Mike's commentary · The Magical Approach, Session 9

The "Introduction" and "Key Points" for this chapter were summarized by an AI editor based on the main text below; they are not things Mike said 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

In this session, Seth points out that Jane's physical recovery is the result of the body's "magical reasoning." The body can directly translate reasoning into action, and its self-healing ability, like its creative ability, is innate and requires no deliberate protection. He emphasizes that the body is the materialization of the mind, and that sustained mental progress will bring about physical progress. In response to the publisher's concerns about the medical views in the book, Seth explains that he has already softened them, and believes that the protest itself shows the importance of the work, advising Rob and Jane not to get caught up in the publisher's demands.

Key Points of This Chapter

• Jane's physical improvements, such as being able to stand straight, come from the body's magical reasoning, whose speed surpasses that of the intellect; logic is not as useful as the magical approach.
• The body's self-healing ability is as innate as creative abilities such as writing books and composing poetry, and requires no special protection.
• The body is not a tool, but the concrete manifestation of the mind in physical form; as the state of mind continues to improve, the body can continue to improve.
• Rob and Jane believe in out-of-body experiences, psychic dreams, and artistic creation, yet doubt that the same power can be applied to physical health; this is the key that needs to change.
• Seth has already softened the medical viewpoints in the book; the publisher's protest precisely shows that this work is important, and there is no need to get overly caught up in the publisher's demands.

Main Text

Body Reasoning and Belief Systems

This session was delivered on Monday, September 8, 1980¹, at 8:43 p.m. Before the session began, Rob recorded the background as usual. Jane said at the very start, "I only hope I can handle it." She was referring to holding the session, while her body was also having so much activity, which was also hard to handle. Jane laughed; she was referring to the series of changes happening throughout her body — actually progress. For example, at that moment her ankles and feet had undergone noticeable changes, with pain and itching, whereas before she had had no sensation there; now her arms were also longer and straighter. Today, after helping Rob finish the changes they wanted to make in The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events, she felt quite drained. She had helped Rob a great deal, writing some notes for him, so that Rob only needed to add what he wanted to write before returning the manuscript to the publisher. Jane was still helping Rob with some work in this condition. She slept very restlessly at night, and sometimes did exercises when she woke up. Rob suggested she might as well get up, but those exercises seemed to substitute for the physical activity that getting up would involve; she preferred doing some exercises in bed rather than getting up. Jane yawned at 8:42, and Rob almost felt that Seth was nearby. Jane said, "I think I'll give it a try." She took a sip of wine, then said, "I think this session will be short." Then Seth came through and spoke to her; Seth said good evening. This was a short session.

The Body's Miraculous Reasoning

Seth said that among Ruburt's achievements there was one quite extraordinary piece of progress, which was being able to stand up. You see, before he could not stand at all; his body could straighten up, and that was the result of the body's miraculous reasoning.

Because the body reasons so quickly, so clearly, so concisely, that its deductions and its logic are too fast for the intellect to follow.

What he was actually echoing was what Jane had said — her body was recovering rapidly, but this recovery process was too fast. Why too fast? Because it was the result of magical reasoning; it was not something that could be understood according to Jane's logical way of thinking. According to Jane's logical thinking, a person whose body had been stiff for such a period of time, even several years, being able to recover again — she felt it was unlikely. The body reasoned directly, the body recovered directly, and the reasoning it used was the magical approach.

The body's reasoning transformed it into action, transformed itself into action.

That is, it turned this reasoning into a reality, and realized it. And nothing stood between its noble logic and the clever implementation of that logic. What this sentence means is that logic is actually not more useful than the magical approach.

Ruburt could not possibly follow all of the necessary manipulations that allowed the recent progress to occur. I say again, certainly the body's efforts are as magical and creative as the writing of a book or a poem. In the past, however, Ruburt trusted his creative abilities as if they were something he had to protect, something he must not let his physical self interfere with.

Simply put, Jane's body originally had this magical-approach capacity for recovery. You only need to let it take its natural course, let it naturally return to the state of a natural person, and it can recover. And this ability, like her writing a novel or writing a poem, is a creative ability, a magical ability. But this magical ability, and this creative ability itself, does not need special protection. Ruburt thought he needed to protect this creative ability — he felt it was a treasure of his, a special talent that others did not have, and he needed to protect it well, to defend it. In fact, the human body's capacity for self-healing is innate, just as your ability to write books, novels, and poems is also innate — they are the same. You think it is the result of your acquired effort, but actually it is an ability you originally had. So you do not need, as Jane thought, to protect the healing ability he already possessed the way he protected his creativity. There is no such need. He was actually still giving Jane confidence.

A Change of Attitude

Seth said that the two of you have finally taken a big step forward in understanding. In the previous sessions he had been urging them, especially as a result of the recent sessions — he was teaching the magical approach, and a large part of the reason was to help Jane.

In Ruburt's case, it was because he allowed a change of attitude, and changed the body's habits, encouraging him to move about.

You may remember that at the beginning of The Magical Approach, Ruburt did not move around much; he was unwilling to be active. Now he had begun to accept activity about twice a day.

And now included the physical body, rather than trying to exclude it from his expanded sense of identity.

He expanded his own sense of identity — identity is not merely a physical body; there is also something more, something inner. Simply put, Jane had gained a larger understanding of herself: she discovered that her body was not merely a physical existence, but that there was also an inner, magical existence, and this magical existence could restore her to health. She had not recognized this before. She had previously thought that the physical body was just the physical body, and that no matter how much her spirituality developed, it could not change her physical body — that was the kind of logic she held. Actually, it is exactly the reverse: your physical body follows your beliefs; your physical body is a product of your beliefs. You must not understand it backwards. Do not think that your beliefs and thoughts are inside your brain, supported by your physical body. Wrong — it is you who support your physical body; your beliefs and thoughts support your physical body, not the other way around. It is like what Bashar said in one of his video shares: it is you who support your reality, not reality that supports you. This is the fundamental view you need to change: your reality is waiting for your support. What do you use to support your reality? Your belief system, how you think, your worldview, your values, your magical approach — use these to support your reality.

Jane first encouraged herself to be active, and also discovered that her identity included the physical body, whereas in the past she had tried to exclude her expanded identity. She had previously excluded her other identities — that magical-approach identity and ability — she excluded them, considering herself a rational person. Only now did she realize that she had a larger identity, beyond this material physical body.

The body is not some kind of tool — this must be remembered. The body is not your tool for obeying the commands of your mind. Your body is the expression of the mind materialized in physical form.

Simply put, your body is the expression of your thoughts; it is a product of your belief system, or of your thoughts. Your body is a product, a result; its source is your thoughts. This is the correct understanding, not the reverse.

Even now there is indeed more progress occurring. And as long as Ruburt's state of mind continues to improve, you can expect such progress. Again, therefore, the body is quite capable of healing itself completely, and far more easily than you suppose.

From the descriptions in the previous sessions, you also know what kind of state Jane's body is in now. This progress is occurring, and as her attitude changes, it continues to progress and continues to improve. In other words, this progress and improvement in belief is directly reflected in the physical body. As long as you continue to progress in your state of mind, your physical body will continue to progress.

Ruburt, for example, does not need to consciously do anything in particular, only to state his intent, and the body's healing mechanisms immediately accelerate. This is to say, in a manner of speaking, that because he began to reduce the pressure, he really began to understand the abilities and limitations of the rational mind in its relationship with the body.

Ruburt does not need to do anything in particular; he only needs to state his intent — to say that he wants to recover — and the body's healing will immediately accelerate. From a certain angle, he was also beginning to reduce pressure. What pressure? He no longer used the rational mind to resist, to think about, to analyze the condition of his body. Because he discovered that the rational mind's abilities are limited, and its function also has limitations. He thoroughly relaxed the rational mind's analysis and logical reasoning about the body — considering what his body would be like in the future, what would happen later — thinking about that would absolutely lead to pessimistic and negative thoughts. He began to reduce the effect of this rational thing on the body.

Seth said:

You both believe that clairvoyant dreams, out-of-body experiences, creative adventures in the arts are quite possible.

Both of them believed in this kind of clairvoyance, dreams, out-of-body experiences — both of them had had such experiences, and in the arts they were both undertaking creative adventures. These you can all accept. But to a certain degree:

You both, however, doubt that the same power and energy can be effectively directed into the so-called physical realm of bodily health, or harsh reality.

He said this with strong humor.

Again, this material is indeed a far more effective explanation of the way reality works than the old official information.

"Old" means the old concepts, the old beliefs — it is more effective.

And again, we are not merely dealing with creative hypotheses meant to inspire people.

He is not giving you motivational platitudes or shouting slogans at you. What is he actually saying? You think that out-of-body experiences, traveling through time and space in dreams, seeing distant things, knowing the past and future lives of relatives — you think all of these are possible. And the ability and energy that make these possible — you know they are possible. But you do not believe that this same energy — the energy and ability that let you go out of body, that let you have precognitive dreams — is exactly the same as the ability and energy that restore your body. Including the ability you believe you have to paint a picture, to create a poem, to write a novel — the energy used by these abilities is also exactly the same. Yet you believe in these abilities in artistic creation, in spirituality, in out-of-body experience, but when it comes to the problems of your own body, when you use the same energy and ability to heal your own body, you doubt it. You feel as though it will not work, as though this physical ailment cannot be cured through this.

Rob and Jane's problem was precisely here: when facing harsh reality — the material realm of bodily health, the physical realm — you become vague, you no longer dare to be one hundred percent certain. You again say, "Is this useful? Can this work? Can I really heal my own body?" Just this tiny bit of doubt will cause problems. You say, "No, I mostly believe it; I just have a tiny bit of doubt. You should understand me, right? It is normal for me to have a little doubt, because I was raised with this kind of education and this kind of social influence. You tell me I can heal myself — then isn't what you are saying the same as those cults, those supernatural, ghostly things? This does not fit my logic." Jane especially was a very rational person; she could not fully believe this, and this was her fundamental problem.

One Hundred Percent Confidence

Here I am reminded of a topic. Bashar speaks rather directly — although on many issues Bashar's perspective is not particularly elevated, on some issues he speaks very thoroughly and directly. What he talks about is manifestation: suppose manifestation requires one hundred percent confidence to accomplish², and you already mostly believe, you are 99.99999 percent there, but you still have that 0.00001 percent of doubt. Yet if the operating principle of this matter requires one hundred percent confidence to accomplish it, then because you lack that 0.00001 percent, you cannot manifest it. This statement applies to Jane and Rob. Most of the time they believed — in spiritual abilities, creativity, art, and other areas. But when it came to their own bodies, they began to doubt a little, to be a little vague: does it really work? Can it really be done? That is to say, they were still not one hundred percent certain, and because they were not one hundred percent certain, that led to the final problem. Seth had already made this very clear and very thorough here.

So Seth said, "I am not merely dealing with creative hypotheses meant to inspire people" — I am not here to cheer you up, to give you motivational platitudes, to shout slogans at you. He said every sentence I speak is fact, but you do not understand; you think what I say is just shouting slogans at you, just giving you motivational platitudes, just saying some nice words to encourage you. It is like when we visit a patient in the hospital and say, "You will definitely recover, you will get better" — you yourself do not even believe what you are saying; you are clearly just comforting him. Does the patient believe it? The patient does not believe it either. Because what you say is insincere; to put it bluntly, it is just words to fool people, and through telepathy the patient can tell. If you are not saying these words from the heart, the patient knows it deep down. The patient will know: you think I am done for, right? You think I am about to die, right? Even if you pile on the smiles, even if you say it as beautifully and grandly as possible, the patient knows in his heart. If you truly believed he could recover, that would be different, and he could feel that too. If you already feel he is done for, then when you comfort him with words, he can tell that too. So Seth's meaning is: I am not like someone visiting a patient, saying a few words of comfort to you; what I am telling you is simply how it is. If you want to truly heal yourself, you must wholly believe in yourself, believe that you have this ability. And this ability does not require special training or maintenance; everyone has this ability — including everyone reading this book and listening to this session. You do not need to meditate to some level, or reach some degree of attainment, or raise your level higher and higher, or be able to go out of body, or be able to conjure something into existence before you can heal your own body — none of that is needed, nothing is needed. This ability is innate; everyone is born with it. What the Buddha often said, "originally complete in oneself," means exactly this³ — it is something you already have; you do not need to go outside to find anything; you only need to believe that you have it, and that is all. It is that simple. If you believe you have this miraculous ability to heal yourself, you can heal yourself; if you do not believe it, then there is no way, and even the gods cannot help you.

Look at Seth — he channeled through Jane for so many years, a full twenty-one years, and in the end he still could not help Jane. The reason we have already discussed many times, and you can see it here as well: on the matter of her own body, Jane did not believe the magical approach would work; she was half-believing and half-doubting, believing at one moment and not believing the next.

The Publisher's Concerns

Seth said:

If some of our concepts frighten the publisher, there is no need to be surprised.

Rob said, "I was just about to ask you about that." Seth said:

If our concepts were already accepted by the world, then there would be no need for our work at all.

This sentence is very interesting. Of course, the publisher's intentions were good:

And under their belief system, there is almost nothing more nearly "blasphemous" than publicly disapproving of medical matters.

This background will be discussed again later in Session 12; I will briefly lay the groundwork here. Because in his earlier books — in The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events, and in other books — Seth had more or less mentioned that he did not approve of traditional medicine at all. He almost completely tore traditional medicine apart, directly pointing out: traditional medicine is something created by certain interest groups among you humans for their own benefit, and it does not have that great an effect on people's real treatment and health — or, to put it bluntly, it has no real effect. This statement is especially sensitive in Western society — Western society is not like China, where besides conventional Western medicine there is also traditional Chinese medicine. In Western society, if you negate Western medicine entirely, then people have nothing left to treat illness with; they can only go to witch doctors, to those Native American or Gypsy practitioners who do these things for you. So Seth knew that saying this would certainly meet with opposition from the whole society, especially from many interest groups. He made many diplomatic accommodations, so you see in his books he always says: if you yourself believe that Western medicine is useful to you, or that modern medicine is useful to you, then go see a doctor, because you believe in it, and then its treatment will heal you. And what heals you is not the Western medicine itself, but your own belief that it can heal you.

He once said, suppose you go to a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner; if you believe in Chinese medicine, it can also heal you. If you are in a rural area and you believe in those shamanic dancers, those spirit mediums, they can also heal you. In rural folk practice, those difficult and complicated illnesses — folk remedies can also cure them. Why? Because you believe in them. Someone told you a case, and it was incredible — so-and-so got some serious illness that even major hospitals could not cure, and then one folk remedy, one application, and it was cured. Does it work? It works; it really takes effect. This is not a joke; it really takes effect. It is everywhere in life — many strange illnesses that no one can cure are directly cured by some folk remedy, cured so miraculously.

Because these statements appeared in his books, the publisher required them to write a disclaimer — that is, the text in this book represents only the author's views and does not represent the views of the publisher. You see now on television interview programs, they often put a line at the end of the program: "The content of this episode represents only the views of the guests and does not represent the position or views of this station." Rob and Jane were extremely unwilling to add this statement; they felt it was practically an insult to them. Why do other books not have it? Why do none of those published science books have it? You never see a university textbook with a line printed on it saying, "The content of this book represents only the author's views and does not represent the views of the publisher." Why must our spiritual book have this line added? What does adding this line imply? It means the publisher does not believe what he says at all; this is just what the author himself wants to say. Jane and Rob were extremely resentful of this.

So that is why Seth said this sentence: if our concepts had already been accepted by the world, had become common knowledge, then we would not need to transmit them here — I would not need to labor for twenty-one years to tell you my thoughts through Jane. I work every day taking notes, typing, publishing, proofreading — if everyone already knew this and society already accepted it, then you would not need to do this work. It is precisely because society does not accept it and does not understand it that we need to do this work.

He said you should understand the publisher:

Some disapproval is acceptable.

Some things you may disapprove of, and that is acceptable. For example, you can attack corruption in medicine — which pharmaceutical company is corrupt, which hospital is corrupt, doctors taking red envelopes, pharmaceutical companies giving kickbacks — all of that can be exposed. For example, vaccines being counterfeit⁴ — that is all fine; mistakes in hospitals, or some black-hearted clinic — that is acceptable; all of that is within the permitted range.

But if you attack the entire structure, the belief system of the entire modern medical establishment, that is another matter.

So you should be able to understand why the publisher does this. Seth said:

Their protests should show you precisely why our work is so important.

If no one objected, no one raised opinions, and as soon as they saw it they said, "Good, good, good, what you say is right, right, right," then your work would not be very important either.

If It Is Not Laughed At, It Is Not the Way

This matter was discussed long ago by Laozi in Chapter 25 of the Tao Te Ching⁵. "When the highest type of people hear the Way, they diligently practice it" — simply put, when a good principle is heard, the highest type of person puts it into practice in daily life, implements it. The middle type of person, upon hearing the Way, is half-believing and half-doubting. The lowest type of person, upon hearing this principle, laughs loudly at it — mocks it, ridicules it, says what nonsense it is, what rubbish. Then at the end of that chapter of the Tao Te Ching, it says:

If it were not laughed at, it would not be worthy of being the Way.

If the lowest type of people did not mock it, then it would not be a principle worth esteeming. In other words, any true principle, when it is put forward, will always meet with opposition; the closer it is to the truth, the more people will oppose it. So all of you here, in the future you may influence the people around you, you may introduce spiritual learning, the Seth material, or other spiritual study materials to others, and you will certainly encounter mockery and ridicule from others. Many people do not even dare to tell others that they study spirituality — as if they were doing something shameful, doing it secretly, not daring to do it openly. What does "the righteous cannot be suppressed by the unrighteous" mean? It is as if others are righteous and you are unrighteous. You do not even dare to hold your chest out and say what you are doing — this is a typical problem. If you yourself do not dare to stand up straight, if you yourself do not have the backbone to do this thing, do you think the effect will be good? You act like a thief, sneaking around; when others ask what book you are reading, "Oh, nothing, nothing"; when others ask what you are doing, "Oh, nothing, nothing." Your material can only be shared with others in a very small circle. So this is the importance of our work — this is why society needs people like this now. So Seth said, their protests precisely prove the importance of your work.

You Chose the Challenge

Seth said:

Again, you must remember that you both chose the challenge.

It was you who chose these challenges — you had such challenges from the very beginning, to do such a thing. You wanted to be involved in the opening of this new subject matter; you wanted to open such a new era. Because the Seth material is one of the most core materials of the New Age movement. The New Age movement began from the late nineteenth century into the twentieth century⁶, and entered a period of flourishing development around the 1970s and 1980s. The so-called New Age holds that humanity has entered an Age of Aquarius, and so on — never mind all those reasons. The New Age movement has some common characteristics, because it is neither religion nor modern science, nor can it be classified under anything else, so it is uniformly grouped under the New Age movement. And the core materials of the New Age movement include the Seth material, and of course also the Law of Attraction, A Course in Miracles, and some others, including many more — broadly speaking, there are far too many; Ramtha and those are all included. We will not expand on that here.

Seth said you wanted to be involved in the opening of this new subject matter — you opened a new chapter, a new field. At the time, the two of them did not yet know what an important role the Seth material would play in the later development of human history; they did not understand it at the time. He said:

You wanted, so to speak, to surprise yourselves with the excitement of discovery.

You yourselves wanted to be amazed by these things, amazed by these discoveries, amazed by these miraculous events. This was your choice. If you chose such a challenge, then face the challenge. Did you not want a challenge? The challenge has arrived.

Seth's Softening

Seth said:

In case you sometimes think that I am not fully aware of your society's traditional customs, I have indeed actually softened things. In The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events, I phrased many subjects in such a way that the book would not be considered too offensive within the framework of your times. The hints were put in there.

Seth said to the two of them, if you think I have not taken into account the traditional customs of your current era, then you are mistaken. I fully considered the level of acceptance of your society, so when I transmitted these things I made great reservations — he used the word "softened," but actually he made great reservations. We have not yet covered The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events; that book involves many social events and social phenomena, and many things related to politics and society. He said I fully considered the level of acceptance of the customs of your current era, and I made many softening adjustments. I also made the words clear, and placed the hints there using the method of suggestion. Those who can understand will understand; those who cannot understand will not jump up to oppose this new knowledge and kick it aside. Once they first accept this knowledge, and gradually, in the course of reading, perceive those hints between the lines, they will understand. But if it were said too bluntly, too directly, people would not read the book, because they would find it very uncomfortable and offensive.

Seth's words, I think everyone can sense that most people simply cannot accept many of his ideas. Including some of the core ones, people just cannot accept them -- things like there is no good and evil, no reincarnation, and so on. Most people cannot understand these, nor can they accept them. The question people ask most often is: how could Hitler go to heaven? The moment they hear this, they think you are a demon, you are the devil -- if you think Hitler can go to heaven, then what kind of person are you? And so on. So Seth said he had already softened things, precisely so that you could accept them. In these books you can see it everywhere -- he made many softenings throughout.

But in his early sessions, he did not soften anything. Because at the time of the early sessions he had no intention of publishing them. At that time he simply wanted to transmit his information to Rob and Jane, hoping that after the two of them understood it, they could pass it on in a way they understood. But in the course of that question-and-answer process, he discovered that the two of them could not come up with any valuable topics or questions either, so Seth had no choice but to hold forth on his own, talking about one thing one moment and another the next. But at that time he had no intention of turning the content of the early sessions into a set of books for publication, so in the early sessions he expressed many of his real, direct thoughts -- and that realness and directness made them extremely difficult. His brilliance lay precisely here: he directly said what he understood and perceived, without considering your capacity to understand. Of course he may have considered it, but he believed he had done his best. But when it came to publishing books, from the first book Seth Speaks to now the sixth or seventh book -- The Magical Approach was his seventh book, and after that there was only The Way Toward Health -- by this point he also knew that since the books were going to be published, he had to take into account the acceptance level of the present era.

Just as he said in the previous few sessions: human wisdom actually has a very strong social attribute, era attribute, and cultural attribute. If human wisdom does not conform to the attributes of its era and culture, then it is of no help and no benefit to the era in which that person lives. If people today took this artificial intelligence stuff, or took today's knowledge and wisdom back a hundred years -- you do not need to go back five hundred years, just go back a hundred years -- you would be of no help to the people of that time. What you imagine is that you could guide the social progress of that time, applying the new science and technology of a hundred years later to that era. You can go try. A hundred years ago people were still in an era dominated by horse-drawn carriages. You tell them that Tesla electric cars can already drive themselves, that computers operate and people do not even need to drive -- you tell them all this, and try to implement it in that era. In that era electricity had not even been widely adopted, so what help would talking about electric cars be to them? No help at all. What they needed more was how to improve the performance of horse-drawn carriages.

Seth here, including the texts and materials we see today, actually made many softenings. When I teach, sometimes I restore the softened parts for you, and sometimes I may not restore them, and just teach along with his meaning. Because sometimes if I restore too much, it may mix in some of my personal understanding, and it would also make this present era -- even though forty years have passed -- still seem out of step with society and unable to be accepted by the general public. So I still follow Seth's thinking and preserve his softened attitude, so that this book and his materials can be accepted by more people, rather than provoking more people's aversion and dislike. This is one of Seth's ideas.

Nothing More to Say on That

This session ends here. Seth said, unless you still have questions. Rob said no more, that he had originally wanted to ask about the publisher matter, but they did not go into it in depth; in some later sessions it would be discussed. Then Seth said:

On that matter, I have nothing more to say.

The way Seth said it -- there was nothing more to be said. He said:

They are a mainstream publisher.

That publisher was a mainstream publisher. That means their books are for people in all walks of life; it is not a niche publisher, not one that prints small-circulation religious or occult publications. It is a major publisher, and its books would be placed in libraries or bookstores.

Our books, that is, these books written by Seth, competing in this way with the other information of your era, is far better than, say, being published by a publisher that specializes in a certain kind of book, or being kept and treasured all along, going into a museum, into a library, or into some academic research institution -- saying that Jane and Rob recorded the material of an energy personality over twenty-one years, that this material is worth studying, and it entered some Yale or Harvard research institute -- it is far better than that, because we are speaking to all people.

He was actually comforting Rob: do not feel distressed; it is perfectly normal for the publisher to make such a request. His implied meaning was: write whatever they ask you to write, write the disclaimer if they ask you to, write it and get the book published, and that is that. You two should stop being so stubborn about it. The two of them, stuck in their stubbornness, refused to write it. They even told the publisher, then we will not publish this book, and we will not write it -- can you imagine how stubborn these two were? Stubborn to that degree, even willing to return the advance and not publish the book. Because before writing the book, they had received part of the advance. These two really were that stubborn. Seth at this point kept comforting the two of them: do not get worked up. This book, placed in bookstores, published by a proper publisher, placed in proper bookstores and proper libraries, everyone can see it. He said this is already very good, far better than being placed in research institutions or with a niche publisher. You two should stop agonizing over this issue.

Seth's final part said:

Your stomach does not need to bother you.

Rob may have had a stomachache. He said more clearly:

You do not need to bother your stomach.

His meaning was, actually your stomachache is your thoughts bothering it; it is your beliefs, your thoughts. He said that is the secret of the problem -- it is not your stomach bothering you, it is you bothering your stomach.

Seth wished them good night. This session ended at 9:18 -- the session was actually quite short, starting a little after eight and ending at 9:18. Then Jane said, I am back, look at my eyes. Jane said half-humorously, really, her eyes had relaxed into slits, about to fall asleep. Although as they talked she gradually opened them normally. Jane said she was very glad to have completed this session -- she was already nearly asleep, sitting there, but said, I really did not know before whether I could deliver this session. When they thought of what Seth had said about having softened some of the information for The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events, they laughed again. Jane said, I really cannot imagine what it would have been like if he had not made these softenings -- how harsh those words would have been. She said, today I was very aware of my body, so much so that I could not help wondering whether I could also perceive the body during the session. But I only remember drinking, and I usually only remember that.

As for the later content, on September 22, which was Session 12, Seth would conduct a deeper discussion of the publisher issue. The publisher's name was Prentice-Hall⁷, a fairly comprehensive publisher. They not only published general books but also university textbooks, so this publisher was very proper. This publisher required them to issue a statement on the medical issue disclaiming any connection with "self" -- this "self" referring to the publisher. Regarding this matter, their thoughts and feelings, as well as more information from Seth, are all in Session 12.

Starting from this session, Sessions 9, 10, 11, and 12 are not very difficult; the theoretical difficulty was already covered in the earlier sessions. I say these sessions are not difficult, but while they are not difficult in terms of theory, they are enormously difficult in terms of society -- they all expose the obstacles and reactions that the Seth material encountered in society. These things still apply today. Seth himself was very clear about the transmission of these things; he was very clear about what the results would be. So you can see that he was also a very wise person, and he also used many -- to use a Buddhist term -- expedient means. He did not just speak only the truth, regardless of whether you could accept it or not, regardless of whether you could understand it or not, regardless of what the acceptance level of human society was, and just tell you the most real thing -- he was not like that. He was a person who understood humanities, understood culture, and understood society very well, so he used many skillful methods, and that is why the Seth material has been passed down to this day. The later content is also all related to this kind of social perception.

注释与核实

1. Source: Time and Date AS, "Calendar for Year 1980 (United States)" (https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=1980) ↩

2. This claim could not be verified. ↩

3. According to Mike's original words, "What the Buddha often said, 'intrinsic completeness,' is what this means"; after verification, it should be: "'Intrinsic completeness' was not spoken by the Buddha, but was said by Huineng, the Sixth Patriarch of Chan, when he became enlightened upon hearing the Diamond Sutra under the Fifth Patriarch Hongren: 'How unexpected, that self-nature is intrinsically complete,' see The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch, 'Account of His Practice.'" (Source: Huineng, "The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch's Dharma Treasure," "Account of His Practice" (CBETA T48n2008), https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/T48n2008) ↩

4. Source: CNN, "Outrage in China over thousands of faulty vaccines for children" (2018) (https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/23/asia/faulty-vaccine-china-intl) ↩

5. According to Mike's original words, "Laozi, Dao De Jing, Chapter 25"; after verification, it should be: "'When the superior person hears the Way, he practices it diligently; when the middling person hears the Way, he retains it only fitfully; when the inferior person hears the Way, he laughs at it loudly' comes from Laozi's Dao De Jing, Chapter 41, not Chapter 25; Chapter 25 is 'There was something undifferentiated and yet complete, born before heaven and earth ... man follows earth, earth follows heaven, heaven follows the Way, and the Way follows what is naturally so.'" (Source: School of Economics, Shandong University, "Translation of Dao De Jing, Chapter 41," https://www.econ.sdu.edu.cn/jrtzx/info/1361/25568.htm) ↩

6. Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica, "New Age movement" (https://www.britannica.com/topic/New-Age-movement) ↩

7. Source: Wikipedia, "Prentice Hall" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prentice_Hall) ↩