Seth on Animals

[H11]

Does anyone know if animals choose their family and circumstances before incarnation and if they are killed by humans on purpose or by accident, is it because they’ve chosen to die?

[Whirled_Peas]

I have heard Abraham talk on this subject. Abraham says, just like any consciousness, yes they choose their experience ahead of time. And even Seth talks of a lifetime when he was a dog. It makes sense.
I recently turned Vegan and thought about this a lot…about the harm we as humans do to animals. I think yes, they choose their experience, but being hurtful to anyone or any living thing still feels like something I do not want to do or participate in on any level, to the extent that I can control it.
What prompted your thoughts on this topic?

[H11]

Thanks so much for the reply. That makes sense and it’s a great comfort to know that. I have cats and sometimes they hunt birds and other small creatures and then in general there are animals that become roadkill and animals that get killed for food or sport and it made me wonder if those creatures have a choice in their ending of physical reality like we do as their abilities in creating reality through their thoughts is not as advanced as ours yet.

[Sandy]

I believe the consciousness that chooses to be a cat or any other animal has all the abilities that we all have in making these choices. When one animal kills another this is in “agreement “. And I still struggle with eating meat yet the cat eats the mouse, can we not eat the chicken with the same sense of thankfulness and agreement.

[Sandy]

I’m sorry I didn’t answer when you asked this question. Just found this site and will try to come here as I’m almost never on FB and usually boycotting it anyway.

[Whirled_Peas]

Hi Sandy,
Not to worry, I sometimes forget to check into this site and and get behind on answering someone. I think we all know that about this site, the conversation here ebbs and flows.

[inavalan]

One occasion when Seth talked about a similar event was the following:

@**Conversations with Seth - Volume 1**

As Seth spoke about these symbolic yet “horrendous” events, I
remembered a class in 1970 when poor tender-hearted Rachael Clayton had
sobbed out the story of a household tragedy: the week before she’d let
Tabby, her cat, outside, and he’d been killed by a car. “I loved that cat so,”
she whispered, her face soaked with tears. “He was the sweetest, dearest
thing. I don’t understand it. Why would he want to leave me? What did I do?
Oh, I never should have let him go out that night!” We all felt terrible for
Rachael—she’d talked many times about her funny, affectionate cat.
I remember Seth coming through that night with great precision of
motion: for a change, he folded Jane’s glasses carefully, placed them solidly
upon the coffee table, positioned Jane’s body within the chair with studied
neatness. “Will you let me address a few words to you?” he asked Rachael,
with elaborate old-fashioned courtesy.
Rachael blew her nose, saying nothing.
“I am awaiting for your answer,” Seth said gently. “Far be it from me
to speak to you if you would rather not hear what I have to say.”
“I’ll listen,” Rachael said, in a resigned voice.
“We have had more enthusiastic responses,” Seth responded with an
impish hint of his usual self. “Now, this is a preliminary. The rest will
follow as you are ready for it, and if you rush up in rage against me, then I
will leave Ruburt to face it! So, listen!”
Rachael crossed her arms in front of her and waited.
“Now, consciousness is a beautiful personified precarious thing,” Seth
began. “You cannot really see it or feel it or touch it and yet you know its
characteristics. The cat taught you to love again and to open up again. You
were also close to hiding within your home with the cat and ignoring
physical reality. The love which was awakened is to be directed in other
areas—”
“But—” Rachael sputtered in protest.
“—and you may speak when I am finished, but for this one time, I
will have my say,” Seth went on. “The cat awakened your love. You knew
this was to happen and you chose the means. Now, in so doing, you also
gave affection to the animal and awakened within it characteristics it did not
have earlier. In other words, you stretched the extensions of its own
awareness and consciousness. You brought it up, to put it very simply. The
consciousness of the cat grew and developed. You taught it communication.
“Now, I am not speaking of physical communication, but you opened
up its awareness. Though it seems to you perhaps at this point tragic, the
facts are that the real tragedy would have occurred had the cat lived, in your
terms, and had you curled up in it, in your house on the corner, and turned
your love inward to the animal, rather than outward, for there are people
who need it.
“When you think in terms of remarriage, for example, or when your
children urge it upon you, then you think in terms of yourself,” Seth told
Rachael. “You do not think in terms of those who need love and affection
and who are more lonely than yourself, lacking children, and who are
looking for not only affection but the simple courtesy that another individual
can show by recognizing their existence. You were not able to translate or
transform that love outward.
“At the same time, you extended the consciousness of the animal; it
became more than it was. Its consciousness was ready to leave and adopt
another form. Now, I will give you more information on this later and I will
give you some advice that you may take or not, as you decide.
“There is nothing wrong and much good in loving animals,” Seth
added. “However, when you love any one thing so strongly that it begins to
exclude others, then you need to think…Now, the animal went on as a
youngster leaves the house and grows up. You aided in the evolution of its
consciousness, then allowed it its freedom. You will meet its consciousness
again in another form.
“You knew—and I am not implying guilt,” Seth emphasized to
Rachael again. “You knew what was going to happen when you let the
animal out. The animal felt no pain; it left its body immediately. You aided
in the development of its consciousness and it helped you by renewing your
love, but as the animal changed its form, so also now this reawakened love
must look outward. There are people who agonize for companionship and
who have not known what love is. When you let it be known, telepathically,
that your awareness of sensitivity and love has been reawakened, others can
perceive it and come to it as a light. It will find its way and draw others who
need it.”
And in the week following his words on Tabby’s death, Seth reiterated
his words on “accidents” as class discussed a flood in East Pakistan, in
which thousands had died. “In nature, there are no accidents,” he began. …

[inavalan]

“There is something here we may as well consider now, having to do with the cooperation existing between all living creatures in the construction of the physical universe. This interaction is extremely important, and the balance continues to be a delicate and sometimes perilous one. (Now Willy sat quietly at the open window, staring out into the night.) We will take your cat and his bug. Your cat created the bug that he saw. The bug that he saw was a different construction from the bug that was seen by either of you, and all three constructions were different from the bug’s physical construction of himself. These bug constructions, by various means which we shall discuss, tallied in your camouflage space to an amazingly approximate degree. However, they were not by any means identical, either in space, time, or physical bulk . Quite literally the cat’s bug was larger and heavier in bulk, existed longer in his—that is the cat’s—time, and also took up more space. Your bug, Joseph, differed in actual physical construction also from Ruburt’s. It was better detailed and more precisely drawn, smaller in size from either Ruburt’s or the cat’s, existed less in your camouflage time, and took up a measurably less amount of your space.”

(from “The Early Sessions: Book 2 of The Seth Material” by Jane Roberts, Robert Butts)

“One of Ruburt’s little prize perceptions was his realization that you see, or are aware of, only your own idea constructions. Basically each individual inhabits a completely different world. We will carry this further. As you are not aware of many so-called realities with which your own cat is familiar, so you are completely unaware of other universes that coexist with your own. Your outer senses are equipped to perceive your own camouflage patterns. They are not equipped to deal with other camouflage patterns. The camouflage patterns within your own physical universe are coherent enough so that all individuals of a given species appear to perceive more or less the same surroundings .”

(from “The Early Sessions: Book 2 of The Seth Material” by Jane Roberts, Robert Butts)

Cats in the wild were , in those terms of time, exploring one kind of nature . In that kind of nature, with a natural population taken care of in the environment, there would be far fewer cats than there are now. Your cats would not exist. Why does it seem antinatural, even slightly perverse, for a household cat to, say, prefer fine cat food from a can, when it seems that he should be eating mice, perhaps, or dining upon grasshoppers? The household cat is exploring a different kind of nature , in which he has a certain relationship to human consciousness, a relationship that changes the reality of his particular kind of consciousness.

Your cats are as alive in all ways inside of the house as out. They understand their relationship with your human reality . They enjoy contributing in your life as much as any wild animal enjoys being a part of its group . Their consciousnesses lean in a new direction, feel about the edges of concepts , sense openings of awareness of a different kind, and form alliances of consciousness quite as natural as any other."

—DEaVF1 Preface by Seth: Private Session, September 13, 1979