“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

There is of course a composite past that is composed of such individual electromagnetic connections, and this composite past is not the same past that once existed, in those terms. The past itself is being continually recreated by every individual, as attitudes and associations change. This is an actual recreation, and not a symbolic one. The child is indeed still within the man, but he is not the child that once was, in those terms. For even the child within the man continually changes, and again I am not speaking of symbolic change.

Now. Difficulties are caused when such changes in the past do not occur automatically. Such difficulties as severe neurosis are often caused precisely because the individual has not automatically changed his past. Once more, the only reality that can be assigned to the past is that granted to the symbols and associations and memory images that exist electromagnetically both within the physical brain and within the mind.

But this is the only reality that can be granted to the present. I am speaking now in your terms only, and this point should be clearly understood, for I am simplifying conditions considerably. A change of attitude, a new association, any of innumerable other actions, will automatically set up new electromagnetic connections, and break others. Now part of this we shall explain later, for these changes obviously affect both the future and the past. But the past, again, is continually changed by you, and by every individual. For basically you see, it is not something done and finished with, as is supposed.

[...] The current beliefs will reprogram and alter past experience. It is not simply that past, forgotten, unconsciously perceived events will be put together in a new way and organized under a new heading, but that in that past (now not perceivable), the entire bodily response to seemingly past events will change.

A new belief in the present, however, can cause changes in the past on a neuronal level. [...] Present beliefs can indeed alter the past. In some cases of healing, in the spontaneous disappearance of cancer, for instance, or of any other disease, certain alterations are made that affect cellular memory, genetic codes, or neuronal patterns in the past.

[...] You may say, “I was born in a house on a certain street in a certain town, and no present belief to the contrary will change that fact.” If, in the present, one past event can be altered within your neuronal structure, however, then basically no event is safe from such change.

“In other words, the past and present are real to the same extent. On occasion the past can become more ‘real’ than the present, and in such cases past actions are reacted to in what you call the present. You take it for granted that present action can change the future, but present actions can also change the past.

“The connections, therefore, can be changed, and such changes are far from uncommon. [...] The past is seldom what you remember it to be, for you have already rearranged it from the instant of any given event. The past is being constantly re-created by each individual as attitudes and associations change. [...] The child is indeed still within the man, but he is not the child that ‘was.’ For even the child within the man constantly changes.

“Again: the past is as real as the future, no more or no less. For the past exists only as a pattern of electromagnetic currents within the mind and brain, and these constantly change. … An individual’s future actions are not dependent upon a concrete finished past, for such a past never existed.”

[...] I will have something to say shortly, incidentally, concerning the ways in which you may change the past in the present, for this will be useful. First we must relieve the sensitivities and we are, and then we shall work toward the construction of a more favorable past, you see. [...]

Again: a change of schedules and habits. It is good that you are making these changes. [...] The ego is working with you now, for it grew frightened and is taking steps to change.

[...] More extensive changes, a change in working hours, for example, might frighten the ego and should be avoided.

Your dream about the return to Sayre, and the more spacious surroundings, means also that as you now change the past and the future, so you have changed the past: you view it in a more extended light, so that it becomes less narrow and constricting. Then from that new past, in certain terms, the new present and future emerge — a fascinating phenomenon.

(Added on Wednesday, January 11, 1984: We’d like more on changing the past from the present. [...] She seems to think the actual episode of Father Darren chasing her around the bed when she was in that hotel room with him as a teen-ager is changed, whereas I thought Seth meant that the original event remained, but that her psychological understanding of what had transpired changed a good deal. [...]

(5:00 p.m. “Don’t be worried — I’m not going to go on with the session, but as he said, you always go back and change the past from the present — your focus point, you know — I know what he’s going to say next …” I said she was welcome to resume the session.

[...] Because you can change—now this is in our physical terms—you can change what we would think of as the past through actions in our present. [...]

“The past in our terms doesn’t cause present behavior, because you can go back now into that past and change it in our present. [...]

(Continuing chatter about going from present to past—changing past and its affect upon the present. [...]

You can change it in physical terms if you will. But no real change will be effected, for it will spring up again in new form. [...] You must change ideas if you would change the world. If you would end war, you must change yourself. [...]

[...] You can change the past tomorrow. [...]

[...] Both of these come from past experiences in other lives. The inner portions of your personality know the details of your past lives. The abilities that you have now have been developed in past lives. [...]

[...] You can change the past, and in doing so change the present and the future. You can change the present, and in doing so change the past and the future. You can change the future, and in doing so change the present and the past.

I have told you that you can change the past. In doing so you change the self, by choosing from past experience those elements to which you shall and shall not react. [...]

This projected image will of itself already alter the past and the present. You will change the past, your reaction to it, by vividly imagining happy hours that you refused to focus upon. These pursuits in the present will automatically change the nature of the present.

[...] You do not simply change, or enlarge, your ideas or beliefs about the past — but you change the events of the past themselves for yourself, and sometimes for others also.

(“Do you want to say something about our discussion yesterday, about changing the past from the present?” I felt that Seth was bound to agree with Jane’s version of what he’d said, rather than mine.

[...] The situation was somewhat frustrating, since I’d looked forward to some good material in changing the past from the present; I hadn’t wanted the question to be forgotten.

On the other hand as I have told you, your past continually changes. It does not appear to change to you, for you change with it. You are not aware of the changes that have come about. The question of clairvoyance however is not at issue with information given concerning your past. Your future changes as your past changes. [...]

[...] The future changes. You change it, in the same manner that you have changed the past. [...] And the choice is dependent upon your choices in both past and present.

These choices however are based upon your changing perceptions of past and present. [...]

The past existed in multitudinous ways. You only experienced one probable past. By changing this past in your mind, now, in your present, you can change not only its nature but its effect, and not only upon yourself but upon others.

[...] It goes without saying then that probable selves exist in your “future” as well as your past. It is very poor policy to dwell negatively on unpleasant aspects of the past that you know, because some portions of the probable self may still be involved in that past. [...]

Now: For a change we are going to have some dictation, though I may make a few remarks at the end of our session to you both.

The past, and every moment of the past, are being constantly changed from the operation point of the present. In your terms, the present becomes the past, which is again changed at every considerable point from the latest-present — you may put a hyphen between the last two words, so that the meaning is clear. [...]

When you change the past from each point of the latest-present, you are also changing events at the most microscopic levels. [...]

[...] (Long pause, one of many.) She does “return to the past,” remaking it more to her liking. [...]

[...] Now basically it is not true to say that an individual’s decisions must be based upon concrete events within his own past, nor that he is largely imprisoned by his past, nor that his future actions are predetermined by his past experience. For as you now understand the past is as real as the future, no more and no less. The past exists as far as the individual is concerned as a pattern of electromagnetic currents within the brain, and these connections constantly change.

The individual can change past action within however the limitations earlier mentioned in our last session. Therefore his future actions are not dependent upon a concrete and unchanging past, for such a past never existed.

When the inverted time system is understood for what it is, then the individual is in contact simultaneously with the experience gained in the so-called past, and is also able to take advantage of events which have not yet occurred within your present. This does not mean that he will be consciously aware of future events, for if you remember these events can be changed by him at any time. [...] He is constantly forming the events of the past, even as he forms the events of the present and future.

The past is, then, continually changed. The electromagnetic connections themselves, that make up any particular event—these connections, even while seemingly intact, have changed. The energy that composes them is not the same, and the past is constantly altered. Nothing can stand still, including the past, and any such appearance of stability is an illusion.

You no longer perceive the past, therefore you think that it has vanished, and the self that you were has gone. But that particular moment, any particular moment, that you think of as the past, existed before your egotistical perception of it, and is constantly being changed by you, even when you no longer consciously perceive it.

For the inner self can perceive it, and does change it. [...] The past moment is never completed. [...]

On the other hand, as I have told you, your past itself continually changes. It does not appear to change to you, for you change with it. The question of precognition, however, is not at issue with information concerning the past. Your future changes as the past does. Since precognition deals with future events, it is here that the issue [of changing time] shows itself.

[...] The choice is dependent upon your choices in both past and present. These choices, however, are based upon your changing perceptions of past and present. [...]

Any given personal association may originate from a dream event, as well as from a past waking one. [...] Therefore, it draws its associations not only from your present and past but also from your future.

Your dream did indeed deal with changing the past and the past beliefs, and therefore with inserting a new present, and a newer future. Often hair is a symbol for strength, but in this case it represents the strength of old beliefs, and your father is a barber who cuts away those — whereas in the past he followed many quite negative beliefs and concepts. [...]

(I told Jane that I didn’t think I’d figured out very much of it, beyond that I seemed to be remaking the past, and that all of the figures in it except her seemed to be figures of authority from that past. [...]

[...] They are expressed by many cultures and religions, esoteric groups and cults from the past, and continuing into the present. [...]

There have been changes in the past month, extremely important in his mental and spiritual condition, and along with this the release of mental and psychic energies, and healthy concentration in all areas of his work, with reasonable and optimistic plans for the future. [...]

His change in attitude and performance in your personal areas, is a sign of this. [...]

[...] (Pause.) Now we are able to speak much more clearly than we could in the past on these matters. [...]

[...] Therefore if the individual can change his own past, then it must follow that a people can change its past, that a nation can change past events, that the future can influence the past historically, and even you see that a death can alter a birth.

Past, present, and future, as you know, exist at once in the spacious present. We have been speaking in terms of the personal past, present and future, as it exists for the individual. [...]

[...] Then try to experience this simple action as it affects others, not only emotionally and physically in terms of the changes it elicits from their complicated structures, but also the new actions it requires of them.

[...] Ruburt’s inner image has completely changed in the past month—of course, a necessary preliminary. [...]

Hormonal changes are also being accomplished. [...]

So you look back through the historical past. All of the counterparts alive as contemporaries then form, together, a musical composition in what you think of as a present; and once that multidimensional song is struck then its past ripples out behind it, so to speak, and its future sings “ahead.” [...] In this case, however, it is as if each note has its own consciousness and is free to change its portion of the melody. [...]

(Again forcefully:) In terms that I admit are difficult to describe, the creative solutions will change the course of history in the past, so that variations are taken, and technology does not progress in the same way that it “has” in your experience.

I have said before that personally you can change your past from the present.¹¹ The same applies to civilizations.