Seth: "According to what you have been taught, you are composed of physical matter and cannot escape it, and this is not so. The physical matter will disintegrate but you will not. I can assure you that death is another beginning. You have lived before and you will live again, and when you are done with physical existence, you will still live. I want you to feel your own vitality. Feel it travel through the universe and know that it is not dependent upon your physical image.
"I am life and I am death. Now when death can talk about death, that is your answer. Only the living are so mute. Think of your definitions. In certain terms, you are all dead and have been for centuries. In other terms you are not yet born and centuries will come before you walk upon the surface of the earth. Yet you are alive, and you take it for granted that I am dead, and so, what a delightful game we play!
"What I am trying to show you is that individuality continues. Now, I have been born and died more times than I can remember. And yet, in my present state, my individuality continues. It is not my essence. It is not buried in some bovine goodness in which I must think beautiful thoughts and become lost in the beauty of the Universe. I am part of the beauty of the Universe, and as such, my individuality continues-as does your own."
"You sense here the energy of your being, and it is death and it is life, for the two are one and united, and, in your terms, are the faces of the same reality. You will never know, in your terms again, the self that you are now, and yet it will never end, and you will always remember it. Yet there is a history, in other terms, to your being, and you can read that history. In your terms, you can look backward toward reincarnational lives, but they are not you..."
"Life implies death, and death implies life--that is, in the terms of your world. You could not die unless you were the kind of creature who was born, nor could you have a present moment as you consider it. Your body is aware of the fact of its death at birth, and of its birth at its death, for all of its possibilities for action take place in the area between. Death is therefore as creative as birth, as necessary for action and consciousness, in your terms.
"Here time as you think of it has little meaning. You could compare the two different time experiences in this way: In your dimension it is as if remembered events were like pieces of furniture, all arranged in one room, in a given order. Living in that room, you can find your way between various pieces easily. You then move out into a larger and different kind of room, and here the furniture may be rearranged in any fashion, arranged and rearranged to your heart's content. You may form different combinations from it and use it for different purposes as you might visit a new residence and move some of your belongings there before you officially make it your own. There will be guides to help you and you will hardly notice that you have entirely moved in, for you will feel so at home. Shortly, training periods will begin. It will become your turn then to help others and be their source of strength.
"Now the new body is, of course, not a new one at all, but simply a body not physical in your terms, one that you use in astral projections, one that gives the vitality and strength to the physical body that you know. Your flesh is embedded in it now. When you leave the physical body, the other body is quite real to you and seems physical, although it has many more freedoms.
"First of all, there are verbal difficulties having to do with the definition of life. It appears to you that there is living matter and nonliving matter, leading to such questions as: "How does nonliving matter become living?"
"There is no such thing, in your terms, as nonliving matter. There is simply a point that you recognize as having the characteristics that you have ascribed to life, or living conditions---a point that meets the requirements that you have arbitrarily set.
"This makes it highly difficult in a discussion, however, for there is no particular point at which life was inserted into nonliving matter. There is no point at which consciousness emerged. Consciousness is within the tiniest particle. There was no point at which consciousness was introduced, because consciousness was the illumination from which the first cells emerged.
"There is a design and a designer, but they are so combined, the one within and one without, that it is impossible to separate them. The Creator is also within its creations, and the creations themselves are gifted with creativity and that each contains an infinite capacity for development---and that each is innately blessed.
"In the dawn of physical existence, men knew that death was merely a change of form."
"What you call death is rather your choice to focus in other dimensions and realities. You do not acquire a 'spirit' at death. You are one, now! You adopt a body as a space traveler wears a space suit, and for much the same reason."