The "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 parts Mike read aloud).
Introduction
This chapter closes out Volume One. Seth summarizes the first half: the unknown reality, probable people, dreams, the electronic suspension of self, and the blueprint of reality are all interconnected, and they influence everyday individual and collective life. He then discusses free will and unpredictability, the fact that there are no dead ends, inward exploration, dreams and inner data, and the inner divine realm. The latter half touches on the sense of powerlessness in the technological age, medicine and the will to live, the complete physician, the idea that each person is a small universe, and the premise of loving oneself. Finally, it includes Jane's view of Seth.
Key Points of This Chapter
- The unknown reality, probable people, dreams, the self-suspension of electrons, and the blueprint of reality are intimately connected; the everyday world of individuals and groups is touched, altered, and created by these interrelationships.
- Free will depends on the nature of probabilities and the multidimensional behavior of electrons; unpredictability is not chaos, and order and uniqueness are in fact born from it.
- No action is fixed and unchangeable; the unknown reality is the source of the known reality, and understanding how reality works requires turning inward to explore the psyche.
- Dreams are an inexhaustible wellspring of inner data; the inner divine realm is the voice of the multidimensional self beyond time and space, both receiving and sending, and enabling one to operate within time and space.
- Whether medicine works ultimately hinges on the will to live and the mechanisms of the psyche; a complete physician needs to understand the dynamics between spiritual vitality and physical health; each person is a small universe, and loving oneself presupposes an understanding of the inner self.
Main Text
Seth's Opening: Tying Together the First Half
Seth began with a summary — weaving everything from the first half into a coherent whole.
The unknown reality, probable people, dreams, the self-suspension of electrons, the blueprints of reality — all of these are intimately connected.
He started from the world of Jane's and Rob's probabilities, the intersections and mutual influences of parallel space-times, explaining what the world of probabilities is, what the probable you is, what probable lives are, and then gradually unfolded it, until at the end he made clear: these things seem unrelated to one another, but inwardly they are all tightly connected, and they all share a fundamental link.
Your daily personal life is touched, changed, and created by the interrelationships that exist among those phenomena. You say, what does this have to do with your life? Every day of your ordinary life is touched, changed, and created by these things — by the interrelationships among them. Your personal world is affected, and the group world is affected just the same.
Free Will and Unpredictability
You do indeed possess free will. And in a certain way, it is belief, one might say, dependent upon the nature of probabilities, and upon the multidimensional behavior of electrons.
You do have free will, but what does your free will depend on? It depends on the nature of probabilities—because there are infinite probabilities, that is why you have free will. But since a probability is a probability, that means it has already happened or already exists, and here there is a paradox: if it already exists, does that mean I have no free will, that I can only choose? From a certain angle, that is the case, but if the range of choices is infinite, then does that not mean you have infinite free will?
And the multidimensional behavior of electrons—electrons themselves behave in multidimensional ways—it is this multidimensional behavior that allows you to have infinitely many probabilities, and that is what makes free will workable, what gives it its foundation.
Unpredictability does not mean chaos. On the contrary, all order is born out of the creative element of unpredictability.
Many people ask, does unpredictability mean chaos? No. All order is born out of the creativity of unpredictability. This so-called disorder can give rise to order; precisely because it is unpredictable, it can give rise to order—here again is a paradox, different from our usual understanding. We think order is order, and chaos is disorder. But what he says is very true: true order must come out of disorder. Order is only one state of disorder. If the state of disorder has infinitely many possible forms, then one of them must be order. This can be understood from a statistical or theoretical standpoint.
So how exactly does order come about? He explained earlier: because your consciousness, your intent, your thoughts, your ideas are conscious. When you use conscious observation or focus to create upon a disordered or unpredictable probability, the result that emerges must be orderly, because it is accomplished under your conscious creation. In other words, you only pick out those conscious events to perceive; those disordered, underlying things you cannot see at all.
In fact, it is only because you concentrate upon so small a portion of the reality of your universe that the behavior of any object in your universe becomes predictable.
Because the point of our attention lies only on this very small level of physical reality within the whole of reality, on this level you feel it is predictable—he puts "predictable" in quotation marks. In fact, it is still unpredictable.
This unpredictability ensures uniqueness. And this unpredictability is the opposite of predetermined motion.
Only this kind of unpredictability can, in those places we never thought of, never planned for, places beyond everyone's imagination, develop those unique qualities that we do not know about. Otherwise this world would be too dull; if everything were within the plan, there would be no interest in it. And it is the opposite of predetermined motion—it is the opposite of the intent you have decided upon in advance.
The great miracle of the specific activity that is recognized is born out of a vast, unknown, unrecognized, unpredictable dimension.
The great miracle of the specific activity that we humans recognize comes from a vast dimension that has never been recognized, that is unpredictable. It is from that dimension that we obtain our cognition.
In that dimension, probabilities are allowed complete freedom.
In that higher dimension, probabilities are completely free; whereas in our physical dimension, a probability is only one among many choices—if you choose this one, you lose the other one. This is one of the limitations of the three-dimensional world. But in the higher dimension, all probabilities occur simultaneously and completely.
No Path Is a Dead End
Here, the overall practical implications should be understood.
What is implied here? — No path is irreversible, preordained, or already unchangeable. No path is a dead end, and no path is incapable of being changed. This is a premise; be sure to remember it. So when you reach what seems like a dead end in life, you must believe: no path is a dead end; it is only one possibility, and this path is not unchangeable either — you can change it at any time.
However, within the limited framework in which you ordinarily operate, so-called predictions can be made. To some degree, they will also hold true.
Within the physical world in which we operate and which we can manipulate, we can make predictions. Think about how the I Ching makes its predictions1 — it can predict, and in many cases it is effective.
Yet in deeper terms, no action is fixed and incapable of being changed.
This is another paradox. Right from the start he lays out these paradoxes — according to human three-dimensional logic, these three passages state three completely different, mutually contradictory paradoxes, and yet they are harmonious and unified.
Exploring Inward: Unknown Reality Is the Source of Known Reality
Unknown reality is the source of known reality.
Known reality is this world we now know, while unknown reality is actually its source.
If you want to discover how things work, then your journey will ultimately lead you into the dimension hidden within the world you know.
You must bring it inward. Only by going inward can you know the truth of the world.
So you must explore your psyche, and that living consciousness will lead you inward.
In all fields, this is not an impractical endeavor -- "impractical" means not useful. Many people say, what help is looking inward, seeking inward, exploring inward for my actual life? He says in every field, in all fields, this is useful. Not only is it not useless, it is very useful.
Scientifically speaking, this kind of study will greatly expand your concepts, allowing a loving technology to follow the most beautiful topographical lines of the mind, ascend the natural mountains of human ability, and then more easily enter into fulfillment.
Seth once again uses poetic language. When we study inward, it is not only useful -- Seth is also afraid we will treat it as a theory suspended in the air, so he tells you this is not theory, this has great practical value. Not only that, it can also expand our concepts, allowing a loving technology to emerge and reach the peak of human ability. If technology is not loving -- in other words, if it does not arise from the heart -- then we have no way to reach the peak of human ability.
Medicine will gently and expertly encourage the healing process, because it more fully understands the great emotional existence and needs of the psyche.
He is talking about the medicine of the future. Nowadays, when seeing a doctor, only the body is examined and not the psyche, yet the psyche is the main issue in resolving your physical illness. In English, illness is "disease," and "disease" means not at ease -- you are not at ease, so you become ill. This is the wisdom of Western word-making. Easterners say illness arises from the mind, illness is created by the mind; all illness is illness of the mind. So medicine must acknowledge the needs of the psyche's great emotional existence. If you do not acknowledge this, then you cannot cure the illness. And what are the needs of the psyche's great emotional existence? They are your desires, emotions, feelings, intentions, beliefs, thoughts -- all of these.
Dreams and Inner Data
Learning will make use of the latent inner knowledge of the subjective self, and help the patient interpret that knowledge in terms of physical life.
We need to learn the inner, latent inner knowledge, and turn it into a way of outer physical life. For example, our meditation, our exercise, our wholehearted entry into a flow state — these are all ways of interpreting that inner knowledge through the physical body.
Dreams can be seen as an inexhaustible source of data.
Let me give an example. Last time we met Xiuqin from Shandong. She teaches Sufi whirling, but she whirls blindfolded. Sufi whirling — if you are not familiar with it, you can go learn about it. Sufism came out of Islam, around the fourteenth century CE. We all know a poet named Rumi. Rumi wrote more than ten thousand poems, and nowadays you see Rumi's poems all over the media, little short lines, very wise poems. Sufi whirling was invented and pioneered by Rumi. Because his ideas were incompatible with Islam, Islam does not recognize him as a person of Islam; but now in Turkey, and in some other Islamic countries, you can still see performances of Sufi whirling, Sufi dance.
If you truly enter into it, it is not just a dance, not just a spinning. It is a way of interpreting inner knowledge through a manner of physical life. In the spinning, one can truly let go of the ego, enter a state of no-self, enter a state of unity between heaven and humanity, enter a state of oneness with the source. That is one level of Sufi whirling. This is an example of interpreting inner knowledge through a manner of physical life.
Dreams are an inexhaustible source of data. You can make some effort to understand and interpret private symbols. You can record your dreams, and then find the meaning of the symbols in the dreams.
Individuals within a society would be taught to use their inner data to enrich their personal lives, and to help the community in which they lived.
This is Seth's conception of an ideal future society. I know that some of this sounds very regressive — from the human point of view it seems very regressive.
For I am even suggesting a situation in which politicians would learn to dream intelligently, and become aware of the mass psyche of their people, and be able to listen to the inner oracles of each individual.
What he means is this: in that society, politicians should learn to dream intelligently, and in dreams make psychic connections with the people — both individuals and groups — and become aware of their psychic needs. He listens to the inner oracles of every individual. This is an ability that future politicians should necessarily possess.
The Inner Divine Realm
All of this, to many people, sounds very unscientific. However, most of my readers have long since recognized a different version of the nature of science.
To the average person, someone who has never encountered the Seth material would think this is unscientific. But those of us who have studied this for so long know that Seth is talking about another kind of scientific essence -- the real science, not the rigid science of today that has already turned into a religion.
Otherwise, they would not have started reading these books in the first place.
If you did not agree with Seth's understanding of the nature of science, you would not have accepted this book, nor would you have started reading it, let alone kept reading for this long.
So, what is the inner divine realm? What does it have to do with the unknown reality? And even more, what connection does it have with the actual world?
The inner divine realm is the voice of the inner multidimensional self.
What is the inner divine realm? It is the voice of that larger self of yours that exists in multiple dimensions -- the voice of the multidimensional spiritual existence.
This inner self, even the part that each person does not entirely encompass within his or her individuality.
That is, the larger self that transcends individuality. Each of us has individuality, has the labels of self-identity -- who I am. And the larger self that transcends that label is the inner divine realm.
The part of the structure of the unknown self from which the alliance of individuality and physicality springs forth.
Besides the part of yourself that you know, there is also the part you do not know. Your ego consciousness, your small self, and your physical alliance -- that is, the combination of the small self's consciousness and the body, which is the body we have right now -- springs out from there, out of that multidimensional spiritual existence.
Basically, that part of the psyche is outside of time and space, while at the same time enabling you to operate within them.
That part of your spirituality, that larger self, is outside of time and space, yet it enables you to operate within time and space. It is not limited by time and space.
It deals intimately with probabilities, which are the source of all predictable action.
This inner self deals intimately with probabilities, and all the predictable actions in our reality emerge from probabilities. Because its position is in the higher dimensions, it has great communicative power both as a receiver and as a transmitter of messages. It both sends and receives -- this is very interesting, because it is a multidimensional existence; what is sent from one dimension can be received by the self in another dimension. So the sender and the receiver are both itself; it has two identities, and these identities give it great communicative power.
The Sense of Powerlessness in the Age of Technology
Unfortunately, in your era, the results of scientific development have created a distrust of the individual, and subjectively burdened the individual with a sense of powerlessness.
Modern science is even more distrustful of the individual — especially the inner individual. This distrust then leads to a sense of powerlessness: distrust of our bodies, not knowing when illness will strike, not knowing when a virus will infect us; including distrust of our abilities, distrust of the future, and so on. The root of all this distrust lies in — your distrust of yourself.
Even when technology has increased what seems to be objective power, it still feels this way.
Our level of technology is getting more and more impressive, yet it cannot reduce your sense of powerlessness. The sense of powerlessness among modern people is actually stronger than before. In the past, technology was not as advanced as it is now, and living conditions were not as good as they are now, but we did not have such a great sense of powerlessness back then. Everyone lived with a great deal of strength — as we Chinese often say, they lived with vigor, full of energy, drive, and longing for a better life. But people today are full of powerlessness. Technology, by all logic, is more advanced, material life is richer, and conditions are better than before, so why is there an even deeper sense of powerlessness? Is "lying flat" a form of powerlessness? Yes — if he had strength, how could he lie flat? He has completely given up on the pursuit of desire and turned it into powerlessness.
A couple of days ago, someone asked me on a local Los Angeles radio program. The host asked during the interview what I thought about this sense of powerlessness and "lying flat." Actually, I have said this before: from the perspective of human material development, "lying flat" may be bad for those with vested interests; but for the development of human civilization as a whole, it is a transitional stage. What is it transitioning toward? By passively adopting the "lying flat" approach, they are actually giving up the pursuit of all desires. And the pursuit of desire is the most primal driving force that has allowed human material society to continue and advance. Since the beginning of human society's development, what has kept it going is this driving force.
To put it more bluntly: why can China be so confident, why does it have such assurance when standing firm against the United States, Europe, or any other country? Its greatest confidence comes from the longing of 1.4 billion people to pursue a better life. Everyone wants to live in a good house, drive a good car, and live a beautiful, happy life. This pursuit is the main driving force of a society oriented toward materialization. But "lying flat" fundamentally removes this driving force — material society is built on the satisfaction of desire, and it removes desire. "Lying flat" is desireless: no marriage, no children, no consumption, no work — where is the desire then?
From a certain angle, this is not good for the development of the material world; but for spiritual development, it is a passive, powerless intermediate transitional state that we do not want to see. It will force the whole of human society to rethink: should the direction of taking material development as our sole goal be changed?
The pandemic is a very big reminder — it has caused isolation and lockdowns in various regions around the world, and tourism, transportation, and shipping have not yet recovered. Shipping, by all logic, should play a major role in the exchange of goods, but shipping prices have skyrocketed. For a container from China to Long Beach, a 20-foot container, when it was cheap it used to be around eight or nine hundred US dollars, but now it has risen to over six thousand dollars2, and often you cannot even get one — they frequently roll your container: you book it, and when the time comes they do not have it and cannot arrange it. From over nine hundred to over six thousand, that is about a sevenfold increase. Why are prices soaring all over the world? You see, shipping is not working, people cannot move around freely, various places still require quarantine, 14 days of quarantine upon entry3, and so on. Brick-and-mortar stores cannot survive either. Whether in China, the United States, or Europe, they are all taking a hit, and many, many other industries are affected as well.
This is actually a warning to us: if we still cannot adjust, if we cannot shift from taking material development as the core to developing the spiritual and the material simultaneously, if we cannot turn toward that level, then this problem will not be solved. "Lying flat" is also fundamentally affecting it on another level: one is the external condition — the pandemic, the virus, which is external; the internal one is even more powerful. If "lying flat" becomes mainstream, then human society will inevitably have to think and change: what has gone wrong with our society? Why have such young people lost their desire? It is not just a matter of one person losing desire; the whole society has lost its driving force for development — the very thing on which material society depends for its survival and continuity is gone. This is the biggest change.
I am not saying it is good, nor am I saying it is bad. It is simply a phenomenon that exists in today's society, and also a reflection of the collective consciousness — a silent resistance against the development of material society. There is no other way to resist — any other form of resistance would be suppressed and might have very bad consequences. But resisting in this way, at least for the individual, will not have too great an impact.
The Limits of Technology and Humanity's Natural Abilities
Seth says that technology seems to have added a kind of objective power -- it makes you feel as though you are more powerful. Seth is saying this with irony.
For example, your skilled technology allows you: weather conditions will produce a hurricane, and you will have an observation. For instance, not long ago there was a flooding problem in the Elmira area, or your instruments will pick up faint tremors in the earth's crust and trace the fault lines. You will then predict that an earthquake will occur in another region. Therefore, it seems as though you have some mastery over your environment.
When there is a water shortage, it seems as though you can sprinkle chemicals into the clouds to increase rainfall, thereby gaining a relatively practical power to control the environment.
You believe you need scientific paraphernalia to achieve such effects. Yet many animals are aware of such phenomena, and they do not obtain this in the manner of your instruments.
Even ants know to relocate -- ants do not have weather forecasts. Many animals know: when birds do not return to their nests and wild beasts scatter in all directions, we all know that a major earthquake or tsunami is surely coming.
Humanity itself is naturally equipped to foresee such potential disasters.
Human beings have this ability, but because we rely only on instruments, we have destroyed our own ability, turned a blind eye to it. If animals all have this ability, how could human beings not have it?
The physical organism (that is, your body) is an equipped system. All the blood pressure rises, and as far as hormones are concerned, the stress signals have already been activated. But you have not taught yourselves to recognize these natural signals.
When disaster comes, when this kind of natural disaster comes, each of our blood pressures will rise, but we do not notice it. We have not taught ourselves to recognize these natural signals -- rising blood pressure means disaster is coming, but we do not know it.
There is an interaction among all parts of nature. You are just as natural as the animals, and you are also just as attuned to the deep rhythms of the earth.
We are also part of nature, and we do have perception of the deep frequencies of the earth itself, and we can receive the signals it sends out. That rhythm is your conscious awareness, as well as that which is perceived by your body consciousness but excluded by the official intellect -- you originally have this ability, but your official consciousness, your subjective consciousness, says that is wrong, that does not need attention, so you no longer feel it.
I am merely suggesting that you become more natural.
Because science has already created an effective obstruction to that method of feeling. Man follows the earth, the earth follows heaven, heaven follows the Tao, the Tao follows nature4 -- we still must return to nature. Once we return to nature, we will have this ability.
It makes power seem to reside within elaborate machinery rather than within people. For example, people no longer identify with a storm, and have lost that sense of relatedness and connection with it, and have also lost their innate power to master it. The same applies to storms of the psyche as well.
I wonder if everyone remembers that when we were children, we were actually quite willing on rainy days -- especially when thunder and lightning raged -- to lie by the window and watch the storm, or sometimes we even wanted to go outside. Children especially, the more it rains the more they run outside, and they even step into puddles. Why? Because they have a sense of identification with the storm; they do not feel that it is a disaster, they do not feel that it is a bad thing. They rush toward the storm with excitement and joy -- just as Gorky's prose poem says, let the storm come more fiercely5! He is welcoming the storm.
But modern people are quite different. We watch the weather forecast on our phones, watch videos of storms forwarded by others on Douyin, turn on the TV to watch others reporting on the storm. We rarely take the initiative to walk into the storm ourselves.
The Most Promising Industries of the Future
Scientists of dreams, scientists of art, true physicists of the psyche, and, as mentioned earlier, the complete physician — these titles represent the disciplines that can allow you to understand that unknown and thereby make it into a known reality.
He says these seem like terms for future professions, and these future professions actually imply a method and a discipline that can allow you to turn those unknown things into the known. This book is about the "unknown" reality, so how do you explore these unknown realities? He gives several methods:
First, scientists who study dreams. Second, scientists who study art — scientists who treat art as a science. Third, true physicists of the psyche — those who study physics from the level of the psyche, rather than studying physics from the level of matter. Fourth, a complete physician — one who is whole and sound in body, mind, and spirit, and who is familiar with the interrelationships among these three aspects. These four disciplines can all allow you to gain cognition and understanding of the unknown reality. Seth inadvertently points out several of the industries with the greatest potential for development in the future.
And therefore perceive the blueprint that exists behind the physical universe.
Empty talk is not as good as actual practice. No matter how much we talk, it is of no use; we might as well verify it, put it into practice, and experience it in actuality. This is also a direction for our study of spiritual knowledge.
Medicine and the Will to Live
Seth says, let us talk about something concrete—empty talk is not as good as actual demonstration. After we turn the unknown into the known, what practical help and impact will it have on our lives? Let us talk about medicine.
Your doctors can point to lives saved by advanced technology. You can also point to the elimination of certain diseases because of preventive injections (vaccines) or other preventive measures (such as taking certain vitamins or hygienic measures).
To suggest that a person has any effectiveness in resisting any disease would seem like the worst kind of idiotic behavior.
If someone suggests that a person has an effective method of protection against any disease—you do not need vaccines, you do not need these traditional medical measures—you will definitely be considered an idiot. That is how it is now. If you do not get vaccinated now, you will definitely be considered an idiot, and the government and various agencies will definitely urge you to get vaccinated, because they believe that vaccination is the only most effective way to control the COVID pandemic. But do you have this ability? Of course you do, but society does not think so.
Almost anyone can bring up a relative or friend who died thirty or forty years ago of a disease that can now be completely overcome. It seems as if that life would have been saved by modern measures.
Do we not all have this kind of regret—if only he had died a little later, with today's medical conditions his illness could have been completely treated?
Therefore, in your society, from time to time there must be health checkups. Again, many people will gratefully praise some doctor for discovering a certain condition in time and thus taking effective countermeasures to eliminate a certain disease. Of course you cannot know for sure what would have happened otherwise.
You often say with gratitude that some doctor discovered your condition at the right time and treated your illness in time. But you have no way of knowing: if this disease had not been discovered, if you had not found this doctor, what would have happened? Is it possible that this illness might have healed on its own—because you never discovered it, you never even knew you had it; it is also possible that you would have died. But you are not sure. Death is attributed to the fact that treatment is not always effective; being saved is attributed to the doctor's credit—but what the actual reason is, you do not know.
Two Real Case Histories
In Teacher Xiyu's example in this session, he gave a very good, real example. When he was treating COVID patients in Europe, he handled the cases of two patients: two 75-year-old people, both of whom got COVID, and both were almost cured. A few days after being cured -- three or four days later -- one had a heart attack, and one was hit by a falling tree branch, and then both of them passed away, within just a few days after being discharged and cured.
Another even more uncanny thing: a burn patient had a dream a week earlier, dreaming that he might be burned to death today. In the dream there was a great fire, and the fire burned him to death. He was extremely frightened, and he believed the dream very strongly; it felt especially real. Then he thought: since fire is going to burn me, I will hide in my bathroom, hide in the bath -- there is water in the bathroom, so even if a fire breaks out I won't be afraid. So he hid in the bathroom for a whole day. As luck would have it, that very day the hot water pipe in the bathroom burst, and the hot water scalded his whole body, causing severe burns. Think about it: once the hot water pipe in the bathroom burst, he could not shut it off in time, and by the time he escaped, his body had already been severely scalded by the boiling water. He was rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment, and that same night, because of sepsis, he passed away.
You can say these are all ghosts and spirits, or say these are all urban legends, but the actual situation is just like this -- Teacher Xiyu is a doctor at the hospital, and these are things he personally experienced.
Whether or not they received treatment, they might also have been cured, and they continued living normal lives. A person who is ready to die, if rescued from one illness, will very soon get another illness, or find a way to fulfill that wish.
For example, the old man who was killed by the tree -- an old tree branch suddenly fell and happened to hit him right on the body.
Your problem lies in the will to live, and in the mechanisms of the psyche.
Whether you can actually be cured, whether you can actually go on living, fundamentally depends on your will to live, and on your psychic mechanisms. So many highly skilled doctors, besides looking at the illness, also look at how strong the patient's will to survive is.
A complete physician would try to understand the inner mechanisms of life force, and learn as much as possible to encourage these inner mechanisms of life force.
A complete physician will stimulate the patient's inner will to survive, that inner life-force something, and only then can healing happen.
I again suggest everyone watch the documentary I mentioned -- a British woman in Hong Kong, whose video is titled "I Had to Die to Learn About Love." When she was in the late stages of cancer, with only a few hours left to live, she suddenly received a kind of insight, which we could call a sudden awakening. In that state, she understood many things about her life that she had not known before: she understood why she had come, why these things had happened, why she herself had gotten cancer -- she understood it all. Then she decided she wanted to change, and then she came back, and after coming back she was healed. That was a late-stage patient whose cancer had metastasized throughout her body, whose tumors had already become lumps all over her body, lumps you could see and feel; the doctors had already issued a critical condition notice, a person with only a few hours left to live. After waking from the coma and coming back, within just a few days, not a single cancer cell could be found anywhere in her body6.
She gave a one-hour talk, plus half an hour of Q&A7. That documentary, that talk, I suggest everyone go watch it; it will tell you how physical illness and the inner world actually work. Otherwise, if you have never experienced it and are hearing the Seth material for the first time, you will think this is nonsense, too idealistic. When you see other people's evidence or feel it firsthand, you will understand that what he says is all reasonable.
The Complete Physician
A complete physician would determine the patterns of the psyche, and follow them.
He would first understand what the pattern of your psyche looks like: Is it time for you to go? Do you no longer wish to stay in this world? If so, he would also go along with that. If not -- if he has problems in his psyche, blockages in his emotions and energy, problems in his beliefs, but he still wants to live -- then we should point out where his problem lies: Your problem is not in the body; you have a problem in your heart, and your illness is an illness of the heart. Which belief, which energy, which emotion is stuck there, causing the illness you have today? He would tell him, and then help him clear it.
He would encourage the patient to tune in to that inner verve, to ascertain the patient's purposes in physical life.
Let the patient discover what is within himself, listen to his own inner voice, and then determine what his purpose is in coming into this life. Why did that Indian girl get well? It was because she came to know what the purpose of this physical life was, and she strengthened her spiritual power. This is what a complete physician should do.
The complete physician would be a person who -- possessing an excess of health -- therefore understood the particular dynamics operating between spiritual vitality and bodily health.
He understands how spiritual vitality and physical health work together -- this is called the particular dynamics, and that would be the specialty of this complete physician. He knows how to bring about physical health by adjusting spiritual vitality. Of course, for those who spiritually no longer wish to live in this world, he would also go along with their desires -- because at that point he knows that saving them would be futile; their soul already wants to leave.
From your standpoint, we are indeed speaking of a somewhat idealized situation here. You cannot learn the mechanics of health, however, by placing yourself in a hospital.
It seems ideal, yet this is indeed something humanity should improve upon. You cannot place yourself in a hospital to learn the mechanics of health. Your particular illness may be cured in the hospital, but unless you learn more about the dynamics of your own existence -- what is the purpose of your physical existence? What is your inner blueprint? What is the relationship between your spirituality and your body? -- if you cannot learn more, then even if the hospital cures this illness, you will still become the prey of another illness. You will get another disease, and you will still die, because your problem has not been resolved.
The same applies at all levels of activity. By associating with a happy person, you discover how to live happily. You certainly will not discover the answer, however, by associating with miserable people.
I am talking about illness, but what I am saying actually applies equally at all other levels. If you spend time with someone who is negative every day, who complains constantly and is full of grievances, and you want to become happy? If you ask them what happiness is, you have found the wrong person, the wrong teacher -- because they can only teach you what unhappiness looks like. That is what they are good at. If you do not yet know what unhappiness is, you can go and learn a thing or two.
Everyone Is a Small Universe
Each person is a small packaged universe. Just as the concrete planets operate according to order, yet at the same time are still individual. So there can also be a social order built upon individual soundness.
Everyone is a small universe. Chairman Mao wrote an article when he was seventeen, titled "My heart is the universe, the universe is my heart8" -- something like that. Wang Yangming said something similar9, perhaps he happened to read a passage from Wang Yangming's philosophy of the mind. Seth confirms once again that this statement is correct.
If you as a person are a universe, then can the components within your body be compared to planets? Of course they can. Planets operate according to a certain order, and at the same time each one is unique. Although every star is different, it can still establish a complete, unified universe that runs as perfectly as your body.
For example: every cell is different, but your body, composed of cells, is externally a coordinated, orderly physical existence acting as one. Yet the uniqueness of each cell has not been erased -- it is not that because there is a larger entity such as you, the individual is no longer important. The Earth is unique and special, but it is part of the universe. It is precisely because of its uniqueness, and the different uniqueness of other planets, that the entire universe has its own stable, sound order.
That order would recognize the inner validity within itself. And the invisible inner order that forms the body's soundness likewise forms the soundness of the social body.
That order understands what sustains its order -- inner validity. The invisible inner order that forms your physical soundness also forms the soundness of our society. Our society is also formed by an inner, invisible order.
That self, being already a completed self, would therefore automatically operate for its own good and for the good of society.
From a certain perspective, this person's blueprint has already been realized and completed. Since he has already completed himself, he should operate for his own good. At the same time, when he operates for his own good, he is also operating for the good of society. So the good of the individual is the good of society -- being good to yourself is being good to society, loving yourself is loving this world.
Many people do not understand this. In the speech by that Indian girl I mentioned earlier, she also brought up this point: loving yourself is very important, love yourself to the utmost. Many people say, isn't loving yourself selfish? From the human perspective it seems selfish. Yet the amazing thing is, when you love yourself to the utmost, to the most selfish extreme, a feeling of loving the whole world and the universe spontaneously arises. That girl said: I don't know how it comes about, I don't know how the transformation happens, I don't know why loving yourself to the end turns into loving others completely. But when you love others, you do not stop loving yourself -- you still love yourself. The two are not contradictory; they are unified.
But the love in our traditional sense of devoting compassion, doing good deeds, performing acts of kindness -- that love is done in a state of separation. There is still you and me: I am doing good for you, I am devoting compassion. But the love that truly arises from loving yourself to the utmost is unified and whole -- it is the love that merges with society, all beings, all of nature, and the environment, rather than loving from the standpoint of the ego. These two may sometimes look very similar in their outward expression, but they are as different as heaven and earth.
This is what happened when Bodhidharma came to China and met Emperor Wu of Liang10. Emperor Wu received him and asked: I have done so many good deeds -- built temples, supported so many monks in monasteries, widely spread the Buddha-dharma, and in my spare time I often go to temples to become a monk for a few days, and my ministers spend large sums to ransom me back out -- I have done so many good deeds, do I have merit? Bodhidharma said: No merit. The emperor was somewhat devastated: I have done all this and still have no merit? So now you understand where his problem lay. Many people do not understand: why is it that when I do good deeds, release animals, and perform kind acts, there is no merit? Now you understand -- it is not that his method of giving was wrong, not that one must practice formless giving, but that his "I" was still there.
The Premise of Loving Yourself
To love in a state of separation, that kind of love still has you and me, I am doing good things for you, I am offering my love, I am loving from the standpoint of the ego. But the love that arises through truly loving yourself, loving to the utmost, is unified, it is whole, it is a love that merges with society, with all beings, with all of nature, with the environment. These two forms of expression sometimes look very similar, but there is a world of difference between them.
This is what happened when Bodhidharma went to Emperor Wu of Liang, and Emperor Wu asked him: I have done so many good deeds, I have built temples, I have supported so many monks in the monasteries, I have spread the Dharma far and wide, and from time to time I even go to a temple and stay there as a monk for a few days, and then my ministers spend a fortune to ransom me out of it. Tell me, with all these good deeds I have done, do I have merit? Bodhidharma said: No, no merit. The emperor was a bit devastated -- I have done all this and still have no merit? Many people do not understand: why is it that when I do good deeds, when I release animals, when I do good things, why is there no merit? It is not that his method of giving was wrong; those explanations are all correct, but ordinary people cannot understand them. What is formless giving? What is the giving of the Dharma? To put it plainly, it is simply this: when you give, you must do so under the premise of that sense of oneness, that unity between yourself and all things in the universe. Only then is that love meaningful. But many of us do good deeds in a way that is not like this at all.
Loving yourself is the simplest entry point into spirituality. This one thing alone, many people cannot manage. If you have not accomplished this first step, then do not go on to do anything else yet. You may be learning many things, reading many things, but the results are not good, because you are learning these things and understanding these things in a state of separation. You may have some insights, some understanding, but the premise of your understanding and insight is necessarily that of understanding from the standpoint of separation.
And loving yourself also presupposes an understanding of the inner self. If you love yourself, do you not first have to find yourself? Do you not have to know what the whole of yourself is like? Otherwise, what is it that you are loving? If you only love that outer little self, giving it good food and good drink, satisfying all its material desires -- then you are far too shallow. So the premise of this statement by Seth already presupposes that you must explore the inner self, that you must come to understand the true self. If you do not even know what you are, how can you love yourself? If you do not even know the needs of your own heart, if you do not even know what that inner divine realm wants to do, if you do not even hear its call, how can you call that loving yourself?
Dream Scientists, Psychic Physicists, and Complete Physicians
Seth continues to say that, to a certain degree, every individual who wants to become aware of the unknown reality can begin to become aware of the unknown reality, can become his or her own dream scientist, artistic scientist, psychic physicist, and complete physician. Remember, it is not about going outside to look for it; each person is his or her own physician, his or her own physicist, his or her own scientist, his or her own dream analyst. And begin to explore those truly psychic realms, the spiritual heavens and earth, to explore in the spiritual world.
Such a journey will not only illuminate the personal level of reality—it will not only illuminate your private aspects, your personal affairs—but it will also illuminate human experience. This kind of inward exploration, this exploration of entirely new realms, of this spiritual world, can not only keep your personal journey always illuminated by spiritual light, but also keep human experience illuminated by this spiritual light. That is, to explore the spiritual light deep within human nature, to release that spiritual light, to let it guide us, to guide humanity toward a new chapter, a new civilization, a new height. This is the greatest original intention behind Seth's transmission of the entire Seth material.
Jane's View of Seth
This session ends here, and with it, Volume 1 of The "Unknown" Reality also comes to a close. The notes added afterward are not very important, but there is one note I feel I should introduce. The notes added afterward mention that in Part 2 of Adventures in Consciousness, Jane discussed her personal view of her inner multidimensional self.
She talked about the divine realm within Seth, which is similar to his fundamental, non-specific source self. From many perspectives, different aspects of the self, different personages, different roles, appear in different times and spaces. Those probable selves or reincarnational selves that emerge from the source self into various times and spaces are inwardly connected and in communication, even if only inadvertently. The self that appears in our level of reality is a focus personality embodied in physical, earthly form. A focus personality is a focus of consciousness -- whose focus personality? It is the focus personality of that source self, simply a focus of consciousness.
Jane said that, to put it in very simplified terms, she really saw Seth as a pattern, a figure of a personality, an entity. Whether we call it an entity, or a being, or the source self, the name does not matter -- it is a multidimensional personalization, expressed through a medium. Jane was a medium. What she meant was that, in simple terms, she regarded Seth as a spiritual being; he is an entity who, through a medium, reveals his personalized, humanized side.
And in Chapter 11 of Adventures in Consciousness, Jane went on to say that a focus of consciousness like Seth must communicate through the psychic resources of a focus personality. They must appear in a form that matches our concepts of personhood; otherwise, it would be difficult for us humans to accept and understand him. Whatever he is, in his dimension, on his level, he is certainly not a personality existence like us humans. But if he wants to deliver this psychic material to us, he must appear as a personality-based concept. For example, the Datre material does not appear in a personalized direction; the Datre material appears as a group of consciousness entities combined into a consciousness collective. Bashar is the same -- sometimes Bashar is one consciousness entity, sometimes a consciousness collective; he is not one person. And Seth, in fact, is not one person either; he merely presents himself as if he were a personality entity, making us feel that he is a personality entity. Although his own reality may exist in quite a different way. Seth's reality, his world, is quite different from the world we are in now, and he himself is also different.
Jane said she always had this feeling: it was not that she distrusted Seth's personality, but she always felt he was the personification of something else. Jane's understanding was correct -- Seth is a consciousness entity; in our human terms, he is a consciousness entity. He is not even a soul; he is far greater than a soul. Does a soul have boundaries? Your soul, my soul, right? But an entity is vastly greater. Seth's psychological reality spans various worlds and various dimensions. She sensed a multidimensionality of personality that she could not define. Through her communication with and understanding of Seth, Jane's inner understanding of Seth was this: Seth is a multidimensional being who reveals one aspect of his personality, but that is only one of his facets.
Finally, as a supplement, she echoed the multidimensional reality of our inner psyche. What she meant was that through Seth's existence and the multidimensional attributes of Seth himself, we come to recognize that each of us, inwardly, is actually a multidimensional entity. What we call exploring the unknown reality is exploring exactly this part -- what that multidimensional self, that multidimensional reality, that multidimensional world is really like.
注释与核实
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This claim could not be verified. ↩
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This claim could not be verified. ↩
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Source: National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China, "Transcript of the Press Conference on April 2, 2020," 2020 (https://www.nhc.gov.cn/xcs/c100122/202004/3c1887f1d1024ee1b53b99e6c04a31da.shtml) ↩
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Source: Laozi, "Tao Te Ching, Chapter 25" (from the "Collated and Annotated Laozi Daodejing" included in the Chinese Text Project, ctext.org) (https://ctext.org/wiki.pl?if=en&chapter=554341) ↩
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Source: Shi Ou and Zhu Qin, "From 'Classics Shaping Me' to 'I Shape Classics'—Revisiting the Subjective Characteristics of Textbook Development" (https://www.pep.com.cn/bks/kcjcjf/xszh/202506/W020250623560476170955.pdf) ↩
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This claim could not be verified. ↩
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This claim could not be verified. ↩
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This claim could not be verified. ↩
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Source: Song Zhiming, "On the Transformation of Problems in Chinese Philosophy," 2025 (https://phi.ruc.edu.cn/xsyj/sxwk/9f9fe5f1214b469caa92e1264505e069.htm) ↩
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This claim could not be verified. ↩