“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Again, according to your belief structure, such diets can be extremely beneficial, particularly in the short run—but if the person involved forever places—

—their belief in such exterior conditions, then they will feel themselves to be victims, and the charm of the diet may begin to lose its strength. Or they must become more and more rigorous in following it, or they may discover that more and more foods seem to cause their distress.

(3:14. She then tried to read the fan letter about the “nightshade” diet, but didn’t do well even though it was typed. I read the last page to her myself. I repeated that I wanted Seth to comment on the question of diets and treatments for ailments. We had an interesting talk, and I made some very good points—wish I had them written down. My main point was that by displacing the cause of their troubles outside themselves, the patient freed himself or herself of guilt and responsibility for their own welfare. It made me wonder just how many ills are treated in this way, with the “cure” being given to the patient through conventional treatment, where if the patient understood what mechanisms were operating within, the cure could be attained without medical intervention.

(Pause.) Concerning the diet: you already realize what the situation is. If you firmly believe that certain items in a diet will cause you distress, then of course they will—and avoiding the same items will bring relief.

A belief in health can help you utilize a “poor” diet to an amazing degree. [...] The belief itself works while you are operating within that framework, of course. [...]

[...] The best diet in the world, by anyone’s standards, will not keep you healthy if you have a belief in illness.

[...] You begin a round of diets, all based on the idea that you are overweight because you eat too much. Instead, you eat too much because you believe that you are overweight. The physical picture always fits because your belief in being overweight conditions your body to behave in just such a manner.

Natural hypnosis and conscious beliefs give their proper instructions to the unconscious, which then dutifully affects the body mechanism so that it responds in a manner harmonious with the beliefs. [...] Dealing with this is not a simple problem, of course, for the original suggestion of dis-ease was in itself given because of another belief. [...]

[...] I wanted to know what part beliefs played in such diets, that worked, and I wanted to know about the wide variance in human responses. In short, I wanted something from Seth about whether it was worth it, or even necessary, that Jane try this diet—which, after all, would be the latest in the series of schemes I’ve come across in efforts to help her. [The last one was the anti-amoebic medication regime.] And what does it all mean, I asked, if she’s getting better now without any special diet or foods? [...]

[...] That there’s no need for us to shove a bunch of beliefs upon a diet. [...]

[...] His rather long letter dealt with Dr. Childers’ nightshade diet for arthritis; the writer claimed he had a close friend who had recovered completely from rheumatoid arthritis that had plagued him since childhood, by following this diet—no potatoes, paprika [peppers], tomatoes, and a few other common foods of the nightshade family. [...]