Introduction to a The Nature of Action
When you hear the word action, what pops into your head? Probably movement—running, lifting, building, or pushing something from one place to another. In our everyday way of thinking, action always seems tied to effort, to a cause and effect. But Seth suggests something far bigger, and far more surprising. He says action isn’t an extra ingredient added to life—it’s the very fabric of reality itself.
That might sound abstract at first, but here’s the idea: action is happening all the time, everywhere, in ways we usually don’t notice. When you breathe, that’s action. When you dream, that’s action. Even the simple fact that your body holds together moment by moment is thanks to action. It’s not just what you do—it’s what reality is.
This means that nothing is ever really still or static. Every thought, every heartbeat, every flicker of imagination reshapes reality in some way. Even when it looks like “nothing is happening,” action is quietly at work, creating new possibilities.
Seth also reminds us that action itself can’t be seen directly. You can’t grab hold of it or measure it in a neat little box. But you can always see its effects—like the way you see trees swaying but not the wind that moves them.
The beauty of this teaching is that it makes you realize you are never passive. You’re not standing on the sidelines of life, waiting for something to happen. You are part of the action itself. Every moment you live—whether you’re dreaming, thinking, moving, or simply existing—you’re part of the creative pulse of reality.
Seth On The nature of action
There is no separate force that causes action. All of these points are extremely important, and if I speak slowly it is to insure words as nearly correct as possible. Action is perceivable in some cases, and not in others.
Action is more like growth than force. It is a by-product of any reality, and a part of all reality. You should be able to see many implications here when you read this material over. Again, action involves more than movement, as you think of movement, for value fulfillment is action. A dream involves action. Not only the action within the dream, but the action of dreaming itself.
You may here get a glimmering of the connection between certain types of action and distance, as I have mentioned it briefly. There is always action within action, and any reality or any experience is instantaneous action. Motion is the type of action with which you are most familiar, but motion attains its importance within the physical field only because of your particular outer senses. For much action is entirely unperceived by you, particularly on a conscious level.
The continued existence of your physical body is determined by action, although consciously you are not aware of this most of the time. Action may not seem to be going any place. Action, by its nature, while part of every reality, necessarily changes that reality and forms from it a new reality. This should be obvious.
There will be much more in this material when you read it, than you may at first realize. Action approximates as nearly as possible that portion of inner vitality or energy which cannot be completely materialized within any camouflage, within any plane. Action itself cannot be directly (underlined) perceived for this reason. But its effects upon camouflage can often be perceived.
This material is leading up to some future discussions, and the nature of action will be most important. Action is as valid whether the act is conscious and voluntary, or whether it occurs within a dream or within a thought. It is as much a reality either way. Again, it is not an outside force. It arises from within the inner vitality of which all camouflage is composed. To some degree it is a result of inner vitality’s attempt to completely express itself in materializations, and its inability to do so.
TES3 Session 137 March 3, 1965
👉 Takeaway: Action isn’t something that happens to reality—it is reality. Every dream, thought, and movement is part of this ongoing creative flow. You’re never outside of it. You are it.
Prague, October 18, 2025
All images are artificial generated by Dirk Bosman and licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC 4.0
