Mike's commentary · The Nature of Personal Reality, Chapter 6

The "Reading Guide" and "Chapter Highlights" 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

This chapter uses the case of Augustus's multiple personalities as its main thread, showing that beliefs are like another body, one in which a person lives and through which they perceive both inner and outer worlds. Thoughts are electromagnetic realities, and the nervous system translates them into bodily experience. If conflicting beliefs are accepted without examination, the conscious mind falls into war, leading to bodily confusion, power blocks, and even the splitting off of a second personality. The solution is to examine and reconcile opposing beliefs directly at the level of the conscious mind, accepting them as parts of a whole.

Key Points of This Chapter

• You live in a body formed by beliefs, and through it you perceive the inner and outer worlds; beliefs can expand or narrow your field of vision and strengthen or weaken your senses.
• Thoughts are electromagnetic realities that are automatically translated by the nervous system into bodily experience, affecting bodily functions.
• If conflicting beliefs are not examined, they will trigger wars within the conscious mind, causing bodily confusion and obstructions of power.
• Augustus's multiple personalities arose from two sets of opposing beliefs that had long gone uncoordinated; the conscious mind split in order to protect the integrity of the body.
• The solution lies in the conscious mind: directly examine and coordinate opposing beliefs, accepting them as part of the whole; relying solely on medication or attributing the problem to outside spirits cannot fundamentally resolve it.

Main Text

Chapter 6: The Body of Your Beliefs and Its Structure of Power

We begin the first part of the commentary on Chapter 6, which is Session 627, held on Monday, November 13, 1972.

The Visit of Augustus

The title of Chapter 6 is: The Body of Your Beliefs and Its Structure of Power. In the previous Chapter 5, Seth already talked about your body, telling you that in addition to the physical, material body, you also have another body that you cannot see -- it is another invisible body composed of light you cannot see, sound you cannot hear, and certain electromagnetic realities you cannot detect. Now in Chapter 6, he emphasizes further that your beliefs are also like a body, another body of your own, and then he tells you how the power of this body is structured. The key point of this chapter is a condition we occasionally encounter in real life, which we call multiple personality, or schizophrenia. He starts from a real case involving a man named Augustus, and then from this case he gives everyone a detailed analysis of how great a role our beliefs play in the formation of schizophrenia or multiple personality. This chapter is divided into four sections, but the last section is relatively short, so let us see whether we can cover it in two or three parts, because splitting it up makes it less convenient to understand.

First of all, in the past few days, Jane received many phone calls from all over the country, and also a pile of letters. These letters and phone calls were all requests for help, hoping that Seth or Jane could do something about their situations. Some of the problems described were extremely serious, often beyond what the three of us could reasonably resolve with any kind of treatment, let alone a quick one.

In that era there was no internet, nothing like that, so the letters that arrived all involved very serious situations, not simple emotional problems or personal spiritual growth or personal development issues. Some involved suicide, depression, and so on -- all very difficult problems that needed to be addressed immediately. These letters and phone calls came flying in like snowflakes from all over the country, and for Jane and Seth this was a very troublesome problem, because they had no way to resolve them one by one in a timely manner, yet every problem was serious and urgent. Jane and I often felt frustrated because we could not help, and at the same time felt sorry for what these people were going through. She wanted to help, and she also knew that Seth could help, but there were simply too many, and from a practical standpoint it really was impossible to help -- the people were not there in front of her; they had only written a letter or made a phone call.

Moreover, even if we really could help, if we were to see it through to the end -- as we Chinese say, "if you help someone, help them all the way" -- these problems were not formed in a day or two, but were things built up over years, even decades, out of a person's own beliefs. Now you have to deconstruct them, dissolve them, so that the person no longer clings to them. That is easy to say, but extremely difficult in practice. So if we truly had to see it through to the end, as long as there were a few people needing help, they would not be able to do anything else at all.

Not long ago, Jane received a visitor, a man who found his way to Jane's home directly through information provided by the publisher. This guest showed in every respect the presence of a second personality within him.

Tonight, just as we were waiting for Seth to begin the session, Jane said that two channels were open at the same time: one concerned the aforementioned visitor -- the man with the dual personality -- and the other was related to the main text of this book. In the end she still chose to transmit the book, because she felt that the number of people this book could help was far greater than what she could accomplish through her own efforts alone. Although there were especially many phone calls and letters from people right in front of her needing help, she felt that if she wrote this book, it could help far more people than if she went about solving things one by one now. For Jane, this was also a dilemma.

Let us continue. By the end of this chapter's transmission, Seth turned back to this man again. He said he would transmit the book, but later in the session he circled back to this visitor with the dual personality. Between the appearance of this visitor and the appearance of this chapter of the book -- was it that the visit came first, providing such a case, or was it that Seth had originally intended to discuss this chapter and a case happened to arrive just in time? There is something very subtle in between. All of this was a perfect arrangement. As long as you want to do something, Seth just happened to take the case of Augustus and use it as an excellent example for discussion.

You Live in the Body Formed by Your Beliefs

Let us look at the content of this chapter from Seth: the theory comes first, and the case comes later.

Session 627

Dictation for Chapter Six: The Body of Your Beliefs and the Structure of Its Power.

In a very real sense, you live in the body formed by your beliefs.

You also perceive through this belief body. This is very interesting: you think beliefs are a value system or belief system inside your brain, merely a product of the brain, but Seth tells you: not really. From a certain angle, you are in effect living inside your belief system. Your outward perception, whether of external information or information from the inner self, must be filtered and broken down through this belief system; it extracts the information that fits this belief system and passes it to you, and only then can you perceive it. So you live within your belief system, and it is like a body: you wear this body formed by your belief system, and use it to perceive the world.

If you have seen an American TV series called Upload¹, you can appreciate this analogy. That show is about how, after people die, their consciousness can be transmitted to another virtual world, and then the uploaded consciousness can communicate with people in the three-dimensional world, like a video call. But for physical contact, for hugging, they invented a kind of suit, like a diving suit. When a person in the three-dimensional world puts on this suit, through the sensors on the suit they can make physical contact with the person living in the virtual world. Whatever the sensors on that suit want you to feel is the same as what your belief system wants you to perceive.

So when Seth says this, it is very profound: you do not live outside your beliefs; you live inside the body formed by your beliefs. Through this belief body you perceive the outer world and the inner world, not only the outer world, but also your inner world.

Your beliefs can enlarge the range of what you can see, or shrink your field of vision.

If your beliefs are open and without any limitations, then the range of what you can feel and see is very large; if your beliefs are restrictive, this won't do and that is not allowed, then they shrink your field of vision. This belief body determines how large a range you can perceive.

They can also improve or diminish your hearing.

The same is true of the other sensory functions. This belief body determines how you perceive your outer world.

For example, if you believe that after a certain age your hearing will deteriorate, others will tell you that when people get old their ears go bad, their eyes get blurry, and in the end they cannot see things, and that when people get old the legs go first, and so on. These ideas are poured into you. If you accept them and make them your own beliefs, then when the time comes it will deteriorate. Once you accept the idea that hearing will decline with age, then your hearing will naturally decline when the time comes. You will use this ability less and less. Unconsciously, and remember it must be unconsciously, you shift your attention to other senses as compensation for the hearing loss: if hearing is failing, the eyes have to work better, the nose has to work better, and the other senses all have to strengthen to make up for the hearing decline. Gradually you no longer use your own ability, and in the end the hearing really atrophies.

At first it is a kind of psychological suggestion; in the end you really cannot hear. In such cases, bodily functioning is entirely a matter of habit. You merely follow your belief and forget how to use hearing correctly; the subtle controls and applications required in using hearing come under the suppression of your unconscious.

We tend to feel that hearing is passive, that we do not need to make any effort to hear anything, as if sounds automatically come to our ears. If you do not use it for a long time, you constantly suppress it, and this ability becomes weaker and weaker. But in ancient times, in the remote era when people still hunted, human hearing was extremely acute. Just look at cats and dogs: their ears move. When there is a sound somewhere, the ears turn in that direction; they are listening attentively, making fine adjustments. Our human ears are the same, except that we do not pay attention. In this world many people can actually move their ears, and the proportion is not low. The ear moves slightly, and in fact you are adjusting the hearing function inside the ear, including the conduction in the small bones of hearing, the cilia on the eardrum, and so on. All these things are components of your hearing.

If this subtle use and control suffers the suppression of your unconscious, then the actual physical deterioration in your body really follows. From functional hearing loss, or psychological deafness, it becomes actual physical deafness. It is not that you first have an organic problem; rather, the organic deterioration happens later. It is not that your ears first break and then you cannot hear; it is that you first unconsciously believe the belief that hearing will fail with age, thereby suppressing your ears, and only then does this organic deterioration occur.

In the same way, this kind of development can happen in almost any part of the body.

But generally speaking, more than one belief is involved. Along with the belief mentioned earlier that your hearing will become dulled, you may also have a belief that your eyesight will decline, and these two beliefs may be reinforced by another belief: the older people get, the more useless they become, until gradually they cannot even manage daily life. Please note that this belief will automatically set itself in motion to ensure that it actually manifests.

Conversely, if your thoughts are that wisdom grows with age, and that increased self-understanding makes you calmer and more even-tempered as you get older; that a keen mind makes you better at evaluating your environment, and that your physical senses can also better appreciate all kinds of stimuli, including auditory and visual ones, then if you have these thoughts, these conditions will truly meet you in actual life. And the whole body will also remain healthy along with your beliefs.

Some people start talking about wellness regimens after their thirties; others, I remember an old man in China, still walked the runway in his eighties. That figure, that bearing, that presence, I think many people in their thirties or forties cannot compare. Why? In psychology, people say, "His mindset has already aged." It is not about age, but about mindset. If you have a young heart, you really can stay young. The same is true for women: if you believe that as you age your looks will really fade, your skin will sag, and your complexion will worsen, then you will actually produce that actual image. If you do not believe these things, and you feel that your beauty comes from the inside out, comes from within, then you will keep maintaining a very good state. This does not require cosmetic surgery or facelifts. You only need to keep doing what you did when you were young: keep moving, keep your vitality, keep that youthful mindset, do not be afraid of losing, do not be afraid to try new things, and bravely embrace life. If at forty or fifty you still dare to have a passionate romance, then in that state, how could your body grow old?

If you give yourself the suggestion, "It is impossible, I am already old," this kind of suggestion is very frightening. Seth repeatedly emphasizes how great an influence your beliefs have on your fleshly physical body. They can make your ears unable to hear and your eyes unable to see. Once you understand this, you know how to adjust and change your beliefs in daily life. It is not deceiving yourself; it is truly believing. It is not saying, deep down I believe that when people get old they are finished, but outwardly telling myself I am still young; that is useless. You must change it at the root, and really believe it. As I wrote in a chapter in the appendix at the end of Seth Speaks, your spirituality does not change because of your age.

Some people live to eighty and their hearts are still very young. Why could Yang Zhenning, in his eighties, marry and fall in love with Weng Fan, who was 28²? It is a very simple principle: because his mindset is still that of a young person. We should not judge a person by age. Age is an illusion, a camouflage. Some people age before their time. In their thirties or forties they already feel they have seen through life and understood the world, and they live a detached, Buddha-like life: no struggle, no effort, no striving, and no daring to try anything new. Their mindset at that time cannot compare with that of an eighty-year-old who is young. The vitality you express, your life, your body, and your personal charisma have nothing to do with age. Never use age to judge everything.

Thoughts Are Electromagnetic Realities

Let me say it again: your thoughts or ideas do not exist in unreality.

Your thoughts or ideas do not exist in unreality, as if they were insubstantial ghosts or phantoms. No. They are all electromagnetic realities. They influence your body and are automatically transformed by your nervous system into things in your flesh and blood, into things you experience. Your thoughts and ideas are not nothingness. They themselves are an electromagnetic reality, with shape and energy, corresponding to certain electromagnetic frequencies and energy. They influence your body and are automatically transformed by your nervous system. You do not need to do anything actively; they are transformed automatically.

There are too many examples in real life. Many people's hair turns white overnight. Why? Because their spirit is too suppressed, and the difficulty is one they simply cannot resolve. This inner spiritual pain and suppression leads to a fundamental change in the outer physical body: a head of black hair turns white overnight. Then can someone's white hair turn black again? Yes, there are many real-life examples. I have seen them, and I have personally experienced them. There are also people who, at an advanced age, have lost all their teeth, and yet suddenly start growing a new set of teeth. An old Chinese legend holds that when elderly people grow new teeth it is bad for their descendants; that is nonsense. It proves that the elderly person's mindset is very young. When his beliefs especially want a very good set of teeth, and he is fed up with not being able to eat without teeth, and at the same time believes he is young, then some people really do start regrowing teeth. It is amazing.

So you should never let things in the material world restrict you. When people say, "These are laws" or "These are natural laws," it is precisely because you believe they are natural laws that they happen that way. If you do not believe them, those natural laws have no power over you.

Your "conscious mind" was meant to assess material reality, and to help the present you, as part of the physical universe, set your course in the vast sea of humanity.

This is the function of the conscious mind. All the other parts of your entire being depend on you to carry out this task. The resources and energy available to the inner self are all thereby concentrated to bring about the result the conscious mind wants.

In this material world, we call the shots. Your inner self may be anxious, your soul may be anxious, but that is useless, because it has to listen to you in the material world. It is as if you are the one holding the steering wheel while driving. Although there is a more advanced GPS, satellites watching your road, or an experienced wise person beside you directing you how to drive, if you do not listen, there is nothing they can do. You can drive the car to help those who need help, to do great dreams and to realize the value of your life; or you can drive the car every day idling about and drifting through life. This person's initiative in the material world is one hundred percent; no one can control it.

Some people ask, then what about the blueprint of the soul, and what is its purpose? Do I have to follow it completely? No. Once you arrive in this world, you have the say. In the process you can gradually discover that you have an inner need and a larger self, and that it really exists, and you are only its existence in the material world. In this state you slowly draw closer to it. Only by drawing close to its voice do you realize that when you came into this world you did not come to drive aimlessly, not driving wherever there is food or heading toward whoever pays you. You originally have a higher pursuit.

So the function of the conscious mind is to do this. Whatever ideas you have, whatever goals the conscious mind has, the inner self will concentrate all its energy and resources to "create" and manifest the result the conscious mind wants. We also talked about this in the twenty-one-day Creating Abundance Journey, and in the robot user manual. It is the same principle. Seth first explains the principles clearly for you, and then explains how to operate.

Effective "action power" follows entirely along with your beliefs.

In other words, believing in your own powerlessness and weakness is equal to denying your own ability to act.

There are many cases of this. When Japan bombed America's Pearl Harbor³, it caused low morale across the United States. At that time President Roosevelt wanted to retaliate by bombing the Japanese homeland⁴ to boost the morale of the whole country. But everyone knew it was basically an impossible mission: flying from the nearest base to the Japanese homeland, the bombers at that time did not have enough fuel to return; moreover, Japan's homeland had dense air defenses, so it was basically a one-way trip. The Air Force commander said it truly could not be done, not that they were unwilling, but that it truly could not be done. Roosevelt, who used a wheelchair and was paralyzed in the lower body⁵, then slowly stood up from his wheelchair by bracing himself against the table, and said that nothing is impossible. So they formulated a detailed plan: after the planes flew to Japan and completed the bombing, they would turn directly and fly to the coastal cities of China, which at that time was also partly invaded and occupied by Japan, flying to places that had not been occupied; if they could not make it, they would parachute in that area. Then they recruited volunteers for this mission. The probability of returning alive was extremely low. They had to fly overnight to get there, and there were no fighter escorts.

I raise this example not because it has anything to do with the body; I am only telling you: do not deny your own body. The moment you deny it, you deny your own ability to act. For example, the story of Helen Keller, which we have all studied. She was a child who was totally blind and could not hear⁶, both deaf and blind, and yet her final achievements accomplished things that many sighted, articulate, and sharp-eared people could not do. Never deny yourself in anything, whether spiritually or physically.

Conflicting Beliefs and Power Obstacles

If you indiscriminately accept all beliefs that come to you, good or bad, then at best you merely expose yourself to the continuous bombardment of mutually conflicting data. In this way, the originally clear direction of power and action becomes blurred.

If you encounter all beliefs in life without analysis and without discernment, accepting whatever comes, then you expose yourself to the continuous bombardment of mutually conflicting data. Because these beliefs themselves conflict with one another, if you take them all in, they will blur your originally clear power and action.

At this point, the conflicting "demands" and "evaluations" are sent into the "inner self."

The conscious mind was originally meant to evaluate the material world and make demands. But when conflicting beliefs have all entered the conscious mind, it can only send these contradictory demands and evaluations to the inner self and ask the inner self to manifest them. But the inner self is baffled. It does not know what to manifest, because you are not clear at all, and your goals are completely contradictory. There are too many examples, both in the meditation practices and in the manual instructions: you both want money and believe that having money requires hard work and effort; you also believe you do not have the fate to be wealthy, nor the ability to be wealthy. You yourself are a conflicting belief; when you give this to the inner self, how can the inner self manifest it? Your inner self only follows your conscious mind. You must remain consistent and aligned with your inner self. To put it plainly, your thoughts and the inner self's thoughts must be consistent, and the two of you together complete the creation in the three-dimensional world. The inner self will try every way to tell you that something is wrong, because the information you give it is contradictory.

Beliefs of a similar nature attract one another, because you have a tendency to seek consistency between your behavior and your feelings.

A person is someone who can make up stories about himself. Your conscious mind is very good at telling stories. It tries to make everything reasonable and consistent. This is its instinctive, automatic ability. You cannot do something good one second and something bad the next; if you do that, you will collapse. So because you have this inner tendency to seek consistency and reasonableness between your behavior and feelings, one belief leads to another similar belief.

Let me give a very typical example to illustrate how this belief works. You think you are a wealthy person. On the street you see an especially poor beggar, and you say you should give him money; this is the most basic thing, since you hardly lack money. But as you walk past him, your hand has already reached into your pocket. When you want to pull out money for him, you find that there are no small bills in your pocket, only large ones. Your heart jumps, and you think, would it be inappropriate for me to give him this much? I still have many things to do today, so what then? You search for small money in your pocket, wanting to find a small-denomination bill. After digging around, you only find a few coins. You think giving coins really is not appropriate. Whether giving to a beggar or tipping, remember not to give coins; that is basic courtesy. Still, coins are money, and today you did not bring any small bills, so giving coins is better than giving nothing. While you are hesitating like this, you have already walked past the beggar. At this point you are too embarrassed to turn back and give him the few coins, so you let it go and give nothing.

But then the biggest problem arises: you will give yourself a belief. The act of not giving money will automatically be woven by your consciousness into a reasonable explanation: "Because I do not have much money either, so it is reasonable for me not to give him money." This is a typical example of seeking consistency and reasonableness. What belief and suggestion have you given to your inner self at this time? "I do not have much money either." Is there any essential difference between your mentality and the beggar's? Your essence is the same; both are in a state of lack. Your mentalities are identical.

This example is from Conversations with God⁷. The solution is very simple: the moment the thought of giving money to the beggar arises in your mind, you must hurry and pull out the money as quickly as possible and place it into his hand. Then you will be too embarrassed to pull it back. Do not worry about how large the bill in your pocket is. Wanting to give him money is your instinctive, natural response; it is normal. After you give it, you will find that something very wonderful happens: your consciousness will start making up stories and seeking reasonable explanations for the fact that you gave a large bill: "Because I have money. Compared with the beggar, I am far too wealthy. Giving him a hundred is nothing; it doesn't matter." This action will bring a series of things you do not know about, and they are all automatic. Once you give away that large bill, the only reasonable explanation is one: you are very wealthy. Your inner self will not make up a reason that you are a fool; the inner self will certainly glorify itself and portray itself as a lofty image. This is a very natural mechanism.

Why do I want to write that human robot user manual? The author who wrote that article also told me: in actual life, if a person has not undergone spiritual study, his own pattern of living feels to him completely autonomous, but from the outside he reacts like a robot. He does not understand the working principles and mechanisms in between, and thinks they are automatic, when in fact everything is robot-like operation. Once we understand how robots operate, we should use it, and know these bugs and loopholes in the robot programming, and get a step ahead of it: before your ego has figured out "give him a small bill," you already give the large one. In this process, you strengthen in your inner self the belief "I am a wealthy person." After the inner self receives this belief, it will automatically manifest your wealth. On a future day, you may suddenly receive a bonus, or a windfall, or some strange event may occur that brings you extra wealth.

It is very wonderful; if you do not believe it, you can try it. Once you understand this story clearly, you will know what to do in action. "Similar beliefs always attract similar beliefs." An act like giving money, as one such similar belief, will attract a subsequent series of positive beliefs. The act of not giving money will trigger a later series of beliefs like "Actually I do not have much money either."

When you have positive thoughts and ideas in your mind, you must do the thing before your conscious ego catches on, without even thinking, and act immediately. Speaking of this, you will understand why many Zen masters, whether through shouts and blows or through sharp repartee in face-to-face encounters, tell you not to think. Do not use your little wisdom, your little head, to analyze whether the matter is beneficial or harmful, good or bad, right or wrong. Once you analyze it, you are finished; you will fall back into your traditional belief system. What do I mean by traditional? Your present life is created by your traditional beliefs. Once you analyze, you return to the pattern of your traditional beliefs, and then your life will not have any essential change. If you want to change, the simplest way is this: whenever you have positive thoughts and beliefs, you must skip the process of ego judgment, not let it participate, and directly take action. After you have done the action, your consciousness has no choice; it can only make up a very good reason for that action.

Have You Ever Dealt Directly with Your Beliefs?

You must learn to deal directly with your beliefs, otherwise you will be forced to deal with them indirectly, and you can only react to them in a state of confusion, without knowing in actual experience that the belief exists.

Let me return to the earlier example: if you cannot directly deal with your most authentic belief, which is the belief that you want to give him money, but instead go through a round of rational analysis, then that rational analysis has already turned this belief into something indirect. What this indirect belief gives you is confusion. You both want to give the beggar money and also feel that you do not have much money and cannot give too much. The information you transmit to the inner self is two completely contradictory beliefs: I have money and want to give it to him, but I do not have much money and cannot overdo charity. Then the inner self will be baffled: am I rich or poor? Why are you not consistent with your inner self? This behavior shows how inconsistent you are with yourself. Using this example to extend outward to specific matters in your life, in how many things are you making decisions in this contradictory, muddled state?

When you scold an environment, situation, or circumstance that you dislike, he tells you here, underline this sentence: you are not acting independently, but almost blindly reacting.

You are reacting to events that seem to happen to you, and you are always "reacting" to a situation.

When you complain about the environment, the people, and the events around you, do not complain about these things. The people, events, and things around you are all produced by these wrong, chaotic, and blurred beliefs that you transmit to the inner self, and the inner self creates your surrounding environment and world according to these blurred, conflicting, and opposing beliefs. When these things are not what you want, they are produced by chaotic beliefs. In this state, your negative emotions and unpleasant conditions are actually useful. They let you know that you are not aligned with your true inner thought, not calibrated, and inconsistent. It gives you a signal of inconsistency, so in the end you reflect back on what you really think.

"You are not acting independently, but almost blindly reacting." When you complain about things around you, your surrounding environment, people, and events were not consciously chosen by you; they were selected in a muddled state, with contradictions and conflicts. "Independent" refers to decisions made under the premise of conscious, clear beliefs, whereas you are now making decisions in an almost blind state. For example, in the matter of giving money to the beggar, many times you are not thinking; you are watching what others do. From childhood you watched your parents and the people around you, and you accepted the belief that when giving to beggars, give a little but not too much. You have never truly asked your own heart: do I actually want to give him anything? How much do I want to give him? You are actually in a blind state. Whatever others do, you do too, and you perform some charity in order to appear compassionate and kind. But in your heart, do you truly want to help this beggar? Are you doing it to show kindness and receive praise from others, or for self-satisfaction? Do not deceive yourself. If you do not want to help, then turn and leave. Is it so hard to be true to yourself? It is very simple.

If you want to act independently, then you must begin to take active action toward what you want to actually happen.

What kind of action?

First create it in your mind.

Create in your mind the thing you want to do.

You need to combine beliefs, emotions, and imagination together, and mentally create a picture of what you want to actually happen in your life.

In the Law of Attraction, Abraham mentions the vortex⁸ -- creating what you want within the vortex -- Seth just puts it more directly and explicitly. You first form it within your belief system. Of course, the result you hope for has not yet happened in actual life -- the picture is there, but only mentally, in your mind, yet it has not happened in actual life. Why? Because it needs to be created. If it really had already happened, why would you need to create it? Many people ask why it has not really happened -- if it appeared immediately, then why would you still create it? Where would your enjoyment be?

So actual experience seems to contradict your desired result in every way, and does you no good at all.

You want to become rich, but in actual circumstances you find that you are really very poor. When you have beautiful expectations and then look back at your impoverished life, that sense of loss and the gap is also enormous, and it can be very painful. If you had never thought about it, it might be a little easier; that resigned state of life would not be so hard to bear. But if you imagined a very beautiful life and it has not been realized in reality, Seth says your sense of loss is very great. This is quite normal.

Because thoughts and beliefs have this electromagnetic reality, constant interaction between sharply opposing beliefs can produce many severe "power blocks," trapping you inside and blocking the inner energy from flowing outward, sometimes even causing a kind of polarization.

For example, undigested beliefs and unexamined thoughts may all seem to take on a life of their own, and these things may effectively dominate certain areas of your activity.

Your thoughts and beliefs are all electromagnetic realities. When sharply opposing beliefs constantly interact with each other, they produce severe power blocks. Your inner power flows outward to manifest things, but the power blocks obstruct it -- just as Abraham says, your resistance increases, and the resistance in the process of manifestation grows larger. In Seth's terms, your power is blocked, and the energy of the inner power flowing outward to manifest is obstructed.

Two opposing beliefs are not just two thoughts in the brain; they represent two electromagnetic realities -- one representing the positive pole, one representing the negative pole. The result of their interaction is that these two forces are fighting each other, and the power is blocked in between, like a traffic accident on the road that prevents other cars from moving. So you absolutely must not let two beliefs fight each other. Your beliefs must be consistent; you cannot let yourself be pulled back and forth, wrestling and tangling with yourself in the process.

Besides blocking, polarization can also occur. Beliefs that have not been digested and thoughts that have not been examined will seem to take on a life of their own -- they seem to come alive. Of two conflicting beliefs, you can only accept one: you cannot say that you are both rich and poor; you can only say that you are either rich or poor. When you accept one, the other belief that opposes it is pushed into a place you yourself cannot perceive, but that belief also exists, has not been replaced, and has not disappeared. That belief is squeezed into another place, but it itself has not died and has not left; it is as if it has its own life, growing and developing on its own. Then these things can even dominate certain areas of your activity, including physical and conscious ones. So many of our negative emotions and negative things must be brought out and resolved, not thrown aside and ignored -- if you throw them aside and ignore them, they will continue to take root and sprout, and will grow into a pile of weeds to affect you.

Augustus: A Demonstration of Splitting

Not long ago, Ruburt witnessed with his own eyes a concrete demonstration of the nature and power of belief.

The nature and power of belief are strong enough to be shown to you in reality, and Augustus is a very typical and excellent example.

A man living in another state called Ruburt, hoping to arrange a time to meet him. For some unknown reason, Ruburt had an impulse to see this man.

You see, ordinarily Ruburt would not see such people -- it is not as if anyone with a problem could just show up at the door -- but Ruburt suddenly had an impulse to see this man for some unknown reason. Think carefully about why: he wanted to see this man precisely to prepare for this session. Without this man, without having met this man, the content of this chapter would have nothing to discuss. So they made an appointment.

Under his wife's supervision, the man flew here. This man is a living case study, showing the effects produced when conflicting beliefs are not examined.

When a person indulges his conscious mind and denies the responsibility he should bear -- that is, when a person becomes afraid even of himself -- the possible consequences at that point manifested concretely in this person as a split personality, a terrifying and extremely painful incarnation.

In this case, the young man's beliefs acquired a life of their own and came alive, and by comparison, he himself seemed powerless.

He had never tried to directly mediate these opposing beliefs, until the personality itself had actually become extremely polarized.

In these two preceding paragraphs, Seth clearly explains the principle and mechanism by which this kind of dual personality is produced. But what he says applies only to this one person; later he will explain that the emergence of this state varies from person to person, and you cannot apply Augustus's case to other people's cases.

I am discussing this here because he so perfectly illustrates the nature and power of belief, and the conflicts that occur when a person refuses to take responsibility for his own thoughts.

This is not a common case, but when the contents of the conscious mind are not examined, such division will occur to some degree physically and mentally.

This situation is not common, but even if it is not this severe -- when your conscious mind itself has accepted several contradictory beliefs, opposing beliefs -- you will more or less experience this kind of division physically and mentally, only the degree of severity differs. Sometimes you feel awkward: clearly you do not match your own ideas, yet the things you do turn out to be something else entirely. But it is only that this division will occur to some degree, whether mentally or physically.

When he came in, the hair all over this man's body stood on end, and he was full of hostility, assuming a posture ready for battle.

You can imagine what this man looked like -- when he came in, his hair stood on end, and his whole body was full of hostility. He believed that his need to ask for help was entirely caused by his own weakness: he himself was originally such a tough person, so how could this be? Therefore he was full of hostility, and as soon as he entered he glared at Ruburt, his eyes filled with intense emotion, projecting all the energy he could project, using this to tell everyone that he would never back down -- do not try to cure me, do not try to modify anything about me. If anyone could control the whole room, then that person was definitely him; he had to be the one in charge.

He spoke of a personality far stronger than himself, but he said that even if there were one hundred and fifty people in this room, he himself could make everyone in the room obey his commands.

He spoke of a personality even stronger than himself -- he was already very forceful now, entering the room with a murderous aura, and he said there was a personality even stronger than him. He could make one hundred and fifty people in the room all obey his commands; that is how forceful he was.

He said this other figure within him had come from another galaxy, and had come as a friend to help and protect him.

He had already conjured up another personality -- this personality came from outer space, and not even from this galaxy, but from another galaxy. This invisible friend, at his command, had killed a lawyer -- a lawyer who not only failed to understand the situation, but had also hurt this man's feelings. For convenience, let us call this man Augustus -- in fact his real name is not Augustus; that was done for the book, to conceal his real name.

At this point, because Ruburt had been coughing very severely since the last break, the session had to be interrupted. This kind of thing rarely happens. After Seth returned, he discussed some other content unrelated to this book, and several pages were written, but since it was unrelated to the book, it was not recorded further.

Seth began to introduce the case of Augustus's split personality. To understand in detail how Augustus became the way he is today, and how the conflict of beliefs led to the final split personality, we will hear the introduction next time.

Augustus's Conflicting Beliefs

Today we continue with the second part of our reading of Chapter 6 of the Seth book The Nature of Personal Reality. Seth begins by discussing the guest who recently came to our house, Mr. Augustus. This person shows traces of a secondary personality, or a second personality, emerging.

At the start of today's session, Jane said she knew what Seth planned to call this second personality. She said it should be Augustus Two -- she thought of Seth and Seth Two, and found this way of naming quite amusing. Of course, Seth and Seth Two are not comparable to Augustus and Augustus Two; she just thought it was fun.

Let us go back to the beginning. From the very start of his development, Augustus deeply believed that the inner self was dangerous. He firmly believed that people react the way they do because they can hardly control their inner impulses consciously. He believed that a person's inner impulses are completely beyond conscious control, and that they are terrifying -- just as many of us believe that "impulses are the devil." Many people hold firmly to this belief.

He believed that the individual personality has no power to understand itself, and that the self is very unstable, lonely, standing with no one to rely on: beneath his feet a bottomless abyss, above his head an unreachable, cold, just, but merciless good.

This is how he analyzed Augustus's inner thoughts: he believed that this inner thing was a little devil, that the inner self was dangerous, uncontrollable, impossible to grasp; then his own outer ego consciousness, this self's personality, had no power, was both uneasy and lonely, with a bottomless abyss below and no one to protect him; above there seemed to be a so-called good, but it was cold, unreachable, and at the same time just yet without mercy.

Session 628

He felt bewildered in a world where everything stood in opposition to everything else. Conflicting beliefs were accepted without judgment.

He accepted this world where everything stood in opposition to everything else. His conscious mind was forever trying to rationalize his beliefs -- this is what we covered earlier, the conscious mind has this instinct, it wants to rationalize your beliefs, to arrange them into a pattern and a sequence. To arrange your beliefs into a set of patterns, to form a belief system or a value structure, there is a certain sequence to it, certain things come about because of certain other things, it has this kind of pattern.

He would organize ideas as rationally as possible, and exclude anything that seemed to contradict his entire belief system.

The conscious mind wants to organize things in a rational way, excluding anything that contradicts its own belief system. This is where problems arise -- when a person holds two sets of opposing ideas, when a person holds two sets of opposing belief systems, one system will exclude the other belief system. So when you accept two completely opposing beliefs, this kind of situation easily comes about.

Augustus had been taught to fear his own thoughts, to avoid self-examination. Therefore the beliefs and ideas that frightened him were not faced -- this is a very crucial point. The beliefs and ideas that frightened him were not faced, were not laid out and looked at squarely. He kept avoiding them, pushing them into the corners of his conscious mind.

In the beginning, they sat there quite harmlessly.

At first they seemed to do no harm. Deep within all of us there are some contradictory views and beliefs, and we set them aside, and there is no harm in that. But as time gradually passed, the number of unexamined, frightening beliefs began to accumulate -- one today, another tomorrow, and these opposing beliefs grew more and more numerous. Your conscious mind can only maintain the rationality of one belief system, and within that rational framework of beliefs, whatever does not fit gets excluded to somewhere else.

But once excluded to somewhere else, these beliefs accumulate more and more over time. And these beliefs have not been examined by you, you have not taken them out and said, "I simply do not want this, this is not part of my belief system, I do not need it, or I do not want it." You just let them pile up.

Ideas and beliefs do indeed breed on their own. Within them there is an innate impetus toward growth, development, and fulfillment.

This is a very crucial point. Your ideas and beliefs have within them an innate impetus to grow and develop upward. You do not need to tend to them; those beliefs will grow on their own. How do they grow? It is actually very simple -- they keep accepting things that are consistent with the belief, and they are constantly reinforced. Whether you intend it or not, the news you see, the newspapers, media, movies, television, novels, the people and things you come into contact with -- all of these feed it. This belief grows larger and larger. It grows on its own; it does not just sit there quietly.

Over the years, the two opposing belief systems grew stronger and stronger, each vying for Augustus's attention.

He believed that as a person he was utterly powerless -- this was Augustus's belief. No matter how much effort he made, he would still accomplish nothing and go unnoticed. He felt completely unloved, and he did not feel he deserved to be loved. You can sense now that these beliefs are actually all very negative.

At the same time, he let his conscious mind wander all over the place -- this is a figurative way of putting it. And in order to have a compensation, he saw himself as omnipotent, and so he went to the other extreme: he looked down on everyone, and because of their misunderstanding of him, he retaliated with even greater vengeance. We can see this kind of person in everyday life. If it develops to an extreme, it is very dangerous; some people eventually form the actual behavior of taking revenge on society. There is indeed his own shadow in this, but other people's misunderstanding of him is also one aspect of it.

Following this belief, he did have the ability to do anything... if he so chose, he could heal the diseases of humanity, or, in order to punish the world, he could keep the world from knowing this.

This is Seth, through his mind-reading or telepathy, reading out Augustus's inner thoughts. Augustus believed he had supernormal powers, that an extraterrestrial friend could come into him and help him, and that this person could heal all the diseases of humanity -- but I simply will not tell humanity, because you do not love me, and I do not love you, so I will punish you. I can heal all diseases, but I will not heal them, and I will not let you know. This was his belief.

Now all of these ideas were quite conscious to him.

He knew these ideas. But he kept each set of ideas quite separate.

The conscious mind is always trying to achieve wholeness and unity of the overall picture; the conscious mind always wants to tell a complete story. For example, you feel that you are weak, alone, powerless, without a sense of worth, and that is how things actually are; but at the same time you believe you are an omnipotent person with supernormal powers. But your conscious mind can only make one thing whole and unified, so it arranged his beliefs into some kind of consistent system.

When directly contradictory opposing beliefs have been held by a person for some time, and no effort has been made to reconcile them, then a war begins within the conscious mind itself.

Because two completely opposing belief systems are in conflict -- one believes it is worthless and undeserving of love, the other believes it is omnipotent and could solve all problems but simply will not, and that it can take revenge on those who have treated it badly.

The Split in the Conscious Mind

Since it is the conscious mind's beliefs that regulate the body's involuntary movements, functioning, and the entire bodily system, then contradictory beliefs obviously establish adverse bodily reactions and imbalances.

We discussed in Chapter 5 that your conscious mind's beliefs regulate the body's involuntary system—the heartbeat, blood pressure, all sorts of things you cannot manage, and the entire bodily system—all of these are controlled by the conscious mind. Contradictory beliefs will lead to adverse reactions and imbalances.

You could say that before Augustus's opposing beliefs split him into different camps, before he split into two different personalities, the body was in a state of constant chaos. Before the two completely opposing beliefs split into two personalities, while they still existed within one personality, because our conscious mind determines the other underlying control systems of the body—what we call the parasympathetic nervous system, the system entirely beyond your control—at that time contradictory messages were constantly being sent to the muscular system and the heart. Because these two simultaneously contradictory belief systems of the conscious mind existed at the same time, contradictory messages were constantly sent to the muscles and the heart. The muscular system wavered back and forth, and even his body temperature became quite drastic—body temperature is generally stable, but in his case it changed enormously, fluctuating high and low.

Because similar beliefs attract one another, both electromagnetically and emotionally.

Similar ideas do indeed attract one another. Electromagnetically, identical frequencies will resonate or co-vibrate and attract one another; emotionally as well, similar beliefs and ideas will attract one another.

At this point the conscious mind found itself with two completely contradictory belief systems, and two self-images—one extremely weak and worthless, the other omnipotent, all-powerful, like an extraterrestrial being. At this point, in order to protect the integrity of the body, because these two systems would cause drastic changes in your body—the heart, muscles, blood, hormones, including your body temperature, all constantly changing dramatically, because the two were alternately controlling your body—so in order to protect the physical integrity, Augustus's conscious mind cleverly split itself.

Is this clear? It was the conscious mind that split itself. After the split, the moment-to-moment messages to the body were no longer muddled and confused; they became clear and consistent. When he was Augustus, it was one kind of belief system, maintaining a stable bodily state; when he was Augustus Two, he switched to another belief system, and at that point his bodily signs would change into another state, and even the hormones secreted within his body were different.

But the advantage of this was that under a given personality state, his body was stable, and his physical body would no longer fluctuate as frequently as before. So at this point, in order to preserve the integrity of your physical body, the conscious mind had no choice but to split itself—the conscious mind said, since the physical body cannot be split into two, then just split me into two. Once the conscious mind split into two, two self-personalities emerged. One conscious mind represents one of your personalities, and once it split, a second personality appeared.

At this point the powerful and alien-feeling part of Augustus became personified.

"Alien" here means the part that felt strange and abnormal. When Augustus felt threatened, his conscious mind would switch over, switch to that powerful personality, accepting the other belief system as an operating process. When he encountered a threat, he would switch himself into the alien mode.

In it, Augustus saw himself as omnipotent and safe, but alien. Thus this portion of his beliefs and the particular self-image took possession of his conscious mind, and became what we will here call Augustus Two.

When Augustus Two controlled Augustus's body, the body itself was not only strong and powerful, but could perform physical feats far beyond what Augustus One was capable of—he was not only strong and powerful, but could do things far exceeding his original abilities. You must understand: Augustus Two believed his body was almost unconquerable. And according to this belief, his body could indeed perform much better—because this belief made it so, his body followed suit and changed.

Always remember: your body changes according to your beliefs; this was repeatedly emphasized in Chapter 5. So when he felt his body was almost unconquerable, such a belief really did cause changes in the body, so his body could indeed perform much better—not just psychologically, but the physical body actually changed.

Augustus Two believed he was an extraterrestrial. Under these circumstances, his explanation was—because there had to be an explanation.

He was a being from another planet, another galaxy... He wanted to help Augustus One, to use his power on the latter's behalf.

He wanted to use his power to reward Augustus One's friends and intimidate his enemies. This was his purpose in summoning his second personality. And Augustus One quite firmly believed he needed this kind of help—he believed he needed an alien friend to guide him and help him when he faced danger and threats.

This is a split in the conscious mind, but it did not begin within the inner self. This split in the conscious mind is the exterior conscious mind, the part of the inner self that faces the physical dimension.

So it did not begin in the inner self; the split began at the level of the conscious mind. So when Augustus Two came, or took over, Augustus himself was quite clearly aware that the other personality was in control of him. He was conscious; he was not completely replaced.

He simply viewed physical reality through an unswerving belief system... The messages he sent to the body were not contradictory at all, but perfectly consistent, and the body was under excellent control.

Augustus One's emotions were, of course, a direct manifestation of the ideas he was thinking.

What the body could not endure was the constant swinging from states of ecstasy and power to feelings of powerlessness and depression, causing great changes.

What the body could not endure was this back-and-forth switching between moments of ecstasy, feeling full of power, and moments of powerlessness and depression—the enormous changes between depression and low states and being full of power.

Most of the time Augustus One was in charge, because of his sense of worthlessness.

In your terms, the ideas he adopted earlier were made worse by the contrast between himself and Augustus Two.

This sense of worthlessness was actually reinforced by the appearance of Augustus Two—because Augustus Two was all-capable, an almost omnipotent personality, and this contrast made his original personality seem even more incompetent.

Sometimes Augustus Two would come and stay for a week.

The things Augustus Two said were all the things Augustus One very much wanted to say and do, the things he would have dared to do if only he had some protection.

And those things, Augustus Two did them all for him. However, Augustus One was not truly unconscious at these times; he knew everything, and was quite aware of this substitute activity and achievement.

Again, this is a game of hide-and-seek. In it, the so-called unconscious mind is, so to speak, quite innocent.

We all assume that when Augustus Two came, Augustus One retreated to the background and knew nothing at all. That is not the case. Augustus Two could shout and yell, lie and deceive, assert himself and show his contempt for his companions, and spare Augustus One from those problems—because it was Augustus Two, not me. I, Augustus, would not do these things, but when Augustus Two comes, I cannot control him; these are his doings. If you want to blame someone, blame him; it has nothing to do with me.

The nature of Augustus Two was not evil. In spiritualistic circles, however, he would certainly be interpreted as an evil spirit or a guide.

The personality of Augustus Two was not evil, and his belief system was not evil either; he came to help. Augustus One needed this aspect of himself that was opposite to his own character. Often when this kind of thing happens in a household, we invite some master to take a look, and most such masters, upon seeing this situation, will say the person is possessed, or a ghost has taken over, or he has encountered something unclean—that is generally how they put it.

His nature was protective. The basic ideas and beliefs that had been personified became his being, and his form was to protect Augustus from the destructive ideas he had been given in childhood, and to fight against the beliefs of powerlessness and emptiness.

He used Augustus Two to fight against the beliefs of powerlessness and emptiness. In this respect, they were added onto the original consciousness. But this still happened in early years, when he was a child. Therefore Augustus Two sprang from a child's concept of a powerful being—so you find that Augustus Two's ideas, his shouting and yelling, his rudeness toward others, and so on, all very much resemble the projection of a child's beliefs. A child thinks a powerful being should be like that.

The stronger the feeling of conscious weakness, the stronger the compensatory feeling of power. But again, on a conscious level there was no attempt at reconciliation.

But on the conscious level, that is, in the waking state, there was no attempt at reconciliation. These two—the weak one and the powerful one—were not reconciled.

The Birth of Augustus Two

Augustus's mother only noticed that her son seemed extremely changeable. Why? Because he was constantly switching back and forth between two different belief systems -- at one moment feeling a particularly strong sense of worthlessness, and at the next feeling especially powerful and capable. So Augustus Two did not manifest as a clearly distinct second personality; in his childhood it had not yet become obviously apparent.

It was only after Augustus got married -- it was after his marriage that it broke out. When the demands of being a father and earning a living were placed upon him, and he could not cope with them, the personality of Augustus Two came to the surface. As a child he had merely swung between two belief systems; he had not manifested a second personality. But after he married, he had to take on family responsibilities; he could no longer be a mama's boy or a child who had never grown up -- he had to go out and earn money to support the family, to hold up a household, and also to be a father raising children. At that point, he could not handle it, and his sense of worthlessness found itself unable to function. It was then that the personality of Augustus Two emerged.

His belief in his own worthlessness prevented him from using his abilities, or even from seeking, with any persistence, a course of effective action.

His belief that he was worthless prevented him from using his abilities, and also prevented him from seeking any effective course of action.

It was then that Augustus Two began to assert himself, and to assert Augustus to Augustus's wife.

At this point Augustus Two popped out, and he began to assert Augustus himself, and to assert Augustus to Augustus's wife. In his own way he proved it to her -- proved to his wife that she had married a rather extraordinary, powerful man, a paragon of masculinity and strength.

To do this, however, Augustus One also had to show himself to her as Augustus Two. After this had gone on for a while, Augustus would first develop a splitting headache, and then this alien from outer space would appear -- a handsome, imposing man that Augustus One was not.

What he means is that after getting married, in order to show his wife that she had married not a loser, not a nobody, not an ordinary man with a sense of worthlessness, but a paragon of a man with supernormal abilities and power, Augustus would display this when Augustus Two came. After Augustus Two left, Augustus still had to keep up this display of ability, so sometimes he would get headaches, and when the headache was splitting, Augustus Two would make his grand entrance -- and he was a handsome, imposing man.

Here, however, the "deception" caused some difficulties. Not only did Augustus Two have many sexual objects, but by contrast Augustus One seemed indeed to be quite lifeless.

Augustus Two not only deceived, but also had many difficulties. Here Seth speaks very obliquely and does not elaborate. Because Augustus Two was the embodiment of masculinity and power, he not only had many sexual objects -- that is, many sexual partners -- but by contrast, Augustus One seemed indeed to be quite lifeless. What he means is that Augustus One's performance in bed, compared with Augustus Two's performance, was utterly lifeless.

Augustus Two was originally meant to help Augustus One. Indeed, when Augustus Two left for a period of time, the "exotic flavor" also spilled over, touching Augustus One and giving him some charm.

What does "exotic flavor" mean? It means he came from outer space; he was not from this planet, he came from another galaxy. So after he left, the exotic flavor would also spill over, touching Augustus One and giving him some charm -- he could also gain something from it, because he had once been an alien, and the alien would often come to him and take over his body.

But the contrast was starkly before his eyes -- although it gave him some charm, after all he was not Augustus Two; he was just an ordinary Earthling.

Augustus One was still the main personality... and became even more frightened, for he knew that Augustus Two was gradually showing off, "living" beyond his original purpose, and would have to leave.

Augustus himself was still the main personality -- that is, the one with the sense of worthlessness -- because under such a stark contrast, when there had been no contrast there had been no harm, but with this contrast he was hurt even more: he was inadequate in every way, and he even became more frightened.

Here the word "living" is used, and it is quite interesting: the value of his living was to help Augustus One. Augustus One had summoned him to help him, to solve difficulties he did not dare face and things he did not dare do. But after Augustus Two arrived, he was too outstanding -- handsome and imposing, full of masculine prowess, simply overflowing with charm. With this contrast, Augustus was originally a person with a sense of worthlessness, and under such a stark contrast, he felt even more worthless. So Augustus Two began to show off.

This personality is very interesting; it develops on its own. It is not that "I was invited by Augustus, so I must protect his dignity and help him" -- no, it grows on its own and develops its own consciousness. So Augustus Two began to show off, and he lived beyond his original purpose -- what was his original purpose? It was to help Augustus One. So at this point Augustus would no longer summon him, and Augustus Two had to leave.

In fact, once Augustus Two clearly took over Augustus One's body, it was obvious to the whole family.

How was it obvious? His wife began taking notes on what he said and did. If you have seen how, when Kim Jong-un of North Korea speaks, everyone below is taking notes⁹, that is what it means. When Augustus Two came, the phenomenon was very obvious -- his wife began taking notes.

Later, when the notes were read back to Augustus One, the lies and deceptions within them were obvious.

After Augustus Two left, she would go back to Augustus One and say: "You know, your alien friend came again, and he took over your body, and then he said such and such." It was surely a boast about how he was all-powerful across heaven and earth and the universe, and he must have bragged about what alien life was like. But these lies and deceptions were all created by Augustus himself -- as was said earlier, he was very conscious; it was not that he did not know these things. He knew everything; he simply allowed this belief, and insisted on using the belief of Augustus Two to view the world. That was all.

The childish nature of that personality was also the same. Why childish? Because it was Augustus's childhood fantasy of a hero, of a powerful personality. In a child's eyes, a powerful person should be like that. So many little boys have imagined what aliens are like -- we are such and such, and they will talk to you endlessly about these stories. Look at the Star Wars genre of films -- the Star Wars series -- which to this day remains enduringly popular in America, filmed again and again; Star Trek, Star Wars, and so on, filmed again and again -- because there is generation after generation of little boys, all growing up step by step in this way. So you can see that his character carried a childish side.

Augustus Two, however, claimed to be all-knowing, and to come from a galaxy that surpassed the earth in all ways.

All-knowing. Here, he was making prophecies that would never come true -- he was talking nonsense, prophecies that would never come true. And like a seasoned actor, he was full of lies. Here Seth does not mince words either.

The beliefs whose energy generates "replacement self-images" then appear in the light of day, and in physical reality create their natural results.

What energy? The energy of these beliefs. The energy of such beliefs generates replacement self-images, and they appear in broad daylight -- in the middle of the day they appear. So you can see that the power of belief is very strong. This chapter and this session are all about the power of belief -- the body of your beliefs and the structure of their power; he is telling you what the power of belief is and what the structure of the inner power of the body is like.

Augustus One had now grown up, and was forced to perceive to some degree the nature of these beliefs.

He was forced, in certain respects, to perceive the nature of these beliefs; he knew what Augustus Two was about, that he had conjured him up himself. And when he came to visit Ruburt, he still refused to examine them -- he had already become aware to some degree, but he still refused to look at them squarely, to truly face them.

The Unification and Confrontation of the Personality

Now Augustus Two had not appeared for two and a half months. At this time Augustus was in a kind of dilemma—he still believed he was powerless, and this contradictory belief that he was omnipotent now had no way to express itself through Augustus Two. He had two belief systems: the first, he still considered himself incapable; the other, he considered himself omnipotent. Because Augustus Two had not come for two and a half months, this contradictory belief of his omnipotence had no way to express itself through that. But they inevitably had to be expressed, and since it was not expressed through Augustus Two, it would be expressed in other ways.

So at this meeting, Augustus at one moment came through with enormous hostility, glaring at Ruburt, telling Ruburt that he would destroy anyone who harmed him—at this point, that was equivalent to expressing the belief of Augustus Two right there, expressing it to the fullest. Actually Augustus Two had not come, but he still came through carrying that belief, because both of these beliefs were his own beliefs. And in the next moment, out of love for his wife and son, that pleading for help surfaced again.

One second before, he was fiercely glaring at Ruburt saying whoever wants to harm me, I will destroy you, no one can touch me, no one can change me; but the next moment, because of his love for his wife and son, he had no choice but to beg Ruburt to help him, to help him solve his problems.

Augustus would make a statement in every sentence... and ten minutes later, he would use another sentence to make it very clear to people that his first statement was not true.

A statement is a very serious, formal assertion of fact. In every sentence he would first add a statement, but ten minutes later, he would use another sentence to overturn his previous statement, saying that statement was not true. So you can see how contradictory his belief system was.

Here, the extremes between Augustus One and Two dissolved.

At this point, one belief system went to overturn the other belief system, and these two systems came face to face directly. Therefore two opposing belief systems operated side by side, each one snapping back at the other, both emerging at the same time. But Augustus still refused to examine his own words and thoughts, or to see the contradictions that were so obvious to others—two completely opposing belief systems had already emerged side by side, operating simultaneously, and he could no longer even make his own account consistent, refuting himself.

At this time Seth let Ruburt clearly see the nature and importance of belief.

This chapter is meant to tell you how important belief is. The importance of the nature of belief was displayed vividly and dramatically right before his eyes, so much so that Ruburt was frightened—Ruburt was terrified. How could a person swear solemnly ten minutes earlier that he was omnipotent, and ten minutes later say he was nothing at all? At this point Ruburt was frightened, and found himself forced to adopt some complex psychological coping methods, because he could not deal with him the way one would deal with a normal person.

The two personalities were no longer separate, but had merged together. Actually this was a good state—when both personalities jumped out and refuted each other, it proved that both were surfacing at the same time. These two personalities were both originally Augustus's, both being two completely opposing beliefs he had accepted from childhood to adulthood, which he had received without analysis. At this time, he adopted a method of pushing one aside, feeling that one was fine. Actually at first they coexisted peacefully, but as time accumulated, it slowly grew on its own, and after growing to a certain extent it jumped out and challenged his original belief system.

Augustus said that by giving his friend pneumonia, his friend had killed a neighbor who opposed him—the friend he referred to was Augustus Two. He said a neighbor who opposed him got pneumonia and died, because the extraterrestrial Augustus Two had caused it, so Augustus Two was taking care of him. Another neighbor had an ulcer, and Augustus told Ruburt that after he touched his neighbor with his hand, the ulcer seemed to have healed. So at this point he was saying: those who were good to him, he would go help cure their illnesses; those who were not good to him, even if they were not sick, he would make them sick. This was something he imagined himself. Actually other people's illnesses were all natural occurrences, but he firmly believed that the neighbor who died of pneumonia died because his extraterrestrial friend had done it, and the neighbor he liked who had an ulcer was healed with a small touch of his hand, and he felt that he had cured him too.

At this point he said: "I want to know how much of this great ability belongs to me." When he was speaking with Jane, he said: this ability of mine to directly cure other people's illnesses, how much of it belongs to me? How much of it belongs to Augustus Two? And he shifted his gaze away for a moment, and said: "Perhaps I do not need my friend's protection at all."

This point was clearly helpful. When he was thinking about the question "This ability of mine to heal my neighbor's ulcer, is it mine or Augustus Two's?", he actually began to reflect inwardly, and would discover that he did not need his friend's protection. However, his own personality still had to deal with the obviously unpleasant characteristics of an Augustus Two that was no longer personalized—although Augustus Two would not come out in a personalized way anymore, would not return in that split-personality manner, Augustus Two was still part of his belief system, and some of the obviously unpleasant characteristics within that belief system, he also had to face and resolve—that feeling of detesting everyone, looking down on everyone, everyone being beneath his notice.

He would be left with such questions: If I am so powerful, then how could I be so weak? Even unable to support my family—he certainly did not earn much money. If I am so great, able to heal human illnesses, then why can I not effectively use my energy?—I can cure other people's illnesses with just a touch of my hand, so if I still have such great ability, why can I not effectively use this ability to earn more money, to solve my life problems? This was the problem he now faced.

The Body's Confusion and the Power of Belief

Augustus's body was once again being pulled this way and that by extremely contradictory beliefs about himself. Previously, when he was Augustus Two, his body was strong and powerful; and when he was Augustus One, it was weak. Now, as Augustus, the alternating strength and weakness put obvious strain on his body -- it had actually been better when his personalities were split, because then he was consistent; but now, with this alternating strength and weakness, the body could not take it. The body did not know whether it was supposed to manifest as strong or as weak.

As Augustus Two, he could go without sleep day and night and carry out physical feats that would be very difficult for a normal human being, because he was operating under the idea that strength and power were inseparable.

He could go without sleep. To make Augustus Two disappear, he had to have some courage. However, because the clear division between beliefs no longer existed, he became even harder for his wife to deal with -- before, he had been easy to deal with. For example, during the week when Augustus Two came, then it was Augustus Two, and every day he would take out a little notebook and record the sayings of Augustus Two, the classics of extraterrestrial life, the inspirations and revelations for humanity, and so on. When Augustus One came back, his wife also knew how to deal with him, knowing that he was a person with an infinite sense of worthlessness and a sense of powerlessness. But when Augustus was alternating between the two personalities, his wife did not know which state he was in at any given moment, and did not know what attitude to use with him, because she could not be sure which state he was in at that particular point in time -- he had both states, he had both beliefs.

Because the characteristics of Augustus Two had now seeped into his own personality.

Although the personality of Augustus Two no longer came, his character and his traits had seeped into his original personality. For example, he would now lie in situations where previously only Augustus Two would have lied -- previously only Augustus Two would have lied about these things, such as claiming to be omnipotent, and now he was beginning to lie about them too.

Here, directly opposing beliefs took command of the conscious mind at different times, and each operated the body in its own way.

Directly opposing beliefs -- you must remember this -- took command of the conscious mind at different times. And each one operated in its own way. As far as the body was concerned, no matter which set of ideas was in charge, the body possessed the same strength -- the energy was the same. But practically speaking, Augustus One could not express the memories of Augustus Two.

For example, once Augustus, in a fit of anger, jumped out of a second-floor window and was not injured. That was quite an impressive feat -- most people would be at least somewhat injured jumping from the second floor, but he was not injured at all, which proves that his body was not that of an ordinary person. Yet Augustus was so exhausted that he could barely get through a normal day -- these two personalities were constantly fighting. Just imagine what his state was. He was utterly exhausted, barely able to get through a normal day. It was simply unbearable.

You have a situation in which a person, through belief, actually sets his strength and energy aside, and can only use them when he completely changes his belief.

You must remember: a person, through belief, can actually set his strength and energy aside and not use them, and can only use them when he completely changes his belief. When you change this belief -- saying that I can be strong, that I am worthy, that I have a sense of power -- only then can you use it. When you truly believe that you have no strength and no ability, then you really do have no strength and no ability, and you cannot use it.

He was not lying; it was because his belief system limited him. And at such a time, simply telling him "You must exert yourself, you must work hard, you must work hard, you must improve yourself" -- telling him any of this is useless. You have to go deep into his beliefs to help him solve the problem. If his beliefs do not change, he really cannot mobilize these energies and abilities.

Only because the childish personality of Augustus Two finally expressed itself so clearly that he had to be discarded.

Because Augustus Two's childish, childlike personality had to be thrown away, because he could not handle adult life.

Augustus's wife influenced this decision. Augustus's wife did not want Augustus Two -- although Augustus Two was very capable, would you want a child, no matter how capable? No, you would not. For example, would a woman choose a man whose body was as strong as a fitness trainer's but whose personality was like that of a seven-year-old child? Would you marry him? Would you live with him? You absolutely would not want him, because he is too childish. So this is a typical example. His wife said, I do not want this Augustus Two, and so she influenced this decision. His wife played a key role in the middle.

Because it was obvious that his wife's opinion of this friend -- Augustus Two -- was different from her husband's opinion of Augustus Two. Her belief then became the new foundation, the turning point that allowed Augustus to look at this alternate self-image with detachment.

His wife's belief became the new foundation. What does that mean? It means that it allowed Augustus to look at the matter from a higher vantage point -- that he had two images, one Augustus One and one Augustus Two, and he could look at this problem with detachment. As long as he could see this problem, the problem was already more than half solved. So this was a key turning point, and it was simply that his wife's belief influenced him.

After-Class Chat

At this point, Seth said humorously, "You can take a substitute rest." As was just said, because Augustus Two is Augustus's substitute personality, he said you can take a brief substitute rest.

What follows is a postscript. Jane remembered nothing of what Seth had said -- once the trance state came out, she knew nothing at all. Jane said, "I know Seth still has a lot of material on that, and he hasn't finished with this matter yet; it's all prepared and waiting."

After the break Seth came through again and spoke for two pages, about something he had mentioned that morning. Then the notebook was set aside. Seth came through again, and some spontaneous conversation resumed, unrecorded. Seth conveyed some insights about his own origin and creativity, and about why Jane's personality made it possible for Seth to emerge. There was more besides, but I did not write down our conversation, because the notebook had been set aside, and I just started chatting freely with Seth. Then, as usual, it turned out that I wished I had written it down -- and afterward I regretted it, saying I should have recorded it. Later on I will try to make up for it and write it down.

I always feel that this material seems to fly away unless we record it immediately in some form. I often think one of the reasons is that in a session, Jane is not the only one in a trance state. The receiver, myself for example, is also in his own way in the same state -- what he means is that it is not only Jane who is in a trance state; when she is communicating with Seth, as the recorder, I myself sometimes feel in turn as though I am also in a trance state. Because I often cannot remember what I talked about with Seth, I always think I must write it down. Because when entering that trance state and communicating deeply with Seth, after coming back to clarity he often cannot remember much -- just as Jane, after relaying the words, even though the words all came out of Jane's mouth, often does not know what she herself said.

So the material is to some extent left behind in that shared meeting place. When the connection between Seth and his audience is cut off, because the recording has stopped, the material is left behind in that shared meeting place and does not come through.

The content of this session focused on how Augustus's personality split came about -- from his childhood onward, step by step, a detailed introduction was given. So if you want to understand personality split, multiple personalities, or schizophrenia, you can read this chapter repeatedly.

Session 629 (November 29, 1972)

Generally, this time of year is the traditional American holiday of Thanksgiving. Starting from Thanksgiving, the United States basically enters the most important holiday period of the year: from Thanksgiving at the end of November all the way through Christmas and New Year's, this is the most important holiday season of the year.

Seth said that, just like this ordinary time of year, we would begin to miss some of the regular scheduled sessions, such as the Monday and Wednesday evening sessions. Jane and I estimated that from now until January of 1973, these sessions would likely be held irregularly. Partly because of their holiday activities, and they also very much enjoyed celebrating the holidays. But for us, this seemed like a natural time to rest -- just like when we reach Chinese New Year and take a break, he felt that this was a time to rest. Although Jane planned to continue her ESP class and writing class as usual.

The first part of this session was deleted because it involved material unrelated to the content of this book. At 9:59, just before ten o'clock, Seth began the continued dictation of Chapter Six.

In your society, there is no truly adequate framework in which someone like Augustus can receive any effective treatment.

This point must be remembered: in our current society, there is no true, adequate framework or system that would allow someone like Augustus to receive any effective treatment. Even now it is still the same -- currently there is no effective treatment for schizophrenia, split personality, or multiple personality disorder. It is very difficult.

First of all, many psychoanalysts might think that Augustus suffered from schizophrenia, and quite appropriately label him, saying you have schizophrenia. But basically, such terminology is meaningless -- whether you call it schizophrenia, split personality, or whatever name, it is meaningless.

If over a period of time the analyst could convince Augustus that his present situation was caused by a specific repressed event in the past, and if the analyst were an intuitive and understanding person, then Augustus might alter his beliefs to some extent, enough to bring about some degree of "cure."

If the analyst could convince Augustus that his present situation was caused by past events -- this theory is entirely that of the Freudian school¹⁰: your present circumstances are caused by past events, including childhood or earlier events, and the root lies there. He said, if the analyst is also intuitive enough and understanding, then Augustus might change his beliefs -- oh, so my beliefs were caused by childhood events, so now I no longer need to hold onto these beliefs, I can replace them.

Thus, he would conveniently remember that one event, some childhood event. And when he began to re-experience it, he would display the expected emotions. This is a very interesting thing: when you go back to re-experience the past -- this is something psychologists often do -- when they take you back to some event from your childhood that you were unwilling to experience, and they take you back to re-experience it, the emotion is exactly the same, identical to when you experienced it back then. That pain, that sense of powerlessness, would all be the same.

Unfortunately, in his present state of powerlessness without Augustus Two, he might also call upon his other self for help, to show the doctor that he is not someone to be trifled with.

He might very well summon Augustus Two back -- the other self, that is, Augustus Two -- to show the doctor that he is not someone to be trifled with. Why? Because the doctor made him return to the scene he feared most as a child and the event he least wanted to face. When he reaches that event, his emotions would certainly collapse, because as a child he could not bear it, could not withstand it; now reliving it is still very unpleasant. Very likely, he would summon Augustus Two back to deal with the doctor, because the doctor made him return to that state again.

What must be done, then, is to help Augustus face the implications of the other self's behavior,

To help him understand why another self emerged. The emergence of another self -- what is the meaning of this behavior itself.

so that he can accept it as a part of the whole identity.

That is, to accept the second personality, this second self, the other self, and accept it as part of the whole identity. You cannot reject it; you must have him accept it -- that too is a part of himself.

When Augustus Two was in control of the body, its chemical composition was considerably altered, markedly different from Augustus's usual hormonal state. The chemical changes were caused by the shift in beliefs that was in operation.

He is telling you: your chemical and hormonal changes are caused by changes in your beliefs, not the other way around -- it is not that the chemistry changed and then your beliefs followed. It is not reversed -- beliefs change first, and then chemical changes occur, not the other way around.

If chemical changes were made within Augustus Two, he would return to the Augustus One personality. But such changes would be artificial rather than permanent, and could be quite dangerous.

What does he mean? He means that many people give psychiatric patients medication to alter their internal chemical composition, including their hormone levels and so on. So many people who take medication prescribed by psychiatrists, especially those who are manic, become very slow to react, sleepy all day, and dull -- because Augustus Two is relatively manic, relatively crazy, cursing and swearing, unfriendly to everyone. So when he takes medication, it can bring him back to Augustus One, as if he were cured. But in fact, because his beliefs have not changed, and he is only altering his internal chemistry through drugs, it seems like a cure, but he says it is not permanent -- it is artificial, not permanent, and could be quite dangerous.

The tendency that is chemically suppressed is barely covered over through the use of medication,

Covered over through medication, because the drugs make your entire person's reactions relatively dull.

yet the problem still remains, and may well lead to obvious suicidal tendencies.

The problem has not been resolved; he has merely become numb and dull. At this point, it could lead to suicidal tendencies -- this must be noted, it is very dangerous. Because his sense of powerlessness has not changed, and then you do not allow Augustus Two to come out and help him, so at this point his sense of powerlessness becomes very pronounced; then you give him medication, which makes him feel even more powerless, making him feel that he has become a mental patient who must see a doctor and take medication. Whether domestically or abroad, the cost of psychiatric treatment is not cheap -- psychologists, including all of this, do not appear inexpensive either. So he himself becomes a burden on the family, and he will feel even more powerless: not only can he not fulfill the responsibility of being the head of the household, but he has instead become a burden on the family.

At this point, his sense of powerlessness becomes even more pronounced. And when the sense of powerlessness is this strong, he originally could have summoned Augustus Two through self-rescue to save himself, but now Augustus Two has also been suppressed by the medication and simply cannot be called forth. Under these circumstances, his sense of powerlessness gains the upper hand -- when feelings of worthlessness and powerlessness reach a certain level, under such conditions, people are prone to suicidal emotions, this hidden suicidal tendency lurking beneath the surface. This suicide does not necessarily mean actually committing suicide; this suicidal tendency will cause the body's organs to come under attack.

Sometimes such situations are handled within another framework.

What framework? Namely:

Whenever Augustus Two took over, Augustus was considered to be possessed by an independent, evil entity.

Within another framework -- when it is not handled within the psychoanalytic framework -- at such times, various masters are often called in to treat the illness, various so-called folk masters. At this point, Augustus would be considered to have been invaded by an evil spirit such as Augustus Two. But they would not call it by that name; they would say he has been possessed by something unclean, by some evil spirit or ghost, that he has been possessed.

Now, Augustus altered his beliefs to some extent, so that even within that framework, some kind of cure might be achieved.

This must be remembered: even within that kind of framework, some degree of cure might be achieved. The reason for the cure is that his beliefs changed -- someone told him that there is an evil spirit in his body, that he has encountered something unclean, and now we will invite a master to remove it for you. At this point, his belief system might also change to some extent.

At the same time, however, the dangers and difficulties involved will make such a cure impossible to achieve.

He will encounter difficulties and dangers. Why? He would think: well, since I am so easily invaded by evil spirits, I drove this evil spirit away today, but what if another evil spirit comes and possesses me another day? What then? He would have such fears.

If a doctor believed that Augustus was possessed, and then convinced Augustus to believe that fact as well, then their combined strong beliefs might work for a while.

Their shared belief might be effective for a period of time.

Convincing Augustus that he was under the domination of an evil spirit would be the first step. Then removing the invader would be the second step, at least the next step that might follow.

First acknowledge that there is an invader and that he is possessed, then the second step is to remove it.

The problem is that when operating within that framework, the ego structure is further weakened. For Augustus Two, with the characteristics that are usually suppressed, is forever denied.

Because they say it is an evil spirit that must be removed and driven out of the body, then Augustus must forever be good, must forever be virtuous, and cannot display the side of him that is the evil spirit, that is, the side of Augustus Two.

He will, however, forever feel that he may again be subject to such an evil invasion.

As just mentioned, the same result is also possible -- what result? Suicidal tendencies, or the development of other self-destructive behaviors. This possibility also exists.

Jane's State

During the break, Jane said:

When I first began speaking in trance -- that is, starting in the latter half of 1963 -- I always felt that only one word could be obtained at a time, and there was nothing before or after that word. But now, I feel that there is a whole pile of material just sitting there waiting for me to retrieve it. Just like the material about the "Speakers" discussed earlier this evening.

It increasingly seems that way. Before the session, Jane again became aware that there were several channels through which material could be obtained from Seth -- she had already been able to sense this in the latter half of Seth Speaks. She actually felt that there were four directions, four channels of material simultaneously present, depending on what material you wanted to retrieve. The material was already prepared and sitting there; whatever material you wanted to obtain, it would come automatically. Sometimes, if Jane had several mouths, she could speak all of this material simultaneously. This is Jane's own feeling.

At this point, Seth continued:

Fortunately, the elasticity, resilience, and creativity of the human mind and body are far greater than we have ever supposed.

You must remember this -- it is far greater than you think.

Many cases like Augustus's are never known; people do not know that these individuals cured themselves.

You would not even know that he had this illness or experienced such things.

Sometimes such healing is accomplished when such a person chooses to undergo a traumatic experience -- often one part of the personality quite deliberately plans this, while other parts close their eyes and pretend not to see.

This is very interesting. He says there is a kind of healing: how do some people cure themselves? They go through a particularly traumatic experience -- an experience that is especially painful and especially difficult for them. In doing so, one part of them must close its eyes, because it would not choose to subject itself to such great suffering and hardship; but one part deliberately wants to do this. So it is deliberate -- one part of the personality is deliberate. So at this point, the other parts close their eyes and stop looking. How could they watch? If this person wants to self-harm, how could they watch? The other part says, well then, go ahead and self-harm; I can choose to ignore you while you go self-harm.

And this event appears to be a disaster or near-disaster. Think about it: if you are going to experience a disaster, how could another part of you just watch you go through a disaster? The human self, the conscious mind, inherently has this ability to keep you from stepping into disaster. But when one part of your personality wants to experience this disaster, to experience this disaster in order to heal itself, then the other part that should stop you -- that part of the conscious mind -- closes its eyes and does not stop you, allowing you to experience or approach this disaster.

But they are enough to mobilize the entire personality for survival.

The meaning of this disaster is just this: the disaster makes you deliberately place yourself in grave danger. The purpose of stepping into this disaster is to make your entire personality, all its parts -- including those in opposition and those not in opposition, those with consistent belief systems and those with inconsistent ones -- completely unified in the face of this life-and-death disaster.

In a moment of extreme danger and tension, the personality may perhaps reintegrate itself.

He says perhaps; it is not always effective. Sometimes it does work. In the face of great disaster, this person undergoes tremendous suffering -- he may experience what others see as a great calamity in life, but after the great calamity passes, the psychological illness actually heals: his split personality heals, his schizophrenia heals, his multiple personality disorder heals, and he becomes unified again. This is a very interesting thing.

Such episodes of crisis integration usually do not involve prolonged illness; they are swift.

It does not last very long; it comes quickly and goes quickly.

Usually they may be events like a long-term, seemingly terrible accident.

A sudden accident, or paralysis of the lower limbs, or the loss of some body part, a broken arm or leg.

For example, the difficulty itself may be externalized as a damaged limb rather than a damaged self.

This difficulty -- what kind of difficulty? It is when two opposing beliefs in the personality are completely opposed, and the personality cannot be unified, like a damaged self. When this is externalized, it is not a damaged personality but a damaged limb.

And as the body is repaired, the necessary assimilation of beliefs also takes place.

As your body is repaired -- because this damaged limb of your body is caused by a damaged belief, because your beliefs are not unified. When your limb is repaired, the necessary assimilation of your corresponding beliefs will also occur.

There are various kinds and stages in such cases.

That is, cases of split personality, schizophrenia, and multiple personality disorder come in various kinds and stages. This must be remembered: never try to force a fit, saying oh, Seth talked about how schizophrenia is, how split personality is, let me apply that -- no, every case is different, every person is unique. This must be remembered; Seth specifically emphasized that every person is unique.

Sometimes the framework includes another method of healing, in which a portion of each of the person's two conflicting aspects breaks off to form a clear psychological structure that can communicate with the other two, acting as an arbiter to coordinate the opposing beliefs held by each side.

Sometimes, this is also a method for treating multiple personality disorder or split personality: if under certain circumstances, both personalities have become disconnected from your conscious mind -- not that one personality is dominant and the other steps aside, and then when the other personality comes, this one steps aside. Some people have dozens of personalities -- it seems the most anyone has had is dozens of personalities, multiple personality disorder; there have been such cases. Most people have a few; normally two is the most common, three or four is less common, but some people have many.

What state emerges at this point? Both personalities have become disconnected from your conscious mind, and neither can fully control the conscious mind. At this point, your conscious mind acts as an arbiter in the middle: you call these two personalities together and talk with them -- these two completely different belief systems, you act as the judge in the middle, and you facilitate communication between them. You feel that you are very powerless, and it feels that it is all-powerful. You call them together to discuss and coordinate.

Because both of these are your beliefs -- you must remember that they are not external; both of these were created because you did not carefully examine and attend to your beliefs in the beginning. They are both parts of you; you must accept and acknowledge them. At this point, you call them together and discuss with them. This is very interesting.

To coordinate -- discuss what? Coordinate the opposing beliefs held by each side. Their beliefs are completely opposed; at this point, you need to coordinate: neither should go too far, neither should be too extreme. The one that feels powerless -- you are not that powerless; you have ability, you have energy, you can mobilize it, as long as you change your beliefs. The one that feels all-powerful -- someone tells it, you are not all-powerful; that is just your own feeling that you are all-powerful, and you are actually subject to many limitations. Simply put, it is coordination: let them communicate and negotiate, with you acting as arbiter in the middle. If one discussion does not work, have two; if two do not work, have three; let them talk again and again. After enough discussions, you will be able to recognize their true faces and their thoughts. When these belief systems emerge again, you will immediately be able to distinguish whose belief is at work.

Such situations may be carried on many times, while the primary personality still does not understand what is really happening.

Sometimes they still do not understand what is happening.

Sometimes automatic writing or a Ouija board is used.

Sometimes through automatic writing, using methods like the planchette or spirit writing, or a Ouija board.

Automatic writing or a Ouija board is used to discover invisible, conscious beliefs.

Use these two to discover those invisible, conscious beliefs -- what we often call inactive consciousness. Not discovering active consciousness, but those beliefs that you have not known, that you think are no longer functioning, that you cannot see, but which are actually active. You must discover these conscious beliefs and see them. But because they are hidden and outside the range of your consciousness, you need to use methods like the Ouija board or spirit writing to make them manifest -- to reveal those beliefs that you yourself are not aware of.

A method, for example, of discovering beliefs that at one time were consciously accepted, and at another time deliberately ignored.

These beliefs are accepted by you at certain times, but at other times completely ignored by you, and you are entirely unaware of their existence. These kinds of things can be unearthed through deeper methods.

When someone tells a person using such methods that their writing comes from a demon or an evil spirit, then since it may lead to further aggression, these invisible beliefs are pushed even further away, and any probing into the depths of the psyche becomes frightening and dangerous.

When someone tells you -- do not use the spirit writing or the Ouija board anymore. Why? Because what you write through the spirit writing or Ouija board might all be ghosts, ghost possession, all demons from this space that we cannot see, and they are the ones writing. When someone tells you that demons and evil spirits are behind it, problems arise.

What problems arise? Because since this demon or evil spirit can lead to further aggression -- since it can make you write automatically, can make your consciousness manifest, then could it enter your consciousness? Could it possess you? This is many people's view. Therefore, with this further aggression, these invisible beliefs are pushed even further away, and any probing into the depths of the psyche becomes more frightening and dangerous.

These beliefs are originally yours, but you insist on saying that these beliefs belong to evil spirits and demons, that they are not yours, that they are external. Our purpose is to dig these beliefs out and lay them before us, so that these two different beliefs can be coordinated; but instead, someone tells you that those beliefs are not yours at all, that they come from external demons and evil spirits -- then do these beliefs not become even further from you? You no longer even acknowledge them as your beliefs, so this kind of exploration becomes more frightening and dangerous.

Now such aggression is usually the sudden emergence of previously unacceptable beliefs -- quite conscious yet invisible and hidden.

When reading this, you should first skip the part between the dashes, because if you read it all together, you will not know what he is trying to say. This kind of aggression now is usually the sudden emergence of previously unacceptable beliefs. The emergence of these beliefs of evil spirits seems sudden, as if they suddenly appeared from outside. But in fact, they are quite conscious, yet invisible and hidden -- these things did not suddenly appear; you feel they appeared suddenly, but in fact it is because they are your beliefs, only you cannot see them and have hidden them yourself, so you feel as if they came from outside like evil spirits.

They may, however, suddenly appear in the guise of "alien beings."

Actually, these beliefs are all beliefs that you yourself have hidden.

In most instances, the idea of possession makes it all the more disturbing.

In most cases, the idea of ghost possession or demonic possession makes people feel even more uneasy.

The easier concept to face is usually that the responsibility for such ideas must belong to another being or creature.

Actually, it is caused by the existence of other evil spirits, ghosts, little ghosts, or little ghosts that have not reincarnated, and so on.

In all instances involving episodes such as Augustus's, the problem is an unassimilated belief.

A problem like Augustus's is caused by a belief that has not been assimilated, has not been examined.

Besides expressing itself in such a relatively drastic manner, such a belief can also express itself through various portions of the body.

Besides expressing this unassimilated belief in such a drastic form as Augustus Two, it can also express itself through various parts of the body.

Unfortunately, a medical system that most often treats symptoms alone will only encourage the patient to project such beliefs onto new organs -- after, for example, other organs have already been sacrificed in surgery.

He is speaking very obliquely. What he means is this: sometimes you express it through the drastic method of summoning Augustus Two; sometimes it is not such a drastic method, but a method invisible to you -- you are not even aware that you have such a strong belief system. This system is opposed to your belief system, and at this point it may cause one of your body's organs to become ill, and to become seriously ill, projecting onto that organ. At this point, you might undergo surgery to remove that organ, or to remove part of it. At this point, he tells you: it is actually useless, because once you remove that organ, it will move to a new organ. Therefore, if you do not resolve the fundamental problem of the belief system, you will sacrifice these organs in vain.

The solution lies in the conscious mind, and I cannot emphasize this too strongly. The solution lies in your conscious mind, and in the beliefs you accept about the nature of reality -- particularly about the nature of your own existence.

The solution is just this one thing; this must be remembered: it lies in your conscious mind. What conscious mind? In the beliefs you accept about the nature of reality -- how you view this world, how you perceive this world -- especially in your beliefs about your own existence, where the value and meaning of your existence lie. These are the fundamental things that determine whether you can heal yourself on this issue.

While the most basic work must be done by the individual, help is always available from various sources, both inner and outer.

Although the root and most fundamental aspect of this matter is that the person involved must examine or observe their own belief system, checking their own belief system at the level of their conscious mind, still, from various sources, there are both inner and outer ways of receiving help.

You will indeed interpret and utilize any material that comes to you, and regard it as helpful, and it will also be extremely effective. Unless your beliefs perhaps make you think that everyone is against you, or you think you are beyond hope, or you think you do not deserve help.

What he means is, unless the following situation arises: you feel you do not deserve help, or you feel everyone is against you, has no intention of curing you, and is all out to harm you -- unless you are supported by that kind of belief system, otherwise external help will be effective for you, will be helpful, and you can just do as they say.

How should you interpret and utilize it? You must truly interpret and utilize any material that comes to you, and regard it as helpful, and it will also be extremely effective. External and internal help are both effective for you, as long as you accept it psychologically. What is the core point here? It is that if you believe it is effective, then it really is effective. What he says next is, unless you think they are against you, that they are harming you, or you think you are already beyond cure, that no medicine can save you, or you think you do not deserve help at all.

Of course, this kind of thought will also prevent you from receiving help.

If you think that way, you certainly will not receive help.

But whenever possible, you will instinctively seek help, and use it.

But human instinct -- at this point you should remember, this kind of patient will always have instinct, and will go everywhere looking for ways to heal themselves. Whenever possible they will find a way to call for help, and they know their own condition. So this is a very interesting thing: they will instinctively save themselves. When someone comes to you seeking help, then you should help them -- be sure to remember this, if they seek help, or when you are able to help others, you should help them. This kind of external help is sometimes very effective, extremely effective. And you should tell them that your help is effective for them. As long as they believe what you say, that your help is effective for them, then for them it really will be extremely effective.

He says you may take a break, or end the session here. Seeing that he has recovered quite well, this session ends here.

Through My Eyes

At the beginning of this session, Jane and Rob sat waiting for the session to begin. At 9:25, Jane suddenly told Rob:

I just received that I am going to write a book, and the title of this book is Through My Eyes.

The English title is Through My Eyes¹¹. She was very surprised, and so was I, and Rob was also surprised.

At first Jane said she thought the material she received from Seth was meant to be one chapter of a book she would write, or that it would be under that title. But then she quickly realized that this would be my own work -- my own work, whose own? It would be Rob's work. This book was supposedly meant to express my views on the Seth experience, and how it influenced and changed my ideas about art and life.

When Jane told me all of this, she announced that Seth would be coming through right away -- which was very unusual for our regular sessions. Then he took off his glasses, and began.

Session 630

Okay, and then at this point Seth says:

The title of this book should be "Through My Eyes," and it should be your own book.

He is referring to Rob, this is your own book.

Dealing in your own way with many important areas. You do have writing ability, as you know.

You not only have the ability to paint, but also the ability to write.

The book should include your version of our joint experience, your own philosophical interpretation of him, and the questions he arouses in your mind. Your observations of Ruburt as Jane, and in your trance states.

What he means is that this book is mainly about how Rob viewed the entire process of transmission -- the process in which Jane or Ruburt spoke on behalf of Seth. Because Rob is a relatively more rational person compared to Jane, he would offer some philosophical explanations. This is the kind of book Seth hoped Rob would write.

Other portions should explain themselves, your own ideas about creativity.

That is, how you yourself understand creativity.

The way you feel it within you, for example,

The way creativity feels within you.

Compare the similarities and differences between the experience when you paint a picture from ordinary inspiration, and when you first perceive the psychic impression that leads to a picture. Should include some illustrations, from an initial sketch to a finished painting.

This point Seth makes here is excellent. But from my impression, it seems Rob never wrote this book -- I am not sure, I do not think I have looked into it carefully.

The book Rob was to write -- setting aside the earlier part, which was about the three of them, Jane, Rob, and Seth, in the process of transmission, Seth wanted Rob to write about his own feelings from his own point of view. But the most valuable part of this book was that Seth wanted Rob to describe where this creativity within him -- where the source of this creativity in his body actually came from, to have him genuinely discuss, from the perspective of painting, where the wellspring of creativity comes from.

And the suggestion he gave Rob was that he could make two comparisons: one is when you have ordinary inspiration in ordinary times -- for example, today I want to paint a picture, I want to express a certain theme, that is one kind of ordinary inspiration; and the other is when you suddenly have a psychic image or psychic impression -- that intense psychic impression, when that sense of imagery is vividly alive in your mind. In both of these situations you want to paint, so what are the differences, the similarities and differences, between the paintings produced in these two ways? Seth was asking him to compare these two.

Then he said you can go from the initial sketch -- or the preliminary sketch of the painting -- to the finished painting, and you can compare the similarities and differences between the two through such a process. In this way, people could truly come to recognize where our artistic creativity comes from -- this was Seth's fundamental purpose.

Let us continue reading:

Give some thought as to how to go about this experiment.

He said you should think about, conceive of such an experiment: paint two different paintings, one from ordinary inspiration, one from a sudden psychic impression.

Both, in his normal state of consciousness and in altered states of consciousness, observing the nature of color.

That is, in your ordinary inspiration and in that state of inspiration suddenly coming from the psychic inner self, observe the nature of color -- what is different about the color?

Also note the colors in your dreams.

For painting, color is crucial.

You should explore your own ideas about the people you paint,

That is, about this person you are painting, this person in the portrait, what do you think? How do you feel about him?

And why, although you are fascinated by painting portraits, you often do not use models.

Rob often painted portraits, but he basically did not use models when painting portraits. He asked you to think carefully about why this is.

The book could include some material on art that I will give you through various channels.

Seth said, in this book, I may give you some material on art through various channels.

Also dealing with the ways in which you apply it.

That is, how you apply this in artistic creation.

Then comes a practical section -- a very practical section. It is mainly about fine art, but also touches on some other artistic fields, such as the nature and source of inspiration. That is, in the following section, you can write some practical things.

I have given you an outline.

He said I have already given you the outline for this book.

Certain that you can do it.

He said with this outline given to you, you should be able to do it.

Besides, the book should be fun to write, combining your writing and painting abilities.

Because this book itself would also require drawing upon his painting ability.

The title is well chosen, "Through Your Eyes."

"Through My Eyes."

And the book will sell reasonably well.

He even predicted this for him.

And you will get a contract, and an advance to begin with.

Because in many publishing situations, when you sign a publishing contract, they will give you a certain advance on the royalties up front.

And writing the book will act as a stimulus for your painting.

This book can simultaneously stimulate your painting, because in order to complete this book, you will constantly have to experiment with your own feelings of creativity, the similarities and differences of creativity.

I am playing a trick here.

Seth said, I am playing a little trick here.

What little trick? It was to stimulate him, to serve as a stimulus and improvement for his painting.

At this point Rob was also teasing him, saying, do you? He said he wanted to probe him a bit -- see how interesting their conversation was. Seth said I played a little trick, and then Rob wanted to probe him a bit, saying, do you? Do you really intend this little trick?

He does. I do have this trick in mind, because as far as painting is concerned, it will help you through some difficulties, and further stimulate in you a new spontaneous force of painting.

What he means is, my asking you to write this book is not without purpose, not just for the sake of publishing a book. I asked you to write this book so that you can sort out your own thinking, so that you can understand yourself, clearly understand where the source power of your creation comes from. And then in this process, in the process of your sorting things out, when there are places you cannot quite think through clearly, Seth said I will give you some pointers, give you some material, give you some material on art. At that point, he said, your painting will enter a new level and a new realm. In this way, you will come to understand this spontaneous force of painting.

He was actually helping Rob -- see how thoughtful he was, how painstaking. Because he had discovered that Rob was stuck at a certain stage in his painting, and this stuck stage would affect Rob's development and expression. Because Rob had not been doing much recently, just helping him record all this every day. Of course he still had some time to paint, but his painting time had been greatly taken up, because he was recording notes in large volume, then organizing them, then typing them up, which consumed a great deal of time.

And will also use your experience for his own purposes. You will also consider this a worthy endeavor,

Because it is worthwhile, and it will also use your experience for his own purposes.

I know that the impetus alone will quite handily and automatically produce some excellent paintings.

This impetus alone will produce some excellent paintings. What impetus? The impetus to write this book. You will want to make use of those paintings, because you will need to paint some pictures in order to talk about them in the book -- he can talk about how these paintings came about, how I painted such pictures, how I created them.

I will not tell you now in which particular way this is sneakily getting around some of your problems.

I will not tell you now that this is my little trick.

Nor will I tell you what those problems are.

That is, from Seth's perspective, he clearly saw that Rob was encountering some problems in his painting at that time. But at this point -- see how clever he was -- he did not directly point out the problems in his painting, nor did he tell him what those problems were. He wanted to resolve these problems through the process of writing this book, to solve them without his even noticing, rather than directly telling him, hey, you have hit a bottleneck in your painting now, you have such and such a problem, you should do this or that. He wanted, through the process of writing the book, through the process of creating paintings for this book, to resolve the problem along the way. See Seth's cleverness and wisdom -- the little trick is embodied in these places.

Now we will take a break, and that is the small surprise I have for you both.

That is, the small surprise about writing this book.

Jane said, I am too surprised -- Jane came back and exclaimed:

I had no idea of such an experience, of Rob writing a book. Not that I had never thought of writing a book myself that at least partially involved Seth. When something like this happens in a session, I am really surprised.

Jane said, it was so different from what I had been thinking or doing.

I can see a section of that book now.

Jane's abilities were already very strong by now, her inner senses were gradually opening. She said, but I can see a section in the middle of that book right now -- the book had not been written yet, but she could travel through time and space. At this point she was no longer limited by time and space; she could already see a section in the middle of that book.

And your illustrations. I can see Seth's picture on the back cover.

She said, pointing to a painting behind him, which was a portrait of Seth he had once painted. That portrait had once been included in The Seth Material, hanging on the wall of our living room, right behind her rocking chair.

Then at 9:58, continuing in the same positive manner:

Now this book will be a good advertisement for a book I will write later. And if you insert what I have told you into the book I am now writing, people will begin to look forward to your book.

He told him, then people will look forward to it. See, Seth's commercial sense was also very sharp. He said, put this section into The Nature of Personal Reality. When The Nature of Personal Reality is published, many people who are interested in art, or in artistic creation, many painters and potential painters and people involved in artistic creation, will all look forward to this book. So by the time Rob was going to write this book and it had not yet been written, many people would already have this anticipation, and it would become an instant hit.

Therefore, include it in The Nature of Personal Reality, because in your "personal reality."

This book was born this way -- within Rob's "personal reality," how did this book come about? It came about this way, from a proposal Seth made.

I have several things to do tonight. Some of Rob's questions will be answered in our next chapter. Now I will make some other personal comments.

That is, some private discussion, discussion of some personal matters, so this part is not included in this book. If you are interested in this content, you can find it in Seth's private sessions or in The Early Sessions -- in that series of books there will be detailed records, but in these books it is not included.

So the entire interpretation of Chapter 6, which is also the interpretation of Part 3, has now come to a complete close. In our next session we will begin interpreting the next chapter, Chapter 7 of the Seth material, which is "The Flesh and the Blood." That is all for today's content. I wish everyone a wonderful day.

---

注释与核实

1. According to Mike's original words, "If you have seen an American TV series called Uploaded Life"; upon verification, it should be "The correct name of the show is the American science fiction comedy series Upload (Taiwanese translation Upload Heaven and Earth, original title Upload), created by Greg Daniels, premiered on Amazon Prime Video on May 1, 2020, telling the story of people near death in 2033 uploading their consciousness to a virtual afterlife." (Source: Wikipedia "Upload", https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-hans/%E4%B8%8A%E5%82%B3%E5%A4%A9%E5%9C%B0) ↩

2. Source: China Daily "Chen Ning Yang, 82, to marry a 28-year-old woman" (https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-12/16/content_400791.htm) ↩

3. Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica "Pearl Harbor attack" (https://www.britannica.com/event/Pearl-Harbor-attack/The-attack) ↩

4. This claim could not be verified. ↩

5. Source: Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum "FDR and Polio" (https://www.fdrlibrary.org/polio) ↩

6. Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica "Helen Keller | Biography, Education, & Facts" (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Helen-Keller) ↩

7. This claim could not be verified. ↩

8. Source: Esther Hicks, Jerry Hicks, The Vortex: Where the Law of Attraction Assembles All Cooperative Relationships (2009) (https://abraham-hicks.com/the_vortex/) ↩

9. Source: BBC News "Why is Kim Jong-un always surrounded by people taking notes?" (https://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-27116092) ↩

10. This claim could not be verified. ↩

11. This claim could not be verified. ↩