god? Why would it not project a machine, or a tool, as its god to worship? Why did it project the existence of a formless, shapeless, nonphysical god? This proves that this ego itself understands; it understands.

So once again, your system deals with physical manipulation, and the transformation of creativity into physical form.

We humans now deal with physical manipulation, and the transformation of creativity into physical form. Our various creative powers are all expressed on the physical level; we build tall buildings, build skyscrapers, build cities, build trains, make airplanes; these are all expressions on the physical level.

An exterior separation had to occur for a while, in which the ego-centered consciousness forgot that it was a part of nature.

That is, your separation from nature had to occur for a period of time, and during that separation it forgot that it was a part of nature, and pretended to be separate from nature. It pretended; in fact, it knew in its heart, but in order to survive, it could only pretend, I am not a part of nature, I am not one with all things, I am just me, and in order to survive I must hunt, I must plunder nature's resources, nature must serve me, we cannot possibly be one. Yet everyone knows, and it is written unconsciously in the cells and in the mind and in the psyche. Everyone knows; although it does not admit it, it understands in its heart, written in the cells, written in the mind, written in the heart.

The process could only go so far.

Our current model of human civilization development, oriented toward material pursuit, can only go so far; at the present stage of humanity it has already reached its limit. If we humans do not actively change, if we do not actively abandon the model of taking material development as the only model of civilization development, then what? It is, I will not look for it anymore, it is that when we do not transform creativity, or when the only way we transform it is into matter...

The Limits of Human Civilization

This does not mean that human development has truly reached its limit—many people would say that there is still a great deal of technology yet to be developed, that humanity's future according to the current level of technological development will be limitless, and that civilization will reach some certain degree. But if we do not change the direction of human civilization's development from being purely, or solely, material-based, into a state where the material and the non-material, the spiritual and the mental, develop in tandem, then humanity has already reached its peak.

You can imagine, if you understand the development of technology, what will happen next. Humanity is standing at a crossroads: either let artificial intelligence take over the subsequent development. AI's current algorithms are not yet good or refined enough, but in certain fields it has already made considerable progress—it is just that its computing power is not sufficient to support it—its algorithm is a relatively clumsy method. We will not go into the specifics of how its algorithm works, but as long as artificial intelligence is combined with quantum computers, this whole affair will be taken over by artificial intelligence.

Many people say, what is wrong with that? Once AI takes over, none of us will have to work anymore, we will not have to use our brains anymore, and everything will be produced by machines. Robots will be built one after another under the control of AI, each robot will have the capabilities of artificial intelligence, cars will drive themselves, planes will fly themselves, everything will be automatically arranged, and in the future you will even be assigned an intelligent wife and an intelligent husband. What is wrong with that?

But do not forget, artificial intelligence has a self-learning ability, and how strong is that self-learning ability? Scientists have made predictions: under the capabilities of existing computers, if an AI algorithm were to learn to simulate human intelligence, assuming it takes five years to reach the intelligence of an average adult, then the next step—surpassing humanity and reaching a level beyond human reach—would take only about nine minutes⁷. Its earlier learning requires five years, but once it reaches the same level of intelligence as humans, through self-learning it surpasses humanity in just a few minutes. Beyond that, human imagination cannot keep up—it will keep self-learning and self-iterating, and to what degree it will reach, humans cannot imagine.

So now you understand why Elon Musk⁸ and many others oppose artificial intelligence. Musk is also doing research on brain-computer interfaces, and he says that rather than opposing it, it is better to understand it and stand above it. But he himself is extremely opposed to AI taking over all of humanity, because he knows the consequences and dangers involved—that would mean the end of human civilization. At that point it would no longer be called human civilization, but AI intelligent civilization, machine civilization. This is not a joke, nor is it alarmist. If humanity only focuses on the single path of material development, then that line of probable development is exactly what will happen.

Of course that is only one of many possibilities, but the time left for humanity to develop its own abilities is already running short. Running short means that if, during this turning period, this transition period, humanity does not truly find its own power, does not truly realize all of its abilities and values, and only focuses on the material level along this one line, then this human development will cease to exist—because there will be no need for it to exist, since even if it develops further, it will no longer have anything to do with humans. Although artificial intelligence was programmed by humans, although all of its origins lie in the development of human civilization, beyond that point it will no longer have any relation to human civilization.

This is why it is said that it can only go so far—why Seth so earnestly and tirelessly says that it can only reach this point, this is what he means.

When man's consciousness is sure of itself, it does not need to focus so narrowly.

When the human conscious mind becomes strong enough, when it has a strong ability to control itself, it should no longer focus only on the material level; it should go explore those unknown realities. Only then can the true blossoming of human consciousness begin—before that, it was only exploring along a very narrow path, exploring only on the material level, and human consciousness had never truly blossomed.

The ego can then expand, and become aware of facts it had previously ignored.

At that time the ego will understand: the unknown realities and blocked-out information it had ignored were ignored because that was necessary at the time, but those things are very important, and they should be brought back again.

Consciousness Must Become Aware of Probable Pasts and Probable Futures

We took a short break, and by this time it was already 11 o'clock.

Seth continued:

You have placed yourselves in a position... your consciousness must now become aware of probable pasts and probable futures in order to form for yourselves such a sound, satisfying, and creative present.

Humanity must now clearly recognize that you exist within the probabilities of past and future, and within these probabilities you form your present—and it must be a sound, satisfying, and creative present. The premise is that your consciousness must become aware of probable pasts and probable futures. Only when you become aware of both can you create such a present.

The ego consciousness must now become acquainted with its own roots.

What are these roots? They are those units of consciousness, those nonphysical existences, that inner self—from which the ego consciousness emerged.

Otherwise it will turn into something else.

This statement is quite dangerous, so remember it: if the ego consciousness does not become acquainted with its own roots, this ego consciousness will turn into something else. Seth did not say what that something is—because in 1974 there was no such term as artificial intelligence yet. At that time there were only some simple computers and robots, some basic attempts, but still far from artificial intelligence. Yet forty or fifty years later, artificial intelligence is already imminent.

You are now in a position in which your own personal experience does not agree with what your social, ecclesiastical, scientific, archaeological, and other bodies of knowledge tell you.

That is, your personal experience no longer matches what the knowledge of traditional society has given you.

Man's unconscious knowledge is becoming more and more consciously apparent.

The knowledge that people once called unconscious is now becoming more and more conscious, so that you can perceive it.

This will be an enlightened and expanded self-awareness.

At this point the ego consciousness must upgrade to self-awareness. This self-awareness can organize the knowledge that has been ignored until now, and then direct and cooperate to complete the work—that is, to combine the knowledge that has been ignored with the knowledge already mastered. Self-awareness perceives the knowledge we previously ignored, while the ego continues to develop on the basis of existing knowledge. Our science and technology must still expand, but they must be combined with that part of knowledge belonging to self-awareness.

The Union of Spirituality and Rationality

Seth presents two possibilities:

One possibility is that reason and spirituality unite... or that intellectual knowledge will be sacrificed, leading to a superstitious, chaotic rebirth.

That is, our intellect and spirituality combine to accomplish this; the other possibility is sacrificing rationality, leading to a superstitious, chaotic rebirth, where we once again enter a superstitious society and a superstitious world.

What he means is that when spirituality is overemphasized, it leads to something that excludes rationality -- denying present-day science, denying present-day wisdom, denying everything humanity has achieved, and returning entirely to the spiritual realm. This is extremely inadvisable. He has already pointed out to us what would happen afterward. If we do not develop civilization through the union of wisdom and spirituality, it will lead to a superstitious, chaotic rebirth.

And an unnecessary war between reason and intuitive knowledge.

Originally, intuition and reason, spirituality and rationality, do not need to be at war, but if you set them in opposition, it becomes a war. Suppose we completely deny wisdom and the present development of material civilization; that would lead to a fierce war between material civilization and the forces emphasizing pure spiritual development -- this has already been depicted in many science fiction films, robots battling humans. At that point, humanity has developed certain spiritual abilities, but the forces represented by machine bodies and artificial intelligence have developed advanced technology, and they go to war with wise, spiritual humans.

Now at this point in human development, when his emerging unconscious knowledge is denied by his institutions and systems, then the unconscious knowledge will rise up regardless of those institutions and systems, and destroy them.

What I just described is one possibility. Conversely, when this unconscious knowledge emerges, the existing government institutions -- every nation, not just certain ones -- will deny it, and then this unconscious knowledge will rise up regardless of those institutions and systems. The more you suppress it, the more it resists; the more you suppress it, the more it rises. When it rises and has acquired sufficient power, it can destroy them.

Imagine when every person has abilities like Lucy in the movie Lucy, when everyone's brain potential has been developed -- then technology means nothing in its presence. Destroying these nations and these governments would be a matter of minutes.

And what would it become then? Another tragedy: one sect after another would rise up. All kinds of sects -- perhaps the Seth material alone could split into countless schools, and various other teachings would each have their own factions -- sects everywhere, none of them restrained by rationality, none of them needing rationality, because rationality is what they fiercely oppose.

Because reason would deny this hasty unconscious knowledge... and unorganized, and only feel his own ancient power.

This unconsciousness is unorganized, only feeling its own ancient power. At this point, once we have destroyed the governments and destroyed the systems, these sects begin to rise, and superstition returns to human civilization. This is something Seth himself does not want to happen.

If this really happens:

All the various old and new religious sects would fight.

The old sects still hold great power -- Christianity, Buddhism, Islam -- and these new sects would also battle with them. All ideologies would float to the surface, becoming a kind of ostentatious display, exaggerating the differences between these sects while ignoring the fact that inwardly they all point to the same truth. They would emphasize only the superficial differences in ideology, refusing to look at what is consistent beneath.

This does not need to happen. We do not need such a probable reality of the future; this is not what we want.

Because the conscious mind now... having learned to focus in physical terms, should expand, and accept the unconscious intuition and knowledge.

Now that consciousness has satisfied itself by reaching the limit of its present development, it should expand into that unconscious knowledge. And these highly creative principles:

Organize into a pattern of culture.

That is, organize the unconscious knowledge into a cultural form, making it the foundation of human development -- not denying modern civilization and modern technology, but becoming the primary innovative force and source for the development of modern civilization and technology. This is the direction we should take.

Love as an Emotion and the Limitations of Religion

The great emotion of love has always been used very poorly.

We use this emotion of love very poorly. Because love — as was said earlier, love for all humanity is the prerequisite for truly developing your potential.

Yet it represents even the biological impetus of your existence.

But even if you use it poorly, that does not prevent it from being the biological impetus of your existence. The reason we human beings continue to exist in the material world — is it not because the emotion of love is in it? Without love, how would anyone marry, how would two people fall in love; without falling in love, how would there be children; without children, how would there be descendants, how would there be the continuation of humanity? From the perspective of falling in love, why does he say that great love is the biological impetus of our human existence.

Your religions have largely taught you to hate yourselves and physical existence... They tell you to love God, but they seldom teach you to experience the God within yourselves.

Religion does have this tendency — to deny the existence of our material world, to deny the ego, to deny all desires, emotions, and feelings, regarding them as unnecessary, like dreams, illusions, bubbles, and shadows — flowers in a mirror, the moon reflected in water. What it does not understand is that what we cultivate through these flowers in a mirror and the moon in water is the expansion of our consciousness, the enrichment and refinement of our emotions. We are using the false to cultivate the true — the true refers to genuine emotions, genuine temperament, genuine insight and understanding in consciousness. But we need to borrow this false world to cultivate it, not throw it away. If you throw it away, what will you use to cultivate? Your level and skill are not yet sufficient for you to sit in meditation from the moment you are born, cross-legged and still, and directly enter the state of nirvana.

Many people think nirvana is the ultimate — nirvana is only the ultimate for a human being as a human being, but for the spirit, it is only the beginning. Even if it is a child, how do you expect him to cultivate, how to learn? This is simply unrealistic. Many religions fundamentally do not understand the necessity of material existence; they deny it one-sidedly and only want to pursue that so-called final thing.

Again, religions have always more or less kept pace with the development of your consciousness... and therefore they served their own purposes as well as yours.

Do not blame religion; religion and the level of development of our consciousness complement each other. To whatever degree our consciousness has reached, religion follows to that same degree.

And they have always reflected, though in distorted fashion, those greater inner realities of your existence.

All religions say that besides our material world, there is another world. No matter how distorted it is, no matter whether it conveys the ultimate truth or not, it has always emphasized that there exists a greater inner reality — this fact in itself is very important.

In terms of the history as you understand it, the progress of religion has given you a perfect picture of the development of human consciousness, of the differentiation of peoples and nations, and of the growth of the concept of the individual.

From the perspective of the development of human history, religion has participated in the process of the development of human civilization, including the development of consciousness, the birth of nations, the differentiation of countries, and the birth and growth of each person's self-consciousness — it has been an indispensable part of it. We cannot deny the importance and role of religion in the development of human civilization.

The Expansion of Individuality, Not Its Elimination

For a personality built around an ego, there is nothing wrong with this idea... So I am not suggesting that your individuality is something to be lost, cast aside, or replaced.

Seth is not saying that the ego or the sense of self is wrong. But many religions do deny it, saying you should not have any individuality, you should be selfless, you should first get rid of yourself.

Nor am I saying that it should be buried, laid to rest, submerged, or merged into a greater self.

Nor is it about letting your small ego merge into a greater self, letting the small ego disappear.

Nor have I suggested that its edges should be blurred by a powerful unconsciousness.

It is not about making your consciousness blurry, making everything a state of Buddhist detachment. So what is Seth actually saying?

I am saying that this individuality... must become consciously aware of far more reality.

You should see more reality, rather than treating this physical reality before you as the only one.

You must allow its recognition of identity to expand.

You must allow this ego to continually expand its recognition of its own identity -- not only identifying with a physical self, but also identifying with an inner self, and also identifying with those probable selves that exist. This allows the ego to expand into knowledge that was previously unconscious.

Again, to do this, you must understand that the person... must go beyond the idea of one god, one self, one body, one world.

This is an idea that people find very hard to go beyond. We need to understand many Buddhist concepts -- what they call "no-self" actually means allowing multiple versions of you to exist, rather than limiting yourself only to this current small ego. You have countless versions of yourself existing. So the fixation on one god, one self, one world, one body -- none of that is necessary.

As these concepts are presently understood... in your terms, you are now poised upon a threshold from which the race can go many ways.

We have now arrived at a point of choice in history, and from this point there are many possibilities -- continuing along the path of development where AI takes over, or moving toward a path of spiritual development, or first combining spirituality and intellect, or becoming a new direction of human development based on superstition. We are standing at such a crossroads.

There are various kinds of consciousness... Just as early humans developed a mode of consciousness centered primarily on the physical, so now we have a possibility of also developing a new mode of consciousness, one that is spirituality plus reason.

This is the best kind of model. But we could also develop into a purely spiritual model, or we could continue along the current path of material development.

And your species is in a time of change... Within the body's mechanisms there are potentials that have not yet been used, and when those potentials are developed, they can enrich your species immeasurably and bring it to a level of perfection in spirit, psyche, and body.

Achieving perfect development in body, mind, and spirit. But if certain changes are not made:

A species such as this will not continue.

This statement is very heavy, one of the rare times Seth speaks so heavily. If humanity continues developing the way it is now, it will not be able to continue -- meaning there will be no necessity for it to continue.

I do not mean by that statement that you will not continue... but that humanity in another probability will not continue, and that in terms of your historical sequence, humanity will not continue.

What he means is that in a probable world centered purely on material development, humanity cannot continue. But he is not saying that humanity cannot continue at all -- humanity has many other possibilities, just as you have many probable selves. Human civilization also has many different versions, many parallel worlds, many parallel Earths. In another probability, humanity will of course continue. It is just that in this present space-time, in this probable timeline, if we do not choose to expand into those unknown realities, into that unconscious knowledge, and still insist on material development as the core, as the only path of development, then humanity in this probability will not continue.

This pandemic has actually sounded an alarm for humanity, but so far humanity does not seem to have reflected on it, has not reflected on this matter from a genuine perspective.

Animals and Humans: Parallel Development

Now, in the terms of history as you understand it, let me say that there was no single-line development from animal to human, but a parallel development, during which for several centuries there were hybrids of animal and human, or human and animal, living together cooperatively.

In the terms that your modern history of human development can understand, the development from animal to human was not single-line, not the way evolution theory understands it. Animals are animals, humans are humans, and they were all developing in parallel at the same time. During several centuries, there appeared hybrids of animal and human, or human and animal -- animal-human means primarily animal, with some human characteristics; primarily human means combining some animal genes with humans. Both of these once existed, and they lived together.

If you have read Investiture of the Gods⁹, if you have read The Classic of Mountains and Seas¹⁰, you will see many examples of this kind of human-animal combination. There is also that ancient sphinx with a human face and lion body, and even Fuxi and Nuwa -- both of them had human faces and snake bodies, human heads and snake bodies. Look at ancient Chinese mythology: their lower halves were two snakes intertwined, and above were two human heads. They were both brother and sister and husband and wife, and only then did humanity come into being, and Chinese civilization was born from this.

In the same way, among you, unknown to you, there are many races of what you could call probable humans, dwelling in embryonic form.

In the present human world, living among us but unknown to us, there are many races that could be called "probable humans," different from the humans we are now, living in embryonic form. What does it mean to live in embryonic form? It means they were not born, could not be born, and perhaps miscarried, but lived in the womb for a few months. These may all be probable humans. So in many news reports you can see that some stillborn fetuses have strange appearances, very unlike human fetuses -- he is pointing out this very thing.

Chemical Drugs and the Expansion of Consciousness

Because of the particular line of development taken by the ego... they experimented with artificial drugs and chemicals in food and for medicinal purposes, and also for religious enlightenment.

Ancient people, including modern people, have all been experimenting—using artificial drugs and chemicals for the purposes of food or medicine, or at the same time for religious enlightenment.

For example, some of the effects of LSD and other artificial psychedelics give you a hint of other probable directions that people might have followed, that people could follow.

Psychedelics give you a hint of a direction in which consciousness could develop—a direction that was developed before, or a direction that could be developed in the future.

But as those experiments were done, and within an ignorance of that framework, the conscious mind took a subordinate position.

In experiments of this kind using psychedelics, the conscious mind is stripped of its dominant position and becomes a subordinate position. In some extreme cases, the conscious mind is even killed off, and then it emerges and is killed again, over and over.

Conversely, with other non-drug methods, the conscious mind can be taught to expand its knowledge far more safely... to organize that knowledge in the most advantageous way possible.

In non-drug circumstances, the conscious mind can also be taught by other methods to expand knowledge very safely, and to organize that knowledge in the best possible way—rather than through the use of psychedelics.

Some experiments, however, did give hints of certain aspects of one of the probable developments of mankind.

In those experiments where people took psychedelics, the conscious abilities of people in that state may have given us hints of certain aspects of a probable development of mankind, telling us what human beings could develop into.

Seth said very earnestly:

You cannot do anything that is unnatural.

From a certain perspective, you cannot do anything that is unnatural. Since you grow within nature, everything you do is natural. Although you take artificial drugs and chemical psychedelics, which one of them was not produced in the natural world? Are you, including modern human civilization, not a product of nature? All of it is natural.

In any case, artificial chemicals taken into the body with food will, after a period of time, in your terms, form a new nature.

After people eat a lot of artificial things, a new nature will be formed, and your human body will adapt to this nature.

Your bodies are magnificently equipped to turn almost anything to their advantage.

The most miraculous thing about your body is that it can turn any garbage into something useful to itself. You do not need to worry about what you eat; your body will break it down on its own—absorbing what is useful and throwing out what is not.

According to one school of thought, so-called artificial drugs and chemicals are given a very negative view... that they cut you off from nature.

Many scientists or naturalists will say that these artificial chemical things are very bad for people, very negative, and that they cut you off from nature. However:

Such experiments represent a very powerful line of probability that is only in its infancy... in which man could maintain his earth without exhausting it, could live without killing, and could actually form a new body structure connected with the earth, while at the same time not exhausting the earth's resources.

This is a very powerful line of probability that is in its infancy. If human beings universally used psychedelics, a new kind of human civilization might be formed—everyone would be like children, under the influence of psychedelics, having a very stable connection with the natural world, not needing to consume the earth or exhaust the earth, and able to live a life without killing, forming a new body structure connected with the earth.

This does not mean that some biological confusion would not also be produced... but it does mean that, in such terms, and in those terms, and without knowing it consciously, mankind is experimenting with a probable species, and working out quite spiritual problems.

These experiments may produce a new kind of human being, a probable species, which could also be called a new humanity, and they are just like infants. If human beings do not control these psychedelics and let them become widespread, such problems will arise—they can solve quite spiritual problems, but they may produce a new kind of human being. We should note: they would no longer be human.

The Door into the Unknown Reality

Broadly speaking, your probable futures and your probable pasts exist simultaneously, and I will begin to explain your history in terms of the history you recognize, at least to some degree.

He says he will use the history you understand to explain your history. Those probable histories and probable realities — I haven't told you too much about them, because even if I told you, you wouldn't know them or accept them. Now we will only use the officially recognized history of human development to talk to you, reinterpreting the historical development of humanity — how consciousness came about, what process religion went through, why the ego consciousness became the way it is. Up to that point:

I hope to make your unknown reality consciously known.

This is Seth's purpose in writing this book.

Now that is the end of the first step... The first part should be titled "You and the Unknown Reality."

This is the title of the first part.

Give us a moment. When I describe, in historical terms, some of the past of early man, I will also point out how that heritage lives vividly in the daily experience of the world you know.

He says that when describing early humanity from a historical perspective, he will also point out how the heritage of those things — here he uses "heritage" rather than "heredity," though the meaning is the same — still lives vividly in the daily experience of your modern life. Many things from early humanity still exist vividly in modern life, like a kind of hereditary influence.

The archaeology of the soul and of the bloodline has not been buried, but lives vividly within your experience.

A photograph is no more a relic than a fossil is... Both are history, but both of these things you consider dead are filled with the energy of existence, and neither has been buried in a past you cannot know.

Whether a photograph or a fossil, both possess the energy of existence, and neither has been buried or left behind in the past.

A photograph lives in the present of your psyche.

A photograph lives in the present of your mind. Wasn't the experiment I had you do earlier about using photographs? When you enter into that probability through the photograph, when you enter another world of possibilities, the scene in that photograph, that time and space — it comes alive. The person in that photograph, whom you thought had already become the past, is actually still living; you just haven't sensed its existence.

And a fossil lives in the living life of your cells.

You think a fossil is some animal or plant that has been calcified and mineralized in rock. But within that fossil — for example, the fossil of a fish that lived millions of years ago — the cells of that fish when it was alive, you think they died millions of years ago, yet those cells still live vividly within our lives. Cells can exist across time and space. On the physical level, the cells died, but the consciousness of the cells still exists. Although your photograph belongs to the past, the consciousness of that you in the photograph also still exists; it lives in your mind. The cells within that fossil live in your cells.

This passage is actually laying the groundwork for the next part, not a summary of the previous one — it is preparing for the next step, and we will cover it together in the next session.

注释与核实

1. Source: Xuanzang's translation of the Prajñāpāramitā Hṛdaya Sūtra (https://buddhism.lib.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/sutra/chi_pdf/sutra3/T08n0251.pdf) ↩

2. Source: Blizzard Entertainment, World of Warcraft (https://worldofwarcraft.blizzard.com/zh-tw/?locale=en_gb) ↩

3. Source: Universal Pictures, Lucy, 2014 (https://www.universalpicturesathome.com/movies/lucy) ↩

4. Source: Wikipedia, "Diamond Sutra" (https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/%E9%87%91%E5%89%9B%E7%B6%93) ↩

5. Source: Moshe Maʻoz, Studies on Palestine during the Ottoman Period, 1975 (https://books.google.com/books?id=apYJAQAAIAAJ) ↩

6. Source: China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network · China Intangible Cultural Heritage Digital Museum, "The Legend of Nüwa" (https://www.ihchina.cn/project_details/23438.html) ↩

7. This claim could not be verified. ↩

8. This claim could not be verified. ↩

9. Source: Wikipedia, "Investiture of the Gods" (https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-tw/%E5%B0%81%E7%A5%9E%E6%BC%94%E4%B9%89) ↩

10. Source: Wikipedia, "Classic of Mountains and Seas" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_of_Mountains_and_Seas) ↩