“If you will remember what I have said about the way in which the universe expands, that has nothing to do with space, then you may perhaps perceive, though dimly, the existence of a psychic pyramid of interrelated, everexpanding consciousness that creates simultaneously and instantaneously universes and individuals that are given, through the gifts of personal perspectives, duration, intelligence, psychic comprehension, and eternal validity.

It is this that your God concept hints at.

Now. This absolute, ever-expanding, instantaneous psychic gestalt, which you may call God, if you prefer, is so secure in its existence now that it can constantly break itself down and rebuild itself.

Its energy is so unbelievable that it does indeed form all universes; and because its energy is within and behind all universes and all planes and all fields, it is indeed aware of each sparrow that falls, for it is each sparrow that falls.”

Excerpt from Session 81, August 26, 1964
The Early Sessions: Book 2 of The Seth Material © 2012 Laurel Davies-Butts

    “Prayer has been extremely successful in enabling individuals to manipulate matter through use of their psychic abilities.

The God concept, however, is true and not true. Myths and symbols are often closer to reality than what are called hard facts, since so-called hard facts are often distortions of the outer senses. These distortions however are necessary frameworks for existence of the inner self in the material universe.

Again, then, even the hard facts are true and not true. An open mind therefore, or an open spirit, must be large enough to contain within it room for what may seem to he utterly opposing data. Myths and symbols often are closer to reality, again, than so called hard-facts.

This is true. But so-called hard facts, that may seem opposed to symbols and myths, are not necessarily untrue, since they may be necessary distortions without which the inner self could not survive in the material universe.

I have decided to tackle this to some degree here and now.

The myth of God, as given in Christian theology, is too closely seen by the intelligent adolescent to have evolved and changed from the Old Testament to the New Testament. The mature adolescent, even, in his mental and emotional framework knows that no one male deity, no one super individual, exists in some well insulated heaven, where he yet is personally concerned with the intimate affairs of man, mice, mosquito, and sparrow. [...]

To the intelligent, even the symbolism of the Crucifixion is abhorrent. Does this mean, however, that such a crucifixion did not occur? It may not have occurred, in one place and in one time, and to one called Christ; but because man has created the myth, he created the Crucifixion out of his own need; and this Crucifixion, which historically did not occur, as the myth says it occurred, nevertheless has as much reality, and more, than it would have had, had it occurred in so-called hard fact.

So the intelligent adult now knows, does he not, that no one individual but superior being exists as God in some heaven, threatening hell to the sinners and disbelievers? For many reasons the idea does not make logical sense. [...]

So the hard fact would seem to be that there is no God. There would seem to be a point of departure. Either you believe in the myth or you believe what would seem to be hard fact.

The hard fact, to all intelligent minds, must be that there is no God. The myth insists that a God exists, and the intelligent man finds himself in a dilemma that does not exist for the unintelligent. This is merely coincidence. The fact is that the myth comes nearer to reality than the fact.

The myth represents man's psychic attempt to understand facts that he must distort in his existence on the material plane.

He must distort them simply because existence on the material plane necessitates a way of focusing his abilities that will not allow the larger scope of focus to operate. This focus, which I have mentioned before, has been chosen by him to meet the circumstances of this existence.

Now. Prayer once enabled the intelligent man to focus his psychic abilities, because the hard fact, taken for granted by all Western civilization, was the belief in such a God. The so-called hard fact has changed.

The truth behind the myth still exists. Mankind has been engrossed in dreams of a god who is like himself: except that he was considered to be superior and possessed of the highest qualities that man admires in himself.

The God myth enabled him, man, to give his higher so-called instincts an objectivity, and the God concept represented and still represents a link with the inner self.

Now. As far as hard facts are concerned, there is no God as mankind has envisioned him, and yet God once existed as mankind now envisions him.

What he is now is not what the religious think he is. Yet once he was only what they think he is now. For in fact he did evolve, and was not complete, but represented a supreme will to be from tbe beginning.

He is not human in your terms, though he passed through human stages; and here the Buddhist's myth comes closest to approximating reality. He is not one individual, in your terms, but is a psychic gestalt, an energy gestalt.

If you will remember what I have said about the way in which the universe expands, that has nothing to do with space, then you may perhaps perceive, though dimly, the existence of a psychic pyramid of interrelated, everexpanding consciousness that creates simultaneously and instantaneously universes and individuals that are given, through the gifts of personal perspectives, duration, intelligence, psychic comprehension, and eternal validity.

It is this that your God concept hints at.

Now. This absolute, ever-expanding, instantaneous psychic gestalt, which you may call God, if you prefer, is so secure in its existence now that it can constantly break itself down and rebuild itself.

Its energy is so unbelievable that it does indeed form all universes; and because its energy is within and behind all universes and all planes and all fields, it is indeed aware of each sparrow that falls, for it is each sparrow that falls.

This does not deny the free will of man, which is indeed misinterpreted. That supreme energy does indeed fight for existence in whatever form it shows itself; and justice, for your information, is only a human term, shortsighted at best. You would both do well to remember this.

I am not going to keep you much longer. Nor have I any intentions of starting a new religion. I am, however, trying to tell you the truth, and this material is perhaps the most important of any so far, in that comprehension of it will allow the intelligent man to avail himself of energies and abilities once utilized in prayer.

Prayer is now shunned. Why pray if there is no one to listen?

The prayer contains within it its own answer, and if there is no whitehaired, kind old Father God to hear, then there is instead the initial and ever-expanding energy that forms everything that is, and of which every human being is a part.

This psychic gestalt may sound to you impersonal, but since its energy forms your person, how can this be?

If you prefer to call this supreme and absolute psychic gestalt God, then you must not attempt to objectify him in terms of material, for he is the nuclei of your cells, and more intimate than your breath.

I know this much and no more. He is not human. He is not "he," if you are thinking in terms of sex. Nor is he "she." Such separations and designations are merely arbitrary in your field. He is individual in the term that many energies are focused into one; and indeed there is one infinite personality, but it is a gestalt.

There is, then, truly no beginning or end, because we are speaking in terms of an expansion that has nothing to do with space or time, an evolution in dimensions of which you and your kind have not yet even dreamed. As an idea expands, changing a world but taking up no space, and unperceived by your scientific instruments, so does the ultimate and instantaneous absolute gestalt, which you may if you prefer call God, exist and expand.

There are those who will say that such a concept represents an escape from reality. These men, however, follow their outer senses slavishly. They ignore and fear the inner reality, and the inner ideas and dreams which have actually formed the reality of which they are so proud.

It is true that undisciplined, hysteric flight into such realms can be dangerous, a least in the short run; but disciplined, balanced, curious and open minded pursuit will lead to self-fulfillment, betterment of the race in general, and will be the means for releasing innate, inhibited energy toward constructive ends.”

Excerpt from Session 81, August 26, 1964
The Early Sessions: Book 2 of The Seth Material © 2012 Laurel Davies-Butts

    Let us consider the idea of original sin, all of the colorful forms it may take within your body of concepts, and the ways in which these will affect your behavior and experience.
    The concept itself existed long before Christianity’s initiation, and was told in various forms throughout the centuries and in all civilizations. On the side of consciousness, it is a tale symbolically representing the birth of the conscious mind in the species as a whole, and the emergence of self-responsibility. It also stands for the separation of the self who perceives — and therefore judges and values — from the object which is perceived and evaluated. It represents the emergence of the conscious mind and of the strongly oriented individual self from that ground of being from which all consciousness comes.
    It portrays the new consciousness seeing itself unique and separate, evolving from the tree of life and therefore able to examine its fruits, to see itself for the first time as different from others, like the serpent who crawled upon the surface of the earth. Man came forth as a creature of distinctions. In so doing he quite purposefully detached himself, in your terms now, from the body of his planet in a new way. A part of him very naturally yearned for that primeval knowing, unknowingness that had to be abandoned, in which all things were given — no judgments or distinctions were necessary, and all responsibilities were biologically foreordained.
    He saw himself as rising above the serpent, which was a symbol of unconscious knowledge. Yet the serpent would always mystify and attract man, even though he must stand upon its head, symbolically speaking, and rise from its knowledge.
    With the birth of this consciousness came conscious responsibility for the fruits of the planet. Man became the caretaker. Now that is the end of dictation. You may or may not, as you wish, include the following as a part of the book. [...]
    The serpent is the symbol of the deepest knowledge within creaturehood; it also contains the impetus to rise above or beyond itself in certain respects. Eve, rather than Adam, for example, eats of the apple first because it was the intuitive elements of the race, portrayed in the story as female, that would bring about this initiation; only afterward could the ego, symbolized by Adam, attain its new birth and its necessary alienation. The tree of knowledge, then, did indeed offer its fruits — and “good and bad” — because this was the first time there were any kinds of choices available, and free will.
    There were other tales, some that have not come down to you, in which Adam and Eve were created together, and in a dream fell apart into the separate male and female. In your particular legend Adam appears first. The woman being created from his rib symbolized the necessary emergence, even from the new creature, of the intuitive forces that will always come forth — for without that development the race would not have attained self-consciousness in your terms.
    Good and evil then simply represented the birth of choices, initially in terms of survival, where earlier instinct alone had provided all that was needed. In deeper terms, there is still another meaning that mirrors all of those apparent divisions that occur as All That Is seemingly separates portions of itself from itself, scattering its omnipotence into new patterns of being that, in your terms, remember their source and look back to it longingly, while still glorying in the unique individually that is their own.
    The story of the fall, the rebellious angels, and the leader Satan who becomes the devil — all of this refers to the same phenomena on a different level. Satan represents — in the terms of the story — the part of All That Is, or God, who stepped outside of Himself, so to speak, and became earthbound with His creatures, offering them the free will and choice that “previously” had not been available.
    Hence you have the majestic elements given to Satan, and the power. The earthly characteristics often appear as he is depicted in animal form, for he was also of course connected with the intuitive terrestrial attributes from which the new human consciousness would spring.
    In terms of simple biological function, you now had a species no longer completely dependent upon instinct, yet still with all the natural built-in desires for survival, and the appearance within it of a mind able ID make decisions and distinctions.
    Now: This new kind of consciousness brought with it the open mirror of memory in which past joy and pain could be recalled, and so the realization of mortal death became more immediate than it was with the animals.
    An association could trigger the clear memory of a past agony in the bewildered new mind. At first, there was a difficulty in separating the remembered image from the moment in the present. Man’s mind then struggled to contain many images — past, present, and future imagined ones — and was forced to correlate these in any given moment of time. A vast acceleration took place.
    It was only natural that certain experiences would seem better than others, but the species’ new abilities made it necessary that sharp distinctions be made. Good and evil, the desirable and the less so, were invaluable aids then in helping form the basis for such separations.
    The birth of imagination initiated the largest possibilities, and at the same time put great strain upon the biological creature whose entire corporeal structure would now react not only to present objective situations, but imaginative ones. At the same time members of the species had to cope with the natural environment as did any other animal. Imagination helped because an individual could anticipate the behavior of other creatures.
    In another way, animals also possess an “unconscious” anticipation, but they do not have to come to terms with it on an aware basis as the new consciousness did. Again, good and evil and the freedom of choice came to the species’ aid. The evil animal was the natural predator, for example. It would help here if the reader remembers what has been said about natural guilt earlier in this book. It would aid in understanding the later myths and the variations that came from them. (See the 634th session in Chapter Eight, among others.)
    As the mind developed, the species could hand down to its offspring the wisdom and law of the elders. This is still being done in modern society, of course, when each child inherits the beliefs of its parents about the nature of reality. Apart from all other considerations, this is also a characteristic of creaturehood. Only the means are different with the animals.
    The acceleration continues, however. Ideas of right and wrong are always guidelines that are then individually interpreted. Because of the connection with survival mentioned earlier (in the last session), there is a great charge here. Initially the child had to be impressed with the fact, for example, that a predator animal was “bad” because it could kill. Today a mother might unwittingly say the same thing about a car.
    The early acquiescence to beliefs has a biological importance, therefore, but as the conscious mind attains its maturity it is also natural for it to question those beliefs, and to assess them in relation to its own environment. Many of my readers may have certain ideas about good and evil that are very hampering. These may be old beliefs in new clothing. You may think that you are quite free, only to discover that you hold old ideas but have simply put new terms to them, or concentrated upon other aspects.
    Your daily experience is intimately connected with your ideas of worth and personal value.
    Now: You may be quite able to see through the distortions of conventional Christianity. You may have changed your ideas to such an extent that you can see little similarity between your current ones and those of the past. Now you may believe in the theories of Buddhism, for example, or of another Eastern philosophy.
    The differences between any of those systems of thought and Christianity may be so apparent that the similarities escape you. You may follow one of the schools of Buddhism in which great stress is laid upon the denial of the body, discipline of the flesh, and the avoidance of desire. These elements are quite characteristic of Christianity also, of course, but they may appear more palatable, exotic, or reasonable coming from a source foreign to your childhood education. So you may leap from one to the other, shouting emancipation and feeling yourself quite free of old limiting ideas.
    Philosophies that teach denial of the flesh must ultimately end up preaching a denial of the self and building a contempt for it, because even though the soul is couched in muscle and bone it is meant to experience that reality, not to refute it.
    All such dogmas use artificial guilt, and natural guilt is distorted to serve those ends. In whatever terms, the devotee is told that there is something wrong with earthly experience. You are, therefore, considered evil as a self in flesh by virtue of your very existence.
    This alone will cause adverse experience, making you reject the very basis of your own framework of experience. You will consider the body as a thing, a fine vehicle but not in itself the natural living expression of your being in material form. Many such Eastern schools also stress — as do numerous spiritualistic schools — the importance of the “unconscious levels of the self,” and teach you to mistrust the conscious mind.
    The concept of nirvana (see the 637th session in Chapter Nine) and the idea of heaven are two versions of the same picture, the former being one in which individuality is lost in the bliss of undifferentiated consciousness, and the latter one in which still-conscious individuals perform mindless adoration. Neither theory contains an understanding of the functions of the conscious mind, or the evolution of consciousness — or, for that matter, certain aspects of greater physics. No energy is ever lost. The expanding universe theory* applies to the mind as well as to the universe.
    However, these philosophies can lead you to a deep mistrust of both your body and mind. You are told that the spirit is perfect, and so you can try to live up to standards of perfection quite impossible to achieve. The failure adds to the sense of guilt.
    You attempt then to further banish the characteristic enjoyment of your own creaturehood, denying the lusty spirituality of your flesh and the strong present corporeal leanings of your soul. You will try to rid yourself of very natural emotions, and so be cheated of their great spiritual and physical motion. On the other hand, some leaders may give little consideration to such issues, but still be deeply convinced of the misery of the human condition, focusing upon all the “darker” elements, seeing the world’s destruction ever closer to hand without really examining the beliefs that arouse such constant feelings.
    They may find it easy to cluck their tongues at obvious fanatics who cry out for God’s vengeance, and speak about the world’s end in brimstone and ashes. They may be as equally convinced, however, of man’s basic unworthiness, and so of course of their own. In daily life such people will concentrate upon negative events, store them up, and unfortunately cause personal experience that will seem to quite reinforce the basic ideas.
    Here in different context is the same denial of the worth and integrity of earth experience. In some such cases, all of the desirable human attributes are magnified and projected outward into a god or superconsciousness, while all the less admirable characteristics are left to the race and the individual.
    The individual therefore deprives himself of the use of much of his ability. He does not consider it his own, and is astounded when any others of his race display such superior qualities.
    To some extent, such beliefs follow certain rhythms in both civilizations and in time.
    The mind is a system of checks and balances even as the body, and so often a set of beliefs that can be seen as highly negative will often serve beneficial ends in countering other beliefs. For some time Western civilization stressed a distorted version of intellectual reasoning, for example, and so the current stress about other portions of the self serves a purpose.
    The people alive within the world come into it with their own problems and challenges, and this will have much to do with the kind of national and worldwide beliefs that are generated and that dominate. The beliefs, of course, are frameworks in which various kinds of experience are tested. This also applies to religions, and political and social situations as well. There is always a give and take between the individual and the mass system of beliefs in which he has chosen his environment.
    There is a belief in illness as being morally wrong, and a countering belief in it as being ennobling, uplifting and spiritually good. These value judgments are extremely important, for they will be reflected in your own experience with any illness or disease.

Excerpt from Session 646, March 7, 1973 & Session 647, March 12, 1973

The Nature of Personal Reality © 2011 Laurel Davies-Butts
– 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
– Chapter 12: Grace, Conscience, and Your Daily Experience