conscience良心

In The Early Sessions Book 3, Seth expounds the operational mechanism and negative effects of the concept of "conscience" within the framework of multiple lifetimes, through the case analysis of an individual who self-punished across many lifetimes because of guilt. First, Seth points out that conscience, if combined with long-term guilt, may be "carrying conscience just a bit too far." In the case, the individual failed in the 16th century (1507) to step forward and clarify the facts because of fear, causing another innocent person to be treated as a traitor. This guilt from not speaking the truth psychologically persisted for hundreds of years. Seth considers that carrying this guilt from the 16th century to the present is clearly pushing conscience to an extreme ^[1]. Second, people with a strong conscience (conscientious) tend to inflict upon themselves mental torment far beyond that of ordinary people. Seth mentions that the individual was already a very conscientious person at that time, so he suffered "four times the torment" from his own act of betrayal compared with most people. This strong conscience and guilt can transform into concrete physical punishment: in the immediately preceding lifetime, he tormented himself through a useless right arm, making it unable to point again; and in this lifetime, this self-chosen defect evolved into a speech impediment. Although it is only an annoyance, it has actually become a form of torment ^[1]. Finally, Seth reveals how a "remorseless conscience" drives the individual to perform unnecessary atonement. Because of this remorseless conscience, the individual would even "welcome" cruel treatment from others (such as his father), because these cruelties made him feel that he was doing penance and atonement. However, Seth points out that the original fault he committed had long ago been fully repaid, and this atonement through enduring endless minor cruelties is completely "unnecessary." This interaction based on a debt of conscience not only cannot truly solve the problem, but instead forms a vicious cycle: while enduring pain, he also retaliates by making the other person feel remorse, thereby causing extremely unpleasant effects in interpersonal relationships ^[2]. In summary, at this stage of the work, Seth's discussion of "conscience" focuses on its negative psychological projection at the subconscious and multi-lifetime levels. Although conscience is a moral sense, if it falls into excessive guilt and remorseless self-punishment, it evolves into a pathological mental and physical torment lasting hundreds of years, driving the individual to perform atonement that has long been unnecessary ^[1][2].

In Seth Speaks, the concept of "conscience" is concretely illustrated mainly through a specific post-death guidance case—the story of an Arab man. Although the term "conscience" is directly mentioned relatively rarely in the book, through this case Seth profoundly reveals the inner connections among conscience, belief, guilt, and post-death reality. First, conscience manifests as the bearer of belief conflict and "secret sin." In the case narrated by Seth, the Arab man in the story intensely hated Jews, but deep in his heart he obsessively believed that the Jewish prophet Moses was more powerful than Allah, the god he himself believed in. This deep-rooted cognition violently conflicted with his social and cultural identity and surface beliefs, and thus "for years this had been his secret sin upon his conscience" ^[1][2]. This indicates that in an individual's physical life, conscience is often tightly bound to personal core beliefs, unresolved cognitive conflicts, and the resulting self-judgment (guilt). Second, conscience conflicts become concretized and projected in the after-death world. Seth points out that an individual's beliefs determine his or her post-death experiences. Because the Arab man died carrying this "secret sin upon his conscience" and his unshaken martial concepts, he could not accept any peace, satisfaction, or rest, but strongly expected and needed a battle "for his soul" ^[1][2]. To help him escape from this illusion created by conscience conflict and belief, Seth and other guides had to comply with his expectations and play the roles of Moses and Allah shouting among the clouds and contending for his soul ^[2]. This shows that conflicts and unresolved guilt within the conscience are directly projected after death into concrete, dramatized external reality. Furthermore, the presentation of moral law is the key to resolving conscience conflict. At the end of this staged "battle for the soul" to release him, Seth (playing Moses) appeared holding a tablet on which was written "Thou shalt not kill" ^[2]. This detail not only addressed the Arab man's tragic experience of dying a violent death, but also directly struck at the conflict deep within his conscience in the form of an absolutely authoritative moral commandment that he could understand and accept, thereby helping him slowly prepare to gain freedom ^[2]. This suggests that the resolution of conscience ultimately requires a return to some fundamental, intuitive moral law (such as "Thou shalt not kill"). Finally, the soul and entity provide the macroscopic background for conscience. To understand more comprehensively the entity to which conscience is attached, the book elaborates on the nature of the "soul" and the "entity." The soul is an ever-contracting and expanding collection of nonphysical consciousness, which can be regarded as an electromagnetic energy field, a powerhouse of "probable actions" ^[3]. Although the specific location of the entity cannot be pointed out while in the flesh, it nevertheless knows itself as an entity ^[3]. Conscience, as the individual's inner moral sense, is precisely a concrete manifestation of this ever-seeking-expression, possibility-filled soul at the physical and personality levels.

In The Nature of Personal Reality, Seth provides a profound and distinctive analysis of the concept of "conscience," closely linking it with the evolution of human consciousness, natural guilt, and artificial guilt.

I. The birth background of conscience: the conscious mind and the "moment of reflection" Seth points out that animals possess their own sense of justice and biological compassion, but they are not troubled by guilt ^[1]. With the birth of the human conscious mind, human beings acquired free will and no longer relied entirely on instinct, and therefore needed a way to evaluate their own actions ^[2]. This evaluation depends on the uniquely human "moment of reflection"—the pause in which one uses memory in the present to recall the past and project the results into the future ^[3]. Against this background, "natural guilt" emerged. It is a preventive and creative mechanism designed to prevent human beings from committing violations against nature ^[4]. However, natural guilt itself is very simple and does not directly trigger what people call the stirrings of "conscience" ^[5].

II. The symbiotic relationship between conscience and artificial guilt Seth presents a unique perspective: what people ordinarily regard as "conscience" actually arises together with "artificial guilt" ^[5]. When the human conscious mind began to ponder and play with the originally non-punitive, natural, and innocent guilt, it created the offshoot of artificial guilt in its own image ^[5]. Therefore, the conscience as people understand it is essentially caused by a dilemma and a misunderstanding of the conditions of physical existence ^[5]. Using its infinite creativity, the conscious mind transformed natural guilt into various complex religious and social combinations, thereby forming the moral and conscience standards that constrain the individual ^[6].

III. Conscience as an "untrustworthy guide" Seth sharply points out that the conscience people rely on in daily experience is actually an "untrustworthy guide" ^[7]. This conscience does not come from a pure inner intuition of natural laws, but speaks to the individual through ideas instilled in the past by authorities such as parents, teachers, and clergy ^[7]. Each person has his or her own specific, often distorted ideas about right and wrong ^[7]. When individuals compare themselves with these idealized views, they automatically feel guilty and feel that conscience is telling them they have "fallen from grace" ^[8]. This conscience, shaped by artificial guilt and external beliefs, often hinders individuals from experiencing their own natural nobility and state of grace ^[9].

IV. The conquest of conscience and the reshaping of beliefs Because of the spiritual burden brought by conscience and artificial guilt, modern people have even attempted, through artificial and forced methods such as heavy doses of LSD, to reach and "conquer conscience" once and for all, in order to seek inner peace and clarity ^[10]. However, Seth emphasizes that the true solution lies in recognizing that human beings are naturally good and in actively assuming the responsibility of the conscious mind ^[11]. The conscious mind is naturally capable of reflecting upon and evaluating its own beliefs ^[6]. By listing the specific actions that fill one with guilt and tracing them back to early childhood beliefs, many of the "conscience" constraints based on artificial guilt will dissolve in the light of understanding, thereby allowing the individual to return to natural grace and biological integrity ^[12].