"Seth was one of my first metaphysical teachers. He remains a constant source of knowledge and inspiration in my life." —Marianne Williamson author of A Return to Love "The Seth books present an alternate map of reality with a new diagram of the psyche . . . useful to all explorers of consciousness." —Deepak Chopra, M.D. author of Ageless Body, Timeless Mind "I would like to see the Seth books as required reading for anyone on their spiritual pathway. The amazing in-depth information in the Seth books is as relevant today as it was in the early '70s when Jane Roberts first channeled this material." — Louise Hay author of You Can Heal Your Life "The Nature of Personal Reality had an important influence on my life and work. Seth's teachings provided one of the initial inspirations for writing Creative Visualization." —Shakti Gawain author of Creative Visualization "As you read Seth's words, you will gain more than just new ideas. Seth's energy comes through every page, energy that expands your consciousness and changes your thoughts about the nature of reality." —Sanaya Roman author of Living with Joy "I count Jane Roberts' brilliant book, The Nature of Personal Reality, as a spiritual classic and one of the influential books in my life. As I closed the last page, I looked up at a new world — boundless and filled with possibility." —Dan Millman author of The Way of the Peaceful Warrior "Quite simply one of the best books I've ever read!" —Richard Bach author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull "The Seth Books were of great benefit to me on my spiritual journey and helped me to see another way of looking at the world." — Gerald G. Jampolsky, M.D. author of Love is Letting Go of Fear BOOKS BY JANE ROBERTS The Bundu. A short novel in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (March, 1958) The Resellers (1963) How to Develop Your ESP Power (1966) (Also published as The Coming of Seth) The Seth Material (1970) Seth Speaks: The Eternal Validity of the Soul (1972)* The Education of Oversoul Seven (1973)** The Nature of Personal Reality. A Seth Book (1974)* Adventures in Consciousness: An Introduction to Aspect Psychology (1975) Dialogues of The Soul and Mortal Self in Time (1975) Psychic Politics: An Aspect Psychology Book (1976) The "Unknown" Reality. A Seth Book in two volumes (1977-1979)** The World View of Paul Cezanne: A Psychic Interpretation (1977) The Afterdeath Journal of an American Philosopher: The World View of William James (1978) The Further Education of Oversoul Seven (1979)** Emir's Education in the Proper Use of Magical Powers (1979) The Nature of the Psyche: Its Human Expression. A Seth Book (1979)** The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events. A Seth Book (1981) ** The God of Jane: A Psychic Manifesto (1981) If We Live Again: Or, Public Magic and Private Love (1982) Oversoul Seven and the Museum of Time (1984) Dreams, "Evolution, " and Value Fulfillment. A Seth Book in two volumes (1986)** Seth, Dreams, and Projection of Consciousness (1986) The Magical Approach: Seth Speaks About the Art of Creative Living (1995) The Way Toward Health. A Seth Book (1997) * New editions co-published by Amber-Allen / New World Library, 1994 and 1995. ** New editions published by Amber-Allen Publishing, 1995, 1996, and 1997. THE NATURE OF PERSONAL REALITY © 1974 Jane Roberts © 1994 Robert F. Butts Co-published by Amber-Allen Publishing and New World Library Editorial Office: Distribution Office: AMBER-ALLEN PUBLISHING NEW WORLD LIBRARY P.O. Box 6657 14 Pamaron Way- San Rafael, California 94903 Novato, California 94949 Cover Art: Robert F. Butts Cover Design: Beth Hansen Typography: Stephanie Eichleay Printed by: Malloy Lithographing, Inc. All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, with- out written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review; nor may any part of this book be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other, without written permission from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Seth, (Spirit), 1929-1984 The nature of personal reality : specific, practical techniques for solving everyday problems and enriching the life you know /[channeled] by Jane Roberts : notes by Robert F. Butts, p. cm. - "Through channeler Jane Roberts, Seth reveals a power we all possess"- Cover. Originally published: Englewood Cliffs, N.J. : Prentice-Hall, 1974. (A Seth book) ISBN 1-878424-06-8 (alk. paper) 1. Spirit writings. 2. Reality-Miscellanea. 3. Self-perception -Miscellanea-I. Roberts, Jane, 1929-1984 II. Butts, Robert F. III. Title. IV. Series: Seth (Spirit), 1929-1984. Seth book BF1301.S38 1994 133.9'3-dc20 94-10677 CIP ISBN 1-878424-06-8 Printed in the U.S.A. on acid-free paper First Printing: May, 1994 Distributed by Publishers Group West 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 This book is dedicated to Robert Butts "Joseph" Without whose dedication and work it could not appear in its present form CONTENTS Introduction by Jane Roberts...........................................................................ix Preface by Seth: The Manufacture of Personal Reality ................................. xv PART ONE: WHERE YOU AND THE WORLD MEET ................................................ 1 Chapter 1: The Living Picture of the World .................................................... 2 Chapter 2: Reality and Personal Beliefs ........................................................ 16 Chapter 3: Suggestion, Telepathy, and the Grouping of Beliefs ..................37 Chapter 4: Your Imagination and Your Beliefs, and a Few Words About the Origin of Your Beliefs........................ 56 Chapter 5: The Constant Creation of the Physical Body................................ 81 Chapter 6: The Body of Your Beliefs, and the Power Structures of Beliefs................................................................ 102 Chapter 7: The Living Flesh......................................................................... 118 Chapter 8: Health, Good and Bad Thoughts, and the Birth of "Demons" .................................................................. 129 Chapter 9: Natural Grace, the Framework of Creativity, and the Health of Your Body and Mind. The Birth of Conscience ......................................................... 149 • vii • PART TWO: YOUR BODY AS YOUR OWN UNIQUE LIVING SCULPTURE. YOUR LIFE AS YOUR MOST INTIMATE WORK OF ART, AND THE NATURE OF CREATIVITY AS IT APPLIES TO YOUR PERSONAL EXPERIENCE .........................165 Chapter 10: The Nature of Spontaneous Illumination, and the Nature of Enforced Illumination. The Soul in Chemical Clothes.................................................................. 166 Chapter 11: The Conscious Mind as the Carrier of Beliefs. Your Beliefs in Relation to Health and Satisfaction ... 198 Chapter 12: Grace, Conscience, and Your Daily Experience ....................229 Chapter 13: Good and Evil, Personal and Mass Beliefs, and Their Effect Upon Your Private and Social Experience.................................................................. 248 Chapter 14: Which You? Which World? Your Daily Reality as the Expression of Specific Probable Events ........................274 Chapter 15: Which You? Which World? Only You Can Answer. How to Free Yourself From Limitations ............................. 287 Chapter 16: Natural Hypnosis: A Trance Is a Trance Is a Trance ……..... 307 Chapter 17: Natural Hypnosis, Healing, and the Transference of Physical Symptoms Into Other Levels of Activity .............. 325 Chapter 18: Inner Storms and Outer Storms. Creative "Destruction." The Length of the Day and the Natural Reach of a Biologically Based Consciousness .......................................347 Chapter 19: The Concentration of Energy, Beliefs, and the Present Point of Power............................................. 367 Chapter 20: The Dream Landscape, the Physical World, Probabilities, and Your Daily Experience............................. 387 Chapter 21: Affirmation, Love, Acceptance, and Denial ...........................400 Chapter 22: Affirmation, the Practical Betterment of Your Life, and the New Structuring of Beliefs ....................426 About the Author .......................................................................................... 439 Index ........................................................................................................... 441 • viii • INTRODUCTION BY JANE ROBERTS I 'm proud to publish this book under my own name, though I don't fully understand the mechanics of its production or the nature of the personality I assume in delivering it. I had no conscious work to do on the book at all. I simply went into trance twice a week, spoke in a "mediumistic" capacity for Seth, or as Seth, and dictated the words to my husband, Robert Butts, who wrote them down. I consider the book "mine" in that I don't believe it could have been written without me and my particular abilities. On the other hand, I real- ize that far more is involved. I had to read the manuscript to find out what was in it, for example; and to that extent the book doesn't seem mine. But what does that mean? My idea briefly is this: Our usual orientation is focused pretty exclu- sively in what we think of as the "real" world, but there are many real- ities. By shifting our consciousness, we can glimpse these alternate realities, and all of them are the appearance that Reality takes under certain conditions. I don't believe that we can necessarily describe one in terms of another. For years I've been confused, trying to define Seth in the usual true- and-false world of facts. There he's accepted as an independent spirit — a spirit guide by those with spiritualistic beliefs — or as some displaced portion of my own personality by the scientific community. I • IX • couldn't accept either idea, at least not in undiluted form. If I said, "Look, people, I don't think Seth is a spirit in the way you mean," then this was interpreted as an acknowledgement that Seth was only a portion of my personality. Some people thought that I was trying to put Seth down, or deny them the aid of a super-being when at last they thought they'd found one. Actually, I think that the selves we know in normal life are only the three-dimensional actualizations of other source-selves from which we receive our energy and life. Their reality can't be contained in the frame- work of our creature-hood, though it is being constantly translated through our present individuality. The "spirit guide" designation may be a handy symbolic repre- sentation of this idea, and I'm not saying that spirit guides do not exist. I am saying that the idea deserves greater examination, for the spirit guide may represent something far different than we think. The idea can also be limiting if it always places revelatory knowledge outside of us, and tries to make literal some extraordinary phenomena that may be beyond such interpretation. While I was trying to define Seth that way and questioning whether or not he was a spirit guide, I was closed off to some extent from his greater reality, which exists in terms of vast imaginative and creative power that is bigger than the world of facts and can't be contained in it. Seth's personality is quite observable in our sessions, for example, but the source of that personality isn't. For that matter, the origin of any personality is mysterious and not apparent in the objective world. My job is to enlarge the dimensions of that world and people's concepts of it. Seth's books may be the product of another dimensional aspect of my own consciousness not focused in this reality, plus something else that is untranslatable in our terms, with Seth a great psychic creation more real than any "fact." His existence may simply lie in a different order of events than the one we're used to. I'm not saying that we shouldn't apply what we learn to the ordinary world. Certainly I'm trying to do that, and Seth wrote this book to help people deal more effectively with their daily lives. I am insisting that we must be very careful about making literal interpretations, lest we limit a multidimensional phenomenon by tying it down to a • x •