Mike's commentary · The Way Toward Health, Chapter 3

The "Introduction" and "Chapter Highlights" in 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 parts Mike read aloud).

Introduction

This chapter centers on "those who take risks, those who challenge death, and health," pointing out that not everyone loves life and fears death. Some people feel that life is beautiful only at the edge of death or in pain. Health should be seen as different stages rather than disease, and death is a part of life and is healthy. Seth also discusses the relationship between consciousness and the body, the inseparability of the ego and the inner self, the universe being composed of love, and the body renewing itself at every moment, emphasizing that self-worth and self-esteem promote health, and that physical life is not inferior.

Key Points of This Chapter

• Not everyone loves life and fears death. Some people only feel the sweetness of life at the edge of death or in the midst of pain. Some take pain as pleasure, or derive a sense of security from poor health.
• Health should be divided into different stages, and all stages are health. Death is a part of life and is itself healthy.
• Those who challenge death fear it more than most people. Through meticulous preparation, they taste the sweetness of life under the threat of death. Once they stop challenging, they may easily fall ill.
• The ego and the inner self are inseparable. Belittling the ego and self-condemnation are harmful to health. Self-worth and self-esteem promote health.
• The universe is composed of love, and the essence of energy is love. The body is new at every moment, and physical life is by no means inferior.

Main Text

Those Who Take Risks: Only at the Edge of Death Do They Learn to Appreciate Life

The title of Chapter Three is "Those Who Take Risks, Those Who Challenge Death, and Health." This chapter is relatively neat and focused in its content, and I plan to interpret it in two parts. Starting from this chapter, Seth's words move away from the process of recording Jane's illness in great detail in Chapter Two, and begin to concentrate on the completion of this book, somewhat restoring the rhythm of the earlier transmission of the Seth material, with a great deal of content now about the book itself.

On Tuesday, March 13, 1984, at 4:10 in the afternoon, Jane's Seth voice was still somewhat stronger than usual, more forceful, with the usual pauses. Seth said he was dictating Chapter Three, the title of which Jane had given him yesterday afternoon: "Those Who Take Risks, Those Who Challenge Death, and Health."

Seth began the main content of this chapter:

Your first thought, obviously, is that people seem to love life and fear death.

They should pursue pleasure and avoid pain.

This is our first thought: that people seem to love life and fear death. But in fact this is not the case. Everyone is different, and it cannot be generalized:

Yet this is not always so.

There are always some people who must feel themselves at the edge of death before they can fully appreciate the quality of life. Remember this sentence: some people can only fully appreciate the quality and character of life when they are at the edge of death. If they are not at the edge of death, they cannot truly grasp the beauty of life. You may ask, how can there be such people? The world is vast and full of wonders; there really are such people. For example, those who do extreme sports, those who challenge wilderness survival, and even those who push beyond the limits of human ability: many people are passionate about these things, and some devote their entire lives to them.

There is one type of person who cannot appreciate or enjoy the satisfaction and pleasure of life: they cannot be satisfied unless they are simultaneously facing the threat of death and intense pain. When under long-term illness, they can instead feel the goodness of the body; under the threat of death, in the brief moments of respite, they feel that life is so wonderful. This is also a type of person.

There are also some people who firmly believe:

The pursuit of pleasure will inevitably lead to pain.

So they do not pursue happiness. In their belief, pursuing happiness will definitely bring the opposite effect: people cannot enjoy themselves; people must suffer. This is a mistaken view, but many people hold it.

And there are others, for whom:

Pain itself is pleasure.

Are there such people? Yes. Look at those who pierce holes all over their bodies, or even those who hang themselves from hooks: in the process of enjoying pain, they enjoy another kind of pleasure. This is even more evident in many intimate relationships, where there are tendencies based on sadism and masochism. Why is someone willing to be abused? Because in being abused, they find pleasure. Everyone's needs are different. When you cannot understand or accept another person's viewpoint, do not judge or criticize them: just like such people, for them pain is pleasure.

There are also some people who, when they are in a state of health, find that their beliefs make them feel very uncomfortable. For these individuals personally, very poor health brings a sense of security. Are there such people? There are especially many in life. You see them always sickly, always saying this place is uncomfortable or that place is uncomfortable, but when they go for checkups, or in reality, they have no real condition, yet they just feel uncomfortable. Much life experience tells us that they often live very long: these seemingly sickly people actually live very long. Because in this very poor state of health, they instead have a sense of security. These people all share a common characteristic: they actually lack a sense of security and do not trust others; they have extreme demands regarding the environment, food, and cleanliness; they do not quite trust anything. They feel that their bodies are always in a sub-healthy state, not necessarily in very good condition, but it is precisely such people who live the longest.

Seth said:

There are almost countless stages connected with health.

It is not just the few summarized above: there are the exuberant, the pure, the energetic, the vigorous, and also the diminished vitality and discomfort; all these states of health exist. Seth gave them a suggestion:

You could invent an entirely different way of looking at health by numbering and defining each of these stages.

You can number each stage of health and classify it: for example, category A can be divided into A1, A2, A3; the exuberant counts as category A, the pure as category B, and so on. Of course, you can also operate in reverse. Your society has in fact already chosen to identify or define all those stages that are unfavorable to health. At a certain point, health is no longer there; health is absent. Human society can recognize, when a person's health is absent, what conditions you divide it into, and then classify and define them as different diseases, from sub-health all the way to serious illness.

Seth believed the correct approach should be this: health is divided into different stages or different types, but no matter which degree, from a larger perspective all of it is health. Traditional medicine, however, believes that we are unhealthy, that we have lost our health, and only considers a certain state to be healthy: for example, the exuberant, pure, energetic stage; we consider this to be health. Apart from this, everything else is considered unhealthy. In fact, they are also healthy, just different kinds of health. Remember the essential difference here: Seth believed that all conditions are health, just different stages of health; traditional medicine believes that only those very good states count as health, and all other states count as unhealthy, as illness.

So in this book, Seth said:

We will concentrate on methods of promoting health, and we will meaningfully avoid naming that which is "not."

Here he translated "disease" as "not." "Disease" in English means illness, but its other meaning is "not": the inability to relax.

Seth then emphasized a very important matter:

Death itself is the release of your species and all other species.

Death is a liberator.

Just note that point.

Remember, death is a release for all humans and all other species. Death itself is not negative; on the contrary, it is a positive beginning of a different kind of existence. It prunes the planet, so to speak, so that all things may have time and space, and also energy and substance.

Because of death, life is possible.

So birth and death, these two seemingly opposite qualities, are actually different versions of the same phenomenon: what phenomenon? The phenomenon of life, in different versions. We generally think that only birth is a phenomenon of life, and death is the end of life. In fact, this is not so; death is another phenomenon of the beginning of life. Birth and death are both phenomena of life, and both are positive.

Conversely:

If death disappeared from your planet for even one hour, all life would soon be threatened.

And if all possible life suddenly appeared at once, then without doubt everything would be completely annihilated.

Then we must admit:

Death is indeed a part of life, and the better part.

We must say that death is healthy.

This completely overturns everyone's understanding. What we try with all our might to avoid is death; what we least want to face is death. But Seth, from a broader perspective on the question of death, tells us: death is truly a form of life superior to what we think. It is a part of life, and the better part: that is, death is the final, or the highest, expression of the form of life, the final performance. Through death, new life is able to survive. If no one on this earth died, then humanity could not have appeared, and even those who did not die would instantly starve to death, because the earth's energy and food are insufficient to support all material life existing at the same time, so death as a release must be experienced. Therefore, from this perspective, death is also healthy.

Just as the death of the cells in our bodies is healthy. If the cells in our bodies did not die, they would become cancer cells, which would instead be unhealthy. All cancers begin when cells stop dying: cancer cells do not die, so not dying is actually unhealthy. We can draw this conclusion from the cancer cells in our bodies. For this planet, if we think of each individual as a cell, and the whole planet as a body, then we individuals are the cells. If we seek not to die, then this planet would get cancer. So our death is the most normal healthy behavior that allows the entire earth to survive healthily: death is healthy.

Rob's Dream: About Joe Bumbalo

After Seth finished his dictation, he said: "A comment on your dream." We have to look at the content of the dream first, otherwise we won't know what dream he was talking about.

Seth said that Rob had described to Jane this afternoon his dream from yesterday about Joe Bumbalo. Rob dreamed that Joe's heart was seriously ill, and Joe was just lying on his back in bed. Rob thought it was in a trailer setting, and Joe's wife Margaret was there, along with Rob. Rob told Jane he wasn't sure whether this meant Joe had died or not. Then he more or less forgot about the dream.

But at 11:55 in the morning, while Rob was waiting for a lawyer's call, Joe's son John Bumbalo called to borrow his car. Due to unexpected overheating, John's car wouldn't run, but he had to pick up his sister Judy, who was flying in from the Midwest, at the airport in Xianmen County by two o'clock, and then pick up Margaret and Joe at 5:30. Rob was of course surprised, because their parents weren't supposed to return until May, and it was only March now. John said that Joe — that is, his father — was very ill, with pain all over his body, including in his bones, but examination of the fluid drawn from the heart area showed freely flowing cancer cells. An electronic scan did not reveal where these cancer cells came from.

Joe had been lying on the bed in the trailer — the trailer being the kind of gurney used in hospitals. And Margaret had resisted taking him to the hospital; his diabetes had gone out of control. When John and Rob went to the hospital, John said the timing of the dream matched what Margaret had described — that is, when Rob dreamed of Joe's heart pain, with him and his wife both at the bedside, it was completely consistent with the time Margaret described. Rob may have tuned in to the detection of the fluid around the heart, but he doubted whether this could ever be confirmed. It didn't really matter.

Then John left Rob at the hospital and drove off in Rob's car, and at 6:45 he called to say the task was complete and everyone had now been picked up and brought home. At 7:05 he came back to pick up Rob. The weather wasn't very good, and once or twice there were quite dangerous situations while he was driving Rob home. Rob told John to have his mother Margaret call when they could be visited. Jane remembered Rob's dream; when they were together, Rob had said at the time that he hoped the dream wouldn't come true, although clearly it still did. On the way home John said that a later report showed Joe indeed had cancer throughout his body — it had already metastasized.

Now see how Seth commented on Rob's dream:

As you supposed, it was of a telepathic nature.

There is a cellular communication between all of the living cells of the earth, as if the earth itself were one great body.

Your own knowledge, desires, purposes, and intents tune you into some of those communications.

So your concern for Joe Bumbalo tuned you into his physical and emotional state at that time.

What Seth means is that each of us is like every cell on the earth, and between them there is an exchange of information that transcends our human understanding — this is the telepathic ability. When you tune into that state, you can receive this telepathic information. Rob was able to receive telepathic information with Joe because he cared about his neighbor Joe. Just as the cells in our human bodies transmit large amounts of information among themselves, each of us in life can also transmit information through telepathy or other means — this is our most basic ability.

Seth said at the end: "I wish you a good afternoon now." And once again, these things themselves do indeed set excellent coordinates for health and healing.

Those Who Court Death: Savoring the Sweetness of Life Under the Threat of Death

Thursday, March 15, 1984, 4:06 p.m. Jane's Seth voice was stronger than usual, indeed at times almost very loud, with the usual pauses. Seth said:

We will continue our dictation.

He said:

The individual who challenges death again and again is actually more afraid of death than most other people.

Those who seem to be doing trapeze performances, free-climbing tall structures, and so on -- trapeze artists, stunt performers, race car drivers, and other groups who do extreme sports. They have a way of life that includes performing these death-defying stunts on a regular basis. Ordinary people would think they are not afraid of death, but that is not so -- they are more afraid of death than ordinary people. It is not that they do these things because they are unafraid of death; on the contrary, they are afraid of death, but they want to challenge that death. So their preparation work is done extremely meticulously. If you have watched related documentaries, you should know what I am talking about -- all extreme sports involve very, very meticulous preparation, and are only executed on the premise of absolute certainty. The heart-stopping moments you see are ultimately presented to you only after countless calculations, simulations, rehearsals, drills, practice, and dress rehearsals, one success after another.

Seth pointed out:

The trapeze artist, for example, may perform several times a day, and it seems that such an individual performs with remarkable courage, even with a recklessness with which most people are unfamiliar.

Everyone thinks they are very dangerous and reckless, but most such performers are extremely standardized and regularized, and they work with a cautious, calculating gaze. The eye contact between them is very important -- the other person gives a confirming look, and only then can the person on this side let go to catch the other person's hands or feet. The grasp of this timing is accomplished through their long-term practice and the interaction of their eyes with each other. Every detail, no matter how minute, is worked on under extremely important conditions, and every detail is attended to with repeated rehearsals and drills.

For example, no matter how many times certain trapeze performers may have repeated it, there is always the threat of immediate disaster.

For instance, one misstep, one final fall. Although they carefully calculate and simulate rehearsals every time, they still cannot avoid the occurrence of such accidents -- no matter how ingenious the calculation, there will still be accidents, so one accident could bring their lives to an abrupt end. This is the daily state of life for these high-wire performers. By testing fate -- still facing such accidents after close preparation -- they are testing how soon that accident will happen.

The death-challenger tries to prove to himself at each performance that he is indeed safe, and able to overcome life's most dire circumstances.

That is exactly it. Through these performances they prove that they are safe; in performances that others see as hanging by a thread, they are safe under their meticulous preparation -- this is what they want to experience and feel. Thus, in contrast to the ever-present threat of death:

Life has its sweetest benefits, its greatest satisfactions.

Under this daily threat of death, life instead takes on the greatest sweetness and the greatest satisfaction. This is indeed the case in reality. For example, if you have come into contact with people like flight attendants -- stewardesses, pilots -- you will know that their state of life is completely different. They basically do not save much money; they basically live in the moment, and basically hold an open-minded and open attitude toward life. The reason is that they do not know on which mission they might encounter an accident. Although we know that the safety of today's aviation has surpassed all other means of transportation -- by probability, the safety of airplanes surpasses cars, trains, and all human means of transportation -- for pilots and flight attendants it is different. Because they fly every day, sometimes more than one flight a day, so this extremely low probability for ordinary people becomes a relatively high probability for those who fly every day. They live under the threat of death every day, so they cherish each day of life more, and cherish the life of the present more. They do not think too much about long-term or future matters, because they do not know who the money they save will be left to, nor whether those repeatedly postponed and delayed enjoyments -- whether travel or life experiences -- will still have a chance to be enjoyed. So they seize every opportunity in the present to enjoy life, to enjoy living.

Many such people do not feel safe at all living under ordinary life conditions; they must go and challenge these high-risk professions. By setting up such a circumstance of encounter, they once again control those conditions down to the smallest detail to protect themselves, yet they are also extremely meticulous and serious. If you have come into contact with the profession of pilots, you will know that they are more careful than everyone else, more cautious than everyone else; before takeoff they have to perform up to over a hundred inspection items to ensure the aircraft is safe, not to mention the repeated inspections of the aircraft by ground crew and ground staff.

Seth said:

Only when they pursue some death-challenging career does such a person feel safe enough to relax in other ways.

And outside of their death-challenging career, they lead a fairly normal life.

The everyday lives of these people in high-risk professions are especially ordinary, yet they are doing high-risk professions that we ordinary people cannot believe or challenge. What is the reason? It is because only in this way can they make their ordinary lives feel safe and happy.

Seth said:

I do not mean to make any moral judgments upon such activity.

It often allows a deep sense of exuberance and vitality.

The inner vitality of people who do these high-risk professions and extreme sports is very powerful. When you look at those mountaineers, those extreme divers, including extreme sports, wilderness survival, and other high-risk professions, the life force and vitality they radiate exceed the imagination of ordinary people.

For example, I remember watching a movie called Fall¹ I watched a movie called Fall², it seemed to be about two mountaineers who had been partners for a long time, and then during one climb an accident occurred: one person had already fallen, and the other was hanging from the mountain by a rope, with one of his arms firmly bound there. He could neither go up nor come down, and after hanging there for more than ten hours, he would either freeze or starve to death in that place, or he would have to find a way to free himself. In the end, this mountaineer -- he was just an ordinary person who simply loved mountaineering -- as I recall, he took out a small knife and, while hanging there, literally cut off one of his arms, then let himself drop from the rope and fell deep below. Then, enduring the pain of his severed arm, after hanging there for more than ten hours, he was still able to persist and walk step by step from the very high mountain back to their camp. I cannot remember the specific details clearly; you can go find such a documentary. For most people this is unimaginable. A person can still do these things under such extreme circumstances -- from this perspective, they all have extraordinary willpower and exuberant vitality, and their desire for and persistence in life exceeds ordinary people's understanding.

Seth said:

It is also true, however, that such persons may enjoy excellent health for years.

They are very healthy for many years -- all kinds of fractures and scrapes do not count.

Only if they try to give up their activity do they suddenly become susceptible to certain illnesses.

This is also a fact. Some high-risk athletes or extreme athletes, when they suddenly stop their athletic careers, often become more susceptible to serious illnesses than normal people. What is the reason? What is the underlying logic? It is that only when facing the threat to life can they burst forth with the exuberant vitality and life force within their bodies. When there is no such external threat and challenge, their inner vitality and life cannot bloom. And when these do not bloom, when they feel that life is unsafe, their health begins to have problems. In other words, in their underlying logic, only when life is threatened do they instead feel safe, healthy, and happy, and that life is wonderful. Conversely, when these threats and challenges are absent, they easily enter such a stage and begin to show an unhealthy manifestation.

Seth said:

Of course, things need not be so.

Self-knowledge and self-understanding may improve the individual's life, regardless of their life's activities or circumstances.

Things do not have to be this way. If you can change your beliefs and change your cognition, you can change this situation; no matter what their life activities or circumstances are, they can all be changed.

Seth summarized the life characteristics of these people:

These individuals do indeed choose for themselves a careful, planned, and disciplined style of life, in which their personal and frequent encounters with the threat of death turn each day into a long process of exploration, in which they deliberately weigh death and life.

That is exactly it. On the one hand, they live an extremely careful and cautious life, checking every detail of their adventures. For example, mountaineers will repeatedly and many times check their equipment, and skydivers will also repeatedly and many times check their equipment. They are very meticulous and will spend several hours folding their parachute packs, checking every hook, every link, every rope, every buckle, to ensure absolute certainty -- this is part of their lives. On the other hand, they live an ordinary life just like you and me. Under the strong contrast and opposition between these two, they feel that life and death exist simultaneously and may happen simultaneously -- in this weighing, they savor the flavor of life. This is the life of this type of person, whom Seth calls "those who court death" -- the title of this chapter chooses to describe such people.

There is another type of person: those who choose death. Earlier it was said that children may contract many childhood illnesses and still indeed be very healthy children. That is how it is; many children get sick, but you cannot tell unless they tell you. Some children have very serious illnesses, but you cannot tell, why? Because they believe they are healthy. We once introduced a movie called Death Benefactor there is a movie called Death Benefactor³, in which a little girl has a serious illness, but the child herself is very optimistic and cheerful.

Seth said:

One may admit to breaking bones while skiing, or indulging in some other sport, and still be very healthy.

Yes, because I also ski myself, and such injuries often happen. Because doing these sports all involve -- the pleasure of skiing lies precisely in the sense of balance between losing control and not losing control; this sense of extreme speed and the sense of control at the edge of losing control brings an indescribable feeling that people become obsessed with. But after these people are injured, they are still healthy. Sometimes they do not feel this is a kind of unhealthiness; they feel that it is because they are too healthy that they go and challenge these extreme sports, and the injuries sustained in the process of challenging -- they think these do not count as unhealthiness; these are all byproducts of being overly healthy. So these skiers, after they are injured, will instead go and show off to others; they do not avoid it at all -- they will tell others that they were injured skiing, that they broke a bone again, that they fractured something, and then what happened here and what happened there. That is how it is. We ordinarily think that a fracture means being unhealthy, but they do not feel they are unhealthy.

Another example:

People become ill with colds or other social diseases -- for example, being unable to go out or unable to go to work -- and it is assumed that this is passed from one person to another.

Yet on the whole, these may be very healthy individuals. All people who catch colds do not feel they are unhealthy; they just feel they caught a cold. Although they are already bedridden and cannot get up, although the discomfort makes it impossible for them to get out of bed, deep down they do not consider themselves unhealthy; they just think they caught a cold. We all have this mentality.

Seth continued:

The body has its own self-regulating system, which is often called the immune system.

If people become ill, it is rather fashionable to say that the immune system has temporarily failed. We all say that my immune system failed, which caused me to become ill. However:

The body itself knows that certain "dis-eases" are quite healthy reactions.

The body knows that these so-called "dis-eases" (traditionally translated as diseases; later in this book they were translated as "dis-eases," because Seth did not want to use the word disease anymore) -- all of these are quite healthy reactions. Like the earlier example, if you have a fever, this is a kind of "dis-ease," very uncomfortable, but this is not unhealthiness -- this is your body clearing out some things.

The body does not regard disease as disease. It regards all activity as experience, as a temporary condition of life.

It regards all activity as experience, as a temporary state of life, not the final state -- a temporary practice for the sake of balance. But it possesses a sense of wholeness and overall healthiness, overall soundness, because it knows it continues to exist, although under different circumstances. It understands these changes to be as natural and necessary as the changes of the seasons, if each individual is to continue to exist, just like the changing of the seasons. At the same time, the earth itself possesses the necessary nutrients for the survival of physical life.

To briefly summarize the meaning of this passage: your body knows that you will go through different stages, just as the weather changes every day and the climate also changes every day; this changing of the seasons is like your body moving from one stage to another -- it is a very foolish practice for you to insist on defining certain stages as disease. Your body knows this is not disease, but merely the changing of the seasons, or the back-and-forth transformation and adjustment between different stages of the body's state; this is necessary in order to achieve a greater balance for the purpose of existence. In other words, this change of state is necessary in order for your existence to achieve a more balanced state. If you resist and do not accept it, or do not hand this matter over to your body itself to handle, and insist on imposing some treatment, then it will manifest as a kind of discomfort or pain.

Seth said the dictation was over, and again: "I have indeed accelerated those coordinates used in the healing processes, and I wish you a good afternoon." Then he left.

At 4:42, Jane turned over, had a cigarette, and took a sip of water. When Rob returned home, he called Margaret Bumbalo. Joe was in room 560 of the hospital -- they were in the same hospital. There was a sarcoma in or around his heart, and he was to have chemotherapy tomorrow, so Rob could not see him until the next day. Joe's diabetes was still not under control. In Rob's dream, he had written that Joe had a heart attack, but this did not seem to hit the mark, although it accurately indicated that the area of his problem was the heart -- only he had already foreseen it. Sometimes Rob even wondered whether he had recorded that dream correctly, because in it he had not seen Joe have a heart attack, only seen Joe rubbing his chest, and his intuition told him that the other person was having a heart attack. Margaret was helping him, and Rob himself was only a witness. Margaret thought the dream was remarkable and would check the details of the timing. It can be seen that Rob's concern for Joe would give him more connections.

Consciousness and the Body: The Full Picture of Health

Friday, March 16, 1984, 3:58 p.m. Seth said: "I wish you a good afternoon... Good afternoon, we will continue our dictation." In these few sessions Seth delivered a great deal of content. Although the number of sessions is not large, the total content is probably no less than what was in Chapter Two.

Seth said:

Before we can truly study the nature of health or disease, we must first understand human consciousness and its relationship with the body.

This is very crucial. We need to first understand the relationship between consciousness and the body. Of course, you know you have a conscious mind -- what we usually call the conscious mind, consciousness; you also have what is often called the subconscious. And:

This includes only those feelings, thoughts, or experiences that you connect with the conscious mind.

But if you had to be aware of them all the time, they would be considered excess baggage; otherwise they would compete for your attention and interfere with the decisions that are so important in the present moment.

In this passage Seth describes the importance of the subconscious: between our conscious and subconscious, it plays an important linking role. But we must not overemphasize the role of the subconscious -- the very reason it is subconscious is that this is necessary; it must not compete for our conscious attention. If it steals the show too much and competes for the attention of our conscious mind, that would make it impossible for us to make any decisions. Because what is in the subconscious is not of the present moment; it is based on feelings, emotions, and experiences, and within the subconscious there is no clear distinction of time and space. And if at this point you make it the main focus of your attention, then you cannot live well in the present.

To put it more bluntly, many people who develop mental problems are people who have given the subconscious too much attention and focus -- from a certain angle, that is how it is. This is also a mistake often made by many people who are studying and practicing: after learning, many people think the subconscious is very important, so they put all their attention on the subconscious, or on those underlying so-called connections with the higher self, or the communication of information, and they neglect the importance of their present life and their present consciousness. They go from one direction to the other extreme -- from originally only paying attention to consciousness and ignoring the subconscious and the feelings of the inner world, to only paying attention to the feelings of the inner world and ignoring the experiences of the outer world. This is also wrong, and this kind of mistake can lead to very serious consequences, causing them to be unable to continue or carry on their current normal life. Sometimes family members will send them to a psychological clinic, or in severe cases send them to a psychiatric hospital for treatment, because they can no longer take care of themselves. So Seth specifically emphasizes the relationship between our consciousness and the body, and emphasizes the importance of our consciousness -- we cannot completely deny and cast aside consciousness just because we have learned the importance of the subconscious and the inner world.

Seth said:

If you tried to keep all of those subconscious memories in the most important place in your mind at all times, then you really could not think or act in the present moment at all.

If you put everything from the subconscious at the center of your thinking right now, then you cannot do anything at all. You just need to know this. People who have had this kind of experience understand what I am saying -- those people whose thoughts fly around chaotically, who cannot think or act normally, whose heads hurt terribly and who are also extremely tired, yet cannot control themselves. The emotionality in this is very severe -- crying one moment and laughing the next, completely in a state of losing control -- at this point it is the subconscious that is in charge.

Seth said:

You need not worry; you do indeed have some access to your own subconscious mind.

Seth suggests:

Perhaps it is easier to imagine a continuum of consciousness, for you also have a body consciousness, and that body consciousness itself is composed of the individual consciousness of each molecule in the many parts of the body.

You can think of your own consciousness as a complete continuum. Just as your body's cells have cellular consciousness, but they also form a body consciousness, and the body consciousness can operate and function completely autonomously -- same principle. Your subconscious and your conscious are both parts of the continuum of your consciousness; you need not worry that they will be lost, or that you cannot connect to them -- just like your cellular consciousness, they can also be connected to by you. So you do not need to deliberately strengthen certain consciousnesses; you just live normally and use these consciousnesses normally, understanding that there is division of labor and cooperation among them. Consciousness is composed of different parts, and their functions and roles are completely different. There is no need to deliberately strengthen one part and deliberately suppress another part.

In most of our past lives, we ignored our inner parts -- our inner feelings -- and completely blocked out the parts of our subconscious, or the parts of inner awareness and inner feeling. We just need to add that part back in to balance it out, but we absolutely must not turn completely in that direction. That would also be a state of imbalance, turning from attachment to the material world to attachment to the so-called inner world. No matter which kind of attachment it is, as long as it is attachment it will bring about a state of imbalance, and it will not lead you to a very good state of physical and mental balance. Here I am also borrowing this point from Seth to emphasize to everyone once again: you must achieve a very good balance, rather than emphasizing one and deliberately suppressing the other. So they are continuous and connected together; you do not need to deliberately do anything.

Seth then corrects a common saying:

It is fashionable for some people to say that people have a conscious mind, a subconscious mind, and an unconscious mind.

We often say we have a higher self, an inner self, an outer self, and so on. But:

There is no such thing as an unconscious mind. The body consciousness is highly conscious, only usually you are not aware of it.

We think the body consciousness is unconscious, that it automatically controls the body -- that is wrong. The body consciousness is a highly conscious activity that is even more conscious than your consciousness. Every second it is able to be aware, perhaps millions of times, of the condition of its own body, as well as the condition of the surrounding environment, and even the condition of the world. This is your body's consciousness, with abilities beyond your knowing by who knows how many times. But this part is something you are not aware of, so you think it is unconscious -- actually its consciousness is so high, so high that your consciousness cannot understand it, so you instead feel that it has no consciousness. It is like the programs running inside a supercomputer: to a tribal person who has received no education, they are as if nonexistent -- he does not know how they operate, nor how they work, so to him they are as if nonexistent. It is like God: we think it is beyond human understanding and do not know how it operates, but actually the laws of its operation are beyond our imagination, so we think it does not exist and has no consciousness. So the parts that are beyond our consciousness -- we either cannot understand them, or cannot feel their existence.

Seth said:

Reasoning takes time.

That is, using the logic of the brain to think takes time; your conscious mind needs time. Its way of solving problems is to first form a hypothesis, then try it, and prove it through trial or error -- first assume a premise, then I go try it; if it is right, that proves it is right, and if it is wrong, that proves it is wrong. But this takes time. Of course:

If you had to use that kind of process before moving a muscle, you would get nowhere.

If you used this reasoning ability, this thinking ability, to command your muscles, then thinking alone would be enough -- you would get nowhere. Because you simply could not command the muscles. Because you would not only have to command the muscles, the muscles would also have to command the cells, and also command the blood circulation to supply enough energy and nutrients. And if all of this were commanded through thinking, then sorry, you do not have that ability -- you cannot command these trillions of cells in your body. So how does the body move? It is the body consciousness that controls it. Its ability is beyond human imagination, so we humans instead think it is unconscious and runs automatically.

Seth said:

Other portions of which you are aware, then, handle certain automatic thinking, and operate with a kind of knowledge that takes no time as far as you are concerned.

Muscles operate through another kind of consciousness, and the operation of that part of consciousness, from our human perspective, takes no time -- it is instantaneous and completed immediately. This operation of knowledge that transcends time, to us humans, seems as if it is unconscious and automatic -- because it takes no time, it seems automatic and unconscious, because it is beyond the scope of your conscious understanding. He is explaining why the operation of our body is under the control of a highly conscious awareness, yet humans perceive it as an unconscious phenomenon.

In other words:

You can say that the various portions of your own consciousness operate at several different speeds.

Your consciousness has many kinds. The most familiar consciousness needs time; even thinking about a problem takes time. The subconscious is more connected with emotions and feelings and these things; it does not particularly need time, but it also needs some time to operate -- it clearly does not need the kind of time that human reasoning needs. The emotional feelings and emotional experiences that come out of your subconscious link up very quickly; they are not reasoned out. By the time we reach the so-called unconscious stage -- it is not unconscious, it is body consciousness -- when it is commanding the tens of trillions of cells in our body to cooperate simultaneously at high speed, its speed can almost reach the point of needing no time at all.

Transfers between one part of consciousness and another take place constantly. The different parts of consciousness need to link with each other and communicate with each other; they operate at different speeds, so when they communicate information they need translation. For example, the body consciousness, which operates at extremely high speed and almost needs no time, when it wants to communicate and share with other consciousnesses, it can only share very simple information, because the communication between them is very simple, because it cannot transmit large amounts of information out -- because it is too fast.

In other words, when you want to raise your hand to pick up a cup and drink water, you only need to give the body consciousness one command -- "go drink water," just one phrase. You do not need to give the commands for the muscles, bones, and nerves to move; these are completed by your body consciousness at instantaneous speed. A slow consciousness cannot control a fast consciousness, but how does a slow consciousness call upon these fast consciousnesses? It only needs to give it a command. Just like how we use artificial intelligence today: you do not need to know how it works; you just tell it what you want, and it will produce it for you -- behind it there is a massive supercomputer supporting it, performing billions of steps, countless steps of computation to arrive at that conclusion, but you do not need to know any of that; you just need to give it a command.

The same is true when the body consciousness communicates back to your consciousness. It cannot describe to you what conditions have appeared in various parts of the body or specific details; it will give you a general and direct feeling -- for example, where something is uncomfortable, where something feels bad, or wanting to eat something, or wanting to go to a certain environment. These are all direct feedback from the body consciousness, and they are very simple and clear. It will not tell you why this is so, because the "why" is too complex; it will only tell you the conclusion. It is that simple. So your body's instincts will have some basic reactions -- for example, liking a certain environment, liking a certain food, liking certain people, being willing to be with certain people, disliking certain foods or certain things -- all of this is your body consciousness at work.

Seth said:

Then perhaps you can begin to understand the overall picture of health or disease.

After hearing this, you can probably understand health and disease. You must consider it from far more angles than you previously assumed, because you understand that consciousness has many parts, and the different parts of consciousness operate at different speeds and have different abilities, and they also exchange information with each other, so the information transferred over must necessarily have been selected and filtered. So you know that the relationship between the body and disease -- you need to think about it more comprehensively.

Seth said:

Many of you are filled with preconceptions and distorted concepts about health and disease in general.

You ordinary people have some old, decayed, distorted concepts about health and the body that can no longer be changed -- things you were taught from childhood. For example:

You may think that the body is invaded by viruses, or attacked by a particular disease.

So these concepts may make you question -- you may well wonder, why does the body consciousness not rise up and drive away any threatening disease? You say, since the body consciousness is so powerful and has such strong computing power, why can it not drive these diseases away? Why? Just as he said earlier -- why do some people do those risky jobs? Why do some people walk on the edge of death? Why do some people insist on making themselves sickly? It is because they want it that way. This is a different stage of the body, or something that must be experienced in order to maintain the balance of a larger bodily existence. So you cannot use your logic to understand it -- why does the body allow certain cells to go mad, or to grow more cells than itself?

Seth said:

At least the very concept of the immune system implies that one must or certainly should defend oneself against the existence of invading disease.

It is all you humans who gave the body's self-regulating function a name: the immune system, the defense system. In fact, you are implying that you are prepared to be invaded by bacteria or viruses or disease, and that the body has a set of defense mechanisms. Why have defense mechanisms? You only have defense when there is an enemy -- you first assume the existence of an external enemy. So humans simply do not know that their diseases come from within, not from without. We regard the self-regulating ability as a self-defense system; this fallacy leads humans to treat the struggle against disease like a struggle on a battlefield -- you first assume a powerful enemy, and then you build a defense system.

At this point the scenario unfolds just as you see it. When your body is self-regulating, you instead think that an enemy is invading, and you begin to struggle and fight. In fact, this is only a self-adjustment, and has nothing to do with invading viruses. But because of your beliefs, you build a defense system, and you regard all these changes, alterations, and adjustments as invasions and as harm, and you rise up to fight back, which causes your body to be in this state that you consider disease, and you define this state as disease. You regard the body's self-balancing and adjustment as disease -- these discomforts in the body are merely an inevitable process for achieving a greater balance. Just as there are occasionally heavy rainstorms, occasionally hail, occasionally sandstorms, but that does not prevent the entire earth from being healthy.

This is the holistic view of health that Seth wants to convey to us -- what kind of correct attitude we should hold toward the body, consciousness, and health. This is what Seth wants to convey to us in this chapter. This part of the dictation is finished. Seth said: "I wish you a good afternoon, and once again I activate those coordinates that accelerate the healing process." Then he left.

March 18, 1984

Seth said, once again, good afternoon to you both. They answered, good afternoon, Seth. Seth said, we will continue the dictation for now, but I always keep in mind the matters of personal concern to you—that is, their health problems. Then he began dictating the book content.

Usually, your conscious mind, which you regard as your ego, is oriented toward action in physical life. Many schools of thought have a strange idea that the ego, this ego, is inferior to the other parts of the self, or that it is selfish, and they imagine it must be lower in quality than the inner self or the soul. This is indeed a view held in many schools—in most schools, in fact: that the ego is inferior, childish, selfish, impulsive, unworthy, a part that should be eliminated or discarded. Many schools even shout about killing the small self, getting rid of the small self, getting rid of the ego. This is a fundamental error in their understanding. We want to emphasize here again: if you still hold this view, your understanding has a serious deviation, and it will lead to many problems, especially problems in health and in the body.

Any school or tradition that belittles the small self, rejects the small self, or denies the legitimacy of the small self—you should stop studying it. Why? He will explain below.

The various parts of our own being are inseparable. What we call the small self, that is, the ego, and the true self, the larger self, or the soul—they are inseparable from one another. Although we separate them for the sake of discussion, in reality they cannot be divided; they are all parts of you. And when we make this distinction, we are only trying to explain the many facets of the personality—it is an effort, an effort to explain the different facets of the personality. You must understand that the purpose of making this distinction is not to say that they are essentially separate or divided. They are a whole in which you are within me and I am within you.

So according to the general understanding, you do have an ego that is oriented toward outward activity, and in that sense, you also have an inner self, which is also conscious and is the director of all automatic inner activities. If we explain the personality according to the previous approach, we can tentatively say this: you have a part that directs outward actions and behavior, which we call the ego; and you also have another part that directs those activities that run automatically within you, which we can tentatively call the inner self. This is only a tentative separation.

Most people do not understand that they do have access to inner awareness. And the inner self, or the inner being, should not be considered superior to your ordinary mind. A mistake many people make is to think that my soul is more advanced, wiser, that its understanding is fuller of wisdom, or that its state is higher. If you are still thinking this way, please change it—such a view is incorrect. It should not be considered something separate from your ordinary mind. Nothing is separate. Your ordinary mind is that thing, and that thing is your ordinary mind.

Your ego and your ordinary consciousness bring all of your physical experience into focus, and make possible the brilliant precision of physical experience.

Our ordinary conscious mind brings all of our physical experience into the focused awareness of consciousness, making our physical experience very precise, giving us very precise perception of the three-dimensional world. This is the main function of your ordinary consciousness. And physical life really represents only one state of existence; you have other forms of existence as well.

The conscious mind is a brilliant portion of your larger consciousness, but it is composed of the same ordinary energy and vitality that composes all consciousness.

Besides our outer consciousness, we also have the conscious mind. That conscious mind is indeed a brilliant portion of your larger consciousness, but it is also composed of the same conscious energy, ordinary energy, and the same conscious vitality that composes the grass and all things. It is not superior to anything. In other words, they are of the same substance and same source as all things in the universe. If you can understand this, you will not think that your ego is lower and your inner self is higher; you will see them as consistent and of the same origin. Here he specifically emphasizes that it is also composed of ordinary energy and the life force and vitality that all things possess.

However, because of the methods by which the inner self and the inner being communicate—and we will soon discuss some of these methods—once again, it is important to remember that these selves, or the inner being, use a process far quicker than reasoning.

What he means by this sentence is that you should not always go through a process of reasoning each time—saying I have an inner self and I have an outer self, and then they seem separate inside and outside, each with its own function, yet actually they are one, and neither is superior to the other. Do not reason through these things every time; just remember that you have an inner self and an outer self, very simply. You should believe this matter, rather than having to convince yourself all over again each time.

When such communications take place, they often involve inspiration, intuition, impulse, and they deal with feelings far more than with ordinary logical thought.

How can you interact with your inner self? It involves our capturing and understanding of inspiration, intuition, and impulse, and you must deal with feelings, not with the logical thinking of your mind. That is how you are connecting with your inner self. Far more than dealing with logical thought—try as much as possible not to deal with logical thought. Now he has given you the method for connecting with your inner self. I do not know whether you understood it.

The dictation ended, and Seth said:

Joseph, your dream, as you supposed, represented a mental state and a state of confusion. It was not, for example, precognitive, but it did inform you, using images and feelings, of pictures that are sometimes drawn in different ways by your conscious thoughts. Ruburt, for example, might have the same kind of dream. His eyes have not gotten worse. Regarding your fund, I will have more to say later this week. I wish you a good afternoon, and once again, I activate those coordinates that accelerate the healing process.

This passage commented on a dream of Rob's. At 4:43, Jane had a cigarette. Before I prepared for my afternoon nap, I helped him turn onto his side, then read this session's content to him. This morning, Jane's attending physician, Jeff Karder, had come to see Jane, and when examining his hospital bed and so on, seemed quite satisfied. He also agreed that Jane could stop taking sleeping pills before bed at night, and only continue with aspirin—this is a clear improvement, that is, taking fewer sleeping pills. However, because of the fracture in Jane's right leg, he gave no hope that Jane would be able to sit up.

This is very interesting—in this doctor's judgment, Jane would never sit up again in his life, because of the fracture in his right leg combined with the condition of his body. This made him very depressed. He said he had decided to continue writing books, and to do the best he could. Jane said, no matter what, I am going to continue writing books anyway; whether I can sit up or not no longer matters. But in fact he was very depressed, and I also felt somewhat disappointed, agreeing that there was nothing we could do now. Since the doctor had said so, and since no other method seemed to work, we could only leave it to fate. Today he did not wear glasses, and Jane did read a little better, but in the end I still needed to read a passage to him myself.

Seth's comment about the fund was perhaps because I had received Mary Newman's letter and read it to Jane. This most considerate and generous lady offered a fairly substantial amount of financial assistance—if we needed it, she would provide it. I have tried calling her twice so far. Jane suggested I send her a copy of the Oversoul Seven book. If I cannot reach her soon, I will write to her again, through friends we both know. Jane and I met Mary a few years ago, during a business trip to New York, and I stayed in her apartment for a few days.

Seth talked about my dream. This dream happened yesterday morning, and it was so vivid that after I woke up, I lay there wide awake for an hour. It stayed in my mind all day. Because it was so vivid, it could be turned into a series of remarkable paintings. It clearly expressed my fear about our situation. In the dream, I ended up lost in an old factory building, my car was gone, and I said to a girl, naked, that I was lost. She might have been a nurse. I was sitting in a cavernous, empty, rust-red old room. I even found myself exploring the Almera dump, except that the landscape looked volcanic, with its own beauty, piled with gray ash, almost like the surface of the moon. This was Rob's dream, and Seth gave him a brief comment on it.

March 19, 1984

Monday, 4:21 p.m. Jane was very depressed yesterday, and when I got to Room 330, she was like that again. She shed tears before lunch. Last night she called, and I told her that this morning I would talk with Mary Newman about raising our insurance coverage, and call our eye doctor, Jim Baker. Jane hoped she could get new glasses for her to improve her vision, and that this would help her mood. By the time of the session she was still unhappy, but her Seth voice was stronger than usual.

Seth said, now I once again wish you a good afternoon. They said, good afternoon, Seth. We will continue the dictation.

The following session, Ruburt especially should keep in mind.

Speaking earnestly, this is the content that follows. She said:

Every person is an important, conscious part of the universe.

This is what she said for Ruburt. Every individual, as long as they are alive, fits with the universe and the purpose of the universe in a way that no one else can. Every person who is alive fits with the purpose of the universe in a way that no one else can, only in their own way. In other words, as long as they are alive, they are in accord with the meaning and purpose of the universe. The universe wants them to live, the universe wants them alive. Their being alive is a help to the universe, is meaningful to the universe, and this meaning cannot be replaced by anyone else. Only they have a unique meaning of existence to the universe -- just being alive is enough.

Each person's existence spreads their own affiliations through time.

Affiliations means one's own influence. Spreading through time means existing beyond time, reaching a state of eternity. From before the birth of the universe until after the end of the universe, your influence on the universe will continue to exist.

The universe is conscious at every point one can imagine.

The universe is conscious at any point you can think of. Every imaginable point, as long as you can conceive of such a point, it is conscious. That is, every point of the universe has consciousness.

Each existence is an individualized segment of the universe.

The universe is composed of countless segments like you. Without you, the universe is missing a piece. If the universe is a whole, then without you the universe is incomplete. You are a segment of the universe. You are that great, that unique.

Then, in human terms, each person is a beloved individual, formed with infinite care and love.

You are formed by infinite care and infinite love, gifted with talents different from anyone else. Remember, what is it that makes up your composition? It is this. Why can you love? Why are you able to love? Why can you become love? Why can you spread love? It is because you yourself are composed of love. Your life is composed of love and infinite care, and you are also gifted with talents different from anyone else. Everyone's talents are different, one of a kind.

Obviously, no animal thinks of itself as a failure. Yet people often identify with their own seeming errors, forgetting their abilities in other areas, their abilities in other directions, so that they appear to be people who do not fit in the universe or in the world.

Animals never feel that they are failures, but people feel that they do not fit in this universe, that they came to the wrong place, or that the universe does not need them, or that they are the superfluous person in this universe. When many people are feeling low, they think they are the superfluous one in the universe, the one who is not needed, the useless person, a failure. No one is like that, just as animals never think of themselves as failures, neither is any person. But people are often led in this wrong direction by their own errors. They only see their own shortcomings, and they cannot see their talents in other directions, their uniqueness.

The conscious mind can indeed have such thoughts, because it tries to solve all problems by itself, until it begins to feel afraid, overburdened, and forms in its own eyes a failure.

What is the reason? It is that your conscious mind always wants to carry all the problems by itself and solve all the problems by itself. It does not dare to hand itself over to the universe, does not dare to let go, does not dare to release, does not dare to do what Laozi called doing nothing and yet nothing left undone⁴. It wants to act in everything, but its action is limited, so it cannot solve many problems. At this time it gives rise to fear, it has a greater burden, it feels it cannot solve these problems, and then it feels it is a failure. But these problems do not need to be solved at all. As long as it lets go and hands them over to the universe, the universe will take care of everything perfectly. But it just does not dare to let go, does not dare to release, and yet it cannot solve them itself. This is one reason most people feel they are failures.

The inner self, however, always identifies with its source, seeing itself as a beloved individualized part of the universe, aware of the universal love that is its heritage.

Your inner self is always aware that it is the inheritor of the universal love. It knows, it accepts, it believes, it can feel that it is a continuation of the universal love, an inheritance, and also a part of the universal love, an embodiment of the universal love, a realization of the universal love. Your inner self always knows this.

It is also aware of the infinite power and strength of the very fabric of which its being is composed.

What he means is that it knows the very materials of which it is composed have infinite energy and infinite strength.

By making the outer ego aware of this fact, it can also begin to feel a quickened sense of support and nourishment.

If the inner self can transmit to the outer self the fact that it comes from the source of the universe, that the part of which it is composed is the same as the source of the universe, with infinite power and strength, then the outer self will give rise to a quicker sense of support and nourishment -- supported by the universe, nourished by the universe, favored by the universe, protected by the universe, graced by the universe, beloved by the universe. Your inner self does not need to -- it can always feel this. What needs to feel it is your outer self, that is, the part of your ego or the self, which needs to feel this. That knowledge comes from this inner grace and protection, which can allow it to relax and let go.

It can therefore feel its life supported and safe, and know that it is indeed a beloved child of the universe, at once ancient and young, with an identity far beyond the history of time.

When your outer self or the ego part becomes aware of the feelings of your inner self, or is able to feel a part of the feelings of your inner self, it begins to relax and let go. It can feel that its life is supported and safe, and it also knows that it is a beloved child of the universe. At once ancient and young -- ancient because it exists eternally, it existed at the beginning of the universe and even before the birth of the universe; young because it is new every moment, new every minute and every second. And it also has an identity far beyond the history of time, that is, an eternal identity.

Then, it is extremely important that every person remember this cosmic alliance.

He said he hopes every person remembers this cosmic alliance -- that you and the universe are one -- it is extremely important. Such a reminder often allows the inner self, through various different levels, to send out the necessary messages of strength and love, showing themselves as inspiration, dreams, or simple outbursts of emotion (here he wrote it wrong, it should be outbursts).

If you can always remember that you are a part of the universe and that you are extremely important, such a simple reminder can allow your self, through various different aspects or levels, to send out strength and send out love. What shows outwardly is that you will have some inspiration, some dreams, or simply an outburst of emotion. These are all manifestations of the inner self sending out love to the outer self.

The inner self draws immediate and constant support from the consciousness of the universe.

Your inner self is always connected with the universe, always receiving the support of the universe at every moment, constant and permanent.

And the more the outer ego keeps this fact in mind, the stronger its own sense of stability, safety, and self-esteem becomes.

The more your outer self identifies with this, the more stable, the safer, and the more self-esteem you will have. So you must remind yourself of this at all times. He said:

One attitude that is detrimental to good health is self-condemnation or dislike of oneself.

What is most detrimental to your health is self-condemnation or dislike of yourself. Unfortunately, this attitude is sometimes promoted by parents, schools, or religion. They often tell you where you have done poorly, making you constantly blame yourself, reflect on yourself, and judge yourself. Sometimes parents, schools, and religion also do this, causing you to develop a strong sense of guilt and self-judgment.

Feelings of self-worth, self-esteem, and satisfaction with one's own abilities promote feelings of well-being, health, and exuberance.

Conversely, self-worth means affirming the value of your own existence. As he has been saying all along, as a part of the universe, your value is beyond doubt. You do not need to do anything. Even if you do nothing, you are valuable. Even if you do nothing, you are value fulfillment. This is the very meaning of the universe itself. This is also why Laozi repeatedly told you that you can do nothing and yet nothing is left undone. Your non-action is actually the embodiment of your value. Many people think they must achieve something to have value, such as taking care of their family, supporting the family, earning enough money, taking care of the people they love, taking care of their children, they must do this and must do that to be valuable. There is no need, and it is not necessary. Simply existing, simply being alive, is a value, and the greatest value at that.

Many people say they do not believe what I say. Let us ask the question in reverse: even if you earn money, if you die, if you no longer exist, where is your value and meaning reflected? Ask your family, do they wish you had more money or wish you were alive? Such a clear and simple truth, yet we ignore it and refuse to acknowledge it. Your existence surpasses everything. So your existence is value. Remind yourself of this at all times, and it is beneficial to your health and happiness.

Second, self-esteem. Never belittle yourself, never think you are worthless, a failure. You are never a failure. You are always a part of the universe, and your quality is the same as the universe. You are the same as all the greatest beings in this world, you are a being of the same quality and the same source. This is also what the Buddha often said, that you all have the Tathagata nature, you all have the Buddha nature⁵. It is the same principle. Self-esteem, and satisfaction with one's own abilities, satisfaction with oneself, the feeling of being very satisfied with oneself, will promote feelings of happiness, health, and exuberance. Conversely, it will be detrimental to your health and detrimental to your life.

So for this entire session, I hope you can all read it over and over. You can record it as audio and listen to it when you have time. This passage is very powerful, and it can remind us at all times of the value and meaning of our existence. Especially for those who are in a low point in life, or those who have health problems in their lives, they should listen to this passage often.

The dictation is over. At 4:45 p.m., Seth said:

Read this material to Ruburt once a day for several days, and she will also help you.

It also helps Rob. Rob said yes.

This session itself should clear away some of Ruburt's difficulties, and increase his joy.

These two days Jane's mood was very low, and Seth quickly came out to balance her. At 4:46 p.m., it was time to turn Jane over. After dinner I read this session to her -- you see, he really did what he said, and immediately read it to her. Just as I was finishing typing this session, Jane called with Carla's help.

This session is very important. I hope that if you can copy it down -- it is best to hand-copy it once, the effect will be even better; read it aloud once yourself, the effect will be even better. If you are too lazy to do these things, then just listen to the segment I have explained, and listening to it repeatedly will also help.

March 20, 1984

Tuesday, 4:25 p.m. Jane seemed to feel somewhat better today, and he described the general way he is now trying to view the world, especially his own situation. I told him his attitude had improved greatly, and his eyes also looked better. He tried to read yesterday's session, but only got halfway through the first page, so I will read the whole thing to him. It was a very excellent session, and as Seth suggested, I will read it to him for at least a few days.

Seth came through. Good afternoon to you both. Then he said, Good afternoon, Seth. We will continue with the dictation.

The universe actively loves itself and all of its parts.

Remember, the universe loves itself, it never fails to love itself, and it loves all of its parts. You are a part of the universe, so the universe loves you too.

The world loves itself and all of its parts.

You must remember these two statements: the universe loves itself and all of its parts, and the world loves itself and all of its parts.

It is not true to say that energy is neutral or indifferent. Energy is positive and active, and is propelled by what can almost be called an instantaneous delight in itself and its characteristics.

Universal energy is not neutral, not indifferent. Energy is positive and active. You must have a correct understanding of this. And it is always being propelled, always progressing, always in action, always creating, always moving forward. This is a positive, affirmative thing.

Despite all concepts to the contrary, energy at its base is indeed love.

No matter how you look at it, no matter what contrary concepts you hold, energy at its base, in its essence, is love. Why do we say the essence of energy is love? Because the universe loves itself and all of its parts, and the world loves itself and all of its parts. And the world and the universe are both composed of energy, so energy loves itself and every part of energy, including yourself.

This universe, in its essence, is composed of love. To put it in human terms, it is also composed of highly charged consciousness that operates almost in a leapfrog fashion.

The foundation of this universe is highly charged consciousness: active consciousness, not lifeless consciousness. Why call it highly charged? Because this consciousness is very active, operating like a leaping frog. This liveliness of the universe, we call it vibrant and full of life. Your consciousness itself is active.

It carries with it a tremendous explosion of vitality and life.

Why are people born with this vitality, with this explosiveness? It is always like this: its inner vitality, its inner explosiveness, that greatest creativity. Is the force that supports all matter something that suddenly appeared once in some remote past, igniting the birth of your reality, endowing it with an energy that could thereafter only be used up or dissipated? Quite the opposite: ever-new virgin energy, so to speak, is constantly being created and appears at every conceivable point within your universal system.

What it is saying here is that the universe is not the way you think: that at the single point of the Big Bang, all energy exploded at that one point, and afterward could only slowly dissipate, be used up, and finally the universe would return to dead silence. That is the view of modern science. First of all, this view is fundamentally wrong. This is a very clumsy, or naive, extremely mechanistic view of the world held by some scientists. What does mechanistic mean? It treats the universe as a machine, applying Newton's law of conservation of energy⁶ to the universe. First of all, universal energy is not conserved, because you cannot even explain where the energy at that first point came from. You admit from the very first point that the universe is not conserved, and then you insist that energy is conserved: you are slapping your own face, which is quite ridiculous.

And the universe was not formed by an explosion from that one point; the universe was formed by an explosion at every point. If there is anything correct about the Big Bang theory, it can only be said that it got one thing right: the universe did indeed come into being like an explosion, but not from one point; it exploded into being from every point of the universe.

Let me give a vivid example. How was the universe born? It is exactly the same as how your thoughts and ideas are born. The explosiveness of your thoughts and ideas, an explosiveness that occupies no space and no time, is the same explosiveness by which this universe was born. The two are exactly the same, and can serve as a metaphor and analogy for each other. The universe explodes at every point, just as your thinking, your thoughts, explode and burst forth at every point in your mind, continuing endlessly and infinitely. Every point can generate a new universe; every point can generate a new world. This is what Buddhism means by "one thought, one world; one leaf, one bodhi."⁷ A single thought can generate a world; the explosion of that single thought is equivalent to the explosion of the universe. So at every point there is explosion, at every point there is expansion, at every point there is creation, and at every point there is the sustaining protection of love. Because wherever there is energy, there is the sustaining protection of love, the grace of love.

The energy of the universe is inexhaustible, ever-enduring and ever-new. Both eternal and perpetually new. These two words seem contradictory, yet here they are unified. Why? Because it has no concept of time; it transcends time. If you look at it from a human perspective, it is enduring; from the essence of energy, it is always new.

Every new rose in the spring is in fact a new rose, a brand-new rose, composed of new and unique energy, thoroughly itself, living flawlessly in the world.

This sentence is very beautiful; you must remember it. Every spring new roses bloom, and each is a brand-new rose. It is not last year's rose; it is composed of new and unique energy, because the energy that composes it is entirely new. It is thoroughly itself; it is not a continuation of last year's rose; it is this year's brand-new self, and it is perfect, living in this world without any flaw. The vivid metaphor he uses is actually also a metaphor for us human beings: each of us is brand-new and unique, composed of unique energy, thoroughly ourselves, and each of us is flawless and perfect. So never belittle yourself, never criticize yourself, never. Because you are a flawless existence.

In the deepest terms, while each body has a history, at every moment of the body's existence it is also new.

Your body has a history from birth, but every moment is also entirely new. Do not keep saying how the body was before, what illnesses it had before; none of that matters. Every moment of your body is brand-new, perfect, and unique. Every minute and every second it is brand-new, unique, flawless and perfect; it appears freshly in the world.

Your body is renewing itself every minute and every second. Every moment there is a brand-new you, with a brand-new body appearing in this world. It is not the way you think: that you carry old injuries and old illnesses that cannot be changed. As long as you change in this present moment, a brand-new you appears. This is also why many people's cancers heal instantly: because this brand-new you already has no relation to the past.

Never view this world with the old mechanistic worldview. According to the mechanistic worldview, there is an old body of yours, and you need to turn this old body into a good body, turn a sick body into a healthy body, and remove the illnesses from the body. What you do not know is that it is not like that: every moment you produce a new body, and what this body is like is entirely determined by your consciousness.

While there is indeed pain in the world, what propels your life itself is the miraculous principle of pleasure.

We do not deny that pain truly exists in this world. But what propels your physical life, or the underlying logic, the underlying principle of your life itself, is joy and happiness. It may seem that there is some pain in your life, but in essence what propels the process of your life is the pleasure principle. The pleasure principle is the underlying color of your life.

Dictation ended. He said:

When you have finished reading this material, you should find that there are actually several new twists in it. Now I wish you a good afternoon.

What he means by new twists is to tell you that if you can understand the content of this material, you will always understand that every moment of you is being freshly created. Every moment you are new. So do not have any worry about the old body; do not think about how I can get better, or whether I need to turn the old into the good. You do not need to. Do not pay attention to that old thing; always think of new and good things, because it is being created at every moment.

At 4:41 p.m., the session ended. Rob said that there were indeed new twists in this material, some of which he truly could not put into words, but he noted that Seth's creative gifts had not yet been exhausted. Today, after some effort, he brought a large vase of long-stemmed sage and irises into Room 330. Each blooming bouquet was part of a large bunch of flowers sent by a Dutch reader via international express delivery. Yesterday afternoon, while he was at the hospital, neighbor John Bumbalo accepted the package for him, and brought it over as soon as he saw him drive into the garage. There were so many flowers in the package that he ended up dividing them among three vases he found at home. Tomorrow he will bring another one to Jane, and this time they will switch to tulips.

March 21, 1984

Wednesday, 4:15 p.m. Jane did not call last night, and today he feels a bit better. I told him that on the way to Ward 330, I had deposited $1,200 into his hospital expense account. We are very grateful for the readers' donations. He ate a very good lunch, and afterward he read yesterday's and the day before's sessions in a way that was much better than he had been able to do for many days. He wore his glasses and read in a strong, powerful voice. Then Seth came through again.

Once again, good afternoon to you all. They said, good afternoon, Seth.

Those who think that physical life is inferior to some more perfect spiritual existence do a great injustice to physical existence as a whole.

Many people think that they would rather live that kind of spiritual life, or cultivate immortality, and they would rather be that kind of nonphysical existence. They feel that spiritual existence is higher, and that this physical existence, this material existence, is lower.

Our physical life is everywhere filled with the cosmic energy that is its source.

Our physical life is everywhere filled with cosmic energy, just as we are all cosmic energy.

Therefore it is almost impossible for it to be inferior to its own composition.

How could physical life be inferior to its own source, to the very thing that composes the entire universe? Our physical life is also a part of the universe, and its qualities are all composed of the source of the universe, all composed of the same energy. How could it be inferior to the universe itself?

Once again, physical reality is a splendid fragment of existence, and it cannot be inferior to entity.

The physical body, as material physical existence, is a splendid fragment of existence, a fragment of the entire physical reality's existence. Our physical body is also a fragment of the universe, so how could it be inferior to existence itself? Existence is composed of countless people like us, so how can we say that one part of the composition is inferior to existence itself? This clearly does not conform to logic.

Because you so often have an extremely narrow belief system through which you view your world, you often misread the meaning of worldly life.

We have misunderstood everyday life, worldly life. We feel that it is not high enough, that it is lowly, and we would rather live a higher spiritual life and a soul existence. In fact, this is all a misunderstanding.

Such beliefs will limit your understanding, until physical life often seems to involve a frantic struggle at every level of consciousness. Such concepts certainly do not enhance security, health, and well-being, and they distort your understanding of the nature of the physical environment.

This kind of understanding, which regards worldly life as lower, will make you think that physical life contains some kind of frantic struggle at the level of consciousness. You will think that this is a necessary process for rising to a higher level, that this is something bad, a frantic struggle — that you must struggle out of it and go to a higher place. This kind of thinking will make you feel insecure, less healthy, and less happy, because it distorts your understanding of the nature of the physical environment.

So what exactly is the nature of the physical environment?

Our physical environment is not something separate from yourself; it is controlled by you.

It is not separate from us, nor is it controlled by us. The idea that "man will conquer nature," that people should control the environment, that people should manage the environment — all of that is wrong.

Quite the contrary, you and the environment support, reinforce, and strengthen each other in ways that often escape your notice.

You and the environment are in a relationship of mutual reinforcement and mutual strengthening, but this way of relating often escapes your notice.

All portions of the environment contain their own kind of consciousness, and they are aware of their role in the body of the world.

All portions of the environment know that they are in a relationship of mutual support and mutual strengthening with us. They know their role in the whole world, in the universe. They and the universe are also in a relationship of mutual support, mutual reinforcement, and mutual strengthening.

And they are not only aware of their own condition, but also aware of their relationship to all other portions of the world.

These portions of the environment themselves not only know their own position and relationship in the world and in the universe, but also know the relationship of other portions in the universe, and their position in the universe.

In other words, they add to the health of the world, and your own vitality, and the vitality of your environment, are everywhere connected.

The environment adds to the health of the whole world, and we and the world and the environment are everywhere connected. This environment is beneficial to our health; our environment is always beneficial to our health. Never think of the environment as something external — it is one with us, connected at every point. Every point of our body has a close relationship and connection with the environment, and this environment supports us, protects us, and benefits our health at every point. Therefore, there is no need for us to have any worry or fear in nature — that nature will harm us, or that this world, our environment, will cause us harm — do not have any such worry.

We add to the environment, and the environment adds to us. When the environment strengthens us, we are also strengthening the environment, because we are also a part of the environment, and the environment is also an extension of our body. The relationship between the two is close and inseparable. This has long been recognized in our Chinese medicine. Chinese medicine places great emphasis on the relationship between people and their surrounding environment, which is why Chinese medicine doctors always had to visit the patient's home⁸ to see the environment in which they lived. Moreover, the entire theoretical system of Chinese medicine is built upon the balance between humans and nature.

Dictation ended at 4:33 p.m. Have a wonderful afternoon, and once again, I have accelerated those coordinates so important to health and vitality. At 4:34 p.m., Jane said, "I felt that was a bit slow." What he meant by "a bit slow" was that there were many pauses in between. Since his pace was so slow, I was surprised that he ended the session so quickly, and Jane was too. He paused many times in between, and then suddenly it ended, and both of them found it very strange.

The entire Chapter 3 is very important. It changed the content of Chapter 2 — Chapter 2 only spoke of one point at a time, while this chapter addresses one theme in each session, and the themes they address are basically one theme. The first part talks about those who want to die, those who take desperate risks, those who challenge death. The second part talks about how we are a part of the universe, how our bodies are also a part of existence, and how we should view the relationship between ourselves and the universe. In the middle, it talks about the birth of the universe. The core of it tells us: we are a part of the universe, and the universe itself is within love, and is composed of love, and we are also composed of love, and our energy is always positive and constructive. This is the thought he wanted to convey.

So I hope everyone can read this part repeatedly, especially those who have some illness in the body, or who have always been critical of themselves or do not identify with themselves. I hope you can carefully read these last one or two sessions.

注释与核实

1. Source: Wikipedia, "Fall (2022 film)" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_(2022_film)) ↩

2. This claim could not be verified. ↩

3. This claim could not be verified. ↩

4. Source: Laozi, "Tao Te Ching, Chapter 48" (https://ctext.org/text.pl?if=en&node=11639) ↩

5. Source: Wikipedia, "Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra" (https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/%E5%A4%A7%E8%88%AC%E6%B6%85%E6%A7%83%E7%BB%8F_(%E5%A4%A7%E4%B9%98)) ↩

6. According to Mike's original words, it was "Newton's law of conservation of energy"; upon verification, it should be "The law of conservation of energy was not proposed by Newton, but was first proposed by Julius Robert von Mayer in the 1840s, verified through Joule's experiments, and systematically formulated by Helmholtz in 1847." (Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Julius Robert von Mayer," https://www.britannica.com/biography/Julius-Robert-von-Mayer) ↩

7. This claim could not be verified. ↩

8. According to Mike's original words, it was "Chinese medicine doctors must visit the patient's home for every consultation"; upon verification, it should be "Chinese medicine practice does not require home visits—both traditional and current systems include 'sitting hall doctors,' that is, Chinese medicine practitioners who hold fixed consultations in pharmacies or clinics where patients come to them; home visits are only one form of practice." (Source: Ministry of Health of the People's Republic of China, State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, "Measures for the Administration of Sitting Hall Chinese Medicine Clinics (Trial)," https://www.gov.cn/gongbao/content/2011/content_1808614.htm) ↩