Mike's commentary · Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment, Session 936

The "Introduction" and "Key Points" of this chapter were summarized by an AI editor based on the main text below; they are not words spoken by Mike during the lecture. The main text comes from Mike's commentary, and the blockquotes are Seth's original words (the portions Mike read aloud).

Introduction

This chapter records Session 936 as dictated by Seth, along with Rob's notes. Seth explains that dreams simultaneously preserve known information and introduce unexpected developments, and that the two together sustain life; all systems are open, parallel events can embed new energy, and dreams can influence the rise and fall of civilizations. Humanity is turning toward greater trust in the unpredictable magical approach, beginning a psychic migration, and Jane is regarded as an envoy exploring the inner world. The notes section records Jane's difficulties in writing The Magical Approach, brief physical changes, and material from private sessions concerning relaxation, confidence, and the guilty self.

Key Points of This Chapter

• Dreams simultaneously preserve known information and introduce unexpected new developments, and the two together sustain life.
• All systems are open, and entry and exit points of parallel events allow new energy and unexpected events to be embedded.
• Dreams can influence the rise and fall of civilizations.
• Humanity is now in an era of trusting the unpredictable more, turning toward the magical approach, and beginning a psychic migration.
• Jane needs to care for the present moment with a magical attitude, relax the body, and process the material on the guilty self in segments.

Main Text

Hello everyone, I am Mike.

Today I will continue sharing from the Seth book Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment, Volume Two, Chapter Eleven, titled "The Magical Approach, and the Relationship Between Conservation and Spontaneous Developments." What this "conservation" means, we will talk about later.

This is Session 936, November 17, 1981, Tuesday, starting at 8:35 p.m. Just like that, more than three months have passed since the previous session.

More than three months earlier, on August 13, following the outline of the magical approach that Seth gave on July 8, Jane began writing the first draft of its first chapter. That same evening, she began the final Session 935 for Chapter Ten of this book. From that time on, she held only two short private sessions -- in the entire three months, on November 9 and 12, just those two.

During all those days, her physical condition fluctuated greatly. Seth again offered reassurance in both of these private sessions. In the first private session, he said Ruburt was still processing the derivative material of his guilty self. In the second, he said that this derivative material of Ruburt's guilty self had not yet been fully processed -- if he finished processing it, his illness would improve greatly. In the second session, although Jane still feared spontaneous physical relaxation, the loosening of the body, Seth still said that Ruburt was safe, supported, and protected. Of course, that was the information he was trying to understand at that moment, the information Ruburt wanted to receive.

Rob said he had never seen Jane hesitate for so many days when starting a new project. Jane used to do whatever she thought of, and her creativity was extremely strong; but when she was writing The Magical Approach, she often fell into hesitation. Usually she would immediately leap into her own most recent sense of creativity, but this time, when working on The Magical Approach, she did not do so. Rob said that, to him, this was a clear sign of her long-term general physical and emotional state -- a symptom that her body was not doing well. So writing this book was not like before for her.

After she finished Chapter Ten of this book, Rob continued to comfort her, just as Seth was also comforting her, because he felt deeply frustrated and concerned for her. But Jane would not affirm any of the other things Rob could offer -- all the help and suggestions about her body that Rob provided, she would not affirm. "Would not affirm," meaning she rejected them all, but she did not do so in a rejecting way; she simply declined to comment. So you can see Jane was really stubborn.

As the days passed, she more than once denied that she was depressed -- she was indeed depressed, but she would not admit it.

Rob said, observing my wife over the years, I had long since begun to feel that I was observing a person who followed a path of her own choosing with incredible ability and determination. From the standpoint of a bystander, after living with Jane for so many years, my observation is that Jane was a very determined person who followed the path she herself chose with incredible ability and determination. She simply would not listen to what others said; she could not take in other people's words. And even now, even at this moment, it is not contradictory to say that Jane's approach was quite in keeping with her basic innocence and mystical nature -- even though she is ill to this degree, Jane still stubbornly refuses to listen to any of their advice, and this too is in keeping with her nature. Because it was her acceptance of her own nature that allowed her to explore herself in her own unique way. Not that she is every person; every person's nature contains both of these things.

When Jane truly lamented her impaired condition, she also never asked that tired old question of an assumed unfair or uncaring nature: "Why did I get this illness?" She merely struggled with her challenge. When she was depressed about the impairment or deterioration of her body, she never asked the question "Why me?" So you can see the stubbornness in Jane's character, and her persistence in sticking to the path she insisted on walking. She did not ask such questions; she simply struggled with it, wrestled with it, challenged it.

Jane's Difficulties Writing The Magical Approach

From August 19 to 26, Jane was writing Chapter 2 of The Magical Approach. Three days later, while she was writing Chapter 3, we received the front matter proofs for If We Live Again. They were easy to proofread, and then Jane called back to approve some changes.

Not long after, Sue Watkins called us from her home in upstate New York to tell us she had just received from the publisher her first printed copy of Volume 2 of Conversations with Seth¹. Jane and I both congratulated her on writing two fine books -- even though we cannot claim to be unbiased, since Sue is a friend of ours and was also a student in Jane's ESP class, so she said we were still a little partial toward her. But it was not just because of partiality; these two books are genuinely well written. We knew that in her lengthy account of what happened in Jane's ESP class, Sue had produced excellent work both for herself and for us, providing through Sue's perspective a new dimension and its dynamics that the three of us -- including Rob, Jane, and Seth, four people all together -- had been and still were trying to offer.

The signed copy of Volume 2 of Conversations with Seth that Sue sent us arrived in early October. Seeing the book cheered Jane greatly, yet my wife continued to struggle with The Magical Approach. She herself described the situation this way: she kept asking herself whether she really wanted to write that book. Jane's intuition always affirmed that she did -- the intuition told her she really did -- but for her, the book always proceeded with great difficulty, it was hard to write, and The Magical Approach still did not flow the way she wanted it to.

Then on October 23, Jane's creative struggles triggered the "attending material" -- attending, meaning where she participates or focuses -- in which she received from Seth that her only responsibility in life was to herself, to take care of her present moment. Seth told her this: she had no obligation to save the world. Because Jane's sense of responsibility at this time was again too great, and her guilty self was overreacting to that sense of responsibility, Jane's illness was getting worse and worse. Seth at this point quickly told her to relax, relax, do not think about saving the world, and do not think that your books can help humanity in this way or that way; just focus on taking care of your own present moment.

Then Jane breathed a sigh of relief, wrote a short poem in response to Seth's message, and further wrote: I have realized that, like many people, I have become afraid of faith itself. What she meant was that, like many people -- not just Jane alone -- they have become afraid of faith itself.

What does this mean? This sentence means, for example, when you are young you hold to a belief. Say you believe that the earth is getting better and better, through the raising of all of our environmental awareness. Suppose this is one of your beliefs, and you devote your whole life to it, you participate in all kinds of public welfare activities, join all kinds of green environmental organizations, take part in all kinds of hands-on things related to environmental protection. As a result, you struggle for a lifetime, roughly twenty or thirty years, and by the time you are in your fifties, you suddenly understand or suddenly begin to doubt this thing -- you suddenly doubt whether the things humans do to protect nature are of any use at all. But intuitively you still feel it should be done, that people should protect nature, cherish nature, and guard the earth; yet on the other hand you feel that the earth is so powerful, it should have the ability to protect itself, we humans are so small, it does not need us to do anything, nature's power is so immense. It is in this place that she would get tangled up, and this tangle is the current state of mind.

I only want you to understand this sentence; I am not trying to elaborate on that viewpoint. It is when you were very confident about something in your youth, but after a certain amount of time has passed, when the feedback others give you begins to shake you, that is being afraid of your own faith. For example, for Jane, she no longer had such great faith that her books could help others or save everyone. She used to be very confident, but her faith had become a little afraid, worried that her books might do the opposite of what she intended.

She said many people are like this too. For example, some people work desperately to make money when they are young, and one day after they have achieved success and fame and have already become billionaires, they suddenly realize that money is not what they thought it was, that money was not the life goal they were pursuing. This is why many people, after reaching middle age, after forty or fifty, will suddenly abandon their established worldly life, abandon the wealth and career they once had, and suddenly make a major life change. Very often it is because their faith in that thing has changed.

Then she said, I am placing this material at the front of Volume 1 of this book. Her insight helped both of us. But she had gone more than ten weeks without a single scheduled session or private session, so on October 27 she recorded in her diary her continuing, daily creative struggle -- she had been struggling for several months already. Once again, this is Jane writing: "I have fallen far behind in both sessions and writing. Early this morning I worked from midnight until three, and produced nothing." Three hours and nothing came out at all. You see, in order to push herself, she felt she had not done enough work, so she forced herself not to sleep at night, working from midnight until three, but nothing came of it.

Then Jane began to doubt the whole project: should The Magical Approach really be done this way? If there really is a magical approach, it should not be this laborious; it should flow out naturally. Then Jane said: "Where has my inspiration gone? My thought is that I should write these things down, because they are part of the whole picture. I feel somewhat better." Jane said that no matter whether she was now hitting a creative bottleneck, no matter whether she had inspiration or not, no matter whether she had exhausted her talent or whatever the case, she should write this state down, because this too is part of The Magical Approach. She could not only write about the good times, when ideas flowed like a spring; when she was in pain, wandering, hesitating, and tangled up, she had to record it. That was Jane's thinking.

Following her recent self-renewal of faith, Jane began to notice some physical improvement. What does self-renewal mean? It means that she was told again: just focus on the present moment, do not carry such a heavy sense of responsibility, and even more, do not carry the idea of wanting to save the world; get rid of that idea. The more you think this way, the less your creativity can emerge; the more you want to save the world, the more afraid you become, and the greater your sense of responsibility; the greater your sense of responsibility, the more afraid you are of saying the wrong thing, the more afraid you are of whether what you say is right or wrong; the more you think this way, the more your creativity gets blocked. So after her faith underwent this kind of adjustment and renewal -- that is, the more natural you are, the more you trust your spontaneous self, the more your creativity can burst forth.

A Visit from Former Students

On the evening of October 31, when four young people who had once been members of the ESP class came to see us from New York City, these improvements presented themselves in a very unusual way. He wrote it down in his notes. They had been searching around the Elmira area for other former students, to see who had the very old tapes of Jane speaking for Seth and singing the Sumari song -- the ESP class was about ten years ago by then. They had some success in their search, but that evening we did not play those tapes. They found some old tapes because they had always felt that the more time passed, the more important Jane's recorded records became and that they should be preserved, so they asked their classmates from that time who had these recordings, including the one of Jane singing the Sumari song. Nowadays it would be simple, but it is also a pity, because Jane did not take part in various television or media interviews. In that era, the early 1970s, personal equipment was not yet very developed, and it is a pity that Jane did not record these precious audio and video materials.

Jane and I believed that the various events that occurred within those 29 days -- the arrival of Volume 2 of Conversations with Seth, Jane's writing of the "material on care" and the poems, the visit from his former students, and even his struggle with The Magical Approach -- had all helped him restore his sense of bodily well-being and health on at least three separate occasions. He wrote many notes and more poems, and we continued trying to encourage his new movements, as described in the notes, but they began to decline.

That is to say, his old friends -- not exactly old friends, but they were his friends, and also his students from the ESP class -- after all these years had passed, these former students or friends came to see him, and this was a great boost to him. They talked together about the things from the ESP class back then, and this automatically brought about a recovery in his body. But after a few days, this recovery began to decline again.

At the beginning of these notes, Rob wrote that three months had passed since Jane had finished Chapter 10 of this book, and on November 9 he held his next session, a private session. In that short session, Seth wanted to add his assurance to the assurances of Jane and Rob. Also, on the evening of November 12, Seth held another private session. Seth suggested that Jane resume holding sessions twice a week. Afterward Jane spoke for Seth in another private session, which was also very short. Seth suggested that he maintain the state of holding two sessions a week -- this holding of sessions was helpful and effective for Jane's physical recovery.

Indeed, if Jane had stopped at this point and done nothing, focusing only on his body and the physical condition he had been stuck in, that would not actually have been beneficial to his physical recovery. And the normal routine of two sessions a week could actually help Jane recover. Why? Because Seth knew Jane too well, because Jane wanted to do things. When he truly could not produce anything, his anxiety would become very strong. Although Seth told him to just focus on the present moment, that if he could not write then he could not write, that he should write as much as he could, that he did not need to worry about whether every sentence of his material was a golden rule, and that he did not need to worry about the issue of responsibility -- still, he needed these two sessions a week to maintain Jane's sense of existence and to balance his anxiety.

Session 936 Opening

Five days later, that is, on Tuesday evening, November 17, 1981, at around 8:35 p.m., he gave the first session of Chapter Eleven of this book, which was Session 936. The following is an opening remark from that session -- it really seemed he was considering changing our regular Monday and Wednesday session times to Tuesday and Thursday. That was fine. Jane leaned back on the couch and put her feet on the coffee table, while I sat across from her with my notebook on my lap. Shortly after 8:20, Jane began to feel that Seth was nearby. I knew right away that this would be one of his slower sessions -- Rob noted some long pauses in her trance state. Then Seth came through and began dictating Chapter Eleven of this book.

Seth said directly: The next chapter, Chapter Eleven, is titled "The Magical Approach, and the Relationship Between Conservation and Spontaneous Developments."

This session is very interesting; it is a truly brilliant one.

Seth said directly:

In one way, dreams allow for a curious mixture of learning processes, while at the same time serving to introduce startling developments.

If you look at this sentence alone, you may not know what he means. Read on: it is a mixture, a curious mixture, that is, a mixture of two things that seem contradictory.

Read on:

That is to say, dreams promote the conservation of knowledge -- conservation -- they serve as an aid in the development of skills. By interweaving with other structures of information and your experience, dreams conserve available information.

Let us first look at what this word means, because this session focuses on this concept. This word has three meanings, and if you integrate these three meanings together, that is essentially what Seth wants to express here.

The first meaning is protection. But this protection is not what people usually mean by the protection of heritage, or the protection of wildlife, or the protection of the natural environment -- the protection he refers to is this. The second is conservation: conserving fuel, saving, not wasting. The third is conservation in physics -- in physics it is the conservation laws; when we say conservation of energy, this is the word used.

After we study this word, you will have a rough idea of what he wants to say here. So at this point the translator the author used chose "保存" as the way he thought best, because he also did not know how to express Seth's multi-layered meaning.

So this conservation of knowledge, the implied meaning is that dreams provide an environment and a setting in which they preserve your previous old knowledge, or that original, wildlife-like, or natural-environment-like, most natural original state -- that is, they preserve the part of your nature, the part that was originally yours.

All right, preserving this part that was originally yours -- if it is all like nature, like the wild environment, then how can your individual characteristics be manifested? So here there must also be your spontaneity, your personal experience interweaving with other structures. Therefore dreams can conserve available information in this way.

Let us read on; no rush, because this session focuses on this concept, and this concept is very important.

At the same time, dreams have startling qualities, promoting the insertion of unexpected developments.

Besides ensuring that you can obtain from other realities or other dimensions those things of your nature, those original things, that natural part of you, dreams also have startling qualities. What qualities? They promote the insertion of unexpected developments. To put it simply, they both preserve your pure state as a nature, and they also give you new opportunities for development or events that you did not plan, or did not expect to happen, or that caught you completely off guard -- these suddenly happen in dreams. So many things that happen in dreams are very bizarre, very strange. Here he tells you why that is -- in dreams there are both the shadows or undertones of your ordinary life, which conform to the common sense of your everyday life; you will not do things that you yourself find especially bizarre. Basically they are similar to the overall state of your life, to your character and how you handle things, or to your normal psychological state. But what is amazing is that the scenes in dreams often contain some wondrous experiences, and he interweaves these wondrous experiences with the part that you still call yourself, giving you some new, sudden experiences and practices.

In that context, dreams seem to deal with the disruption of the conservation principle.

Dreams seem to break that conservation just mentioned, or the protection of cultural relics, the protection of nature. When you think of this word, you think of the protection of cultural relics, or the protection of the natural environment -- this seems to conflict with what was said earlier, right? Earlier it was about protecting the part of your nature, that is, in dreams you also know that this person is you. Why do you know that this you is still you? Because it has this conservation element, those things that belong to you and are also relatively close to your life. But dreams also provide many bizarre experiences within them.

In this way, dreams also mirror your more exterior behavior, conserving what you already know, while yet introducing new patterns, new spontaneous order, which at that time would seem to run counter to conservative issues.

Dreams do exactly this: they both preserve relatively conservative issues and bring you new ideas, new insights, and experiences. For example, when you dream of past situations, the dream reinforces that past -- the past is like a nature preserve returning to the past. And by showing you the past in an unfamiliar way, tingeing it with the colors of the present and the future:

They also seem to disrupt the integrity of the past.

When you dream of the past, you know it is the past; you look at it and know this is the place where you once went to school, but there are also many differences, and some things happen that never happened when you were in school, and you find it very wondrous. For example, you dream that you return to your middle school days, but you suddenly and miraculously discover that your middle school classmates, as they talk, somehow all turn into their modern, present-day appearances. In that scene you are classmates, and it seems the scene should also be classmates. Yet sometimes you find that in that scene, they do not seem to be talking to you as classmates of that age -- sometimes they talk to you as classmates of that age, but sometimes they interact with you as they are now, or even more so, as they will be after they have aged. I give this example so you understand: the familiar environment, the familiar scenes, the familiar things are all unchanged, but there are some changes you may not have expected. And what do these changes bring you? The information of the present and the future is shown to you through dreams, but at the same time, they also disrupt your integrity of the past -- because in your memory it was not like this.

Many people might wish that I would add many methods to help you study dreams and their nature.

He says many readers may hope that I will give you some specific methods to help you study your dreams and their nature.

But in such a way, through the ages dreams have also hinted at nature's spontaneous order, while allowing you to see humanity in a truer fashion.

Dreams also reveal to you in this way some of nature's spontaneous laws, which have both their stability and their suddenness. What does "a truer fashion" mean? It means you should not think that human beings are unchanging, rigid, dull -- not at all.

From that standpoint, your lives are dependent upon the strange relationships involved.

Your lives are dependent upon these relationships that you consider strange, that seem not to conform to common sense.

If the conservation principle and that which is unexpected were not existing in the way they do now, you would not survive a day.

What he means is that these two functions occur simultaneously: one is the conservation function, and the other is the sudden, unexpected, spontaneous principle. If these two principles were not operating the way they do now, then you could not survive a single day of your lives. That is to say, our lives depend on the joint operation of these two principles -- both this conservation and this spontaneity, these two seemingly contradictory things determine, or promote, the development of our present physical world.

Preservation and Forgetting

In your lives you have so much that you must learn and remember, and also so much that you must automatically forget.

You see, this is very interesting. Do we have to learn a lot, but also automatically learn to forget a lot? If you forgot nothing, then you would be finished. It is not that the better your memory is, the stronger your learning ability is. You have to forget some things that ought to be forgotten.

Otherwise, action itself would become quite meaningless.

Remember this sentence. So if you remembered everything, that would not be a good thing. You have to learn to forget some things -- actually, you do not need to learn it; you forget automatically.

In one day you perform far more actions than you can recall.

What he means is that every day you certainly do many new things, and you do not do the kind of thing that recalls the past, so you have to forget many things. You do not know how many times you raise your arm, say a sentence, or think a thought.

With the kind of consciousness that you possess, an over-reliance upon this principle of preservation could cut down on the processes of life.

He says you have many spontaneous things. When you raise your arm and suddenly do something or whatever, these are all spontaneous things. When you do this, you actually do not consciously know what you are going to do. At this time, if you care too much about the principle of preservation -- that is, the principle of conservation, or maintaining your own nature -- then what have you cut down on? You do not need to do anything at all; you just recall every day the things you once did. There are also many people like this: they achieve some accomplishments, and then when they reach a certain age, they recall every day the accomplishments they once achieved, and they no longer do anything challenging or more meaningful. This is a very sad and sorrowful thing.

In private life, however, and in the terms of so-called evolution, life must have surprising events, unforeseen actions, instant insights, or intrusions of action.

He divides these into several categories. He says that in your personal life, and in terms of this idea of evolution, your life must have surprises -- this is very interesting; actually, life certainly must have this kind of surprise, and cannot be too rigid and unchanging -- and then have that kind of unexpected action, unforeseen action, and then some instant insights and intrusions of action. What is meant by an intrusion of action? It is when you do not know why you did a certain thing. Many people do not understand why they acted that way at the time. Many people say "I don't know" -- actually, many people are not looking for an excuse or making an excuse for themselves; no. Many people, when they do certain things, really do not know why they did it at that moment.

Those cannot come from any accumulation of knowledge alone, or from simple energy preservation, but seem to suggest entirely different new discoveries.

He says these unforeseen actions and instant insights cannot be obtained from any accumulation of knowledge. You cannot say that because I have learned a certain amount of knowledge, from elementary school all the way to a doctorate, and have accumulated a great deal of knowledge, therefore I have this kind of insight, this kind of instantaneous comprehension, or these sudden actions -- this has nothing to do with how much knowledge you have learned. Nor can they be obtained from simple preservation of energy or accumulation of energy: I meditate and practice every day, my practice is very diligent, I accumulate every day, all my chakras are fully opened, the microcosmic orbit is functioning normally, my power is deeper than yours, and because my energy is higher than yours I can obtain these things -- here he implies that you cannot. These things that expand your life, these things that bring new vitality to your life, all come unexpectedly, all happen by chance, all come into your life in a way you do not know, directly through intuition.

So after you have learned this knowledge, when you encounter those upheavals in life -- whether good upheavals or bad upheavals, according to our human dichotomy or perception, you of course make this distinction between good and bad -- even using human terms, no matter what kind of event happens in your life, do not ask why as you did before, saying why did this happen to me. Here he has already revealed the reason within it to you: there is no why; these sudden things simply happen.

Dreams, Insight, and Open Systems

Dreams are often used as a framework in which sudden and great insights appear, and then subsequently enable a person to see the world in ways that were not previously encountered.

A dream will suddenly give you an insight, and then with this new insight, the angle from which you view the world and your cognition of it will be different.

The activity of this world always includes the intrusion of surprising events.

This is the same for individuals and for the world as a whole; there are always sudden events intruding.

For example, the COVID pandemic—who could have predicted that it would happen? No one could have predicted that in the 21st century humanity would still be subjected to a viral attack, and in such a global, helpless manner. So how was it ultimately resolved? In the end, it was not resolved by humans, it was not eliminated by humans, right? It eliminated itself. In the end, for example, when it mutated into Omicron, its toxicity was so low, yet its transmissibility was so high that humans could not defend against it, and ultimately herd immunity was achieved. That was still its own doing, not the doing of human vaccines—because in the end, this mutated variant was verified to be ineffective against all vaccines. Although they said it could reduce the probability of severe illness and death, that may indeed have had some effect, but it offered no resistance whatsoever to its transmissibility. It is not that if you got vaccinated you would not be infected; it is just that your probability of death or severe illness would be much lower. And by the time this generation of mutation arrived, its mortality rate was already very low, because it only concentrated in your upper respiratory tract, your throat and larynx area. It was originally a pneumonia virus, but it no longer invaded the lungs; it only attacked the upper part. I will just use this as an example—where did this virus come from, how did it stop, how did it disappear? These questions.

Including why Putin suddenly attacked Ukraine. Although NATO's eastward expansion and the grievances between Ukraine and him have not been a matter of just one or two days. Why at this point in time—just when the pandemic had just eased, just when herd immunity had just been completed, just when the whole world was about to restore a new state of development and return to normal production and daily life—did this happen in Europe again? But this event also has its positive significance. Although for Ukraine, for Russia, and for all the parties involved in the conflict there are unfavorable aspects, for the whole world it may not be without positive and beneficial effects. So the example I just gave is to say that there are always sudden events occurring in our personal and world environments, at all levels of nature, from the microscopic to the macroscopic—this is a fact. Not only the macroscopic; the microscopic world is the same, for example, why genes mutate, and so on.

As I have said before, all systems are open.

Again, I have told you before, all systems are open. Open means there is no endpoint; it is open, without an endpoint, without a cutoff, so they are always in a state of change. All possible changes will appear, so it is open.

Both the theories of evolution and special creation strongly imply and reinforce belief in the characteristics of temporal sequence, and belief in a universe that began in such-and-such a manner and continues to such-and-such an end. However, there are parallel events that appear in the true activity of nature, and in all experience there are parallel points of entry and exit, which allow for the unofficial intrusion of new energy, that is, the introduction of surprising events.

He says that your traditional human viewpoints, whether it is the theory of evolution or your theory of special creation, including your current scientific viewpoints, all hold that the universe should have been born in such-and-such a way, and then should end in such-and-such a way; you all believe there is a standard so-called fact, or a natural law within it. But he says there are always these parallel worlds existing, and these parallel worlds always have openings between your world and their world, always have entry and exit points, always have these space-time portals. These entry and exit points of space-time, these entry and exit points of parallel worlds, will take some events from other parallel worlds—whether you call it by any method, whether you call it transmigration, infiltration, or influence—it will bring some inexplicable influences to this world. It comes from that space-time, it comes from another world, it is not of our energy; it is an intrusion of new energy, and then it will produce some changes in this world, producing surprising events. It is that fuse, the trigger for events in this world, which is often the result of an event unknown to us in another world.

Then Seth paused for a long while; whenever he got to this point he would pause. He said once again, this is very difficult to explain, and indeed it is not easy to explain.

Dreams can influence, and indeed do influence, the rise and fall of civilizations.

He says I do not know how to explain it to you, but dreams really can influence the rise and fall of a civilization.

However, you are accustomed to reading nature in a particular way, and to experiencing the world on its surface.

He says you use your own ways to look at nature; you use perspectives such as time and objectivity, as if this world of ours, this universe, were a closed one, with no connection to other universes. When you can conceive that this universe is open, that there are passages and conduits between it and other parallel worlds, then many of your ideas will change. But he says you humans generally do not look at things this way; you look at things from your own angle, you believe time goes from front to back, space is such-and-such, and you experience the world on its surface—you humans experience time through surface phenomena.

You are naturally equipped to appreciate a far richer mixture, and as I have often said, you yourselves possess a need to explore the subjective branches of your existence.

He says you are already equipped—your bodily structure, your nervous system, your consciousness, your entire setup—all coordinated, to appreciate a far richer mixture. What does a far richer mixture mean? It means that the appearance of this world that you are appreciating is not just this one world; it is a mixture of multiple universes, multiple parallel worlds. You are here to experience the final appearance that this mixture presents to you, which is far richer, far richer than you think. You think there is only this one world, but in fact it is a mixture of many worlds.

He says this is your current state. But, I have often told you, you also have a natural need. What is the need? The need to explore that subjective part of yourselves. Because according to what was said earlier, what he described was also a kind of objective account—some strange things, some unpredictable things happen in this world, and these things are not all objective, as if you were powerless to do anything about them. But he says, this is only how it looks when you view these things from the surface. He says in fact you also have a need, which is to look at these things from a subjective angle. What does a subjective angle mean? It means these things are actually all related to you. Your beliefs and cognitions will all influence the development of events; this is called the subjective angle. He says you are born with this need; you yourselves possess this ability.

Returning to the Magic of Childhood

When the era you live in is different, you grow tired of the old ways, and even your dreams begin to stretch toward new paths.

As the era changes, you grow tired of the old ways of exploration, and you will use new ways of exploration to explore. This is the characteristic of the development of our present human civilization; even dreams will begin to develop in new ways.

The relationship between nature's natural conserving behavior and nature's need to innovate has become more flexible.

The old is the conserving, the new is the innovating, and between this conserving and innovating, as the era differs, it becomes more flexible. What he is saying here is that nature is also like this, and your human civilization is also like this. When you grow tired of an old form, new patterns and new developments will emerge.

In private and group experience, in physical and mental behavior, in events such as those of the stars and of humanity, more and more extraordinary events have begun to occur.

This relationship—wanting to innovate, yet also wanting to preserve stability; wanting to maintain one's original nature, yet also wanting to innovate—that is how we humans are. We do not want to lose the part we call "ours," but we also constantly want to expand this self. And this expansion is not only natural and physical, but also spiritual. Yet these things also occur in the events of the stars and the universe, such as two supernovas drawing near and finally exploding, and so on.

Then people cast aside the old structures of belief, and they often unconsciously yearn for the knowledge remembered from early childhood.

What do we often do? The more you study this material—or the deeper and more thoroughly you study it—the more you will cast aside some old structures, and the more you will yearn for the knowledge remembered from early childhood. That is, the more we live, the more we become like a little child. Why? Because you remember that in your childhood, in your early years, it seemed as if you once experienced a dimension of experience. What dimension? One in which the unexpected was taken for granted, and magical events occurred quite naturally.

When you tell a child fairy tales or myths, he believes them all. Why does he believe them? Why do we no longer believe them when we grow up? Because as we grow up, our belief system tells us that these things are not real, that they are false. But when we were small, before we had the restraints and shackles of these belief systems, you would think: it is possible—Santa Claus really does deliver Christmas gifts, he really does come down the chimney! That is, you believed that magical events could occur quite naturally. You did not need to use logic, technology, or reasoning to ask: how does he fly? How did Santa Claus achieve anti-gravity? How could he know which family wanted which gift? You did not think about these questions. The natural magical approach does not require thinking about these details. Whatever gift you wanted, the gift would simply appear—that was what Santa Claus brought. It was that simple.

So when a person studies this knowledge more and more, he should all the more return to that state from childhood of believing that magical things can happen naturally—that kind of innocence and wonder—saying this really will happen, that really will happen. It is not pretending to be young, not pretending to be naive; it is genuinely believing in your heart. Then are you not just like a child?

They began to look at the structure of their lives in a different way. They believed in the magical approach, and they tried to summon from nature, and from their own nature, some graceful effortlessness, some almost forgotten freedom.

What does graceful effortlessness and forgotten freedom mean? It means that magical things will happen naturally, without effort—without needing to design a spaceship or an anti-gravity device for Santa Claus.

They began to turn toward a more natural and more magical way of exploring their own lives.

They began to return to nature, to return to magic.

At such times, the conserving factor in nature, and in society itself, seemed not as strong as it had before.

When you think or live in this way, the power of that inherent conservative pattern of wanting to preserve and maintain stability is no longer so strong.

It seemed that the natural magical approach could also occur, and the delightful surprising events that had previously been disguised or ignored seemed to appear more and more often.

Right—one of the greatest feelings we have from studying this is that the magical events in our lives become more and more numerous. Thoughts taking form, or this kind of magical occurrence, becomes more and more frequent.

And everywhere there was a new sense of quickness and acceleration.

Because when this magical approach arrives, when you live in this state of the magical approach, there is that sense of rapid acceleration—because what you think is what you get, this feeling of your thoughts taking form—it makes you feel that life is revolving around you, that you are the master of your life.

Then it gradually changed people's expectations of the events of their own lives, and of the behavior of others.

It automatically changes. What does it change? Their expectations of the events of their own lives and of the behavior of others. They will believe in nature, believe in magic. They no longer believe as they did before in cause and effect, objectivity, effort, and struggle; they believe more in these natural, magical, effortless things. When they look at their own behavior and the behavior of others, and at the events that occur in life, their view becomes different from that of others.

You are now in just such an era.

He says that now is just such an era—the era in which we are to activate our magical approach.

But the old honored explanations seemed to shrink, and unpredictable extraordinary events seemed more possible.

Those old viewpoints, those scientific doctrines and rituals that were previously honored as sacred and inviolable, now seem very shrunken; and unpredictable extraordinary events, which previously seemed unlikely, now seem possible. For example, regarding aliens and UFOs, we previously found these hard to accept. In China, UFO-related materials began to be introduced around the 1980s, when there was a magazine called UFO Exploration². By now we know that in fact, at least in many countries—at least in the United States—the existence of UFOs has been openly acknowledged. The U.S. military and the U.S. government have both acknowledged their existence³, though the information released has been very limited. Because last year there was a video taken by an aircraft's onboard camera⁴. Previously they would have denied that it was a flying saucer, but this time the Pentagon openly admitted that it was indeed a flying saucer⁵, although they did not offer much further explanation. So whether these aliens exist, how aliens visit the Earth, and so on—these things will one day be declassified. But previously we thought these things were quite unlikely, so these extraordinary and unpredictable events will be seen more and more in our era, and we should not find them strange.

The work done in dreams changed to some extent; they became more active and more intrusive.

That is, those strange things in dreams began to intrude into our physical reality space, and began to gradually manifest in our world. Even predictable phenomena, even the phenomena of nature and the laws of nature, could less easily be taken for granted. At this point, once you have such an understanding, when you look at those objective phenomena and the so-called laws of nature, you suddenly have a new understanding: you feel that they were not originally a matter of course, that all of this is a subjective world, and that everything within it has its subjectivity, has its magic.

At such times, humanity began to feel more and more the greater dimensions of behavior upon which the appearance of conservation is based.

At this point you begin to understand more and more clearly that those so-called laws of conservation, those so-called laws of nature, those so-called primitive states of human nature—he says these are all appearances. These things that seem to be conserving—beneath them, the behavior upon which they must lodge and depend—that behavior has a greater dimension. It is not just as we thought, that these laws are dead and unchangeable, that nature is simply like this. You will suddenly discover that these so-called laws, these so-called things of nature, are actually supported by a greater reality behind them.

Under such circumstances, people's subjective experience changed considerably.

Then you will have a fundamental overturning of your understanding, and people's feelings about themselves will also change.

But gradually trust in unpredictability also increased.

As his beliefs changed, his trust in those so-called unpredictable things—unpredictable meaning uncertain, uncontrollable things—also increased. Why? Because he discovered that in fact these too are part of his own subjectivity, that this world is a subjective world. Although it seems unpredictable and unforeseeable, once you have this understanding, you will feel that you can trust those unpredictable things.

He began to be more willing to look after it.

Previously he rejected it; now he begins to be willing to look after it.

The Migration of the Psyche

Humanity began that kind of psychic migration.

Just like our physical migration, from one place to another, at this time humanity began a psychic migration—that is, moving from one state of psyche into another state of psyche. We changed locations. Once you change locations, all the rules change.

People began to sense that within themselves there were further realms yet to be studied, and possibilities for action.

People began to feel within themselves—they had felt it before, but now they began to feel it—that there were further realms still needing study, and possibilities for action, not only in the outer world.

Then he began to long to explore the mental land, and to send out a portion of himself as an emissary.

He began to explore his inner world. He called it a mental land, and sent out a portion of himself—a portion of his own consciousness—as an emissary. The emissary went to explore those inner worlds—the spiritual world is the inner world.

Then Seth said that this dictation was over. Then he continued:

Ruburt is such an emissary.

That is, when people explore the inner world, they need certain emissaries, like a vanguard, or like sending out a scout first, to explore those spiritual realms we have not yet visited. In our ordinary lives it is the same—when we want to go somewhere, we send an emissary. He said Ruburt is that kind of emissary—an emissary in our exploration of the spiritual realms.

There are many emissaries in all areas of life.

In every field, not only the spiritual—the spiritual has its spiritual emissaries, the body has its bodily emissaries, the emotions have their emotional emissaries. There are all kinds of emissaries.

This involves not only a kind of excitement on the part of your own species, but also on the part of other species.

It is not only humans who have this excitement about exploring the inner or unknown realms; other creatures have it too, other species have it too—the same kind of curiosity and excitement.

He said once again that this is extremely difficult to explain. He said it is hard to explain, because when speaking of humans it is easy to understand—humans have a kind of exploratory excitement and curiosity about their own unknown or inner world, about that wondrous spiritual world. He said other species have it too, and this may be harder to understand—does a little cat also have this interest in exploring its own inner world? He said this is very hard to explain, but he did say one thing:

The connections that exist between all species and the environment are themselves affected.

Why? He said since we know that we have inner connections with the natural environment and all things, then since they have inner connections with one another, the impulse and the joy that humans feel in wanting to explore the inner spiritual world—will that not affect the other species around you? Of course it will, because they are connected. Since you acknowledge that they are connected, then you can say that they also have such a need. In other words, because they have such a need, you also have such a need—if you acknowledge that you and they are one.

Parallel communications stretch out and expand to encompass the subsequent development of probabilities.

He said you are within a communications network, or within an information network, or within a network of consciousness, so your communications are certainly expanding—this matter of exploring the spiritual world will inevitably affect the environment around you. You must encompass and accommodate this development of probabilities, because information must be communicated first. You must let the environment around you know that you are going to explore your inner world. You might ask, what is there for them to know? Because your exploration of the inner world will affect the entire environment around you. Of course it will—because when you have this ability, the deeper you explore the inner world, it is not that you burrow into the inner world and never come out. The inner world and the outer world are worlds that echo each other. You could also say the outer world is a projection of the inner world. However you put it, these two worlds are connected to each other. So when you explore the inner world, it will certainly affect the outer world and the outer environment. So that is the relationship between them.

So he had to prepare—this encompassing of possibilities is called subsequent development—he had to prepare for this. When you had not done this kind of thing before, you did not need to make this preparation, but now you do. This preparation is to get all the possibilities ready. Although you may not need them for the time being, the possibilities are prepared for you.

For consciousness always knows itself in more than one category.

It does not look at itself from only one place. Consciousness must look at itself from different angles, actually expanding different possibilities.

And when the attributes of conservation and learning are in their most exuberant springtime, nature can seem to experience itself in the most improbable of ways.

When both the conserving aspect and the desire to explore new things, to learn, have flourished, then nature can experience itself in what seems the most improbable of ways.

Seth's Brief Reply About Vitamins

Regarding the vitamins Jane had been taking these days, they had asked Seth whether he had anything to say. Seth said he would not discuss this issue tonight:

Seth said he would not discuss the vitamin issue tonight, but I will soon give you material on that subject, and also material on Ruburt. When some of his own mental insights will allow me to make further explanations than I can make now.

In other words, Ruburt had actually been blocking him on this topic he wanted to discuss. So he said when Ruburt is ready, I will discuss this topic.

At 10:01, Jane vaguely remembered that after Seth finished tonight's dictation, he had confusingly continued wanting to talk about the book. Rob told her that he thought Seth had triggered his own additional material by talking about our human emissaries. Rob was very pleased that Jane was such an emissary—he did not remember Seth ever having described Jane with such a term. This was another insight into the mystery of her choice in this particular physical life, such as the channeling role. Earlier it was said that humanity needs such emissaries to explore the spiritual realms, and Jane was such an emissary. Rob was quite happy, because she had been given a new title, and this title seemed a bit more attractive and better sounding than those previous ones like psychic or mystic—it felt like an ambassador, an emissary.

Rob's Note 1: Jane's Poem

The main text of this session ended, and below were some notes for this session. Rob wrote some more notes.

In the first note, Rob said that if he had immediately seen the untitled long poem Jane wrote on August 26, following his work on Chapter 2 of The Magical Approach, the concern he had always had for Jane would necessarily have turned into outright terror. Why? Because Jane had not finished the poem, nor had she brought it to show him. It was not that she wanted to hide it, but the two of them could not tell each other everything. He happened not to be present when she wrote that poem, and she added it to her 1981 journal. Not long afterward, he unexpectedly discovered the poem.

Even when he did discover the poem, he became very sad, then afraid, yet as he read it he became more hopeful. He immediately knew it had to be included in this book, because when Jane wrote her poem, she was at a very low point. Perhaps it was her poetic art of expression that made him identify so strongly with her emotions, but he suddenly felt that even he had never seriously, truly understood the countless layers of depth in her challenges. In fact, the challenges Jane faced were enormous, and they had many layers of depth.

In this poem, he saw her re-expression of the ancient fear of abandonment, and also the dilemma of her lack of mobility. And his fear was triggered by what he thought might be signals that she might choose to leave this physical reality forever. Rob said the last time he had this feeling was seven months earlier.

He said that if Jane had written a final draft of this poem, he might have shortened it. Instead, he thought readers should see how on a certain day she spontaneously, poetically wrestled with her challenges. However, to save space, he separated the short lines within each stanza with slashes, because poems take up a lot of space. But the translation of this poem has always been difficult, and it is very hard to accurately translate the author's state of mind, so Teacher Wang Jiqing also did his best to translate it, but did not spend too much time on it, so this poem reads more like plain speech.

Jane's Poem: The Ebb and Flow of the Tides

Let us look at this poem:

There is something in me The ebb and flow of the tides As if I let myself be washed out to sea for a while While leaving some slender shells on the shore On the sand Withered Shriveled Some shells But still alive Yet with fierce mouths and eyes

The kind of shell creature washed up on the shore, half alive, but the living half is very passionate, and full of the longing for life, still wanting to live; while the other half that is about to die is calm, drifting with the current, floating and bobbing with the waves. Can you imagine such a scene—a sea shell washed ashore, dry and shriveled, one half, the part with the mouth and eyes, is full of vitality, alive; but the other half of the body is already drifting with the waves, nearly dead. One half drifting with the current, the other half full of longing for life.

Over the world and the rocks Dissipating like a thing Beyond obstruction Free of all ties

The half that is about to die passes over the world and the rocks, dissipating like a thing, slowly perhaps dying, dissolving, then transcending obstruction. It has already become nearly formless, free of all ties, drifting with the current—the feeling of merging with the sea.

And my heart calls from within the fragile shell Come back, dear counterpart I am exhausted and nearly dead

That heart still remains inside the shell, saying to the half that is about to die: come back quickly, I am nearly dead.

A half-empty shell thin as paper All my life alive and burning Only in my head But almost no stir

The living part of me is vividly alive, but it is in my head, yet my body has already drifted with the waves of the sea, and it is not coming back. So from the outside, you cannot see any vitality in me, but my vitality is all in my brain, yet my body already seems about to be taken away by this world, by the sea—it can no longer hold on. This is a psychological description of her own challenge.

How can you leave Me in such a state Fragile and exposed Exposed on the sand With only a mouth and eyes left

Leaving only a head, and then the body is about to be swept away by the waves.

Sometimes there is no echo at all As if my voice itself has become mist Or is lost in the sound of the waves Until it seems I am truly abandoned Separated from some forgotten self Who has gone elsewhere

That voice means the other half of the body has left—the part of her body that had vitality, the part that could move, has already left, leaving only a brain that still does not want to die.

Without me So the gulf between us is so distant That messages going back and forth take so long to reach me And only my own future descendants can grasp their meaning here

She said this body no longer obeys my commands, or the messages I send it are received very slowly, and it takes a long time to reply, taking a long time to come back. It is as if only her own future descendants could hear the meaning of her existence here—that is, only after she truly dies will her descendants be able to understand the meaning of her life.

Then I heard this morning What I thought were some responses

She kept calling to that physical body: come back, do not leave me here with just a head and a shell. Your physical body must come back quickly. My body is nearly failing, my life is nearly failing, I am dying. There had been no response, very slow, and only this morning there were some responses.

Who do you think sent me on such a journey Unless it was yourself

The physical body wrote back to her: who sent me to merge with the sea? You sent me. Only you could have sent me.

Do not worry about me I am all right

Do not worry about that part of me—the part that merged with the sea. For Jane, that was the part that could not move, the part without this life vitality—but he said it is all right.

But go quickly The tide is full Use its motion I will add all I can give Let yourself be carried into the flesh In its sweet timidity To places it would be afraid to follow And so I did

The physical body said to her: do not be afraid. It was you who sent me. Then he said you must quickly use the motion of the waves. You must merge into this motion. When the tide rises and is full, I will add all my energy into it, and let yourself be carried into the flesh, and in the sweet timidity of this flesh you will be afraid to follow to those places.

I hardly remember recognizing the voice And felt some distant wave turn back Some mysterious self carrying a million messages beyond the known And exotic treasures returning to the place where I waited

Jane said I was not familiar with that voice. It was as if some wave turned back to look at itself, or a future self, or a self from another time and space, carrying a million messages and returning, coming back to this shell on the sand.

And a sudden motion shook my withered wrist Slight but fierce I startled and shivered It had not moved for so long That slender shell that held my heart As if a sudden wind lifted one edge And the curling of nerves and muscles The dried tendrils loosened of themselves

My color changed, my white parchment-like skin turned coral, the fine wrinkles disappeared, my body began to fill out again.

My color changed My white parchment-like skin turned coral The fine wrinkles disappeared My body began to fill out again

This description means her body began to have a kind of restorative vitality. The withered tendrils began to loosen, as if the shell was suddenly blown open by the wind, and the wind brought vitality to it.

When I felt a strange self return Another living being return Now more quickly soothing my psyche That great wave from the unknown spiritual sea

Bit by bit my strength began to rise, my muscles uncurled—they had been tightly folded and bound, but the muscles all began to unfold. This is a real psychological feeling depicting the symptoms of her body.

Bit by bit my strength began to rise My muscles uncurled I had been tightly folded Waiting for future use And now I sat up Ran my fragile fingers through my sun-dried hair And then I said we went too far, my friend From now on we will walk hand in hand As far as I can go Walking or swimming Or I will travel with you in spirit But I will no longer stay home alone With the implements turned down halfway, waiting

Jane said I sat up, ran my hand through my dry hair, and said from now on I will be with you. Whether together in the flesh or together in spirit, either is fine, but I will be with you. I will no longer split myself into two halves—one half left on the shore, the self that remained in the human world, alone with a stubborn mouth and staring eyes, and his active brain, appearing so lonely and so helpless in this world; while his body gradually became immobile, atrophied, like a shell half dead. She said from now on I will no longer separate from you. I will go with you—that is, no longer leaving that other half. She believed that the half of her body that could not move was actually together with the universe, together with that great spiritual wave of the sea. She said from now on I will be with you all. I will be with this other half of you. I will not separate. Wait for me.

Actually you need not You need not necessarily be with me Not far away We are together

The other side said actually you need not necessarily be with me. That voice was now clearer, until it came from my mouth, saying loudly and full of vitality: we are together. That voice was no longer far away. It was my own mouth that said it.

We chatted together for half the night While I shook off the web of estrangement From my fingers and toes My shell softened like a net And then crumbled And sighing was carried away by the morning wind

What is the web of estrangement? It is her separation from her other half—the separation from her spirit, from that source part of the universe. That estrangement—I now shake off that estranged thing, let it crumble, let it disappear, so there is no more estrangement, and let the morning wind carry that estranged thing away.

All around us The beach drew in Precious images suddenly leaping up in the darkness Came in with the waves joining the new waves

She is describing coming in together with that wave that is united with the universe.

Those treasures are marked with your name And will come for a while each day From the most mysterious places Unimaginable wonders

That other half—the part of her that is one with the universe, the part of her spiritual world—said to her: those treasures are marked with your name, and they will come for a while each day, come for a while every day. He is saying that the part connected with the universe actually looks after him every day.

But I too have grown wise Finding how good it is that you wait for me here No journey is worth disturbing our harmony And for the undivided self All journeys are possible

The other half said I have found that it is so good that you wait for me here. How good this is. All the treasures bear your name. He said before I had not found you, but now I am wise. I know you are right here waiting for me, and I will come to you every day. For the self that is not divided, all journeys are possible—he means that as long as the self is together, not divided, you can go anywhere, all journeys are feasible.

And we are this undivided self, right? Jane's pain now lies in the fact that she cannot move her body, so she feels great pain, but she is actually not divided either—it is only that she feels she is divided. From this kind of thing, why did Rob feel such great fear after reading it? Because he saw in Jane a sense, an intention, of possibly leaving this physical world.

Now I want to stand up whole And walk across the beach And having taken hands We did so Laughing, the smile of us two-in-one One and two, two and one

She said I stood up, and the two merged into one—that counterpart self and this self left on the beach, the two stood up hand in hand and walked across the beach. They did it. And laughing, the two of us merged into one, and then these two counterpart selves are both one, and this one self is also the smile of two—both are smiling, or you could say one is smiling.

This is Jane's poem. This is the ending of Jane's poem, because here she at least reaffirmed the possibility of her self-healing. Yet even as Rob's fear lessened, his hope was also affected, because he did not see an explicit mention of integrating a more understanding, guilty self into her psyche. Rob thought Jane's physical symptoms were now with her, and they would have to deal with them on the road to recovery. When they talked and chatted after reading her poem, Rob got stuck—he was suspended between despair for his wife and hope in her choice to live. This is all plain speech. That is, Rob was actually quite conflicted. At this time Jane both felt despair about her body, feeling as though she might not get better, but she also felt she could get better. From this kind of poem you can see she still wanted to recover.

Rob's Note 2: The Body's Miraculous Changes

In note 2, Rob said their four visitors had long since become their close friends, and he was certain that their timely arrival had contributed greatly to Jane's recent progress. They provided the two of them with warmth, confidence, and reinforcement, and reawakened in us a kind of nostalgia for what seemed a more innocent old era—their era was the sixties and seventies, and now it was the eighties. People of that era very much missed America's sixties and seventies.

Rob slightly rewrote what Jane wrote in her journal on November 2, 1981. These events once again showed the incredible resilience and creativity of her body—its constant attempts to correct itself and to continue. When the body is allowed to respond to confidence—when you allow your body to respond to the confidence that the body can recover, the confidence that the body has no problem—the body's power is very great.

Below is Jane's journal entry. By this time Jane had been unable to move for nearly a year. From November 1980 until now she had been almost completely immobile, unable even to bathe herself.

Some truly beneficial and strange developments have occurred in my physical condition. Very strange. It happened on Saturday night, October 31, when those kids came from New York City to visit. These students I had not seen in almost two years. During their visit, I noticed that my right leg, which was resting on the coffee table, would suddenly, quickly, and unexpectedly drop to the floor.

Do you think there is anything strange about this? This cannot be normal. Because by this time Jane was already unable to move, and her legs especially could not move at all, because she could not even stand up. Think about it—for a person whose legs cannot stand or move, if you place her leg properly on a coffee table, and do not move it, the coffee table is flat, not slanted, and if her leg had no strength of its own, it would not drop off the coffee table by itself. It can only mean one thing: her leg was constantly exerting force, or certain muscles in her leg were moving. Only the movement of certain muscles could pull her leg off that table.

After their guests left, I was chatting with Rob, then dozed off, and fell asleep while talking. Then again, my leg suddenly dropped again, fell down, and my whole body turned to the left involuntarily, the entire body turning to the left.

These were all miraculous things for her, because her legs had not been able to move for a year. This happened several times, not just once.

Then while dozing, I suddenly found my body moving forward, already nearly half standing up, with great energy and a somewhat natural motion.

That is, entirely automatically, her body half stood up and moved forward. This is almost unimaginable—can you imagine a person who had not moved for a year suddenly leaning forward, about to stand up? Previously she could not even stand up while holding onto something. In the previous two years she could still walk, but in this past year she could not even walk while holding onto the typing table. Yet now she was not holding onto anything, and she was about to stand up. Although she did not ultimately stand up, she had already half stood up. Even that was already incredible.

Then the effect continued on Sunday. Sudden muscle movements. For example, once my right arm suddenly moved to the left, and with sudden energy flung a pack of cigarettes I was holding onto the floor.

The right arm by all rights had already lost these normal movement abilities. It suddenly moved—not because she wanted it to move, not under control—and flung the cigarettes out.

Then late Sunday night, I was watching TV, dozing for a few minutes at a time, and I woke up to find half my body had slid off the sofa, onto the floor. I was frightened, tried to sit up in my chair, and then I called Rob, who was in another room, and he helped me back into my seat.

Because a person who cannot move much, if you place her on a sofa, she generally will not fall off or slide down by herself. Now she slid down by herself, slipped down by herself. This proves that some muscles in her body were moving, in ways she could not control.

Then there was a long dream, in which my body cleansed itself.

Generally when one dreams of something like this, it means the body is healing. Some people dream of pulling many bugs out of their own bodies; some people dream of pus flowing out of their ears, and a couple of days later their ears get better. Many similar states are actually hints that the body is healing itself.

Rob's Note 3: Seth's Private Sessions on November 9 and November 12

Rob's Note 3: On Monday evening, November 9, Seth spent almost the entire session dealing with their personal challenges. After dinner, Jane had declared that she wanted to try having a session, and she did not know whether it would be a private one, a book session, or one dealing with other material. The thought of having her first session since August made her both nervous and impatient.

The following is an excerpt -- Jane had not had a session for three months, three months without communicating with Seth.

Ruburt is still dealing with this material that branched out from the material on the guilty self.

That is, he still had not finished processing the beliefs of that part of himself that was the guilty self, and then that thing branched out into other things.

And this material generally follows the direction of development that has been quite evident in the poems and notes he has written since that time.

He was able to express it, and actually those things could still be seen. As for this guilty self, although Seth had spent three months working on it with her from April to July, it seemed that there was only some relief during that period, and afterward it was gone again, and the effect was no longer obvious.

I know what he is referring to. There is a small portion still not typed, and it should be typed, because that material alone would serve as an impetus. The entire material on the guilty self should be reviewed.

Seth said they needed to study the guilty self again. Another three months had passed, and it seemed that the effect was no longer so obvious, and that traditional guilty self had gained the upper hand again.

He is presently facing those feelings, finding their reasons. He is facing this matter, and trying to recapture some of that sense of confidence of the young innocent self itself.

He should be trying to find that natural sense of confidence, not worrying about responsibility or anything like that. That confidence is still there -- the innocent confidence that youth itself naturally has, the confidence that existed even before church doctrine was imposed upon it. He is trying to develop his own natural confidence, not the confidence that depends on later intellect and on having many beliefs or on having the guilty self.

That attempt of course brings it into conflict with whatever doubts still impede him.

When he wants to restore his natural confidence, there will still be doubts, there will still be conflict. Even if he wants to return to his natural confidence, those acquired impediments, that guilty self, will still jump out to obstruct this from happening.

What is natural confidence? Natural confidence is that whatever you do is right, whatever you do is fine. You do not need to think about whether what I am doing is right, whether what I am doing is good -- those are all acquired. When you say through analysis that what I am doing is very good, that is acquired confidence. Natural confidence is never having to think about whether what I do is right or wrong, good or bad. Whatever I do is right, whatever I do is good.

Again, the body does indeed possess such a natural confidence. And it has nothing to do with occult methods and so forth.

It has nothing to do with those so-called magical, occult methods, the kind of mystical, superstitious stuff. It has nothing to do with that. It is not about giving you some water to drink or drawing a talisman. It has nothing to do with that. A person is born with this ability, with a natural capacity for bodily recovery.

And again, he is dealing with a kind of self-evident physiological knowledge. There is a more emotional exuberance connected with all of that.

When your body begins to recover its health, you will have a kind of emotional exuberance, which is very interesting. You will find that when a person's body begins to recover its health, that person is truly excited. He talks more, his spirits are good, everything looks fresh to him, and his whole mental state is completely different. You can tell with your eyes whether a person is in the process of recovering or getting worse. So when you see a person in a state of mild exuberance, then that person's illness is cured.

So for example, there are those temporary feelings of panic. These should be discussed. I will have further related material to add to the entire scope of Ruburt's situation. But I want to discuss this issue from a larger scope, rather than discussing this present matter of how his body recovers when friends come to visit. But tonight's session is meant only to give him some immediate sense of direction.

Why would there be temporary feelings of panic? It is because you feel that your body was failing, so how is it starting to recover again? Is it really getting better -- some people call it a brief rally before death or something like that.

I know how to accelerate the psyche's impetus, giving him gentle nudges in the proper direction. To insert a suggestion of assurance, and that is my intent in holding this session.

Heavy pushing will not work. You must remember to give him gentle nudges in the proper direction. It is not a matter of relentlessly pursuing, pushing hard and forcing it. It must be a gentle nudge in the proper direction. If you push too hard, or if the direction is wrong, none of that can accelerate the impetus of his psyche. This is true for Jane, and it is true for anyone. So when we communicate with others, when we want to pass on the Seth material to others, you must remember to use the right method. You must never push too hard, and you must never use the wrong direction, otherwise you are not accelerating the impetus of their psyche.

Sometimes you need to add some suggestions of assurance: you will definitely get better this way, you have already, and so on. These are all techniques given to us on how to move the psyche. So when you see this, you will find that there are actually some religions that can reach deep into people's hearts, that can win people's hearts. When we examine it from an objective perspective, you will find that they do very well on these issues.

The material on the guilty self is being used at this time as a small psychic source. And that same material may be approached from different viewpoints.

You can take out that material on the guilty self and use it as a way of looking at the source of your psyche, and re-examine it. Ruburt still responds to that guilty self, to that psychic source. At that time, after Seth brought up the guilty self, I remember that later on Jane once said: let us not talk about this matter anymore, I am rather tired of it, do not keep talking about my personal matters, let us just have the session. Actually by that time Jane had already begun to resist this matter somewhat. After that, was the guilty self cleared away by her? Was it accepted by her? Did it merge into one with the present true self? No. It appeared again from a different viewpoint -- it hid itself. It no longer appeared in that obvious form of the guilty self, in that form of belief. It changed to another way of appearing, changed to another concept. See how cunning it is, but the root had still not changed.

I also have something to say about your own reactions, and I suggest (but only suggest) that your usual two sessions a week, as a framework supporting the therapeutic effort, should still be held.

Seth said he was only suggesting, not forcing anything. This is good for the framework of your therapeutic effort.

I did give him a message, and that message was that you take care of the matters of the present moment.

He was referring to October 23, 1981. Why take care of the present moment? Because the matter happening before your eyes right now, appearing in your life, has its own reason for being there.

In each person's life, and in your own life, at every point of your existence, the answers to your problems, or the methods of achieving those answers, are in your days always as apparent as any given problem.

Each person just needs to handle well the problem of the present moment. The answer to your present problem is just as apparent as the problem itself, only you cannot see it. The answer has always been there. It is not that you cannot handle it or that it is very thorny and impossible to deal with. No, the answer has always been there. You only need to observe a little and you will find the answer. The reason that matter happened is that it has its own meaning for happening.

I mean quite simply that those answers already exist in your life, only perhaps you have not yet put them together, or organized those answers in the necessary way.

In Ruburt's case, those answers lie in all those areas that you ordinarily concern yourselves with. Right now you are concerned with the problem of the body, which is the most troublesome problem, or the problems of publishing, of creative work. Seth said that the problem of the body, the problem of publishing, the problem of reader letters, and so on -- all these problems are the same. Do not focus only on those bodily problems that you seem unable to solve, as if the bodily problems had no answers. The answer to your bodily problem lies within every matter of your present moment. When you handle each of those matters well, it will naturally get better. So Seth said just focus on your present moment. When you handle every matter of the present moment well, then there is nothing else. Those so-called big matters you speak of -- matters of responsibility, matters of saving humanity, matters of your own body -- all of them are in every matter before your eyes. Just handle them all well.

When you take care of that which is in the present with the proper magical attitude, then the organization of change can occur.

The premise is that you must have a magical attitude. You use the magical attitude to look at these present matters. If you use a worldly attitude, it will not work well. When you use the magical attitude, that is, when you enter a state of Framework 2, then the organization of change can occur. Do you not want answers? Do you not want solutions? When you use the magical attitude to look at every matter of your present moment, when you handle every matter, remember that this magical attitude is the key. You must never forget it. You say, I am also living in the present, look, today I am handling the matters of my work unit, my job -- remember, what does living in the present mean? It does not mean just handling every matter. You must have a magical attitude, a Framework 2 attitude, the kind of attitude you speak of when entering the second stage of life. When you use that attitude to look at these ordinary matters of daily life, then the change will happen automatically. It is that simple.

Believing in a god who can support you, whatever his name is, is indeed a psychological necessity for mental and physical health.

Suppose there is such a thing. If you believe in God, then say it is God. If you believe in Buddha, then say it is Buddha. Suppose you can believe that some god can support you -- at this point it is acceptable to be a little superstitious. Suppose you believe in your higher self, that also works. Remember, this is only a method.

Ruburt does not want to face this kind of issue.

Ruburt does not want to come up with some psychological god or a god who supports him. This is what Ruburt detests the most. So you can see many of the problems in his illness. Seth pointed this out at this time: since you are writing The Magical Approach, since you are transmitting the magical approach, yet you do not believe that there is a true source of the magical approach that has always been supporting you. The simplest method is that you can abstract it into something like a god who supports you, but this matter simply does not work for Jane. Jane detests these religious things the most.

They open up the psychological quicksand of all organized religious sentimentality.

Psychological quicksand is something you cannot get out of once you step in, like quicksand in the desert. Once a person walks in, you cannot pull him out. It is very dangerous and will swallow you up. Jane felt that as soon as this topic of a god who supports you was brought up, this topic absolutely could not be opened. She could not accept having such an idea herself. Once it was opened, she felt she would sink into this psychological quicksand and be unable to free herself, so she firmly opposed it.

The material on the guilty self is operating, opening the necessary doors of desire and intent.

This material transmitted from April to July did have an effect. It opened up the desires and intentions of that guilty self for her, laid them out on the table, and let her see clearly what that guilty self actually wanted. Actually you only need to accept him, but Jane clearly still could not accept that guilty self -- she could not open her heart to embrace him, to embrace that guilty self. She still resisted him somewhat.

When Ruburt typed those later small poems, the way seemed much clearer. The innocent self is being discovered.

That poem just read aloud -- earlier Seth said to have her type it out. Jane said, I know what he wants me to type, referring to that poem. Later she typed it out and tucked it into her calendar, and Rob discovered it. That was the poem. Seth said that after you type it out, you will see it very clearly. As for that innocent self -- the one that rises and falls with the waves, that seems to have died, yet is united with the source of the universe -- he said that is the natural, innocent self, and it seemed to have been discovered by her. That in itself has a natural confidence that will well up.

Ruburt is dealing with rather profound material involving himself and his relationship to his source. This material is being dealt with in your present circumstances, and those answers will not only automatically lead him to a practical answer, but will lead him to the area of development that he has been seeking and at the same time fearing.

In that poem Ruburt had also been sorting out this relationship -- himself and his own source, the one that drifted farther and farther from him with the great waves, with the ocean waves, that is his source. He said that poem was like an answer. At first it was a literary or abstract answer, but he said it would lead you to the real answer. It would lead him to the area he had always wanted to seek but also feared -- that innocent self without sin, together with nature, the part that at last smiled as two became one. That part was actually what he feared, and also what he had always wanted to explore and pursue. Had he not kept calling out, saying come back, come back?

After Seth left them, a smile spread across Jane's face. Jane smiled. Why did she smile? Because Seth understood her mind very well. She was very happy to have had this session, to have all these things said. After the interruption Jane would still be afraid. After the three-month interruption, she knew what material Seth wanted her to type -- it was that poem.

Rob should mention their disappointment -- because a week earlier she had experienced those strange and rapid bodily movements, and now that improvement quickly disappeared. That magical response of the body quickly disappeared.

Seth's content in the private session of November 12

Rob's Note 4: In the material Seth gave to Jane and Rob on Thursday evening, November 12, there were the following insights, showing how he continued trying to help them help Jane. That is to say, he gathered the key points of these two sessions into this session, meaning that this session combined the content of three sessions, and also included what had happened during these three months.

What worries Ruburt now is precisely effortlessness, that is, spontaneous relaxation, in that it is not something he has clearly decided upon at any point, but seems to happen by itself.

This is what worries Ruburt. Why can Ruburt not relax? Why is he so anxious? Why is his body so tense? It is because he does not believe in, or he fears, this kind of effortlessness -- he insists on doing many things with great effort. He feels that things done without effort cannot show his worth. He insists on making things happen through his own labor, his own effort. You see, Jane once said to Seth -- Seth said you are like transmitting love, and then she said, we are laborers of love. From this word, or from her acceptance of this word, you can tell that Jane and Rob both wanted to express their value through labor, through the form of labor. Whether painting, there must be a work; writing poetry, it must be published; planning novels, they must be published; the Seth material must be published -- they insisted on having a form of presentation, a display of results, to express their sense of existence. She could not accept being spontaneous, effortless, even doing nothing at all, doing nothing and still being herself. They could not accept it -- not them, especially Jane. Rob was a little better, because Rob was a recorder and did not have such great pressure. Jane could not.

Ruburt's body is allowing itself to relax, especially on the couch, when his body is supported, the tension lessens, and often this sudden lessening of tension frightens him.

He was originally tense, but when the tension lessened, his leg dropped, and he said this startled him. On the bodily side, this was a fairly brief and excellent treatment. But this kind of relaxation was truly the best for her, because her current symptom was that she could not relax -- her back was hunched together, her legs could not straighten, her arms could not straighten either. She was completely tensed up. Can you imagine that state? It was not that she had no strength and was limp. Limpness was one aspect, but the reason for the limpness was that after long-term muscle tension she could no longer exert strength, like a rubber band that has been stretched tight for so long that it has lost its elasticity. She was tense. Although it manifested as muscles without strength, the cause was that she was too tense. When she relaxed like this and her leg dropped, it also startled her.

After control has been continuously applied to the body, however, that relaxation broke down many strong elements of control. In this way, rigidity was drawn out of the body.

Jane placed control on her body. Jane wanted to control everything -- meaning her creative work, her work, all of it she wanted to control. She had to labor day and night. So when a person is too controlling, she also secretly applies force and control to her own body. When she relaxed this control, rigidity was drawn out of the body, and the body was no longer stiff.

He again emphasized that Jane is safe, supported, and protected. Of course at that very moment, that was the message he wanted himself to understand. By reminding him of that support and protection, we can help him. The body knows what it is doing.

Through this -- spoken by his own mouth, and then through him looking back at this text to remind himself -- we are helping him.

What he tried to explain to you earlier this evening was excellent. The ideas he discussed psychologically refreshed him, especially with your help added. The material on the guilty self was timed in its own way, so although quite a bit of material has been written down, the effects come in stages. That is to say, they are clues to gradually even greater insights, which may not be apparent at any given time.

This material on the guilty self, although it was given to the two of them intensively over three months, its effect, its function, can only manifest stage by stage. So he had them constantly review this material. It was not that after three consecutive months of discussing the guilty self, Jane had thoroughly resolved this problem. He said it needed a set time, that is, it needed time to take effect. And this effect does not take effect all at once; it needs to take effect stage by stage. Each stage may not seem obvious, but added together the effect becomes strong. So when you and Jane used this material on the guilty self and saw that Jane had not yet changed, do not be disheartened -- look, we have studied for three months, and Jane has recognized the guilty self, yet the body has still not improved, or improved for a while and then regressed in the middle. Seth said this is normal. This thing has to take effect stage by stage. You cannot just stop looking at it later. If you do not see immediate results and then give up, that is wrong.

What is very important? When he really feels panic, he should tell you, but that feeling itself does not last. Again, relaxation is part of the creative process.

When that guilty self comes back, he will feel panic. When the guilty self takes charge, there will be panic. When he panics, he should tell you, and then you should help him sort out this guilty self again, bring it out again. This is a process in between, and it needs to take effect stage by stage. Relaxation is also part of the creative process -- that is, when creation is happening, there is relaxation in the middle. It is not that only continuous hard work counts as creativity. Working day and night without stopping is not it. The relaxation in between is also part of your creation.

I hope to finish our book, regardless of your publishing plans or anything else. And under the present circumstances, that would be beneficial for our friend.

Finishing this book would be helpful for Jane. When Jane sees that there are daily achievements in that area, when she sees that her creative work has some achievement every day, that is helpful for her.

Seth paused for a long time again:

But I want Ruburt to see that healing is occurring, that he can trust his own mind and body, and that all portions of himself are being dealt with, whether or not this is apparent at any given time.

Seth still wanted to give Jane a strengthened belief: whether or not her symptoms improved, let her believe that all of this was changing, that all parts of her were being dealt with, and that everything was developing in a good direction. This must be firmly believed. You must not see that the body has not substantially improved and become disheartened. That is wrong.

In this area, our material is not fiction. Unfortunately, in your society, you need every advantage you can get, every good suggestion, to balance fear and negative conditioning.

This Seth material we are now discussing is not like writing a novel. No, it is a very important body of material. In your physical world, in your actual society, you need every advantage you can get as suggestion, to balance fear and negative conditioning. This kind of good suggestion is useful -- because when you cannot yet remove your fear all at once, when you cannot remove your negative beliefs all at once, those good suggestions can play a balancing role for you. Of course, if you can remove fear all at once, that would be best. If you cannot remove it all at once, then you need a good suggestion in between to help you. This is a very important method and technique.

Ruburt does not need to suggest a book every year. The creative material will flow out, it will flow out automatically. Because of Ruburt's own particular qualities, it will flow out. It is safe for him to express that nature.

He does not need to think about what he must create every year -- he cannot stay idle. That endless stream of material will come out. What nature? The flowing out of the material is his true nature. Why could he contact Seth? Why could he transmit this material in an endless stream? This is his nature. This is what makes Jane Jane. Each of us has our own value fulfillment. This is true value fulfillment, and it will flow out naturally.

It is even safe to explore that nature. It is safe to explore the self, and to allow himself some comfort in the source of his existence.

That is the other half of the living self written about in that poem, the one that rises and falls with the ocean waves. He can go to that source to find some comfort, and that is also safe. The same is true for us.

Of course, different versions of this same advice can be given to anyone, and it is equally pertinent.

The passage above is not only practical for Jane, but practical for everyone. For different people he would have different variations, different versions. You cannot use the exact words spoken to Jane to speak to others. You must grasp the essence within. The meaning is the same, and equally practical. Practical for what? For expressing yourself, for being your original self. Being your own nature, this matter itself is protected and safe, and it is natural and magical, and it is also effortless.

Seth emphasized all of this again, letting each of us once more review how to be the magical self and truly practice the magical approach in life. Seth truly spared no words. With such a long passage, he once again sorted out Jane's illness from beginning to end. You can see that Seth truly exhausted his mind and efforts for Jane and Rob. Although the final result was not satisfactory, we can only say that Seth truly fulfilled his responsibility and did all he could. Of course, afterward he still did not give up. He kept helping Jane, helping Rob, always trying every possible way to help them, all the way to that final book, The Way Toward Health, all the way until about ten days before Jane passed away. Seth was still transmitting material, still helping Jane, and had not given up, until finally Jane herself gave up. That is a later story, and we will not mention it.

From this session, you can see how great the influence of a person's core beliefs, inner beliefs, is on his health and on his life, how great this subtle influence is. But to change this thing is not an easy matter either -- through Jane's example you also know that it is not an easy matter. So we should not casually think that changing beliefs is a simple thing. If it were that simple, there would not be so many things in this world. We recognize that it is not simple, but we also recognize that there is something simple about it. Why? Because it can be resolved in a magical, effortless way.

注释与核实

1. Source: Red Wheel/Weiser, Conversations With Seth: Book Two, 2006 (https://redwheelweiser.com/book/conversations-with-seth-book-two-9781930491090/) ↩

2. Source: Gansu People's Publishing House, Gansu People's Publishing House Chronicle, Chapter 3: Editing and Publishing of Periodicals (https://www.gsdfszw.org.cn/zhy/gssjzxynj/gsrmcbsz/201707/P020170705597062964938.pdf) ↩

3. Source: U.S. Department of Defense, "Statement by the Department of Defense on the Release of Historical Navy Videos" (https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/release/article/2165713/statement-by-the-department-of-defense-on-the-release-of-historical-navy-videos/) ↩

4. This claim could not be verified. ↩

5. According to Mike's original words, "the Pentagon publicly admitted that it was a flying saucer"; upon verification, it should be "the U.S. Department of Defense officially released three Navy videos in 2020, confirming the videos were authentic, but only stating that the aerial phenomena in them remained 'unidentified,' and did not confirm they were flying saucers." (Source: U.S. Department of Defense, "Statement by the Department of Defense on the Release of Historical Navy Videos," 2020, https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/release/article/2165713/statement-by-the-department-of-defense-on-the-release-of-historical-navy-videos/) ↩