The "Guide" and "Key Points" for this chapter were summarized by an AI editor based on the main text below; they are not things Mike said during the lecture. The main text comes from Mike's commentary, and the blockquotes are Seth's original words (the parts Mike read aloud).
Introduction
Session 739 records how Rob and Jane bought the hillside house and Seth's explanation of this choice. Seth talks about how, once the decision is made, the house will naturally appear; the neighborhood is a mixture of different consciousness families, and the neighbors gather because they love nature, space, and privacy, and they are curious about artists but will give them privacy. He also explains the healing and purifying effect of an open fire, the protection and energy preservation of trees, the influence of air and water on health, and that trees can perceive psychic energy.
Key Points of This Chapter
- Once you make up your mind, you can find the house.
- This neighborhood is a mixture of different consciousness families. The neighbors gather because of their love of nature, space, and privacy, with no single consciousness family predominating.
- An open fire can evoke cellular responses. Light and warmth on the skin are healing, and flame has a purifying effect. Twice a week is quite effective.
- Trees are users and preservers of energy. Their consciousness is benevolent and enduring, protective toward people and capable of renewing vitality.
- Sea air is humid yet healthy. Whether river air is healthy depends on the nature of the river and the person's state of mind. A house on a hillside represents open security.
Main Text
Hello everyone, I'm Mike. Today I'll continue sharing with you all from The "Unknown" Reality, Volume 2, Session 739, titled "Neighborhoods and Probabilities. The Healing Aspects of Fireplaces." This session began on Monday, February 24, 1975, at 9:25 p.m.
Buying the House
Rob came up and briefly introduced their recent house purchase. On Friday, February 21, he not only saw the interior of that hillside house for the first time, but also decided to buy it. When we were taken by a real estate agent to tour the whole house, we quite effortlessly made a decision, which was to buy this house. Of course, we also knew that in last Wednesday's session Seth had suggested some things, and his advice was very valuable. Seth's suggestions played a very significant role in the middle of his buying this house.
At the same time, when we looked at the house once more on Wednesday afternoon, we very much wanted to buy it. Because we had not taken a liking to this house before -- we had already seen this house about two weeks earlier. So two days later, at the real estate company, we signed a preliminary document, and the final sale would be completed within one or two weeks. If he was buying the house with full payment, it would probably take less than one to two weeks, about ten days or so. A basic home inspection would be enough; if it was a loan, a loan process would need to be gone through. But I think at this time the couple, that is, Rob and Jane, already had enough money to buy this house with full payment without needing a loan, so he needed one to two weeks for the house transaction to be completed.
As I wrote at the beginning of Session 736, we first saw that house on February 4, and he did not decide to buy it until February 21, a full two weeks later. And at that time, it was only the second day of our house hunting, and they had already seen this house. But afterward, they had to have a gestation period of more than two weeks before we understood what we had seen. Not taking a liking to it the first time is normal; later they looked at it again and still did not take a liking to it. This time was already at least the third real look at this house, and it needed two weeks to gestate.
During that period, they looked at a total of almost 35 other houses, and finally after two weeks they made the decision. This was relatively quick, but not the quickest -- the quickest people decide in one or two hours; slow ones may take several months and still not be able to decide.
In tonight's relatively short session, Seth discussed in a rather personal way the whole adventure process of our buying the house, but also incidentally gave some related concepts of a more general nature. This session mainly discussed our discussion of the neighborhood around the house and the culture of the whole community when we bought the house, which is very interesting. Earlier he discussed the house's environment, feng shui, structure, the owner of the house, the previous owners, and so on, as well as the degree of match between the house and each person. He said I have deleted certain parts of the material concerning us, and left other parts here, because it came in as an extension of Seth's work on the "unknown" reality.
Seth on Choosing a House
Seth came through right away and said this was not book dictation, meaning the content of this session did not really need to be included in the book. But Rob still put it in, because although this session had no direct connection to the book's content, since he had already talked a lot about the process of buying the house, Rob decided to include this session as a kind of conclusion, or as a supplement to the house-buying. But a lot of what is in it has great reference value for us.
For example, the first sentence:
Once you made up your minds, you could find your house. (Session 739)
This is very interesting. He said it in terms of buying a house, but it is the same for other things as well -- once we make a decision, those things will automatically appear.
He said, let me add, with the agility that is also characteristic of you, you avoided several traps. He said by using your quick choices and flexible ways, you escaped some traps. Ruburt was right: a friend took a photo of you, of Rob, in the front yard on the hillside, and it showed your state of mind regarding the house and the land on the hillside. I have not seen that photo, so I do not know exactly what he meant, but I can probably guess -- Rob actually really liked the house on the hillside, and he also liked the land of that hillside house.
Ruburt was never one for sports; that is one of Ruburt's traits. But Ruburt did always like nature -- he did not like sports, but he liked nature. That house and that land would let you pick up again the old feelings that Rob had given up. Not Rob -- Jane, that is, Ruburt. It would let Ruburt pick up again what he had already given up -- his liking for nature -- and to some extent restore the image he once had of the fresh air of nature. Ruburt would like nature, and he also thought of himself as being nature's fresh air; this was part of his self-image. He said this restored part of it to some degree -- he himself was like air, like fresh air, and now the air was very free and very vital, all of which was very good. For Ruburt, when he lived in an apartment before, he did not have this kind of concept -- you know, when you live in a building or an apartment for a long time, your sense of identification with nature diminishes. Seth said that moving to this house on the hillside would be a very good boost for restoring his self-perception, his self-image, of being "fresh air."
The Neighborhood and the Families of Consciousness
The neighbors around this house on the hillside, this neighborhood -- Teacher Wang Jiping's translation here sounds like a northerner, very possibly from Beijing. Look at the wording he uses:
The neighborhood is composed of a rather beneficial balance, with no one particular family of consciousness predominating. (Session 739)
He is talking about the neighbors around the house they just bought. This neighborhood is made up of various families of consciousness, and no single family of consciousness holds an absolute advantage. Quite the opposite -- the love of woods and trees transcends this sort of classification. He says these neighbors did not gather together because of any particular family of consciousness; no, these neighbors simply love nature, love the woods, love the trees, and they gathered here because of these shared interests. He says this love transcends the classifications of the families of consciousness -- they come from different families of consciousness, but they all love the forest.
That area brought different kinds of people together, united by their love of nature, of some open air and space, and of some privacy. These people were brought together and united by certain loves -- what kind of loves? The love of nature, the love of fresh air and space, and the love of their privacy. It was these things that brought these neighbors together, not the commonalities of any particular family of consciousness.
Some content was cut after that. Those people also have a certain kind of achievement; they have their own accomplishments in their own fields. And although your purposes may be different -- you two are in the arts -- you also appreciate the fact that they are trying to accomplish something in their lives. You two are in the arts, and you are also doing this spiritual and psychic exploration, but those other neighbors, in their ordinary everyday work, are also fulfilling each person's own value, and you recognize and appreciate that as well.
Many people are aware of their own limitations -- he is talking about their neighbors. They have their own limitations, because what? Because they ordinarily live the kind of life we normally consider a normal person's life. In other words, there are rarely artists around them, or pure artists of this kind -- people who live solely for art. Ordinary people having some artistic hobbies or artistic interests is normal. But true artists of this kind -- people who live by art, who devote themselves to art, who dedicate their lives to art -- such people are rare in the everyday scenes of ordinary life, not many of them. You can look around you and see whether there are any, whether there are any such people among your neighbors.
Many people dabble shallowly in art, which is very normal; many people very superficially enjoy some simple artistic interests. Some are patrons of the arts; they give some support to the arts and donate some money. They have great curiosity about painters, about writers -- that is, about Rob and Jane -- or about other people who have chosen a different path and achieved something in that area. That is to say, they have very great curiosity about artists like Rob and Jane, and in that respect they need you -- your neighbors need you, because your presence satisfies a great deal of their curiosity, and it supplements the opportunity they rarely have in life to be in direct contact with artists. They very much welcome your joining them.
But this does not mean that some of your traits do not seem as strange to them as some of their traits seem to you. He says this does not mean that they do not find some things about you strange -- they will still find you very strange, just as you find some things about them very strange as well. So this does not matter, because the behavior of artists is always somewhat strange, and artists looking at other people also find other people very strange; this is very normal.
To be honest, very few of them know people who have devoted themselves to art. They only run into such people at opening receptions -- many galleries, many art openings, and at these openings some artists participate, and at these opening receptions they occasionally run into these people who have given themselves to art. In ordinary life, such people are practically never seen, like rare animals. As it turns out, you have become their neighbors, and they also feel they need you. They have an almost childlike wonder and curiosity about this sort of thing, and they will really give you as much privacy as you want. He says they are like little children, full of wonder and curiosity about people they do not understand and things they do not understand. You know what children are especially curious about -- soldiers, people in uniform, firefighters, or astronauts, for example -- these professions they rarely encounter in everyday life; they are very curious and interested, and that curiosity and interest surpasses that of adults. He says your neighbors are like these little children. But even so, they will still give you the necessary privacy you need, but that does not prevent them from still being curious about you.
So he is actually giving the two of them a heads-up, telling them to be mentally prepared, not to feel that the neighbors are prying into their privacy or disturbing them. He says they will not, but they will still be curious. Your psychic work will also help them question the value of their lives -- this spiritual and psychic work you are now doing also makes your neighbors begin to question what the value of their lives is. Because the appearance of people like you will make them reflect: what are we really living for? In any case, both sides will let go of their barriers; no matter what, for you and for them, both sides will let go of certain barriers and a certain gap in understanding between each other. Because they previously lived in apartments, and their relationship with neighbors was of that kind -- you know the relationship in an apartment building and the relationship between houses and neighbors; there is not that same kind of relationship, so both sides will have to adapt to each other.
Many of the children have already grown up, and the adults have more time to ponder and reflect. He says there are basically no small children in your neighborhood; the children have all grown up, but when people reach middle age, they actually have more time to contemplate the meaning and value of their lives. And your appearance happens to provide them with an opportunity for reflection, like a mirror, allowing them to see themselves. They also need to see other ways of living; they need to see that besides the people and things they are ordinarily familiar with, there are other people living according to the way they themselves want to live, and this is very novel to them.
Guardians of the Trees
The blending of the families of consciousness also allows you to see more clearly the way these tendencies merge together to form a community. He says the blending of the families of consciousness — just as you people come from different families of consciousness, and in a community form an atmosphere or an environmental quality unique to that community — this can help you understand how the families of consciousness blend. That is, once you understand that there is blending among the families of consciousness, then you can understand that the people in a community who come from different families of consciousness will form a culture and quality unique to that blended community.
So then, you have not moved into a closed psychic area; you have not moved into a psychic or spiritual area that someone has already closed off. That is, the present environment — he has already shifted to another level: he is not just referring to the physical area of the house; he is referring to the psychic attributes of your neighbors, their psychic areas. He says when you move into a community, in a certain sense you actually go through a process of blending with their psyches; it is not closed off; you blend with one another.
He says there, and generally speaking, for everyone to have the same view of the world as you do — that is also not something you should do. There is a slight logical problem in this sentence; the translation is a bit hard to understand. What he means is: the people in your community do not all need to hold the same worldview and values about the world; this is not necessary to do, nor is it something the two of you should do after moving in. In other words, you have no such obligation or responsibility to unify the spirituality, the thinking, or the spiritual culture of the whole community — that is, to try to bring everyone together into a common understanding, whether unifying them around the Seth material or around a higher appreciation of art. He says you should not do any of that; there is no need. In a blended community, each person having a different view of the world is a very normal and healthy way of being; you have no need to make everyone the same. Seth is actually giving them an advance warning.
He says Joseph, for you, this place will make you nostalgic. Why? Because Rob lived in a similar kind of large environment when he was a child. And Jane grew up living in apartment buildings; she lived in apartments quite a lot — because her mother was a single mother, so her family circumstances were not especially good, and she was more familiar with apartments. But Rob, his family from childhood lived in the ordinary American kind of house we call a single family house, a detached house, a villa-style room, that kind of house layout. So for Rob, it will give him this nostalgic feeling.
Whether or not you know it, you have been given certain artistic challenges. (Session 739)
Whether or not you know it, you will receive certain challenges in art. What challenges? Those are provided by the landscape itself, and they are also chosen by you. He says the landscape itself provides you with some challenges — for a painter, of course, his environment poses challenges to him, and for Rob in particular it is a challenge. Why? Rob used to be good at painting figures, figures in motion, figures in dance, figures in movement and dynamism. So a landscape like this will stir up his creative challenge, his creative desire.
He says I have mentioned that the air on that hillside is relatively clean, and you will also have another kind of freedom — that fresh, clean air will automatically free a person's thoughts. The effect of this kind of air on people is very obvious and readily apparent. For example, when we go into the mountains, into the forest, into the embrace of nature, our mood naturally becomes light and relaxed; that comfortable feeling is something everyone can feel. What is this? This is the relaxation and freedom that the feeling of that air brings to people. Why are people willing to travel among the mountains and waters? Why are recluses willing to live among the mountains and waters? Because this clean air gives people this feeling of freedom. Why do some people like to vacation at the seaside? We know the air at the seaside is very clean, because the sea itself has a cleansing function, and of course it has no pollution. Why is it that as soon as you arrive at the seaside and are blown by that sea breeze, you feel very comfortable and pleasant? The principle is the same. So Seth here tells us many truths about how important this clean air is in its effect on people.
Your psyches and their creative work will be easier. He says doing this kind of psychic work, spiritual work, is somewhat easier, but that does not mean it cannot be done in places where the air is not clean; it is just that such places make it easier. Because in terms of thought patterns, you will not have to argue with other people who are so close by. Because in such an environment, in an environment with clean air, and under the condition of being relatively far from the surrounding neighbors, you will not have as many arguments with others over thought patterns; you can do what you want to do.
The Healing Fireplace
The following is recorded verbatim. The passage below was written down word by word, meaning Seth spoke very slowly, it was recorded one word at a time, which means it is very important. The passage below is very important:
The fireplace in this house set into the hillside is beneficial, very beneficial, just as there is also a fireplace in that place on Foster Road, and it would be the same, because an open fire represents an inner source of strength and stability. (Session 739)
An open flame, like the source of heat in caves -- our ancestors lit fires in mountain caves, and they also had to live in the wild -- is thought-provoking. Remember these words: it is thought-provoking. This firelight actually has such a function.
And it represents closeness to the source of light and life. (Session 739)
What is he hinting at here? Light and the source of life -- are they not very close to each other? That is, when we do not understand light, or when we cannot yet recognize its true nature, it gives us a hint here: that light and the source of our life are very close. We will talk about this light separately later; it is not the kind of light we simply understand it to be. Light and the source of our life are very close, so this kind of firelight has a very good healing effect on our physical bodies, and it can also make us reflective in body and mind, and it can represent strength and represent stability, making us feel very at ease and very comfortable. These are all things that we humans could feel before, but did not know the reason why.
The fact is that ever since humans mastered the use of fire, human civilization has developed extremely rapidly, and there is no doubt about that. And our everyday human experience is also like this -- in front of a crackling fire, especially nowadays, in America or Europe, or in such Western countries, there is this custom of having fireplaces. They have their own heating facilities in their homes, and the fireplace is not just for heating; its heating function is actually secondary. It is more of a decoration, or a festive atmosphere. At Christmas time they light the fireplace and burn firewood, but in fact it has a very profound significance, and its overall healing effect on people is very real.
We know that in many places we travel to now, for example when you go to Yunnan, to Lijiang, to Sifang Street -- I do not know if it is still there now, but there used to be such firelight. The most obvious example is when you go to Lugu Lake. If you go to Lugu Lake, every night in the courtyard they have the big group Guozhuang dance gathering, where all the tourists and the local people are in one big courtyard, and they light a bonfire and form a circle, dancing the Guozhuang dance together and so on. And all the people, under such influence and in such an atmosphere, feel very comfortable, very warm, their hearts feel very peaceful, and they gain that kind of strength and stability. So this kind of thing has its inner principle, and that principle is that light and the source of life are very close.
Now, an open flame evokes a certain response from the cells; it is a cellular response. (Session 739)
For example, a furnace cannot do this. The furnace he is talking about is the kind of enclosed furnace. In America it does not refer to a wood-burning stove; it refers to a heating furnace. American heating furnaces used to run on oil, and now they basically run on gas, and they are inside a sealed, dedicated piece of equipment, somewhat like the principle of a gas water heater, except that what it heats is not hot water but the heat-exchange pipes. The heat brought by that kind of furnace and the heat brought by an open fire, the feeling they bring, are not the same. That kind of open flame can evoke a certain response from the cells, which is something we ordinary humans do not know.
So sometimes, in many rituals, fire is used, and we do not understand why. In ancient times, in many traditional priestly rites and ceremonies, why did they have to light this fire, to burn a fire pile? Even now, many rituals or many practitioners still use fire to purify their space, using fire as an opening ritual for purification. Now we can understand that this open flame is useful.
The effect of the light plus the warmth on the skin is extremely curative, therapeutic. (Session 739)
He used the word therapeutic, which is even stronger. That is, the effect of the light, the effect of the firelight, plus this radiation of heat onto your skin, is very healing, and it is therapeutic. In many tribes, or in many ancient times, after people were injured and returned to their tribe, they would stay by the fire, lying beside the fire at night, with the whole tribe gathered around, and slowly their illness would improve and they would recover.
People sit around the fire in winter, and this is very warm and cozy, because they unconsciously recognize the restorative and healing effects that are taking place. (Session 739)
They unconsciously know that sitting around the fire is a very good repair, cure, and healing for their whole being, from spirit to body. It has a healing effect on people in all three aspects of body, mind, and spirit, so this firelight is very useful.
So you may remember that there used to be a book called Night Talks by the Fireside1, right? Just hearing those four words, even without sitting around a fire, just hearing those four words makes you feel very warm and cozy. That is, the image and the impression conveyed by the words alone can have a certain healing effect on you. But if a few of you happen to be able to sit around a fire and have a long heart-to-heart talk, then the effect would be even better. That is why when many people go traveling in the wilderness, at night they are all willing to light a bonfire. People from all over -- possibly from all over the world or from all over the country -- gather together, around the fire, drinking a little wine, or eating some simple food, even just drinking some meat broth, or drinking some hot tea, or doing nothing at all, just sitting together and chatting, and they all feel very comfortable. The reason lies right here.
To put it simply, the cells' response to firelight is somewhat like a flower's response to sunlight. (Session 739)
For example, it is very much like this, this phototropism. However, that kind of stimulation is by no means limited to the surface of the skin; it is not just a matter of warmth on the skin.
An open flame has a purifying effect. (Session 739)
You must remember this: it has a purifying effect. It even has the effect of purifying the blood, which is something none of us knew. So you will think of a very interesting thing: in Europe, during the time of the Black Death, or during the great plagues, you may remember that although they did not know why at the time, they would all light roaring bonfires. Look at those historical records, and those films that recreate the history of that time, and you will find that when plagues were spreading, when people had no other recourse, people would light fires. Through fire they would burn some corpses or things used by the sick, and at the same time, when they lit those bonfires, they unintentionally purified the blood of all of them, which was of some help in controlling the plague. This is also something we had not thought of.
He said that the original cave dwellers, that is, the Peking Man, the ancient people, the people of remote antiquity, they all knew this. He said he is not suggesting that you use only the fireplace and not the heating furnace -- we will ignore this note. He said the fireplace is open, and the furnace is enclosed, meaning the heating furnace. He said it is not that he is telling you to use the fireplace for heating instead of that kind of heating furnace; these are two different matters. You should still use the heating furnace for heating, but he hopes you can use the fireplace to obtain this purifying and healing effect.
He said, I am saying that when you sit in front of an open flame in winter, you will indeed feel effects of definite health value, and twice a week is quite effective. (Session 739)
You do not need to do it every day; twice a week is already very effective. So hearing this, if conditions at home allow -- for example, those listeners and students in America or in Europe who have fireplaces at home -- in winter, or in late autumn when it is already starting to get a little chilly, you can light your fireplace once or twice a week, and have the whole family sit around it. Even if there is not much exchange or communication, even if you just sit quietly reading books or listening to music, or the family just chats casually about everyday matters, it is actually very important for the healing of the whole family. This kind of change is subtle and gradual, something our physical eyes generally cannot see, but our hearts can all feel it.
The Consciousness of Trees
Having so many trees nearby is also quite valuable for health. Seth very early on suggested that they move to a room with a fireplace, back in 1964, but the two of them did not do it. After an interval of 11 years, they still ended up choosing a house with a fireplace like this. Besides the fireplace, the trees around this house, the greenery, also has great health value. So the things he said we all know, but we do not know why. We only know what science tells us, for example that plants give off oxygen and so on, but the deeper factors we do not know. Seth is simply pointing out to us those deeper parts, the parts we do not know, those unknown parts; he is explaining why trees have health value.
And for those doing psychic or other creative work, that effect especially leads to a peaceful state of mind. A large amount of greenery, of trees, gives people a peaceful state of mind; especially for people doing spiritual work, this effect is very obvious, making you very peaceful.
Trees are remarkable users of energy, but also conservers of energy. (Session 739)
Remember, trees are very remarkable users of energy, but also conservers of energy. They can use energy, and they can also conserve energy, and then they automatically provide a great deal of vitality to those places where trees flourish. Where they flourish, they provide more vitality to that place. This is why many people who practice fasting, or many people who meditate, will sit with their backs against a large tree. Why do they lean against that large tree, or sit beneath it, or nearby? It is actually because they want to borrow its energy. This is also concretely visible in scientific terms; science can also discover the benefits of greenery to human physical health, such as the increase of negative oxygen ions. However, besides what is visible on the material level:
The consciousness of trees is also especially kindly and enduring. (Session 739)
Besides the benefits to the human body that your science can discover, he says that the consciousness of trees itself is also well-intentioned toward people, and is especially kindly and enduring. Notice that he uses the word "kindly."
He says you consider dogs to be friends of humanity, and in your human way you personify the dog—you personify dogs, and sometimes you imagine them as a guardian. (Session 739)
We think of dogs as guarding our homes and yards, as our protectors. Now, using the analogy of dogs, trees are also guardians of humanity; they become attached to people they know, just as dogs become attached to you. There are stories like Hachiko the loyal dog, and many, many other stories about dogs—I will not list them all. He says dogs become attached to people, and they are your guardians. He says trees are the same—if you can understand a dog's feelings toward humans, he says, then you can also apply that to trees, and imagine that trees have the same feelings toward you that dogs have; they do form attachments.
Remember, you cannot fasten a chain to them and take them for a walk; you cannot walk these trees the way you walk a dog. But trees form a protective barrier outside a home or a neighborhood, and they actively care about people. He says although you cannot take them around on walks the way you walk a dog, trees form a very important protective barrier around your home, around the surroundings of your home. This is why many of us plant trees around our homes; it is very interesting. Look at ancient times: many people, in their family courtyards, would plant trees outside the courtyard, and there is good reason for that—they are excellent barriers.
They have individuality; these trees all have a great deal of individuality. Indeed, just like dogs, they have individuality to the degree that dogs do, but it belongs to a completely different nature.
It is completely different from the individuality of dogs, because they are trees, they are plants, they are not the same. But they also have their own individuality. Notice that he uses the words "kindly" and "attachment"—these are very personified terms, but do not imagine them as people; that is, do not personify them, but they do indeed have such individuality, and they do respond to you. Trees do respond to us humans.
The trees in the neighborhood of the house on that hillside, then, are particularly friendly, strong, and protective, and they will help refresh your experience. (Session 739)
He says the trees around the house you bought are strong, friendly, and also protective, and they can continually refresh your energy, keeping you in a very vigorous state of energy at all times.
Air and Water
The air there is somewhat drier in certain respects. Now, he said the sea air is humid but healthy, and he emphasized again that the sea air is humid but healthy. But the river air is humid, yet it may be healthy or unhealthy, depending on the nature of that river, that land, and people's mental attitudes. We should all remember this point: the air around the sea is healthy for the human body. The reason is quite simple, because the air around the sea is clean and pure. But the river air, although humid, is not necessarily healthy; it may be healthy, or it may not be.
Ancient people chose to live by rivers because they needed water sources. Unlike now, when we have abundant tap water, they certainly had to settle by rivers, so ancient civilizations all developed along rivers. Whether it was the Nile River valley in Egypt, or the two river valleys in China2, and also in the northeast, people settled around the Nen River and Songhua River basins. Including the Heilongjiang and these several rivers, all the great rivers of China nurtured civilizations around them, whether the Huai River, the Yellow River, the Yangtze River, and all the other major rivers, civilizations all began there. Because people needed water sources at that time. But now it is different; now rivers have become places where many factories discharge waste. The pollution level of the rivers, or what is called their high nutrient enrichment, is very strong, and this causes many harmful gases in the rivers, which are not healthy for people. So here you need to pay attention to the distinction: if it is a natural, pure, very clean river, then it is healthy for the human body; otherwise, it is not necessarily so.
He said in your region, after the flood people felt the river air was a threat. And for many people, it was therefore unhealthy. (Session 739)
Didn't they have a flood in Elmira a while back3? After the flood, people felt the river water was a threat. He said why is this so for some people? Because your mental attitudes changed. Because you felt the river flooding caused a great deal of difficulty in life, or some people lost their lives because of it, so after you formed such a negative perception of it, after you felt the river water was a threat to human life, then the river air became unhealthy for you. Because you did not realize its healing effect; you only experienced its danger. The river's influence on people is very subtle.
He said one day I will give you material discussing the reasons why some people, after encountering a flood in one location, subsequently move to another environment that is equally threatening. (Session 739)
Some people encounter a flood in one place, and then they move, and you would think they would move to a place without floods, but no, they move to another environment that also has the threat of floods, which is very interesting. I will tell you why this happens, because it is not part of today's topic.
Through this, we know that the sea air also has a very good healing effect on human health, and this is very simple, and you can understand it. Why do people in all coastal cities prefer to live in coastal cities? Why are coastal cities the places with the largest human populations all over the world? The seawater cannot be drunk, unlike river water, but why do people still like to live near the sea? You might say ancient people needed to fish, we needed to catch fish, and fish was also a major economic source. But how many modern people learn to fish? We would not live by the sea just to fish, so why do we still like living by the sea? Many people feel the seaside is more beautiful, the environment is better. Actually, the humid sea air, as far as people's sensations go, is often not very comfortable, because especially in very hot places it can be very humid, but that still does not stop people from loving the seaside. We even choose hot seaside places for vacations; many places are very hot, and in terms of temperature or perceived temperature it is not comfortable, but we still like it, we still lie on the beach under the blazing sun, we go there to sunbathe, we go to the seaside to play, to play on the beach. Why? Seth gives you the reason: because it has a strong healing effect on health, and people's instincts know it, even though they cannot say why. It is very simple. Why are the populations on the east and west coasts of the United States the largest and the housing prices the highest? It is for this same reason. It is the same in China: why do coastal areas develop their economies the fastest and have the highest population density? It is also for this reason.
So the hillside house represented a certain sense of security. (Session 739)
Because the trees themselves bring people that kind of protection, that kind of friendliness, and at the same time there is a sense of security in terms of money, psyche, and art. But it is an open sense of security—this security is not the kind that hides you somewhere, in an enclosed space; it is a sense of security you can feel in a very open space, and that is very comfortable.
In it, there was considerable privacy, but without an overemphasis on secrecy. (Session 739)
These trees themselves bring a natural privacy, but they do not make you feel overly secretive, like the feeling of being hidden away or hiding; there is no such sense of secrecy. The two are different—privacy and secrecy are two completely different concepts.
You can take a break; this is the end. He said at 10:17, Jane told me she was entering a relaxed state and it was continuing to deepen, so we decided not to continue the session, because she could no longer continue; Jane had entered a very deep relaxed state.
He said now is a good time for readers to refer to Chapter 27. If you have the experience and want to understand the discussions of the families of consciousness—for example, the discussions about the Gramada and Sumafi families of consciousness—you can look at Chapter 27. In the next note, in Session 727, Seth had discussed the consciousness of trees, and in note 3 of that session, there are also excerpts from Session 18 of the early sessions and from Session 453 concerning material on trees.
The Perception of Trees
Below is a bit more from Session 18 related to this introduction to trees, a short passage from the early sessions:
Just as your physical senses can feel changes in temperature, so too can the tree feel psychic energy -- not only that of other humans, but, believe it or not, it can also feel animals and, to a lesser degree, the psychic energy of plants.
This tree can not only feel the psychic energy of humans, it can also feel the consciousness and psychic sensations of its surrounding environment, animals, and other plants.
Your trees establish this kind of combined perception.
Your trees establish a combined perception formed from the consciousness and psychic sensations of their surrounding environment.
It does not merely feel the concrete shape of a physical object.
It is not as you might imagine, that it can feel what shape you are as a person, how tall, how strong, how bulky -- not like that. Not only that. The tree can not only feel your physical shape -- it can feel that -- but not only that.
And it can also feel the important psychic compositions within it and all around it.
It can not only feel the concrete shape of a physical object, it can also feel the inner psyche of that physical object and the important psychic compositions around it. So the consciousness and wisdom that trees possess far exceed what we humans imagine. It is more like the feeling of tree spirits described in some of our ancient myths or legends -- the feeling of tree spirits, tree sprites, meaning that trees have their own spiritual essence within them.
The table beside Ruburt feels him, just as Ruburt feels it.
He gives an example: the table beside Ruburt, just as Ruburt can feel the table, that table can also feel Ruburt.
His dear Joseph, the abilities of trees lie latent within humans, just as the abilities of humans lie latent within trees.
This last sentence is also very profound. He says, as I just mentioned, trees have such an ability -- the ability to perceive the psyche of surrounding objects, to perceive the surrounding objects and the important psychic compositions around those objects, or those that have an influence on the objects themselves. He says trees have this perceptual ability, and humans do too. This ability of trees lies latent within human abilities, just as human abilities lie latent within the abilities of trees. That is, humans have the abilities of trees, and trees have the abilities of humans. The abilities of humans and trees are the same at many fundamental levels, or in essence. Why? Because they are all composed of consciousness. So here, Seth once again emphasizes that we should elevate our understanding of plants to another level of awareness.
Alright, that concludes the commentary on this part.
注释与核实
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Source: WorldCat Night Talks by the Fireside: Deluxe Collector's Edition (https://search.worldcat.org/title/%3A/oclc/973684188) ↩
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Source: Henan University Yellow River Civilization Collaborative Innovation Center, "The Cultural Connotations of the Yellow River and the Roots of Chinese History" (https://yrc.henu.edu.cn/info/1047/1753.htm) ↩
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Source: L.A. Wagner, P.H. Hamecher, Flood of June 1972: Chemung River and Newtown Creek at Elmira, New York (https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/ofr72425) ↩