The "Reading Guide" and "Chapter Highlights" for this chapter were summarized by an AI editor based on the main text below; they are not things Mike said during the lecture. The main text comes from Mike's commentary, and the blockquotes are Seth's original words (the portions Mike read aloud).
Guide
This chapter records the sessions and daily life during Jane's hospitalization in January 1984, when Seth began dictating The Way Toward Health. Centering on health and belief, Seth points out that doubt, fear, and rationalization can undermine the will to live, that negative beliefs affect the body, and that the body consciousness is naturally oriented toward health but is conditioned by free will. He suggests that Jane imagine walking, looking in the mirror, smiling, and focusing on goals rather than process, and he discusses such topics as time and the past being changeable by the present, viruses, the snowman, and early humans. Interspersed are Rob's and Jane's dreams and their interpretations.
Key Points of This Chapter
- The will to live can be undermined by doubt, fear, and rationalization.
- The body consciousness is naturally oriented toward health, but it is conditioned by free will and cannot completely take over.
- Negative beliefs and disease labels can hinder the body's healing.
- The past can be changed from the present point of operation; events are essentially subjective.
- Practices such as imagining walking, looking in the mirror, smiling, and focusing on goals are helpful for healing.
Main Text
The Structure of This Book
Today we begin the main text of The Way Toward Health. The main text is divided into several parts, each part into several chapters, and each chapter is further divided by date into many sessions, without separate titles. Part One is called "Dilemmas," and it contains nine chapters in total. The first few chapters are very dense, and each chapter may need to be introduced in three or four separate sessions.
The Way Toward Health was completed by Jane in the hospital during her hospitalization, so the content of each session is very short. The reason it is so short is partly environmental, and partly this: Seth wanted Rob to go back and rest earlier. If it went on too long, unlike at home where they could speak directly, Rob would still have to drive from the hospital back home and cook for himself. Jane was also looking out for Rob, so each session was not particularly long. But the sessions were very intensive, almost every day, even though the content was very brief.
When studying The Way Toward Health, do not pay too much attention to the trivial details of their daily lives interspersed throughout. You can think of it as a primary record of their lives during Jane's hospitalization, interspersed with many flashes of Seth's wisdom -- unlike the earlier material, which centered on Seth's wisdom with daily trivia interspersed, this book feels basically half and half.
Session 1: January 3, 1984
We now begin Chapter 1, titled "On the Purpose of This Book, and Some Important Comments on Exuberance and Health" -- Rob gave it that name. Actually, this book originally had no complete chapters or table of contents; those divisions were all decided later after they discussed it, because the content interwove a lot of personal material, such as Seth's advice on Jane's physical health and on their treatment, while other parts were about the book itself and about universal content, the two interwoven together.
This book began to be recorded on January 3, 1984, right at the start of the new year.
Rob said that at ten o'clock this morning, he received an express package from the mailman: the French translation of The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events -- this book had come out in a French edition, and other books were also being translated into French, German, Spanish, and other major European languages. He left the house to go to the post office, and on the way took Jane's typewriter to be cleaned. Actually, Jane probably never really used her typewriter again after that, but Rob still hoped Jane would recover quickly and be discharged from the hospital, so he made this gesture -- it was also a heartfelt good wish for Jane's health.
In the afternoon he arrived at Jane's Room 330 twenty minutes late. Today was rather warm, thirty-two degrees Fahrenheit, roughly around zero degrees Celsius. For the area where New York and Pennsylvania meet, having this temperature in January was considered fairly warm. Jane came back a bit late from the hydrotherapy department -- Jane had hydrotherapy every day. The medical staff was very busy, and the meal trays were delivered late as well, but Jane ate her lunch very well. At 3:15 Jane began reading yesterday's session, and she read it very well, even better than yesterday, finishing at 3:35. Rob said:
"If your eyes keep improving, maybe one day you'll wear glasses with a lower prescription, and your vision will recover to the point where the prescription is reduced."
Jane was very surprised by this idea and said how could that be possible. Through Jane's surprise at this matter, you can figure out one thing: why did Jane not quite believe her eyesight could improve? Because it had not happened to her. But it had happened to Rob -- Rob's eyesight had indeed improved a few years earlier, and his prescription was reduced, and that was after he was in his fifties. Think about it: for eyesight to improve after fifty is also very interesting.
At 3:40, Rob trimmed Jane's fingernails and toenails, and this task was easier than before. When trimming the fingernails on her right hand, Jane's fingers, which were usually folded together, loosened up quite a bit -- you see, her fingers were normally folded together. Rob told her this was another improvement, showing that Jane's body was continuing to recover.
At 4:01, a new nurse named Betty came to take Jane's blood pressure and temperature. While Jane was enjoying a piece of candy and a cigarette, Rob was handling readers' letters, and he thought Jane would skip the session, since it was already so late. But in the end, when the nurse turned Jane onto her side, Jane decided to dictate a short session.
Seth's Dictation Begins
Seth said:
I bid you good afternoon once again.
Then Seth said:
I will speak briefly. I want you to understand that the new developments regarding the medical insurance situation occurred for your benefit.
This was about them dealing with the insurance company. After Jane was hospitalized, many expenses needed to be reimbursed by the insurance company, and they had to deal with the insurance company. What Seth said about this matter was good news for them.
Rob added:
When you are able, gently massage the tops of Ruburt's toes, near the edges of the nails, and then perhaps slightly down to the first joint, as that helps improve the overall circulation of the body. Previously he was unable to respond; this only takes a little time, as always.
Seth said:
As always, the form of the session sets up its own accelerated healing framework.
That is to say, the very act of holding sessions helps Jane heal and accelerates her healing. There is no need to worry that Jane continuing to transmit the Seth material during her hospitalization would have any adverse effect on her body -- there is no adverse effect, only benefit.
Seth continued:
According to the rhythms I use when dictating the book, according to these rhythms of my lectures, I may or may not return.
"Return" means: after each segment he speaks, he lets Jane rest, and after resting he comes back to continue speaking. But this time he told Rob that during Jane's hospitalization, the rhythm of the sessions might be different from before. It was possible that after finishing one segment he would leave and not continue speaking, and that would be the end for the day. He would not clearly tell you as before, "We will end the session here" -- he might just end abruptly like that. Because first, Jane's body had to be considered, and second, in the hospital she would soon go for hydrotherapy, then for treatment, then for examinations, then meals would be delivered, then blood pressure would be taken -- constant interruptions. Under such circumstances it was very difficult to maintain a continuous and stable transmission of the material. Seth asked Rob to get used to this rhythm.
But then Seth said something very warm and firm:
What you should understand is that I am here, and you can approach me.
Meaning: I am always here, and you can find me at any time. If you want to hold a session, if you want to consult me, I am always by your side. Seth gave them the greatest support, and this companionship was always present.
Rob said, "If you want to say more, we have time." -- He felt the session was too short. Seth paused for a while, then said:
I only want to make a few comments. As you know, or as you may have suspected, I am indeed joining in the dictation of the book, adding some book content according to the present circumstances, at our own pace. It should be fairly easy to recognize those portions.
Rob said, "Yes." He had been transmitting the Seth material for twenty years, and he could distinguish which parts could be used for the book and which parts were personal advice for Rob and Jane's lives. Ruburt could also distinguish them.
If at any time you have difficulty knowing when one portion begins and another ends, you can simply ask Ruburt.
Because these contents were interwoven, containing both personal material and book material. If it was unclear, one could directly ask Jane; she knew.
Seth asked, "Do you have any ideas about the title of the book? Or would you like to think it over?"
Rob said, "No problem." Seth said:
I will give you some material later, along with some other introductory material.
At this point Jane spoke -- this last sentence was not from Seth, but from Jane: "This is me. I will give you some material a little later."
The Origin of the Book's Title
By 6:56, when Jane spoke her last sentence from Seth, she immediately thought of the book's title. The moment she finished that sentence -- "I will give you the material tonight" -- the title The Way Toward Health came into her mind, somehow just arrived. Then Rob told Jane that he also remembered, earlier he had been fairly certain Seth was dictating a book, and afterward the same thought occurred to him several times -- he too thought the title should be The Way Toward Health. Their intuition and telepathic abilities had by now become much stronger than before, and they could sense Seth's thoughts about the title.
After checking, Rob confirmed his original guess: many years earlier, at the time of The "Unknown" Reality, Volume 1, Seth had first written an outline for The Way Toward Health. That book was published in 1977, so the material was transmitted around 1975 or 1976. And now it was January of 1983 or 1984 -- think about it, seven or eight years earlier, Seth had already sketched out the outline for The Way Toward Health. This book was not a spur-of-the-moment idea; health was a topic Seth had long wanted to discuss, except that before there were many more important subjects -- about the origin of the universe, The "Unknown" Reality, and so on -- important material he had not yet transmitted.
From Seth's point of view, in his world of cognition, health is not a problem; health is the easiest, simplest problem to solve. But in the human world, this may be the hardest problem for humans to overcome -- about life and death, about health.
The first line of this book is quite entertaining. Rob said and read aloud to Jane Seth's statement concerning insurance matters -- this insurance business, the two of them were going back and forth with the insurance company, discussing and haggling. Rob had not expected Seth to comment today, and he was surprised by it -- how could a Seth care about such things? Actually, Seth was reassuring the two of them: the trivial, headache-inducing, troublesome clauses you are now discussing with the insurance company will actually be helpful to you later.
Background on American Insurance
It really was helpful. Jane and Rob had a special situation: the two of them apparently had neither Social Security nor health insurance. They were freelancers, not like people with normal jobs whose employers provide Social Security and health insurance as required by regulations. As individual freelancers, they were supposed to buy these insurances on their own. Back then there was no Obama-era mandatory health insurance plan; it was voluntary. If they had not bought insurance, or if they bought it only after falling ill, they would actually be at a great disadvantage—because insurance companies will not cover people who are already sick; the precondition for coverage is a medical exam. Second, if you are already sick, the reimbursement ratio, the conditions, and the premiums the insurance company gives you are all very harsh, because you are obviously there to drain the insurance company's money.
I don't know exactly how they bought it at the time or what kind of insurance they bought, but one can imagine it was not easy or smooth. Two freelancers without stable jobs, if they had no health insurance in America and encountered an illness like Jane's—even though Jane was a writer who had published dozens of books—their income would simply not be enough to support the subsequent treatment costs. So this matter was probably something that worried them quite a bit. Seth was actually giving them reassurance, telling them not to worry.
Rob said that Seth's statement about insurance surprised him as well, since he had not expected Seth to comment on it today. And Jane said that as soon as she mentioned, "I will hold a session," the thought immediately entered her mind—she knew it came from Seth—and that was the book title. Before the session began, she had no time to mention it to Rob.
A Prediction About the World Situation
The manuscript also mentions a note about the relationship between Syria and the United States -- this was used to support Seth's statement that "starting from 1984, the world began to enter a relatively better period, a relatively better phase." This was a prediction Seth gave them, or rather an insight into the future. Seth also said that many countries would change their own alliances -- those that had previously been allied would become non-aligned, and those that had previously been non-aligned and hostile would become friendly. At that time, this was indeed the case.
For example, the most typical case, looking at Sino-American relations -- although diplomatic relations had been established since the seventies, the real improvement began in 1983 and 1984. Although reform and opening up had begun in 1978, the intensity was still far from sufficient; it was still making limited adjustments on top of the old technology, without a thorough shift toward a market economy. But anyone who lived through that era can remember that 1983 was an important watershed. That was when China's rural areas first implemented the household contract responsibility system, and the villagers of Xiaogang Village signed the land contract agreement1; for the first time, land could be farmed by the peasants themselves. Although it was a contract system rather than an ownership system, the nature of it still underwent a fundamental change: the grain and crops produced on this land were now at the peasants' disposal and for their benefit, though of course they still had to pay a certain agricultural tax. Later on, I remember it was around 2000 or 2010, I can't recall exactly, the state completely abolished the agricultural tax2, so peasants no longer had to pay taxes. After the land was contracted, all the output from it belonged to themselves. So 1983 was a core, pivotal turning point.
The Deduction of the Ding Hexagram
Let me talk about this from the perspective of Huangji Jingshi3. I have mentioned before that Shao Yong4, the most famous master of the I Ching in ancient China, made predictions about China's future -- if you study the I Ching you will know this person, the most famous I Ching master in ancient China, a truly remarkable figure. He once wrote a book called Huangji Jingshi3, in which he deduced the history of humanity from ancient times all the way to 129,600 years5 in the future, all worked out through a process of reasoning.
According to the deduction in Huangji Jingshi3, we are within this sixty-year period -- from 1984 all the way to 2043, a full sixty years, one cycle of sixty years, one jiazi -- and throughout these sixty years we have been moving through the Ding hexagram. The first several lines of the Ding hexagram are all very good. Starting from 1983, the first three ten-year periods, these thirty years up to 2014, were all very good. If you are familiar with the I Ching, you will see that the first three lines of the Ding hexagram are all very good.
But from 2014 to the end of 2023, the hexagram for these ten years is the fourth line of the Ding hexagram, which is not particularly good -- it indicates that one leg of the ding broke, the ding tipped over, the food cooking inside spilled out, the ding was dirtied, and the people waiting below to share in this fine food were drenched from head to face, in a very sorry state. During these ten years, the whole of society was in a sorry state, and not just in China -- the whole world was like this. Look at the most typical example in the United States -- the farce-like election of Trump and his later defeat6, all of this happened during this period. And then there was Brexit, when this old established country of Europe left the European Union, making all of Europe lose face, and Britain itself lose face as well, with prime ministers changing one after another. During these ten years, the feeling the whole world gave people was one of being very ridiculous, very comical, very sorry, and very humiliating. If you look carefully at each country, you will see more or less this kind of scene.
So Seth said that starting from 1984 the whole world began to improve -- 1984 happens to be the first year of the Ding hexagram, and from 1984 to 2043 is a full sixty years, which is very interesting. We also talked about this when we first got off the bus in Huizhou, and there will be a dedicated topic to discuss it. But this is only a background, an environment, and it does not have a particularly great bearing on your personal development.
By the way, starting from 2023 we enter the last two lines of the Ding hexagram, the fifth line and the sixth line, and the situation will improve greatly. Although the ding was originally broken, with a broken leg, it was later repaired, and the two ears of the ding had also fallen off -- the fifth line was replaced with ears made of gold, and the sixth line with ears made of jade. Jade is even more precious than gold; we all know that the price of this kind of jadeite jade is even higher than gold. The ancient He Shi Bi was this kind of jade, priceless beyond measure. Using jade to make the ears of the ding -- you can imagine what this means for the technological development of that time. From 2023 to 2043, these ten years, and then the twenty years after that, will all be very good, but in the latter twenty years technology will reach an unimaginable level of rapid advancement.
And think about it: copper and jade are two things that are very difficult to combine. The strength and toughness of jade itself are not enough to compare with metal; it is very hard but not tough enough, very brittle. This means that at that time, in addition to tremendous technological development, it also signifies a great fusion in political power and national politics -- different thoughts and different ideas will be very well integrated. Starting from the second half of this year, 2023, you will be able to see the situation around the world, with different ideologies in society having very good inclusiveness and compatibility. Why do I say this? Because gold began to be used to make the ears of the ding -- gold and brass are two different metals. Logically, the ding should be made of the same metal; if an ear broke, you would just make a brass or bronze one to replace it. Why use gold to make it? It means an upgrade. In ancient times, the ding represented political power, represented the state, represented the world under heaven -- the Ding hexagram is the world under heaven, as we all know since the Zhou dynasty. The world under heaven was no longer composed of a single material; a higher-grade, more precious metal had joined in the composition of the state. From a single bronze, gold was added, greatly enhancing the value, beauty, strength, and toughness of the ding. So the next ten years will be a process of fusion between different cultures and different ideas.
Ten years after that, an essential change will occur -- cultures of different natures will all be fused together. Gold, after all, is still a metal; although it is a different metal, the essential beauty is only a difference in the type of metal, and they can still be fused together, which is understandable. But ten years after that, even jade, which is completely not a metal, can be fused with metal into one body, fused within the ding. In ancient times, jade symbolized something very beautiful, very noble, and very exalted; we all know what fine jade meant in ancient times. At that time, these thoughts and ideas that previously could not be compatible will all achieve a very great degree of acceptance and fusion within one country, within the world under heaven, within this political system, and the whole of human civilization will enter a brand-new stage -- this is how it looks from the perspective of the Ding hexagram.
So 1983 happened to be the entry into the Ding hexagram, and 1984 was the first year. We are here today in the last year of the first forty years of the Ding hexagram, about to enter the most beautiful twenty years that follow. If the first thirty years could be considered good, then what comes after is simply beyond comparison -- just look at the judgment text of the Ding hexagram and you will know; I will not go into too much detail here. If you are interested, you can search on Google or Baidu for the four characters "Huangji Jingshi" -- huang as in emperor, ji as in aurora, jing as in capital, shi as in world -- and then type 2023 after it, and you will immediately find interpretations of Huangji Jingshi for different eras.
Day Two: January 4, 1984
The next session was on January 4, 1984, Wednesday, at 3:54 in the afternoon.
Yesterday Seth said that the new developments regarding the insurance situation had happened for your benefit. This morning, their lawyer told them: he had reached an agreement with the hospital, the doctors, and Blue Cross. Blue Cross is a very large insurance company in America — under Blue Cross there are many smaller insurance companies, and things like Blue Shield are also under its umbrella. You might ask, why is it not Red Cross, why is it Blue Cross? This cross was blue in the past, and only later did we change it to the red cross7. Blue Cross is an institution that has existed for a very, very long time, and it is connected with health, healing, and recovery. The cross actually symbolizes the Christian cross, and he introduced that in to represent recovery and healing. So even today, many medical institutions use the cross as their symbol. But this thing is copyrighted and requires authorization, so you can see that recently many hospitals in China no longer use a plain cross; they have added many short lines to the cross, in eight directions, turning it into an eight-pointed shape. The reason is that this cross requires authorization, and not just anyone can use it. But whether it is the Red Cross or the Blue Cross, it represents medicine and hospitals, and this is recognized all over the world, so we only made a slight modification — at first glance it still looks like a big red cross, with just a little bit of variation added inside.
Today the lawyer told them that he had reached an agreement with the hospital, the doctors, and the insurance company, and the result was very good for them. So up to this point, everything Seth said has been correct.
Rob's Trust Issues
From these details you can see that Rob did not fully believe what Seth said. He was like most people -- he knew there was a Seth transmitting material to them, and that it contained a great deal of good, wise content. Many people ask: why did Jane not completely recover? The answer is that Rob and Jane, and most of the people listening to my class right now, the vast majority, share a common problem: they treat the Seth material as a course, as a kind of knowledge, as a kind of wisdom, but they do not treat it as life itself, they do not treat it as fact, they do not treat it as the way this world actually operates. So they were half-believing and half-doubting what Seth said, always in the process of verifying it. It is only through these small things that their underlying core beliefs are revealed.
If they had, very early on, when Seth first began transmitting the material, made a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree reset of their lives -- since what Seth says is correct and full of wisdom, then we will live entirely according to what Seth says -- at the very least, he is not trying to harm us. He does not ask us to be superstitious; he hands the power back into our own hands. What reason do we have to reject such wisdom? It lets you gain your own power and live with a sense of your own power. It does not ask you to believe in something or be superstitious about something else; it only asks you to believe in yourself. What loss or risk do you face in that? With no loss or risk at all, why not make a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn and switch completely into the kind of life Seth describes?
The moment you switch into that state, your life will undergo earth-shaking changes. If you are still living your old life, following your old habits and old understanding, treating the Seth material as a supplement to life or a useful tool, then your efficiency in using the Seth material is very low. There will be no great change; it will only make you feel a bit more comfortable when you are suffering, give you some spiritual consolation when you are in distress, but the change to your life will be negligible -- because you are half-believing and half-doubting it.
Here we can see the changes in Rob and Jane. Jane was even more obvious, and Rob was the same. It is only through these small, casual remarks that we can see it. If you asked them formally, Rob and Jane would both say, "We believe in Seth, we think everything he says is right, and we will live according to his way" -- but that is only what they said. When they acted, they did not do so.
Jane's Depression
Rob said: Jane ate a good lunch. While Jane was answering reader letters, Rob began reading yesterday's session, and Jane again performed well, holding the paper with her left hand as usual. She said that last night she had a brief spell of depression, inwardly hesitating over whether she would ever walk out of the hospital and onto the street.
You see, this little bit of depression is her true underlying底色, the fundamental thing. She was even worried that she would not make it out of the hospital, that she would not get better, that she would just die right there in the hospital. How did Seth emphasize it to her -- "Your eyes are also recovering, your body is also recovering, all of your functions are moving in a positive direction of recovery" -- but no matter what Seth said, it was useless. Jane still believed she might never get out of that hospital.
And at this point, there were still nine months left before her final passing. She did not truly leave this world until September 5th, and on August 30th, seven days before her death -- a full week before -- she was still transmitting the Seth material. A person who can still transmit the Seth material, who can still connect with another level of consciousness or energy through channeling, who still has the strength to speak -- her illness certainly could not have been so severe that she was about to die at any moment. And in fact, quite the opposite: ten days before her actual death, her body underwent a very good turn for the better. But it still could not reverse her underlying beliefs.
At this time she was already showing some early signs of it: she was worried she would not make it out of the hospital. Our family members would say "depression becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy" -- in the end she really did not walk out of that hospital; she left this world right there in that hospital. Of course she did not know it yet at this point. Up until this time, she still had countless possibilities; she still had the possibility of complete recovery happening within her. But she did not calibrate or align her frequency with that possibility; instead, she tuned her frequency to the self that ultimately would not walk out of the hospital -- to that probable self.
However, she pulled herself out by saying "cancel that" to herself and by remembering the Seth material. Jane still remembered the Seth material at the critical moment, saying, no, I cannot have this kind of negative thought, I must cancel it. She did make some struggle, but whether she truly canceled it in the end, only she herself knows.
Trusting Yourself and Trusting Seth
Jane shared with Rob that she remembered a chapter in the Seth books called "Food and You," which had covered this topic. Then she realized her worry was this: she might say something wrong in the book and mislead people. She worried that the Seth material she transmitted might mislead readers -- including the content of the "Food and You" chapter. What if it misled others? That was her worry. So you can imagine, while she was transmitting the Seth material, she was carrying deep anxiety in her body about whether the material she was transmitting might have a bad influence. This tug-of-war was extremely intense -- on one hand you are transmitting what you believe to be very right, and on the other hand you worry that this thing might have a bad influence on people in the world.
But she said, "I told myself to trust myself." She also said, "Trust myself and trust Seth." And what Rob said was: "Nagging, to hell with it!" -- he was cursing. What he meant was, don't think about these things, don't think about what influence it might have on others, just take care of yourself first. Jane said, "I want to believe in myself and believe in Seth," and this was indeed the belief she should have adopted. But the very fact that she said it this way proves exactly that she did not believe in herself and did not believe in Seth -- doesn't the reverse side of this sentence show that she once did not, or still did not, believe in herself and in Seth, which is why she had to tell herself to believe? This was one of the main reasons she ultimately passed away from illness.
Rob said, "You must." He also said, "There is nothing else we can do anymore. Engrave the word 'trust' upon your hearts." Rob at this point was truly speaking with earnest and heartfelt advice. But at this moment you can see what their thoughts and mindset were -- it was only when there was no other way left that they turned to trusting Seth and Jane. If there had been any other option at all, he would still have had another move. Look at how tragic and solemn this sentence is: besides trusting Seth, do you have any other option right now? There is no other option. You are already living in the hospital, the doctors have already given you the best treatment, and yet you are still like this. If you want to truly recover, leave the hospital, and live a normal life, you can only trust Seth and trust yourself. This sentence sounds very positive, but you can feel that it is actually very tragic, very powerless, very resigned -- there is no other way, we can only believe, all other moves have been exhausted.
Grasping at Straws as a Form of Trust
I have also seen many people who came to me hoping that studying the Seth material would change their bodies. Some of them recovered completely, and those shared cases are visible to everyone. But there are also many cases that did not improve, and you will not see those — I will not share them, and those people will not come out to share either. Some may have already passed away, and some may no longer believe that the Seth material can solve their problems and have already left our group, because they felt it was useless.
As for me, I see this very clearly and understand it fully, but I still respect their own choices and will not offer more earnest persuasion. If you have the karmic connection to study the Seth material, then go ahead and continue studying it. We have a large amount of material, enough for you to study for several years, enough to bring about fundamental change in you. And there is not only my sharing, but also Dr. Hsu Tian-sheng from Taiwan, and many other successful cases of spiritual healing that you can learn from. For example, Anita8, who had to die once before she learned to love — although her sharing has no connection to Seth, the principles she expounds are all the same. Including my interpretation of the Tao Te Ching, including The Principles of Inner Nature and Life, traditional Chinese culture, including Zhuangzi, and so on — they are all expounding the same principles.
But the key point is this: for those who did not get better, one main point is that when they came to study this material, it was because they had no other options left. They came with the mentality of treating a dead horse as if it were still alive, of giving it a try, and so they had no choice but to believe in the Seth material. Let me ask you: at that moment, were they truly believing, or were they grasping at a lifeline? They were grasping at a lifeline; they were not truly believing. Their starting point was still to solve their own physical problems, still to seek from outside, still to rely on others, on the Seth material, to save their own lives. In this process, because it was not true belief, the results were poor — just like Jane's final results. You can also see from this passage that Jane did not believe, did not fully believe, which is why she said that sentence.
So everyone must remember: if you truly want to get better — today we are talking about the way toward health — if you truly want to get better, you can only have genuine trust from the bottom of your heart, not trust like theirs, trust that only comes when there is no other way left. That kind of trust may seem very effective — "I only believe in you, I do not believe in anyone else" — but that is because you have no choice left, and at that point you are not truly believing; you are still treating it as a lifeline.
The nurse took Jane's temperature: 98.3 degrees Fahrenheit. Rob joked that it was almost a perfect temperature. That should be normal, about 36.8 degrees Celsius, I cannot remember exactly. In America they use Fahrenheit, so you should roughly remember: a body temperature of 100 degrees counts as a fever, which is different from our Celsius. America is a very strange country. It was originally a British colony and later became independent, yet it retained many things from the imperial system. Other Commonwealth countries have actually stopped using the imperial system — Canada, for example, is entirely metric. When you arrive in America you are completely baffled, because everything is imperial: volume in gallons, weight in pounds and ounces, length in miles, and temperature stubbornly in Fahrenheit, not Celsius. They themselves do not find it troublesome, but we feel tired on their behalf. They are different from the whole world, just that awkward. Yet those Commonwealth countries — including India, Pakistan, Canada, Australia — have all switched to the metric system, except for retaining the British tradition of driving on the left, while everything else has changed. And America happens to drive on the right, like most countries in the world, but its units of measurement are completely different. So now you know that roughly 98.3 degrees is normal.
The Will to Live
Then Seth came through. He said:
I wish you another good afternoon.
Then he continued:
The will to live may be undermined by doubt, fear, and rationalization.
Seth mentioned the will to live -- this is the key to a person being able to live. If even the will to live is gone, then living is impossible. This will may be undermined by your doubt, fear, and rationalization. What is doubt? It is what Jane and Rob were just doing -- doubting whether they could get out of the hospital. What is fear? Worrying that this illness of mine will never get better. What is rationalization? According to what the doctors say, according to modern medicine, saying that this illness of mine may not be able to fully improve. These three things will undermine your will to live, and ultimately become the root cause of your final severe illness and death. So remember, do not have any of these three things.
For example, some people clearly want to live, and of course the will is there -- some mothers who are ill, do they not want to live to accompany their children as they grow up? Some very young children, teenagers or even younger, who become ill, do they not want to live? They want to live. But apart from the arrangement of fate and their own choices, another reason is that their will to live has been undermined. Although at the same time they are also trying to avoid life -- on the surface they seem to want very much to live, but inwardly there is another direction avoiding life, and this leads to their conflict. Inwardly there is conflict, and such a person will hinder his own movement and progress. He will become overly concerned with his own safety -- remember, being overly concerned with your own safety is itself damaging to your life. Many people say, "I am already ill, and I should not be concerned about my own life and safety?" But Seth's viewpoint here is precisely what is unusual.
The Holistic Nature of Seth Material Transmission
Seth says that this kind of "self-deception" you engage in is not deeply hidden in the subconscious. In most cases, it is actually a very conscious decision made at a certain point in time, on a fairly surface level. He says that this distrust of yourself, this distrust of your own life energy, and the turning outward to seek a false sense of security, is not as deeply buried in the subconscious as you might think, beyond your awareness. On the contrary, it is very obvious at many times and at many points in your life, and it is a conscious decision on your part.
They have not forgotten these decisions, but the people involved have simply closed their eyes to those decisions and pretended they do not exist. They do this only to make life appear smooth, to save face, even though they understand perfectly well that the decision was indeed based on very unstable foundations.
Let me translate this for you, and perhaps you will understand what he is saying. Most people clearly know that what they are doing is wrong, that they should not be doing it, but for the sake of surface appearances, they do not want to change. They identify more with their former self and their former life, because if they did not identify with it, they would not have lived that kind of life. At this point, if you ask them to completely overturn their previous life patterns, beliefs, and even their underlying thinking, they themselves cannot accept it. They feel it is humiliating. Because the things they used to attack, judge, and criticize every day, today they would have to accept as correct—they cannot get past this hurdle in their heart. Even if they have gotten past it in their heart, even after listening to me teach this material for several years, even knowing in their heart that these things are right, they still worry about how others will see them on the surface. They still care about face, so they do not change. They continue on as before, following their old life patterns and habits.
So this time Seth points it out with piercing accuracy: your concern for face—how great an impact it has on you, how great the damage it does to you.
Now, any of you who still have illness or pain in your body, listen carefully, because he is talking about you. Can you change? Stop doubting whether you can change. Change is a very fast thing. In just a few days, your body can completely transform and heal. But if you yourself do not believe it—if you say, how could it possibly heal in just a few days?—if you do not even believe this, then the effect will not be that great for you either. If you do believe it, but you hold back from taking action only because of face, then your loss is too great.
Seth says, I do not want to oversimplify things, I do not want to make this complex matter sound simple, but this kind of decision is very easy to spot in children. A child may fall and scrape his knee, badly enough that at least for a while he limps, cannot walk, cannot go to school. Such a child is often quite clear about the whole course of events. He may openly admit to his playmates that his fall was at least partly deliberate, so that he could miss a certain test at school that he was afraid of. That child is very likely to think this way: to produce the result he wanted, the injury was only a small price to pay, nothing compared to the test he feared.
But in the same situation, if an adult is injured because of something similar, he will not voluntarily admit it. For example, if a person becomes ill or falls and gets hurt because of something he fears at the office—an evaluation, an assessment—he will very likely feel ashamed and be unwilling to admit that he deliberately fell or became ill because he was afraid of what he would face at the office. So face matters a great deal, and because of it he deceives himself. He tells himself, I did not get sick because I wanted to get sick; it was because of the unpredictability of nature, an accident, or a bad environment, or disease and viruses. He does not dare admit that there is an element of his own doing in it, because he feels that would be humiliating. He preserves his self-esteem, but in such cases, adults will feel that they are victims of events over which they have little or no control.
And as a victim, he can shift the blame—this has nothing to do with me, I am the one who was harmed. But over time, when this kind of thing happens frequently, each time placing himself in the role of the victim, each time saying he had no choice—when this is clearly his own choice, yet he shifts the blame outward—what happens after a long time? His fear of the world and of anomalous things grows. Why? Because he feels things are uncontrollable: the variables that occur in this world are uncontrollable, accidents are uncontrollable, illness is uncontrollable, and when he himself might fall ill is also uncontrollable. In fact, because he has deceived himself for so long, he himself no longer knows that he is the one causing his own illness, until the fear becomes quite unreasonable. But in most cases, those inner decisions can still be easily reached; it is not that the mechanism behind them can never be understood. It is just that when people are determined to save face, they will fundamentally refuse to admit that those were their own decisions. It is not that he does not know—sometimes he can know—but for the sake of face he is unwilling to admit it.
People decide to live—this "decide" in English is the word "will." "Will" means both one's own volition, what one wants to do, and what one is going to do. To act or not to act—this is their decision to live, and they can do or not do certain things. Sometimes not doing certain things allows one to survive; sometimes one must do certain things to survive. It is not always the same. But first there must be this decision, this will. To a great extent, they decide the events of their own lives, whether or not they are willing to admit it to themselves. And they decide to die—they will not admit this. Those who ultimately do not pull through are those whose inner subconscious has decided to die.
You might say, how could anyone want to die? They would not. But their subconscious really does think this way. For example, a real situation: a person says, I do not think I can ever leave this hospital, I probably will not make it out—is this kind of thinking, at its foundation, not a mentality of wanting to die? If you did not want to die, how would you ever think, I will not make it out? Setting aside the fear, the worry, and all the preceding causes, is the result not that he ultimately concludes he cannot leave the hospital? And is that conclusion not the result of a decision to die? So when we understand this principle, we know why many people, no matter how they are treated, never get better—because their will to die is extremely firm. It is not what he says with his mouth or what he thinks in his head—surely no one wants to die—but behind it all, that underlying decision to die is so firm that he does die. That is why Seth uses the word "will" here.
Ruburt's Spontaneity and the Body's Order
Seth's commentary in this session is very extensive. This will be common throughout this book, because the content of each session is very short, and he cannot spend as much time unfolding certain core viewpoints as he could in the earlier foundational books. So he often states conclusive things directly in the form of commentary -- that is, one of his conclusions.
Of course, all of this applies to Ruburt's situation. What was said earlier -- indeed, at least once he resolved that he would be unable to move. He would not dare say this about other things, but at least he caught Ruburt once simply not wanting to move, which led to the present condition of his body. He was willing to sacrifice a certain kind of physical movement in order to safely make use of other psychological movements -- this is what Seth perceived through telepathy. Ruburt's inner calculation was: "I would rather sacrifice certain physical movements in exchange for a greater psychological mobility." This was a decision within him that others did not know, but Seth could see into the heart. He made an exchange: I use physical non-action to obtain a greater psychological mobility -- remember, this is a decision.
Why did he do this? Because he was afraid of his own spontaneous nature, afraid that his own spontaneity was too strong. He was afraid that the spontaneous self would act according to its own reasons. He feared this spontaneity, and this fear led to the restriction of his physical movement. He felt that this spontaneity was not his own, or he thought those things were not his own. Now he is beginning to understand that his energy is the gift of his life, meant to be expressed, not suppressed. And he is beginning to understand that spontaneity knows its own order -- what comes first and what comes next; it will not cause trouble or create chaos. This is what Ruburt had always worried about: he feared that if he let this spontaneity move, think, and speak freely, it might create a great many messes. He is now discovering that this is not the case; spontaneity knows its own order.
He just told you that when he began speaking for Seth, he felt an entire tall structure arrive as a whole. A whole concept came over as a whole, like a high-rise building, and these high-rise buildings were composed of language and words. Although he could only speak it sentence by sentence from the ground floor up, it arrived as a whole. And he did not hesitate to let that structure slowly take form -- this ability is the same as the ability that would now allow his body to walk. He can take an abstract, very vast concept that arrives as a whole and structure it out, unfold it, sentence by sentence. If Ruburt has this ability, then he equally has the ability to make his body walk, to get back on his feet and move again. The more he trusts his energy, the more clearly he can express a concept through words, and then he can also make his body walk. His spontaneity forms the beautiful order of his body, and the result is the spontaneous physical art of walking.
He has indeed made considerable progress; this has been done very well. The change has already begun to appear in his mind. He now has the image and concept of this spontaneity in his mind, and they will manifest in the body, producing very good results.
In your language -- English -- the word "will" also means "the future." "I will do something," "you will do" -- it expresses both something that will happen in the future and also a wish and a volition. He said that in sentences like "he will happen," "will" is often used, and it also refers to the quality of the mind in making decisions. This is not a coincidence. In other words, what Seth wants to tell you is not a coincidence, but rather: the decision you make today is the result that can take form in your future. Your decision is only a psychological decision, but it will directly lead to the future result. Your future is created by the decisions you make today, so whatever you "will," that is what will appear in the future. This is not a coincidence.
Jane's Feelings About the Transmission of the Seth Material
In this passage Jane once again spoke a sentence for Seth, and this sentence is very important. When Jane spoke a sentence for Seth, she also felt the other sentences that were coming, the sentences surrounding the one she had spoken. She described it as though even if the sentence she was speaking was the bottommost sentence -- like the bottommost cornerstone of a house -- she also knew what the structures at the top of the house were. What came to her was not a single sentence; what came was a group, a pile, a cluster, or a matrix. Although what she described was only one sentence among them, what she saw was the entire house.
So you should know that when the Seth material comes, this is what it is like in Jane's mind. Sometimes when you read the Seth material it is hard to fully understand it, or you can only understand certain layers of it, precisely because when the Seth material is transmitted it comes in whole blocks, whole concepts at a time. The moment it comes, it is a thing with many layers stacked together, and the entire process from the foundation all the way to the completed house arrives at once. And at this point Jane has no choice but to speak it sentence by sentence, because she cannot speak all of this pile of words at once. This is a human limitation, the limitation of language, a structural matter. She can only speak sentence by sentence, but when it came to her, it was an entire house arriving all at once.
Let me give you an analogy so you understand: suppose you bought a very beautiful large villa, five hundred square meters, three stories, exquisitely decorated. You want to describe this villa to a friend, but you cannot use photos or videos, only language and words. You write several thousand characters describing every detail, from the architecture and layout to the exterior and interior decoration, but you and I both know very well that no matter how detailed, how structured, how rationalized your writing is, you can never fully express what you truly want to express. Because you live in it, and that feeling of being one with the house, the experience the house brings you, cannot be described in language. This feeling of home, the link between you and the house, the resonance in the aura, the connection in the energy field -- none of it can be described. This example is to help you understand that when the Seth material enters Jane's mind, it is like a villa entering the mind directly. But he has no choice but to start from the foundation and explain it bit by bit. How much he can say depends only on his expressive ability and Seth's ability to organize human language. Even a being of such high wisdom, faced with the limitations of human language, still has certain limits and constraints, and is likewise powerless.
So a truly good reader can, from these linear, structured language descriptions of Seth's, through inner connection and underlying feeling, sense the existence of such a house. But a person who reads the Seth material only through the surface words does not have this ability; he will feel that he cannot understand it, that it is not very interesting, and that he cannot grasp the deeper meaning and wisdom within it. This is the main characteristic of the Seth material. At this point Jane used just such a description and metaphor to explain it.
Then she read this note to him -- that was the correct version, approved by Seth. She said, "It is almost like instantly sensing a new tall structure, only made of words." Jane said that when the Seth material is transmitted, it is like instantly sensing a tall structure. You can imagine it as a building, but it is not a building; it is a kind of thought, a kind of wisdom. It has structure, but this structure is very hard to express in our linear way -- it is three-dimensional, and it is very hard for you to express it from a linear logical angle. It is simply a structure made of words. This is how Jane described the feeling and experience when the Seth material is transmitted.
Addendum
This session's content is very good. While she drank her ginger ale, and while I read parts of the session aloud to her, she also smoked a cigarette. Then Jane said, rather long-windedly: "While you were reading, I didn't want to interrupt you, but I began to get what he has to say about a whole pile of things." As she listened to me read, she received some of what Seth wanted to say next. Seth will talk about paralysis -- which is a result of his being afraid of his own power and short-circuiting it. The secondary personality is the same, because you may blame your behavior on something else, which causes your secondary personality to appear. Jane also said: "He will say that, in ordinary terms, we cannot access all the information you have at any given moment." You cannot obtain all the information at one point in time; you can only obtain it bit by bit. Although what I give you is like an entire building of information, you can only understand it brick by brick. Because on a conscious level it is too difficult for you to sort it out; you cannot use the conscious mind to organize, analyze, and categorize it. But we really do know it -- although we cannot understand it with verbal consciousness, because it goes beyond our linear analysis and logical understanding, that does not mean we do not know it exists. Only for practical purposes do we pretend not to know. So that your brain does not collapse, does not go crazy, we can only tell you that we do not know that much, that we can only know this little bit.
But do you know? You know all of it. Many things in our lives are like this. Sometimes you say, "I don't know how to describe or express it," but that does not mean you do not know it in your heart; it only means you do not know how to put it into words. Seth said before: that part of ourselves we call the unconscious is actually itself quite conscious. You think you do not know, but actually you know it all.
By 7:10, Seth did an ordinary prayer together with Jane and Rob, and then left Jane. Rob went to the supermarket to buy some things, then came home and ate dinner; it was 9:45 before he began eating dinner. So you see, Rob's day was also very hard, not eating dinner until almost ten o'clock. Rob wanted to add some notes: today's Seth material contains some material that reminded me of Jane's guilty self; I am afraid this book cannot avoid it, at least at times it may be necessary to mention this matter of the "guilty self."
Part One: Thursday, January 5, 1984
Today we are covering the second part of Chapter One, starting from the afternoon of January 5, 1984. Because each session in this chapter is relatively short, covering just one session is too little, but covering too many sessions is too much, so depending on the time, we cover about two or three sessions each time.
In the afternoon, Rob said that this morning he had typed up the transcript of yesterday's session, and only after ten-thirty did he have time to work on the content of Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment. He also made some arrangements for filing their 1983 taxes. In the United States, at the beginning of each year you have to file the previous year's taxes. Things went quite smoothly, but he lost track of time, and when he arrived at Room 330 in the afternoon, his legs were cramping. The weather was warmer today, 36 degrees Fahrenheit, and the ice on the driveway was melting. Last night and this morning he had put salt on the ice.
Jane said that this afternoon she waited a long time for hydrotherapy and had cramps many times. She was worried that the catheter had already become loose enough yesterday and would have to be changed tonight. In the hydrotherapy room she saw a nurse's aide who had once been injured -- when she fell, she twisted or pulled the steel rod in her leg, the steel pin that had been left in her leg after a previous surgery, and now the old injury had flared up again. The doctor predicted that she would have a very long recovery period. As she chatted with us, Jane and I quickly noticed the negative suggestion the doctor had given her -- telling her that it might take a long time to recover. She also told us that another nurse had taken at least a week off because of a back sprain, apparently because she was trying to transfer another patient's injury onto herself -- if someone else could rest for a week, then I could also rest even longer because of my leg injury.
This made us curious about the work in the hospital. It seemed as if everyone would sooner or later get sick -- because in a large environment like a hospital, after looking at illness for too long, one gradually accepts this viewpoint: everyone will get sick. After seeing too many patients, one worries whether one will also get sick someday.
Jane ate lunch very well, and at 3:05 she began reading yesterday's session, doing quite well. She finished reading at 3:34. She had no problem holding the manuscript pages in her left hand, but her vision changed greatly, and she had to strain to read. When I put eye drops in for her, I noticed that both her eyes were bloodshot, and her vision was sometimes good and sometimes bad.
At 3:45, I read a batch of incoming sessions to Jane. She told me about a dream from last night, very vivid, involving her walking. In the previous session Seth had already said that her learning to walk in her mind, imagining herself beginning to walk, was good for her body. She dreamed that she was in the middle of a street, had put on new clothes, and had left the hospital -- these were all good signs -- walked across the street into a five-and-dime store, and even put beautiful hair ornaments in her hair. I said that was a very good dream, once again setting the stage with the act of walking, and she agreed.
At 4:00, the nurse came to measure Jane's vital signs, temperature 98.5 degrees Fahrenheit. When everything was done and quiet, except that a patient named Carina in the next ward was shouting loudly. Jane said he wanted to have a short session.
I wish you another fine afternoon.
Seth came straight to the point and said:
People with epilepsy are often afraid of their own energy. They do not trust this energy, nor do they trust their own spontaneity. They are afraid that, if left alone, this energy might attack others or themselves.
This is the cause of epileptic seizures. They are afraid that the energy within them will harm others, so they use an energy short circuit -- just like an electrical short circuit, which releases enormous heat and rapidly drains the electrical charge -- causing themselves to have a temporarily helpless epileptic seizure, making the energy short-circuit and then become powerless, beyond their control.
People with so-called secondary personalities are also afraid of their energy. They divide this energy so that they appear to belong to different personalities.
He is explaining how multiple personalities and secondary personalities come about. They are also afraid of a portion of the energy within themselves, and then they split it off into another personality. The energy is effectively divided. Basically, in such cases there is no real amnesia problem, although it seems as if one personality does not understand what another personality does, but the people involved are generally quite aware of their activities. They act in a discontinuous manner. The primary personality is fragmented and piecemeal when doing things, so he feels as if he cannot remember what happened between these fragments. But in fact his entire consciousness knows; it is just that he tells himself -- the primary personality does not know what the other personalities do, and the other personalities do not know what the primary personality does, when in fact they all know.
This psychological device cleverly prevents the primary personality from utilizing all of his energy at any given moment. He divides his energy into two or three portions, each portion representing an independent personality, when in fact these are all parts of the energy within the primary personality. He has not used it completely, but has split it apart, each portion becoming a personality. This person pretends to have no memory of the existence or activities of another personality.
Some personalities, however, hoard their energy, so that one personality often exhibits explosive behavior, or makes certain decisions that seem contrary to the wishes of the primary personality.
Why do some people with multiple personalities do extreme things? They exhibit explosive behavior, or make decisions completely contrary to the primary personality, appearing as if they have become uncontrollable. In this way, different kinds of behavior may be displayed, and afterward it appears as if many decisions were made by one part of the self without the knowledge of another part. In fact, the primary personality has the ability to express many different possible behaviors, but the whole personality is prevented from operating with its full energy and power. Instead, the energy is diverted into other channels.
All portions of the self are indeed conscious, and basically they are aware of each other, although for practical purposes they may appear to be separate or isolated.
Finally Seth added a comment:
Read to Ruburt those portions of today's session that deal specifically with his condition. Read them for several days, at least whenever possible. I may or may not return, again according to those rhythms I mentioned. But know that I am here and approachable.
This has already become a stock phrase in this book; he keeps saying it. At 4:40, Rob told Jane that he had thought Seth would speak longer. But Jane said he often felt that if every session were as long as before, Rob would never be able to type up the transcripts. Because Rob also had to prepare Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment for publication as soon as possible, Jane would not take up too much of Rob's time with The Way Toward Health.
Rob said, "I notice that around seven o'clock you start to get tense." Jane said that was right; by that time she would become restless and begin to tire. But she could always make an exception -- on special occasions she could still bend the rules -- if you had to type a longer session, then you would not be able to do anything on Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment. Jane was being considerate of Rob, because she observed that as soon as it got past seven, Rob became a little anxious and his body showed fatigue. You can imagine that a person staying in a hospital room from noon or afternoon until evening would indeed be somewhat tired.
Jane said she also often thought about reading yesterday's session to him frequently -- that is, the session of January 4 -- as a reminder.
January 6, 1984, Friday
At 4:22 p.m., it was still very warm today. When Rob left for Ward 330, it was about 38 degrees Fahrenheit. Jane had no problems, although she had to wait a long time again before her hydrotherapy, and things were a bit disorganized, perhaps too busy. The new staff lifted her up but did not know how to do it properly, and she was in a bad mood because of the hydrotherapy situation. Rob himself also saw two new nurses or nurse's aides, one of whom came to see Jane for a while after the treatment.
Rob said, "She didn't look too good. My own theory is that the people working there will soon get tired of the job, and then get sick in order to get paid rest or time off." This became a potential pattern -- wanting paid time off, so making oneself sick. This is exactly what Seth was trying to say in the January 4 session: children will admit that they deliberately made themselves sick, but adults are ashamed to admit it.
Jane ate lunch very well, although she was somewhat drowsy. Rob told Jane that the itching on his own body had lessened considerably since yesterday. In answer to Jane's question about the hospital news, he said, "There's only one answer." Jane said, "I know, and that's what I'm trying to do too." Rob added, "That's the only way to shake off all the basic negativity of those places." Sometimes he wondered why there was not a deeper realization on that point, which would allow Jane's body to heal faster -- since she already had the ability to change her beliefs, and had the ability to begin healing slowly, why couldn't she get better faster and be discharged sooner?
At 3:16 p.m., Jane began reading yesterday's session, and did quite well, better than yesterday. She finished reading at 3:25. At 3:36 a new nurse came in to take her temperature, 98.2 degrees Fahrenheit. At 3:50 another nurse took her blood pressure.
Let me give some background here -- after they had a session on November 10, 1982, it was not until October 9, 1983, ten months later, that they had the next one. Almost a year had passed. And Jane was admitted to the hospital on April 20, 1983 -- that is, in April of the year before this book was written. Now starting at four o'clock, Rob read aloud to Jane some of the session content from since she resumed sessions in October, which contained many interesting points.
Jane said she wanted to have a session, and they both wondered about the lack of any major movement in Jane's body recently. Then Seth came through:
I bid you good afternoon again. In our own book, the concept of the sinful self will not occupy a major position, but we will certainly discuss at length those ideas held by various religions that are detrimental to many people.
Seth means that he will not talk too much about the content of the sinful self, but he will talk a lot about the religious view that "people are born sinful." These ideas --
Ideas that certainly make many people feel that they are indeed sinful, rather than blessed.
That is to say, Seth will talk a lot about how religions instill negative information and beliefs into people, helping people to change those beliefs. One is indeed blessed --
And merely reminding people of that fact can often remove negative beliefs, especially if they are not too deeply rooted.
Simply telling people "you are blessed" -- such a simple transmission of belief -- can clear away negative beliefs. The premise is that they cannot be too deeply rooted; if they are too deep, then it cannot be resolved with a single sentence.
As for why Ruburt's movements are not great -- the body follows its own rhythms. On the one hand, there is movement and activity that is clearly noticeable, while on the other hand, he is, so to speak, moving inwardly, making all the preparations for other movements or actions. When Ruburt feeds himself, the time spent is very short, quite brief, but those outward progresses follow many inner manipulations, which simply had not been connected in that particular way until then.
At 4:27 p.m., Seth paused and said:
Reading some of the earlier sessions in this sequence may remind you both of the progress that has occurred since those sessions began. Thus inviting even newer progress.
He suggested that they reread the sessions since October 9, 1983, to see the progress they had already made, so that they could invite more and newer changes into their lives.
At 4:29 p.m., Rob read the content of this session to Jane. They thought that Seth's comments about the sinful self came from the question Rob had read to Jane earlier today -- the question he had asked Seth last October about the possible role of the sinful self in Jane's challenges. Seth heard it, and so he talked about the sinful self.
At 4:45 p.m., Rob wanted to exercise Jane's right leg while she was still lying on her back, as Seth had suggested he do every day. But Jane decided to wait until after Rob had turned her over. Rob also massaged her toes with olive oil, as Seth had mentioned before. Jane said that touching her toes gave her leg sensation, all the way up to her thigh -- exactly as Seth had said.
Seth taught her a specific small method for recovery, which is to massage the toes with the hands, starting by pressing from both sides of the nails, then up to the first joint of the toe, but no further down. Doing just these kinds of movements is very helpful for recovery in people who have lost sensation in their legs.
Our famous psychologist -- the so-called second-generation master of psychology -- Erikson, was completely paralyzed when he was a child9, and the doctors had already said that this child probably would not make it. But through intention, little by little, he moved his toes in his mind, then moved the next joint, and step by step relearned how to move his body -- truly miraculous. So this kind of small exercise is very useful for recovery.
After Rob finished massaging Jane's toes, at 5:50 p.m., Jane gradually drifted into a nap. Rob himself fell asleep. He remembered last night's dream, and after waking up he described it to Jane -- he had a dream in color, in which Jane re-broke the same place on her right leg several times -- repeatedly stimulating that injured place, not letting herself heal. The dream also involved arguments about insurance. Rob said, "I woke up feeling gloomy, and finally had to sit up from the chair and take some baking soda to soothe my stomach. After that I slept very well."
A few minutes later, Jane said that the dream might be related to the injury on the nurse's aide's own damaged leg -- the one who had steel pins in her leg -- and might also involve the doctor's negative suggestions to him. However, Jane told Rob that she also had a negative dream last night: she dreamed of a woman with cancer on her face, who was taking interferon as treatment. The woman told Jane that she had the same type of facial skin as hers, with all the negative implications attached.
This almost sounds like Jane and Rob had parallel anxiety dreams, one after the other. They represented fears on their side, but were not real or predictive. Both of them still had worries about physical health, so they had two such dreams in succession.
January 7, 1984, Saturday
Today is Saturday, 4:11 p.m., the weather is rather cold, and it was 28 degrees Fahrenheit when Rob left home for Room 330. This morning he worked on Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment for an hour, and no one called.
Rob had imagined Jane returning to her hospital room after hydrotherapy around eleven. When he got there, Jane said she had not come back until nearly noon. Just before he arrived, she had been fitted with fresh bandages and turned over. But she ate lunch very well, as if there were no problems at all.
At 2:45, Rob began handling the mail, and Jane began reading yesterday's session. She quickly skimmed through what had been the best part in some time, finishing at 2:55, and she read it beautifully. At three o'clock, Dana came in to empty Jane's urine bag -- this Foley, as everyone calls it. At 3:20 her temperature was taken: 98.5 degrees Fahrenheit, very good. At 3:45, Lynn put eye drops in for Jane. You can see that the foreign nurse's aides do all kinds of work -- they are really just nursing assistants, doing a lot of basic tasks.
And amid all these activities, whenever they had a quiet moment alone, Rob would bring up a question he had thought of yesterday. The question was sparked by a sentence of Rob's in yesterday's session notes -- the meaning of that sentence was:
"Sometimes I wonder why Jane's body -- especially the consciousness of her body -- does not simply take over to a deeper degree and command her body to heal itself even more rapidly, so that they could leave the hospital?"
Rob's question was: if there really is such great ability, why can't her body consciousness quickly heal itself and let them get discharged sooner? He noticed that when Jane read this sentence aloud, she had an emotional reaction, which set him thinking.
That question contained many implications. Rob said: "Perhaps such a thing could even happen in a place like this." If it never happened, that would mean the body consciousness always submits to the other dominated parts of the personality -- if she could not recover quickly, that would prove the body consciousness still always submits to the personality consciousness and cannot take a leading role. And in fact this is so: although the body consciousness is very powerful, it may be helpless even when it sees its own death approaching. Your body consciousness does not function completely; it is still influenced by your mind, still influenced by your ego consciousness. Why do some people get sick?
Rob also reminded Jane that they wanted to talk again about the negative dreams from the night before last -- that is, the two of them had each had a negative dream, one after the other.
Then Seth came through directly:
Good afternoon again.
Then began one of the most central parts of this session:
Your body consciousness, in itself, is full of vitality, life, and creativity. Every most minute portion of the body is conscious, strives without effort toward its own goals of development, and is in communication with all other portions of the body.
Remember, the most minute portions all have consciousness. The smallest cells in the body all have consciousness, and every small part moves toward its own goals of development and communicates with all the other parts of the body. The body's consciousness is indeed independent --
To a large degree, its own defense mechanisms protect it from the negative beliefs of the mind. As I have mentioned before, almost all people return to a state of health through what could be called a state of illness, and they are completely unaware of the change.
Everyone has gone through the process of healing, but you are completely unaware of how the change happens in between. In those cases, the operation of the body consciousness is not hindered by negative expectations or ideas. People actually often get sick, but you yourself never even notice it, and it is cured. Because it does not have many things hindering it from negative information and beliefs.
But --
However, when those negative energies increase, they do begin to reduce the body's natural abilities. When they harden, they do begin to reduce the body's natural abilities.
Negative information and negative thoughts do not come up and directly affect you. Many people worry whether having negative thoughts is harmful to the body. If it is not sustained, high-intensity negative information, it will not have a very strong effect on the body. Why? Because don't forget that you have a body consciousness, and it will protect itself from being harmed by the ordinary information circulating in the world.
And to maintain that energy, keeping it in a state of excellent strength and vitality, as an overall and priceless organization.
This is the body's innate ability: first, to heal itself; second, to maintain itself in a very good overall state. This is also the function of the body consciousness.
And at certain times, regardless of a person's fears or doubts, the body consciousness rises up and, in a sudden triumph, throws off an illness.
This kind of thing happens often. Similar to a sudden rally before death, the body suddenly becomes very light, very comfortable, very good, contrary to medical common sense and convention. At such times --
Even then, the individual involved begins to question such negative beliefs. The person may not know how to throw them away, or even if he wants to do so. At least in tomorrow's example, the body consciousness rose up and threw off its shackles.
On many occasions, when some people are gravely ill, and we may have already said this person is beyond hope, there will be a period when the body is unusually active, unusually full of vitality. This is the sudden triumph of self-healing. The body consciousness does not care about you -- regardless of what fears or doubts you have -- it rises up and, in a sudden triumph, throws off an illness. Suddenly you will feel very good, or suddenly feel that your illness is gone, that the symptoms of the illness have all disappeared, as if you had recovered.
This kind of thing can happen. Those who have experienced it can understand it. And if this is possible, then the recovery of your body is simply too easy. At this moment, you begin to question those negative beliefs -- the negative information you previously held firmly, now you begin to question it, because the sudden improvement of your body gives you a greater confidence and understanding of life. The person may not know how to cast aside these negative beliefs, but at the moment when the body consciousness rises up, enters a very good state, and is completely free of illness, this is the easiest time to throw off the shackles.
So seize these occasional moments when the body shows this "sudden rally," and strengthen your confidence. Jane's body was often back and forth, sometimes good and sometimes bad, and Seth told her to seize these moments when the body was doing well and make good use of them.
But --
However, with free will, one cannot give the body consciousness complete and clear sovereignty, for that would deny a large portion of choice and decision-making, and would cut off some aspects of learning.
This is stated even more directly here. Free will must hold power -- you decide what you want to do, and you have complete autonomy. What you want to eat, what you want to drink, what you want to do -- this is your free will. It always has the upper hand, and the body consciousness cannot be allowed to hold full power. You say, since the body consciousness is so good, since it can keep itself from getting sick and keep recovering, then why can't it come out and take my place in healing my own body?
The answer is: no, it cannot. It is not that you can just wish it so. Because that would deny a large portion of decision-making -- you yourself no longer choose, you let the body consciousness make life choices for you. You would be denying the part of yourself that uses free will to make choices. You may feel it would be better to let the body consciousness do it, but no, it is still better for you to do it. And it cuts off some aspects of learning -- because if the body consciousness solved all problems, your free will would never encounter any challenge, and you would have no motivation to learn, nor would you delve deeply into many questions.
But --
However, the main direction and signs of the body consciousness itself are always toward the expression and fulfillment of health.
Whether you know it or not does not matter; your body consciousness is always developing you in the direction of health. Although the body consciousness cannot be fully in charge, it must operate under free will. Because there is human free will, we cannot have something of a higher level that can do this or that in a way that affects free will. Since there is absolute inclusiveness, it will certainly allow the presentation -- allowing the body consciousness not to hold power, and letting free will hold power. This is what many people have always asked: why can't Jane recover quickly, or why can't our bodies recover as rapidly as Anita's? The core here is: the operation of the body consciousness must be under free will.
But whether or not the body consciousness can hold power, whether or not it can make decisions on its own, none of this matters. What you need to understand is that your body consciousness is always oriented toward health, toward expression, toward fulfillment -- these three are its characteristics. Even if you are not aware of it, it still functions.
The cells, and even the smaller aspects of the body, interact, communicate, and cooperate, and share each other's knowledge. Thus one portion of the body knows what is happening in all other portions. Therefore, that amazing organization usually operates in a smooth and natural manner.
The amazing thing is that you do not feel these changes -- you do not feel the switching back and forth between the body consciousness and the free consciousness. You feel them operating in a very natural way; they are in a relationship of collaboration and cooperation.
Many bodily conditions considered negative in your society, such as your belief that viruses are bad -- on the contrary, they should be regarded as designs for self-correction. Just as fever actually promotes health rather than hindering it.
People generally regard certain things as negative bodily events. But in the body consciousness there is no such concept; the body consciousness does not consider anything negative or positive. In the body consciousness, everything is different and useful.
Take fever, for example. We generally think fever is bad, but for every degree the body temperature rises, the activity of viruses decreases fourfold10, while the cells in your body that kill viruses -- whether macrophages, white blood cells, somatic cells, or other virus-fighting cells -- their activity increases fourfold. From 36.8 degrees to 37.8 degrees, then to 38.8 degrees, think about it: four times four is already a sixteenfold increase in the number of body cells clearing out viruses. At the same time, the number of cells infected by the virus drops sharply. With this rise and fall, the balance between the two sides undergoes a fundamental reversal. So fever is meant to help you recover better.
And if at this time you take fever-reducing medicine too early and do not let yourself burn, you are actually helping the virus. You will have a low-grade fever for a longer time, and it will be harder for the virus to be defeated. If you bring the fever down first and keep it around 36 degrees, you cannot use this natural mechanism of the body to kill the virus. Normal body temperature is 36.5 degrees; if you have a fever up to 38.5 degrees, your virus is reduced sixteenfold, but your virus-killing ability increases sixteenfold -- the contrast in strength is very obvious.
Seth uses this example to tell us: many things we often regard as negative -- whether viruses, or the fever caused by viruses, or anything else -- actually promote our health, but we do not think so. There are many drugs specifically for treating fever. Generally speaking, if a fever is below 39.5 degrees, and if there is no underlying disease and no other complications, it is all right to have a fever once -- but not too high, around 39 degrees is fine. At that point your body is already very effectively helping you kill viruses and foreign invaders.
The main characteristic of the body consciousness is spontaneity, which allows it to operate at an incredible speed that the most highly developed conscious portions of the mind cannot comprehend. Its operation is through an almost instantaneous consciousness, in which what is known is known. And between the knower and the known, there is, so to speak, no distance.
The characteristic of the body consciousness is spontaneity. Your brain's logic is not spontaneous; it has very strong logical and thinking abilities. The operation of the body consciousness runs at an incredible speed, beyond the limits of time, accomplished almost instantly.
Although your human consciousness is considered top-level in the natural world compared with other living beings, you still cannot understand the impact brought by this spontaneity. You can understand the body consciousness as a set of mechanisms working in a quantum state -- although we are not talking about quantum mechanics, you should have this kind of concept. If it were not so, the body's spontaneity could not emerge. If you insist on consciously making it do this or that, as if you were helping yourself, you are actually erasing its spontaneity. How powerful is this spontaneity? It can reach what is called quantum entanglement -- transcending all concepts of time and space, accomplished in an instant.
Seth did not expand on this, and it was not convenient for him to expand on it, but we can roughly understand the meaning. The body consciousness is extremely powerful, with very strong communication and connectivity abilities, yet human consciousness finds it very hard to understand it -- because the amount of information is too great, and it is accomplished instantly; it is still difficult for us to express it sentence by sentence. Between the person transmitting the knowledge and the person receiving the knowledge, there is achieved an instantaneous communication without distance. To explain it with modern science, this is quantum entanglement -- transcending time and distance.
Seeing, the daily actions we know, and all the bodily senses, all depend on this inner spontaneity.
You see something, your eyes see something, and you think it is a very simple matter, but in itself it is not simple. For example, you see a flower five meters away -- these five meters give you a sense of distance -- but the moment the flower enters your eyes, it seems as if no time has passed, and at the same time you know it is a flower. You do not need to cross a distance to know it is a flower. As soon as you see it, you know what it is. This process of seeing itself transcends the distance of time and space. That is our traditional view -- light passes through the pupil to the retina -- but in essence it is not like that; it is more like a quantum state.
All the bodily senses, not just the eyes -- the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body -- each one depends on this inner spontaneity.
Rob and Jane kept asking Seth: why can't the body consciousness be allowed to take charge and play a greater role, so that Jane's body can recover early and leave the hospital in a day? Seth very patiently explained why it cannot be so. Because your body consciousness and your brain's thinking consciousness work on different principles, in different working states, with different frequencies and different natures. In daily life, your free will is still primary, and the body consciousness is auxiliary. If you want it to play a better role, you can only let your free will undergo some changes, and then through the loosening of your body consciousness, the body can reach its optimal state.
Seth began commenting on their dreams from the day before yesterday:
Both of your negative dreams expressed remaining doubts and fears, as well as doubt about your own energy, and fear of your own energy.
Regarding this illness itself, you still wonder: will this work? Letting Rob heal Jane, or letting a person heal themselves -- is it really that simple? You do not quite dare to believe it. You also doubt whether your own energy is up to it, whether it can accomplish these things, and you fear whether your own energy can be controlled, whether it will run wild and cause trouble. Actually, it will not. Spontaneity has its own order. But people worry that if their spontaneity is completely released, and if there is no restraint, will they be able to do whatever they want and do many bad things? No, that will not happen.
And the old idea that anything that happens will turn out for the worst rather than the best.
We often say, think of all the bad things first, so that you will be fully prepared. So before anything happens, do you think of the worst first or the best first? Of course you should think of the best result, and not be influenced by the education of worldly people -- who say you should put the bad things first and consider all the worst outcomes. That is unnecessary.
The action of Ruburt's eyes, and the continuing changes in his strength, are just another kind of progress, occurring within the environment, the system, and other structures of the body.
The recovery of Jane's eyes is also related to this. Her right leg was broken.
Now when he has the intention to read, he reads. The intellect does not need to tell him how to do it.
When a person has the intention to read, the eyes will look and read, automatically. The intellect does not need to tell him what to do. Do not direct it -- at this time the intellect is not as wise as the body consciousness in its quantum state, and it is far inferior. You only need to have a clear goal; if you want to read, read, and do not interfere with it further.
In the same way, simply and gently have him speak to his legs. Tell them of your intention to walk again, and the motions involved in normal walking will begin to return.
He told him to speak to his own legs, in a gentle and simple way, telling them of the intention to walk again. Jane's recovery was progressing slowly, because one of her dreams was about walking, and Seth once again affirmed that Jane would soon be able to get out of bed and walk.
Just as Rob was about to ask Seth something, Seth said this:
There are days when his eyes do not read as easily as at other times.
Sometimes Jane could not read; her eyes were very unstable, sometimes good and sometimes bad -- this was very much like her body, which was also sometimes good and sometimes bad.
And on those days, they simply reflect an unevenness. As they prepare themselves for a longer step-by-step period, the same also happens in other parts of the body.
The condition of the eyes reflects the condition of the body -- if the eyes improve, the body will also improve. They are driven by the same set of mechanisms. Jane's eyes were sometimes good and sometimes bad, going back and forth, which also hinted at or gave us an indication: the body was actually the same, sometimes good and sometimes bad.
At 4:35, Seth paused for a moment:
At this particular time, imagine yourself walking in an almost detached manner. Though do not take it too seriously, indeed do it lightly.
Use a detached way to imagine yourself walking -- that is, observe yourself walking from a third-person perspective, and imagine yourself walking. Do not take this too seriously; do it like play. You must be relaxed. If you are tense and serious, and keep doing the exercise for the purpose of recovering as quickly as possible, the effect will not be good. You must do it lightly.
At 4:36, before Rob helped Jane turn on her side, she had another cigarette. Rob massaged her toes as Seth had suggested, and the result was very good. Then after turning her over, Rob moved her right leg with gentle back-and-forth motions, as Seth had suggested. The knee of the broken leg actually moved quite freely -- the knee on her broken leg; the other leg could not bend, but Rob found that this broken leg was in the process of healing, and the knee was extremely flexible and free, even better than the uninjured left knee. Jane agreed with this as well. In fact, when she was lying down, her left foot actually hindered her right foot and leg -- but this would pass in time.
Jane ate a good dinner. After Rob read this post together with her again, he left at 7:10 so she could sleep well.
The key point of this chapter is: how our body consciousness operates, why it cannot come out and take power, why the body cannot be allowed to take the lead, and why free will must take the lead -- there is deep meaning in this. It also lets us understand the principles and mechanisms by which the body consciousness operates.
January 9, Notes Before the Session
There was no session on January 9, but there were several things Rob wanted to record.
First, Rob had a dream in color. He dreamed that they had moved back to Sayre, Pennsylvania -- his old hometown. They now lived in Elmira, New York, and the two places were not far apart, only a few dozen miles. In the dream they had returned to Mrs. Potter's old apartment at 317 Elmira Road, where they had lived for seven or eight years before the Seth material began coming through. The house in the dream was much more spacious than the old house he remembered, and it also carried features of 458 West Water Street in Elmira, New York -- the spaciousness and character of the two places he had later lived in were both brought into the dream.
Rob said that in the dream he walked around the large rooms and said to Jane: Look, this place isn't bad at all, the location is good too, we could really develop here. They had always wanted to live in the city, to be protected. This shows that neither Rob nor Jane had much of a sense of security at that time -- people without a sense of security prefer to live in apartments, while people with a sense of security are willing to live in detached houses, where for hundreds of meters or even a mile or two around there is no one in sight. Later, when they had money and their sense of security gradually grew, they moved to a hillside, where the surroundings were open and the neighbors were farther away. There is meaning hidden in all of this. They also liked seeing the bustling crowds on the street outside the window, liked seeing a yard more spacious than it actually was, and liked being close to the downtown area. Elmira is only 18 miles from Sayre, just over 30 kilometers.
Second thing: At 5:30, Rob went to the bathroom in Room 330. While he was there, he briefly thought of their friend Light Caldwell, and the figure of twenty thousand dollars suddenly jumped into his mind. In fact, he had already forgotten that he had written her a letter the week before, and had not tried to receive anything further. He told Jane that he did not know whether the twenty thousand dollars represented all the donations they would receive -- this lady might be intending to donate twenty thousand dollars to them, but it might not have come through yet -- whether it came from one person or was the beginning of something bigger. But he wanted to know, in case something happened in the future. He told Jane his thoughts.
Third thing: At 6:10, as Rob began feeding Jane, he distinctly thought of Steve and Tracy Blumenthal. The thought was not particularly strong. In fact, he had also forgotten that it was Sunday -- the day they usually came to visit Jane. He suddenly knew they would call the hospital. A few seconds later, he heard the footsteps of high heels in the corridor, passing the corner of the door and approaching Room 330. A lady he did not know knocked on the door and told them that Steve was on the line and wanted to come see Jane that evening.
By this point he had already activated his precognitive ability. A few seconds later, the hospital phone -- not as convenient as cell phones today -- required the front desk to notify them. Rob had foreseen it.
Rob asked Jane whether the Caldwell experience could be said to confirm the Blumenthal event, or the reverse. Jane said yes, since they occurred so close together in time. Please note that the money matter completely bypassed the question of insurance -- they had not thought about the insurance issue at all. Not many details are given here, but it seems there was a problem with the medical insurance, and part of the cost had to be paid out of pocket. As I understand it, Rob had at that time set up a fund for Jane's treatment -- because Jane did not have systematic medical insurance, and the treatment costs were probably not low, so he established a foundation, and people willing to support them could donate. At this point someone was willing to donate twenty thousand dollars to them. In 1984, twenty thousand dollars was a large sum.
Jane had a fairly good day today, although she had some difficulty trying to read yesterday's session. She also had a piece of gauze wrapped around her left elbow -- she had somehow bumped and bruised it, and it was now quite sore.
Monday, January 9. There were no interruptions this morning. Rob said he slept for an hour, and spent the rest of the time working on Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment. He brought to Room 330 a Swiss-made Christmas bell that a reader living in northern New York State had given them, and played a very beautiful "Silent Night" -- by this time it was already January 9. The woman who sent the bell wanted Jane to write to the founder of the Seth group in Syracuse. By that time there were already some Seth reading groups and Seth organizations in America, and at present they mainly focus on study and practice. The woman was critically ill with cancer. Last night Rob wrote letters to both of them.
Jane ate a good lunch. Rob told her that this morning he had been very angry -- he felt that the Seth material would not get the chance to speak that it deserved in our society. Everyone who studies the Seth material probably has this feeling: we all know it is very good, but the recognition and regard it receives are not enough.
What Rob could not understand was this: if this material is innate to humanity, why is it so ignored? Rob said I do not mean just the recent events, but events spanning thousands of years -- it is not just that the Seth material has not received widespread recognition recently, but that for thousands of years, different masters and different wise people have all been transmitting this material, so why has it never been valued? Rob felt that humanity seemed to deliberately, or pathologically, choose to ignore it. If it could help solve some of the greatest problems of our human species, why not make use of it?
Jane showed little reaction, and only said: They will make use of it. Meaning that humanity will make use of the Seth material. This is certain, and beyond doubt. But Rob felt that it was not valued enough, not used enough, and had not formed a mainstream viewpoint in human society or become a universal understanding. What he worried about, Jane did not worry about -- Jane said people would make use of it, so she was not too anxious.
Rob admitted he was depressed, and Jane was not in her best state either. Jane tried to read the previous session, and after a short break in the middle she finished it, though it was not easy. But when she finished, she was better than when she began. At 4:05 in the afternoon, after the nurse had taken her vital signs, it was 97.4 degrees. Jane said she wanted to have a session. The male nurse Rob took her blood pressure, and before she could proceed they had to stop and readjust her into a more comfortable position. Today Jane's Seth voice was much stronger.
Seth once again gave his congratulations:
I wish you again -- all the afternoons -- an exuberance, exuberance, and a vitality that is felt to be present to some degree at all times.
This is Seth's congratulation -- wishing them an exuberant state, and a vitality that is felt to be ever-present, that is, always maintaining a state of vigorous life force. Seth was about to begin speaking, but before he could start, he was interrupted by a nurse named Diana, because she needed to do something like cut hair.
Then he continued:
Some people, regardless of circumstances, are always aware of their own joy.
This sentence seems very ordinary, but it is very important. Some people say, I can also be aware of my joy, I am often in a state of joy -- but are you like that when circumstances are good? When circumstances are bad, can you still maintain that state? That is the key. Regardless of circumstances, always be aware of your own joy, especially when life is not going smoothly.
Even when the events of their lives seem unfavorable, they feel safe and protected.
It is not only when your life is going smoothly that you feel safe and joyful; when things are extremely unfavorable, you can still feel safe, protected, and inwardly joyful -- that is where your real attainment lies.
Regardless of their own doubts and worries, such people feel supported, and feel that everything will ultimately turn out in their favor. But many other people have lost this sense of security.
Only a few people can achieve what was just described. At 4:24, they were interrupted again by someone coming in -- the exchanges and communication between them and the nurses, I will not go into those details. Then he continued:
And abundance.
This continues from the previous sentence -- and abundance. Abundance means the same as richness; the two words are very close. Many people have lost their innate sense of security and that inner abundance.
And it seems as if living in joy is only an attribute of youth.
It seems as though we think only young people can be joyful -- young people sing, dance, travel, gather together, and can play, celebrate, and throw parties with great happiness. But it seems that once we pass the stage of youth, we should no longer be like that, or we have lost that ability. This should not be the case -- this is not something only young people have; everyone has this ability.
Exuberance and joy basically have nothing to do with time or age.
Among those of us now studying the Seth material, there is a 74-year-old elder sister studying with me. She not only studies herself, but brings her whole family along -- her son, daughter-in-law, husband, daughter, and son-in-law. She also participated in our 21-day Wind Journey, studying in the group led by Zhang Fan. During the Spring Festival I even sent her a voice greeting. And among those who regularly attend our offline activities, there is Sister Wuzhe from Beijing, who is already 68; and our Brother Qinghua, who is 69 and may turn 70 this year -- his birthday has not passed yet. But the state of those two is completely like that of young people.
Sister Wuzhe never walks when she moves -- she is always jogging, moving with the wind at her back. Brother Qinghua is even more so -- when we go out dancing, none of the young people can outlast him. He can dance until the very last one leaves, and it does not affect his class the next day. At that time we were having an offline class in Hainan, right during the New Year holiday, on New Year's Eve. He can play like that all day -- classes during the day, dancing at night. You would never guess his age. The most amazing thing is that the last time he took a taxi, the driver thought he was 50 -- nearly 20 years younger than his actual age. If you have met Brother Qinghua in person, you should know what I am describing. And our Sister Aijia is simply getting younger and younger; her whole person is aging in reverse. Basically, among those of us studying the Seth material, everyone is undergoing tremendous changes in outward appearance -- visible to our naked eyes. Either they are frozen in age, or they are aging in reverse, growing in a younger direction. When they take out old photos, they all look older in the photos than they do now.
Seth here also affirms this point again.
They can express themselves at 80 as lively and beautiful as they did at 8.
So never have any anxiety or worry about age.
Yet for a large portion of the population as a whole, it seems as if joy and health are fleeting attributes briefly expressed in childhood, and then lost forever.
It seems as though we were only truly happy when we were small, truly happy during adolescence, and after becoming adults we have never truly experienced joy again. That is actually not the case.
That day Brother Qinghua also told me about a case he had seen: during World War II, the U.S. military adopted a group of orphans11, probably children from battlefields around the world who had no one to raise them. As these orphans grew up, the soldiers, nurses, and service personnel who came to care for them were all young military personnel -- eighteen or nineteen years old, in their early twenties. The soldiers changed batch after batch, but every new batch was young people. After these adopted orphans grew up, in their world and in their understanding, they had never seen old people. As a result, when they grew up, they were all much younger than their peers. The reason is simple: they did not believe that aging was an inevitable process, because in their world there was none.
The corridor was very noisy -- perhaps the nurse had forgotten to close the door to the hospital room when she left, but this did not affect Seth.
However, there are innumerable ways to recapture the joy of living, and in so doing, physical health can be regained by those who find their experience lacking in health.
To put it simply, merely regaining the joy in their lives -- just this one simple process -- can allow them to regain their health. Joy can heal everything.
It is of great importance in the quality of life, and to a large degree depends upon a sense of health and confidence. Although these attributes are expressed in the body, they also exist in the mind. And there are certain cumbersome mental beliefs that can severely impede mental and physical health.
That is to say, normally this sense of joy and security is extremely important to the quality of your life. For a person to live normally, they need to rely on this sense of health and confidence -- this trust in and surrender to their own body. These attributes can be expressed in the body, just as I said about moving with the wind at your back -- why does Brother Qinghua look like he is 50? Because his movements and behavior reveal it. But what Seth wants to tell you is that this is not merely something expressed in the body; the key is that the change in their mind is what matters.
We will not concentrate on the mental aspects, but we will indeed discuss them.
Because what we are discussing this time is the way toward health, so let us follow the normal understanding of the three-dimensional world and focus mainly on physical health. Although physical health is not that important from certain angles, since this section is about the way toward health, we will still emphasize the physical aspect.
So that each person can understand the relationship between poor beliefs and poor health.
That is, what direct relationship your poor beliefs have with your physical health -- meaning the health of the flesh, not just saying that your spirit is affected, which everyone knows and needs no explanation. What we are talking about now is that poor beliefs do have a real impact on the health of your body's cells and your physical body.
For through understanding these concepts, the individual can re-experience the magnificent variety of mental variables that are possible.
You will know that the mind can undergo all kinds of changes, and then the body will change accordingly.
For example, no one is helpless in the face of negative beliefs. He can learn to make choices once again, and thus choose positive beliefs, so that they become as natural as negative beliefs once were.
What he means is: negative beliefs can cause your health to suffer, but changing these negative beliefs is also very easy. Just as these negative beliefs came into your life and your being so naturally, your positive beliefs can be implanted just as naturally and just as easily. To put it even more plainly: you do not even know how these negative beliefs got into your body, your mind, and your thoughts, and then caused an impact on your health. In the same way, since they can enter without your awareness, your positive thoughts can also enter your thoughts and your life just as easily.
One of the greatest damages to mental and physical health is the belief that any unfavorable situation is bound to get worse rather than better. This unfortunate belief.
What is the greatest damage to health? It is believing that any unfavorable situation is bound to get worse rather than better. In other words, will we encounter unfavorable situations? Yes, we will. But an unfavorable situation does not mean you will get worse. It is not the case that because you are now in an unfavorable situation, your future is necessarily worse -- there is no necessary connection between the two. You can turn better in an instant. But what affects you most and harms you most is precisely using your logical mind to think: these current bad states will certainly make the body worse, not better.
In other words, do you believe that your life, health, and your future life, career, and family relationships are getting better and better or worse and worse? If no matter what happens, you firmly believe that the future is getting better and better -- no matter what difficulties you encounter now, you believe it is getting better and better -- then your health will not be greatly affected. Temporary difficulties and unfavorable situations will pass. What truly affects you and harms you is that after these unfavorable situations happen to you, you form a bad expectation about the future. And the real harm comes from your bad expectation about the future.
It is not about making sure these unfavorable situations never appear in our lives -- it is not that I pray to heaven that no such unfavorable situations appear in my life and that everything always goes smoothly. It is not that these problems will not happen, but rather that when those situations you consider unfavorable occur -- and even that is only your perception -- they do not mean the outcome will be bad. They may have happened precisely for a better outcome. These unfortunate situations are your current perception; they are not facts. But your bad expectation about the future causes the real harm.
Seth commented:
The ideas I just mentioned are all very prominent in your society. They come back from time to time, and they will follow the expectations you do not like -- your joy and hope.
Seth says these negative ideas are very obvious in our society. Things like "things do not shift according to individual will," "humanity will ultimately be destroyed," "the universe will ultimately perish," "formation, continuation, decay, and emptiness," "the four great kalpas cannot be escaped," "all things ultimately move toward destruction" -- these viewpoints are deeply implanted in everyone's mind. They come back and dim your hope and joy. The joy and delight you have worked so hard to summon gets doused by a bucket of cold water: What are you so happy about? You will die sooner or later. What are you so happy about? Humanity will ultimately be destroyed. What are you so happy about? The universe will ultimately perish. And once this viewpoint comes out, there really is nothing left to be happy about -- because the final result is all emptiness. Then all your current striving loses its meaning.
Today Ruburt heard a small enough, indeed very powerful, reenactment of those concepts. When they occur, it is very important to recognize them. And for now, that recognition alone can often clarify your thinking and mind.
What does this mean? Everyone has some small negative beliefs in their mind. When they occur, do not let them go -- look at what core fear, what underlying fear, lies behind that belief. If you can merely see it, that is already a great achievement. Changing it is certain, but merely seeing it itself already accomplishes more than half the task. Many negative beliefs, the moment you see them yourself, have already lost their foundation, their reasonableness, and their solidity. Because you see that they have no real meaning -- they are neither facts, nor do they have any real significance in existence, nor do they help your life in any way. When you recognize this, they have already been more than half destroyed, reduced to ashes.
You had your own experience last night as well -- your precognition of the friend's phone call, and the unorthodox knowledge about the money. Those two events occurred because you did want another small assurance of the mind's abilities, regardless of the accepted ideas about the mind that so often surround you.
That is to say, your precognition that a friend would call was actually an affirmation that you have abilities beyond the scope of general understanding; it was an affirmation of you. And the twenty thousand dollars that fell from the sky indeed made up for your losses in medical insurance. A person without medical insurance -- you can imagine the outcome -- in their treatment, there should have been very great losses. And at that very moment, they happened to receive a generous donation from someone, directly giving them twenty thousand dollars for the fund for Jane's treatment.
These two small things -- money that appeared out of nowhere, completely without any rational explanation, and a precognitive ability that completely defied common sense -- were actually telling you: even though you live in this very difficult environment, besieged from outside, surrounded by conventional viewpoints of ordinary understanding, you can still transcend it in your cognition. You still have these magical things happening, and they still let you see hope and dawn. Because these magical things let you know that this world does not operate according to logic and common sense the way you think it does; there is always magic in it. In fact, our living world is full of magic everywhere, but most people cannot see it. At such times it will let you see some small things, just to give rise to hope in you.
Such experiences again give you a taste of the feeling of your own greater abilities and freedom.
The precognitive ability and the money that appeared out of nowhere told Ruburt, once again reminding him, that he has the freedom to move and walk normally. Seth said:
You must tell Ruburt that he has absolute freedom to walk normally.
Do not let yourself be limited by the external environment and the current condition of your body. These unfavorable situations are not a reason for you to form a very bad expectation about the future; there is no such connection.
A couple of days ago, on the fifth day of the first lunar month, we did a money meditation led by our classmate Xiao Mao. Our classmate Daiyan from Xi'an took some cash and placed it on his chest to do the wealth meditation. When he pulled it out of the paper envelope, it was just a few hundred yuan. After placing it on his chest and meditating, when he was about to put the money back, he touched the envelope again and found it bulging -- there was a whole stack of exactly 10,000 yuan in cash, unopened, with a band around the middle. And just before the meditation, the money in that envelope had all been taken out by him; it was an empty envelope. When he touched it again and found 10,000 yuan, he was completely shocked and could not believe that this had really happened. He suspected he had grabbed the wrong envelope -- he counted all the money in the house. He knew there was about 30,000 yuan in cash at home; nowadays people basically do not keep much cash at home, but he had kept some for emergencies. He counted the total, and first, while counting, he felt as though the money could never be fully counted; second, he found that the house now had more than 40,000 yuan. He has all the voice messages, texts, and records there. If you do not believe it, you can go look in the group -- in the 21-day Spiritual Beauty Tree group you can see his sharing from the fifth day of the first lunar month.
This event itself is just like Seth and Rob -- someone suddenly donated 20,000 yuan to him. And Seth told Rob: tell Jane that she fully has the ability to move freely and walk freely -- just as this money can appear out of thin air and you have precognitive ability, these impossible things can all become possible.
Then Rob said: May I ask a question? Seth said you may ask. Rob said:
Are you saying that at least to some degree, he still feels he does not have the freedom to move and walk? Recently I myself have thought this several times.
This question is very key. Rob said, so you mean that Jane herself feels she does not have the ability to walk, and that is why her body is like this? Why do I also have this feeling? Why do I feel that Jane is like this too?
Seth said:
It cannot be said that simply. What I am saying is that, to varying degrees, those ideas still come back at times. It should be obvious that they occur less and less. Also remind him to remember that he does not have any particular disease.
It is not that Jane has been holding this intense concept of "I cannot walk anymore, I cannot move anymore." No, but those ideas do still come back from time to time. Although the frequency of their return is much less than before, they still come back now and then. Seth said, you must tell Jane that she does not have any disease.
This sentence is extremely crucial -- the doctors said her rheumatoid arthritis was so severe that she could barely walk, and even lying down to sleep was very difficult, yet Seth still said: Please tell her that she has no disease; she only has certain underlying beliefs of this kind.
Society would be much better off if people identified the many levels of physical health, rather than giving negative concepts names and labels that show such respect.
What he means by this passage is: if we did not give diseases names -- calling this one high blood pressure, that one heart disease, this one rheumatoid arthritis, that one lupus -- if we did not give them these so-called names in this way and then show respect for them -- he is speaking ironically. We discover a disease, and this seems to be a scientific achievement; sometimes awards are even given for it, and sometimes a medical Nobel Prize is even awarded. This person discovered some disease unknown to humanity. Seth says how ridiculous this is. You seem very happy to have invented a disease or discovered a disease. He says you would do better to call these different levels of health -- these are all health, just divided into different kinds. For example, there could be A6 health, C3 health, B12 health -- suppose it could be divided into different levels of health. In essence they are all health; health just has different levels. Rather than defining it as a disease, saying you are sick, your body is already not good, your body is broken. The impact of this on your body is enormous. These subtle things that we normally overlook actually deeply affect you.
Let me give another example: you say, it is nothing, I am just going to the hospital for a checkup, is that normal? What is wrong with going to the hospital to see a doctor? It is just this kind of simple belief, something deeply rooted. Even if you take the name of the illness — the doctor says you have some disease, and then you say I can defeat this disease. You think you are very capable, very great, but actually you have already been fooled by him, you have already fallen into his trap. Why? Because the premise of saying you want to defeat this disease is that you first admit you have this disease. And the fact that you believe and admit that you have this disease — this matter, this belief and viewpoint itself — has already brought you into their traditional medicine, into the model of Western medicine. First you acknowledge my division of diseases, my recognition of their categories and names; you also acknowledge my examination results; you also accept that it is indeed a fact that my diagnosis proves you are sick — only you say now I want to treat my disease, I want to cure my disease. And once again, going straight at it from the root, if you enter someone else's model with this kind of thinking, how can you possibly get well? That is, at the bottom level you first admit that they are right, that they have reason, that you really are sick, and then you want to use the spiritual knowledge you have learned to fight against and treat this disease. You think you are very clever, but actually you have already been taken in, you have already entered someone else's trap. You simply do not have any disease — that is the fact. You just have different levels of health — everyone's health is different.
Let me give a simple example so you can understand: running a marathon, elite athletes finish in about two hours and a few minutes, the champion in two hours and a few minutes. An ordinary person cannot finish more than 42 kilometers in two hours at all. Can you run 42 kilometers in two hours? No, but an athlete can. So let me ask you, how long do you need to run? Some people may run three hours, amateur runners four hours, five hours, ten hours, and some cannot even finish at all. So let me ask you, are all the people who cannot finish sick? Are all the people who finish in more than three hours sick? If we go by the athlete's standard — the athlete considers himself healthy, then in his eyes, all of you who take more than three hours to run a marathon have physical problems and are unhealthy. A healthy person should finish in a bit over two hours. If we look at it from the marathon athlete's perspective, is that so? Yes. But we all know this result is ridiculous: are all people who cannot run a marathon unhealthy? That is certainly wrong.
I give this ridiculous example to tell you: so when all the doctors say you are sick, are you really sick? You say of course, because he is a doctor. We have given doctors this kind of right, this kind of authority, for him to determine whether you are healthy or sick. You gave him this right, so of course he is going to use this right — otherwise what value would his existence have? But once you give the other party this right, your health is no longer up to you: only when the doctor's examination says you are healthy are you healthy; when the doctor's examination says you are unhealthy, you are unhealthy. So as for the matter of health, ever since you handed over this right, you no longer have it. Your health is decided by others, decided by examination results, decided by the doctor's diagnosis. And as for whether you yourself are healthy or not, do you not have some idea in your own heart? Do you really not have the slightest idea in your own heart whether you are healthy or unhealthy? Why must you listen to others?
So what he wants to tell you here is: we should not call this a disease, that a disease, this classification, that classification. From the very beginning we should not fall into their trap. We can call them different levels of our health — we are all healthy, just at different levels. Just as all of us believe that those who cannot run a marathon are also healthy, this is a reasonable, correct, fair, and objective attitude. Are people who cannot run a marathon unhealthy? A very ridiculous viewpoint.
You think this viewpoint is ridiculous, so now another viewpoint seems reasonable to you? The doctor diagnoses you as sick and says you are unhealthy, so are you really unhealthy? Is the matter of health up to you or up to the doctor? Answer this question first. Is it you who can make yourself recover, is it you who is responsible for your own health, or is it the doctor who is responsible for your health? If you can understand this question from a deep place, you will truly understand what Seth is talking about. This is a very crucial matter.
It was 4:48. Seth said:
Now we may return, or we may not.
This is his stock phrase.
We will soon be finished with Chapter One. It should be a simple matter to separate the personal material from the dictation of the book — to separate the personal matters I have told you.
Rob said yes, no problem.
Jane said she was very glad to have had this session, because it was of tremendous help to Rob. Rob said jokingly: at least today you did something useful — you had a session. He smoked a cigarette, and the dinner tray came. When they had been chatting earlier, Rob thought he would turn onto his left side. Rob said:
I feel he still does not feel he has total freedom to walk. Something — some belief, or a set of beliefs — still pulls it down, holds her back, makes her feel she does not have absolute ability and freedom to walk, does not let her move forward. I have been aware of this feeling of mine for quite a while.
This is Rob's true feeling. He accompanied Jane every day, and within his perception, within his feeling — whether through telepathy or the details of communication between husband and wife — his feeling was that Jane had a kind of force that kept her from moving, from being free, and this force was still very strong. Rob sometimes wanted to bring it up, but did not want to put it too dramatically: "Jane, you yourself do not want to walk, you yourself have a belief, a force that keeps you from walking." He had thought about this for a long time and had not directly brought it up with Jane. Today, through Seth's words, Seth said it, and he took the opportunity — he was very happy to be able to lay this matter out to this extent, and he finally had a chance to let Jane understand this point. Of course he hoped Jane would get better, and that was why he hoped Seth's words could influence Jane.
Jane said with a trace of despair: whatever he is, I must overcome him.
The details here — she really said it with despair. She said "whatever he is," meaning this negative belief, this whole set of beliefs that held Jane back and kept her from being truly and completely free. "I must overcome him" — she did not say I have the ability to overcome him, and that he is easy to overcome, that I can overcome him in an instant. She treated it as a very difficult thing, and "I have no choice but to overcome him." Why? Because I am sick, my body cannot move. Can you see where the point is in these small details? First, she was not truly and actively wanting to overcome him; she had no choice but to overcome him, because it was affecting her body's functions, even threatening her life and health. And this kind of passive, forced, compelled-by-the-body's-health overcoming and changing of one's beliefs does not produce good results. It is not that you truly feel this thing needs to change, but because you are sick, you have no choice but to change. You must pay attention to these small details. The intention with which you change it is more important than the action of changing it. Why do you want to change it? For health? To keep yourself alive? Or is it that not changing is no longer possible, that the body can no longer move? The intention with which you change it determines the result, not the so-called words you use to change it, the verbal "I want to change it, I am now changing my beliefs, I want to be healthy, I want to believe I can gain total freedom" and so on — none of that is of any use.
And she said it with despair. What is despair? It is feeling that it cannot be overcome at all. A thought, an idea, a belief — it is not some objectively existing thing, it is something in your subjective mind, so what is there that you cannot overcome? Your subjective beliefs, your subjective perceptions, your worldview and values — these can all be adjusted and changed at any time. How did it become such a hard thing to change when it came to Jane? And she said with despair that I must overcome him, with this tragic heroism. She felt it was a kind of determination, but actually through the analysis we just did you know: saying such words means she could not possibly fundamentally recover.
At this very moment, in this January 9 session, she had already revealed the true thoughts in the bottom of her heart. So why are we going through this book? Actually, the content Seth presents in it may be less than half; most of it is the trivial matters of their lives. But it is precisely by analyzing why Jane's condition was sometimes better and sometimes worse, and why she ultimately did not recover, that we need to look at the details in between — right there in the records between them.
I emphasize once again: many people reading the Seth material do not want to look at these details, they only want to hear what Seth says, they think that is what is truly useful. But just as many people listening to my lectures do not want to hear my interactions with others, do not want to hear other people's sharing, and only want to hear me talk about the core substance, they do not know that in my exchanges with others, or in others' simple sharing, there is a great deal of valuable and meaningful content. Just like these trivial details of Jane's life that Rob recorded, they actually help you more, and what matters more is at this level — not simply what I said, but what I said and how others lived it out in their lives. And you should think: how did he live it out? How can I take what Seth said or what Mike said and live it out in my life, in my being?
If you only listen to me speak, there is no real meaning. I have said more than enough. Even if you take any single viewpoint from any single one of my lectures and actually put it into practice in your life, live it out in your life, you would already experience tremendous changes in your life. But if you do not put a single one into practice in your life, do not change yourself in any way, and just want to hear more and more, like listening to a storyteller — no matter how much is said, if you do not move at all, it is of no help to you.
Just look at these details, it really is like this. She did not change, and she felt that changing was very difficult, that it had to be overcome. So in the future, when you go to help others with healing, when you help others solve problems, do not listen to their high-sounding, verbal, declaration-like statements — none of that is useful. You must observe their details — their language, their expression, including the feeling they give you. If you have stronger abilities, and can sense through belief perception, through this kind of reading of consciousness, and so on, that is another level. For ordinary people, if we only analyze from the surface, you can also see from these details what their underlying beliefs are.
When Jane really began eating dinner, Rob told her about another question that had been on his mind for a while, and wanted to ask Seth to comment:
Our situation, both of us bear responsibility for it. It seems we could have achieved the same result in a less dramatic way, with less concrete damage, less extreme behavior.
The difficult situation they were now facing was quite extreme — it had reached the point of requiring hospitalization and being unable to move. Rob said we could have learned the lesson with a less severe result, so why give us such a severe result? Why did we have to go so far? It had even reached the point where life itself was threatened. Why did this lesson need to be delivered with such force — sacrificing all mobility, and ultimately even sacrificing Jane's life — to give us such a lesson? There was no need, the damage was too great. I have always been curious about this. That is, to make us change our beliefs, a small lesson would have been enough; there was no need to make us change our beliefs with knives and guns, with life and death at stake.
Rob said:
I admit, one can always say that without going so far, the same result could not be achieved.
Many people say that if you do not make it this bad, you cannot achieve the effect of teaching you. But Rob told Jane:
If one follows that line of reasoning to its logical conclusion, the result would be death. That state is the ultimate extreme of any act of behavior.
Seth's words are always convoluted, but to put it simply: if you tell someone that without giving you such a profound lesson, you would not be able to learn from it — that is, the lesson I give you must be deep enough, heavy enough, severe enough. Rob said if we reason according to this logic, then ultimately it must be severe enough that a person dies. Without death, the lesson would not be enough to make you take it seriously.
Rob's viewpoint turned out to be prophetic — in the end it was Jane's death. It gave all of us who read the Seth material, who know about this matter, and all students of the Seth material, including Rob himself and Jane herself, the two people directly involved, an unbearable lesson — using life as the price.
In this session, speaking jokingly, or from the perspective of hindsight: Rob's precognitive ability was actually quite strong — he could foresee that the friend named Steve would call. At this moment he did not know he was being precognitive, but actually he had already foreseen that Jane would walk toward death. Just in what he said just now — including the earlier mention of "such a huge lesson" — actually, normally speaking, getting sick is not that big a lesson, and spending half a year or a year in the hospital is not an unacceptable result. But at this time Rob already had a bad premonition in his heart: the first premonition was that he felt Jane was struggling with herself, that the core belief had truly not changed, that Jane herself did not want to move, did not want to gain complete freedom, and this thing was affecting her body and her health. And she could not exert force on this, she could not change it — he had wanted to tell Jane several times, and Jane's attitude was just this: "Then I will try my best to overcome it, I must overcome it."
Many people say "then it is really hard for me to change" — if you truly believe that, then no one can do anything about it. When we do healing with many people in reality, it is the same, we encounter the same problem: you tell them to change their beliefs, and they say I really cannot do it. Well then, if you cannot do it, then you cannot do it, and that is all that can be done. Can we say it more harshly? That if you cannot do it you may lose your life? Of course we cannot say that, because you would be giving a very strong negative suggestion and result.
But what is the fact? Just as Rob said just now, if we follow this logic further: give you a lesson, and you say I cannot change; give you another lesson, and you say I still cannot change. Then the lessons can only become more and more severe, and in the end the severity can only lead to your death, to see whether that can exchange for your awakening, whether it can exchange for an immediate change in you right now. If even death cannot make you change, then let me ask you, who can make you change? Can you one day take the initiative and say I want to change? If you could live by changing, and you still do not change, then no one has any way, and no one can save you.
When someone tells you "I know what you say is right and reasonable, but I cannot change" and so on — giving you a pile of reasons — none of it matters, nothing he says has any real meaning, and you do not need to listen further. All those reasons are self-rationalizations. If that is really the case, then he can only continue down that road.
Rob's point was: there is no need for such a huge commotion, no need to use Jane's physical health as the price — at this time he still did not know Jane would die — just give us a lesson and that is enough. That is what he said, but behind it was his own intuition — otherwise he would not have said such words. But even with such a lesson, Jane still did not change. You may say how could a person not change in order to stay alive — do not say such things. For some people, changing beliefs is a matter of a single thought, changed in an instant; for others, they cannot change even unto death. We must respect his own choice; you cannot say how can you not change — if he is unwilling to change, there is no way, this is his own choice. We do our best, and fulfill our part as a person. Do not expect that because I appeared he will certainly change, that his beliefs will certainly be influenced by me — that I am certainly his family, his closest kin, and I will certainly change him. Do not be like that. Do what you should do; if he can change, let him change. We do not give up, and we stay by their side. When they need to change, we will always extend our hands to help them. But if he does not change, we can only stay by his side and encourage him — because this action must be done by himself, and no matter how much anyone outside does, it is of no use.
At this point Rob had actually already activated his precognitive ability; he already had a bad feeling. Including this passage where he described Jane, although he did not add any evaluation, from the content behind his words you can feel that he actually had a certain disappointment in Jane.
It was not until he was about to leave Room 330 that he realized he had not asked Seth to comment on the dream he had the day before — the one involving their returning to the apartment in Saybrook. It seemed they would have quite a few questions waiting to ask Seth. When he walked out to drive, it was snowing, though not as heavily as the day before, and he had to be quite careful driving home. When he went to write up the session after 10 o'clock, Jane called back with the help of the nurse. You see, after he went back in the afternoon, Jane would call him every evening — their feelings for each other were actually still very deep, and their dependence on each other was also very strong.
This is the third part, the content of the January 9, 1984 session. This content is very important, especially for those who have physical illness; you should listen to it repeatedly and carefully. Look carefully for whether you have the same problems as Jane. Do those core beliefs of yours need to change? Can the current situation, which has already caused you such great impact and such great damage, exchange for a change in your beliefs? If it still cannot, then Jane's final result is actually a warning to you. If it still cannot make you produce a change that moves you, then I do not know what kind of thing could make you change.
Alright, this is the organized text:
January 10, 1984, Tuesday, 4:30 PM
The content of this session took place on January 10, 1984. However, Rob did not type up this session until May 23, 1985. His friend Debby Harris discovered the original manuscript of this session in Notebook 39 while making copies at the Yale University Library.
Rob wrote:
Apparently because I was so busy, I set the notes aside, waiting to type them the next day, and then forgot about them. I have a vague memory of him, and I think that was the first time I ever missed typing up a session like that.
Rob said this sort of thing was very rare, and then he wrote:
How strange, here I am typing up another session from my notes, when I thought that part of my life was over, when I thought I would never have another session to type. I wish there were more sessions to type.
These were words Rob wrote 259 days after Jane passed away, expressing how much he missed her. He never expected that more than a year later, he would still be able to miss typing up a very magical session. His wish for more sessions to type was really a wish that Jane could still be alive.
This material came through after Jane and Rob watched a rerun of an old program called In Search Of12 starring Leona Nimming Nimmo yesterday and today. Rob said he did not remember the program. He noted in the original transcript that the material in today's session was quite unexpected. This material was clearly given by Jane from her room 330 in the hospital.
The following is the content Jane delivered for Seth.
Seth Speaks: Biological Species and Viruses
Seth began by saying:
I bid you good afternoon again.
Then he made a few comments. He said:
In all categories of life, from insects upward, there are many species that have not yet been discovered by humans.
From insects upward is within the range visible to the human eye. Things smaller than insects are basically invisible to the human eye. From insects upward is visible to the human eye, and indeed there are many new species that humans have not yet discovered. In recent news you can see that humans have discovered new species again, and new species are discovered almost every so often. Humans have basically explored all places on Earth, at least on land, including the deepest parts of the ocean, and most areas have been explored fairly thoroughly, yet new species are still constantly being discovered.
What about from insects downward? He said:
There are all kinds of virus species that humans have not yet encountered or recognized.
Viruses are the smallest units that we humans can call life, even smaller than bacteria. A virus does not even count as a cell; it has no cells. It is just a segment of DNA or RNA coding, a piece of information wrapped in a protein shell. Because of the presence of protein, it has a certain degree of biological activity. But in essence, it lies between biology and information. Today's novel coronavirus is the same; it is especially small, much smaller than bacteria, so it is particularly difficult to guard against. We need PM2.5 masks to block it.
He continued:
There are also connections between viruses and other living species that remain unknown.
There are many virus species we have not recognized. For example, the SARS outbreak in 2003, and the current COVID-19, were all newly discovered; humans had never seen them in the limited recorded history of our literature. Today, although we have already experienced the pandemic, we all know how harmful this virus is to humanity. The smallest thing in our biological world can bring human society to a near standstill, bringing the entire human society, civilization, and economy to a halt. It is like when we played cards as children: the biggest card, the joker, fears the smallest thing. That is the difference between the biggest and the smallest. Although humans have reached the top of the biological world, we still have no real solution for these tiny viruses. Regarding virus research, we seem to know a lot, and yet also seem to know nothing.
When the SARS virus was spreading back then, it suddenly disappeared after a few months, and we humans still do not know why. This time, COVID-19 also seems to be following the same pattern. Although it has not completely disappeared, it seems to have already drifted away from our lives. The second wave that scientists predicted never arrived, and it just ended. Those three years felt like one big dream; three years passed in a flash, and the streets full of pandemic checkpoints, nucleic acid tests, and vaccines slowly faded and receded from our lives.
Seth said back in 1984 that the connections between viruses and species were something we had not discovered. It has been nearly 40 years since he said that. What he meant by this was to tell us that we used to think a certain virus could only infect one species and could not cross species. For example, with the novel coronavirus, we used to think it was a virus found in bats, and could only spread among bat species, with absolutely no transmission relationship to humans. This is what Seth meant by the connection between species and viruses. This connection did not exist before, but this new connection came into existence in the year 2019. There is no need to necessarily find the cause, but the result is that a cross-species transmission phenomenon that truly did not exist before occurred: something that spread among bats reached humans. The same goes for influenza viruses and avian flu, which used to spread only among poultry and birds, not among humans, but somehow they reached humans and became associated with the human species. So what exactly the connection between viruses and species is, humans still have not figured out very clearly. This includes HIV, and there are many such examples. Seth pointed this out to us very early on.
Seth Speaks: The Yeti (Sasquatch People)
The main content of this session was about the yeti, whom Seth called "Sasquatch people." He said:
There are indeed two different kinds of upright-walking mammals that closely resemble your human species. They are both very tall, but much larger, and have infinitely keener senses. They are truly astonishingly agile animals.
They are much larger than us, walk upright, and are humanoid mammals similar to us. We modern people generally call this kind of creature the yeti. They have extremely sensitive bodies, and humans to this day have basically only seen a few traces that a few people happened to come across. Scientists have organized many yeti explorations and expeditions. We can find some of their footprints, and based on the footprints we can infer that they are very, very tall, roughly three or four meters, or even four or five meters in stature. But basically we humans cannot see them.
Whether the yeti exists is no longer a question worth doubting. As early as the 1890s, Western scientists organized scientific expeditions13 near the Himalayas, in the vicinity of India and the Himalayas, and they personally witnessed the existence of the yeti. They had wanted to visit the yeti, but the visit did not come to pass. At the time, some spiritual masters accompanied them, because they themselves could not find the yeti on their own. These masters had telepathic communication and exchange with the yeti; they had mutual contact and served as a kind of bridge between humans and the yeti. These spiritual masters possessed abilities that we consider supernatural, and they also witnessed the existence of these yeti. At the time, these scientists proposed whether they could visit the tribes or gathering places where the yeti lived, but the yeti refused. Even with these masters vouching for them, it was not permitted. The yeti kept humans at a very respectful distance.
Seth continued:
As far as they are concerned, they have invented many ingenious insect traps, and thus can capture hundreds of insects.
Since insects are so small, you need to consider that they are much larger than us humans, roughly the size of two or three people tall. It is hard for us humans to get full eating insects, so they need to eat a lot of insects, which is why they designed many ingenious traps. These traps are usually built in trees, inside the trunks, and the tree sap itself is used to capture insects. The traps look as if they are part of the tree itself, in order to protect these traps. They are very intelligent and clever.
Seth was talking about how their minds and brains operate:
These creatures do have memory, but their memory operates extremely rapidly. An almost instantaneous deduction.
They have memory, but their memory operates rapidly, an almost instantaneous deduction. A kind of intuition, similar to our intuition, but it is not intuition; it is deduction, but this deduction requires no time. We humans need time to deduce things, whether you are proving a math problem or deducing a result, it all takes time. They do not need time; they get it instantly.
When sensory data is proven and interpreted, it all arrives together.
That is, when the data obtained by their outer senses or inner senses—for example, what we see, hear, smell, or receive telepathically—comes in, the moment they interpret this information, they immediately arrive at the deduction corresponding to that information. For example, when we humans smell the droppings of a wild animal, we know the animal is nearby, and then through the freshness of the droppings and the surrounding footprints, we judge the approximate distance the animal has passed. If we can hear the roar of a distant animal, and combine that with our judgment of the animal's tracks, plus smelling the animal's scent, we can roughly deduce the animal's location, distance, and species. All of this takes time. But these yeti do not need time. The moment this information arrives, they instantly know the result: they know how far a person is from them, where they are, what direction, and what their intention is—they can sense all of it. That is to say, at the same moment they receive the information transmitted by their senses, they also receive the conclusion deduced from that sensory information.
He continued:
They do not bear offspring until long after what you would consider past the age of childbearing.
They reproduce at a later age than we do. Other than this point, the process is the same. He said:
Aside from some regional variations, these creatures live in many areas of your planet.
For example, the areas just mentioned—the northeast, southern Tibet, the Himalayas, and also the Andes in South America, and so on—almost all places rarely visited by humans have traces of them.
Although their total population is very small, perhaps altogether there are a few thousand individuals.
Seth gave us information we had never obtained before. We actually never knew how many of these yeti or giants there were; we only occasionally caught sight of them. Seth told us there are roughly a few thousand of them. A few thousand of such stature, with sensory systems different from ours and an acute instantaneous comprehension of information processing. They live in different regions, and one region may have only a few dozen or a few, so you almost never see them.
They seldom gather in large numbers. They do not gather in large numbers, but they do rarely, yet truly, have family and tribe-like organizations.
They seldom gather in very large numbers. In any one region there are at most 12 adults. When the number of children increases, the group splits again. Once the number increases, they split, because they understand very well that large numbers make them easy to discover. This is also where their wisdom lies: as soon as there are more than 12 adult yeti, they divide into new groups and new branches. Splitting up also prevents excessive inbreeding. So how could you humans possibly find these 12 yeti in a vast primeval forest, when their bodies are also white, with white fur, and in the snow they are basically invisible? But we have still found some traces. If you are interested, you can search online for materials related to yeti or giants, and you can find some relevant evidence and scientific materials.
They all use tools of one kind or another, and indeed live in close harmony with the animals.
They have no competitive relationship with animals, unlike us humans, who compete with animals. Wherever we humans go, basically everything is cut down and cleared. You can watch some related documentaries. For example, South America used to be lush with vegetation, and the forest coverage of the entire continent was very high. But with the development of human civilization and the progress of agriculture, the rate of deforestation across South America is terrifying. Even now, forests are being cut down at a rate of five football fields per second14. The best-protected area in South America is only the Amazon rainforest; elsewhere, the former forests have all become farmland.
And they are basically non-aggressive. Although when they are cornered, or when their children are attacked, they can be extremely dangerous.
They do not actively attack people; they are non-aggressive, but that does not mean they lack the ability to fight back. When you corner them, or when their children are endangered, they will erupt with terrifying danger. There are scattered records of this in past accounts. If they are truly threatened, their threatening aggression is extremely strong. By nature they have no aggression at all.
In very cold winter climates, they become quite sluggish. Their body temperature begins to drop, just as is characteristic of hibernating animals. Except that their body temperature is more sensitive to daily changes. Therefore on certain winter days, they are quite capable of searching for food, while on the other hand they may also hibernate for weeks at a time.
Once winter arrives, their reactions become sluggish, and they almost reduce their activity. Sometimes in winter they can come out to obtain some food, and at other times they sleep for weeks at a stretch, so it is even harder to see them. Relatively speaking, in warmer weather, their activity is actually somewhat more frequent.
They have a deep understanding of nature and natural phenomena, and language has not developed to any great extent.
Their understanding of nature is deeper than ours, because their senses are ordinarily equipped so purely and acutely.
Their sensory abilities are so strong that they themselves almost become a kind of language.
Why can a sensory system replace language? Let me give an example so everyone can understand. For instance, if your eyesight is good enough to observe the subtle changes in another person's expression or gaze, at times the two of you can communicate through eye contact. But we humans can only communicate through eye contact at very close range, almost face to face. Suppose your visual ability were increased 100 times, and you only observed the subtle changes in the other person's expression and gaze, you would be able to read what they wanted to express. At that point, some language would be unnecessary. Those senses have their own changes—changes in gaze, changes in sound, changes in body odor, including changes in heartbeat, blood circulation, body temperature, and so on. These changes themselves are like language, carrying a great deal of information within them. So they do not need language like we humans have now.
Therefore, they do not have any words like now or then.
They do not need to specifically add explanations: this is now, that is the past, that is the future, that is the present. He said:
Those creatures can know quite accurately how many living beings are nearby, and how long they have been there. And their experience of time follows the seasons in such a way that they form an unparalleled, quite accurate picture of the world, including the direction of travel.
Seth paused for a moment, trying to think of what language to use to describe the difference between their world and ours. They do not have a concept of time like we humans do, but that does not mean they are insensitive to time. Their concept of time is different from ours; it is presented in the form of pictures, including the direction they are heading and where they are going. This is achieved through their powerful sensory systems and their instantly available deductive conclusions, eliminating the useless content of cumbersome language, and thus they have obtained this kind of ability. When we humans describe something, we must add many temporal changes in language. The most typical example is that English has eight tenses15, and these eight tenses mean that the moment you open your mouth, you know what tense you are in. But these yeti do not need to express things this way; what they directly obtain is a sense of imagery.
Through Seth's description, we have the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding and study of these yeti. Although this material is not long, for those experts who study the yeti, it can be said to be a treasure. Our scientists once thought these yeti were a relatively primitive kind of animal, believing they were similar to apes from an era even earlier than humans, with very weak abilities and very weak intelligence. In fact, their sensory abilities and intelligence may surpass humans in another respect.
Seth said:
I mention this material because of the program you saw today.
So the program they watched today was related to the yeti. How thoughtful Seth was; he knew they had watched this program, and so he supplemented this point of interest.
Seth Speaks: The Relationship with the Publisher and Rob's Dream
Seth then talked about their relationship with the publisher:
The new relationship with the publisher should work out very well, and now you are considered quite respectable.
Because within that publishing organization, you have already gone through so many changes and still survived. They had been in contact with this publisher since the 1960s, and now 20 years had passed. The publisher had probably undergone many changes in the interim—new owners, new managers, new publishing directions, and so on—but they still maintained their cooperation with them.
Seth said to Rob:
Your dream about returning to Sayre, and such spacious surroundings, also shows that just as you now change the past and the future, so you have changed the past.
Earlier, Rob had a dream in which he returned to the house where he and Jane used to live together. That room was actually very narrow and small, but in the dream it was very spacious, and it combined the advantages of the two houses he later lived in. Seth was telling him here: through this dream, you actually proved to yourself that you can change the past. Although you think it was a dream, and you returned to that former residence in the dream, it had already changed from narrow and small to spacious. In the dream, Rob also walked around saying the room was very nice and spacious. After waking up, he could feel that the house in the dream had the advantages and characteristics of the two houses he later lived in.
Seth continued:
You viewed it in a more expanded way. So that it became less narrow and confining. Because your viewpoint changed, your psychology changed, your cognition changed, the way you feel about this house also changed. In a manner of speaking, from that new past, new present, and future, a fascinating phenomenon emerges, which should be an extraordinary phenomenon.
This sentence may be hard for everyone to understand. Let me give an example so everyone can understand. Many times, some practitioners who have reached a certain level can live very comfortably in a very small room. Many people say, how can the conditions be so harsh? For example, we all know Cai Zhizhong. He is a painter, and in his later years he now lives in a place in Hangzhou. To honor him, the Hangzhou government gave him a very large room to live in, a large room of about two or three hundred square meters16. But he could not refuse it. He said, I do not need this much space. Although he accepted the large room, he normally only uses one very small bedroom, only about a dozen square meters. He basically stays in this bedroom and does not come out; he does not use the other rooms either. Many friends cannot understand this. Everyone wants a big room and a spacious place; this is the normal thinking and logic of ordinary people. But for someone like Cai Zhizhong, when he enters this kind of realm and state, it is exactly what Seth said: a new past, new present, and future all emerge. Because he views it in a more expanded way. His cognition has changed, and his present, past, and future all change. So this house is not narrow and small to Cai Zhizhong, because his cognition and his feeling of the space in this room are different from yours. In other words, he lives in another, larger space, rather than being confined by the layout of this physical space. Why do we ordinary people like very large rooms, very large layouts, and very expansive things? Because we do not have these abilities, and cannot view things from a more expanded perspective, so we need the external environment to give us a broader, more expanded visual and spatial feeling.
This is an extraordinary phenomenon. Once you enter this state and realm, your cognition and perception of the environment and these things become completely different from before.
Finally he said the usual closing line:
I may or may not return. But I am nearby, and can be found by you at any time.
This concluded the content of Seth's session.
Rob wrote:
Seth, thank you very much.
Thanking him for providing this very precious information. Rob said:
I should tell you that after I lit Jane's cigarette, Jane said that as soon as the program ended, I immediately knew he would mention the yeti. But I thought it might only be a few brief sentences.
Jane had the intuition that Seth would talk about the topic of the yeti, but she thought he might just say a couple of sentences and that would be it. She did not expect him to say so much about the yeti. Rob had no expectations at all. The television program ended at three o'clock, and they had the session after four. Jane also said she saw or remembered what the insect traps looked like.
This was during the transmission of the Seth material, when Seth, through his telepathic perceptual system, allowed Jane, with Seth's help, to see these ingenious traps designed by the yeti. But she found it hard to describe and could not draw it. She said she did not want to mislead Rob, but the way the insects were trapped in the trap reminded her of a spider. But she said, do not think it is a spider web, for fear Rob would misunderstand. The feeling, the appearance of the trap, was somewhat like a spider web, but it was not a spider web. As for what exactly it was, Jane said she could not draw it.
Consider that Jane was a painter. Although not a professional, her drawing ability was much higher than the average person's. She also painted herself, and Rob was teaching her to paint; she had a certain talent. Even an amateur painter could not draw such a thing, so this thing must be extremely ingenious, ingenious to the point that even a painter could not draw it after seeing it. Many people cannot understand this, saying that anything we humans can see, we can draw. You have not seen more ingenious and complex things; wait until you have seen and encountered them before you say that. Of course, many things in this world you can draw once you see them, but that does not mean everything you see and feel can be drawn. Let me give a typical example. Everyone has experienced love, and everyone has deeper insights and feelings about love than about anything else, even very specific ones. Love is a concrete and real feeling for everyone. Then I want to ask you, can you draw love? You can feel it, experience it, and know what love looks like, but if I ask you to draw love, you cannot draw it. This example is not entirely apt, but it helps you understand that there are some things you see or feel but cannot describe or draw. So do not overestimate many of our human abilities; our abilities are very limited.
At five o'clock, Rob wrote:
Do not worry, I will not continue the session. But as Seth said, you always return to the past.
Rob said he knew what Seth was going to say next, so he welcomed him to continue the session. Seth said:
I must ask Jane to repeat what he said, because the Russian patient Kalina in the next room was shouting loudly in the hallway, and had not stopped all afternoon, which was quite distracting, and he had not stopped yet. After the session ended, the girl who brought the meal tray did not close the door, and Kalina sounded even louder.
January 10 and 11, 1984 Supplement: On the Disagreement About "Changing the Past from the Present"
The next day, in the January 11 supplement, Rob wrote:
We wanted to know more about changing the past from the present.
Today Jane and Rob had somewhat different opinions about what Seth meant. Seth had said that the past can be changed from the present. But regarding Seth's statement "changing the past from the present," their views were not in agreement.
Jane seemed to think that when she was a teenager with Father Darren in that hotel room, the actual episode of the priest chasing Jane around the bed had already been changed. The details are as follows: when Jane was a teenager, a middle-aged priest took her to a hotel, and then chased her. Jane thought this episode had already been changed; this past had already been changed, so this event no longer existed, or had become something else.
But Rob thought that what Seth meant was that the original event remained unchanged, but the psychological understanding of its occurrence had changed a great deal. On this point they disagreed. For example, when we use the point of power in the present to go back to the past and change the facts of the past, Jane's view was that once the event was changed, it was changed, and it became another version. The priest did not chase her around the bed; that event did not happen. The priest might have held her hand and had a long heart-to-heart talk, or given her individual counseling—all of these were possible. Rob's view was different. He thought the event itself had not changed; it still happened, but Jane's cognition of the event had changed, and her understanding had changed.
We all know now that when your perception changes, the world changes accordingly. That is the first point. The second point is that the past world really does change, rather than, as Rob thought, the world staying the same while only your perception and understanding change. There is a fundamental difference here. Traditional psychology and hypnotherapy generally hold Rob's view, believing that the event is still there, the matter is still there, and only our understanding and perception differ, so the event harms us differently. But we all know that what Seth truly meant to express is not that. What he meant is that the event really does change, and that version really does change.
When you read this, you can understand that Rob's understanding of the Seth material in 1984 still had great limitations. He found it very hard to break through his skepticism about so-called objective facts, and even about history being changeable from the present.
Why did he produce such a misunderstanding? Because Seth had said the following passage earlier:
You looked at him in a more expanded way. So that he became less narrow and constrained. In a manner of speaking, from that new past, new present, and future, there emerged a fascinating phenomenon, which should be an extraordinary phenomenon.
From that last sentence, he thought Seth was saying that because you looked at him in an expanded way, the matter did not change, only your view of it changed. He thought Seth's words proved that what he said was right. Actually, that was not the meaning. Jane's understanding was correct. Seth's original meaning was that the event really did change.
Where did Rob's misunderstanding lie? He misunderstood a point Seth repeatedly emphasized: this is a subjective world. In other words, changes in your thoughts and changes in your perception can bring about changes in the external environment. Rob still held a view that the external environment is an objective fact and cannot change, and that you can only change your perception. Facts remain facts. In Rob's mind, there was always the concept that "facts are always facts."
Seth said "in a manner of speaking," "from that new past" -- remember, does the so-called new past not imply that the past has already changed? Seth said this so clearly and plainly. It is not that you have a new view of the past, but that Seth said from that new past. The past itself is already new, it has already become a new past.
Everyone's understanding is quite interesting, because each person understands according to their own cognition. No matter how clearly Seth spoke, Rob could only understand according to his own understanding. Because he could not accept that something that happened in the past in a three-dimensional world could change. He believed it was fact and history, and could not be changed again. How could something that happened, that already happened, change? You say the future can change, I can understand that, but how can the past change? This he could not accept, and he could not cross this cognitive limitation. So even though Seth said it this way, he still could not accept it. What he saw was the earlier part -- looking at it in a more expanded way, so it became less narrow and constrained. Actually, it was still narrow and still constrained. That was Rob's understanding.
But here, Seth's "new past" means something completely different. It really did change -- the room really did become spacious. A completely new present, and the future goes without saying. What does "a fascinating, extraordinary phenomenon" mean? It means a phenomenon that completely matches your wishes, completely transcends what you can imagine in the three-dimensional world, and completely defies ordinary logic. What he means is that when you change the past, along with the change in your subjective perception, these so-called realities will change, and they will become another version of the past, present, and future. This "new past, new present, and future" is already stated very plainly -- it means you have already switched into another possible life script.
A change in perception can switch you into a different life script. In the previous few episodes, I drew for everyone the trajectories and curves of life, and different human qualities. At that time I told everyone that there are six different levels of cognitive awareness in life. Here you can understand that Rob's level of cognition still remained at a very elementary stage. He could not even fully understand that parallel worlds can be switched. But do not forget that by this time Seth had already transmitted The "Unknown" Reality and Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment. So you know that even Rob, who recorded the Seth material, had certain limitations in his understanding of some issues. But Rob was a very honest person. When he had a problem, he wrote it out, and he never avoided the matter.
Rob wrote:
As far as I know, Jane did not create in her memory an item in which that event did not exist, or even never happened.
He believed that in his exchanges with Jane, Jane did not create an item in which "that event did not exist." So he believed that in Jane's world, the matter of the priest chasing Jane around the bed still existed, only her view of him had changed. That was Rob's cognition, and as I just said, it had its limitations.
In the short session on Wednesday, November 11, Seth did not mention this point, and they also forgot to ask him. They had originally wanted to ask Seth which of their two understandings was correct, but they forgot to ask, and Seth did not give any answer.
All right, the content of this small section ends here for now.
January 11, 1984, Wednesday, 4:32 PM
The previous session's content was actually supplemented a year and five months later, in May 1985. At the time, the next day, Rob did not type up the content about the snowman from the day before, because he had to write Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment, and probably forgot about it. In his timeline, he remembered that he had not typed that session, and he knew there was such a thing.
Rob wrote:
There were four inches of snow on the ground. Because it had been snowing for almost the whole day, I did not want to go out into the mess today. Last night Jane called me; Debby Harris had also gone to see her.
Debby was indeed a friend of Jane's, and often went to visit her. Rob said:
Yesterday's session mainly dealt with the phenomenon of the Sasquatch, that is, the snowman, which I guess was prompted by the program "In Search Of." And I will most likely take some time one morning from my work on Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment to finish it.
To finish supplementing the snowman material. But later he set it aside and forgot about it.
Rob said:
Now that is a bit complicated, because every morning I take time from my writing of Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment to work on the 1983 taxes.
He was filing taxes. But he would get to it.
Rob continued writing:
This morning, and also yesterday when Rob came home, his furnace made such a loud noise that he called a heating repairman to check it. Then he left the garage door unlocked for him, so that he could get into the house in the afternoon while he was not home.
A lot of repairs in America are like this, because personal credibility is generally quite good, so they do not worry about leaving the house to the workers, and it is fine to leave the door open while no one is home.
Rob wrote:
Miracle, miracle. Tonight when the heat came on, the furnace was so quiet that I could not believe it.
It had always made some noise, but recently it had gotten much worse. But after the repairman fixed it, when he came home in the evening and turned on the heat, it was actually so quiet that he felt it was truly a miraculous thing. He had originally just wanted to avoid such loud noise, but he did not expect the noise to be fixed completely, even the previous noise was gone.
Rob wrote:
Last night I found in the mail Carlo's doctoral dissertation discussing the Seth material. That was what he had promised to give me in November.
This person wrote a doctoral dissertation based on the Seth material. We know that a year earlier he had written this dissertation for his Ph.D. in philosophy. Rob said:
It is quite interesting, but as I told Jane, it reminds me of what a major task it is to begin to present an interpretation of the Seth material from the very beginning.
It reminded him of how important a task it was, from the very beginning, for them to present an interpretation of the Seth material. They wanted to make an interpretation of the Seth material, a more detailed reading, just like the reading I am doing today, but he found that the workload was so enormous that it was at the level of a doctoral dissertation in America. So everyone, when studying the Seth material, do not feel that these things are too hard to understand. Jokingly speaking, you have already reached the level of a doctoral student, and you are close to graduating with a Ph.D.
They said:
From our viewpoint, I think we felt that what was left unsaid seemed to be even more than what was said.
Indeed, that is true in the Seth material. Perhaps it will always be that way. Carlo wanted to publish his work, and asked us for a biography of Robert. He wanted a brief introduction, because when writing a dissertation, he certainly had to explain where the Seth material came from, that it came from Jane and Rob, so he needed to introduce Jane and Rob's background. Rob said:
I think what we might give up on is that I will write to our publisher.
Jane ate a very good lunch. She tried to reread the January 9 session, because she had missed it on January 10. But she had some difficulty; her eyesight kept changing, sometimes she could see very well, and sometimes not. Seth had mentioned this adaptation to acting before. Jane had problems most of the time, trying to read in the gaps while others were checking her vital signs. In the end she gave up. Rob said:
We forgot to ask Carlo what my wife's temperature was. I tried to write a reply, but did not do very well. Before we could finish anything, time seemed to be gone.
Jane did not finish reading the January 9 content either, and did not finish writing the reply to Carlo. Rob said:
I did remind Jane that Seth did not answer in yesterday's session the question we had raised at lunch.
For example, about the severity of the symptoms, why their behavior went to such extremes. That is, the severity of their illness, the question raised on January 9: why did it have to reach such a severe point? A gentle reminder would have been enough, just a small illness would do, no need to make it a life-and-death illness. Why use such an extreme way to remind Jane? This was the question they wanted to ask Seth on January 9, but Seth did not answer on the 10th; he went off to tell the story of the snowman instead.
Seth said on the 11th:
I bid you good afternoon again. I have the following comments.
So these comments were very important. Seth was giving his response to their question from January 9. He said:
Your situation can be considered extreme.
Because Jane had been hospitalized for almost a year by then, nearly a year, and her condition had not improved but rather worsened. But Seth said:
But the truly extreme is far more unfortunate.
You may feel that this situation is extreme, and it can be called extreme, but for you it is extreme; compared with other people, this does not count as extreme. Seth's words here were very objective. Everyone feels that their own suffering is the greatest. I once read a joke on the street: your cold is more important than someone else's death. For example, if you now have a bad cold, and someone else may be dying, you still feel that your situation is more serious than his. Everyone magnifies their own feelings and experiences, and Seth was saying the same thing here. You feel it is extreme, but compared with other people, you are much more fortunate; they are more unfortunate than you.
Seth gave an example:
In many other parts of the world, people endure extreme poverty, which impedes all growth.
In this session, Seth discussed Jane and Rob's situation: although Jane's illness was indeed serious, compared with many other extreme misfortunes in the world, they were already quite fortunate in many respects. Then Seth mentioned that Jane needed to recall her past experiences of health, rather than focusing on present limitations. Then it involved Jane's worry about her right leg becoming shorter, her finally looking in the mirror and beginning to groom herself, the significance of depressive emotions for physical healing, and Seth's answer to the question of "changing the past from the present."
What True "Extremes" Are
Seth said "there are true extremes," but compared with those true misfortunes, Jane and Rob's situation was far more fortunate.
For example, in many other parts of the world, people endure extreme poverty, which impedes all growth. Extreme poverty and the impediment of all growth, these two things are far more serious than what Jane and Rob were experiencing now. They were not poor now; they were quite wealthy.
You have published dozens of books, and the royalties, advances, and profit shares from these books have already been substantial. You have your own house, you live in America, and you have no worries at all. The key is that you are still growing, whether spiritually, psychically, or materially, all in the process of growth. But there are other people in this world who are completely blocked in their growth. Extreme poverty impedes all growth, whether spiritual or physical. His implication was that the two of you, at least Jane, although physically restricted, were spiritually very abundant.
And that kind of poverty that leads to early death, some poverty causes people to die very young, for example many children in Africa lose their lives very early because of poverty, or extreme illness. Although Jane's illness was already severe, apart from being unable to move her body, she did not have many other restrictions. Some people's illnesses cause pain from morning to night, twenty-four hours a day without stopping, and they can hardly do anything; some illnesses are far more severe than Jane's.
In such cases, children are born without all the functions needed for life, and the living environment is not suitable for an infant to grow, so they also die very early. Or another kind of extreme, when an entire family suffers that kind of patterned tragedy, and therefore all members die at the same time. In some places, entire families die one after another because of poverty, and no one survives. This kind of extreme, compared with the extreme that the two of you think you are in, you can also call yours extreme, but relative to you, other people are far more unfortunate than you.
Seth of course said that there were reasons for such examples; he just wanted Jane and Rob to know that many very severe extremes exist, and in comparison, their lives would seem very good indeed.
Seth also said, since the two of you both have such minds and vitality, and have had a healthy and vigorous history in this life, that history can be used by Ruburt.
For example, in the past when she was painting, and running up and down the gallery steps, both her body and her mind had to recognize the validity of those actions, so that no contrary data would block them.
What Seth meant here was: first, you are spiritually very abundant; second, physically, you were once full of vitality. Jane was once full of vitality too. But some people who are more unfortunate than you have never had that; they died very young, and even when they were very young, their bodies never had that kind of vitality; they were always sickly. If they could not even eat enough, how could they engage in vigorous activity, running up and down the steps? For people like that, their lives never had vitality, and they never had enough to eat from infancy. Seth said, for people like that, that is true misfortune, that is true extreme; yours does not count as that.
In other words, if Ruburt could recall the time when he was physically healthy, when he was working part-time at the gallery, where the space was quite large, with upstairs and downstairs, that is, when he was in his twenties and early thirties, if Ruburt could recall that period at the gallery when his body was very healthy and he could run up and down, then simply by recalling that state of being vigorous and full of physical energy, that recollection itself would be of great help and benefit to his present body. Rather than using completely contrary data, such as "I feel I cannot move," "I feel my body is restricted," and so on; if you use that, it will have a bad influence on your personal reality. The correct approach is to recall how you used to dart around in the gallery back then.
That recollection is actually beneficial to your body, because you have had that experience, you have had that bodily feeling, you have had that experience. But those in truly extreme situations, those more unfortunate than you, have never even had that experience; if you asked them to recall it, they could not recall anything. That is what is called extreme, that is what is called misfortune.
That was what Seth meant. Yes, Seth was speaking the truth, but for Jane and Rob, especially for Jane, she did not see it that way.
He practiced in his mind seeing himself energetically cleaning the 548 apartment, because when they lived in apartment 548, Jane had to do housework.
He said, we were once living in the apartment on West Water Street, that is, 548, or in the hill house you later bought. And in the room where we now live, it can also be seen as an extremely powerful reason. In both of these places you were full of energy, and could clean the rooms, tidy the house, and do housework. Jane, you should recall these things more; that would help you.
After saying this, he left.
Worry About the Right Leg
At 4:30, Jane felt a bit better. Rob told her that Seth had not addressed their topic from yesterday about the session material, that is, the topic about the snowman, about changing the past from the present, and he also did not comment on Carlo's doctoral dissertation on the Seth material. Rob of course showed the dissertation to Jane, but she still could not read it. A doctor had written a doctoral dissertation based on the Seth material, and Jane actually could not understand it; that was quite interesting.
In the small note from January 9, Rob said he still felt that something was holding Jane back, keeping her from moving, making her not feel free to walk, even though they had already made such great progress. Seth did not mention this point in yesterday's session on the 10th.
Now Rob asked Jane whether she had any movement on that question. Rob was not even sure whether what he was doing was right. Because he did not know what was holding Jane back, and he did not know how to help her; this was what pained him. Rob saw that Jane's body was limited in this way because of beliefs, but he did not know where to begin to help her.
When Jane said she wanted to think the question over, and that she had something to tell Rob, Rob was just about to pack up and leave.
Then she said that she felt unable to walk freely because she felt her right leg was broken.
Rob asked, Jane, what is holding you back, keeping your body from recovering and moving freely?
Then Jane thought about it and said she felt it was because her right leg was broken, and she could not walk. Then she revealed that she was increasingly worried about why her right leg looked so much shorter than her left leg. She had secretly observed that her right leg was much shorter than yesterday; after it broke, it became much shorter. Even if she really straightened her right leg, it seemed impossible to use it to walk, because it was shorter by a section, and the two sides were no longer the same length.
So she felt that since her right leg was shorter, how could she walk?
Rob said, we should not think that way; we should have faith that the body knows what it is doing, and will fix that leg in whatever way is needed.
Jane agreed, but Rob could see that she was quite upset.
What Jane meant was, her leg had become shorter; after it broke, it became shorter, so how could she possibly walk in the future? Rob said, do not worry about it; your body will know how to make it longer again. But Jane did not see it that way; she believed that the leg becoming shorter was a fact, and an unchangeable fact at that.
Rob said, she might have to get a medical opinion; she needed a doctor to tell her that her leg could grow longer. But Rob felt that if she were to have an X-ray of that leg tomorrow, to check whether it was shorter, she would say no; she would say she would not have it done.
Rob very much wanted to see that leg begin to relax, at least straighten to some degree. Rob thought it was because that leg was not relaxed enough that it became shorter; the muscles were tense and curled up together. But Jane did not think so; she believed her leg had simply become shorter.
Rob was extremely worried about the pressure involved in her drawing her right leg up like that against her lower abdomen.
As he had said, Rob still did not really understand how the body would do this. He did not quite understand why the body had gotten itself into this state.
Even if the bones had weakened due to long-term pressure, with her improved appetite and attitude, by now that dangerous period should at least have lessened, and no more bones should be cracking.
What this meant was, Jane's appetite was now very good, and she was eating very well; logically her body should have recovered, and the bones should not continue to crack. Bone itself is a hard thing; muscles can atrophy, but bones do not atrophy. Rob's point was for Jane to get an X-ray to tell her: your leg has not become shorter; you do not need to worry. You feel it is short because you have been curled up the whole time.
But he guessed Jane would not do the X-ray.
In your recovery, the right leg obviously plays a central role, not only a physical role, but also crucial in the change of beliefs about the whole matter. That is to say, your belief about whether your right leg can grow longer and recover absolutely determines whether your body can improve.
As Rob drove home, he thought, it would be really ironic if the broken leg became the final, ultimate impetus, clearing out the last old, damaging beliefs in our psyche, so that new cooperation could finally occur, and the body could heal itself.
While driving home, Rob was thinking about this question: if her leg could really fully recover, and Jane could really finally be discharged from the hospital and go home, completely healing herself, he said this might be the last very powerful measure to break our traditional, fixed beliefs about the material world. The opportunity would let us truly believe that our body can heal itself, even if the leg had become this short, atrophied, and shortened, it could still return to normal health like a normal person, and could grow longer again and recover.
But about this matter you must know, Rob and Jane were not one hundred percent certain; they were still half-believing and half-doubting about this matter, whether the body could heal itself one hundred percent.
I also know that among those reading the Seth material and listening to our classes, some readers are also half-believing and half-doubting, not one hundred percent believing in this matter. I can understand that. But I have also said in previous classes, if you cannot believe in this matter one hundred percent, its effect will not be good. Even if you have one percent doubt, if you say you believe ninety-nine percent, then it should exert ninety-nine percent efficiency, but no. If you have one percent distrust, its effect equals zero, in many cases.
Precisely this surface-level distrust of the matter conceals ninety-nine percent distrust in your subconscious. That is, in your subconscious, you are ninety-nine percent distrustful that the body can heal itself. In the subconscious, ninety-nine percent of people think this way: the body cannot heal itself. But you have read the Seth material and studied these things, and in your conscious mind, in your thoughts, you think you acknowledge and accept that the body can heal itself.
But your conscious mind is ninety-nine percent believing and one percent not believing, while your subconscious is actually the reverse: ninety-nine percent not believing, and only one percent believing. What actually takes effect is your subconscious.
This is the key, this is the important point. Today at 10:10, the phone call came again; every day they talked on the phone at 10 o'clock. The call came just as Rob was about to finish typing this session. Jane still felt she had not improved much. Rob tried to encourage her and himself as well.
This is what we see of the content of this session between them.
Looking in the Mirror
January 12, 1984, Thursday, 4:20 PM.
It was very cold today; at noon it was only 12 degrees. Rob stopped at the bank and bought a cashier's check and a money order for Blue Cross and our old hospital bills, to pay the insurance premiums. When he arrived at Room 330, Jane told him her dream, which she had dreamed shortly after he left last night.
In the dream, she was in a bathtub without water, talking to her mother, whom she could not see. Then there was a very sensual episode that she could not remember at all; she could not recall the details, but she knew it was very sensual.
Then she stood in a room, letting her hair down. She thought this meant that as she continued to study, she symbolically let her hair down.
This morning, Jane was depressed and nervous again, but she worked through it herself. She ate a fairly good lunch. Rob finished typing yesterday's session, and she tried several times to read it without success; her eyesight had deteriorated to the point where she could not read the words; even after he put eye drops in for her, she simply could not do it today. In the end, Rob read the session aloud to her, finishing at 3:33.
Later, while they were talking, Jane agreed to look in the mirror. This means that previously she had not agreed to look in the mirror. Rob had prepared a mirror in Room 330 for several months, which means that for several months Jane had not looked in the mirror.
Through this detail, having studied the Seth material for so long, you can probably understand many of the root causes of Jane's illness. She did not dare look in the mirror, which means she could not accept herself. A person who cannot accept herself will find it very difficult to truly grow spiritually.
Just this one point: we say we should love ourselves, and the first rule of loving yourself is called accepting yourself, no matter what state you are in. Even if you feel you are very ugly, very ill, and repulsive in appearance, whether you can accept yourself at that moment is the key. You cannot say you only accept a beautiful self, a young self, a pretty self, a blossoming self, but cannot accept a sick self, a depressed self, a poor self, a defeated self.
If you hold that kind of viewpoint, then you have not taken this step, and what comes after will be very difficult. You say, I will accept myself after I get better, but it is exactly the opposite: only when you first accept the current, not-so-good self can you become better.
So through this detail, you know that Jane did not accept herself. At first she was very afraid, but the result was not bad; she faced herself properly. Rob also knew this key point and had prepared a mirror for her, but she did not use it; she simply would not look. Only her throat caught for a moment; accepting her current appearance was still a process, although in the end she accepted it.
The key point they both agreed on was that looking in the mirror meant one less important trouble to deal with, and the part of herself that she concealed was much reduced. They knew that the common point was that she was no longer hiding, no longer avoiding, no longer running away, and was beginning to face herself.
They also put lipstick on her. With her fine skin and the lack of wrinkles that most of her peers would have, she actually had very few wrinkles, and she looked very good. She was already 54 years old, and Rob told her she looked remarkably good, with very few wrinkles and very fine skin, and her hair looked good too, curly and lively. Rob said that if she dyed her hair, as she used to do, she would look even better. Jane also loved dyeing her hair.
Rob was affirming her. He also suggested that she look in the mirror at least briefly every day, and soon it would not be difficult at all; she might even look forward to seeing herself continue to improve and progress.
Looking in the mirror, affirming yourself and accepting yourself in the mirror, is a relatively good method and treatment. Many people do this too. In the first class of my teacher training, I hoped that everyone, after bathing or after a shower, whether male or female, would look in the mirror, and then accept themselves, affirm themselves, and accept this body. Rather than always fantasizing about and expecting an imagined self that is slim and fit, with beautiful curves or six-pack abs, before you can accept yourself, while being completely unable to accept your current self. This non-acceptance of yours actually hinders your personal development.
Jane tried again to read the session, but soon gave up; she still could not read. Rob said that if she had a session today, he hoped it would address her right leg and the related challenges they had talked about before he left last night. He also wanted Seth to comment on the last paragraph he had written for yesterday's session; he thought he had a good idea there, and Jane agreed.
Jane also asked Rob to bring an eyebrow pencil. You see, she not only wanted lipstick but also an eyebrow pencil; Jane was beginning to groom herself, and things were turning in a good direction.
Finally, Jane got tired of waiting for someone to come and take her vital signs, and decided to begin the session. The patient in the room next door was still shouting loudly in the hallway, and had not stopped since Rob arrived. So you can know that her environment was not that quiet; the hospital was still very noisy. But it was in this kind of environment that they interpreted Seth and transmitted the Seth material.
Seth on the Healing Value of Depression
Seth said, it might be much easier to always maintain a good mood. But in Ruburt's case, a rather uncommon period of depression was indeed operating therapeutically, so that she could express those feelings through tears, thereby sparing the body from expressing the same feelings through additional symptoms.
Seth's words here are very philosophical. Generally speaking, always maintaining a good mood is certainly comfortable for you, but for healing, it is not the case that depressive emotions, unhappy emotions, or even crying are bad. Seth said, during your illness, these behaviors may actually be beneficial to your body. If you do not cry it out, if you do not express these emotions through tears, then they may manifest even more heavily in your physical symptoms. If you express it through crying, then it will not manifest in the body.
So for some patients, for some patients who need our care, do not say, "Do not cry, you must smile, be optimistic and positive." When it is time to cry, let them cry; when it is time to feel sad and shed tears, let them feel sad and shed tears; that is also beneficial to their physical recovery.
At this point someone interrupted them; someone asked from the doorway, "Who is here?" but it turned out to be no one.
Seth continued, in other words, there were some residues of considerable feelings of isolation, that is, Jane's sense of loneliness and abandonment. You see, a person's sense of loneliness; this was a feeling Jane had had since childhood. Because of her childhood environment, her mother basically did not take care of her; she was alone, with not many people to communicate with. Later her mother became paralyzed in bed; she was raised by a single mother, and it was very difficult for her mother to communicate with her effectively. So Jane's living environment was isolated from childhood.
These residues of feelings of isolation could be discovered through this kind of expression, thus freeing the body to make further improvements. The body could then improve.
Seth often called Jane by the name Ruburt. For example, she was progressing at a certain pace, but doubts and fears created some obstacles. Jane was actually making progress all along, but her doubt and fear—these two points—blocked her progress. Because this blocked her progress, she would doubt more, fear more, and the whole thing would intensify, entering a vicious cycle. In fact, she was progressing, but she was afraid that the future would certainly not be good, and she doubted whether her body would really get better.
Therefore these were then released, expressed through tears and a recognized period of melancholy, and the system purified itself again, clearing more of the path toward progress. He was describing Jane's low mood and depressed state yesterday evening and this morning; Seth said it was beneficial.
In the past, the body itself had been suppressed; it had not been fully released or allowed to blossom. Seth said the very important point was that she had been operating in low gear—operating at a low frequency—and now that was clearly no longer the case.
Of course, it would be better if each period of depression and melancholy were shorter, so that the system purifies itself more quickly and new progress shows itself at a faster pace.
At 4:10, Seth paused for quite a while. He said that at least this was now a natural casting off of old doubts and fears—old fears and old doubts being cast off naturally, but in such a way that they were recognized and then let go.
This is also true in our real lives. Many people who have taken our courses, and many friends who have studied the Seth material, have already begun changing in a positive direction, yet from time to time they still feel an inexplicable sadness, shed tears, feel heartache and pain, and they do not know why. So I often tell everyone, don't worry, don't try to manage it, just let it flow and release naturally. Here is another reason for you: this is a release of old doubts and fears. It doesn't mean that the moment you change your thoughts, no such residue will be released; it will still be released. But what you feel at such times is that this crying is no longer as heart-wrenching as before—it doesn't hurt as much, but you still cry; the sadness at such times is still sadness, but it is not that kind of sorrowful, desolate crying sadness; it is still a kind of sadness, which is quite interesting. It needs to be recognized and then let go, and this takes a process.
Right Leg and Eyes
Seth again paused for quite a while. He said that the changes in Jane's eyes showed the kind of cycle that was taking place—the cycle in which she got better, then worse, then better. It could be said that the upper edge of progress continued moving in a good direction, but at the same time there were always many changes and imbalances, and at times things were quite blurred. But overall it was improving, and the changes indeed seemed mysterious, as if you didn't know how they happened.
Ruburt had not been constantly looking at her own eyes. Because she had not kept looking at them, the mystery was somehow taken for granted. She understood very little about how her eyes worked, and she had not spent effort trying to figure out what order such progress should follow, or how it should happen.
That is to say, if the eyes are going to improve, they might first become blurred and then clear, perhaps cycling upward, spiraling upward. But Jane didn't pay much attention to this, so she didn't know or understand.
However, her right leg was plainly right in front of her eyes, very easy to see, so she often compared its position with the other leg. Not looking favorably on her leg would inevitably lead her to dwell on the obstacles that seemed to block the way—she felt that this leg could not get better.
Indeed, the body can heal that leg just as easily as it can heal the eyes, and just as easily as it can heal bedsores—Jane had also experienced bedsores in between. Bedsores are sores that develop on the body of someone bedridden for a long time, because the body remains still for long periods and only certain points make contact with the bed; after long contact, those areas break down, because blood no longer circulates.
Jane was able to heal even this. Jane's eyes went from not seeing to seeing, then not seeing and seeing again, and they could improve too. He said the right leg was the same—she felt it couldn't get better, but in fact, like the eyes and the bedsores, it can heal easily; you don't need to fuss over it.
At present, it is best not to concentrate attention on the right leg—but Jane does exactly the opposite; her attention is on that leg. Also, in order to make walking happen, she thinks she must ultimately do something about it, and this idea will have a very counterproductive effect on her.
That is, don't think, "If I want to walk, I have to do something to this leg so that it fully recovers to the same length as the left leg before I can walk." If you think about this problem from that angle, you fall into a dead end. That idea is wrong. Don't think that you must do something to the right leg, apply some treatment, do some rehabilitation, before it can heal and walk—none of that is needed.
This is what most of us cannot understand—most people certainly feel, "You have to do something; how can it get better if you do nothing?" But it is precisely by thinking that way that you create the problem, because you are acknowledging that it has a problem. If you think it is only temporary, that it will get better soon, you don't need to do anything. For example, if your eye temporarily cannot see, and you believe it is temporary, then you don't need to do anything; you only need a good night's sleep, and the next day the eye will improve. If you think the eye has really gone bad and you must go to the hospital for treatment—or wear glasses, or have surgery, or whatever—then your eye truly will not work anymore.
By the same reasoning, if you feel that this leg truly can't make it and truly needs some treatment, then you have also acknowledged that the leg can't make it. In your inner mind you believe it can't make it. So Seth said, don't think that way.
If she occasionally imagined that walking would happen, as easily and naturally as her thoughts come and go, and in the same mysterious way her vision operates—when it suddenly becomes very clear and she reads much faster—then fast reading will soon be her normal state.
Jane now cannot read at all; her vision is so blurred she cannot make out the words. Seth said she would soon read normally again, just as her leg can get better soon. If she can imagine the improvement of her leg as being as easy as thoughts coming and going, without thinking that she must apply specific treatments to the leg, that would aid her leg's recovery; in fact, thinking she must do something would hinder the leg's recovery. If she believes the leg will somehow magically get better, and if she firmly believes this, then her leg will truly and magically get better.
Kindly Seeing Oneself
Seth said that today she looked in the mirror—Jane looked in the mirror, and this was indeed a great step forward, a very important issue. Rob also suggested that she do this briefly every day, which is equally important.
Look at Rob—saying, "Every day look in the mirror, put on a little lipstick, draw your eyebrows a little; these are all very good." Seth was praising Rob.
What does this show? Ruburt has become ready to face herself, at least willing to look at herself kindly, no longer looking at herself so harshly. In the past she looked at herself critically and judgmentally, and did not accept herself. Now she can look at herself kindly—knowing she is still not that well, but doing so with kindness.
Just as when we see someone on the street who is not physically well or has a disability—whether you are harsh or kind makes a complete difference. Sometimes we can be kind to others, yet harsh to ourselves—kind toward those who have physical disabilities, but unable to accept our own physical disabilities.
Lipstick was an excellent idea, and so was eyebrow pencil. Therefore she began to care about her face as she used to. This may seem strange, but the expression on the face correctly reflects the inner self-image—this is crucial; the expression on your face is an expression of your inner self-image.
Many friends who took part in our Hainan 21-Day Spiritual Beauty course are becoming more beautiful and younger, and some are even aging in reverse. Two days ago at an in-person event in Beijing I met Aijia from Beijing, and she is truly aging in reverse; her whole small face, bearing, gestures, and expression looked like those of a high school student. More than a dozen people there witnessed it with their own eyes, and everyone who had known Aijia before was amazed—she is aging in reverse.
This is something very magical. Her whole face and the expression on it reflect her inner feelings. That is why, in many of our exercises, we ask everyone to think of beautiful things, to lift the corners of the mouth, to smile, to be joyful and happy—because that is a true portrait of your inner self. You see every one of our students blossom into themselves; that blossoming expression on the face and the overflowing state are a true expression of the inner self. Everyone must remember this.
Seth said that even when she did not feel like smiling, a smile would also build up her self-image and affect the whole condition of the body. This point is extremely crucial—even when you don't feel like smiling, you should still smile. You may say, "Baby's heart is bitter, baby can't smile," but you should still smile.
This passive smile, or what seems like an externally forced smile, will also have a positive effect on your inner state. It is mutual—inner joy will be reflected on your face, and the joy on your face will also map back into your inner self, in the reverse direction. When your inner self is not yet able to radiate joy at every moment, then use the outer expression on your face to influence your inner self; this is a very crucial point.
So in the West there is a treatment method called laughter therapy. There is a field of study devoted to the healing and protective effects of laughter on human health17. It is indeed useful; in some hospitals there is a department set up for this, called laughter therapy.
Seth said that Ruburt had already been healed of conditions as complex as a broken leg. She had previously had conditions more serious than this one, and she healed herself of them; this broken leg is no big deal. He was telling Ruburt not to worry.
About "Changing the Past from the Present"
Seth said some closing words and was about to leave. Rob said, "Seth, thank you. May I ask a question?" Seth said yes. Rob asked, "Do you have anything to say about our discussion yesterday—about changing the past from the present?"
Rob felt that Seth would certainly agree with Jane's version of what he had said, rather than Rob's own version.
Seth said, "That is very difficult to explain."
That is to say, understanding it that way is acceptable. But if you insist on being precise—did that event actually change, or move into a parallel space-time, or did my belief change while the event itself did not change? If you insist on nailing down which of these two is right, Seth said it is very difficult to explain it to you.
It is not a matter of one being right and the other wrong, because this involves very complex things. That is also a surface result; underneath it there is still deeper logic and deeper inner operating mechanisms. In other words, it transcends existence in the sense the two of you mean; underneath, it is another matter entirely, but what shows up is the two alternatives you ask about—which one is right.
Which is more correct, the A or B you are asking about? Seth said that beneath A and B there may also be a delta. From delta's point of view, A and B make no difference; they are just two expressions—just as matter shows both its particle nature and its energy-wave nature. So, from your point of view, the question you ask is one for which you want an answer, but from Seth's point of view, it is very difficult for me to give you an answer.
Many people cannot understand what is so hard to explain or so hard to answer here. It is truly hard to explain. Why? If you believe that "beliefs create reality," or "your beliefs create your reality"—which is the core of Seth's theory—then you know why it is hard to explain. Because each person's beliefs are different, the reality they create is different, the logic they create is different, and the operating mechanisms are different. This is a completely subjective world. If you insist that Seth give you an objective answer, that in itself—your asking this question—already challenges the underlying logic of Seth's theory.
Seth holds that this is a subjective world, yet you insist that Seth give you an objective answer. Many people ask questions in this way. But when we answer everyone, we try not to beat around the bush. Not beating around the bush means we can give you a relatively objective answer, the kind you want to know, so that you feel you can keep studying. If for every answer we set aside duality and give you an answer closer to the truth, you would feel that the answer is the same as saying nothing, because it circles around—talking about the left side, the right side, the front side, the back side.
So you need to understand that when I give you an answer, it does not mean it is the final true answer. But in the present question-and-answer setting, for the sake of convenience in speaking, we can only speak in that way, so that this exchange, this flow of information, this interaction can continue. Otherwise it will just stop here and go in circles.
If you remember that, no matter how things appear on the surface, all events are basically subjective...
Here Seth returned to his core point again. Seth as a person, or as a consciousness, is very clear-headed; he is not swayed by others. He circled around and circled back to his point. But many people studying the Seth material forget this as they study, because the knowledge and things of the three-dimensional world are more numerous, more solid, and more stubborn, so they forget that this world is a subjective world.
If at every moment you remember that this is a subjective world, then there are many, many questions you would not even ask. But since you did ask, then as far as I am concerned, I know you have not yet reached that state, and you still don't regard this world as subjective. So, within your present understanding, I can only assume for the time being that you still don't regard this world as subjective and that you think it is objective, and respond from that angle with an answer you can accept.
When I use things like "quantum" and "cell" to explain, I am actually hinting to you that this world has an objective existence. Then I also say it is a quantum-state existence, and quantum states actually imply that this is a subjective world—the quantum world is a subjective world. Saying it this way is equivalent to taking the facts you regard as objective and adding an underlying logic that implies subjectivity, so that it is easier for you to accept.
If I started out by telling you, "Your beliefs create your world, create your reality," and that if you think the past has changed, then the past has really changed—then saying it that way would not be enough to convince you.
Seth also said that no matter how things appear on the surface, the surface is the opposite of the fact. The surface does not seem to be a subjective world; all of us think this surface world is objective, but in fact this world is subjective.
(This) may help you (—) their objectivity occurs at a certain kind of focus.
The objectivity you perceive can only be felt as objective when you are focused at certain focal points. When you focus on specific matters, specific people, a specific point of consciousness, you feel as if it is objective. Once your focus becomes diffuse—when your focus is not concentrated on specific things, or when your consciousness rises to a higher dimension—this world shows its subjective aspect, and in that instant you feel that this world is subjective. Conversely, when you focus on specific things, it again shows its objectivity.
Very strange and very interesting.
Just like the double-slit experiment in quantum mechanics—when you use a person to observe the moving trajectory of those particles, you find that what it presents to you is a material state; all the objective particles behave like solid little particles, striking the back side of the two slits and forming two bands of light. When there is no observer present, what it shows is diffraction interference waves, a striped pattern.
When you are not looking at it, it is in an energy state; when you look at it, what it shows you is the objective material state. The energy state is a step further than the material state; energy is formless, without concrete material existence. But particles have particulate existence; atoms have particulate existence; energy waves are not a kind of material existence.
Then is the atom a material existence or an energy wave? It is both an energy wave and a material existence. When you observe it, it is a material existence; when you do not observe it, it is an energy existence. I wonder whether you can understand what I am saying. This is the classic argument in quantum mechanics—when you are not looking at the moon, does the moon exist? Classical physics holds that whether or not you look at it, the moon as a material body must exist. Quantum mechanics holds that when you are not looking at it, its existence has a certain probability; it may exist or it may not. This is the essential difference between traditional physics and quantum physics.
And we have now proven that quantum mechanics is correct; repeated scientific experiments have proven it. If quantum mechanics is correct, it also means this world is a subjective world. If you want to talk about science, then let's discuss science—science has already proven that this world is a subjective world.
Why then does it have objectivity? Because you have focused your attention on some matter. When your cognition, the focus of your beliefs, the focus of your consciousness feels "it is here," it will produce the corresponding reality and the corresponding events. When your focus changes—when your cognition changes and you think this event is not like this but like that—the event changes accordingly.
That is to say, between your focus, or your viewpoint, or your thoughts on the one hand, and events on the other, a so-called objectivity is displayed.
I don't know whether you can understand what I mean. When you think it is an apple, what appears to you is an apple, because you think it is an apple. When you think it is an apple in VR glasses and not a real apple, then it is not a real apple. When you observe an apple through naked-eye 3D, you also know this is an apple realized through naked-eye 3D technology, not a real apple. When you see an apple through a laser holographic image, you also know it is not a real apple.
So in the end, is it a real apple or not? It depends on your cognition in the present moment. There is no such thing as a truly real apple—if you think it is real, it is real. Suppose you live in a metaverse world—a world like Ready Player One—there, you would think all the apples are real. Or if you watch The Matrix, the things and lives inside it are real. The people living in that matrix are real, but later we learn it is all computer-simulated. That is also hinting that our present world is the same.
The objectivity you perceive means that when you focus on it, it is real. At that point, it shows objectivity, which is materiality. When you observe an atom, it is material; when you do not observe the atom, it is energy, non-material. The microscopic world has already shown us part of its underlying real truth.
But on the larger scale, you almost cannot see its energy nature; what you see is all its material nature. Yet its underlying layer is composed of energy. Therefore all things in this world, from small to large, are composed of energy. In the microscopic world we have discovered its truth—it is energy. Photons, atoms, particles, at the subatomic level they are in an energy state, but when you observe them, they are in a material state. This is what confounds all scientists.
Actually the essence is this: when you observe it, it is a material state; when you do not observe it, it is an energy state. When you do not observe it, that is, when your focus is not on it, it is a subjective world. What does an energy state mean? It means that all possibilities exist; it is an energy, and it can become anything. It is like Sun Wukong, who can do 72 transformations. What it finally becomes depends on what your consciousness and cognition want it to become, and it becomes that. If you think it is an apple, it shows you the appearance of an apple; if you think it is a pear, it shows you the appearance of a pear; if you think it is a fake pear, then it is fake.
Ending
At 4:44, although Jane said she might have more material, the session ended there. Unfortunately, the nurse interrupted them—it was time for her to be turned. This left much good material about "changing the past from the present" unfinished, and Rob felt somewhat frustrated. He didn't want that question to be forgotten, because this was a point Rob especially wanted to know about, and Seth had already reached the key point.
But it is a great pity; in the hospital room they are bound to be disturbed, and we can only accept this regret. What Seth said ended here, but we actually already know what he meant—he has spoken in great detail and clarity in his other works about the underlying logic and nature of this world.
Finally Jane said that perhaps tomorrow they would talk more about that issue. This was to comfort Rob.
Karina in the neighboring hospital room was really annoying this afternoon; she had been wailing all afternoon and was still wailing. Rob's tone had grown increasingly impatient, and he even used the word "wailing" to refer to her. Her voice was hoarse and much weakened. Rob told Jane that he thought she sounded as if she were reliving her childhood state—the way a child cries and shouts.
The staff tried many times to calm her down, but to no avail. Jane said their behavior made her uncomfortable, because it reminded her of the early days of her own hospitalization, when she had fears and others tried to calm her down.
Jane said that when she first entered the hospital she also had fears, but other people's efforts to calm her were useless. Now, after Jane told Rob how she felt, she said to herself, "Withdraw."
Jane has now learned this method: when these negative emotions come, she uses the word "withdraw" to retract them—meaning don't continue developing in that direction, and don't keep thinking about it. She used this word, "withdraw," meaning cancel.
So Jane is already progressing; she is progressing toward positive thinking.
The content of this session is very important. Although Seth did not transmit very much in it, this small amount of information still contains some very important insights about our understanding of health. I hope everyone can understand it well, integrate it into your own lives, and make some real changes and adjustments, so that we can live a better life.
Jane looked in the mirror for the first time in over a month, merely taking a brief look at her own reflection. She told Rob that her hair had already turned white, but in fact her hair was not white. After the nurse handed her the mirror, she looked again, visibly relieved, and said, "Mm, I've let go of that." She had let go of the issue about her hair turning white.
Rob then handed her the lipstick, and she put it on without difficulty. Today it was 22 degrees, somewhat warmer. In the morning I prepared the insurance and hospital expenses. The patient next door, Karina, was much quieter—so far. Jane ate her lunch well. A nurse's aide brought us a copy of the regular menu, rather than the soft-food menu Jane had been using. They found that the difference between the two was not that great.
At 2:35, Jane began reading yesterday's session, and she obviously did better than yesterday. I helped her in a few places. At 2:50, when she reached the third page, she stopped to smoke and then told me her dream. In the first part, she saw herself in the mirror trying on pink beads to see whether they matched the blouse she was wearing. In the second part, she was lying on her back, and at that point her right arm somehow moved; then in her line of sight, her two legs became the same length—the position of her hips changed, causing her two legs to become equal in length. This is a very good sign. She said it sounded like the dream was giving her information about healing and movement, and the leg material was especially important.
At 3:20, Jane finished reading the session aloud, and she did very well, especially toward the end. She decided not to wait for the nurse to come and check her vital signs. When someone asked whether she could separate her personal things from the material for the book, I said that was easy and I was not worried at all. I asked Jane, "Do you know why?" Then I told her, "When you go home, you will do all the work on the book, so start getting ready. I always knew you would write that book — if you want, I can write a preface, and so can you — but you are the one who will write the book." I was giving her the hint that she could be discharged from the hospital, so I was not worried about distinguishing which parts were about her personally and which parts could be published as part of the book.
This little speech got her talking about the book and related matters, and she soon felt Seth's presence nearby. In fact, she first put out her cigarette.
Seth's Opening: The Creative Nature of the Universe
Seth said, "I bid you all a good afternoon once again."
This session discusses time, continuing the exploration from the previous session -- when we change the past in the present, is it that the past itself has been changed, or is it merely that your viewpoint has changed while the facts of the past remain unchanged? In the previous session Seth gave one answer: the two happen simultaneously, or they happen on different levels. In this session he continues to expand on this topic, because he felt he may not have explained it thoroughly enough -- regarding the part about time, many people harbor deep doubts, and it even overturns their understanding. Let us see how Seth carries the discussion further.
In your terms, the creative nature of the universe is so magnificent that its true vastness surpasses the understanding of most people, and its implications are so astonishing that the matter is almost impossible to explain.
The nature of creation is something very difficult to explain, almost impossible. This is also why many people are unable to interpret it or understand it. For those of us living in a three-dimensional world, it is very hard to understand a four-dimensional world or a five-dimensional world -- I am only using such descriptions as an analogy -- not to mention that they are nested and overlapping layer upon layer, in an environment where each gives rise to and creates the other.
How the Past Is Changed by the Present
The past and every moment of the past, from the operating point of the present, is constantly being changed.
He is emphasizing: the things in the past and in every moment of the past, from the point where you are right now in the present, can all be constantly changed.
In your terms, the present becomes the past, and that again from the most recent present — you can add a hyphen between those two words to make it one word, to make it clearer — every conceivable point is changed again.
This is a concept: we humans think that the present will become a new past. That "most recent present" is the one a little closer than this present — it can also be called our immediate now. What you need to understand is that when you, in this most recent present, think about the present that has just become the past, the one slightly farther from you, because of that thinking of yours, your point of thinking has already had an effect on that just-past present, and will cause it to change.
This sentence sounds a bit convoluted, so let me draw a simple diagram to discuss it with everyone.
Suppose there is a straight line. Over here there is a point, which we call the "present" point. According to human understanding, as time passes, this "present" will become a "most recent present." Further back, there is also a "just-past present" — although it has passed, at its own moment, it was also the present at that time.
When you stand at the point of the "most recent present" and look back at the "just-past present," it becomes the past to you. And standing from the angle of the present, your observation of the past, your thinking about it — for example, something just happened, a car accident occurred, you went to eat a meal, how you judge this matter, whether the meal tasted good or not, how you felt, who you ate with — this observation and thinking of yours determines your change in the present, and this change will in turn affect the past.
In other words, what exactly is the past? There is no objective fact that happened; there is only your cognition, feeling, and thought about the past. Yet we people in the three-dimensional world think that the past must be an objective fact that exists. But now we know that it is caused by every "present" thinking about that point in the past — your thinking has already changed the past.
What the past actually was like — there is no objective fact; it mainly comes from your subjective determination. You believe something happened in the past, and that is what happened.
You say, no, isn't this something I experienced in the past? What I experienced, I have determined. Right, so this is what ordinary people think. But at that point you experienced in the past, there were countless possible versions. You determined one version — you could say it is the one you experienced, the one you felt — but that does not mean other possibilities do not exist; you simply experienced one of them.
Every "present" of yours, every immediate now, is thinking about the past and looking toward the future. And every point is the past of the next point and the future of the previous point. Point by point, linked together like this, it makes you feel that time is flowing. And this sense of continuity comes from that subject of yours, the "I" — this ego existence gives you a sense of continuity.
But the past essentially does not exist. The past exists only in your present thinking about the past, your determination and thought about it. There is no objective fact called "the past"; there is only what Seth calls "the spacious present."
Since this point of yours already includes all the points of the past — because all your cognition of the past is based on the present — then this point has already encompassed your past and your future. You actually live in every "present," and these "presents" are both continuous and one — this is very difficult to understand through language. What we can truly grasp, feel, and experience is only this present, or rather this spacious present.
Subjective Continuity
Seth continues:
Yet in all of this vast, never-ending process of creation, there is always a personal sense of continuity.
You are never truly lost in the distance between one moment and the next.
Between this thing and that thing, you do not lose yourself -- although we know it is not continuous, but one moment after another.
In somewhat the same way, the objects around you are also constantly in motion.
From the perspective of time, we are continuously changing and transforming. What we call our past, present, and future do not exist -- there is no such thing as a fixed past, an unchanging past. The present is also changing, and the past is changing too, because when your perception of the past changes, the past changes.
The electron is the director of that motion.
The electron is the key. In all the motion of objects, the electron is the key. Within the atom itself there are the strong interaction and the weak interaction18, but as a whole it presents an electrically neutral state to the outside. And for our thoughts, our consciousness, to act upon this physical world, they need to go through something like emotional energy units or electromagnetic energy units -- we call them EE units -- which are actually a kind of electromagnetic energy wave, and this electromagnetic wave can influence the electrons of the matter around us. As long as the electrons are influenced, the properties of matter will change: differences in the number, orbits, and states of the electrons around an atom will all affect the nature of the atom itself, and thus bring about change in matter.
Regarding this part, in one of the chapters of the Tao Te Ching -- I forget which chapter -- I specifically discussed the four forces of nature19, that is, the relationships among the four fundamental forces: gravity, electromagnetism, the strong interaction, and the weak interaction20. From the perspective of the Tao, from the angle of "Wuji gives birth to Taiji, Taiji gives birth to One, One gives birth to Two, Two gives birth to Three, Three gives birth to all things21," we interpreted the relationships among this 1-2-3, the process from zero to one, from one to three.
Simply put, what our thoughts can directly act upon is the part of the electron, and the electron is in turn the core of changes in the properties and motion of the atom. The existence of electric current that we see is electrons in motion; everything our technology uses today -- cell phones, appliances, electronic devices -- all has to do with electrons. Why is it called the "electronic age"? Because the electron is the key factor.
Your own focus is so precisely and finely tuned that even though objects are constantly in motion, they appear to be solid indeed.
Your conscious focus can no longer see the atoms and molecules beneath objects in motion. You only see them as unmoving -- this is simply how our conscious focus is set up. It is precisely designed in this way, so that your conscious focus can only see the solid side of matter, and cannot see the underlying state of energetic vibration and motion.
Objects are also events, and perhaps that is the easiest way to understand them. They depend very much on your own subjective focus.
Let that focus waver for an instant, and the whole house of cards will come tumbling down -- so to speak.
The objects we consider solid and unchanging are composed of the motion of atoms and molecules. Since they are in motion, they can be seen as events. The things you consider unmoving are actually all composed of these moving events.
The same is true in life. Every day all kinds of political events, economic events, and social events happen around the world. The news media try to report objectively without guidance as much as possible, yet even if they try their best to remain objective, readers will still have their own subjective understanding -- regarding the same event, one group of people thinks it is good, another group thinks it is bad. Whether this event is good or bad is entirely subjective. If objects are events, then they are also subjective.
The moment your subjective focus changes, the world created by that focus comes crashing down. In life we encounter this: regarding some past events, when others prove through other evidence that the past you believed in may not necessarily have been that way, you begin to waver in your past understanding, and you discover that the past really may not be what you thought it was -- that thing you considered unshakable has already changed.
Electronic Reality and Quantum Entanglement
As human beings, you yourselves are also a kind of object—you are composed of atoms and molecules, and your organs are likewise composed of atoms and molecules, and once again, their dynamics are directed by electrons.
Regarding this part, it involves quite specialized underlying knowledge in physics and quantum mechanics, so we will not do too much interpretation here. We are planning soon to do a separate interpretation on quantum mechanics, parallel universes, and the truth of our world, and in that we will explain in detail why electrons are the key to directing these dynamics.
Let me say one simple thing here: your brainwaves can be understood as a kind of electromagnetic wave, and electromagnetic waves directly influence the electrons around them—change the electrons and you change the surrounding world. Electrons determine atoms, and atoms determine the properties of matter.
(At 3:52, he paused for a long while.)
Electrons themselves have their own subjective life.
We need to understand this point: an electron is not a dead thing; it has subjective life, it is alive. If electrons are alive, then is matter alive? Everything in this world has life. This is something our scientists cannot understand or accept no matter what. Although they know that our world is a subjective world, they think it is subjective based on human subjectivity—what they do not know is that this world is subjective for all beings that exist within it. For an electron, this is also a subjective world, because it has its own subjective life. For molecules, for cells, for every tiny particle, for every existence you think has no life, they also have their own subjective life.
Therefore, between the electrons in your body and in the objects around you, there is always a mutual relationship.
Between you and the world around you, there is always a kind of mutual relationship among electrons. We can call it a kind of quantum-entanglement-like relationship—you and the world around you are entangled together. This way of putting it may make it easier for you to understand, but it is not the traditional definition of quantum entanglement; it is just to help you understand.
In any case, subjective continuity itself never wavers.
No matter how the matter around you is, objects are originally events, and no matter how large or small, they all have their own life. The subjective continuity here does not refer only to human subjective continuity; it also includes atoms, molecules, electrons—for them as well, subjective continuity never wavers.
You think you have always existed; you do not feel "one moment I am dead, one moment I am alive, one moment I exist, one moment I do not"—although in fact you do exist one moment and not the next, you always think you have always been here. This is the feeling of subjective continuity, and it itself does not waver.
Why does it not waver?
In those terms, you and your world create each other.
You and the material world around you—the environment, objects, the universe, this world—exist in a state of quantum entanglement, or a kind of mutual relationship among electrons. You are one. At the electronic level, they create each other, change each other, influence each other. The furniture around you, the electrons within it, have an interactive relationship with your body.
This is why ancient China always said that many ornaments have spiritual qualities. The Chinese say that a person nurtures jade and jade nurtures the person; the more many things are worn, the more their inner translucency changes, and some jadeite even becomes greener and greener, growing from within. In fact, all of this is a popular way of telling you: all things in the world have life.
Because you are forever connected with all things, your subjective continuity can never be lost, can never waver. No matter how your material form changes—no matter how your outer physical form changes—at the bottom layer, at the level of electrons, at the level of molecules and atoms, you are connected with the world around you. This connectedness is what makes your sense of existence impossible to lose—because as long as this world is still here, you are here; you and your surrounding environment are one. It is not the case that just because your physical body is gone, you are gone. If you are to exist, you exist always.
The Electronic Reality of Intent
Seth continues:
When you change your past from each point of the most recent present, you also change the world on the most microscopic level.
From this most recent present, you change the present that just passed -- or every earlier past, because every past was actually a present at its own time -- on the most microscopic level, you actually change that time. When you consciously change your view of something in the past, letting that event happen according to your imagination, many people think this makes no difference to the objective world that has already happened. That is not so. Because the change in your thoughts and opinions, on the most microscopic level -- on the level of molecules, atoms, electrons -- changes that event; when time is changed in the smallest places, then time can also be changed on the larger scale.
So your intent also has an electronic reality.
This intent of yours to change the past, or this intent to make the reality of the past become the result you want, is itself also an electronic reality.
It is almost as if your thoughts strike some gigantic computer keyboard, because your thoughts do have a power.
It is as if you use your thoughts to strike a gigantic supercomputer, changing the content of its input and output. He uses a vivid metaphor.
Electronic Languages and Infinite Worlds
Then Seth said a single line, starting a new paragraph:
Just as sentences are made up of words.
We know that a sentence contains many words, but the number of words is finite. In Chinese, if you have a grasp of roughly 4,000 to 5,000 characters22, you can already express everything you want to say very fluently and accurately. English is similar; a few thousand words are enough for everyday communication23, but if you want to pursue academic or professional research, you may need a vocabulary of tens of thousands of words, because the number of English words is greater than that of Chinese.
Sentences are made up of words, yet the number of sentences is infinite.
The number of words is finite, 3,000 characters, 5,000 characters, but the sentences they combine into are endless.
Time is composed of an endless variety of electronic languages.
These electronic languages that compose time do not speak words or sentences, but instead can speak a million worlds.
This analogy and its extension are very wise, but you need to read it several times to grasp the depth of it. Just as 26 letters can be arranged and combined into thousands or tens of thousands of words, and thousands or tens of thousands of words can form endless speech. In this analogy, the endless variety of electronic languages, they make up this thing called time, and what they speak is not one sentence after another, but one world after another.
This is the concept in Buddhism of one thought, one world; one leaf, one bodhi24. A single thought of yours is a world; one idea, one thought, is a world.
How can we understand this better? You can imagine that one kind of electronic language is a dialect, and one dialect corresponds to one world. Suppose you go to South America and you are not familiar with Spanish; then much of the cultural knowledge of South America, their world, is inaccessible to you. But within the language of Spanish, they have their own world. Here I am referring to the world of spirit and the world of culture, not the material world. Within that cultural, spiritual, and conscious world constituted by Spanish, if you do not understand Spanish, you cannot enter that world. That world does not exist for you. Likewise, a foreigner who does not understand Chinese cannot understand the content within the conscious space, cultural space, or intellectual space that you construct in Chinese.
If we use language to understand it, we can put it this way: there are different slices of time, and each slice of time corresponds to a world. There are endless slices of time corresponding to endless worlds. And we humans think that these slices of time, according to a time logic of your consciousness, get labeled: yesterday, last year, the year before. And these different things are all determined by your cognition, your belief system, and your view of the past. However you think of it, that is the kind of world it is.
You can understand this "different kind of electronic language" as a world of a certain frequency. Just like different languages, if you do not know the language, you cannot enter their world.
After-Class Conversation
After finishing the passage on time, Seth said "perhaps I will return" or something like that in his usual manner. Jane asked Rob, "May I ask you a question?" Rob said yes. She said, "Could you talk about the patient next door, Carlina?" Then she had a cigarette at 4 o'clock.
Jane said, "I think that passage on time was excellent. When you are doing it, there is something that exists — something that is not there when you read it afterward, when you are outside it. But when you are doing it, you are inside it."
What she meant was: the passage on time was especially well delivered, but what he could transmit was a limited kind of information. When you read this content, you are outside it; but when Seth gave me this content and I was transmitting it, I was inside this knowledge, inside this information. It is completely different — being inside the information, versus reading it from outside the information, your feeling is different.
Rob said, "You mean you can feel it." That is, she could feel what Seth called "the hundreds of endless kinds of electronic languages — about time, time in quotation marks — and electrons, generating endless kinds of worlds. Each language speaks its own world — however many electronic languages there are, that is how many worlds can be spoken."
You could also say, you can regard one language as a system of quantum entanglement — this group of languages represents one kind of existence, whose electronic particles are all entangled with one another.
Rob said, "I often think how inadequate our current theories are for explaining the things around us, or this starry sea, this universe we see in the night sky." Rob's feeling was that through sharing the Seth material, he discovered how limited human knowledge and cognition are — regarding the most basic concepts like time and space, we lack an objective and correct cognitive understanding. Many of the understandings we have carried on for thousands or even tens of thousands of years are very limited and restrictive.
After 4 o'clock, the nurse took Jane's vital signs. Nurse Lin thought Carlina was confused — although some doctors did not think so. We guessed why Carlina had never learned any language other than Russian — and Lin said the hospital even had a list in Russian, but Carlina's response to them was not sufficient, as if she did not understand. Perhaps their pronunciation was not quite correct.
The Mystery of Kalina
After the nurse left, I told Jane that if she was willing, she could continue with the material on time. At 4:21, she continued.
Dates are merely names applied to days.
In our life experience, we put a label on time: this label is 2022, that one is 2023, then divide it into months -- January, February -- then divide it into days, and then use a watch to record what happened at what hour. Without these labels and markers of time, your understanding of time is very vague.
Human beings lived without this kind of date-marking for much longer than you have used it.
The time when humans did not mark time with dates and had no clocks is far longer than the history with clocks and dates.
Animals have even less naming of dates, yet they still know their own position on the planet, and they can also perceive the tides and movements of the earth and the planets.
The animals' "position" does not refer to geographical location, but to their place within the entire ecology of the earth. Tides and movements -- this is extremely precise. We modern people calculate these through observation and astronomical measurement, based on universal gravitation and the distances between planets and stars, and then work them out with time calculations. But animals do not know time, nor do they have these precise formulas and methods of calculation, yet they simply know when the tide comes in and when it goes out; they grasp the timing of high tide and low tide with great precision. You do not know how they know it.
Seth's point is this: human beings do not necessarily need clocks, scales, and markers in order to grasp time. Animals do not have these, and they still manage it -- he uses the tides as an analogy, which is quite interesting.
Then he talked about Kalina:
Kalina has the same orientation.
At this point in his life, he has actually refused to concentrate on language.
Language is the thing that would bind him more tightly to the details of the world.
(A long pause, twice)
He has indeed gone back into the past -- and remade it into a form he prefers.
He says this Kalina is changing her past. Her most recent present has begun to show signs of deterioration --
He wants a closing-off point, from which to construct other matters.
She wants to close off, wants to leave. Why can she no longer speak Russian now? Because she is changing her past. In the past she certainly could speak Russian; she was a Russian woman, but now she cannot say it -- this means she is changing her past, and she believes she no longer knows how. So it is not that the "most recent present" is deteriorating -- it is that she is going to other matters, she is going elsewhere, and this is her closing off.
Rather, he is deliberately letting his attention wander.
Letting attention not concentrate on language -- because language is bound very tightly to this world -- so she seems as if she cannot speak, shouting and yelling at random.
And allowing the strength and vitality of the most recent present to diminish.
The strength and vitality in this time-image, in this world, are diminishing. Of course, she will construct a new image and begin to operate from there; she will withdraw from the present image. In our three-dimensional terms: she is preparing to leave this world.
At 4:32, Jane's energy was exhausted. Yesterday was Kalina's worst day -- in fact, as far as I know, the worst day. All afternoon, she steadily shouted out unintelligible words at the top of her voice, neither Russian nor any known language, until her voice began to fade and grow hoarse at dinnertime. This was more than slightly unsettling; at times I privately wondered whether her health was declining -- because in the past few weeks, I did not remember her shouting so steadily.
I think she pushed herself until her voice went hoarse, as a final -- or most recent -- confrontation of this kind, a sign that she might soon be leaving the world. This analysis is consistent with the judgment Seth gave us: a final confrontation with this world, and in the end she will leave.
Summary
There is a lot of discussion about time involved here, and I hope everyone can take some time to digest it, so that we can gain a deep understanding of the past, present, and future. I also hope you will combine this with the previous session and discuss again what kind of change "this present point" actually brings about in the past -- go over these two sessions repeatedly and digest them carefully.
Because if you can break through or dissolve this illusion of time, the degree to which it unshackles you is enormous -- you will have far fewer restrictions. Merely dissolving this illusion of time, this bondage, is like what the Diamond Sutra says: when you no longer have the "notion of a self, the notion of a person, the notion of sentient beings" -- and also the "notion of a life span," and the notion of a life span is the notion of time. The notion of time is the last one, and it is actually not easy to break -- you may be able to break the "notion of a self," but the notion of time is sometimes very hard to break. When you are able to break the notion of time, you have in fact already broken "many notions."
I hope everyone will seriously and repeatedly ponder these two sessions, and you are also welcome to join the discussion in our group.
January 14
This day was Saturday at 4:31 p.m. Rob recorded that the weather today was relatively warm, 33 degrees, and the ice and snow were all melting. 33 degrees is just above zero Celsius, right around freezing. This morning he was preparing the final version of the 1983 income tax return, to be mailed to the accountant on Monday morning. He brought Jane's eyebrow pencil to Room 330 for her. At 3:15, Jane put on lipstick and looked in the mirror, and even smiled. Rob said that since she had reason to smile, and this was rare, she did it very well. He used the eyebrow pencil to darken her eyebrows a bit, and she looked very good.
By 3:25, Rob walked to Room 307 at the other end of the hallway to see Georgia Ceci25, but he was asleep. When passing by today, he glanced into the hospital room; the bed was empty, although two people were sitting in the room chatting. At 3:32, Jane finished her cigarette, and Rob sorted the mail. At 3:45, Jane began reading yesterday's session, and at first she did very well; her eyesight had recovered a great deal, and she read very quickly. She was interrupted by someone coming to take her vital signs; her temperature was 97.3 degrees. By 3:57, she returned to reading the session text, but now her pace was not as fast and steady. She said her eyes were changing, not as clear as just a moment ago. By 4:02, Jane stopped reading; she could barely make out the text. After a while, she continued reading intermittently. All these changes were an excellent demonstration of what Seth had said about the way her eyes were changing—her eyes were moving upward to a new level of improved vision.
You see, within a short span of 15 minutes, her vision at first was especially good, and she read quickly, but by 4:02 she basically could no longer make out the words. A person's vision can change that much within just 15 minutes. By 4:07, Jane took a break and had a cigarette, then continued at 4:10 and finished reading the previous session, reading much better by the end. So you see, between 4:02 and 4:07 there was only a 5-minute gap, and she could read again. Jane's vision fluctuated between good and bad, just as Seth had discussed in the previous sessions; this issue we probably all know by now—it is constantly changing.
By 4:25, Jane told Rob how earlier today she had imagined herself going to Anfengran to play. She said she imagined herself walking and climbing slopes around the park and the pond. These were all her imaginings, and she did them very well. This is a very good point, so when we want to recover, we need to learn to use this method. The whole of The Way Toward Health, although it contains many trivial matters and many matters of daily life, within these daily and trivial things, Seth later will provide certain explanations and confirmations, so that when we apply them in our daily self-healing, they are all very beneficial and helpful.
You see, she merely imagined herself walking and climbing slopes in the park and by the pond, but afterward she did something wrong—she became depressed. Why? Because she thought that before she could achieve normal walking and climbing slopes, she still had to go through everything—all these treatments, recovery, rehabilitation. The more she thought about it, the more dejected she became, because she was now very seriously ill, her body almost curled up entirely. She thought, how far away is that from normal walking? She was afraid of the process in between. So, to have to go through all those things without letting herself slip over the edge was truly extremely difficult. She said that if she thought about the stage of normal walking and climbing slopes, she still had to go through every stage of recovery, and at every stage she also had to make sure she did it correctly, just like the correct imagining she had just done, and every step had to be exactly right, so as not to slip to the edge, not to fail, not to let all her recovery efforts be undone because she did not do well enough. This was what she found too difficult—recovering to natural walking, she found it too difficult.
You see, this one point made her depressed, and in fact this point was also one she should not have had. Seth repeatedly emphasized: you only think about the process, and only think about the result; do not think about how the process will be realized. Because if you think about how the process will be realized, you will be stumped, you will not dare to go forward, and this will also hinder your realization. In our offline classes in Hainan, whether it was Wealth Co-Creation or the 21-Day Spiritual Beauty Technique, we also reinforced these points for everyone through practice, using those exercises to strengthen everyone's attention as little as possible on the process, or even no attention at all, emphasizing only your final result.
Rob comforted her, saying: "I said slipping does not matter either; if you are aware of what is happening and can take steps not to slip, that is enough—do not let yourself be carried away by it into loss, into this kind of depressive mood; that is the key. No one is perfect; we are not even perfect." This comfort had very little effect. Actually, he should have approached it from another angle: just do not worry about the process, do not worry that during this healing process you might have places where you do not do well or where you regress—none of that needs to be worried about.
Karina was mostly quiet for much of the day. Karina was the Russian patient in the neighboring hospital room who shouted loudly, although sometimes she made sounds. Rob thought Jane's Seth voice was stronger than usual, and the positive emphasis was sometimes relatively intensified. Wait, now I once again wish you peace—Seth came through.
Seth said:
I appear only briefly, in order to accelerate those coordinate points that are so beneficial to healing energy.
That is, Jane's imagining herself climbing hills, walking, and climbing slopes in the park—these were all very beneficial coordinate points in her healing. Seth said I have come only for a short while, precisely to reinforce these points. Whenever Jane did something well, Seth always gave timely affirmation, and then let Jane continue doing it.
He said:
Ruburt's mental exercises were done very well.
That is, the exercises in imagination; he said they were better than ordinary, better than usual, very good. Except for a few items, but there were a few things she did not do well, and he pointed them out directly:
When he does allow self-pity to take hold, it is highly important that he concentrate upon those pleasures of life that he genuinely enjoys.
He said Jane should not have feelings of self-pity. In life this is not only Jane—many people have this kind of self-pity emotion. Do not have this; the emotion of self-pity is a stumbling block on one's road to recovery; absolutely do not be self-loving and self-pitying. The correct approach is to concentrate your energy on those pleasures of life that you genuinely enjoy; this is what matters most. For example, good food—go have a good meal, or go enjoy some fine cuisine; and once again experience the pleasure of reading—Jane was originally a person who loved to read, so reading a few good books is also fine; the joy of creative thinking—do some creative things, even if it is only creative imagining in the mind, that is also fine; the joy of friends and so on—visits and conversations among friends are all beneficial. These are all much better than her self-loving and self-pitying, because the benefits will increase accordingly, more than 100 times. Remember, more than 100 times. The benefits of doing things you enjoy are not merely happiness and wishing; he said they increase more than 100 times over that.
All of the necessary progress indeed occurs within his mental and physical experience, on invisible and colorless levels of activity.
Again he emphasized that her recovery is not only reflected in the body, but also in her spirit, and also on many levels she herself cannot see, such as the chemical level, the electromagnetic level, the sound level, the sensory level—many levels. There are many, many levels, but all of these will have an effect on her recovery. If she continues to follow through as she has been, that is, to keep doing all the suggestions Seth previously gave her.
Jane can get herself to stand up, and he must walk with some confidence. But he must have confidence in this point—that he can recover, that he can completely walk again. And Seth does not worry about how it happens; there is no need to worry about the process; this is the key point.
That is, we hope that during recovery, we likewise do not need to worry: my illness is so serious, how can I possibly recover? According to the doctor, I cannot recover; my recovery process is full of difficulties, and so on—do not think about it. So we must work from this core point: do not concern yourself with the process, only concern yourself with the result you want.
He said:
The conscious mind can direct the body's activities, and the body consciousness alone can bring about those activities that give life and vitality.
Your conscious mind—in English, mind—can direct the body's activities. The body consciousness is a separate body consciousness we have, which specifically manages everything about the body—it manages heartbeat, blood pressure, body cells; all bodily matters are managed by this body consciousness. The body consciousness alone can solve these problems, so you only need to use your conscious mind to mobilize your body consciousness, and the body consciousness can mobilize your cells and let you fully recover. If you use your brain to think about how you will recover, you cannot figure it out, because it does not conform to logic, nor does it conform to the things your brain thinks about. If the recovery process were explained in terms of logic, it indeed does not conform to logic, so do not think about this problem from the standpoint of logic. I have already told you it does not conform to logic, so if you then use logic to think about how I can get better, that is meaningless. Seth here is saying the same thing: he says use the body consciousness; the process of your body's recovery is not something that can be explained by logic, nor can it be understood with your three-dimensional consciousness. So do not try to understand it; just confidently hand it over to your body consciousness, and only tell yourself: I want to recover, I want to walk and climb slopes like a normal person. It can not only bring life, but also bring vitality and activity, letting your body recover.
Seth ended here. At 3:47, he told Jane that this little moment was very good. Rob thought this contained very positive and hopeful material, and somehow it really hit the mark. Jane was also very pleased, and Rob read this passage to her again after dinner, to strengthen Jane's confidence.
While they were having dinner, the phone rang; it was John Bumbalo26, their neighbor across from the hill house. He invited Rob and his daughter Lisa to have dinner together. Now Rob finished typing this session at 8:15, preparing to cross Pinnacle Road to keep the appointment. Sleep well, Jane, I love you. This was after he returned home and typed up this short session. At 8:15 he went to John Bumbalo's26 house for the appointment, because he had invited Bumbalo to bring his daughter along, wanting to talk with him.
This was January 14.
January 15
On Sunday afternoon, January 15, at 4:41 p.m., Rob recorded that it was extremely cold. When he left home today to go to Room 330, it was still only 18 degrees Fahrenheit, below zero. This morning he finished the final filing work for his 1983 income taxes, and the rest of the time he spent working on Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment. That is to say, during this period he did nothing else; for almost half a month, every day he did some work related to filing taxes. From this you can also see that filing taxes in America, especially once the two of them had income, had royalties, had all kinds of income like that, was not an especially easy job for him to do. You can see he worked on it almost every morning for days on end, and by the 15th he was done. But when he first went back to work on that project, the interruption made him feel that he was very far from what he wanted to do. This interruption, he had been interrupted for a period of time, about half a month, and when he went back to Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment, he felt very far away from it.
Jane said that Georgia Ceci25, from Room 307, came to see her this morning and borrowed another pack of cigarettes. These little details. This morning a nurse named Guy One washed Jane's hair, and Rob told his wife her hair looked very nice, but when Jane looked in the mirror she did not agree, she did not think it looked nice, though she did admit that her hair was not white, but grayish-white. After putting on lipstick, Jane made a smiling motion at the mirror. Earlier this morning, Guy One had darkened her eyebrows with an eyebrow pencil.
After lunch, Jane told Rob that at 3:30 this morning, she had a new IV fluid tube installed, without difficulty, but the nurses on this floor had pulled it loose several times while caring for her, and she needed a new one installed. No hydrotherapy was done this morning. Last night, with the help of a nurse of theirs named Carla, Jane twice tried to call Rob, but Rob did not return from John's house until around midnight. They had a delicious dinner. This matter also reflects, from another angle, that Rob, over the long term, was both taking care of Jane's daily life, staying with her in the hospital, and at the same time recording The Way Toward Health, and also filing taxes and organizing the content of the previous book, Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment. Throughout this whole process, Rob was actually also very hard-pressed. He finally had one evening when he could relax a little with some friends and neighbors, so he ate very late and did not come back until midnight. Yet in the middle of that, Jane called him twice, and he missed both calls.
Rob woke up around three o'clock feeling worried, and then sat for an hour before going back to bed. He had come back after midnight, and then woke at three in the morning, and after waking he just sat there for an hour, unable to sleep, and then did not go back to sleep until four o'clock. Then he used the pendulum to do a test, to see why he could not sleep. The pendulum told him that he was upset because he had delayed working on Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment. He was very agitated; he felt he should not have delayed, that he should have finished the tax work as soon as possible and started preparing early.
By 2:50, Jane began reading yesterday's session, and did quite well. After a good reading, she finished at 3:05. While Rob tried to focus on the mail, she smoked a cigarette, but Rob did not do well; he was a little sleepy. He had not slept well, you see, he had gotten up in the middle of the night after three, slept again at four, with an hour in between, and he had come back from his friend's and neighbor's house after midnight. From 4:00 to 4:07, people came to take Jane's vital signs, generally meaning taking her temperature and blood pressure. It was a little high; her temperature was 99 degrees, which was indeed a little high. At 100 degrees it would already count as a fever, a rather high fever. So we now know that Jane was in a feverish state. It was a little high, but Jane felt it was no problem. Rob was just beginning to think she would not have a session, when she told him to get paper and pen.
Now I bid you good afternoon once again -- Seth once more briefly showed himself, in order to activate those coordinates that are so important in the healing process. Seth said he came to strengthen those points in the healing process that are beneficial to Jane's physical recovery and healing.
Seth said:
Tell Ruburt to tell his arms and legs that they can be perfectly straightened, stretched, and bent.
This is having Ruburt directly give commands to his body and legs, to his arms and legs, and use their ability to move normally; this is an excellent idea. Have them tell them they can move normally; that suggestion is very valuable. And he used it very well, and Ruburt also did very well; his hands indeed began to improve at an accelerated pace, especially the right hand, so the fingers began to be able to straighten. His fingers previously could not straighten at all; think of a person whose fingers have been curled for a long time.
The rapid changes in eye movement show the same rapidity of muscular motion and response that is occurring in all other parts of the body.
What Seth means is that his eyes can quickly get better and quickly get worse within a few minutes, changing back and forth. The eye muscles can change rapidly, which actually implies what? That his muscles, the muscles in other parts of his body, such as the wrists, fingers, and legs, can also improve this quickly. That is, when our body improves, it does not require a long process. We often say illness comes like a mountain collapsing, and departs like drawing silk; this view is not correct. Recovery is sometimes a matter of an instant. He uses the fact that Jane's eyes alternate between good and bad to prove that the eye muscles are adjusting, and that unclear vision is simply a failure of muscle adjustment. He says Jane's eyes can alternate between good and bad, which proves that his muscles can alternate between good and bad; it is the same thing.
Seth said:
It would be a good idea if he could once or twice recall the jungle gym, and remember the first time his body was unsteady.
This jungle gym is just a jungle gym, a gym in Vestal, New York, where Rob's brother and Bill and his family lived. Seth told Jane that if he could once or twice recall being in this jungle gym, and remember the first time his body was unsteady -- it was in that gym that his body was first unsteady -- it would be a good idea. What good idea? He did not elaborate. What he meant was that very long ago, when Jane was at the jungle gym, when he and Rob went to exercise together, Rob first noticed that there was a staggering quality in Jane's movements. At that time he was still very young, but there was this staggering movement, the first time he was unsteady. What Seth means is that if Jane can recall that point in time, he can push forward from that point, meaning that after that point his body gradually began to show, although very slowly, that his body was beginning to be restricted. But before that point, Jane's body had always been normal, and his bodily functions had always been normal. What Seth means is: go back to that point, begin to think about your previous state, and then he recalls that before this staggering, this first unsteadiness, he should have been in a normal state. If he can then have himself imagine what it was like to move around in the gym without staggering, to think of that movement himself. In that way, he is also repairing the past. Remember, he is repairing the past.
What Seth means is, have him recall the first time he was unsteady, and then push forward from that point in time; he simply had no unsteadiness, he had no unsteadiness in his entire life. Have him recall that first half of his life when he had no physical problems at all, when he was exercising normally, running normally, moving normally; have him think about that. He says just such a recollection alone can change the past. Change what past? Change the past in which he was first unsteady at that gym. If there had not been that past in which he was first unsteady at the gym, then much of the later physical deterioration would not have appeared. That is, Jane would switch to the body of another parallel world of his, a completely healthy body, without linking to this body -- this body that had been restricted, with curled fingers, curled arms, curled legs. This point is actually Seth hinting that he use the method of the present being the point of power, to go back to the past and change the past. But he did not seem to emphasize it too strongly, though he did say it quite clearly.
But I have noticed a problem, which is that in communication between people, saying something clearly does not mean the other person can understand it or even hear it. Sometimes emphasis is needed, unless the other person is listening very attentively to every word you say, in which case saying it clearly is enough. But most of the time, when people are listening to you speak, they are not listening with full attention; they are thinking about their own things, their minds are turning, they are thinking about what they want to express, what they are reacting to, what they are thinking about; they are not emptying their minds to listen to you. In that case, most of the time they can only hear what is useful to them, or what they want to hear, and they simply ignore everything else.
Seth said that if he found it difficult to do this exercise, then let it go, and continue with his own safe suggestions. He said, if he cannot do it, then there is no way, then let it go. Actually, could Jane do it? Jane could do it. Jane's imagination is so strong, and his sensory abilities, his extrasensory abilities, were also partly opened; having him imagine his normal state would be no problem at all. But Seth felt that Jane might not necessarily do it at this time, or might not be able to do it. If Jane could not do it, then there was no need to force him; let him first do what he did the day before yesterday, which was to recall or imagine himself walking in the park; that would also be fine. Let us not even talk about going to the gym to work out. The reason he wanted him to work out was to help him find this sense of strength; this sense of strength is crucial, and the vitality and sense of strength of inner life will accelerate his recovery. But merely thinking of himself walking or climbing a slope would not be enough to allow Jane to fully recover to his healthiest state. Because some patients, or people who are not physically healthy, can also take walks, and can also climb slopes in the park. But a person who truly goes to the gym to work out is absolutely a completely healthy person, who can do those gym movements and exercises. Seth means this: if you cannot do this step yet, you can first do the previous one; that is also fine.
Seth said, "I may or may not return." Then he said, all right, thank you. It ended at 4:47.
Earlier this afternoon, Jane showed Rob her right hand, how the curled fingers had truly loosened somewhat, just as Seth had told her; her right hand was recovering especially well. Rob had applied some restorative ointment to the joints of both her hands, and he had noticed for a while now that changes had occurred in her left wrist and the back of her left hand; not only had her right hand improved, her left hand had also improved. Tonight, when Rob turned her over before dinner, the elbow of her right arm moved quite freely and relaxed. You see, her right elbow, the elbow of her arm, was already moving very easily, freely and relaxed. Her right knee was also getting better and better; her right knee was getting better and better. Not only had her elbow improved, her knee was also beginning to improve. So this priceless change -- remember Rob used the phrase "a priceless change" -- continued to occur. For Jane this was a priceless change, continuing to occur, and for Rob it was a great surprise, proving that Jane's body was recovering, was healing. If all her joints could move freely, she would be able to get out of bed and walk.
After Rob recited the prayer with her, he left Jane at 7:07. On his way out, he waved to Georgia Ceci25 in Room 307, but she had visitors, so he did not stop. Both of them immediately remembered the jungle gym at Webster Lake Park27; there was a jungle gym there. So many years ago, it was there that they first noticed the staggering in Jane's bodily movements. However, today when Seth brought this matter up, Jane did not seem sad. So perhaps now they could put that memory to good positive use, that is, starting from that memory, push forward to change that fact, to change that past. This is what Seth hoped Jane would do, that is, starting from her first bodily unsteadiness, the staggering, to change the past from that point. In the previous few sessions, they had discussed the topic of changing the past, and this time he brought it up again.
January 16
Monday, January 16, 1984, 4:23 p.m. Rob recorded that last night was very cold, and at 6:30 this morning it was still 5 below zero, 5 below zero Fahrenheit, which is already very cold, probably around twenty-something below zero Celsius. When he left home at noon to go to Room 330, the temperature was barely 10 degrees. He typed up a letter to their lawyer, related to their taxes, and mailed it at noon today. He later told Jane that he needed information about the donation received by Lydecott Cardwell28, meaning he needed some information, supplementary information. He suspected that this kind of money was taxable, and because it was legal, in order to legally avoid heavy taxes and losing too much of the money, Jane and he needed the lawyer to tell them what to do. Because when filing taxes in America, you can use legal tax avoidance methods to reduce your taxes. Taxes directly reduce your income. For example, if you earn 100,000 a year, and you pay 30,000 in taxes, then you only have 70,000 left. If through legal tax avoidance, say you only pay 20,000, then you have 80,000 left, 10,000 more. That is what it means, so he wanted to legally avoid taxes. Rob said maybe they would never see that money, that it might get eaten up by taxes. This Lydecott Cardwell28 might have to pay the bill for them. Paying the bill for them means that actually the money should not be paid by the other party, but the other party would have to pay. If the other party donates money to them, according to American law, the donor has to be a charitable organization, so that the donor, the person giving the money, can deduct their own taxes, so the other party can be tax-exempt. If you are not a charitable organization, then when they donate money to you, the tax bureau will not recognize it, the tax bureau will not give a deduction. At very low amounts it is possible, for example donating a few thousand dollars, that can be deducted, but if you donate tens of thousands, then it will not work. So he was now worried that if he could not provide some information, or his lawyer could not provide some information, to let the other party be tax-exempt, then the other party might have to pay extra taxes themselves. In any case, Rob thought the donor could declare a deduction, and he hoped that those who donated money to him could get a tax deduction.
Jane ate a good lunch, and afterward she described a series of experiences she had last night after they left. It happened after Rob left, around 8:15. Before the hospital staff came in to turn her on her side, it was hard to describe what she told Rob. It was not easy for her to put into words, and it would take many words and much time. Jane told him a great deal, and Rob said he wished he could write it all down, but he could not. He thought that in some of the experiences she was in various different states of altered consciousness, and in other experiences she was in a dreaming state. Rob said this section was very extensive, especially extensive. During this process she should have been in different alterations of consciousness, shifting from one consciousness to different consciousnesses, and part of it was also in a dreaming state. During this 8:15 process, sometimes she was dreaming, sometimes she was in different alterations of consciousness.
Jane began to describe it. At the beginning, Jane found herself as a little girl. You can understand this passage either as a dream, or as a mixture of dream and alteration of consciousness. At the Saratoga Springs where she grew up, yes, on the swings in the playground of St. Clement's Catholic Church29 and the school. When she was a little girl, she looked down and saw herself wearing black shoes and white socks, the way children dress, the way she looked in those old photographs. At that moment, she thought she was only four years old, she felt she was about four at that time. She said she knew the things she was doing on the playground at that time.
Then she found herself in warm bathwater, and quickly the next scene switched, she was in the hot springs, in the bathtub soaking in warm water. In a state full of sensual, erotic feelings, at this time she suddenly switched to an erotic feeling, soaking in the bathtub, especially her private parts, with erotic feelings. Jane said, I suddenly realized that I was fantasizing about that water, he was fantasizing about that warm water, the warm water in the bathtub, and I was in fact on the hospital bed. She said, actually, I was on the hospital bed. However, she thought, in any case, I can have a kitten here. She was lying on the hospital bed, but she fantasized that she was lying in the warm water of the bathtub, her whole body filled with this sensual, erotic feeling, this state of heightened erotic arousal. Then she went on to think, then since I am in the hospital, I had better get a kitten. She said, we have two rooms, and Rob could hide the kitten. Her ward had two rooms, he could hide the cat in the other room, and he could also hide the cat's litter box. I do not know how he did it, she did not know how Rob could hide both the litter box and the cat without the hospital finding out, since cats are not allowed in the hospital.
That was the second scene. In the third scene, Jane continued, she was trying to find a radio and a tape recorder in their hill house in Elmira, so she could lend them to Sue Watkins, who lived an hour's drive north of them. Sue Watkins also wrote two books called Conversations with Seth30. Sue was also a student in Jane's ESP class. During those years of ESP classes, Sue actually recorded much of the content of the ESP classes, and she also published two books.
While Jane was searching for the radio and tape recorder, suddenly she discovered many small holes stuffed full of tiny jewels and ornaments. Jane knew they were all hers, and she was very happy to know that, very pleased. Then, the rest of the time she was fiddling with the tape recorder. She found herself inside something like a freight car, a truck, the cargo box of a pickup truck. And she was also inside the chassis of a machine that played tapes, and this truck was in turn inside the chassis of a car that played a tape recorder, which was very interesting. And inside such a chassis, Jane and Sue were walking up and down around those beautiful jewel-like green hills. Inside this chassis, a chassis like that of a tape recorder, they were walking inside it. Green, jewel-like green, some greens were like jewels, like emerald-jewel green. She was walking on those hills, and Jane said it was utterly enchanting. Then Jane saw her own enormous face, a giant face, like the rising sun in the east, looking down at everything in sight. The colors of the jewels, the jewels would transform in this way, the green hills were like jewels, sparkling with emerald-like colors. Looking at Sue and Jane herself, and this vehicle, the vehicle was this chassis, a chassis made of a machine like a tape recorder.
In that experience, Jane did not actually see Seth, she only knew that Sue was there talking with Seth. Then that journey became distant and unclear, suddenly distant. And she was trying to figure out what to lend Sue, and she could not remember. She had originally wanted to lend Sue the tape recorder, but at that moment, she could not remember.
Remember, at this point she had already produced multiple consciousness focuses. There were many consciousness focuses here. One was that she remembered she wanted to lend Sue a tape recorder, that was one consciousness focus. What was the second consciousness focus? She was looking for the tape recorder, and while looking for the tape recorder, she discovered many small holes full of jewels, and she enjoyed the jewels for a while, very happy. Then somehow, she had another memory focus, she was inside the cargo box of a truck whose chassis was made of a tape recorder. Another focus, she suddenly saw herself and Sue inside this truck chassis, inside this machine like a tape recorder, and inside there were many beautiful green, emerald-jewel-like colors, hills of such beautiful colors, and she and Sue were walking around and climbing hills inside. During this process, at yet another focus, she saw her own big face, like the sun, like the rising sun in the east, looking down from the sky at her and Sue, which added yet another focus. When these focuses at each layer gradually receded, and consciousness became blurred, by the time she began to return to the earlier consciousness of wanting to lend Sue the tape recorder, she could no longer remember what she wanted to lend Sue. Here you can see her consciousness operating at different levels and depths. This was one of her magical experiences.
At 3:10, Rob cleaned Jane's glasses, put lipstick on her, and then looked into the mirror he held for her, he got her a mirror to look into. She even did this automatically on her own, she wanted to look in the mirror herself, and she smiled, though only briefly. Jane smiled at the mirror, and then Rob laughed out loud, telling her that her behavior reminded him of their cats this morning. When it was so cold, his cats, Billy and Mitzi, his two cats, had just stepped from the kitchen window onto the picnic table, and immediately turned around and jumped back into the house. Rob wondered whether his wife thought the comparison was humorous. Because it was so cold outside, several degrees below zero, several degrees below zero Fahrenheit, when his two cats wanted to go outside, before they even got outside, just jumping onto the picnic table in the yard, they immediately jumped back, because it was too cold, and he found it very funny.
At 3:38, Jane tried to read yesterday's session, but had a great deal of difficulty. In brief flashes of clear vision, her vision was clear only for very short periods, she read a little during these flashes of clear vision. Then she said, my God, Jane said, it is terrifying, when I do that, I am scared to death, anyone would be scared. What scared her meant was that she suddenly discovered that in her blurred vision state, there were actually moments of such clear vision, and although the time was very short, she found it amazing, impossible. She set the session aside, took a puff of a cigarette, and then Carla came in and took her temperature, 98 degrees, a bit better. Donna took her blood pressure. At four o'clock, Jane tried again to read the session text, and still could not read it, and she said, this makes me so mad. Oh, I forgot to tell you, this morning they drew blood, but they drew blood only to pretend it was now after breakfast, whereas the other tests, they have to be done before you eat, generally blood draws are done before eating, so they might come back tomorrow morning. At least, this was the first blood draw in several weeks, the first blood draw in recent weeks.
At 4:05, finally Rob read the session text to Jane, since she could not read it, Rob read it to her. Before beginning today's session text, she took a puff of a cigarette, and then Seth came. Seth said, I bid you good afternoon again. This session had many pauses, and then Seth said directly, regarding last night's experience, the process of those alterations of consciousness and dreams that Jane had shared with him.
Seth said:
Ruburt exhibited an excellent example of the mobility of consciousness.
The mobility of consciousness means the flexibility of consciousness, that consciousness can operate on different levels. Healing also occurs on different levels of consciousness. He said healing is not only happening in his present body consciousness or in a higher present mind, but healing is also occurring on other levels of consciousness. For example, he paused for a long time, overall, Ruburt's experience touched upon many of those levels, many levels of consciousness, and at each given level, it facilitated the healing process, and at every level it was beneficial to his healing.
Seth said:
The truck-bed episode represented life on one level of physical experience, even while he also existed as the gigantic-sized self that peered down from the mountaintop observing the progress of that process, which was an excellent depiction or portrait of the infinite inner self that observes and directs the physical self's existence.
They said this could be painted as a very large painting, a great painting. What does Seth's passage mean in interpretation? It means that in the dream, Jane saw herself looking down at herself from the sky, and that self in the sky was like an inner self, while the truck bed, that vehicle, indicated that because a truck represents a state of moving very fast, trucks run faster than people, a state of moving very fast. You can imagine the truck as a kind of body consciousness, a body consciousness that can move very well, can heal itself, can run up and down those green hills. He said, an inner self looking down from the sky at the body consciousness, that truck, can symbolize the form, his body consciousness, running very fast, free, unrestricted. In this way, the inner self from the sky was telling his body consciousness that it could recover quickly, that it could heal.
Seth said:
The sensual imagery of the earlier episode, the scenes in the bathtub, indeed represented heightened sexual ability and pleasurable aspects.
He indicated that Jane's sexual ability and her ability to please herself through sexuality were recovering and improving.
Seth said:
In the earliest episode, Ruburt experienced the health and joy of a child's body.
Because children are very healthy and joyful, swinging on the swings. Jane was experiencing this, with her innocent spontaneity, a child's bodily health is naturally spontaneous. This allowed him to make contact with the early vitality of childhood, to link with the young vitality of his four-year-old self, which was also helpful to his healing, and it was done in a sensory way, rather than as a memory. That is, it was obtained by becoming the little girl's body herself, rather than through recollection, and this effect would be very good.
Seth said:
The vivid and positive colors, referring to those jewel-like green hills, such colors are very beautiful, and helped remind his eyes of their ability to perceive very bright colors.
This ability also activated the nerves and muscles of his eyes, which were also recovering, reminding them of their natural ability, that he could naturally see such bright colors.
Seth said:
The truck-bed element, in addition to the interpretation already given, also represented the body as a vehicle, moving easily and agilely.
This vehicle in English means a car, vehicle, we translate it as "vehicle," abroad it means a car, and of course its academic name or original meaning is a vehicle. Moving easily and agilely. The entire episode showed that the mind, at any given time, by utilizing more than one level of consciousness, your mind not only uses one level of consciousness, but also multiple levels of consciousness, for example using the truck as a symbol to represent this, and deriving new experiences, the truck moves very fast. And Ruburt happily discovered his little jewel things representing the small but very valuable pleasures of daily life, which he was now rediscovering, discovering little pleasures in life, which was also very important to his healing.
Then Seth left. At this point Rob quickly said, may I ask a question? Seth said, you may. Then Rob asked, is there any connection to Jane finding herself inside a tape recorder, and being with Sue? What connection is there? Sue wrote two volumes of Conversations with Seth31, is there any relationship?
Seth said:
Sue represents a certain portion of Ruburt, the portion of himself that writes. She represents the psychic portion of Ruburt's personality, the part that helps with the writing.
What he meant was that Sue in that dream, Jane in the dream, she and Sue were climbing hills together, together inside that tape recorder. He said this indicated that Sue represented the part of Jane's self that writes. In the dream, the two of them being together represented the psychic Jane going to help the writing Jane. Sue was an embodiment representing the writing Jane, she represented helping him, and letting them share psychic knowledge and experience, that is, letting Sue share psychic knowledge and experience through writing.
Then after a long pause, Rob said, is that all, nothing more? He thought he would say a lot. Then Jane said, yes, that is all. At 4:38, Rob told Jane that the session ending at that point surprised him, because they had still been waiting for Seth to answer his question about Jane being inside the tape recorder. Jane was also surprised, because they had not expected that, that part of the question had not been heard, so Seth had not answered it. Rob did not speak aloud, perhaps Seth could talk about it next time, but perhaps next time he could address it. Rob told Jane that a tape recorder is obviously a communication device, so the connection might be there. He was thinking that Seth might give some more profound connection, because a tape recorder, were not many of the things they did like the work of a tape recorder? Seth would come, and then Rob would record it, and then organize it into text, which a tape recorder could do. Then Rob felt that the tape recorder might have even deeper meaning, and he wanted Seth to expand on it, but in the end Seth did not say anything. He thought that if Seth could comment on the kitten in Jane's experience, and the symbolism of the kitten as well, that would also be very interesting.
Rob went out at five o'clock to the parking lot to start the car first and let it warm up. The weather was so cold. He said that after he came back and turned Jane over, and after Ole gave her a massage, Jane showed him how the curled fingers of her right hand were still relaxing. The originally curled fingers of her right hand were now relaxing, and she showed Rob, look, I am still very relaxed, just as they had begun to improve yesterday. The movement of her right elbow was also very good, the elbow movement was also good, to the extent she could open it, quite free, and still increasing. Rob told her that the nodules on her right wrist had now shrunk considerably, as they had been gradually getting smaller for some time now. He said Jane slept well.
The Chapter Continues: January 17, 1984
This part begins on Tuesday, January 17, 1984, at 4:25 p.m. Rob came up first and gave a brief account of the situation: it was much warmer today, 30 degrees Fahrenheit at noon. This morning he was not interrupted while writing Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment, which seemed rather unusual. When Rob arrived at Jane's Room 330, Jane had already turned herself onto her back without any problem. Her hydrotherapy went fairly well, and no one came to draw blood again this morning. The curled fingers of her right hand were continuing to relax steadily.
Today he did not see Jane's doctor, nor did he see Georgia. Jane told Rob that Karina next door had been moved to a nursing home in Changsburg, a small community a few miles from Elmira. Rob was somewhat surprised and felt sorry for him, wondering how his progress would go and what new problems he would bring to that new place. For the first time in weeks, they did not hear Karina shouting loudly in Russian, or calling out in English — that disturbance was gone.
At three o'clock Jane began reading yesterday's session. It was difficult for her, but she persevered and finally finished at 3:30. Rob was looking through the mail, read several wonderful letters, and answered two of them. One of them had real potential, concerning a group of young actresses in New York City who wanted to read the Seth books in a series of radio programs32. Rob planned to send their proposal and letter to the publisher's editor, Lin Lunsden — probably because it involved copyright issues, and they needed to ask the publisher's opinion on whether the Seth books could be read on the radio.
At four o'clock a new nurse (perhaps a floater) took Jane's temperature: 98.4 degrees Fahrenheit. Jane said that although it was getting late, she wanted to have some session, and also said she wanted to read over the sessions that had come through again, "because I need them." This statement was important — "because I need them," she said it several times. At that point Seth came through and said: "Now I bid you good afternoon once again."
The Tape Recorder Analogy: Playing One's Own Consciousness at Different Speeds
In Ruburt's incoming experience, he found himself inside the chassis of a tape recorder. There are some subtle distinctions here. A couple of days ago when he was dreaming, didn't he dream of being inside a car chassis made out of tape recorders? The reason Jane dreamed this was to convey the following concept: a tape recorder can fast-forward, play at high speed, rewind, move forward, and also play at normal speed. What Seth wants to explain is that Jane is not playing a single tape at several different speeds; on the contrary, it is exactly the opposite -- one could say that Jane is playing her own consciousness at different speeds.
This sentence is very hard to understand. What does it mean? It means that in our dreams, or in meditation, or when entering higher experiences, we may go through different rhythms and speeds of consciousness. In this process, or in the course of our life experience, we are not playing back some past history, or a replay of previous experiences.
What he means more precisely is this: our life, our experiences, or those experiences we have during out-of-body states or in dreams, are more like a playback of our own consciousness. What is the difference here? A playback of experiences and history means you accept that this three-dimensional world is real, and that what remains in your mind is memory -- you simply recorded that memory like a tape recorder, and then you can choose to play any segment at different playback speeds. That is our ordinary understanding.
But that is not what Seth means. He is not saying that you record the events and history that supposedly occurred in this three-dimensional world and then play them back -- that is what people generally understand, as if it were a replay of memories. The correct understanding should be: it is a replay of your own consciousness itself, not a replay of the recording of that experience.
I don't know whether everyone can grasp the essential difference here. You are, in effect, re-experiencing this consciousness, or rather, it is alive. It is not a dead record, like something taped onto a cassette. Since it is alive, like a replay of consciousness, then this consciousness can be changed.
These two points are the essential difference: what is on a tape cannot be changed -- once it has been recorded, no matter how you play it, the result is the same. But when your consciousness is played back, because consciousness is subjective, not only can the speed of the tape playback change, but even the content within the consciousness can change.
Be sure to remember this: the sentence looks very short, but its content is not shallow. It reveals a great deal of underlying core thought. "Playing his own consciousness at different speeds" -- this is the core. He is not playing back some recorded material, nor the information that he himself recorded -- he emphasizes this point again. He says he is not listening to recorded material, which is what I just said: it is not something recorded, he himself is that information.
If you only look at the words, it may be hard to understand, but after my explanation just now, you can probably understand: he is a living, subjective consciousness, not something recorded, dead, and unchangeable.
Seth continues to explain:
In fact, it fits in very nicely with the actual neurological sequences with which consciousness plays. As you know, everything that lives has consciousness, and even what you call dead things possess their own kind of self-awareness. Self-awareness is consciousness.
Whether living or dead, everything can be aware of its own existence. Anything that can be aware of its own existence is called consciousness.
What he is talking about is "the analogy of the many speeds of consciousness." Our human consciousness has fast and slow -- what does fast and slow mean? Sometimes you feel that time passes very quickly, and sometimes you feel that time passes very slowly; or things switch very quickly, with many feelings and experiences, one perception after another, like a roller coaster, like a kaleidoscope, too much to take in; at other times it passes very slowly, years like a single day, without much change. The reason human beings can sense changes in the speed of consciousness is that it corresponds to actual neurological sequences. What he wants to discuss here is the biological speed of consciousness -- the speed of consciousness in different living beings has a certain correlation with their neurological sequences.
From our human perspective, a certain rhythm of consciousness may seem extremely slow -- between one perception and the next, perhaps a whole century may have passed. Other kinds may seem astonishingly fast, one perception after another, with only a few milliseconds in between. It is possible to be very fast, and these very fast perceptions would truly escape your perception entirely -- when the information received by our perceptual system exceeds the range that we humans can process or perceive, we are insensible to them.
However, in our inner perception, in our inner nature, all these rhythms are connected to one another. Seth makes a pun:
And in a manner of speaking -- forgive my pun -- each of them is balanced by the others.
This sentence is extremely crucial. Although our outer perceptual system cannot perceive those fast frequencies of consciousness, and also cannot perceive those very slow consciousnesses -- for example, if it only has one perception every several hundred years, for us humans it is simply impossible to feel it; within your perception it has no change -- but actually it does have change. It is just that if there is one perception every hundred years, you would long since be gone. The slow perceptions do not exist for you, and the fast perceptions do not exist either. For example, when something changes at the microsecond level, humans cannot feel it either. But within our inner senses, within our inner perceptual system, they can all be perceived, and they are mutually balanced with one another.
How should we understand this "balance"? Balance means that between fast and slow, there is no obvious difference of the kind we humans assume. According to the human concept of time there is a difference, but for consciousness itself, once it transcends the perception of time and space, there is none. For humans, consciousness has the distinction of fast and slow rhythms; but for consciousness itself, once it transcends the human tape recorder, there is no distinction of fast and slow.
In other words, if we imagine the content of these consciousnesses as a tape, the content recorded on that tape has no fast or slow. Fast and slow depend on the tape recorder itself -- if the tape recorder is very powerful, it can play at high speed or rewind quickly; if the tape recorder is not so good, it may only support one or two times fast-forward; the most ordinary tape recorder may not support fast-forward at all, and can only play at normal speed. This has nothing to do with the tape, and nothing to do with consciousness. Consciousness is simply what it is; they are mutually balanced and linked together, just as the information on a tape is connected in one continuous string.
What we play back may simply be a normal speed that humans can understand. For other species, perhaps the playback speed is different. This is related to our nervous system -- it depends on the reaction speed of our nervous system. If the nervous system reacts very quickly, we can accept very fast changes in the frequency of consciousness; if the nervous system is very slow, we can accept those very slow changes. Between this fast and slow, just like our visible light, is the portion of consciousness that we can perceive; beyond this range, whether faster or slower consciousness, it all escapes the perceptual range of human beings.
Seth says:
What makes the difference in perception is not the actual rhythm that is exhibited, but indeed the absence of some other rhythm, upon which, eagerly speaking, perception is superimposed.
The differences in rhythm, this sense of fast and slow that you perceive, are not related to the actual rhythm being exhibited. As I just said, the speed of the information on the tape has nothing to do with the speed of the sound that finally comes out -- it has to do with the playback speed of the tape recorder. The same tape, played on a tape recorder from another planet, might produce a different sound; even on Earth, the same tape recorder playing at different speeds produces different sounds. If this is hard to understand, you can listen to my lecture videos at 1.5x speed -- then the voice you hear will be different from the normal one. That has nothing to do with the speed at which I myself speak; I still speak according to my own rhythm and my own speed.
Then what is it related to? It is related to "the absence of other rhythms" -- that rhythm is not the rhythm in time that we humans understand, but the rhythm of consciousness itself. This already transcends human perception of time, so it is not easy to explain. Because as soon as you say "rhythm," the word rhythm itself carries time -- without time there is no rhythm to speak of. Yet to talk about the speed and rhythm of consciousness itself in the absence of time, there is no way to explain it. Seth is also at a loss for words here, because he cannot explain it -- to talk with you about fast and slow without the premise of time is meaningless; humans have no way to imagine it, and no way to describe it. For something to be fast or slow, the premise is that time exists. So it is not that Seth will not explain, nor that we will not explain -- he simply cannot explain it.
Here he only mentions one sentence, and you just need to remember this sentence: "Perception is superimposed upon it." How can we make an analogy? This consciousness itself has its own particular rhythm and frequency, but this rhythm and frequency is not referenced to time. You can understand it in terms of its quality, its depth, or the breadth, thickness, or richness of its consciousness -- but even this understanding cannot fully interpret what he is saying.
Let me give you another example. Suppose your consciousness has fast and slow -- for example, during a certain period you experience a very long, very slow rhythm of consciousness; but when you recall it, or when you perceive it, it may be very fast. It could also be the reverse. For example, you and a girl you have just met lightly brush hands, or hold hands once very simply; this casual contact, though very brief, perhaps less than a second, may be repeatedly magnified and stretched out in your consciousness, filled with infinite space for imagination and meaning.
Perhaps there is a perception that only occurs once a century, but when you perceive it, the century in between does not exist. You only perceive one perception followed by the next, and the next followed by the next. As for whether these two perceptions are separated by a hundred years or by one millisecond, this is not important to consciousness itself -- there is no such concept of time. For perception, it transcends the concept of time. So when you dream, you transcend the limitations of the nervous system; the events in dreams are extremely strange and varied, and in dreams you are not subject to any limitation of time.
Seth ends here. He says this session is very short, but its content is also very crucial. Then he says, "I may or may not return" -- following those rhythms I just mentioned, he is again making jokes and playing with humor.
The Symbolism of the Kitten and the Acceleration of Healing
Rob then asked Seth whether he wanted to answer the questions from yesterday's session, mainly concerning the reason for the kitten in Jane's experience. Seth said:
The kitten simply represented the fulfillment of hope, in that Ruburt indeed plans, the moment he returns home, to go get a kitten right away. In that experience, the kitten was in the hospital room, and there seemed to be adjacent rooms, as if it were apartment 458.
That was the address of their apartment on West Water Street. This meant that Ruburt was now establishing similarities with past experiences -- he was linking the present with the past. Therefore the kitten that appeared in the dream's present and past would indeed appear in the future.
Seth said that he was accelerating the coordinates of healing designed for Ruburt's treatment, and would therefore speed up those important healing processes.
At 4:40, Jane did very well. After dinner Rob reread these to her, and it seemed that Seth had already answered all the questions connected with Jane's experience of the previous afternoon -- that is, without Rob going into more details, otherwise the questions would have been endless.
January 18, 1984: Low Moods and the Continuation of Healing
The next session was on Wednesday, January 18, 1984, at 4:29 p.m. The weather was not bad; it was 25 degrees Fahrenheit when Rob went to Room 330, but the forecast called for snow in the afternoon. Jane was already lying on her back. His left shoulder had been bothering him, and he was clearly very depressed. Rob called the nurse to help pull him up higher in the bed so he would be more comfortable, and that seemed to help. Rob's own mood was not very good either.
Jane told Rob that the night before, Peterson had accidentally broken Ori's bottle and had thrown away the squeeze tube along with the broken glass. Squeeze tubes are hard to find -- the kind you squeeze things out of, like shampoo or cosmetics, the kind you press and press to squeeze the contents out. Rob asked Jane why he had not immediately told the nurse to keep the squeeze tube, but by the time Jane remembered about ten minutes later, it was already too late; the nurse had cleaned up the debris and thrown it all away.
For some reason, this news became a trigger that plunged Rob into his own depressed mood, and that mood lasted for most of the afternoon. Perhaps he was tired. He sorted through the mail, but he really did not want to do it.
At 3:15, Jane began reading yesterday's session, and he did quite well, better than yesterday. Carla came up to measure his vital signs and interrupted him; his temperature was 99 degrees Fahrenheit, and the session ended ten minutes later.
At 3:50, Rob needed to read some earlier sessions. When he arrived, Jane said that although it was already quite late, he still wanted to have a possible session. Seth said, "I bid you good afternoon again." Then he continued:
I appear once more, and once again, for the purpose of accelerating those coordinates that speed up the healing process.
Then Seth went on:
You have both done quite well in handling your not-so-good moods, so let it go for now. But when you are feeling low for a while, it is especially important for Ruburt to look in the mirror, put on lipstick, and smile in whatever way.
He said that when Ruburt is in a bad mood, the best approach is to look in the mirror, put on lipstick, and smile. Sometimes it really does bring out a humorous side, and that automatically lifts his mood. When you do this, on the surface it does not seem to come from inner joy, and there is no humor in it either, but the very act of looking in the mirror and putting on lipstick sometimes makes Ruburt feel a trace of humor in it, and that bit of humor automatically lifts Ruburt's mood.
Seth said again:
Once again, the eyes show such agility in muscular response and neural activity.
That is to say, the condition of the eyes can transform quickly, and the same is true of the rest of the body -- it can all transform just as quickly. In that respect, make more connections toward health. Ruburt's body does indeed often become unusually warm -- is his temperature rising? Because it was 99 degrees Fahrenheit, a little higher than normal, and that is because Ruburt generates heat when he is making connections in the direction of health. That heat is the result of accelerated bodily activity; he really does produce heat. That is characteristic of many -- if not most -- healing experiences. Many people, in various offline activities, including meditation, or during certain practices, feel their bodies grow warm, and they have similar sensations. It is the same thing here; it is a phenomenon that manifests as a characteristic of healing.
Seth said:
Once again, it is extremely important that Ruburt keep his purpose in mind. And remember that regardless of mood, the healing process continues. His right hand has already been steadily improving, and he has been doing very well at reminding himself that all his limbs can be safely stretched in a normal way -- that stretching and bending the limbs expresses their true capacity for activity and movement.
What he means is, do not be tense and suspicious all day long just because there may be temporary low moods during the process of your body's recovery, as if the moment your emotions dip, the body's healing will immediately reverse. It will not. As long as your general direction is sound -- as long as the goal of your larger consciousness is sound -- even if your mood is sometimes bad, the healing will not stop. He gave them a positive belief, fearing that the two of them might develop a sense of loss because of their depressed emotions.
Seth said, "Now I may or may not return, but know that I am here and approachable." He was about to leave again. He said a little more: Paige Gallagher33 telepathically picked up on your mood, and sensed the impulse to come visit. The reason Paige came to see them was that she had sensed their telepathic summons.
At 4:30, Rob mentioned that he himself had found Paige's actual visit strange -- how had she just shown up? Rob had only thought of her, until Seth brought the matter up. That day Rob completely forgot to tell Jane to look in the mirror. Before leaving at about 7:05, Rob read the session to Jane. The snow was still falling; he had no problem driving up the hill, but it was a little slippery. After he finished typing, he might at least go shovel part of the snow off the driveway.
January 19, 1984: Comments on Another Channeled Book
The next session is January 19, 1984, Thursday, 4:13 p.m. The temperature was only 18 degrees Fahrenheit, a few degrees below zero. Yesterday afternoon and evening there was a small snowstorm, and late last night and early this morning Rob shoveled the snow off the paths.
This morning there were no phone calls. Rob forgot to call the lawyer earlier, and when he did remember, he said, "forget it," and went on with his work on Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment. On the way to the hospital, he stopped at the post office to mail Lin Lunsden a photocopy of a reader's letter they had received—the matter mentioned in the last session, about those young New York actresses planning to read the Seth material on the radio.
Rob said he had received a reader's letter—a reader who publishes a fanzine and wanted to run a free one-year ad for the Seth material in it. Rob never really knows what to do with such offers—accept or not? And recently he has answered several letters of this kind.
However, today he opened a package containing channeled material similar to the Seth material—another reader had sent him a channeled book very similar to the Seth material. Rob guessed he ought to say thank you to the publisher and the medium, because they had thought of them and sent them the book. He is a great guy, so this was an affirmation for him. But actually, Rob thought that these two people had made their material:
It talks about All That Is, yet it moves it too far away from its human source and from its daily contact with human personality, and therefore only produces another occult book.
What he meant was that he had received another channeled book sent by a publisher. This book was very much like the Seth material, but what it lacked was any discussion of human origins and of daily contact with human personality—in the words of us ordinary people, it had no human warmth, and none of the everyday human affairs and worldly wisdom; right from the start it was all high and grand, talking about All That Is. So such a book is just another occult book, because it lacks human emotion in it.
Rob is right. Actually, when we look at many such channeled books—there are many people who channel, and many people write down what they channel and turn it into books—that does not mean all channeled books carry the same weight as the Seth material. One of the main reasons is that they lack emotional connection; there is no feeling in them. The second is that they have no newer insight. What they say over and over are the most basic ideas—All That Is, love, love yourself—those theories are the most widespread, popularized things, the kind of thing you can find in any mind-body-spirit book; you don't need
Jane's Progress and Seth's Closing Comments on Chapter One
Jane ate a good lunch, then he asked Rob to bring the mirror. The lipstick was already worn off, but when he looked in the mirror he smiled briefly, showing his teeth, much better than yesterday -- yesterday they had not looked in the mirror at all.
At three o'clock Jane began reading yesterday's session, and read it quite well, finishing in about ten minutes, which was quite good. Then Rob went back to reading the incoming letters. At 3:33, Jane began reading today's second session -- the one from January 17 -- and again did very well.
Rob recalled what had unsettled him today about the channeled book the publisher had sent. What actually made him uncomfortable was its narrow viewpoint. The book's perspective was very narrow, like a book on geology or clothing or any of those countless other books, with no questioning mind operating behind it, no new ideas or theories, only the familiar viewpoints about All That Is, about love, reincarnation, and so on, rehashed. Perhaps it was fair-minded, but it lacked original insight -- no originality, and no uniqueness. It was not like the Seth material, which has originality and its own uniqueness, and also its very deep, inner, higher-dimensional wisdom within it. In other traditional channeled books, that is generally not seen.
Rob told Jane about his dream from the night before last: he dreamed that his former neighbor from his old apartment, Leonard, came, and together they moved into an apartment at 458 -- originally neighbors, now they had moved in together. In that dream the house was much larger than the real environment, and he had had this kind of dream more than once, and it felt very good. Rob guessed the dream was because one night he had run into Leonard at the new supermarket, where Leonard had been joking and repeating several times how good his body felt after his heart surgery.
Jane said he thought the dream meant that all three of them had begun a journey toward greater health and a better, more optimistic outlook on life -- he dreamed of living together with Leonard, and Leonard repeatedly emphasized to him how wonderfully well he felt after his heart surgery.
At 3:42, the nurse took Jane's temperature: 97.2 degrees Fahrenheit, it had come down. Jane began reading today's third session -- the one from January 14 -- and this time did even better, fast and easy. He was interrupted while reading by staff members coming to give him eye drops and take his blood pressure, and finished that session at 4:02. He said the eye drops were as good as any he had ever seen, and sometimes made things astonishingly clear -- this was after he found that he really had read very well.
At 4:05 he had a cigarette, then told Rob that both his hands were still progressing and changing. "I wish they would go faster, but I know they are changing."
Now Seth said: "I bid you good afternoon again." Then he dictated:
My readers, if any of you are in poor health -- or generally unhappy -- no one is asking you to pretend those conditions do not exist. I do want to show you that even those unfortunate conditions are created by a misguided good intent.
It is not asking you to pretend those things do not exist -- I clearly feel unwell, yet I still say I feel fine; clearly I am unhappy, yet I still say I am happy. That is not the meaning. It is not about ignoring these things, not acknowledging them, but about letting you see that those so-called discomforts, ill health, and unhappiness are also created by an underlying good intent. It does indeed make you uncomfortable, unhappy, and unpleasant in this present moment, but its starting point was to make you better.
He continued:
In this book, however, we will keep reminding you that exuberance and high spirits are a natural part of your heritage. If you have lost that exuberance and that state of high spirits, we also hope to let you recapture those feelings, and to give you other methods for keeping those emotions fresh and intact.
Exuberance and a state of high spirits are naturally yours; you do not need to do anything extra, they are things you already have inherently. If you have lost these two, we also hope to let you recapture those feelings, and also hope to give you some methods to maintain them.
Readers will benefit in many different ways according to their own circumstances or intents. But every reader will benefit to some degree -- whether physically or mentally -- becoming familiar with these inner sources of vitality and soundness that are so important in human experience.
Each person benefits in different ways according to their own circumstances, but regarding these two points -- maintaining these two, believing that these two are abilities you inherently possess -- you will receive benefits in different ways. You must find the source of this exuberance and high-spirited fighting will, which is very important for us human beings. If you lose these two, a person will live listlessly, and life will be lifeless. If you have lost them, you must try to find them again, or reignite them.
Then Seth said, "End of Chapter One."
At 4:19, Seth commented further that since Ruburt now had more life force, he sometimes appeared impatient with his progress. Because Ruburt's spirits had improved and his life force had recovered a great deal, he had a tendency to be impatient with his own progress. When a patient is very seriously ill, he does not even have impatience -- that is a state where he does not even have the spirit to be impatient. Now Ruburt was somewhat impatient with his own recovery, wanting to recover a bit faster -- this was actually a sign that his life force was recovering, and it was a good thing. He felt his spirits were better, and of course he wanted to become more active.
Seth said:
His food is helping him more and more, and he is digesting his food far better than before, and this does indeed allow the healing process to speed up. At the same time, when all portions of the body, so to speak, are starting up again, there is often that imbalance.
When your body returns to a normal state, there will be times of some imbalance -- because the body does not recover all at once; some functions may recover first, some parts may recover first. Those that have not recovered may temporarily be somewhat imbalanced. Seth said today's eyes showed what he meant -- Jane's eyes had recovered quite well, and occasionally he was briefly better than he had been able to read so far; he could make his eyes recover especially well for a short time, yet then it seemed to fall back to the previous level, and then it swung back and forth through various stages.
Seth said:
You must follow his advice, therefore he concentrates on the joys he possesses, puts his energy on the joys he possesses, and does not think about the things that are not joyful, the things that are unhappy. Keep his purpose in mind -- he wants to walk healthily again, to walk out of the hospital room -- and trust the desired results brought by his inner infinite wisdom.
He must believe that his inner infinite wisdom can bring him the results he wants. If he has no confidence or does not believe, then recovery is very difficult. This confidence, this trust, releases his mind -- releasing the mind means not letting the mind worry anymore -- and allows his progress to continue continuously. If the mind's worries intrude from time to time, they will hinder the body's recovery.
Then Seth said congratulations on the new edition of their Oversoul Seven education series -- he was referring to the Oversoul Seven series, that is, The Education of Oversoul Seven, which in translation should be called "Oversoul," because this is The Future Education of Our Soul, and oversoul means "超灵," "Oversoul Seven"34. This book was a republished edition, turned into a pocket book -- a small volume, the kind you can put in your pocket. Nine books in all. Very good, congratulations to them.
Rob asked Seth, may I ask a question? Seth said yes. Rob asked what Seth thought about his dream of Leonard, Jane, and himself moving back into this apartment together. Seth said:
The interpretation you discussed is a good one -- Leonard expressed his good health, and you took good health as a neighbor.
Seth's statement was especially wonderful. Leonard had also had heart disease before, and later had heart surgery -- probably a heart bypass operation or something similar -- and this person completely recovered his health. In the dream, he appeared as a symbol of health, moving into a house with you to live together. The symbol in such a dream indicates that your health has already begun to improve -- because health itself has moved into your home.
Rob said he had another question. He said:
I had not prepared to ask this question this afternoon, but lately I have noticed that when I look at things close up without my glasses, my eyesight is not as good as before.
He probably had presbyopia. But Rob said he did not think it was a physical cause; he thought the recent events had upset him -- it was not a matter of presbyopia, but should be expressed through that kind of upset. Although not serious, sometimes it made him very uncomfortable. He had not spent a lot of time trying to interpret it.
Seth said: "Wait a moment." Then he said:
Your eyes' condition is that you are worried that the desired effects may not be brought before your eyes. You are afraid that the results you hope for will not come before your eyes, so you make yourself unable to see clearly -- that is a version of things not entering your close-range vision.
This is a symbol. You are afraid that the things you want cannot come before your eyes, so you make yourself unable to see clearly the things in front of you, and in this way you can avoid this problem. Seth continued:
When you have that feeling, you may close your eyes, even if only for a moment, and assure yourself that you can trust your vision -- both physical and mental vision -- and that indeed your purposes will be brought into clear focus.
The meaning here is that you must work on both at the same time -- from the body, which is "I can see clearly" -- to the mind, which is "the goals I want will certainly be realized" -- only then can you resolve your vision problem. When you cannot see clearly at such times, you can close your eyes and rest for a moment. When you close your eyes and rest, you should think: my body can let my eyes see clearly, and at the same time the goals in my mind will certainly be realized clearly. Work on both at the same time.
Rob said okay. At this point Jane said Seth had left, and thanked Seth. At 4:32 Rob said that Seth's advice was, as always, always so wonderful. He felt relieved, and would try that technique. He planned to type out Seth's suggestion and put it somewhere he could see it while writing, perhaps right on the desk. Rob told Jane he thought that question had been triggered by today's session material, especially the part about Leonard.
Rob was also a man of action -- he wanted to type out Seth's suggestion directly and put it on the desk where he could see it at any time, so he could practice it whenever he had a moment.
Well, the interpretation of Chapter One, Part Seven of the Seth material The Way Toward Health ends here.
January 20, 1984
This part of the session began at 4:33 p.m. on Friday, January 20, 1984. Rob first introduced that last night Jane had called him with Carla's help. The night was very cold, and when he got up at 6:30 in the morning it was still six degrees below zero Fahrenheit, which is more than twenty degrees below zero Celsius. When he left home for Ward 330, it was only twelve degrees above zero Fahrenheit. The forecast said the weekend weather would still be bitterly cold.
This morning Jane went for hydrotherapy as usual, but was not very satisfied with that system. While she ate a good lunch, Rob thought to tell her that the typewriter repairman had called this morning, saying the repair fee plus a box of a dozen ink ribbons came to ninety dollars altogether. In that era, printer repair fees were quite expensive; ninety dollars was quite a lot. The typewriter was still a very common word-processing tool until the nineties, until computer printers became widespread; before that, people basically still used manual typewriters.
Rob forgot to mention while talking about other things that he had also called their optometrist, asking his secretary to have him call back, so that he could ask him one or two technical questions about the notes he had written for Session 901 of Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment, a session that may have mentioned something about Jane's vision recovery. Since he had to wait for a return call, Rob could not leave home to pick up Jane's typewriter. Before he sent his own typewriter that needed repair in for service, he wanted to try Jane's to make sure it had no problems. Both of their typewriters had problems; he wanted to bring back Jane's repaired typewriter to use first, and then send his own that needed repair in for service. Because typewriters in that era were all old-style mechanical ones, after being used for a long time they all needed readjustment and repair, otherwise they were not easy to use.
At three o'clock, Jane began reading yesterday's session, reading much more slowly than yesterday, and then she finished at 3:25. At 3:43 she began reading the session from December 27, 1983, doing better than she had previously. She was interrupted by people coming to take her vital signs; her temperature was 98.3 degrees. After several breaks in between, she finally finished reading that content at 4:20.
Jane again spoke of her impatient mood. She really wished the progress would happen much faster than it actually did. Rob said he thought her impatience might be a driving force for the speed of the healing. Impatience is a driving force; Seth had also mentioned in the previous session that only after you have life vitality can you be impatient, and actually impatience is not necessarily a bad thing. Not just in this matter, but in other matters as well. A person who is impatient proves that his life force is vigorous; if his life force were not vigorous, he would not even have the mood to be impatient. At least it shows your body that you want to do something. Compared to having no driving force, having a driving force is much better. Jane agreed.
Then Jane came through, and Seth came, and said good afternoon again. Seth said:
I am again appearing to accelerate those conditions that speed up the healing process.
Every time Seth appeared it was to accelerate those conditions of the healing process. This was also why, when Seth was transmitting The Way Toward Health, he did not come once or twice a week as before, but basically came every day, when the body permitted, to say a short passage. The way he came every day to appear and say a short passage had already been clearly established each time: he came precisely to strengthen Jane's healing process. In this way he gave Jane an affirmative answer and confirmation.
Then Seth said:
I am right about Ruburt's impatience. He should use it as a tool, however, and not let the impatience use him.
We must learn to use impatience as a tool to push things forward, but not be used by impatience. Even though impatience does indeed want to serve as a driving force, as a stimulus for further activity and movement, he must therefore treat that impatience as a friend, not an enemy. Jane must not treat the mindset of impatience as something bad, must not judge it, and must not treat it as an enemy, saying to herself, "Why am I impatient again? I should not be impatient." Impatience is a good tool that can be used; it is a stimulus for one's own further activity and movement.
Seth said the remaining bedsores would even heal on their own at a faster rate. Jane had bedsores because she had been lying in bed for a long time unable to move, and even turning over required help from others. For such a patient, the parts of the body that are in contact with the bed for long periods basically have no blood circulation, and they bear pressure for a long time. People with normal bodies cannot understand this, because our bodies are actually moving all the time, and no part is pressed against a flat surface for a long period. When your body truly cannot move, the blood circulation in those areas will have problems, and they will ulcerate, and sometimes bedsores appear.
Seth said that since she now digests protein much better than before, her mental practice involves the inner self and the heart cells, to stitch up those bedsores. Earlier this afternoon, Jane had told Rob about that matter -- her bedsores were beginning to heal, beginning to improve. Seth said it was working very well, but she should do it with a playful attitude, not too seriously, not too tense, and not thinking about when it will be better or whether it can be faster.
At this point the session was over, very short. Seth said I may or may not return, and then he left. At 4:38, Jane said her hands were still progressing. When Rob turned her onto her left side and massaged them in certain ways, Rob also felt as if that were so. After Rob took a short nap, Jane ate well as usual, and at 7:05 she read the prayer together with Rob.
January 21, 1984
Let us look at the next session, Saturday, January 21, 1984, at 4:11 p.m.
Last night was bitterly cold, and when Rob got up at 6:30 it was still five degrees below zero. After breakfast he drove out to run a few errands, preparing the installment payment checks to mail, and so on. On Monday he picked up Jane's typewriter. Jane told him that this morning at 10:30 the nurse had changed her IV catheter, and just before he arrived they had finished changing her bandages -- her bedsores needed gauze changes.
She ate a good lunch. While she ate, Rob described his reactions and thoughts about Quest for Fire35 -- a famous film from two years before, which they had watched part of on Showtime television last night during dinner. Rob said he was extremely curious what Seth would comment, because what that film portrayed was so completely at odds with what Seth had said in Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment about early humans. In Seth's portrayal of the subject of early humans, the relationships between people, and between people and species, were interactive and mutually fulfilling, while this film clearly was not.
Rob said he expected there would be a great difference. Watching the film portray their early history made it seem as if life eighty thousand years ago was unimaginably savage. If that film were correct, he did not understand how our ancestors survived -- it must be wrong, because what it portrayed was only barbarism. Animals, apes, dogs, humans, cannibals, and so on; under those circumstances, if anyone lived past the age of twenty, Rob told Jane it would be a miracle. No compassion, no intuition; the characters in the film rarely showed understanding. Apart from survival of the fittest and selfishness, they clearly had no concept of how human infants could be given long periods of care -- when they were only growing. He was describing that film.
On Rob's way to Ward 330, Georgia called him into her room, saying she would have some kind of back surgery next Monday or Tuesday, and she had also been moved to Surgical Ward One on the first floor. Rob had a toy unicorn to give her tomorrow, along with a poem Jane had written, both of which were spiritual and creative. The following is Jane's poem:
The unicorn said oh, autumn take me to see my good friend Georgia -- Sesi. He said oh, I will open myself, I will happily hop and skip, in exchange for a smile from my friend Georgia -- Sesi. My magical power will set him free, my good friend Georgia -- Sesi.
At 3:18, Jane began reading yesterday's session, but at first it was very difficult. As they handled the mail, she did a bit better. Then when she read the last page, she became quite good. "My eyes are starting to get better," she said at 3:25. At 3:29 she began reading the session from December 28, 1983, again proceeding slowly, and she gave up at 3:40 and had a cigarette. A few minutes later Carla came in to take her temperature: 98.5 degrees, almost perfect. At 3:55 Jane's blood pressure and pulse were taken again, and then she went back to reading those sessions, doing better. At 4:10 Jane announced she was ready for the session. She told Rob she had already told him that she thought Seth would comment on that film; she could feel that Seth was going to comment on some of the content in the film Quest for Fire35 they had just been talking about.
Now Seth came. Seth said:
I bid you good afternoon again.
Seth said:
The picture you spoke of, of man, animals, and nature as portrayed in that film, is the only possible portrayal that could logically show reality -- when we consider the beliefs upon which that premise is based.
What he meant was, the kind of scene described in that film is only one of many possibilities; it is a picture portraying the only possible depiction of reality, and only logically. Remember, it is not fact, only logical. Logically there is this possibility, but in actuality it is not correct.
Seth said:
In that environment, man and animals were both portrayed as fierce, hostile to each other, each determined to survive at the expense of the other.
If the film portrayed that kind of situation, humanity could not survive -- as far as each other was concerned, and in that respect, no animal could survive either, nor could other animals. If it were as the film described, with this kind of hostile, mutually competitive survival state between people, between people and animals, and between people and the environment, then not only could humanity not survive, but other animals could not survive either.
Seth said:
Regardless of any theories to the contrary, all of the world's other physical aspects and all other creatures depend upon an inborn cooperativeness.
Remember, it is an inborn cooperativeness. Species do not compete with each other for a given piece of territory or domain, no matter how much it may appear to be the case. No matter how much people observe what seems to be animals fighting over living space -- for example, predators all have their own territories, and when other predators enter they will certainly fight to the death -- this seems to have become a fixed understanding we humans have of the natural world. But the actual situation is not like this at all; there is a mutually cooperative relationship between them, and this cooperation is innate, inborn. Seth finally did not know how to say it, so he could only say, "That is just how it is, the world is just like this," no matter how much it may appear to you to be contrary to this viewpoint, because that is just how it is -- what we observe and the actual situation are often completely opposite.
Seth said science promotes this idea:
The predatory, unchanging nature of nature and all its parts, while nature's cooperative characteristics are treated as quite unusual or rare -- as if they were outside the norm.
This last sentence was said with a sarcastic and amused tone. Science treats this kind of collaboration and cooperation between species and species, between individuals and individuals, and across species as a special case, as if it were something new and rare. For example, when we were discussing The 21-Day Abundance Journey, one of the images was of an elephant using its trunk to lift up a small lion cub in the desert that was basically dehydrated and about to die from the sun, carrying it to a water source. Such a picture happened to be captured by a photographer and became a widely circulated photo for a long time. Then we regarded this as a special case -- an elephant caring for a young lion -- because they are natural enemies. First of all, the very concept of "natural enemies" does not exist; it is something humans forcibly imposed, saying that certain creatures are natural enemies of others. We also depicted a food chain in the ecological environment between species, to establish the order and hierarchical relationships between heaven and earth. But in essence, there is no hostility between them. You can say there is a food chain, that is certain, but to say "natural enemies" -- there is no such hostility in it. Occasional cooperation of this kind, however, we regard as a very unusual behavior, which again makes one feel it is quite laughable, because cooperation is the norm.
Seth said:
Even at the most microscopic levels of biological life, there is a vast, inborn network of cooperative activity, which unites the animal and mineral kingdoms and all other aspects of earthly existence.
Everything is cooperative. Every organism has a purpose, and it must fulfill its capabilities in such a way that it benefits all other organisms. This is mutual collaboration to fulfill their capabilities, and the way they fulfill their own capabilities is by helping other organisms. This is very simple: bacteria fulfill their own capabilities, and then they are beneficial to other organisms. Bacteria have no malice or hostility toward humans, or rather, from a scientific perspective, most bacteria are beneficial to humans. Bacteria harmful to humans make up only a very small minority, and this is only the viewpoint of human science. But in essence, every kind of bacteria, from its own perspective, contributes to the entire earthly environment in which humanity lives, even if you consider some bacteria to be harmful.
Seth said:
Each organism is helped in its development by other organisms. The smooth functioning of one contributes to the soundness of all.
The smooth functioning of one organism -- a single species living very well -- contributes to the soundness of all the others.
Seth said:
Man did not begin hunting animals until a certain animal group needed a method of controlling its numbers.
Seth's viewpoint here is quite novel. He says it was not that humans began hunting animals, but rather that when the population of a certain animal reached a certain number, and they needed to begin reducing their numbers, it was only then that the need for humans to hunt that type of animal arose. From the human perspective, humans needed to hunt animals to obtain food; from the animals' perspective, their numbers ought to be brought under control. You see, humans got food, and the animals' numbers were controlled. This was a cooperative relationship, not what you imagine, where humans hunted animals purely for their own survival.
Seth says:
As I said earlier, humans and animals learn from each other. They are close allies, not enemies.
Close allies, not enemies.
Humans also have kept animals almost from the very beginning, and animal husbandry also existed very early on, so both humans and animals helped each other.
Humans and animals help each other; they work together.
Seth says:
The stability of life on the planet depends first of all on this basic cooperation, in which all species work together.
We earthly creatures, the entire biosphere, the entire ecosystem, all cooperate with one another, rather than compete with and harbor hostility toward one another.
Seth says the human brain was its present size from the very beginning. According to scientists, the human brain was very small at first, and as humans evolved it continually increased, reaching its present size. But Seth says this is simply not correct; the human brain was this large from the very beginning. Then at 4:28 the nurse came to change Jane's IV, which interrupted them. Rob then read to her. Rob had mentioned that the bond between humans and animals had already begun to cooperate during the period that was largely a dream state. This was Rob's addition.
After the nurse finished changing the fluids, Jane continued. Seth says:
And animals existed in the form you know them today.
This means animals and humans were like this from the very beginning; there is no long-term evolutionary result as people imagine. The cat you see is exactly the same as when cats first appeared on Earth, with no change. There is no such so-called concept of evolution that people themselves fabricated, from single-celled organisms to multicellular ones, and even less is there the kind of survival of the fittest, natural selection, and mutual competition described by evolutionary theory. None of that exists.
Species did not evolve from a single organism, a single cell, all the way to today's complex state, as we imagine. Species were like this from the very beginning. Single-celled organisms still exist, and complex organisms also exist at the same time. This is normal; there is no such evolutionary state.
Seth says:
No animal or virus is ever extinct. Nothing is extinct.
We say this species has gone extinct, but there is no extinction; everything still exists. It has only temporarily left this three-dimensional world of ours, and it will come back again. Just like viruses from millions of years ago, they may all reappear. Some animals may also appear again outside of human history.
Seth says they are maintained within an inner network, within an overall earthly knowledge memory:
They exist within an inner network, and are maintained in an overall earthly knowledge memory, a biological memory. Thus each smallest microbe has within it the biological information to form every other microbe, inscribed upon it.
Every microbe can form other microbes. So if a certain microbe goes extinct, it is not truly extinct, because their biological information is stored in other microbes similar to them. When this extinct microbe is actually needed, it will emerge again, using the information of those microbes that did not go extinct, and can be directly created.
Seth says:
The existence of one presupposes the existence of all. And the existence of all is inherently innate within the existence of the one.
These two sentences describe a dialectical relationship: you are within me and I am within you; the greatest has no outside, the smallest has no inside. It is an analogy for a holographic universe. Any single species contains the information of all living things on Earth, and it depends on the existence of this information for that species to exist. You see it as single, as having a single form, but they exist as a whole. This is not easy for ordinary people to understand.
But if you understand quantum entanglement or quantum physics, it is very easy to understand. In quantum entanglement, we can imagine that the entire universe, our physical universe, or our Earth, is one great quantum entangled state. All living things, all species, all matter have a certain entanglement within them. In such an entangled state, as long as you know the state of any single species or individual, you can immediately know the state of other species. Just like two entangled electrons or photons, no matter how far apart they are, if you change the state of one you can change the state of the other. In other words, if you know the state of one, you know the state of the other. Suppose there are a million entangled individuals together; if they are in an entangled state, knowing one means knowing the information of all the remaining individuals. This is only the case within an entangled state.
To put it in more common terms, this is a kind of holographic universal information. Any single existence, through this theory of entanglement, allows you to know the existence of other species. This is what Seth is saying here: the existence of the one presupposes the existence of all, and the existence of all is inherently innate within the existence of the one. A single individual contains the information of all existence.
Seth then left, saying I may or may not return. Rob asked if he wanted to say anything about Ruburt's condition. Seth says:
Ruburt continues to improve, and overall his strength increases day by day. Certain conditions are occurring within the body that will soon bring about very obvious actual progress in bodily activity and overall cooperation.
At 4:43, after pausing for a while, Rob said Jane had done very well. He was especially pleased to receive Seth's encouraging words about Jane's own condition. Jane was very happy about this, because she was still impatiently waiting for more progress, and she needed external affirmation. With Carla's help, she was calling Rob at 9:47. As she was about to finish the session, Rob told her the temperature had already dropped below zero. Jane slept warm and comfortable.
January 22, 1984
All right, let us look next at Sunday, January 22, 1984, at 4:07 p.m. Rob said that before he got up at 6:30 in the morning, the temperature was 5 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, very cold. By the time he left home at 12:30 to go to Room 330, it had risen to 15 degrees Fahrenheit. On the way to Jane's room, he stopped in Surgical Ward One and gave Georgia the unicorn he had bought for her yesterday, along with the poem Jane had written, which he had transcribed onto a card they had bought. Georgia was going to have surgery next Tuesday.
In Georgia's room, Rob ran into a nurse who had previously cared for Jane. She had undergone the same surgery, several X-rays, which was what Georgia needed for her herniated disc. While Rob was there, she gave Georgia many negative suggestions, saying things like "that kind of thing you won't soon forget," and so on, negative information about this kind of surgery for a herniated disc.
Later this nurse came by unannounced to say hello to Jane. Jane said she hoped she was not under her care. After she left, Jane said, "I want to get out of here." Why? Because a nurse with such negative beliefs can actually do a great deal of harm to a patient.
Jane ate a very good lunch. Rob told her that last night he had a very vivid and colorful dream: Jane and Rob were walking along the riverbank toward Sayre, on a hiking trip. They were both wearing very brightly colored clothes, and it was a beautiful, mild day. Friends were traveling with them, and they invited them to ride in a car to their destination, but they refused. Jane especially insisted on walking together along the riverbank. Jane's hips were completely normal and strong, and she appeared to be in excellent health.
Rob also told Jane that, besides that dream, he also hoped Seth would comment on another matter. What was it? This morning when he woke up, he had Maude Cardwell on his mind, including the letter he had written to her two weeks ago, the person who had donated money to them. He had almost forgotten about her, and he wanted Seth to comment on Maude's reaction to that letter. Rob told Jane he wanted her to know his question, in case they received a letter from Maude this week. He thought there must be a reason he thought of her so clearly this morning. Jane agreed they would soon receive word.
At 2:38, Jane put on lipstick and then looked at her short hair in the mirror. At 3:00 she began reading yesterday's session, which was not easy, and then stopped at 3:20 to have a cigarette. Rob handled the correspondence, and he also gave himself suggestions, following roughly what Seth had advised in the January 19 session: to be prepared both physically and psychologically, saying "the things I want will soon appear before my eyes." When you have this kind of physical and psychological preparation, your symptoms of presbyopia, of not being able to see nearby things clearly, will ease or improve. Rob had also used this suggestion twice this morning, with very good results. That was his own concern, and he needed to use this suggestion for several days in order to give himself some creative time for it to take effect. For him, that was usually how suggestions took effect. It is different for everyone. Rob said he needed some creative methods and creative time to make this suggestion take effect; this was his usual approach.
At 3:39, when Jane went back to reading that session, she did much better. Carla took her temperature at 3:45: 98.1 degrees. Jane said she wanted to start the session early today so that Rob could watch the Super Bowl, the American professional football game, which did not start until 4:30. But Rob said it was not that important to him, though Rob would probably take a short nap, doze off a little, because he got up too early every morning.
Rob's general routine was to get up at 6:30 in the morning, handle many things, then in the morning write, type, and organize papers at home. Usually after lunch, either eaten at the hospital or at home, he would go to Jane's room and stay with her in the afternoon until seven or eight in the evening, then return home and continue working, organizing the day's records, and go to bed around 11 at night. This was basically his daily schedule. So at noon or in the afternoon, usually around three or four in the afternoon, he would take a short nap or doze off.
Then at this point Seth came through, saying I bid you good afternoon again. Seth said I have come through again, still to hasten those healing processes.
Seth says:
Once again, it is highly important that Ruburt concentrate upon her goals, and not try to use the conscious mind to solve the circumstances and conditions.
These points are all things we need to pay attention to during recovery. That is, focus only on your goal, and do not use your thoughts to try to change your surrounding environment, to change your surrounding circumstances, and then think that only when conditions improve can you recover. Your recovery does not depend on conditions improving, nor does it depend on the intermediate process. You only need to focus on the goal, and somehow you will get better. That is the magical part. Ordinary people focus on "I can only tell myself this has improved, that has improved, step by step the environment has improved, or the doctor's test results have improved, only then can I get better." If you hold such a belief, it will greatly hinder your complete healing.
Seth says this to tell Jane she has done very well:
That is the kind of problem the infinite wisdom within her own subconscious mind is best equipped to handle.
That is, focus only on the goal she wants, without worrying about the ways and means, only focus on the goal. This is something many people cannot do. It seems very simple, but they just cannot do it. They simply cannot manage it. As soon as they encounter a matter, they focus on the methods and means.
Seth says:
They will indeed happen almost effortlessly, but he must lay down the burden of worry.
They will happen effortlessly, but he must lay down the burden of worry before they can happen effortlessly. Seth said please wait for us a moment; he needed to pause briefly.
Regarding Maude, Seth says:
Maude was both surprised and delighted by your letter.
Maude is the one Rob wanted to ask about, what her reaction was upon seeing their letter. She had not expected their situation, that the medical expenses were so enormous beyond her imagination, that Jane's treatment would cost so much money. She is a remarkable organizer, and she wants to help Jane, and has several plans underway. She has also published a book herself, and she wants to call upon her readers in her book to donate money to Jane.
You can imagine that although Jane may later have had medical insurance through various means, medical insurance does not cover 100 percent. A portion of the costs needs to be paid by oneself, part upfront and part later, depending on the insurance plan. And some items may not be covered by insurance, including some rehabilitation and so on, because every insurance policy has different terms. And think about it: Jane had been hospitalized for over a year. In a country like the United States where medical costs are extremely high, this expense was certainly not a small sum.
Seth says:
Again, it is a good idea to reread the portions of our sessions devoted specifically to Ruburt's condition.
Then Seth left. Rob asked what he thought of yesterday's dream, the one where they dreamed of being in a colorful environment, where he and Jane were hiking together, and then friends were walking together along the river, and the friends said let us take a car, and the two of them refused, especially Jane, who refused very firmly.
Seth says:
The dream emphasized Ruburt's decision to achieve normal motion, and her insistence in the dream upon relying upon her own mobility, that she would not ride in a car rather than, say, rely upon a car or a vehicle. It also represented your joint determination to travel together. Therefore even friends could not make you change your ideas, or change your ways.
Through these brief exchanges, we can also see how Seth helped them interpret their dreams. Through dream interpretation, he was also reinforcing the effects of their healing.
At 4:14, Rob read this session to Jane. "That should make you feel better, especially the part about the dream." Jane agreed that recently she had been worrying, that with her illness improving a little, she worried about them leaving the hospital, and that she had been far more worried than he thought. Jane was thinking about these details: although her illness had improved a little, how far was she from being discharged? Was there a wheelchair she could use when she was discharged, or one she could move around in and sit in while in the hospital? She did not want to keep lying in bed; she had been lying in bed for almost a year. Jane began thinking about these detailed questions, worrying about the process, worrying about this step.
Then Rob said that until her folded right leg began to open up more, with more flexibility, and the joints were no longer so stiff and rigid, he doubted she could sit in any kind of chair. She could not sit in one, because her entire hip joint and entire right leg were splayed outward, unable to return to a normal person's position, like a pelvis in an opened state. She could not sit in any chair.
Jane was in considerable pain. Although the description does not go into that much detail, although Rob only described it in a few words, you can imagine that some of the joints in a person's body could no longer move, and could only be fixed in place, like a mannequin that can only be posed in whatever position you put it in. And Jane's body was not even something that could be posed in any way; she could only be in a certain posture, so the possibility of her sitting in a wheelchair was extremely slim, almost impossible.
But what is most important? That desire was now present. The desire to recover, to sit in a wheelchair, to go out and move around, had already appeared, and it would certainly produce results, good results. Rob said:
Now Jane's imagination and desire concerning mobility were showing themselves, something that for years, I do not remember him saying, that for years I do not remember him saying.
This sentence is very important. For years he had not seen Jane say that she wanted to recover properly, go out for a walk, or be able to sit in a wheelchair. That is to say, for several years, Jane had not even generated such a desire regarding her health returning to normal. If a person has no desire for what they want to do after their health recovers, then it is very difficult for their health to recover.
Rob said:
Changes are occurring, and Seth has already given many bits and pieces of encouraging information. In order to positively reinforce the mindset that "the days of great change are coming," I read aloud to Jane the personal sessions from January 13 through today concerning Jane's personal health.
They gave him considerable help, reminding him of some key points he had temporarily forgotten. Seth had mentioned many good concepts, scattered throughout session after session, and over time Jane would also forget them, would not be able to recall these good concepts. And at this time Rob was rereading those bits and pieces of confirmation Seth had given in these sessions concerning Jane's personal physical recovery, to help strengthen Jane's confidence. And through the act of rereading, they were able to recover those scattered pieces of information, which were encouraging to Jane. Rob said they were doing better than before; they often reread.
January 23, 1984
Now let us introduce the next small section, Monday, January 23, 1984. This session was at 4:24 p.m. Rob said their dear friend Frank Longwell had been of great help to them for many years, and he visited today while Rob was at lunch. He had sold his first hearing aid; he was a salesman, and they wished him success.
Today it was much warmer when Rob left home for Room 330, 25 degrees Fahrenheit. He immediately turned Jane onto her back. Rob said that after he left last night, two nurses came to attend to her, and while they were attending to her, they unloaded a great many negative suggestions about many things. Both nurses were in a very negative mood, and said many negative suggestions to Jane, including things like how difficult it would be for her body to recover. Jane said nothing.
Steve and Tracy came to visit not long after, and they also had many negative things to say about many things. You see, Jane encountered two waves of people with negative beliefs that day. In the end Jane could not take it anymore, and she directly told Steve to "stop dumping garbage on her." Steve also talked about how the phase of the moon affected his behavior, meaning it was not his fault but because of the moon's position that he was feeling low. Jane said, "I don't believe in that," and Steve apologized. You see, Jane was now beginning to fight back directly, or beginning to refuse those people who were pouring negative emotions onto her, and very clearly so.
Then Rob described to Jane an excellent dream he had last night, once again colorful. He said you keep thinking back to that kind of dream. A very wonderful dream. In the dream, Jane and Rob had moved back to 458 West Water Street, except now the house was much larger than it actually was. Rob had had this kind of dream more than once; he had dreamed many times of returning to apartments he had lived in at different periods, and each time the house was larger than it actually was. Seth had also interpreted this, with different meanings and significance: in different parallel worlds, they were indeed living in different rooms.
In the dream there were many apartments, more than there actually were, and their conditions were all very good, and the rooms were all well decorated. There was one floor with a staggered layout, with many staircases connecting the floors. There was one floor that was interconnected, and all the floors could connect to that floor. They were not separated from each other like ordinary apartments; they were connected together, and between apartment and apartment, between every room and every room, they were all interconnected. If the few tenants chose to do so, they could freely converse with one another. But when Rob wanted to paint alone, he had a corner studio, where he would not be disturbed by others, where he could hide away and paint by himself, a very nice room.
Jane was very active and healthy. This was in her dream; she was walking around normally. In the dream Rob devoted himself to painting, but did not write. In that life within the dream, at 3:16 Jane began reading yesterday's session, and did fairly well, better than yesterday. Rob handled the correspondence. She began to have difficulty reading, but still finished at 3:30, and read better toward the end.
At 3:55, Rob began asking Jane about her religious training in Catholic elementary school. This morning he began writing a rough note related to something Seth said in a section of Chapter 5 of Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment. In it Seth mentioned that early humans lived for several hundred years, the only time he had said this. Rob planned to look up the ages of some of the patriarchs in the Bible, and wanted to know what Jane had been taught in the Catholic Church about such people and their ages. Because Jane was a student at a Catholic school, he thought she should know these ancient stories from the Bible.
Carla interrupted their conversation to check Jane's vital signs, taking her temperature and blood pressure; her temperature was 98.4 degrees Fahrenheit. During their conversation, Rob noticed that his wife very quickly began to react emotionally to his questions. Rob thought his questions were innocent enough, but clearly the topic of conversation carried an emotional charge for Jane. One of them, Rob thought, might be related to her symptoms, if one traced back into the past; in fact he was quite sure of it. However, after she realized what she was doing, she seemed able to accept Rob's questions calmly, and even volunteered a great deal of information Rob had not asked for.
Rob's words here are very objective or very vague. What he actually wanted to say was that he asked Jane some questions about the Bible's mention that ancient humans could live for several hundred years, and Jane had a great deal of emotion about this question. Then he felt Jane's emotion was related to her current physical symptoms: ancient humans could live for several hundred years, yet Jane was only fifty years old and already unable to move her body, so Jane was emotional. Actually Jane's emotion was not only about this; it was also related to the two waves of people with negative emotions toward her last night and today. But Jane later immediately realized this was her own issue, and then she made some corrections, proactively providing Rob with some information.
At 4:20, Jane asked Rob to rub a certain point on her left temple. Finally, when he finished rubbing and withdrew his hand, Jane suddenly cried out, and her head quickly dropped to the right. Quite suddenly a certain muscular relaxation occurred. That is to say, before that, Jane's neck muscles had also been stiff, so her head had never been able to droop naturally. As a result, after Rob massaged a certain point on her left temple for a short while, the moment he let go, all the muscles in her neck relaxed, and her head immediately dropped to the right. Jane cried out several times, and seemed momentarily stunned. Jane was startled, very surprised. She asked Rob to rub the same point on her right temple. But before any result could be obtained, a nurse came in. Because Jane had cried out in the room, the nurse came in first and asked, "I need to give medication at four o'clock; do you need anything?" and interrupted them.
After that, Rob said Jane said she felt warm. After she had rubbed the same position on both her left and right temples, her forehead would become warm. This made Rob think that the warmth he felt should be a signal of the body's healing. Because Seth had said in previous sessions that if your body begins to heal, your body will become warm. It cannot be said that this is always the case, but most people will have this feeling.
After they had talked about religious questions, Rob wrote a short note excerpting Jane's words, which he could use in the note for Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment, and he obtained her consent.
Seth says:
Now I bid you good afternoon again.
Seth says:
In those ancient days, men and women lived to ages that would amaze you, many living for several hundred years.
Seth once again affirmed this matter. Besides mentioning it once in a certain section of Chapter 5 of Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment, which was the first time Rob had heard Seth say this, here Seth emphasized it again.
Here there is a question many people have been struggling with: should we pursue making our physical bodies live for several hundred years, or should we live for a few decades like normal humans and then leave, and come back to experience again next time? Which one is it? Here, Seth rarely mentions the question of physical immortality, that is, having a physical body that can keep living. But in ancient times humans lived for several hundred years, and there were even individuals who lived for a thousand years or ten thousand years, which was entirely possible. This is not something that does not exist.
But in this state, it does not mean that we humans are required to pursue, in this physical body, the kind of bodily longevity of ancient times, living for hundreds or thousands of years. No. In different historical periods of development, or at different stages, we need different bodily ages, and this is normal. Why? In that ancient period, you can imagine that there were no means of recording anything at all back then, including knot-tying records, writing, none of these things existed. All transmission of experience relied entirely on word of mouth, or bodily teaching. In that period, in order to preserve the civilization and history of a race, a group, or a tribe, it basically depended on people to pass it on. The oldest member of the tribe would remember all the history and the development of their tribe at that time, including the teaching of certain techniques and survival skills, all of which required them. This was a need of the times.
Later, when we had writing and records, and used these things, there was no longer any need for them to live hundreds of years in order to remember such things, so this need ceased to exist; once this need no longer existed, there was also no necessity for human lifespan to be that long. Living that long, for many people, is something they envy; they envy these people for being able to live so long. But you can imagine, when you really are able to live that long -- for example, this physical body of yours, let us suppose a more reasonable age, say this physical body of yours could live 800 years without dying, assuming all of this were normal -- you can imagine what that would be like for you. For example, if everyone else had a normal lifespan, suppose everyone else lived a normal lifespan of a few decades, you would suffer. You would not die, and the people around you, the people you love, would leave you one by one. In this lifetime you might form families with countless people, perhaps a dozen, twenty, thirty, forty, not necessarily. And then at that point you would have experienced all of these things, but because of the existence of your physical body, you would go through all of it.
The second case is that the people around you all live the same lifespan as you, and you all live for hundreds of years. In that state, if everyone lives for hundreds of years, then living for hundreds of years is nothing worth pursuing or investing in; everyone's normal days -- everyone is like this, so there is nothing remarkable about it. And at this point, living for hundreds of years is not very different from living several lifetimes as you do now. You may think there would be a difference, but in fact in your feelings and experience there would not be much difference. On the contrary, for your personal growth, it is not the most advantageous. Because you would exist as a single physical identity -- for example, you are male or female, you are a particular identity from a certain tribe, under a certain background -- and this is actually not as good as changing into a new identity every few decades and throwing yourself into this three-dimensional world to experience it.
Comparing these two, if the soul is eternal -- the matter of the soul's eternity is something we no longer need to discuss, everyone knows it -- under the premise that the soul is eternal, would you rather change into a brand-new body every few decades, or would you rather use this same one body to live for hundreds or thousands of years? Both have their own advantages and disadvantages, and it is not that the longer you live, the better. So this matter later ceased to be a goal and direction pursued by humanity. Whether in Seth's terms or in the culture of the three-dimensional world, what we pursue more is the quality of life and the meaning of life, rather than the length of life. If your life has no real meaning, if you merely live an ordinary life day after day, hundreds of years like one day, then compared with a rich and colorful life -- even if it only lasts a few decades -- you would rather live this rich and colorful life with a higher quality of life. This is what I hope everyone can understand.
After having already transcended attachment to and pursuit of matter itself, living for hundreds of years is no longer a pursuit of later human beings. But this matter did indeed happen, did indeed exist, and such people did indeed exist; do not find it miraculous.
Seth says:
This was indeed because their knowledge and experience were extremely needed.
Remember, this sentence is the core. Their knowledge and experience were extremely needed, so they could live for hundreds of years. They were greatly respected, and they infused their knowledge into songs and stories and passed it down. They placed their knowledge into songs and ancient stories, into myths and legends, passing it down through the generations. We now know these ballads and various songs -- if you know King Gesar or various other epics -- every people has its own epics, passed down by word of mouth, handed down through the generations.
Seth says:
In addition, their experience was utilized in a different way than yours. They alternated between the waking and sleeping states.
They were always in a state between half-dreaming and half-waking, alternating between sleep and waking. It is not like the way we also alternate now -- we alternate roughly once every ten-something hours: we sleep for a few hours and then get up, in a waking state, and when we sleep we are in a sleeping state. Ours is an alternation with long intervals like that. But the people of that period alternated with short intervals. I will just give an example, such as 30 minutes awake and 30 minutes asleep, or two hours awake and half an hour asleep, then two more hours awake, then two more hours asleep. The specific times are not fixed, and each person or each need differs, but their alternation times were very short, and sometimes they themselves could not tell which state they were in. They alternated frequently between these two states, and you can understand it as their always being in a state between seeming asleep and seeming awake.
And when they slept, they did not age so quickly. When they slept, they did not age so quickly. Many people say, then if I sleep more now, will I look younger, will I not age? Does sleep slow down the aging of the human body? Yes, if you enter a deep sleep, it can indeed slow down the aging of the body. The premise is this: if you have a normal sleep, that is, with long intervals, and there is still a lot of anxiety and many such states in your sleep, then you are the same as usual. It is not that every person's sleep will reduce their own aging. It is just that when they slept, their state of consciousness was not the same as that of ordinary people -- they were in a frequent alternation between waking consciousness and sleep. Under these circumstances, their sleep could slow their aging, whereas for us ordinary people, sleep has very little effect on aging.
When they slept, their bodily processes slowed down, somewhat like hibernation. Although it was not really like hibernation, their mental processes during dreaming did not slow down. That is to say, when they slept, life slowed down, and the speed of aging slowed, but when they slept they were not doing nothing. No, they did a great many things while sleeping; their mental processes did not slow down, only their bodily processes slowed down. In the dream state there was a much greater communication. In the dream state, they also communicated with one another and with their people. Therefore some lessons were taught in dreams. In dreams they gave lessons to others, gave lessons in other people's dreams; at the same time, other lessons were carried out in the waking state. Some lessons were taught to their people while awake, and some were taught to their people in dreams.
As physical existence continued, there was more and more knowledge to transmit. Because they did not only transmit private knowledge, they also transmitted the collective knowledge belonging to the group or tribe -- because the longer they lived, the more history they knew or the more knowledge they understood, including more and more members of their people. So this information would become more and more.
Seth says:
Your dream represents your emerging into the larger space of belief within.
At this point he turns to describe the dream Rob had just recounted from last night -- in the dream, they had an old apartment from before, and one floor was connected together, all the rooms were connected to one another, unlike an ordinary apartment where everything is completely separated. It had connections, a feeling like a large open space.
Dream Interpretation: Dale, Jane, and Fatherly Love
I don't know whether any of you have ever lived in one of those large multi-story buildings, the kind that feels like a sports arena, or a dormitory -- where there is no lockable door between the units, and people can walk back and forth freely. Seth said to Rob, your dream showed that you floated up into that larger space of beliefs -- you dreamed that all the apartments on one floor were connected together, and this indicates that the room of your beliefs has already surfaced. The many people and the connected rooms represented the structure of a broader set of beliefs, all interconnected with one another. This shows that you have entered into a larger belief structure, and within that higher-level belief structure, all beliefs are interconnected and linked.
However, at the same time you were still focusing your attention on the private, creative self. In this dream, you had a very independent corner studio, undisturbed by others, where you could paint by yourself. This reflects that you were still placing your attention on your own personal creativity, on privacy -- from that private creative corner, you were watching the larger structure of new beliefs interacting. You hid in a private corner to observe that new interaction of beliefs, and if you did not want to interact with others, you could hide away.
This is very interesting. From this point, you can indeed see a reflection of their beliefs, and also a reflection of their lives. Rob and Jane are actually very much alike -- through the Seth material, they had already connected and linked with the whole world, unknowingly influencing countless people, and even leading the development and progress of the entire human civilization. But as the principal parties involved, they should have had broader connections and interactions with everyone. Unfortunately, their beliefs were not like that. They only engaged in limited interaction, most of the time hiding in their own corner, watching others interact and communicate from their own perspective. Readers' letters were their way of watching others interact, and they also participated in a limited way by writing replies. In 1984, they had more convenient means available, such as radio and television -- although the internet was not yet widespread, these two media had very broad influence at the time -- but they did not use them. They only engaged in limited interaction, using the most primitive method, which was writing letters, and replying individually to some of them. They did not want to accept any interviews or disturbances, nor were they willing to participate in any public activities. From this matter, it is consistent with his dream: doing one's own personally creative work in a private corner, while being quite conservative and limited in interaction. He was not completely rejecting it -- he would also observe and yearn for the state of everyone interacting -- but he still preferred to protect personal privacy and individuality.
Seth was about to leave, and Rob quickly asked: When I rubbed Jane's left temple, what was going on with her reaction? Why did her muscles suddenly relax, and why did she cry out several times? Seth said:
That was an excellent reaction, very good. He instinctively knew to touch that pressure point. These are important points where the body's strength will reinforce energy, those important energy convergence points.
In terms of our Chinese medicine, those are many of the acupoints -- the energy convergence points are the acupoints. But they can also absorb pressure. Actually, energy convergence points can also dissolve pressure, and touching them the way you did does indeed release that pressure. Jane's muscles throughout her body were tense, stiff, and tight, and in fact much of the time there was a great deal of internal pressure. Jane's reaction was a feeling of dizziness, and this event also released other parts of the body -- when the effect reflects back, he does not yet have an obvious sensation now, but after a while, when this effect reflects to other parts of the body, it will also release that pressure in the body. For now, what it can resolve is the problem with her neck muscles; the former stiffness can now become relaxed, and then it can make Jane feel dizzy. But the dizziness is only a reaction of the mind; the reaction in the body is the release of pressure.
Rob thanked Seth for appearing. Before Jane turned onto her side, she drank some ginger ale. Rob had not mentioned this earlier in his dream records, but he had described to Jane how he had asked whichever landlord at 458 West Water Street what our rent would be. No matter which landlord he asked, what the rent would be, he got no answer. He expected it would be a good price, but was a little afraid it would be very high -- so those landlords in the dream did not answer him. Seth did not comment on this small matter, and Rob did not ask; it was not important, and Seth had already interpreted the earlier part.
Rob's Dream: Mountain Climbing in Snow and a Mountain Lodge
The next session was Tuesday, January 24, 1984, at 4:27 p.m.
Rob took the typewriter to the service branch, then drove to Room 330. The weather was unexpectedly warm, over 43 degrees Fahrenheit -- that is already around 10 degrees above zero Celsius. As Jane began eating lunch, Rob told her that he had had a very vivid, colorful dream the night before and felt it was significant. You see, Rob had been having colorful dreams for several nights in a row, and his dreams were very interesting.
First he described his dream: He was walking with Jane's father, Dale, along a mountain path through very deep snow, with many other people around -- not an isolated sort of backdrop, but with people interacting. They went up and down and around, and then Dale left him for some unknown reason. They had originally been companions climbing in the snow, the mountain going up and down, but after Dale left, he could not move anymore, trapped on a very steep mountain wall -- otherwise he would slide down into a deep valley that would be very hard to climb out of. After a while, Jane's father Dale came back, wearing a tailor-made mountaineering outfit, a wool jacket and a wool cap with a feather stuck in it, far more fashionable than anything he wore in Jane's real life. In the dream, Jane's father was much younger, and far more composed and calm than Rob had ever seen him.
Then Rob said the next setting was a mountain lodge, where some of the walls were entirely glass, and all around many people sat dining at small round tables covered with white tablecloths. Many small restaurants abroad are arranged this way, and even some upscale restaurants are too -- small round tables with white tablecloths, seating only two or three or four people, arranged very comfortably. Rob and his friend Frank's daughter -- her name was Jean Longwell -- began dancing together, holding each other very tightly. Rob felt very deeply for Jean, a strange, surprising longing -- why strange? Because she was a friend's daughter, and he should not have had that kind of physical desire, but he did. It was an intense feeling mixed with sexual attraction toward her. At the same time there was a very deep emotional longing, the two feelings mixed together. He knew Jean felt the same way about him; he could sense it. They were chatting, and as they talked, Rob's eyes were so close to her face that he could see the skin beneath her eyes was very fine, with smooth tiny pores. And the dream ended there, or receded into other layers.
This dream left a deep impression on Rob. He said he remembered it all day -- like the feeling of a spring dream, but not only about the spring dream aspect; there was also the question of such a deep emotional connection. He kept feeling a strange romantic love for Jean, mixed with a certain regret, a great deal of regret in it, because it was impossible -- he was now married to Jane, and the age gap was too large, so nothing could happen. Rob also told Jane that he sensed Jean was somehow dissatisfied with life, perhaps confused, perhaps trapped between her artistic inclinations and being raised to live a conventional life. Jean worked in a hospital, yet she herself had strong artistic inclinations -- a girl who loved art working in a hospital, which in itself was very unsatisfying for her. Rob sensed that she was uncertain about moving to a city in North Carolina called Raleigh, which was the life plan she and her boyfriend had made.
During the day yesterday, Frank told Rob that it was no longer so easy to go see Jean -- before, one only had to go to Washington, D.C., to see her, but now it took a 15-hour drive to see his daughter. Frank's daughter had moved to North Carolina, hundreds or even a thousand kilometers away. They now lived near the border of New York State and Pennsylvania, fairly far north, while the daughter had moved to a place farther south. Frank told Rob about his daughter's situation, which may have triggered Rob's association with that strange emotional connection, and that was why he had such a dream.
At 1 o'clock, Jane began reading yesterday's session, but could not manage it, and gave up after a few minutes. Rob was handling correspondence -- he still had a great deal of mail every day. Jane did much better at 3:20. Rob told her that he had tried Seth's suggestion from a recent session about strengthening near-distance vision, and it was very helpful. Jane finished reading that session at 3:35. At 3:40, she began reading the session of October 9, 1983, but did not read it as smoothly.
Rob began making a chronological record of the hospital and the sessions for the opening of his January 6, 1984 session, focusing on attention. He recorded everything that happened in the hospital like a diary -- unlike the earlier Seth sessions, which were marked with session numbers, Session 901, Session 510, and so on. But later, after The Way Toward Health, he no longer marked them by session number, because each time Seth delivered very short content, and there were so many trivial details of their life in the hospital, so it became more of a diary-style record.
Rob set the session aside, had a cigarette, and then at 3:58 went back to continue reading. She finally gave up, no longer wanting to read, and decided to have some short sessions. Although it was already late -- already 3:58.
Seth's Analysis of the Dream
Then Seth came through. Seth said:
Good afternoon to you both again.
Rob said good afternoon to Seth. Seth began by directly addressing Rob's dream:
Your dream was entirely triggered by Frank's visit yesterday at noon, when he talked about his daughter Jean. That led you, just now in normal consciousness, to think about the relationship between fathers and daughters, and then to think of Jane's father, Del, who appeared younger than you had ever known him, yet more vital.
Indeed, one could say it was a complete transformation. Rob's previous impression of Jane's father had not been particularly good -- Jane's father later moved to Florida to live, and their contact became less and less frequent, but they did know each other. In Rob's impression, Jane's father was very old, an elderly man, but in the dream he was nothing like that -- he was young and full of vitality.
In your mind, he was redeemed.
Rob had already, in his heart, completely let go of any prejudice and judgment toward Jane's father, had fully accepted him, or one might say forgiven him. There had been some grievances between them, some unpleasantness. Rob went to see Jane's father every two years or once a year, but each time the relationship was quite ordinary. This dream showed that Rob had actually already let go of him in his heart -- and what appeared was his idealized self, that is, the idealized self of Jane's father that appeared in your dream.
In that respect, he helped lead you along a safe path out of danger.
That is to say, from that angle, in the dream Jane's father, when he appeared as his idealized self, could help Rob walk out of danger. What was Rob's current danger? Jane's health was the greatest danger he was currently facing. Does this not show that in the dream Jane's father led Rob out of a perilous situation -- this indicates knowledge you have on other levels. Ruburt is no longer limited by any negative beliefs arising from his relationship with his father. On more levels, this dream also shows that Ruburt, that is, Jane, will no longer be influenced or limited by her negative relationship with her father.
Then Seth continued discussing the dream:
And so, Jean Longwell, she represented Frank's feelings toward his daughter.
The friend's daughter appeared in the dream, and you also had that kind of emotional connection with her. This indicated Frank's feelings for his daughter -- and you somehow felt them as if they were your own. What you felt was actually Frank's feelings for his daughter, but in the dream you felt them in an empathetic way -- your feelings for Jean in the dream were like her father's feelings for her. This is a kind of fatherly love, mixed with sexuality and compassion. Frank's feelings for his daughter are just such a mixture of emotions. These feelings also represented Del's love for his daughter Jane.
The dream indicated that you knew the negative significance in Ruburt's relationship with his father had been clarified.
That is, the negative emotions in Jane's relationship with her father had been cleared away in this dream.
On the other hand, Seth pointed out again that the handsome, stylishly dressed, young and energetic Del was also a symbol of Rob's own inner self -- he played the role of a guide and companion. In the dream, Jane's father Del accompanied Rob mountain climbing, acting as a companion, coming to rescue him when Rob encountered difficulties. A part of Rob's inner self was projected onto Jane's father, and he actually also took on part of the role of Jane's father -- when Jane was young and confused in life, he played the role of guiding and accompanying her. This is also where their emotional bond was very deep. This emotion was very complex -- at once partner, guide, leader, and companion, such a mixed role. This showed the richness and complexity of Rob's inner feelings.
Then Seth once again activated the coordinates for accelerating the body's healing:
Ruburt was to remind himself again that it was safe to let go, and to trust his own spontaneous rhythms, his own movements. Let me perhaps return, perhaps not -- once again, according to the rhythms I have described. But know that I am here and can be approached.
He left.
At 4:38, Rob read the session to Jane. Jane said, "I don't know why, but when you read the contents of this session, I felt my father looking at me, watching over me." That was a psychological feeling. Rob said that was obviously implied in the text, Seth had already hinted at it -- and while Seth was speaking, he had also guessed as much in his mind. Rob reminded Jane that in the October sessions, he had written in his notes about redemption, and he had also dealt with its profound regret in Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment.
We forgive in our hearts certain people whom we believe once hurt us, or whom we cannot let go of. Our forgiveness of them in our hearts is actually a redemption of ourselves, and also a redemption of others -- no matter how much time and space have passed. Many people say, that matter is already in the past, I can no longer contact this person, what has happened has already happened, what is the point of doing these things? It is very meaningful. Letting go of and forgiving past people and events in one's heart is actually a very important psychological activity for oneself. Here we can use the word "redemption" to express its importance -- it is a redemption of oneself, and also a redemption of others.
The session proceeded without interruption. In fact, they finally discovered that all afternoon no one had come to check Jane's vital signs, or to empty her urethral bag. A nurse appeared only at 4:47, and after taking vital signs -- temperature 98.3 degrees -- her blood pressure was excellent.
While they were talking, something triggered a memory from Jane's girlhood. At that time she had walked on foot to her grandfather's garage in Saratoga Springs -- the garage was on the other side of the city, and she had walked across the entire city. She thought it might have been when she was in eighth grade, that is, the second year of junior high. Jane remembered looking down at a pond and writing a poem, and she even remembered at least a little of that poem: she wrote, "I looked into the pond, and what did I see? Only the stars in the sky looking back at me."
This poem is like what we have said in Chinese, "I look upon the green mountains as charming, and I expect the green mountains see me the same way" -- the same artistic conception. We have talked about this many times before -- when you are looking at the universe, the universe is also looking at you; when you are looking at the scenery, the scenery is also looking at you; when you are looking at others, others are also looking at you.
Strangely enough, later in the afternoon, Rob finally made an important connection regarding the anticipated value of the dream. He told Jane that he suddenly realized that what he had experienced in the dream was something he had never known in conscious life, and had never had access to -- the true feelings of a father. Rob had never been a father in this lifetime; he and Jane had no children. In this lifetime, Rob did not know what it felt like to be a father, nor what it felt like to raise a daughter. And in this dream, he truly and personally experienced it -- through the emotional connection with his friend's daughter. When they were dancing together, looking into each other's eyes, that emotional connection made him suddenly understand that the feelings of being a father were so complex, mixed with many emotions.
And with that, the dream actually expanded his experience in this lifetime, and in a most meaningful and intense way. What does "most meaningful and intense way" mean? It means experiencing a father's love for his daughter within love. We often say "a father's love is like a mountain," passing over it in one phrase, and on top of that we are limited by traditional culture -- including limitations all over the world -- we use only "a father's love is like a mountain" as if it could substitute for a father's love for his daughter. Actually, it is not so. A father's love for his daughter is mixed with many kinds of love. For example, we often say "a daughter is her father's little lover from a previous life," and this phrase actually hints that a father's love for his daughter contains an erotic element -- but not in an evil or lewd sense, but rather a kind of fondness and appreciation for the opposite sex. So these feelings, including fatherly love, companionship, helpfulness, the desire to lead one's daughter toward a better life -- these emotions are all mixed together. This feeling let Rob truly experience it once in the dream. The intensity of this emotion allowed Rob not to understand from concepts or theory what a father-daughter relationship should be like, but to feel it directly and empathetically -- surpassing all words. That is, Rob had never been a father, but it felt as if he had been one.
Even when Rob was writing this passage at 9:30 in the evening, he could still feel how strong the impact of that feeling was -- this was his genuine feeling.
Rob also added a note in passing: in Chapter 5 of Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment, he had discussed two intense experiences of cosmic light he had in 1980, and Frank had been involved in one of them. In the dream state, Seth had explained how Rob had received Frank's concerns about age, about sexuality, and about values. Therefore, last night's dream also involved elements built from the information he had received from Frank -- clearly their telepathic communication was working very well.
In 1980, Rob had twice seen cosmic light -- at the edge of his vision, growing brighter and brighter, while he was sleeping. Both of these experiences involved Frank. And Frank himself had his own considerations about age, about sexuality, and about the value of life. Rob said that yesterday's dream also contained many elements from this. Regarding this part, we will not expand on it. Those who are interested can go back and read the relevant content in Chapter 5 of Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment.
The Last Session of Chapter One
Let us look at the next session, which is also the last session of Chapter One of The Way Toward Health, Wednesday afternoon, January 25, 1984. Once again, the weather was quite warm; it was 40 degrees Fahrenheit when Rob left for 330. Jane was lying on her back, and she had just had her bandages changed before Rob got there. The hospital staff had been very busy all along, and the hydrotherapy room was crowded too.
While she ate, Rob told her that he had called their lawyer this morning. Blue Cross had not responded, but he had said that if anyone donated money to the genetic fund that Ford Caldwell was supposedly organizing for them, they need not worry about gift tax. Before taxes apply, the threshold of ten thousand US dollars must first be reached36.
Why is this matter written about in the book all the time? It is because that author, named Ford Caldwell, in a book he wrote, called on his readers to donate money to Jane and Rob, intending to set up a foundation for them. But the key point is that this foundation had not yet been established, and donations came pouring in like snowflakes. After so much money was donated, both Rob and this author were worried about taxes, because the United States has a strict tax system.
Through their lawyer's communication they found out that there was no need to worry - even if no foundation had been established, in the United States, money you donate to a foundation can qualify for a tax deduction. For example, suppose you owe ten thousand dollars in taxes this year; if you donated three thousand of it to a foundation or charity, then when you pay taxes you only need to pay seven thousand, because that three thousand has already been deducted. But you cannot donate all of your income as a deduction; you can only deduct a portion - my impression is that it is about 30 percent of your tax payable. You cannot say, I owe ten thousand, and I gave all ten thousand to charity; that is not allowed, because then the state's tax revenue would drain away massively. So they can only allow you to use a portion as a donation, but give you a deduction for it.
This is a very good policy. What Rob and Jane were worried about was that the people who donated money to them would not be able to get a tax deduction, and later the lawyer told them not to worry. Although they received a large sum of money, it came from many people each donating a little - this one gave 100, that one gave 300, another gave 200 - that is how it was donated. They can deduct it from their taxes. Although for individual donations, normally you need proof to deduct - when you donate to a charity, they now have to issue you a receipt, and only after receiving your donation can you deduct it - but for small donations like these, no evidence is needed. You just declare it; you say I donated such and such an amount to so and so, and just keep a record yourself. If you have the check stub, even better, but it is fine if you do not. Because the government encourages everyone to make these small donations and does not want to make it too complicated - you declare on your own that you donated 500 dollars to a certain organization this year, and that 500 dollars can be deducted from your tax payable.
I have explained this matter clearly for everyone. Why were they so hung up on this issue? Actually, they had received donated money, and the other party was not a foundation, so Rob and Jane were worried that the people who donated to them would not be able to get a deduction. This problem actually does not exist; it has already been resolved. "Gift tax" is indeed translated as "zengyu shui" - the original term really is "gift," but the correct translation is "zengyu."
Rob also told Jane that this morning, while preparing notes for Chapter Five of Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment, he had an entertaining time checking the genealogies in the Bible - it was a playful frame of mind. Seeing that ancient people either lived 800 years, or 600 years, or 500 years37, he found it quite amusing. The long-lived elders that Seth described would have been much earlier than those in the Bible - or whether they were earlier than them, he was not quite sure either. Because according to the Bible, Adam was the first man, so it depends on which way one chooses to look at things.
Rob is being very humorous here, with a sense of entertainment. According to the Bible, the first man of humanity was Adam. But according to Seth, there were still humans before Adam, and at that time humans could also live for several hundred years. And how long Adam lived is unknown - his several sons do have records, Cain and so on, each son has a lifespan recorded, "lived 697 years," "543 years," and so on, but strangely there seems to be no record of how many years Adam lived. Rob's point is that if the first man of humanity was Adam, then there should have been no men before Adam, but according to Seth, there should have been people even more ancient than them - because according to Seth, before the Bible appeared there were already many, many ancient civilizations and legends. So here he is making a humorous observation.
Jane ate a good lunch, and the television was on, showing movie previews - they had a television in the hospital room, and by 1984 the conditions were probably already quite good. Rob asked her: Why is our written literature made up of the bad things in life? Why are our novels, films, and media all about murder, madness, theft, bribery, robbers, and the like? The entertainment we crave about bad things must reflect, beneath a veneer of respectability, our basic social beliefs - a negative fear of the unknown and of consciousness.
So it keeps depicting it. It means that by closing off our conscious awareness of our true selves, we have created such a style within ourselves. To put it simply in plain words: our inner being is very real and good, but because we still have fear inside, what we show and express is not what we truly are, but what we fear, what we worry about, what we are afraid of. When these are expressed and projected outward, they become those bad things - murder, madness, theft, bribery, robbers, and so on - becoming the main themes of literary description and the themes pursued by the whole of social media. The result of Rob's thinking is that it is caused by inner fear, but the underlying layer is not that - on the one hand we have the deepest inner goodness, and on the other hand we have outer fear.
Rob said that we have now reached a dividing point: our inner true self, that self which is inherently complete and full of joy within, is now struggling to break free. Although the whole of society and the whole of mainstream thought is still filled with so-called violence, so-called fear, and these bad things, the inner true self is constantly breaking free, constantly challenging, constantly resisting, and showing its truest appearance - that peace, joy, goodness, and abundant fullness that comes from within.
At three o'clock, Jane began reading yesterday's session, and did much better than yesterday, finishing at 3:03, very quickly - it took only three minutes to read. Part of the time her vision was very clear. She smoked a cigarette, and Rob handled correspondence while waiting to see whether she wanted to read more. At 3:18, she began reading the January 13 session, and did fairly well, very fast. At one point, Rob handed her lipstick to her, and after putting it on she looked in the mirror, again very briefly glancing at herself.
At four o'clock, Carla and Shannon checked her vital signs; her temperature was 98.3 degrees. Jane said she wanted to have a session. Rob mentioned his thought to her: Seth's elders must have been much earlier than the Bible's elders. She agreed as well. And now Seth came through.
The Bible, the Speakers, and the Transmission of Knowledge in Dreams
Seth said:
Again I accelerate certain coordinates so important in the healing process. He said the purpose of each appearance was one and the same -- Ruburt's eyes and vision have made further considerable progress.
The progress was evident, and that progress was clearly connected with freer movement of the head and arms, including the hands -- that progress was connected with the progress of these movements in the body. For the movements that would be needed in the near future, he made many preparations, to help balance general mobility. He was making a great deal of effort, a great deal of preparation, for the normal life he would be living in the near future.
After a pause of some length, Seth said:
The Bible is a collection of prophecies and stories.
Keep in mind here that it is not only stories; it is also a prophecy -- it is not only past history; it also alludes to or projects into future outcomes. Do not think of the Bible as merely something from the past; it is also a collection of prophecies.
Interspersed with unclear memories of much earlier times.
That is, unclear memories of times much earlier, from no one knows when. Because they are too early, but the Bible you know or recognize is not the first Bible. It can indeed be said that when people tried to look back and recount their past and prophesy their future, several earlier Bibles were compiled into it. It was more like some people, in order to review history and make prophecies about the future, took several earlier books -- many Bibles that existed before the Bible appeared -- and combined them into one unified compilation. So the history of the Bible goes back much further than the era we know.
Seth said:
Such early Bibles existed, but were not written down. Indeed, as was mentioned not long ago, they were passed down orally through these speakers -- speaker.
"Speaker" means "shuofazhe" -- the Speakers. In Seth Speaks it was mentioned that in the American Congress, in the House of Representatives, "speaker" means the Speaker of the House; the Speaker is also called "speaker." Only much later was this information written down.
Of course by that time, many things had been forgotten, most of them forgotten, leaving only a few -- and this does not even include what had been tampered with, or information that was simply wrong. Setting aside what was forgotten, just the things people tampered with and the information that was simply wrong -- when various factions used that material for their own purposes, they would tamper with it, deliberately giving false information. So much of the content we see in the Bible today is filled with such content. To put it bluntly: for the benefit of certain ruling classes, over thousands of years of history, they kept tampering with it and revising it to achieve their own ends, and much of the information in it has been altered and is no longer true.
At 4:16, after a pause of some length --
You mentioned your dream feeling of fatherly love. He allowed you to expand your experience in the dream state, which also shows you an example of how early humans expanded their own knowledge and experience in the dream state. In the same way, as mentioned in Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment, people also had dream images of actual geographical locations to which they had never traveled.
Seth means that the fact that you experienced the feeling of fatherly love in a dream is precisely proof of what I said earlier -- that humans in ancient times could teach other people knowledge in dreams; this is a real case. Through such a dream you were able to learn what fatherly love is. He said other knowledge could also be transmitted in similar ways. In this way, Rob gained a genuine, firsthand experience regarding the matter of ancient people living for hundreds of years and transmitting knowledge in both dream and waking time -- regarding the transmission of knowledge in dreams.
Then he said, in this same way, they could also go in dreams to places they had never been, learn some information about those places, as if they were actually in that environment. This is also why ancient humans, when they migrated, could know where the water and grass were abundant and where the conditions were suitable for their living -- because they had already been to these places in dreams. He gave this example to tell you that all of this really happened.
Then Seth left. Rob said thank you. At 4:19, they came out. Neither Rob nor Jane had particularly thought that the feeling of fatherly love in the dream represented a metaphor for early humans expanding their own knowledge in the dream state. But once Seth mentioned it, they immediately saw the connection. Rob read the session to Jane right away.
When Seth mentioned it, Rob immediately thought of the material about the Speakers and the oral tradition, which could be traced back to when Jane was writing Seth Speaks in 1970 to 1971 -- you can see the appendix of Seth Speaks, Session 558, January 5, 1970, the content of which concerns the Speakers.
Jane said that when Rob read it to her, she received further information from Seth:
In those ancient days, people often insisted on returning to their destroyed or damaged homelands -- cities, towns, or villages -- even though such events had more than once wiped out those places.
Just as people, for reasons that make no rational sense, are drawn back to such places psychologically and emotionally. For example, the well-known case of Israel -- they were told in dreams: you are to go to such and such a place; that is your homeland. All Israelis know that their homeland is Jerusalem; they believe that is the place of their origin, so they insist on building there. He gave this example -- why must Israel be in that place? Including the current situation with Jordan and Israel on the West Bank and Jerusalem -- they still have not sorted out the issues of land and territory. Jerusalem is a place where three religions converge: Israel considers it their religion, and Christianity and Islam both consider Jerusalem their place of origin.
What does Seth mean here? When Jane and Rob were discussing this matter, Seth added some content -- that this is very real. For example, many of us have the idea of returning to one's roots when the leaves fall -- why are we willing to return to our hometown when we grow old? He explained the inner reason: for reasons that cannot be clearly stated, many people simply want to go back. Especially some elderly people are very stubborn; after living in the city for a while, they insist on returning to their hometown. Discomfort with city life is only one aspect; there are also these deeper underlying reasons.
And many times, some ancient cities were destroyed by floods -- in China, during the old Yellow River floods, many cities were directly submerged, and the entire city was gone. But when the floods receded, people would build a new city on top of that city, not caring at all that it might be destroyed again in the future. The same was true of ancient villages and cities -- destroyed and rebuilt, destroyed and rebuilt. Could humans not simply move to another place? Why stay in the same place, where floods had destroyed it before and might destroy it again? But no, they stayed in that place. So in archaeological excavations, we often see that beneath one layer of city ruins, digging further reveals even earlier city remains -- the city had been destroyed many times and rebuilt many times. This is the history revealed by archaeology.
Seth explained here why this happens -- that people in tribes and throughout history were often brought to these places in dreams, telling later generations: this place may now be a ruin, but in the dream they were told, you can build a city here; your homeland is here; you are very familiar with this place. Many people, the moment they set foot on such land, feel an indescribable sense of familiarity, a feeling of coming home, of homeland. This feeling transcends language, logic, and reason; it is a deeper inner connection.
I once encountered something truly remarkable in America. The boyfriend of a friend of mine -- he was a genuine American named Brand, a judge on the Los Angeles Superior Court. He had never been to China, and his girlfriend was Chinese; their relationship was very good. Later, they traveled to China together, to Yunnan. During their travels in Yunnan, this genuine American especially loved Chinese food, particularly the local ethnic specialties of Yunnan. After traveling there for about a week or two, he did not want to come back. His feeling -- by his own account -- was that that was his homeland, that was his hometown; he felt America was not. The moment he set foot on that land, a sense of belonging surged up from within -- emotionally, psychically -- he felt that was his home. Such things have happened to many people; I just gave a rather extreme example.
And with that, the main content of this chapter has been introduced. Through this story, including the matter of Israel -- why did they insist on building in Jerusalem? This people had in fact been scattered for hundreds of years, with no homeland, no place to establish a state, but because of their persistence and their beliefs, they still restored their nation in an impossible place. As for the historical part, everyone can look up the history and development of Israel.
Some Notes
Here are a few notes from Rob.
One note is this: Rob could still feel the effects of the dream involving Dale and Jean Longwell from two nights before. Although two nights had already passed, when Rob recalled that dream two days later, it still felt as vivid as if he were there, with real emotion and every detail clear before his eyes -- this is a supplement Rob added.
Below are some descriptions and annotations. For example, the hydrotherapy department -- hydrotherapy means placing a person in a large rotating bathtub, on a sling, slowly massaging his entire body with water. It is very relaxing and very beneficial, especially important for the recovery of bedsores. I do not know whether this exists in China, but abroad it is a very common treatment method for patients.
Annotation twelve: As far back as when Seth began dictating Seth Speaks in January 1970, he had already told us:
I am writing this book through the sponsorship of a woman -- meaning Jane, speaking through Jane's mouth. I have become quite fond of him.
This is Seth's undisguised description: he likes Jane.
I call him Ruburt. That may seem strange, but the fact is that I have known him by other names in other times and places.
In other times and spaces, he has been a man and also a woman. And the entire entity that has lived these different, separate lives -- the entire entity can be called by the name "Ruburt." That is, the sum of all her reincarnational lives; this entity can be called by one name, Ruburt. This identity is the whole personality individual, the whole entity; sometimes we also call it the entity or something else, and the name is written differently each time.
Wade, or Maude, published a Seth-oriented newsletter called Reality Change from his home in Austin, Texas. Rob had only contacted him by telephone. He wanted to help Jane and Rob, among the readers of Reality Change, discuss the enormous medical expenses not covered by insurance -- they had medical insurance, but some costs were not reimbursed. He wanted to call on his readers to donate to them.
This was a very humbling suggestion for my wife and me. Why humbling? Because they had always been proud and self-sufficient -- Rob and Jane rarely accepted outside help. When they became ill, they had no choice but to need it, because some expenses were beyond what they could bear. They had never in their lives asked anyone outside for help, not even during the most difficult and impoverished times. Yet after they had already achieved fame and success, they instead had to accept help from others.
Why would such a reality be presented to them? Very simply, those of us who have studied Seth can understand: they were extremely resistant to accepting help from others; they were unwilling. And the more he resists something, the more it will eventually happen in his life. From a certain angle, this was also to teach them humility, to teach them to accept help from others, to teach them the fact that we live in a mutually supportive, mutually enriching society. No matter how unwilling Rob and Jane were to accept help from others, no matter how proud and self-important they were inwardly, in the end they still had to accept these gifts -- and not from just one person, but from this person's readers, from many, many people.
Why is this matter brought up repeatedly here? Because it was a sore point for the two of them. And what they did not realize was that this matter was of tremendous help to them. Their humble state of mind -- whether receiving help from others, or from nature, or from Seth, or from the environment -- is a very normal and natural state. But they had an underlying belief that they did not want to accept help or feel indebted to others, and this belief was actually a deficiency in their life development. And in the end this was made up to them -- they had to relearn how to humbly accept help from others, and they still had to do so even after they had everything. So we must never have this kind of very strong personal subjective idea -- I will not accept this, I am very capable myself, I do not want any of these things. These very strong beliefs often lead to the opposite result.
There is also a note about a place name -- Beautiful Glen, the first place Rob took Jane after their engagement in 1955, a tourist spot they visited on their first honeymoon trip. Because this place name had been mentioned in the sessions of the previous two days.
On Chapter Arrangement
All right, regarding Chapter One, although it was very long, through so many smaller broken-down parts, we have finally finished introducing it. In The Way Toward Health, because the material Seth transmitted each time was also very short, when we divided it up we sometimes put several sessions together, and sometimes we took a single session out on its own, so it was not very regular. We also did not make the content of each part too long, roughly around an hour or so each, and some even less than an hour, just to make it easier for everyone to listen. Because in the past, when the content of the Seth material was very rich, sometimes we had no choice but to make one session two hours, or even more than three hours, close to four hours. But that was not very friendly for readers listening or receiving the information. So later on, also because of the characteristics of The Way Toward Health itself, we shortened the length of the lessons and broke them into smaller parts, to make it easier for everyone to listen.
注释与核实
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Source: Guangming Daily "Xiaogang Village: 18 'Red Fingerprints' Sound a 'Thunderclap'" (https://epaper.gmw.cn/gmrb/html/2021-06/05/nw.D110000gmrb_20210605_1-03.htm) ↩
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Source: Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the People's Republic of China "Agricultural Tax Regulations Repealed: the 2,600-Year 'Imperial Grain Tax' Exits History in 2006" (https://www.moa.gov.cn/xw/zwdt/200512/t20051230_526463.htm) ↩
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According to Mike's original words, it was "Huangji Jingshi"; upon verification, the correct title of the book is "Huangji Jingshi" (also known as "Huangji Jingshi Shu"), written by Shao Yong in the Northern Song dynasty; the version Mike used has the character meaning "yellow" where the correct title has the character meaning "imperial." (Source: Wikipedia "Huangji Jingshi", https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-hans/%E7%9A%87%E6%A5%B5%E7%B6%93%E4%B8%96) ↩ ↩2 ↩3
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Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica "Shao Yong" (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Shao-Yong) ↩
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Source: Wikipedia "Yuan Hui Yun Shi" (https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-hans/%E5%85%83%E4%BC%9A%E8%BF%90%E4%B8%96) ↩
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Source: U.S. National Archives "2020 Electoral College Results" (https://www.archives.gov/electoral-college/2020) ↩
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This claim could not be verified. ↩
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Source: Wikipedia "Anita Moorjani" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Moorjani) ↩
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According to Mike's original words, "Erickson, when he was a child, was completely paralyzed and could not move"; upon verification, it should be "Erickson was almost completely paralyzed and able to move only his eyes after contracting polio at age 17 (1919), not paralyzed as a child." (Source: Wikipedia "Milton H. Erickson", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_H._Erickson) ↩
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This claim could not be verified. ↩
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This claim could not be verified. ↩
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This claim could not be verified. ↩
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This claim could not be verified. ↩
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This claim could not be verified. ↩
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According to Mike's original words, "the most typical example is that English has eight tenses"; upon verification, it should be "English has only two tenses in verb morphology: present and past (English has no separate future tense form; future time is expressed by will/be going to, etc.). What traditional teaching calls tenses are actually combinations of tense and aspect, usually listed as twelve; no authoritative grammar defines English as having eight tenses." (Source: Cambridge Dictionary "English Grammar: Tenses and time", https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/grammar/british-grammar/tenses-and-time) ↩
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According to Mike's original words, "the Hangzhou government, in order to commend him, gave him a very large room of about two or three hundred square meters to live in"; upon verification, it should be "Cai Zhizhong's residence and studio in Hangzhou Xixi Creative Industry Park is a nearly 1,000-square-meter villa (he himself said it is about 1,300 square meters including the balcony), not a single large room of two or three hundred square meters." (Source: People's Daily Online / Global People "Cai Zhizhong, Traditional Brush, Rebellious Heart", http://paper.people.com.cn/hqrw/html/2015-12/06/content_1667677.htm) ↩
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Source: Wikipedia "Gelotology" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gelotology) ↩
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Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica "Subatomic particle: Four basic forces" (https://www.britannica.com/science/subatomic-particle/Four-basic-forces) ↩
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Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica "Fundamental force (fundamental interaction)" (https://www.britannica.com/science/fundamental-interaction) ↩
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Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica "Fundamental force | Definition, List, & Facts" (https://www.britannica.com/science/fundamental-interaction) ↩
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According to Mike's original words, "Wuji gives birth to Taiji, Taiji gives birth to one, one gives birth to two, two gives birth to three, three gives birth to all things"; upon verification, it should be "The original text in Chapter 42 of the Tao Te Ching is 'Dao gives birth to one, one gives birth to two, two gives birth to three, three gives birth to all things' -- it is Dao, not Taiji, that gives birth to one, two, and three; 'Wuji er Taiji' comes from Zhou Dunyi's Taiji Tushuo in the Song dynasty, not from Laozi's original text." (Source: Laozi, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 42, https://www.econ.sdu.edu.cn/jrtzx/info/1361/25567.htm) ↩
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Source: People's Daily "How Many Chinese Characters Are There?" (https://paper.people.com.cn/rmzk/html/2020-10/27/content_2015193.htm) ↩
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Source: Svenja Adolphs, Norbert Schmitt "Lexical Coverage of Spoken Discourse" (Applied Linguistics, https://academic.oup.com/applij/article-abstract/24/4/425/213596) ↩
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This claim could not be verified. ↩
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This claim could not be verified. ↩
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Source: Wikipedia "St. Clements Roman Catholic Church (Saratoga Springs, New York)" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Clements_Roman_Catholic_Church_(Saratoga_Springs,_New_York)) ↩
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Source: Susan M. Watkins "Conversations With Seth: Book Two" (https://books.google.com/books/about/Conversations_With_Seth_Book_Two.html?id=BIvCh2xKDmgC) ↩
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Source: Susan M. Watkins "Conversations With Seth: Book One" (https://openroadmedia.com/ebook/conversations-with-seth-book-one/9781609255381) ↩
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This claim could not be verified. ↩
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Source: Jane Roberts, The Early Sessions: Book 7 (https://nowdictation.com/q/book:tes7/) ↩
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According to Mike's original words, "the 'Oversoul Seven' series, that is, 'Oversoul Seven of Future Education'; the middle term should be translated as 'oversoul' because this is The Future Education of Our Soul; oversoul means 'oversoul'; 'Oversoul Seven'"; upon verification, it should be "the original English title of the series is Jane Roberts's The Education of Oversoul Seven (with sequels The Further Education of Oversoul Seven and Oversoul Seven and the Museum of Time), not The Future Education of Our Soul; translating Oversoul as 'oversoul' is correct." (Source: Wikipedia "The Oversoul Seven Trilogy", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Oversoul_Seven_Trilogy) ↩
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Source: Wikipedia "Quest for Fire (film)" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quest_for_Fire_(film)) ↩ ↩2
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This claim could not be verified. ↩
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This claim could not be verified. ↩