Paul: Another less philosophical connection is found in the idea of the "spiritual gifts." St. Paul's early communities experienced ecstatic phenomena, e.g., healings, prophecy, glossalalia (speaking in tongues), etc., which Sethies would recognize as psychic abilities stemming from using the Inner Senses. These were squelched fairly early by institutionalization, but never die. Fundamentalists, who are often difficult to take, nevertheless are often folks who can say they have experienced spiritual realities.
We have a very powerful and deeply influential myth -- Christianity -- deeply infused in millions of minds after 2,000 years or so, a myth so "psychically" powerful that some tuned in to it even before it arose.
The myth turns a man into a god and the son of a god, his mother into a divine receptacle. Its roots lie in older myth -- Judaism -- itself built on even older myth (Mesopotamian) while its symbolism resembles that of other myths of the ancient world.
Many of us were brought up within the tradition of some version of the myth and likely this was true for our parents, their parents, and so on back to some distant day when barbarian ancestors were converted, forcibly or not.
Further, any number of "past" versions of ourselves also were brought up within a similar Christian tradition.
As such, it resonates within us, deeply, and simply discarding it and dealing with the nature of reality directly, sans myth, is often easier said than done.
The same can be said of Seth, Jane, and Rob.
Seth, for example, speaks of a life as a pope and another life as a seller of donkey bells in the time and place in which the myth arose, a time not very similar to the mythical picture taught us from an early age, a very complex time and place seething with all kinds of energy and conflict set at the waning edge of what we consider "the Ancient World."
Per various sessions, Rob lives as both Roman and Jewish teacher close to that time, while little is said publicly of Jane's relevant lives but these definitely exist, too, as those who have communicated with the deceased Jane discovered long ago. A version of Jane was very close to those from whose activities the myth arose while another version attained sainthood within the dimensions of the massive hierarchical structure that arose to contain and defend the myth. It's no wonder then, that this was a very charged topic for the trio of Seth, Jane, and Rob, highlighted by Jane's severe Catholic upbringing.
Personally, I would dispense -- as much as possible -- with the myth and all of its teachings and not imagine a "Christ consciousness" (it's not possible to imagine this without invoking the myth, owing to the very word "Christ," while Seth's use of the "Christ Entity" doesn't help, either).
Even so, I have long been intrigued with the particular entity involved, no matter what you choose to call it, even once organizing attempts to channel it -- several times over the years -- during that brief period when dozens of on-line Seth readers experimented with channelling.
This proved very difficult, however, for a number of reasons. Everyone involved had difficulty distancing themselves from "awe" associated with this entity, owing to the holy moly aspects of the myth, even after choosing a less charged name -- "UncleCharlie" -- by which to designate this entity. The associations with the myth are, again, deeply embedded in our minds, and not just our conscious minds.
(Of course there are other myths, other entities and even massive concatenations of entities, some very likely closely connected with this particular entity and, as it turns out, not entirely mythical. I speak in particular of Nataraja -- "Lord of Dance" -- one of the many names pertaining to the Hindu myth of Shiva, but that lies outside of the topic at hand.)
Some would pooh pooh attempts to dismiss Christianity as mythical, suggesting that "good works" or love as presented in the NT transcend the hierarchical nonsense of the church and its offshoots and that these are valid, regardless of all else.
This may be so, but certainly any quality that is truly transcendent requires no sacred text, no connection whatsoever with any myth.
Back to the entity in question.
Have you ever wondered how your own entity relates to it?
Entities, per Seth (and I've been calling them "meta-selves" lately) exist outside of time and space. If, as Seth asserts, all "inner selves" are in continuous telepathic contact, then surely entities can communicate effortlessly with each other.
Thus is found another way to approach the overall topic -- simply inquire of your own entity.
Meanwhile, I continue to be fascinated by the tale told by Seth -- really a prediction, unique in the Seth material -- regarding the incarnation of Saul of Tarsus in our time. (This is found in Chapter 21. The Meaning of Religion, in Seth Speaks.)
Per this, "By that time, all religions will be in severe crisis. He will undermine religious organizations -- not unite them. His message will be that of the individual in relation to All That Is. He will clearly state methods by which each individual can attain a state of intimate contact with his own entity; the entity to some extent being man's mediator with All That Is."
"By that time" refers to a specific year, 2075, but after probing this with others in meditation, trance, and dreams it appears that this new aspect of the very same "Christ Entity" is presently alive.
I now read Seth's words as suggesting that the methods this new version of Saul will promote will have their full effect by 2075. So far as I know, he has not even formalized these yet.
Whatever these methods are, they are certainly intriguing. Can we "tune in" to them now, in 2009, and thus obtain "intimate contact" with our own entity now, today?
(After all, few of us will be alive in 2075. Why wait for their distribution, particularly if we may end up dying first?)
With this in mind, I continue to attempt to fathom the methods, both in thought and "experiment" (these do have something in common with Seth's exercises, after all, although it's already plain that they have some elements not found in those exercises, no matter how powerful and effective some of them are) my progress having accelerated in the last year or so.
I urge anyone reading this who is similarly inclined to share any relevant experience.
Did you ever do a particular Seth exercise -- say, for example, The Preliminary Probable Self exercise, or something equally strong, and experience a major alteration in consciousness?
Have you ever been interested in learning to slip into trance, inspired by Jane's channeling of Seth? If so, have you ever asked for or received information relating to attaining "intimate contact" with your entity or might you have achieved this, simply by your attempts to channel or write in trance?
Have you ever experienced what some call a "crown chakra expansion?" (This feels like an invisible 3-foot sphere has suddenly erupted from your head and may be accompanied by strong and recordable conscious instances of telepathy and/or pre-cognition and/or extremely vivid dreams of a like nature. Certainly here we get into those areas of "spiritual gifts" briefly mentioned by Paul (the initiator of this discussion, not the other, sainted Paul, sainted by the administrators of the structure built to house the Christian myth).
I've experienced this several times, the most powerful instance happening after I met three on-line Seth readers in person for the first time, and at the exact moment one of them began to speak for my own entity as she and her daughter operated their antique wooden ouija board.
I believe that the methods of the new edition of Saul of Tarsus at least touch on this kind of experience; that is, they combine techniques somewhat like some of Seth's exercises with other techniques that "raise the energy" found in our physical bodies but rarely -- if ever -- exercised, at least within western traditions.
Wouldn't it be fun to know what these methods are and become very practiced at using them?
Bill I.
