“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Your other attitudes, mentioned earlier, continued, and the more the world seemed to knock at your door, however gently, and the more the mail came, the more convinced you both became that your solitude must be protected. The attitudes mentioned belong to some extent to each of you. That is why, for example, you went along as long as you have with Ruburt’s condition. Neither of you liked it. To that extent, Ruburt does speak for both of you (as Jane said this noon), and in your own way both of you rewarded him for creative material, and withheld approval for any tendencies that ran counter to those mentioned attitudes.

(Before the session we talked about some questions we’d written down for the pendulum work tomorrow morning. They had to do with inspiration, Jane’s attitudes toward me as an authority figure, and so forth. This noon she’d made a very revealing remark, to the effect that her being out of condition was of service to me, also. I agreed, of course.

A talk about attitudes.

In the largest terms you cannot really call attitudes good or bad, though they certainly seem to be one or the other often in your experience. They can be better equated with colors—some dark, some light, but all in all beyond such classifications as morality.

(Long pause.) When you are born you possess a group of attitudes toward yourself and toward life. [...] You can see (long pause) the results in life all about you, though in animals or plants these are experienced as a matter of feelings rather than, say, as thoughts or attitudes.

BIOLOGICALLY VALID THOUGHTS, ATTITUDES, AND BELIEFS

— and we will begin Chapter 2, to be titled: “Biologically Valid Thoughts, Attitudes, and Beliefs.”

[...] Even as infants, then, you are predisposed naturally toward certain feelings, thoughts and attitudes that are meant to insure your healthy survival and emergence into adulthood. [...]

[...] You know many of your attitudes. You seldom look for the reasons behind the attitudes. You accept your attitudes at their face value.

[...] You accept your own attitudes toward yourself at their face value. They are attitudes of long standing. [...]

[...] Now many of these ideas come to you because of your attitude toward your father. You have not examined for 5 years, personally, your attitude toward yourself. [...]

[...] Some of your interpretations were legitimate, based upon his attitudes, but many more were the innermost doubts that you have not faced as to who you were, and deep questions involving the nature of your person as it is related to your particular sex in this life.

[...] Added to this are certain attitudes of your own, that is attitudes both of you have. Both of you have the same attitude, which means that they are magnified, doing double duty.

[...] Now you do vary in your attitudes, but only in degree. You will be more adventurous or inventive perhaps at this time, but the strict emotional attitude remains the same. [...] These attitudes, then, do not help. [...]

[...] The emotional attitudes are: weight is bad. [...]

[...] Granted Ruburt exaggerated where you made adjustments, but both of your emotional attitudes are the same at that level.

The mental attitude, the deep and true mental attitude, of everyone involved, should be altered if possible to one that is more hopeful. [...]

[...] A change in the husband’s attitude will affect the attitude of the ill woman.

[...] That is, the issue is frightening subconsciously, because of peculiar and individual attitudes caused by her own relationship to her parents. [...]

[...] All those surrounding the woman absolutely must refrain from attitudes of hopelessness and negative suggestions, either implied or spoken. [...]

You have also learned then through seeing your attitudes put into flesh. These were joint attitudes, now. I do not mean that Ruburt put your attitudes alone into flesh. [...]

Again however understand that both of your attitudes worked here, though he exaggerated some indeed. [...] Given the opportunity (when I obtained steady employment) and as soon as he was able, Ruburt then retreated from it, and gave himself the excuse for doing so—your attitudes made flesh.

[...] He is in the habit of ignoring its feelings, attitudes or desires, so that he is quite numb to some of them.

[...] To show you that he could be like you he adopted your attitude, hid any enjoyment he used to feel from them, and took steps to cut these out of his life as far as possible; as he felt you would do had you the chance.

[...] And then of course it does, and you think that the physical circumstances certainly justify your attitude. But your attitude caused the circumstances.

[...] First of all, all negative attitudes must be removed from your consciousness. [...]

[...] The rest of the time consciously make an effort to control your attitude when you find yourself thinking in terms of want or poverty. [...]

Part of your attitude is a result of your family situation and of identification with the past.

(Unfortunately it was a display; at least this is our way of looking at it and certainly our way of looking at it must be the most important one and our attitudes must guide our actions; no one else’s attitudes. [...] I’d even go so far as to say that an overly disciplined attitude would lead to a fairly decent and balanced frame of mind. A permissive attitude would make me more frightened. [...]

[...] I gave myself the suggestion that I would only react to constructive suggestions, to offset her emotional attitude. [...]

[...] It is hard to get a balanced attitude, which is what is needed—and we usually do achieve one, incidentally. [...]

(I do not know if our attitude toward this type of thing is too rigid; that is, if it would seem so to others; the Gallaghers, for instance. [...]

Suggestions such as I have given you are meaningless if any improvement is faced by an attitude that says “Such a minute improvement is meaningless,” or “This has happened before, and gone nowhere”—and so I wanted those attitudes completely routed out. [...]

[...] His physical symptoms were the result of methods or habits of dealing with himself and the world, and of attitudes that both of you shared for the greater part of your lives.

Since you both held those attitudes and saw those beliefs everywhere reinforced, naturally enough in your experience, then in the overall it would be most miraculously unusual if one of you did not physically retreat. [...]

[...] Ruburt fixed himself, and fixed it so he could not go outside—because, according to your joint overall attitudes, you believed you must isolate yourselves against the world.

[...] Your attitude toward transportation needs adjustment. [...]

[...] While you are somewhat better about this, there has been no profound change in your attitudes in this one particular area.

[...] By your attitude you are effectively forming a barrier against any financial betterment of any significant kind. [...]

You are caught between two attitudes that battle each other. [...]

[...] But they exist also amid your attitudes concerning the culture, your age, and the time that it seems must be involved with painting. Your world view includes your attitudes toward your parents, and toward their parents. It also includes your own attitudes toward your parents’ aspirations, and your views of your brothers and their families. [...]

[...] Your attitudes have been along the lines of self-accusation at any such problems. [...]

[...] The data came through because of a discussion Jane and I had before the session, in which I expressed a good deal of resentment and negative attitudes, about a lot of things....)

Some of these feelings have indeed led you to a strongly charged attitude in some (underlined) cases, a bit out of proportion. [...]

He thinks of this place in terms of a dwelling rather than as land, but because his attitude is not charged and because he does love land, he is able to enjoy what land there is. [...]

[...] I am simply trying to explain attitudes. [...]

[...] For one thing, remembering what you are reading, there are several attitudes that you should change, for while you believe them you work against your desire. And physical events then (underlined) seem to prove the attitudes true:

[...] A better attitude is “Well, there is a negative thought, let’s get rid of it.” [...]

His mental attitude should be “Of course I can feel fine in the morning,” and instead of imagining himself dragging down the stairs, he should playfully imagine himself ahead of you, as if he were playing a game. [...]

Now there have been some definite accomplishments since your prayer period, and if you had the proper attitude of expectancy in the beginning, both of you, you would have added gratitude in your prayers for what has been received. [...]

[...] Symbolically, the malady is expressing her attitude perfectly. She is strongly dependent upon the Jesuit, even while she appears, and is in many ways solitary and aggressive; and she is afraid that their intimate life might suffer if the acceleration of his work experience is continued, and if his attitude toward it does not change.

It is the Jesuit’s attitude, and not the conditions, and he can (underline) change those attitudes once he realizes the effects they are having not only upon himself but upon his wife.

[...] Your loving attitude has been of great help, and of a creative nature.

With the attitude that he had, he would never achieve it.

[...] Certain attitudes should be clearly expressed. There is no need condemning the attitudes he will be inspired by on both the long and short projects. [...]

It may seem that the question of services (like the lawn) is a mundane one, yet it is connected of course with your attitudes toward work and daily life. [...]

[...] His attitudes toward the medical profession (pause) are indeed changing—not that he sees medical practices in any more favorable and overall light, but that he recognizes that absolutism is no answer either. [...]

(Pause at 9:42.) I want you to see that in many of your situations there are creative possibilities that can be flexibly considered, for these will also be reflected in life’s daily enjoyments, in creative satisfaction that literally cannot be measured in terms, say, of how much money is expended, and with the proper attitude the money simply will not matter, it will be so easily replenished. [...]

Now your attitudes for example toward this apartment formed your reality here from the moment you walked in. Both your positive and negative attitudes toward it seemingly were justified, because the exterior conditions mimicked perfectly your inner attitudes.

[...] Ruburt of course must work on his own attitudes along with the healing process. [...]

[...] With a few changes in his attitude, which I will try to bring out in our sessions, he can help bring about a definite change for the better in that regard. [...]

Did your attitudes cause the traffic then, you may ask, and I tell you that they did.

[...] It is good that you have begun to recognize some of your own negative attitudes, for it is highly important that you do so.

[...] It is very important that Ruburt, here, change his attitude toward his physical body – his own image of it.

[...] Their energy has attracted other people to you both, and with all of your negative attitudes the overall impression others received from you, generally speaking, was of creativity.

[...] Your attitude was a rejecting one in general—that is, it was a reflection of a deeper pattern of negative thinking.

[...] It gives a clear declaration of the Sinful Self’s attitudes in the past, and its new growing recognition that those attitudes have been unfortunate. [...]

[...] The Sinful Self’s material is too long and complicated to describe here, except to say that it contains the Sinful Self’s own view of reality and its relationship to Jane’s background and work, it’s regrets, its defensive attitudes, its questions, and its genuine puzzlement that man has for so long —perhaps for most of history, indeed—persisted in the creation of and reliance upon such entities as the Sinful Self. [...]

It is important that its questions and attitudes be taken seriously. [...]

It might be of value to have Ruburt mentally ask the Sinful Self for a few comments on how its beliefs about the female sex were connected with its concepts of sin, and if those attitudes are changing. [...]

[...] You take it for granted that unless you husband your time, and divide it, what you want done will not be done in time, and so you inhibit creative ideas by your attitude. [...] With a freer attitude, you see, the paintings would come through, practically speaking, now. [...]

[...] Once aware of this, you can readily alter your attitudes.

Ruburt’s attitude is his own. [...]

This resulted in uneven attitudes. [...]

[...] It has been a compressed period of high activity, with the inner attitudes clearly (underlined), concisely and quickly made visible in the physical form. [...]

[...] The kind of symptom and its observability is often a clue as to the problem and to the individual’s attitude toward it. [...]