Hi There:
Well, as I begin writing this I feel somewhat akin to a person standing before a giant redwood tree with a hatchet – not because I’m planning to damage the tree, but because I’m sizing up the enormity of the situation and I’m not sure where to begin. You form your own reality… we’ve certainly written about this before, and we likely will again.
Seth said (actually, all of the quotes on this page are from Seth):
“Even when you lost sight – as you knew you would – of those deep [inner] connections, they would continue to operate until, in its own way, man’s consciousness could rediscover the knowledge and put it to use – deliberately and wilfully, thereby bringing that consciousness to flower. In your terms this would represent a great leap, for the egotistically aware individual would fully comprehend unconscious knowledge and act on his own, out of choice. He would become a conscious co-creator. Obviously, this has not as yet occurred.†~ The “Unknown†Reality, Vol. 1, session 688.
The last sentence is a bit of a kicker, but still, it’s a goal worth reaching for. What, to me, does it mean to be a conscious co-creator? That’s a very good question, and questions like that often make me wish I had an answer. At the same time, and without being the least bit contradictory, they don’t. I remember a story I was told once, and while I don’t know the name of the author, I would like to thank him/her: A man walked into a kindergarten classroom, went up to the board, took a piece of chalk and made a small mark in the middle of the board. He set down the chalk, turned to the class and asked, “What is it?” Well, he got about a hundred answers… it’s a fish, it’s a star, it’s a snowflake, it’s… the list went on and on. The same man went to a 2nd year university physics class, walked up to the board, took a piece of chalk, and made a mark in the middle of the board. He set down the chalk, faced the class and asked, “What is it?” There was dead silence in the class for several minutes. Finally one student raised a hand, and when the man asked, the student offered, “It’s equidistant from the four corners.” Immediately everyone was relieved that the answer had been found.
There are many layers to this story, but one of them is that it’s not that answers are ‘bad’, only that we shouldn’t stop when we find the first one. In ‘Running From Safety‘, Richard Bach was talking to his child self, ‘Dickie’, and he told him basically that it was better to have a few good questions than a thousand answers.
“You are given the gift of the gods; you create your reality according to your beliefs; yours is the creative energy that makes your world; there are no limitations to the self except those you believe in.†~ The Nature of Personal Reality, session 677.
Okay, I’m stalling, even if you haven’t realized it yet… type much, say little.
When I first read Seth Speaks, my world was transformed. It was my first exposure to anything remotely like what was given in that little purple paperback book. Others have had similar experiences. Not only were the concepts completely new to me, at least consciously, they also made perfect sense. By that time I had already been comparing and choosing bits and pieces from different world religions for a long time, but I’d never found one I could accept ‘as is’. I found holes in the arguments of all of them. Maybe it was the holes I was looking for. Anyway, I became very adept at sizing up a new Way of Being and deciding if it held any merit for me. With Seth’s ideas however, I always came up short. It’s not that I simply accepted everything Seth wrote. Far from it! We had many arguments, Seth and I, even if he wasn’t aware of them. The thing was, invariably I found it was my ideas that changed.
“When a man or a woman feels no connection between personal reality and experience and the surrounding world, then he [or she] loses even an animal’s sense of pure competence and belonging. Your beliefs, once more, form your reality, shaping your life and all of its conditions.
“All of the powers of your inner self are set into activation as a result of your conscious beliefs. You have lost a sense of responsibility for your conscious thought because you have been taught that it is not what forms your life. You have been told that regardless of your beliefs you are terrorized by unconscious conditioning.
“The whole following sentence to be underlined: And as long as you hold that conscious belief you will experience it as reality.†~ The Nature of Personal Reality, session 621.
Now that previous paragraph may seem like more stalling, but it isn’t really. I mention it only because at the time I first read Seth’s book I, like any of us, wasn’t a ‘tabula rasa‘ – a blank slate. Perhaps more than many, because I had invested so many years studying and comparing different spiritual ways, I brought all of that baggage with me when I took the fork in the path presented to me by Seth. I form my own reality. There’s such power in that statement, but also great responsibility. At least that’s how I saw it.
“… there is certainly nothing wrong in asking for help from others when you think that you need it, and sometimes much to be gained.
“There are those who make a practice of seeking aid from others, however, using this as a means of avoiding responsibility. In specific physical problems, help should be sought in areas in which you have little knowledge. But many people look to those outside themselves – psychics, doctors, psychiatrists, priests, ministers, friends – for the answers to overall life situations, and in so doing they deny their own abilities of self-understanding and growth.
“Because of your educational framework, the individual is taught to be wary of the inner self, as mentioned earlier, so unfortunately the ordinary man or woman looks for the solutions of personal problems outside of the self, where they can least be found. If you use the methods given in this book, you should know yourself far more intimately than you did before, and be better equipped to handle your personal reality. Simply knowing that you form your reality can free you from some limiting concepts that have held you back in the past. You can then examine your beliefs creatively, finding the correlations between them and your experience. The conscious knowledge alone will trigger intuitional responses within the inner self so that you will receive helpful information through dreams, impulses, and ordinary thought patterns.
“If you affirm the basic grace of your being, then this will automatically weaken the beliefs you have that are contrary to that principle. You will be able to hold equally within your experience the vision of an ‘ideal self’ end all those natural deviations from it.
“You will begin with where you are and joyfully start to expand those attributes that you have now, without expecting them to appear full-blown. You will love yourself and have no difficulty in loving your neighbor. That does not mean that you must be unaware of divergences from your ideal concept of the beloved. And again, it does not mean that you must smile constantly, but that you affirm your validity and grace within the dimensions of your creaturehood.†~ The Nature of Personal Reality, session 677.
Understanding that I make my own reality should have been a freeing idea, but it wasn’t. Before incorporating those ideas into my thinking it was possible to blame ‘God’ or fate or chance or… for those aspects of my life that weren’t to my liking. Seth’s ideas stripped away all of that and left those choices completely with me. It meant that I and I alone had to take up the mantle for those thoughts and ideas. The bottom line is that rather than focusing on what I could do with these ideas, I found myself turning toward what I had done with them so far.
“The most rejuvenating idea of all, and the greatest step to any true illumination, is the realization that your exterior life springs from the invisible world of your reality through your conscious thoughts and beliefs, for then you realize the power of your individuality and identity. You are immediately presented with choices. You can no longer see yourself as a victim of circumstances. Yet the conscious mind arose precisely to open up choices, to free you from a one-road experience, to let you use your creativity to form diversified, varied comprehensions.
“Let us make a clear distinction here: Your conscious beliefs direct the flow of unconscious processes which bring your ideas into physical reality, so while your thoughts cause your experience, you are not consciously aware of how this takes place.†~ The Nature of Personal Reality, Session 640.
See, coupled with all of these new ideas were a lot of old ones, picked up along the way. Some of them were chosen with intention, and others were bits of tattered cloth I snatched onto as I was passing, thinking that they might find use some day. Among these old ideas was that since ‘I’ am more than my physical self, more than my conscious mind, then those other aspects of myself – my inner self and my whole self – were responsible for creating my reality. In short, I had taken the idea from my childhood that ‘God’ controlled my fate and switched labels, putting my whole Self in ‘God’s’ place. I then went on to consider that since my life was not what ‘I’ wanted it to be, then it must be the fault of these other aspects of my Self. And to complete the leap, I felt that if these other aspects of my Self weren’t going to create the reality that ‘I’ wanted, then I’d just figure out how to do it myself. Nobody ever accused me of taking the easy path, and at the time that would have been a point of pride for me. I decided that since ‘I’ was going to create my reality on my own so to speak, I needed to learn and understand all of the various mechanisms involved in bringing physical reality into being. From my understandings of metaphysics I had some ideas, and I added quantum theory to my course roster. I’m the only person I know personally who has a copy of ‘The Many Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics‘. I must admit, it’s a pretty dry read. I began to learn as much as I could about the interweaving of matter and energy, the role played by intention, and anything and everything else I could come across. Having a scientific background and training, I brought a scientific method to the process, and chose goals for myself that I felt could not be achieved using strictly physical means. Every perceived ‘failure’ to achieve a goal I had set for myself only made me more determined. The ironic thing was that I refused to see the magic in what I was creating. If I had set myself a goal to achieve ‘A’ and I received ‘B’ by purely spontaneous, magical means, I discounted the gift I had received because I had not (yet) achieved the goal I had set for myself. Being at war with your own soul can be very trying. And tiring. But I’m nothing if not stubborn. I kept going. Something I wrote only recently is that I’ve learned that one can go for a long time just on anger, even if the fire consumes you in the process.
Fortunately, while ‘I’ may have felt I was at war with my Self, my Self didn’t feel the same way about ‘me’. Actually, it was a long time before I even got to accept the idea that my inner self, my outer self, my ego, my conscious mind, my physical body, my whole self, my dream self, my unconscious self… are all One. It’s something that I understood on an intellectual level, but not something I had accepted in any real way. When I finally came to feel and accept that idea, I began referring to ‘All That I Am’ as ‘me’.
“… You are a multidimensional personality. Trust in the miracle of your own being. Make no divisions between the physical and spiritual in your lifetimes, for the spiritual speaks with a physical voice and the corporeal body is the creation of the spirit.
“Do not place the words of gurus, ministers, priests, scientists, psychologists, friends – or my words – higher than the feeling of your own being. You can learn much from others, but the deepest knowledge must come from within yourself. Your own consciousness is embarked upon a reality that basically can be experienced by no other, that is unique and untranslatable, with its own meaning following its own paths of becoming.
“You share an existence with others who are experiencing their own journeys in their own ways, and you have journeying in common, then. Be kind to yourself and your companions.†~ The Nature of Personal Reality, session 677.
I still remember when I first read about ‘impulses’. It was in ‘The God of Jane – A Psychic Manifesto‘, by Jane Roberts, although the idea originally came from Seth. It was another revelatory moment for me. Even though I hadn’t fully accepted yet the idea that ‘the Universe’ was intent on helping me out, I couldn’t go against the idea of impulses. Again, it just made sense. I was like a kid with a new toy, and I began questioning myself over and over, asking, “What is my impulse to do right now?” It finally dawned on me that when I have an impulse to do something I don’t have to ask… it’s just there. Sometimes impulses can speak quite clearly, but oftentimes they speak quietly and it’s easy enough to crowd them out with your own thoughts. I do my best to listen now.
“Now, impulses are meant to help you create your reality. They are meant to help you move through belief systems. They are meant to help you find your best fulfillment and not only your private best fulfillment; but you are, through your impulses, led to situations where your best improvement also aids the species and all species – when you listen, when you trust your impulses. And I am talking about your private, innocuous, everyday impulses, also.’’ – Conversations With Seth, Volume 2.
In some ways, reading about impulses began to open me up to the magic in my life, and to a greater realization that I would get farther in my quest by cooperating with my Self rather than fighting myself all of the time. I went back and looked at what Seth and others had written and slowly, slowly I began to relinquish the anger I had kept so well hidden for so long. The thing that must be remembered is that being a creator means that I am creating my reality right now. It’s not something I’m going to do when I have it all figured out. It’s very much ‘on-the-job’ training. It is my current beliefs and understandings that I’m using to make my reality after all. I need not be tied to any of my beliefs, something else that took me a long time to learn. I identified so strongly with my beliefs at one point in my life that it was as if ‘they’ were creating my reality, and shutting ‘me’ out. Of course that’s impossible, but it does demonstrate a little of what’s possible to create.
“… the first important step is to realize that your beliefs about reality are just that – beliefs about reality and not necessarily attributes of reality. You must make a clear distinction between you and your beliefs. You must then realize that your beliefs are physically materialized. What you believe to be true in your experience is true.†~ The Nature of Personal Reality, session 621.
That’s been a hard lesson for me to learn. Fortunately, reality changes with us as we go. Once we make a decision to walk a more open path, to release the anger and negativity and limiting beliefs we’ve been carrying with us for however long, changes start to happen in our lives that reflect these new ways of being. This can be expressed in many ways – new events, new job, new home, new city, new people, old people falling away… See the big difference between believing that God, fate, chance or something outside of you creates your reality and understanding that you create your reality is that you change from reacting to what’s happening in your life to creating what you experience in your life. Actually, at the top of this page I mentioned that all of the quotes on this page are from Seth, but I’m going to make an exception. This one’s from Marcia:
In order to go from reacting to creating, I need to change how I ‘c‘.
It’s been an interesting journey for me so far, and that’s quite an understatement. You can read a little more about it in my ‘Mike’s Writings‘. My learning continues, and rather than continuing in anger as I once did, I continue to open up in awareness, in understanding, and especially in love. As I direct my focus toward these beliefs of cooperation, magic, spontaneity, synchronicity and grace, my life reflects more of those qualities back to me. And this is a very good thing.
“You have chosen a different kind of consciousness. That kind of consciousness necessitated different kinds of challenges, so that with your new kind of mind, you would come to different crossroads. You would forget what the animals knew, but with a different kind of consciousness, you would triumphantly then become aware, but in a different way, of the animals’ blessed knowledge and use it again in new terms as conscious co-creators. You have not as yet reached that level but you are working. That is in partial answer to your question.
“There is a great conscious revelation that in all probability can come to each of you and to those of your species in which you understand the nature of your own race and your relationship with All-That-Is within the reality that you know. And then you will realize many things, when you do not define your existence as physical only. Then you will not feel that you should agree, or because you feel that your immortality is dependent upon the seed that falls from you into the earth. You will recognize your own immortality and therefore be free and joyous in your mortality. And you will gracefully take your part as co-creators at a conscious level with all the conscious and unconscious beings that dwell within your physical reality.†~ ESP Class, June 11, 1974.
So, what does it mean to be a conscious co-creator? I asked that at the top of this page. To me, it means many things. It means taking responsbility for my thoughts, my ideas, my feelings and beliefs, but it also means being gentle with myself when I fall short of my own expectations. It means recognizing that everyone is a creator, and that I can’t create for anyone else any more than they can create for me. It means encompassing a greater understanding of the very structure of the universe. It means understanding that everything – every molecule, every atom, every quantum particle – has its own consciousness, that consciousness is the foundation of All That Is, expressed in myriad forms. It means giving up a lot of old beliefs that no longer serve me, and releasing them in joy. It means that I am a fully aware, strong, powerful, multidimensional spiritual being. And so are you.
Understanding that we are all creators brings up its own questions of course. One of which is how we interact with other creators who may or may not understand that they are creators. As examples, there was a major earthquake in Chile recently, following another in Haiti. Every time I walk downtown I come across dozens of street people. All of these people are currently experiencing the results of their individual and mass beliefs. So are Alexandre Bilodeau, Oprah Winfrey, Barack Obama and the people living next door. This is a question I deal with frequently – do we help those who ‘appear’ in need? Do we leave them to their decisions? Do we support them in their choices or do we seek to help them change those choices? There are many other questions of a similar nature. To some the answers may seem obvious. Yes of course we should aid those who ask for assistance. We should offer what we can. Everything is connected, after all. But where do we draw the line? If we understand that in every conflict both parties have co-created this experience, do we honour them by respecting their choices or do we rush in to overlay their beliefs of ‘what’s right’ with our own? I’m not going to offer ‘the‘ answer to those questions, but I believe they are worth considering. In my own conversations with my Self I mentioned that I was thankful for all of the support and guidance I have received in coming to where I find myself today. In response I got, ‘We have never seen you as anything less.’ Maybe that’s an answer. When I see someone on the street for example, I’ll give them money, or not, depending on what I have available to share and what my impulses dictate. What I will always give them is my respect as an individual Being, and my love. I will see them as they ‘Are’.
“You cannot help yourself and you cannot help your species by identifying with your own weakness, or with the weakness of your species. When you are safe, you are safe, and you are in a position of strength and you can be in a position of tranquility. Then you have the energy and exuberance to think and feel clearly and to help others.
“When you are in a position of safety, you do not help by pretending you are not safe, or by taking upon yourself the agony of others. Your reality, when you are safe, is a reality of security. From that framework, you have strength, validity, grace, exuberance – additional energy that you can send out to touch the hearts and realities of other people.
“What I am saying this evening is indeed simplified but you must operate from strength, not weakness. When you stand upon a firm shore, you can extend your arm to the man who is in quicksand. You cannot help him by leaping into the quicksand with him, for surely both of you will go down – and he will not thank you!
“Organize your reality according to your strength; organize your reality according to your playfulness, according to your dreams; according to your joy; according to your hopes – and then you can help those who organize their reality according to their fears.†~ Conversations with Seth, Vol. 2.
Well, that’s probably the longest ‘He Says’ page I’ve written yet, interspersed with quotes from Seth’s various sessions. I was going to end this page, as I often do, with a quote from Seth:
“Believe then, that you are a being unlimited by nature, born into flesh to materialize as best you can the great joy and spontaneity of your nature.†~ The Nature of Personal Reality, session 617.
But I think I’m going to change that, and end with this instead:
Since Source energy is pure loving intention,
why not abandon all sense of hesitation and simply dive in? ~ Mike Nelson Pedde
Love,
Mike.
Follow this link to read Marcia’s View.