Mike's commentary · The Way Toward Health, Chapter 5

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 "suggestion and health." Seth points out that a suggestion is a statement concerning a specific action that, when repeated and fervently believed, is automatically carried out like a command, affecting health; prophetic suggestions received in childhood and negative beliefs related to age and genes can cause illness. Healing lies in implanting positive suggestions and removing negative ones, and play, pleasure, and a positive attitude contribute to health. At the end of the chapter, Seth gives a three-step first-aid method for times of difficulty, and suggests that Jane balance her digging into fears with free association and maintaining cheerfulness.

Key Points of This Chapter

• A suggestion is not a belief, but a statement about a specific behavior; when repeated and fervently believed, it is carried out automatically like a command, affecting health.
• Prophetic suggestions received in childhood are often accepted without discrimination and may lead to illness or other undesirable outcomes.
• Thoughts and beliefs bring about physical changes and can even alter genetic information; whether a hereditary disease manifests depends on belief.
• All actual healing consists of inserting positive suggestions to remove negative suggestions; the first symptom of illness is a lack of pleasure and enthusiasm.
• In difficult situations, three steps can be taken: live immediately in the present, refuse to worry, and imagine the problem already resolved in the best possible way; at the same time, maintain pleasure and free association.

Main Text

Opening on Suggestion and Health: Jane's Condition in the Hospital

Sunday, April 8, 1984, 4:30 p.m. When I arrived at Ward 330 at noon today, Jane was unhappy. Her doctor, Jeff Karder, had come by. At first she did not want to tell me what her doctor had said, but after lunch, with my encouragement, she told me everything.

Apparently, a nurse had told Jane's attending physician that the wound on Jane's right knee was oozing pus and fluid. He told her there might be an infection, and further it might be the site of a bone spur; he was not sure. Jeff went on to add that a minor operation might fix it, or perhaps nothing needed to be done at all.

Then Rob said, it is not that bad; at worst it is a minor operation, and it may not even be necessary.

After my wife finished speaking, I asked her, do you think it is not that bad? Jane seemed able to tolerate it, and she was recovering fairly well.

Then Rob said he had brought Chapter 6 of Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment, which had just been typed up this morning. In the end he read the whole thing aloud to Jane, except for one or two notes. Jane liked the whole thing very much, that is, Chapter 6 of Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment. She also had the same feeling I have noticed when I read sessions I have not read in years—it felt brand new.

There really is that feeling. If you read the Seth material after not reading it for a while, and then you read it again, it seems brand new, as if it were a work produced by someone else.

At the end of the day I told Jane that the Seth material is an excellent example of his own direct cognition. That is to say, if a person has several inner senses, one of the inner senses is direct cognition, seemingly the fourth one. The reception of the Seth material, for Jane, is more like the best example of direct cognition—because it is not at all something from her own mind; it is obtained from a higher level of consciousness outside. And Jane has this ability; each of us has this ability. This clear description came to me suddenly after I finished Chapter 6 of Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment, where Seth discusses material on direct cognition. It is a very good idea, though, and it is mentioned in a note I added to that chapter.

By the time I finished reading Chapter 6 to Jane, it was already quite late. Jane had not planned to hold a session today, until I told her it was all right with me. Then Seth came through.

The Nature of Suggestion: Not Belief, but a Specific Behavioral Statement

Seth says:

Now in physical terms, your most immediate environment is your body.

This is our very first surrounding environment.

Continue the dictation, begin a new chapter, titled "Suggestion and Health."

This is the title of Chapter Five. Jane received this title yesterday and told me. Suggestion, the English word used here is suggestion, which we generally treat as "advice." Here it is very fitting to render it as "suggestion." In this context it is not advice; it carries the nature of suggestion, and this semantic sense is more evident.

A suggestion is often a direct assumption and statement about a specific behavior. A suggestion is not a belief. A belief is a broad, overall thing; a suggestion is about a specific matter, a direct statement: whether this thing is good or bad, how it should be done, or what consequences will follow from doing it. If you do this, that may happen; you will get that, and so on. These are all called suggestions.

To a large degree, suggestions follow the commands of the intellect and are combined with the conscious thinking process.

That is, you simply cannot distinguish them at all. Which parts are suggestions and which parts are your rational reasoning? You mix the two together and cannot tell them apart.

For example, you tend to say, if things are such and such, then such and such a result will inevitably follow. It will certainly be this way.

There is no magic connected with suggestions.

There is no magic connected with them. But when such suggestions are repeated often enough, and when they are fervently believed, they do indeed take on a deep habitual quality, just like magic. They are no longer examined, yet they are regarded as rigid facts, and ultimately they will lead to the occurrence of this fact, this reality.

So suggestions are not magic, but when you repeat them enough, they have magic-like effects, as if you have been hypnotized. Remember this sentence from Seth, it is very interesting: suggestions are not magic, but after being repeated and fervently believed, they become as effective as magic—because you no longer examine whether they are true, and you take them to be rigid facts.

They are then handed over to the more automatic levels of the personality, where they activate the specific behavior so strongly suggested.

Then they are handed over to a specific part of your personality, the more automatic part. That is, from then on you never make any distinctions again; it all runs fully automatically.

Often such suggestions are stale platitudes, simply cliches, with no novelty at all. They belong to the past, even to the distant past, to the suggestions of your grandparents' ancestors, and they have no real meaning. And again, they escape the questioning and examination usually given to new ideas. Normally when you have a new idea, you question whether it is right, whether it is reasonable, but those old so-called suggestions, those cliched things, you do not question.

For example, regarding many of our traditional customs, such as the many restrictions on women during the postpartum confinement period after giving birth—you cannot do this, you cannot do that, you cannot do such and such. Yet in Western countries there is no concept of postpartum confinement at all; they have never had it historically. To them, postpartum confinement is a very strange suggestion and notion. So they are not affected by postpartum confinement.

What is the main reason for this? Because in ancient times our living conditions were not ideal, and the environment was extremely harsh. Many of the habits and suggestions left over from that time were effective then, but for people today they are simply unnecessary and quite laughable. For example, the matter of not being able to bathe or wash your hair. In ancient times, you can imagine, if it was winter, not the warm summer season, and you wanted to bathe and wash your hair, without heating equipment and without hot water, relying only on that little bit of heated water to bathe and wash your hair, you would certainly catch a chill. This was very dangerous, because there was no heating. But now it is completely different. In many northern rooms nowadays, winter is hotter than summer; the rooms are often twenty-eight or twenty-nine degrees, twenty-six or twenty-seven degrees. So this no longer has any practical meaning. It was useful then, but it is useless now.

I give this simple example to tell everyone that such outdated suggestions can affect the present. To this day, this suggestion still affects all Chinese women friends who are influenced by traditional culture.

These suggestions may have persisted for a surprisingly long time.

They have persisted for a very long time, hundreds or even thousands of years.

And they include new ideas accepted in childhood, and now accepted without discrimination, they may still affect health and well-being.

Such suggestions that affect health and well-being may be beneficial and supportive, or negative and unfavorable. Such suggestions may be good, or they may be bad. Not all of them are bad; some suggestions are good.

Childhood Suggestions: Prophetic Commands

Here are some examples that are quite familiar to everyone, including suggestions given to children during childhood:

For example, if you do not wear a raincoat out in the rain, you will catch a cold.

We all scare children this way.

If you talk too much or are too emotionally expressive, people will not like you.

You are just too simple, saying everything, lacking any maturity, too blunt. You should keep some mystery, especially girls should talk less, so others will think you are more reserved and like you more. These are all views of modern people, but once you leave a certain cultural attribute and atmosphere, none of this holds true.

If you run, you will fall.

You cannot run. Indeed, in American schools nowadays running is not allowed; in any public school no student is allowed to run, only walk, and if you run you will have points deducted.

Prejudices of course have many variations.

Many variations. For example, if you go out on a rainy day you will get pneumonia, or if you lie your tongue will turn to stone. These are all things we use to scare children.

Parents often give children these suggestions with the best of intentions.

That is, when you say these things to them, you do so with good intentions. You are afraid they will get sick, you do not want them to lie, you hope they will have good character. Your intentions are good, but when they are young, children will accept some of these suggestions without discrimination. Since they come from a respected adult, especially from parents they love, the suggestion is almost interpreted as a command -- it is not taken as advice, but as a command. Then it is received and becomes part of his belief system.

A suggestion like "If you go swimming too soon after lunch, you will drown" is extremely dangerous, because its prophecy is that after making a first move, a disastrous act will almost automatically follow.

Obviously, children who go into the water right after eating do not all drown. But this suggestion itself may lead to all sorts of neurotic symptoms, such as panic, cramps, which may persist into adulthood. And such panic and cramps are very dangerous when a child is swimming. Actually, originally he was fine, but because he was frightened by adults, he really may carry fear and cramps, and then the possibility occurs. If panic or cramps suddenly appear in the water, a child can really easily drown.

As we will explain shortly, such suggestions are removed.

Such suggestions can be removed.

There are other suggestions involving identification. Someone may tell a child, if you are like your mother...

Then they will tell you, you are like your mother, because your mother is always neurotic and emotional, so you will also be neurotic and emotional. This kind of suggestion, or saying you are fat because your father is fat -- we often hear this kind of talk, and such words have a very great suggestive and hypnotic effect on children.

These are all statements leading to certain assumptions.

These are assumptions. And again the problem is that these assumptions are often never questioned. Although they are assumptions, they are never doubted. As a result you have some unexamined structural beliefs; you have not examined them, but they have already entered your system and become structural. You will also think this way, and they will subsequently be carried out automatically. The result is just that: you really will become neurotic, really will become like your mother, you really will become fat.

Then the dictation ended. Seth told Ruburt not to worry, the leg problem would be resolved, and no surgery would be needed.

Prophetic Suggestions and Age: The Second Adolescence of Old Age

Monday, April 9, 1984, 4:01 p.m. Sunday afternoon. When I arrived at Room 330 at noon today, I found a considerable amount of discharge on the foam rubber cushion between Jane's knees. I turned her over onto her back. At 2:50, Jane's favorite Dr. Wilson came in to examine Jane's knees. He said that at the site of the rupture, a bone had become inflamed, and it may have been that way for a long time. He said it might heal, just as it apparently had healed once before when the ulcer there had healed. He agreed with us that it was all right to leave that area unwrapped and without ointment. Sometimes letting it air out is better; wrapping it up can actually hinder recovery. Since she is thoroughly cleaned in the hydrotherapy department every day, he did not advocate anything like surgery. And his advice was consistent with what the Seth material said yesterday. He said he would also come and check on Jane's knees.

Jane said that my parting words yesterday, telling her she should not worry and that her legs would heal on their own, cheered her up considerably. I really did think that, and now I repeat it once more.

At 3:15, she tried to read yesterday's session, but she did not read it very well, so in the end I read it to her. Then Seth came through.

Now once again I wish you a good afternoon.

We will continue with the dictation, and with the contents of the book.

The suggestions we have given so far are all prophetic. Suggestions are all prophetic; they are in fact all prophecies — a certain kind of prophecy, that after a given action, some unfortunate event will follow.

All the suggestions we have now are prophecies. Telling him that after he does a certain thing, something bad will happen — that is a kind of prophecy.

There are also many such suggestions specifically connected with age. For example, many people strongly believe that when old age approaches, they will encounter a steady and catastrophic deterioration of bodily functions, in which the senses and the mind will become dulled — will become sluggish, and the disease-ridden body will lose all its energy and agility, movement will become slow and inconvenient, and both reactions and the ability to think will become dull.

Many young people believe this nonsense, because they themselves cause themselves to encounter the very conditions they so fear. Because they believe this, they create such a reality upon themselves, and so they believe it even more. What they do not know is that it is because they believe it that such results come about, and not that it is actually so.

When you allow the mind to do so, it will grow wiser with age.

That is, when you allow yourself not to be influenced by it, your mind will at least grow wiser. Your brain, your consciousness, your thoughts will not become duller and duller; they will only grow wiser.

Thought and inspiration even speed up, as they did in adolescence.

When you reach so-called old age, your thoughts will actually speed up; thought and inspiration will accelerate, just as they did when you were in adolescence. They suddenly bring the elderly person a new understanding, and provide an impetus that should help the person reach a greater comprehension — an understanding that should knock out all fear of death.

Elderly people will actually have the feelings of adolescence. We often call old age the second adolescence. He will cast off all these worldly limitations — without economic pressure, with children grown and no longer needing his care, and with no parents of his own to look after, he is in a very free and relaxed state, and he has unlimited freedom. Moreover, many of his ideas can be carried out with complete freedom and imagination; he has a great deal of time at his own disposal; he can travel, see the world, do what he likes, learn new things — all of which are things an adolescent possesses. And for an elderly person to have such an ability at this time is to help him eliminate and lessen his fear of death. This is something that happens naturally; it is a very good gift that humanity has set up. Yet many of us do not seize this point, and instead turn old age into a miserable existence.

Beliefs, Genes, and Disease: Genes Are Not Determinative

At 4:08, Shannon took Jane's blood pressure. I read Jane's session up to this point aloud to Jane. At 4:13, Jane continued with the material she had told me yesterday she planned to give today.

Thoughts and beliefs do indeed bring about physical changes in the body.

Remember this sentence; this is certain.

They often really do alter the information given to the genes.

Remember, your thoughts and beliefs change the physical body, and even really change your genes. This is what needs to be said.

People believe that certain diseases are hereditary, passed down from one generation to another through a defective gene.

For example, it is obvious that many people who carry a hereditary gene for rheumatoid conditions do not themselves develop the disease, while others do. The difference lies in belief.

Let us take an example. Some people who carry a hereditary gene for rheumatoid conditions—that is, their parents' generation had the rheumatoid gene—by all rights they have inherited the rheumatoid gene, but they themselves will not get the disease. And some people whose parents never had it, and whose ancestors never had any rheumatoid inheritance, end up getting a rheumatoid disease. Rheumatoid disease is a disease of the immune system; it is not a matter of whether you have caught a chill or not. Do not think that just because you see the word "rheumatism" it is no big deal. Rheumatism is a disease of the immune system.

So this is where it gets interesting: people who have the genetic inheritance for this disease do not get it, while some people who have no genetic inheritance for the disease do get it. Where does the difference lie? The difference lies in belief. Belief is the fundamental reason whether you get the disease or not, and genes do not play a decisive role here.

Those who accept the suggestion that they will inherit such a disease then really do seem to inherit it, and they experience the symptoms.

They feel that there are symptoms, that there is an effect.

So the West has come up with a method that seems very clever but is actually very foolish and stupid. For example, they do genetic sequencing on a person and then tell him what the likelihood and probability is that he will get a certain disease, based on data calculations and so on. And then many people, because of this suggestion, take extreme measures. For example, we all know of a famous actress who, because of genetic screening—or because she believed the genetic inference that her probability of getting breast cancer was over 30 percent¹—thought, with such a high probability, she might as well just have her breasts removed directly. So she had a mastectomy very early on, so that she would not get breast cancer. You can imagine how naive and laughable such an approach is. Whether you get breast cancer or not does not depend on your genes; it depends far more on your own beliefs. And many people believe that genes have an effect, and then genes really do have an effect. This is a very subtle point.

In fact, that belief itself may turn a healthy genetic message into an unhealthy one.

It is precisely because you believe. Originally you would have no problem; even if you have the genetic inheritance, it would not flare up. Just as in the earlier example, many people with the inheritance do not get the disease. Who gets it and who does not? You have to believe that you can avoid it. And conversely, you may have the inheritance, but your body is healthy, and you will not get the disease. But because you believe in this thing, that belief will make those originally healthy genes become unhealthy, become ones carrying this kind of information.

Ideally speaking, a change of belief would correct the situation.

If we speak ideally, if you change your beliefs, you can correct this situation. But this is under ideal conditions. To put it more objectively, correcting the state of your beliefs is not that easy, which is why Seth added "ideally speaking" at the beginning here.

In other words, if a person is already very ill, and you simply change his beliefs so that his body gets corrected—intellectually and theoretically this is absolutely no problem, but in actual practice it is extremely difficult, and the results are not very satisfactory. If you do not believe it, you can go try it. Go to a hospital and talk to them for three days about the Seth material and "you create your own reality." Even if they accept your viewpoint and agree with what you say, can they all be cured and go home? No. Because their underlying beliefs are far more powerful than you imagine, and their acceptance of these things you are telling them is not 100 percent.

The subtlety lies right here. If he believes your viewpoint and accepts your viewpoint, but he falls just a little short—if he does not believe 100 percent—then the effect is extremely negligible. So here Seth also emphasizes that theoretically and ideally, belief changing reality and changing a person's health is very effective, but the premise is that the person must believe absolutely. If he falls short by even a little, it will not work. So in actual practice, this effect is not as miraculous as you might think—that as soon as a person's belief shifts, he will immediately get better.

Of course, there are also opposite examples. There are many, many patients whose beliefs changed completely, and their bodies underwent instantaneous reversal. But you must remember the premise: the premise is that his belief underwent something like a 180-degree reversal. That is, everything he previously thought was right, he can now turn around and regard as wrong; all his previous behaviors, he reverses entirely. If a person can reach that point, then his illness can be cured instantly. But for a normal person, this is not an easy thing to do. That is why ancient China told us about a person's innate disposition: it is easy to change rivers and mountains, but hard to change one's innate disposition²—what they called "innate disposition" refers to your belief system.

Yet people will not, whether willingly or not, be shaken by one negative suggestion or another.

We are not willing to be shaken by other beliefs.

Every person is suggested by a whole body of beliefs, and these are reflected in the physical body, each in its own place, like one radish, one hole.

We are not willing to be shaken by beliefs, but we are indeed influenced by these beliefs, in our bodies. Just like one radish, one hole, a belief will bring about a certain kind of physical symptom and a certain kind of physical reaction.

The Nature of Healing: Implanting Positive Suggestions, Removing Negative Suggestions

At 4:19, Dana took Jane's temperature. I read the last few lines to Jane and let him continue.

All actual healings are the insertion of positive suggestions to remove negative suggestions.

He then said that for those healings, basically it is implanting positive beliefs and removing negative beliefs. If this work is done well enough, the person's healing will be more successful; if it is not done well enough, the healing will not be very successful. So when we heal people who truly have physical illness, it is more about the implantation and removal of beliefs.

But I need to tell everyone a fact: when you find that while talking with someone, he seems to agree with your viewpoint, as if he accepts your beliefs, do not be fooled by this illusion. In actual cases I have encountered, in order to please you or to accommodate you, they will pretend to accept your beliefs, but in their hearts they do not actually approve or accept them. So in this kind of situation you must make a distinction. Do not look at what he says; look at what he does. If he has accepted your beliefs, after removing the negative suggestions and implanting positive suggestions, his behavior will change. If their behavior does not change, then this kind of verbal so-called acceptance of your beliefs has no actual meaning. I am only giving you actual, real cases I have encountered in life. This kind of situation does exist.

As they said earlier, every smallest atom and cell contains what -- its own impetus toward growth and value fulfillment.

Because this is the basic law of the universe, and the basic law of the universe is value fulfillment. As it is experienced in our three-dimensional world, it is the law of growth. So this is a built-in directionality in every atom, even every cell, every individual, every consciousness, which is toward growth and value fulfillment.

In other words, they are literally embedded with positive suggestions.

Every smallest unit of every individual is embedded with a kind of positive suggestion. So our positive suggestions are innate. Then why do we become ill? It is because our negative suggestions are too strong, and they suppress these preset, inner positive suggestions.

Biologically it is nourished, because it is a positive suggestion. Therefore, in a certain way, if it is said that negative suggestions are unnatural, leading people away from the main goal of life, to some degree that is true.

That is, we become ill because negative beliefs lead us off track. If we do not deviate through negative beliefs, we as people will normally, naturally, and healthily move toward growth and toward value fulfillment.

Negative suggestions can be compared to static noise in a program that is otherwise clear.

This negative suggestion can be compared to a television program. Think of the old televisions we used to watch. When a television program was broadcast, there would be some signal interference. It is not like now, with cable television and satellite television, where there is no signal interference and it is incomparably clear. Old televisions were not like that. During programs there would often be snow, stripes, that kind of effect. That is like negative suggestions at work. When this negative suggestion works to a certain degree, the program can no longer be watched, and your life is basically over. When the program it affects becomes distorted and deformed, that also means the condition of your body is distorting and deforming. I am giving this kind of detailed, concrete example so that you can understand.

Then at this point Seth ended.

Collective Beliefs, Games, and Health: Play Is Human Nature

Tuesday, April 10, 1984, 3:50 p.m. It was fairly warm today, over 50 degrees Fahrenheit when I drove to the hospital. Jane looked well, and not much fluid had drained from his right knee. The nurses were all playing pranks today, telling blunt sexual jokes and teasing one another, which we called "driving." Jane described a very vivid, even uplifting dream he had last night — in it he sat on the floor playing with little trinkets he had collected, and so on; I did not note down the details. Jane said he liked the dream very much.

Seth came through:

Once again I wish you a good afternoon.

Good afternoon, Seth, we will continue with the dictation.

Of course, worry, fear, and doubt are all very detrimental to health, and these are often caused by beliefs that are socially accepted.

These are not your own beliefs; they are accepted beliefs, that is, the suggestions that collective beliefs give you.

Those beliefs paint a miserable picture, in which any given situation is bound to worsen, any certain kind of situation is bound to lead to some kind of deterioration, any imaginable illness is bound to get worse, and every possible disaster will be encountered.

This is what collective beliefs suggest to you. As long as you get a certain illness, according to what everyone says, that illness basically will not get better. They tell you that a certain illness cannot be cured, because medicine has proven that it can no longer be cured, so you will have this illness forever, and they may even tell you that with this illness you are probably not far from death.

Such beliefs dampen the feelings of curiosity, joy, and wonder.

Actually, being ill is a different kind of experience and feeling; it is a difference in your state of health, and sometimes it is a need in the body's process of self-healing. In itself it is a fun, interesting experience, an experience of different feelings. But because you accept these collective negative beliefs, they dampen your curiosity about and exploration of this special experience, and they also dampen your joy and sense of wonder, turning it into a very, very bad experience.

They inhibit playful activity and spontaneous behavior.

It was originally playful and spontaneous — the changes in your body, the changes in your body's state, are all spontaneous and playful. But you inhibit them, insisting that it is a very serious matter, making it sound as serious as possible.

They bring about a physical condition in which the body is placed in a highly negative, aggressive state.

This is the kind of state we often bring about, with the body in a negative, aggressive state.

In such a case, to look for the worm in the apple.

And in every new experience and encounter, expecting pain and danger seems as if it were the only reasonable thing to do. This is very bad. That is, we think that in any experience, when other people say such-and-such a thing, when they say this kind of suggestion will not be good, then you go looking for that badness. For example, if someone says that a certain illness will definitely have certain symptoms, you go looking for those symptoms; if someone says that experiencing a certain thing will definitely bring a certain bad result, you expect that result. It is not so much expectation as searching — why do I not have that result? Why do I not have that symptom? Why do I not have that experience? This is what "looking for the worm in the apple" means.

Again, this is very, very bad, and very dangerous. What other people experience is not necessarily what you will experience, and these things are all prophetic in nature. Prophecy is uncertain; all possibilities are contained within it. Why do you insist on taking the worst possibility and accepting it as something certain and unquestioned? This is a very sad example of how we humans are controlled by our beliefs on many issues.

It is the same in life. For example, if we start a business, other people will say that starting a business is painful and that you will encounter all kinds of problems, and then you will encounter them. Then if you fall in love, other people say that nowadays no one is sincere in love anymore, that it is not like before, that it is very materialistic, and then the people you meet in love will also be very materialistic and insincere. This kind of social suggestion leads you to accept it, and then you will encounter it. If, on the other hand, you do not believe them, if you toss aside many of their words and treat them as nonsense, and you believe in your own beliefs, then you will encounter the situations that your beliefs firmly hold to, and they will appear. So never believe what other people say, never follow the crowd, never accept the mainstream view of society that says things will be such and such. If you accept it, then you are being controlled and influenced by them.

In the development of growth and achievement, play is very important.

Here he again emphasizes the importance of play. Indeed, play is an indispensable attribute.

In the natural play of children, and so it is with animals. For that matter, insects, birds, fish, and all kinds of biological life play. Even ants and bees play.

We think that ants and bees work every day, but actually they do not; they also play. All animals play, all living things play. We humans also need to play; play is one of our indispensable basic attributes. Many people do not understand why so many young people nowadays like to play games, and why they become so addicted to them. It is precisely because play is one of the basic attributes of human nature. If you deprive a person of the attribute of play, it is equivalent to depriving them of the attribute of being human.

We adults are also playing our adult games, only you do not think of them as games. For example, when you are courting someone of the opposite sex, whether male or female, it is like a game. And in the process of playing, much of it resembles the way games are played — you send flowers, buy gifts, take the person to special settings and romantic activities; that is playing a game. Our ancestors realized this very early on. In the ancient arts of the bedchamber, they regarded the relationship between husband and wife, between man and woman, as being at its best in a state of playfulness; play was the highest realm in the arts of the bedchamber — two people together playing games.

So even the most serious, the most earnest attributes of our society are all playing games. Including when you create a company or create something, you can speak of it very seriously as a great and important matter, or you can also, from a certain angle, see it as a playful act. It depends on how you look at it. If you can see it as a game, then it is very important, and it accords with the essence of your life. Conversely, you are making something serious out of what was originally a game.

I have spoken about this before: play is the highest realm in this world. Because the Chinese character for "play" has the character for "king" on the left and the character for "origin" on the right. "Origin" carries the meaning of a very high cosmic consciousness; we explained this before, when we talked about the metaverse, we took this character apart and explained it to everyone. We do not have time to go into it this time; we will only tell you that "origin" represents cosmic consciousness, represents world consciousness. So "king" is the highest realm among people; the highest realm of a person is to be a king — inwardly a sage, outwardly a king. When a person who is inwardly a sage and outwardly a king, a king, receives cosmic consciousness, this behavior is called play. So play can connect with cosmic consciousness.

So never stop people from living life with a playful attitude, from playing. In this way, you also do not need to be so nervous about your children playing games.

Their social life is not merely a matter of working constantly within a sealed hive or an anthill.

They do not only work; they also play.

In fact, this play activity is the basis of their organized behavior.

We all know that ants and bees are highly organized, but their organization is accomplished through play. Without play, their organization could not be established. It is the same with our children: if you do not let children play games, when they grow up it will be hard for them to fit into a group, and hard for them to have leadership ability.

The Boy Scout activities we organize in the summer, including our activities on artificial intelligence and the stimulation of human potential³, include games and play as an important component. In the Boy Scout camp, if you know anything about the Boy Scouts, it is older people or older children leading younger children, playing with purpose and organization. The entire Boy Scout program has 138 courses⁴, and almost every course is play, but play of a very high level. For example, they have a course that cultivates your leadership — this Leadership — and it turns leadership into various modes of play. Those who do well in society in the future are often these child leaders. These child leaders established their leadership position in the process of playing from an early age; this leadership ability is cultivated through play. If you do not let them play, they will not have this ability. In the future, do not blame your child for having only the mentality of a wage earner, or for not daring to stand out — it is because you did not let them play when they were young. They do not have this ability; they do not dare to stand out, and they do not know how to stand out, nor will they know how to handle good social relationships with everyone in society.

And before taking on their own responsibilities, they play at adult behavior.

Before they take on responsibilities, they are playing, and as they play they become adults.

The play of creatures is because the activity is joyful, and spontaneous, and purposeful, for it activates all portions of the organism.

Play can activate all parts of your organism.

And again, in play, children imitate adult modes of operation, which finally lead to their own mature activity.

Only through play can they mature and grow up. If you think that a child who does not play is more like an adult, you are wrong. The less a child plays, the more childish they are, and when they grow up they will actually do very childish things. On the contrary, children who played a lot while growing up are often very mature when they grow up — because all those childish things, they already played through them in childhood; they were fully expressed, and they grew through play. But for those children whose parents always restricted their play, the children never got to play, and when they grow up they will instead engage in a very ridiculous compensatory kind of play, and by then the time when they should have played has already passed, making it very, very inappropriate. So when it is time to play, you must let children play.

The First Symptom of Illness: Lack of Delight

At 5:09.

When people become ill, worried, or fearful, the first symptom of the problem is a lack of delight.

Remember, when people are ill, fearful, or anxious, the first symptom is that there is no delight, no happiness. When you cannot feel delight, you should pay attention: you have already shown the first symptom.

Playful behavior gradually comes to a halt.

They stop playing.

And there is excessive preoccupation with personal problems. In other words, the first symptom of illness is often a lack of enthusiasm and exuberance.

How do you judge whether you are getting sick? First, there is no exuberance; second, there is no enthusiasm, no enthusiasm for life or for the world, and life is no longer enjoyable.

There is no delight in life; delight has withdrawn.

You begin to cut back on your normal activities, new encounters, or new healings, chance meetings, or explorations.

Those activities might in themselves help alleviate the problem by opening up new options.

Starting new activities will alleviate the problem. If a person is always trying to keep starting new things, then his body will not have any major problems. If he remains unhappy in an old environment and old scenes, then his body is not far from illness. So a fairly good and effective suggestion for people who are physically ill is to travel, to live in a different place, to meet new people, to make new friends—all of these help alleviate their symptoms.

Such a person appears to become discouraged, even unsmiling or sullen, causing others to comment on such a dejected expression.

Comments like: you look very tired, or what is wrong with you, are you not feeling well—and other such comments often only reinforce the person's previous sense of dejection. Until finally, this same kind of exchange leads to a situation in which the person and his companions begin to interact in a negative rather than a positive way.

At first you are just unhappy, without delight, and then you lose exuberance and enthusiasm. At that point you will show it outwardly, and then your companions will ask you, are you sick? Are you not feeling well? Are you uncomfortable? Are you very tired? And this will strengthen your belief that, oh, they all see me this way, so it seems I really do have a problem. And these automatic, reflexive greetings from others will strengthen your negative perception of yourself and lead to worse results.

He said, meaningless suggestions—saying things like "you look sick" or "are you tired"—such greetings are always disadvantageous.

Again, I am not saying that such questions can never be asked from now on, nor that such greetings are wrong. If such a greeting comes from your heart, from genuine inner concern, there is no problem with it; it is based on love, on the intention of helping him become better, on hoping he can improve—that starting point is correct. If you are acting out of curiosity, out of your own instinctive reactions, wanting to reinforce your fixed collective beliefs, thinking that a person with such an expression, such a complexion, might have something wrong—this kind of question indeed predicts its own answer; it definitely predicts its own answer.

When a person feels healthy, exuberant, and full of vitality, such questions will be brushed aside without a care.

They will have no effect at all. When you tell a very optimistic person that he looks unwell or that he seems very tired, these words have no effect on him; he is completely unaffected by you. But for those who are already somewhat low, or already somewhat emotionally off, if you say this to them, it will have a very serious impact on them.

But constantly asking questions of this nature does not help a person in difficulty at all. In fact, expressing sympathy too often can also worsen a person's state of mind, emphasizing that he must indeed be very ill to attract such feelings of sympathy.

Then he will continue to be sympathized with. In such a case, saying nothing at all is far better. Excessive sympathy will worsen the illness and make the situation worse. So sometimes we suggest, for example, if someone says their child has a problem, or a family member's health has a problem, our suggestion is to orient only toward the positive, and not to keep harping on the matter. You say he has a problem, so I must care about him—fine, but the more you care about him, the more serious the problem becomes.

Here again it tells you that excessive sympathy and concern will cause the situation to become worse. His illness will become more severe, which will arouse even greater sympathy from you—because you need to sympathize with him, you hope he becomes sicker; only if he becomes sicker can you sympathize with him more. He himself will also be led by this suggestion. So remember, saying nothing at all is actually better; just act as if you did not see it, as if you did not know. You think this is too cold? It is not cold; it is a better way for him. Do something meaningful together; do not keep asking how your illness is, whether you are better today than yesterday, how you are feeling, your complexion does not look too good—do not say these things; none of them help; they are all useless words.

This again emphasizes that I am not talking about greetings of genuine concern and genuine care, but rather quite automatic, unthinking negative comments. Seth says it is not that greetings from the heart, truly out of love and care, are unnecessary—those are truly needed, and others need them too. What I am talking about is the kind that comes without thinking, that blurts out, that carries curiosity, sympathy, or a gossip-seeking mentality—those are unnecessary.

On the other hand, commenting on another person's obvious enthusiasm, energy, and good nature is an excellent practice.

The correct approach, he says, is to comment on what is good about him: his enthusiasm, his energy, his good nature. When someone has a hobby or interest, or discovers some new fun place, give positive support—that is very good.

In this way, you reward positive behavior and may actually set in motion a chain of positive activity rather than continuing a negative chain reaction.

Very interesting. And then the session ended.

Seth said Ruburt's dream was excellent, showing that he is now making full use of his past and rediscovering the concept of playfulness. He dreamed of playing with little gadgets; playing with those little gadgets is play, as well as delightful activities and sources. He began to have delight; in the dream he began to play. If he can play in life, that would be even better. Remember, the play I am talking about is real play, not playing for the sake of playing—not saying that since Seth says play helps the body, then let us go play—that kind of play is meaningless. It is when you truly want to play, playing from the heart, truly playing, truly enjoying yourself in it like a child.

The Art of a Positive Attitude: No Empty Flattery, Speak the Best You Hope For

Then Jane said that Seth had left. 5:30 p.m. At 4:40 p.m., Jane had been interrupted by a nurse delivering vitamins. Then I read to my wife. Today, after today's session, I read to her the first session of Chapter 1 of Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment. I want to read the whole book to her, because when I read Chapter 6 to her that day, she had an excellent response. Once again, today she was quite moved by the inner realm, that is, the first session of Chapter 1.

I think it is very important that you know how good that book is. I told Jane, I hope you can understand how good your book is, this is very important. I said, it is hard for us to believe that around four and a half years ago, in September 1979, we began that first session, that is, Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment.

April 12, 1984, Thursday, 4:13 p.m. Jane called last night. When I went to Room 330, the temperature was 60 degrees Fahrenheit. When I left home, I took out of the mailbox a check for about $360 in donations sent by Maude Cardwell⁵. This morning I made notes for the publisher. I began to feel that sense of being overwhelmed again, especially after another batch of letters came from the publisher today. My teeth were somewhat uncomfortable at times, and tonight the pendulum told me that it was because I was beginning to worry about Jane.

The hospital staff held a party today for a nurse's aide who was changing jobs. I stopped at the convenience store to buy potato chips for the party, that is, chips. Carla saved me a plate of party food, and when I brought it home for dinner, it was delicious. It was already 9:10 p.m. when I began typing this session. This afternoon in Room 330 it was quite warm, and Jane was often uncomfortable.

Seth said:

Now I once again wish you a good afternoon.

We continue with the dictation.

I did not tell you to pour forth an unending stream of positive suggestions, regardless of whether they have any relation to the current situation.

Again, do not be influenced by the last session into thinking that we should just keep saying positive, chicken-soup-style things — you are fine, you are healthy, you look great — it is not about saying those insincere positive things. Do not say that useless empty flattery; it is meaningless.

What I am saying is, for any situation, look at the solution you most hope for, and speak that attitude, which is far better than anticipating the worst outcome or expressing the most miserable attitude.

Again, what I mean is this: when you see a patient, or your family member, or your friend, just speak the best you hope for them, that is, the most beautiful hope and the most desired outcome, and that is enough. Rather than excessive worry and sympathy.

To speak of some issues that regard health and happiness as important, those are rather difficult to describe.

This is an extremely important issue concerning health and happiness, but this viewpoint is not something Seth can describe clearly in just a few words; there is something very complex underlying it.

They are things you can feel in your very nature, part of the aesthetic sense of nature itself. For example, the brilliant colors of flowers are not only for people to enjoy, but indeed because color is part of the flowers' own aesthetic system. They enjoy their own brilliance, and thoroughly enjoy their own countless hues.

What he means is that every part of nature is itself beautiful, and beauty is part of nature itself. He says you can very easily discover the beautiful parts of every person and praise them, which is beneficial to everyone, rather than emphasizing and sympathizing with the parts of them that are not good.

Insects also appreciate the brilliant colors of flowers, and for aesthetic reasons as well.

Even insects have an aesthetic sense.

And again, every creature, every plant, or every existent being in nature, has its own value fulfillment, seeking the greatest possible completion and expansion of its own innate abilities.

Every creature seeks the greatest possible completion and expansion of its own potential; this is innate.

I say again, this sense of value fulfillment benefits not only the individual, but also its species and all other species.

The characteristic of value fulfillment is that it is not only beneficial to the individual; it is beneficial to everyone.

Then, in a manner of speaking, the picture of nature is given by the parts of itself that are consciously aware of its important beauty.

If we follow this statement, then the beauty of nature is gathered from the beauty inherent within nature itself. You see its external beauty because nature is beautiful within. In other words, it is created by the inner beauty of the entire universal consciousness that makes up nature.

Every part of nature is also equipped to respond to changing conditions, and thus to handle its own precognitive behavior, because it can grow from today's condition into tomorrow's.

Nature has this ability; it can grow from today into tomorrow. It has a precognitive behavior toward the future; it knows what it will become. And toward the future, it is always in a positive, optimistic, and proactive expectation; it is not like us, who do not have a good expectation of the future.

Nature is always dealing with probabilities. In human terms, this means that each person has a vast storehouse of paths leading toward value fulfillment.

Nature is always dealing with probabilities. So for people, you always have many possibilities to lead you toward the path of your value fulfillment. That is to say, there is not just one path to realizing value fulfillment; there are countless paths. When one path does not go smoothly, or cannot be walked, you can switch to another. This possibility always exists.

That individual ability, ideally speaking, will form the broad avenue of your own expression.

That is, each person's path to realizing value fulfillment is different, and ultimately for you it is your broad avenue. It is not a very difficult or winding path; it is your broad avenue. Any possibility can be walked into a broad avenue. It is not that your life originally had one broad avenue, but you failed to walk it, and that possibility was not realized, so the remaining roads are all rugged little paths — no, every one can be walked into a broad avenue. There is no such thing as a so-called correct broad avenue that you failed to realize; it just depends on whether you can do this.

It is only when the individual encounters too many forks in the road, or too many obstructions, in expressing value fulfillment, that poor health — or simply unhappiness — occurs.

When you are seeking the various possible paths of your life's value fulfillment, only when the path is especially winding, especially difficult, and encounters too many obstructions, will symptoms of poor health occur. Or for most people, poor health will not occur; only some unhappiness will arise. But this does not mean you have walked into a dead end; you can absolutely switch to another path and keep going. Remember, in life there is always light at the end of the tunnel. So when you cannot walk a path, do not keep going down the same road until it turns dark; you can switch to another way. Although we say all roads lead to Rome, and every one can lead to your value fulfillment, some roads are destined to be difficult to walk, and there is absolutely no need for you to cling stubbornly to that one road.

Free Will, Inspiration, and the Broad Path

The dictation is over. Seth is back again. You see, he grabs some time to teach.

When human beings developed the exterior ego, this led to questions of free will and the making of conscious choices.

Once you have an exterior ego, you have free will. You no longer have the completely free drive of the inner self, where your impulses, intuitions, and inspirations guide your life. You now have exterior judgment, and when that judgment appears, it also symbolizes that you have free will, or that you have the ego's experiential choices.

When the human individual becomes aware of the activities of a great number of possibilities.

You have choices, and you discover that there are many choices.

Each person really does possess far more abilities than can be adequately expressed in any given lifetime.

He says you have more abilities, you have more possibilities of expression, and this guarantees a great many possible behaviors. People should draw from among them according to changing circumstances.

To put this passage in plain words, your possibilities are many, and there are many roads you can choose. There is no need to be rigid about it, or to keep walking down one road until you drop. When one road is not going smoothly, when it makes you unhappy, just switch to another road right away. Nothing is a "should" or a "correct" thing; only joy and happiness are what you ought to pursue. Nothing else is something you absolutely must do.

Each person also innately senses his or her optimal image.

He says you will innately know which direction you should head toward. With so many paths and choices, you will innately feel it. As long as you trust your inspiration and intuition, they will all lead you in a correct direction. Inspiration will push you toward a certain purpose.

Remember, I deliberately highlighted "inspiration." When you do not know what the direction is, trust your inspiration.

Each person will move and grow more easily or more pleasantly in one direction rather than another.

Because every person is different, every person's choices are different, and the direction pointed to by each person's inspiration is also different. So they are all different. As long as you follow the guidance of your inspiration or the guidance of your impulses, it will lead you toward the direction of the possibilities you are naturally meant to seek, and you will walk it into a broad, smooth path.

In this discussion, I am not speaking only in terms of exterior goals of achievement, although these are important.

He says I am not saying that you went out and accomplished something, won some prize, gained some social status, gained money, wealth, or a happy marriage. None of these are what I want to emphasize. When I say it leads you toward your correct direction and growth, it does not mean your worldly achievements will necessarily grow. Because your personality's choices lie more in the underlying value fulfillment, not in exterior achievements. So you cannot evaluate a person entirely by exterior achievements.

Many people, however, will find that they have natural skills in human relationships, and here it is not as easy to judge one's own known value as it might be, say, in the work of a painter or a writer.

That is, everyone has their own abilities, but it is very hard for you to judge that value yourself, just as a painter finds it hard to evaluate what value his own painting has, and a composer also finds it hard to evaluate, but others can feel it. This is your potential.

Indeed, such a person does perform an art of human relationships. Some people are naturally very skilled at human relationships, producing what might be called symphonic, emotional compositions. Their relationships flow like clouds and water, and they can move among all kinds of different people and scenes with great ease, smooth and adept in every direction. Just like a very beautiful symphony.

What he means is, when you see a person who is born with natural social talent, his social behavior, or his activity in such social situations, is like a pianist playing a piano piece, flowing like clouds and water, with a special beauty. Indeed, he skillfully plays the emotions, just as a pianist plays the keys, and he gives true feeling to every person.

By looking at your own life, and following your own impulses and inclinations, you can also quite easily discover the area in which your own abilities lie.

Seth gave the example of a person with emotional potential, and it is the same in other areas. Each person will find his own area. For example, some people make the matter of earning money flow like clouds and water, especially comfortable, with a special sense of beauty; some people make academic research flourish with great vigor, also with great beauty. It is the same. This is each person's innate potential. Everyone is different, so find your own.

You cannot learn about yourself by studying what other people expect of you.

Do not pay attention to how others expect you to be, and then try to learn your own things from that. You will not learn it that way.

Only by asking yourself -- when others expect something of you, you merely have a starting point. Others say they hope you are like this, hope you are like that, and then you ask yourself: Am I really like this? Do I really hope to be like that? Do I really want that?

He wants you to think about this question often.

What do you expect of yourself, and in that way discover for yourself the direction in which your abilities lie.

Do not pay attention to what others expect of you. What others expect is not important. They want you to be like this, they want you not to be like that. What do you yourself want to be like? What are your own expectations of yourself? You must fulfill your own expectations of yourself, not the expectations others have of you. That is what he wants to tell you.

Jane said, 4:56. Seth said, I sweated a lot. The windows were wide open, and I should add that before the session, after much difficulty, Jane finally managed to read the March 19 session by herself, while we ourselves had to read the previous session to him. At his suggestion, I brought his old metal-framed glasses to him, but they did not seem to make much difference. Jane looked much better wearing them.

This part, the first part of Chapter Five, covers several small sections, I think four sections. Each small section addresses one theme, and they are very important, and very meaningful for all people. I suggest everyone carefully extract the content of each section and make a simple summary. That will allow you to understand Seth's true insights very well, and allow him to help us, so that those who truly have physical health problems can obtain very good relief and recovery.

Rob's Despair and Jane's Fear

Tuesday, April 17, 1984, 3:58 p.m. This was Jane's first session in five days, and the longest interruption in recent times.

Lately Jane has been quite depressed, and he was worrying to himself: would he ever go home again? I said that at this point, I did not know how he could, or how he would be able to, go home. It has been nearly a year now, since April 20 of last year, that we had a discussion that was not very encouraging or helpful, and it touched on many topics we had gone over repeatedly before. I repeated my old comment: I said that if he had seen the warning signs back when he was producing Seth Speaks, I would have willingly given up the whole channeling business, meaning I would rather not do channeling at all than have Jane's body end up in trouble because of it.

If the channeling work was the root of his problems, I did not really believe it, and I still do not believe it now. Indeed, it has nothing to do with the channeling work. One could even say that the channeling work has done Jane's physical health more good than harm. But the root of the problem does not lie in this matter; it lies in how Jane evaluates and regards himself.

How a person regards himself is not because of what he has done, or what he has not done, or his actions and behavior. What a person truly uses to regard himself should come from his own heart, from his own intention, from his own starting point. In other words, if a person does nothing at all, how should he evaluate himself? That is the key question. And very often, we tend to evaluate ourselves by the things we have done, or the things we have not done.

I believe that whatever fears of life Jane has, they are early-life conditioning, and they have successfully resisted all attempts to dig them out. That is, this fear of life is something very early, and it is especially stubborn; it resists any attempt to dig it out, and will not let you dig it out.

I said that this process of harming the body is meaningless. It was just that he said, this is meaningless, what meaning is there in harming your own body? Yes, from an outsider's perspective, it is truly impossible to understand. Why would a person's deepest layer go about harming himself, harming his own health, through fear?

Rob said, what I said was not really relevant to the subject either. Why? When one considers that for many years these fears have deeply dominated Jane, that this fear has deeply dominated Jane for all these years, then what you said truly has no meaning, because they really did achieve it, or rather, they really did bring about such a result.

I told him that I thought the Seth material had touched those fears, but had not erased their emotional content and power. He thought the Seth material had indeed discovered, or touched, those deep fears, but had not cleared them away, nor erased them. Then Rob said, I no longer know how to help him. Since things have come to this, since Seth has come through, and has already touched his deep fears, why could they not be dug out? Why could they not be erased? Then I have no way either.

Since last year, after the burst of motion Jane began in October 1983, I myself have not had much hope. This burst of motion refers to some physical changes. When I saw him give up that motion two months later, I took it as another signal of resistance from a deeply rooted part of the personality. That is, when he had damaged his body to a certain degree, he then stopped. He believed there was another part within Jane's body that was also resisting this underlying existence that was making his body worse and worse. That is, beneath the fear, there is still a part of a person that restores itself, a source-oriented part that moves toward health, and that part has always been there. So the fear sits on top of it, but Rob also saw that there was a part of Jane that genuinely wanted to get better, and that part was also deeply rooted.

Then, with the inflammation, the antibiotics, the broken leg splitting open again, and so on, to me these meant that he himself did not have much hope. But more importantly, they also reflected a certain part of the personality, a stubborn resistance to change. He had two parts, and they were fighting each other. One part was the part that wanted to heal himself, to self-heal, and that part was deeply rooted; the other part was his deep fear, and that part was also deeply rooted. The two of them were pulling and fighting against each other.

I cannot imagine my wife's situation being any different. He could not figure out what his situation was; he could only guess that this was how it was. His body had not been allowed to heal itself, otherwise it would have done so. The body had not been allowed to heal itself; it was blocked by his deep fear. He undoubtedly had that potential.

When Seth began saying that Jane would walk fairly comfortably, at first I believed Seth, but soon I began to disbelieve. You see, here is where the problem arises. Actually, neither Jane nor Rob believed what Seth said, that Jane could walk comfortably. This is a very interesting thing, do you see? Because I could not even see the beginning signs of such a change. He could not see the signs, so he thought he would not get better. On the contrary, I saw the fever and the inflammation, and realized that those things meant the time for healing and walking was not now. He could not get better now; maybe later. So their underlying beliefs caused Jane's body to be exactly as they believed, which is the condition it is in now.

My own attitude may be too simple, but I do not believe a body can be coaxed into good health by someone else, or by Seth, or by whatever. This is one of Rob's underlying beliefs. You see, he said, I do not believe a body can be coaxed into good health by someone else, or by Seth, or by whatever. He did not believe in this kind of healing effect; he did not believe that Seth's sessions could restore Jane's body. What he believed was that Jane needed to recover on his own. On this point, Rob's judgment was correct. But whether it is Seth's sessions or Seth's help to Jane, it is indeed beneficial; the key is how Jane makes use of it. But Rob's view does have a reasonable side to it: he believed that external influences do not matter much; the key lies in Jane himself.

I told Jane that if he ever made progress, it would be because some part of him had given permission, and his body had then been allowed to heal itself. Only because of that. He said tearfully that he wanted to get better, but I am afraid that meant nothing to me. Because Jane had said this kind of thing countless, countless times, and his condition flatly contradicted such protests. His current condition was completely opposite to this idea of wanting to get better.

I also said that, on a larger, all-encompassing scale, I could understand a person choosing a lifetime of illness. He said, setting aside Jane's individuality, from a higher perspective, he could fully understand that some people choose a lifetime of illness. It is like saying, for the sake of learning about the exploratory consciousness of disease in some way, some people are willing to live a whole life in illness. He could understand it on the large scale, but when it came to Jane, he could not understand it. I believe that up to now this is what he has chosen to do in this life. Rob believed that the reason Jane was sick was that he had chosen to be sick in order to experience something different.

You see how terrifying their underlying beliefs are. In ordinary terms, his behavior was an extreme. By ordinary standards, Jane's behavior was too extreme: wanting to experience something did not have to go so far as to wreck his body to this degree, or to the point of killing himself, just to experience such a different thing.

I added that when I asked Seth about this matter, he also talked about, for example, extreme poverty in Africa in reply. But Seth said very little about Jane personally. Rob meant that when I asked Seth why someone would do this, Seth basically gave a general reply using the example of why an African might choose extreme poverty to experience this life: saying that some people simply want to expand consciousness through different experiences by living such a life. Rob said, but Seth rarely said why Jane made such a choice. They still wanted to know, after all, what underlying belief Jane was basing this on, to wreck his body to this extent.

I regarded this as another signal of resistance. He said Seth was not even helping him. He said, why not just dig out Jane's underlying belief directly for him? Why not say something specific? Jane never returned to that subject either; Jane did not dig deeply into that point.

Actually, Seth had already given it. When they were digging into the layer of his guilty self, that place had already been dug very deep. That is, in a certain segment of Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment, they had inserted a section about Jane's healing, at a time when Jane was already showing symptoms of illness. When they were digging deeply into Jane, they talked about how Jane had another self, called the guilty self, and they dug out that guilty self. That is the first reason.

The second reason is that, from Seth's perspective, he felt that digging this problem out once was enough, and he did not want to keep emphasizing it. In other words, if the root of a person's fear is dug out and can be eradicated, can be removed, that is best; if it cannot be eradicated or removed, and you keep bringing it up again and again without being able to eradicate it, that is not a good thing for you. I do not know if everyone can understand the logic here.

You dig up something that should be eradicated, for example, you dig up a tumor, you dig up the primary site of the cancer, the pathogen, but you cannot remove it, and then every time you have to dig down to it again, that has no practical meaning; it only makes things worse. If you dig up the root of the fear, but you have no way to clear it away, and then every time you emphasize its existence, then for you, a root of fear that cannot be cleared away seems to become a fact, and then you may never be able to clear it away. So how do you resolve it at that point? There is a better way: focus on something more meaningful, or make yourself happy and joyful, or simply live in the present, only considering the feelings of the body in the present moment. These are all very good methods. So here Seth also used many similar methods. But we ordinary people tend to want to give a clear and definite explanation.

Then Rob drew a conclusion. He said, my questions were just a waste of time, and I will not do that anymore. I said, on these matters it is purely a waste of time, it is useless, and I will not do that anymore. I do not plan to continue, because the result is always that I feel that without my pushing, Jane would never deal with them, whether Seth is present or not. That is, Rob said, I do not want to continue anymore. Why? Because if I do not push Jane to change, to adjust, Jane will never deal with these problems, and it has nothing to do with whether Seth is present or not. Whether Seth is there or not, Jane does not want to deal with these things. And that is indeed the case.

In the more than forty active private sessions we had, and in the more than forty pages of active material, the private sessions were later published in seven full volumes⁶, most of it concerned matters related to his symptoms. So, because it involved his symptoms, there was a lot of private, personal material. Rob meant that in every session, it was the result of him pushing Jane for answers, not the other way around. Rob meant that it was not that Jane himself wanted to heal himself; it was Rob pushing him, asking him why, give me an answer, give me a reason, pressing him, and that was the result. Rob meant that if Jane himself did not want to get better, then no matter how much he pushed him, no matter how much he guided him, no matter what we on the outside did, there would be no real effect. Because he saw from the actual results that if Rob himself did not push Jane, Jane would not explore why he was like this. In other words, he himself simply did not want to face this problem, and therefore his illness was very hard to cure.

Jane's Seth voice today was not loud, and I had to compete with sounds outside and noise from the hallway just to hear it.

Seth's Response: Removing Fear and Confusion

Then Seth said, I wish you both a good afternoon again. He said this is not book dictation, and it has nothing to do with the content of the book; the focus is on Jane's personal issues.

Seth said, I will attempt several important topics. Of course, on one level Ruburt wants to go home, and you also want him to go home. But on another level, he is afraid to go home, thinking that under the present circumstances it is almost impossible. This is also true for you -- you also think he cannot go home. Both Jane and Rob believe that, given the current condition of their bodies, they cannot go home. He is afraid to go home because of the present circumstances, and that fear has also prolonged the present circumstances.

And regarding Ruburt's going home, to a certain extent, the two of you are simply afraid to make any plans at all, because at present they seem rather impractical.

That is, the two of you say you want to go home, but you have never made any concrete plans for going home. The implication is that, deep down, both of you feel you cannot go home. Because when you think something is very likely to happen, you will prepare for it and make plans; when you think it cannot happen, you will not make any plans. So since the two of you have never made any plans at all about going home, how could you possibly go home?

The two of you do indeed think in terms of obstacles that seem all too real.

You both feel that it is still too early to talk about going home. Given the current physical condition, it really is a great obstacle, a real obstacle, to going home.

To think in terms of the responsibility of maintaining good health, of financial concerns.

To think about what? How to maintain the responsibility of good health, about money. And on Ruburt's part, what you think about more is how to solve the problem of the hospital bills.

At least he thinks in terms of the fear that he will not recover completely enough, but will become ill again and need to be readmitted to the hospital.

Ruburt says, I will not get completely well; even if I go home, I will probably be back again in a couple of days. He thinks about the problem from this angle. How do you expect him to get well? It is basically very hard for him to get well.

In this confusion of thoughts and fears, the goal of Ruburt's recovery, or even of considerable progress within a foreseeable period of time, is lost.

The possibility is lost -- the possibility of his recovery, or the possibility of seeing progress within a certain period of time, is also lost. And Rob says, we do not see any signs of progress or improvement, so we do not believe Jane can recover. But you yourself have blocked the appearance of such signs and such possibilities.

You must remove that fear and confusion as much as possible, so that the goal is clearly possible.

You must do this. If you do not resolve this, then that certainly cannot be accomplished.

You should begin to consider plans, to prepare for going home, because the plans themselves will help improve Ruburt's condition.

That is, if you now begin to consider the various arrangements for going home -- for example, whether a wheelchair will be needed, or whether to prepare a stretcher, whether to prepare a step-by-step process of rehabilitation after Jane returns home, whether to hire a caregiver after returning home, whether to contact the hospital and the insurance company, how treatment should proceed after returning home -- no, they have not made any arrangements. What have they done? They have done what seems very useful and what ordinary people do: they are desperately fighting for medical insurance, they are desperately worrying about the outcome of the hospital bills, they are worried that they do not have enough money to pay for Jane's later medical expenses if the insurance company does not participate. Deep in their hearts, they have never thought that one day Jane could be discharged from the hospital, without needing such expensive daily treatment costs in the hospital. They have never even considered that possibility. They only say with their lips, I want to go home, I want to go home, I have been in the hospital for a year. This is meaningless. You must make relevant plans for this, and the process of planning itself is helpful.

And it will begin to lighten the obstacle that now presses so heavily upon both your minds.

It can lighten the obstacle the two of you now feel regarding the present situation.

This afternoon I may or may not return; in any case, I give what confidence I can.

That is all for now. Jane said, the content ended there. At 4:08, I read this session to Jane, and Seth clearly did not return. This session emphasized most of what I had written in the assistant's notes before the session began, saying that whether or not it was by choice, fear had already been present and had dominated for many years, but ultimately it had to be chosen -- and it was still chosen. As the session was going on, I found myself thinking that what was needed was not to calm any present fear about going home, but rather some larger, more basic fear that was responsible for the whole situation in the first place.

What Rob said also makes some sense. That is, they are afraid to face this matter; they are afraid to face the fact that their own problems have led to the present condition of the body. They are afraid to face that they themselves caused this situation, and they do not want to take responsibility for it. I thought, then the present fear would melt away. I even thought that when Seth told Jane a few weeks ago that her broken right leg might heal on its own, that very moment produced even more fear, and then she said she could not do it herself, and so on.

I also think that when a person is desperate to obtain protection or shelter from the harms of the world, he will go to any lengths to get it. That is, when a person wants to obtain the protection of the world and the universe, he desperately wants to get it, and the very point of wanting to get it is itself the problem. Because you are seeking externally; you want to get it from outside, and you have not fundamentally wanted to change from within. That is, you do not believe that you can let your broken right leg heal on its own; you are waiting for Seth to give you affirmation, waiting for others to give you confidence. When others do not give you confidence, you have none, and others cannot give you confidence twenty-four hours a day -- but the confidence you give yourself can be there twenty-four hours a day. That is what he meant.

April 18: A Hopeless Dialogue

Wednesday, April 18, 1984, 4:50 p.m.

Jane did not call last night. This morning I took the cats to the vet, and it was far less difficult than I had feared. However, I slept poorly last night and woke up with a secret worry about whether I could manage to get them into the carriers. Although each of them only needed one pill to stop the itching, to me they already seemed a bit better tonight.

At 11 p.m., just as I was about to start photocopying the check that Maude Cardwell had sent, Frank Longwell came by, and we talked about how to fix up their backyard once the trees were all gone. Tomorrow I should take the lawnmower over to carry out that plan, because the grass has already turned green and will soon be getting long.

It seems I have not written anything for Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment for several days now. Jane seemed somewhat depressed, although she ate very well. We discussed yesterday's session, and when I was being rational I tried to read it, but in the end I read most of the session aloud to her. I had been afraid he was too harsh, but when I read it aloud, I could see that he really had expressed my own thoughts. Jane seemed to agree that basically a deep fear was the theory behind his problem, and we talked a little more about some of the things we had discussed yesterday.

I suggested trying to use dream suggestions to get clues about the root of his deep-seated fear — I said that would be a good action to take. Jane said no, just ask the dream, she said; in the dream, ask the higher self about the root and the clues of my fear. That is what Jane said. Actually, by now this method no longer has any real practical meaning. The fear has already become so deep-rooted that if you now try to dig it up and find its clues — actually, Seth has already told him the clues, has already dug up the root for him. It is he who needs to change, not to go find the clues. But he still keeps circling back to this.

Another approach we tried was to play a tape that a friend had sent us a few months ago — an interpretation by someone he considered to have psychic gifts. This person with psychic gifts — Jane actually has them too — had made some explanations and readings about Jane's condition. They had never listened to it, and neither had I. Yesterday I could not find the bag, but now I have found it. I found the bag just before I started typing these sessions, so tomorrow I will bring the tape recorder and the tape to the hospital room.

So much of this afternoon passed that I thought Jane had given up on having a session. But after we talked a while longer, she finally said she would have a short session. As time went on, she became more and more unhappy, because our conversation increasingly emphasized a fact — although neither of us had explicitly stressed that point — what fact? At least in our hearts, our situation was quite hopeless. They chatted all afternoon, and the more they talked, the more discouraged they became, the more hopeless. In the bottom of their hearts, neither he nor Jane held any hope at all for Jane's recovery of health. They no longer held any hope at all.

He did not know whether he could have a session, or dredge up anything helpful. You see, he was still thinking about dredging up something helpful. He himself is the greatest power and source that can help himself, but he was still wondering whether he could dredge up something helpful from outside.

The weather was warm today, with rain at times, and the windows were wide open. Again, his Seth voice was quiet, and I had to compete with the other hospital sounds, listening very carefully to hear him. This time, though, his delivery shifted in a strange way, as if riding alternately on the rhythms of emotion and determination, and he had many long pauses. Jane's delivery seemed to move at times on emotion, at times on her own determination. And while speaking for Seth, she sometimes sighed — you see, she was sighing while speaking for Seth, which means Seth was also sighing about their current situation. He might stop speaking in the middle of the dictation, but he kept going, and at several points I sensed tears in his words, and he was very close to crying.

Seth: The Body Is Always Healing

Then at this point Seth said, I wish you both a good afternoon again. This session is clearly a reaction to the troubling discussion you two had this afternoon. What you discussed this afternoon was too bleak and low-key, and Seth said I had to come out and give you a reaction, actually to pull you out of it.

Saying that you both have already realized that Ruburt's body has been constantly healing itself all along.

He said you should understand that he has actually been healing continuously. Even if it is not healing to the thorough degree that you both hoped for, he is still healing. This is extremely important; you have to see this. You cannot fail to see the body's own ability to heal itself, otherwise in that respect he would seem to be an actual failure -- if you cannot see that his body is healing, then Jane would be a complete and utter failure on this issue.

If you can see the healing, although it has not healed as thoroughly as you thought, he has been healing and striving all along. He has not succeeded as well as he hoped, but even when fear brought complications, the body has in many ways already successfully countered the consequences brought by those fears.

Your body's healing has been fighting against the consequences brought by fear throughout the process. You have to see its positive side.

On one level, Ruburt did allow himself to participate in a very difficult state of health.

This is in response to what Rob said. He especially asked himself many questions about his mother's condition -- Mary, the patient who was bedridden for a long time, who had the same illness as him -- as well as the general situation related to it, and he did on one level allow himself to cooperate. That is, to go along with his mother's ideas. His mother had once cursed him, saying that in the future you will get the same illness as me. And his long-term care of this bedridden mother also created many adverse psychological effects on him. When you are in adolescence or childhood, and your own mother is bedridden for a long time, it plants very bleak seeds in the normal physical, mental, and spiritual growth of a teenager or child -- the idea that the human body can go wrong, and it was his own mother. Although his mother was not good to him, even so, prolonged illness tries the patience of even the most devoted child, let alone a child of a few years old who grew up to his teens and adulthood with his mother always in a sickbed. What kind of outcome would you expect for a child growing up in such a family environment? So none of us can stand and talk without feeling the pain, saying Jane how could you be like this, Jane how could you be like that. To discuss a person while setting aside any particular experience of that person is irresponsible, and it is standing and talking without feeling the pain.

He needed a special kind of impetus, which he felt was necessary in order to conquer this particular situation. He needed a special impetus, and only under this special impetus could he conquer the current situation. The profound and creative questions of this whole issue brought insights that he considered extremely important.

The whole issue is a profound and creative question. That is, he needed a special impetus to pull himself out of this special situation. He felt he could take on this important task -- that is, to find a special impetus to pull himself out of this special difficult situation.

On the other hand, on the more generally understandable human level, he also became extremely afraid.

From a higher level, he believed he could find a special impetus to pull himself out; but from the human perspective, he felt that the recovery of his physical condition -- within the larger environment of doctors and hospitals -- seemed impossible again.

At five o'clock there was a two-second pause, and then he said again, I must take a break, I do not know whether I will continue today, because this is very difficult for Ruburt to transmit. To transmit a session while also maintaining the necessary trance level. This was also what Rob observed: during this session's transmission, Ruburt often switched back and forth between the trance state and his own emotional state, which is why during the transmission he often spoke with a tearful voice. Of course Seth understood this very well, because what was being said all concerned Ruburt's own deepest issues, so when it came to personal matters, his emotions were certainly very strongly shaken and affected.

At 5:01, I could see that this session was very difficult for Jane, especially when his voice trembled and several times he almost stopped relaying. I also said this. I said, but compared to your situation of lying in a hospital bed every day, how difficult can having a session be? Having a session while lying in a hospital bed every day unable to move seems to involve much more suffering. This session may lead to something important. Rob meant that lying in bed every day is already very painful and very difficult for you, and having a session compared to the pain and difficulty of lying in bed unable to move is nothing, and perhaps it can even bring some useful material to help you recover. I did not say this because time was flying by and I myself felt exhausted, but because this session seemed to offer a glimmer of hope.

Earlier today Jane had said several times that by April 20th he will have been hospitalized for a full year, and he could not see how he would ever have a day to get out. I have not even had a chance to discuss with him my personal opinion: that he should continue sessions along this line, no matter how difficult they might be, if only to break the chain that has kept him ill for so long and hospitalized. If he could persist in having sessions, and during the hospitalization, this would be a very great boost of confidence for Jane -- that he could continue having sessions unaffected by the illness. That goal must be worth his continuing the sessions -- the goal of breaking the chain of his hospitalization.

Earlier this afternoon, I repeated my relentless assertion -- he started again. To place oneself in Jane's condition out of fear of another person or of the whole world is untenable, and I can never support him in that. Rob was actually carrying a certain anger at this point. Where was his anger directed? It was at Jane: why, for the sake of one other person, or out of fear of the whole world, did you put yourself in this state of illness, this physical condition? Why would you do such a thing because of fear? This was something Rob could not understand. So sometimes Rob spoke very directly, even harshly. His harsh words were actually a feeling of being angry at Jane for not fighting back -- you have learned so much, the Seth material has said so much, from the very beginning Seth Speaks, including The Early Sessions, and so on -- are these not things you yourself should be applying in your life? Do you only regard yourself as a channel, and once you have transmitted the sessions that is the end of it? Are you not the first person to apply them to yourself? So this was the point where Rob was sometimes quite angry. Therefore he could never support him -- the idea or the practice of ruining one's body because of fear was something he could not accept.

After the session I asked him whether he himself had done enough of those things -- he was actually questioning him very sternly, asking whether you have done enough -- and he said he was ready to change. He said he was ready to change. Let us see first; at least I felt a little bit of hope. Hmm, he was ready to change. You can see that at this point Rob did not really believe him -- can you stop playing this kind of game, stop playing this game of joking with your own body.

I want to note that it is also obvious that both of us were aware that in some ways Jane's body was healing itself; if it were not, he would die. The point is that the healing we want, or one of its reasonable good versions, must come from a deeper understanding. He said, if you want to reach a very good ideal state, you must have a deeper understanding.

And an encounter with those powerful forces that brought about the condition in the first place.

That is, the powerful forces that brought about the condition from the very beginning -- the source that was able to ruin his body, that is a powerful force, and one must encounter that force. What force caused Jane's body to become so bad? To encounter those sources means to find them.

Yesterday I mentioned to Jane that I hoped Seth, in his current book, would go deeply into the true relationship between health and disease. This was what Rob wanted to know. That is, in our world, what purpose does disease serve? Why become ill at all? Since it is so widespread and has always been with us. Such a widespread phenomenon as disease -- what purpose does it actually want to achieve? For humanity as a whole, not for each individual. At this point Rob was no longer particularly concerned with individual issues, although he cared very much about Jane. I felt there must be a great deal behind it -- there must be many underlying core things that we need to dig out. It might be quite new or revolutionary insights.

Clearly as a species, we have not done well in dealing with disease. I also asked Jane about the diseases of wild animals -- even those wild animals that have never seen humans -- how they get sick. Many people say that human consciousness affects animals or pets -- but animals that have never seen humans also get sick. Why do they get sick? What is the reason for their illness?

If we create our own diseases through our thoughts and ways of living, then how do animals create their diseases?

The same results must come from similar reasons -- that is, the reasons we get sick and the reasons animals get sick should be similar. That means the relationship between us and animals is even closer than we suspected. Or do animal diseases have different reasons? Reasons that produce the same results we must deal with. What he meant was: are the reasons humans and animals get sick the same? If they are the same, then the relationship between humans and animals is closer than we understand. But when humans get sick, we can find many reasons -- beliefs, lifestyle, emotions, energy, cognition, and so on -- so why do animals get sick? If we find the reasons animals get sick, can we also dig out the underlying reasons humans get sick, rather than the surface-level things like beliefs and emotions that are unique to humans? Beneath these things unique to humans, are there still some deeper reasons that cause individuals of a species to become ill? By repeating these questions today, Rob wanted Seth to answer these questions. This was Rob's thought.

I am quite aware that many of my own questions in this area were obtained through Jane's condition. Rob said, all the insights and awareness I have above came from the insights gained through Jane's illness. Just as Seth talked about Jane's goals in that respect, saying that Jane had a goal -- he allowed himself to become ill in order to help others gain insight into disease. But Rob said he wanted to tell Jane that perhaps there are other ways to obtain the same kind of information. What he meant was that Jane had already taken his condition far enough, and had already gone too far. What did he mean? He said, Jane, if you wanted me to gain some insight through your illness, you have already done it; you do not need to do more, even to the point of bringing yourself to the brink of death; there is no need for that anymore. Rob wanted to tell Jane this meaning.

April 19: The Psychic Tape and Seth's Three-Step First Aid

Thursday, April 19, 1984, 4:03 p.m.

Jane didn't call last night. This morning I took the lawnmower out to a shop on the road to Wellsburg, out in the countryside, to have it repaired. When I got home, I paid a brief visit to our next-door neighbors, the Ben Barlow family, who were helping Joe get up -- that's Joe Benbarlow -- to go to the hospital clinic for a blood test. He was very weak and couldn't get up on his own. I believe his death is not far off.

Jane was all right, though when I got to Room 330, three nurses were trying to insert a new catheter. Jane was somewhat agitated, the nurses were having some difficulty, and our lunch got delayed. Afterwards, we played a psychic's interpretation that a friend had sent us last September, an interpretation about Jane's illness. It was a copy, and its quality was terrible -- so terrible that we couldn't fully understand what he was trying to say. I wondered how a scientist could send out such a poor product.

Of the material that came from that tape, some parts were good, other parts were not. As we expected, some things were right, some were wrong. This psychic said Jane might die -- and then, apparently, he hadn't. That was one of the things he got wrong. Actually, what he said was right -- Jane did eventually pass away, a year later. This person made his prediction in September of '83, and she passed away in October of '84. But when they were listening to the tape at that time, Jane was clearly still alive, so they felt he had been wrong. The anemia he mentioned was correct -- that is, he said anemia was causing many problems -- but as far as they knew, the problems with the liver and pancreas were incorrect.

The problem with this kind of interpretation is their generalization. A person can always say it's because of blocked energy, energy that's stuck, and that may even be correct, but saying so doesn't mean much, or has no real meaning. You say your illness is because of blocked energy, energy blockage -- that might be right, but what use is it? It has no practical significance. Most of us have some kind of energy blockage, but a person must not only penetrate the reality of the person being interpreted -- that person may have blocked energy, but not everyone needs this kind of insight -- to know what energy I am blocked by, but also penetrate the reality of the psychic doing the interpreting. You also have to know, when the psychic tells you your energy is blocked, where you yourself are blocked. What he means is a rebuttal -- a psychic tells you your illness is because of some kind of energy blockage, and that means first, you either have to have a very high or very deep insight into your own energy blockage, or you have to be able to understand what the psychic is trying to tell you about where exactly you are blocked. If you can't do either, then this statement or this suggestion has no practical meaning for you. Although in such a short time, this would be very difficult -- in a very short time, to penetrate what kind of energy you are blocked by, or to understand what kind of energy blockage the psychic is telling you about, is a very hard thing.

I think the psychic was right that Jane had a creative potential to create a spectacular, successful recovery. He thought the psychic was right on this. Jane really did want to create a very spectacular, successful recovery through her creative potential. What he means is, in Jane's subconscious there is an ability, an idea -- I'll first make my body extremely bad, but through my beliefs I can restore it -- Jane has this potential. That is, no matter how bad I make my body, I can bring it back. Jane has this creative potential; she can create a spectacular, brilliant, successful use of this ability.

We thought the tape contained several negative suggestions. Although how a person handles physical problems doesn't sound negative, in itself it can sometimes be a problem. Although we say that discussing a person's positive healing and recovery seems like a positive thing, from a certain angle it is also a kind of negative, because you are placing too much emphasis on the body's symptoms and difficulties. Still, being clear about details is extremely important. That said, you do need to clarify some details -- including the illness. You can't avoid even looking at the illness just because you're afraid of it. But there is a question of degree here.

So once again we had to rely on ourselves. I still believed Jane carried within herself her own answer. He said his tendency in interpreting the content leaned toward dislike rather than like -- he didn't much like the interpretation the psychic gave him, overall, even though some of it was right. Then Rob said, Amen, me too. I also didn't much like the interpretation, but it was a valuable learning experience. I told Jane that part of its value lay in the fact that we had waited until now to play it -- when Jane had already decided to discover her own causes and results. Clearly we hadn't wanted to use that tape before. He said it was only when Jane decided to seek the causes herself, to take back her own power, that we listened to the tape. That was a meaningful thing. If they had listened to it early on, as soon as they got it last September, it might actually have been harmful.

So there's a subtle point here. For example, he said Jane might die. Even though neither of them accepted that, neither of them liked the tape, because they said Jane would die -- but this suggestion had already planted a seed in both their minds at that point. So such a seed may have played a certain role in Jane's eventual death. We can't say it played a huge role, but a certain role. So you see, the suggestion here is very subtle and important. So Seth -- do you think he didn't know what Jane would eventually develop into? He had hinted at it a few times earlier, once or twice. In my earlier readings, Seth sometimes let it slip, saying that Jane might really die if this continued. That was a slip of the tongue. But from beginning to end, 99.9% of the time, Seth never mentioned the possible bad outcome for Jane. He always gave Jane a positive possibility -- that she could heal and recover at any time -- and always placed that possibility in Jane's hands. But was this possibility real? It truly existed. But I won't go over the process again -- why it ultimately wasn't realized, the reasons in between -- he has already explained it thoroughly in this book, so I don't want to repeat it. You can see it in these details.

Jane began reading yesterday's session at 3:40, and Jane did very well -- the speed was the best so far, and both eyes were open -- she usually had to close one eye -- and she was wearing her glasses. Perhaps you did so well today because of yesterday's session. I said I thought that was possible. She was also very eager to have a session today, and started very early.

Seth said, I wish you a good afternoon again. The following material is for dictation, for the book, but I am giving it again so that Ruburt will especially take it to heart.

When you find yourself in a difficult situation, there are some simple steps you can take. Whether that situation is poor health, or a stressful situation involving others, or financial difficulty, or whatever it may be.

When you are in an extremely difficult situation, the following steps can help you, can pull you out of that predicament. This is one of the rare times -- the first time -- that Seth gave specific steps and methods to a person in difficulty. This is also the most valuable part of this session, and I hope everyone can summarize it. When you really encounter such a difficult situation, or when someone around you does, use this method to help them. It's like a first-aid technique -- when a person is in extreme danger and is sent to the emergency room for resuscitation, the doctor has a series of mandatory steps: step one, step two, step three. That's what this means. So this session is very practical and effective.

These steps may seem very obvious, and perhaps too easy, but they will bring an immediate sense of relief and a peace of mind and heart, while your inner reserves are being released and activated.

When you do these exercises, when you take these steps, you are actually connecting with that inner energy, the energy within you. When you take these steps, that inner energy -- the energy of your inner self -- is released, is set free. The release of this energy brings an immediate psychological ease and peace of mind that you can feel right away.

I have mentioned these steps many times, because they are so important in clearing the conscious mind, and bringing some relief to the frightened ego.

It can make your conscious mind especially clear and thorough, or bring relief to your ego's fear. His solutions:

First, everyone must remember -- immediately live in the present as much as possible. This is the first and most important suggestion.

Try to become as aware as possible of present sense data -- all of it, not just the part of you that is now ill, but all of it.

For example, often when you are in pain, you focus only on the sensation of that pain, and ignore the sense of ease that other parts of your body might still feel. You ignore that other parts of your body can still feel ease, but you focus only on the painful part, and you don't notice the mixture of sounds, sights, and impressions in your immediate environment. You are no longer sensitive to the things around you; you focus only on the pain itself. You are no longer sensitive to the beautiful things around you, to what is happening. This is very dangerous. Many patients, including those with depression or other illnesses, focus only on their own suffering, and their response to their surroundings is abnormally dull. This dullness disconnects you from your environment, and even from nature. When you are disconnected from your surroundings, you lose the ability to connect further with energy, which is very unfavorable for your recovery.

This first step, living in the present, using your awareness -- besides feeling the parts of your body that are unaffected and at ease, you must also feel your surroundings. Remember these two points, they are very important! Remember, be sure to remember, don't remember only half. The other half -- attention to the people and things in your environment -- merely paying attention to the people and things around you can reduce your stress and relieve your pain. This is a very interesting thing.

Second, refuse to worry.

Tell yourself, I will not worry, I refuse to worry anymore. If you still find yourself worrying about the situation, tell yourself, I can worry tomorrow, or I can worry tonight, but right now, in this present moment, you decide not to worry.

How do you practice this? Just tell yourself, at this moment I decide I will no longer worry -- whether it's a matter of the sky falling, whether it's health, finances, relationships, emotions, family, parent-child issues, whatever it is, no more worrying. The sky falls, Mount Tai collapses before you and you remain unshaken -- that kind of mindset. I can worry at another time, but I will not worry now. If you can postpone worry until tomorrow, then you can postpone it until the day after. So this is a very good method for practicing the refusal to worry. As long as you don't worry in this moment, that's enough. Don't think about how the problem will be solved later, or that you haven't solved it -- you don't need to think about those things.

Third:

When your thoughts do touch upon the particular problem in your present moment, your first imagining is of the best possible solution to that predicament.

When you touch the root of the problem -- for example, if your current problem is due to inner fear, or lack of self-confidence, or not loving yourself enough, and so on -- no matter how you touch upon that particular problem -- what you should do is imagine that the problem has already been solved, in the best and most optimal way.

Do not speculate as to how, or why, or when that ideal solution will arrive.

Don't think about how it can be solved, when it will be solved, or how to solve it -- don't think about any of that. Just think that you have already solved it, and solved it in the most perfect way. Simply thinking that is enough.

But see in your mind's eye that they have been accomplished.

See in your mind's eye that they have been accomplished. It's a mental picture, an image in your mind. In this image, you have already accomplished these things, already solved the problem you wanted to solve. For example, if you say you lack self-confidence, well, in your imagination you have already solved it, you are confident; imagine you didn't love yourself enough, and you have already solved it; and so on. Enjoy it. Imagine that you have been afflicted by the root of fear, and you have dug it out and thrown it away. There must be imagery, there must be imagery -- remember!

Or if you are not particularly good at visualization, if you can't see the imagery, if you can't conjure up that kind of mental picture, then try to think of the problem as having been solved in a way that completely satisfies you.

Remember, if you dig down to the root of the problem, and then that root of the problem is solved in a way that you consider completely satisfying, or in a way that completely satisfies you -- you will feel a sense of gratitude and joy. You only need to feel that gratitude and joy. That is, that thing has been satisfied, has been realized, that core problem has been solved by you, and after solving it you are filled with gratitude and joy about it. You only need to stay with that feeling.

So these three things are what you must do no matter how difficult the situation you find yourself in -- they can instantly pull you out of that predicament. So you can write them on a small note, treat it as a treasure, keep it on your person or somewhere on your phone. Tell yourself, when I encounter the most difficult times, I will open this and read it through. It can instantly help you solve these problems.

These steps will give you breathing room, and actually help you reduce the pressure of the situation to a minimum.

It lets you catch your breath, and truly, practically helps you reduce the pressure of the situation to a minimum. No matter what the pressure is, it can be resolved.

Then you can quiet down, and you will be able to consider other appropriate steps that may more directly satisfy your particular answer.

Only after you have completed these three steps, after you have thoroughly calmed down and quieted down, or after you have released that pressure, can you possibly find the specific methods to solve those problems. Otherwise you cannot find them. Under pressure, under the heavy weight of your emotions, you have no inspiration or insight at all.

Then we took a break, and then continued. At 4:21, I guessed he would come back. Jane said she had been interrupted twice during his dictation -- once to have her temperature taken, once to be given vitamin C. I read the session to her, and then Jane said, I have a feeling this is like emergency care. Indeed it was, because Seth felt their situation had become that critical. The two of them had now fallen into a completely hopeless, very low, negative emotional state about the future, and Seth had to come out and give them an emergency remedy, to pull them out quickly. They had already started to go downhill -- he talked about death, talked about having no hope for the future, and they began to blame and complain about each other.

He said this is not book dictation, please wait for us a moment. What he said next was not related to the book; it was directed personally at Ruburt and the others.

When you and Ruburt resolutely set out on the path of getting to the bottom of Ruburt's problems, Ruburt especially must increase his experience of pleasure.

He said, when the two of you decide to find the underlying reason why Ruburt became ill, what is more important for Ruburt right now is to increase his experience of pleasure. Remember, this is Seth's advice -- very sincere and very wise. This is something many people would not have thought of. When he pursues this question, it will be unusually serious and stern. Whether Rob and Jane are dealing with themselves or with others, once they delve into this underlying issue, people naturally become serious and solemn. And in this process, maintaining pleasure and humor is extremely important. If you can't do that, the consequences are not particularly good.

He said it was extremely important -- everyone must remember this. When you one day go to do healing for someone or give someone counseling, remember to always keep the other person in a pleasurable experience. Remember this, it is extremely important! If you can't keep the other person in a pleasurable experience, and you carry this condescending attitude, this blaming of the other person -- I'm telling you your problem is your beliefs, and so on and so forth, and then you dig into their deep beliefs like a surgeon wielding a bright scalpel, cutting straight to the place of their pain, regardless of whether they can accept it, whether they are on the edge of agony, you just keep digging without care. You say, I'm doing this for your own good, I'm doing this for your own good, I'm cutting you open one cut at a time for your own good -- remember, keeping the other person in a pleasurable experience is the key, the key of keys! If it's not working, stop first, make a joke, play a game, say something humorous, tell a joke, let the other person recover. If you are doing your own healing, then you yourself must remember this -- it is very important.

And focus upon it, so that the pleasure can offset any other emotional distress that may be involved in the process.

Remember, this is very critical at this point.

Again, we do not want to concentrate entirely upon deeply feeling the fear.

The second point is also very important: we do not want to concentrate entirely on feeling deep fear. This is also why Seth did not always dig out Jane's underlying fear every time. This is something many people cannot understand -- they say if you have fear, dig it out, face the fear directly. That's what we often tell others. Yes, but there is a certain degree to this. Sometimes you do need to dig it out, you need to see the fear, but you cannot concentrate entirely on it -- remember this sentence, do not concentrate entirely on the fear itself.

Remember, there is a paradox here. Sometimes when you listen to me speak, it seems contradictory, but it isn't -- it's a matter of degree, two sides of one whole. So sometimes misunderstandings get spread around. We cannot concentrate entirely, but these things must be discovered -- they must be discovered, yet you must not concentrate entirely. The grasp of this degree is very subtle. Sometimes if you don't concentrate enough, you can't dig down to the bottom layer, and it can't be discovered; but sometimes in the process of discovering it, you can't maintain too much concentration.

They should be balanced by a new resolve to find pleasure.

When you are digging at the core of someone's fear, you need to find something pleasurable alongside it, or in another area, to balance it. Pleasure will help calm the fear. Truly. So in many cases, we first encourage everyone to love themselves, and then to love others with unconditional love, because this love alone can bring a sense of pleasure and can calm things. If at this time you form a pair -- for example, a man and a woman, though they may not be in a romantic relationship, perhaps just a paired relationship, or two men or two women, it's all fine -- if there is someone beside you constantly giving you love, constantly paying attention to you, this love doesn't have to be romantic love, but it gives you love and gives you pleasure -- then this kind of help is meaningful when you are digging at the core of fear.

If through different means you find a new sport, or a point of interest, or a pleasure, or a topic -- for example, you discover a new comedy and it makes you very happy; or you find a very good sport or interest, like exercising, practicing yoga, and so on -- you must balance the adverse effects brought about by digging at the core of fear. Simply put, in the process of digging at the core of fear, you need to find a point of joy or pleasure as a balance, so that you don't lose your equilibrium.

What does losing equilibrium mean? Because this fear is so core, and the process of digging out this core belief itself -- because you are paying too much attention to it -- actually makes it harder to remove and clear it. In psychology there is a classic example called the white bear phenomenon⁷, which I have mentioned many times -- the more you want to eliminate something, the less you can eliminate it. The stronger your resolve to eliminate it, the harder it actually is to eliminate it. But at that point, you say, but I can't not eliminate it, I still have to eliminate it -- so once again, a very, very wise insight is given here. Everyone must put this to use: find a point of pleasure as balance.

To put it bluntly, he will mention later, even a point of sexual pleasure as balance. This point of sexual pleasure doesn't necessarily have to be actually experienced; you can balance the pain and difficulty in the process of digging at fear by imagining the good sexual experiences you had when you were young, or in the past. Because Seth mentioned shared sexual feelings -- you see, here, yes, he also mentioned this advice for the two of them. So no matter what it is, as long as there is a heart of pleasure, that's enough.

We will not give up the book dictation, we will not stop giving the book, we will not abandon it.

We will not give up the book dictation, but for now the focus will be largely on improving Ruburt's condition. The book will continue to be written, but first, Ruburt's problems must be addressed.

By releasing his own energy, health, and resiliency.

Release Ruburt's true inner energy, health, and resiliency.

I suggest that you begin with a kind of free association on Ruburt's part. Let Ruburt begin free association, with your resolve in mind, and begin to steer almost any subject in an appropriate direction.

He means let Ruburt free-associate, don't just think about the illness -- think about anything, anything at all, anything is fine, as long as it is free association, but don't focus on the illness itself anymore.

Again, for example, what we want is for the painful thoughts and emotions to be somehow balanced by the steps I gave today.

Again, the goal I want, the result I want to achieve is -- no matter what, your painful thoughts and emotions, which both Jane and now Rob have -- somehow, they are balanced out by the method I just gave you. To see laughter in you, to see joy, to see that expression of happy joy radiating from your faces. You can do anything; you can let Jane freely associate and express herself, as long as this effect is achieved.

They therefore provide a supportive framework.

This kind of balance will give you a kind of support. Otherwise, if you keep digging at the underlying belief of why Ruburt became ill, it will backfire.

You mean in the session itself? That is, not the session itself? Not discussing these health issues themselves anymore? Seth said, yes, that's right. I'm not talking about things in the session; I'm saying put down the session, put down these things, and just let Ruburt freely associate.

For your conscious minds, I will interject from time to time. Sometimes I will also offer short, concise, powerful sessions, delivered with humor.

This is Jane saying, I will interject when needed.

And sometimes they will be used as subject material for free association. The things I interject can serve as material for your free association, and of course you may adopt any appropriate subject.

Begin free association; any appropriate subject is fine -- for example, his mother, his father, your relationship, your individual or shared sexual feelings, his thoughts on the psychic material, his writing, or whatever.

And I will also provide the original guiding principles.

Again, I will also provide some of these, but the premise is that anything goes -- divergent, as long as you can freely associate and balance out your concentration. Simply put, it's thinking from a different angle, pulling yourself out of the dead end, out of that dead end of focusing on the root of the illness, shifting your attention, shifting your visual focus, shifting your focus of consciousness.

This effort itself will also activate his own dream mechanisms, and you will find that both of you bring new, creative understanding to this task.

You will both find, in the future, that it is very creative.

I felt very good that Ruburt's reading ability in today's session -- that is, when he read yesterday's session before the session began -- was very effective, and also demonstrated the body's own resiliency. He looked with both eyes at once, and read very well, with very good results.

Once again, I activate those coordinates so important to healing, exuberance, and well-being.

This is where Seth finished. After a long pause, Jane said that Seth had left.

At 4:43, I read this session to him. For whatever reason, giving up the book material would clearly have been a mistake — indeed it would. Aside from any further personal material Seth might give, this book material would provide variety and a sense of accomplishment — making them feel they were doing something meaningful. The method of free association that Seth suggested would be something different we could try, something never tried before, and we wanted to give it a try. I would let a way of handling the material develop on its own.

Jane called earlier, before nine o'clock, while I was getting ready to type this session. After dinner, as I was beginning to type this session, I gained an insight about the question of the role of illness, and I want to note it down for possible future discussion.

Regarding my visit this morning to Joe Ben Barlow — he has cancer — I found myself thinking of the cancer as a new, explosive biological organism, a neoplasm, within an aging body. This is the sum of the various protruding substances formed during the pathological process. The very neoplasm is destined to bring about not only the death of its host, but also the death of the cancer itself. So in doing it this way, what on earth is he doing? Rob means he suddenly had an insight — that this cancer not only kills its host, but at the same time kills the cancer itself, because once the host dies, the cancer dies too. But he says, what is the purpose of this cancer? Does it not want to live longer? Why would it use this method of perishing together with death? Then what is its purpose? He could not figure it out, so he wanted to ask Seth.

Is Joe Ben Barlow giving birth to a new life form? He dies on this side, and over there is a new life form that will be released at his death and continue growing elsewhere — will it reincarnate elsewhere, just as we believe Joe will do after his death — just as we believe that after Joe dies, he will reincarnate elsewhere into a new life form. In the same way, he says, is the purpose of the cancer to serve the same purpose and achieve the same effect? That is his question, and he hopes Seth can give an answer. He actually has a deeper desire to understand the nature of illness.

All right then, regarding the content of Chapter Five, we will conclude our reading here for today.

注释与核实

1. This claim could not be verified. ↩

2. Source: Feng Menglong, Stories to Awaken the World, Chapter 35, "The Old Servant Xu Builds Up the Family Through Righteous Indignation" (https://ctext.org/wiki.pl?chapter=453531&if=gb) ↩

3. This claim could not be verified. ↩

4. Source: Scouting Wire, "North Carolina Scout Earns All 138 Scouting America Merit Badges" (https://scoutingwire.org/north-carolina-scout-earns-all-138-scouting-america-merit-badges/) ↩

5. This claim could not be verified. ↩

6. Source: Jane Roberts, Robert F. Butts, The Personal Sessions: Books 1–7 of the Deleted Seth Material (https://sethcenter.com/the-personal-sessions/) ↩

7. Source: Wegner, Schneider, Carter, & White, "Paradoxical effects of thought suppression," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1987 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3612492/) ↩