“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

The inner senses deliver data from the inner world of reality to the body. The outer senses deliver data from the outside world of camouflage to the body. However, the inner senses are aware of the body’s own physical data at all times, while the outer senses are concerned with the body mainly in its relationship to camouflage environment. In other words the inner senses have an immediate, constant knowledge of the body in a way that the outer senses do not.

I risk repeating myself, but I want these steps to be plain. This vital data is sent to the mind by the inner senses. Any material that is important for the body’s contact with outer camouflage patterns is given to the brain. The subconscious, so-called, is a connective between mind and brain, between the inner senses and the outer senses. It is actually partly on your plane and partly on other planes. Portions of it do deal with camouflage patterns, with the personal past of the present personality, with racial camouflage memories; and the greater portion belongs to the inner world, and as data comes into it from the inner world, so can it reach far into the inner world itself.

So the inner senses and the subconscious can do the same thing as far as inner space, and what you would call inner time, is concerned. But this is not amazing, far from it. It only seems strange because you are so familiar with your precious camouflage patterns. Time and space, dear friends, are both camouflage patterns, therefore the fact that the inner senses can conquer time and space is not, after all, so surprising. To the mind with its subconscious, and to the inner senses, there is no time and space, and therefore to them nothing is conquered. The camouflage is simply not present.

The inner senses have an immediate, constant knowledge of the body in a way that the outer senses do not. The material is delivered to the body from the inner world through the inner senses. This inner data is received by the mind. The mind, being uncamouflaged, then, is the receiving station for the data brought to it by the inner senses. What you have here … are inner nervous and communication systems, closely resembling the outer systems with which you are familiar.

The outer senses deal mainly with camouflage patterns. The inner senses deal with realities beneath camouflage … and deliver inner information. These inner senses, therefore, are capable of seeing within the body, though the physical eyes cannot. As the senses of sight, sound and smell appear to reach outward, bringing data to the body from an outside observable camouflage pattern, so the inside senses seem to extend far inward, bringing inner reality data to the body. [...]

The inner senses, then, deliver data from the inner world of reality to the body. The outer senses deliver data from the outside world of camouflage to the body. However, the inner senses are aware of the body’s own physical data at all times while the outer senses are concerned with the body mainly in its relationship to camouflage environment.

The inner ego or the inner self-conscious self directs such experiences and uses the inner senses in much the same way that you use the outer senses, except that the inner ego knows all of the mechanics involved in the use of the inner senses, and you know little of the mechanics involved with the outer senses.

[...] This experience comes very close to the third inner sense. If you will remember again our imaginary experience through the inner senses as we looked down at the street, you will remember that I spoke of sensing not only the present essence of the living consciousnesses within a certain scope, but I also mentioned sensing their past and futures.

You may have experiences through all of the inner senses but not at once. [...] What I should perhaps add for the sake of clearness is that you will not as a rule be aware of data that comes to you through more than one sense, inner sense, at a time.

The inner senses belong to you as inhabitors of a spontaneous inner reality universe. They, the inner senses, are your regardless of the particular camouflage plane you might inhabit at any given instance. Only by using the inner senses can you perceive while on your plane the inner reality of which it is part.

[...] The inner senses, and this should help Philip, the inner senses deal with direct perception of reality, of inner reality.

The fact remains that the inner senses are equipped to let you perceive inner reality. You can use them; and for Philip’s information the evidence of the inner senses is immediate, and vivid, and direct—much more vivid, Philip, than for example your camouflage experience of the color red. [...]

“Think of the Inner Senses as paths leading to an inner reality. The first sense involves perception of a direct nature—instant cognition through what I can only describe as inner vibrational touch. [...] This sense would permit him to feel the basic sensations felt by each of the trees about him. [...]

[...] I have told you that there are Inner Senses as well as physical ones. [...] You must learn to recognize, develop, and use these Inner Senses. [...]

[...] But to use the Inner Senses properly, they must be used smoothly, often blending one into the other. [...] Using the Inner Senses, we simply increase our entire range of perceptions.

This does not mean that evidence cannot be found, and overwhelming evidence, for the existence of the inner senses. [...] It is extremely difficult to relate data received by the inner senses into data that will be picked up by the outer senses.

It is true that as a whole you do not as yet understand the inner senses intellectually. The part of yourself which you deny understands the inner senses well. But this does you no good at this stage of the game and so you are in the peculiar position, once more, of trying to dissect the inner world with camouflage tools.

If you will think (I hope) for simplicity’s sake of the whole self as it exists on your plane with its physical body, conscious ego and inner self as one field unit, which is also part of the larger or more complete entity as one field unit within another, then perhaps it will not be too much for you to imagine the connection, or one of the connections, between the entity field and the whole-self field, which is on your plane as being the inner senses—that is, the inner senses are one of the connectives between these two fields.

[...] He uses these inner senses constantly, though the actor part of himself is so intent upon the play that this escapes him. In a large manner, the physical senses actually form the physical reality they seem to only perceive. They are themselves part of the camouflage, but they are like lenses over your natural inner perceptions that force you to “see” an available field of activity as physical matter; and so they can be relied upon only to tell you what is happening in a superficial manner. You can tell the position of the other actors for example, or time by clock, but these physical senses will not tell you that time is itself a camouflage, or that consciousness forms the other actors, or that realities that you cannot see exist over and beyond the physical matter that is so apparent.

[...] Now the information in this book is being directed to some extent through the inner senses of the woman who is in trance as I write it. Such endeavor is the result of highly organized inner precision, and of training. [...] So the inner senses are channels that provide communication between various dimensions of existence. [...]

(10:20.) Highly simplified indeed, the effect would be something like changing one set of glasses for another, for the physical senses are as artificial, basically speaking, to the inner self, as a set of glasses or a hearing aid is to the physical self. The inner senses, therefore, are but rarely used completely consciously.

Now this sense, like all other inner senses, is being used by the inner self-conscious ego, but the outer ego is not permitted awareness along these lines. A minimum amount of information from these inner senses is given to the outer ego after it is sifted through the subconscious. [...]

As far as inner senses go, it is an extremely basic and rudimentary sense, containing within it the possibility of other inner senses. Although it is one of the most necessary senses, I could not give it to you first since you would not have understood it.

The fifth inner sense carries us further along in this direction, and involves what I will call cognition of the knowledgeable essence. This sense differs from the fourth inner sense in that it does not involve the cognition of a concept.

[...] Each person will experience the Inner Senses in a different way, since perception of any kind is highly individual. It is extremely difficult to use the other Inner Senses without first using Psy-Time, however. In fact some of my students “turned on” their other Inner Senses spontaneously when doing Psy-Time. Some have used Psy-Time to receive information concerning their past lives; in this case, they used many of the Inner Senses together to search out the data they wanted.

Taken together, the Inner Senses will give each individual a picture of reality as it exists independently of physical matter, an image of the inner identity that is his own. [...]

What Seth is saying here is that the inner self uses this sense to initiate the birth of one of its personalities in physical life. [...]

This is closely related to one of the inner senses, the second inner sense, and it is upon psychological time that you must try to transpose your inner visions. You can see how handicapped we both are because of the difficulties involved in trying to make you understand inner data in terms of outer data, when the two are so apart, really, even while they are so closely connected. For instance, when I tell you that the second sense is like your sense of time, while this does give you a certain understanding or feeling of what this second sense is like, nevertheless it also is confusing, I know, because you are apt to compare the two too closely.

There is an inner sense, dear Joseph, that in a vague manner corresponds to your own inner images. That is, you use this inner sense quite inadvertently in your visions, except that as a result of your lack of consistent training you see these but dimly. [...]

Dear Joseph, apropos of your remarks during your break: I feel concept patterns, or at least that is the nearest I can come to explaining it to you, and this my dear friend will involve our third inner sense when we really go into that discussion. It involves a different idea entirely from the first inner sense, which somewhat corresponds on a different level to your empathy. There is a subtle distinction between the two senses that sets them apart.

[...] Using this sense, you penetrate through the capsule that encloses the self. This Inner Sense, like all others, is being used constantly by the inner self, but very little of the data received is sifted through to the subconscious or ego. Without the use of this sense, however, no man would ever come close to understanding another.” This sense is a stronger version of inner vibrational touch.

“Remember that these Inner Senses operate as a whole, working together smoothly, and that to some degree the divisions between them are arbitrary on my part. This fifth sense differs from the fourth [conceptual sense] in that it does not involve cognition of a concept. It is similar to the fourth sense in that it is free from past, present, and future, and involves an intimate becoming, or transformation of self into something else.

[...] You attempt to understand a friend by using your physical senses. Use of this fifth sense would enable you to enter into your friend. In its fullest sense, it is not available to you within your system. [...]

Different outer senses are necessary at different levels and on various planes to interpret the different camouflage patterns. These outer senses are developed to cope with these particular camouflage patterns which the personality will meet in its various environments. The inner senses always operate regardless of the particular environment in which the personality is presently involved. The inner senses provide the whole personality with balance, and enable it to keep in contact with its vitality source.

This does not in any way absolve you from using your outer senses to their fullest capacity. If you recall, your outer senses, Joseph, tipped you off as to a message that your inner senses had been endeavoring to deliver. The falling tree incident is what I am referring to, and often there is such a completed circle when the outer senses will return you to inner data.

I was going to say that discipline is even more important in the use of the inner senses than you might think. It is true that focusing upon the inner reality at times requires a temporary lessening of outer focus, and this would sometimes give the appearance of letting go, but the inner concentration requires discipline and intent. It is quite possible to let the inner and the outer senses operate at the same time. [...]

“Without this sixth sense and its constant use by the inner self, you could not construct the physical camouflage universe. You can compare this sense with instinct, as you think of it, although it is concerned with the innate knowledge of the entire universe. [...] The inner self has at its command complete knowledge, but only portions are used by an organism. A spider, spinning its web, is using this sense in almost its purest form. The spider has no intellect or ego, and its activities are pure spontaneous uses of the Inner Senses, unhampered and uncamouflaged to a great extent. [...]

[...] They reveal themselves to us when we turn our attention away from physical data and look inward; this is when the sixth Inner Sense comes into play. [...] Surely this sense suddenly came into operation during my experience with “cosmic consciousness” and was partially responsible for my “Idea Construction” manuscript. This sense gives rise to most experiences of a revelationary character.

“This is an extremely rudimentary sense. It is concerned with the entity’s innate working knowledge of the basic vitality of the universe, without which no manipulations of vitality would be possible—as, for example, you could not stand up straight without first having an innate sense of balance.

This is closely related to the second inner sense, and it is upon psychological time that you must try to transpose your inner visions. You can see how handicapped we both are because of the difficulties involved in trying to explain inner data in terms of outer data. For instance, when I tell you that the second inner sense is like your sense of time, this does give you some understanding of what psychological time is like, but you are apt to compare the two too closely.

The inner senses, however, give much stronger impressions than those given by the outer ones. You should, in the future, be able to achieve the counterparts of sight, sound, smell and touch, embellished by inner counterparts of width and existence, using the inner senses. You have trouble now with the duration of your inner visions because you are trying to transpose them according to physical time — and this is going about it in the wrong way. [...]

There is an inner sense, Joseph, that, in a vague manner, corresponds to your own inner images. That is, you use this inner sense quite inadvertently in your visions, except that because of your lack of consistent training, you see these only dimly.

It is however one of the most basic, and without it at least two inner senses would be extremely hampered. [...] When we are finally finished with our skeleton outline on the inner senses, then I will go into those that are the most important, basic and necessary. I have not given the inner senses to you in the order of their importance, but merely in the order that would be the simplest for you to understand.

[...] When the conscious ego desires information, and when the outer ego is in full control, then the information is sought from the outer senses. When the outer ego is caught unawares and information is requested, the subconscious often delivers it through the use of the inner senses. [...]

When the ego becomes a mere observer rather than a controller, and momentarily suspends its rigid judgments, then inner direct experience is given some freedom and yet the ego is still aware of it. When the ego is completely or nearly completely subjugated, as in sleep, then there is direct experience through the inner senses, but no conscious awareness of it.

Psychological time belongs to the inner self, that is, to the mind. It is, however, a connective, a portion of the inner senses which we will call, for convenience, the second inner sense … It is a natural pathway, meant to give easy access from the inner to the outer world and back again.

Then, just as Rob was about to ask how we could really perceive the inner realities, Seth began to discuss the second inner sense, giving us a valuable tool for our subjective dissections. We later discovered, of course, the “inner senses” and “psychological time” had been discussed under different names in many ancient manuscripts. [...]

[...] He automatically translates inner data given by me into coherent, valid and faithful camouflage patterns. [...] Its transference is automatic and instantaneous on Ruburt’s part, and is performed through the inner workings of the mind, the inner senses and the brain.

[...] We shall call the eighth inner sense the sense of disentanglement; and it is one of the most basic inner senses. [...]

[...] This, she believes, is the eighth inner sense, making possible transportation and levitation; Seth has briefly referred to these two being dependent upon another inner sense.

[...] Use of the inner senses makes transportation as you think of it completely unnecessary, since complete use of the inner senses amounts to communication to a degree so near perfect and so independent of so-called space, that transportation through space in those terms becomes an outmoded method of communication.

The inner senses collect information of which the conscious self may not be aware. The astral identity of course is aware of communications from both the inner and outer environment. [...] The inner ego of which we have spoken is the director of this astral identity. [...]

(Seth began discussing the inner ego along with the inner senses, so material on it is woven through the sessions. A few recent sessions dealing with the inner ego are: 94, 151, 162, 173. [...]

[...] Regard the inner senses in connection with the nature of action and electromagnetic reality, for the perceptions of the inner senses are themselves action, and as such they change both the perceiver and the thing perceived. [...]

Remember, according to Seth these Inner Senses are used by the whole self constantly. Since past, present, and future have no basic reality, this sense allows us to see through the apparent time barriers. [...] Any precognitive experience would entail use of this Inner Sense. [...]

“If you will remember our imaginary man as he stands upon a street, you will recall that I spoke of his feeling all of the unitary essences of each living thing within his range, using the first Inner Sense. Using this third sense, this experience would be expanded. [...]

Actually, in practice, Psychological Time leads to development of the other Inner Senses. [...] Turn off your physical senses. [...] Then imagine that the Inner Senses have another set of dials. [...]

“Psychological Time is a natural pathway that was meant to give an easy route of access from the inner world to the outer, and back again, though you do not use it as such. Psychological Time originally enabled man to live in the inner and outer worlds with relative ease. [...] From its framework you will see that physical time is as dreamlike as you once thought inner time was. [...]

[...] This sense leads to refreshment, relaxation, and peace. [...] Most of my students now utilize this sense quite well, and use it as a preliminary to other experiences.