Years ago, while chasing my second-grade friend Margaret, I suddenly became acutely aware of feeling “here and elsewhere” at the same moment. This experience persisted even as we stopped our game and sat down to rest. My friend, curious about my silence, asked me what was the matter.

“Well, maybe you’ll think I’m crazy,” I said shyly, “but have you ever had the feeling that you’re not completely here? I mean, as if you’re dreaming — watching your dream but being in it too!”

Margaret added a leaf to the stick house she was making. “I don’t think so,” she said uninterestedly. “Wanna go swing some?”

Oversoul Seven may have been more sympathetic. In Jane Robert’s The Education of Oversoul Seven, Seven is undergoing a rather awesome examination that centers on the nature of reality, dreams, reincarnation and out-of-body travel. His studies span all time and space, in and out of “selves” that exist in different eras. But all time is simultaneous. Seven finds he must also share this knowledge with Ma-ah who lives in 35,000 B.C., Joseph in the 17th century, Lydia in the 20th and Proteus in 2300 A.D. That, he discovers, entails flexibility.

“And before Seven’s eyes, a wide endless flat surface stretched as far as he could see in all directions. Looking down, he saw all the centuries man had known and was knowing and would know, laid out like countries all at once. He couldn’t see everything though, simply because there seemed to be no end to the glittering surface.”

Cyprus says, “Now watch as closely as you can.”

This time, the endless flat surface becomes the top part of an infinite circle, so that while the scene itself fills up all space, Seven can see only a portion of the circle itself. And from each century, other spirals constantly arise.

“I’m getting dizzy,” Seven complains.

“Seven, pay attention to your lesson,” Cyprus demands. “Now all of that is just one Moment-Point; one ‘point’ wherein creativity knows itself. So in Earth terms, probable presents are born in each ‘moment.’ The one that is physically materialized is the only one that your personalities accept as real. But you’ll learn how to keep track of all of them.” She pauses and adds, “theoretically.”

Having read all of Jane Robert’s Seth books, I felt lonely, without another to savor, until I discovered Oversoul. Its author explains that she produced it more or less automatically — with portions of it even being written in her dream state. The intricately-woven story beautifully illustrates many of the concepts of the Seth books — most importantly, that we are multi-dimensional and that we literally create our own reality through our conscious beliefs about ourselves, others and the world.

“You may not know all of yourself, but that’s a process of self-discovery, of becoming,” Cyprus says to Seven. “The more you discover of yourself, the more you are. . . .”