Mike's commentary · The Way Toward Health, Chapter 4

The "Introduction" and "Chapter Highlights" of this chapter were summarized by an AI editor based on the main text below; they are not words spoken by Mike during his lectures. The main text comes from Mike's commentary, and the blockquotes are Seth's original words (the portions Mike read aloud).

Introduction

This chapter centers on the psychological, belief, and environmental factors of health and illness. Seth points out that the body is not a machine, and that health is connected to a person's ideas about themselves, the mind, the universe, and their relationships with family and environment. He criticizes the survival-of-the-fittest view and the mechanical view of medicine, explaining that heart disease is often related to heartbreak, heartlessness, lack of love, and lack of the will to live. He emphasizes the role of emotional transplantation, trusting the body, expressing depression, and the workings of Framework 2 in healing.

Key Points of This Chapter

• Health and illness cannot be viewed in isolation; an individual's ideas about the self, the psyche, the universe, and their relationships with family and environment are all connected to their state of health.
• Modern medicine treats the body as a machine, ignoring the hidden and constantly changing relationships among the parts of the body.
• Many heart disease patients have died inside toward life or feel heartbroken; love and emotional transplants from the environment are more effective than heart surgery alone.
• Exercising with fear and distrust of the body hinders health; the reason for exercising matters more than the exercise itself.
• Beliefs such as survival of the fittest, the impurity of the body, and illness as punishment are detrimental to physical and mental health and should be abandoned as early as possible.

Main Text

Seth Begins the Dictation for Chapter Four

We continue sharing Chapter 4, Part 1 of the Seth book The Way Toward Health. The title of Chapter 4 is "The Broken-Hearted, the Heartless, and Medical Technology." We begin with the first session, that is, Friday, March 23, 1984, at 4 p.m.

Last night Jane did not call; he was still somewhat depressed, and since taking the evening medication prescribed by Jeff, he had not been sleeping as well. Jane put on his glasses and read most of the sessions from March 19 and March 21, and he read them fairly well. Seth suggested that he read the session from March 19 for a few more days; that material was indeed very well stated. At around 3 o'clock, Jane said he had just received from Seth the title for Chapter 4 of this book. Clearly, he had to reach a certain degree of happiness in order to receive this material, which is very interesting—he had to be happy and joyful to a certain extent before he could connect with Seth. His Seth voice was very good, with few pauses, and there were pauses in several places.

Seth said, "Now once again I wish you a good afternoon," and then began the dictation:

Many psychiatrists and psychologists now realize that they cannot fully help a disturbed patient unless they also consider his family relationships.

This is a very interesting observation. Indeed, the same is true now with children's problems. Many parents bring their children in and say the child has a problem, but in fact we always ask the parents and the child to work on it together. This includes our summer camp activities and many of our school education programs, all of which require parental participation. Parental participation is especially important; if the parents do not participate, trying to solve the child's problem alone simply will not work. Very often, once the parents' problems are resolved, the child's problems resolve themselves automatically.

The same concept also applies to physical illness. Seth said:

The same applies to your body, but the concept can be carried further. A person in poor health, therefore, should be seen by a doctor in connection with his family relationships, and also in connection with his relationship to his environment.

This is certainly true. In fact, we in China have had this concept for a long time, and I have said this many, many times, hoping that everyone will take it seriously. Here Seth emphasizes once again: you cannot just talk about the problem of your physical illness; you have to look at what kind of family environment you live in, and what kind of surrounding environment you live in.

In traditional Chinese medicine, doctors would go to your home to see you. One reason was that in ancient times there were no hospitals like there are today. It was not that they could not build hospitals; they did not want to build hospitals. Hospitals are not a good thing. From the Western point of view, they are a great human invention that can greatly solve problems, and so on and so forth. Their progressive significance is certainly worthy of affirmation, but their negative effects are still very great—they put all the sick people together, which aggravates the symptoms of these patients and is actually detrimental to their recovery or self-healing. So hospitals themselves have their problems. We have already discussed the topic of future hospitals, so I will not expand on it here.

Then what we need to understand is that a person's physical illness is influenced to a certain degree by his external environment and his family relationships, and even by his relationships with colleagues at work. Seth said:

The family doctor understood the patient's sensitivity to family members and to the environment, and often felt a living sympathy and understanding that modern medicine seems often to have forgotten.

In the past, there were family doctors in Europe and America, and there still are today. This family doctor had a very thorough understanding of the person—he understood this child from birth, having treated him all along; he knew the parents, and even the parents' parents, and understood the entire family, so he had a particularly good understanding of the family environment. When this person became ill, the doctor actually had a deep sympathy and understanding, which helped the patient, or the person in poor health, to recover. But our modern medicine has long forgotten all of this. We no longer concern ourselves with these issues; we directly use instruments to examine his body and use the test results to say what illness he has—we no longer care about his environment.

Seth continued to emphasize that what he was talking about was not the ordinary environment, but a deeper relationship with the environment:

I am speaking of a deeper relationship with the environment, and of the symbolic as well as the practical aspects of the environment as it relates to health and illness.

What I am talking about goes even deeper than that; it refers to your psychological environment, your spiritual environment, your psychological issues, not merely the external environment. Seth then told us:

Your ideas about your own body, your mind, the universe and your part in it, and your relationship with family, friends, and environment, are all connected with your state of health, your sense of well-being, or your sense of dis-ease. That is all.

This statement is very clear: your relationship with the universe, your relationship with your own body, your relationship with your own mind, your identification with your own role, and your relationships with family, friends, and the surrounding environment determine whether you are healthy or not, happy or not; or conversely, whether you feel uncomfortable or feel dis-ease—in English, dis-ease and disease are the same word.

Seth said:

In the next chapter, let us see more clearly the importance of symbols in your mind, your body, and your environment.

So the title of Chapter 4 is "The Broken-Hearted, the Heartless, and Medical Technology." Then Seth said you could take a break. At 4:12, Jane took a sip of water, and he said the title Seth gave for this chapter was the same as the one he had received from him earlier that afternoon. At 4:20, the session continued with many pauses.

The Mechanical View of Medicine and the Truth of the Body

Seth went on to say:

Modern medicine largely views the human body as a kind of machine, like an automobile that needs to be taken to the repair shop for a tune-up from time to time. Just as a car is assembled on an assembly line, so the body is seen as a very efficient machine put together in nature's factory. If all the parts are in their proper places and running smoothly, then this machine should give you the best service, just like any normal car.

Suddenly modern medicine treats a person as a car or a machine. This is a very traditional mechanical view -- including our universe, which is also seen mechanically; we also hold a mechanical view of the human body. This is very naive and laughable. I don't know where we humans got this mechanical view from. The machine, as one form of existence, is only a special form of nature and the universe. Yet we humans end up applying mechanical principles to every aspect of the world, believing that everything in the world should run as precisely as a machine -- every department, every component, every part. This is very naive and laughable, just like a child who suddenly realizes that the world is made of building blocks and Legos, that they can be assembled into any shape in the world, and then believes the whole world is made of components like Legos.

But our current scientists think exactly this way, and modern medicine thinks of the human body this way too -- your body is made up of various organs and parts; if something breaks, you repair it, and once it's fixed, that's that. How laughable. He doesn't realize that the human body is closely connected to our environment, to our thoughts, and to our family relationships.

Seth said:

All the parts are solely responsible for their own functioning, as long as there is a responsible driver.

Each part is only responsible for itself -- the tire is responsible for the tire, the bearing is responsible for the bearing. But there still has to be a good driver responsible for the whole. What he means is that human consciousness is crucial to physical health -- it's not that if all the parts are fine, the car is fine, which is what the traditional view holds. Actually, for a car, and for us humans alike, a good driver is needed.

However:

Between the various parts of the body, however, there are hidden relationships, and the parts themselves can hardly be considered mechanical, for they change at every moment.

Seth directly jumps out to refute this. First, there are hidden relationships among the various parts of the human body that humans have not yet discovered. Our various organs, our various circulatory systems -- modern medicine's understanding of the human body is very incomplete. The organs of the human body are not simply assembled like car parts; the connections between them are extremely complex and very hidden, not what you see on the surface. Regarding this part, Chinese medicine actually explains it more clearly -- through the movement of meridians and qi and blood, this inner balance, the dual balance of the inner micro-environment and the outer, of the human body and nature, the internal and external balance, is the core, far surpassing Western medicine's understanding of the human body. Western medicine does not understand this kind of balance relationship. For example, Chinese medicine explains how the five zang and six fu organs operate according to wood, fire, earth, metal, and water, this transformation and transportation, including the operation of the upper, middle, and lower jiao among the triple burner. As for the triple burner, it was actually only later that modern medicine discovered it is indeed an important organ; previously humans did not consider it an organ.

Second, they change at every moment, and these connections are also changing. These two complexities lead to the complexity of the human body itself, which is beyond what current medicine can understand.

Seth gave an example:

Our heart is often described as a pump. With recent advances in medical technology, all kinds of heart surgery can be done, and even heart transplants are possible. In many cases, even when the heart has been repaired through medical technology, the same problem will suddenly occur again at some later date, or the patient recovers, only to fall victim to a different, nearly fatal or fatal illness.

If you don't solve the root problem and only deal with it through simple surgery, then the patient is very likely to have a sudden relapse, because the root hasn't been removed. This is the divergence between Western medicine and Chinese medicine -- Chinese medicine mainly treats the root, while Western medicine mainly treats surface organic lesions.

Seth said: "In any case, things are not always that way." It's not that everyone who has surgery ends up worse; some people do get better. But those who get better do not recover because the doctor's surgery cured them, but because these people underwent a relatively major change in their beliefs, attitudes, and feelings.

In other words, because the patient himself regained the will to live, the person once again had heart.

His beliefs changed, his attitude changed, his feelings changed, and he had the confidence and courage to keep living, and thus he had the will to live. And this will to live is equivalent to saying that the person now has heart. He uses heart disease as an example: those who get heart disease or die from heart disease are, in Seth's words, "people without heart" -- they no longer have the will to keep living. The manifestation of heart disease is only an external, concrete, tangible expression, but in essence the problem lies in his heart -- not the heart as an organ, but that other heart. If that heart has no problem, this heart will not have a problem.

All of us who have studied Chinese medicine know that the heart does not get sick. The heart is the official of the five zang organs, the leader of the five zang and six fu organs; as the official of all the organs, it does not get sick. Why doesn't it get sick? Because it is like a ball of fire, a body of pure yang, like the Qian trigram in the eight trigrams, always in a state of pure yang, so it cannot get sick. But some people do get heart disease. Why? At the root, in essence, it is because their beliefs and feelings have problems; they have lost the motivation to keep living, or lost the will to do so.

The Heartbroken, the Heartless, and Medical Technology

Seth continues:

Many people with heart problems feel that they have given up on their own lives.

If you have already given up on your own life, your heart will develop problems. They may feel heartbroken for many reasons, and they may casually find any reason to feel heartbroken -- such as a failed romance, bankruptcy, an unsatisfactory life, family relationships, and so on. He will find a reason, but the essence is that he has actually already given up on his own life.

They may feel that they are heartless, or they may hope, or imagine themselves to be so cold-hearted, that they actually punish themselves by giving up on life.

Or he imagines himself to be a very cold person, that the world is a very cold world, and he uses his own coldness to deal with this cold world -- "The world is unfair to me and does not love me, so why should I be good to the world? I am cold to it as well, I am cold to everyone, because you are all like this to me." This kind of using one's own coldness to punish oneself and to punish the world will lead to the occurrence of such symptoms.

Seth says:

For many people with such difficulties, adding love to the environment may be far more effective than any heart surgery.

So if we encounter such patients, simply performing heart surgery will not solve their problems; it would be better for us to treat them with love.

For example, if you give a small pet to someone who has lost a loved one, it may save more people from heart surgery than a doctor could.

What does this mean? The lives saved by doctors through heart surgery are fewer than those people who, because they lost their dearest loved ones and no longer wanted to live, eventually developed real heart problems. If you give him a small pet, he may be able to transfer his love, or he may be able to feel the love between himself and his surrounding environment. Once he feels love, he will have the will to live, he will become a person with a heart, and his heart will automatically begin to heal and recover. The number of people healed in this way far exceeds the number healed by doctors through surgery.

In other words, a transplant of love, a transfer of love in the environment -- we know there are heart transplant surgeries, and Seth says that a transplant of love in our environment may, on the whole, be far more effective than a heart transplant, a heart bypass surgery, or whatever kind of heart surgery.

In this way, the heart is allowed to heal itself.

Remember this passage, everyone -- is it not very meaningful? For this particular type of person, giving him a transplant of love is more effective than a transplant of his heart. Seth ends this session, saying: "I wish you both a good afternoon, and once again, I have accelerated those coordinates so vital to health and vitality." -- He emphasizes this again every time.

At 4:43, Jane said: "I feel he is trying to make some points, and I hope I can transmit him clearly." After hesitant attempts, even if only briefly, to say in her own words what Seth had said, she added this. She felt Seth wanted to convey some core points, and she hoped she could transmit them accurately. Below is Seth's added remark:

He is not saying that people will not sometimes need those operations, but when they do, they need those other things in order for the operations to be effective.

Seth's meaning is that he is not saying that people with serious heart disease, as mentioned earlier, do not need surgery -- Seth never said that. Seth says that after surgery corrects the physiological illness, if the person can also, emotionally and in his surrounding environment, for example, care for a small pet, that will better allow the surgery to have a greater effect. He is not saying, do not have the surgery, just raise a kitten and your illness will be cured. Do not misunderstand. He is only saying, have the surgery when surgery is needed, and deal with whatever problems there are as they are. For these problems that have already appeared, while you undergo surgery, you must recognize that the root of the problem does not lie in the surgery itself, but in the lack of love within you, in your lack of the courage to go on living.

As we talked, Jane made it clear to me that she had distinctly received that a family pet would greatly help our neighbor Joe Bumbalo, and she wanted me to be sure to impress this upon Mary Margaret Bumbalo -- she felt this strongly. Jane said it was not just a general concept. Their neighbor had heart disease, and Seth was saying that this passage was not a broad concept meant for everyone, but had specific meaning for Bumbalo as a person -- that he should adopt a pet or go and get a pet, which would be of great benefit to his heart, because he had already had surgery. So Seth was helping his neighbor.

Insurance Payouts and Tests of Faith

Let us look at the next session, March 25, 1984, Sunday, 4:13 p.m.

Jane did not call last night. In yesterday's mail, I found the new cover design for the mass-market edition of Jane's The Nature of the Psyche, a beautiful-looking piece of work, and we liked it very much. And in one letter I found another check for $1,000, donated to Jane's hospital expense fund. I speculated whether all these events were connected to that anticipated change I had been quite aware of yesterday afternoon in Room 330. I might add, yesterday I opened a letter from the BBC, dated January, and I do not know how long it had been sitting at home before he saw it in April — the producer wanted to know about doing a series on Jane. Perhaps that was connected to my anticipated change as well.

The BBC wanted to interview them, to produce a feature piece on Jane and Rob, but it seems it never happened. Even when Jane's health was good, she never accepted these professional interviews; she turned them all down. Jane is very interesting — she rejected almost all media interviews and appearances, and just buried herself in writing books. We will not dwell on the benefits of that, but the drawback is that it kept Seth's influence from being as widespread as it could have been — fewer people knew about him, because she did not make good use of the media, which is such an excellent medium. In that era, the seventies and eighties, television was still a very important medium, but she did not make use of it, and she did not want to make use of it. She preferred to deal with readers through books, and was not very good at, nor willing to, communicate more with her readers and audience through new media, to influence more people. After all, those who read her books were a minority, while those who watched television were the majority. If she had accepted more interviews and appearances back then, the benefit would indeed have been that the Seth material could have reached a much wider audience, and at the same time it would have been good for her body as well — being exposed in more media would have meant that she accepted herself, identified with her own identity, and was willing to accept her own identity. But she was unwilling to accept interviews, and even unwilling to appear before the public, so you can see that her self-acceptance was insufficient — she did not even accept herself, and was afraid of others knowing her. This is very interesting. So when the BBC wanted to interview them, they did not take up the offer, and the matter passed.

Seth came through again, saying: "Now I wish you a good afternoon, and we will resume the dictation."

Later we will discuss more thoroughly the concepts about the self, and especially about bodily distortions, that block nature's natural exuberance and good health.

We will discuss this issue more specifically later on; for now we are only touching on it roughly, and later we will go deeper into the reasons behind such beliefs — I will tell you why you have such thoughts. Seth says, let me discuss several ways in which they hinder general happiness — how you block your own happiness.

The Fear Mentality Behind Exercise

Nowadays it is very popular in society to learn some kind of exercise -- fitness gymnastics, or all sorts of strenuous sports. So it seems as if the general public must be very concerned about their bodies. Unfortunately, most people feel uneasy about their bodies and do not trust the body's spontaneous power and its overall reliability.

It did not just start recently -- it has been around for a long time. Everyone joins in some particularly trendy fitness activity, as if you are not fashionable enough or popular enough if you do not work out. Whether it is women practicing yoga, men going to the gym to lift weights, or running and other forms of exercise, it seems that if you do not work out, you do not even count as upper class, or even middle class anymore. But this view is completely wrong, it is a fallacy. It is not that working out is wrong, and it is not that exercise is wrong; it is that your starting point is wrong. Most people work out not for any other reason, but because they do not trust their own bodies. They feel that their bodies must be constantly tempered, hammered, and trained in order to stay in good condition; if the body is not exercised regularly, its functions will degenerate, and the body will enter a state of decline or deterioration. In other words, their underlying belief is a distrust of their own bodies, and a disbelief in the idea that "health can be obtained naturally and effortlessly."

Seth points this out sharply: if you hold this mentality, or if you exercise with this kind of underlying belief, it does your body no good at all. On the contrary, that fear and distrust of the body will actually bring about real physical discomfort, and you may end up even less healthy than the average person.

They have been taught that medicine knows more about their bodies and how they work than any private person could.

They tell you that doctors know your body better than you do, that experts know your body better than you do, that exercise specialists know your body better than you do, that health experts know better than you, that diet experts know your body better than you do. This is all nonsense. Keep them all far away from you, as far away as possible. No one knows your body better than you do. You are the expert who knows your body best. Do not believe those experts who give you all this so-called "this and that."

We are not saying here that we reject all scientific and medical viewpoints; we are telling you that your confidence in your own body is something no expert can replace. If you lose confidence in your own body, then even if you search the whole world for famous doctors to treat you, it will be useless. What is emphasized here is that your confidence in your body is more important than all the experts, more important than all the advice medicine gives you. This is exactly what Seth emphasizes.

In other words, if you have not the slightest worry about your body, if you have not the least bit of concern about your body's health, then there is no need for you to work out, no need to exercise, no need to run or do all kinds of sports every day. This kind of statement actually goes against many mainstream views, but Seth does not care; he just comes right out and points out this problem directly.

Let me emphasize once again, and I hope everyone will not misunderstand or twist the concept. What Seth emphasizes is this: there is nothing wrong with working out. You can work out, you can exercise, and there is no problem with that. You can also choose not to work out, not to exercise, and there is no problem with that either. The issue here is what kind of mentality you bring to your workouts and exercise. If you are driven by fear, afraid of getting sick, wanting to keep your body in a very good condition, afraid that if you do not exercise you cannot maintain good condition -- if you work out and exercise with this mentality, then your body will not be very healthy. On the contrary, even if you do not work out at all, but you have one hundred percent trust in your body, believing in its spontaneity, believing in its natural health, then your body will actually be healthier.

I do not even need to give examples; there are too many. If you are truly an objective person, go search online: these fitness gurus, internet celebrities, and even famous people often die suddenly at a very young age -- in their thirties, for example. I will not name specific names here, as that might be hurtful, but you probably know who I am talking about. For instance, a certain celebrity collapsed from a sudden heart attack during the filming of a variety show because of intense physical exertion, yet he was only in his thirties. A certain famous fitness instructor who led the nation in morning exercises on CCTV died of illness in his thirties, ahead of everyone else. In the United States there are many fitness gurus whose body fat percentage is in the single digits -- two, three, four percent, almost zero -- their bodies incredibly healthy, with eight-pack abs and bulging muscles. The news keeps reporting on them -- often you see that due to an accident, while jogging, while exercising, and one while bowling, they suddenly collapsed headfirst to the ground and died from cerebrovascular or cardiovascular disease. It is very regrettable and unfortunate.

What is the reason? Although we do not know each individual, generally speaking, they all exercise based on fear -- deep down their foundation is fear, not love and enjoyment. If they truly loved it and truly enjoyed it, then there would be no problem; exercising for no purpose at all is fine. So here again it is emphasized why Laozi's "doing nothing, yet nothing is left undone"¹ is so important -- you cannot exercise with any kind of purpose. The only purpose of your exercise should be: I enjoy it. You cannot say that you exercise to gain health, that exercise will keep you from getting sick, that exercise will keep your body in good condition. If you have any such thought, then your purpose in exercising is to seek something, and this seeking will definitely not bring you the result you want; on the contrary, it will bring negative results. So this involves everyone's fitness issues.

Seth says:

People have been taught to trust X-rays and the picture of what is happening in their bodies, and cautioned against trusting their own feelings.

They tell you not to trust yourself, to trust X-rays, and that is how it is. For example, certain public service campaigns emphasize that individuals must be aware of the serious threat of high blood pressure, even if they feel extremely healthy. Some people tell you that you have high blood pressure, but you yourself have no symptoms and are living perfectly fine. But scientific testing tells you that this will not do, that you have high blood pressure, and then you start taking blood pressure medication. But after you lower your blood pressure -- why did you have high blood pressure in the first place? Because your blood was not getting enough oxygen, so the pressure had to be raised, just like the pressure in a water pipe is raised. If you artificially take blood pressure medication to lower your blood pressure, then the body will raise the pressure again, because you need that pressure to ensure oxygen supply to your blood. This becomes a vicious cycle, and this is a typical example.

If I do not trust X-rays, what do I trust? If I do not trust my CT scan report, what do I trust? This kind of statement may sound a bit unscientific, but trust yourself -- you yourself can make your body change and adjust. You insist on trusting the test results, but you do not trust your own perception of your body.

This is very simple. Traditional Chinese medicine has its own set of standards for whether a person is healthy, and they are very simple. I probably cannot remember all of them, but let me casually list a few, and you can roughly judge whether you are healthy: first, you sleep well -- you fall asleep as soon as you lie down. This is an important indicator of health. Second, you eat with a good appetite -- everything tastes good, and you do not lack appetite or have no desire to eat. A good appetite and enjoying your food means the person is very healthy. Another one: your bowel movements and urination are normal -- regular, and the color, shape, and consistency are all normal. Also, your palms and the soles of your feet are not cold, but slightly warm -- normal health means the hands and feet are warm, slightly warm, while the whole body is cool. The temperature of the hands and feet is slightly higher than the temperature of the body; this is normal. The body is like the canopy of the sky, carrying a slight coolness -- when you touch your body with your hand, the body should be cool and the hand warm; this is an indicator of health. That is basically it; there are a few more I cannot remember. Roughly these few, nothing too complicated. If you have these indicators -- eating well, sleeping well, normal bowel and bladder function, normal body temperature and feeling comfortable -- then you are basically healthy. You are a healthy person, and there is no need to believe in those tests and indicators. If you have symptoms of ill health in any of the above, then you should pay attention. The body is extremely, extremely precise and complete. When it is unhealthy, it will remind you, and all kinds of symptoms will appear.

The Fear-Based Way of Exercising Is Wrong

Seth continues:

Because of a very unfortunate mixture of beliefs, the masses began this strenuous exercise program.

Powerful, forceful exercise is considered very bad in traditional Chinese medicine. Heavy exercise volume, aerobic training, profuse sweating — this kind of forceful exercise is regarded in TCM health cultivation as a form of depletion, a behavior that is not very good for the body. So we should try to avoid this kind of profuse sweating. Once in a while is fine, but do not make it a deliberate, long-term, compulsive form of heavy sweating.

Since they felt that you were separated from your body, many people doubted what was happening within.

They felt that they were separate from their own bodies, so they did not know what was happening inside themselves and needed others to test it for them.

Certain religious beliefs suggested that the body was impure, and an inheritor of disease and falsity.

Many religions tell you that you are sick because you have karma, that you did something bad, that the body is impure. Often people exercise excessively fanatically in order to punish their bodies, compulsively punishing the body, or forcing the body to give its best response — because they do not trust that if they do not do this, the body will not work properly. They feel they must exercise it well, take it out and train it when there is nothing else to do, train it morning and evening, just like running a machine and oiling it so it can operate normally. The body is the same; we treat the body the way we treat machinery and equipment.

In many cases:

People exercised because they were afraid of what would happen if they did not. They might run to avoid heart attacks, for example, while their fear could help promote the very final result they feared.

Many people run or jog in order to avoid heart disease. Because many exercise experts and medical personnel tell them that running can reduce the incidence of heart disease, so fine, they start running. What is the purpose of their running? What is their underlying intention? It is the fear of getting heart disease. They run with this fear-based intention, and what is the result? The result is that these people often get heart disease. Quite ironic, is it not? Look at how many reports there are every day — not every day, but every month there are several cases of so-and-so suddenly collapsing and dying of a heart attack while running, and often they are young and strong people. You would think that running should make their hearts healthier than normal, right? Yes, but because they are afraid, and they run in this state of fear, the thing they fear often comes true. This is what I often say: the results created by using the brain often have this kind of aftereffect, because they attract the opposite side of the thing.

The health of the body is an expression of inner well-being.

If the body is unhealthy, that proves you are not happy inside. Health can achieve many purposes, and inner well-being can also achieve many purposes.

It goes without saying that certain people became ill rather than change their living conditions, activities, and environment. They could also, of course, become ill, and use that to strengthen themselves to make such changes.

Both possibilities exist here: some people become ill without changing their environment or their usual living habits; some people become ill, and because of the illness they change their living environment, and then the illness may get better. So both possibilities exist. Simply put, your inner changes determine your outer changes. Those environments and activities are not important; what is important is your inner change — inner change is more important than outer environment and whether you exercise. This is what Seth wants to emphasize.

The dictation is over.

The Satisfactory Resolution of the Insurance Claim

Let us look at the next session, March 27, 1984, Tuesday, 4:12 p.m.

Jane called last night, just as I was about to leave, and Magritte went to visit her. At 11 a.m. this morning, our lawyer called to tell me that Blue Cross had agreed to pay their insurance claim. Wow, what a relief. The insurance settlement they had been worried about for nearly a year had finally reached a satisfactory conclusion — the insurance company agreed to reimburse their medical expenses, which they had previously refused to do. And just think, with Jane staying in such a hospital room long-term in the United States, with long-term care of this kind, you can imagine the medical bills were astronomical. How much they paid out he did not say; it might have been 100 percent, or 80 or 90 percent, who knows — in any case, they agreed to pay. But even if they paid 80 percent, they would still owe a large sum, though it was much better than not paying at all; at least the bulk of it was covered. If it was 100 percent, that would be wonderful.

And Seth had been right — because Seth had told them long before that the insurance problem they were worried about would definitely reach a satisfactory conclusion. Seth said it more than once; in my impression, in the earlier part of the readings he said it no fewer than seven or eight times, probably even more. As soon as I told Jane the news, he would say with a smile, "Right, Seth said so long ago." During the afternoon, he said he had never worried about the insurance issue.

I think the good news may not yet have penetrated my psyche, even when I was typing these words at nine o'clock. After talking with our lawyer this morning, I went back to writing Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment, as if nothing had happened. You can see the two of them were in very good shape; although the matter had reached a satisfactory conclusion, they were not ecstatic, as if they had known all along it would turn out this way. Still, the fear and anticipation I had felt every day for months when I went to check the mailbox were now beginning to dissolve.

Rob told Jane that last night he had another of his recurring troubling dreams: in it, for unknown reasons, he was chased through many rooms by unknown men; he always escaped, hiding in one small room after another, but it was a disturbing dream. It was like another dream he had about a week earlier — when he was on the edge of Elmira, lost in a series of abandoned factory buildings, and he was naked, lost in the factory buildings, and he ran into a young female nurse and asked her what to do. Rob recognized the meaning of the first dream — his fear. But he understood the meaning of last night's dream far more than he had the previous one.

Jane's eyesight has improved, and so have her movements in her arms and elsewhere. Rob read her two letters from female scientists in California, thinking they would cheer her up, because both emphasized the value of her work. Jane also read two recent sessions herself, doing far better than she ever had before. After Rob told her about the insurance, Jane told him that he had gained momentum, and he now felt that everything would turn out well. Because the insurance matter was the big thing actually weighing on their minds; if the insurance paid out, it would be like giving him a reassurance, and from then on they would not have to worry about any costs for the treatment.

Then Jane's Seth voice was very good, and Seth said:

I wish you a good afternoon. We shall resume dictation. As for your insurance, after waiting so long, congratulations. I understand that the waiting seemed far longer to you than it did to me, but I was not worried.

Seth emphasized once again. Seth was almost simultaneously amused and understanding of them. After the session, Rob told Jane that Seth had said more than he understood. In the case of the prediction, he had predicted it long before — if he had been smart, he should have reminded himself that Seth's sense of time was indeed different from ours, and that on our side it might involve far more time than on his side. This reminded Rob again of his dream from a few months earlier: at that time he looked out a window from the hospital's elevator tower and saw the insurance company's check lying on the asphalt ground beside the left front wheel of the car. He interpreted that dream as a meaningful resolution, still far away from us, but there nonetheless — without checking, he could not remember the date of the dream. He had in fact foreseen it, had foreknowledge of it.

The True Meaning of Exercise and Framework 2

Seth now dictates:

I do not mean to imply that exercise is harmful to good health.

Seth is not saying exercise is bad for the body. Whether exercise is good or bad for the body depends on the state of mind you bring to it, and has little to do with the exercise itself.

But the reason you exercise is, in fact, far more important than the exercise you actually do.

That is, the reason you exercise -- your intention, why you exercise -- is far more important than the effect of the exercise itself.

That reason can promote your health, or actually impede it.

If you do it out of fear, it will only make you less and less healthy; if you do it with joy and happiness, it will make you healthier and healthier. It is that simple, and it has nothing to do with the exercise itself.

In this book, we have only begun to touch upon the many issues involved with good health or its absence. Before we are done, we hope to give you a much larger framework in which to consider your own well-being, and the many choices that are open to anyone.

He is giving you a very large framework in which to consider your own happiness. You have many choices regarding your own happiness and regarding any other person -- you can choose to live a happy life, not only making yourself happy but also making those around you happy; you can also choose to live an unhappy life. The choice is in your hands.

We will discuss the aspects associated with a long, healthy, and reasonably happy life, and those aspects involving early death, severe illness, and suicide -- particularly the problem of suicide among quite young people.

I will discuss both of these issues. The good and the bad are both very open choices for you, or completely opposite open choices.

Earlier we spoke of the incredible thrust toward exuberance and well-being that all of nature exhibits.

Nature's instinct is toward exuberance and happiness; it naturally and incredibly moves in that direction.

It is as if nature is always trying to surpass itself, and obviously to increase the quality of its existence.

It is always surpassing itself, always becoming a better version of itself, and always increasing the quality of its existence. The word "quality" here really means the quality of existence.

The individual human being is also involved in an ever-continuing process of increasing the quality of life.

Every person is like this; every person is increasing the quality of their own life. That quality of life exists at all levels of personal experience.

Reality is constructed in such a way that each person, in pursuing such achievement, does not sacrifice others, but does so in a way that increases the quality of life for all.

When you increase the quality of your own life, you do not benefit yourself at the expense of others, you do not harm others; on the contrary, you enhance the quality of life of others -- while you are vigorously increasing the quality of your own life, you simultaneously benefit others, allowing their quality of life to be enhanced or increased as well. This is the original meaning of value fulfillment. This is how the universe is built, constructed, and designed; this is its underlying logic. Whether you believe it or not, accept it or not, this is how it works, this is how it operates.

At 4:22, after a long pause:

Each person impulsively tries to grow into the potentials that he or she can sense, even when they are not yet consciously apparent.

Every person impulsively strives to develop their own potential, and they have this impulse even when the potential is not yet obvious. For example, when you suddenly want to learn a musical instrument, it is actually not obvious at all, but many people will impulsively go and do it. That is, we impulsively leap into our potential, or leap into the development of our potential. This is an instinctive thing.

In a certain manner, through an instant communication that exists on many levels, each fragment of consciousness is aware of every other fragment.

On many levels there is immediate, instant communication -- communication that transcends time. Each fragment of consciousness can perceive the existence of another fragment of consciousness, and it is instantaneous, transcending time, like quantum entanglement.

It is important that your ideas flow freely, and that the ideas of the world's people flow freely. It is equally important that your individual bodies have good circulation, and that you as individuals have good circulation.

Your ideas about your own health are even more important than the steps you take to promote health.

Your thoughts about your own health are far more important than the act of doing something, or the steps you take to promote your own health. For example, believing that you are healthy is far more important than engaging in health regimens to make yourself healthier.

Your ideas about foreign nations, about allies, and about enemies also play a very important role in how you handle the defenses of your own body.

Your view of the world is also very important to your own health; do not think it is unimportant.

People who fear that their country will be invaded by enemies often regard viruses as enemies of disease, forever threatening their personal existence and survival.

People who often wonder whether other countries will invade us will also regard viruses as a threat, wondering whether they will invade our bodies. This is how such people's thinking works -- at the national level, they imagine others will invade and occupy them; at the bodily level, they worry that the external environment and viruses will harm them. Of course, this attitude is not conducive to feelings of well-being, health, and exuberance.

Although medical technology has many serious flaws, many people do believe in the medical profession to such an extent that they truly cannot survive in good health without it.

People believe in medicine so excessively that they reach a state where, without medicine, they would not even know how to live. If hospitals, doctors, and the scientific system were suddenly gone, many people would be frightened to death; they would not even know how to live anymore. They would not even know how to maintain their own health without modern medicine.

Later in this book, we will also discuss some ways in which you can use your beliefs in the medical profession to strengthen your overall sense of health, rather than undermine it.

You should use the belief in medicine to enhance the health of the body, rather than to destroy your health. What does this mean? Modern medicine, intentionally or unintentionally, is actually not beneficial to your health, but you must transform this -- you must turn this belief that medicine is harmful to your body into a beneficial belief.

Dictation ended. At 4:34:

On the whole, you have both sufficiently activated Framework 2, so that its effects can intentionally appear in all areas of your lives, including the physical area.

Both of you have now activated Framework 2, and once activated, its benefits appear in all aspects of your lives -- not only does the insurance company compensate you, your classes can proceed normally, and your bodies are also recovering normally.

I wish you a pleasant afternoon, and once again, I have accelerated those coordinates of healing that are so important to health and vitality.

At 4:36, Rob read the session to Jane. This was the first time Seth said they were doing reasonably well with Framework 2. Rob said, "I am quite sure not in all areas." He was still objective -- Rob said that no matter how Seth encouraged them, no matter how much Seth said they were doing well, they understood in their hearts that in some areas they were indeed doing very well, but in some areas they were indeed not doing enough. This was Rob's objective assessment of himself and Jane.

Alright, let us pause here for this part of the content, and in the next session we will introduce the following portion.

Seth Book The Way Toward Health, Chapter 4, Part 2 (April 1984)

This part begins on April 2, 1984. It was a Monday afternoon at 3:58 p.m., Jane's first session in six days. A six-day pause in transmitting the Seth material was quite unusual for him. He used the time well, answering every reader letter at home, paying bills, and sometimes truly feeling he could relax and take a deep breath. The insurance issue had been resolved, and whenever he thought about how the financial work, the insurance issues, and so on had all reached an improved state, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Last Thursday, March 29, was the first time Rob had not gone to the hospital to see Jane since she was admitted on April 20 of the previous year. The reason was simple: a deep, wet, heavy snowstorm the night before had continued into the next day, splitting the magnolia tree in the backyard and bringing down the one closest to the garage across the driveway, so he could not get the car out of the garage. Insurance would not cover it. On March 31, Frank Longwell came with a chainsaw and helped him clear the driveway to the point where Rob could get the car out. The day before, John Bumbalo had driven Rob to the hospital. Through Maude Cardwell's efforts in altering reality, Jane now had over $7,000 in donations.

Jane did very well today, reading the last session, plus the session from March 19 in which Seth told Jane not to lose weight. His Seth voice was quite good, although he paused several times. He said, "I wish you a good afternoon." They said good afternoon to Seth, and we will resume the dictation. After the six-day pause, resuming again, he said many large issues had been touched upon, involving personal health situations, and these were related to questions we had not yet discussed. They would indeed be dealt with later in this book, but for now we were only discussing them in a general way. They were rather far removed from ordinary medical thinking, and in the eyes of mainstream medical authorities, they would be regarded as pure quackery.

Many large issues had been touched upon, involving personal health situations, and these were related to questions we had not yet discussed.

He said that regarding health, this was a big topic, and it would involve many far-reaching questions. This book would cover all of them, but for now we would not go into such deep questions—those questions that mainstream medical theory regarded as quackery, as outside the norm.

But the fact is that each individual has lived many times, and the inner self is quite aware of its own psychic and physical agility. The body consciousness alone is aware of all of this, and its physical existence in any one life is dependent upon the death of its physical body, and that death will ensure that it has yet another existence.

He said that this inner body consciousness of yours has always known that the death of your physical body is preparation for the next existence. In other words, if your physical body did not die, then no one would have a next time. So the drive to survive is a drive that leads toward death and beyond it. Because all consciousness understands that it has survived many forms and conditions. Consciousness is not a single form; it has different forms of existence, and physical existence is only one of them. So it does not cling to or get tangled up in this one form of existence. Thus reincarnation is also part of a larger framework, and within that larger framework, the health and happiness of any individual must be considered.

The influence of reincarnation is most obvious in so-called birth defects, and this will be discussed later in this book. The idea of reincarnation, of being reborn, of transmigration, is especially obvious when a person is born with a disability. In our culture we might say this was some evil done in a past life, or that there is some karma involved, and so on. Actually, none of that exists, but this kind of congenital physical disability tends to attract special attention when people discuss the topic of reincarnation.

Reincarnational influences are far less rigid than many who believe in the concept suppose. In any given case, reincarnational influences often leave the individual many choices.

Reincarnation gives everyone a great deal of room for active choice. For example, some people say that any specific event in a past life inevitably leads to a specific corresponding reactive effect in this life. People who believe in reincarnation will tell you, "Everything you did in your last life will affect you in this life." In other words, everything you do in this life will affect your next life—that is what they will tell you. This is a rather simplified way of putting it. There are far too many other factors that also apply to the human personality.

No one is fated to have poor health, and no one is punished in one life for evil activities in a previous life.

People are always talking about punishment, karma, and so on. That is using human thinking to approach this complex question; it is a simplified version of thinking. And what is the real reason? There is no such thing as punishment, and no one is fated to have poor health. None of that exists.

The truth is that a person who was very cruel in one life, very brutal, may subconsciously choose to experience circumstances in which he understands the meaning of cruelty, but this does not mean that such a person must then spend an entire life as a victim.

Seth's point is to tell you this: if a person experienced being a very cruel person in a previous life, then it is very likely that subconsciously he will switch roles to experience what it feels like to be treated cruelly. But the purpose is not to punish him—as if to say, you treated others cruelly in your last life, so in your next life you will be treated cruelly by those cruel people. No. This is to experience both sides of the same coin, or to experience the same thing from different roles. A cruel person and a person treated cruelly are two completely different roles. If you have only experienced one role, you cannot understand the other role. And this is the choice of your greater self, not a punishment. There is no concept of punishment, and none of the karma we imagine. It is simply that you want to choose to experience different roles. That is all. And you will not always be a victim; you only need the experience.

New learning is always involved.

You come here to learn new things—although Seth also often says that there is nothing we need to learn here, but here he is just using this example. You are always willing to try different roles, just like learning new knowledge. New choices are always open; you can choose to experience this, or choose not to experience it. It is open, and you have countless experiences to choose from.

In fact, generally speaking, there are so many distorted concepts connected with reincarnation that he was thinking it would be much better to concentrate simply on the concept of multiple existences.

He said that regarding those concepts of karma, cause and effect, and punishment connected with reincarnation, if you hold those concepts, you would be better off simply thinking of reincarnation as a kind of multiple existence. It would actually be better for you to understand it from this angle.

What does multiple existence mean? He goes on to explain:

It is so powerful because of the true nature of time, and the interrelatedness of consciousness, that a future life affects a past life.

Time is truly a property. If you cannot transcend time, then you will think that this life is influenced by the previous life, and the next life will also be influenced by this life. That is what most people think—we have made time the interrelatedness of our consciousness, using time to connect consciousness. But actually that is unnecessary; consciousness does not need time to make connections. But we think that our memories, our everything, need time to make connections. Actually, all of these existences happen simultaneously; this is simultaneity. Because there is no time, fundamentally all systems are open—what he wants to try is not fixed, especially psychological systems.

Broadly speaking, you are on all levels at once.

From a higher perspective, we are simultaneously in all reincarnational cycles, on all levels. If we suppose that all reincarnational cycles are one kind of level, then we also exist differently in various depths, heights, and realms. That is, we can exist on all levels at the same time.

And operating in all of your own existences, all of your existences operating.

You are simultaneously operating in all of your reincarnational personalities. Even though sometimes you may think of existence as a series of lives, one after another, that is useful. Thinking of it that way, understanding it that way, can be helpful to you. But you only need to understand that they happen simultaneously, or that they are multiple existences—that makes it easier to understand.

When we generally think of existence, we think of this life followed by the next life, the next life followed by the one after that. He says, go ahead and think of it that way; it is fine, it is quite good. But what you should understand even more is that they happen simultaneously, and do not need time as the connection between consciousnesses.

You are indeed at the level of Framework 2, consciously impressing reality.

He was praising Rob and Jane, saying that your Framework 2 state is being maintained quite well, and improvements have been made in all respects. If Jane's initiation speeds up the healing process and strengthens those coordinates of well-being and exuberance, at 4:24 p.m., Rob read this session to Jane. As he did so, Jane also had some thoughts of her own.

For example, her thought was: a person may choose illness in order to explore the reality of illness, and to produce certain effects on the other people around the patient. Because when he is ill, besides wanting to experience it himself—that is his own—it also brings certain special effects to the people around him.

Rob said, "I have had many thoughts, of knowing my own thoughts in as many ways as possible." He had many, many thoughts that all came from Jane's illness. If he were not the family member of a patient, he might not have had many of these feelings. The patient chooses illness for his own reasons, and at the same time, for his family members, for the patient's loved ones, they also gain a kind of enrichment of experience from it.

He also thought: in our society, if we have any problem at all, we are educated to constantly condemn ourselves, to the point that the original reason for our illness becomes obscured.

Another concept I have considered, I am afraid I think that consciously, we are still far from integrating such concepts into daily life.

Rob sincerely stated his own view: we often, because of some small ailment or small problem, constantly condemn ourselves, saying how could I be like this, and so on. Rob said that to reach the state Seth described, to use Seth's ideas to think about problems in our daily lives, may still be a long way off.

When Rob asked him whether he believed we were operating within Framework 2, he said he did—regarding the insurance issue, the donations, and their current work, all of it showed they were doing much better, and he agreed with that. They had indeed done much better than before. Then at 9:45 p.m., Jane called with Carla's help, and the session ended.

April 3: The Rigid Belief in Survival of the Fittest

Let's look at the next session, which is Tuesday, April 3, 1984, at 4:03 p.m. It was very warm today, 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Jane read aloud the two notes Rob wrote for Session 907 of Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment, and she also read yesterday's session very well -- in fact, she read it faster than any session Rob had ever heard her read. Halfway through Jane's effort, Peggy Gallagher came by to see him for a while. Then Seth came through.

We will now resume dictation.

The concept of survival of the fittest has had a considerably detrimental influence in many areas of human activity, especially in the ideology and work of medicine.

Seth is going to take aim at survival of the fittest again. That whole concept was developed in the most mechanistic way possible, completely not treating people as people, but as machines. It emphasizes competition in all aspects of life, setting one life form against another. He sets life and death against each other, sets health and this unhealthiness against each other, sets one state against another. Actually, these are all different forms of human life, but you insist on opposing them -- you say this one is good, that one is sick; this one is healthy, that one is unhealthy.

Then physical strength and agility, speed and efficiency, were used as the main conditions for the existence of any individual or species.

So we say that for a person to exist, or for any animal to exist, he must have strength, must be agile, must act quickly and efficiently, otherwise he is unqualified or substandard and cannot survive. This is a mistaken cognition of us humans. Every person, including some who are born disabled, does not necessarily have strength, does not necessarily move with agility, does not necessarily act quickly and neatly. But they have their own meaning and value in existing. These things we ordinarily understand as physical advantage and agile movement are not the main conditions of our survival. This must be remembered -- do not treat these as a necessary standard for us humans.

In the wild, however, many animals protect and care for injured and disabled members.

In nature, many animals will protect those who are injured and weak. It is not at all the weak being preyed upon by the strong, survival of the fittest, that everyone imagines. And the wisdom that comes with age is indeed appreciated in the animal kingdom as well, quite truly. Those older animals may move more slowly, but within their animal kingdoms they are respected -- this is a fact.

Yet the idea of survival of the fittest has been exaggerated far beyond those ideas of cooperation.

In the animal world, those old animals still receive respect. The concept of survival of the fittest has been blown up far too large. Most of it is based on cooperation, and this concept of survival of the fittest simply cannot reflect the relationships between living things in nature.

A long pause at 4:12.

In politics and in medicine, such distortions have led to unfortunate conditions.

This is true in both politics and medicine. In politics, for example, in the Second World War, the Nazi biological concept of Aryan supremacy², the obsession with the perfect body and other distortions.

The concept of the perfect body, the ideal body, is held up as a model by the general public. This often announces a standardized perfect body type, and that is actually one that very few people can match. Whether in politics or in medicine, people all want to pursue perfection -- this in itself is a mistaken cognition. Aryan supremacy came about because Germany during World War II did indeed carry out such a project plan -- they selected the young men and women they thought best represented their Aryan nation, around eighteen, nineteen, twenty years old, and gathered them together, several hundred men and women together, as the inheritors of Germany's superior genes going forward, and had them have children together. After the births, the government raised them, with unified numbering. This was a plan they formulated at the time, and they implemented it, and many children were born from it. They originally wanted to centrally manage all of Germany's young people on a large scale, to mass-breed their so-called pure Aryan race.

And Seth here, besides talking about this behavior of Nazi Germany in World War II, also points out our behavior in everyday life. Many young girls in our daily lives say, "Oh, I want to be thin to such and such a degree," imagining a standard, so-called perfect body type. But we all know that very few people can actually achieve that perfect body type everyone talks about. So do those who cannot achieve it have no value in existing? Or is their health necessarily a problem? None of that is true.

Any variations are not accepted.

Now the mainstream does not accept different body types -- everyone says "fair skin, beautiful face, long legs," one standard body, one standardized, formatted one. And any congenital defects are viewed with the most suspicious eyes. Those who are born disabled or with defects -- we start saying what is going on, is there some curse on this -- Western families will say it is some curse, Eastern families will say is it some karmic cause and effect.

Then some schools of thought proposed that only the genetically superior should be allowed to breed, should be allowed to reproduce the next generation.

And some scientists believe that all defects can be eradicated through wise and prudent genetic planning. Scientists think there is no need to focus on these bodily defects anymore -- in the future these can all be changed through genetic engineering.

As a result of such long-held theories, people have come to no longer trust their bodies.

People have held this view for a long time; we no longer believe in our bodies.

The handicapped are often given information, even by the medical profession, that makes them feel like unfit persons.

Disabled people feel as though they themselves have done something wrong -- that their own bodies did not grow into what everyone else's are, as if it were their own fault, and they often blame themselves. There is no need -- if you are sick, you are sick; if you are not sick, you are not sick. There is no need to feel guilt.

In the past, some religious groups also promoted certain beliefs, saying that illness was a sign of God's punishment.

Whoever gets sick, others can tell at a glance -- those who have been punished by God, whose families all have a certain illness, or who have received retribution for committing the sin of defying God's goodness. If God were such a vengeful person, he would not be qualified to be God. So it is unclear why people always say God wants revenge.

The same beliefs often spread into the economic realm, for example, that those who are pleasing in the eyes of God are therefore endowed with wealth and hope.

Those who are pleasing before God will all receive wealth and hope, and also health. God is seen as standing on the side of those who compete the hardest. Whenever we think of God, whenever we think of the divine, we say that as long as you strive and compete, heaven favors those who are prepared, heaven favors those who struggle and strive. This is our cognition, but this cognition is wrong. If there is a God, he would not stand on anyone's side -- he is very just, without discrimination. But we ordinarily do not think this way -- we think that as long as you work hard, God will be with you, and for those who do not work hard, God will not show any favor at all.

Thus poverty was almost viewed as a sign of God's displeasure.

If you are poor, if you are sick, then you will think that surely God is punishing you.

All of these concepts have appeared in some form in most official levels of thought and education.

These concepts mentioned above -- after hearing them now, we find them quite unbelievable and quite wrong, but they are indeed spread at all levels of our education, spreading this kind of thinking, spreading this kind of knowledge.

The whole concept of natural beauty has been forgotten.

We are actually naturally beautiful -- this whole concept has gradually been forgotten. As we continue the discussion, we will touch on a theme -- and that is the end. The main ideas in the following content are again stated very simply: it is not that you think health, smart movement, good figure, beauty, or even not getting sick, or being wealthy -- you think all these are God's favor, you think God favors these people. Actually, God does not favor anyone -- this is our mistaken understanding.

April 4: Health and the Overall Context

We are looking at April 4, 1984, Wednesday, 4:14 p.m. At noon today, Frank Longwell paid a brief visit, and agreed to saw down the damaged magnolia tree in the backyard, turn the soil, and plant wildflowers. Rob told Jane about this plan, and he generally agreed, though not entirely -- although he mourned the loss of that magnolia tree, perhaps you could leave the sawn-up roots in place, as a perch for the birds. He still has feelings for that tree. After lunch, Jane read yesterday's session very well. The heating in Room 330 broke down, and for most of the afternoon we were waiting for the repairman.

Now once again I wish you a good afternoon.

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

This chapter consists of a hodgepodge of different ideas. This is only meant to suggest the wide variety of topics connected with health and well-being.

This chapter is just a hodgepodge. Just like the very beginning of Seth Speaks -- Seth Speaks is also a similar kind of hodgepodge within all the spiritual Seth material, and there is also the information from the threshold, which is the condensed version of The Early Sessions, and that is even more of a hodgepodge. Because some of these topics cannot be fully developed.

Once again, your ideas about yourself are in the larger context of a healthy lifetime.

What does this sentence mean? The way he speaks is not easy to understand. What he means is this: in such a large, comprehensive determination of whether you are healthy, your ideas about yourself occupy a very important position. How do you see yourself? Do you accept and approve of yourself, or do you not accept and not approve? This is all very important.

For example, the condition of your heart is affected by your own feelings about it.

Your heart is affected by yourself. If you think of yourself as cold-hearted or heartless, those feelings will have an important effect on that physical organ. Do not underestimate the power of language, and do not think that being hard on yourself, oppressing yourself a little, is fine. Is being hard on yourself and good to others still a virtue? Actually, none of that is true. Your thoughts, your relationship with yourself, how you view yourself -- these directly affect your health.

If you feel broken-hearted, then the physical organ itself also reflects that feeling to some extent.

Many people say, "I am heartbroken." When you are truly heartbroken, you can feel that sensation, and that sensation is so real -- it really feels as though a person's heart has actually broken. Those descriptions are very apt.

Obviously, as mentioned earlier, each individual also has many choices open to him or her.

Everyone has many choices, and the range of choices is very broad. So never again say that anything is predestined. Many things simply do not exist that way; it is completely open.

For example, not everyone who feels broken-hearted dies of heart trouble. Health problems cannot be considered in an isolated fashion, either.

You cannot say that these people will always die of heart disease; that is not necessarily so. Health problems also cannot be considered in an isolated way; they must be looked at holistically.

They must be seen in the largest context that gives health itself a value and a meaning. As we mentioned earlier, each person also tries to actualize his or her own unique abilities, and to fill life's experience as fully and completely as possible.

This is very important. You cannot look at health problems in isolation; you must give health itself a meaning or a larger context. Look at it from the perspective of your personal growth and the height of your consciousness. As we said earlier, everyone tries to develop their unique abilities in relation to their own potential, so some people who are ill have made a kind of self-choice.

If a person is strongly and persistently thwarted in that attempt to a certain degree, then that dissatisfaction and frustration will be translated into a lack of physical exuberance and vitality.

What attempt? The attempt to fill life's experience. If it is strongly and persistently thwarted to a certain degree -- remember, we basically do not really accept people living this kind of life, that is, a life of trying out various possibilities. Although they may offer encouragement and so on, deep down they feel that you should have a home and stay at home every day. If you have no family, start one; if you have a family, center your life around the family as much as possible. This is a kind of resistance. Then that dissatisfaction and frustration is translated into a lack of physical exuberance and vitality.

Regardless of the circumstances, however, there is always an endless store of energy at each person's command.

No matter what state you are in, whether you are ill or not, whether you are energetic or not, at your foundation there is always an inexhaustible store of energy. This has nothing to do with whether you are outwardly healthy. Seth's meaning is that you should not be too attached to the external -- that if a person is healthy, that is good, that is divine favor, that is a normal or perfect expression of human existence. If you are not healthy, then you have no right to live, or should not even be alive; if you are born with a disability, it is as though you have done something wrong.

And we will also discuss the ways in which we can learn to tap that source and improve our own health.

Our focus is to learn how to tap that source and improve our health -- that is what we are going to learn in this book.

A pause at 4:25.

He says the sooner you get rid of the rigid belief in survival of the fittest, the better.

The sooner you abandon the viewpoint of survival of the fittest, the better it actually is for you.

Philosophies that emphasize the body's impurity or degradation should also be seen as entirely detrimental to the health of both body and psyche.

The sooner you cast aside this survival-of-the-fittest viewpoint, the better for your health. If you always feel that the body is somehow not good enough, or that the body is lowly, inferior, or degraded, you will find that this is detrimental to the soundness of both body and mind. As long as it demeans the body, do not embrace too much of it.

Such beliefs fill your conscious mind with negative suggestions.

We have had this kind of viewpoint since childhood -- since childhood we have hoped to be healthy, lively, good-looking, and that handsome men and beautiful women are the representatives of our humanity. This is an unnecessary pressure we impose on ourselves.

And those suggestions only frighten the outer ego, and impede the great strength and vitality that is your heritage.

These negative suggestions -- the suggestions of survival of the fittest -- will impede the great strength and vitality that is your heritage. They do not promote it; they obstruct you.

And cannot give you the fullest possible strength and support.

It is not that it does not give it to you; it is that you no longer accept it. If you still hold to survival of the fittest, to the zero-sum game of either you or me, of keep me and eliminate you, then you are completely mistaken.

All right, later we will indeed discuss various traditional and nontraditional methods of healing.

Of course, medical technology alone, no matter how expert, cannot heal a broken heart.

No matter how advanced medical technology is, it cannot heal a broken heart.

Such a healing can only take place through understanding and the expression of love.

What should be done in such a case? It can only be done through understanding and the expression of love: there must be people who understand him, people who can communicate with him, and his love must be able to be expressed.

In other words, through a transplant of emotion rather than merely a physical transplant. In the development and healing of all discomforts, the emotional factor is extremely important.

If you want to heal these people, the best method is to perform an emotional transplant, not an organ transplant. He is making a pun or placing such an emphasis. Normally, when various organs fail in serious illness, the ultimate thought is whether we can replace one in the future. But in fact, those who need organ transplants actually need even more to be loved, to be seen, to be noticed. Here we are not saying that if you are ill you should not see a doctor -- no. It is that in the process of seeing a doctor, you must always understand this point. For those who need transplant surgery, there is one possibility -- after the medical surgery of the transplant is completed, we must give them an emotional transplant of love, implant love into their bodies, into their hearts. This kind of love transplant may be far more effective than the surgery itself.

In this book we will not emphasize specific diseases, and generally will not discuss this disease or that disease in the book, but will mention symptoms. Even when symptoms are mentioned at times, it is only to identify the cases connected with such conditions.

We will not discuss the problem of disease. If disease is discussed too much, it will be counterproductive.

In fact, we have emphasized the symptoms of health, and the methods, beliefs, and healings that promote them -- that is what is more important.

In fact, what keeps us healthy, and the methods, confidence, and healings that promote health -- that is what is most important. He is telling us what is most important for health. It is not that I go around with a survival-of-the-fittest mentality, wanting everything, carrying fear -- because if you believe in survival of the fittest, then in your psychological suggestions you must always be on edge, feeling that we will also be bullied. This starting point leads to such results. You would be better off following the traditional way, unaffected by them, and your health might be better.

This session is ended. I wish you a good afternoon.

---

April 6: The Naturalness of Depression and Its Expression

Let's look at the next session, April 6, 1984, Friday, 4:13 p.m. Jane called last night, and Rob only did one hour of dream work this morning on the Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment dream, and once again, Rob told Jane he was concerned about the time lost from writing the book -- that is, he didn't have much time to work on Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment. When Rob left last night, Jane was very depressed, but after a while it passed, and she felt fine. Recently Rob himself has also had several periods of depression, but no matter what, he tries to keep moving forward. In Taiwan we call it youyu, here they call it yiyu -- they're talking about the same thing.

Once again, I wish you a good afternoon. Good afternoon again.

In your situation, it is very natural to have occasional periods of depression.

It is very natural to have occasional depression -- by all means, don't do anything about it.

These can often serve as springboards, however.

Depression can serve as a springboard, leading to greater understanding. Through depression, you can become wiser. Many people with depression are very intelligent -- most of them are too intelligent for their own good. So through this depression, they can leap up to an understanding they hadn't seen or experienced before.

And the feeling itself can indeed help you escape, through such a medium, the fears and doubts that are expressed.

You need to speak out your depressed emotions, express them, and dare to communicate with others. Of course, this point is a bit idealized again -- if a depressed person could communicate normally with others, then their illness would probably get better very quickly. The difficulty lies precisely in the fact that they don't communicate with others. Here this point is emphasized again.

And I am quite sure I have mentioned this point, but I want to refresh your memories: generally speaking, this applies to all individuals, and it is far better to express those feelings than to repress them.

To put it simply: if you are depressed, then you are depressed, but don't judge or berate yourself for it. And take the initiative to talk to others, tell everyone "I am depressed" -- there's nothing shameful about it; it's like a cold. In America, depression is like a cold -- anyone can get it, and whether you get it or not depends on your individual luck. There's no such thing as "I'm a very strong person, so I won't get depression" -- that doesn't exist. This is all a very objective fact of existence. Don't go speculating about why other people get depression, as if it should be this way or that way. Here Seth actually wants to legitimize depression: you should express it, communicate with others, tell people that you have depression, that you need their company, that you need them to pull you out. Communicating in this way is far, far better than not saying anything. Some children or some adults don't say anything -- they have depressed emotions with nowhere to release them -- and if they can't find release, it very often leads to tragic endings.

At the same time, you should both -- and indeed you do -- try to turn your minds in other directions.

You should do something else meaningful -- don't stay in the hospital bed all day, every day, introducing the Seth material from morning to night. You should shift your direction a bit and relax.

So that the period does not linger. Generally speaking, you are handling the situation very well, and I still have confidence that you can operate within the framework.

You are living within the framework -- at least part of you is.

This is also reflected in your concern for the book and your publisher and any of your ventures.

So remember, regardless of how appearances may seem at any given time, it is important that those issues be resolved in a way that satisfies you.

We shouldn't look at these surface appearances -- what should we look at? Resolving things in a way that satisfies you -- this is what's important.

Your letters have an effect -- regardless of whether or not it seems that at any given time, any given question has been answered or not.

What he means is that because you are both in the Framework 2 state -- at least partially -- your performance will be very good, and everything will be easy to resolve.

I wish you a good afternoon, and once again I initiate those processes that activate the healing coordinates.

He spoke very briefly, very briefly. 4:20 p.m. Jane said, "I'll read this session to him." Then Rob said, "I tried to read the session to Jane. The last part should make you feel better." Because recently Rob had been quite angry and uncomfortable about his communications with the publisher, he said, "We have to stop and think. I'm surprised. That means once again that we're doing well within the framework, including from the publisher's perspective, and also from their insurance company's perspective. I don't think I've done that well. I guess I still don't buy it. But let's wait and see." Rob said he himself didn't feel he had done that well. If this counts as doing well, then wouldn't it be too easy? Too easy to enter the framework. He didn't believe it; he didn't accept it. There's nothing you can do about that -- what can you do if he doesn't accept it?

Rob told Jane that last night he had another long and complex dream about being pursued, this time involving his younger brother Linden, who was thirteen months younger than him. He couldn't remember much of it, and the outcome was fine -- he just couldn't remember what the outcome was. However, this dream reflected the state of mind he often has these days -- namely, fear of many things. If in your dreams you are constantly being chased, hiding here and there, terrified, then you definitely have fear or a lack of security.

When Seth said that their depression was a way of expressing fear, Rob did think he had provided an excellent insight. Expressing it through the form of depression -- that is, there are many underlying causes of depression, and one of the underlying causes is that it all carries fear. If a person has no fear, then their depression will also get better. So many of the friends who come to our offline activities -- people don't know how their many psychological illnesses or states just improved. Actually, as long as there is no fear in your heart, many, many problems will be resolved on their own, very simply. You have also seen many, many of our friends at offline activities directly jump out of the clutches of depression. Many people ask how it was done. To put it simply, that's how it was done -- remove their fear, and their depression naturally gets better.

When Rob wasn't specifically thinking about these periods, he guessed he at least took it for granted that depression reflected a weakness on his part -- as if he should know better, or as if he hadn't done well enough. He dared say Jane had the same feeling.

Now we can realize that those periods of depression are healing.

We will come to realize that those periods of depression are healing. Depression itself has its important role and significance. First, it can let you understand a greater and broader reality; second, from a higher perspective, it is also a healing for your body. You may not accept this, so I wanted to explain this point.

Tonight on the way home, Rob went to the supermarket to buy things and ate dinner. While he was typing up this session, Jane called at 9:50 with Carla's help.

Below is a note about the question of Framework 2.

In Jane's The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events, published in 1981, I wrote that Seth maintains that Framework 2, or inner reality, includes the source of all creation in time, from which we are formed.

Framework 2 includes the source of all creation since time began.

And through proper focus of attention, we can draw from that vast main theme and vast subjective medium everything we need to live a constructive, positive life in the Framework 1 physical reality.

What he means is: as long as you know how to use Framework 2, you can use Framework 2 within Framework 1 to create the things you need, and it will work very well. In The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events, Seth has a great deal to say about Framework 1 and Framework 2.

So those characteristics and unique images that belong to the individual first exist in Framework 2.

Actually, you already carry these memories and this information with you -- it's not something someone gives you later.

And at birth, those images immediately begin to inscribe the physical world of Framework 1.

Once a person is born, they have an existence in this physical world, and this existence is like carving characters into the universe, so he used the word "inscribe." No matter how small you are, your name or your existence will be inscribed into the world of Framework 1. It's not the external world -- you can't say "let me take a look, let me take a look" -- that's impossible to see. This inscription is all the things done in the physical world -- eating, drinking, defecating, urinating, sleeping -- all of these leave your record in this physical world, and this is called inscription.

Regarding this session on depression, he didn't say too much, but even so, it gives everyone many very good insights. And in our practice, we have indeed helped some people walk out of depression without needing ordinary treatment, just through self-study. I just mentioned the underlying logic of it -- which is fear. People with depression generally have fear, and this fear is very large and very serious, magnified by them.

All right, that concludes our introduction of the second part of Chapter 4.

注释与核实

1. Source: Laozi, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 48 (https://www.econ.sdu.edu.cn/jrtzx/info/1361/25591.htm) ↩

2. Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia, "Nazi Racism" (https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/nazi-racism) ↩