Seth on What To Do When Told You Have a Short Time to Live

NOPR, The Nature of Personal Reality, Session 646

Seth: No man or woman consciously knows for sure which day will be the last for him or her in this particular life, that each calls the present one. Mortality with its birth and death is the framework in which the soul, for now, is expressed in flesh.

Birth and death, then, have their function, intensifying and focusing your attention. Life seems more dear in your terms, corporeal terms, because of the existence of death. It seems obvious, but the full enjoyment of life would be impossible in the FRAMEWORK, NOW, of earthly reality without the knowledge of death.

You have been given an opportunity to study life and to experience it more fully than you ever have before in this existence. Its intensity and brilliance, its contrasts and similarities, its joys and its sorrows, are here for you to perceive, whose eyes are opened by the fact of the doctor’s pronouncement.

Now I tell you: That intensification, appreciated and understood, and the experience of life and living, accepted unconditionally, can bring you in this lifetime another birth in which the doctor's pronouncements are meaningless. Spiritually the death sentence given you is another chance at life, if you are freely able to accept life with all of its conditions and to feel its full dimensions, for that alone will rejuvenate your spiritual and physical self.

NOPR, The Nature of Personal Reality, Session 646The Nature of Personal Reality, Session 646

© Laurel Butts

Seth Classic: Choosing a Painful Life Situation

Seth, NOPR, Session 667

Seth: The situation Is one of danger, yet is chosen by those involved, and is not inflicted upon them. In somewhat the same way, entire life contexts are selected that might appear to be incomprehensible, foolhardy, or even insane to an observer.

(9:38.) These lifetime organizations may involve very drastic physical disabilities from birth. From the outside it seems impossible that anyone would choose such a background, such a highly restricted or even painful situation in which to live. From that viewpoint birth defects, or lifetime diseases of any kind, make no sense.

No one begins a race with a handicap, you may say, but that is obviously not the case. Individuals have often chosen such situations precisely as incentives, and many great men have done so. This does not mean that such disabilities are necessary. At any point that an individual realizes his point of power in the presents he will not need a barrier to test himself against, or to focus him in what he thinks of as the proper direction.

You live many lives simultaneously. You often think of these as reincarnational existences, one before the other. If you are severely ill and believe that the reasons for your symptoms exist in a past life, that you must "put up with it," then you will not realize that your point of power is in the present, and you will not believe in the possibility of recovery.

Again, even so-called incurable diseases can be healed as long as this does not involve regenerations not possible within the context of creaturehood.

In your terms, birth defects of whatever kind are chosen before this life. This is done for many different reasons ( just as people choose to be ill In life, regardless of the duration involved). That is, a certain psychic framework is set up through which an individual decides "ahead of time" to experience an entire life situation. Some information on this has been given in my other writings.*

A person with several existences stressing intellectual achievement might purposely then decide upon a life in which mental abilities are beyond him, and the emotions allowed a full play that he had denied them "earlier."

(9:54.) Since all existences are simultaneous, this simply means his stressing certain aspects in this life--at the expense of others, you would say--and setting up a frame of reference that may seem to be limiting. On the other hand the personality involved may see this as a most rewarding and expansive experience, in which the emotions are allowed freedoms ordinarily denied. Characteristically, some personalities prefer lifetime experiences in which accomplishment and development follows an even course. Others demand great contrast. One of the latter may be miserably poor in one life, luxuriously rich in another, an intellectual giant in still another, a great athlete, and then a complete invalid. Individual differences operate then in the kinds of life situations chosen.

In many cases it is the family, rather than the incapacitated member, who questions and does not understand as in cases of severely mentally retarded children, for example. Yet in all instances not only do children choose their parents ahead of time, but parents choose their children, of course.

In such a situation, there are fulfillments to be gained from the parents' standpoints. There are always opportunities of growth and unusual creativity possible under those conditions for all involved. That is why the framework was chosen. The same applies to seeming tragedies such as accidents, or severe illnesses that come at any time.

(Very emphatically at 10:03:) On an individual basis a grave illness, for instance, will represent the adoption of a particular highly intense focus in which a given aspect of usual experience is deliberately cut out or denied; the context of life itself must then be magnified along other lines. In somewhat the same manner, this also applies to those born in extreme poverty or in the most seemingly unfortunate of family situations. The life challenge is inherent within the problem itself and springs from it. Usually, though not always, a peculiar personal achievement results precisely because of the given difficulty (intently).

Now this accomplishment need not involve some great artwork or invention, or political leadership, for example, though it may. Often the successful activity represents a challenge on the part of the personality who set it in terms of psychological creativity, and the overall enrichment of experience. Those involved, such as family, will have acquiesced to the situation "earlier." Often, particularly in the case of mental or physical birth defects, the incapacitated person will be accepting that role not only because of personal reasons; he or she will also be choosing that part for the family as a whole.

Highly intelligent parents, therefore, may find themselves with a retarded child. If they place a great value upon intellect at the expense of the emotions, then the child may be acting out for them the emotional spontaneity of which they are so afraid themselves.

(10:15. Peculiarly, in spite of her deep trance and the mass of material she'd delivered, Jane remembered one line--Seth's remark about her using the radio as a point of reference while she worked with states of consciousness. See the session at 9:32. This was an obvious thing that neither of us had realized before.

(Jane plays the radio often while writing, too. She joked now that she must use it as "a lifeline between realities. "Resume in the same intent manner at 10:47.)

A birth defect is obvious, and sets up certain conditions that cannot be ignored.

Many ordinary illnesses also involve the family group to some degree. The predominating beliefs of the sick person will always be paramount, however. The group situation will encompass an acquiescence on the part of other family members.

Now understand that the same thing applies in the case of unusual achievements. In those instances the achiever's beliefs predominate, and yet apart from this he may also be acting out the unrealized aspirations of his family members, or of the group in which he is intimately involved. There will always be reasons for such interrelationships.

(Pause.) Many great contrasts of a social nature have the same kind of inner meaning; here whole groups of individuals chose particular life situations in which, for example, poverty and illness predominate, while other areas of the world (or of any given nation) enjoy the highest technological advances, wealth and prosperity. Separately each personality has a private reason for such an affiliation. But on other levels, through the contrasting focuses of poverty and wealth, scientific accomplishments or the lack of them, opposites are brilliantly apparent. Technological progress, followed as a main focus, automatically portrays its benefits and its disadvantages. 

A nation which pursues this course is like one individual who primarily follows a strictly "objective, male," externally oriented path in terms of your Western understanding. Certain values have been stressed in your country, particularly in the recent present. These attributes were pursued at the expense of others for individual reasons and those en masse. The rest of the world agreed to such actions, however, and various portions of it took entirely different courses, so that in your experience global society would show a kaleidoscope of varying focuses and their results.

(Pause at 11:05.) On a much smaller scale and to different degrees, any tribe, town, family or group will show the same tendencies, and from the shared experience each individual will learn and grow.

A person may choose a great talent instead, through which he or she will perceive reality and concentrate all experience. This will serve as a formidable focus, yet by its nature it may often preclude other experiences that many individuals find quite normal. Some artists with great ability may shut out intellectual maturity, utilizing native emotional qualities to such an extent and with such intensity that the mental reasoning faculties are largely shunted aside. (Pause.) Without rational illumination, the emotional elements may be so unwieldy that the artist, for all of his spontaneous expression, cannot relate in any kind of permanent situation of an intimate nature. For reason and emotion are natural counterparts.

Someone else may choose to focus upon intellectual achievement to such a degree that he shuts out all true closeness, and though he can accept a permanent relationship, he will not experience the emotional richness that others may derive from a much briefer encounter. Therefore each of you choose ahead of time, in your terms the kind of framework through which you will contend with this life situation. This applies personally and collectively.

Those who believe in reincarnation will ask, 'What about past-life beliefs? And even if I forget the idea of guilt, am I bound to follow the rules of karma?" (See the 614th session in Chapter Two.) 

Since all is simultaneous, your present beliefs can alter your past ones, whether from this life or a "previous" one. Existences are open-ended. Now with your ideas of progressive time and the resulting beliefs in cause and effect, I realize this is difficult for you to understand. Yet within the abilities of your creaturehood, your current beliefs can change your experience; you can restructure your "reincarnational past" in the same way that you can restructure the past in this present life (as explained in sessions 657-58 in Chapter Fifteen.

(With gestures:) In the center of the page:

The Point of Power Is in the Present.

This experienced present also represents your psychic touchstone to all of your other existences. You are consciously aware of certain events, and unconsciously aware of much more that in one way or another you are learning to bring into conscious focus.

The same applies to all of your other "reincarnational selves." They are unconsciously aware of your conscious experience, as you are unconsciously aware of theirs.

The interaction is constant, however, and in all of your presents, creative. You draw on their knowledge as they draw on yours, and this of course applies to personalities that you would consider future. You have a gigantic pool of information and experience to draw upon, but this will be utilized according to your present conscious beliefs. If you understand that the point of power is in the present, then you have an inexhaustible realm of ability and energy at your command.

© Laurel Butts

Seth on Why Diets Don't Usually Work

Seth, The Nature of Personal Reality, Session 660

Seth: Diets do serve momentarily as outer signs that you are in control, and can seize the initiative; and as such they can be important. Usually, however; a pattern of unsuccessful diets occurs, operating then as a series of negative suggestions. The resistance is the result of conflicts in beliefs. You think you are overweight and accept this as reality. Steps to lose weight do not make sense in the face of that belief. They are 'unrealistic' or even impossible.

The same applies to underweight conditions. In each case frequent attention to the scales serves as another negative stimulus, reinforcing the condition. The effort to eat more will be as resisted by the chronically underweight, as the effort to refrain from eating will be by the obese.

Not only will these reactions occur, but opposing tendencies will be brought to bear. The concentration upon not eating, and the resulting tension, may instead cause increased consumption. And the underweight person may actually eat less the harder he or she tries to eat more —the latter being interpreted as an impossibility by the overriding belief in the underweight condition.

The best thing to do is to stop all such efforts, but instantly begin altering your beliefs as instructed in this chapter.

The reason why some lose-weight groups succeed in their therapy, at least momentarily, is that belief in the worth of the self is stressed. Unfortunately, weight is attacked as 'bad' or 'evil', symbolic moral judgments enter the act. The therapy seldom has long-reaching effects because from then on any gained weight is even more negatively charged.

© Laurel Butts

Seth's Process to Discover Your Beliefs

There are two ways to get at your own conscious beliefs. The most direct is to have a series of talks with yourself. Write down your beliefs in a variety of areas, and you will find that you believe different things at different times. Often there will be contradictions readily apparent. These represent opposing beliefs that regulate your emotions, your bodily condition and your physical experience. Examine the conflicts. Invisible beliefs will appear that unite those seemingly diverse attitudes. Invisible beliefs are simply those of which you are fully aware but prefer to ignore, because they represent areas of strife which you have not been willing to handle thus far. They are quite available once you are determined to examine the complete contents of your conscious mind.

If this strikes you as too intellectual a method, then you can also work backward from your emotions to your beliefs. In any case, regardless of which method you choose, one will lead you to the other. Both approaches require honesty with yourself, and a firm encounter with the mental, psychic and emotional aspects of your current reality.

As with Andrea, you must accept the validity of your feelings while realizing that they are about certain issues or conditions, and are not necessarily factual statements of your reality. ‘I feel that I am a poor mother,’ or, ‘I feel that I am a failure.’ These are emotional statements and should be accepted as such. You are to understand, however, that while the feelings have their own integrity as emotions, they may not be statements of fact. You might be an excellent mother while feeling that you are very inadequate. You may be most successful in reaching your goals while still thinking yourself a failure.

By recognizing these differences and honestly following the feelings through - in other words, by riding the emotions - you will be led to the beliefs behind them. A series of self-revelations will inevitably result, each leading you to further creative psychological activity. At each stage you will be closer to the reality of your experience than you have ever been.

The conscious mind will benefit greatly as it becomes more and more aware of its directing influence upon events. It will no longer fear the emotions, or the body, as threatening or unpredictable, but sense the greater unity in which it is involved.

Seth, NOPR, Session 644, p. 213

Blogger's Note: After a few weeks of doing the hypnosis exercise to change a deeply-rooted belief, I awoke one morning with a perfectly delineated nest of beliefs on the subject. I wrote them down and chose the most emotionally charged ones with which to work directly.

Seth Classic: Natural Hypnosis Exercise

In those areas in which you are dissatisfied, you feel that you are powerless, or that your will is paralyzed, or that conditions continue despite what you think of as your intent. Yet if you pay attention to your own quite conscious thoughts, you will find that you are concentrating upon precisely those negative aspects that so appall you. You are hypnotizing yourself quite effectively and so reinforcing the situation. You may say, horrified, ‘What can I do? I am hypnotizing myself into my overweight condition (or my loneliness, or my poor health).’ Yet in other facets of your life you may be hypnotizing yourself into wealth, accomplishment, satisfaction - and here you do not complain. The same issues are involved. The same principles are operating. In those positive life situations you are certain of your initiative. There is no doubt. Your beliefs become reality.

In the unsatisfactory aspects, you must understand this: there is also no doubt. You are utterly convinced that you are sick, or poor, or lonely, or spiritually opaque, or unhappy.

The results, then, as easily and effortlessly follow. Natural hypnosis, in the terms given here, operates as well in one case as in the other.

What should you do, then? First of all, you must realize that you are the hypnotist. You must seize the initiative here as you have in other positive aspects of your life. Whatever the superficial reasons for your beliefs, you must say:

For a certain amount of time I will momentarily suspend what I believe in this area, and willfully accept the belief I want. I will pretend that I am under hypnosis, with myself as hypnotist and subject. For that time desire and belief will be one. There will be no conflict because I do this willingly. For this period I will completely alter my old beliefs. Even though I sit quietly, in my mind I will act as if the belief I want were mine completely.

At this point do not think of the future, but only of the present. If you are overweight, insert the weight that you think is ideal for you while you are following this exercise. Imagine that you are healthy if you have the belief that you are not. If you are lonely, believe that you are filled with the feeling of companionship instead. Realize that you are exerting your initiative to imagine such situations. Here there can be no comparison with your normal situation. Use visual data, or words - whatever is most natural to you. And again, no more than ten minutes is required.

If you do this faithfully, within a month you will find the new conditions materializing in your experience. Your neurological structure will respond automatically. The unconscious will be aroused, bringing its great powers to bear, bringing you the new results. Do not try to overdo this, to go through the entire day worrying about beliefs, for example. This can only cause you to contrast what you have with what you want. Forget the exercise when it is completed. You will find yourself with impulses that arrive in line with these newly inserted beliefs, and then it is up to you to act on these and not ignore them.

The initiative must be yours. You will never know unless you try the exercise. Now if you are in poor health, and have a physician, you had better continue going to him, because you still rely on that system of belief - but use these exercises as supplements to build up your own sense of inner health, and to protect you against any negative suggestions given by your doctor. Utilize the belief in physicians since you have it.

 

Seth, Nature of Personal Reality, Session 658, Page 315

Seth: You Create Your Body

Seth, The Nature of Personal Reality, Session 637 

Your body is the basic product of your creativity on a physical level. From its integrity all other constructions in your lifetime must come. Your greatest artistic endeavors must arise out of the soul-in-flesh (with hyphens). You create yourselves on a daily basis, changing your form according to the incalculable richness of your multitudinous abilities.

(Very positively:) So out of the soul's resplendent psychic richness do you spring with your free will and desire. You in turn create other living creatures. You also produce forms of art-fluid living constructs that you do not understand, in terms of societies and civilizations-and all of these flow through your alliance with flesh and blood.