我们曾经约好，一起来读赛斯

?此段摘自《灵魂永生》第二十章  问答篇

（“Number forty-four: If you hadn’t been able to speak through Jane, would you try to do so through another— or are you doing so anyhow? ”） 

I have spoken through others. The arrangements “this time” were already made, you see. It is true that Ruburt need not have accepted the arrangement. If so the material would have been given, but in different fashion.

I would not have spoken in this way, for this work requires a certain specific rapport, and definite characteristics on the part of the personality involved. Material could have been given in a much more simple fashion through another, but I wanted it as undistorted and fully dimensional as possible. Had Ruburt not been available, the material would have been given to a Speaker, living in your terms, who was also involved in the creative field.

There is no one else presently alive in your system with whom I had any great rapport in the past, except yourselves. Such a Speaker would have received the information largely in the dream state, and written it in a series both of treatises and fictionalized narrative.

Had Ruburt not accepted, however, it is most probable that he would have chosen another life in which to fulfill the task, in which case I would have waited. The decision was always his, however, and had he not accepted at all, other arrangements would have been made.

（To me）: Now you early foresaw your part in these sessions, and our work. One of the paintings you did many years ago clearly foreshadowed the development of your psychic endeavors. This was the one you sold, of the man that hung for some time in the position in which my portrait now hangs. That was a portrait of Joseph; in other words of your own inner identity as you intuitively perceived it at the tune. You were not consciously aware of the connection, but you were consciously aware of the painting’s strong impact.

（I know the painting, of course. I painted it in Florida in 1954, before Jane and I were married. I have photographs of it, and intend to repaint it some day. This means, of course, that I’ll only be painting a new version of the old. It would be impossible to truly duplicate it. I have no regrets about selling the painting, though.）

It represented also the searching, creatively dissatisfied portion of you，looking for further understanding and knowledge. The peculiar relationship existing between you and Ruburt was also a prerequisite, and so your permission and acceptance was also needed.

Had you remained apart, the sessions would not have begun. You have been connected with the same entity, though you have sprung apart from it, but the inner relationship adds to the power available. You help steady the circuit, so to speak. You also generated initial energy and impetus to help Ruburt’s own.

Such work does not only necessitate the choosing of one individual, but is also an endeavor in which many other elements are taken into consideration. It was known, for example, that Ruburt would need your support, as it was also known that the work itself would help your own creative abilities.

All of this was decided by you both, and by me before you began this particular lifetime. Even Ruburt’s intellectual questioning and often deep reluctance was known in advance, and adapted to aid in the work involved.

The information was not to be given to “born believers,” but to intelligent people, and to a “medium” who questioned it, not only for himself but for all those given to the same kind of questioning. As Ruburt grows to understand, therefore, and as he continues to develop, he triumphs not only for himself but for all those who follow his ventures. And yet we wanted a balance also, and so you stand as a man who intuitively recognized the value of inner information and the importance of the material, even though you were unacquainted with such ideas.

It goes without saying that on much deeper levels there is no reluctance on Ruburt’s part, or the abilities would not have developed in this fashion. His criticism in the beginning served also as reassurance to the ego, in its first experiences, that it would not be shoved aside or damaged in any fashion.

The characteristics needed for “mediumship” are much like those needed by any strongly creative person. A strong supportive ego is a necessity, particularly in initial stages. In periods of severe personality disturbances that can occur simultaneously with great creativity, the ego becomes terrified of the strength of the creative ability, fearing that it can be crushed beneath.

In such cases the ego is too rigid, and does not expand with the nature of the personality’s whole creative experience. Of course this could happen with mediumship, as with any other such activity. In this case, however, Ruburt’s ego gradually began to let its rigidity go, in a gradual process that allowed the whole personality, itself included, to expand.

（“Number fifty-three: In the 429th session for August 14, 1968, you said that some personalities can be a part of more than one entity."）

I have mentioned this many times. There are no boundaries to the self, and no barriers put upon its development. A personality may “originally” be a part of a given entity, and on its own develop interests quite different. It can on its own take a lonely way, or it can instead attach itself or gravitate toward other entities with interests like its own. The original connection will not be severed, but new ones made and formed.

（“Number forty-six. In Chapter Nineteen of The Seth Material you gave a list of the inner senses. Are there more of these that you haven ′t told us about? ”）

*Inner vibrational touch is one of our Inner Senses. Seth lists these in Chapter Nineteen of The Seth Material. To paraphrase: Using this sense, an observer standing on a typical street would feel the experience of being anything he chose within his field of notice: people, trees, insects, blades of grass. He would retain his own consciousness, and would perceive sensations somewhat in the way we now feel heat and cold. This sense is like empathy, but much more vital.

There are indeed. They have to do, however, with experiences that you will not normally encounter in your particular system, that lie latent.

Almost any cell has the capacity for growing into any given organ, or forming any part of the body. It has the capacity for developing sense organs that, practically speaking, will not be developed if the cell becomes an elbow or a knee, but the capacity is there. This applies not only to your own species but in many cases between species, and there are basic units in all living matter capable of forming animal or vegetable life, capable of developing the perceptive mechanisms inherent in any of these.

It is therefore theoretically possible for you to see the world through a frog’s eye, or a bird’s or an ant’s. We are speaking here of physical senses. The inner self has also latent inner senses beside the ones that it normally uses while the consciousness is timed into a particular camouflage system.

Some, however, are inexpressible in physical terms, and only analogies could be used to hint of their nature. In this book there is no need to discuss them. They belong in a book given more specifically to interior methods of perception.

编译： /Laujenny婷        美编：Laujenny婷