November 21, 1986

• The Seth material

• Inconsistencies in channeled material

• Randomness in the spiritual life

• Refinement of the soul

• Impact of positive and negative thoughts

• Everything is connected

God is with each of you. Indeed God speaks to each according to your individual needs. As you know, when we communicate with you, all of your guides are gathered and all of your guides provide input into what is actually being received. In that way all of you may draw some strength and insight from what is offered. Because you are a collection of various souls, your needs are diverse. When one guide communicates through the soul to an individual who is alone, the content of that communion of spirits is oriented toward the specific needs of one individual, the result being that any individual for whom the communication is intended can relate to the entire contents. In a group, no one can fully relate to a profound level to everything which is received. What is important for one individual may be incomprehensible to another.

It is by no means a disadvantage to be meeting jointly. On the contrary, it is even more effective than being alone, because each of you may draw upon the broader perspective that is provided by broader needs. How frequently it occurs that you read the contents of a message sometime later and suddenly gain new insight, see a new perspective never before observed. There is in reality a kind of timelessness to what we give you. You cannot study it and then place it in another area of your life which remains untapped. In truth, you can study it now, and you can study it ten years from now, and you will gain significantly both times. Your needs change, your perceptions change. Only the truth remains.

There has been mention tonight of contrasting approaches to suffering, wherein the content you receive differs from the content of another. If you will accept that what is offered is offered according to what can be presently understood as well as what can be more deeply comprehended at a later time, you must accept the fact that the needs and directions of one life being different from the needs and directions of another will determine to some degree the differences between what one receives and what another receives.

Much of the Seth material is extremely important, and it has great insight and is exceedingly profound. The entity that was Seth is actually a collection of entities, each guide having its own perceptions which are then passed along. There is a consistency between the guides because the receiver, the channel, must be sensitive to a specific spiritual frequency, one could perhaps say. Your guides are specifically chosen with the view of your ultimate comprehension. If a guide's perceptions have nothing in common with yours, and if that guide's means of communication are not received by your soul in proper form, what comes through can be confusing or misleading, the benefits which they hold being greatly diminished.

The information contained in the Seth material is occasionally colored by the individual receiving and by the need or desire of the spirit guide to retain a firm contact with its human contact. We are not discrediting in any way the value or legitimacy of the Seth material. We are only saying that there is a kind of match-up which takes place between the receptivity of the channel and the means of communication provided by the guide. Both bring something of themselves to the miracle of spiritual communion. It is a characteristic which can be observed in the writings of much channeled material. It is a characteristic of your own group experiences.

You have occasionally shared copies of what has been received with someone else, only to find that the other person somehow missed the very impact that motivated you to share it in the first place. What speaks to you as a group with your current common understanding may or may not be entirely clear to another group. Indeed it may appear that there are inconsistencies. As long as your communion is approached prayerfully, you may be reassured that all inconsistencies are merely differences in perceptions of the same reality, of the same truth.

The analogy of the blind describing an elephant is precisely true. As long as the blind are actually led to the elephant, the perceptions are correct though vastly different from one another. That is really why you are here. That is really why there is great benefit to your being jointly united in your study, because you are all describing your perceptions from your own vantage point. The cumulative effect is that in the end you have a much more complete picture than if you remained alone with merely your own perspective.

The question came up this evening concerning randomness in the spiritual planes—whether it exists as it does in the human sphere of life. To a degree, there is a randomness in our life. The randomness, however, takes a different form. We find ourselves in our activities being presented with many opportunities, many alternatives. It is the presentation of alternatives and opportunities which is random. It is not a matter of time or timing, for the dimension of time does not exist in our sphere of activity.

The randomness of choice does not mean that some have more opportunities for growth and therefore grow, while others have fewer such opportunities. The opportunities for growth for all spiritual beings are equal but different. They are not really numbered, so to speak. You cannot say that in a given amount of time so many opportunities will be presented to all souls, for there is no time, and therefore one cannot measure opportunities according to that yardstick. The opportunities can only be described as a means of moving forward.

Every soul has been given the means for moving forward. Those means differ from soul to soul. The randomness comes from the types of opportunities which are presented, not the amount or importance. As a soul progresses through the various spheres of development, the level of randomness decreases until all is totally unified, all is totally controlled. The unity is complete. The soul is with God. The completeness of living completely with God has no place for randomness, no place for chance. It is a firm bond. That is the direction that all souls ultimately follow.

The randomness in your lives and the human plane is therefore greater than at our level. The soul goes through a kind of refinement as it passes to our level. The refinement serves as a means of gathering the divergent energy within the soul, gradually focusing it into a more intense light. When a light is intense, it is not easily bent, and the randomness of opportunities has less influence on its development than the randomness which occurs in human life. This is a very difficult subject for you to comprehend and really should have little influence in how you live your lives. It is not so important to your current life to know about the nature, the randomness, and opportunities in our life. What is important is that you understand the randomness in the lives as you are currently living them.

The fundamental principle on which our last communion with you was based was essentially the need to eliminate a feeling of guilt or punishment or accountability for everything which occurs in your lives. You are not the reason that everything in your life occurs. It is true your thoughts have much to do with your perception of reality, but it is not true that your thoughts actually dictate Reality with a capital R. Your sense of reality is the result of your perception of reality. Your sense of spiritual life, of understanding the spiritual sphere, is the result of your perception of that sphere. The reality of what that sphere is cannot be changed by your perception of it or your understanding of it.

All human beings have a guide. Few human beings perceive that reality. The lack of perception does not change our presence. So to a degree one could say you are in control of reality, but you must not feel that reality is only what you know and does not exist beyond your knowledge. Reality doesn't change; perception does.

As we have mentioned in previous sessions with you, your thoughts have a large impact on others. When many are gathered together with positive thoughts, there results a positive influence in the world. When there are some who are gathered together with negative thoughts, there are negative influences in the world. That is absolutely correct. Negative thoughts bring negative results; positive thoughts foster positive results. Prayers for peace, prayers for love, prayers of compassion and understanding and patience are positive, that you know. They also make a difference, that you know, too.

We know of the energy issued forth from human beings based on thought because we see the light coming from that person. Positive thoughts emit very bright, very intense lighting. This lighting has many colors, and those colors change as the focus of those thoughts change. The brightness that is emitted is both reflected out in many directions and absorbed by souls within its reach. When light is absorbed by a soul it becomes a permanent part of that soul.

When negative thoughts are emitted, the light is more diffused. It is not really darker but more diffused. Being diffused, it has less intensity, and as a result a diminished influence on other souls. You cannot darken the soul of another, but you can inhibit its gathering in of light. A diffused light from darkened thoughts, negative thoughts, serves as a kind of shield which deflects incoming light from positive thoughts, and therefore diminishes the soul's ability to become brighter. It does not darken the soul.

So thoughts do indeed carry widespread impact. The influences are not measured according to distances in miles but in connected energy between spiritual entities. Two souls are not separated by miles anymore than your thoughts can be separated by miles. In an instant your thoughts can travel to any spot that you desire. There is no time involved. It is immediate. There is no distance, and so it is with the connective rays joining all souls together. We emphasize all souls, not just the souls for whom you immediately pray, but souls of countless people whom you've never met and never contemplated. Everything is connected. There is no distance between the souls of any individual living an earthly life. It is a completed network, and it is because of that that individual influences can have widespread effects.

So you see you really are united, but you are no more united than any other individuals. The difference is that the focus of your lights is in the same direction when you seek an understanding of God, and when your lights are focused in God’s direction you are more able to see God’s presence. You are more able to feel God’s presence as an inner peace, as a sense of rightness in what you do. That's where the unity of meeting together is so helpful to you all, for you are not just emanating light in all directions. You are also focusing your energy and the source of all light and knowledge and love. It is an amazing concept to try to deal with, but we feel that with some thought you can really comprehend the interconnectedness of all humanity as well as the ability to focus your lights toward God.

We see you growing through your questioning. There is much to be gained by asking the same questions over and over, seeking more clarification and insight. We rejoice when you are together, for it is a worthy activity and provides us also with the inspiration to become clearer channels ourselves for allowing God’s light to penetrate through us into your souls. We thank you for your prayers on our behalf, for they indeed strengthen us, and they strengthen you as well. Together our bonds are close and clear and founded totally on love. Rejoice that God has given you so much!

Amen.