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 chapter explains that during the early development of human self-consciousness, humans mixed with various animals, giving rise to experimental species such as human-animals and animal-humans, which were later recorded as animal gods in mythology. Consciousness, from among fluid, experimental, multi-directional attempts, selected and concentrated itself into the human form. In the age of totem poles, humans communicated with animals and learned herbal medicine from them. Self-consciousness made humans co-creators of the earth, and consciousness retained flexibility and room for error; mythology preserved the memories of early species. In the contemporary era, an awakening of consciousness that transcends religion has emerged.
Key Points of This Chapter
- During the early development of self-consciousness, mixed species such as human-animals and animal-humans appeared, roughly fifty million to thirty million years ago.
- Animal-god images are manifestations of the results of these consciousness experiments, and myths preserve the memories of the early races.
- Human consciousness did not evolve from animal consciousness; rather, it selected from among many kinds of consciousness and focused on the human form.
- Self-consciousness made humanity a co-creator and guardian of the earth, while consciousness retained flexibility and room for error.
- In the age of totem poles, humans communicated with animals and learned herbal medicine from them; in the present age, a consciousness awakening that transcends religion is emerging.
Main Text
Hello everyone, I am Mike.
Today I will continue introducing Seth's book The "Unknown" Reality, Volume 1, Session 689. The title of this session is "Myths, Gods, Animal Gods, and the Growth of the Ego." This session began on Monday, March 18, 1974, at 9:55 p.m.
Before it began, Rob mentioned that on the Sunday before that Monday, Jane had many feelings and experiences of her own, which can be seen in the appendix. The appendix of this book is the most extensive among all of Seth's books, not in terms of the number of appendix sections -- there are not many sections, actually. I remember Seth Speaks seems to have eight or ten appendices, I cannot recall exactly, but those appendices are all very short. The appendices in this book, however, are all quite long, and each one introduces the background and context of what happened around that particular session, including some of Jane's feelings and experiences, which are very helpful for understanding the content. But because they are too long, it is impossible for me to introduce and explain all the appendices to everyone here. I think if you want to thoroughly understand this book, you can take a look at the appendices. Also, Teacher Xiyu's channel will include some of the appendices, and Helen's channel sometimes discusses some appendices as well. As for me, depending on the situation, if it is necessary and important I will discuss it, and if it is not important I will not go into it again.
Let us continue looking at the content of this session. From the title you can tell that it will continue the content of the previous session, because it has been discussing ancient times, the early eras of the earth, the early eras of humanity, gods, myths, animal gods, and the growth of the ego -- and "ego" here refers to the growth of ego consciousness.
Let us look at the first paragraph. Seth says that to a certain degree, meaning that ego consciousness has developed to a certain degree, this "certain degree" refers to a degree of ego consciousness. For generations, according to our human history, as you understand it, the development of consciousness followed the development of the gods -- actually, our development of consciousness came along with our development of the gods.
And in those ancient mythic stories there appeared some of the half-forms that man might have taken, and some of the guises that he actually did take.
Here, "might have taken" refers to some guises we might possibly have taken in the past, a kind of possibility; and there were also some guises he actually did take. What guises? The hybridization of humans and animals, animals and humans. Look at the ancient Classic of Mountains and Seas, or the myths and legends of later generations -- this is very common. Including Fuxi, the ancestor of Chinese civilization, and others, all had animal features, a serpent body. Fuxi and his sister seem to have been siblings, but with serpent bodies and human shapes. So this was extremely common in ancient times, including the most obvious example in Egypt, the sphinx, and many, many other combinations of humans and animals. If you look at the Classic of Mountains and Seas, there are far too many.
Seth says that the mythic figures in these mythic stories were, in some cases, what probable humans looked like during that historical period, and it is also possible that they actually existed in that form at that time. Here you must clearly distinguish that both possibilities exist.
All the animal gods imply many different experiments.
Each kind of animal god represents an experiment, meaning that humans and serpents underwent a mixing and hybridization. So why do the Chinese, especially the Chinese, hold serpents in such reverence, always feeling that serpents are spiritual beings? Not to mention the White Snake, even in ancient times and in many rural areas today, people believe serpents are spiritual, and generally do not harm them. If a snake is found while building a house, people usually pick it up and release it, rarely killing it, because they feel it would be unlucky. Why is that? Actually, you can think about it: everything has a historical origin, and that origin is right here -- humans once conducted a genetic experiment with serpents.
Why do I say that? Because it tells you that the image of every animal god is a manifestation of the result of an experiment. And consciousness, within it, represented species of different bodily forms -- that is, consciousness. What form the actual physical body or actual species takes depends on this consciousness. Can you understand? It has always emphasized that consciousness determines everything, and our bodies are all determined by consciousness. We have such a consciousness, and it determines our physical existence. Then is this half-human, half-serpent creature or species also an attempt by consciousness?
From a material perspective, it seems like a genetic hybridization experiment, genetic fusion, genetic splicing, and so on, technologies of today. This technology is already very advanced in the West, already at a very practical stage, and many startup companies are doing research in this area. For example, in China there is a scientist named Zhang Feng1, I remember he seems to be from Shijiazhuang, and his gene-splicing technology is extremely advanced, possibly among the top at present. He may still be in a lawsuit with someone else; another person claims there is a patent dispute between them, and in the end I am not sure whether he won the lawsuit or what happened. What they study is genetic scissors, that is, discovering genetic problems within gene segments, and then how you can use biological methods to cut out that gene segment, and whether it can then be combined with something else -- that is another topic. Because I am not in this field, I am not familiar with it, but I do know a little. So regarding genetic scissors and gene editing, we humans are now gradually mastering it and beginning to use it in practice. Even many of our current COVID vaccines also use some genetic technology, but that has nothing to do with genetic scissors; it is another genetic technology called mRNA technology.
How should we understand it? The current mRNA vaccines are a bit like making a photocopy of the virus, taking a picture of it, and then injecting that photocopy into the human body. When the human immune system sees this picture, sees the photocopy of the virus, it recognizes that this is a photocopy of the virus. Then when the real virus comes, it is like how we catch fugitives: first show your immune system the photo of the fugitive, saying this bad guy looks like this, all of you remember it, and when the bad guy comes, you arrest him. That is a simple way of putting it. The mRNA vaccines we now see in Europe and America all use this technology, which has made major breakthroughs in genetic technology. The inactivated vaccines are the domestic ones; the current inactivated vaccines are still first generation, I do not know which generation, probably first generation. This vaccine technology inactivates the original novel coronavirus so that it no longer has the ability to replicate. For example, if 5,000 units of the virus are injected, then it is 5,000 units, but the virus's own activity has been inactivated, so it no longer has the ability to replicate. In this way, a small amount of inactivated virus enters the human body, and human cells can also discover that this is a bad guy and destroy it, but its quantity is limited, so our immune system can easily destroy it, and since it has no reproductive ability itself, after a period of time it dies on its own and cannot cause trouble.
The point I am making here is that we humans have actually already achieved great results in our ability regarding genes and genetic modification. And in ancient times, humans already had this ability. Perhaps those humans did not look the same as today -- after studying this session you will understand that your understanding of what a human is must undergo a breakthrough, a subversive concept. Do not always assume that only something that looks like a human can be called human; that is not so. These hybrid beings of humans and animals were also human. Therefore, they were also a species in which consciousness took on different bodily forms. From the material level, it was an experiment based on genetic DNA; from the level of consciousness, it was consciousness deciding to adopt a fusion of consciousness, a mixing of consciousness, or an attempt by consciousness. Understand it this way.
In them, the determination of the egocentric self, as you know it, began to be born, as far as we can make out.
At that time, humanity's early ego consciousness had already begun to awaken. But after human consciousness awakened, it did not have only one choice; it was not that once human consciousness awakened it could only create a human-shaped outer form. It was also possible to create human-shaped serpent bodies, human heads with horse faces, and all kinds of other forms. So all these various ways were actually this ego consciousness trying out various possibilities. So you understand that the results of those attempts also possessed humanity's early ego consciousness; they were also ego consciousness, the same as your present ego consciousness. It was just that in that historical period, it chose such a form. Among those possibilities, they chose to try out more various possibilities. Can you understand now?
There were, for example, different versions of man-animal mixtures of understanding and activity.
Here it uses "man-animal," meaning primarily human, combined with animal genes. Sometimes it says "animal-man," meaning primarily animal genes, combined with some human genes. This is a question of which is primary and onto which the other is grafted. If you do not quite understand, those who have studied biological heredity and grafting probably know that grafting involves the concept of a rootstock, and the rootstock and the scion are not the same thing. I will not go into specifics, because I am not a biology student either.
From about fifty to thirty million years ago.
This time is already very distant; tens of millions of years ago is a very ancient era for humanity. I will not mention which geological era it was; I cannot figure out the Cretaceous, the Basalt Period, and so on. And our current understanding is that the earliest human activity can at most be traced back to about two to three million years ago, when the most primitive ape-men first showed signs of activity, which is a judgment under modern archaeology. But when did true modern humans, what we call Homo sapiens -- archaeology calls them Homo sapiens -- when did true Homo sapiens appear? The earliest estimate now is only tens of thousands of years ago; forty or fifty thousand years is considered relatively early, and generally Homo sapiens only appeared tens of thousands of years ago2. In between were all transitional stages, which in archaeology we call things like Peking Man, and the various archaeological humans discovered in different countries have different dates. Those who truly looked the same as modern humans may only go back tens of thousands of years; before that, they all looked more like apes.
There were countless species, from fifty to thirty million years ago, that now appear to us as mutant species.
Today we see them all as genetic mutations. So when we look at the ancient dragon today -- for China, the most typical dragon totem -- does it not look like a mutation? Look, it has a serpent's body, and that head, those legs, those claws, that tail -- does it not look like a hybrid of many animals? It can even fly, and it can fly without wings. When we look at the species of that era today, they all seem like genetic mutations.
But the differences between "man-animals" and "animal-men" were not as clear as in your present era. In that era, the mixing of primarily human with animal genes, and primarily animal with human genes, was like how we do plant grafting -- whether you graft a plum onto a peach tree, or a peach onto a plum tree -- in our present time there might be a very obvious difference, but in that era it was not so obvious.
In certain respects, consciousness was more mobile, and less concentrated, and more experimental.
At that time, consciousness was uncertain and unconcentrated; it was trying out various possibilities. The consciousness here refers to humanity's ego consciousness, which was always experimenting, unable to be certain, not knowing which was better. In the end, can we speculate whether it discovered that combining with apes, or a certain kind of ape, would be better? Yes, if you speculate in this way, that is roughly the conclusion. After combining with various animals, it discovered that combining with apes actually seemed better, and in the end it became fixed, more concentrated, and this ego consciousness became more confined to or framed within this physical form of the combination of humans and apes.
It is not only a question of physical form; it is also a question of ego consciousness. Because hybrid species of different forms would also have correspondingly different ego consciousness. If you were a species with a serpent body and a human head, then your ego consciousness would have a certain self-perception -- am I a serpent-shaped human, or a human-headed serpent body? In any case, its ego consciousness would be different. When you became a human shape with ape-like features, your ego consciousness would also be different. Later, our human ego consciousness became more concentrated, but in ancient times it was more experimental and less concentrated.
The early intimate mixtures were later remembered as the animal-formed gods of mythology.
In that period, roughly within a span of 20 million years -- between 50 million and 30 million years ago, that is a full 20 million years -- 20 million years is not a short time. Our current human civilization is only a little over ten thousand years old, yet for 20 million years it was in a state of human-animal mixture. And the only memory we have been able to retain from that state is those animal gods in mythology. They existed in ancient times and still exist now, in China and abroad; you can look this up casually. No matter the history of any religion, when you trace back to ancient times, you will find this. The same is true in India, where there is often an elephant -- for example, Shiva's mount is an elephant, and the elephant also became a god. There are all kinds, many of them animal gods. China has even more; not to mention Journey to the West, Investiture of the Gods has far too many, and Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio has even more. How did these animal gods come about? These mythological traditions were passed down from ancient times.
Such species existed before your archaeologists discovered their existence.
This means that, for example, if archaeologists discover a species that may date back about 2 million years, Seth is saying it is far earlier than that. It is not that they existed only before being discovered -- that goes without saying -- what he is saying is that when humans determine that this creature may be from hundreds of thousands or millions of years ago, Seth says it existed far earlier than that.
There were many toolmaking animal species.
We say the difference between humans and animals is that humans make tools, using stones and so on, the Neolithic, the Paleolithic, and so on -- that is not so. Many animals make tools, not just humans. The most typical is the beaver, an animal called the beaver, which builds dams. If you have seen beavers building dams, you would know; there seems to be an episode of some CEO's monologue show specifically about beavers. The beaver is the true engineer of the earth; it maintains and improves the waterways, makes the land fertile, and transforms the earth's landscape and greening, all inseparable from beaver dam-building. Then they did experiments, taking a baby beaver and raising it alone from birth, and it turned out that it innately knew how to build dams3, with no one teaching it, just like spiders innately know how to spin webs. So many animals use tools, and some had the ability to make tools even earlier than humans. Some people think humans were the earliest, but that is not so; many animals used tools long before humans, we humans just did not know.
Consciousness knew of all the achievements possible to it.
Here, all achievements means that every form it takes is an achievement. Consciousness knew of all the achievements possible to it, meaning you could become any form, any shape. I have shared this with everyone before: when you meditate to a certain degree, you can feel, through your consciousness, the feelings of all things and events. Once you have that feeling, you have a sense that you could become anything, if you wanted to. That feeling -- with a physical body you cannot actually change, but in your consciousness you can.
Each race, with its individual and collective psychic force, carried the blueprints of that possible certainty.
He says every species, every race -- whether in its individuals, and here the translation "individual" is not quite appropriate because it is not necessarily human -- that is, every individual and collective psychic force, carries the blueprints of this possible certainty. That is, these blueprints of consciousness wanting to try different possibilities truly exist within every individual of this species, and also exist within their collective consciousness, and they are certain.
These blueprints were biologically valid.
"Biologically valid" means that at the cellular level, they are valid.
They allowed the cells precognitive knowledge.
It gave the cells precognitive knowledge, because a blueprint means what it may become in the future, and present behavior is built upon that. The present behavior of your cells -- cells make up the species -- its individual behavior and collective behavior are all built upon the cells' precognitive knowledge of the future blueprint. In other words, you are pulled into being by the future. I have discussed this before, so I will not repeat it: your present is actually pulled by your future, determined by your future, not determined by the past. In essence, both actually have influence, but we prefer to say the future pulls you, like a beam of light leading you toward that blueprint. He means that from a biological standpoint, this is how it is.
This did not only apply to individuals, as for example cells therefore knew what they would become.
He says this does not only apply to one person or one individual; even down to the cellular level it is the same, and cells also know what they will become in the future. What they are now, and what they will be later. When the cells all change form, then will the outer form of this species also change? Of course. Are the cells on a serpent's body the same as the cells on a human body? No, they are different even in cellular form. This is very subtle.
And in the same way, the entire race would have unconscious knowledge of its own ideal fulfillment within its world environment.
He says that earlier, from the individual perspective, every cell knows what it will develop into. Now he says that from the perspective of the entire race, from the perspective of the species, it also knows what its ideal state is and what its ideal fulfillment is within this entire world. It knows its role, value, and meaning as a species within the whole world, or its sense of self-identity. These are all unconscious knowledge, stored at the level of their collective consciousness. So it innately knows, but this knowing is not known to itself; it has an unconscious aspect. For example, the beaver building dams actually has a very great positive promoting effect on the entire earth's environment, but individual beavers do not think so; they do not have a grand, magnificent belief in protecting the earth's environment, no belief like Greenpeace. But collectively they do have it, yet this collective belief cannot be perceived by them; it is in the unconscious.
The ego then grew in its own specialized direction.
This ego in early times -- he just said it already existed early on -- by this time the ego already existed, and the ego would develop in its own direction. In other words, to put it more bluntly, the reason we humans have become what we are today is the result of the ego developing in its specialized direction. But in this process, the ego had to experiment, and there is no contradiction in this. You do not say that since the ego knows what humans will become in the future, then should I just directly become human, and skip the experiments of hybridizing with other animals in between? No. Remember that it is a blueprint, and within this blueprint there must necessarily be a process; it is not a straight line. This process includes many hybridization processes with other species, but that does not mean it does not know what it will become; it knows what it will become, and this is a characteristic of the ego. But this thing of "what it will become," at that present moment or at that present point, it itself is not clearly aware of it; it is in an unconscious state. This is a bit mysterious, but you can probably understand. So what humanity will ultimately become, and to what stage human ego consciousness will develop, it actually already knows inwardly long ago, but unfortunately we humans today do not know. What he is talking about is early humans -- remember he is talking about early humans, not about future humans -- but you can reason by analogy; it is the same idea.
These inner patterns were innate, as far as the psyche of any species is concerned.
What does "inner patterns" mean? Any species, any ego, has an inner pattern. The outer is the result of its experiments, trying out various possibilities of consciousness, various possibilities of ego consciousness, becoming various species, combining with various species -- that is the outer. The inner is that it has a psychic part, an inner self part. For us humans, humans have their own psychic aspirations, spiritual aspirations, and also spiritual aspirations; those are all inner. These inner things are all innate, present from birth.
That is, the direction in which it wanted to develop, it translated into concepts and mental images, it became a kind of conscious projection.
That is, these unconscious things, those inner directions of growth and development, it would project them outward, projecting them into conceptual, ideational, or mental images. This projection we call "conscious projection." Why call it conscious projection? Because it is not a projection in the brain; it is a projection from the psychic level or spiritual level of a person's inner heart, not projected by the mind. And this projection represents a specific direction of the development of this ego consciousness.
That was meant to give conscious direction.
What is the purpose of this projection? Actually, it is to give your conscious mind, your manifested outer consciousness, external consciousness, autonomous consciousness, a certain guidance, like a guiding light. In other words, are we here today studying this Seth material and learning these things also because of inner guidance? We are seeking inward, right? These things of inward seeking will lead humanity into a new era, lead human development into a new chapter. And is this inward seeking all inner guidance? Yes. What it means is that human civilization, or the human species, from early humans to the present, over these tens of millions of years of development, every development, every transformation, every so-called evolution according to the modern Darwinian view -- the evolution of ego consciousness and the evolution and change of outer form -- was actually guided by that projection of inner self-awakening, leading our conscious ego to develop in that direction. Does that make sense now?
So whether it is early religion, primitive religion, shamanism, the mystery cults of tribes, and so on, and also later religions, were they not all leading people from within? Was their role in the development of human civilization not especially great? Looking at it now, not to mention the past, even modern religion -- does it not still play an especially great role? We have now transcended the limitations of religion, without any religious faith, without any religious things. Through our own determination and our own understanding, no longer restricted by various religious rules, regulations, or rituals, completely free through self-aware cognition and improvement. Are we not also using a similar method, through inner guidance, to lead our outer consciousness into a new era, a new chapter of civilization? It is the same; it is the same. Once you understand this, you understand how humanity developed to where it is today.
The gods served to stimulate development.
At this time the gods were useful; the gods of ancient times could play a stimulating role. Look, the gods could fly, the places where gods lived were so wonderful, the gods had abilities we did not have, they could use lightning. Today we humans have also acquired some abilities, such as the ability to fly, although we cannot fly as freely as the gods, we can take airplanes. Now some people are developing Iron Man-style flying devices; I have seen people experimenting with them, and they already fly quite well, all in development. Perhaps in a few more years it will be possible, and we can put on a flying device and fly around freely like Iron Man. But here, what role did the gods play in ancient times, in remote antiquity? They played a stimulating role.
Though they seemed to be outside themselves, they were indeed meant to lead the self into its areas of greatest fulfillment.
These gods are all outside our bodies, whether it is the Jade Emperor, the Tathagata Buddha, Pangu, and so on, they are all gods outside. But they are guiding your inner self, guiding yourself -- that conscious part -- letting that conscious part of you enter its greatest area of achievement. What does "greatest area of achievement" mean? As was said earlier, any species in the whole world knows its own position and knows its own ideals. As an entire species, it has an unconscious knowledge of the achievement of its own ideals within the whole world environment. This ideal achievement is the specific direction it is going to develop, that is, the direction in which this consciousness specifically grows. And what guides this direction? For ancient humans, it was guided by the gods, guided by the image of those deities. Although the image of the deity is external, it is like an inner lamp, guiding us to seek inward; guiding us through external labor, external change, the use of tools, the development of science and technology, the enrichment of the agricultural and industrial ages, and a whole series of things, to take this external consciousness -- borrowing the expansion and development of external consciousness in the physical world -- to let humanity enter the direction it was supposed to enter, that is, into that greatest area of achievement. That is why we have today's current state of development of human self-consciousness, with science and technology, with civilization, with techniques. So he says, although the gods are outside, they are acting upon our inner selves.
This image of the gods will change, and it is different in every historical period. Like our consciousness, it is different in every era. From primitive antiquity to the present, in your terms, there have been all kinds of outdated concepts of deities that have been eliminated, representing developmental areas that were not chosen.
Those eliminated deities may be those developmental possibilities that you did not choose. They are outdated, like the Earth God, this matter seems no longer mentioned, it is outdated. But they are still potential; although this development was not chosen, this potential still exists in your memory.
For example, the totem pole comes from an era.
I do not know what totem pole he is referring to, whether it means the Tower of Babel or something in the so-called legends and myths of ancient times, or whatever, it does not matter, this is an ancient totem pole thing. At that time, there was a great deal of communication between humans and animals, much communication. Because if you think about it, if they could interbreed, how could they not communicate? In fact, that was the time when humans went to learn from animals.
In that period, humans learned from animals.
So human consciousness stands upon the wisdom of all things on the entire earth. "Upon" may not sound very good, but actually it means you draw on the strengths of many, you have learned the experiences of the living creatures and animals on this earth, you went to ask them, to learn from them, and then turned it into your own knowledge. At that time humans went to learn from animals, interesting, right?
And for the first time, they obtained from them the knowledge of correct medical behavior regarding herbs.
You see, he even points out the origin of primitive Chinese medicine and the source of the use of herbs. Humanity's use of herbs came from animals. But China says Shennong tasted hundreds of herbs and figured it out; Shennong was a divine person, half god and half human, and he felt that this herb could cure illness, so he tasted one or several hundred kinds of herbs and discovered which ones were effective for people and which were not. But the truth, Seth says, is that animals taught them to humans. Why? Because animals live in nature, animals have no doctors and no hospitals, so when an animal got sick or injured, how did it heal itself? It used this method. Humans asked the animals, how did you get better? The animal told them, it ate a certain herb, under what circumstances which herb could treat what, and humans learned from that.
In your terms, historically speaking, it seems that humanity was born from an undifferentiated consciousness of animals into self-centered self-awareness.
He says from our human perspective, according to our Darwinian view, we humans evolved from animals. Although he does not say it explicitly, does not clearly say that humans evolved from monkeys, he does not dare to say it, but he implies that humans evolved this way. According to our human understanding, this self-consciousness of humanity evolved from the primitive, uncivilized consciousness of animals, or from animal consciousness, or from that kind of non-human consciousness, into human consciousness. This is our human cognition.
Seth says actually it is not so, it is not like this. Human consciousness did not evolve from animal consciousness. Then how did human consciousness come about? Earlier you understood what he meant; he says no, on the contrary, it is actually not like this.
In the period of which I am speaking, there existed many kinds of consciousness.
That is, within those 20 million years, from 50 million years ago to 30 million years ago, there existed many kinds of consciousness. There was human consciousness, there was human-snake consciousness, human-bear consciousness, human-lion consciousness, human-dragon consciousness, all kinds of consciousness anyway, and there were also the consciousnesses of various animals, all of them. Humans, human-animals, animal-humans, animals themselves, all these consciousnesses existed. He tells you it was like this, not that human consciousness came from there. Humans were among many kinds of consciousness, and then animals chose to develop their own kind of consciousness, while humans chose your own kind of consciousness. They are different kinds of consciousness; we humans chose our own way.
What is the difference between human consciousness and the animal way? It is that humans have self-consciousness, and the biggest difference from animals lies right here.
And the awareness of animals, which seems to you to be undifferentiated, is nevertheless highly specific.
We think animal awareness is relatively low-level, undifferentiated and chaotic, yet it is highly specific and balanced -- in this moment, in this present. Animals are the ones who live most in the present, far better than humans by who knows how many times. If you want a person to live in the present, they have to reach the state of enlightenment to truly live in the present. Ordinary people who are practicing can only live in the present for a while, and then live in this normal human self-consciousness for a while, and can only switch between the two. When you truly become enlightened, only then can you truly say I am living in the present. But animals do not need to practice, do not need to evolve, do not need to learn any knowledge; animals themselves live in the present, they only focus on the present, yet so completely. We think animals are very low-level, but actually from this perspective, from the perspective that we humans now want to awaken, to engage in so-called practice, to evolve, we should still learn from them. The animals we look down on the most, silly and dull, are they not the state we want to live in? All practitioners say, as Teacher Xiyu will also tell you in the later rhythms, all practices say you should be like a child, you should become a heart of a newborn.
What does "newborn" mean? It is a little child, just born, red all over, that is called a newborn. Become like that little child just born, become the state where your consciousness is undifferentiated; practice aims to reach that state. Then you think, what am I practicing for? I have lived from birth to death to this age, I have figured things out, and I want to return to the state of swaddling clothes, is that not the state of uncivilized consciousness? Many people do not understand. I think there is a difference here; everyone should not understand returning to the state of swaddling clothes as enlightenment, that is not it, that is called ignorance, not enlightenment. What is enlightenment? It is entering from ignorance into our existing physical world, gaining this knowledge and these limitations, and then layer by layer removing these limiting things, shedding the shell, casting off the shell, and then returning to that state of a little child. And at that time, that state is called innocence, called purity.
Animals live in the present at every moment; past and future are largely meaningless, but that specific focus produces an exquisite focus. After humans gained self-consciousness, they lost that exquisite focus on the present.
The totem pole began before that point of separation -- that is, before humans developed self-consciousness. At that time humans and animals still understood each other, humans also lived in the present, lived in each moment-point, and humans and animals could communicate. The specific species that existed and flourished in that era are only a possibility to us, because those species did not choose to develop in this probable reality of ours, so they became extinct. You cannot find their remains in archaeology, you cannot find fossils of half-human half-snake beings, but their remains exist in the concepts of deities that we have concretely expressed -- you can still see traces of them in mythological stories.
All myths contain, to some extent, descriptions of other races that have lived on the earth in various different forms.
For example, including fairies and giants.
Myths speak of the archaeology of your race, psychically and also physically.
If you want to archaeologically study these things, do not think about discovering skeletal fossils; you will not find them, but you can find them in myths. There were once smaller or larger varieties of humans -- the land of little people, the land of giants, such stories exist in both Chinese and foreign myths; giant legends are very numerous in European and American myths, and China has them too, Kuafu chasing the sun, taking a few strides, when thirsty he drank the seas and rivers dry, and you can imagine how big this person was.
And there were also various degrees of conscious connection with the rest of nature.
He not only tried different bodily changes, but also had connections with nature and with the consciousness of different species.
And the larger experiments involved the manufacture of a species.
Large experiments created new species; small experiments were only improvements, or what we call evolution.
It would be a part of the earth, yet it became the conscious co-creator of the earth.
Here "it" refers to humanity, and even more to the common consciousness of humanity. Humanity absorbed the wisdom of the creatures on earth and developed on that foundation. Although humans lost the precise conscious focus of living in the present, they developed self-consciousness, so humans are different from animals; humans became co-creators of the earth, able to create new species together with the earth. Humans are more like the guardians of the earth -- they are equal with all other things, but at the same time they have an inescapable responsibility: you are the co-creator of the earth, the guardian of the earth.
Do not ask why it is humans; it is just like this. This is what the Tao Te Ching says -- I remember it seems to be Chapter 35 of the Tao Te Ching, which says there are four great things in the world: heaven, earth, humanity, and the Tao4. There are four great things in the universe; humans follow the earth, the earth follows heaven, heaven follows the Tao, and the Tao follows nature. Humans can stand on equal footing with nature precisely because you are the caretaker, guardian, and co-creator of this earth.
From innumerable considerations, innumerable experiments, regarding the size of the body, brain capacity, nervous structure, and a consciousness sufficiently flexible to change with the environment, and sufficiently vigorous to explore and change that environment.
Humanity's development to today has gone through countless calculations, simulations, experiments, hybridizations and mixtures, and was ultimately designed after weighing all the pros and cons. Height, weight, brain capacity, nervous structure, all were repeatedly refined through twenty million years of experiments. The most difficult part was the design of consciousness -- if you are too self-conscious it will not work, if you have no self-consciousness it will not work either; if your inner perception is too strong it will not work, if it is too weak it will not work either; this balance is extremely difficult.
The flexibility of human consciousness is sufficient: it can focus only on the physical world, as if the inner world did not exist at all; it can also live completely in its own inner world, creating reality and changing the environment through beliefs. After humans were created, it was the result of a great deal of consideration and balance, and it can absolutely be called exquisitely refined.
The emerging consciousness must have at least the potential ability to become aware of the conditions of the world.
The emerging consciousness is self-consciousness. Humans previously had no self-consciousness, just like animals. When humans chose to develop in this direction, this newly emerged consciousness had to have the ability to perceive the conditions of the world.
His brain has already learned the ability to learn anything he must learn.
When humans lived in tribes, they did not need to use their brains too much, but the brain had already begun to prepare, and it has been evolving all the way to today.
Because one day, he will be responsible for the life on this planet.
Humans must be responsible for all life on the entire planet, not just for humanity itself. This is an innate mission. Many people ask me what their own mission is -- well, here comes the mission, can you take it? You ask every day what the mission of humanity is, and now it is told to you, this is your mission. When self-consciousness develops, the direction of the future blueprint is like this: to become the guardian and co-creator of the earth.
This kind of leeway had to leave room for many possibilities and many errors.
The flexibility mentioned earlier is this leeway. Giving enough flexibility means at the same time giving the possibility of making mistakes. But the developing consciousness must have the freedom to make its own judgments. You cannot say I will give you a fixed blueprint and you develop according to the blueprint -- but it is also not saying there is no blueprint at all, and you can do whatever you want. Can you combine the two like an adult?
This is somewhat like having a child; you tell them they carry a future mission, but at the same time you must give them the freedom to develop independently. You cannot be like Hitler, locking people up and training them from childhood to follow the correct path without making any mistakes. You know Hitler had a secret experiment during World War II, selecting young men and women he considered excellent to have children5, to produce pure-blooded Germanic people, with the children raised uniformly by the state -- later this plan did not succeed, and you can check the history to find out. This does not work; it does not conform to the natural laws of how things develop.
When there are no errors, humanity will only perish. Do not underestimate errors; this is the biggest difference between humans and machines. Because humans make mistakes, they will try those possibly unknown worlds, opening up those originally impossible possibilities and developmental paths, giving humanity a broader world to develop in. This flexible consciousness gives people a very large space for free play. Is there a great ideal, a great value fulfillment? Yes, there is. But it does not hinder individual expression, nor does it hinder species expression. You tell a child they must shoulder the rise of China, but you cannot dictate what they should do first and what next.
He was not to be programmed with more instincts than he needed.
When humanity develops to a certain stage, it expands whatever it needs, rather than having everything designed from the start and stuffed into you when you do not need it. Many people do not understand: why cannot God help us? There is no God; where would God come from? They are all self-consciousnesses creating, creating, experiencing. If there is a God, these consciousnesses are God. So you will not be designed with more than you need -- he has this ability, but if you do not need it, he will not give it. How is your potential stimulated? There must be a need, a desire. When you want to be the guardian of the earth, and you have this need, the corresponding ability will emerge. This is why I always say make great vows and set great aspirations -- when you need it, it will come out.
Biologically it had to be locked into the life of the earth.
On the level of consciousness there can be flexibility, but biologically it must be locked in; there is no way around it. Your consciousness can fill the starry sky, unrestricted by time and space, but the physical body cannot.
Hence it had to understand its natural heritage.
The physical body comes from nature, so it must understand its natural heritage. It cannot separate itself too much and become overly arrogant -- it comes from nature, and it still needs to learn from animals, needs herbs, and is one with animals, plants, and nature. Humanity cannot survive apart from nature.
His survival was so connected with the rest of nature that of necessity he always returned to that base.
Return to the base of the earth, the base of matter, the base of the three-dimensional world. He must always return there.
His response to an inborn impetus to achieve his own greatest fulfillment... automatically changed directions in response to his own experiments and experience.
Within every person there is an invisible impetus that makes you respond. Why are you now studying the Seth material, why are you interested in these seemingly mythological things about the development of ancient humanity? It is the inner self pushing you. You practice on your own path of cultivation; will the results of practice change your direction? From the direction of one matter, to the trajectory of life, to the developmental direction of human civilization, all will change. This choice and direction are not fixed; no one dictates what you must experience. There is no dead blueprint; it is a living blueprint -- the general direction exists, but the specific direction can change.
In your era, there are great overall changes.
In the contemporary era, there is an awakening of consciousness that transcends religion; that change has already transcended religion.
And those represent the innate knowledge of humanity.
When your self-consciousness awakens, you can become aware of the existence of your consciousness itself; this awareness is far greater than religion. Many people have studied a lot of religious knowledge and restricted themselves very rigidly; when they read the Seth material or spiritual learning materials, they feel very comfortable and very clear, precisely because it touches the source of consciousness. It is not that religions are bad; it is that they have already fulfilled their historical mission and are outdated. Just as the deities of the past guided us to seek inward and guided the development of civilization, religions fulfilled their tasks in their own historical periods.
The Buddha himself understood this very clearly; he said that 2,500 years after his death, the age of the decline of the Dharma would begin6. In the age of the decline of the Dharma, new things will emerge; it is not about redoing Buddhism all over again. We must have a state that transcends all religions.
His psyche is projecting its own possible greater image.
A greater image that transcends religion.
And these can be seen in the changes in his concepts of God.
Our concepts of God have already changed; we no longer grovel submissively below, we have begun to transcend him and recognize that we ourselves can also be that God. From polytheism to monotheism, to true body-mind-spirit courses which are atheistic -- there is no God; you are God.
Although this session is very short and speaks rather obscurely, it basically summarizes in a short passage how humanity went from the interbreeding process between humans and animals in ancient times, how this developmental path was chosen, and how it became what it is today. The process is of course extremely complex, with countless calculations, experiments, and considerations. To expand on it would be too complicated; he does not talk about it either, and we will not say more; that is a matter of the past.
注释与核实
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According to Mike's original words, "There is a scientist in China, seems to be called Zhang Feng"; upon verification, it should be "This scientist is named Feng Zhang, born in China, moved to the United States at age 11, and is currently a professor at MIT and a core member of the Broad Institute." (Source: MIT McGovern Institute for Brain Research, "Feng Zhang," https://mcgovern.mit.edu/profile/feng-zhang/) ↩
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According to Mike's original words, "Generally it takes tens of thousands of years for Homo sapiens to emerge"; upon verification, it should be "Homo sapiens appeared around 300,000 years ago; early Homo sapiens fossils and associated artifacts from the Jebel Irhoud site in Morocco are dated to 315±34 thousand years ago." (Source: Daniel Richter et al., "The age of the hominin fossils from Jebel Irhoud, Morocco, and the origins of the Middle Stone Age," 2017, https://www.nature.com/articles/nature22335) ↩
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Source: Tom Hardisky/Pennsylvania Game Commission, "Beaver Management in Pennsylvania -2019)," 2011 (https://www.pa.gov/content/dam/copapwp-pagov/en/pgc/documents/hunttrap/law/trappingandfurbearers/beaver%20management%20in%20pennsylvania%202010-2019.pdf) ↩
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According to Mike's original words, "Chapter 35 of the Tao Te Ching says there are four great things in the world: heaven, earth, humanity, and the Tao"; upon verification, it should be "The statement that 'Tao, heaven, earth, and humanity' are called the 'Four Greats' comes from Chapter 25 of the Tao Te Ching, not Chapter 35." (Source: School of Economics, Shandong University, "Translation of Chapter 25 of the Tao Te Ching," 2009, https://www.econ.sdu.edu.cn/jrtzx/info/1361/25554.htm) ↩
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This claim could not be verified. ↩
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This claim could not be verified. ↩